Art Attack [OTA]

[designatedfreak]

Who: Max and You
What: Further exploration and more Tributes
Where: Second Floor
When: Week Two
Notes: Mask violence



Back on the second floor and hidden in a jungle-like display, Max swallowed one of the brown pills that had been handed to her prior to entering the tube to the Arena. She was told to take them when the shaking started. They helped and more than any supply she scavenged, these brown colored pills were going to help her keep surviving.

It took nearly five minutes before the tiny tremors stopped running through her body. She wanted to check for more food even though her body didn't really need too much, but it was still a hassle and concern to have to hunt for the little amount she did seem to need. Manticore had trained them to go long periods without food and water and now she found herself hungry within days of starting this "game."

Max found herself picking through empty bags; someone had searched this place thoroughly. She managed to find a few bags of chips and boxes of juice that were about to go bad. Satisfied she had found whatever was left to be found, Max slinked back into the exhibits were it was easy to keep an eye on the floor while remaining hidden. The strange displays still interested her. Were these really representations of the outside world?

Her small hand reached out to the mask of one of the dummies in the display she hid herself in. The mask was dark and frightening looking, but Max found it strangely transfixing. Manticore didn't have anything so distinctive and colorful. The mask easily came off the figure. Max turned it over to look at the back, and then slowly began to put it on, but a noise alerted her to someone arriving, and the mask was shoved in her bag as she pulled out her large knife and moved to intercept the other Tribute.

Comments

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy meanwhile was stuck on the name. After all Pruna may not have had a name to begin with, but that was some kind of robot name from a science fiction flick.

Seeing that Pruna wasn't exactly eager to put her weapon down Sandy went first by sliding the crowbar into a holder she'd made out of some ripped up fabric. It hung off her back for now but if she needed to she could tug it free...probably.

"Bit of a mouthful. You got a nickname?" She offered hoping to cool off the tension before someone started losing blood.

[designatedfreak]

"It's my designation." Nickname? She supposed that was what her brothers and sisters had given each other, but it was something personal. Something to be whispered in their bunks late at night. Something forbidden. "Your girlfriend should stand down first. There's two of you." As though the odds mattered in any significant way.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna glared at her but slowly flipped the dagger over so the blade was pointed away from the girl and lowered her arm.

[justoutrunyou]

"Thank you." She spoke to Pruna first knowing how hard it was for her to stand down in a situation like this.

"See? Same side. Three girls with weapons and no desire to be here. You really wanna run around gutting people for other people's entertainment?" She proposed still trying to prove her worth with the social skills Pruna sometimes lacked.

[designatedfreak]

Max's knife was quickly sheathed as she stepped away from Pruna. "It's the mission." There. They might be temporary allies, but when it comes down to it Max would be very willing to kill these strangers, and she'd bet everything that Pruna would do the very same.

She doesn't understand how this world works. That deep feeling of wrongness is there, but she also wanted to survive.

[knifewithnoname]

"It do be being." Pruna agreed with her nodding. Sandy's words were all well and good but Pruna thought that X4-452 was very much like her, and when Pruna had first came here she hadn't understood the importance of things like long term allies either.

"But you will need to be doing it again and again, and outside of the arena there do be being stupid people called sponsors, and they do be giving you food and things depending on how much they do be liking you." She explained, helpfully.

"So you do be needing to be killing but you do also be needing to be having allies, and you do be needing to be making people be liking you. It do be being a complicated thing."

[justoutrunyou]

It was humbling in a way to see Pruna taking charge and being more effective in a social situation. Somewhere in her pile of insecurities Sandy added yet another one to the list titled "Pruna not needing me" even though she knew Pruna was too loyal to abandon her even if that was true.

"Yeah, and let's be fair. They don't see it as a mission. To them it's a game and we're just the entertainment." It was impossible not to sound bitter about that.

[designatedfreak]

She'd been sent things by people she didn't even know and this explained why. It was still hard for Max to separate game from mission. In her limited world they had been one in the same. Chasing down that strange man, tearing him to pieces, completing their task, this had been a very deadly and yet fun game to the unit. She really couldn't understand that harsh tone Sandy used to explain this world.

"Eventually we will have to kill even allies." Max nearly sighed. "This world overcomplicates its own game."

[knifewithnoname]

"Well yes, but if you do be picking good people to be being you allies then it will be being a good fight at the end." By good she meant strong, "It do be being complicated, but that's why you do be having to be being clever."

[justoutrunyou]

This little back and forth gave Sandy a moment to reflect on what it might look like if she and Pruna were forced to fight.

The little scene played out in her head quickly, because she took a sick sort of comfort in knowing Pruna would make it quick.

But that sort of showdown was unlikely. Impossible wasn't it? Just as impossible as dying four times and being brought back to life.

Back to reality, or whatever her life had become "There's more then enough people here trying to kill us that you shouldn't need to kill an ally. Especially if they're useful."

She instantly regretted that phrasing, while Pruna found Sandy fun and useful, this girl had only just met her. Even Pruna hated her the first few times they'd met.

[designatedfreak]

Max didn't see how Pruna would find Sandy useful except, maybe, for the same reason Max found the small group of French people useful. Eventually everyone outlives their usefulness. She doesn't think the two girls would like to hear that small fact said out loud.

"Is a good fight necessary to ensure they accept your win?" Perhaps she should add a good fighter to her small group of allies.

[knifewithnoname]

"Yes." Pruna nodded, "Well... I would be thinking so. If you do be being boring I do no be thinking you could be winning." Surely the gamemakers would send some monster to eat you if you were not being exciting.

[justoutrunyou]

"I dunno..." Sandy paused looking thoughtful. "The last guy was really boring! In fact he didn't do much of anything but hide in the last arena up till there were only three people left. Then the big alien guy killed Ellie, and then the little curly haired guy came outta nowhere and attacked the alien guy and he won. Not as good a fight or as interesting as some of the others." She shrugged.

[designatedfreak]

"He survived." Which sounded like doing more than enough. She doubted he ran around in a bright orange cape. "Allies and a good fight." Max was going to make sure these stayed in the front of her mind.

[knifewithnoname]

"He did be doing that, and he do be being really smart." Pruna told her, she liked Enjolras.

"Be remembering those and you will be doing okay." She told X5-452 solemnly.

[justoutrunyou]

"More or less." Sandy added unwilling to call their lives anything more then "Doing Okay." After a pause she added "And when you do die and get sent back don't attack the adults trying to dress you up. It may be stupid but it's important to making people like you."

Pruna had traumatized some of the styling team of District 12 much to Sandy's amusement.

[designatedfreak]

Max frowned at the memory of those who had put her in this current outfit. They had smiled and talked with high pitched voices, mostly gripping about her lack of hair, and then, with more smiles, pushed her into the hands of men in white who told her to stand on a small circle. Everything had happened too fast for Max to really think about attacking. She had expected a mission, the "game," but the prodding and redressing was a bit much.

Sandy's words were good ones, no attacking the people outside. Although they turned everyone in this group into killers, they certainly didn't want that thought outside...whatever outside even was.

Max nodded and then stepped back. There was more to explore, and while the girls offered a sort of familiarity, Max wanted to be alone for a while longer. "Find a good fight." She thought it was the sort of goodbye Pruna would appreciate.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna nodded as well, wrinkling her nose at the thought of the stupid hair people and the long dress fittings. "You be finding one too." She told her with a grin, "We will be meeting again."

[justoutrunyou]

That was enough for Sandy. The girl was dangerous and Sandy had been lucky thus far, but how much more could she push her luck with so many dangerous bloodthirsty friends?

Still, her smile was genuine and encouraging as Max backed away.

"It'll be nice if a kid wins for a change."