thearena | [OPEN] This is where the bad little angels go

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[OPEN] This is where the bad little angels go

WHO| Gabriel and OPEN
WHAT| Gabriel's just arrived a few hours ago and he'd love to make some friends/enemies.
WHEN| Week 3
WHERE| Ice field, a few hours' walk from the cornucopia.
WARNINGS/NOTES| He's likely in a friendly mood (for now), because he has no weapons or supplies of any kind.

Gabriel trudged through the snow slowly, having already slipped a few times on the wet, icy surface. He couldn't see much around him, but supposedly there were people out here waiting for a celebrity deathmatch, that was assuming, of course, that anyone was as famous as he was.

Death was a strange thing and he honestly couldn't tell if this place was for real or some kind of angel afterlife that no one had bothered to tell him about. He hadn't even had time to react to anything they'd told him before they'd tossed him into this frozen wasteland with nothing but the borrowed clothes on his back and while they were clearly keeping him warm, he was still shivering and pissed off. The eerie noises that the wind carried around him didn't really help this place to seem any more real, either.

The worst part was that he was getting hungry, too. Sure, he ate, but he was never hungry. So maybe this was the angel-equivalent of Hell and Daddy really was pissed that Gabriel had tried to stop all those plans or maybe He was just pissed off that Gabriel had left in the first place. It didn't really matter, because either way, Gabriel was completely boned.

He was going to have to find some food soon and maybe even figure out some shelter. The idea of burrowing into the snow seemed kind of pathetic, but then so did the idea of freezing to death, so there was that, at least.

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Javert can't really abide idleness or indecision. As such, having spent the last few nights with back-to-back with Sandy, and having otherwise made no progress on leaving this arena or improving his situation here, he's settled on taking some sort of action. What that is, he unfortunately doesn't know yet, but it means getting out of the hole they've made for themselves and exploring.

He walks for a long time, keeping track of where he is in relation to their hideout. For the most part, he doesn't see anyone else, but he does find a new icicle to carry around as a sort of makeshift nightstick.

His world has been made mad. He doesn't want to dwell on that, but the fact of the matter is that he has no rules to follow here and no idea what to do. He can't sink so low as to be a murderer, even against these criminals, but he has been told that these are the rules, and his core rebels at the idea of disobeying.

He finally sees someone else on the horizon, a man who appears unaccompanied. Javert pauses, taking some time to deliberate. After a moment, he begins his approach, marching towards Gabriel with obvious intent.

When Gabriel sees another person, he's both relieved and on alert. On the one hand, it's nice to see another living... whatever-he-is, but on the other, he assumes this guy was told the same thing he was; fight to the death and all that.

He also eyes the icicle in Javert's hand and, honestly, he's already been stabbed once recently. If he has to run, he'll do it.

He straightens his back and yells once Javert's in hearing range. "Hey, Bucko, I'd appreciate if you stay where you are for now." If he comes much closer, Gabriel's making a beeline for a nice little place he calls anywhere else.

Javert does not stop. He does slow his approach somewhat, though. It's not at all in his nature to lie, and so he doesn't when he calls back simply "stay where you are."

He expects it to have about as much an effect as it did on the average criminal back in Paris - very little, as most of them would try to run - but he might as well make the attempt.

Gabriel takes a few steps back in the snow. Between fight and flight, he usually tends to pick flight when he isn't sure whether the odds are on him and right now the odds are very much not on him unless this guy is uncoordinated enough to stab himself with that ice.

"Why? So you can kill me?" He's not that stupid. "No, thanks, Buddy. I don't intend to make it that easy on you." And he's not particularly sorry about that, either.

"I should warn you, if you run I'll have reason to pursue you." Javert doesn't seem upset by Gabriel's reaction; possibly, on some basic level, he wants Gabriel to get away. Context of the game or not, Javert has trouble finding duty in attacking someone who's done neither him nor society any harm.

"And if you chase me, I'll have reason to kill you, so this is really going to escalate pretty quickly." He keeps backing up slowly. Without his powers or any weapons, running is really all he's got right now, but he's a champion at running away. He's spent a lot of time doing it and the snow might actually help him get away, too.

"Reason isn't really capability, now, is it?" He keeps coming closer, hand clenched over the middle of the icicle. There's none of the satisfaction he'd normally have trapping a criminal. There's almost a nervousness to Javert, as if he's trying to hold down acknowledging that everything about this is sick and wrong. He's managed to delude himself away from that so far, but it's a task.

"I've done a lot more with a lot less, mister."

Gabriel makes like he's going to run to the left, darts to the right and then quickly turns to run directly away from Javert. After everything he's been through, he's not letting some human take him down with a chunk of ice. He just hopes that the poor visibility in the snow will be to his advantage.

Javert moves to the left, then to the right, following Gabriel. He isn't as fast, especially after several days in this environment with barely anything to eat, but he's persistent, and doesn't lose Gabriel's trail. He's surmised that Gabriel is relatively new here, and as such won't know about the ice crevices in the field up ahead. He hopes to trap Gabriel against one of the big, dangerous cracks.

Of course Gabriel doesn't know about them. He can't even see them, let alone see them and anyway he's a little busy running away from a madman with a freakin' icicle.

When he hits the edge of a crevice with his boot, he slips right into it, sliding across the ice with a moment of panic. All he can think is stop and then... he does. He's floating. Huh.

He laughs as he lowers himself to the floor of the crevice. It's low and bitter and just this side of sounding a little unhinged. Whatever brought his powers back, he's not complaining at all.

"Oh, no, Mister. Please!" And then he waits.

Pleading has about as much effect on Javert as a glass full of water on a house fire. He doesn't really hear it, beyond figuring it as a way to pinpoint Gabriel's location.

He reaches the edge of the crevice, and while Gabriel's a little out of sight, Javert's confident he can hear him if he gets down into the crack, where the echoes will guide him. He starts to climb down, tucking the icicle in the belt of his winter pants to keep it falling. It's only about twenty feet, not far.

Oh, Gabriel is counting on it having no effect. He's had enough of pushy dicks and now he's finally in a fight he can win.

Energy crackles around him, almost forming the shape of wings behind his back. His stance is tense, ready to take whatever comes at him. "Are you a God-fearing man? Because you're about to be touched by an angel."

Javert drops to the bottom of the crevice, lands on his feet, and stops. He pulls the icicle out, but does not approach. What appears before him seems to be an angel, and while he's been much too self-righteous to ever fear God he's always believed in such things, in the peripheral way of accepting things that doesn't really require reflecting on them.

The only explanation is that he's gone mad. It's a particularly unpleasant feeling; Javert's inclination towards orderliness and method doesn't mesh well with a world full of unexpected chaos and lawlessness. Previously it was the law of man that was all topsy-turvy to him, but now he sees that it's the laws of nature itself being turned sideways.

"An angel?" he repeats, disbelieving. He wonders if the lack of logical law means he should abandon the laws of his own ethics as well, but bats that aside. He doesn't approach but instead sort of boggles at the man in front of him.

"That's right, Champ." He's already been outed, anyway, hasn't he? His death must have been noticed in Heaven. He could hide again, but that's not really in his favor at this exact moment, is it?

"Someone once threatened to deep fry me and I've always kind of wondered what that would look like from the outside." Energy crackles around his hand as he takes a step towards Javert.

"I'll let you know what it looks like later." He throws a crack of hot energy right past Javert's head. "Assuming you've still got ears."

Javert ducks his head down, but also moves forward. It's clear this strange man, now no longer a hunted creature but the possessor of the upper hand, intends to do him harm now that the roles are reversed. Javert doesn't really intend for that to happen.

He moves forward with fearless, almost reckless intent, looking to slam the icicle into Gabriel's midsection.

Gabriel disappears just before Javert reaches him, reappearing a few feet behind him. "You're fighting a soldier of God with a piece of ice? You've got a bigger death wish than Willy Loman, kid."

He snaps and the snow around Javert flies upwards, pelting him around the torso. "It would probably be fair for me to let you run, right?"

Javert slaps at the snow and whirls around, although he's well aware by now that he's outmatched by this strange angel man with words and phrases he can't follow. He could press the attack but he doubts it will be of much use.

"Will you let me run just so you can pursue me?"

"Wouldn't be the first time." He shrugs. It's not like it's going to even add much of a challenge if he does. He's going to kill the dick either way and he could use some cosmic punishment for chasing an unarmed guy he thought was human.

"Congratulations. You're now the deadliest catch." He grins and starts to count down. "Ten, Nine, Eight..."

Javert turns and runs. Not because he's giving up, but because he isn't stupid. The crevice is, unfortunately, a straight line, but he moves quickly looking to get up, out and away from the man with the lightning.

Gabriel actually counts down all the way to three before he gets too bored to finish and starts to walk calmly after Javert. It's not cheating if he makes it more than halfway through the promised numbers.

He snaps again and this time sharp chunks of ice fly up at Javert. Gabriel's a survivor and if it's him or this guy, he's picking himself. He's not even a little sorry.

Javert grunts as an ice shard whips by his cheekbone, leaving a nasty slash. A splash of blood follows the ice chunk into the crevice wall. He sees an overhang and leap for it, looking to get his feet under him and escape to leave Gabriel in the crack, but when he tries to grab it his arms slip from the ice.

He tries again, and this time has a little more success. He starts to pull himself up.

Gabriel keeps pelting him with things as he climbs. He's going to have fun with this. If he were a good man, he'd make it slow and painless, but he's got some room for improvement.

He's still walking slowly and calmly towards Javert as he climbs. This really is cruel, even for him. Maybe he should just put this guy out of his misery.

Javert hoists himself up on a ledge, although he's not out of danger yet. Pressed against the ice wall, he's vulnerable to any ranged attack. He grabs another lip of ice, finds a groove to get his feet into, and emerges up from the crack to the surface.

And, unknowingly, past where Gabriel's powers will reach.

Oh, a real chase? Gabriel starts to float up, but once he hits the lip of the crevice, he falls straight back to the bottom.

Luckily, the ice is there to break his fall and that seems to have just be a flub, because his powers are back. Still, climbing might be a better plan, so he starts that. Little does he know that when he gets to the top, his powers will be gone and if Javert chose to run, Gabriel will never catch him.

Javert doesn't see Gabriel fall, but hears it. He doesn't waste time, however, in looking back to investigate. Instead he takes off, hoping to leave the crevice and the madness behind him.

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[OPEN] This is where the bad little angels go

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