(no subject)

[glowygreendeath]

Who | Ermac and you!
What | Combat practice and demanding answers
Where | The training centre and the District 12 suite
When | Thursday the 9th

A

Ermac had awoken in the Capitol, thoroughly disoriented from the sudden silencing of his many souls. They were still there, he could feel them there, but their unending chatter and screams had been muffled to a sort of a dull roar at its loudest. It was like part of his consciousness had suddenly been denied to him. Not only that, but his telekinesis doesn't respond; there's not even a glow in response to his mental commands. Desperate for something, anything, familiar to ground himself with, Ermac soon found himself in the training facility. It didn't take him long to pick out one of the tougher training dummies to start pummeling.

Anyone coming across him will find him employing a wide range of martial arts maneuvers against the hapless dummy while some of its stuffing occasionally flies out.

B

Now that he's had a chance to vent, Ermac can be found wandering the District 12 suite, looking very unhappy about the situation he's found himself. The second he notices someone else, he immediately turns and heads in their direction.

"You! We have questions, and you will answer them!"
 

Comments

B

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy gives a little jump when he speaks to her and looks around half expecting him to mean someone else. It wasn't often the adults actually came to her for information without her volunteering it but she supposed it was a nice surprise.

She'd been in the middle of sketching something that looked like horses in armor with wings and horns.

"I um...yeah OK. I should be able to help." She hoped.

And for my first trick: Ermac intimidating a child

[glowygreendeath]

"Who rules here?"

If there was something off-putting about him from a distance, then seeing him up close is downright unnerving. They may have reduced his power to that of a normal human, but they certainly couldn't make him look or sound human. Every time he speaks, it sounds like there are other people speaking softly in perfect unison with him.

A thought occurs to him as he approaches the child.

"Are they making children fight?"

He's seen and done a lot of things that most people would consider terrible without a second thought, but this...forcing a mere child to fight was cruel even by his standards.

If it makes him feel any better, she's been through a lot already.

[justoutrunyou]

The questions hit her and she seemed relieved they were questions she had answers for...

...but not too relieved because she had a feeling as scary sounding and looking as this guy was he was a tribute just like her. He probably wouldn't like the answers she had.

"President Snow rules this place." She took up a remote from the low table in front of her seat and flipped channels on the glistening screen on the wall until an old mans face appeared. An old man with dark dangerous eyes wearing a grandfatherly smile.

"Him." She confirmed. And then at the second question she wondered how best to explain it.

"Yes." that was a start. "Before we were brought here they only used children. Two children from each District each year. Only one survivor." She eyed her note pad and then looked back to him to make sure he understood. If not maybe she could draw him some diagrams.

"Now they pull people from different worlds. Adults, teenagers and kids like me and sometimes younger."

Say what you will for her courage and nerves, the girl had her information down.

[glowygreendeath]

He watches the TV for a moment, frown deepening.

"We don't know him."

He turns his attention back to her, fixing his unnatural glowing gaze on her.

"For what purpose? What do they gain from forcing children to fight?"

Adults fighting was just part of life, and a very effective means of ending disputes. But children? It made no sense.

[justoutrunyou]

That...was a matter of great debate. Or at least it would be if the Capitol allowed such things which of course they did not. So she decided to start at the beginning.

"I guess long ago this world nearly ended. Humans wrecked the place. So the Capitol rose up and united what was left of the world into thirteen districts. Each district provides something for the Capitol, and the Capitol provides for them. But the Districts..." She has to choke out the next words "Got greedy" because clearly she doesn't like them and it leaves a sour taste in her mouth.

"So they rebelled and the Capitol squashed them. District 13 was totally wiped out and as a reminder of that, every year the Capitol took two kids from each district to fight in remembrance and celebration and all that stuff. The kid who wins is set for life with money and stuff. And the district gets extra food all year."

Then came the complicated stuff.

"So a couple years ago they started this special event called a Quarter Quell? Basically they've been taking people from other universes...us. And making us fight instead. Same reason, to remember what happened in the rebellion, winning district gets extra food, winning tribute gets money and glory and stuff. So...I guess that's why children. Because they used to use children before and they figure it's OK to keep using them."

After a minute she couldn't hold back her editorializing any more "And I figure it must make really interesting TV for them to watch. Because they love the drama of it all. Kids freaking out, getting hurt, running for their lives." She had to bite her lip to silence herself because she was clearly steaming now and there were microphones and cameras everywhere.

[glowygreendeath]

"They want us to fight children."

Give him a reason to fight adults, and he'll do it. But children? That was cruel even by his standards.

"How do they try to contain us?"

He assumed they had some methods, otherwise the offworlders they were bringing in would surely resist or outright rebel. If they were bringing in warriors of Ermac's caliber, then they would need something more than just slavers and corporeal punishment.

[justoutrunyou]

Ah, the long list of her frustrations continue, how best to give him an idea of the gravity of the situation?

As luck would have it, the perfect example came shuffling into the kitchen to replace some of the trash liners.

"They have all the weapons. They have control over our powers...those of us who have powers anyway. And they aren't afraid to punish people." Pointing a finger to a young man with a buzz cut and attentive, timid eyes like that of prey she continued.

"That's called an Avox. It's a criminal who disobeyed too many times or too badly. They do something to them...destroy who they used to be so that all that's left is...well that. I've seen it happen."

And while the first time it had only been temporary, she had a depressing thought lingering in the back of her head that this time The Initiate wouldn't be recovering from his punishment.

"Scary right?" The last time she tried to talk to someone about the world they were living in, the woman became irritated and snippy because she refused to believe the dangerous truth of the situation.

A

[inrestlessdreams]

James was still reeling from basically getting sick in public (though there was a small comfort of not being the only one afflicted), and the picture Celebrus painted of him as a raving lunatic. Which was only partially true, Mary was real! Just...dead. Doubly so if she was at the bottom of Toluca Lake. He was trying to shake off that stigma but even he had to realize that venturing out to the Capitol at this moment was a terrible idea. So why not do a little bit of exercise? Take his mind off everything? That would be great!

If there wasn't a man already savagely beating a dummy into plastic paste. "Uh...I think whoever you're trying to kill is pretty much dead," he quipped

[glowygreendeath]

Ermac jumps and lands a powerful kick on the dummy's head, launching it across the room. Now that his target has been thoroughly broken, he turns to look at his spectator.

"We were brought here to kill."

A task that would be a waste of his skills, if this man was going to be one of his opponents at some point. He'd been created to fight the finest warriors rival nations and realms could offer; the notion that he might be fighting commoners was almost an insult.

[inrestlessdreams]

"Yes...in the Arena, but I would not try murdering anyone out here, it is frowned upon and very illegal," James rolled his eyes at the simple response. He should know these facts very well since he did what he did back home. "What did they tell you when they brought you in here?"

Ermac was going to have an unpleasant surprise when the man would find all the Tributes running around, being inexperienced fighters most of them, or at least unrefined. The warrior may play the "kill everything on sight" but Sunderland learned one thing: the long game of survival.

[glowygreendeath]

"As it is in most places."

He pushes the dummy down before finally abandoning it and approaching James.

"We were told that we are a competitor in their death match."

He looks the man over. A commoner, through and through. He'd much rather be speaking to an official, or at least a fellow warrior, but a commoner would have to do for now. At least the man seemed to have some answers.

"And what are you?"

[inrestlessdreams]

"I'm a store clerk, well, I used to be until my wife got sick," then his official title became Silent Hill plaything but he brought that on himself all things considered. "I've already gone through my first arena and trust me, no one's really ready for it."

James saw people who were extremely good at combat drop like flies and hell, he got stabbed multiple times by what he later found out was a princess. Everything was up to chance after all.

[glowygreendeath]

He crosses his arms, every fiber of his being speaking of his absolute confidence in his abilities.

"We have fought in death matches before. It is why we were created."

[inrestlessdreams]

"If the odds aren't in your favor," Sunderland shrugged as he took off his jacket and placed his token, his radio, on a safe ledge before grabbing some bandages for his knuckles, "You're going up a creek without a paddle." And if this commoner looks like he has no experience with actual combat, it's because he really doesn't have any to speak of.

B

[69problems]

Well. That's his job, isn't it? To answer the questions of those who are clearly new here and have a lot of them? Signless turns to this new tribute, his expression not one of annoyance at being commandeered for a Q and A session but rather open and inquisitive.

"I'll do my best. Start with the most pressing and we'll work our way forward from there."

He senses from the urgency in that tone that there really isn't time to stop for introductions. That will come later.

[glowygreendeath]

"Where are we?"

A simple enough question -- or at least, it should be. But Ermac is well aware that there are other realms, each with their own worlds, their own nations, their own continents... The name of a city, no matter how important it was to that particular realm, was often nearly useless to him.

[69problems]

That's a question with quite a few potential answers depending on which 'where' this new tribute means (and he must be new, or he'd know already).

"We're in the suites allocated to the tributes who represent District 12 in the Panem Hunger Games. These suites are at the top floor of the tower in which the tributes from all twelve districts stay, which is in turn located in the capitol city of the nation of Panem. As far as I can gather Panem is on Earth, though which Earth I couldn't tell you given that almost every human here remembers a different one."

There. That should have neatly included every possible answer -- or at least given material for more specific questions.

[glowygreendeath]

He goes silent for a moment, trying to digest all the information he'd been given. So...he was in some kind of new realm that was similar to Earthrealm. Two realms beng similar wasn't too strange, he supposed.

"Why were we chosen to represent this 'District 12?'"

There had to be a reason they were chosen for this Dstrict.

[69problems]

"Why this District in particular, do you mean? As far as I know, simply because there was a space available. Each suite only has so many rooms, and ours has lost some of its occupants recently."

That he's suited so well to 12, he thinks, is only a coincidence. He had the privilege of actually going out to the District once and seeing how its people lived, and it reminded him of nothing so much as a troll slave camp.

"They try to keep the number of tributes in each District balanced; it's more fair if every District has the same number of chances to win."

[glowygreendeath]

"They want us to fight to the death, and they are concerned with being fair?"

The absurdity of the statement almost made him laugh.

"Has our District always fought so poorly?"

Why else would tributes be 'lost,' after all?

[69problems]

"We don't have the most glorious history," he says diplomatically. Which is a roundabout way of saying that yes, Twelve has never been a big contender, and their most recent wins have all come down to luck. Even Katniss and Peeta won together on a technicality.

"Which I assume is why they brought you in. Someone new is a wildcard, and a wildcard can mean a victory. As one of this District's Mentors, it's my job to help you achieve that victory."

He holds out a hand to shake. His nails are pointy, like blunted claws, and painted bright red.

"My name is Signless. I look forward to working with you."

[aves]

This isn't even one of hers, and Trish rarely-- if ever-- has time to stop by the training center, but she thought she might like to see it, on a whim. She doesn't want this to be one of those deals where she goes for years without seeing everything this building has to offer, especially since most of it is off-limits to the public, and now... much less of it is off-limits to her.

She keeps a safe distance, watching from a fenced-off observation area.

"Good! Keep doing that, and then do it in the Arena too!" Should she be cheering for other districts, even if there's a tinge of sarcasm? She was just supposed to make hers look pretty or hot or dress them functionally for the elements that they'd be facing. Whether or not they won was another matter. "Show that dummy who's Victor material!"

[glowygreendeath]

[He turns to glare at her just as he tears one of the dummy's arms off.]

"Do not mock us, woman. We were made to win."

[aves]

Trish holds her hands up defensively. "Hey, just a bit of advice. You're going at that thing like it owes you money. Does it?"

She came here to get to know the Tributes better, and that includes the ones that aren't in her district-- and the ones with chips on their shoulders. Far be it from her to judge; she will, but she doesn't have much of a place to. If she could at all empathize with their situation, she wouldn't be having this problem.

[glowygreendeath]

"No."

He leans against the fencing around the training area and glares.

"We could practice on a target that we find annoying."