like i'm in a play

"Guess this is as close as we can get to being dry and warm, for now." They were neither. As much as Calli wanted to maintain a positive outlook, this was far from ideal. That aside, Helios seemed to be handling everything just fine, the way he always did, of course, so she did not want to be the one complaining.

"No," he snorted. His words echoed off the rounded walls as they walked. "It's not even close." What had he imagined, in terms of an Arena? There was never anything predictable about it. Well, he had expected nature. He'd prepared for it, as well. Rain and wind as heavy as this had just never been part of the equation. There was no weapon to fend off water, after all. The only thing to be done there was to wait it out, to find shelter and watch the world drown in front of you. "What did you imagine? You didn't prepare for it nearly as long, but you've had a few days. What did you imagine then?" An icy gust of wind blew right through the narrow tunnel. Helios shivered.

Helios didn't go into specifics, but perhaps there wasn't a need to. Perhaps it was impossible to truly prepare for the Games, to expect the unexpected, regardless of how much training they'd received. Cress had made all the preparation in the world and she'd still come out the other end changed. Helios still seemed himself, felt himself, at least for the moment, and maybe that was something to be valued before it inevitably changed, too.

Somehow, her limbs felt limp and frozen solid all at once. She could crumple down onto the water at her feet or she could stand still until the water drowned her that way. Fortunately enough, she did neither in the end, and let herself be pulled. They ran the only way they could, back towards where they had come from. Perhaps there was a chance at a reward yet. Perhaps the reward was simply that they would be allowed to exit that way, allowed to live another day. But soon enough, it became apparent that wasn't the case.

The caves were damp, but it beat the wild gusts of wind, the harsh rains by a landslide. It was a small reprieve. But Calli, pressed to his side, was a balm for his soul. Missing an ear, but alive. Him, missing a toe but alive as well. Had it been Olivine here, Helios wasn't sure if he wouldn't have killed her already. With Callisto here, he had a hand to hold; to take comfort and give it back in turn. They continued their trek, wherever it might have been leading them.

"Guess this is as close as we can get to being dry and warm, for now." They were neither. As much as Calli wanted to maintain a positive outlook, this was far from ideal. That aside, Helios seemed to be handling everything just fine, the way he always did, of course, so she did not want to be the one complaining.

The contrast between the soft kiss at the top of her head and the sharp sting around her ear held her focus, but only for a short while. Afterwards, there was only pain pain pain, lacing across the side of her head, burning, and her own scream echoing in the tiny cavern. She thought the quake came from within, that the cave only looked like it was shaking because she was losing consciousness, but when the bowl slid off the table, she realised that wasn't the case. This was a quake similar to before. Fissured formed in the walls again, which brought on a sliver of hope. They had made their sacrifices, performed the gruesome deed, so perhaps another passageway would open to lead them to their reward.

Slate was breathing heavily, the adrenaline masking the pain but only somewhat, his ear -- though it didn't look much like one now -- lying on the table in front of him. He allowed Calli to help with the blood, staying still, his teeth gritted. He didn't scream anymore, though, put on a brave face. Cress would want him to. Cress would want him to help Calli, to reassure her.

They had to go through with it. This couldn't be how they both died; stuck in a dingy cave with barely enough oxygen to breathe, surrounded by nothing but rocks, left to wait until the torches eventually died out. Calli couldn't disappoint her sisters like that. Slate clearly didn't want to die either. "Anything would hurt," Calli repeated in a mumble, like she needed to hear it in her own voice to believe it. A finger--and she would never play piano the same again. A toe--and she would never dance the same again. An ear--and she might never hear music the same again. There was no good alternative. But whichever it was, if she somehow survived the arena, the Capitol would be able to fix her. Right?

That had his eyes narrow in part confusion and part hesitation. "What on earth is in the caves?" His mind immediately began to ran a little wild with all the options he could think of, with all they had been teaching in the Academy. Nothing was ever a certain thing in the Arena.

Her lips quirked into a gentle smile. Knowing that she was helping, even in small measures, made her feel just a little bit better about all this. Surely they had enough support between the two of them. If they could continue on like this, maybe they would be just fine--at least for some time. There would be enough water to go around.

"I guess we have to sacrifice something important enough that it'll be missed," Slate said, his tone a grumble, the anger still there but also knowing that they didn't have time for him to complain, yell, make his fucking points for the cameras. Things in the Arena typically had a ticking clock. When she suggested an ear, he balked, making a face, because an ear felt fucking significant to him.

What was the right thing to do in the situation they were in? Was there a right thing at all? She didn't know. She couldn't know. The trainers back at the academy had lessons on emergency amputation, but even hearing those had been too much for her to stomach sometimes. They certainly never said anything about watching someone else do it to themselves. While Slate screamed, Calli remained frozen, barely breathing. She didn't dare move closer, didn't dare stumble back. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't.

Flora had decided this whole wasn't so bad. The cave floor was actually pretty comfortable and the bats were creating a nice breeze within the cave. While laying there waiting for the bats to pass, she had almost fallen asleep. Though she was brought out of it as she felt Calli grab for her and heard her speak. "Hey." Flora repeated, softly. She waited a moment before picking her head up and looked around. Of course, it was still too dark to see anything but she tried her best to make out anything. "No.. I don't think so." She said as she let out a sigh. "Did you?" Flora asked before slowly standing up, brushing the dirt off of her. "I think we are good to go. Goodbye stinky caves. Goodbye cute little batty-bats but we out of here."

"I don't think so either." The bats were still squeaking somewhere, but the sounds were growing distant. Silence settled soon enough. Calli rolled over onto her back, breathing in the clammy air. Flora, on the other hand, wasted no time, rustling around next to her, perhaps getting back onto two feet. That was what it sounded like anyway. Calli couldn't be certain until Flora loudly announced that they were leaving.

"No, they won't let us go back, they want to see us do something fucked up," Slate snapped, though his anger was not for her; it was for the Gamemakers, all of the people watching. He pulled his dagger from where it had been shoved inside his waistband; hidden away but easily accessible. He hadn't felt he needed it out around her. "They want us to use this -- a gift from Cress -- to, I don't know, lob off a fucking... hand or foot." Maybe something small would do; a finger or toe, rather. But he knew he wasn't skilled enough to get through this shit with any less coordination of his hands or his feet. He turned his attention back towards the cave ceiling. "Hope you're all enjoying this, fuckers!"

The sight of the blade somehow brought both relief and also more dread, catching in her throat like a stunted cough. No other choice then. They would have to go through with this if they wanted to live. Calli flipped the bowl over, emptying it, and watched as their locks of hair floated down onto the table. "We don't have to sacrifice something so... significant, though, do we?" Slate was angry, which she understood. Perhaps she should be angry, too, but it felt a little too late for that. She had signed up for this. "I got my ears pierced before I turned one, or so I was told. Obviously I don't remember. But if I withstood that just fine as an infant, it couldn't have hurt that much, could it?" She set the bowl back down--and waited.

"Adventure?" he quirked a brow, the ghost of a chuckle on his lips. "What do you mean adventure?" Calli was off before Helios could respond, but he was nonetheless grateful at the sight of the canteen. "You sure?" he asked, skeptical. "How much did you get?"

That adventure was a little silly now in retrospect, but it was still plenty unnerving to think about or to recount. Calli shook her head. "Oh, it was a whole thing. Word of advice: stay away from the caves." Though Helios would probably know what to do should he ever find himself there. She shoved the canteen against his chest. "Enough, for now." The water wouldn't last the both of them for very long, but surely they would be able to find something else later. Either that, or another gift would be sent. She had to believe it. "Go ahead. Before I change my mind." It was the least she could do, after everything.

Slate supposed that in the rule of fairness, and what goes around comes around, the Capitol using cryptic words against him was bound to happen sometime. He read through the note twice, leaning closer to where Calli held it, and after his second read, when the meaning was clear but he wished it weren't, he said quietly, "Don't guess they'll accept a lock of hair?" But no, of course they fucking didn't. This was a sacrificial altar created by the Gamemakers; a fingernail or piece of hair would not do.

Defeatedly, her eyes flicked down to the floor when Slate yelled. Of course the hair idea didn't work. Cutting off some hair couldn't be the sacrifice and gruesome deed that the note wanted them to perform. Still, Calli plucked out some of hers and added it onto the bowl, holding onto some thin tethers of quickly diminishing hope that there was a way out of this without getting themselves hurt. But the addition of her hair changed nothing, which didn't surprise her. The air remained still. The last of that hope died out.

Flora kept herself as small as possible. Keeping herself pushed up against the wall, tucking her face into her arms. The last thing she wanted was for one of the bats popping one of her eyeballs out. "I'm fine!" She yelled out to Calli, relived that she was at least well enough to talk. The bats created a gust from their flapping and their squeaking got louder the closer they were. Though Flora didn't panic, she tried her best to remain calm. "We can wait it out! They will go away." At least she hoped that was the case because when it came down to it, she really didn't know. What she did know for sure was they were trapped in the cave. "Maybe just stay as quiet and still as possible."

It was a while before the fluttering above them began to dwindle. All the while, Calli hardly made another sound, too afraid of attracting any more attention than they already had. Her arm reached out, fingers grasping at Flora in the dark. Only when the squeaking of the bats had seemed to peter out did she find her voice again. "Hey." The single syllable was whispered, hardly audible to her own ears, and uttered just to test the waters. No bat swooped down to take a bite off her face, though, which allayed her enough to speak again, even if still very softly. "Did you get bitten at all?" Calli couldn't even tell if she herself had got bitten amidst the frenzy.

Slate stepped back as the wall began to move, but the whole cave was shaking as well and there was no escaping it, no finding solid ground, nowhere to grip onto to remain steady. When the shaking stopped, it left a hole in the wall big enough to walk through. He wrapped his arm around hers, locking their elbows, and swallowed heavily. Somehow, being with Cress's sister made him more nervous than he'd been in the Arena so far. "Don't think we have a choice," he said, glancing backward as if to spot a clear escape route. But the note had been quite clear, and the Gamemakers didn't make these things optional. "C'mon, let's get it over with." He stepped forward, passing through the entrance before her, playing some role of chivalry. Once they had taken a few steps, his eyes adjusted to the low light, and he could see flames in the distance. There was lots of ground to pass before getting to them, and the darkness seemed like it was pressing in on them; he couldn't tell how large or small this passageway was, and he kept glancing backwards to check their exit, see that it was still there.

There were flickers ahead of them, incandescent, like coming from a fire. Light itself was a reassuring promise, but nothing good could possibly come of this. Realistically, Calli knew that, but her steps quickened anyway, eager to reach the other side of the shadowy tunnel. She thought she heard the sound of metal hitting stone behind them, but hoped it was only her mind playing tricks in the dark. All the more reason for them to trudge ahead anyway.

Slate was worried that they'd been paired together for one of those 'only one can survive' type of events. That'd be cruel to Cress, and he liked to think she'd bought enough loyalty to avoid it, but the Capitol had no morals, no ethics. Still, he didn't voice it, sure they were both thinking it. "Yeah, guess we..." He held up his piece of glass, glancing at her as if for reassurance or confirmation before he pressed it into the notch. It fit, leaving the other half empty, presumably for her half. "Whatever's behind this, we're in it together," he said, searching for eye contact, wanting to make that promise not just for her but for Cress.

She followed his example, fitting her piece of sea glass into the space left in the yellow notch. If her hand trembled as she did so, it wasn't noticeable for long, but only because she flinched back the moment the wall began to shake. For a while, it was almost like the cave itself was moving. An earthquake, perhaps? It didn't last long, though, and the structure remained mostly solid, save for the crack in the wall that had widened into a whole opening.

"Well..." Slate bit his lip, thinking, as he peered once again at the cryptic piece of paper with its directions. The next step of your adventure lies in the dark cave’s depth; find your stone within the hour or meet your certain death. They'd managed to find the cave, and now, he feared... "I guess we have to go inside. Right now we're at the cave's mouth; we gotta go to its depth, I guess." He started towards it, not interested in finding out anytime soon what certain death would involve. "Everybody has a partner, it seems like. Glad you're mine." He said it as a tentative offering, a truce, a hope that they could be partners, as they stepped inside the cave's opening and his eyes adjusted. There sat a skeleton against a wall, with colored notches scattered across the wall around it.

That made sense. "I am, too. For now. I just hope we'll still be glad by the end of this." They didn't have much to go on, so Calli happily let Slate take the lead. Her gaze fixated on the skeleton, withered and forgotten, like it had sat there for decades when the arena probably hadn't existed for more than a year. Real or fake, it evoked a feeling of desolation, of abandonment. "That's a familiar yellow," she said once she'd finally torn her gaze away from the skeleton, pointing out one of the notches on the wall.

Slate, Mercuria, Bramble, and Nettle had all made their way to the cave, but it became clear that he and Nettle had to split off as Bramble and Mercuria's pieces of sea glass matched, but neither Nettle's nor his did.

Once her eyes zeroed in on a figure in the distance, her steps halted with a startle. Luckily, the figure turned out to be Slate, and that brought about some relief, even if she maintained some apprehension. They hadn't seen each other since launch, but he wouldn't hurt her, right? She hoped not. When he held up his piece of sea glass, her eyes widened. It was exactly the same as hers, colour and shape and all, and that had to mean something. She just hoped he was better with puzzles and riddles than she was.