thearena | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who| Jack, Terezi and Calico
What| What is this alliance even
Where| The trees, the trees~
When| Sometime in Week 1
Warnings/Notes| Its Jack, Terezi, and Calico in the same post. Also beer. And possible talk of torture.

Jack had to admit, he was glad he had that poncho and the shoes he was wearing. Even in the trees, where there was plenty of cover, the rain made it extremely difficult to keep a good footing, not to mention soaked to the bone. He wasn't sure whether it was better or worse than the drought-plagued Arena he'd been in, or whether he was spending too much time comparing.

...What the hell was he saying, of course he wasn't spending too much time comparing. If anything, aside from moving trees and wondering why he was allied with with a troll, there was little else to do. Or see.

Though he was currently had a vantage point which allowed him to see what was happening on the ground. If a Tribute came by and tried to cause problems, he and Terezi would be ready. Just in case.

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Despite the rain and the ever present threat of death, Terezi seems to be enjoying herself--at least as much as anyone can be. She's pretty confident that her decision to team up with Jack was the right one, even as annoying as he can be. It helps that he can't really start screaming up a storm, though that hasn't stopped her from harassing him every once in a while. Just in case their were parties to keep entertained.

She hadn't asked for any supplies other than food. She didn't really need them the way that he probably did, as far as she knew. The rain is--at worst--mildly uncomfortable, but not really an obstacle for her in terms of visibility or mobility.

Things have been amicably silent between them for nearly an hour now--a short reprieve from annoying her partner. She's not sure what might be going through his head at the moment, but she's preoccupying herself with future plans. Specifically those involving murdering the other tributes. It's not something she wants at all to do, but if she's going to get anywhere in these games, she knows that she needs to take a more active role in the slaughter. And for her, this would be the perfect arena to do it.

Calico, for her part, is out of breath.

"Damn arena." She mutters it constantly, grumpily, under her breath. This one reminds her too much of her own arena, of - but no. NO. She can't let herself remember those names or she'll fall apart and then she'll be completely at the GameMakers' mercy. Cal has to snort at herself. Who is she kidding?

Out of breath, and definitely out of shape, she trips over errant roots, cursing the GameMakers, cursing the fact that she had to volunteer, cursing the fact that she hadn't been bothered to exercise or even try to get in shape before the arena.

And soon, she finds she's lost, quite lost even in knowing what to do with herself. Last time, she had relied on other people. This time, she was pretty much on her own. And, as horrible as he was, as much as he annoyed her, she had even begun to wish Jack was with her.

Cal wasn't exactly as quiet as she thought she was.

Instantly, Jack's jaw twitched as he heard the mumbles. Cal. He was pretty sure it was Cal. But, he wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do. He still wasn't talking to her ~~and now, he really wasn't~~. But she was still a fellow District mate, and his old Mentor.

Quietly, he slid onto a higher branch, hiding himself from the direction that the Tribute was coming from, hand on knife. Again, he wasn't sure what to do. His eyes trailed to Terezi, watching her moves, in order to figure out what she was doing.

Terezi moves into a crouch close to the tree trunk, trying to become as inconspicuous as possible. It isn't difficult for her to hear Cal coming, but the fact that she recognizes the voice leaves her uneasy. This is... Jack's friend, isn't it? Though she's not sure how much of a friend, since she was clearly irritated at him when Terezi had spoken to her.

There's no weapon in her hand, but that doesn't mean that she's unarmed. She could probably rip a human's throat open with her own claws and teeth if needed. But she doesn't know if that will be necessary.

Her head lifts and she sniffs in Jack's direction, wondering what he's thinking. With one finger, she drags a line across her own throat in a tell-tale motion. Then she flashes him a thumbs-up and a thumbs-down. The meaning behind her question should be obvious: Do you want to kill her? Yes or no.

Calico does hear the movement in the trees above her head, and groaning ever so quietly to herself, she looks up.

Is that a pair of shoes?

Slowly, she bends down and grabs a reaonably sturdy, if dirty, branch from the ground.

"Who is it? Who's there? I'm... I'm armed!"

Her voice squeaks an octave higher than her usual childish voice. She is so not ready for this. So not armed. So not up for killing again.

And how bloody embarrassing would that be to be the first Victor dead - even before the bloody tributes.

It'll make her even more of a laughing stock than she already is.

Determined, she clutches the branch and brings it before her face, as if it were a sword.

"Come on! Come and fight me like a man. Or a tribute!"

Its a long silence (or, it felt like a long silence) before Jack answered. It was a small sigh, followed by him shaking his head. It was pretty obvious that it was no.

No matter his anger at Cal, he couldn't bring himself to kill her in cold blood. There were quite a few people he'd have no problem with doing it to. But...Cal? No.

At this, he looked down, knowing that, sooner or later, those vines would react to Calico's presence and try to attack her. So he readied himself to jump down for that.

Edited 2013-10-30 00:29 (UTC)

That shake of his head is all that Terezi really needs. If Jack can't bring himself to kill her, then there's no reason to hide from her, either. She's not a threat, as far as Terezi's concerned.

"That might just be the saddest thing I've ever smelled in my life." She sits down on the branch, her legs swinging idly but still out of reach. It's obviously that she doesn't feel threatened in the least. "What are you going to do? Close your eyes and swing at us like some kind of wriggler piñata game? Seriously, put the branch down before you hurt something other than your dignity. Hehe."

Cal looks up immediately, momentarily forgetting about the vines winding about her feet.

"Are you the kid I were talking to on the network?" Probably not the most important question to be asking right now - but Cal at leasst wants to know who's laughing at her.

"Us? Who's us? Who else is up there with you? COME DOWN!" Cal calls up, tilting her head up and shouting at the shadows. "Come and face me like a tri-"

But her attention is taken then, by the vines slowly winding their way about her legs, and with a loud yell, she forgets all about Terezi and her accomplices and begins to try to hop about, almost, to get the vines off her legs and untangle herself from her latest predicament. She whacks out at the vines with her branch.

"Bloody! ROTTEN! arena!"

Shame, reluctance, something prevented Jack from coming down at her call. At least at first.

But the reaction was almost immediate as he saw the vines attack.

Instantly, Jack was off the branch, jumping down to the ground below. Landing with a nice thud on the vines that were the source of Calico's distress nearby, he bent down, grabbed his knife from where it was hidden and slashed down hard at the thrashing plants.

It happened quite fast, and Jack's back was turned from Calico. Not to mention that, with his current state of dishevelment, Cal could easily be forgiven for not immediately realizing that it was Jack and not some other, random tall blonde guy. ~~Then again, how many tall blonde guys were there in the Arena, much less the Capitol?~~

Edited 2013-11-06 02:23 (UTC)

Given that she's decided to throw her lot in with Jack, she doesn't feel like she can just let him tackle the vines on his own. That would be pretty shitty of her as a partner. So when he jumps down, she grudgingly gets to her feet and follows suit.

It's probably a good idea to help out the mentors, anyway. She's just not too thrilled with how loud this one is.

She doesn't jump down completely, though. Someone has to have more brains than that. At the lowest branch, Terezi wraps her legs around her perch and reaches her hand down to Cal.

"The ground's not safe," she calls over her shouting. "Grab my hand and I'll help you up." She's pretty confident that Jack can handle the vines while she helps Cal off the ground. He seems to know what he's doing better than the older mentor does.

Cal grabs immediately for Terezi's hand, and begins to scramble up the tree. She hasn't realised yet that the blonde is Jack - or, at least, she's only dimly registered that fact so far.

But sat up on the branch, she mutters her thanks to Terezi, and turns to look down at the man bashing her vines. And then she starts.

"Jack!"

His head came up. An indication that he heard, and acknowledged it was his name.

And, at last, he's ripped through the last vine. He quickly made his way back up the tree, his long arms allowing him to pull up and away from the vines before the could possibly recruit and counterattack.

And then, as he sat, looking down, it hit him. Calico. He was practically right next to her. And yet he couldn't look up at her. Not yet.

Terezi huffs out a small sigh of relief once they're all up into the trees. She climbs one branch higher to give Calico some room, but doesn't go further than that. There silence that follows is unexpected, but she realizes that... Jack probably isn't going to be able to communicate well in this instance, either.

Well, judging by the way he's not even looking at her, Terezi assumes that he's not ready to make any attempt at conversation with their newest addition. So she might as well break the silence for him.

"I asked him if he wanted to slit your throat and keep moving," she says out loud, directed at Calico. "But for some reason, he insisted on saving you. I'm pretty sure that's against the goal of this game, but I'm just a lowly tribute so what would I know."

You're welcome, Jack.

Cal glanced across at Jack when Terezi said that he had refused to kill her. She was more than a little surprised at that - at all of Jack's actions, actually.

"So you still have a little bit of love for your old mentor, then?" She drawled. She snorted.

"You're bloody mad, the pair of yer. But, for what it's worth - thanks."

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