thearena | ARENA 10-Placid Hollow

ARENA 10-Placid Hollow

The Tributes are taken early in the morning, most of their support teams seeming in good cheer as they dress them in warm clothes, getting them to their tubes. There is obvious comfort in the familiar for the prep teams, and they chatter with, or in some cases, over the heads of their Tributes as they get them ready and load them up.

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19

18…

If the Tributes could see the area they are passed up into, they would see a deeply overgrown, dilapidated town green, with a large bandstand rotting away in the middle. The spoils of the cornucopia are not gathered in one spot, instead scattered throughout the thigh high grass and weeds around the town green.

Around the edge of the green, the old business stand a silent sentry, looming out of the fog as it thins and winds into them, providing much desired cover.

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7

6…

But the Tributes cannot see the ground around them. The fog, thicker even than it will be in the rest of the arena, makes the world small around them. The sound of the count down echoes strangely, the tributes seeming too close as the fog brings sounds of their breath, their coughing, the snap of twigs under their feet right to ears of the other Tributes. But with the fog bringing visibility down to only a few feet, it's hard to tell what is a true danger, and what is only the fog playing tricks on them,.

3

2

1

The gong rings out, and the countdown's voice announces "the Arena is now open". The Games have begun.

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At least this time he wouldn't have to worry about Howard.

Trudging off his platform with a kind of grim determination Orc let his beady eyes scan the area ahead of him for familiar faces.

Flexing his massive arms he hoped he could break up any potential fighting that could hurt his friends.

But most importantly, he needed to collect food.

He'd gone too long with out food in his life before the games, he would never go through that again willingly.

When the countdown ended, Ian went off in search of supplies. Anything he could get would help and anything else he'd look for later. Orc, at least, was easy to spot in the fog, but Ian didn't want to surprise him and end up getting hurt accidentally. "Orc," he said, quietly enough that only anyone nearby would hear. "Have you seen anything useful round here?"

Orc slowed down, at first not sure if he had heard a voice at all. But seeing Ian's shape emerging from the fog settled that for him.

"Yeah I almost stepped on this bag." He held up a watertight back bulging with supplies. "Haven't looked in it yet, hope there's food inside." But he figured there would be more time for that later and he should focus on continuing to look for food an allies right now.

"That's handy." He could understand Orc not stopping to look inside it. "If there's one bag around there's bound to be other things." He couldn't imagine Orc attacking him, so he paid more attention to his surroundings, looking for more bags or any food or weapons.

"Usually there's a big pile of stuff." Orc pointed out the obvious as he continued to trudge along scanning the ground and not paying enough attention to the fog around them.

"This place is creepy." He added "Reminds me of a horror movie." Suddenly Orc was glad that most zombies and vampires couldn't pierce his thick skin.

He nodded. Usually there was a big pile and plenty of people fighting to get things from it. This was an improvement on that respect - it was more a case of getting lucky than fighting well.

"It does a bit. I suppose that means something's going to jump out at us." Ian was quiet for a moment, but nothing did. He wasn't worried about the prospect because if something did come along and kill them then it wasn't his fault and there would be no need to torture anyone else.

"Beats getting poisoned I guess." But only just.

His steps echoed in the street with heavy rumbling sounds that would make it hard to hear someone...or something sneaking up on them.

"What should we do?" He questioned defaulting to the adult's sensabilities. Orc had his own plan and desires in this situation of course but he knew that he wasn't the best at making plans.

"Find somewhere to stake out where we'll be safe," he said without hesitation. That would work until the food ran out, but then things might have calmed down a bit. "You might be safer without me, though," he added, looking over at Orc.

Orc was about to object to that plan on the grounds of needing to find his friends, but the last part caught him off guard and his face screwed up in confusion.

"I think you might have that backwards..." He mumbled hoping Ian would clarify.

Ian shook his head. "I either have to play the game and kill people in here or someone will get hurt outside the arena. Here's better because at least you recover." He looked over at Orc to see if that prospect worried him. "I'm not about to kill you now." He wasn't quite sure when he was or if he was, but he was sure he didn't need to worry about it yet.

That actually made Orc smirk and shake his head.

"I really don't think you could, I'm hard to kill when I'm drunk, probably harder to kill when I'm sober."

And he was stone cold sober right now.

"Who are they threatening to hurt?" This was a new sort of manipulation as far as Orc had heard.

That was a relief. Maybe he was safe with Orc, although he wasn't sure if he should test that theory. "Friends, I think. Or anyone, I don't know. They weren't very specific and I don't want anyone to get hurt instead of me."

Orc nodded accepting that reasoning.

"They'll do anything to get us to play along huh?" He couldn't imagine how terrible he'd feel if the Capitol attacked Howard or Eponine to make him co-operate.

"So...should we um...fight or whatever? So your friends don't get in trouble?" From the sound of his voice Orc was not at all interested in a fight.

Re: Orc OTA

splendid_roman - 2014-05-23 09:14 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Orc OTA

paidinbeer - 2014-05-23 22:23 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Orc OTA

splendid_roman - 2014-05-24 06:44 (UTC) - Expand

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paidinbeer - 2014-05-24 14:12 (UTC) - Expand

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splendid_roman - 2014-05-26 15:12 (UTC) - Expand

As the countdown ended, Eponine opened her eyes. She hadn't wanted to look. She had too much on her mind, between her father's sticky end and wondering where Azelma and Gavroche were, and envying Howard his comfort, to want to even think about the arena. Not that it made much difference when she did open her eyes.

Through the fog, she could just about make out the shadows of what might be buildings, and ghosts of Tributes running through to the Cornucopia. Perhaps she was dead already? Perhaps she was just a ghost.

She almost floated from the platform, so light was her step, and she drifted aimlessly until she spotted a large shape that moved. Could it be? She made for it, not daring to call out until she had established that it was indeed Orc.

"Orc!" She hissed through the gloom. "Is it you?"

Orc turned slowly, as if the fog was some kind of thickness he had to wade through. Finding her shape in the fog he smiled that craggy smile.

"It's me, it's you right Eponine?"

He couldn't imagine anyone else with that voice.

Holding a bag in one hand he reached for her in the fog to draw her closer.

She let herself be drawn in. She hadn't seen Orc for a few days now, not since the record shop, in fact, and so much had changed since then. In the cold and damp of the fog, she was shivering even through her windbreaker and her fleece.

"But of course, Orc! Are you hurt? Did you run for the Cornucopia? Have you found anybody else?"

"Um..." It took him a minute to sort through her questions.

"No I'm not hurt, I didn't run but I found some stuff, and I found that teacher guy Ian but I lost him again...this fog is thick." He finished sheepishly.

"Are you hurt?"

"I am well. But I am glad you have lost that dreadful Ian - now he is one that deserves to die, and I tell you now, I should kill him if he were here." She was very firm about that.

"What did you find? Should we find a place to hide and we can look?"

Orc looked shocked and taken aback with her sharp distaste for someone that he thought of as a reasonable adult. "What did Ian do? Why do you want to kill him?" He sounded worried and confused looking over his shoulder as if Ian were to appear from the fog and Eponine would then rush him and kill him.

At her request he held up a bag that he'd picked up off the ground, it was still sealed and looked to be water tight. "Haven't looked in it yet, figured I'd wait till I was sitting down." Mostly because with his thick fingers and extra strength it was a much more delicate operation to open a bag and explore it's contents.

"Ian? Oh, he has you fooled, no? That slimy git of a man, he is as bad as my Pa. It is for him that Ian Gallagher is arrested and for him that I bear a burn on my back. That is why he should die." There was venom in her voice. Eponine was mad, vicious in her wrath for the man. "I hope someone gives him a painful death as I have been hurt and as Jessica and Carlos and Mindy have, and Ian indeed."

She shook her head and sighed. "Then we must find shelter together so we might sit and have a look, no? We should take our shoes off too - it is cold, but we can bear it. It will make us more quiet."

As sometimes happened when Eponine tried to explain things to Orc...it really just raised more questions. Given the situation though he would have to ask her about it in more detail later. She was right they needed to find shelter.

"I don't think taking off my shoes will make much of a difference." He added sounding unsure as he looked down at the over sized shoes he'd had slipped over his stone covered feet. "Rock on pavement makes plenty of noise all on it's own."

In favor of finding Shelter he gently took her hand and waited so that she could lead or have him lead through the fog.

This was the problem of being stuck with Orc. He was so big, so noisy and clumsy and so difficult to hide. For a moment, Eponine cursed her bad luck.

"They should make you flesh again. It is easier to hide." She said crossly. But all the same, she let him take her hand and she set out at a trudge through the fog.

"Can you see anything? Where shall we go? In Paris, it is better to walk to the outskirts when I am hiding from my Pa and the gang. They stay where the houses are."

"Sorry." He apologized as though being made of stone or being lost in the fog could be helped at this point. He followed along the street at a steady pace so Eponine wouldn't have to pull too hard.

"That makes sense." He added "Everyone's gonna be looking for shelter." Some human shapes in the fog were lurking just beyond their sight and Orc felt wary of them. They were moving awfully slowly for tributes...

Eponine slowed as Orc did, and she looked back at him in bewilderment.

"What do you see?" She hissed. She followed the direction of his gaze and slowly her eyes made out the figures.

"Are they Tributes? Do you have any weapons?" She bent down to unlace her shoes. At least she could try to aim for the Tributes' heads, should they prove to be hostile.

"Check the bag." Orc ordered and inside she would find a canister of spray labeled "Acidic" and a pair of scissors mixed in with various foodstuffs.

Orc meanwhile let go of Eponine's hand and cracked his knuckles bracing himself to attack if needed.

From the fog three figures appeared, faceless pale human shaped creatures with horribly warped, elongated limb that were grasping in their direction.

"I don't think those are tributes." He sighed sounding disappointed in the appearance of monsters. He would have to fight now and that always upset Eponine.

Orc OTA

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If she were keen would you be alright with Diana joining this thread? Or shall we save her forlater?

whatever you like is fine by me!

Kay~ I'll talk to her and find out her preference.

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