thearena | A slow lead into death

A slow lead into death - CLOSED

Who? Eponine, Steve, Howard and Sigma
What? Steve has 'saved' Eponine from the Cornucopia and made her run with him. They bang into Howard and Sigma runs into all of them. Shenannigans of a survival-y nature ensue.
Where? Somewhere in the arena. Near that snowy bank. Yeah. That one. Right there.
Why? This is the lead-up to Eponine's off-ing. Stay tuned for more!
When? Straight after the Cornucopia
Warnings Hands up who's gonna swear?
I have no idea, but probably talking about death and Eponine's suicidal notions to get back to Capitol life... possibly swearing. Possibly some mild violence.

It's hard going in the snow, even with the snow boots, and Eponine is soon puffing with the exertion. Her teeth chatter, and she tucks her hands beneath her armpits to keep warmer. Steve is with her too; she can hear his footsteps, though she carefully avoids his eyes. She feels bad for having asked him to kill her; she did not mean to upset anybody. And she didn't really want him with her on her death march. But it felt awkward to ask him to leave.

And so Eponine trudges on in the snow, her thoughts fixed determinedly on the pleasures of the Capitol as she stares at the snow. The unchanging, never ending snow.

Except - except, there are foot prints now. And footprints mean a person. Eponine holds her hand out to Steve and turns to him, a single gloved finger raised to her lips.

"M'sieur." She hisses. "You must go quiet. There is someone here."

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He's actually about to ask if she'd like to be carried, for the umpteenth time, because they will be warmer together, because he's faced cold and colder before, and though his body is no longer immune to it, it is at least somewhat accustomed.

He quiets, slinks forward, ready to jump in front of her if need be, because he is that guy.

After leaving Alpha for the moment, Howard's set out looking for Eponine. It's slow work, both because he isn't used to walking in snow and because of his injured ankle. After about twenty minutes he realizes that heavier snow slows him down and that while the rocky outcroppings hurt his ankle more, he's less likely to slip, and it's faster going. Furthermore, the darker colors of the earth are better camouflage than standing out against the white snow.

Eventually, though, even without trudging through ankle-deep snow, he gets tired. He settles down with his belongings in a crevice of rock for a breather. The rocks protect him slightly from the wind, but it's still bitingly cold, and the sun's starting to go down. He'll need to start heading back to the sea and finding shelter soon.

He pauses when he hears a voice. A familiar accent. The person he's looking for. But he's not impulsive enough to just jump up from behind the rock and declare his relief that she's alive, so he peeks his head over the stone and tries to squint to see her. He lost his sunglasses earlier.

There's someone else with her, standing so in front of her that Howard can barely make out her smaller figure. He doesn't recognize them, but it could just be from the outfits. He drops back beneath the rock and considers. On one hand, Eponine, alive. On the other, who knows what the third party will do?

Eponine didn't sound as if she were in danger, though, so Howard stills the tremble in his wrist and peeks up above the outcropping again. "Eponine?"

"Howard? It is you?"

Oh thank goodness it was he and not someone lying in ambush. He wouldn't ambush her, would he? She steps out from behind Steve, and waves at Howard, partially to show that she's unarmed, and not about to pose a risk to him, and partially in greeting. She goes to take Steve's arm.

"M'sieur - my friend, Howard. He will not hurt us."

She raises her voice. "Will you?"

"I'd say it's nice to meet you, but under the circumstances..." He thinks for a second, anyway, and supposes he never did introduce himself. "I'm Steve, by the way." He looks around them, getting a good idea of who's near. He probably should have gone to the cornucopia to see what weapons there were to look out for, but he thinks he could probably hear an arrow whistle by, even now.

He hopes they are friends enough so Howard won't attack them, but he thinks he'll start with his own announcement. "I don't plan on killing anyone," he says. "And I definitely don't want to." He definitely means to come peaceably, although he understands that the nature of this game might alter people's ideas about right and wrong and greater good.

Howard remembers he's missing his sunglasses in time to stop himself from rolling his eyes as he approaches. Of course Eponine would ally herself with another pacifist. It would be hoping to much to think she'd find someone who would both protect them and do the dirty work that neither of them want to do.

Which means it's going to fall on him if it comes down to the wire, he expects. Of the three of them, Steve's an unknown quantity, but he knows Eponine hasn't killed anyone. Howard has. He wishes he could scrub the memory away.

"I don't want to kill anyone," he says, but he doesn't promise he won't. "I got a knife but I don't want to waste the edge on people, anyway. Did you guys get anything?"

He trudges through the snow and looks Steve up and down, taking in that Steve's tall and well-built (unlike his own short, scrawny physique). He stays a good few feet away from Steve but sidles over to Eponine. "I'm glad you're okay."

And after a moment, "I thought you were serious about getting killed first thing in."

"I was serious, Howard. I would not joke. Why should we fight when we can just live with nice things in the Capitol? "

Eponine's reply is probably less than comforting, but she reaches a hand for Howard's hand, before she hesitates and draws back. She is glad to see him, if she must be here.

"I did not get anything. And M'sieur Steve-"

She turns back to Steve with a laugh. "He got me. He ran off with me - perhaps he thinks to use me as a shield, no? I thought he would kill me but he will not. And Howard, I would not ask such a thing of you. I do not like it here though."

"I would never," he states, at the thought of using Eponine as a shield. "I mean, we're all here to play this game but I don't like it and I'm not killing anyone if I can avoid it." He pauses. "I'd only-- in defense." He can't even talk, it's cold and he's anxious and Eponine asked him to kill her.

He thinks, if he had a weapon, if he had his strength and he knew he could do it for her, painlessly, with either of these things, he would have. That scares him.

"So I didn't get anything. Didn't want it." His fists are dangerous enough to defend himself. Not to take another life. He didn't think this would be easy, but it's already more trying than it has any right to be.

"Oh, goodie. You're going to be a great ally," Howard says, more than a little sarcastic. Especially if Eponine's right about the shield thing, although Steve's disgust at the idea seems pretty genuine.

So instead his turns his genuine lack of amusement on Eponine. "Because the Capitol's going to get bored of us if we just stand around waiting to die first thing. Then they'll stop bringing us back and it's goodbye for good. I don't want you dead. Duh."

And he's tired of losing people, but if she insists she's going to be his friend, that means she has to put up with the clinginess. And despite the fact that he's cranky and cold and thinking she's a doofus, he sees her reach for his hand and takes hers in turn. He turns back to Steve.

"So, Blondie, your plan is what, wait it out until everyone else dies first or gives you a self-defense reason to kill them?"

Eponine scowls.

"You, Monsieur, should not speak to me - or to him -" She jerks her thumb back at Steve, "in such a manner. I will not stand for it; I will run away."

But Howard's statement does make her think. "They would... they'd get rid of me for good?"
That thought frightens her, if she's honest, but she refuses to let that show. Rather, Eponine scowls, before laughing. "I do not care if they 'get rid of me'. It will either be them or my Papa, I suppose, and it doesn't make a difference in the end."

Steve doesn't even realize that he's moved to put a protective arm around Eponine, especially when she makes her confession. "Well, when you put it like that... Yeah, that's exactly what I'm waiting for. And I'm going to help anyone who wants to survive out here, too."

It's much nicer in the capitol, obviously, but it's probably not quite as fun if he grabs for Howard's knife and kills himself to get back there. Really, would they find that more amusing?

"Your plan's to fight?"

Howard cringes a bit when Eponine reprimands him. His cheeks flush. "Sorry, jeez. And I care if they get rid of you."

It doesn't stop him scowling at Steve for acting as if Eponine needs protecting from him. Clearly that's not what he's going for. "My plan isn't really to win, if that's what you're asking. Maybe I'll die creatively."

He doesn't want to come out and say that his plan is to be entertaining enough to get 'renewed', but that's about the skinny of it.

"I just don't want her to give up and have it bite her in the ass."

"Would you really, Howard?" She shakes herself free of Steve's arm; being touched in such a way reminds her of the nights she's been lead down dark alleys by Montparnasse and others - and it never led to anything good. She grins at Howard's statement that he cares for her. She's very pleased.

"But perhaps you WILL win. I want you to win, and then you don't have to stay here again."

She frowns though. "I am not 'giving up' I had not started getting up. I just want to live in the Capitol where there is food, and such baths and perfume and... food. I don't want to be hungry again. If you kill me now, I will be eating stew by the evening, or I will be gone for good, and not know the difference either way."

That... sounds like giving up to Steve, but under the circumstances, he's not sure his advice is going to be taken, useful, or even appropriate. He can keep his hands to himself, but honestly he just hates the feeling of helplessness, that they're all here and stuck in this predicament and forced to make these kinds of choices.

He thinks, if he were stuck here for a long enough time, it might change his mind. He supposes that's why the Capitol keeps bringing in fresh blood, so people are still reluctant, scared... He doesn't know how anybody could even think about doing this to someone else.

"I think we should try to find a cave to talk about this in; might be warmer."

"Don't talk about food," he says to Eponine. "At least not hot food."

He has a can from one of the sponsors, but he's not going to share it with Steve, and he's sure Eponine would insist he did. Other than that, he hasn't eaten yet today. He squeezes her hand in her glove, reassuring her that he's serious about missing her. He needs to believe he has at least one friend out here, doesn't he?

"Are there caves around here? Is this the kind of place where caves exist?" Howard has no idea. "The only thing I know about this terrain is that sled dogs are the best way to get around and auroras are pretty."

Yes, his knowledge of the northern world comes from Balto movies.

"Food. Already that is all I can think of. It was not so bad last time; I was used to not eating... now it is bad. I COULD be back in the Capitol now; it is no big deal."

She sighs though, and squeezes Howard's hand back. "I have not seen any caves anywhere. Maybe that is the plan, for us all to just freeze?"

Eponine doesn't actually feel too dreadfully cold. She IS cold, but not as cold as she was in Paris when she was forced to sit outside for hours in the snow, barefoot and without even a shawl. But she'll go along with it; maybe one of them will feel sorry for her and end it now, quickly, instead f letting her linger over a slow death.

Well, they can't build an igloo. That'd be waiting to get ambushed.

"We should at least find a warmer patch to talk; it's going to get cold soon," he states, lifting his collar up over his face and crossing his hands together in his jacket. The nights are long, and sleepless; he can't recover from that like he used to.

It's a hard adjustment, and it's not close to time but they should bunker down. At least the two of them; Steve can go out hunting in earnest if he trusts Eponine to Howard and vise versa.

"Alright. I don't know the first thing about this place, so..."

He points towards a bluff, where the glacier has made a wall. "Probably better to get out of the wind, at least? Or maybe down a crack? I keep worrying it's going to crush us, all the noise it makes, but it doesn't seem like we got a lot of choice."

Nor does he seem keen to hang around Steve; he's happy to have found Eponine, but Howard's easily intimidated, and while Steve seems solid and upright now it could all be an act. Howard knows he and Eponine aren't always charming company.

Not always charming company? She's the most charming gamine in the whole of Paris, she'll have you know!

"Okay then. Let's talk." She starts trudging off towards the bluff. She has no idea what to do; She hates to give in, but neither Steve or Howard will kill her and she can't kill herself. She isn't brave enough. So she folds her arms across her, and starts to trudge, refusing to look at both of them

He follows, hoping they can find somewhere safe to be for a bit. He'll have to be out by sundown, to hunt. And he'll hope that he can find his way back to the camp in the dark. If not, they'll at least hopefully have breakfast, if he doesn't get himself killed in the meantime.

But for now, just getting to a place to stay will be good. So he presses on, hugging himself to keep the cold out. "It'll at least be a decent place to hide."

Howard stays a few yards ahead, although he keeps casting glances back to make sure Eponine's okay. Soon enough, he finds a crevice of sorts, and they can probably fit all three of them in there tight enough for some warmth. Getting closer to the ice isn't very inviting, but getting away from the wind is convincing enough.

"I'm not going in there first," he says. He doesn't want to end up backed into somewhere he can't get out of. "Steve, you want to do the honors? Housewarm? Literally?"

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A slow lead into death - CLOSED

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