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

Tell me if this doesn't work and I'll change it.

[hartless_cowboy]

What was the chances that two people would be hunting the same animal in the same stretch of the desert when there was barely another person hundreds of feet away?

Apparently, high enough for it to happen.

Lindsey let out a noise of surprise when, just as he was sneaking up on the large creature from the other side, the big form shuddered once and suddenly collapsed in front of him. He hadn't even raised his scythe to strike yet. Bewildered, he looked around for the shooter warily, just in case this guy's next target was him.

[wantwhatiwant]

Ian looks to be more sleeping bag than boy, and he moves around the desert in a shuffle. He's taken to napping in the short days, finding the coolest place he can, and then moving around at night. Less likely to be taken by surprise by angry animals, and people, and less likely to freeze to death.

He notices another figure, another sleeping bag and approaches cautiously.

Hunting

[whoseesbynight]

With their little group expanding out into other people, having a decent supply of food was becoming more and more important. Fortunately, it hadn't taken too long to grasp the basics of the Signless' explanation on how to survive in the desert. Unfortunately, the rapid shifts of night to day and back aren't helping in the least. Sure, she can take consolidation in the fact that the humans are probably not doing much better but it does make things a little more awkward in the realm of hunting.

Not that Nepeta lets that keep her down. She'd be a poor huntress if something so small got in the way, and after the first unending day it had been pretty clear that whatever was illuminating the area was not anything like the sun they'd had on Alternia. Fortunately, she still has the sunglasses that had come with the outfit she'd been put in, so that's at least something. The rest, however, is starting to see some wear and tear, although it's obviously been patched up to the best of her ability.

Either way, she doesn't spot Marius until he's already lining up his shot - even in a desert, her hunting style bears more than a passing resemblance to that of cats - and though she doesn't do anything to break his concentration, if she actually had fur it would no doubt be bristling. She hadn't expected to run into anyone else and there was no telling how he'd react to her presence, something that was more than worrisome with him having the advantage of range with that crossbow.

Hunting yes indeedy

[polyturtle]

Marius wasn't the only one hunting. Though, given the circumstances, Don wasn't sure at that precise moment whether he meant to hunt the elk, or Tribute he saw from his hiding place that was hunting the elk.

On the one hand, he would kill the Tributes. How did their lives, their thoughts, their beliefs truly matter in this place? They were meat puppets, true monsters, muttations with programmed memories. Little could change that fact. Not even the knowledge of the rebellion changed the fact in his now crushed psyche, that they could be discarded or recreated at will, by both sides. Used by both with no hope of finding another way. If they were not the scapegoats of the Capitol, then they were the tools of the rebellion. They could never go back to their homes, for their true home was Panem. And in Panem, their purpose was to entertain. That meant killing. That was all he was good for in the end.

On the other hand, he was hungry and thirsty. Almost ravenously so. His state was exacerbated by his haggard appearance from injury and lack of sleep, and his clothing bloodied from both himself and others. Despite his rationing and Sponsors more than happily gifting him, everything ran out very quickly. And this elk, he reckoned, would keep him alive for he quietly decided he wouldn't calculate Harley into the equation starting that afternoon for closer to a week with the resources it contained.

So the turtle waited for the moment. Then he saw the bolt hit the elk, causing it to fall forward, flailing on the ground.

Careless. Punctured the lung. The creature will likely survive despite diminished lung capacity.

That was when he revealed himself, and with fast reflexes - certainly not lightning fast, certainly slower because of his hunger - brought the scythe down upon the mammal's neck as it thrashed on the ground. The clean cut caused warm blood to spurt from the trunk and onto him, but this was ignore in favor of taking the severed head and turning it actually upside down.

Best not to waste too much blood.

Hunting

[leavewiththegame]

AndrAIa's out on a water run. Punchy and the Tims say they have plenty of water, but she knows it must strain their resources, providing for another person, and she seems to need more water than the rest of them.

They had told her where the water hole was, approximately, and also hinted that following animals might lead to water. So when she sees a healthy-looking elk not long after she ventures out of their makeshift base, she follows it at a good distance. At least until someone else shoots it.

A bit put out at not being able to follow it, she nevertheless decides to wait and see what's happening before heading to the water hole. She's confused as to why the other person killed the animal, as it hadn't seemed dangerous, and she's even more confused at how it didn't disappear when killed and the person approaches it.