thecircus | Test Drive Meme

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Test Drive Meme

Welcome to Panem. You have been selected to participate in the 75th Annual Hunger Games!

Premise: This Arena is designed to be a small mock arena not all that dissimilar to the in-game arenas we run here at The Games. The party is similar to some of the gathering logs we have inside the Capitol when an Arena begins. Our hope is to give new and prospective players a place to get their feet wet, and get a feel for the fun (and bloody) mess that goes on around here.

This meme is open to anyone and everyone who would like to play. Current cast members, veteran and new, as well as anyone just wanting top drop in and have some fun!

How To Play.

Current cast members - you may tag into this Arena in any way you choose, even cast members who aren't or are no longer tributes.

***An important side note, as it is within the confines of the Arena in-game, all powers are lessened/nullified to bring any character down to a vincible level. (i.e. make more magical/super-powered characters easier to actually kill for a normal person). Rule of thumb: If it's a physical difference, the Capitol will not mutilate it out (wings, etc.), but otherwise it's gone.

The Arena.

The Tributes are put into the tube by their Stylists and emerge into blistering dry heat and blinding sun. They stand atop a red rock peak, in a circle, with the Cornucopia in the center. They're dressed in cargo shorts and tank tops, men and women, and hiking boots. The sun beats down mercilessly, and there's a fifty-foot drop around them from this natural pedestal.

The Cornucopia's bounty includes rock climbing harnesses, water bottles, ropes, climbing grips for shoes, globes, sunscreen, and cans of food and water. Naturally, weapons are also available - crossbows, bear traps, "walking sticks", hunting knives.

The wildlife waits for them below: gila monsters with poisonous mouths, violent javelinas, shrikes bred to go for the eyes, rattlesnakes with hallucinogenic venom.

5...

4...

Ropes and carabiners hang from the sides of the peak, for those who don't die in the bloodbath or fall to their dooms.

3...

2...

1...

With the sound of the gong, the Arena has begun.

-/-

The Party.

Back in the Capitol, the Cornucopia is being celebrated with a lavish party inside a hologram room. The walls of the party shift around to various exotic locales, but the theme of the evening seems to be Heat. Saunas and tanning beds are available, and Capitolites, their makeup practically dripping off from the temperature, are in hot tubs or stripped down in fluffy robes. Avoxes, tongueless and sweaty, bring ice cold drinks to everyone.

Anyone who's anyone is invited.

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The Arena

Korra is in no mindset to kill anyone right now and no amount of preparation and dolling up could get her there. She could only squint through the sunlight at the others but she didn't have to see them to know she couldn't end them. But would they try to kill her? Without her bending, it would be harder to pacify a fight. It's not like she could one on one fight the steam out of each of them until everyone calmed down. With a worried frown, she realized that at least for now she would wait to try reasoning later.

She had other things to think about. Korra frowned in concentration, reviewing her options during the countdown. No doubt what awaited down the cliff-side would be dangerous and a weapon or tool of some kind would be pretty useful. But... The cornucopia is the steadiest ground but surely the most deadly. Plenty of others probably had the same thought as her, and would duke it out up there. Who knows how hard climbing down would be against all of that.

The countdown neared its end and she made her decision the last second. At the gong she darted quickly to the side, not moving to grab anything along with her, and started to climb down. Korra's strong enough, and fast, but this could still be difficult. She wouldn't be able to stop herself from helping someone down if that's what it came to.

Aang learned from the last arena. Weapons are okay, but food and water are paramount. He leaps into the Cornucopia, gracefully avoiding crossfire long enough to grab a bag with food and water in it and a walking stick before jumping off the lip of the canyon and catching himself on the wall.

Then he starts climbing down like a little spider monkey, because all self-respecting mountain-dwellers can climb a measly rock wall.

He slides next to a girl. He spares her a glance just long enough to make sure she's not going to randomly swing out and try to kill him, but he notices something. He recognizes the hairstyle, as well as the skin color and the general facial structure.

"Oh, hey! You're a Water Tribesman!"

Yes, that's worth noting, because thus far she's one of the only people who looks like she could be from his world. Everyone else usually has really round eyes or yellow hair or something. And yes, he's excited enough to comment while they're climbing away from a bloodbath.

With enough luck, Korra could make it down and onto solid ground fast enough to make a more solid plan than 'get going'. She was listening for any others that had skipped the cornucopia but otherwise focused on climbing. It wouldn't be awhile for her to have to worry about the people who went to the cornucopia, probably. Their weapons and bags would slow a normal person down, right?

"--GAAAH?!" The other person had moved so smoothly Korra'd hardly noticed him.

She jerks to the side, surprised, and nearly loses her balance. As she scrambles to regain her grip she catches a glimpse of the-- geared up kid?

"Uh... what? I mean, yeah," is her second intelligent reply. She immediately recognizes how familiar his appearance is and is a little relieved. Korra's stylists had already looked weird enough but beyond that their faces weren't like anyone's she's seen. Really, no one did.

But his face and tattoos raised a lot of questions.

Korra dazedly looks between him and the top of the peak. "How did you...?"

"Oh! Careful." Aang would have tried to catch her had she fallen, and he doesn't think his grip is quite good enough to stay on the wall if he was holding her up.

He bounces a little further down the wall, needing much weaker hand- and foot-holds than Korra due to his tiny size and finding them faster from experience. "How did I what? Get down here?"

He bounces down another two feet, looking more like a monkey than a person. "I grew up on a mountain. We'd have to climb up and down all the time if someone crashed their glider."

Korra watches his masterful spider-monkey maneuvering with eyebrows raised, pretty impressed. A quick glance around had told her that there's nobody nearby yet, so they had time to talk. She already feels her nerves settling down, and smiles a little. This kid sure is something. Pretty energetic for a dangerous situation like this.

But as he continues, she starts to stare at him dumbly as she puts the pieces together.

"Those tattoos are real." Only airbending masters can have them, right? Tenzin had gone to find the other airbenders, so she had wondered if maybe he was one of the new ones and was playing around (though Tenzin would never allow it). But gliders? And his features?

It clicks. "You're an airbender." Korra is staring at Aang like she's very happy to see a ghost. "Where have you... What are you doing here?"

Edited 2014-09-24 22:54 (UTC)

He immediately and visibly brightens when she says that, his eyes perking and his eyes fixing on her.

"You recognize the tattoos! No one recognizes the tattoos outside of the temples." It means that she knows of the airbenders and their ways. Maybe they aren't as thoroughly forgotten as he thought? Or maybe she's from the past, when they were more common to see?

"I'm doing what you're doing. Trying to keep from killing or dying." So help him, the Gamemakers aren't going to make a murderer of him.

"Of course! Who wouldn't?" Korra laughs, though his comment is a little strange. A few of the things he's said are. For anyone to not recognize the airbending tattoos nowadays is... kinda ridiculous. Even the most secluded sandbender knows about them.

Though their entire situation is out of the ordinary, so they can sort it out later.

At the reminder of their situation, she starts to slowly climb down as they talk. "Don't worry. Whatever game they're playing at, they won't get their way." These might not be any run of the mill kidnappers. Taking the Avatar and a young airbender? Pretty big deal.

"And we can figure out what to do together, if you want." She finds her grip and holds out a hand for him to shake. "I'm Korra, the Avatar. I've got your back."

A+++ Cool Avatar introduction.

The boy doesn't immediately take her hand. Instead, his face immediately changes from a smile to a confused frown, his brow furrowing.

...There is no way this can be good.

"Uh, good to meet you, Korra." He tightened his grip and took her hand in his, though his palm looked minuscule and bird-like next to hers. "I'm Aang. I'm also the Avatar. So... I got you too?"

Welp. If she knows about the Air Nomad culture, she has to be from the past. There will be no comfortable way of explaining his utter failure to his past life.

Looks like this has turned into a staring contest. Korra's smile melts and she wordlessly continues to shake his hand.

"Oh.... Uh huh...."

That explains a few things but, man, at what cost?

It's kind of sad that her first thought is to try and think back to what she might have done to mess up this bad. On one hand, she's always wanted to see Aang again! On the other... what on earth.

"I think I'm losing feeling in my arms."

"Yeeeaaah... Maybe we should talk about this after we're off the side of a cliff?"

He withdraws his hand, finding a grip again and beginning to wiggle his way down.

But just because he is rock-climbing doesn't mean he can't get some good mumbling in. "This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder..."

It couldn't have been an Avatar he recognized, could it? Nooooooo, it had to be one of the super old ones that came before Yangchen. How is he supposed to remember all the Avatars? It's going to be so awkward to ask her questions about herself; he's supposed to know that kind of thing. And how is he going to explain a whole quarter of the world massacred?

Don't worry buddy, they'll both probably need to sit down for this one.

Korra hasn't begun to think about what she'd have to explain to him. She's racing through the possibilities-- Vision? She really hopes not. A bit too hands-on. As cool as it would be to have her connection to the other avatars fixed, she's pretty sure she would have heard this Aang story before.

Spirit world? Maybe. Nothing makes sense there. Though this is kind of a stretch.

Oh, the ground. "At least that wasn't so bad." She almost lets herself drop the rest of the way then but stops and looks around for him.

"Um, hey, do you need any help down? ... Ooor is this a dumb question."

There was a loud yell as someone went flying over the edge of the rock platform above. His fall was only stopped because he had a knife in his hand, one that he dug into the rock and rocky scree until his fall finally came to a skidding halt only a few feet from the bottom.

He yelled up, "You got lucky this time, Nasir!"

The response to that was a hostile one, a large rock being chucked down at the young man's head. His eyes went wide went wide and he let out a brief "bwah!" sound as he threw himself to the side to avoid letting the rock hit him.

Fortunately, whoever had thrown it seemed suddenly busy with the fighting up above so no other rocks got thrown down.

Spotting Aang climbing there, he turned to look at him and if Korra hadn't already seen the scar she now had a full view due to the angle from the ground. Then he gestured to the pack at his back and the machete hanging from it by a leather strap.

"I got stuff," he said to Aang. Then he spotted the girl below, leaning back slightly to get a better look at her. "Who's that?"

Wait, wait, the hairstyle...

"Is she Water Tribe?" he asked Aang. Then he turned back to the girl. "Are you Water Tribe?"

Edited (ugh sorry grammar stuff) 2014-09-27 00:31 (UTC)

"I'm guessing you're not too young for Nasir to attack?"

Nasir had been kind to Aang, but he had made it very clear that it was Aang's apparent age that saved him from being attacked. Aang wiggles the rest of the way down the wall without help, jumping to the ground and gesturing to Korra. "Yeah, she's Water Tribe. Korra, this is my friend, Zuko. Zuko, this is Korra. She's, uh, also the Avatar."

Someone please acknowledge how weird this is, because Aang feels really weird.

Korra had recognized him quickly enough though Aang's confirmation still makes her gulp a little. Lord Zuko normally shows up on a dragon or something, you know? Nearly falling to his death is a new. Also the 500 fewer wrinkles.

It's dawning on her how young they both are. And neither of them knowing her means... what?

Something bad, probably.

"Yep, that's me. Avatar Korra." Realizing she's been staring, Korra leaps down and offers a nervous wave.

"Also here! ...For some reason. You guys know these people?" She gestures up.

Zuko had pulled the knife from the stone and had been trying to use it to pick his way down but the moment Aang mentioned she was the Avatar, his slight flail had him sliding the rest of the way down to meet them.

"What do you mean she's the Avatar?"

Then he looked at Aang, looked over at Korra, looked at Aang, looked at Korra, then looked up at the sky, threw up his hands and let out a loud, frustrated, "UGH!"

Of course they'd gone and made this even more complicated. Of course. It didn't matter whether she was from the future or past, it still left their world doubly in trouble if they both didn't get home now. It made all this even more complicated.

Aang was going to have to be the one to explain things because Zuko needed just a moment to stand there flailing and kicking at the air and being frustrated.

Aang turns away from Zuko to face Korra. At least one thing in this whole situation stays the same. "Zuko gets frustrated easily. He'll cool off if we just let him kick stuff."

He points up to the top of the stone, where some people were beginning to make their way down and more tributes were being thrown off the edge. "Right now, we're in the Hunger Games. We're all tributes who live together in between arenas, so I guess you could say we know them. This place called the Capitol brought tons of people in from all these different times and universes, and then told us all we're supposed to fight to the death so they can watch."

"... Should I apologize..." She's heard plenty of stories of course but he's only ever used his inside voice around Korra. Guess that's what growing up does. Someone get him some tea ASAP.

From their spot on the ground Korra can finally get a better look at the other tributes. They all look so... different. The only way she could describe it is almost all of them being from several nations she's never heard of. But how could they be?

At the mention of time she turns to him sharply, alarmed. "What!"

Being taken from different times would make their meeting make sense but suddenly this could be much worse than she thought. "They took us out of time? How long have you been here?"

Edited 2014-09-27 06:13 (UTC)

Finally over his minor tantrum, Zuko adjusted his pack so it rested more comfortably against his back and attached the sheathe of the machete to his belt. The knife was nearly ruined but he kept it anyway, reasoning that they might be able to sharpen it again somehow.

He didn't know how to even approach Korra. The situation was just weird. So he opted to do what he always did when he didn't know what to do, which was soldier on forwards.

"A couple months now. I know it sounds crazy but they have a way of bringing people back from the dead. That's what they do to the people here, have them all kill each other and revive them over and over. The only way out of it is winning and even then they don't let you go home. They have it all set up with special machines so the people of their nation can watch us all suffer. They find it entertaining and they punish anyone that speaks out against them, so watch your mouth."

It seemed like a good warning to give any Avatar, given how Aang had trouble keeping his mouth shut, too. Their entire motivations and drive were geared towards restoring balance and preventing things like the arenas from coming about so he doubted Korra would feel any different and she needed to know to keep it under wraps, at least until the arena was over. There were more secretive places to communicate back in the Capitol.

He drew out the machete, eyeing the stone platform above and the people climbing and rappelling down.

"We need to move. Some people here aren't exactly what you'd call friendly when the only way out of this is killing everyone else," he said dryly.

He'd have time to make nice with the other Avatar later. Right now, they needed to get somewhere (marginally) safer.

"What Zuko said." Because, yeah, that all seemed to be accurate. "Everything we do here can be seen and heard outside by all these people. They don't really care about privacy."

Let him tell you, it was very jarring to realize that all their pain and suffering were available to re-watch at any time and plenty of people did so for the sake of entertainment.

He adjusted his bag, but he didn't start walking, keeping an eye on the people where were rappelling down. "Most of these people won't be able to get to the bottom safely. There isn't enough rappelling stuff for all of them, and a lot of them won't even know how to use it."

He wanted to stay and help. This, of course, was why he had Zuko around to drag him.

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Test Drive Meme

Korra | Legend of Korra | Tribute

The noise I made wasn't human

hooo boy

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