Mini Arena 3

[etcircenses]

The kids are picked up from the daycare bright and early, but by the Capitol instead of their parents. It's just like old times in the arenas, with only children to contend.

25 - 24 - 23

Stylists are starting to get used to the mini-arenas, though it doesn't mean they've been allowed to dress tributes in whatever they want. All the tributes will be dressed as proxy copy of a respective video game character. All tributes are reminded about the ticket rules for this round.

20 - 19 - 18 - 17 - 16

The platforms lift them up, and there is no cornucopia to be seen. The only way tributes will be able to help and protect themselves is if they go out of their way to harm another tribute and get the tickets, which will be tallied by their watches. The lights of the games flicker and glow within the dark. Classic video game fight tunes play overhead. Before them lay a great and stretching obstacle course, filled with animatronic enemies and various other hazards.

11- 10 - 9 - 8

They've all been warned, don't step off your pedestal early. They have also been warned to put on a good show. That's all this is about, a good show. None of them have been told that there can be multiple winners this time around.

5 - 4

3

2

The sound of the gong plays crystal clear across the opening. The games have begun.

[OOC: Remember, this is forwardated by a week.]

Comments

[a_minute_younger]

Terezi's words fall on deaf ears. "Fuck you! Fuck you in your blind-ass--motherfucking..." The string of curses devolves into an incoherent howl as painful spasms wrack his mangled shoulder. Gary is beyond reason now, beyond any sort of rational anger or injustice that he might have felt if Terezi had pulled this on him without the empty water bottle. His unbridled fury keeps strength in the arm supporting him and knuckles white around the rope. "I'll...fucking slay you...cheating bitch!"

[pythianjudgment]

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen any time soon." At least she's sure enough of that to be standing over him without too much concern. His arm is messed up, even with his exceptional agility, he's not going to be pulling himself up from this.

"The way I smell it, this will be going one of two ways. Either I wait here long enough to smell you drop to your death--or I crush your fingers and hurry along the process." She couches down, her face coming just that much closer to his. "This is usually the part where I flip a coin to decide your fate, but I'm feeling generous. So I'll let you pick. One scream of fury for me crushing your fingers, two for letting you drop on your own."

[a_minute_younger]

Gary's response unintentionally ends up being two--one as he tries to pull himself up with his good arm, and another when he fails and his arm goes slack. Goddamn his lack of abilities! The adrenaline should have kicked in, should have let him easily right himself and wipe that smile off of Terezi's face in the process, but without it his whole body feels numb and pitifully weak. The whole of Panem is watching him squirm around at the whims of this kid and he hates it.

The least he can do is get the last word in. "Do your fucking worst," he pants, fingers unconsciously gripping the rope tighter. "We'll both come back after this, and I know where you live."

[pythianjudgment]

"Of course you do. We all live in the same building. Idiot." That much seems obviously to her, and she doesn't have the presence of mind not to taunt the boy she's about to kill. He'll come back, but that only means that she can't let her guard down around him. That's all.

"If you're done saying anything important, then I think it'd time for you to go." Grabbing a hold of a different support rope nearby, Terezi kicks out at the boy's fingers, aiming to damage those and release his grip. If his grip doesn't weaken after the first few blows, she'll aim for his head instead.

[a_minute_younger]

Gary, to his credit, does not go out so easily. He manages to wait out the first few blows to his fingers, numbed as they are from holding him up this long; when Terezi's foot comes down on his head, he finally lets go. And then promptly makes a grab at her ankle instead.

[pythianjudgment]

To be honest, she expected him to make that grab, which was why she was holding onto the rope in the first place. If she was in his position, at the very least she would want to drag her murderer down with her. But she's not about to give him that chance.

He grabs onto her ankle, but instead of flailing her leg about, she braces herself on the rope she's holding and slams her ankle (and his fingers) against the corner of the plank she's standing on.

[a_minute_younger]

Gary shouts, one last act of defiance, before his hand spasms and he lets go of Terezi's ankle. Surely he can grab with his other hand--no he can't, Gary realizes too late, his shoulder refuses to work and this simply isn't an option. There must be something else he can do. The bridge is moving away fast and the bubbling pit is approaching at the same alarming rate, but there's always something, there has to be, he can't just--

He splashes into the acid below, the liquid splatters thickly on the underside of the bridge and, with a wet shlorp, swallows Gary up before it goes still once again.

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi hangs onto the rope, shaking her freed ankle with a bit of a wince. That's going to smart, but it was worth it to get him off. She lingers by the edge just long enough to smell the acid oozes back into place, still like the surface of a lake. She frowns thoughtfully, though there's very little concern in her expression, before turning and making her way through the rest of the course.

She hopes the Capitol is satisfied with that.