thearena | Arena 15: In The Eye Of The Capitol

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Arena 15: In The Eye Of The Capitol

For the majority of you, this has become a familiar morning routine. Escorts come to pick up their Tributes and Stylists quickly see to setting them up with the bland and thin grey suits, much to most of their dismay. You'll not hear a word said in complaint though. The staff has gotten the threat to them loud and clear. Only the daring will be willing to offer even a mere "good luck". Peacekeepers quickly collect Tributes to send them off into the launch tubes. If you're from the Districts, it may be one of the last things you ever see.

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What everyone rises up to is not much better a sight. It's a war zone out here in every sense. Those native to Panem will recognize the sight before them, having seen it every year in a propaganda tape. The wreckage of District thirteen. The Cornucopia sits at the very center. Offworlders might recognize some of the weapons there, and if not, then they'll certainly be able to spot some familiar scenes far on the outer edges of the arena, perhaps even a beast or two they know well from their worlds.

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It's muddy and damp and there's plenty of wreckage to cut one's self upon no matter where it is Tributes run. The Cornucopia tempts the Tributes in for its bloodbath. Districter and Offworlder alike, there will only be one winner.

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The gong rings out and a voice announces; “The Arena is now open”. The Tributes are free to make their choice; to run or to fight. The Games have begun.

~~~

By the end of the night, one child from each District will have their face shone up into the sky, the first twelve killed at the Cornucopia. Only twelve to go...

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"No." She moaned feeling her burnt skin scream at her...wait were those actual screams?

Her head snapped up looking frightened and confused scanning the area. Only him and her...but she was sure she could hear someone whispering now. A whispering meant for those who had partaken in Aang's little act of "Rememberence"

"I-I got burnt at the Cornucopia by some girl...did you come here with someone?" She rasped still shaking like a leaf and trying to catch her breath from the splitting pain that had taken the strength out of her legs.

Edited 2015-10-06 23:27 (UTC)

He winced. "Stupid question, sorry. You look like hell."

Automatically, his hand reached for her shoulder to steady her. He drew it back at the last moment--what, was he crazy touching her when she was so beat up like that?

"Nah, it's just me. ...Don't have any supplies, either, so I don't know what I can do about those burns. You find anything for 'em in here?" Then he remembered the dropped can--was that why she was looking around so wildly? Maybe she was looking for it. "Was there somethin' you were tryin' to use in that can that fell over?"

She appreciated his drawing his hand back and managed to drag herself into a sitting position. The noise was starting to get to her though. If he didn't bring anyone with him who was whispering? Why did it sound so familiar?

"N-no nothing useful." She muttered in a distracted sort of way. Bracing herself she began to rise to her feet again, wincing and grunting every step of the way. Once she was on her feet she stuck out her good hand to grip a metal shelving unit for support.

"I thought all businesses had to have first aid kits somewhere in the building, but I guess that would make it too easy." She muttered in a bitter sort of half joke.

Firo stood up as well, primed to catch her if she faltered. But she looked... well, not fine, but relatively steady. Tough kid.

He laughed. "Is that how it is where you're from? In my world, they don't even stop the machines if a factory worker gets hurt."

"Guess they can't make it too easy on us here." He tried to join in her good humor, though inside his stomach was turning. From one of their chats before, he'd gotten the idea that Sandy was a bit more jaded and calloused to the world than your average kid might be. But that didn't erase the fact that she was a kid. There was just something disgusting to him about people who'd hurt a relative innocent.

Looking at the ground, he tried to disguise that feeling. "Should you be movin' around too much? It's not gonna do you much good to open all that up..."

She slumped against a wall giving in to her exhaustion for a moment watching him with tired angry eyes.

"Well if I could find a nice clean bed with food and water around I wouldn't but this early in the arena I don't have that luxury."

If only she'd gotten that stupid guitar. If only she'd gotten some food or...anything. Still she seems to realize too late that he's not the person she should be angry at.

"Sorry. I'm not...I shouldn't....I'm mad at me not you." She confessed looking away a tad ashamed. He was an ally after all not the reason she was so messed up.

It probably was a foolish thing to say; it wasn't as if she had a whole lot of options here. He shrugged, trying to dismiss the apology. He'd be mad too, in her situation, and misplaced anger from friends was hardly much of a bother to him. "It's fine."

He lifted his face then, looking over her wounds once more. "Who the hell did that, anyway?" There was a note of malice in his voice, already thinking about what an appropriate punishment would be for that person.

She was glad he didn't take it the wrong way, the last thing she needed now was to be alienating her allies.

"That girl...Arya...yeah that's her name." Sandy mumbled her chest rising and falling which each laborious breath. "We were fighting over a guitar of all things. Stupid right? But I thought...well I've been practicing my guitar a lot lately so maybe it was meant for me...but it shoots fire out of the tip and she had it pointed at me." She explained before a coughing fit set in.

All the while she was hearing whispers. Faint ominous sounds from the walls. But if Firo couldn't hear them...then that meant either she was going insane (Again) or the arena had another trick in mind.

The name's been bouncing around the Capitol, of course, so recognition dawned after he thought it over a moment. Thoughts of vengeance vanished abruptly--shocking as the deed was, he couldn't torture a kid... "Another kid? She did that on purpose?"

Kids were cruel, he knew. But that seemed a bit beyond the norm... Though could he blame the girl for trying to fight her way out of this?

"Damn. That's crazy, to make a weapon like that..." Randy and Pezzo were big fans of fire, of course, but the enforcement racket was different from normal comment. At least, so Firo thought.

"There anything I can do for you? Like I said, I don't really have any supplies..." He slumped back, wondering just how useless he could be.

"I think the first time was an accident, then she tried to finish me off." Sandy explained with a faint bit of pride in the fact that she'd gotten away even if she felt like death warmed over.

"The distraction has been helpful." She offered him half a smile since the other half of her lips was stiff and hard to move. "Actually...I need your help with something else."

The whispering was getting louder now and it was starting to make what hairs she had left on the back of her neck stand on end.

"Are you sure you can't hear that? Like...voices?" She asked softly peering suspiciously into the shadows.

He's prepared to offer anything when she says she needs further help. What he's asked for, though, causes him to simply stare for a moment.

What the hell?

Suddenly more wary than before, he looks over each shoulder--even up at the ceiling, too. He sees nothing, and that only disturbs him more. As if to interrogate her, he leans forward and speaks quickly. "...Voices? Where? What're they sayin'?"

"I can't quite make out the words." She explained straining now to see if anything new would hiss out of the nothingness around them. A sudden scream that only she could hear made her jump which in turn made her cry out in pain and clutch at her side.

"T-there! That scream, you had to hear that didn't you?" She moaned as realization settled like a stone in her gut. The Capitol really truly had her number now didn't they?

"A scream?" That was just too much. Firo stretched his hand out to try to feel her forehead. She had to have a fever or something, right? That, or it was the wounds talking.

He shook his head before he even felt anything. "I've got no idea what you're talkin' about. You--It's gotta be... whatever it is they call it. Shock or somethin'. You're too banged up to think straight."

She rubbed the side of her face that wasn't burnt and a tear leaked out from the eye on her bad side. "No, not shock...I know shock this is...ugh. It's gotta be a trick." She peered into the darkness once more confirming there was no one there.

"Sometimes...like...the Capitol makes us see or hear stuff right? Like a trap in the arena that shows you ghosts of loved ones? I think this is like that. I don't know how it's working yet...maybe it's the microchip in my brain. But they're doing it to me if you can't hear them..."

Of course there was the alternative.

"Either that or I'm going crazy...and if I'm going crazy then I guess it's probably been a long time coming." She suddenly felt exhausted. Emotionally, physically and mentally. She hung her head and took a heavy breath letting it out slowly.

"Whatever...who cares...if they aren't hurting me..." She winced as another scream made her tense up.

"If they're not hurting me it's fine right?" She looked up at him again, her eyes pleading for reassurance. Crazy or not she didn't want to die. Not yet. Even if every motion she made hurt like hell.

A trick... Firo's lip curled in disgust. "That's..." It was sick. So fucking sick. But to say so would risk them both, so he bit his tongue to keep silent and let her continue.

Firo had never been to good at telling people what they wanted to hear, even the people he liked. So even as she looked for reassurance, he shook his head and frowned. "Too bad I don't think that's the case here." It seemed pretty plain that it was hurting her.

He moved to put his hand on her less injured shoulder. "Listen... like you said, they do this kinda stuff. So don't jump right to thinkin' you're crazy, okay? Just... just ignore it."

He dropped his gaze guiltily as he said that. He could almost relate to that feeling of going insane; he could always feel the presence of Szilard's memories hanging around in the back of his mind. And how well had ignoring it been going for him? It just meant he'd spent the past four or five years living in fear of losing himself at any moment. But how could he admit to something like that?

Easier said then done, but the fact that he was attempting to encourage her helped. She steeled her resolve a little and stiffened her lip nodding.

"Right...I can do this. I once drank poisoned water and hallucinated for like...weeks in an arena and still made it...I can...I can ignore the whispering." She agreed, mostly trying to reassure herself along with him.

As if on cue, the sound of the doors being pushed open back in the front of the shop froze her in place. Her eyes darted to him for confirmation that it wasn't more trickery. He had heard that right? That was a real sound?

It was followed by more noises as heavy feet dragged on the tile floor and knocked over a stand full of scented tree shaped air fresheners.

They were not alone.

Would they investigate the sound, or try to escape?

Not really a nice tidbit to hear (or live through), and Firo winced once again. "Yeah. Yeah, you can." She had to, didn't she?

Firo's head whipped around towards the sound. He looked back to her and nodded--yep, that was real. That, or they were both going bonkers.

He straightened and moved back toward the doorway, pausing long enough to look over his shoulder at her again, "You stay here--I'll go see what it is."

She was already injured; he couldn't just let danger come to her, right?

A hulking black beast with rows of sharklike teeth had entered the shop. His milky white eyes scanned the room gleaming wickedly as his skin rippled like ink, shifting with each motion like he was made out of melted tar.

Sandy remained in the back obediently, eyes continuing to scan the supplies for a functional weapon. Anything! Giver her a screwdriver, a broken bottle a broomstick she could snap in half.

Turning her gaze back to Firo she waited to see just how much trouble they were in. From the sounds of the shelves being knocked over...it was a lot.

All Firo wanted to do right now was keep cool and protect Sandy. Surveying their situation, though, he wasn't even sure if he could do the first. He managed to keep his voice down, but his tone was very emphatic when he asked, "What the fuck is that?"

He'd been in a lot of fights in his short life, but the vast majority of his opponents had been humans. Not a thing like that.

His first instinct was still to fight. It wasn't that big, right? But there was a flicker of doubt in his mind that wouldn't have been there a few years ago. It was one thing to charge ahead when he just had himself to look after, but that wasn't the case now.

Well. He'd just have to see how it went. He looked back at Sandy one more time. "If it gets too close, you run, okay? I think this thing might be dangerous." Then, if nothing got in his way, he stepped back into the room with the beast and waited for it to get closer so he could throw a punch.

Hearing his reaction to whatever was in the other room did not comfort Sandy. Her eyes darted to the freezer door and she wondered if it was unlocked, and if them hiding in there would be a death wish.

Oh but now he was planning on fighting it? Well she could stop him...or she could take his advice and run. Running sounded like a good idea.

She followed him to the doorway and laid eyes on the creature feeling her heart drop into her knees.

This thing again...except it wasn't a nightmare anymore, this was the real deal!

"Wait no!" But it was too late. The creature was close and Firo's punch sank into it's soft skin causing it to roar in response and try to bite his hand with it's sharklike teeth.

This thing had haunted her throughout every nightmare she'd had in the Capitol. The monsters from her world that she had sacrificed others to save herself from. The fallen angels.

And now Firo was going to be another victim if she didn't figure out how to kill it once and for all. She had some ideas but limited resources and now the thing was sprouting tendrils from it's back!

He'd expected to hit something hard and tough. Something solid, at least. He gasps and jerks back when the creature's flesh surrounds his fist--and then its teeth. "What--What the hell?!"

He stumbled back, suddenly realizing that Sandy was still nearby. "What're you doing--I told you to leave!"

He sucked in a breath of air. Saying this next part was scarier, in a way, than squaring off against the monster. "You need to go--I don't know how long I can hold off this thing!"

"Yeah no kidding!" She shouted back feeling a rush of unreasonable annoyance. He didn't know it but she had enough history with this thing to know two things.

1. Without super powers they probably couldn't win.

2. It didn't like loud noises.

Limping over to a shelving unit since the beast was now almost entirely focused on Firo, Sandy grunted and threw her good shoulder into the shelves. It hurt and she grunted to that extent but it was enough to send the display crashing over scattering old cans and flimsy metal shelves in a loud angry banging that had the creature roaring in anger.

If Firo could pick up on that maybe they could keep it distracted while they bailed...if not? well at least Sandy was closer to the doors then he was.

Really? There were more important things to worry about in the moment, but Firo's look of consternation at the beast changed to one of plain offense at her comment. He didn't get to wallow in it for long, though, before she had launched her attack on the shelf.

"What the hell did you go and get it mad for?" Sorry, Sandy, Firo hadn't quite grasped the strategy yet. But he did take this as his chance to make his way over toward her, keeping his back to the wall and his eyes on the beast. Whether or not she wanted to leave, he'd made up his mind to shove her out of there if he had to.

[ooc: Sorry for the slowness! Rl's been taking it to me.]

"Loud noises!" She tried to shout over the things roaring voice. "It hates loud sharp noises!" Unfortunately the items they could use for such noises were limited and it was already starting to recover from the sound.

The door was close, she continued limping towards it, shoulder aching from attacking the shelving unit, burns throbbing as some cracked and began to bleed all over again.

At her words, he picks up a fallen paint can and hurls it at the wall. The clanking it makes isn't too impressive, and he's starting to realize just how limited they are.

At least he manages to slip over to her side, reaching for her less injured arm. "Can you run?" Seeing her bleeding and dragging herself along, he kicks himself for not thinking of it earlier. Screaming at her to leave wouldn't do anyone much good if she was too hurt to do just that.

"Come on, I'll carry you if you can't."

She makes an attempt at running and the result is some sort of awkward hobble and skip that gets her to the door crashing through it with a bang and the dull ringing of the bell hanging over it.

"N-not very far." She groaned clutching at the door handle to keep from falling over. Her leg felt like it was swelling up to twice it's size in pain.

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