thearena | (no subject)

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Who| Everyone in the arena
What| Even more reasons to hate the Capitol.
Where| Everywhere.
When| 4 am.
Warnings/Notes| Any group is being targeted to be separated. Everyone should be tagging someone they are not with, as well as those they are, as the Gamemakers are driving them apart. (You can feel free to search for, and possibly find your buddies later)

Once upon a time, when this place was a much happier place, fireworks would light up the sky, delighting children and leaving everyone with a magical feeling in their hearts.

This will not leave anyone with a magical feeling.

It was much later than a fireworks show would have ever gone. Closer to dawn then not, when anyone who could rest, even those far from it, would have finally managed to drift off.

It started with a strange, warbling music. For those familiar with this place it feels wrong, close to something they would connect with this show, but wrong. Distorted. Stumbling through a few bars, it starts to peter out just in time for a high pitches whistling.

And then the first firework explodes into the ground in a shower of bright colors, lighting up the castle. There is a moment of silence as the sparks fade.

And then all hell breaks loose.

Whoever is controlling the fireworks obviously have goals in mind. The strikes are tight, controlled. They are herding. Targeting the groups, the pairs, driving them apart.

The fireworks aren't made to kill (although a direct hit may), but they burn flesh, and leave anyone who looks at them too close momentarily blinded. Ever one is a shrieker, loud, louder then the shrillest fourth of July fireworks, screaming toward their targets. The arena is suddenly a shrill battleground, full of blindingly bright colors.

Th whole attack doesn't last longer than 20 minutes, petering off as the divisions have been deemed enough. A few squeal through the night here and there and then finally, blissfully silent.

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Being alone was starting to be a problem. Left alone with his own thoughts, his many, many thoughts, especially after the fire debacle, somehow makes it more of a struggle to keep Ballard in check. Particularly now that his face is scarred all to hell, which he found hilarious.

When the fireworks began there's a split-second where Alpha thinks that Ballard's somehow managed to force memories back to the experience, is making them relive the flames all over again, but he's quickly over that and running for cover.

R's used to stumbling around, lost in his head. Having fireworks raining down on him and trying to light him on fire is a new one and it's a lot like being shot at if the bullets were pretty colors. He thinks he liked them a lot better in Perry's memories.

It was only a matter of time before R suddenly materialized near Alpha, stumbling out of the smoke and nearly ramming into him.

"Not....that...way!" R gasped.

Alpha jerked to the side when R lurched out of the smoke, nearly throwing himself into the path of another rocket, but he caught himself in time and froze for a split-second, staring, before shaking himself and continuing to move.

The smoke, darkness, and flashing lights make it difficult to see, but he's reasonably certain he recognized R as someone he'd made a point of remembering while going over the videos so he did his best to keep R within his blurry sight as he ran.

R is doing this weird hobbling limp manuever - he's nowhere close to keeping up with Alpha, but he's making a damn good effort to try anyway.

With everything exploding around them, R was more than a little turned around and while self-preservation was pretty far down the priority list for a zombie, he'd already decided he wanted to stick around for Julie. R copied Alpha, dogging after him and hoping he knew where he was going. He looked like he knew where he was going. Living people were better at thinking on the fly, right?

Alpha kept moving for a bit even once the fireworks stop, not trusting that that's the end of it right away. Eventually he stopped, turning so he can keep R in his sight even as he tried to catch his breath back from the unexpected sprint.

"Well," he said, panting more than he needed to. He probably didn't need to play down his physical ability, he's seen the type of speed R's got, but it never hurts. "That was some show."

It took R a bit longer to catch up, the zombie hobbling as fast as he could and by a stroke of luck, didn't get tossed on his butt from his stump sliding around. Unlike Alpha, he wasn't panting and struggling to catch his breath.

"Show," R echoed, trying on the word, rolling it around his mouth, and deciding yeah, that totally wasn't how he'd put it if it was up to him. "Not...a good show. I'll skip...next...time."

R sniffed then, smelling something burning. His first thought was it was him. Zombies were flammable and it was one of those things you had to check when you were Dead - R glanced down, made sure his corpse or hair or anything else wasn't on fire. Nope, he was good. The other guy, though...

He sniffed again, looked over and uh, yeah, that might be a problem. R decided to be helpful:

"You're on...fire..." R groaned and tried to point at where part of Alpha's clothes were smoldering from some spark that must've got him on the way here. It was smoking, dangerously close to lighting up in the next couple of minutes.

Alpha watched R with interest, taking in his condition while he waited for each new word. The zombie or whatever he was seemed to be in rough shape. Apparently this Arena was a rough one all around, and Alpha was trying to decide if he's even in the mood to take out R just then when R lifted his hand to point at him.

For a brief second Alpha thought R was speaking metaphorically before it hit him and he looked himself over quickly. "Goddamnit," he snapped, his cheerful veneer slipping in his annoyance, and slapped at the smoldering hem of his ridiculous tunic. "Oh goddamnit," he said again, realizing then that he'd left his supplies behind during the barrage. "Happiest place on Earth, goddamn."

R's wincing in his head - it just doesn't translate to his face, which is frozen right now in that stupid corpse's gape as he watches Alpha slapping away at the embers before they decide to spontaneously combust on him. "Goddamit" is a pretty good way of putting it.

"Do you...need...help?" R groans from a few feet too close to Alpha. An ember sparks off and burns a little hole in his own tunic, R oblivious to the smell. The zombie's starting to raise a hand toward Alpha. Maybe he better dive in and help the guy. He looks like he needs help if the goddamn's are any indication.

"No," he gritted out, paying R barely any mind, focused on himself. "I am. Just. Peachy--" He can't get at a good angle in time and it flared up, just a small flame and he gave up, stripping of the tunic and throwing it on the ground to stamp it out.

So much for keeping his cool.

Peachy? That didn't look peachy, that looked like he was on fire.

R had his doubts.

"Uhh..." R's groan even sounded skeptical. The zombie watched as the ember decided to go for broke and flare up, a little fire burning happily away on the other guy. A smart Tribute would let it go or even fan the flames, let it do the work and score the kill.

He just stood there like a rotting lump and let the man put his clothes out.

"Now...you're peachy?" R couldn't resist groaning. He thought he was trying to smile, to show he was practicing teasing, only his corpse's face wasn't up to it, frozen in the same slack expression.

Alpha heaved a pained, frustrated sigh. "The peachiest," he muttered, finally returning his attention to his newest companion. Now he was shirtless and his knife was deep in his boot, the safest place he'd felt when he'd intended to be sleeping at this time, so if R decided to attack there'd be a struggle.

He didn't appear all that interested in doing so, however. "A zombie," he said, looking R over again. "A friggin' zombie, but I'm the one on fire. Figures."

"Sorry," R wasn't sure why he was even apologizing, what he did he do to be sorry for? The sorry kinda popped out on his own. R stared at Alpha, relieved he was taking the zombie thing pretty well. Being previously on fire might have something to do with it. "Fire's...gone now. You're...good."

R tried to be helpful, swaying a little and giving Alpha another check. Nope, no more fire or embers trying to sneak up on him.

"Yeah, I'm great," Alpha said with a grimace. "Who can't have fun at Disneyworld?" He looked at R, a speculative expression crossing his face, before glancing back down at his shirt. "If I bend down to pick that up are you gonna take a chunk out of my skull?" he asked, voice mild.

R paused to actually think about it.

"It would be...tempt...ing," R groaned out and then realized after the fact that was a terrible time to make jokes. "Here."

To show he was the good guy here, R bent down himself - it was tortured looking, like one big wobble would flip him over - and picked up Alpha's shirt. He held it out to the Living man.

Alpha eyed the shirt distastefully but took it after only a moment's hesitation. "I'd wish for some disinfectant, but after wearing it for three weeks and setting it on fire, I guess zombie germs are a minor concern." He shook it out and slipped it back on. "Kind of missing the cape. Added flair."

That was probably a fair point - R didn't even think about contaminating it with his touch. In his world, if you weren't dropping maggots, that counted as clean enough.

"Maybe...check...stores? They have...hats." R said, as if all of Alpha's problems could be solved by fedoras.

"What, you think Mickey Mouse ears are me?" He wondered vaguely if he could find one with his name on it. Probably not, although chances are there were a few with his 'names' on them.

"Mickey...Mouse...ears?" R's expression goes blank, not zombie-blank but I have no idea who Mickey Mouse is blank. "What's...that?"

"Mickey Mouse? Steamboat Willie? Kind of the basis of the company that built this place?" Alpha stared, then waved a hand around them, not that there was much to see in the dark. "You do know where we are, don't you?"

R shook his head. "Only...heard...the name. It doesn't...mean anything...to me."

Basically Disneyland went the way of the dinosaur, like most populated places in R's world. He was surprised there weren't any zombies here - Alpha would've attracted them, what with the whole being on fire thing from earlier.

Alpha whistled. "What kind of depressing post-apocalyptic world are you from? A different depressing post-apocalyptic world than the one we're currently inhabiting, I assume."

He took it that he was missing out on something from the way Alpha talked.

"More...zombies, I guess," R shrugged. "Same...look."

Once you saw one post-apocalyptic world, you saw them all, right?

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Hope this is okay, lemme know if I should change!

all good!

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