Who| Anyone left in the arenas
What| Count down to the finale with your friendly neighbor hood monster.
Where| Both arenas. Starting in desert, ending in candy.
When| Dead of night.
Warnings/Notes| Monster vaguely based on the stories from the Skin Walker Ranch in Utah. Feel free to control the monster as you like. Once it goes through the force fields between arenas, they are now linked as one arena. One sticky, sandy arena. Character can move freely between the two. Be sure to specify where you are in your thread header.

It starts in the desert arena.

The cold blowing wind almost drowns out the foot steps at first, making them easier to dismiss until the are very close to you. Then their booming can't be ignored, close enough it shakes the ground.

The impacts those foot steps make would be much harder to ignore, crushing foliage, and any living things that get in the way, and leaving huge, three toed foot prints that sink down into the ground, leaving impressions several feet deep. The smell is also hard to ignore, rich and sickeningly sweet. Like a dead thing.

But the creature making those sounds can't be seen. Even if it's right above you, you see nothing but the stars glittering over head. By it's feet, it must be huge, it's belly taller then any tributes head, but completely invisible.

When it gets close to you, you can hear the sounds it makes, unnerving high pitched sounds. It's hard to tell, without being able to see the creature, what exactly is making that sound within it. Is it breathing? Is the wind whistling through some strange anatomy? Whatever it is, the louder that sound gets, the faster you should run.

Because it doesn't mind snapping up a few people on it's way across the arena. And even if you can't see them, you can feel it's many, many sharp teeth.

Any tribute unlucky enough to touch it would find it unnaturally warm, with a soft skin that moves under your hand, as if barely containing something wiggling underneath it's surface. It isn't a pleasant feeling, and attacks just seem to sink into it's side. They don't seem to effect the creature at all.

But the behemoth moves forward with a purpose, straight towards the mountain, and the force field shimmering behind it.

And when it it hits that force field, the shimmering surface shudders, and then vanishes into thin air. The sudden change sets the Doki Doki's into a panic. They shriek and attack the creature, and it is happy to snap them up, tearing them (and anything else it catches) to shreds in it's teeth.

And it continues it's move through the arena, slow and destructive, before finally the sound of it's massive foot prints vanishes. Any who go to investigate can see it's tracks leading straight to the force fields on either sides of the arena, but the creature it's self is gone long before dawn.

Although the mood in the Capitol is...taut, once the Tributes are in the transportation craft, things seem to lighten. The peacekeepers almost seem jovial - as jovial as peacekeepers ever seem. About half the Tributes are checked over and given an injection into their tracking device.

In the underground room, the stylists have all their prep teams running busy, dressing up the tributes in bright costumes, chatting with each other, clearly excited to have so much freedom over what their Tributes are wearing in. Each one is dressed in a personalized costume, elaborate, and entirely soft.

Finally the Tributes are placed on their pedestals and sent on up, all gussied up.

25 - 24 - 23

The light is blinding for a moment, before the candy-colored world around them comes into focus. And it's not just candy-colored - it is actually candy. Some Tributes might be reminded of the game Candy Land, if it was something in their home world. Music plays, scarily cute animals roam, and every thing just looks so gosh-darn happy.

20 - 19 - 18 - 17 - 16

The Cornucopia sits, candy-striped itself, and over-flowing with a generous bounty of food, weapons, and supplies. Even these all reflect the nature of the arena, brightly-colored, and cheerful-looking, just begging to be gathered up.

11- 10 - 9 - 8

They've all been warned not to step off their pedestal early. But as the final number ticks off, those Tributes that had their tracking devices adjusted in the transport suddenly feel a sting starting in their arms. A slightly diluted version of what Ariadne was given the day before is dumped in their veins.

The dilution doesn't help them, of course; it just causes the poison to take effect more slowly.

5 - 4

3

2

1

Go.

The burning is starting for half of them, spreading through their body, lighting their nerves on fire. Within 10 minutes it's effecting their motor skills, causing them to stagger, twitch, to move against their will.

Those who are small fall faster, barely lasting 15 minutes in the bloodbath. The stronger and bigger among them might make it 30 minutes at most.

By the time the bloodbath is over, the Cornucopia is surrounded by corpses. Half of the Tributes have fallen without even a single competitor having to touch them.


[OOC: Don't forget the OOC Arena post, especially those of you running for the Cornucopia. Every Tribute must post to this post. There will be a Cornucopia thread, and anyone else feel free to post as you will. Please add a tag with your character's name.

Those who were poisoned are anyone in group 2. You will have a second post up shortly.]