The Greatest Betrayal

[thebestoffense]

Who| Volanz and OPEN
What| How long does it take Volanz to figure out that nothing is edible? Let's find out!
Where| Up a tree in the central jungles.
When| Day three. Or night three. YOU DECIDE!
Warnings/Notes| Nothing to start with. Miserable, sick, hungry alien kid who's definitely more afraid of you than you are of him.

Food wasn't supposed to do this to you. It just wasn't. Volanz had been pretty confident to start with, even considering how much he hated being surrounded by forest. At least it was full of living things, surely he'd be able to eat until something or someone else finally killed him? Food was so important, how could it just betray him like this?

Then again, it was probably just because he was still crap at figuring out which alien trees gave edible fruit. This one he was resting in clearly didn't, and neither had the last two. Hunger was beginning to gnaw in his belly, which hadn't held anything he'd put in it besides water since stepping off his platform.

Volanz felt a horrible wrenching in his digestive coil, leaned against the trunk of the tree, and dry heaved. It broke off into futile coughing and he groaned, his throat burned and his muscles were sore as he tried to expel something that wasn't even there anymore. How long was this going to go on for? When he finally did find viable food would he even be able to keep it down? Even worse, he was getting thirsty and he'd have to brave the forest floor again for water soon.

...Not that he had reason to fear that. But it felt unnatural down there, and all the experience Volanz had told him that large predators preferred the ground. After the incident with the slumberbeast that had led to his first death, he intended to take no chances.

Comments

[polyturtle]

Take chances?

You were taking a chance right now, Volanz. Just being here, his life was in danger, and not just from the berries. Suddenly, there was a darkened face staring at him, mere inches away. Just staring.

"Hmm."

So he'd tried the food. The theory in Don's mind when he approached the Cornucopia was confirmed, at least. the food in this place was not suitable for eating. But now, there was something to do.

He began to inch closer to the retching troll.

[thebestoffense]

Volanz shouted in surprise and scooted back reflexively, but he was already up against the trunk of the tree. Crap. He twisted in an effort to get his legs under him on the bough, ducked forward to avoid exposing his belly. Volanz may not have been a good fighter, but he had some useful instincts.

"Stop!"

[polyturtle]

Don wasn't interested in his belly. Or any part of his torso, really.

"Not until you hold still."

A glint of metal was in the hand still in the darkness.

A knife? Or...

[thebestoffense]

Volanz quivered. He was trapped, what could he do? If he jumped off the branch he'd probably break his neck and die, if he stayed up here he'd totally be stabbed and die, so that left doing something desperate. He was hungry, tired, hurting, and short on plans so the first and most logical thing to come to mind was to try to hit the... the whatever this dude was in the face and hope he moved.

Desperate plans were pretty much never good.

[polyturtle]

Well, it connected. Unfortunately, given that Volanz was sick and hungry, the hit didn't do much other than anger Donatello.

"You--"

His hands shifted as he went to turn away, revealing, not a knife, but a dose pen.

"Fine, then. " He gritted his teeth, almost regretting what he was saying and the way it came out. Being helpful was so hard now. It had been much easier before. "Stay sick. Die however you want."

[thebestoffense]

Volanz shrank back against the tree even further, spine to bark, at the response. Oh no. It was even worse than being stabbed.

"I-!" he stammered, his alarm clear on his face, then he mastered himself.

"...Okay. I thought you were going to kill me, is all. You don't have to help me."

Good grief, someone had been trying to be nice to him and he couldn't even do having someone be nice to him right.

"...But I am sorry I hit you in the face."

[polyturtle]

"Hmph." The needle was abruptly handed towards Volanz. "If you die, at least not die from an allergic reaction."

[thebestoffense]

Volanz eyed the needle cautiously. He shouldn't take it. He wasn't worth taking it.

...But he hurt and was sick and he did.

"Thankyou?" he said. The kid's body language was opening up a bit, he wasn't going to be hurt. Not yet. "Is that was this is? Allergic? I've kind of never had that before ever in my life."

[polyturtle]

"These plants are designed to cause an onset of anaphylaxis." Don crossed his arms. "Our bodies can't tolerate it, so its an allergy."

As to why, other than 'the Gamemakers thought it was funny', he had no idea. Nor was he going to indulge how he figure it out. It was probably easy enough to figure out that he had stupidly eaten some the plant life in order to preserve his stocks.

[savedbyasong]

Shion was still slowly making his way threw the jungle, he was just as hungry and had found out the hard way that the food was not edible. He ignored the pains in his stomach as he walked, so far he was pretty sure he had been going in circles.

When he saw the troll he rushed over him, though not all the way over, in case he attacked. "Are you alright?"

[thebestoffense]

Volanz peered down from his tree limb. He'd been noticed. He knew he'd been making too much noise, but he couldn't help it.

"Actually? Not really," he called down, wincing. "I know we're all supposed to fight one another until we all die and stuff? But I can tell you a thing I learned if you want."

[savedbyasong]

"I won't hurt you." Shion called back up, he nodded and began climbing, though still keeping his distance in case it was a trick. The troll sounded frightened though, as frightened as Shion felt.

[thebestoffense]

Volanz exhaled heavily. "Okay, I'll be completely honest here? I'm pretty much not in a position to be hurting like... anybody at all right now."

He paused, frowned, and added, "I mean, even when I'm not sick and stuff I'm not actually all that good at this?"

[savedbyasong]

"You're sick?" Shion got a bit closer, his voice worried. "What's wrong? I might be able to help." The exact opposite of what he was supposed to be doing, but he was never going to be good at these arena's.

[thebestoffense]

"It's the thing I learned," said Volanz. "I don't think the fruit on any of the trees is actually any good? I tried some different kinds and all of them are basically terrible for eating. Mostly."

He cringed.

"I don't know what you could do to help? But I mean, if you want that's okay. It's weird how many people in here help each other all things being considered?"

[savedbyasong]

"I tried some too." Just one thing, and it had made him feel bad, but it had been something he knew not to be poisonous usually.

"I don't think it's weird. I think people will always try and help people, even in situations like this. If they can."

He blinked at him, "I don't have any water or anything, but I can help you to a river if you like."

[thebestoffense]

Volanz mulled over the offer, but ultimately he could find no reason not to take it. Besides, he'd have to climb back down sometime. It was better to have another person around for now.

The reasons for that made his guts clench again, but in shame for his cowardice instead of hunger.

"Alright, if you know where one is? I'd actually appreciate that."

Volanz wasn't a fast climber. He was cautious and methodical on his way down, and had to pause to find footholds in the rippled tree bark every few feet. But he made it.

[savedbyasong]

Shion wasn't a very good climber either but soon he was on the ground as well, keeping an eye out for the vines. "I know where one is, follow me." If there was anything Shion was good at it was remembering things, so it would take long for them to find the river he had found earlier that day.

[pythianjudgment]

It's only been three days, but Terezi is more than grateful that she ran into Jack. It didn't take her too long to realize that literally everything in this forest is poisonous. It did take her more than a few taste tests and at least one upset stomach, but she's now pretty sure that the toxicity of everything around them is a proven fact. That sort of taste tends to stick with you, and everything reeks of it.

She knew it wouldn't be long before tributes started resorting to the forest for food...and that some of them would be stupid enough to actually eat it. She didn't honeestly expect to run into one of them, though--which is exactly what she does when she stumbles across an unfamiliar troll. He's young, so she's not immediately on her guard, but she does stop at least one tree away as she inspects him.

"You ate the scenery, didn't you?" she asks, trying to sound casual. She's got the posture for it, but her limbs are still tense and ready to move if he decides to attack.

[thebestoffense]

Volanz's head comes up sharply, startled, but he's relieved to find that the person talking isn't too close. That she's also a troll, however, is much less reassuring.

"I wasn't exactly going to do so great if I went for anything at the cornucopia," he replies. "This is what I always do and it worked okay? I didn't expect it to... not do that." He conveniently ignores that "always" has been "literally one arena so far".

His mealsack makes an unpleasant gurgling sound as he draws himself up into a wary crouch. At least if she comes over here, he might be able to get a few steps ahead.

[pythianjudgment]

Well, he's not lunging at her, at least. He doesn't seem like he's going anywhere else for the moment, either. If anything, he seems rather timid. If Terezi had to wager a guess, she'd peg him as a lowblood of some kind. But that doesn't really matter here.

"Taking edibility for granted is the quickest way to get yourself killed out here," she points out. "If this is how you've always done it, then you must be lucky that it took you this long to get sick." The way he says that, though, she has to wonder how many arenas he's been in. As far as she could tell, she's never met him before. Maybe he meant back home?

"What's your name? Did you just get here?"

[thebestoffense]

"I know," Volanz says, cringing a little. "But I mean, usually it works out? You sort of just see what the animals are eating and most of the time those things are okay for you too. Even here." Blugh, his mouth and throat are so dry.

"But I mean... not like here here but the whole not-home-thing that is going on." He waves a hand in an effort to clarify the idea, but it doesn't really do much.

"I'm Volanz? I was here for one time and then I was kind of eaten by a beast. But I guess I'm back now. Who're you?"

She hasn't attacked. Good. He can spare some thoughts for how much of a pain it's going to be to go find water.

[pythianjudgment]

She sort of gets what he's saying... She's been dealing with translating round-about juggalo-speak enough that a little rambling is nothing. So, his clarification doesn't fly completely over her head.

"I'm Terezi. I've been here since before the last arena, but you haven't been hanging around. I would have noticed." In that, he's not a troll that she recognized either personally or by association. It's a little weird, but she honestly thought that the must have been pulling from SGRUB-related trolls at first. Obvious not, if this one's here.

[thebestoffense]

"I'm actually pretty okay at not being noticed, when I try at it?" Volanz said. "But I wasn't here for a while. I'm not all that sure where I was or why, either? I just don't remember."

Volanz hooks a hand around the back of his neck, a habitual motion that somehow makes him feel a little more secure. He privately wonders what he's done wrong that made the Capitol do... whatever it was that they did. Maybe he upset them. A few theories have been knocking frenziedly around between his horns when he's not busy panicking over more immediate situations, like his empty stomach.

"I'm not super good at any of these arena type things that we're supposed to do, if you ask me? I kind of think maybe they did it because I'm basically not all that interesting. Mostly."

[pythianjudgment]

"They're probably right! You definitely don't seem that interesting." She has to say, his timidity is sort of off-putting. He's the sort of lowblood that a lot of highbloods would love to kick around. Not her, of course, but she certainly knows a few.

"I could kill you," she informs him casually, though whether that's an offer or a threat or just a fact, she doesn't make that clear. She's still trying to figure out for herself just when and how she wants to start living up to this bloodbath--if at all.

"I doubt you have the skills to last very long in this arena anyway, let alone make it to the end."

[thebestoffense]

Volanz nods along with Terezi's assessment of his boringness, and her ability to kill him. At the offer to actually do it though, he shakes his head.

"I'd, well, rather do the being alive thing for as long as I can? I mean it pretty much sucks a lot and is horrible in like twelve different ways, okay, but I don't want to die again so soon."

"It kind of hurts a lot."

Not to mention that Volanz can't imagine dying willingly. It just goes completely against every fiber of his being to lie down and die. Lie down and be stomped on and treated like dirt, perhaps, but even beneath his sense of social propriety and lack of self-importance there beats a vital drive to keep breathing, to keep thinking and pumping blood and functioning that not even fear of pain and suffering can quell.

[pythianjudgment]

"Wow, really? Dying hurts? I never would have imagined." The flatness of her tone would be difficult for anyone but a deaf person to miss. Still, he doesn't want to die, and Terezi's not in the mood yet to challenge his survival skills.

"If you're that intent on not dying, you should probably stop eating the plant-life. I don't know about the animals, but there's nothing edible here of the green and leafy variety."

[thebestoffense]

Volanz sighs. There he goes again, saying things that are obvious/dumb/otherwise scorn-worthy. He supposes that means he's still talking normally, at least. Nothing toxic's mucking with his sponge yet.

Perhaps another person would reply with something sarcastic or cutting about how they'd already figured that out thanks, girl troll Sherlock, but Volanz doesn't have the spine for it.

Instead, he says, "...Yeah, I was gonna give up after this one. It's just plants are way easier cause they don't move or bite. Biting's another part of how I died last time."

[pythianjudgment]

It's probably better that Volanz didn't try to snark back at her. Not that she would have done anything, but it would have become abundantly clear who was the more verbally gifted in this conversation. Right after she buried him in a trench of sarcasm.

Instead, he gets something a little more skeptical.

"...On what Alternia did you grow up. I am pretty sure that there were carnivorous plants out in my forest, or else I must have had some long-standing hallucination. Either way, I wouldn't write that option out completely. Just because they haven't moved yet doesn't mean that they won't."