Murder Me [(WolfTears])

[cinder]

It was an eerily nice day. A spring-time day. Out of the corner of her glistening blue eyes, Arcadia spotted a scuttling furry baby-something scamper up a tree as it heard her soft footfalls approaching. The forest was thick and beautifully green. Not gloomy and woodsy, but enchanting and neon. Everything was so bright, bright little wild flowers popping up in random places and steadily increasing in population. The trees looked supple and healthy with fresh neon green leaves growing, and even the two coyote's Arcadia had spotted way early in the morning had little extremely chipper (*this may have been because one of them had a fat rabbit in its jaws too, but Arcadia was ninety-nine percent sure it was because of the weather. That just made more sense, y'know?)

And what, you might ask, was a murderous Career like Cady doing in the woods, besides spoiling the day for all the dandy-do-happy forest creatures? She was relaxing. Yes. A leisurely stroll through one of the few parks of District Two would be too dangerous right now because of the Careers her grandfather had searching for her, but a nice and easy walk through the wild, confusing woods? Nobody could touch her here. Out of all of her District mates, Arcadia knew these woods the best. She could, in fact she would run through the woods with a smile on her face and laughter streaming out behind her like an invisible banner. [Hell why not?]

Her feet cautiously pressed the ground, making sure the early morning dew was all but gone. Eagerly they started to move faster until Arcadia was full-on running through the woods, leaving only her soft foot-falls and a wake of startled forest-creatures behind her. She ran like the wind, dodging tree-branches that reached out excitedly trying to scratch up her pretty face, and hopped over logs and vines that wanted to twist her feet. It felt good and familiar and fantastic. Suddenly all the little things that had been buzzing around in her mind seemed to become insignificant. Grandfather trying to kill her? No home to call her own? At least she was alive and able to prance through the forests!

Get real.

Arcadia was running, but there was a dull sense of fear and anxiety buried down deep inside of her mind. The sense that a victim got just before their killer jumped out from behind a tree and got them good. Arcadia rolled her eyes and pushed herself harder, forcing her legs to fly faster. "Go on, you might as well step out from behind your tree now and just murder me," she mockingly whispered to the imaginary murderer behind the next tree over. Then she stumbled as a hefty rock found itself being crushed by her foot. Cady didn't fall over and die or anything, she came to a sudden halt, breathless and vibrant. And thats when her murderer stepped out from behind the tree.

Naww. Or well, maybe.

[WT]

(OCC- Apologies. D: This is the second-longest I’ve ever made someone wait and I feel horrible. ;.

"You again?"

Cadia quirked her mouth to one side in displeasure at the tone of the man's voice. It wasn't that it bothered her to upset him; she really couldn't care less about his feelings. However, he sounded angry, and angry people did stupid things like try and hurt her, which usually ended in pain for them and general annoyance for her. He also recognized her for some reason, which was bad on a level far beyond someone attacking her; recognizing her meant she was being noticed, and being noticed meant she might be found, which was very close to the bottom of her list of enjoyable experiences. She eyed the area around her, making sure that the things she had picked out earlier (she always noted possible weapons when she went to a new place) were still there. They were (teacups, butter knifes, forks, a glass panel she could break), and she took note of a few more.

Reassured that she was safe if attacked, she reached into her pocket and displayed her coins, keeping them out of reach of the animal on her shoulder, which chittered at them. "Yes, me again," she informed him cooly, raising her eyebrow at him as he sputtered. "Do you have a problem with paying customers?"

"I have a problem with you!" he near-shouted, waving one arm around in emphasis. "Last time you stole my teapot, and this time you brought a vermin in!"

Ah, so this was that tea shop. Cadia had thought it looked familiar. "I did not steal them," she informed him, leaving out the fact that she would have if there hadn't been several witnesses. There was no need to provoke him; she could take him, but the paperwork and possible punishments involved with killing him would be rather less than worth it. She really didn’t like drawing attention to herself anyway. "I paid, like I’m offering to pay now. As for the vermin," she scoffed with a quick gesture toward the ferret on her shoulder, which was now pawing at her ear and whining about something, "if you can get rid of it, be my guest. I don't bring it places, it follows me. Damn thing showed up at my house last winter and it hasn’t gone away since. I think it likes my heat."

The shopkeeper twitched for a minute, then his second arm began writhing around with the first. A couple of customers sent odd looks toward the back of the store as he raised his voice to a shout. "I want my teapot back!"

That did it. People were starting to look at her en masse now, and she had no way to divert their interest. This was far too much recognition and, quite frankly, far too much aggravation for a cup of tea that she could get elsewhere. With a snarl of "Forget it. I'm out of here," Cadia turned on her heel and stalked back toward the door. On her way past a table, she stopped and glanced behind her, smirking a little. "And by the way," she threw back, "this is stealing."

She picked up a cup that someone was trying to raise to their mouth and carted it outside. No one followed, but that did nothing to improve her mood. In fact, leaving the awning and setting out down the road only sent her attitude downhill, thanks to the weather. There was no logical reason whatsoever for the teenager to hate rain, but she did, she hated it with a burning passion. It erased signs and scents in the forest, it plastered her hair over her eyes, and it was just... wet.

When she was a few yards away, the door slammed open behind her, and the teashop’s owner started yelling again. She didn’t even bother to listen to the words; she just raised the teacup in her hand and threw it at the pavement as hard as she could. It shattered rather impressively, and the man behind her fell silent. She continued walking.

Or at least, she tried to. The ferret was whining at her again and looking down at the pieces of the cup, which were glistening with the wet. "Oh, shut up, you stupid creature," she told it gruffly, but she did reach down to snag it a piece of pottery. She handed it to the ferret, who fumbled with it, then retreated into the hood of her jacket. Seeing as she had been about to pull that hood up, Cadia wasn't entirely pleased with that, but she didn't really want to grab the creature and take it out; she was about as fond of it, in her own way, as she was of anything else. Besides, it had sharp teeth. "Shit in my hood and I'll kill you," she muttered, but otherwise let it be as she wandered down the street.

The weather improved considerably as she walked; the rain didn’t seem to be going anywhere, but her route south was drawing near the border of the clouds. As she reached increasingly drier areas, her mood brightened noticeably if not significantly. By the time she was in the forest, which was quite sunny, she was even smiling a little. Her knife was in her belt, she was walking over dirt and leaves instead of concrete, and there was no one around to recognize her or be annoying. She wasn’t even hungry (she was a bit thirsty, though; she never had gotten her tea). Even with a ferret seemingly asleep in her hood, things were looking up.

The relative silence, previously broken only by the occasional birdsong, was disturbed by a sudden rustling of leaves across the ground.

Her head snapped up. With every nerve set to analyzing the noise, she turned her face toward the source of the crackle. It had only been the tiniest noise, but Cadia had lived in or made her living off of the forest for long enough that she had learned how important that kind of thing could become. A bit of motion out the corner of your eye or an almost silent squeak could make the difference between which part of dinner you were: the diner or the food.

Someone else? she mouthed to herself, then shook her head at the stupidity of the question. Of course it was someone else. Animals didn’t move like that, at least none of the animals she knew of. There was another person in here, and from the sound of them they knew what they were doing. She had only heard that one sound, nothing more- the tiniest flaw in perfection.

For a moment she weighed her chances, wondering whether the other person had sensed or seen her. She decided it was safer to presume she’d been spotted. The ferret has been remarkably quiet, but he was bound to chitter and give them away, probably sooner than later.

“Who’s there?” she said, not bothering to raise her voice. The other person couldn’t be far away; unless they were deaf or exceedingly dumb, they’d hear her. The only question was whether or not they would answer.

[cinder]

So here was a dilemma. Cady had been caught by some teenage girl, by the sounds of it. She rolled her eyes and mentally scoffed at the idea of some punk girl overcoming Arcadia London the Career. Now you might be thinking to yourself that by the looks of her, Cady would seem like some skinny punk girl who was incapable of kicking the butt of a man twice her size, so therefore why the heck should she immediately come to the conclusion that any teenage girls--or boys--she met out here, were no match for her? Well heres an explanation. Cady was far away from District Two, out of the reach of training Careers, but not so far out as to encounter a large number of illegal hunters. It was safe to assume anybody she met around here was passing through or was just exceedingly dumb.

The Career stepped toward the voice, still treading lightly. A part of her was suspicious of this stranger, this stranger who had heard her muffled near-fall and was not afraid to call to her. Some girls were dumb, some were even ditzy but none from the Districts were ignorant. You go out in the woods to do whatever, and you risk loosing your innocence, your independence, or even your life. Strange people lurked out here in the thick, wild, real world. Arcadia now found herself standing about ten to fifteen feet away from a girl roughly her age. There was enough distance between the two of them that Cady wasn't too nervous about the girl killing her unless she had a long range weapon like a throwing dagger or she was an archer. At the same time the Career was close enough to analyze this new threat, and be analyzed herself.

That was what was going on. A hard-looking girl with ruffled blonde hair and blue eyes was staring down another exotic specimen--this one possessing Amber eyes that were set into the olive toned face of an olive toned, golden-blonde haired girl. Both were fascinating to watch, fluid-like even standing still. Both were born killers, ready to strike if need be.

You can imagine the atmosphere. A nervous, twitchy moment of silence. No enchanted-forest animals dared to snap one twig, breath, or even twitch a whisker. The world watched the two stare at each other before Cady found herself speaking. "A Career is here," she announced. The young woman was in no mood to play with her prey. Something about the other girl set her senses on fire, it was incredibly tense, just standing here in the presence of a threat without even moving a muscle in an attempt to eliminate this stranger. What an odd occurrence! As Cady spoke the world sighed in relief, a fight had been anticipated with little rabbits placing bets on how many trees would be crushed or uprooted, how many small animals trampled on, and how much blood the ground would be fed today. Here were two dominants that were born to fight each other.

The very idea that Arcadia London was being civil was a shock to the universe. Ha-ha-ha! 'Guess you can teach an old dog a new trick.

[WT]

((OOC- Fixed the description stuff. Sorry, I was using Ilania's profile because I couldn't find Cady's, and I'm a lazy appearance-reader as it is. Actually, I'm just plain lazy. XD)

In some ways, Cadia hadn’t anticipated a response. Had she been addressed the way she had just called out, she probably would have ignored it- or hidden. She had asked the question as though expecting an answer, but she hadn’t been at all sure she’d get one, and was actually a little stunned when she did.

So when a girl her age stepped into her line of sight, her first instinct was to pull out her knife and throw it. She did pull it out, in fact, when she saw the stranger- a reflex movement, not an attack. (She was used to automatically reaching for a weapon.) She thought about throwing it, of course- how could she not? The range was close, the target was large and clearly marked. She could kill squirrels at this range; there was no way she could miss a teenage human.

But there was every chance that the stranger could dodge. Cadia would put that past most people her age that she met, but not this one. This one knew what she was doing in a forest. This one had predator’s eyes. She would avoid the attack, because she could and only an exceedingly stupid person would ignore something that cost them nothing and gained them a lack of pain. And then she would probably take the blade and use it against owner, who would then be weaponless. Cadia had made do with makeshift weapons in the forest before, but she couldn’t get her hands on a blade quickly. She would be forced to use some kind of staff- or club-type weapon, and she wasn’t so good with those. She wouldn’t be easy prey, but still, without a knife or a dagger or a sword she was much closer to prey than she liked to be.

Half her instincts were screaming at her to throw, but the other half were demanding she stay her hand. She kept the knife in her hand, ready

A part of her, as always, became Lalik and looked for her Cadia. Blonde hair, blue eyes- but no more resemblance than that, because the hair was a bit too light and the features too sharp and the girl herself much too tall. That made things easier; a lack of recognition meant she was open to everything, not just the familiar things.

The stranger was taller than she was- tall even by usual standards, but tall enough to tower over Cadia, giving her the longer reach of the two of them. That blonde hair was long, but not as long as Cadia’s, and it was left loose instead of pulled back into a braid. Her features were unusually sharp, Cadia had noticed that earlier. Or- maybe not sharp, exactly, but something similar. Certainly they were exotic, because they didn’t belong to this District or to Cadia’s own former home. It wasn’t the construction of the face that got to her, though, it was the expression. This was a predator’s stare, not just looking but examining. The stranger might have been skinny, but she wasn’t fragile, not if that gaze was anything to go by. She was doing the same thing as Cadia- taking things in, evaluating the advantages and the disadvantages. Evaluating the danger.

Danger. She had gotten that feeling from the stranger before they had seen each other. The moment she had heard the step she had known no one ordinary was here. She wasn’t quite prepared for this kind of danger, though. She hadn’t seen it in a long time; it wasn’t the up-front hazard of a mine, but a graceful, untamed warning of peril on par with her own. They were so very different to look at, but Cadia wouldn’t bet against this girl in a fight for a second, not even a fight against Cadia herself- even odds weren’t worth the risk of losing money.

The stranger spoke, and Cadia listened, because only a much bigger moron than she would ignore the voice of the first person in years who might spell their doom.

A Career. That explained a lot.

“Really?” she said. A bit of her surprise spilled into her voice, which annoyed her. She didn’t like giving away information about herself, even in the form of little reactions and nuances of pitch like that. What could she do about it, though? Besides, surprise was natural; it wasn’t like a lot of Careers were found in the lower District areas. “Interesting.”

Moments passed slowly, or at least they seemed to. Maybe it was just that she was thinking more quickly than usual, so everything else felt slow by comparison. Or perhaps the pressure surrounding them was pressing on the air and on the metaphorical clock. Could moments like this do that? She didn’t know. That kind of thing wasn’t her realm.

The knife was still in her hand. It hadn’t wavered; despite her the internal war of intuition and instincts, there was no indecision or fear in the way she held it, only quiet patience. If you could say one positive thing about Cadia, it was that she could wait. Life in the forest had taught her that, too- waiting wasn’t always fun or comfortable, but it was important. It certainly wasn’t comfortable right now, given the tension in the air and the blood churning inside her (it wanted to fight, it wanted to spill and maybe even be spilled). She needed patience, though. There could be no assumptions here, no impulses.

Maybe, while she was waiting, she could make the stranger pay back a bit of that surprise she had shown earlier. She wasn’t sure how to go about it, but she figured she could say something surprising, and either it would work or it would fail. Failure might not be bad, though- it would tell her that this stranger was not easily taken aback. (Then again, didn’t she already know that? No one lasted long in this place if they were so easily startled.) At least, she hoped that was how things worked. These sorts of word-mind games would never interest her under ordinary circumstances, so she had never used words enough to learn how to use them effectively. As threats, as provocations, as simple statements of information? Yes. As subtle weapons or quite revenge? No.

Honestly, the idea of playing with words didn’t interest her any more now than it usually did. But she had to do something, and if she was unwilling to risk starting a fight that could kill them both, what else was there to do? (Unwilling yet, anyway. Perhaps sooner or later, given time or a reason, she would change her mind.) She thingyed her head to one side and thought for a breath about what to say, then gave herself the mental equivalent of a shrug and tossed her words to the leaves. Maybe they would flutter; if they fell, the fall would at least be soft.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of my ilk,” she murmured, keeping her tone deliberately casual. “Which District? My own One, perchance?”

The ferret stayed miraculously quiet. She wasn’t sure if it was asleep or if it sensed the presence of a killer, but she didn’t care, either. She just didn’t want it in the way. This might be the most important moment she’d lived through in two years, and she needed to pay attention to ensure that she kept living through it.

[cinder]

Cady edged along the perimeter of the mental circle she had drawn around this stranger. A bloody Career! Just like her. How nice! The world was just throwing danger and all sorts of goodygoody fun at Arcadia these days, ever since she had been kept from her destiny, her fate as the next winner of the Hunger Games. Anyways, now that Arcadia looked at the girl she saw it was just as much a fact as the statement, 'the Hunger Games are cruel.' They looked alike. No, my silly, childish friend tall, lean Arcadia of the blue eyes and honey-colored hair did not see many physical resemblances between her and this District One runaway. The physical resemblances stopped at muscular and thin. What it was was the predatory glint in this girls eyes, the way she held her knife half-coc-ked (wont let me spell the word) and ready to be hurled through the air at Arcadia. Cady squeezed her own raised knife, assuring herself she was armed and ready in case things got ugly.

Did she assume things were going to get ugly? Arcadia always assumed the worst, ever since she found that the world was naturally a bad place and that good people had to fight to stay good. Ever since her Father had first ordered her to kill that one man, that time she had almost been raped, and the other instance when she had wisely climbed a tree upon realizing there was a pack of training Careers in her woods. Training Careers who were seeking out a criminal, a man who faced the death sentence, but had been given to a training center on the down low. An exciting present for all those blood-lusting Careers who were just itching to try out this new killing technique on a man who would have been dead by sunrise anyways. She still heard his screams occasionally, they haunted her dreams of winning the Hunger Games. Cady heard those awful cries of pain coming from the mouths of faceless, nameless Tributes that lived in her sleeping thoughts.

So really, did she imagine having to use her knife today? Was she anticipating throwing it at this nameless girl and praying to whatever god would listen (for she highly doubted the good god that people back home sometimes talked about would ever listen to a natural killer, a complete sinner) that it would be a death-blow? She couldn't even rely on those talked about higher-up powers because Cady wasn't sure how good a person this girl was. If she had proof that this here Career was bad, worse than even she, then Arcadia would pray for the divine power to take down the greater of the two evils present, but who knows, this girl could be a nice murderer, or possibly potential murderer if her training hadn't been as thorough as Arcadia's Fatherly training had been.

She half-smiled, her eyes purposefully blank in a disturbingly shark-like fashion. It was a horrifying her nostrils flared up as though she were a hunting dog catching a scent [yes she managed to do so without looking u utterly ridiculous, or so she thought] her pink lips pulled tightly back in what barely passed for a small smile and eyes void of any sparkling inner-lights. "I am from a District of fools and goons who fight for absolutely nothing and find that pleasure and violence go hand in hand," there was a small pause, Cady bar kingly laughed at her previous statement before continuing the frightening expression off her face as she shifted into a more 'friendly' mode, "I suppose that doesn't really help, does it? There are quite a few Districts that meet that general description. District Two, Cady London."

Arcadia stopped walking her circle. She was afraid her fellow Career was going to snap if Cady kept on at it. The whole circling bit was supposed to be intimidating, but really it wouldn't work on another tough one, like this girl. Arcadia still held her knife at ready though, and she tried to take in her scenery, noticing which trees she could dive behind or try to climb. Cady was hoping she wouldn't have to fight today, but the tense atmosphere was getting to her, making the usually emotionless girl twitchy and nervous.

There was a storm coming, she could see it, just barely but it was there looming like an angry parent over a disobedient child. If you make one more mistake, there will be hell to pay for it. Could you imagine it now? The world was upset with Cady, she was too violent and dangerous for its taste, she was not obeying the moral laws that seemed to bind so many of Panem, excluding only the most fearsome of Careers and the regular twenty four Tributes each year (and President Snow of course.) Maybe it would blow over and her and this stranger could laugh it off one day, talk about they first day they met. But that was an idealists point of view, Arcadia London had been raised a realist and she highly doubted the world had enough good feelings for her to let the killer queen escape unscathed today.


ooc- heres a pic of her if you need to describe c:

[WT]

((OOC- Uhg. Failure of epic proportions.))

Most people were predictable. Threaten them enough, or act powerful enough, and they would yield to you. Careers were different, though; it was part of their upbringing, to the point where it became a part of their selves. If you acted the way your opponent expected you to- wanted you to- then you died before you had the chance to fight.

So Cadia refused to be intimidated by the circling act her fellow Career was putting on; she just turned slowly so that she was always facing her counterpart (opponent?) and otherwise didn’t react at all. And she also refused to find the stranger’s expression frightening or disturbing- or, really, anything other than slightly bizarre. (What was the girl trying to do?) Unfortunately, it worked two ways; she couldn’t exactly anticipate the other’s reactions. Luckily, the stranger spoke, which gave her something to respond to instead of trying to figure out what to do next.

“Quite a few? I’d say all of them,” Cadia said with a slight, scornful laugh. “That’s what they get from being made up of humans, I guess.” Cynical, perhaps, that line- but then again, Panem made most of its residents cynics. Or maybe it just made them realists; in a world when children were chosen to fight to the death for other people’s amusement, that was a very fine line. In any case, the optimists and innocents were the ones who died first, and Cadia had no interest in her own death.

She lowered her weapon. Not far, of course, because she didn’t trust this girl enough to lower her guard completely. Once her knife was out for some reason, it was out and ready for action until she decided she was totally safe, and that took a long time. But she did move it so that it was pointed at the ground instead of at Arcadia.

Arcadia. She liked having a name for this girl, for the same reason she hated giving out her own name. It gave her a measure of control. Not a lot, of course, but still, at least she knew that if this girl pissed her off too much (or, far worse, learned too much about her) Cadia had some method of tracking her down.

“Cadia, formerly of District One.” For a split second she considered holding out her hand, but then she disregarded that idea as stupid. Offer her limb to someone who could cut it off? Fat chance. She left her free hand by her side and settled for a slightest dip of her head instead. “Before you ask, I tossed my last name years ago.” She almost mentioned that surnames were too easy to trace, but stopped just short of saying the words. She didn’t want to admit that she was afraid of being traced at all; that could lead to uncomfortable questions, questions about things in her past that she didn’t want to answer. This stranger might be from District Two, not One, but she may have heard something.

That led them- or at least Cadia- into another standstill. She didn’t have the faintest idea what to do now. She almost never got this far in her day-to-day conversations; normally she would have threatened the other person a long time ago and she wouldn’t be talking to them anymore. Maybe she should just wait for Arcadia (she suddenly realized the similarity of their names and almost cracked up, but repressed it) to say something. That was how conversations worked, right?

She was a plan-oriented girl, fond of patterns and knowing what to do. Sure, she often threw those plans away if she judged them no long useful, but she always at least had that base. Now, though, she had no idea what to do; she had already determined that she couldn’t predict this girl, so that cut out a lot of options. About all she could do was survey the area, and she had been doing that all along- she made a habit of always looking for weapons and escape routes, even if the need for them wasn’t immediately obvious.

The ferret stirred in her hood and squeaked, and she gritted her teeth in annoyance. For a moment it was hard to resist reaching behind her and stabbing the thing, but she kept her hand in check, and the impulse passed. “Damn ferret won’t stop whining,” she told the other Career with a grimace, hoping the comment would serve as a distraction. She didn’t like this atmosphere one bit, and whatever she could do to dispel it- even small talk, which she normally hated- was worth a shot.

[cinder]

Cadys new face claim =^.^= one of three.

Cady was through. If this girl, Cadia, wanted her dead or even just a fight she would have made her move already. Now that Arcadia was fairly certain the other girl had been, or still was a Career, she could get into her head oh-so easily. Now if only she hadn't told the girl where she was from. Being a Career, Cadia could easily to the same exact thing to Arcadia. Why had she uttered that clever-to-the-max phrase again? A Career is here. It was a dumb move Cady-Bird had made before she had realized her new acquaintance was just as tough.

Arcadia abandoned that meaningless thought-train was all too easy as Cadia began to talk about a ferret (anyways, she had been confusing herself with talk of two Careers name Arcadia and Cadia. Arcadia would have to come up with a mental nick-name for the blade-wielding, District-One citizen in order to avoid such confusion) Indeed there was a ferret with the girl, a slimy, little creature that put Arcadia on edge. Yeah, the little excuse fora companion was going to do what to her? Climb up Arcadia's leg and claw her to death? Focus. You need to control the situation, stop the crazy-thoughts, Cady.

"Do ferrets make good companions?" Cady asked to pass the time. She sheathed her knife while saying so, trying to provide a distraction from the gesture of temporary-peace. "I've always wanted to train a bird, but have never had the guts to tame a creature thats meant to fly far and wide. Binding it to me seems... ruthless." Cady watched Cadia, carefully. Closely. Her eyes sparkled with the very sentiment of refusing to train a bird not to fly away from her, but behind that there was bloodlust and the edge of a wild woman. Fear, adrenaline, excitement. If Cadia so much as twitched that lowered weapon of hers, Arcadia London knew the Career would bubble up to the surface and her eyes would reflect only her own sheer delight at the prospect of flitting around the forest, fighting a fight to the death with a girl who looked like she could handle herself.

The opportunity was a rare one, to fight another girl Career that measured up to Arcadia London standards. Sadly, at the age of seventeen most girls weren't nearly as strong as the Career guys with bulging muscles and stony faces that reflected no emotion. Cady had met her match in a man a few times, fighters equally equipped to handle the Hunger Games, but females were smaller and sometimes the advantage of being built more for speed instead of strength isn't enough. Cady's largeness had been praised by many 'a trainers as her saving grace. Imagine it, they would comment, a girl with looks, strength, speed, and a flawless act! How lucky that family is. Ha! As if they didn't suspect what had truly happened for such a lucky event as a girl like her to be born into a training family. Like they didn't know Cady's family had a history of mad scientists and men who stared at charts, proclaiming which person would be a perfect match for their latest child. The London family was a fearsome one. They bred their winners, Cady was the most advanced female subject yet. Her parents had been selected as a match in order to produce a near-perfect child.

Here was a true 'lucky' girl. Cadia looked to be just as fierce as Arcadia, and Miss London was dying to fight her. To improve her skills of course. A little hand-to-hand against a natural Career. Strength, intelligence and all. What morbid thoughts you have, Arcadia.

ooc- FAILURE. I just wanted to change the atmosphere a bit. A fight would be pointless, lets see, what can we do to really bring back the FWAH! in this thread...

[WT]

The ferret, hearing someone else's voice for the first time since it had awoken, perked up. It squeaked a few more times and scuttled up onto Cadia's head; the girl scowled and batted at it, but it made haste and jumped down to her shoulder to get away from her hands, which it had already learned once could be painful. She sighed and let it sit there, where it nestled into the warm curve of her neck and observed the new person happily.

"I'm not too sure what a good companion is like," Cadia said honestly. She eyed the other girl askance, a little curious as to why she cared about ferrets. Cadia herself didn't really see the point in caring about them much, and she apparently had one- not by choice, but nonetheless, she was stuck with it. Talking about the pest was better than fighting, though, so she went with it. "This one is more of a stalker than a pet, anyway. I suppose so, though. It likes to hide my things and it kind of stinks, but it doesn't leave droppings all over my house and it doesn't try to eat me. Doesn't eat much at all, really- I can feed it off hunting scraps, and it seems happy." Hopefully Arcadia wouldn't mind the use of the pronoun "it" in reference to the ferret; one person had scolded her for 'being derogatory,' but she wasn't in the mood to put up with that. She didn't know how one figured out the sex of a ferret, and she wasn't all too interested in finding out. If the thing wanted to follow her around, it could put up with slightly disparaging pronouns.

Her question was answered a moment later- apparently the other Career had a certain interest in pets in general. Cadia noted this, but most of her attention went to Arcadia sheathing her knife. Why was she doing that? Had she decided that Cadia wasn't a threat, or did she just not want to fight? Looking at her counterpart's face, she guessed the latter. Interesting- not bad, mind you, because Cadia wasn't keen on getting sliced up, but still interesting. She put her own knife away in unspoken agreement, and hoped that it wouldn't later prove a bad decision. She wasn't used to trusting others enough to put up her weapon this soon after meeting them, but if another capable fighter was giving her that gesture, it was the least she could do to return it.

She went back to talking, lest the air grow stale and awkward again. "Listen to you," she said, a light laugh in her voice. Not a provoking laugh, either- just a plain old laugh, the kind people made when they were actually amused by something. It and the smile that went along with it did good things to her countenance; for a moment she looked personable, even perhaps pretty, rather than just angry and cold. "A seasoned Career, talking about how it’s wrong to be ruthless." The smile faded, and a faraway look made its way into her eyes. "I know what you mean, though. It's not fun to be caged, and I wouldn't want to do that to something that belongs to the skies."

She tried to be angry at herself for choosing now of all times to go all sentimental, but couldn't quite manage it. There was more than one way to be caged, and she had known some of them. The Capitol keeping the District citizens locked in one place, her parents' refusal to allow her relationship, her constant flight from the Peacekeepers she was sure were after her- even the Career lifestyle itself, the one she and this other girl had belonged to since their birth, all of these were forms of being caged.

There was a crack somewhere several feet away. For a moment Cadia let herself ignore it, but then she realized that it hadn’t just been Arcadia shifting- it had come from another direction.

She mouthed a vehement curse (though she kept carefully silent) and grimaced. It could have been an animal, but it didn’t sound like it- the sound had been remarkably similar to the one that had signified Arcadia’s arrival. She took a deep breath and hesitated, wondering if Arcadia would throw a knife in her back if she turned around. On the one hand, she was a Career- but on the other hand, she was a Career. Within a split second Cadia decided she had no choice, and she fought one set of instincts down in order to follow another, turning and raising her knife in the direction of the noise. She didn’t call out this time (she had learned her lesson), but just waited. That was most of what hunting was, after all, on the part of both predator and prey. Waiting.

She just hoped she was the predator, because no way in hell would Cadia settle to be prey.

[cinder]

The crunch was not missed by either of the two girls. The Peacekeeper had to know this. Obviously, he or she had been listening to the private thoughts of Arcadia and Cadia for some time now, enough time to gather that if he were to take both of them down without trouble, he would need to be stealthy and quick. Cady instantly knew that she needed to be faster, and ruthless. She smiled prettily at Cadia, not daring to break the silence as her trained ears listened for another crack, the sound of exhaled air, or even the whirring of the Peacekeepers mind as it tried to desperately come up with a way to defeat two armed, lethal, Career-type girls.

It would be hard for a Peacekeeper, for even the specially trained ones were just that. Trained. They grew up peacefully before starting their training as adults, or so the story goes. Careers were raised on bloodshed, fear, hunger, and rage. Arcadia was not a dreamer, not a runaway. She was a criminal mastermind on the run from her Father. Not a rebel. She--she loved the Games, she could not let herself die by the hands of the people she grudgingly respected and loathed all at once.

Cady tensed and her fingers cramped up, a sure sign they'd rather be wrapped around her familiar knife, than kept still at her side. The second noise--come to think about it, Cady did not remember what triggered the sudden flurry of movement and adrenaline, perhaps the sound of a twig snapping?--alerted the two girls to the sure presence of a third party. Out sprang Arcadia London's weapon, out sprang the camouflaged Special Peacekeeper like a creepy clown from a musical box. Oh god, no. She immediately moved to the side, using a large tree to hide behind. Things were not looking too good for Cady. She was pretty far from home, young, and pretty. Possibly in the woods near District Two, the girl could have talked herself out of being turned into an Avox or killed, but here? The Peacekeepers seemed to be used to young runaways, Arcadia would have hated to be a normal, teenage girl in this situation.

With that thought, Cady found her eyes searching the woods for the other not-so-normal, teenage girl who had been caught in this situation as well. Two Careers--they could take on the trained Peacekeeper who did not seem to be armed with a gun. (probably too loud, better not to draw so much attention to a fight lest more runaways rush to save their friends) Her eyes silently communicated the message while Cady gestured wildly.

Her right index finger pointed to her heart while her left pointed to Cadia's heart. She then swung both hands around until they faced the Peacekeeper. Wild pointing and miming of strangling followed. Honestly, Arcadia was rather proud of her silent communication skills, she would be great at charades come to think about it. There was a grunt, male-sounding, frustrated, as the disgruntled Peacekeeper started to pad toward Arcadia. He was no longer trying to silently attack the two girls, there was the clicking, metallic sound of weapons being prepared for battle as the man neared them. Cady guessed he was about twenty feet away, and was impressed by Cadia's hearing and observation skills. The Career had picked out one snapping twig out of many.

Props to her, now lets see if the girl can walk as well as she talks. That knife can't be for nothing, Cady thought. If Cadia was a bad fighter, even messed up once, things might get messy for Arcadia London as well as Cadia No Last Name. That was an undesirable outcome. She narrowed her eyes at the exotic, ferret-owning forester. Something about her stance, the way she held her weapon and the glint in her eye made Arcadia think she was a reluctant fighter, but one who could dominate. It would be rather interesting to see which girl could hold her own better than the other.

District Two training against District One training--which would win? Both were fearsome places to hail from, but had there ever been a fight between citizens of both places, besides in the Arena. Cady did not know of any fights. Then again, if both girls were captured, nobody would learn of their almost fight. Cady darted across the way, bringing herself closer to her temporary Allie, and banishing the philosophical, odd thoughts running ramped through her delicate mind.

Crunch, crunch, crunch. The Peacekeeper drew closer at his same steady speed, Cady could almost feel his excitement for here was a challenge worthy of the years he had spent training in the Capitol. Arcadia knew this, for at the same exact time she was thinking, here was a challenge worthy of the years she had spent training in District Two. Yes sirry, Cady is one messed up gal, this is indeed a fact.

ooc- I just don't know, I haven't had muse for Arcadia for a few days, not in any of her two threads XD So confused, this never happens to my fair gal

[WT]

Cadia couldn’t help but wonder, as she nodded and made half-circle motions with her hands (we won’t get close like this, one of us has to go around), if it was strange that she wasn’t afraid.

Then again, it was very rare for Cadia to experience fear. That was an emotion that had no place in a Career’s mind, and her parents had methodically trained it out of her at a young age. If, of course, you could call making a child’s life hell ‘training’ – if you could pass off systematic beating and starvation as being for the child’s own good. Sometimes she wondered- but then, that had been District One, and as far as she had ever been able to figure out, that was the norm.

Now paranoia, sure. That was another present from her parents, although they hadn’t meant for that one to carry into what it had become; the people who were hired for surprise attacks were supposed to teach her to watch her back and keep her instincts about her, not to spend every millisecond obsessing over already-assured safety. She had to thank them- had that obsession, that constant lookout, not just saved her twice in one day? Safety was never assured.

So though Cadia wasn’t afraid, the adrenaline pouring into her veins had a dual effect. For one, she found herself strangely exhilarated. It had been two years since she’d truly fought anyone, and she had never gone up against a Peacekeeper. It had always seemed like suicide, which had been the reasoning behind her flight to District Eleven- there had been no way to face her attackers, so she had run. With two Careers, though, it was certainly possible. And on top of that, this was a sort of competition. She had never met a District Two before- she’d stayed out of the Districts as she went through the forests, afraid of being found more easily there- and was curious to see how they differed. Of course, neither of them was likely to be totally indicative of their Districts’ fighting styles, and each person was a little different anyway, but still, it would be interesting.

The other effect was that her senses were on full alert, and she heard the second Peacekeeper before he appeared. This one was younger and a little more hesitant, so he was probably more newly trained- but none of that matter. What mattered was that the first glanced toward him for the briefest of moments, and Cadia took advantage of that moment to slide to one side, hopefully beginning the track that would take her around the two men so she could knife one and wedge the other between herself and Arcadia.

She never made it, thanks to the newer Peacekeeper. Rather than stare at them and advance silently, like the other, he paused and looked directly at Cadia, and she could swear a glimmer of recognition appeared in his eyes. She paused, less out of confusion than morbid curiosity. After a moment the recognition solidified into recall, and he coughed to alert his partner. “Go for that one,” he said in a half-hushed voice, nodding to his right- to Cadia. She narrowed her eyes and raised her knife; the younger man pulled up the crossbow in return, but didn’t do anything with it. Yet. “Don’t know her name, but her parents-”

She was stunned for a moment into utter and complete immobility. Luck must have smiled on her, because the two opponents were too focused on the younger one’s explanation to do anything. Had they been a little more focused on her work, that would have been the perfect time to kill her. She realized it, too- the thought shoved her back into her senses, allowing her to duck and avoid the bolt that hadn’t come toward her but should have.

“-have a bounty on her that-”

Cadia made sure he never finished the sentence. Fortunately, he was still a tad bit too focused on his words and never had time to duck; unfortunately, she was a bit out of practice and hit his forehead rather than his eye. Her face was already too twisted by anger to display any extra rage, but she cursed at herself mentally- what was she doing, missing by that much? Good thing she had aimed for the head and not the heart if that shit was going to happen. The result was the same, though, and she didn’t bother to represse a triumphant snarl as the younger Peacekeeper fell to the ground, not thirty seconds after he’d emerged from the trees.

“What was that he said?” she growled, no longer bothering with silence as she padded ever-so-slightly closer to the remaining Peacekeeper. He hadn’t even given his fallen counterpart a glance; she wasn’t surprised, of course, but she was rather frustrated that he hadn’t given her an opening. There was no way she could approach him unarmed, not when she didn’t know what kind of weapons he was hiding. She could always pelt him with rocks, but that was so... undignified. What was the point of training with weapons from a ridiculously early age if you were just going to pick up a rock and throw it?

Then again, what was the point of training to kill from a ridiculously age if you weren’t going to use everything available to you? She reached down, never taking her eyes off him, and tried to pick up a decent-sized rock. Her hands found something better- a branch. She stood and weighed it carefully in her hands; it was (of course) unbalanced, but useable. Not that she wanted to go charging toward him with it, mind you (if it was a blade she held in her hands than she would, but she wasn’t quite so good with blunt weapons), but if he came forward she could retaliate.

She wondered where Arcadia was. Moving in, hopefully. She didn’t dare take her eyes off this man; doing so would be fatal. She did keep her ears trained for another noise, but nothing came to her. Not the remaining man’s words (she wondered if he even could speak), not more footsteps, not anything but her own near-silent breathing.

((OOC- Don't ask. I have no idea. xD))

[cinder]

Cady didn't catch much of what was being said. Frankly she did not give a flying rat what the Peacekeepers had to say. Usually it started with You are breaking the law, and ended with Now I shall kill you. Those were phrases she had picked up from past encounters with the law. Boring, right? Cady was of the opinion that if Peacekeepers made small-talk and joked around with their prey, they would drastically increase the length of their life. Harmless banter, people, it does indeed save lives!

So as per usual Arcadia was focusing on the task at hand. Sneaking up behind Target #2 and finishing him off. Knocking the guy out would not do, he had seen her face, probably memorized her every feature (not to sound like a paranoid psycho or anything) Of course halfway through her surprise attack Cady happened to hear one interesting word that left her standing absolutely still at attention. Bounty. She considered fleeing, so sure was Miss London that the Peacekeeper was referring to her, that the fleeting glimpse of her he may have had was enough for the man to put the face to the well-known name. Arcadia London, of the Career-Training, District Two family. Father must have tipped off somebody, bribed a few official-types and gotten her put down under the Dangerous Criminal list!

Her heart sped up and her internal instinct to flee when things heat up left her at a cross-road. Fight and make a possible new allie or flee, leaving a ticked-off Career girl who knew what she looked like in Peacekeeper custody. It really was a no-bra--

Oh! Cadia silenced the speaker and she recalled just how unusual it was for the two of them to be meeting like this. Two Careers meeting way, way out in the lower District woods? Cadia had to have run away from home, just like Arcadia herself had! The bounty was on the other girl. Whoosh! Close-call there--for a second Cady had thought Father cared enough about having her dead to have paid people off. Haha! It was laughable, Father was a cheap, old man who wouldn't have offered anybody even a cent to do away with her, when he could get the deed done simply because of how important he was.

Cady was like a marble statue come to life. Her perfectly still body was a rush of movement as she came up behind Target #2 and got her blade around his neck. She yanked back and to the side, then stuck her red blade between the mans shoulder blades for good measure. Cady put one hand on his back and tugged her weapon out of its temporary sheath. She licked her lips and looked around, startled by her surroundings. It was her most popular response to the outside world after Arcadia had gone into such a focused mode. Her whole being had been paying attention to one thing and one thing only: killing him. Now her eyes were drinking in a changed world. Since when had Cadia been standing there? She had been somewhere else, Cady was sure of it.

The last question the confused girl asked aloud in a thoughtful, slightly incredulous tone. "Since when did you have that rock in your hand, Cadia?" It was as good a question as any, and as she spoke her soft words, she looked around the forest, prepared for a surprise attack. Always expect the unexpSquick! Startled, the District Two-ean foudn her eyes settling on a furry, brown thing next to Cadia. She grinned like a child upon finding Cadia's slightly ruffled, but unharmed companion to have made a sudden appearance. The chitter-chattering creature looked peeved by the dead bodies on the ground which only furthered Arcadia's amusement.

She supposed the ferret did not belong with a girl who just happened to have a bounty on her head. That would cause Cadia and her little friend to constantly have to run and hide to escape notice, and when Peacekeepers did catch up with the former Career standing before her, Arcadia was sure things got violent. So yeah, it was funny to her that the ferret appeared to be squeamish as of now. Speaking of bounty, why did she have Peacekeepers searching for her? Criminal mastermind? Spoiled brat who ran away? Arcadia looked at Cadia with brand, new eyes. Her mind was already working on some sort of deal. I help you with your little bounty-problem if you help me with mine. Two killers are better than one, after all. Together, they could take out their enemies and earn a fortune in the process...

[WT]

The second Peacekeeper must have been either an avox or they type of person was tried to be no-nonsense and ended up looking and acting like had they had several swords stuck up their less flattering orifices. Cadia snarled in frustration and hefted the rock to throw, wondering if he would talk if she broke both his kneecaps and chopped off his fingers. She wanted to know what was going on here, and he was her best chance at information.

A glint of steel appeared, and Cadia smirked as she recognized Arcadia in the shadows, holding the other end of the sword that was now slicing through the Peacekeeper's The second man fell without a chance to make any sound, be it protest or threat or information about Cadia's parents. The smaller of the two Careers present frowned, unsure how she felt about that. On the one hand, she was really pissed that he hadn't said anything, but on the other, she was glad he'd gotten what he was asking for. She decided on maliciously glad, because she could always get information later, and elsewhere; even if she didn't now want to go up there and kill her parents properly (which she very much did), she'd have to go on the move again now, knowing that she was being looked for.

Arcadia spoke, and she snorted a little as she lower the rock-holding hand. "Since I picked it up," she said with a shrug. She dropped it, tossing it slightly to the side so it wouldn't land on her foot. A slight smile played across her face as she added, "Since when is that man lying on the ground with his throat slit, Arcadia?" She had to admit, she was impressed. Maybe it had simply been a while since she'd been around Careers, but she was pretty sure that her counterpart had moved with terrifying speed even for one who had been trained. The girl was a natural killer.

She stepped forward until she was standing over the first Peacekeeper to die, the one who had spoken. There was no way she was leaving her knife lodged in his head, so she leaned down and pulled. It had lodged itself almost to the hilt near the right eye, and resisted; she anchoring herself with one foot on his nose and tried again, and it came out cleanly this time. Well, cleanly unless you counted blood and what was probably brain glistening on the end. Cadia frowned and wiped the blade clean on the shoulder of the dead man's uniform, then sheathed it.

A familiar noise penetrated the now-quiet forest. Cadia's face flickered between smiling and scowling as she glanced down to find the ferret peering at the body and chittering away. She had forgotten about it in the course of the fight (if you could call it a fight- more like a slaughter, really), and while she was glad to see it was unharmed, she was kind of annoyed to hear it. Honestly, didn't the thing ever shut up?

"You've seen dead things before," she told the ferret. Why was it acting so odd? The thing ate entrails from her kills, for goodness' sakes. Humans weren't any different from any of the other animals she'd killed. It squeaked again and backed away from the body, then clambered up her leg and clawed its way onto her shoulder. She grimaced. "Stupid ferret. Here-" she knelt, pulled out her knife, and pushed the Peacekeeper's shirt up so his stomach was exposed, working around the weapons so she could slice his stomach open and pull out a bit of intestine, which she held up to the ferret. It lashed its tail around as it sniffed and then devoured the innards. "See? No difference."

She wiped her knife (and her hand, this time) on the man's clothing again and stood to face Arcadia. The other girl was looking at her funny, with the sort of gaze that was usually given while reevaluating someone. With anyone else Cadia would suspect that the expression had something to do with the ferret or her intestine-pulling, but Careers tended to not get freaked out by a little bit of gore, and the District Two girl had already seen, acknowledged, and expressed amusement at the ferret. No, Arcadia was thinking about something- but what?

"What's that look for?" she asked, tilting her head to one side. Her hands shifted restlessly, one sheathing and then unsheathing the knife while the other just lay still. She was dying to get out of here- to go home, get a couple things together, and then head off. She may as well wait, though. This Arcadia girl- this entire business, in fact- was most interesting.

[cinder]

Arcadia was still unsure about her latest plan. Well, it was not really a plot as of yet, more of the idea that starts to take form and grow slowly as the day progressed, until finally a little light-bulb pings! in ones head, and it is a full-fledged idea. So, she was just thinking right now, it showed on her face.

Cadia noticed the expression, what an observant girl she was, and began to eye Arcadia suspiciously. That was rather funny to Cady in a sadistic, witty way, of course. A girl crouching over a dead body, feeding entrails to a ferret was giving her a funny look. Only in the life and times of Arcadia London did this pass as mildly hilarious opposed to extremely disturbing. Cady looked back at Cadia, smoothing her face out. Really, Cadia of District One seemed to be able to pick up on emotions and opinions Arcadia wasn't even aware she was showing on her face. It was a useful trick or instinct or whatever. Was that how they personality-trained the charming District One Careers? Help them learn how to react to any situation in the right way by reading other peoples feelings? She had so many questions for Cadia, but it was not the time for useless remarks on the finer points of District Ones training systems.

"Just wondering if it tastes good," she told the girl before turning her eyes toward the ferret as though she were actually enjoying, or at least interested in the small rodents (ferrets were rodents, right?) eating habits. A thoughtful expression blossomed on her face as she continued to stare at roughly the space said ferret was occupying at this moment in time.
"Cadia, I've got a little problem. There are a few relatives I need to get rid of in order to go home, somehow I think they're still angry at me for helping to kill my Fath--trainer. I really want to go home, but I need some help. Bounty, y'know?" (ignore any references to Father being alive in past posts, he's dead now XD)

The words slipped easily from her mouth, Cady was almost shocked by how easily she had formulated a speech in such a short amount of time. Usually Cady was more of an action-type girl. She used her fists to fight and get what she wanted, not her careful speeches with hidden meanings. Oh, I could tear up! I'm finally a normal, teenage girl...

"Perhaps you could use some help too."

ooc- gahhhh, WT do you mind if we just skip to the next part of our plan. Its difficult for me to roleplay Arcadia in this thread. Shes changed a lot since the first post a few months ago. Maybe we should do an updated thread in District One? Like we could just make a note that Arcadia and Cadia decided to team up :3

[WT]

((OOC- One last post because for once in the girl's life Cadia actually wanted to post. WTF. Szet, unfortunately, did not agree, so the result was a bit less than satisfactory, but whatever. I can't get over the fact that she actually wanted to post, that is so weird for her.

Anyways. Yeah. So. Whatever. Here, and then onward. Yay!))


"If it... tastes good?" Cadia raised an eyebrow at her opponent-turned-ally-turned-unknown-possible-future-ally, not even bothering to disguise her skepticism. She would bet even money that the other girl was perfectly aware of the taste of at least one animal's entrails, and once you had that down you pretty much knew what they all tasted like. Arcadia was certainly odd enough for such a question, but she looked far too familiar with the pieces Cadia had pulled out.

Not that Arcadia seemed all too quick to elaborate. She was watching the ferret, which was glancing back and forth between the two girls curiously as it licked the remainder of the dead man's blood from its muzzle and paw. So fastidious, the silly thing- you could barely even see the red against the dark brown paw.

That wasn't really the point here, though, only a distraction, so Cadia turned her gaze back to the girl who was no longer a stranger and tried to remember how you formulated questions about things that people didn't want you to know without offending them in the process. She barely even understood what she was trying to do, though, let alone the nuances of speech that would allow her to accomplish it, so she was somewhat grateful to Arcadia when the other girl piped up. Nice of her to save Cadia the trouble of trying to stretch her mind any further.

It was even nicer of her, for that matter, to give Cadia something more interesting for her mind to stew over. Another parent-killer, hmm? Well, technically the only parent-killer present, if Cadia's own gene-bestowers were in fact alive enough to be setting bounties on her. The very thought made her blood roil. Those two had given her fourteen years of beatings, taunting, starvation, hired attacks, forced training, being kept away from others, getting fed her parents' dreams to replace her own, and being deliberately kept awake so she couldn't fight at full strength; those fourteen years had long since undone whatever debt she may or may not have owed them for creating her and showing her what probably passed as love in the moments between training. Killing the only person who mattered to her- the only friend, she realized upon looking back, that she had been allowed to have- had turned the debt around, made them owe her. She had killed them for a reason (and a damn good reason if you asked her), and it did not please her one bit that they had managed to escape their deaths. That needed fixing, and quickly- and this time, there was no chance that Kharlana and Rashior Alençoão would still be talking once she was through with them. She wasn't leaving her dirty work to poison this time; she was going to make sure their blood ran over her hands.

But first, she would need help. Two years changed a District, and people on guard were a lot harder to get to than a couple of people who felt safe with their oh-so-loving daughter. And that, it seemed, was what this Arcadia London was offering- a gruesome kind of quid pro quo deal, help me kill mine and I'll help you kill yours.

Cadia had never been one for senseless violence; sure, she had a history of pointing weapons at people who made her mad, but she never just went over and hacked them up. She always gave them a chance to apologize or fight back, whichever pleased them (or run away, if they happened to be pansies). The idea of going on a relative-killing spree was unfamiliar, at the very least- but it didn't bother her as much as she thought it probably should.

What were a few lives, anyway, if they stood between her and the people who called themselves her parents?

A small smile, part happiness and part ferocity, split Cadia's face as she gathered the ferret's slinky little body into her arms.

"We'll talk."

[End thread, because you can figure it out from here.]