Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Gotham anymore [open]

[battroll]

WHO| Bruce Wayne AND YOU?
WHAT| There's another new arrival out here in the snow.
WHEN| Week... 4? am I counting this right? is this week 4 or was that lst week? WHATEVER LAST WEEK WAS?
WHERE| Near the Cornucopia
WARNINGS/NOTES| None yet! Hopefully.

Bruce's first impression is the biting, bitter cold. His second is the wash of white.

The light from the sun is faint, muted behind the clouds above - small blessings, at least, as it keeps the white of the landscape from being quite so blinding as it might otherwise. Bruce automatically scans the horizon - or as far as he can see. The world is lost in snowfall, as though the white of the ground were leeching into the sky.

Immediate dangers: none that he can see. Less immediate dangers-

He has the clothes on his back, and nothing else. The elements. The fact that he was taken, and he knows so little about those who took him. Whatever might be happening in Gotham-

And that was pointless to think about now.

Bruce looked around himself once more. There was something, at least, golden and shining, some kind of horn or cornucopia, fairly close, and that would at least be as good a place as any to start. He pulled his hood close around his face, partially to keep as much bodyheat from escaping as he could, partially because that made him feel enclosed, safer. His face felt too exposed.

"Hello?" Slowly, he stepped off the plate - it was like stepping into talcum powder - and began making a cautious way towards the great horn. They'd said they - he, and these others he was being thrown into this place with - were there to kill each other, but if that was the case then the sooner Bruce found the others, the better.

He wished he had some of his own gear.

Comments

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy froze hearing someone calling out and mentally cursed herself for returning to the Cornicopia again.

She'd gotten used to returning to the landmark simply because it was familiar. Wandering the frozen powdered arena had become so tedious for her, constantly worrying about falling into one of those holes, trying to figure out if those spots of black in the distance were rocks or people coming to kill her.

So here she was, inside the Cornicopia, trapped with someone's footsteps coming towards her.
Two options. Run for her life or try and climb up the horn. She took a moment to run her gloved hand along the metal wall.

No way. Running would have to do. She bundled up her sleeping bag and preyed this person wouldn't have Riddick's insane stamina.

She shot out from the Cornicopia like a rat fleeing a sinking ship. She was surprisingly fast for her scrawny size.

[battroll]

Bruce felt his heart freeze at the size of the figure who blew out of the Cornucopia in front of him. No. That looked like a child, not just another person, not one of the many varied people who were supposedly here to kill and be killed. There were children in here - and even if they'd lied about their purpose here, the figures who had escorted him to the tunnel that had just now delivered him, this cold could easily be a killer, especially to any without supplies, and a lot of them.

The words came almost without conscious direction, and were more a plea than a command.

"Wait, please!"

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy didn't stop, at least not right away. She wanted to make sure she had enough distance between the two of them.

With a good thirty feet of snow and ice between them she slowed to a trot and turned to face him. So far she'd been lucky with the people she'd met. But that couldn't last forever.

She was small, slender and with a hard stare. The kind city kids wore after the world had kicked them around too much. She couldn't be more then nine or ten years old. The jacket padded out a little but not nearly enough.

A sleeping bag was rolled and hanging off some strings over her shoulder. A sturdy looking ice axe bounced against her hip.

She waited for him to make the next move.

[battroll]

Bruce recognized that look, and doesn't move towards her. There's something in the look that makes him think of Tim, and more than anything else, that makes him angry more than anything else, angry at the people who had done this; it's an odd kind of heartbreak. She had the look of a hunted thing.

Slowly, he takes one step forward, as non-threateningly as he could, then stops, just that tiny bit closer. "Could you help me?" He had to start getting information somewhere.

[justoutrunyou]

She didn't like how he kept inching closer. The guy was huge! With shoulders she could hang off of and he probably wouldn't even feel it. She was sure that if she was standing next to him she'd feel overwhelmed.

So someone who looked like that was probably more then healthy enough for a good run if she had to get away. She'd just have to hope she didn't slip like she did with Riddick.

"I don't have any food." She stated simply. That was what most people should want in the arena. But the last few people she'd met had been happy with information so that would have to do.

[battroll]

He wasn't coming closer, not anymore. Bruce was very good at being very intimidating when he wanted to, but this wasn't one of these times. This was a time to be harmless.

He didn't seem to care, not really, when she told him she didn't have food. At least that was somewhere to start - he was another who was more interested in information. "What is there to eat? It doesn't seem like there's much around."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy shrugged her shoulders. "I had some cans that fell from the sky. I think there are some birds over that way." She pointed to the direction behind the Cornicopia. "I think being hungry is just part of being here."

The dull ache in her empty belly was proof enough of that. She'd almost gotten desperate enough to eat the lining of her sleeping bag. But being warm was more important then being fed she reasoned.

He was keeping his distance which was good. She could relax for a moment at least.

But not too much.

[battroll]

This was making him angry, all of it, and it was a bit of a challange not to show it - being angry would be frightening, and he didn't want to scare her off. He took a breath, felt the air freeze his throat, and breathed out steam. Not through his mouth, not here. Already, it seemed like conserving water would be a smart idea.

"They weren't serious, were they? About why they... what we're doing here?" Bruce sounds like he's new, but more than that, he looks like he's new - Bruce didn't look like he'd been cold for days on end, didn't look like he'd been slowly starving and dehydrating. Yes, he was big and strong, but even so.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy sighed and shrugged again "Well even if they weren't, the tributes are. I've been here for weeks and every week more people are gone. They broadcast their pictures in the sky when they get killed."

The ominous understanding of what those images had meant had dawned on her the very first night she saw them. And each one added to a growing dread in her chest that they were running out of other people. Sooner or later whoever was doing all this killing would have to come after her.

[battroll]

Bruce's hands clench into fists at his side, and he bows his head, just a little.

"How can they allow this sort of thing? How can anyone? And why hasn't someone put a stop to this?" He looks back up at her. "Are you sure there's not some mistake? Could it be... something, anything else?"

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy smiled softly, having finally found someone else who shared her disgust at the situation. She shook her head feeling emotionally exhausted from it.

"I met a woman back before the game started. She told me it was for the good of the Nation. We each represent a district I guess. And whichever one of us survives, the district gets extra food and stuff."

She folded her arms looking disdainful, "Not that I've ever met any of them."

hope you don't mind the dropping in on this thread...

[icanbeanyone]

Copycat has spent her days discovering the secret of the crevasses in the Arena: once she's in them, she has her powers. Once she leaves, she is back to her blue state.

How has she survived so long in this cold arena? Simple. She stays in the crevasses, in the form of the mutant who killed her: Sabretooth. His regenerative healing factor and immunity to the cold of the arena keep her very comfortable while she's down there.

Why is she top-side now? Well, for one thing she can't get any food down there, and it's not like everyone is itching to kill each other off in the place. It's a matter of survival. To live, she needs to kill until she's the last woman standing. The last thing she wants is to go back to being dead.

And all that time spent as Sabretooth has left her hungry for murder and bloodshed. And how wonderfully convenient is it that she stumbles on not only one, but two vulnerable Tributes?

"Haven't you learned anything about survival, sweetie? First lesson: don't trust anyone." Upon first glance, appearance aside she looks harmless. But when she drops her bag, there's a four-inch folding knife in her hand. And the blade is out.

It's fine by me! Sorry I've been taking so long, I don't even have any good excuses this time...

[battroll]

It hasn't exhausted Bruce, or not yet, though it certainly may. It does make him angry - admittedly he doesn't understand all of the situation, not yet, but he knows enough to know that it's wrong, and everything he hears is just another nail in the coffin of the damned.

Bruce notices the stranger coming, even through the swirling whiteness, but didn't do much until she spoke. Until the bag dropped. And then, automatically, he started assessing risks, sizing her up as a potential enemy. The cold weather gear hides more than he'd like, but that can't be helped. He's not used to how these clothes move and pull, but that can't be helped either.

"Get behind me," he told the girl, tersely, moving in an attempt to get between her and the woman.

"Drop the knife."

[icanbeanyone]

Unlike poor Bruce, Copycat's had plenty of time to get used to how the clothes pull at her, and she's adjusted accordingly. And she really doesn't need the clothes when she's shifting forms. Sabretooth and Wolverine don't need them to stay warm. Deadpool and Feral either. Possibly Cannonball as well.

...But that's not the point. It's useless up on the surface. Right now she's sizing up her new opponent and noting how protective he is of the child. That could come in handy.

"Normally I don't just kill people willy-nilly like this, but under the circumstances I'm afraid I have no choice." She's quick to rush forward, with peak-human speed, around Bruce to the child. "I don't kill children, but I've just come back from the dead and I'd like it to stay that way."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy was perfectly willing to let Bruce get between her and the woman. Even with her saying she doesn't kill children.

"Let him go!" She shouted losing her carefully culled sense of self preservation as soon as Copycat struck.