thearena | OPEN

Entry tags:

OPEN

Who| Sabriel and Starkiller, Sabriel and YOU
What| Catch all for the first few weeks of the arena
Where| Around the main street and outlying areas, as well as the lake
When| Week 1 and possibly 2
Warnings/Notes| Sabriel talking about Death, possible violence?

The fog reminded her of Death. It had cleared out a little, and while Sabriel knew that it was probably conjured by technology, or simply natural weather, it was still a little unsettling.

Sabriel moved swiftly and silently, trying to avoid any sources of noise. After her run in with the Dead Hand she didn't want to get into any more preventable fights. Still, she kept a tight grip on the length of rusted pipe she'd salvaged from one of the buildings.

Option A

Sabriel was a light sleeper- but she knew she needed to sleep. The building looked sturdy enough that it wouldn't collapse on her in her sleep- and decrepit enough that other tributes were unlikely to try scavenging for supplies there.

Biting her lip, she stepped in, feeling the floorboards creak under her weight. Better to make sure this place was unoccupied- or any tributes using it as a hiding place were non-hostile- before she tried to settle down for the night.

Option B

Sabriel wasn't sure what it was- human shaped but certainly not human- and apparently hungry. Although a blow to the side of the head stunned it long enough for her to run away- wit a bit less than her typical caution.

Option C

"Death," Sabriel muttered as she looked out over the lake. It must be noon, and yet the fog hadn't burned away at all- and the gray mist on black water looked almost like that cold realm.

Hesitantly, Sabriel took a step in, submerging her foot- only to hastily draw it out when she saw shapes moving in the water. Everything she'd experienced in the arena so far indicated that all living things had been put here to kill tributes, in one way or another.

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If it weren't for the fog or the fact that they're both running, Venus and Sabriel probably would just sprint right past each other. But the low visibility and the speed they're traveling at means that while they don't collide directly, they clip each other, and Venus stumbles, tries to correct and hits the ground. She feels blood mingle with dirt and dew under her knees.

She's immediately on her feet, grabbing the chain whip she's been using as a weapon and glancing over her shoulder to see if the person she's hit has fallen - and immediately sees the walker she was running from showing up. A few more appear in the mist.

The hiss of the chain rips little trails through the fog as Venus brings it into a protective arch, humming around her.

"Are you okay?" she calls out to the person she ran into. "I see six of them!"

Sabriel skidded, but managed to catch herself with the pipe and didn't fall.

"I think that's right!" Sabriel called back as she lifted her pipe into a guard position, "Are you going to run, or try to smash their heads in?"

Six. Normally, that would be slightly troublesom, but not overwhelming- but stripped of her magic... Sabriel bit her lip. It was possible, but it would't be easy. But if the other woman was going to fight, an Abhorsen couldn't leave someone to face such foes alone.

"No point running." Venus whirls the chain and then rolls it off the side of her neck to change its direction. It's not meant for use as a whip, but with a little bit of practice and a heavy piece of metal tied to the end as the 'dart', it's a decent enough weapon. And while she'd normally favor a knife, she's not shedding tears over the several feet of distance she can keep between herself and the awful humanoid creatures.

Nor is she sad about having an ally. Venus isn't so purehearted as Sabriel, and if she saw an exit likely would have left the girl to her fate, but now that they're in the situation together they might as well both get out alive. Ultimately Sabriel will be just one more person between Venus' friends and victory, but it's early enough in the Arena that she isn't going to spit on goodwill.

"I can probably take a few with me. Want to see if they like to feed on each other?"

The chain sings and snaps as she whips it at a walker's head. The gruesome creature goes down, a splatter of gore where its temple once was. Venus pulls the chain back, and it leaves a spray of red mist in the air as it whirls again.

"Not particularly."

Sabriel isn't one for banter once a fight gets started. Her only response is to lunge forward, thrusting the end of the pipe into the open mouth of a walker- and into several inches of air behind it, before Sabriel pulls back with a jerk and bashes it on the head as it falls to the ground, absently noting that the brightness of the blood probably means it's alive, or rather was- and it's strange to have to figure that out by observation, rather than the instant knowledge of her death-sense.

The introspection doesn't stop her from rounding on another of the creatures and delivering a series of quick, vicious blows to its head.

The walkers seem about as keen on the idea of cannibalism as Sabriel is. By that, not very. They don't pause at all for their fallen comrades.

Venus snatches the legs out from underneath one with her chain, but that unfortunately leaves her unable to use the weapon, momentarily. She throws a kick at the next one's neck, taking it to the ground.

"Go for the head!" It's a fairly redundant order, since Sabriel already has that on her itinerary.

Jaime had found a building to hunker down in. That was something, right? Shelter was nice. Some real food would be good, too. For now he'd been chewing on a bit of grass there, scavenging what he good here. It wasn't easy and his stomach cramped with hunger every moment he was awake. He hated this place. He couldn't let his guard down. He starts, sitting upright and shoving himself a bit further into the corner of the room he was hiding in. The creaking floorboards were a dead giveaway. Someone--or something--was there.

"Who's there?" He half-whispers, peering into the dimness of the abandoned structure.

"I know!" Sabriel moved her attention to the one Venus had knocked down, slamming through its mouth with the end of her pipe as she gave it a vicious kick. Strangely, she was less afraid of them than the Dead thing she'd run into on her first day here. At least these weren't dressed as tributes.

Sabriel heard the noise, and her heart began to race as her fingers tightened around her pipe.

"I'm asking you." Sabriel's voice was deliberately steady and calm as she headed towards the noise, brandishing her pipe, "I'm not interested in a fight, I just want a safe place to- Jaime? Is that you?"

The pipe lowered by a few inches, and Sabriel stepped forward, clanking a little from the cans she'd stuffed into every available pocket. She'd chosen to take Wyatt's advice about getting food while she could seriously, and had been able to find some cans in one of the houses.

Venus launches herself at one and uses her fists. She hits its temple with her elbow hard enough that she feels something in its skull cave in. It doesn't move again.

The one remaining walker, outnumbered, pauses between the two of them. Venus uses that opportunity to kick its legs out from under it and stomp on its head multiple times.

"So." She wipes sweat from her forehead and puts her hands on her hips, opening her stance so she and Sabriel are looking outwards for any other danger rolling out of the mist. "You fight like a pro."

"My school believed that young ladies ought to learn how to defend themselves," Sabriel said, cocking her head to listen for any noises out in the fog, "And when you grow up learning how to control and fight the Dead, you tend to gain enemies."

She might have learned how to fight in school, but Sabriel had honed her abilities on the occasional Dead creatures that managed to make it as far south as her school, attracted by the promise of a group of young and relatively inexperienced mages- only now, she realized that perhaps she alone might have been a target for some of them.

Clementine watched from behind Sabriel, it wasn't hard to sneak up on people in this fog.

Or be snuck up on.

She should be careful but she wondered. "Cold?"

"Your school was right." Venus' own time at Xavier's had been sprinkled with Danger Room exercises, but it wasn't until she had an agent that she really began her combat training. "What's your name?"

She makes a mental note of the 'dead' thing, particularly about control. A different world than hers, Venus thinks. In Venus' the dead were usually getting put back in the ground, and public sentiment rallied behind them staying there.

She wanders around the fallen walkers and nudges a few with her feet to make sure they're well and truly dead.

Sabriel turned to Clementine, shock flashing across her features as she shifted into a fighting stance- and then, just as swiftly relaxed, though she still kept a steady grip on her pipe.

Appearances could be deceiving, after all.

"I've been far colder," Sabriel said, keeping one eye on Clementine and one on the lake and her surroundings, "Is this you first arena?"

Something about her tone shifted from wariness to that of a prefect offering help to a younger student.

"Yeah--yeah, it's me." He raised one hand and slowly began to get to his feet. One hand reached out to steady himself against the wall, the teen feeling a little light-headed.

"Hi Sabriel." One hand was raised in a the vague approximation of a wave. He was cool. Totally cool. Yeah.

"Sabriel," She almost curtsied and then thought better of it, "And yours?"

Looking down at the walkers, Sabriel sighed, "So damaging their heads is the fastest way to kill them- and they are- or were- living things."

Clementine held up her hands.

"I'm not looking for a fight."

The questions she reacts to with an affirmative nod, "Yeah. Yours too?" now folding her arms Clementine watches Sabriel with continued wariness.

"And probably not the last," Sabriel said, "The fog is... unpleasant, but manageable. What concerns me is what lurks within it. There's at least one Dead Hand dressed as a tribute, and faceless things."

The idea that R might have been a tribute instead of a gamemaker monster didn't really cross her mind.

"And this water reminds me far too much of Death to trust it."

This wasn't how he wanted to start out. It really wasn't. He'd trained so hard for this arena, and yet there he was with a head injury. Sure, he had a little bit of supplies after he'd made it away from the starting area, but it was at too high of a cost. Head injuries were his least favorite- they made him feel too funny. He wasn't on the top of his game.

In his quest to find a safe place to tend to his wounds, somehow luck seemed to be on his side. He heard the voice, recognized it. Then the slosh of water- what was she doing?

He staggered in that direction, remembering their conversation from before. He had given it some thought and now that the circumstances were as they are, he felt an alliance with her was a good idea. "Sabriel?"

"A Dead Hand?" Clementine asks, not understanding the terminology. "What does that mean? I've seen the faceless monsters."

She glances at the water. "Drowning's not my favourite option either." that's what she assumes Sabriel means by the water reminding her of 'Death' anyway.

Death, he hears her say, even before he can see her well enough. But he can feel her, and he will take that over anything else. He lets the fear lick and prick all around her as he approaches, but he doesn't let it pierce.

"In us, and all the fuck around," He says. "IN GAZE CASTING DESCENT, THE LOFTY LOVES LYRIST SINGING. Reflected upon the surface I beheld, myself, and lo' the blood's bells ringing. I LOOKED ABOVE AND DID I SEE. Prepared a noose of light for me."

He gets closer, peering at her and the water's surface both. In less poetry he asks, "AIN'T SUPPOSE IT DRINKABLE?"

Sabriel shifts uneasily, but grits her teeth rather than shudder- though something in her expression shifts at the mention of music and bells.

"Unfortunately, the Capitol confiscated my instruments upon my arrival," Sabriel mutters, unease barely peeking through her composure, "But everyone and everything has a time to die." That was her father's last lesson, one she is trying to take to heart.

"As for the water... I do not trust the food that grows here, or the water, unless it's been purified."

To demonstrate, she grabs one of the bottles that water rations arrive in, scooping up the murky water and chanting while tracing symbols with her free hand, golden symbols flowing into the bottle from her fingers and lips.

When she pours a small amount into her hand, the water is clear as crystal.

"Venus." She doesn't waste time at the moment on the pleasantries of handshakes and curtsies, although she does flash a grin that's sold lipstick and toothpaste alike.

"I don't think they were ever truly alive. The Gamemakers come up with a few of these each time, monsters to try and keep us on our toes and everything."

"Starkiller?" Sabriel stepped toward the voice, wary but not hostile. She was unscathed for now, but who knew what additional dangers were hiding in the fog. An ally would be helpful, and Starkiller did not seem the sort to immediately try to betray her.

She stepped forward fingers wrapped around the length of rusted pipe. "Are you all right?"

"It's a corpse," Sabriel explained, "With a spirit inside of it that eats the living."

It was probably still out there, she realized. Even if she had stayed and fought it, or someone else had destroyed its current body, it could just inhabit another corpse.

"At least it's quicker than some other methods," Sabriel murmured when Clementine mentioned drowning. She thought about the slaves, swept away by the flood she'd summoned, and what it was like to feel them die. She shuddered, remembering the phantom sensation of water entering her lungs despite being completely dry.

"... like a Walker. That's what we call them at home." This woman is the first person she's met who's mentioned anything similar. "There's really one here?"

Clementine sucks on her teeth for a moment. If the Capitol had brought Walkers here along with their homemade monsters things could get very, very bad. It only took one and a successful bite before -- well she'll know soon if that's true.

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I'm so fucking late I'm sorry

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C - during hell time for power reasons? :>

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