Panem Events (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
etcircenses) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thearena2015-02-24 01:57 pm
etcircenses) wrote in thearena2015-02-24 01:57 pm
Carnage in the Caves
Who| Participants in the bloodbath
What| Murder and mayhem ensue after the jabberjays chase people into the caves.
Where| Deep within the caves. This area of the caves cannot be broken into or escaped from until 24 hours have passed.
When| Over a twenty-four hour period beginning now.
Warnings/Notes| Violence, death, gore, etc. You have been assigned a target to kill, but you may run into other characters in the caves as well.
The jabber jays begin their screaming, driving you deep into the caves in an attempt to escape the cries of your loved ones being tortured, beaten, or killed. When the maddening sounds finally cease, you will find yourself trapped in a series of corridors and caves, sealed tight with no chance for escape. Luckily there are plenty of weapons and supplies at hand (machetes, axes, hunting knifes, swords, maces, spears, clubs, hammers, scythes, bows & arrows, food, water, clean clothes), but any delusions of good fortune are soon squashed when an announcer assigns each person a target and gleefully informs you that you must kill your target within 24 hours or else you will run out of oxygen and die.
Over the next 24 hours, you will be tasked with killing this person in any manner you can. You may also happen upon other unfortunate souls trapped in the caves, but be wary of befriending them down here. They're on a mission too, and there's no rules against collateral damage.
Good luck, and don't forget to put on a show.
What| Murder and mayhem ensue after the jabberjays chase people into the caves.
Where| Deep within the caves. This area of the caves cannot be broken into or escaped from until 24 hours have passed.
When| Over a twenty-four hour period beginning now.
Warnings/Notes| Violence, death, gore, etc. You have been assigned a target to kill, but you may run into other characters in the caves as well.
The jabber jays begin their screaming, driving you deep into the caves in an attempt to escape the cries of your loved ones being tortured, beaten, or killed. When the maddening sounds finally cease, you will find yourself trapped in a series of corridors and caves, sealed tight with no chance for escape. Luckily there are plenty of weapons and supplies at hand (machetes, axes, hunting knifes, swords, maces, spears, clubs, hammers, scythes, bows & arrows, food, water, clean clothes), but any delusions of good fortune are soon squashed when an announcer assigns each person a target and gleefully informs you that you must kill your target within 24 hours or else you will run out of oxygen and die.
Over the next 24 hours, you will be tasked with killing this person in any manner you can. You may also happen upon other unfortunate souls trapped in the caves, but be wary of befriending them down here. They're on a mission too, and there's no rules against collateral damage.
Good luck, and don't forget to put on a show.
no subject
Teeth click and scrape on the metal, and the shrieking turns to something muffled, but doesn't at all stop. Those jaws open and close fast, like it can bite through the obstruction, like there will be blood and flesh beneath. But for all impotency there, it's claws can keep on a reach, and they try. They slash through the air, reaching to rip at flesh.
Sam's moving and it jerks back with a grunt. The snarl turns to another ear-piercing shriek, claws reaching out for Sam instead.
Until the club cracks against it's skull and another terrible crack follows with the twist of Initiate's neck. The daywalker collapses in a heap.
no subject
This isn't Kurloz, he tells himself, this isn't Initiate, this isn't his brother, Terezi's matesprit. This is a monster, an enemy, and he has to keep its attention while Sam circles around.
Albert presses his arm into the thing's mouth, knowingly stepping in closer to those ripping claws but hoping to choke it or break some of its teeth. A claw catches his parka, shredding the front and sending lining and trails of fabric flying even as Albert fails to keep its attention and it turns to attack Sam. Only Sam is ready for it and the resounding impact rattles Albert near as much as what used to be Kurloz.
The beast goes down and Albert wastes no time, grabbing Sam's arm lest he try something else stupid and heads for the tunnels. He knows he's running on little but adrenaline and fumes at this point, but the singular thought of 'away' is what sustains him.
At least for a few yards.
By the third random turn down the tunnels, he stumbles and can't keep his feet any longer, collapsing to his knees in a coughing heap, blood from his mouth hitting the stone and ice floor and his breath bubbled and watery. Not to mention the gaping hole in his abdomen that only hasn't caused him to bleed out yet by grace of the tattered remains of his parka gumming it up.
"Are you.... hurt...?" he manages to wheeze out between lungfuls of fluid.
no subject
It’s not him it’s not him it’s not him.
He’s ready to go in again, give another blow to make sure the thing isn’t going to get up again, but then Albert’s hand is on his arm and he’s running and Sam sure as hell isn’t going to let Albert out of his sight again. Sam runs, turning away from Kurloz’s body to stay by Albert’s side.
When Albert stumbles, Sam’s there. He wraps an arm around Albert’s back, ready to haul him up and keep them moving, to all but carry him if he has to - until he notices the blood in Albert’s cough. Then he sinks down to his knees next to him.
Shit.
“Really, brother, you’re asking about me right now?” He shrugs out of his backpack, dropping it to the floor as he pushes gently at Albert’s shoulders, trying to get a better look at his abdomen. “Let me see, I got you.”
It doesn’t matter how bad it looks, he refuses to believe he’s too late.
cw: gore
Sam may be in denial, but Albert's accepted his fate. Sam may well change his mind too once he sees the mess of Albert's stomach as he leans him back. Through the shredded, bloodstained remains of the parka, pieces of meat and stringy flesh can be seen to barely conceal the curve of intestines underneath. Muscle is raw and shines in the dim light of the cave, spasming here and there visibly as Albert is forced to settle against the wall. What he needs is a hospital, doctors, anesthesia, and surgery and even then he wouldn't be likely to survive. What can one pararescue with a med kit do?
He coughs and his torn open abdomen twitches with the action, blood flecking Albert's lower lip.
no subject
His hand hovers over the mess of Albert’s stomach anyway, like he can somehow will it to heal. He can’t bring himself to voice out loud what they both know.
“My target’s a kid,” he says instead, voice quiet. He doesn’t expand on that. He figures he doesn’t have to for Albert to get what that says about his chances at surviving this.
He shifts a little so he’s sitting down on the floor as well and grabs at Albert’s hand, curling his fingers around it. “Jet get the chance to cook for you yet?”
no subject
"Yes. Steak and potatoes. You taught him?" Because there's no way he could have improved that quickly without a teacher. Actually Albert was amazed he improved that quickly even with a teacher. His husband had many talents, but cooking was not one of them. In fact, his lack of culinary skills was often the butt of jokes among their family. Albert grins a little at the memory of overhearing Chang admonishing Jet's lack of interest, only to be met with the teen's declaration of cooking's not my bag, man!
"You did a good job."
no subject
"Yeah, brother, that was me. He wanted to surprise you." Sam grins back, shaking his head. "It was before last arena. Spent hours with him cooking potatoes, and then guess what shows up all over the space station? Thought about telling you then, but I didn't want to ruin it."
no subject
And that's his life, isn't it? Always being left behind. Only this time it won't be as the survivor of the pair, it will be a necessary separation to keep Jet safe. That makes all the difference.
"I love him, you know." His voice is a damp whisper, interspersed with coughs as Albert's eyes drop closed and his fingers loosen then tighten again in Sam's grasp. "I'd do anything. I'm an ass, but that's true... at least..."
no subject
"Of course all that's true. 'Specially the ass part." He swallows thickly, keeping his grip on Albert's hand tight. Like he can somehow anchor him there, or maybe just to give himself something to focus on so he doesn't start crying. "You're my brothers, the both of you, you know that, right? If I do manage to get out of here, I'll watch his back."
no subject
He wants Sam to go, wants him to try and survive. After all, every moment he stays in one place is a moment closer to someone finding him here, helpless in grief and taking the opportunity to murder him.
But he also doesn't want to die alone, and that all too Human part of Albert wins out. He clutches Sam's hand as hard as he can, which isn't as hard as he should be capable of, and forces himself to pick his head up and look at Sam intently, trying to say with his eyes what he can't with his voice; even breathing is watery and painful, putting small flecks of blood on his lips.
Thank you, my friend, My brother.
no subject
'Please don't leave me.'
But he can't ask him that. It's beyond either of their controls, now. All Sam can do is force himself to open his eyes, to meet Albert's gaze and remind him that he's not alone.
"I will, Albert, I will. I'd do it just for him, because he's worth it, but I might as well make the promise to you."
'I'll do better by him than I did by you and Kurloz and Nat and Riley.' Riley shouldn't be in there, he shouldn't. He should be long settled, but hearing his voice stirred everything up.
No. He can't think about that right now.
"I got you. I got both of you, man, it's okay. It's okay."
no subject
At first it had been him, lost his traditional family in the way that everyone loses their parents eventually. Then Hilda, but he'd lost her too and himself in the process and thought he'd never find that support again, was resigned to never find it and remain alone to lament his existence.
But then the nine of them gathered around him, putting back the pieces he'd lost and abandoned all hope of finding, but in new places and new ways, healing the hurt and the biggest right at the center had been in the hands of an always reckless but beautifully insightful redhead with a smile like the sun. He'd lost them too, at intervals, but that one always seemed to come back.
And now there's this. There's Terezi, his adopted daughter whom he can't entirely explain his attachment to for cultural barriers but he dotes and adores her and revels in her cleverness and wants the world to be better for her. There's Venus with the same signs of damage in her that he carries, matching scars on people worlds and times apart that still somehow understand each other and nurture healing through shared pain. There's Kurloz, so haunted but so full of hope too even when he can't see it and he lets Albert guide him there, lets him share his own hope and instead of diminishing it grows in being shared. And Bruce with his mirrored weaknesses, Bucky with his mirrored experiences, Clara with her soldiering through and Steve with his inherent goodness that makes others want to strive for the same.
And Sam. Sam who he'd grown so close to in such a short amount of time. Sam who even if he doesn't understand will accept unconditionally, will see a mess of damage and emotional baggage as an entire person and not blame them for feeling how they feel because that, too, is part of the Human condition, the Mortal condition for all the Trolls go through it too. Sam who seems to be able to hold up the collective psyches of each of them and still be able to ask for help himself when he needs it, a feat in and of itself and one Albert's never been able to manage. But he would, he thinks. He would ask Sam for help, should have done before this when he had the chance. He's always been there with open arms, Albert's just always been too bullheaded to be able to show his damage in that way.
But he could, now. Sam is his brother and leads him straight and maybe after the Arena, when the source of brightness in his life is safely tucked away in 13 and out of the repeated hell and cycle of endless death that is the Neverending Quell... maybe when Jet is safe, Albert can speak freely and lay down the burdens he's carried for so long. Sam has already proved willing and able to lend a hand.
Family.
So strange how it grows even in the worst of circumstances. Or maybe because of them. That's when you find out, really. When you find out who will stand by you in the darkness as well as the light, and as the light grows dimmer in Albert's eyes he feels he's standing there with Sam as the darkness closes in. It's a strange feeling, almost out of body, but it's better than drowning in his own lungs.
"Th...ank...y..," is all he manages to croak, but the words are there regardless. The sentiment is there. Trust, fidelity, fraternity. Brothers not just in arms but in practice.
Albert's breath rattles liquid in his chest, coming out like static with pops and crackles as his weight grows heavier against Sam's support, but it grows quieter slowly, soon barely audible over the moving air of the caves themselves.
It's not long before the sound stops altogether.
no subject
He can’t do this. Oh god he can’t, not with Steve dying in his arms last arena and Natasha a few hours ago and Kurloz a few minutes and now Albert, and there wasn’t a damn thing that Sam could do for any of them, he can’t. How the hell could he have ever thought he was strong enough to go through something like this all over again and come out even remotely in one piece?
Except Albert had believed in him. He'd said Sam could do it, that he could come back from something like this just like he had the last time. And somehow Sam had agreed, even though he knew how hard it was before. Even though right now it's hard to find that, it's hard think that Albert was right to believe in him.
But he has to do it. He has to. He can't let Albert down more than he already has. So he lets go, slowly lowering Albert's body to the ground. He stares at him for a long moment, then unzips his jacket and unhooks his falcon pin from where it's pinned to the inside.
Sam leans in, carefully pinning it to Albert's shoulder, and murmurs, "Give that back to me when we wake up in the Capitol."
Then he stands, pretty much on autopilot, and walks on into the tunnels of the cave.