Quick Fix Game 5: The Hunger Games!

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

--- .... -- ...

 

Dam flashed the message again.

 

--- .... -- ...

Ohms. His and Melinda's secret nickname for each other. Dam kept flashing it over and over again in morse code, something Ohm would be familiar with, with him teaching her it when he had first learned it at one of his many power plant jobs. They had always used it as their secret method of communication when they were at home, tapping on the thin wall between their bedrooms when they were going to sleep, bidding each other good night. The lightbulb Wilson had given him was starting to dim and fade out, and he was starting to wonder just how foolish he was for hoping.

Night had completely fallen hours ago, and the dense canopy of the forest completely blocked out whatever sliver of moonlight there might have been in the cloudy sky above, leaving Dam, and more importantly Ohms, in pitch black darkness. The arena might have been artificially constructed, but the sounds of nature were real enough. And so were the threats. The soothing sound of insects calling each other in the night, and the occasional hoot of owls would be interrupted by howls in the night, and even louder, blood-curdling screeches that would silence everything else afterwards, causing Dam to curl up even more in the small burrow he had constructed himself.

He flashed the light again, one last time in desperation, dreading the moment he would finally admit just how daft it was to ever hope to find Melinda. Let alone protect her. He lowered his arm and a single tear leaked down his cheek. He knew he would never be able to fulfill his promise. He would never see her --

A rustling from some nearby bushes brought him out of his thoughts and startled him, causing him to snap his head up and lose his balance. He had precariously situated himself so as to be able to spring up at any moment's notice, but his legs had since fallen asleep hours ago. He tumbled right over backwards, flailing his arms as he did so.

He couldn't have made himself any easier of a target, and he heard the rush of feet as the tribute rushed over to quickly finish their prey. He closed his eyes, able to bring forth one last memory of Ohms and her radiant smile, enjoying the warmth it brought him one last time. Sorry, sis.

That was when he was tackled to the ground and embraced in a hug by a sobbing Ohms.

He could hardly even believe it.

He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her back as tightly as he dared hold her, lest he squeeze or hurt her. "I'll never let you out of my sight again. I promise I will protect you."

Nearby, a small package floated down, dropped off by a drone. A gift from a sponsor.

Inside the package was a note, with nothing on it but a winky-face emoticon, signed Wilson. Underneath the note was a box of tissues.

[Eolhondras he/him]

Stars shining bright above you. Night breezes seem to whisper, I love you. Birds singing in the sycamore tree. Dream a little dream of me.

 

Eolloe’s father had always sung around the house. They sung duets almost every night while her mom clapped along, beaming with pride. Those memories of merry family evenings though, seemed more and more surreal to her as night turned into day in this nightmare of an arena. The idea of being happy, of laughing, became absurd. The concept of empathy and sympathy became bizarre. All of her emotions no matter if the stemmed from joy, anger or sadness, everything was swallowed by her fear.

 

Say nighty night and kiss me. Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me. While I’m alone and blue as can be, dream a little dream of me.

 

It was this fear that had driven her remain awake for the night, constantly scanning the horizon for any signs of silhouettes. Her diligence had paid off however, and the price of not killing a mutant was greatly outweighed by the simple fact of still being alive. It was too dark to be able to see who came to attack her, but with the forewarning she gave herself, she was able to fight them off, at least for the time being. Her first taste of the violence that is the hunger games and she had survived. At least someone up above was looking out for her.

 

It was her father’s turn to take the lead in their little duet. The thought of him singing along with her back in district 9 gave her the strength to continue.

 

 

 

I had a feeling there might be some pot shots flying over night and was lucky enough to dodge one. As I think, may a few others. Looking at the numbers there were 15 players going into the last cycle change. 5 people killed mutants (round of applause for your generosity). 4 people are dead. That means either 3 successful attacks and a mut kill, or 4 successful attacks and a blocked mut kill. Adding the lovely person who had a stab at me as well as myself defending, that’s, at most, 11, maybe 10 people accounted for, leaving 4/5.

What’s most interesting to me is that the number of people that said or insinuated that they would be killing the muts was 8.

These being,

Meta (never said straight out, but was very suggestive)

Seonid

Aonar (“most likely”)

Dominic

Joe

Alvron

Newan

12^thRoot

 

Unfortunately it is impossible to deduce anything more than between 1 to 3 people on that list flat out lied about their activities, due to lack of information, and the fact that nobody seems to find any purpose for discussion, but hey, thought it might be something to bring up.

[Metacognition he/him]

I changed my action at the last minute to defend myself and I'm glad I did! I was attacked as well. I think we can infer from how they died that someone used their knives on Newan and the bow was used to kill Marge. Isana and Niobe look like they were attacked by actual tributes. What this tells us is that Isana and Niobe likely did what they said they were going to and attacked the Muttations. If they didn't, then they wouldn't have been open to attack! If Newan or Marge attacked the Muttations wouldn't matter, as the knives and bow attacks happen before the regular attacks. So two of the Muttation deaths are accounted for. That leaves Aaron, Dom, Al, and Tessa to have lied to the rest of us. Do you guys want to defend yourselves here and explain what happened cause two of you aren't being honest with us and since now we'll need to waste more time killing Muttations to get rid of the risk of dying due to randomness, your actions have hurt us all, including any of your teammates. 

[IcyNinjaPenguin]

Ice held a bloodied rock, staring at the corps of what resembled a cow. she'd mannaged to bash the rock into the beasts head enough times to kill the thing. Her arms ached. Shed recived generous slashes on her arms. They'd need antiseptic but nothing too deep for worry. Thankfully.

She decided it was worth the risk to eat the mutant cow meat. Would the capital poison the flesh. It seemed to likely that they would... therefore they probably assumed not to waste the money to poison it. After all, what fool would eat a mutant cow? Well ice would...

A cannon fired and a familiar face flashed into the sky. Isana. They became friends during training. Ice shook her head in sadness. First dale now isana. Ice placed another rock next to the tree she slept in. Each rock representing a tribute who fell. Her way to pay respects to thoes that had died. Ice felt alone... and dehydrated. She needed water.

She climed into a tree with weak arms, attempting to get a better look at where she was. Scanning her surroundings she saw more mutant cows. And some odd white ferret/sugar glider thing gliding from tree to tree. But no water source in sight. Where was the water?

She decided to watch the ferret for a momment. It was oddly beautiful watching the creature jump from branch to branch... and then... it hit one of the branches and fell to the ground. Curiosity got the better of ice so she began to climb down to see what happened to the critter... who would probably chew her face off... but her instinct told her otherwise. And so she climed.

[Alvron he/him]

I think your count is out Meta.  Isana never said they were going to attack the Muttations.  In fact they told me they were going after Newan.  My plan hasn't changed apart from losing two out of my three teammates.  I suspected it would take at least two rounds to kill all the muttations which is why I said at the beginning that I would be targeting them for the first couple of cycles.

[Aonar he/him]

Similarly to you, Meta, I ended up deciding that I value my own short term survival more than the group's long term survival. Unlike you, my fears appeared to be unfounded. (Still trying to decide whether this was a good or a bad thing.)

 

Anyways, don't think I can't see what you've been doing, Meta. 

 

Last cycle, with your list assessing the probabilities of people lying about going to the Cornucopia. You're drawing attention to people you want dead, while simultaneously implanting the suggestion that you and yours (I would assume that you and Gamma are in contact?) are helpful, honest and harmless.

 

Now, you're doing much of the same. Making a neigh-on unverifiable claim (I'll admit, I made the same one, and you have no reason to trust me, but you also have no reason to trust him), calling out people you'd no doubt enjoy seeing dead, and ingratiating yourself with the community. (Notably, you're directing the group's ill-will towards others for the same reason it should turn towards you. You seem to be expecting yourself to avoid our ire simply because you were the first one to have the opportunity to say, "Sorry I didn't go along with the plan, please don't kill me.")

 

We all know that you're no less ruthless or conniving than the rest of us, yet you're going to a lot of effort to paint yourself as something you're not. I really wouldn't be surprised to learn that you were responsible for one of the deaths yesterday.

 

I will say this, though. I do plan to be killing Mutts tonight. If your numbers don't add up, then it'll probably be because I'm dead. Or maybe because you killed me?

[Metacognition he/him]

Melinda slept peacefully, wrapped in her brother's embrace, for the first time since her name had been picked. Sure, they were still in danger and there was a good chance that they were going to die here, but for now, they were together again and she was too drained both physically and emotionally to care. She was back with her brother and that was enough for now. Tomorrow could wait till tomorrow. 

 

Unfortunately, life didn't care one bit about what Melinda wanted and she was awoken in the middle of the night when she hear a rustling in the bushes around her. The night was clear and there was a full moon shining through the trees, so when one of the cowolves (hybrid of cow and wolves? Eh?) slid into the clearing towards them, she could see the brutal glint in its eyes. 

 

Dam was still fast asleep beside her; he had always been a bit of a heavy sleeper. It made sense when you were surrounded by machinery day in and day out, but out here in the Hunger Games, it was a death sentence. 

 

Melinda didn't even try to wake him. For one, he wouldn't have been able to do anything other than die anyways. He was strong, but without a weapon, there was no way he could take out one of the cowolves. But the main reason she didn't wake him was because she couldn't. She was frozen in fear. 

 

The cowolf slowly crept towards her. It seemed to know that there was no need to hurry. Their gazes were locked on each other and Melinda couldn't pry her eyes away. Her breaths came faster and faster, but still she couldn't move. She tried to flex her fingers, urged herself to do something, anything at all. If she could move, she could scream and wake Dam up in time for him to run away. She would have saved her brother's life by sacrificing her own. It would be enough. 

 

Her right hand uncurled in her pocket and brushed up against something metal. It was the item that Wilson had given her right before the games started. It was a spike; little more than a needle, really. It wasn't big enough to do any real damage. It would be useless against the other tributes. Melinda had tried to figure out why Wilson would give her such a useless item, but nothing came to her, so she had just pocketed it.

 

Now, with the cowolf almost upon her, she slowly pulled it out. The cowolf stopped less than a foot away from Melinda and finally make the first sound since it entered the clearing; it growled at her. 

 

Without thinking, Melinda lashed out with the needle as quick as her little arm could move. She felt it hit flesh and she pushed on it, urging it to go in as deep as it could go! 

The cowolf's growl cut off abruptly and it stumbled back with a whine of pain. 

 

Dam jerked awake at the sound, but by then Melinda could see that the needle was embedded deep in the cowolf's eye. It shook its head, as if it was trying to shake away the pain. It had all but forgotten about them as it stumbled off into the night. 

 

Melinda sat there, still frozen for another couple of minutes. Her mind was a blur. Had she really just done that?! She was alive? She had saved both her and Dam? How had Wilson known that something like tonight would happen? She was alive?

 

When Dam's hand fell on her shoulder, the entirety of what just happened finally settled on her like a wet blanket and she promptly passed out. 

 

_____________________________________________

 

Well who ever attacked me can verify my claim, but I kind of doubt they're going to step forward.

 

If I had followed the plan, I'd be dead right now, so no, sorry, I don't feel remorse for it. We would've been down another Muttation, sure, but we would've lost another player as well and we lost plenty of them last night as is. 

 

As far as my lists, just because they're not pointing to me doesn't mean that it's also not in the best interests of the group. We had a total of 8 deaths (4 Muttations and 4 players) last cycle and another two attempts. If everyone was so on board with killing off the Muttations, we shouldn't have had that many deaths, so I believe that someone (or multiple someones) claimed they were going to kill off Muttations to gain the trust of the group and to hopefully not be targeted themselves while they went ahead and killed indiscriminately. Considering the fact that everyone else on the list has been accounted for, all I did is narrow down the list Eol posted. That's why I asked if any of you wanted to defend yourselves. At least two people on that list actually did what they said they were going to do and if we can narrow it down further, then we can give the bowman a target that actually deserves it at this point rather than just silently massacring. 

 

I still wish we had more conversation going on as to what we want to do as a group. This game has been great for RP and I've been enjoying that side of it immensely, but it's not very strategic. Since we're not trying to gain a group consensus like in past games, it's basically just luck on if you survive to the next round or not. I'm not painting myself as anything. I'm trying to stimulate some discussion since there is so little of it going on! You'll see what I mean once I finally do die (likely tonight). We've only had 6 posts today, even though we had 10 people left. That's not getting us anywhere. 

 

If people want to go off on a killing spree that doesn't involve the Muttations, fine, be my guest. But let's get rid of those that aren't actually doing anything before we start offing people who are trying to actually get something done? Because, at this rate, the game is going to come down to Salamander and Tekon and since I haven't seen either in here recently, the game is going to end with a lurker winning by doing nothing. 

 

EDIT: I actually will be killing a Muttation tonight, so if one of you does want to take me out, here's your shot. 

Edited December 22, 2014 by Metacognition

[twelfthrootoftwo]

Four cannons. Tessa looked up to the sky, and grinned. That made thirteen deaths. She'd survived longer than half of the other tributes! Unfortunately, good food for celebration was in short supply in the arena. Instead, she hummed softly while working the wood in her hands. It wasn't difficult, she'd found. Easier than the heavy seafaring wood of District 4. Though the fact she could sharpen it against a rough stone did suggest it would lose its point quickly. Ah well; it only needed to last a day or two.

 

Tessa, you were supposed to be a nice girl. Why did you have to turn into a psychopath 

 

I wasn't kidding about killing a mutt, though having seen the result of this cycle, I'm much less likely to do so again (or at least to announce it in thread beforehand).

[Peng the Just he/him]

Melinda and dam snuggled up in the night. Dam had song a lullaby to her, and for the first time since this ordeal began, they both felt safe. A flash of silver came out of the night and struck Melinda in the chest.

"NOOO!" Dam screamed. Leaping up. The sounds attracted hunters. More shapes came out of dark, several tributes and several mutts. The fight that followed left many tributes dead. Dam, Al and Eolloe all lay dead.

sorry the write up isn't more. I'm tired. Just to be clear:

Melinda died to knife attack.
Dam died to mutts and tributes
Eolloe and Al died to normal attacks
FYI: If you defended and didn't get a PM, assume you had an uneventful night defending.
There are 6 surviving mutts.

Edited August 16, 2016 by Alvron

[dominic1994 he/him]

Dom tripped and once again fell to his knees. He rested for a few minutes then, taking a deep breath, forced himself to get up. He had to keep moving, keep living. The fighting has been close during the night. The first screams had jerked him out of his fitful sleep and were soon joined by growls and howls as the monstrous muttations had joined in the slaughter.

 

Dom had wanted no part of that but the voice in his head had disagreed and had forced him towards the violence. Fearing for his life Dom had fought against the voice but had not been strong enough. By the time Dom had regained control of himself the screaming had stopped; as had the horrible sounds of those creatures. The bodies of the four Tributes had yet to be collected; they were that recently killed.

 

Four more dead. That meant that the majority of Tributes had been killed and only a handful were left. And Dom was one of them. He didn't know how. He didn't care. He would carry on the same way he had; it did seem to be working after all. He now thought that maybe he could survive. His death had been a near certainty at one point but that seemed to be changing. 

 

A noise behind. A low growl. Dom didn't even look; he just ran, sprinting away from the bodies of four more needlessly slaughtered Tributes. He ran to survive; that was all that mattered.

 

It seemed like he had been running almost constantly these last few days.   

[IcyNinjaPenguin]

Ice found the found the odd ferret thing dragging one of its paws. It seemed to be limping with determination. But why? She looked behind and saw what the ferret was running from. In the distance came bright balls of silver flame bursting down, hitting random objects... and it was coming closer. Clearly the people controlling the game didn't like Her passive approach to the game so they were chasing her to the other tributes. Ice began to run and saw a silver fire ball heading straight twards the ferret. I'm going to regret this later she thought then she grabbed the ferret saving it from becoming a pile of ash. She carried the ferret as she ran. Where are you leading me now capital?

The silver colored fire balls finally quit. That could only mean one thing... she was near an even more imposing danger. She heard screaming coming from nearby. Ice scurried up a tree, ferret still in hand. She saw a tribute running while a pack of people and mutants were chasing him. Ice felt a sick ping of sadness. She wanted to help but didn't want to die herself. Wich would surely happen if she climbed down from the tree. Below ice watched a gruesome sight. A cannon fired and the chaos slowly dispersed.

Ice let out a breath of air she didn't realize she was holding, then leaned back against the tree she was sitting in. The ferret lay in a ball on ice's lap. The creature looked contentet. She petted his white fur silently thanking him for helping her. She sun was starting to set but ice found sleep allusive this night. She kept avoiding things that weren't really there. She was so parinoid that someone would kill her while she slept. Her thirst didn't help matters either.

Finally when she almost fell asleep the ferret got out of her lap and began to scurry up the tree. No! Don't go. You're my only friend right now... she began to move when she realized the animal was just getting a drink of water. The leaves were made of water, with only a thin skin of green to hold the water within. She grabbed several of the leaves and gulped down the water. It made her feel beter all over. Her cuts on her arm even seemed to heal a little. The ferret ran back to ice and curled up on her lap once more. What a lovely discovery, ice thought. You have saved my life twice this night small ferret. Thank you.

Edited December 23, 2014 by IcyNinjaPenguin

[Peng the Just he/him]

Joe had been careful. He had found that the best way to survive in the hunger games was to keep your head down so people forgot about you. He'd made a bivouac underneath a bunch of pine trees that were really close together and feasted on a couple squirrels. He hadn't seen another tribute since the cornecopia. He was getting pretty confident. An arrow shot out the tree and clipped him in the back of the leg. Joe swore and scrambled away, but with an injured leg he couldn't get far before another arrow caught him between the shoulder blades.

-----

Aaron was feeling tired. The games had taken its toll on him. He told himself that he'd keep watch for another hour, but his eyes were starting to droop. The mutts approaching awoke him. They made a terrifying sound. The howl combined with the moo sounded almost like human screaming. He reached down to grab a stick to beat them away, but he was too slow.

There are 6 surviving muttations

Edited August 16, 2016 by Alvron

[dominic1994 he/him]

Dom was still alive. The voice in his head had stopped. The situation was looking much better... relatively anyway.

The last few hours had been, compared to the first few days, uneventful. Dom had found a place that was reasonably secure and had decided to wait it out for a while. Two more tributes had died which meant that this whole awful nightmare was coming to a close. Most of all Dom was pleased that the voice had stopped and it seemed to have stopped for good. He didn't know why; it had stopped several hours ago, about the time that the last tribute had died and Dom had started to feel more confident in his survival.

Dom was in control of his own actions. It felt wonderful not to have that constant whispering in the back of his mind; urging him, forcing him to do what it wanted to do. The voice had been the strongest when Dom had been most afraid. That was when he had been at his weakest and it was that weakness that had allowed the voice to take control. Dom had thought long on it and decided that as he was not quite as afraid as before the voice no longer had control. Dom was certain this was the reason.

Another thought had occurred to him; Dom had dismissed it, but it still lingered. Perhaps the 'voice' was the excuse Dom's mind had created to avoid responsibility for the violence he had committed. Dom shook his head. It was a ludicrous thought and he didn't know where it had come from. He hadn't killed anyone. He had spent the last few days running, terrified, avoiding the other Tributes completely.

 

There were those missing parts of his memory though. Those black spots where he didn't quite know what he'd been doing. No, it couldn't be that. Dom shook his head again.

 

Definitely couldn't be that.  

Edited December 23, 2014 by dominic1994

[Peng the Just he/him]

Ice lay peacefully, snuggled with her ferret and oblivious of the approaching mutt pack and tribute. The ferret awoke before she did and scampered off safely into the trees. By the time ice awoke, it was far, far too late to scamper away safely.

Tessa could feel the victory. It was so close she could almost taste it. I'm gonna win this she thought. She went right on thinking that until the rock slammed into the side of her head.

-------

There are 6 surviving mutts.
I reserve the right to cut the next cycle short as soon as I feel like I've gotten all the actions I'm going to get.

Edited August 16, 2016 by Alvron

[IcyNinjaPenguin]

.

Edited December 24, 2014 by IcyNinjaPenguin

[Peng the Just he/him]

Hey everybody, just remember its fine to role play your death, but please don't include ANY game relevant information.

[dominic1994 he/him]

Things had changed during the night. Dom still couldn't believe what he'd done. The girl had just been sat there and ... and Dom had taken the rock... and she hadn't noticed him and...

 

Dom took a deep breath, trying to relax himself. He'd had no real choice. This was the Hunger Games. This was what happened in the Arena. That didn't really comfort him though, he'd still had to swing that rock. What really sickened him though was that the voice hadn't spoken to him at all. It hadn't urged him to kill, hadn't taken control of him. He'd couldn't use the voice as an excuse. No voice had made him swing that rock.

 

What really worried Dom though was a thought, a feeling really, that kept appearing in his head. A feeling that this wasn't the first time he had killed. Dom didn't believe it but he couldn't force it away. It stayed there, nagging at him. Getting very difficult to ignore.

[Peng the Just he/him]

Salamander sat in his launch pad. He had been paralyzed with fear since day 1 and hadn't moved since the games began. He heard the mutts coming, but didn't move. He stood there until they came and ate him.

-------

Tekon is technically still alive after this cycle, but he's inactive and there's not really a way for him to him to win. Dom has the body armor and a large lead in kills.

Dom came back to the cornecopia. Tekon was there, holding his used medical kit and crying like a baby. The nightlock hadn't quite taken him out. There was an antidote in the kit. Dom took a hefty branch and finished the job anyway. i'm totally going to need therapy after this he thought.

I present to you: your victor! Dominic1994!!!!!
Thanks for playing everybody.

Edited August 16, 2016 by Alvron

[dominic1994 he/him]

Wool!!! Didn't expect that from my first game. It was good fun.

 

Many apologies to anyone I brutally murdered!!!

[Peng the Just he/him]

You should stick around for at least one faction based game. They're a lot of fun.

[dominic1994 he/him]

Yeah, I plan to. They look like good fun.

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Congrats on the win! I was enjoying your RP throughout the whole game, and nice job staying alive and ahead of the competition! This game was definitely interesting, with it being a change-up from our Standard Elimination games. The whole free-for-all element definitely added a whole new layer to the game. (Heh, even if I did spend the entire time just RP'ing with Meta and protecting him)

[Seonid he/him]

Well, that was an interesting game. It was fun for the short time I lasted...but all things considered, it was probably good I died when I did. I got busy right about then.

 

I'm really interested in trying one of the faction-based games (and maybe GMing one in the future. I have this idea for one that uses half of the secret societies on Roshar).

[dominic1994 he/him]

I'm going to finish the RP. No real reason to but it'll bother me if I don't

--------------------------------------------------

 

Dom was alive. He was alive, he'd won. He'd actually won. He couldn't believe it, it was staggering. Dom just stood there, stunned, only vaguely aware of what was happening around him. Someone was speaking to him. Dom shook himself out of his stupor and, as he began to reply, the memories hit him.

 

He remembered the beginning of the Games, standing at the Cornucopia. He'd convinced himself he hadn't gone for it but that wasn't the truth. His memories were clear now, memories of sprinting toward, rather than away from, the slaughter. Fighting through the chaos, picking up that knife and only then running for safety.

 

He remembered the first night. Standing silent in the near total darkness, waiting for the Tribute to move past him. Then the knife flashing in the moonlight. He remembered pulling the body armour of the Tribute's corpse. He hadn't even questioned where the armour had come from, his mind had just blanked it out.

 

He remembered the night when the screams of dying Tributes had woken him. He'd come to his senses surrounded by bodies but now he saw what had happened before that. His arms wrapped around someone's neck.

 

The voice had never been there. Never been real. It was just an excuse; a way for Dom to avoid responsibly for his actions. Even at the very beginning, when Dom had volunteered for the Games the voice had been his excuse. His mind had been unable to accept that what Dom wanted, deep down, was to be a part of the violence and the terror of the Hunger Games.

 

The memories and that realisation crushed Dom. It broke him and he collapsed to his knees. People were talking to him but he paid no attention to them, blocked them out. He didn't know whether he could survive this; this new battle that he now had to fight. The battle with himself; for the things that he had done.

 

A thought came to him then and, inexplicably he smiled. His actions might have broken him, he might never get over what he had done in the Arena but he was alive. Alive. He still couldn't believe that he was alive.

 

And in the end that was really all that mattered.

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

Soo... The next game is The Only Joe's long game?