thearena | [open] My Voice Can You Hear It?

Who| James Sunderland and open!
What| Week 1 and 2 Catchall, as Sunderland makes his way to the Castle
Where| The Field, the Village, The Forest and then the Castle
When| Weeks 1 and 2
Warnings/Notes| Spoilers to SH2

[a. Week 1 - field]

James may not have the survival skills of other Tributes but he does know what to do after the blood spilled: run. Run away as fast he can and into the fog. There was a certain intimacy to the miasma, one that reminded the clerk of where he came from and how he managed to last as long as he did in the town of quiet spirits. But this time around, there was no monsters or the underlying judgment of the haunted soil. These were living, breathing, thinking people and all were in the frenzy to get their supplies and rack a kill. How could anyone do this!?

Either way, James ditched the jester hat, and hell, even the ridiculous outfit, leaving him only with his pants and undershirt. Bright colors only attracted an attack and if he's headed into the fields or the forests, the last thing he needs is attention.

"Mary," he whispered into the radio, clasped onto his hips, "If you're there...don't move."

Was James telling himself this as a way to comfort himself? Or to feed the delusions?

[b. Week 1 - Forest]

The last time James had gone into a forest, it was right before meeting Angela, and this foray wasn't that much different from then. To hide within the trees was familiar, but attempting to hunt an animal with just rocks was difficult to say the least. The whispers of the strange ones, the murmuring woods didn't unnerve him, but he was damn sure he was being followed or something.

[c. Week 2- The Village and Castle]

By the second week, James deemed it safe enough to venture back into civilization. There wasn't much left but he could make due with everything he could find. Maybe even break off a table leg as a weapon, he had experience with these sorts of things and losing his plank to Kieren was...unfortunate.

Well, at least there's something to look forward For all the time, Sunderland kept an eye on the Arena's centerpiece: the Castle itself. There was fire, a hearth he could enjoy and keep safe as long as the castle holds out. He feels confident enough to make the trek, and cross the obstacle course that was the moat and entrance.

Whether or not he actually succeeded was up in the air.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The woman's voice was enough for James to come back to his senses, stopping midway. The last time he heard a lady's voice in the fog, horrible things happened when he didn't heed the call. Or was it the other way around? Either way, he could see the woman was rattled by something. What that was, he had many options to go through: the voices in the woods, the dead village, pretty offputting stuff.

"Why? Is it haunted?" he wasn't joking around if his voice was any indication of the fact. He actually believed the building to be infested with the damned. "Is this your first Arena too?" Sunderland added, noting the calm demeanor she had about her.

"I don't know for sure," She admitted, crossing her arms, and glancing up at the castle again. "I mean--I want to say no, because ghosts don't exist, but I figure they can sure make it seem like they do. They have enough technology here to bring us here, I'm sure they can rig up some Scooby Doo villain crap." She paused, and glanced at him. "...Sorry, if you don't know what that is." It was hard to tell around here who had rolled out of some alternate dimension or a ren fair, especially when everyone was dressed like they were getting their nerd on.

"Hmm? Yeah, it is. It's a lot more different than when you're watching the tapes, believe me. Still...better than the ice age that they pulled last time. And probably better than the space port before--Especially with the premature ending of the arena that time." She nodded, then looked around, with a shrug. She did seem pretty calm--She wasn't feeling very hot at the moment, but she'd always been of the school of thought that freaking out about your situation rarely solved anything.

"I do, actually," Sunderland lit up for a moment, there wasn't much about pop culture that he could talk about but Scooby Doo was probably something he could remember somewhat. But it's her demeanor that gets James to stop heading into the death castle and leading her into an empty home.

"You don't look all right though."

"You sure know how to compliment a lady." Despite her wry words, she looks somewhat amused, following after him, with her arms crossed. She's used to comments like that--None of the guys spared her ego about her appearance, and over the course of their journey across the south, a lot of things had happened to ruin said appearance. Not permanently, luckily, but it was a lot of blows to her ego.

"I don't know how alright I can look, here." She mumbled, toeing a piece of glassware that had fallen off the table at some point. All these homes were so eerie. "It's not like they give us access to safe places to bath and do our hair and makeup." She paused. She really didn't want to admit she was alone here, not right now, anyway. And not to this stranger. "And there are sounds at night, when you're trying to sleep. I can hear them in the fields, I think. I hope it's just the fields."

She shrugged. "It's a lot of shit going on. But you just got to ride it out. That's what we're here for, I guess. Price we pay for having all that fancy shit at the Capitol."

"Well it's not like we can just ask them for stuff either...right?" a glimmer of hope survived in James' mind, that maybe a sponsor could find him entertaining enough to send something to aid him. The remark about the voices have the former clerk now Tribute give Rochelle a small if sheepish look, "So it's not just me that hears them...okay, so it's this place that's messed up."

Sounds very familiar but he makes it a point not to spook this perfectly normal lady into thinking he's crazy. "Do you have someone to keep you safe?"

"Well, they've given me a few things. Gave Nick more." She shrugged. Nick was more entertaining than she was. Killed people, made good television. She was new, and she suspected what she had gotten was part of the interest in the three of them. Sponsors had sure dried up, after he died. "I guess it depends on how exciting they find you? But no--It's not just you. I don't know if they're just voices meant to scare us, or if they're real but personally? I don't want to find out."

She finds it a little odd he just assumed that he was hearing things--The first explanation to her would be that it was created by the arena, some sort of boogeyman to terrorize them. But she shrugged it off, because his next question made her squint, arms crossing. "Yeah. I've got myself to keep me safe." Maybe she was just taking things too personally--None of the guys had ever questioned her ability, after all. And to be honest, being alone here was not fun. Being alone in her world meant bad things. Stumble off from the group, something was going to try to eat you. Not much use in trying to be independent, there or here.

But she couldn't help but feel her feathers ruffled, anyway.

"I didn't mean any offense, ma'am...things are going downhill fast and maybe you have a better chance at winning this than I do," he wished he was trying to flatter her but he knew he wasn't as ready. But he wouldn't kill her, he had no means or drive.

"Uh huh." Rochelle was skeptical, but she didn't feel like telling the man that. No need to brag about how bad things were for her. "This is the first arena for both of us, right? Neither of us have that great of a chance, really." That was a little more neutral. "But you got to look at it this way. Those people are watching us. If we do our best, maybe next arena we'll get enough sponsors to do even better, and so on." Her goal going in here had been getting Nick to win, and doing a good enough job to get people to like her, so that she could look into petitioning at some point in time.

With Nick gone, her goal had taken a nosedive, but that didn't mean that she was going to give up, even though she knew that her chances were poor.

"We're just their playthings, right?" The lack of bragging is noted, she was just like him: hauled away into a world that wasn't his, to entertain the monsters on the other side of the screen. There was no way around that line of thinking: the Capitolites who enjoyed these Games were not much better than the creatures he fought back home.

"You... you should join up with your group then," James murmured, "I...I don't know if there's anyone left that's friendly. This place changes people."

In a lot of ways. The Cornucopia turned people that one day had been perfectly civil into the frenzy.

She rubbed her shoulder, and nodded awkwardly. She's not one to lie, but she's not sure if this man can be trusted yet. Letting him know that she's alone could be a death sentence. She's not desperate, not yet. Not enough to risk her life letting him know that if he attacked her, no one would come to save her. She smiled grimly, and nodded.

"There's a few folks around who aren't too bad. But you're right, I should probably get back with my own folks." Not that she'd be able to do that anytime soon. She'd have to die to get back with them. But that wasn't going to happen, not yet. Not while she could help it.

"Be careful, though. You hear...?" She said, slowly starting for the door.

James doesn't question Rochelle's statement and nodded to her, "You'd better hurry then, I might be gone and the monsters here, they might come out of the woodwork. And I don't think...it's the literal kind of monsters."

Survival makes people think differently, and more willing to toss aside their morals for their own skin. The fact that she had people over there, it meant that Eddie's words were inherently false, that people weren't all the same.

"Take care," he said, choosing to stay in the building and raid it.

[open] My Voice Can You Hear It?

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