thearena | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who| Momoko and Open
What| Momoko's alone and bored
Where| Her camp with Don (and Dean?) in a crevasse not too far from the Cornucopia
When| A day or so after the first day
Warnings| None so far

Of all the emotions Momoko felt in the arena, boredom always took her by surprise. Last time it had been overshadowed by the sickness and her growing apathy; now, she had nothing to distract her from it. Even Don was gone for the moment, out scouting, leaving on her staunch promise to stay safe.

Well, she was never the most truthful of people, and anyway, it must be just as boring for the viewers, which was always a concern. Not to mention it would be easier to keep watch when she could actually see. With all these excuses flitting through her head she drew herself up out of the crevasse with some difficulty.

She'd actually tried to train this time, but a few weeks could only do so much and Momoko let herself lie flat for a long moment to catch her breath before she sat up to survey her surroundings.

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Javert hears her before he sees her. There's the sound of struggling below him, somewhere in the ice. He peers over but sees no need to help her, so instead he takes a seat on a jutting piece of ice about twenty feet from where she'll emerge. He watches coolly as she's born onto the ice as if out of a cold birth canal, hands and chin resting on the top of the icicle he's using as a particularly unsuitable baton and walking stick.

Once she can breathe normally again--well, somewhat normally, she does hate this cold air--she looks around, expecting to see only white snow. Instead there is a man, watching her from some distance.

"Oh," she squeaks, hand going to her jacket, where the knife Don left her with is hidden. It won't be much help except in short range and she fully intends to jump back down if the man gets too close, but it's comforting to feel it there. "Hello," she says belatedly, watching him cautiously. "Are you going to attack me?"

Alex was making his way along the top of the crevasse, using it as a landmark when he spotted someone pop out of the crack in the glacier itself. He's still several meters away, but there's no where to hide. Slowly he starts to back up, not sure he if he wants to encounter another Tribute.

Draco had gone off on his own early on in the day; he didn't want to just hang out with one person the entire time, especially considering he wasn't exactly incompetent, and he was fairly certain that Wyatt didn't want to hang out with him all day either. He'd been wandering around, scouting out the immediate area around their camp, when he found Momoko.

He blinked, squinting through the sunglasses to make sure that it was indeed her before picking his way closer, lowering his harpoon; he didn't really have much intent to kill her, after all, even if it would have been easy to do so.

"You all right?"

Javert's eyes follow her hand to her jacket. He doesn't have a weapon - yet - but she's smaller than he is. He could possibly overpower her and take it. There's something distasteful about such brute force, but he doesn't suppose he has many alternatives should she attack.

"Not at the moment, no. Have you found shelter down there?"

Momoko had seen a figure approaching and had taken a chance, merely watching it warily rather than leaping back into the crevasse. "Draco?" she said when he spoke, recognizing him mostly by the voice, with the sun in her eyes. "Oh, yes, I'm fine," she said, uncertain of the etiquette at this point. "Well, considering, of course. I'm just looking around."

With Charlotte she would have been unafraid and offered alliance, as they were both similarly pathetic, and with the larger or stronger men (and turtles) she could often depend on their morals to protect. She didn't know much about Draco's strengths or morals, and she didn't relish either the thought of killing someone she was relatively fond of. Or running from someone she was fond of, for that matter.

"Yes," she says bluntly. "We have." Perhaps it's obvious she's alone for the moment, perhaps not, but it's best to get it out there early that she does have an ally. Especially as she doesn't know this man or his strategies, and he might not recognize her and her tendency to surround herself with stronger fighters.

Momoko blinks and squints at a figure in the distance, hand at the knife in her jacket instinctively. She doesn't recognize whoever it is, although it's hard to say if that's because of the clothing or if she simply doesn't know the other.

"Hello?" she calls, because they've obviously spotted each other already. It's early enough in the Games that the risk of a conversation is more likely to end in an alliance, however temporary, than an attack. Or at least a talk to pass the time.

If he gets too close, however, she's leaping back down into the relative safety of the crevasse.

"Down in the crevice?" he asks, one eyebrow raised slightly. "You've already settled yourself on an alliance?"

The voice is female. Alex tries to tick off in his mind the female Tributes left in the Arena, but he's not met most of them yet. He pauses and considers his options. He could probably outrun her if he wanted to just leave. And talking couldn't hurt, right?

"Hello," he calls back, sliding the arrow in his hand back into the quiver on his back, so as to not appear threatening. "Nice weather we're having, huh?"

"Of course," Momoko sniffs. "It's not my first time, you know. I understand how it works by now."

"Wonderful," she says, loud enough for him to hear, her tone sour. She doesn't appreciate sarcasm when she's not the one using it. "Nice day for a stroll."

The etiquette, presumably, was simply not to kill each other point-blank. At the very least, that seemed to be what Draco was going with.

"Looking around at what?" He asked then, a frown furrowing his brow. Despite the cold, he was managing to stay warm enough, and so he approached further, joining her near the edge of the crevasse - peering in briefly with mild concern - and then dropping himself to sit beside her, harpoon at the ready to his other side. "There's not much, besides the snow."

Momoko shrugged. "You, I guess," she said. "There's not much else, and, it's stupid to say, but I've been mostly bored so far this time. And cold." She realized as she was talking that she was acting like they were having tea back in the Capitol, complaining about the horrors of their situation as though it were no more worse than an irritating classmate.

And she likes that, oddly, which is a large part of why she let Draco get so near, though she did think to ask, "This would be a truce, right?" It doesn't hurt to get it out there, and her tone was wry enough that it's obvious she found the need for such questions amusing, in a terrible sort of way.

He let out a noise not unlike a mildly exasperated sigh, nodding a little. "You're right there. The only exciting bit was the Cornucopia, and I was lucky to get out of there without a scratch. So far, I haven't run into really anyone. One bloke. I've been camping out with him so far." Sniffing to himself, Draco shrugged one should idly, "It's bloody freezing out here, though. I don't know why it couldn't have been warm, like the last one."

He paused at her question, looking to her in mild surprise, thinking on it before nodding again. "I don't see why it shouldn't be. Unless you've designs on stabbing me in the back when I'm not looking."

"I didn't even get the Cornucopia," Momoko admitted. "I don't think I'd survive so I always run away. I've met a few people, but none of them have tried to kill me yet." She wrinkled her nose. "Yet," she repeated distastefully.

"I wasn't planning on it," she assured Draco. "I just thought it should be clear." She grinned suddenly, a darkly amusing thought occurring to her. "If one of us does kill the other, we should treat them to lunch with the money. Seems only polite."

"Would you care to impart the wisdom?"

"The sights aren't much to look at, but it's better than just sitting around." He keeps his stance relaxed, though it's probably not visible through the thick parka. "Name's Alex. What's yours?"

"Fairly natural thought," he shrugged. "I didn't think I'd survive. Somehow, I did." His tone seemed almost reverential, as if completely in awe of that fact. "You've taken to sleeping with one eye open, then?"

A small smile cracked in return, growing a little bit when Draco caught a glimpse of her grin. "All right, I could go for that. What better way to spend our hard-earned money, after all?" He asked, teasing mildly with a light shake of his head.

Momoko frowns at the man, not sure if she's being mocked or not. "The Arena, you mean? It's obvious, isn't it? It's about making--" she means to say allies, but remembers the cameras just in time and quickly switches the word, "--friends. Good friends." Strong friends. And lots of them. "That you can trust."

She shrugs. Considering the risk she's taking out of boredom, she can't really argue. "Ryugasaki," she says, then remembers she's speaking to a Westerner, not to mention where she appeared to be. "Momoko. My name is Momoko. There's not much to do in this one, other than sit around, I think."

She frowns at the thought, suddenly. If they find it dull, what do the Capitol people think? The Gamemakers? It's their job to keep things interesting, after all, and they're usually quite...creative in doing so.

"I don't sleep much at all, really," she said, then waved a hand at Draco's harpoon. "Congratulations are in order, then. On getting that and not dying." She managed to make it sound as though it was a polite comment on a new and fashionable suit Draco had managed to acquire.

"It's a deal then. If it comes to that, of course." She felt safe enough to let her gaze turn from Draco to wander the snowy landscape around them. "Just because we are where we are is no reason to be barbaric about it, after all."

It occurred to her to wonder what would happen if it came down to just the two of them, in the end, but she pushed the thought away. Mostly because she was fairly certain she would push Draco into the icy sea at first chance and feel bad about it afterwards. It didn't require much wondering.

Appreciating both the comment and the nature thereof equally, Draco nodded to her with a light smile, more than happy to go along with it. Even if her comment about not sleeping made him stop and frown a little. Not that he knew her well enough to really comment on it.

"Of course," he echoed pleasantly, tipping his head in agreement. He had words lingering on the tip of his tongue - that everyone always seemed to forget themselves in this place, that they suddenly became animals after a day or two - but recalled the cameras. He didn't need that kind of negative publicity, not when he needed a sponsor like he needed air. "Though I'll admit, I hope it doesn't come to that."

"True. This Arena isn't as... interesting as the last one." Between the radiation poisoning and that earthquake, it had been considerable more eventful than the Arena before it. "I've been looking around a bit, but everything tends to look the same. It's hard to know where I've been before."

"Me too," said Momoko, sincerely. At least one of them had to die--and, to be blunt, likely both of them would be dying, and soon--but for all her jokes she would prefer if it wasn't one of them taking out the other. But blunt wasn't always good for the cameras. The Capitol only wanted so much reality in their drama, and just because Momoko wasn't actively trying for Sponsors at the moment was no reason to put them off entirely.

She changed the subject. "It's dull, and it's cold, but at least it's pretty."

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