thearena | Get up, come on get down with the sickness.

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Get up, come on get down with the sickness.

Who: Ruffnut and you
What: Ruffnut doesn't follow instructions well, summons the wrath of the Fae and then gets a fever. Then after all of that she tries to tame a wild horse...poorly.
where: Starting in the forest then moving to the village.
When: From Wednesday to Friday.

True to her usual method of operations Ruffnut had traveled the length of the arena in the first week, and was making another pass of it in her own time. Poking around looking for discarded weapons, easy food, or even better...an easy target.

It's what kept bringing her back to the forest. There were boars here and she hadn't eaten good boar meat in ages! Then again with the way this arena was starting to stink she wasn't sure she'd even be able to taste it. The closer she got to town the more she felt like her nose was on fire.

The throbbing in her scalp from the terrible burns she'd earned on day one seemed to get worse the more she exerted herself, so she moved slowly through the trees trying to keep the stinging of her irritated red skin to a minimum. She wasn't even sure who she should be more upset at for that whole mess. Gary or the stupid mustache guy who had actually lit her head on fire.

Either way, what was done was done. Either she'd die in this arena and her face would be back to normal, or she'd win and have some totally gross scars to cherish for the rest of her life.

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Ruffnut might have overlooked the rose bush entirely if not for the fact that it smelled so GOOD!

As a rule Ruffnut had told herself she hated flowers. Years of being told that girls were supposed to like flowers had soured her on the things unless they were tasty in some way. And more to the point Berk barely had flowers due to it's harsh weather.

But these roses...there was something special about them. Something enticing. Perhaps it was the reek of death and mutton farts coming off of the village, but Ruffnut had never been so happy to smell a flower.

Upon closer inspection, the flowers had tags on them...and one tag had her name on it.

In the few arenas she'd been to thus far, Ruffnut had become aware of the game makers and their love of tricks and traps. However she was not about to let a perfectly good trap keep her from taking something with her name on it. Especially something that smelled so good! She gingerly plucked the rose from the bush and then winced expecting some kind of horrible explosion or rampaging monster.

Edited 2015-06-05 08:08 (UTC)

“I've been staring at that for what feels like hours and I can't figure it out”The mage hadn't bothered to hide- really, what would be the point? He had a great beacon following him wherever he went.

“You're the first person to actually pick one since I've been here.” With a frown and a slight tilt of his head he asked “Did anything happen when you chose it?”

He may not have been hiding, but from the way she jumped he'd still managed to take Ruffnut by surprise. This was a sad sign of her lack of observational skills when she was focused on something.

"Oh uh..." She cast her gaze around for a moment, then looked down at her own body before back to him shrugging.

"I don't feel any different. What do you think should have happened? Did I break it somehow?" She sounded hopeful at the prospect of having somehow broken the Capitols attempt at trapping them without even meaning to.

“Your guess is as good as mine. I just thought it would be some sort of trick”, He spun his index finger in a circle, “These woods are hardly friendly looking. It just seems strange to put something beautiful in the middle of them. All I've seen is green and brown murk in this place”.

The man pushed himself off of the root he had been sitting on, dusting off his meager peasantry outfit more out of habit than concern- it was already covered in grime he had no expectation of being able to clean off at this point. Each of his actions seemed a little strained and exhausted. It had been a long few weeks. “What name did you pick, if I can ask?”

"It had uh...my name on it. So I figured it must be mine." She explained awkwardly. Casting her gaze back to the roses she read some of the other names. Some she recognized but most she didn't.

"I guess there's one here for each of us. But it doesn't make sense...why would they go to all the trouble to make a smelly arena and then give us these nice smelling flowers?"

She had not yet read the rest of the instructions on her note.

“There's probably a catch. This place seems to like its tricks”. He took a step towards the girl, careful to keep his hands in view in case she was nervous. He knew he had to play the game to survive but he had no intention of murdering people for someone's entertainment.

“I didn't dare touch them myself. Maybe there's a clue around here somewhere.”

It was a smart move. While Ruffnut would never confess to being nervous she had died enough to grow wary of trusting adult strangers.

Finally turning the note over to read the words she looked puzzled as she tried to sort out their meaning.

"Um...would Dipping the flower in the bay count as a clue?" She offered clearly not the most experienced in detective work. Unfortunately there was no indication of what that would do.

Or what would happen if she ignored it.

“That sounds like a clue to me” he remarked with a small smile, looking over the rose bush as he drew closer. He could see his name on one of the tags, but he didn't want to pick the flower. Better the devil you knew.

“I don't know why they'd want us to take the flowers to the bay”. He was close enough now that he could almost reach out and touch her. Carefully he extended a hand to her, “My name is Anders, by the way”.

"Oh uh..." Switching the rose from her right to her left she took his hand to shake it. "Ruffnut. District Seven or whatever." She shrugged causing the fairy wings on the back of her outfit to twitch and wobble awkwardly.

Turning her attention back to the flowers she scanned them reading the different names, recognizing only a few.

"Maybe it's magic?" She guessed not knowing the first thing about actual magic.

The village was a really great place to hide out so long as you could ignore the stomach churning smells that were radiating out of it. Ruffnut had thought this would be the perfect hiding place for the night because once she was asleep she wouldn't be able to smell the stink...and no one in their right mind would be looking for anyone in such a stinky place right?

Somehow she'd managed to fall asleep, only throwing up once from the smell.

She woke up in a clammy sweat that clung to her no matter how many times she tried to wipe it off. Panting heavily suddenly her green fairy dress felt too tight and too heavy. It was damp with the same sweat that felt like it was drowning her. In her groggy haze she reached up mop the sweat from her sweltering brow only to rub her salty fingers along the burn wounds making her cry out loud and then curl up into a trembling whimpering ball.

Ruffnut hadn't been sick in a very long time. On Berk children were raised to be hearty and if you did get sick you had Gothie to grind up herbs and make potions.

Out here Ruffnut had...well maybe sponsors if they took pity on her.

It felt like an hour passed as she tried to stand and felt the world spinning out from under her. Light headed and dizzy as her body seemed to pulse with heat she crawled for the door and got exactly three feet outside before she threw up the contents of her nearly empty stomach. The burn of stomach acid in her throat was barely noticeable in her almost delirious state.

Was this it? This would be the most humiliating death yet. Dying in the street because of a sudden fever? How much more weak and wussy could you get without just dying of old age?

Six feet away from the door, three feet away from the puddle of barf and Ruffnut slumped to the ground, exhausted and aching with a fever that made her feel like her insides were melting into goo.

Meanwhile almost directly above her, a silver parachute comes drifting out of the darkness holding a shiny metal orb. She barely registers the thing as it lands on her with a "Thunk" making her grunt as the parachute flutters down over her like a thin blanket.

Edited 2015-06-05 10:36 (UTC)

Ruffnut is not the only one who had been bad at following rose-related instructions. Haruto, too, had gone and found the flower with his name on it and picked it, which had made the day a degree more bearable. But he'd already been running a fever, he'd had a dozen things big and little occupying his attention, and that exhortation to get to the bay and dip the rose in the water there is put off. But what's the worst that can happen?

Well, when he wakes up with a burning fever and a sense of rapidly-rising panic, he has to wonder just where everything went wrong. Hadn't he treated the burns on his leg? Hadn't he been feeling a little better before he and Nitou had found a quiet corner to crash for the night. The smell of that rose finally registers through all his anxious thoughts and through Dragon's taunting, and then he remembers. And it's enough to get him to sit up, then crawl to his feet, and then try and go and do something.

He is not moving terribly fast, because he doesn't want to be spotted and because he feels like hell, and he's mostly leaning against houses and fence posts as he tries to get his bearings. That's when he spots Ruffnut sprawled there. And without thinking about it because thinking is not his strong suit right now, he's staggering to her side.

"...Ruffnut?" It's only when he's right up next to her that he recognizes her as, well, her. And then he's backing off when the parachute lands, more for reflexive reasons than anything else. What the hell?

"Whozat?" She grunted from under the parachute and she squirmed around trying to see who had said her name. Unfortunately in her sick addled mind it was too much to ask that she realized she was under a parachute and a sphere full of supplies.

"I've gone blind!" She moaned misunderstanding her reason for why she couldn't see who had just spoken to her.

"It's me! Haruto!" And because he is a helpful kind of guy, he drops to his knees beside her and reaches in to pull that parachute away. It is not because he is feeling kind of wobbly, no. He's being helpful! "And you're not blind. It's just dark out. And you've got a thing on your head."

...also, some supplies from above, but those are for her to open.

Once the parachute was free Ruffnut's unfocused and bleary eyes blinked at the nights sky and Haruto's face before proclaiming "I can see! Thank Loki!"

She still however felt and looked like hot garbage...literally. She was soaked in sweat and her face was practically glowing with heat. Thankfully she was easily distracted by the orb attached to the chute.

"Oh...loot." She glanced up at the sky again "THANKS GUYS!" Shouting as loud as she could manage which served not only to give away their position to potential threats, but also had her coughing hard afterwards.

Trembling hands fumbled with the orb for a moment before she settled for throwing it on the ground next to where she sat and watching it crack open. Inside spilled out an assortment of supplies including two first aid kits, some food rations, a fire starting kit and surprisingly, two sleeping bags. She picked up the ear plugs to look at them curiously before dropping them in the pile and swiftly snatching up the folding knife to pocket it. Some items were better for making her feel safe then others.

"Guess District Seven really hasn't given up on me yet."

"...Loki?" It would make a little sense if he was clearer-headed, but the only thing coming to mind at that name is the slightly shifty guy that he'd shared supplies with and made inappropriate stabbing jokes to. His face scrunches up in perplexment as he tries to work through it.

"Gah!" And then her shout startles him so much that he falls over onto his ass. "What the hell! Don't shout!" And it is not at all hypocritical of him to say because he is stage-whispering it. That's different. He'd complain more, but that is an impressive supply drop.

"I'd say they're pinning all their hopes on you. I don't even get that much stuff...."

"Yeah maybe." if her face wasn't already red she would be blushing from the idea of the district pinning all their hopes and dreams on her mostly for her lack of faith that she'd be able to see it through.

Fumbling with a packet of food, pulling till the plastic burst and jerky sticks flew into her face.

"H-heh heh, awesome." She scooped up the sticks and shoved five into her mouth at once slowing down as she began chewing. The taste of salted, preserved meat continued to distract her from her pulsing, rising fever.

"Hey, hey!" Even with a fever, Haruto's need to Fix Things kicks in full-force. He is reaching forward to grab at any stray jerky that might be in danger of hitting the ground, and then immediately depositing it back in the capsule because it isn't his.

"Don't just sit out in the open stuffing your face!" To be sure that he's got her attention, he leans in and waves a hand in front of her face. If contact is made, he'll try and direct her gaze back the way he came. "You want to have gotten all that stuff and have some... jerk come and pick us off?" Yes, us. They're in this together, for the moment. Really.

It's a good thing he put those back because she would have started throwing fists if she'd seen him holding her food. Fever or not meat was meat.

Unfortunately he had a good point and she slowed chewing for a moment to consider it, before sighing and swallowing down the food in her mouth.

"Fine fine. Take the fun out of everything why don't you."

Unfortunately without the distraction of food she was reminded how crappy she felt and she mopped sweat from her brow with the parachute before bundling the entire kit up.

"I feel like I'm dying." She grumbled dragging herself to her feet and stumbling back towards her shack that she was hiding in.

He would not have held it against her, had she punched him. Or not held it against her much. Food takes on new meaning in an arena.

"That's my job. We're not here for fun." He needs a moment to take a breath and convince himself that he'll be steady on his feet when he rises, but rise he does, and his longer legs catch him up with Ruffnut quickly. Whether she wants the help or not, he's sticking out an arm to steady and support her back towards the shack. "You should drink some water. And... and soak the parachute and put it on your forehead. You'll feel cooler."

He's already looking around and squinting and trying to find someplace to make her sit or lie down, if just so he can go ahead and do the same thing. He's pretty sure he's not dying, but he feels like hell and would like to maybe stop moving and making things worse.

Those both sound reasonable, and as she leads him into the shack with only some basic ratty things, and what appears to be a nest made out of what appeared to be dirt and leaves. Was that where she had been sleeping?

"I don't wanna use my bottles of water though...maybe we should go down to the ocean to soak the parachute?" Would that still work? Was salt water a healthy or hurtful thing? She knew not to drink it sure but that was from personal experience so she opened a bottle of the freshly delivered sponsor water and began slugging it down.

After a miserable Thursday Ruffnut was feeling only half dead on Friday as the sound of galloping, thundering hooves drove her out into the fields on the edge of the village.

Horses! Amazing, powerful looking creatures. Not as cool as dragons of course but these were special Capitol horses! So maybe they could spit fire or something?

After almost a full day of laying around expecting to die, Ruffnut wanted more then ever to live and approached one of the largest horses with her hand out.

"Easy there big guy...please don't trample me."

Edited 2015-06-05 08:34 (UTC)

After not too long Kurt's discovered that sticking to the outskirts and woods is probably a better life choice in the Arena than constantly running into people in the village. He's been very lucky so far, somehow finding people who don't actually wish him harm, but the Cornucopia is seared in his mind from the few moments he watched in horror from his pedestal and he'd very much like to avoid becoming nothing more than a red smear on the ground.

That, and the stench isn't quite as bad out here.

He sticks to trees, using his tail in conjunction with his normal grip to remain almost monkey-like up high. In general, people don't tend to look above them unless they hear a noise or something and he tries to be as quiet as possible. With the horses down below, it's probably for the best that he's very good at keeping quiet. Or he is when he isn't starving anyway.

Just as the girl approaches one of the horses, Kurt's stomach gives a mighty and very audible growl, spooking half the herd and suddenly Kurt has to decide right then if he really is hungry enough to eat a horse instead of silently weighing the pros and cons from his perch.

A streak of blue, Kurt dives for the back of the big one that blonde girl had been nearing, wrapping his arms and legs as tightly as he can in order to stay on more than anything else, but the situation he's created has one more danger that's much more immediate than his potential fall from the animal.

"Move!" He yells out at the girl as the horse rears angrily on its back legs, trying to buck Kurt off and not really caring who or what gets in the way of its wheeling font hooves.

Ruffnut let out a yelp and sprang out of the way narrowly avoiding a pair of heavy hoofs pounding the dirt where she had previously been standing. The horse may have had a chance at being calm before but now it was losing it's mind over this rider that it had not wanted!

Hitting the ground the ratty tattered back that Ruffnut had constructed out of a tapestry from the castle ripped open scattering her sponsors gifts. Among them was a folding knife which she snagged up before spinning around to face the scene that had been threatening her.

...in hind sight...this was actually kind of funny.

Some weird blue troll monster was being bucked around by a horse he'd apparently decided to jump on. Honestly Ruffnut wasn't sure who to stab more. The horse for trying to stomp on her or the troll guy for starting it.

"What in Odin's name are you doing?!"

"Trying--" Kurt cuts himself off as he has to renew his grip on the animal. "To get lunch!"

The horse, having none of being on the menu, plants its front hooves and with a great stomp kicks its hindquarters up so high and hard that Kurt's fingers lose purchase in the horse's mane and he goes flying, sailing over the blonde girl's head and into a pile of bushes and fallen leaves with a loud oof!

With an angry snort, the beast turns and trots away as if it's proud of its achievement, meeting up with the rest of the herd that had wandered further into the woods to avoid people.

In the resulting quiet, Kurt's groan can be easily heard by Ruffnut and the cameras alike, two bare blue feet sticking out of the edge of the verge, each with two blue toes apiece.

A crooked grin spread across Ruffnut's features watching Kurt get thrown, she always did love violence especially when it wasn't aimed at her.

Turning about to see where he landed she offered him a ironic bout of applause.

"Hope you weren't too hungry." She taunted feeling at least somewhat secure with her stash of snacks in a makeshift sack hanging off her back. She had used the parachute her sponsors gifts were sent in to bundle up the supplies and the strings were tied around her shoulders like a backpack.

"You don't have to be a jerk about it," Kurt pouts as he tries to untangle himself from the bush. He's lucky he didn't break his neck but at the moment he's merely worried over his bruised pride. Finally he gets himself out and stands, brushing the leaves from his clothes.

"You're not hurt, are you?" he asks the question grudgingly but he does seem honestly worried about that.

"Uh..." She gave herself a once over twisting around to see herself from as many angles as she could as if somehow the horse might have secretly wounded her and she didn't know it.

"No more then when I started trying to train that thing. I thought trolls were supposed to be better hunters then that." She teased looking bemused and also mistaking him for one of the many different kinds of trolls that had passed through Panem since her arrival.

"I'm not a Troll, I'm a-" He almost says mutant. Almost. But caution stops him, surprising as that is considering his lack of caution in leaping onto the horse like he did. "Person," he finishes instead.

"I've never had to hunt anything in my life, how am I supposed to just know?"

His protest made her look puzzled and she shrugged "You don't look like any kind of person I've seen before. But there are lots of different trolls around her so I just figured you were part of that group." She was starting to get the idea that there was a lot of misconceptions about trolls.

"You're gonna have a hard time winning if you're just counting on sponsors gifts to feed you." She added. "Next time you try to hunt something, maybe use a knife? Or pointy rock?"

There are actual trolls? That's just going to make his life harder. Or easier, maybe? If he meets them and they're nice, then maybe he'll have somewhere he sort of belongs. Or maybe he's supposed to kill them to get his District food. He's supposed to kill this girl too, probably, but he can't even stomach killing a horse for his own survival, how could he kill another person?

"I think I might have a hard time winning anyway." He sighs, picking up a stick and scraping aimless lines in the dirt with it from his crouch. "Who are you, anyway? You don't seem to be trying very hard to win either."

She wasn't? Well now she looked worried. She brushed it away though to introduce herself.

"Ruffnut, Viking of Berk and tribute of District Seven." There had been a time when she had trouble remembering her number, but after the last few weeks she was more dedicated then ever to winning for her district.

"I've been here for..." She took a moment to count on her fingers muttering things like "The guy who ate me, the shark who ate me, that pool of acid, got split in half...I've died seven times since I got here. I think that's probably almost a year? Maybe?" She'd lost track of the days somewhere along the way.

"And who are you?"

"You've died that may times?" If it were possible, Kurt seems to fall a few shades lighter blue at the prospect of dying over and over. He knew logically that had to be how it worked from what Roland had said, but to hear Ruffnut go over it all matter of fact like that makes his stomach clench.

"I'm Kurt, and new here. No one's told me my District."

"Yeah, it's actually really hard to win these things." She sounded like it should surprise him, after all when she'd come into the arena she thought it would be all fun and violence. Turns out dying wasn't as fun as she'd anticipated.

"Well, what number are you? I don't know a lot of the districts but I've picked up a couple of things." Mostly on accident. But even Ruffnut could retain information on occasion. Deciding the Kurt wasn't much of a threat to her and feeling a gnawing in her stomach she sat down and began digging through her sleeping bag for her rations.

"I would think it would be." He leaves off doodling in the dirt and rests his chin on one hand, trying not to think about it too much. "And if I knew what number, I would know what District. I wasn't given one though. I guess they'll do that when I'm out."

Which is a little annoying considering he's supposed to be doing this for a District but he can't well have that much pride about it if he doesn't know what that District is.

Again he goes quiet, watching as Ruffnut tears into her food stores. He starts to salivate.

"Do you think, ah... maybe I could...?" Kurt raises his eyebrows, trying to look as inviting as possible. His stomach, on the other hand, decides to sound like a monster truck.

Three arenas ago Ruffnut would have told him to get lost. Heck last arena she probably would have made him promise to pay her back. But since that last arena she's been thinking a lot more about what it's like to be hungry.

Hunger is just a state of existence on Berk. Hunger makes you hard, hunger makes you mean. And some seasons when the fish are biting and the weather is fair the vikings of her home don't have to worry so much about where their next meal will come from or if they'll have enough strength to fight off whoever is stepping up to battle next.

But there have been frigid, unforgiving winters, when even the dragons seemed to struggle to find enough food to feed themselves. And those were winters that Ruffnut only ever wished on her enemies.

Finding out that every time she lost, there was an entire district of people that went hungry had flipped some kind of switch inside her. A switch that had lots of guilt attached to it. And so begrudgingly she broke off half of her granola bar and passed it to him. It wasn't much but it was heavy with honey and oats and peanut butter.

"They should have already given you a district number. Did you check your clothes, maybe there's a number?" She looked down at her own in dismay, looking like some kind of peter pan knock-off in a green dress and striped stockings with glittering fake wings.

"Everyone in my district was dressed in these fairy outfits. We're District seven which I guess is all about lumber and trees and stuff. So...wood spites?" She mused shrugging and popping the bar into her mouth chewing it thoroughly.

"There's no number! I'm not an idiot, I would know if they'd given me one." This girl is getting increasingly on his nerves. She does have a point; everyone in the Arena has seemed to be dressed to various themes, but his outfit certainly doesn't fit into one. A basic tunic and loose, rough-hewn pants that only go to the knee? He might have had a hat too but it's long since been lost in all his running about.

"If that's true, then I'd be in the peasant District." He eyes Ruffnut's food stash, declining to add a grumpy better than being a fairy to his statement as he munches on the half of granola bar in order to potentially keep food available.

"Sheesh alright don't get crabby. It's not my fault you're all alone without any district to back you up, supplies to keep you fed or socks to steal."

Because she's still convinced you're a troll, and trolls steal socks. Everyone knows that.

Leaning back on her bag as she swallowed the last of her ration for now she looked up to the sky.

"I've just been thinking a lot about District Seven I guess. No one's ever depended on me before I came here. Sure they'd tell me and my brother to do stuff but they never really depended on us to do it...because we usually wouldn't."

Smirking in a sort of amused at herself way she turned her attention back to him "So what did you used to do? Or not do? You know before coming here to fight and die and stuff?"

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Get up, come on get down with the sickness.

In the forest Wednesday

Re: In the forest Wednesday

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The village, just after Midnight on Thursday.

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How to train your horse, on Friday.

Lemme know if this is ok

Beautiful

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