thearena | (no subject)

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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!]

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Gary has little to no interest in logic puzzles or killing other Tributes. Unfortunately this does not stop him from wandering his way into the labs and getting thoroughly lost. Wandering the outer corridors has kept him busy the first week, but the need to find somewhere to actually rest and the new, fun addition of shifting gravity have forced him towards the more stable-looking rooms beneath, where he hopes to catch some kind of break. He of course does not.

It's through trial and error, natural agility and sheer luck that Gary manages to make it through the first couple of puzzle rooms. It's around the point where he gets bored and tired and wants to turn back that he realizes he doesn't know how. He takes one path, finds himself in an unfamiliar room, manages to cross those platforms, and then--

A familiar face stares back from the opposite corner of the course. Gary's face brightens as much as it can; he looks rather alarmingly beaten, his movements stiff, one arm dangling at his side and dried blood smeared along his chin, but apart from the hoarseness of his voice Gary doesn't seem too bothered.

"Signless?" Rhetorical question, of course it's Signless. Gary waves his good arm over his head to get the troll's attention. "Hey! Over here!"

"Wh -- Gary!" He stands a little taller (which isn't saying much), attempting to get a better look past the half-panes of glass that separate parts of the course. He's been having particular trouble with this one given that he can't even attempt to do the work of two when only half the room is available to him.

It's at least good to see one more person he knows present and accounted for, though looking a little worse for wear.

"What happened to your arm?" It's sad that as much as he might expect an arena hazard, he also expects a name.

"What, this?" Gary shrugs his shoulder and--oh dear, his elbow really shouldn't bend that way, should it? He frowns at the belligerent limb but is otherwise not troubled. "Some big guy at the Cornucopia got me. I have my powers back, though, so I'm okay!"

This is presented casually while Gary cranes his neck to see over the entire course.

"...How'd you get over there?" That's the way out, isn't it? It's the other side of the room, so it must be. That is definitely how these puzzles work. Gary is good at puzzles. (No, he isn't.)

Edited (words) 2014-12-22 23:25 (UTC)

"I... this is where I was when I walked in." Pardon him, Gary, he's having a little trouble discussing the room when your arm is doing the thing it's doing. It certainly doesn't look okay, whatever Gary says about powers.

"I assumed you were at the exit."

Gary's brow furrows in deep thought. "Well it...leads to other rooms, I guess. This is the way I came in." Not a minute has passed and already he's completely baffled. Brilliant. "Um...maybe there's another door somewhere? Like, a trapdoor that opens with a switch or something. I dunno."

This obviously isn't important enough of a detail for Gary to stall over, because he's already pacing on the platform by the door and gauging the distance to the next one. It's quite far away. "Think I can make that jump? I bet I can make that jump."

Gary might think he can make the jump, but Signless is not so sure. Granted he's hasn't seen much of Gary in action and might be vastly underestimating him but, well... call it friendly concern, but he thinks that arm is quite enough for one person to be getting on with. Gary doesn't need both his legs broken too.

"I think there might be a better way to navigate this room, one that's a little less potentially fatal." He casts around desperately for something that might aid him in proving this point and spots a button on the wall -- on that's mirrored on Gary's side of the room.

"Maybe these buttons will activate platforms and then you won't have to jump in the first place?"

That's a thought. Gary stops, crouched and mentally ready to throw himself across the gap. "You think?" He seems to consider this for a few healthy seconds, and glances between his button and the one Signless is standing next to for good measure. "...Hey, maybe they do! That's a good idea."

Without further provocation, warning or thought given to it, Gary reaches over and mashes the button.

Miraculously, nothing explodes. Instead, a section of the wall next to Signless's platform unfolds into a walkway to the next section. Ah. So this is another of those rooms that requires teamwork. On a hunch, Signless presses the button next to him and a similar walkway extends on Gary's side of the room.

"See?" There's audible relief in his voice. He has absolutely no doubt that Gary would have jumped otherwise.

Gary looks on at the platform in wide-eyed awe. Who knew buttons did such useful things? He's just going to have to press all the buttons now. There's probably another one on the next platform, so Gary doesn't waste any more time in trotting his way across the path.

"I bet I could've made it anyways," he says, as an afterthought. "You think we'll have to meet up in the middle or something? Like a really long, twisty bridge.

"Most likely," he says. There's a singular platform in the very center of the room, completely bare, which is probably where they're going to end up. He can't imagine where they're meant to go from there, though.

"I can take a look at your arm once we meet up, if you like," he adds, and pushes the next button-- which, predictably, extends another section of path for Gary to cross. More importantly, there's a creaking sound from the ceiling: above the center platform a metal ladder is slowly descending. That explains how they're meant to escape.

"You know," Gary says, casually, as if this is the most normal thing in the world to be talking about, "you're like the third person who's offered to look at it. Why?"

Yes, that is a genuine, serious question Gary is asking. He punches the next button on his side and, without waiting to see what happens, starts to cross to the next platform.

"... Because it's clearly injured, and generally one wants to heal injuries rather than leave them alone to get worse?"

Gary really is such a strange boy. Just when Signless thinks he more or less understands where he's coming from, Gary does something like this and throws him for a loop again.

The more buttons they press the further the ladder descends in a series of soft metallic creaks.

Such is Gary's way. Even with the reason clearly spelled out for him, he still passes Signless a look like he's speaking Greek.

"Well I mean," he shrugs helplessly on his platform and locks eyes with the stuttering ladder, "it's not hurting me or anything. And I can still move fine. So what's the big deal? It'll heal eventually, right?"

"... Yes, eventually. But wouldn't you want it healed sooner rather than later, especially because if you set it it will heal correctly instead of staying permanently..." He eyes Gary's arm.

"... Like that?"

Gary stares for a moment, as if maybe, just maybe, it's sunk in that this isn't such a great thing. Then he let's out a bark of laughter.

"It won't do that," he chuckles on the recovery, smashing the next button. The ladder platform gets ever closer. "They can fix it! If they can make people look like aliens, they can fix my arm."

'They' apparently refers to the Capitol Stylists in this context. Gary has maybe too much faith in the abilities of the Stylists.

One last button and the ladder hits the center platform and locks in with a metallic scrooonk. Signless feels almost like there must be some trick to this room, but he can't for the life of him think what it might be. Perhaps this place has trained him to expect the worst even when the worst isn't coming.

"Cosmetic surgery is very different from actual medicinal care," he points out, voicing his much more important concern. Not that he doesn't believe the Capitol can't do amazing things with medicine too, but...

"You shouldn't get both from the same place."

Success! Gary isn't at all suspicious about the nature of this room--there's a way out, that's what they've been looking for, everything's fine. He trots across the last bridge to the center platform and, once there, decides that he doesn't care too much about his argument, either. It was fun for a little bit, he's done now.

"Alright, alright," Gary sighs. "If you think you can do something about it, I won't stop ya."

"I can at least set it," he says, clearly pleased that Gary's finally given in. "I should have enough left in my first aid kit for that."

Instead of moving immediately to scale the ladder he sets down the case he managed to grab at the cornucopia, opens it, and pulls out the smaller medkit. This is happening right now, Gary. No getting out of it!

It's a good thing that Signless stops, because Gary already has his good hand on the ladder and looks ready to start climbing before he realizes that he's alone in this action. He looks around, fidgets with denied nervous energy, and reluctantly curls up against the ladder. It's odd, forcing himself to sit and rest like this; he knows he should be exhausted, based on the way he shivers and his legs wobble like a couple of unsteady poles, but his whole body thrums with adrenaline, pulsing in his ears, kicking his heart doggedly onward. It's a fun feeling, when he's allowed to move. Right now it just feels slightly unpleasant.

He'll have a hard time sitting still, but Gary will cooperate. He doesn't want Signless to leave him behind.

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we can probably fade this soon because i am no good at actual first aid whups

sounds good! (fade and end, I'm assuming - this seems like a good place to stop)