Arena 12 - The Spaceport

[etcircenses]

As usual the Tributes are woken up early for the start of the arena, leaving the Tribute Centre before dawn. A few hours ride in a hovercraft delivers them to their destination where their excited prep teams will outfit them in skintight suits that are colour coordinated by District (D1 is White, D2 is Red, D3 is Orange, D4 is Aqua, D5 is Purple, D6 is Pink, D7 is Light Green, D8 is Blue, D9 is Yellow, D10 is Dark Green, D11 is Lavender, and D12 is Black) over which they will be put into what is instantly identifiable as a spacesuit, complete with oxygen tank and helmet before being loaded into the tubes.

They rise up into what appears to be outer space and immediately upon emerging from the tubes Tributes will find themselves floating upwards with a length of rope the only thing holding them to their podiums. The countdown crackles out from speakers built into each Tributes helmet.

20

19

18…

The Cornucopia sits in the middle of a dusty crater with buildings surrounding it, made up of a number of chained down cases and cubes in limited numbers. Cubes which sharp-eyed Tributes will note look like they fit into the slots beside the doors that lead into the spaceport.

8

7

6…

The mirrored visors of the uniformly white spacesuits make it impossible to tell friend from foe. Tributes fighting for goods will have to risk harming their friends but the alternative, floating off into space or suffocating when their oxygen runs out, leaves them little choice.

3

2

1…

The gong rings out and the countdown’s voice announces, “the Arena is now open” before the line goes dead. The Games have begun.

Comments

Kousuke Nitou | OTA

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou has always been one to live by the idea that in danger, there was opportunity. The Cornucopia had been the biggest danger of the Arena, and therefore the biggest opportunity. His gamble has paid off. He made it into the Cornucopia and out again with a nice crate of supplies, and once he gets inside the space station, he wastes no time in shucking that bulky space suit, going through the crate, and making stuff as easy to carry as possible. Nitou wants to travel light; less weight means he'll be moving faster. He takes the time to don the fancy impact reduction boots that were inside the case, for everything else fit nicely in the plastic bag of...he wasn't sure what it was, but it was shaped like fish.

And with that, he's off. He's got a plan--find Haruto, then...okay, so his plan really begins and ends with finding Haruto. But it's still a plan. It's not until he hears a familiar voice that he stops dead in his tracks, for the familiar voice is coming from inside of him.

"KOUSUKE NITOU. I'M HUNGRY." Not that anyone else would be able to hear the voice of Chimera. The voice of the creature who lived inside of him and allowed him to use its power in exchange for being fed magical energy. If no magical energy was provided, then Chimera would eat him. And Chimera hasn't eaten in a long, long time. Nitou had thought he was gone here in Panem, but he's just realized that no, that wasn't the case. Chimera had only been sleeping. And now? Now, he needs to find the monster some kind of food.

"Chimera?!?" And Nitou takes that moment to stop and grab his stomach, looking down at himself in horror. "You're in there?!" So, yes, there's a man standing around in the halls of the space station wearing a purple jumpsuit and yelling at his stomach. It's all perfectly normal.

[silverskymagician]

"A chimera in your stomach? That's a new one on me." said Kaito, peering around a corner in his own light green jumpsuit. Maybe walking in on some dude talking to his stomach was more than he'd bargained for, okay?

"I thought they were generally, you know. Giant monsters." Kaito himself was about as actually magical as a potato, but he did know his mythology and so on.

[infinitemayonnaise]

Hello there, person in the green jumpsuit. Nitou wasn't expecting to see you there. "Oh, he is a giant monster!" he said cheerfully. There was a bit of gesturing to this effect. What, him worry about being surprised like that in the Arena? Naaaaaah.

"Really big! Big enough to swallow you up in one bite!" He slaps at his stomach. "But he's inside here now. Magic and all. Lets him do stuff like that, you know?"

[silverskymagician]

What a laid-back guy...

Kaitou frowned a little, crossing his arms as he watched Nitou slap his stomach. "Wait a sec. Are we talking magic, or magic magic? Like are you a ventriloquy act or something? That doesn't sound too useful..."

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Magic magic!" Nitou beamed proudly. "I'm a wizard! An ancient wizard!"

Not that he at all looked it.

[silverskymagician]

You know what, Kaito was just going to roll with that. Sure, why not? He knew a magic user or two.

"In that case, I guess that puts us at odds." He raised his hands to either side of him, palm up. "I mean, this witch I know's always telling about how magicians can only use fake magic."

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Wait a second...you use magic?" That wasn't the safest thing to say around him now that he was looking for something to feed Chimera, but he didn't know about fake magic. "It's either magic or it's not, how could it be fake?"

[silverskymagician]

"I don't use magic; I'm a magician! You know, sleight of hand, card tricks? Glamorous assistants, cute white bunnies popping out of hats? If you have something relatively small I could borrow for a tic, I could show you."

He opened his hands. "They didn't exactly drop me in here with my usual tools of the trade, you know."

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Oh, sure." Nitou rummaged around in the plastic bag he'd tied to his waist and tossed the other a fish-shaped piece of rhubarb.

[silverskymagician]

He laughed. "Not what I usually use, but..."

Kaito caught the rhubarb in his left hand, closed it into a fist, and then opened his palm, only to reveal that it had disappeared. Nearly at the same time, he opened the fingers of his right hand, where the rhubarb had somehow been transplanted -- as though through teleportation.

Then he blew hard on it, and it vanished again, seemingly without a trace. "Now, a question for you! Where is it?"

[infinitemayonnaise]

"Hey, now, don't go telling me you're a wizard, too." Nitou was a bit befuddled by this. "You didn't eat it, did you?" Because that was probably what he would have done were he handed a small piece of food and told to make it magically disappear.

[silverskymagician]

Kaito laughed. "A wizard? Afraid not! But do me a favor and check your bag for me."

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou looked down at his bag, not quite sure what he was supposed to find. There were other pieces of rhubarb in there, but...had he counted wrong?

[silverskymagician]

While Nitou was busy examining his bag, Kaito leaned over and produced the piece of rhubarb from... Nitou's ear? Wow, oldest trick in the book, dude.

"Ta-da! It's a bit similar to palming a coin or a card, where you convince someone that something's disappeared even though it's still there. But explaining how the trick works ruins the illusion."

He held out the rhubarb. "Here you go!"

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou had never been good at dealing with any sort of subtlety. Stage magic sadly qualified. "You're sure you're not a wizard?" He was kind of dumbfounded by that.

Somewhere, deep inside, the giant malevolent magical wild beast that lived within Nitou was slapping its face with its paw. Really now, human host.

gj losing that notif, me

[silverskymagician]

"Trust me, I'm sure," said Kaito, smiling a little. "The one I have met was pretty clear on what she thought of my performances."

"They tell me magicians and magic users don't get along because real magic practitioners are insulted by our tricks." But even so, it kind of surprised him that Nitou didn't know what stage magic was. Didn't every kid love card tricks and doves?

No worries, I've been super-slow with the holiday anyway!

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou liked card tricks and doves, but now that he knew that real magic was a thing and he was hungry, it was so much easier to sniff around in the hopes of finding some real magic somewhere. "I mean, that's cool, but real magic's even cooler!" And more edible. "It looked pretty real."

[silverskymagician]

"I won't deny that real magic is... well, real," said Kaito, opening his palms as if to say whatcha gonna do?

"But for us mere mortals, it's impossible. Still, people want to believe in that impossibility. That's why they want to believe in our 'magic'. It's like enjoying a sweet dream."

"But I think I've forgotten to introduce myself! I'm Kuroba Kaito. Nice to meet you, Mr. Wizard."

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou gives him a grin. "Kousuke Nitou. And you gotta be careful around here--you never know if there's anyone out there who might be looking to eat a stage magician."

[silverskymagician]

Kaito made a face. "Please, that sounds like a terrible idea! I'm gamey and stringy and not tasty at all!"

Unless someone liked the taste of teenager or something, who knew. "Anyway, you're a real wizard, you said...? How's that going for you?"

[infinitemayonnaise]

At least Nitou didn't take this opportunity to comment on how mayonnaise made everything taste better.

"Oh, it's going great when I'm at home! Lots of adventure! Now? It's a work in progress." Nitou shrugged. "But hey, if an actual fight breaks out here, I'm all set!" He frowned. "You got any fighting tricks with that stage magic stuff of yours? They're gonna try to kill people here, y'know."

[silverskymagician]

Dude, no. Dude. No.

"Er... well, generally speaking, if a fight breaks out at your magic show, something's gone terribly wrong," said Kaito. Goodness, fighting. He really preferred not to engage in that sort of thing; it wasn't gentlemanly at all.

"I was planning on running for it if that happened."

[infinitemayonnaise]

"That's not a bad idea, if you can't fight," Nitou mused, "but there are a lotta people here who won't see it that way. Defeats the whole purpose of a deathmatch arena, y'know?" He considered this. "You even know how to throw a punch if you've gotta defend yourself?"

[silverskymagician]

Kaito considered this question, and threw an air punch. It was.

Well, it was. What you'd expect from a high schooler with no martial arts training? At least he didn't flinch while he was doing it, but even Kaito seemed to recognize that it was kind of lame, because he dropped his arm quickly to his side.

"Personally, I think they picked the wrong contestant for a space deathmatch..."

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou winces at that punch. It is not a wince of anything resembling fear. It is the wince of someone who's wondering how that other guy even managed to survive childhood and getting into fights with other boys.

"Look, look, real quick, you do it like this." And Nitou shows him a much better sort of punch, the kind used by a guy who does a lot of brawling. "Wrong contestant or not, you gotta at least try not to die right away if you get cornered!"