thearena | Arena 12 - The Spaceport

Arena 12 - The Spaceport

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.

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"If I can do it I don't think it can help us this time. But next time..."

Maybe, if she could do it and they planned it right, it could be a valuable asset. Maybe she could do something that would save all of them.

"I hope you're right."

And she really does, because if he's not then this place has taken far too much from Linden, and though she likes him and cares about it, it would mean there just wasn't anything really left of him inside that body anymore. It's one of the more unpleasant fates she can think of, especially in a place like this.

Nill looks down the hall ahead of them, before turning to the Initiate and holding her hand out for him to take. an easy offer.

"Do you want me to find anyone here for you? I don't know if I'll be able to, but I can try."

She must know that powers weren't granted back so often. But then, maybe she doesn't. She hasn't been here all that long, maybe nobody got to telling her. She can't have looked on at arenas past, he's sure she hasn't.

Just as he's sure he is right about this. Linden will still be there in Capitol, just as he was. Them ones from the old games were survivors. Unless the motherfucker got being too rebellious, such things would remain to be.

Then again, who even up and knew?

The idea of trying to find someone in capitol right now seemed all too taxing. He doesn't hardly want to be awake.

He takes her hand, thinking her offer over. Then...

signless. terezi.

His quadrantmates. That's who all he wants right now, more than anybody.

Her fingers curl around his, and she starts walking again, quiet and careful with her steps. The voice sounds as reassuring as she can make it given the circumstances, but as gentle as ever.

Nill knows Terezi, has spoken with her once before. The girl troll that needed her to use the crayons. She knew her name from the kid Arena. Signless, however, is a title that she doesn't recognize. Her expression becomes a little thoughtful. She caught a flicker, a brief little image as he said the title. One of the older trolls. Nubby horns.

In return Nill conjures up a brief image to share. The Signless, seen through a light haze of cigarette smoke, his expression gentle enough, asking how she's holding up. The corner of the image has a little flicker of what looks like an Arena being broadcast.

"Him? He's called Signless?"

Though they've spoken twice, they hadn't actually introduced themselves. Never got around to it.

"I've only talked with Terezi once. But I think I can find them."

His own mind dances over the image. He sees a young boy, with even smaller horns, nubby and bright veined and all too soft. There's his own self with him, smiling back. There's a quick flash and flutter of dark scenes, the sounds of snarling and breaking, but then the soft haze is back, and it's that same boy, only older, matching up to the image she shares with him. His thoughts say Kankri Vantas but his voodoo says;

yes. the signless. he of no sign.

He nods along all the while, and to her claim that she could find Terezi still. Just in case, he offers the faint ghost of the map he's made of her, just a faint tracing of how her mind feels to him through fear.

Then;

thank you

"Your moirail," Nill says back, the voice in his head soft and quiet. Before she'd had an idea of what the word meant, but it makes more sense now. The Signless was important, so important, and Kurloz had missed him for a very long time. Or at least, that's what the image seems like.

"I'll do my best."

The corners of her lips twitch upward slightly, the very closest Nill can get to a proper smile in the Arena, and she lifts her head a little to look up at him.

"Of course. I'll protect them whenever I can. They're important. I'll find them."

Maybe not to her the same way they are to him, but it wouldn't be the first time that Nill protected someone just because they meant the world to someone else. Kurloz loved them, and Nill loved Kurloz. That meant Nill loved them too.

It was as simple as that.

His moirail. It still brings a faint flutter in his pusher. His, and his at last, at after all that time apart, after all the hatred and strife. His moirail. It's hard to believe even as it's real. It rings wonderful in his ears. A miracle.

He smiles soft back at her, even as pain and dizziness makes tunnels, warps his visions, and makes his eyelids droop and struggle with staying open.

For her logic, he'd not fault her. Afterall, it's how he came to care for many others outside his circle. Even Terezi, once, had been the charge of someone else. Everything linked tangential.

He just keeps that thought. Feeling that gratitude and projecting at to her, all while she promises. In it, lays fondness of her too. Of all those who could have found him, she's certainly being high in the preferences.

His smile is probably the warmest thing that Nill will see in the Arenas, and she holds on to it like a woman that's not sure when she'll see land again. She tries to project it back at him, just a little, something comforting and gentle.

Nill stops then, pulling him to a careful stop as well, in front of a rather large door that looks like it hasn't been opened in a very long time. It's in an alcove, at least three feet of a hallway before it meets up with the main one, and after looking it over for a few moments and scanning the walls around it, Nill settles close to the wall of the small hall, eyes focused in the direction they came. She makes a gesture towards the opposite side, out of sight of anyone regardless of any tricks being used. After a slight pause she sets her helmet of supplies down and lifts a hand, letting it over by his cheek, but now touching.

"This should work. I'll make sure no one can see us. You can rest while I find them. I can try to make it hurt less too."

He'll take that gentleness, that comfort, and wrap it around himself, something he can normally only do with fear. He follows where she leads, blinks at the alcove she shows him, then follows on into there too.

Safe here.

His thoughts don't even making to being voodoo this time. He sighs aloud in relief, and in his head is that humming thank you. He sinks down against the wall all the while, until he's on the floor, eyes closed and preparing right to drifting off.

No hurt. That would be nice. Maybe he would have nice dreams for once. A miracle that would be.

Into unconsciousness, and the world of daymares, he slips.

Nill's not a miracle worker, and there's probably only so much she can do for him when he has the Voodoo, and she knows so little about how it works and what it does when Kurloz isn't awake. But she remains where she is, back to the wall, knife held lightly between her fingers but ready if need be. She tries to keep projecting comfort and peace at him, tries to relieve him of as much of the hurt as she can. That much is easier if he sleeps. His conscious mind won't try to convince him the hurt is still there when she's trying to trick it into not noticing.

She might not be able to give him good dreams, but she tries. Stars. Images of Terezi and Signless, mostly of smiles, never the Signless's face when they watched Kurloz die in the Arena together, never the way Terezi looked just before she blacked out. His paint, his bones. She keeps the illusion up, which should make it so most people wandering past simply don't notice them, seeing an extension of the wall where their hiding spot is.

Nill multitasks as she tries to find the Signless and then Terezi, and she watches over Kurloz as he sleeps, more a bird than any kind of angel that either of them understand.

It's been a hectic time, getting the hang of her Seer abilities again. The first few hours is always the most disorienting, while she's still trying to catch up on what's going on around her. There are a lot of people to keep track of, and the timelines shift so quickly.

She's still in the process of trying to find people when she catches a voice in her head. It's not like Kurloz with his voodoo, and it's not the same as Vriska's aggressive rooting around (or her attempts at it, anyway). It feels different, and her shoulders hike defensively in response. Her thoughts spin, trying to figure out who this might be, all while trying to fixate solely on superficial thoughts.

"Who's there?" she says out loud, just in case her mental invader is nearby.

Nill tries as much as possible to make sure that the 'voice' in Terezi's head doesn't seem like it might be threatening. She won't do anything about Terezi's natural concerns, no tampering, no making her feel more at ease than she should be, but the voice is a little softer, not gentle exactly but not unkind either.

"Terezi. This is Nill. We spoke once before."

After a slight pause, she continues, "It might be safer for you if you don't speak out loud."

The name surprises Terezi. Nill. The human girl that had helped separate Karkat and Kurloz. Terezi almost goes to respond aloud before she's cut off by the warning. She's no stranger to psychic powers, but normally they don't have the ability to touch her. Maybe this is different somehow. The fact that Nill has psychic powers at all is a surprise in the first place.

Can you hear me, too? Where are you? she thinks to herself, hoping that somehow Nill can hear her thoughts in return. The thought-words are slow and measured, like she's concentrating very hard on the sound of the words in her head to make them clear as possible.

"I can. I'm a little further into the station than you are right now."

The voice goes silent for a few seconds, momentarily distracted by the beginnings of a daymare that she tries as much as she can to ward off. It's a little harder with trolls but she's doing her best - it helps that he trusts her. His subconscious mind won't try to shy away from it as much.

"I'm with Kurloz."

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Arena 12 - The Spaceport

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let me know if this is ok!

it's good with me! should we thread on our own like this for a bit

i guess, yeah

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