thearena | ARENA 11-PaneMall

ARENA 11-PaneMall

It’s pre-dawn when the Tributes are roused from their beds and sent to their tubes. Those who’d been imprisoned for the past few weeks had their heads covered before transport to the staging area, and there’s an air of confusion surrounding just about everything that’s happening until the stylists and managers arrive on the scene and try to calm everyone down. The reunions may be happy, but they're sadly very temporary.

The first clue that something strange is happening comes from their clothing: figure skating costumes with bright colors and sequins and ice skates strapped to their feet. Some may even find it difficult to stand with the blades on their feet, but as they're placed into the arena, all becomes clear. The mall skating rink seems quiet and quaint, especially after weeks of uncertainty and stress. Too bad the peace and quiet can’t last.

20

19

18...

Above the ice rink (which houses all 100+ Tributes) there are floors with shops looking over them. Large, bright fluorescent lights dot the multi-storied ceiling and create a warm, nostalgic glow to the place. Benign music is piped in from various hidden speakers to compliment the intended mood of fun and commerce.

17

16

15…

The countdown continues and the Tributes, some of whom haven’t seen each other in weeks, stare at one another helplessly. That is, until one of them boldly decides to speak.

"We're expected to fight here today," Steve's voice suddenly cuts through the tension in the room. It commands attention without demanding it, a conviction of truth in his tone.

14

13

12...

"To turn on each other through fear and self preservation. And we could give them what they want. A bloodbath," here he pauses longer, lets the reality of his statements sink in. Let people realize what he's saying, that this is a choice.

"Or we can choose not to fight. To instead work together," an option so many seem not to even realize they have. "No one here has to die by our hands today," he knows his speaking won't be without consequence, but he does want to believe he'll be the only one to pay for this.

"This is a risk. One many of you are hesitant to trust, let alone take. But everything we do here is a risk to ourselves and those around us," nothing in the arena comes without putting your life on the line.

"I, for one, am willing to take this risk, to choose not to fight," Steve looks around the room, making eye contact with a few people as he does. He's not telling anyone what to do, this is for them to decides for themselves; their freedom of choice.

But he's got faith in the his fellow tributes. "And I've got a feeling I'm not alone.”

… 3

2

1…

After the countdown ends, there’s a moment of utter still and silence. Then...

BOOOOOOOOOOOM

The room seems to erupt with noise and concussive force. The explosions are so violent that the muzak is paused in its tracks and shakes some of the Tributes off of their pedestals, and after the ice fog and smoke clears, it becomes apparent that fifteen of the Tribute pedestals and exploded there on the ice rink. Fifteen corpses lie mangled on the bloody ice: Deanna Winchester, Danny Fenton, Fili, Kili, Kain Highwind, Perry Kelvin, Julian Bashir, Clint Barton, Karkat Vantas, Sirius Black, Rahm Kota, Cinderella, Bunnymund, Robin, Rock Lee, and Rokk Krin.

The center of the ice rink remains completely intact and stocked with a few dozen keys of varying shapes and sizes. This is the Cornucopia and the Gamemakers are compelling the Tributes to skate for it.

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's Tess' first arena. She expected there to be some kind of a warning ahead of time so she could prepare for it, not this. Not being yanked out of her bed in the middle of the night and urged along to meet with whoever was supposed to dress her up in something she wouldn't ever be caught dead in unless it was Halloween, such a ridiculous getup all in navy blue and silver that reminded her of the late 80s, the pair of skates strapped onto her feet.

Wait - skates?

No time to protest or demand answers, she's pushed onto her pedestal and told to take a deep breath. The only thing Tess can think about is that she hasn't been skating in decades, wondering if she'd even remember how to, the skates like an extra dead weight on her feet.

With no idea who this guy is, the one making the speech, Tess half listens while looking around at everyone she can see. Where's Joel and Ellie? Clementine? Where's the little girl with the pink hair that she'd met weeks ago? These are all key people she's most concerned with finding. Shit - it's like she'd told Joel; they'll be separated and she'll know jack shit on what to do or where to go. Tess will be screwed. But she'll just have to make the most of it until she finds any one of them.

What the hell is the point of this speech? That thought crosses Tess' mind as her heart hammers with the rush of adrenalin running through her and making her clench and unclench her hands, ready for something to happen; they're just going to all end up dying in the end, anyway, no matter what they do to take a stand against the Capitol. That's her understanding of this, from what she's talked about with Joel.

Suddenly there are explosions, so many, all at once. At first something hot and wet splatters along her face so abruptly that she recoils, the small chunk of ice catching and nicking her hard enough in the left cheek to draw blood and bruise. Oh Christ -

Tess finds herself thrown sideways and landing painfully on her hip, sliding along the ice. Her skates drag as she goes, mangled and bloodied bits and chunks of ice raining down around. There's disorientation, confusion, ringing ears. Chaos. She's reminded of when she and Joel planned on crossing into the other Area of the Zone, how he'd shown the officers their identification booklets, and then how there had been the ear-splitting explosion feet away from them. They had ducked and then they had bolted, eager to not stick around. This is exactly how Tess responds after she's pushed herself up, scrambling to get her skates undone and kicked off. Eager to get out of this mess and find her people.

Like hell is she going to skate for what's at the cornucopia, she'll take the one skate with her as a weapon, however, to use as an axe and hack at anyone if they attacked her, running along the ice and trying not to slip on it and the blood and gore scattered around as she hurries for the keys, going to grab at the nearest one.

What a great start for her first arena.

Mindy already has skates on and is cruising through the rink when she sees the woman...sort of shambling to get one of the keys, just asking to fall on her face.

"Its not a good idea to go without skates," she commented. "If someone bumps into you, they'll slice your feet. Trust me, that shit does not feel good."

From the look of damage on Mindy's face, she's clearly seen worse though.

"I'll take my chances on foot then with the skates. Anyone bumps into me and they'll get a blade in the eye, how's that?"

Tess had brought her skate up as she twisted to look at the young girl. Three things had stopped her; she looked young, she hadn't attacked her, and Tess would only lash out if provoked or if someone made the first move to attack her and it was in her defense.

Seeing the damage done to her face, Tess' bruising and swelling cut on her left cheek doesn't feel so bad anymore.

"Fair enough." Man, she sounded like Shepard. On closer look, the woman had the same kind of fearlessness too. She looked ready to fight, even ready to kill her. Mindy was ready: she HAD to be, because it'd be stupid to think she wouldn't attack her. She watched her warily, ready to react, but Tess gave pause, so Mindy, though tense, waited.

"Got into a fight already, or did shrapnel get you?"

"More like a piece of ice." A piece of fucking ice. "And you? What happened to you?"

Tess nods to the girl's face and the damage left on it.

Yeah, that made sense.

"They lost one of their top people a week or so ago. They grabbed everyone who didn't have an alibi and rounded up in a prison. It was probably a bit of a publicity stunt, just to remind us where we stand. I just happened to be looking up places I could go where I didn't have them hanging over my shoulders. I looked guilty, and I guess I wasn't too forward with their fucking questions. So they coerced us and beat us, and then we got this brand."

Mindy was reminded that, despite how she had gotten through it, how much she really, REALLY didn't like even thinking about it anymore.

Tess is reminded of what Joel had told her, that she should keep her comments to herself and answer questions without messing around. Seeing the mark on the girl's face - yeah. She would not want to have that done to her. She'd have to start playing along from now on, keep whatever she does under the radar.

"Then I guess next time you'll have to be more forward." Not that Tess agrees with how those bastards had handled things. Branding people? Someone this young?

"There could be something here that'll help that." She nods to the girl's face. It's such a mess with that damage.

"I'm no rat." She said this swiftly, automatically. "They wanted people's names, that kind of shit. Even IF I knew something like that, they're the ones with the tech, they can find that out themselves."

In other words, they could go fuck themselves if they thought she was going to give out names to save her skin. For what? The comfort of living in a police state? They'd taken enough. It's not like she wouldn't have gotten the brand anyway.

"Here's hoping I'm lucky then." She managed a not-so-sincere smile. "It's almost healed, but it still hurts. Its fucktastic to throw me in this so soon after too."

"Good to know." She means that this kid isn't some kind of a rat, but that doesn't mean Tess will trust her any quicker. "Surprised you aren't scratching at it -" Scabbing can be the itchiest and most annoying thing ever in healing skin. "Their way of teaching you an extra lesson by the sounds of it."

Not that Tess knows much about how this these people operate, yet, only that they really do not give two shits on comfort. And only what Joel's informed her of, how if she were to speak out against the Capitol or say something they didn't agree with, she'd lose a tongue or worse.

If you trusted anyone right off the bat, you were likely pretty naive, and this woman didn't seem the type. "If I scratched at it my face would just get worse. It hurts enough as it is: the last thing I need is to run around the arena with a hole in my face that's infected."

Too much of a mess and definitely too much trouble.

"They have plenty of ways to teach me a lesson," Mindy said. "Not that they need to be doing it to me in the first place. All they have to do is go after someone you care about. Better to stay out of their hair."

Not that she thought this would be a problem for her.

Infected. Heh. "That would be the shits, no doubt." If this kid didn't run around the arena with a hole in her face then it was going to be with a hole or two put there by someone else, if it ever came to that which Tess hoped it didn't.

"So I've been told. They like to play dirty." Go for where it hurts the most.

Anything she said over the network from here on out could lead to them hurting Joel. They could take him away from her, brand him the same way they'd done with this girl, or worse. He'd had a good point in getting mad and telling her in his Joel way to smarten the fuck up.

"You got any people here?"

"Not that I'm not in pain already, but that would slow me down. They pretty much just pulled me after the whole incarceration bullshit, so I guess they wanted to make sure our handicap was worse." That she was a mentor had probably occurred to them.

"Dirty doesn't begin to cover it. Bet you already heard about Avoxes."

Only an idiot would keep that stuff from her.

"Some I have in mind, yeah," she said. "Looking for a few friends. Gotta see if I can find Ellie, then a girl even younger than me."

"I was told about them a few days after I got here." Something else Joel had warned her of; keep the mouth shut, tell the Capitol their shit smells fresh and of potpourri and all would be good in the world.

Avoxes are forgotten in the moment this girl mentions that name. "You know Ellie?"

"Whoever told you that is smart. Been trying to keep my head down, but well, always been a bit of a troublemaker myself. What I had to do back home, its just kind of ingrained in me, you know? Its hard to shake it."

Especially when the person who taught you it all was still here, somewhere

"Yeah," she said, giving her a grin. "She was one of the first friends I ever made. Wish I could hang with her more, but what can you do. Do you know her?"

"I know her. She's one of mine." Meaning that Ellie is from her world, one of her people. And it's a good thing the kid's made some friends here, Tess had had a suspicion that Ellie hadn't had many back in Boston. Outside of Marlene.

"Oh. So that means you come from the same place as her and Riley and Joel. Must be nice, to at least have the band of you guys all together. Means you all kinda know where you stand, as far as this goes."

Which was to say maybe. After all, she DID know that Riley was here when she was supposed to be dead. Just another one of those fucking mysteries the Capitol loved to brain break people on.

"Joel and I go way back. I'm still getting to know the other one." But it is nice, real nice. She'd gotten the rundown from her partner and anything else that had been brought up had been done so by the girls.

"I guess the same could be said for Ellie."

"It helps." After all, they were all from the same time, they could still talk to each other about things that they knew. Also, how the hell did that woman know Joel and not be as much of a stick in the mud?

"Guessing you weren't super thrilled with this place either. Don't even need to tell you the basics. Have you done the Arena before?"

"On one hand I was thrilled, for personal reasons. On the other, after it was explained, not so much." Seems to be a general consensus, however. "First time in one. I'm guessing this isn't your first time?"

"You were thrilled?" Ok, that was actually a little surprising. Who's be thrilled about coming to a place like this, under these circumstances? Was that sarcasm?

"No. I'm technically not supposed to be in this anymore. I won an Arena already."

"For personal reasons, yeah. You heard right." It's not something she cares to discuss either, not when it'll go public.

Hearing that this girl had won an arena, Tess lifts a brow. She'd won? How? "Is that how it works? You win an arena round and you're out?"

"Right." She didn't want to talk about why she meant it, and she could respect that. Some people had some pretty bad secrets, and from Joel and Ellie's world, that didn't surprise her.

"That's the plan, yeah. It's not as easy time, and if you're not hiding around like a slug, you get pretty fucked up by the end of it, but if you push it and win, you're not supposed to have to go again. Obviously, that shit does not apply to traitors."

"You thought it would? I'm not surprised they threw you back in after what happened. They thought they were doing you a favor when you won but that went down the drain after everything. To them, you're like the lamb they saved and now they've chucked you back into the wolf's den."

It really doesn't surprise her. It's unfortunate but...

"You think they'll make it so you don't ever win another arena?"

Mindy scoffed. "Hey. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time could have happened to anybody. As is turned out, not everyone there was up to no good. It made no difference to them. They needed scapegoats, and all you had to do was not be where you were supposed to."

She shrugged. "You pick and choose your own battles. If they do that, what the hell am I gonna do, but die fighting? I wouldn't put it past them, of course. Traitors shouldn't get the chance to win twice."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ARENA 11-PaneMall

Tess | open!

Re: Tess | open!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject