thearena | In the Dark

Entry tags:

In the Dark

Who| Volanz and Some
What| Piranhas for dinner, dark places, and finding the bear muttation.
Where| Critter Country, somewhere on Splash Mountain
When| Week 4, sometime after fireworks
Warnings/Notes| Raw fish, eventual character death, and also bear.

It was a cave, and that was comforting. Actually, it was more of a tunnel with water running through the center and creepy fake animals on either side, but it was good enough. There weren't any places he felt safe here, but it seemed like an alright place to stop and eat what he'd caught. Volanz liked the solidness of the roof over his head, after the firework debacle, and the dark and quiet made him feel a little more secure. Well, aside from the sloshing of the water. He stayed far from that, having already seen the suspicious pale shape of something much larger than a piranha shifting beneath the surface.

His stomach grumbled as he thought about piranhas, and he found a place to sit hunched uncomfortably against one of the walls. He unstrung three of the fanged fish from the cable he'd been hauling around.

They had turned out to be an acceptable food source. The fish were bony and cold and unsatisfying, but they were easy to dupe into biting the bent nail he'd hooked through the end of the wire, and they died when he stomped on them.

Volanz picked one up and tore into it with his teeth, chewing quickly and swallowing so he'd have to taste as little of it as possible. Blech.

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He hadn't been able to find Rapunzel the night after the explosions. He'd caught her scent once, in company with another, a human boy he didn't know, but the whole area smelled like burning and little else; there hadn't been enough to follow.

Despair had clutched at him, even as he tried to convince himself it was for the best. Because he was hungry, and the little whiff of the stranger's scent had pricked his appetite until he was all but drooling. He knew there'd come a time, and soon, when her scent would do the same, and his heart cringed painfully at the idea.

Maybe she was already dead, even. No, not dead, but back in the Capitol and safe. That idea was a barbed comfort; he tried to confine it to just thoughts of her warm and fed and comfortable. And in case she was still alive here, as the night wore on and his hunger waxed towards that dangerous tipping point that made him fear for his sanity, he made a hard decision while he still could. He fled. Across the Cornucopia's circle and to the farthest opposite end of the Arena. Clear over there, as dawn approached, he found a hole to slink down.

He eyed the rotting sculpture of a fox warily as he slunk across a damp platform ugly with little craters and peeling paint, to the edge of the murk-smelling water. He dipped a hand into it for water to cool his burns, and had to snatch it back as a fish that seemed to be all teeth snapped for his fingers. His yelp of surprise echoed in a weird, sharp way down the nearly black tunnels, and he cringed.

The yelp startled Volanz and he was up, wire dangling from one hand. For the millionth time he wished for a shield or a knife or something better than a bare fist.

It wasn't a threatening sound, unless he was vastly misjudging the somewhat warped noise.

Volanz left the two fish on the ground and crept toward the entrance, hoping that any of the apparently all-diurnal aliens wouldn't notice him in the shadows while he got a look at what was going on.

He could always run, anyway. The rat bites on his leg stung badly, reminding him this option wasn't going to last him much longer, so he'd use it while the pain still failed to overwhelm.

He was doing a fairly decent job of being stealthy until, eyes focused ahead, he failed to notice an angled beam poking out of the wall just above him and caught a horn on it. His whole body jolted at the sudden stop, for a moment sure something had grabbed him, and he swore.

The syllable just slipped out in his alarm and he immediately regretted it as he heard it echo.

So much for being stealthy.

Some's upper body jerked up, and only his crest brushing the ceiling kept him from hitting his head on it. All of these human structures were too short for him.

"... Who's there?" he hissed, instead of trying to fade bsck into the darkness. His vision down here was perfect - he thought the odds were good that he'd have the advantage.

Aww hell they heard him. Volanz shrank back. He hoped the dark was working in his advantage, having no way to guess the exact nature of the stranger.

"I don't want to fight!" Volanz shouted back. "I will if you make me, though!"

Why did his voice have to be small? At least if he were bigger he could've sounded more dangerous.

He saw the movement, and squared his shoulders, swallowing his fear. And his hunger. "Don't shout!" he hissed back, taking a few steps towards the other voice. "I'm not here to fight either."

Volanz squinted. He wasn't as good at seeing in deep darkness as Some would be, but his eyes were definitely more tuned for it than daylight.

He backed up further, for good measure. shoes scuffed on the fake stone.

"Then who are you?"

He at least did not yell this time.

Some lowered his head, tilting his upper body forward to make himself shorter than his seven-foot eight. "I'm Some ovMennet," he said, in a more normal voice. "I'm down here to stay out of the daylight. I won't be a bother to you."

"I'm kind of doing the same thing?" Volanz replied. "Just don't touch the water, it is pretty much full of things with teeth. I have been eating them but you kind of have to catch them first."

The information was a sort of peace offering. If this person-thing wasn't going to hurt him, he'd give that in return.

Also, dear god was this guy tall.

Some stepped forward, into a space where there was at least a dim suggestion of light. He'd given up the last of his clothes, except for the belt on which he'd hung his knife. It hadn't protected him from the burns that had melted fur on his face and arms and flank, burnt it raw and rough. Two of his eight eyes showed dully gray.

"I saw. Is there any safe water down here? I'm burned."

"Um," said Volanz. He thought about that. "You could probably use a piece of something to pick up some water that is not full of horrible fish? There are broken fake beasts basically everywhere in here."

He paused awkwardly for a moment, before he got to the point of what he'd been wanting to say. "Also, I know you could lie to me and all, but it would be cool if you could let me know if you're going to stab me or something so I can leave if that is the case."

Some nodded, and began casting about for one of the broken things. When he found one, he grabbed it with his forelegs, putting his whole body into tearing it open to get at its plastic shell.

"I won't hurt you," he said, flat. "I'm not going to hurt anyone, if I can help it."

Volanz sighed, a little relieved. It bothered him, though. That was what everyone had said, that he'd met.

"I was going to," he confessed. "But I don't think I'd actually be any good at it. I just would prefer that I not die?"

He watched the alien pull at the old animatronics. Awkwardly.

"Want me to help?"

"Please?" he said gratefully, leaving off for a moment. It was hard to use the burnt side of his body, after all.

Volanz stepped on the body of what had once been a cheerfully grinning raccoon and began tearing off the decaying faux fur, exposing the plastic panels that made up the underparts of its face.

He had to wrench it to break the connections, cringing as his bitten leg protested, but he was left with something long enough to touch the water and curved enough to hold some.

It'd have to do.

"Do you just want water on the burns?" Volanz asked doubtfully, not sure about first aid for his own species much less whatever this guy was.

"I think that is the best I can do. I don't know if the waterslime here is the same as at home." It didn't smell the same, so he doubted it.

"You're hurt too?"

"Not too bad," Volanz lied. "Just some squeakbeast bites? You know, from the party."

Or was it a lie? He wasn't sure, either way it wouldn't remain true for more than a few more days if it still was.

He crouched near the water and dipped the section of casing in. There was a flurry of activity as fish hit it, bumping the ersatz ladle around while trying to get purchase on the plastic, but they quickly figured out it wasn't food and lost interest.

Volanz carefully scooped up the water and brought it over to Some.

"Where first?"

He'd be careful with the water, but he was pretty sure this was going to hurt wherever he started.

"Oh, the feast." He sighed, shifting his weight off the worst-burnt leg so he could hold it up. "Here... ah, I can. I have enough hands."

Volanz supposes that's true. The alien has lots of hands, and he gives over the cupped water.

"Yeah, the feast thing was... not actually super great. And I did not get any food. I kind of wonder if that even counts as a feast, then."

He shrugs.

Some dribbled the water carefully along the scorched leg, rinsing away charred fur with a hiss through the teeth of both mouths. Like the gray kid, his teeth too are sharp and triangular, and he has more than his fair share, a double-row in each mouth.

"... Was there food for the humans?"

"I think so? By the time I got there, there was a lot of yelling and biting so I was busy running for the most part," Volanz replies.

A pause.

"You have a lot of teeth," he observes.

"They come out easy. I have to have a lot," he explained, a little distracted as he picked a bit of gravel out of the burn, wince by wince. He prodded at one tooth with a tongue as he spoke, on the side of his face he'd hit against a wall trying to run half-blind away from the fire. It came free, sure enough, as if to prove his point. He spat it into his hand, small and translucent.

"Yours don't?"

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In the Dark

Don't quite yet know the extent of his injuries from the fireworks, but thought I could still try.

Cool with me! I don't mind vagueing around it if you need to.

I'll be quicker now.

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Getting a little RP in before hiatus end. >>

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