Forum Thread

Charlie nodded and with a smile of thanks carefully took the fanny pack from Talya and readjusted it around her waist again. When she had finished she looked up at Tayla with hopeful eyes.

(sorry for the late post, I got distracted. X_X)

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There was a quizzical look shot at the outstretched hand, head tipped in pondering. Was... Ibaraki supposed to do something? As the child puzzled over the meaning of such an action, Ibaraki was reminded of the city streets where parents would hold children's hands, leading them through the winding streets. Was that what Cree wanted to do? But Ibaraki was already 12, practically all grown up! Dad had said that there wasn't any need for a grown up to do such things. But it would be nice to hold someone's hand... Hesitantly, Ibaraki raised one hand before pausing. If the two of them were to hold hands, that would mean having to move the voluminous sleeve out of the way and Dad had reminded Ibaraki time and time again to hide away the ugly things like Ibaraki's hands. The horn growths too but those were harder to hide and Dad said that he didn't mind them. Always said that they reminded him of Mom. But as it stood, the child was torn between two decisions. To take Cree's hand or follow Dad's instructions and keep the ugly things hidden, what a dilemma. But Ibaraki was a very smart child and knew how to think outside the box. So with a bit of wriggling and the fluff that ran around the trim of the jacket smushed into a face that had yet to loose it's baby fat, Ibaraki very proudly grabbed Cree's hand, the soft fabric of the sleeve still flopped over the inhuman hand. That way, both objectives could be meet and everyone was happy!

Even through the fabric, Ibaraki could still grip the hand quite tightly, delighting in the new experience. The hand wasn't like a normal human hand but that was okay, it was still very nice to hold onto. Giving Cree a delighted little giggle, all thoughts of the area promptly left Ibaraki's mind again. After all, what was there to worry about when Ibaraki finally made a friend?

---

As the train pulled up to the Capital, the tributes were ushered quickly away from the prying eyes of the large crowd and onto a smaller train to be escorted to their stylists who would fix them up for the tribute parade.

Charlie was wearing a blue gossamer gown with a flower crown gently placed on top of her head. Much to the child's dismay, her fanny pack had been taken from her and put in her room. If she were to be attacked now, Charlie was all sorts of screwed as her powers were essentially gone.

Akane was wearing a champagne-colored dress that stopped at her knees, next to her Jeremy was wearing a dark green tux (which he loathed) the only thing that tied Jeremy and Akane together was that the cloth that made up Akane's dress was the same as Jeremy's tie.

From the crowd of tributes, one young tribute stood out amongst the others. Her brown hair was down and free-flowing slightly, a white dress was adorned with a pink bow and a pair of matching white flats. Two small angel wings stuck out from behind her, slightly bent as if preparing for flight. It was impossible to not recognise her as the "victor" of last year's games, the one who had supposedly died in the arena.

---

There was a shameful look in Tayla's eyes when she noticed the hopeful look that filled Charlie's gaze. She glances away quickly and turns her back to the girl to save her from the truth. There wasn't a lot to be hopeful about. Tayla was essentially coming into this blind. She knew what to expect, but at the same time, she didn't. She had been so focused on finding Ashley, that she had forgotten that she would later have to fight other tributes to the death. Tayla wasn't quite sure if she could do that. The other tributes were victims of circumstance. As far as she knows, they were good people... Even that person Cree, she shouldn't be so quick to judge him off his intimating looks. Killing them would go against everything she stood for.

It's only when the train lurches into a sudden hault does Tayla turn back to face Charlie. She returns the look with a half smile and a build-up of newfound confidence in her eyes. She'd have to figure out that challenge later. For now, she had to focus on full-filling her promise.

She doesn't get very far. She had only taken a few steps off the train when a hand grabs her arm and pulls her in. "Tayla! Welcome! Welcome!" Her stylist chirps as she struggles to pull away from the sudden hug. But her stylist had a grip of steel and it felt impossible to escape. "I'm so excited to have an opportunity to be your stylist! So what will it be!?" He pulls away only slightly to cup her face and examine her frame. "A pretty princess perhaps? Hmm, no, you couldn't pull it off with that murderous look in your eyes! A fierce warrior? Maybe." He places a hand thoughtfully on his chin and mumbles out a few hmms as he thinks. "I got it!" He shouts while snapping a finger. "I do hope it turns out! This is actually my first time using make-up and picking out outfits!" He admits to her with a chuckle. "Come on! Come on!" He shouts as he leads her to their room.
...
Tayla had to admit, she was rather surprised with her stylist's boldness in choosing her outfit. He had put a simple gown on her with matching high heels. After that, he placed a cloak to lay unzipped on her shoulders. To her astonishment, it was a cloak from a previous games. There was still blood stained on it! Half hidden under her cloak, was a gun belt, with fake revolvers stuffed in the belt. "I hope you like it!" Her stylist shouts from the doorway. "I forsee something gentle in you Tayla. You aren't a wolf in sheep's clothing. Rather a lamb in wolf's clothing. A gentle soul with a hardened shell. I won't press and ask if my vision is correct... All I hope is that I accurately caught that vision." Tayla turns towards her stylist, she was speechless, utterly shocked by her stylist's ability to accurately read her. Without thinking, she nods, confirming what he said. Even if, realistically, she didn't fully agree. "Excellent! Let's get you outside! I want others to be able to witness this!"

Faith gets dressed herself, only counting on her stylist for advice on her outfits. She screws her face up in concentration, her hair turning a bright bubblegum pink, and now looking exactly like her mother, Tonks. Her stylist gave a nod of approval, and she headed out, wand now out, for protection.

Natalia refused to wear any colour but black, and now stood rather grumpily in the dressing room, while the stylist forced her into a black dress— with frills. Yuck. She swept out of the dressing room, thanking her stylist nonetheless, and positioned herself in a corner, sulking.

Faith trips, and dirties her dress in the nearby mud. She frowns, waving her wand. “Scourgify!” Instantly, her dress returns to its clean state. “Reparo” Her dress fixes itself, and she sighs in relief

---

The moment the train stopped, blue eyes fluttered open and Molly rose from his seat where he had been dozing. Well rested and ready to face the capital, Molly believed that he could take on anything that the world had to throw at him. And then he was promptly whsiked away into a cart where his stylist proudly displayed what she had in mind for him. "I am not going out there looking like I walked straight out of Bram Stoker's Dracula." He deadpanned, glaring at the ruffled whites and tight leather. The plunging neckline had no signs of stopping and Molly was fairly sure he didn't even have the right body to fit that image. He was a doctor's assistant, not a body builder. His stylist grumbled something about young people not getting fashion at all but begrudgingly threw in a stylish black jacket to be worn over the shoulders like a cape, making the ensemble at least presentable enough that Molly let himself be prepared for the parade. It took quite a while, the make up team taking the time to fully perfect his face with powers, shades, and products that Molly was half convinced they were all making up, but by the time he stepped out, he looked... Not like a hooker. He actually looked remarkably normal if one was a capital citizen. Well, it wasn't the worst look ever, he supposed.

---

Swinging their joined hands together, Ibaraki couldn't wipe the childish grin that had taken up residence on aching lips, the force of smiling so much foreign and new. That soon fell, however, when the capital speed into sight and soon everyone was hauled away by their stylists. "Bye bye, Cree." Ibaraki said mournfully, one sleeve flopping back and forth in a miniature gesture of a goodbye as they were separated. Ibaraki's stylist seemed a bit displeased but hurried the child along to the train meant just for Ibaraki. It was quite odd to see all the hustle and bustle, never before having been surrounded by so many different types of fabric. It was enough to make Ibaraki's head spin. It was way too much and in the end Ibaraki simply let the strangers push and pull the shock pliant body around as they wished. In the end, what stumbled out was a completely different looking creature that Ibaraki couldn't quite tell who it was, looking back in the mirror.

With the heavy layers of fabric removed, one could tell exactly how small and underfed the child was, the white dress shirt and dark blue vest only accenting the much too thin shape. Neatly pressed dress pants with Chelsea boots finished off the look. But perhaps the part that Ibaraki liked the best about the weird new outfit was the separate sleeves hastily added after the designers took one look at the child's uncovered hands. It was fastened to a loop on the upper arm and drawn tight around it, the navy fabric matching the vest as it fell over Ibaraki's hands. On the horn like growths, a swirling sea of seashells adorned them, twisting around the two nubs and trailing into the fluffy mane of hair. The silver locks themselves where twisted into a low ponytail, bangs braided back to show off slightly pointed ears. Ibaraki could certainly pass for being normal if one simply ignored the striking black sclera but with silver bangs pinned back, one could now see how the skin surrounding Ibaraki's cheeks had been peeled away only revealing firm muscle, eerie and a bit grotesque. An unfortunate byproduct of the cursed blood but with the current ensemble Ibaraki wore, it only enhanced the look further. But it seemed quite obvious that Ibaraki wasn't used to the exposed flesh being visible to everyone else, the sight hidden behind navy fabric as Ibaraki held tiny hands up to keep others attention off of it.

Legs unused to the formal shoes stumbled out of the train and Ibaraki looked around a bit desperately, wanting to find something similar or safe to hide behind. Everything felt all too new and overwhelming, even other tributes were terrifying. But the worst part was that outfit simply felt too revealing despite showing very little skin and Ibaraki couldn't wait for this to be over soon.

---

Thankfully there was a little time to mingle before they were forced on the carts. Charlie had stuck by Tayla when she had first reemerged, but her attention was quickly taken away by the new tribute girl who hadn't been on the train. She tugged lightly on Tayla's hand, the child's gaze was still on this young wisp of a tribute.

The young angel girl was quietly standing by herself, both of her hands were clasped together in front of her waist as she looked around like a lost lamb. Sure, she knew was coming next, but that didn't make it any easier as she knew none of her new fellow tributes, at least last year she got to know one of them.

---

Faith walked over to the angel girl, whom she noticed looked rather lost. “Hello. You were on last year’s Games, right? How are you now?” She asked kindly

---

Cree had quickly started to pursue the people who had grabbed Ibaraki, only to be stopped a moment later and yanked upon by another set of the people. One was saying, "You'll see him again, but come this way for now." Cree lifted his arm away from the strangers, stumbling back a little. However, there he was met with the threat of Peacekeepers, bearing their batons and tasers in violent glee, awaiting the beast and his lethal strikes. Cree glanced between the two parties, he crouched down, covering his head and letting out a wail from behind Tragedy.(1:36) The Peacekeepers dropped their weapons, covering their ears at the sudden assailant to their ears, the cry echoing around the Capitol for a good ten seconds afterwards, leaving Cree still hunched on the ground, shaking and seemingly weeping. One Peacekeeper collapsed, blood staining the hair around their ears as it slowly gathered in puddles by their head.

---

Tyler had enjoyed the blissfully silent train ride, after hearing the horrifying scream at the very beginning of it. He'd been undisturbed by Peacekeepers and Tributes alike, and had so gotten to sleep most of the way there. When he awoke, there were two people looming over him, their faces shadowed. Tyler blinked sleepily, then comprehended what exactly was going on and choked on his tongue, scooting up in his seat and bringing his afflicted arm forwards, ready to attack the newcomers. However, they quickly backed away after he woke up, their voices finally coming to Tyler's ears. "Good, good, you're awake. Come on, we've got to get you ready." They ushered him off the train and into another one, rapidly stripping his previously chosen clothes and dressing him again, leaving the Tribute dumbfounded at the speed of which they'd done so. The two moved in perfect harmony, and Tyler realized they were nearly identical... Perhaps they shared an ability, too? He couldn't be sure. However, they had him dressed in an interesting taste: a noble's guise, with a royal purple cape and a decorative sword at his side. However, the upper piece of clothing was shredded and ripped around his corrupted arm, as if the spikes had lacerated the sleeve for their own pleasure. They were careful not to touch the arm, of course, though they did try to make the discolored flesh around his eye seem a little more human, much to the dismay of Tyler- a sudden sense of disgust came when they covered the flesh with paint, the infection trying to get them to stop.

---

Ace had a quite normal experience, though his chest had confused the stylist until the abomination spoke. The other had seemed intrigued, if a little disgusted. Ace was put in a long, flowing black set of robes, highlighted with green fires that almost seemed to move as the creature walked. In addition, hundreds of lime green eyes speckled the selection, the top third or so of Ace's chest exposed to the open air. It was interesting, to Ace; he'd never worn such an odd thing. Though, as he stepped out and joined the other Tributes, he realized everybody was wearing something quite odd.

The angel girl looked up at Faith and nodded, "I was. It's all really strange, they said if you win you don't have to participate again." She looked down at her shoes for a few moments then back up to Faith. "I dont think I got your name."

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It wasn't her lack of appearance on the train that has struck Tayla- she hadn't talked to anyone on the train other than Charlie anyway. It was the angelic girl's sudden appearance that Tayla found strange. She couldn't say she remembered every tribute that had walked onstage, but Tayla was positive that she would have remembered that girl in particular.

"Why don't you go chat with her. See if you can become friends with her?" Tayla asks Charlie. "I'll stay close-" she pauses, catching movement on the corner of her eye. She notices Cree standing a distance away from them. Something about him was intriguing to her, and it wasn't because of the way he looked. Tayla had a gift, she seemed to be able to easily find others that were like her. She wouldn't go as far as to say that Cree was in the same type of work as her, but there had to be some sort of similarity between the two.

Also, whenever she liked it or not, Tayla needed to prepare for the arena. She was confident in her abilities to protect herself and Charlie alone, but you could never go wrong with relying on others. "I'll just be right over there" she informs Charlie while nodding towards Cree. She begins to cautiously make her way over to him, she was unsure on how he would react to her suddenly approaching him.

The word "chat" made Charlie inwardly flinch. Conversation. This was a huge weak point to her, everyone around her seemed to take that for granted. Still, she headed over to the angel and the other girl with tentative steps dreading how she was going to even talk to them when she had no voice.

Moona, as she introduced herself to Faith, noticed Charlie's sudden appearance. "Hello, how are you doing today?"

Charlie in response just gave a small smile.

---

When the Peacekeeper fell, a panic erupted outside of the train. The remaining Peacekeepers bolted, carrying their fallen comrade at a surprisingly breakneck pace. The stylists vanished as well, leaving Cree panting and sorting out his mind, slowly standing and searching for Ibaraki before finding himself among the other Tributes, though he we unsure of how he made it there at all. His eyes scanned the crowd for his smaller friend, though Tragedy turned quickly towards and approaching figure, an older Tribute. She reminded him of a small predator, something likely easily killed but with an odd resilience to death, and perhaps even the killing instinct as well.

"You don't need to look so nervous, I'm not here to fight. I'm not even here to talk if you don't wish to" she tells Cree while stopping a distance in front of him. "I couldn't help but notice you were standing alone. I was just wondering if you wanted some company." This wasn't a total lie, but it wasn't the full truth. In all reality, Tayla wanted to see whenever or not she could trust Cree before she would offer up an alliance to him. She can't help but glance curiously at his mask, but she doesn't ask about it.

Cree watched Tayla for a long moment, his loud breathing indicating he used his mouth for the transfer of air from outside his body to his lungs. He watched Tayla for a long moment, analyzing her face and gaze. His breathy whisper crawled from his throat, making the air around him shiver. "Hhhhhhhhhhh.... What... Hhhhhhhhhhhhh... Do..... Hhhhhhhhhhhhhh... You..... Hhhhhhhhhhh Need..?" It wasn't rude, simply curious as to why this other Tribute had actually approached him. His stood a little taller when her gaze flashed across his mask, his slack jaw closing a little to try and hide itself.

There was a rippling cry around Ibaraki and the child quickly turned around to try and find the source, the familiar situation building up again. Sure enough if one looked, there stood Cree, and although what emotion the other was feeling was practically unreadable, Ibaraki rushed over as fast as possible, tripping a few times over unfamiliar shoes and terrain. A small mouth opened to call for safety but the jaw immediately snapped close when seeing an unfamiliar figure approach Ibaraki's friend. A multitude of thoughts went through the child's head at that moment. Was this tribute being mean to Cree? Did Ibaraki need to step in and chase away the mean tribute? Was the tribute going to hurt Cree?! Each thought just got progressively worse but Ibaraki didn't dare step forward, lingering back to observe with shaking knees. For all the desire to step in that the child had, to make good on the promises made, Ibaraki was also quite conscious that if the fabric covered arms ever dropped down from their place by Ibaraki's cheeks, a lot of staring would be garnered and Ibaraki hated it when adults tried to be nice and ask what was wrong with the child's face when Nothing was wrong! What's so wrong about being different?

---

Were her intentions that obvious? Or was Cree a good guesser? She had to admit, it was suspicious of her to approach him acting all friendly for no real reason. Still, she was hoping Cree would play along to her antics just a little bit. She didn't like having to show her hand until she knew it was safe.

Honesty is the best policy, right? Tayla hesitates, trying to think about how she should phrase her next question. "I know you don't know me too well. So you don't have any reason to trust me, but I need some help." She extends a hand towards Charlie. "I need help protecting her in the arena and I couldn't help but notice your-" she glances at the ground, where a puddle of blood still lay. "Power..." she hesitates again. "I have a feeling that the two of us could work well together and I would like an opportunity to allow you to trust and work with me."

"Hhhhhhh...... Power...? Hhhhhhhh........ Not.... Hhhhhhh..... My.... Hhhhhhhh..... Power...." He pointed to the blood with one horrid claw, his motions slow and somewhat horrific, the steady, careful pace terribly inhuman. Then, he pointed the claw to himself. "Hhhhhhhhhhh.... This..... Hhhhhhhhh...... Is...." He lowered his hand, turning his head towards Charlie and observing the third Tribute. Then, he turned his head again, spotting Ibaraki and beckoning his closer with one hand. "Hhhhhhhhh.... One...... Hhhhhhhhhhh..... Condition.... Hhhhhhhhhh..... You..... Hhhhhhhhh..... Help.... Hhhhhhhhhh.... Protect..... Hhhhhhhhhhhh..... Him..."

It was obvious that Tayla hadn't expected Cree to agree on creating an alliance with her. Her startled expression quickly sharpens once he starts explaining his one and only condition. The startled expression returns onto her face when Cree points out that Ibaraki was standing near them and already teamed up with Cree. She bows her head respectfully upon hearing his condition. "Of course. I would be happy to do that."

To Ibaraki who definitely wasn't listening into the conversation (what find of friend listened to other friend's conversations?) the gesture towards the child was all that was needed. Scampering forward, Ibaraki stumbled to a stop between Cree and Tayla, teeth barred in a cute but undeniably threatening manner. The low growl that rumbled past the small chest though was anything but cute as narrowed eyes observed the newcomer warily. Ibaraki's hands had dropped down to spread out in front of Cree in a hilarious attempt to protect the other, but the exposed flesh gave the almost innocent action a bit more weight. No words were spoken but perhaps none was needed as the hostility that practically radiated off Ibaraki was enough to get the message across. Though it did sort of feel like getting threatened by a Pomeranian.

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