(no subject)

[gamemakers]

Who|  Anyone who replied here

What| A spread of supplies, ripe for the taking.

Where| Fantasyland

When| Mid-morning

Warnings/Notes| The winning rolls are under the cut

In the remains of a little pavilion, with broken teacups scattered around the remains of a fence at the edge, a tea party is set up. 

At one end of the table sits a white placemat with a white satin bag, neatly tied up with pretty white ribbons. And the other end is the same display, in black. Along each side there are 5 a piece, one for each district, in their colors.

The table is also covered with teapots, contained for tea and sugar... however all of them have covers. Covers that are moving, being pushed up from within by a tiny creature with bright eyes and sharp teeth. As soon as the first tribute touches one of the bags the pots burst open and dozens of small, mice muttation pour out, with mouths full of sharp teeth and paws with razor sharp claws on them.

Anyone who makes it away with one of the pretty satin bags will find it contains a large thermostat of tea, 4 petit fours, a small locket containing a small amount of shimmer medicine-about enough for one wound, and a sturdy hat pin, with a very sharp point at one end. Although both the tea and cakes are very sugary, they are also very filling-they will last a few days if rationed well. 

The Winners:

1. Shatterstar
2. Punchy
3. Daniel
4. Eliot
5. Pruna
6. Topher
7. Beck
8. Sandy
9. Asha
10. Kurt
11. Glinda
12. Giaus

Unfortunately Rictor and Morrigan will not be making it out of this little tea party..

Comments

[cutshort]

"Food." He exhales, shoulders shifting with the motion. "That'd be pretty nice."

[pieceofcake]

"Of course. Why didn't I think of that?" Gaius took a quick leap backward away from several of the scattered mice, using the knife to fend off one of the creatures that managed to skitter up onto his shoulder.

There was a sickening crunch as he stomped on another one. "You know, rat-catching's not really my thing. I hope to never do it again."

[amplifying]

So it seems like Beck isn't the only one who's starving. "I hope so. I don't know about you, but I'm..." What was the word? "Starving."

[amplifying]

Beck looked up to the User and gave him a thankful smile. He never realized how tired you could be after running for a few days without eating...

He looked down to his hand and frowned a little. It stung a little, that he could tell...but how could you tell if it was poisoned? Did a User body react like a Program would to a virus? Other than very tired, and a little shaky, Beck felt fine. His hand just stung a little. Or maybe more than a little, but he wasn't about to go and say. Compared to the injuries this guy had, Beck didn't feel like he had much to talk about.

"I...don't think so." He said as he watched the red streaks move down his arm and into his clothes. "How can you tell if you're poisoned?"

It was probably a stupid question to ask during an event like this, but it was probably better to know and sound pretty stupid than not know at all.

[cutshort]

"Go ahead, then," he smiles, either teasing him on purpose or edging him on. "See if it's your lucky day."

[nunpunching]

Mousies what cats like to hunt, mousies what cats like to eat, bite they tiny heads off, nibble on theys tiny feets.

A few mice are already racing off the body of a dead Tribute. The other Tributes seem to have scattered. Punchy grabs the body and slings it over his shoulder.

"Might need to haul out, we're punched clock five minutes out of carpool."

He sounds heartbroken.

[amoral_savior]

"Hoping to get the crazy out? 'Cause I gotta tell you I'm pretty good on that front." It was a moment of bravado that Topher immediately kicked himself over. He was just begging Alpha to kill him, wasn't he?

The moment Alpha let go of his wrist Topher scrambled up. "I'm going to wipe you back to diapers." Oh, he really hoped he kept that in his head.

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel leaned over to get a good look at his hand. The bite looked pretty nasty, even if he hadn't torn the rat creature from it; since he'd had to do that much, the damage looked pretty bad. Not lethal, but it looked like it hurt. Removing the remnants of his cape, he held it up, then indicated with circular motion with his free hand that he meant to wind it around the other Tribute's hand.

Easier to give a visual at the moment then spend the effort on getting the words out through a bruised throat. Really, he was better at talking, people than this. On a good day.

This wasn't a good day.

The trails of red had begun to wind its way down the other man's arm. Daniel seriously hoped that they had begun to slow. As for poison...He could only guess at the symptoms. He might have been poisoned once or twice while on the job, but nothing that ended up lethal. He'd just felt like he wanted to crawl into a corner and not come out for a few weeks. "Feel sick usually; shakes, chills, nausea. Sweaty too maybe. Not that kind of doctor though."

[pieceofcake]

Gaius put a hand on the shoulder that wasn't covered with dead body. "Can't save them all, Ace." Of course, if they'd had a cleric around, or even if they hadn't all been tossed in here by a bunch of addled nobles, no one would have had to die.

"You want to find a place to bury 'im, right?"

[nunpunching]

Maybe not. But he should be able to save someone.

As they walk away from the killing site, Punchy shakes his head. "Nah, they take 'em...I don't know, in some kinda baller-ass spaceship. Figure it's better he gets cleaned up than someone finding his body and getting freaked out, right? We don't got shovels or shizz."

He smiles slightly, weakly. The shoulder on his hand is appreciated. "You know any prayers?"

[dieinpajamas]

"Is that so," Alpha said, a hint of a growl in his voice. "Would you like to borrow my chair? I was planning on letting you have a nice, close look at it anyway." Not that he has a chair built, but Topher doesn't need to know that just yet.

He looked at the table once more, torn between the tempting target of Topher and the enticing spread, and decided this needed to be cut short soon, if he wasn't going to kill him just yet. But Topher is his only connection to Echo, right now, and he can't resist asking. "How is my lovely girl, before we part ways? Not taking the loss of her boytoy too hard, is she?"

[amplifying]

"...Alright, then..." Beck muttered, looking towards the tables.

It wasn't like he was the only one going up; there were a lot of other Tributes making for the packs. But since one was hesitant...everyone else was, too. It was contagious.

Beck grabbed his pack the minute someone else did, and quickly pulled his away. That was when someone else touched one of the little cup things on the table, and little rat-things started to pour out everywhere. Very nice.

He backed away and looked inside of his quick, and grinned. "Something smells good. I can't tell what it is. You gonna get yours?"

[amplifying]

Beck watched carefully as the other Tribute took off whatever remained of his cape, before showing him to wrap it around his. Beck found his own cape pretty handy; it didn't feel like taking whatever was left of his to use it seemed like the right thing to do. "Are you sure...?" Beck asked quietly...but he wrapped it around his hand, anyway. It hurt...pretty bad, but he clamped his mouth down, until the bite was behind the layers of cloth. It felt like it didn't help, but he couldn't see anymore blood. That was a start, he supposed.

He listened carefully to the symptoms of poison, and nodded. Beck wasn't all too familiar with feeling nauseous or sweaty. Maybe it felt more like being infected with a virus. "I'll tell you if I feel anything." It would help if he knew what those things felt like, though...

"...What does it feel like when you're nauseous?"

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel gave the tiniest of nods, and was relieved to find that he could manage that fine. Only a faint sting. He tried to be as gentle as possible, but the he also had to make sure it was tied securely around the wound; there really was no way of avoiding making the tie firm.

For a moment, the archaeologist only stared at him. Was he serious? Either that or he's been incredibly lucky health-wise, Daniel thought. Not that most people got poisoned, but sickness, upset stomachs happened. He couldn't think of anyone on Earth who might have gotten away from knowing what nausea was at least once.

"Like food wants to come back up. Stomach roils, flips. Stuff wants to come back up throat. That kinda thing," he tried. Daniel's gaze flicked to the bag in the Tribute's hand. "Anything useful there?"

[amoral_savior]

"You don't have a chair." Even if he did, Topher sure as hell didn't want any sort of personal look at the thing while Alpha was free to do something horrible, like stick Topher in it. He started to walk backward away from Alpha and more into the chaos, but Alpha's words made him pause.

Okay, so the guy was crazy, but he wasn't dumb. Well, not all of him anyway; why was he talking about Paul. "I'm sure they're living it up as Handler and Active. Why do you care anyway?"

[dieinpajamas]

"Right, because that wouldn't be my first goal," Alpha said sarcastically, then frowned. "What? I left Ballard a braindead lump. I know her standards have fallen without me around, but there are limits."

[amoral_savior]

"Yeah I saw your sad little chair back home. Again I'm going to mention the fact that it was sad." He crossed his arms a bit more confident now that he could have one up on Alpha. "Uh, no. I'm not saying he's smarter than a fifth grader, but a lump he is not. Your little smash brothers game with Echo's original was all sorts of fail."

[dieinpajamas]

Alpha's eyebrows raised. Where was this newfound courage coming from? And what should Alpha do to crush it? They were on a time limit, so he put that aside. "That was over a year ago, and considering Echo's activities over the summer it was anything but a failure. I made her, and unmade her precious Ballard."

[amplifying]

This User was just...staring at him. "...What?"

Okay, so Beck knew he had stuff inside that helped his body to function properly. And everything kind of worked together. Kind of how each piece of a light cycle helped each other to operate. But that's...all Beck really knew about the User body. Those he met before coming to the Arena never went into full detail. He had to keep his User body healthy, he had to kept his User body fed. He had to keep his identity disc safe, since it was now a part of his User body, and any damage to it meant damage to himself.

He ate food once. It wasn't a lot, and it was a part of someone else's meal, so he didn't get as much as his User body probably needed. Which could explain why he was so tired right now..."And that's right, here, right?" Beck asked, pointing to his middle. He couldn't see how food could make itself come back up, but it didn't sound all that great.

Beck paused for a moment, before digging into his bag. After rummaging for a minute, he pulled out a thermostat, and a little thing of medicine. "There's some more stuff inside. Do you have the same things?"

[amoral_savior]

He edged closer to the chaos as he kept talking. Courage in numbers and the ability to hide really well. "You need to invest in a calendar, Mr. Mulitiples, that was only a few days ago."

[dieinpajamas]

Alpha stared at Topher. "Well this is interesting," he murmured. There was an instant when he considered that his own memories had been altered somehow, but that was simply impossible and he threw that theory out. This needed more thought.

"I would love to continue this discussion because it is fascinating, but there's fashionably late and there's just being rude. I'll just have to track you down later to continue this little chat." And with a pointed grin he turned and ran for the table.

Beck. You have earned this face.

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel couldn't help it. He actually gaped a little when the Tribute pointed to his middle as if he wasn't sure what part of his body did what. Was this guy for real?

He recovered with some difficulty, but not enough to cover up the astonished look; Daniel didn't make it a habit to get shocked into silence, and doing that to a linguist was usually a hard thing to do in the first place. If anything, and Jack was fond of griping about it, Daniel rarely ever ran out of words.

"Er, yes. More right here though." Daniel corrected his aim, there, that's the stomach right there, and feeling the slightest bit surreal that he even had to do it in the first place.

Daniel opened his own bag. It looked about the same. "Same thing." The medicine Beck pulled out looked promising. He touched the little tin that the Tribute had withdrawn. "Would that help on your wound?"

PERFECT!

[amplifying]

Beck didn't get it. And again, he has to ask. "......What?" Maybe he should ask this person more about the User body, so he sounded like he knew what he was doing most of the time.

He watches as Daniel helps to locate where this stomach thing is, and nods. Okay. So he knows that your brain is in your head, the red stuff inside of you helps keep you alive, and the stomach is right there. He wants to think that he's covered most of the important things, but the User body already feels kind of...complicated. There was probably going to be more. What was the chances? "Thanks." he said, looking up to Daniel after he's gotten that memorized. "I'm kind of...new to this." Obviously.

Beck observes the little can in his hands. It...looks weird. Not like anything he can recognize. But then again, nothing here he can recognize. "This'll help?" He asked, looking to the man with a little bit of suspicion. "Will it help you, too?"

[hi_there_aliens]

It was as if Daniel had just given him a driving lesson. He found himself seriously worried for the Tribute, and especially his chances if the Arena if he wasn't aware of his body or what it needed.

"I know this is a weird question, but you're not human, are you?" Daniel asked. It was one thing not to be familiar with more specific anatomy, but knowing something as simple as where your stomach was was sort of a basic thing, no matter the culture.

"I don't know. Hopefully." Daniel turned the can over; it looked a lot like the canister the first sponsor had sent him back at the Cornucopia. He popped the top and looked inside. The liquid was a different color though. He dipped a finger in it, just a test, and slathered a small portion on his neck. It took several seconds, but the glass-scratching sensation began to dull.

[itswhoyouare]

"I know, Eliot. I just helped another one out, along with a teenager. It's just wrong," she said softly and urged him forward until they were out of Fantasyland.