+1 Man Eating Monster.

[itsdark]

WHO | Ele [OPEN]
WHAT | Ele is hiding in her room in suite 05.
WHEN | After Arena 06.
WHERE | Suite 05.
WARNINGS / NOTES | Ele has not spent time among humans like Some has. She is terrified. Humans to her are A. Dangerous and B. Food. The door to her room is unlocked but... enter at your own risk.

It had taken them several hours to stop Ele from either attacking them, or attempting to hide under any available furniture (whether she fit or not). It took another several for them to explain why she was there in a way she could even begin to comprehend. She would kill humans. And other creatures, but mostly humans. Ele was wary of the idea. Humans were dangerous creatures. If not taken for a meal, they were best avoided.

Left to her room, she's wedged herself beneath the bed where it's dark and confined. Safe. Resting her head on all four arms, she tries to think of a way that she could get past all the humans and their Light.

Comments

[gruesome]

Maybe it's all a trick. And they hadn't found another grue. Cruentus had hinted that it might be someone he knew. After that, he'd heard little of what she'd kept saying, his heart pounding too loudly in his ears. He would have come straight here, except that he hadn't been given a choice about the party.

It was nearly dawn now, the building quiet around him as he was let onto the Fifth floor, creeping past the other tributes' rooms. He'd shed the intricate costume of strands, and wore nothing except for his necklace now. When he reached the right room, he laid a hand against the door, two others twisting the felt hat he'd brought, and cleared his throat.

"Are you there?" he asked, in the liquid syllables of his native tongue.

[itsdark]

Ele almost hits her head on the underside of the bed in surprise when she hears him. Humans didn't speak grue. "...Who are you?" She asks him back, voice full of wary hopefulness. The humans might be playing a trick. But how could they know grue? No human could speak grue.

[gruesome]

Certainly not the way grues speak it, with both mouths, two tongues. He's silent for a moment, pressing a hand over his mouth to out-wait the rush of selfish relief: It's not a voice he knows. They didn't bring any of his siblings or cousins, anyone from the tribes by his.

"Some ovMennet. Of Climbs-Shaking-Walls, from River-Eaten in All-Falls-In. I am going to come in, okay?"

[itsdark]

It was another grue! Her tail wags excitedly at the realization that she's not alone here among the many, many humans after all. Even better, the fellow grue was a Some. They would be out of here in no time. "Yes! The wall moves. I do not know how to move it."

[gruesome]

He touched the latch, and the door slid open to let him in. He was glad to see that at least the lights in here were out, and came in quickly, shutting the door behind himself with a hindfoot. "... Where are you?"

[itsdark]

There's a shuffling sound from beneath the bed and Ele pops her head out first, just to make sure it's safe. She smiles with both mouths when she sees Some, squeezing the rest of the way out from beneath the bed and standing up. "Did the humans take you too?"

[gruesome]

Some had forgotten, he realized, just how big grues were. He was small even for an un-male, but being so long among the humans had made him feel tall. Impressive even. He stared up at her for a moment before realizing he hadn't answered her question.

"Oh- yes. I have lived- it has been a while. I haven't seen another grue in so long..."

[itsdark]

Ele has to duck her head slightly just to stand in the room. She looks puzzled by Some's answer. "You have been here long? Why didn't you move back home?" For a Some, escaping should be easy. But at least now he can take her with him.

[gruesome]

Oh. Some caught his middle lip in his teeth, a nervous gesture and one that was purely human.

"... I can't."

[itsdark]

Ele stares at him for a moment, her hearts sinking. "Did something happen to your marks?" She asks. She remembers a story told of a Some who lost his marks in an accident that destroyed his back. He could no longer move as a Some should. He was no longer a Some.

[gruesome]

"No!" He put a hand protectively behind himself, covering the raised scars. "No, no. It is- they have- I don't know what they use, but there is something here that doesn't let me move. I could move in the last city, but not away from it, and here, I can't move at all." He leaned forward, low, in a posture of apology. "What is your name?"

[itsdark]

The idea that the humans might have something that could stop Somes from being able to move scares Ele. Somes were important. Somes could mean the life and death of entire tribes. Ele folds her top arms across her chest uneasily. "My name is Ele." She manages a small smile. "But if you cannot move, what are we going to do? There are so many humans here..."

[gruesome]

"Did they tell you anything? About why we're here?" He moved away from the door, towards the couch that was opposite her bed. "About the game they make us play?"

[itsdark]

"Yes..." She says hesitantly. She still isn't entirely clear on it all. "We must kill each other until one is left." She says. It's the extent of what she comprehends. She doesn't understand the point of it.

Why were the humans making them do this? And most of the fighters would be humans too! Why would they kill their own kind without good reason? Ele looks worried and confused. "I don't want to die. I want to go home."

[gruesome]

He stepped forward, holding out a free hand. If she didn't retreat, he'd touch her arm, hoping to offer comfort. "It isn't real, the dying. They don't tell us that, but it's not. We come back, wake up back here like you did today. I have, four times. Some kind of science. A knowledge they have."

[itsdark]

She gladly accepts the contact but looks more and more confused as he attempts to explain things to her. "I don't understand." She says, frowning. She has never seen a grue who has died return to life. "Do we sleep? Do we become unconscious?"

[gruesome]

He shook his head, looking up at her. "We just... wake up. It's very strange, I know it is. I did, only today. I..." For a moment, his face twisted with reluctance.

"I can show you?"

[itsdark]

Ele looks hopelessly lost. Now Some is talking about showing her something that has already come to pass. "H...how can you?" She asks.

[gruesome]

"They have-" Some broke off, at a complete loss as to how to explain recordings, television. Aimery and Ichigo had explained it to him in haphazard ways that had just confused him, until he'd seen it for himself. So he would have to show her.

"Will you come with me? They have a kind of storyteller, it is amazing."

[itsdark]

Ele looks wary. "But they are human..." She protests. A human storyteller? Why would Some want to see a human storyteller?

[gruesome]

"I know. But they- I have lived with humans for more than three icings now. They are-" He struggled for words, reluctant to say 'people' because he remembered how resistant he'd been to that his first days among the humans, and he'd been in one of their bodies. "They have amazing things," he settled on, after a moment, and drew her towards the door.

[itsdark]

Ele looks shocked. "Why have they not killed you?" It's all quickly becoming too much to take in. Grues eat humans. Some must eat. Why have the humans left him alive? She allows herself to be led more because her mind is too jumbled to think to protest than because she wishes to see Some's 'storyteller'.

[gruesome]

He tucked her arm in his, still a little stunned by the size of her. Much, much too long with only humans for company.

"... You'll see why. You'll meet them. Have you met anyone here yet?" Some hadn't been on the fifth floor before, but to his luck, the floors were all laid out more or less the same. He was looking for the main lounge, the one where the big screens were, and it was right where he thought it'd be.

[itsdark]

Ele has to duck her head further to get through doorways. She scowls. "The humans took me here." So far, she's not impressed. Though the Light has not hurt her thus far, she grimaces and cowers when they start to step out into the brightly lit main lounge. "Some...!"

[gruesome]

"Oh!" He pauses, drawing her back into the shadows of the corridor. "It won't hurt, not here, not much. But here, I brought this for you..." Hastily, he unfolded the hat he'd brought, shaking it out, and reached up to put it onto her head.