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

[pythianjudgment]

Almost there, almost there. The words echo in her thoughts, repeating back the encouragement that he's trying to give. The jostling from the running hurts like hell, and it leaves her feeling even more light-headed.

Don't pass out, don't pass out. She can't die on him like this again. She can't stand to come back to the Capitol to find that sad expression on his face in the recaps. The way the he couldn't leave her side, even after she was long gone. The way that he would so carefully set her corpse down and brush the hair away from her ashen face. She can't let that happen again.

Her hands curl against his front, nails digging against clothes, trying not to prick skin. She wants him to know that she's still hanging on.

"Set me down at the finish line," she breathes, hoping that her voice is strong enough to hear. She doesn't know what sort of games the Capitol might try to play, but it's better safe than sorry. She wants to cross the finish line on her own two feet, just to be sure.

[carnagecarnival]

At the finish line. Right, of course, he can do that. He nods, though he realises it's impossible to see-- not just because she's blind, but because of all the jostling what's up and going on already.

There's a split second where all he wants to grip her hand, but he's still holding on to her legs. Not yet.

It's just that last short distance, and although she's in pain, he finds himself near to smiling with what hope he's got. They're there. They did it. He crouches down low, carefully releasing her legs so that she may stand on her own. They're just a step from the finish line.

"WE DID IT. You motherfucking did it," He says, one last time. He looks at her, so proud.

He goes to follow.

[pythianjudgment]

We did it, he says, and she exhales a shaky breath. She doesn't know how she's still conscious. Her wound hurts terribly, and she can barely stand on her own two feet. She has to hold onto him for support to keep herself upright--a weak, trembling grip on his forearm.

But he's right, they've done it. She's on the threshold of the finish line, and she's alive. They can't take that from her. She doesn't bother trying to smell the concerned faces on the other side of the nonexistent barrier. She steps forward with Kurloz, knowing she can relax now that it's over.

Gore warning

[carnagecarnival]

Right over the finish line, and he's thinking on the same thing. They can relax. It's all being good. They did it togetherlike and--

There's a warning beep from the watch on his wrist, flashing red zeros where he didn't go on to cull nobody, didn't hurt no one, and simply forgot the moment he saw her. He jerks back away from her on instinct, not no what my happen if she's near to him. The tube comes up around him, floor to ceiling, and he can see her on the otherside, not a bit of escape up around him at all.

There's barely any time as all to motherfucking thing. He looks up, breath catching as the clicks sound. His pupils dilate and his ears fold back, and the acid goo comes down.

"TEREZI TURN AW--"

The acid, green as sopor, falls down upon him and his words turn to screams. He can hear the sizzling in his ears, through his own howls. His skin disintegrates, then, muscle, then nerve. His claws shriek desperately on the tube's impenetrable glass, even as they melt away and dissolve. His vision goes white with pain, then mercifully dark, as his body comes apart and the bits where joints held on, melt and detach. The tube is splashed indigo and green.

It's just the colors what remain after long enough.

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi doesn't have the reflexes to react. The beeping barely registers to her before her support is being yanked away from her. She stumbles and turns back, against his wishes. She doesn't understand what she's smelling until the splash of green falls down, melting away the familiar scent of blackberries and licorice.

It's the screaming that shakes her to the bone, though. The wordless howl of pain and agony, and the way it cuts off suddenly as the acid eats through his mouth and throat. She wants to scream, too, but she can't find her voice. Wordlessly, she exhales a shaky breath, unable to turn away from the horror in front of her.

Her knees give out before the acid stops flowing, before she gets a chance to smell the bits of color he's been reduced to in that cylindrical cell. She hits the ground, tremors shaking her shoulders and barely able to breathe. Anyone around her could see that she's in shock--in equal parts bloodloss and unspeakable horror.

Mercifully, self-preservation kicks in. Her mind can't handle what it just witnessed, and she has no strength to go on. It shuts down, folding her into blessed unconsciousness, where she doesn't have to process these last few moments. Her body crumples just past the finish line.