OTA

[the_marshal]

WHO| Wyatt and Anyone! (And everyone, the more the merrier!)
WHAT| Returning the land of the living.
WHEN| Sometime after his death in the arena. Let's say two days after just to give ourselves some wiggle room.
WHERE| Wherever you'd like him to be!
WARNING/NOTES| Happy Wyatt Earp Day, everyone! No. Really. It's actually a thing. And, it is a thing I could not let pass without some sort of commemoration. X) (Also, Wyatt is supposed to go down protecting Momoko from a snake, it hasn't been written yet, but if you find you have to mention it, feel free to use that.)


One woulda thought that dying the second time 'round would have been easier than the first. Who woulda guessed it'd be so much worse?

Sure, they'd put him patched him all up again, not a hair out of place, but Wyatt could still feel it. Could still feel the stab of the snake's fangs in his leg, the burn of its poison in his veins...

He felt haunted. Haunted by his own bones.

Dragging himself from his room, he limped into the elevator and leaned tiredly against the wall. Where he was going, he didn't know, and didn't really care neither.

He was still leaning, eyes closed, when the doors finally opened again.

Comments

[mannersmatter]

Effie was already starting to memories all the tributes, and Wyatt was one who had stuck out in her mind. She wasn't sure if she could pin down why, but when she saw him in the elevator, she took the opportunity to introduce herself.

"Wyatt Earp, yes?"

[the_marshal]

One eye opened, rolled sideways to have a look.

Big, pink, curls, outrageously bright getup, so much warpaint it'd make a Cheyenne warrior blush...

Capitol. And not one he recognized offhandedly. (But then it was so hard to keep them straight as often as they changed their feathers.)

"Ma'am." He willed himself upright, and pried the other eye open as he reached up to his tip his hat.

It was as much a matter of personal principle as it was politeness.

[mannersmatter]

"My name is Effie Trinket. I'm the escort for District 12. It's nice to meet you." She said with a broad smile.

Wyatt was getting a fair bit of attention. Some of the players just caught people's imagination, and a real life cowboy was certainly one of them.

Effie might be one of those people.

[the_marshal]

Slowly her face swam up through the layers of memories. He did know her after all. In a vague, round-about way.

"Obliged, Miss," he replied, settling his hat back upon his head. "I've seen you about. Tony's ona yers."

Distantly he wondered if he should be giving his condolences. Did ya do that if a somebody didn't really stay dead?

[mannersmatter]

Ah. Yes. Mr. Stark. She pressed her lips together, before nodding.

"He is. He is...quite the handful." She let out a polite laugh.

It was an understatement, really. With Haymitch and Tony teaming up...while, she hoped their new Tribute was easier.

[the_marshal]

His eyebrows lifted, mustache twitching as his mouth curled upward.

"I take it he made it back alright then?"

He may not have known the man all that well, but for what he did, Wyatt found that be a plus.

Handful and all.

[mannersmatter]

"Oh yes, he has been settling in just fine. I'm sure he wouldn't mind some company."

She still wasn't sure how the whole alliance thing was suppose to work, now. Did she encourage or discourage them? Well, this one seemed to be going on already.

[the_marshal]

"Am I allowed..." he paused, uncertain as the best word, "...up?"

Nothin' the powers that were could do about the different districts meetin' up in the common areas, but as how they so carefully herded them off to their floors...

Would they try to stop him if he decided to stop in on 12.

[mannersmatter]

"Oh."

Effie hadn't thought about that. Before, of course, they hadn't been. But before had been very different. Much more short term, and much...well, there was all sorts of reasoning behind why they didn't want them going into each others floors.

Now?

"I don't see why not."

[nightlightheart]

"Howdy, partner!" is the first thing that falls out of Tony's mouth when he sees him; it isn't meant to be mocking even though it probably sounds that way, but the grin on his face hopefully makes that... kind of clear. But probably not. Wyatt hasn't had the opportunity to deal with Tony long enough to know that patronizing comments are just his way of being nice.

Sometimes his way of being mean, also. But in this instance. It's nice.

"No luck this time around either, huh?"

[the_marshal]

Wyatt snapped to attention with a jerk, his gun hand reaching automatically... before remembering that he was one, gunless, and two, that the voice belonged to a friend.

Or a possible one anyways.

He relaxed and, deciding to take Tony's grin for what it was, smiled back.

"I was just so darn homesick, couldn't bear to stay away."

[nightlightheart]

"I know the feeling," he laughs in return, sharing in Wyatt's sarcasm. None of them really wanted to be here.

Tony had not lasted past the cornucopia. An unfortunate circumstance in meeting an old rival and it hasn't gone in his favour. Fucking Loki anyway. Even a powered-down one. It was frankly, a little embarrassing.

Needless to say, he'd had plenty of time to watch everyone else's time in the arena. As always; some came back and some didn't. But he was glad to see that Wyatt was one of the ones who had returned.

And himself, too of course. But that went without saying.

Tony glances down at Wyatt's leg, knowing that's where the fatal blow had gone. "How ya feelin?"

[the_marshal]

Like Hell, bit at the end of his tongue, but he swallowed it back.

Wyatt Earp did not bear pity. Or whinin'.

"Won't be fillin' out my dance card any time soon, but I reckon I'll live," he said with an easy sort of shrug. Then he nodded back at Tony. "You?"

He hadn't been back long enough to be filled in on the bloody details. All he'd seen was Tony's picture hanging in the night sky with the rest of the dead.

He'd be lyin' if he said he hadn't been surprised to see it there.

[nightlightheart]

Tony makes a face, "Nothing sore but my ego, really," he ways with a shrug as though he's just making a joke. Truth has always been easier to deliver if he can get people to believe that he doesn't really care. "Just glad to be back," he adds with a shrug and a wave of his hand, gesturing to the area around them. The lap of luxury. A second or perhaps in their cases, third, chance. But he really only means that in the sense that he's still alive. Or, alive again. Or... he doesn't know how it works but its something that has piqued his curiosity, certainly.

[the_marshal]

Wyatt made a soft, little noise - a bemused sort of snort - in agreement. Then, after a beat, he looked over at Tony and said, conversationally, "Bumped into your lady friend a bit ago."

He might have been teasing. It was hard to say. Wyatt had a remarkably good poker face.

[nightlightheart]

"Oh really?" he raises a brow at that. He can only assume that Wyatt is referring to Max at the mention of lady friend; she was really the only person that qualified for that position on any level whatsoever. "How did that go?"

To be quite honest, he had no idea who else knew Max on any sort of level. Or similarly, who else Max knew, either.

[the_marshal]

"'A hand full,' she called you," Wyatt replied.

An eyebrow lifted, his mouth curling. "'Causing trouble on the home-front, are ya?"

[retrieverchef]

Eliot smiled tiredly as he joined the other Tribute on the elevator. He understood the other man's body language all too well. "Just got back?"

[the_marshal]

Wyatt's eyes popped open, his shoulders stiffening at the sound of the unfamiliar voice.

The quick up-and-down he gave the stranger ticklin' a memory from those first hellish moments on the beach. Wasn't this the feller that had helped him kill....

He nodded slowly. "Not quite sure I'm back in one piece yet though."

[retrieverchef]

Eliot chuckled mirthlessly. "Yeah," he agreed, rubbing slightly at his wrist. "I know the feeling. I hadn't expected this time to be so different."

[the_marshal]

"I thought it'd be easier," Wyatt admitted with a thin frown. "As strange as that is to say - as if dyin' ever could be."

[hart_or_hand]

Eliot nodded wearily. "Me, too. Ya die once, ya kinda think you've seen it all. And then the time come to die again and you realize ya were wrong. It can get worse."

[the_marshal]

Waytt nodded as an awkward sort of silence fell between them.

What did one say to stranger who helped you kill a man - after you'd both died and come back yerselves, no less?

Finally, he held out his hand. "Wyatt Earp," he said by way of introduction. (At least he could do something about the stranger part.) "Didn't catch yer name before."

[retrieverchef]

"Eliot Spencer," the hitter replied, shaking the other man's hand. "You're from the mid-West?"

[the_marshal]

"Dodge City, Kansas," he said with a nod and a fond, distant sort of smile as he took his hand back. That he missed it went without saying.