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

[needsaprince]

"Oh thank the Lord Jesus." She said, tugging him forward with Adel's help.

Now to get them somewhere safe. The whole place was white, as far as she could see. She was incredibly thankful the sunglasses as she scanned the distance, seeing a ravine ahead of them.

"This way!"

[warrior_become]

Testing her steps, Adel helps Lottie guide Some towards the ravine. It's a miracle that no one has killed them yet. The andalite does her best to look around, seeking out anything green in the vast span of blinding white. Her hearts sink when the only grass visible is on the cliffs on the other side of a deep crevasse. This does not bode well for her.

[gruesome]

Between them, Some did his best not to stumble, stifling the scream he could feel building in his throat when he saw where Lottie was guiding them. His crest was erect and stiff under the hat he wore, and he felt stiff, and knew it was the fear. They would go in that ravine and it would close - and maybe they would wake up back in the Capitol, but he doubted it. With his soul he doubted it.

"H-how did they put us here?" he begged, almost in a moan.

[needsaprince]

"The same way they put us everywhere, darling."

She knew he didn't like snow, and ice, but she had no idea it went to this level. Still, she was keeping her eye on the prize. Which was, hopefully, not dying.

[warrior_become]

Adel stops at the edge of the ravine, staring down the steep slope of snow covered ice she's expected to make her way down. <Perhaps I should go first...> She suggests. Lest she crush anyone.

This was not going to be pretty.

[gruesome]

His head jerked again as she spoke in it, and he pressed two hands over his face, just leaving his eyes uncovered. "L-Lottie can r-ride me..." Stones, he didn't want to go down there.

[needsaprince]

"Crouch down, honey, let me climb on up there..."

She had ridden on Some's back a few times now, and it wasn't the much different than a horse. A very, very strange horse.

"Let's get out cute little tail feather's out of here."

[warrior_become]

Adel looked at Lottie in confusion. None of them had tail feathers.

No time to dwell on it.

<I'll go ahead then...>

Stepping to the edge of the ravine... well. Adel tries to get purchase of the edge with her hooves, she really does. It just doesn't work. <Yaaah!> She yells, as she goes sliding down into the ravine.

[gruesome]

Wrapping two arms firmly around Lottie, Some lunged after her. What they had given him for his feet, the boot/glove hybrids, kept him from getting a good grip on the jagged surface of the ice, but it was better than hooves, and he slung a foreleg around her waist, holding fast. She was heavier than he anticipated, though, and so while he slowed her slide, he couldn't stop it.

[needsaprince]

Oh, oh, oh, oh!

Lottie squeezed tight as they went slipping and sliding down into the ravine. It reminded her of the one small automobile accident she had gotten into, and she never wanted to recreate that.

Holding tight to Some, she buried her face against him.

"We're gonna die." She moaned miserably.

[warrior_become]

As she meets the bottom of the ravine, she becomes dislodged from Some's foreleg, tumbling a few feet before coming to a stop. He's slowed her enough to prevent any serious injury, at least. <Ugh...>

[gruesome]

Once Some had his footing again, he stared up at the distant sky, despairing. "We went right into its mouth..." he groaned, shaking. Then he shook his head, and held tight to Lottie, stepping carefully over the crumbled ice to Adel's side.

"Are- are you alright?"

[needsaprince]

"I'm fine, are you two fine. I'm fine, I'm just peachy..."

Except her voice was off, and now they seemed to be out of disasters way, she was shaking slightly, and clinging to Some and she slid off his back.

"Just fine..."

[warrior_become]

Carefully, Adel lifts her upper body off of the ground. She's bruised for sure, but nothing seems to be broken. <Yes, you were able to slow me enough to prevent any serious injury. Thank you...>

As she makes her way to her feet, she looks at Lottie. She hasn't met very many humans, only a few while visiting the space station nearest her scoop, and so she's not overly familiar with their body language. But something tells her that the human is not quite as 'fine' as she'd apparently like them to believe.

[gruesome]

Some kept a hand on Lottie's back, holding onto her coat the way a child might as he crouched in the ice. "Wh-why did you want to come down here?"

[needsaprince]

She leaned into him, trying to calm herself down. It was coming on fast, now that they were a little bit safe. Taking deep breaths, she looked at her companions.

"I know you're afraid of the ice, but I was a little more afraid of all the people trying top murder us."

[warrior_become]

<I predict that the vast majority of tributes will be unable to survive this hostile environment long. I recommend that we focus on our own survival as opposed to attempting to eliminate the other tributes.> She says, taking charge. If they can just outlast the majority of the tributes...

[gruesome]

"W-we should try to get off of h- of the ice," he stammered, even as he was noticing the blade on her tail for the first time. "Once it's dark, when it's dark, we should go."

[needsaprince]

"Honey, I don't think there is anything but ice." She said in a, hopefully, soothing voice.

While wondering if it would be rude to ask if she could get on his back again.

[warrior_become]

<I do not see particularly well at night...> She says uneasily. She's all for getting off of the ice if there's a way but like Lottie, she's pretty sure there isn't.

[gruesome]

That was not comforting, Lottie. With his bad day vision, Some hadn't even seen the cliffs to either side of the glacier. He whimpered, low in his throat.

"... Then what can we do? If- if we just wait here, we will freeze or- or- or be crushed."

[needsaprince]

"We need to find ourselves some kind of cover. And conserve body heat..."

She had read about explorers, at least, in the arctic. A few times. And really, it didn't take much to realize that.