[Open] There's no future in this

[waschozon]

Who| Samus Aran and OPEN!
What| Samus sets up camp in the training center
Where| Training center, gymnasium proper
When| Day of her arrival
Warnings/Notes| None, maybe language

Another arrow clipped the side of the target and joined the scatter that had either gone too high, too low, or just awry. Frustrated, she strung another arrow, this one falling too short, landing below the outer rings of the target. Arrows pierced the outer rings just about everywhere except where she was aiming. Samus Aran was not going to be winning any archery competitions.

Frustrated, she audibly let out a half-sigh-half-grunt. It's a bit more dramatic that she normally would be, only because she thought she was alone in the gymnasium. She moved closer to the target; perhaps it would be better to start slowly (a foreign concept for this teenager). However, when she was ready to shoot, her arrow fell diagonally off her finger and was launched into the ground where it split apart.

That set her off, and she chucked her bow away from her with surprising strength. Amusingly enough (though not to Samus who was much to frustrated to find hilarity in this situation), the bow whizzed through the air and made contact with the target, tipping it over and sending it skidding back several feet on the floor.

Exasperated, she yelled to no one in particular "Why can't I just have my suit?!"

Comments

[earthborn]

"The same reason I can't have mine," Shepard replied from the bench where she'd been alternately watching the proceedings and waiting for someone in her weight class to step up to the sparring mat. She felt the same way as Samus did, that boiling frustration. Itchy fingers, hell; she wanted to hit someone. Someone who deserved it.

"It'd make this too easy. We're not here for fairness or shows of trained skill, we're here to be desperate and stupid for their entertainment," she looked down at her hands, then back up, eyes red in the shadows in the strong lights of the gym, "So get used to it."

[waschozon]

Samus pouted frowned more, and her brow furrowed. She began to collect her bow and arrows and told the woman, "I don't play games."

She got the feeling this woman didn't either. Not that she thought she could do anything about it, but Samus obtained the tiniest bit of relief from venting. She continued, "I have a duty, and if I'm going to be forced to fight, I want to do it on my terms."

Too damn bad, Samus.

[earthborn]

"There isn't anyone here who wouldn't rather be doing something else. I'm sure more than one have duties at least as important as yours, so pipe the hell down," She was mad as hell, and made no bones about it. It's too damn bad you're having so much trouble grasping the situation because Shepard has never had a problem with cutting the legs out from under people she's run out of patience for, strangers included.

"You don't have a choice in the matter, so unless you genuinely want to find out what happens when Big Brother decides we're not worth his time anymore, keep it to yourself."

Death threats! And it's not even past noon, yet. Not unheard of, but neither is it common.

[waschozon]

It was likely a good idea to back down and bow out of this fight. The smart warrior would pick and choose her battles and not further this confrontation with a woman much older and experienced than her.

But Samus was not yet a smart warrior. She was too quick to be set off and too inexperienced to recognize this as a bad idea.

"Just as important? Unlikely," She squared up to Shepard, totally unconvinced that anyone could have something nearly as important as protecting the galaxy on their hands. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.

"Do you think I'm afraid of them? Not even close. I'm a warrior, and whatever they throw at me I can guarantee I've faced worse." Possibly an exaggeration but confidence was what really mattered right? She stepped back, crossing her arms across her chest.

[earthborn]

"These people have run deathmatches with the children of their political enemies for eighty years, and publicly televised the whole event," Shepard stood up then, so she could stalk towards Samus, so she could loom, "Anyone who tries to buck the system, they mutilate them beyond recognition, or have them killed. All that aside, they are not the only problem you have, here. Whether or not you're afraid is irrelevant; they'll get rid of you regardless."

She'd never been an indirect sort of woman, Shepard. Always the direct route, calling bullshit, and shooting through it all to the truth. And now, looking down at Samus' defiant face, she knew her own defiance was to the advantage.

"So. Warrior. Try me."

[waschozon]

Samus slid the quiver of arrows left off her back. Wordlessly, she took her place on the sparring mat, knowing full well that, even with her own training, the woman's size advantage was nothing to scoff at. Still, Samus was quick, and the fight in her eyes was unrivaled.

She took a fighting stance, fists clenched tightly.

"Ready when you are."

[earthborn]

There's no such thing as unfair, in a real fight. Shepard didn't acknowledge the challenge aloud, only swung, uncoiling like a snake with the weight of her shoulder behind the strike.

[waschozon]

Maybe Samus wasn't ready, because she gets hit square in the jaw. She was stable enough in her stance to only need a couple of steps to gain her footing again, before throwing her body forward, aiming to pull Shepard down to the ground.

[earthborn]

Shepard let her, moved with the charge like it was a dance, giving way where resistance was expected. It gave her the leverage to duck, sidestep, and lash out again, all relentless fury and flashing eyes.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna had been practicing knot tying, just making sure that the ones she had been taught at home were the same ones as here and that she could tie and untie all the basic knots that tributes might know.

She got distracted watching the woman failing at archery though and when she threw her bow at the target she burst into laughter.

[waschozon]

Samus shot Pruna a sour look. She wasn't trying to be funny! She turned her head back from Pruna, ignoring the laughter as she began to pick up the remnants of her tantrum. She took a moment to calm herself, and told herself that the very next arrow was going to hit the middle of the target.

It missed. She tenses, wanting to yell again, but she's already embarrassed herself enough this hour.

[knifewithnoname]

At the look Pruna tried to cal herself down but then the next one missed as well and she began giggling all over again. "You do no be being very good at that."

[waschozon]

She strung another arrow and shot. At least this one hit the edge. Samus tried to ignore the giggling, but her temper flared up again. Such was the life of a teenage soldier with little emotional control, "I will be."

[knifewithnoname]

"You will need to be doing a lot of practicing." She told her and wrinkled her nose.

[waschozon]

As much as she hated to admit it, archery would probably never be Samus' forte. She attempted to shift the blame way from her own (lack of) abilities, "I wouldn't need to if this place had a half decent weapon."

[knifewithnoname]

"Warriors do only be good warriors if they can be using all weapons." She told her, mimicking something Kant had once said.

"You do no get to be choosing your weapons in the arena."

[wantsajetpack]

Pepper's having worse luck than Samus. The target she's using is clear of shots... In fact the knives she's trying to throw... Are nicely scattered on the ground having skidded there.

"This is so stupid! I swear these knives are defective." And have a Pepper rant about how she'd rather be working on reports because Tony opened his big mouth assigning more homework to the rest of the class again.

[waschozon]

Samus, who would have likely continued her rant, had her frustration ebb as Pepper ranted. Actually, Samus was able to cool down in the time Pepper was talking, mostly because she was confused at what the girl was going on about.

She added (astutely), "I don't think knives can be defective."

[wantsajetpack]

"Well I can't be throwing them wrong. I'm doing exactly what the instructor said." She holds up the blade to show, and her grip on it... Well at least she wont cut herself.

[waschozon]

Samus shrugged in response and said rather bluntly, "Maybe you're just not very good at it."

Not that she had any room to talk.

[wantsajetpack]

"Not like I ever expected to do this." Pepper pouted a moment. "Tony's usually the one who gets to fight things... I just stay out of the way." And yes she realizes how pathetic that sounds. "Maybe I should work on hand to hand stuff more too..."

[celebrityskinned]

"A suit? Who'd want one of those?"

Venus is back in the Training Center, arriving with her hands taped to do some more boxing with the dummies. Even if she's been distracted by other things (namely, having a body), she still hasn't forgotten the basic premise of her contract here. At least, she presumes it's a contract. She generally doesn't sign these things for herself anymore, instead deferring to her manager.

"If you were aiming for the floor, you did a great job." Venus saunters over and picks up the bow from the ground. "And I think this is a bow, now a boomerang."

She grins and tosses the bow over at the weapons station. It clatters to the ground and nearly knocks over a handful of spears.

[waschozon]

"Hilarious," Samus replied humorlessly. She began picking up the arrows and pulling out the few that made it to the target. Samus was always much too serious, more concerned with the next battle than making friends (even when the friends part might alleviate some of her frustration).

"And I don't want any suit, I want my suit," she explained without really clarifying anything.

[celebrityskinned]

"I don't. My suit chafes." Venus raises an eyebrow, wondering if Samus is someone like her. She's never met anyone else like that, but if this world is pulling people in and giving them new bodies, she guesses it makes sense that they'd have that technology from multiple cases.

She jumps up on a rope ladder and climbs up a few rungs. "Why so bitchy?"

[waschozon]

"I don't like to play games." Samus huffs quietly, crossing her arms with arrows still in hand.

[celebrityskinned]

"This isn't a game," Venus says, suddenly serious. "It's a career."

[carnagecarnival]

The Initiate watches, from afar, amused. This one was certainly no archeradicator, but her persistence told of her being some kind of warrior, or at least, a desire to be one. He could boast his own skill, sending off an arrow of his own, but he decides not to- he never liked archery much, especially not when clubs were available, and he's not that bored as to wish provoke her into attack at the moment.

Indolently, he hums, "Fickle little foolish things know not what they want. SOPOR SICK AND BLOOD SHED LUSTS, but death they will not taunt. NAUGHT 'TIL THE NECKLACED SLIPKNOT KISS DRAGS OUT THEIR WRITHING ROT." He pauses, then translates, "They're afraid, Sister. AND FOR IT THEY KICK THE BEASTS TO THEIR CAGES. You are not the only motherfucker what's cut the fuck off."

[waschozon]

Samus' eyes narrow at the Initiate. Though no stranger to galactic diversity, he looked and spoke unlike any lifeform she has seen before. She asks, "What are they afraid of?"

[carnagecarnival]

“OF YOU, SISTER. Of me. OF WHAT AT MOTHERFUCKERS CAN UP AND DO, when left to what is truly theirs. DON’T KNOW AT WHAT THIS SUIT IS ALL TO BE,” He admits. He gives a nod at the knocked over target, where she failed to quite manage having a bow as her weapon. “But it ain’t motherfucking hard at what to guess.”

A weapon to her, is of course what he means.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy had crept into the gym quietly, watching the woman practice, even flinching at her little tantrum. Finally she coughed to bring attention to herself.

Her young scrawny frame was wearing a simple jumpsuit, grey with a number 12 on it and new looking shoes. Her face was flat and unamused. She looked like a beaten dog begrudgingly studying this new person and wondering how they might cause them trouble. Not with fear, but tired resignation to the fact.

[waschozon]

Nothing quite like an observer to cause that realization that you're making an ass of yourself. Samus quickly realized that the tantrum would have likely resulted in a scolding from her superiors back home. She straightened her posture and tried to calm her demenaour as she went to retriever her bow. Her face revealed her embarrassment, though.

She acknowledged the girl with a curt nod, "I didn't notice you there."

[justoutrunyou]

"Yeah I figured." She responded with a bit of dark humor. Moving over to the table with information on plants she kept an eye on Samus. "You're new huh? Most of us throw tantrums when we first get here."