thearena | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who | Jim & Gaila
What | Gaila becomes Jim's God
When | after gaining gifts from the cornucopia
Where | somewhere in arena 2

Jim was dying. Sand blasted and tired and his whole body was covered in scab from a sunburn that just wasn't healing. His throat burned as he compulsively swallowed a gasp of air, torn between shivering and swearing. It was fair to say he hated everyone. Every single person. Himself included. The gift of water had been a fucking blessing but he hadn't had the restraint to make it last more than two days.

The desert was terrible. He actually missed the hallucinogenic hellhole that had been the original arena because at least there he wouldn't have had sand crawling up his asshole.

The night hadn't even begun to let up and Gaila was gone still. Even with his sense of time shot, Jim knew she shouldn't be out there too long alone.

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Gaila in contrast was in a rather good mood. Even though she was fatigued and light starved - she was worried she would start shrinking soon if this kept up - she had managed a good haul and there had been practically nobody around to stop her.

She hefted the sleeping bag full of her haul over her shoulder with her crossbow already loaded held in the other. She'd had to work hard to get her stuff. Nobody was taking it from her now. Pausing before she got within a meter of their spot she whistled, to let him know it was her, before advancing again. She still had no idea who she was dressed as but the image of She-Hulk carrying all this stuff would certainly be an amusing one for the audience. "Honey, I'm home." She cheerfully announced.

Jim lifted his head out of the sand and grinned. She was a bright spot in an otherwise sepia toned landscape. He wasn't going to deny he was glad she'd made it back. She was the only thing stopping him from going off half-cocked and ending up dead.

"Is that a crossbow?"

"Fuck yeah, it is." Gaila grinned. "That ain't all I got either." That had been fortunate, once she showed the sponsors that she was capable of fending for both her and Jim then the presents would come rolling in. And she was fairly confident that she had courted enough sponsors to get another good haul, hopefully.

Gaila dumped her sleeping bag on the sand in front of him. Inside was a metal container filled with a litre of water, a pack of potato flakes, three cans of food, what looked like a full body black hooded cloak, razor edged boomerangs, two morning stars, a little container of anti-venom and eight bolts for the cross bow. "Don't say I never bring you anything." She teased, throwing the chador at him. "Thought you might want to cover yourself up."

"I am never saying anything but fucking wonderful things."

Jim wasn't ashamed to admit that he dove for it. Kicking sand everywhere as he struggled to get it on properly, not even caring about the food or water in his struggle to bundle himself up like a caterpillar. It fucking hurt and he didn't give a shit. He'd done enough survival training to know how important it was to keep himself covered. And hydrated, but he couldn't have everything.

"You are my hero. Come 'ere."

Jim grabbed her, crossbow and weird costume be damned and tackled her into the sand, kissing her.

"Keep this up, I might do something stupid."

"Like tackling a woman with a loaded crossbow?" Gaila sarcastically replied once she'd been kissed. She flicked the safety on, glad that she'd spent some time in the training room figuring out how the damned things worked.

"Don't mention it. Like I said in the interviews. I'm in it to win this time." And despite herself she couldn't bring herself to harm Jim so he was coming along for the ride.

"See? Already back to normal." He kissed her again.

He wouldn't put it past her to win. She was just enough of a bitch to do it. And never had he found that trait more badass than in that moment.

"Whose ass did you need to kick to get all this stuff?"

The temptation was there, even under the views of the camera and in the danger of the arena, to do some very bad things that would undoubtedly draw attention to them. She settled instead, as a reasonable adjustment for flipping them over so that she was straddling his hips.

"Nobody. Kinda disappointing but I managed to get in 'nd out without anybody getting me. No clobbering required. I couldn't carry all this and the scythe though." Gaila told him with a twist of her lips. "And I really wanted it. It looked cool."

Jim had no complaints when he was rolled back over into the sand. He settled his hands over her hips and chuckled.

"What the hell would you do with one anyway?"

"Scythe things?" She offered as a suggestion. "I dunno. It was a big scythe. We could have found a use for it. It just looked so c--"

Gaila cut herself frowning and looking around. There was a weird sound. A weird sound that materialised in the form of a pallet load of stuff that had fallen from the sky with a parashoot. "Uh. Jim. I think somebody sent us stuff." She told him, clambering off him for a second to go an investigate, picking up her crossbow as she went.

And what a haul it was. Ten days supplies of water, a pair of sunglasses, two fire starting kits, a small tent, another sleeping bag and metal wire. That and a collection of note. "Hey, somebody sent me their number!" She laughed, more interested in the notes and the spool of wire than anything else.

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