thearena | (no subject)

WHO | Open!
WHAT | Come terrorize or comfort the kid
WHEN | Sometime after Javert's death
WHERE | My kingdom for a cheeseburger
WARNINGS / NOTES | Violence, possible language, etc.

Only absolute starvation could make Sandy do this.

She was sitting in front of a nest where a particularly stupid bird was sitting tilting it's head to look at her.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. She had never killed anything bigger then a spider in her life. She'd kicked at a rat once but it had scurried away. But with Javert dead she had no one bringing her dead things to eat. And she didn't think she could count on anymore surprise cans from the sky.

The Ice Axe she'd held onto since the first day in the area had provided little actual use for the girl who had done so much to avoid contact with the other tributes. But it's blade was the only tool she had that would kill the bird quickly. There was no way she could snap it's neck. Not after watching it happen to a human.

Gritting her teeth and closing her eyes to block out the memories of Javert's last moments alive she tried to focus on the moment and open her eyes again. She'd never seen a bird like this before. She assumed it was some kind of mutant giant seagull. Why not? Nothing else made sense here.

Meeting the stupid birds gaze she spoke.

"You know...I've been sitting here for like...ten minutes and you haven't tried to fly away or anything...so you are like, the dumbest bird ever."

A shiver raced through her and her stomach growled feeling like it was eating itself.

"Even ducks don't let people get this close. Don't you know how hungry I am?"

The bird began preening it's feathers.

"Whatever. The point is...this isn't personal. It's really not. But if you'd seen some of the crazy guys out here you'd know I can't kill them. I don't even think I could kill any of the younger ones. I'm not that kind of girl. I'm just some hood rat who's never even seen snow before."

The bird finished it's work and looked up as if to say Are you still here?

Sandy sighed and rose the Ice Axe up, the blade glistening in the light. "I'm sorry..."

Suddenly the bird let out a screech and spread it's wings flapping them wildly. Sandy let out a startled yelp and flailed swinging the weapon wildly.

The bird crashed into her and after a short tussle knocked her over before pecking at her face.

"GETOFFGETOFFGETOFF!" She cried having dropped the axe and was now beating at the bird furiously with her gloved fists. Every time she landed a solid hit though the bird flutter away and came at her from another direction. For something barely the size of a duck it sure had alot of anger.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dr. Klim had sworn off helping other Tributes. He had yet to make a single kill the entire Arena and suspected his soft heart would eventually get him into trouble. He was aware that Capitol had no interest in keeping a man who couldn't kill and spent his time taking pity on his enemies - especially if that man was as old and tired as he was. Still, when Sigma stepped out into the snowfield once more, it was hunger that drove him from hiding... he hadn't gone out searching for a fight.

He'd been trying to find another seabird (they had become increasingly rare, no doubt their populations driven to extinction) when he heard screaming, and the old man froze in his tracks and spun in the direction of the sound. He had expected to find two Tributes at odds, perhaps one already dead and another headed straight for him...

What he did see was much worse than that. A child..?!

Against his better judgment, Sigma dashed towards the girl as fast as his legs would carry him, hoping the bird wouldn't pluck out her eyes before he arrived. The animals were much more vicious than they appeared! A minute later, he made it to her side, and completely unarmed he did the only thing he could think to do - seized the ice axe from the snow and swung it down upon the angry beast. It was a good thing the cyborg had impeccable aim: his swing hit the animal directly, and it squawked its last before, skewered on the metal, it went limp.

Exhausted, Sigma threw the axe and bird down and dropped to his knees beside the girl, who he now realized was even younger than he'd guessed. "My God, are you alright?"

Sandy stopped shouting, stunned by the birds sudden and swift end. Her eyes were wide and she had red marks on her face from the bird's beak.

When she saw the face of her attacker and that he had picked up her weapon she let out another piercing shriek and scrambled wildly to try and pull away.

The Doctor found himself equally startled when the girl began screaming. How careless of him; what had he thought was going to happen? Ashamed to have nearly scared the poor thing to death, he scrambled backwards to give her some room.

Needing some way to calm the child down, Sigma did the same thing he had done with Howard and Eponine to gain their trust: he lowered the hood of his parka to humanize himself. "Shh! I mean no harm. You are going to get us caught," he scolded quietly.

Edited 2013-02-10 00:04 (UTC)

She was gasping for air trying to keep her mind from racing completely out of control. She was ready to take off running.

"D-drop it!" She barked pointing at the axe. It shocked her that she even dared to do that but the trembling of fear and cold mixing together did nothing to give the appearance she could do anything if he said no.

There must have been something rather comical about a little girl ordering a lethal cyborg around, but Sigma did not find the situation funny. Nor was he threatened by her, of course, but in pity Sigma dropped the handle to the snow where it laid to rest with the bird. "Of course," he answered calmly. "Please relax. I only came to help." Though Sigma usually lamented his old age, he hoped his almost grandfatherly appearance would end her panic. Then again, he had a tendency to forget that his mechanical eye was incredibly uncanny and, despite his age, he was still 6 feet tall.

The little girl's face was red with cold and she sniffed against a running nose.

"J-just...kick it away...I've lasted this long..." She was running her mouth now. She didn't know what she supposed to do next but exhaustion was helping settle her.

Sigma did as he was told, and the axe slid away from him across the snow. He watched her, for a moment, and realized that against any other tribute her fear would be well warranted. She was small, and looked as though she were fragile enough to snap with his bare hands. "That you have," he observed. "The two of us must be extremely lucky..."

His stomach twisted with anger. To have someone so young fight in the arena for their entertainment was so unjustifiably cruel Sigma knew he would be unable to forgive any Capitol citizen who enjoyed this game. He sat down in the snow with his arms folded, and watched her. "Are you hurt?" The marks on her face looked painful.

With the axe out of arms reached she allowed herself another bit of relaxing her defenses. Her legs were still stiff and eager to to move, but there was no point in it yet.

"I'll be OK...lease there's something to eat now." She would have to pluck it first. See if she could figure out how to cook it. If she got desperate she'd probably just tear into it and hope it didn't kill her.

"Stupid bird." she muttered.

"Good," he said gently. The girl must have been quite clever to survive this long on her own, but he imagined that enraging a bird was not her most brilliant of decisions.

Still on his knees, Sigma waited patiently. "Do you mind if I straighten up, miss...?" He trailed off, in such a way that he hoped she would introduce herself.

Sandy seemed unsure but shrugged, "Yeah alright...just...don't get too close."

Moving nervously to the side she scooped up the axe and let her eyes stray to the bird. Her stomach growled but she ignored it as best she could.

Following her orders, Sigma stood tall and brushed himself off. He beheld her with sympathy in his eyes that he did not bother to hide. She was clearly uncomfortable, and he wondered if there had been a single person to look after her all this time...

"...My name is Sigma, miss. If I may make a suggestion, it would be wise to be a little quieter the next time you get into trouble." He cleared his throat, and tried a smile. He was bad at them. "I'm afraid I have already used the last of my matches, or else I would show you how to cook that bird."

"It's not like I had much time to think about it." Sandy muttered feeling embarrassed at such an obvious mistake. He had a point though. If he'd wanted to be someone to kill her that noise would have drawn him right to her.

"I dunno if it's alright to eat this or not without cooking it. But it's not like I have a choice." She added idly plucking feathers off the stiffening body.