[pre-video feed]

[yourhosts]

Quentin "Q" Continuum settles into his seat next to Flickerman, ready to commentate over another oh-so-exciting Hunger Games. Hopefully something interesting will actually happen this year. Hopefully the bartender this year remembers how to actually mix drinks. It's hard being Q.

"Think any of them will step off the pedestals early this year?" he drawls to Flickerman as some extremely forgettable gofer brings him his drink. Q takes a sip. Acceptable. He nods and waves the gofer away.

Comments

[yourhosts]

Caesar is already in his seat, mulling over pulled facts and other tidbits that he might feel the need to pepper his commentary with while a stylist fusses over his hair. Last minute checks, retouches... Television is not as effortless as he makes it look.

"Our viewers can only hope." Caesar adjusts the collar of his dress shirt and shoves his notes at the stylist, shooing her away. "Maybe the boy from 12. I don't think he's quite..." Vague hand gestures, here. "Sharp enough to figure out the count down."

[yourhosts]

Q pays as little attention to the flurry of activity around the desk as possible. "Oh, that baker's boy who had the crush on you?" Q is never going to let Flickerman live down the sniffing. Never. He shoots a pouty look over at him. "However will you manage without him?"

[yourhosts]

Caesar sighs slightly dramatically. "I'll just have to find a way to move on with my life, I'm afraid."

He's flipping through the various scores and odds of the various Tributes next. "Oh, this will be a very interesting year."

Off to the left of the stage, he can see the stage managers signalling the countdown to the live broadcast. Time to put your game face on, Flickerman.

[yourhosts]

Q leans over and looks at the scores and such as Flickerman flips through them. "Perhaps you can start anew with that unfortunate looking boy from 2."

Ahhh, time to wow crowds and so on. Q takes a last sip of his drink and then carefully places it just off camera. It's a little early in the Games to be his usual self, so mustering up enthusiasm and setting down his trademark drink it is. He straightens up and adopts his usual behind the desk pose.

[VIDEO FEED]

[yourhosts]

Caesar has just enough time to pull a disgusted face at the mere thought of that boy from 2 before he hears the final signal that they're going live.

When the cameras roll and the announcer calls off the intro, he's settled into his seat and wearing his usual bright, cheerful expression. A montage of Tributes plays on the screens beside them - clips from the Reaping, the interviews, glamour shots of the more... appealing ones in the mix.

"The 70th annual games. 70 years of this honored tradition. How exciting." He beams at the camera and Q in turn. "I hear - and this is just a rumor - that the Arena should dazzle this year."

Re: [VIDEO FEED]

[yourhosts]

"Dazzle? I should hope so," Q drawls, shooting a long suffering look out at the folks at home, "after all the time they have to work on each Arena."

Q folds his hands on top of the desk and leans forward. "Now then, I think we're just about ready for this year's crop of eager beavers to arrive."

[video feed]

[caroflower]

Caro doesn't have the time to get nervous between when she bids Garak goodbye and when the tube spits her out on the pedestal in the Arena. Luckily for her, she's already facing the right way, so she doesn't have to turn around awkwardly like the boy next to her.

The timer starts counting down from sixty. She has one minute to survey her surroundings and plot an escape route. For Caro, that's plenty of time.

The Cornucopia is in the middle of a field. Out of the corner of her eye she can see... mountains in the distance. Snow. Trees. On the other side of the Cornucopia are more trees, and whatever is past that she can't say. It's chilly, but not cold yet.

She turns her attention to the items scattered around the Cornucopia. Caro ignores the artfully arranged weapons for now (nearest the Careers, but close enough to some of the other Tributes to potentially con them into trying for them) and focuses on the backpacks. There. A decently sized one close to her. She plots a course from her pedestal to it and then... yes, into the woods for now.

There's a little bit of time left, so she looks around at the nearest Tributes. No Careers right next to her, fortunately. She sees Servo a few pedestals away and smiles at him. He looks terrified, but he kind of grimaces back in what's probably meant to be a smile. She sees movement to her left and there's Willow teetering a little. Caro smiles at her, too. Willow actually waves a little.

Okay, time to focus. Five... four... Caro cracks her neck and gets ready to jump. Three... Two...

One.

Caro jumps down and runs for the backpack.

Re: [video feed]

[redshirtsofpanem]

The Cornucopia is chaos almost as soon as the last number rolls off. Tributes running from, or towards, the scattered supplies. The Careers are on the weapons before anyone can blink - and as soon as that happens, the bloodshed starts in earnest.

Some are brave or dumb enough to try for the supplies, but even running away is not a sure route to survival.

The boy from 2 is first to snatch up his weapon of choice, a bow and quiver of arrows about midway between the pedestals and the mouth of the Cornucopia. He whips about and nocks an arrow, not taking but half a breath to pick a target out of those trying to make for the safety of the treeline. He lets the first arrow fly and a second later Willow drops silently; the boy from 3, Servo, makes it to the edge of the forest before he collapses, grasping at an arrow in his neck. The third arrow is meant for Caro, as she makes for a backpack.

Re: [video feed]

[caroflower]

Caro reaches her chosen backpack, staying low to the ground as she picks it up. It happens so fast she doesn't know whether she heard it or saw it or felt it somehow with some sixth sense, but she whirls around and slings the backpack up just in time to stop an arrow. She shoulders her the backpack and runs for the treeline, zigzagging and keeping low.

She hasn't checked but she really hopes the arrow stuck. That would be one less arrow for whoever's shooting, and a nice sharp thing for her.

Re: [video feed]

[yourhosts]

2's male tribute's frustrated yell is perhaps surprising for those watching. For the other Tributes less so, though they all have their own problems to deal with.

The boy from 9, felled by the girl from 1, Chintz, while he tried for one of the blades laying near the entrance of the Cornucopia, killed by the very weapon he was going after. She leaves him slumped over the crate to bleed out. The girl from 11 goes just as quickly, at the end of a thrown trident, and the boy from 6 finds himself the victim of another arrow but it's hardly a kill shot. Dobby from 1 finishes him off with several blows to the head from a mace.

From there, for the Career Pack and allies it's time to start an inventory of the riches of the Cornucopia, not a second glance spared to the dead. The hovercrafts will collect the fallen soon enough. And once they know what they have, they can start their hunting in earnest.

[UNRECORDED]

[illdrinktothat]

The mentor room is dead silent as soon as the Tributes pop up on their pedestals but truth be told, Walter isn't going to notice much in the way of sound at the moment anyway. He adjusts the screen to his left, yanking it about a bit so that it's aligned so he can see both Caro and Zopf without turning his head. He's not even aware he's clenching his fists hard enough to white-knuckle as that clock ticks down.

He clamps his jaw shut and holds his breath when they all move. He hears distant noises from other mentors, sadness and frustration as their Tributes fall, but he doesn't really register them. He couldn't tell you who made them. All he can see is his two Tributes bolting off their pedestals, both for the Cornucopia.

Zopf makes after the girl from 2 with very little resistance, and doesn't kill anyone so much as play spectator to the death. Caro, though, she follows the plan exactly, dashing for the closest backpack she could possibly reach. His heart goes dead in his chest for a moment when he sees the blur of movement from the splitscreen view; that boy from 2 with a bow, aiming.

...But the arrow plants itself firmly in Caro's backpack as she flees.

He exhales audibly, not sure when he'd actually started holding his breath. He doesn't even blink until Caro's safely in the treeline. Then, he slowly draws his hands down his face and makes a strangled sort of relieved noise. She did it. She's out of the bloodbath.

Re: [UNRECORDED]

[hellocomputer]

Scotty slumps a little and groans in frustration as Servo goes down. Poor lad. At least an arrow through the neck is relatively quick. And.... yes Ceebee is safely out of the bloodbath. Thank god.

Actually, is she...? Yes, she's teamed up with one of Murphy's. Good.

Good. That's at least two of their combined little ones out of the bloodbath safely, and, judging by the noises Walter's making over there, at least Caro's safe as well.

Good.

Re: [UNRECORDED]

[murphypendleton]

Murphy hears a soft little-half sob from beside him when Willow takes an arrow to the back.

"Goddamnit." His own voice comes out both quieter and more grief-stricken than he'd like it to, but he doesn't think the mentors close enough to overhear it will give a shit.

He sees Cypress spare a glance back to Willow and his breath catches in his throat, but the Tribute with the bow picks another target instead; Servo. Cypress and Ceebee vanish into the relative safety of the forest, for the moment, and Murph taps his monitor to show a playback of the kills and who made them. A Career, of course.

Heather's in her seat beside him, quietly wiping at the corners of her eyes with the heels of her hands. He reaches over and squeezes her shoulder briefly, there's a nod of... acknowledgement of some sort, before Murph turns and levels a very icy glare at the mentors from 2.

It's not personal. It's just the games, it's the nature of the beast. He knows this.

But he can't help it, either.

Re: [UNRECORDED]

[datasoong]

Data winces as Servo goes down. He expected as much. If anything, he's pleasantly surprised and relieved to see Ceebee make it out of the bloodbath with one of Pendleton's.

He looks down at his infopad in time to see a replay of Caro swinging her backpack up in time to block an arrow from one of the Careers. Data actually smiles a little at that, but something makes him back the footage up and play it again.

Did she... yes, she swung the backpack up deliberately. She knew something was headed her way and blocked it. Very good.