thearena | In the desert, you can remember your name.

Entry tags:

In the desert, you can remember your name.

Who| Group 2
What| Waking up in the desert arena
Where| Scattered around
When| Several hours after the Candy Cornucopia
Warnings/Notes| Deathroll will be coming soon to check out this arena's cornucopia and find out who dies between now and next week.

Make no mistake about it. The bloodbath of this Arena's Cornucopia was brutal. Half of the Tributes fell, a jerking, painful death. It is the highest death count in one day that recent memory can ascertain. It is shocking and unexpected, certainly a twist as far as those watching from the safety of the Capitol are concerned.

But it doesn't compare to what happens next. Because the Tributes that fell in in the bright candy hell don't wake up.

At least, not in the Capitol.

Not this time.

The fallen Tributes' eyes open, one by one, as the trackers in their arms let out an uncharacteristic jolt to bring them back to consciousness. They are not in their soft beds in the Training Center. They are not even in the Capitol. Instead, there is heat, more intense than that in the strange candy land that they had been in. A wind picks up, swirling dust and sand around them, stinging eyes and skin.

Everyone who was cut down is spread far and wide throughout this arena, still in their costumes, perhaps a little worse for wear.

"Good afternoon, Tributes." Claudius Templesmith's voice echoes through the air once all of the Tributes have been unceremoniously awoken. "And welcome to the second half of the Seventh Arena of the 75th Hunger Games. May the odds be ever in your favor."

And with that, they're on their own....

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You call me a sad homeless person, Madame?" Eponine looked sharply at Mona. For a minute, she looked distinctly upset but then she sighs. At home, she was homeless now. And she was upset. Marius - he had said Cosette's name even now, even when she had tried to help him.

So she sighs and shrugs. "I suppose you are right. I am a hobo."

Mona's description of Paris means nothing to Eponine. Fashion models? Sexy? Smoking? Her papa smoked....

"The Marquis de Sade was in the same prison as me, Madame. He wrote of sex - but it is scandelous. He was long dead before me though."

Mona's gesture catches her eye too - Eponine bites her nails, so they're broken and the skin raw around them. Nothing like Mona's. She stares.

"What is a cactus? What does it look like?"

"Oh, sweetie, no, I didn't mean it like that," she says, and looks legitimately concerned for a second. "Sad, like, it shouldn't happen, you know? Besides, there's totally beds for everyone here!"

Well, that moment of self-awareness didn't seem to last long.

She raises her eyebrows briefly at the namedrop, glancing away like she's asking what she got herself into now. "Trust me, sexy in a good way."

"It's like a green... thing, with spikes on it," she says, using her hands to illustrate.

"It was common in Paris, Madame. There are hobos -" She likes this word - "everywhere."

She's saying nothing of the Marquis. She's not read it, of course, but she's heard whispers, rumours, especially in La Madelonnettes Prison. And she doesn't want to delve any deeper into that.

"A green thing with spikes?" She scans the horizon - and spots a vague, blackish smudge. Cactus or tribute?

"Madame?"

"They really clean it up by my time. But, I guess back then it makes sense..." Considering the civil unrest, she isn't surprised; it's just strange to be talking to someone who apparently had first-hand knowledge.

"Yeah, like a pole, or a little balled thing--" but then Eponine gets her attention. She glances first to her and then... whatever it was in the distance. She immediately bends forward a bit with surprising skill considering the heels (though immediately after nearly slips as the heel shifts in the sand, but points for stylish trying) as she squints and tries to make out a more defined shape.

"Shh."

She giggles as Mona stumbles - not that she's doing much better between her high shoes and the sand. But shut up she does when Mona reprimands her.

"I don't think it is a tribute, Madame. It is not moving much - or perhaps we are too far to see? Is it food, do you think? Can you eat a cactus as well?"

Eponine is permanently hungry - especially now so soon after being revived from France. Not that that is unusual - but whilst there is food to be had, she is definitely going to munch.

There's a brief moment where her eyes harden at the giggle, but she suppresses it, glancing back with a self-deprecating smile like it's all a joke.

"Most of them are. It's a fruit too," she says automatically, half her attention on the figure in the distance. "I think we should get closer. There's two of us, right?" If worst should come to worst.

"Can you fight, Madame?" Eponine looks doubtfully at Mona. She looks... well, perhaps not looks, but she comes across as far too educated, to sophisticated, too middle class to know how to fight.

"But it is as you wish - we shall move closer."

She sets off, keeping low.

Eponine may follow Parker or, sometimes, like now, it's the other way around.

Oh, where did Parker appear from? She just does that sometimes. Don't ask.

"Who's she?"

"MADAME!" Eponine jumps violently, turning round at Parker's voice. You know, doing that in an arena of death could be really dangerous. What if Eponine had been armed? Still, she says nothing about it, besides the shocked exclamation.

"Mademoiselle Parker, may I introduce Mademoiselle Mona?" For all the world, they could be in a French lady's parlour, gossiping over tea and croissants. Except for, you know, the unbearable heat, the stench of sweat and the possibility of death at any giveen moment.

Mona is a lot less graceful, and practically jumps out of her skin turning around; this has the unfortunate side effect of making her lose her balance, and she nearly falls straight on her ass in the scorching sand. Great.

"What the hell?" she asks, a good deal angrier than Eponine's more neutral shock. But Eponine seems to know her, so... "Yeah, charmed. What's going on?" Ugh, she so did not need to end up in some trio where she could get ganged up on.

"Don't fall over" Parker, stating the obvious is sometimes her forté.

"And nothing's going on --" she blinks twice and looks at Eponine. "Is something going on? Can you trust her?"

The phrasing's on purpose. Parker doesn't really trust anyone, much. Eponine and Harley are about as close to trust as she can get.

"She's a..."

Eponine shrugs. What does she know about friendship?

"She can stay. If you would like to, Madame Mona."

'T ain't right, is it, to turn a girl away. Eponine doesn't mind Mona, but she doesn't trust her - doesn't trust Parker for that matter.

"Have you found water yet, Madame?"

"Thanks," she scowls, scrambling to get back to her feet as soon as possible. "Don't mind me, I didn't mean to crash the party."

Typical. This was how it always went, wasn't it? Loser Mona latching onto the first person she sees, then the real friends show up. "Whatever, let's just find a stupid cactus."

"No water yet, but I caught flash of the cornucopia. It's sort of hard to miss." Parker grins.

"Gonna make a run for that soon." The gamemakers help whoever gets in her way. One other important thing. "Don't insult the cactus. It didn't do anything to you."

With that, Parker turns on her heel to head out toward the caves. She doesn't ask anyone to come with her, but she expects it. If she didn't want the others around, it would be painfully obvious.

The cornucopia sounded promising, at least; she thought her chance was up when she was lying there poisoned. They’d definitely need water, no matter what, whether it was stupid (stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid, she thinks loudly) cactus water or something else.

She rolls her eyes at Parker’s back, but follows, not wanting to have anyone behind her but also not wanting to be left to fend for herself.

Eponine follows too: like Mona, she has no intention of being by herself this time.

"The cornucopia?" She calls. "But - perhaps it would not be wise? It is where the big, strong ones go, is it not? The people who want to fight? Where is it?"

Perhaps, rather than running for it, they should watch and wait and pick up what other people drop?

"I'm strong, and quick," Parker protests.

"I'll make the run. Saw lots of useful stuff."

By useful, she means potentially deadly.

"Either of you know how to deal with scorpions?"

"Great! You can do the running, and we'll hobble along!" she says with tons of false enthusiasm, hugging her arms close to her chest as she tries to make her way across the desert in (cute, at least) shoes.

She knew the major families, basic anatomy, and how to recognize the dangerous ones; if she had to guess, they weren't going to get lucky and only run into the kind that aren't harmful to humans. "Uh, unless we can cold compress that shit and magic up a doctor, avoid them? We don't really have the stuff to wash, ice, and elevate here."

"What's a scorpion?" Eponine spoke at the same time as Mona. And then she immediately bit the inside of her cheek. Mona knew. Parker knew. Eponine's ignorance was showing and she hated it. She hated that inferior feeling, that ignorance that reminded her of who she was and how she would never be as good as these fine ladies.

"I am fast - but I cannot run in these shoes in this sand and it is too hot to take them off. You will be careful though, won't you Madame?"

"It's an animal that lives in the desert. Shells all over its body, a stinger on its tail," she explains sweetly, not without a hint of condescension. She feels more comfortable in this element, with some sort of upper hand and someone to explain things to-- god, it was like being back in high school. Perfect. "Most of their stings aren't lethal to humans, but I bet we won't be that lucky here." And then she smiles encouragingly, shrugging her shoulders in a practiced move to downplay her knowledge while still drawing attention to the fact that she knew it when other people didn't. Ah, high school life.

"These aren't normal scorpions."

While Mona may be calm discussing in, and not terrifying, Parker isn't.

"I think they could eat us. Do scorpions eat people?"

Eponine has a vague image in her head thanks to Mona - though she resents the condescension in her tone. She's imagining a cross between a wasp and a cockroach. And, without much knowledge about venom, she's not as worried as she possibly should be.

"It will be a quick way to die then. That is good. It is good to have a quick way."

But Parker's words worry her, definitely. A man eating scorpion? Suddenly, the creature she had imagined in her head, tiny, swells until it is as big as a large dog - or an elephant, like the statue at the Place de la Bastille.

"Do they? Madame Mona, you are a student. You know, don't you?"

"Uh, they're like, this big, they don't really have the space," she says at first, holding her hands out to demonstrate-- but, hey, she's seen some of the videos, it's entirely possible that there's some sort of hideous mutant version scurrying about here. "And, hey, if they tinkered around with them, or whatever the hell it is they do, we'll see it coming."

"Hmmmm, no, they're this big." Parker holds her hand up slightly above her head.

"But that's a guess. Didn't stay around to measure them." Usually, she can estimate to the quarter inch, but GIANT SCORPIONS can cause even Parker's analytical side to run for it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In the desert, you can remember your name.

no subject

no subject

Ignore the screaming icon. XD

haha oh eponine

XD

no subject

no subject

/threadjacks

Re: /threadjacks

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject