[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

[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.