I never knew daylight could be so violent [OPEN]

[saisamour]

Who| Marius, Nepeta, Lindsey, Ian, and OPEN!
What| YOU get free food, and YOU get free food, EVERYONE gets free food! Encounter options available under the cut.
Where| Arena 2
When| Week 3
Warnings/Notes| Hunting, thoughts on suicide, Pontmercying

➳ Hunting for elk!
Even Marius cannot remain oblivious with the sky's abrupt changes from dark to light, and for the first few hours he attempts to make a rough estimate of the length of daytime and nighttime. Around two to three hours each, perhaps? It's not exactly the most precise, he is aware, but it is enough for him to devise his plans around it.

That is to say, if he had any plans.

He forces himself to swallow, mouth and throat dry as he trudges through the desert heat, lips chapping and Romeo costume that is now caked in dried mud sticking to his skin. He's not quite planned lasting this long in the arena, and he's honestly confused and more than a little lost. What is he to do now?

A low bark that lasts for several seconds echoes throughout the area then, almost seemingly in response to his thoughts. He crouches low, crossbow in hand, and peers from his slightly elevated spot of land to find a lone elk trotting slowly across the sand. It comes to a stop, ears twitching, then bows its head to graze on a tuft of browning ricegrass.

There's a brief moment wherein Marius considers simply leaving the elk to be. Why would he harm it when he has no need for its meat, when he intends to die? But then he remembers the other people in the Arena, and maybe it's his own little rebellion against the Capitol's games but he refuses to play their killing game. Instead of destroying them, will help his fellow Tributes survive. His father would have done the same, he thinks. Cosette may have wanted it of him.

So he raises his crossbow and takes aim for the elk's lungs, brow furrowed in concentration and eyes narrowed to slits.


➳ Getting a sponsor bag
The cold penetrates to his very bones and Marius huddles involuntarily against his sleeping bag as a shiver wracks his body. He shifts a little, intending to crawl into the bag, but a moment of hopelessness and depression strikes him suddenly then, and all he manages to do is to stare at it blankly.

What is the point to all this struggle? He could simply allow the cold to take him. He will merely return to the Capitol anyway, if he dies. Or perhaps another Arena? He hasn't the faintest idea of what's running through the Gamemakers's minds. Perhaps he doesn't care. He just wants this to end, right here and now. To die so that he could at least glimpse again the face of his beloved Cosette in the moment between the last traces of consciousness and temporary death. To look into her eyes and feel her hand against his cheek before darkness consumes him.

He does not even notice the descending bag until it's right before him, and he blinks and raises his hands for it to land on. He unwraps it to find some water bottles, enough to last him for two days. His head tilts slightly as an almost quizzical look crosses his face, as if he doesn't really know what to do with it.

Perhaps he could pass it on to someone who needs it more, should he encounter them.

Comments

[whoseesbynight]

It helps. Not enough for her entirely drop her wariness - there are still a number of other people out in the desert - but enough that it fades to a sort of dim background sort of noise. Still, it means that any ensuing conversation will be significantly less tense, and that's always a plus. She doesn't make a move to strike him down either. If he isn't about to attack her, then she won't be so cruel as to attack him as he sets his weapon down.

Some people she knows might have been, but she isn't one of those people.

"If you're sure, then."

She doesn't offer a name - or at least, not yet - but she seems more than willing to hold a friendly conversation, and that's a good enough start.

[saisamour]

His stance relaxes; her response is a good sign—or a slightly disappointing one, perhaps? He is no longer certain anymore, what he wants for himself in this Arena. But if she won't attack then there is little reason to provoke her. He will not make a murderer out of anyone.

So he casts a brief glance at the elk before returning his attention to her, deciding to offer his name first, if she does not. "My name is Marius Pontmercy." A beat. "Are you alone?"

Perhaps she and her friends, if she had them with her, would find more use for the elk than he.

[whoseesbynight]

Nepeta shakes her head at the question. The others aren't particularly close by, but they're close enough that she can get back to them easily enough. The desert does make it a little hard to tell direction sometimes, but it's easier to hunt alone then it is to hunt with a veritable swarm of people following her. Plus, she isn't at all sure how well any of them hunt and so it's better to take things on herself.

"I'm Nepeta," she offers in return. "And no. The others are just back there." She gestures in the general direction of behind her, and even if it's risky to mention where the others are, she's pretty sure that Marius isn't about to go looking for them. Not with the intent of killing them, at any rate and that's good enough for the time being.

"Are you?"

[saisamour]

"I am."

And she is most certainly correct in assuming that he is not out to kill them, or anyone else, for that matter. In fact, he rather wants to help them, even if he knows next to nothing about who they are or who she is. Or who most anyone is in the Arena, for that matter.

Which is why he nods in the direction of the elk. "You may bring this back to your friends, if you like. You will have more use for it than I."

Because he has no intention of living for much longer, anyway.

[whoseesbynight]

The offer of what reads - to her - as being an awful lot like friendship is a little unusual. It happened from time to time, yes, but she's mostly been reading the arena itself as being Alternia on a smaller scale, and the idea that someone would simply give up a kill that is rightfully theirs is more than a little strange. Especially since she's pretty sure he's going to need to eat something if he wants to have any sort of a chance in the rest of the arena.

"That's very nice of you, but I don't think I can take it all. It was your kill, so you should have some of it too."

Whether that means splitting it up here (probably a little impractical) or having him follow her back is something that she's willing to listen to suggestions on, but it's probably best to see how well this on goes over first.

[saisamour]

And a chance to last longer in the arena would be much acceptable, maybe, but he will always use that chance to do as much for others as possible, while he himself waits for the death he believes that for him is inevitable. (And for everyone else except one, if he is being honest to himself, but even so, he will fight. He will save all of them, one by one, and he will die repeatedly until he had fought for the freedom of all.)

Besides, in the last few seconds before his body had succumbed to poison in the first arena, the pain and suffering had dissipated and he had fallen asleep with the vision of his Cosette seared into his mind. More than freedom, more than a retaliation against the Capitol, he would die again and again if he could see her face each time before he is enveloped in darkness. He would accept all the torment, all the agony anyone inflicts on him if it gives him but the briefest second to glimpse her smile.

Which is why he shakes his head and gives her a tiny smile of assurance. "I can hunt another."

[whoseesbynight]

It's a noble sentiment, to be sure, but Nepeta is having absolutely none of it. It might work for him, but she doesn't want to leave him to the mercy of the desert and whatever he happens to come across next. Besides, she's fairly certain that at least one of her travelling companions would think less of her if she simply let him be. (It's less certain about the others, but still, she may as well do the most she can.)

"The least I can do is offur some of it to you as well. Maybe if you come back with me? That would make carrying it easier, too."

And less likely to leave tracks in the sand as she dragged the carcass back to where the others were too, which would probably help keep them alive for longer, if that was what Marius was looking to help with, by his offer of the elk.

[saisamour]

There's a nod from Marius, and the response comes almost immediately. "That I can do." Because yes, he does want others to live longer, so if she asks for help then he will answer.

His eyes drift to his his dropped crossbow and he purses his lips as he considers what to do with it for a moment, then glances back at her.

"I would like to carry my crossbow with me, as my other items are a little ways farther from here, if that is fine." He pauses, before adding, "Or if it better assures you that it will not be used against you and your friends, then you may carry it instead."

[whoseesbynight]

"You can carry it," Nepeta answers. Being armed is not so unusual as all that in troll culture, and it'll probably go a ways to at least make certain that he makes a tolerably decent first impression. Besides, she trusts him, even if she really shouldn't and that's enough for her.

Besides there's no guarantee that they won't be beset upon by someone or something in the time it takes them to carry the elk back to where she and the others have set up something sort of like a home base. Therefore it's really for the best if both she and Marius are capable of defending themselves.

"Besides, it's your weapon. You should keep it."

[saisamour]

The tiniest hint of a smile forms on his face then. "Very well."

He turns to walk to the elk then, and she might notice that he does little to keep himself somewhat prepared for an unexpected attack. His shoulders are relaxed, back bared to her, and even his grip on the crossbow loosens. He trusts her too, that is for certain, and the thought that she might turn on him never even once occurs to him.

He kneels down beside the carcass and shifts it with a grunt, so that it is lying on its back and he can grab one of its forelegs. It is only then that he glances at Nepeta with a little bit of expectancy in his eyes. It is rather heavy, he realizes that now.

[whoseesbynight]

Nepeta's not surprised about the fact that it's heavy. She is, of course, substituting in the various Alternian wildlife she knows instead, but either way she moves to grab one of the elk's hind legs. It's still going to be heavy, but it'll be less heavy, and she has a decent amount of strength to her.

"Are you alright with me giving you directions on how to get there, or do you want me to go furst?"

[saisamour]

It should have been relatively easy for him to decide, having a rather bad sense of direction himself. But a beat still passes between them before he responds with, "You may go first, if you like."

[whoseesbynight]

Nepeta nods at the comment. That it took him some time to find his answer doesn't much matter. She's perfectly okay with being patient, if she needs to be, and it's not like they're being attacked right at the moment anyway.

"It's purrobably better that way," she comments as she shoulders the weight of the elk before heading off in the right direction. "They know me better than they would you."

[saisamour]

He nods at that, even if she likely won't see him do it, as he follows her in silence. All in all, it is a rather peaceful, danger-free day, isn't it? Perhaps that is what makes the distinct rattling seem as if it cuts through the silence and plants the seed of fear in Marius when he hears it.

He stops on his tracks, glancing around for the source of the sound.

[whoseesbynight]

That sound is one of the few that could get Nepeta to stop in her tracks. She knows quite well that hissbeasts can be dangerous and given the nature of the Arena she isn't going to assume that the local hissbeasts are the sort that can be safely ignored.

Of course, the fact that they're carrying something does make it a little hard to figure out where the sound is coming from - there are angles that are harder to check than others - but stopping is at least a good start for the time being.

"Can you see it?"

[saisamour]

His eyes dart across the scenery, squinting and trying his hardest through the sweat-beads caught in his lashes to spot movement in the sand that almost sparkles against the sunlight. His heart thuds against his chest and a shudder crawls up his spine, but he does his best to ignore it. The same state he had been back at the barricades in Paris slowly dominates him, and his singular thought is: find the threat, and then eliminate it.

And then he spots it. The snake is right at her heels, ready to strike. His eyes widen and he drops the elk in shock and panic. His bow is automatically raised.

"Mademoiselle!"

[whoseesbynight]

To her credit, Nepeta doesn't panic. She doesn't move much either - no sense in aggravating the snake - but he first action is to drop her part of the elk as well. Only then does she nod - without turning around - to indicate that if has a shot he should take it. She isn't about to move look for it, and if dropping the elk hasn't crushed it, then it's better to have it dead now instead of waiting.

Besides, if it's a snakebite or a crossbow bolt, she'll take the bolt, on the off chance that it goes wide.