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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Of course you're uncomfortable, Tony. You're bleeding all over the place. Dave is equally uncomfortable, because he knows fuck all about first aid. He can do some shitty stitches and slap a bandaid on something, but it seems like it would do more harm than good at this rate.

"That'll come in handy later." Dave says agreeably, letting his hands fall back to himself when he's waved off. He contemplates for a moment before he stands, seeming to focus intently before a duplicate of himself pops out of what appears to be nowhere.

"What?" It asks, furrowing it's brows at the original Dave. "Go find an Avenger. Or a medkit. Or a medical degree." The copy gives Dave a gormless look for a long moment before he casts a glance toward Tony. He's shooed off to go hunt down his prizes and Dave sits back down beside the older man. "Shouldn't be too long. I have really great timing to make up for the fact that I'd spent all of my time vomiting on people if I worked in an ER." He covers his mouth with the back of his hand. "Not that I'm gonna do that right now." He speaks casually, like nothing weird just happened.

Edited 2014-12-21 12:16 (UTC)

Tony's eyes widen a little as the not!Dave materialises, ad first wanting to assume it was the other Dave but the lack of wings made that the wrong assumption to make. He doesn't talk when Dave essentially has a conversation with himself, but he does shift a little and tries to press on his wound to stop the bleeding a little more.

"Maybe I should mention to Steve to take another look at that application of yours." He says slowly, as he's taking extra effort to keep himself calm over the fact he's bleeding out. No point in getting worked up and have the blood pour out faster.

"Really, this is making you want to vomit?"

If nothing else right now he can easily say he has more than enough strength to raise an eyebrow at Dave.

"Maybe you should." Dave agrees with a small nod of his head, gladly latching onto that topic instead of the emergency and impending doom. He wills himself to run faster, but in the mean time he's bunching up his heavy gravity suit and trying to apply it to Tony's wound. Look at him, useful and helpful like a real Avenger.

"Yeah? It's nasty." He says that matter-of-factly, don't pretend you bleed pretty, Tony. "I never said I was a medic, it's even in my app." He says defensively, choosing to focus on that as a distraction. "I'm starting to think neither of you even read it."

"Blood isn't the worst thing." He swallows a little harder than he'd like. After all, most every time Tony's gone out in his armor to take on some pretty major badness he's come back with almost as much blood on him as there is in him. A fact that's probably helping him panic less about his current situation.

He shakes his head at Dave, when the kid claims Tony hasn't read the application. It's not too surprising, everyone assumes Tony doesn't read paper work because he's too busy playing around of building.

"You can't have an apprentice level of knight, Knight means you've completed the apprenticeship. And I doubt you had to be a squire before becoming that knight you were back home, so it probably would have been better if you just said you majored in Knighthood."

Because yes, Tony did read things that were given to him, and he generally remembered them. The problem with Tony is that he's usually too apathetic about most subjects to let on that he's read them.

There's part of Dave that wants to fight him on that one. Blood is the worst thing. It's gross and it's thick and it's nasty, he doesn't want it all over his hands and he doesn't want the evidence of Tony's bleed out still stained under his nails days later. Maybe it's dramatic, but he's always been like that. He wouldn't pull the sword from his own Bro's chest because he couldn't stand the sight of what would come after.

Fuck. Those are heavy thoughts. He's usually as a adept as Tony at playing sly and nonchalant at times like this, but this is weighing on him. He feels guilty for every second his time clone isn't coming back with help, and he can't just make more on the spot. Every time he travels back he's making his time in the Arena longer, and the only reason that clone seemed spontaneous is because he'd prepared it a little earlier.

But hey, 90% of time travel is just being there. It's an accomplishment just to show up. Instead of that tripe, he'll choose to be surprised that Tony actually read that little shitshow on paper that he scrawled out in defiance.

"Look, it was the only blank form I could find. The internet isn't as vastly accessible as it once was." He furrows his brows pointedly. "I ain't no squire, I'm a full fledged Knight o' Time. Cape and fucking all." That is, of course, what defines a knight.

Most of Tony's disregard for blood comes from the fact they he's been cutting, burning, and grazing his own body since he was three years old, so blood was just as much a part of his life as creating was. Though, if he had to experience what Dave's lived with, there's always the chance that his feelings on on blood would change.

"I'm just saying. That, filling out the form like that might make the process. Longer."

He goes sharply quiet for a second as he lets a wave of pain ripple through him, exhaling sharply once it passes.

"You're a sitting target here kid. I think it's better. If you, duck out."He licks his lips tentatively. "find yourself some cover, a weapon, something."

Tony doesn't like the idea of Dave being here when he stops breathing, not just because Dave didn't need to see this, hell kid's probably seen more death than he's ever needed to see by just being here. The main reason Tony doesn't want him there is because he doesn't want to be seen dying, he know's he can't totally avoid it with all the cameras, but it's bad enough feeling his life fade every time, but seeing the frustaited, hopeless looks in people's eyes as he fades?

He would give his fortune to never have that in his memory.

"You know what would make the process faster? Giving me a form when I damn well ask for one."

Dave is happy to be heated about this argument if it means pretending Tony isn't halfway to death's door right now. Hell, he's more than halfway. He's a light breeze away from falling into it entirely.

"You think this is my first time at the rodeo? Don't school me, pops." He gets the feeling Tony is trying to make him fuck off, he can even understand why he'd do that. He just can't bring himself to give in and leave him to die alone. Maybe it's because of his own feelings on the matter, but he's all but glued to the spot right now.

"I'm fine. You're fine. We just need to sit tight for a few more minutes." In saying that, he defiantly moves to lean against the wall, cross legged and facing Tony pointedly.

"Hey, forms are Pepper's thing, not mine. I just show up, that is pretty much how I work."

He's sweating heavily now, a combination of his body trying to compensate for the loss of blood and heat, and his own will power against acting like he isn't as bad off as he actually is. There's a slow lick of his lips as he hears Dave tell him that in no way is he leaving, and that it isn't his first time.

"Schools out on this." He watches Dave as he sits huffily in place as if he's proving he can wait this out when he doesn't have to.

"Stop sitting around and make yourself useful." He wants it to sound challenging but it sounds tired and he doesn't like it. He knows Dave has seen enough death before even coming to the Capitol, at least so Dave has told him, and when you include the deaths he's had to witness here.

No he can't be another death on Dave's mind. He doesn't want to be a death on anyone's mind if he can help it.

"You want to be an Avenger? Go find them and help them. Steve is going to need a shoulder to cry on after hearing this." Yup, even this close to death he has to make a joke.

Edited 2015-01-25 23:21 (UTC)

Due to a dire lack of absorptive fabric of any sort, Dave doesn't have a choice to do anything but roll his sleeve upward and rub his forearm across Tony's forehead. It's a little bit like he's shining a bowling ball, to be honest, but he's trying to be comforting.

"Later." He answers dismissively, not rising to the bait now that Tony is making it more and more obvious that he's getting stage fright for dying. All Dave can feel is bad, bad and useless, the needling from Tony isn't helping but he can't exactly blame him.

"Hey, Tony? Shut up." He says that mildly, not remotely angry in his tone. "Just close your eyes and stop trying to front, it's not cute and I'm not going to walk off on you. Give it up." He wants to snap at him, get angry at him for dying and for giving him the illusion of an option to leave, but he can't bring himself to.

There's a certain comfort Tony takes in Dave both wiping at his sweaty head with his sleeve and his telling him to shut up. He has at least some level of familiarity with this, from Pepper.

Staying by his side trying to look after him, even when they both know she would be better off leaving. God he misses her right now.

"You." He gives him a withering look then shakes his head loosely. "You're a good kid." He pauses to take a long slow breath. "In case, no one's mentioned that lately." After he says it his whole body sags, blinking slowly before he just lets himself look a lot more weak and pathetic. Because Dave has a point, and he just doesn't have the energy left to keep acting like it's not that bad.

The vague sense of assurance Dave gets from Tony's chatty demeanor is starting to fade ones he feels his forehead. It's not good, he's starting to lose faith that some amazing timing is going to fix all of this. It's frustrating, as a God of Time, to know time isn't remotely on his side at this point.

When he says that, Dave almost cringes. That seems to solidify the sense that he's getting really dire if he's saying that at a time like this. "I'm alright." He responds curtly, not deigning it with a sentimental response. "Still riding the bad boy wave for all that sweet merch, though. Nothing sells faster than a leather jacket with Strider studded on the back, that's for sure. Nothing except sweet aviators, of course." He lets himself ramble, eyes flicking upward every so often in the hopes that someone is coming. The best he can do is distract him.

"I have a serious question, I've been thinking about it for a while." He intentionally pauses for the dramatic impact. "Do you think what they did in Jurassic Park is technically possible but we learned our lesson, or do you think humans are so self defeating that we'd try to recreate mistakes?"

Tony doesn't have much in the way of energy to listen to the rambling so he lets it just wash over him the fact that it's the kind of rambling Tony would ignore anyway makes it even easier to do, the only difference is Tony doesn't even make a comment about it.

When he says he has a serious question Tony lets his eyes try to focus on Dave. He breathes in to answer, at first only coughing is an answer as his lungs stutter in their job for a moment, once it does pass Tony slowly gets his answer out.

"Their first mistake was using amphibians instead of birds." He goes quiet for a moment. "If they can make Steve the taught muscle mass he is now, I think my world could do..." As he speaks his words become weaker and weaker until he just doesn't finish the sentence, barely releasing his final exhale.

The gradual drop in energy is more than apparent to Dave. The idea that someone might swoop in is more and more unlikely and Dave is starting to realise that this is absolutely going to shit. It's almost like a tangible drop in temperature that even he can feel.

Perhaps it's just the feeling of dread taking over, or just really intense empathy, but the time it takes Tony to reply is telling. When he finally speaks, Dave tries not to sound too hinged on the reply. Hell, he scoffs at the comparison Tony makes. He's about to quip back but it dies in his throat when Tony falls silent.

"Hey." He can't help saying that, even everything about Tony is tellingly empty right now. He reaches out to give him a push, just to be sure. "Aw, c'mon." He sounds exasperated, pushing his palm to his forehead and gradually threading his fingers into his hair while hissing shiiiit under his breath. Usually his first instinct would be to get the fuck away from the body, but he lingers both out of disbelief and protectiveness before he finally pushes himself up to stand.

"You better fucking come back." He says, pointing authoritatively at the corpse before he turns to go. It's hard to just walk off on him, it feels rude, but he has shit to handle and his corpse won't get excavated if Dave lingers on the scene.

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Arena 12 - The Spaceport

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