69problems: <user name="flowertea" site="tumblr.com"> (xtra | Just watch these walls)
The Signless ([personal profile] 69problems) wrote in [community profile] thearena2014-12-13 08:10 pm

(no subject)

Who| Signless and Psii, Signless and Davesprite, Signless and OPEN!
What| A catchall for the first two weeks of the arena, including but not limited to: fighting xenomutts, CBOT-12 shenanigans, Signless having inopportune trances, puzzle rooms, and gravity throwing a fit.
Where| All over the station.
When| Week 0 and Week 1
Warnings/Notes| Injuries, most likely.

A | Week 0 | Closed to Davesprite

This is not the first pack of the smaller, quadrupedal xenomorphs the Signless has fought, but it's the first he's fought on his own and all he has is a pocket knife (and a taser, but he isn't entirely sure how to use it and so doesn't feel like giving up the knife to experiment). It doesn't help that his usual method for dispatching small game -- stabbing through the eye and up -- doesn't work on creatures with no actual discernible eyes.

They've backed him into a corner where two hallways cross and while thus-far he's managed to ward them off, he is probably not going to be able to do so much longer. His first instinct when he catches movement out of the corner of one eye is to think oh, no, not more of them.

B | Week 0 | Closed to the Psiioniic

The Signless is exploring the hallways of the upper levels when he first hears the voice, distant and yet unmistakable.

"Help! Please--"

His Disciple is somewhere nearby. His Disciple is in danger, and if she's screaming for help then it must truly be dire. Did they bring her back? He knows that sometimes a tribute will show up in an arena already in progress: it's how he arrived all the way back in arena six. His bloodpusher skips several beats and he holds very, very still until she cries out again and he finds his feet carrying him toward her voice without input from his brain. For the first time he gives no thought to the noise his boots make against the floor or to checking around corners before turning them; all he thinks about is getting to her.

He should know that it's a trap, but part of him wants so desperately to believe he hasn't permanently lost her.

C | Week 1 | OPEN

The one downside to Signless's strategy is that, while wandering in order to have as clear a picture of the arena he's dealing with as possible is a good idea in theory, he often finds himself stumbling into places he probably could have gone without exploring. The first few puzzle rooms took him a good while to work his way through (they would have gone faster if gravity hadn't switched on him halfway through the first one, leaving him floating awkwardly near the ceiling). Now that he has the hang of them (and gravity is back to normal for the moment) they're not quite so bad -- in fact, he's starting to get good at working out the solutions.

That's why this room worries him. It's clearly built to require two people to solve, he can tell that much by the configuration of platforms and buttons. This poses a problem, as he is only one person. With no other option, he's forced to wait for another person to accidentally stumble in and hope that they'll be the sort to be more interested in solving logic puzzles than killing other tributes.

[Signless in his wanderings will probably get stuck in many impassable two-person rooms. Feel free to state in your tag the current state of gravity at the start of your thread; we can also always switch midway through, since it changes every half hour!]
biiowiired: please do not touch helmsman system (omg)

[personal profile] biiowiired 2015-01-08 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, it should."

He jerked it from the wall, its razors clawing uselessly the air. But a few of its cylinders slid around to point a barrel at Psii. His eyes widened with barely any time to spare, only managing a small optic blast of his already weakened powers. It drowned its sight and prevented the laser from injuring him, but only charred the robot. ("Please stop!" it protested.)

"Out of the way!" Psii gasped as he swung the robot through the air towards the path Signless indicated. If he tugged it around fast enough, maybe it would have a hard time locking onto its targets. He flew with it down the hall, saw the hole, and hurled the screaming robot as fast as he could into it.
biiowiired: ii 2ee what you diid there (look)

[personal profile] biiowiired 2015-01-16 12:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Psii was still catching his breath. Normally that wouldn't have taken any effort at all, but he could see the logic in not allowing him his full powers. He wondered if Signless meant that he wouldn't stand a chance against its razors, or that he wouldn't be able to fight against something that sounded exactly like Disciple. He wasn't enough of a douchebag to ask.

"Let'th jutht get the fuck out of here before it figureth out a way to climb back up. That, or thome pthycho cometh running towardth the noithe to finish uth off."

He spun on his heel and clapped Signless's shoulder as a signal to follow. He wasn't going to wait for the last of the robot's echoes to fade.

"We can find a thafe plathe to compare noteth.... Tho far I've only run into deformed alien barkbeathtth and other Tributeth. Nothing like robotth. Are they a Gamemaker favorite, or are they jutht trying to run with the thpathe and tech theme?"
biiowiired: excu2e you (arms crossed)

[personal profile] biiowiired 2015-01-26 01:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Psii actually stopped to turn and stare at Signless. A dragon?

Just nights ago he'd been with Disciple and the rest of their little family. Psii had to remind himself that this was a Signless who had been without his beloved for much, much longer than that. Even so, he'd come blindly running instead of cynically assuming it was a robot. Psii was shaken and angry that they had put effort into tactics sure to prey on anyone with half a heart. Wasn't it enough that they were told to kill each other? The Gamemakers were more like Subjugglators than Psii thought: They had a twisted sense of humor.

"They played uth." The taste was bitter. "Maybe from now on we should have a code word for when we're being attacked, tho we don't mithtake each other for robotth. Thtill," he added sarcastically, glaring into the distance, "nithe to know that if another Tribute doethn't finish uth off, a shitload of other terrifying predatorth are waiting in line to get the job done."

Speaking of Tributes....

"Even with all that shit, that clown ith thtill the motht terrifying thing I've run into in here."
biiowiired: excu2e you (arms crossed)

[personal profile] biiowiired 2015-02-04 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
"I think I'd be better at thcreaming. Maybe I'll uthe my favorite animal-related hobby ath a code word, you know the one...."

He didn't talk about apiculture out loud, in case Gamemakers or robots were eavesdropping.

"You're a little late by the way, he wath already thcrambling people'th headth when I ran into him, including mine. Walking around with pthychic chuckleshit leaking out of hith thponge, I had to tell him to thtep off." He crossed his arms, growing more acidic. "What, did you think I wath terrified of him thimply becauthe of his dashing good lookth? He wath fucking with my mind like clawth on a thchoolfeeding board!"

Despite his feigning mere annoyance, Psii was actually actively disturbed. He had plenty to worry about without some other psychic latching onto his mind like he was a banana yellow fear beacon. Psii had.... also made another death threat, but he left that part out. Two death threats to Signless's moirail, and Psii didn't even like killing. Things were not looking good.
biiowiired: you had what up your wa2techute? (eh?)

[personal profile] biiowiired 2015-02-10 12:25 pm (UTC)(link)
"You mean it can?? Fuck, am I going to randomly lothe my shit again? I feel fine now.... I thought it ended when he left." Initiate being a Subjugglator was scary enough without the mind powers. It didn't help that lowbloods were more susceptible to psychic interference. Just another way a highblood could hammer him down.

He started muttering his thoughts aloud, "He made out like it wath thomething he couldn't control, but I thaw him thtop it anyway. He should have turned it off if he wath going to talk to me in the firtht plathe. What the hell wath he trying to do?"
biiowiired: wow ii feel embarra22ed (down)

[personal profile] biiowiired 2015-02-20 09:06 am (UTC)(link)
"Fuck yeah he should know better, and no, it ith not ok. I don't know what he wanted, I don't want to think about it. Anyway, only an idiot would poke at me after I've done my lightshow. It shouldn't happen again."

He scrubbed his hands over his face and rubbed his temples. If he had his way, he'd have nothing more to do with clowns. He wondered, for the two thousandth time, why Signless thought it was a great idea to be in diamonds with one.

"Do you mith Di? I mean—I wouldn't wish thith on her, but it mutht be hard without her here...."

He didn't want to say what he was thinking, that maybe losing Disciple had unbalanced Signless enough to embrace the clown. It didn't make sense, first of all. Other than weathering several arenas and dating a clown, he seemed more than stolid. Psii was the one freaking out here.
biiowiired: wow ii feel embarra22ed (down)

[personal profile] biiowiired 2015-03-03 09:57 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm thorry, that wath a thtupid quethtion," he muttered softly.

This was one of those times where he tried to get something out of someone, but he asked something imbecilic to attempt jump-starting it, instead of just saying what was on his mind. Psii normally said exactly what he was thinking, especially to his friends, which said something about the magnitude of his hesitation. That, and he remembered that all of this was televised. Way to go, Captor.

"We're the only two trollth here who remember her from back home. If.... if you ever want to talk about her or Trollmom if we get back to the Capitol, I'll lithten."