thearena | A melody of angry growls, a counterpoint of painful howls

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A melody of angry growls, a counterpoint of painful howls

WHO| Rapunzel and Some
WHAT| OKAY, WHO TRIGGERED THE MONSTER TOONS. DARN IT, RAPUNZEL.
WHEN| Week 2, during the night
WHERE| Toon Town
WARNINGS/NOTES| Your worst nightmare

The thing that woke her up was the feel of something small and soft, with sharp skritchy nails, running across her. It was too heavy, and too soft, and its claws were far too sharp to be Pascal, but there were so few rats in the tower that she couldn't think what it had been. It was enough to pull her into wakefulness - and that was probably the only thing that saved her.

Another two rats ran by, as she sat up, her hair pooling by her feet as it slid off her body, and a few seconds too late she cringed away from them a little. It didn't matter, they hadn't been running from her, and hadn't touched her anyway.

Which, Rapunzel's sleep-fogged brain slowly worked out, meant they were probably running from something.

Rapunzel was not used to being in the open, and the vastness of the sky scared her here more than it probably would have at home. A roof had felt safer, more enclosed. More like home - or, at least, as close as she was likely to find here. And the floor had even been soft, somehow. Like everything else thus far, it hadn't been ideal, but surely it would do. Now, though, that roof meant that it was very dark inside the little building - but still not dark enough that she didn't see the splashes of color moving closer, as the rats squeaked and ran.

Rapunzel stumbled to her feet, hands full of her hair, and started backing towards the exit, more slowly than she maybe should have. But nothing had tried to kill her yesterday, nothing had tried to kill her yet.

"No," she murmured, voice soft and full of horrified denial as she backed away from the patches of color, "no."

Reflected moonlight glinted in through the doorway in a brief instant, maybe because the clouds had parted, and glinted on teeth and claws and open mouths and blank, staring eyes of huge animals, wearing tattered clothing, their eyes on her, their jaws open, red tongues-

"No!" This last word was more scream than word, and then she was running, running as fast as she could, down and away. She was in good shape but her heart was still pounding, from fear as much as anything, and the hair that she wasn't holding flew behind her like a banner.

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Unlike Some, Rapunzel couldn't see. She could feel the water moving around her, rippling as though there was something else with her, which only made her think of the monster. It had been feathered, with a beak, like a water bird, with a small head and blank eyes and-

Rapunzel's struggling turned more frantic as she tried to claw her way up the wall, but it was slick and smooth, and it was starting to seem that the water might go on forever.

There was a crack in the wall, and she grabbed it, chipping fingernails and scratching fingers as she clawed at it, using it to propel herself as far upwards as she could, clawing with the other hand and her feet, trying to find something. This would all be so much easier if she could breathe.

Edited 2013-03-29 05:56 (UTC)

Some kicked forward, hard, catching himself against the wall with a forefoot to either side of her, and grabbed her hands. Stretched out, he was over twice her height, but even he wasn't as tall as the water was deep. He had to push off the wall again, her hair tangling around him in the water as he swam them both to the surface.

She struggled for a moment, kicking wildly and managing to jar her foot when something grabbed her - but it was something pulling her up, away from the cold water, not deeper, and that was something. The water was pulling past her face - though that seemed oddly distant, as did the breath escaping past her lips. It was hard to focus anymore. The water felt wrong as she tried to breathe it, she knew that much, but there wasn't air-

Until there was.

Even once her face broke free of the water, it took Rapunzel a moment to breathe. Once she did, she started coughing, and couldn't stop.

He paddled beside her, one foreleg hooked under her to keep her up before he pulled her across his back. They were near enough the edge now that he could just hold onto it, keeping them on place.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, can you hear me?" he asked, clearing the hair out of her face, his upper body twisted around to face her.

She was still coughing up water and gasping, trying to get enough air into her lungs, and wasn't much good for talking for about a minute. It was disorientating, but the thing that was coming across was that the no one was trying to kill her for now, and she wasn't drowning, and she probably wasn't going to die.

Yet.

She coughed and curled up and tried - successfully, if only just - to keep from throwing up. She also tried to keep from crying again, but there failed.

"Who are you?"

It wasn't quite a yes or no answer to the question but seemed like the more pressing issue, just then. Who was this who kept on saving her? She was beginning to think that he might be a friend, but how could she have friends that she didn't know? How could anyone have friends here? It seemed like everyone should be too busy trying not to die to have time to bother

He stared at her, blinking, and his heart, which had climbed into his throat when she went under, sank to the depths of his stomach instead. Who are you? But... but he knew he couldn't be mistaken as to who she was. "... Rapunzel, it's Some," he said again, voice distinctly more anxious. "Don't you know me? From Bete Noire?"

"I've never... Mother never..." She stops there, maybe because she doesn't want to say anything more. But the words don't make sense, so she takes a different route.

"Is Bete Noire some kind of city? I've never been to a city - sometimes I used to think I'd like to go, but Mother didn't want me to. She was right."

He kept staring, at a loss for words himself. "You- you came here just from your tower?" he asked, voice a little weaker than he would have liked. Oh, if this was something the Capitol had done, it was cruel. He'd rather be back on the glacier.

"How do you know about that?" Rapunzel would be less okay with someone else knowing so much about her, if not for...

Well.

If not.

She wiped green - algae or moss or slime something - from her face and that hair which she could. She could almost breathe normally again, and at least most of the blood was gone. One trauma at a time.

"Because-" He trailed off, dismayed. How in earth to explain that? He didn't really understand himself. "I know- knew... you. Rapunzel. Or... another Rapunzel. We... she lived with me in the city where I lived before. We were very... very good friends."

Rapunzel wiped her eyes as she looked up at him, and tried to stop crying. He wasn't human, and his teeth were most decidedly pointy, but... he'd helped her. He saved her. He kept on doing so. And maybe, here, the shape of your teeth didn't matter quite so much, not with what else there was.

Her voice is a little husky when she speaks, but there's something that at least vaguely resembles a smile in it, which is better than the last 20 minutes.

"We... we were?"

He nodded, with a little double smile of his own, though it faded quickly. "I'll tell you all about her if you like, but we should- should find somewhere safer, first. Will you stick with me, at least for now?"

She just looked at him for a moment. Her eyes were wide and still scared and almost trusting. He didn't have to save her.

The sight of the smile - of the smiles, of his pointy teeth and all that had been drilled into her about avoiding that - made her hesitate, but he was smiling. So instead she just looked at him, a little hesitant.

"Do you promise?" There were a number of things she could have been asking if he was promising besides the obvious, but she didn't specify beyond that question. In a way, she was scared to.

"Of course," he said, tone encouraging. He would be only too happy to tell her anything she asked, if she would just let him keep her safe. Even if she wasn't his.

He offered her a hand, to help her onto his back.

She was shivering by now, because the water was cold and she was drenched through and through. The air outside wasn't freezing, not like in winter, when she closed and bolted her window whenever Mother wasn't coming or going, and built up the fire, but it had still been vaguely chilly even before all this, and now....

But she took the proffered hand after only a little hesitation, and allowed him to pull her close, and onto his back.

He was as wet as her, and didn't have much body-heat to offer, but he wrapped his good lower arm around her, secure as a seat-belt as he climbed away from the water, spider-like until they were on level ground again. If it were just himself, he'd seek the darkest place.

"... Do you mind the dark?"

"I guess not." Her voice is just a little hesitant as she speaks, because things were very rarely so black in her tower - there was sunlight, and starlight, and candles, and the fireplace to provide both light and warmth. Still, if it was safe, surely it was better.

"Then let's find a safe place... and maybe I can find you some food," he offered, starting into a low, smooth jog.

Rapunzel is silent for the first little while, curled up against him, her hands full of armfuls of her hair as she tries not to shiver between the chill and the breeze from the speed and her wet clothes and hair clinging to her. Her fingers hurt, and so did her foot. Lucky. Lucky that this was the worst that had happened. That made her shiver harder, and she turned her head to hide her face against this thing's- Some, he'd said his name was - his back. She turned to look back out to the world again not long after, because she couldn't be afraid. There wasn't time.

"Is it always like this?"

"There were not any monsters last time..." Though there had been the time before, and those birds in his first arena. But he chose prudently not to mention that. "And I think there are many more people this time. Have you run into anyone else?"

It was easy to talk while running - it was not the same pair of lungs, after all.

"Last time? But they told me-"

If they were all supposed to kill each other, how did this thing know about last time? Had he just seen it, or had he been a part of it? If he had, then 'last time' would mean he won it.

They were supposed to kill each other. They were supposed to be enemies. Rapunzel felt numb. Only... only he'd saved her. From... whatever those things would have done to her (their laughing) and from drowning both. He'd been... hurt. She'd kicked him, hit, fought to get free, and.... She curled her hands loosely and held them close to her chest; her fingers hurt. Her foot hurt.

She should be dead.

"Yes. I met a lot of people, before I met you. And those...." She starts to shake, harder than before. "... things. Were they contestants too?" Her voice was starting to tremble, for all she was trying to hold it steady.

Spying something that looked like decent shelter, he picked through the rubble of broken horses and bent pulls, trying to listen even as he considered her questions.

"I don't... I don't think so... All of the contestants, tributes are... are intelligent. I think. I think..." He trailed off a moment, going quite still as a rat scurried through the debris, startling him. "I don't know what they were.

"What did they tell you?"

"That we were supposed to kill each other?"

Rapunzel's voice is helpless, half a question. "But you haven't been trying to kill me. Not many of the people here have."

He set a hand on her head to shield it as he ducked under the collapsed roof, creeping low, moving slowly now. "We're..." Oh, Rapunzel. He wanted to hug her so tight. And the fear in her voice made it not really matter that she wasn't his Rapunzel, if only he knew he could have offered comfort.

"Not everyone wants to... And it's not for- not real death, not forever," he hastened to add, his eyes reflecting the light in blue-green pools as he turned to look back at her. "You wake up in the Capitol again, and they treat us better there..."

"I... I don't understand." Her voice is small, and a little broken, and she tries to keep from shaking as she tries to wipe the blood out of her hair - some was still dry. It was too much.

"How can you die but not... die? You don't- If you die, you don't- That's it. Isn't it?"

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