Venus Dee Milo (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
celebrityskinned) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thearena2014-08-20 01:45 am
celebrityskinned) wrote in thearena2014-08-20 01:45 am
Entry tags:
Nowhere to Hide, In Your Dreams You Are Useless [Open]
WHO| Venus Dee Milo and anyone in the Arena!
WHAT| Venus finds the food court the first night.
WHEN| First night.
WHERE| Food court.
WARNINGS| Mentions of torture, violence and mutilation, plus some dark mental stuff.
She finds the food court on the first night, and for a few moments allows a little spark of hope to catch the tinder in her chest. She and Kankri did well in the cafe for several weeks back at the museum; there might be food there, a stockpile she can jealously guard. More importantly, there might be people.
She doesn't know who among her allies might have been exploded. The entire thing was too fast for her to keep track of which people were reduced to bloody splinters and chips of bone, droplets and chunks across the ice. She'd gone straight for a key and tried to find Kankri, Joly, Ellie, even the boys - but in the tumult, in people's scrambles away from the killing field and to identify their loved ones, she didn't even see if they were among the living.
To be honest, she isn't sure who her allies are anymore. Maybe it's better they haven't seen her like this up close, with bruises festering purple and sickly brown on her neck and arms and bare legs. Her face, usually the envy of skin cream models and makeup artists, is a wound. The brand that sprawls across her cheek, nose and upper lip looks rotten, and the yellowed skin withers away from the edges, where painfully raw flesh beneath peeks out. The juxtaposition of her current state and the daintily-beaded, sequined spandex outfit she's wearing doesn't escape her.
She has a baseball bat from the sporting goods store. She holds it close but not cocked as she starts to go through the metal cabinets behind each buffet line. She pauses occasionally to look over her shoulder, but she doesn't take much care to hide the clatters of metal on metal. She's alright with being found, so long as she can act on it.
Thirty minutes going through each kitchen station yields nothing. Nothing but the hiss of oil in the fryer, spitting at her.
She takes a seat behind the cash register at the Panda Pantry. Her figure skates are dangling around her neck, resting against her chest. She folds up her legs, lets her palms take in the coolness of the tile on the floor. There are no victories for her here - not in the Arena, not in Panem.
She would cry if she weren't on camera, or if she weren't so good at swallowing it down by now, but she's had a human body for over a year now. She knows how to keep it to herself.
WHAT| Venus finds the food court the first night.
WHEN| First night.
WHERE| Food court.
WARNINGS| Mentions of torture, violence and mutilation, plus some dark mental stuff.
She finds the food court on the first night, and for a few moments allows a little spark of hope to catch the tinder in her chest. She and Kankri did well in the cafe for several weeks back at the museum; there might be food there, a stockpile she can jealously guard. More importantly, there might be people.
She doesn't know who among her allies might have been exploded. The entire thing was too fast for her to keep track of which people were reduced to bloody splinters and chips of bone, droplets and chunks across the ice. She'd gone straight for a key and tried to find Kankri, Joly, Ellie, even the boys - but in the tumult, in people's scrambles away from the killing field and to identify their loved ones, she didn't even see if they were among the living.
To be honest, she isn't sure who her allies are anymore. Maybe it's better they haven't seen her like this up close, with bruises festering purple and sickly brown on her neck and arms and bare legs. Her face, usually the envy of skin cream models and makeup artists, is a wound. The brand that sprawls across her cheek, nose and upper lip looks rotten, and the yellowed skin withers away from the edges, where painfully raw flesh beneath peeks out. The juxtaposition of her current state and the daintily-beaded, sequined spandex outfit she's wearing doesn't escape her.
She has a baseball bat from the sporting goods store. She holds it close but not cocked as she starts to go through the metal cabinets behind each buffet line. She pauses occasionally to look over her shoulder, but she doesn't take much care to hide the clatters of metal on metal. She's alright with being found, so long as she can act on it.
Thirty minutes going through each kitchen station yields nothing. Nothing but the hiss of oil in the fryer, spitting at her.
She takes a seat behind the cash register at the Panda Pantry. Her figure skates are dangling around her neck, resting against her chest. She folds up her legs, lets her palms take in the coolness of the tile on the floor. There are no victories for her here - not in the Arena, not in Panem.
She would cry if she weren't on camera, or if she weren't so good at swallowing it down by now, but she's had a human body for over a year now. She knows how to keep it to herself.
no subject
There's no we anywhere in that; she fully intends to do this on her own for the first while, not wanting to drag him or the girls around with her. They can look around and try to find something for Venus' injuries and then she can leave him to help the other woman out.
no subject
It stings, to know that Ellie shouldn't be seeing her like this, but Joel has a point. Venus has worn out her usefulness to a great many people, and she can't be much of an avenging angel to Ellie if she puts her in more harm's way. She places a hand on her hip and taps the key against her lower lip.
"I'd give you the key but I got an ally who might still be getting goodies." She plans on passing it to Kankri. She gestures at Tess and Joel. "So. This your wife?"
no subject
He waves off the offer of the key, anyway, shaking his head. He doesn't need handouts from anyone, least of all Venus. He would say something to that effect, but then she's opening her mouth again, and what comes out of it makes him scoff even more.
"We're business partners," he corrects with an annoyed scowl. Married. As if.. Like people back home never mistook them for a couple (it happened, pretty often).
no subject
Now that's funny, she thinks to herself and can't stop the look of amusement from passing across her expression.
Joel calls them 'business partners'. Any other day...Tess would agree with that.
She nods and juts her bottom lip out on a shrug. "His wife? Something like that. Call it an unspoken agreement." Changing the topic before he cuts in, because Tess knows he will, "Where are you heading from here?"
no subject
She rolls her eyes. There are burst blood vessels in her left, making her look a bit ghoulish when she does that. And she casts a smirk at Tess.
"Alright, so he's your whipping boy?" She pauses and considers. "I'm looking for someone, and after that my plans to hole up in a bathroom somewhere. Running water and only one entrance means I can defend it pretty well."
no subject
"Water's usable?" he asks instead, because that's actually useful information. "We might try up above, get a good vantage point."
no subject
Tess actually just considers him her partner, nothing more and nothing less. There was no time for them to bother with something more than business partners and friends. No time with her being on the constant go and the small fear that he wouldn't share her thoughts or feelings, whatever they were.
"Second level could work," Tess will agree with her partner on this. "Your ally?"
no subject
The burns have left her pretty dehydrated.
"Kankri Vantas." She throws a glance at Joel, who should remember the last time he ran into her and Kankri. She makes a gesture with her hand. "Kid about this tall, grey skin, black hair, little nubby horn things sticking out of his head. I ain't seen him yet, though."
The question is implicit: have you?
no subject
"Haven't seen Kankri, he's still around?" he asks, almost curiously. "Haven't seen him in a while." He doesn't react beyond that, though. Kankri's alright. He helped him pick out comic books for Ellie, once. If Venus thinks he's got some kind of grudge or prejudice, she's dead wrong.
no subject
Since Joel doesn't say it, Tess will. "We'll keep an eye out for him." Unless Joel plans on having Venus stick around with them; she would be okay with that, as long as there was no sneak attempt at killing her. Which there might not be with how badly injured Venus appears.
no subject
She nods at Tess. "You'll probably see a few. They're a race of aliens, trolls. The ones we got are a lot like human teenagers except the super tall one who screams a lot, and you're free to go hog-wild on him. God knows I will."
She's not about to pretend to Tess that she isn't going to kill people unprovoked here. Joel already knows, and Venus' reputation would probably precede her anyway.
"Look, I'd love to stick around and make this super awkward, but you got a point about Ellie going off the handle if she sees me. You know where there's any medical stuff I can patch myself up with? I found some first aid kits at the sports store but nothing substantial, and I'm pretty sure I'm walking around with internal damage."
no subject
He gives a disapproving look to Venus, vaguely. Well, pretty much all his looks at Venus are disapproving. Going hog-wild, Christ. Joel knows how to be brutal when the situation calls for it, but he's not willing to put on a show for these sickos just because they want him to.
no subject
To hear that there is a race of aliens here that resemble humans, that's...baffling. How is she expected to believe that?
Her mouth is kept shut on the matter of the internal damage. The woman shouldn't be up on her feet and walking around, but Tess isn't about to lecture her. She'll leave that to Joel, or at least leave it to him to shoot Venus the disapproving look.
no subject
"I'm not the one who named them trolls. Anyway, there's an entire store of troll merchandise up on the third floor, in case you want to get a look at their pictures before one sneaks up on you. They're like humans in more ways than one - some of them will kill you." Venus has been fortunate enough never to end up on the receiving end of the Initiate's anger. "You see one with a purple strip in his hair, let me know. I'm going to give him a swirlie in the public toilet."
Is she kidding? It's really hard to tell.
"I should let you guys pig out on the hot oil, huh?"
no subject
He only files away the information about some of them being dangerous. He expects everyone to be dangerous until proven otherwise, but it's good to know of specific people to watch out for.
"That all there is here? Hot oil?" His lips twist a little in disappointment. Sometimes there's actually food where the food should be - at least, there had been in the museum, until it went off.
no subject
Tess is just as disappointed as her partner when she hears this; she's not thinking about food, she's thinking about ways she can utilize whatever is handy to their advantage.