ARENA 10-Placid Hollow

[etcircenses]

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.

20

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.

8

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.

Comments

[whoseesbynight]

It's the music that catches Nepeta's attention first. She doesn't recognize the song, but it tells her that someone else is out in the fog. Someone who's quite entirely ease to track. All she has to do is follow the sound of the music, and that's easy enough to manage.

Unfortunately for Spike, none of his attempts at catching her out in a trap work, if that had been the intention. She's too used to spending long hours hunting all sorts of monsters to be so inattentive as to mess that sort of meddling, especially when the fog has her on high alert as it is. Who knows what else could be lurking out amongst the fog, given some of the other things they've had thrown at them during the Arenas.

It the silence that finally gets her to draw near enough to be seen, and she's a strange sight, appearing out of the fog. Not one that looks like it'd be too much of a threat, but between the grey of her skin and the horns she's not human no matter how humanoid she might look.

[allbloodyhail]

Finally. There's something here he can fight. She looks like some kind of troll, maybe, it's just too bad he doesn't have an axe. This nifty lead pipe he was given would just have to do. Practically thrumming with anticipation, he flattened himself out against one side of the tree and waited for her to pass close enough.

[whoseesbynight]

Troll she most certainly is. Maybe not the sort that most people would expect, but if nothing else there's enough of them around the Capitol that most people have gotten used to the idea. Unfortunately for Spike, she stops just short of of being in range.

"I know you're there," she calls instead. What will happen next is a little less clear over all, but hopefully no one can blame her for being a little curious.

[allbloodyhail]

He hissed out through his teeth, giving away his position. With a soft curse, he comes out from behind the tree, one hand up in surrender, the other holding the pipe behind his back. "...Hi."

[whoseesbynight]

"Hello," she offers in return with what is hopefully a fairly polite smile. She still isn't really going to trust Spike, when she can already see that at least one of his hands is hiding something, but that's no reason to not be at least somewhat polite.

And if it does come to a fight, she's at least not unarmed, even if she's not calling much attention to the fact just at the moment.

[allbloodyhail]

"Hey..." he repeats, deflating a little. She looks young, for a monster. Not that he has a soft spot for these sort of things nope nope nope. "Truce?" He's holding up the pipe before he can think better of it, putting it on the ground in front of him.

What? You never knew with demons or whatever she is. They could spit acid or something.

[whoseesbynight]

Young is about the size of it. She might not count years the same way as humans do, but she doesn't look like she could really be more than fifteen, at an outside guess. On the other hand, she's already nodding as he bends to put the pipe down on the ground.

"Truce."

She doesn't bear him any animosity and there's even if it doesn't last forever she won't say no to an alliance.