thearena | (no subject)

Who| Wyatt and Open
What| Watching the Death announcements.
Where| Near the Cornucopia
When| The night of the Cornucopia battle.
Warnings| Wyatt being glum, mentions of death.

He'd meant to find Neeshka during the bloodbath, had hoped they might someway be able to come to an understanding. He hadn't wanted last night to be the last word between them....

But he'd lost track of her during the scramble, had come away injured (he was lucky the knife had missed his eye) - if not empty-handed - himself, and he'd had no choice but to retreat, to find somewhere to hole up until the sounds of the fighting had died away, until the cannons had sounded, and night had finally fallen.

Now, with the snow falling lightly and the bright white moon turning the ground beneath him a pale, glittering blue, he traced his way back to the Cornucopia.

For the most of the journey there was nothing, no sound save for the whisper of his own breathing and the crunch of the ice and snow beneath his boots... but then, as the great metal horn was rising like a dark and terrible beast from the unbroken horizon, the Capitol theme blared through the arena and the sky lit up in a shimmering wave of color.

He paused to watch, his Adam's apple lurching as the faces began to appear. He even found himself praying, mumbling quietly to himself as it went on, something he hadn't done in-

-there she was. Her face was shining down at him from the field of stars.

His mouth fell open, the spear he carried slipped numbly from his fingers, metal head cutting into the ice.

She was gone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Howard's only in slightly better shape than he was the last time Wyatt saw him. He isn't sick or as deathly skinny, but the splash of blood down his front, the tear in his parka and the slight limp broadcasts the sad fact: he fought.

He approaches Wyatt, recognizing the gait more than anything from behind the shelter of a Ricky outcropping. He pauses about thirty feet away and states up at the sky.

"Friend of yours?"

The voice brought him back to the arena abruptly, reminding him that he was still in a deathmatch.

There was no time to mourn.

His fingers found the spear again, tightening on the shaft, as he turned. The words themselves didn't register with him until he saw the figure. Took in the size and stance. The blood.

The boy. Howard. Injured.

Not someone likely to be looking to stick a knife in him.

Especially if all that black blood was hiding an injury.

"Yes-" he hoped that was still true, "-I was hoping to find her, but..." He looked up at the sky again, but they'd already moved on to another face. Another death. "I guess that won't be happenin'."

Howard keeps glancing between Wyatt and the sky, waiting for what he expects in some deep, sour part of his stomach: an announcement of Eponine's death. But his fist tightens around the knife in his pocket - even though he knows Wyatt, tensing to a spear being picked up in his direction is instinct.

"I thought maybe people would team up at the cornucopia. I had someone I knew wouldn't kill me, but you know, the sunglasses and the coats..." Anna's face in the sky. He knew her. She'd tried to encourage him. He tries to push that thought aside.

"Maybe she'll be waiting for you outside, I guess. That's the upside of this place, they always give you just enough hope to have something to yank away later." He drops his gaze to the splatter on his chest. "I'm okay, though. Broken nose, all spray, nothing serious. I'll live."

That was an apt way of puttin' it. Just enough hope to keep ya goin'... just enough rope to hang yerself with.

He nodded, gesturing with his free hand to the dark, angry cut running down the side of his face. "Same. I guess that's somethin."

Above them, the faces disappeared and the anthem finished, plunging the arena once again into a hollow silence.

"Yer friend... they up there?"

He winces as he sees the injury. It's an ugly one.

"I hope we get some awesome scars out of this, at least," he says with a bitter little laugh. Then the anthem starts to play, but the tension doesn't leave him. "No, I don't see her...she said she was going to stay at the Cornucopia."

He starts to run towards the Cornucopia at a jog, even on his busted ankle. "I'm going to find her!" Wyatt can come or not, and Howard's not afraid if Wyatt knows that he has a soft spot for Eponine.

Before Wyatt could even reply, Howard was loping off into the dark, headed toward the Cornucopia.

He glanced up at the sky again, then set off after him. He'd help Howard look for his friend and then... well,... he'd figure somethin' out.

OOC: With all the other character's Wyatt interacts with the Cornucopia, I figure he could loose Howard on the way somehow? Unless Howard wants to jump in on the other threads?

[OOC: probably best for continuity if they lose each other here!]

The wind kicking up the snow makes seeing too far ahead or behind difficult. Howard doesn't really keep track of where Wyatt is behind him, and soon enough they're separated. Howard calls Wyatt's name as well as Eponine's for a minute, although not frequently - he remembers seeing bows and arrows and doesn't want to draw too much attention.

By the time he reaches the Cornucopia, no one else is there. For the moment. He checks the inside and then wanders away, continuing his search.