Arena 05 - Chill

[gamemakers]

Usually, the tribute's outfits for the arena aren't accessorized. But today, the last thing their stylists hand them before the countdown begins is a pair of heavy black glasses, polarized and thick-lensed. They look at odds with the thick, winter gear they've been outfitted in.


It's a long rise to the surface today, inside their individual little tubes, much longer than usual. They start to feel the cold only about halfway up, and to hear the wind. It howls across the surface as they reach it, pressing all of their clothes flat against their bodies. And the reason for the glasses is immediately apparent.


20 - 19 - 18


The sky is white. The ground is white (and gray and black and blue but mostly white), the far-off sea is blinding silver. Everything in sight flings light around, fractures it into scintilating rainbows and sheer white beams of reflection. It is strong, cruel light, and it bears no heat at all. The surface is so cold that the little metal trackers ache in everyone's arm, and the countdown has to continue at a deafening volume to be heard.


 12 - 11 - 10 -


The circle of silver pedestals is the only regular shape to be seen. All else is fractured and split, the most uneven footing imaginable. And at the center of the circle, the Cornucopia sports icycles hanging from its lip, almost to the pile of supplies tucked all neatly inside its mouth.


4


3


2


There's a lull in the wind just as the gong sounds, letting it peal out across the frozen glacier, and echo off the high rock cliffs in the distance. And the ice answers, with a loud crack that seems to come from miles down.


Let the Games begin.

Comments

[makeflowersgrow]

She stops fighting back as soon as Steven puts her down. And in answer to his question, she shrugs.

"I cannot win such a fight, Monsieur. I will not kill. And I do not see what the point is in trying to survive here when I can be killed here and brought back to life in the Capitol. I would rather die soon here and have a nice bed and good food again. Would you not?"

[pursuitofcappiness]

"If you just come back and die every time... Are you prepared to do that for however long this lasts? I'm not going to kill you," he says. "I don't want to see you die."

[makeflowersgrow]

"You will do, though. They put it on those... those - I forget the word."

She means televisions.

"And they show it over and over, your death. They like it, you see, those people. It makes me sick, here."

She presses a hand to her stomach. "It makes me want to spit at them. But there is nothing to be done. So if I do not die at your hand, you will see me die anyway. And I would rather it did not hurt when it happened. Or, not hurt much."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"I can't promise you that," he says. "A painless death. But I can take you somewhere else," he adds. "And you can find someone who'll do it for you, if you want." He only says that to get her to agree to come with him, although she is free to do that, but he will be disappointed if he sees her name on the death toll.

"If you ask someone to kill you now, you might... end up being hurt for a long time before you die. It's not always fast like it is in the movies."

stupid dw ate my reply!!!

[makeflowersgrow]

"What is a movie, M'sieur?

Though this seems like a really stupid question, completely redundant, given the situation.

"I am not scared of pain, or death. I have had both before, and I no doubt will have them again. But I will come with you now, M'sieur, and I will ask someone else. I so not wish to make you unhappy - only, I would so much rather go back to the Capitol. And this time I can make something good for me happen."

She begins to trudge off through the snow, picking any random direction away from the Cornucopia to walk in.

(and jump to log? - http://thearena.dreamwidth.org/23634.html - feel free to ask me to change it if you're not happy!!)