NIGHT ONE

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

Four cannon shots go off in the distance, each for the four of the fallen tributes so far. A telescreen-like hologram is lit up in the sky across the arena energy border for the tributes lost today. Gardevoir from District 10, Glitchtrap from District 8, Makoto Naegi from District 1, and Raven from District 5. Their names and faces were brought on screen for the rest of the tributes to see. Everyone now knows that four tributes were already dead, and there were twenty left. One sixth of the competition is gone now. 

When Damien looks up to the sky, he sees Raven's death announcement. What?! No...no, it can’t be! She can’t be dead! (According to the newer animated DC films, Damien and Raven gained a closer relationship with one another). “NOOOOOO!”, Damien cried out at the top of his lungs in the night, both angered and saddened by the death of his crush. His screams echo through the night for a few other tributes to hear. “I swear, I will kill that pink bitch with my own bare hands!”, he screamed, grabbing his trident and alerting Carlton. “I’m going after Mina in the morning. Let’s take turns keeping watch while the other sleeps, okay?” 

Carlton agrees with Damien and starts off with the trident, looking out for anyone else around. Around thirty minutes later, Carlton spotted a tribute moving through the trees, getting nearer to him. “Stop! If you’re friendly, come out of the trees, slowly,” Carlton warned. Out of the dark forest came a female-looking tribute, with black hair and long bangs. 

“I’m just looking for shelter tonight, I swear,” the tribute said. “I’m Aphmau. District 3. Look, I mean you no harm, kid. I’m just passing through. Do you have any shelter or anything?” She could tell that Carlton didn’t want to attack unless he needed to, so she tried the calm approach to him. He was shaking up a bit. 

“O-Okay then. Call me Carlton. The guy in red that’s sleeping over there is Damien. Try not to wake him up. I don’t know if he’ll be as peaceful with strangers,” he told her. “Look, we have a little fireplace and a little food, but you can’t stay for long.” He lit the fire for her and gave her some small rations before the two talked some more. 

“I honestly don’t know how I even got here. I’m not even sure how I’m still alive right now. I thought for sure I was going to die at the bloodbath,” Carlton said grimly. “There’s only a matter of time before my cannon shot fires.” 

Aphmau tried to place her hand on Carlton’s shoulder. “Look, kid, even if you’re going to die, I’m going to make sure it won’t be tonight,” she told him in a calm tone. “Let’s try to make sure we can survive as long as possible. If we cross paths later in the games and you need my help again, just let me know. I’d be happy to help.” 

This helped Carlton ease up a bit. The two tributes talked for a little while longer until Carlton put out the fire and Aphmau went on her way for the night. By the time she left, Damien woke up and took charge of guarding. He didn’t even notice Aphmau had been there at all.

(NOTE: DO NOT TAKE THIS FOR ROMANTICISM. YOU BETTER NOT SHIP IT, I SWEAR. THAT'S JUST WHAT THE SIMULATION SAID.)

While Kyoko is on a lookout for other tributes and Himiko is guarding the base, Paul Rudd is able to slip away from them undetected and run through the forest. “Thanks for the help. Now I can at least run again,” Paul said to himself as he went further and further away from the girls’ camp. While running away, he finds Peeta during the night. Peeta doesn’t seem to be too hostile towards him, though. “Say, you wouldn’t mind if we worked in sleep shifts tonight, would you?,” the teen asked. He trusted Paul because he didn’t have a single weapon on him. “Sure, sure kid. We’ll take turns sleeping and taking guard through the night, right?”, Paul asked. Peeta nodded. The two of them worked together for the night and took turns in shifts. They planned their next move tomorrow as well. 

“AGAIN?! First pretty boy ditches us and now Ant-Man?! I swear, both of them are gonna die when I get my hands on them!”, Himiko screamed, her urge to kill rising higher than ever before. Kyoko was pretty angry, too, but at least she was able to control herself. “No need to worry, Himiko. We can hunt him down later. For now, let’s focus on scouting around the area and finding more supplies,” Kyoko told the blonde. 

“Fine. I’ve hidden our bags under some leaves and camouflage so the others won’t find it as easily,” Himiko said. “I’ll go look for food, and you’re on the lookout for anyone else, okay?”, she asked. “...You know what? Sure. Why not?”, Kyoko told her. She grabbed a steel dagger from one of the bags while Himiko still had her favored knives with her. Kyoko set out away from their campsite to look for more tributes, while Himiko went in the other direction to look for food. 

Himiko searched through the forest for about a good half hour, listening to the jabberjays chirping above in the trees. Well, well, what do we have here? She found a tiny cave opening, where inside, Titanic was sleeping (and snoring a bit). Himiko also found that Titanic was collecting some berries and was keeping a groundhog hostage, with some other materials. This looks good. I can take her food and her groundhog back to base. Though, her hands fidgeted the knives she was holding. She felt her skin screaming at her, What are you waiting for? Kill her already. She’s fast asleep. She’ll have no idea. You’ll save the trouble of an extra tribute if you finish her here and now. “No,” she whispered to herself, ”I don’t think I will.” 

This wasn’t really a moral decision. She just didn’t feel like she was in the mood right now. But she did destroy the rest of Titanic’s supplies that she didn’t take and spared her life. Hey, at least we’ll have plenty to eat tomorrow.

Monika tries to sleep in her shelter under a tree. She’s trying to fall asleep, but can’t due to the paranoia going on in her head. What if I die in my sleep? What if someone kills me in my sleep when I least expect it? What if a wild animal comes and eats me? Just then, Monika looked up at the night sky and saw another sponsorship parachute fly down to her. Inside the box dropped, there was a fresh supply of clean drinking water for her. Oh...this was unexpected, but hey, I’m not complaining! At least I won’t have to worry about dying of thirst now! She checked to see who sponsored it, but the sponsor chose to be anonymous. Monika felt a little bit better after this, knowing that someone must really want her alive if she received two sponsorships this early into the game. 

Meanwhile, Charizard decides to sleep for the night while Clem goes off to hunt for food. It was nighttime, so the chances were that nocturnal animals were out and about. Charizard really didn’t do too much, so we don’t have too much to say about him tonight. Uh, moving on. 

Clem was able to make herself a makeshift bow and a few arrows already. If you think it’s ridiculous someone was able to craft that in just a day, the announcers are here to remind you Clem’s been growing up in a zombie apocalypse for about a decade. And being from District 2, she has been trained in combat in hopes of becoming a Peacekeeper, so she clearly knows how to fight. “Are there any animals around here? I really need one of those right now,” she said to herself while hunting. 

She accidentally came across two other tributes talking to each other. She aimed her bow at them and said, “Listen, I don’t want to fight. I just want to talk, okay?” 

One of them seemed to be around Clem’s age, maybe younger, with long brown hair and a leather suit. The other was an overweight adult man, with a white shirt and blue jeans. “My name is Katniss Everdeen,” the girl told Clem, “and this man over here is Homer Simpson. We were on our way to raid a nearby tribute. Not just for supplies, though. He killed Homer’s district partner early on. You know, that British brunette from District 2? ” 

“With you on our side, we could totally kick that little shit’s ass!”, Homer said enthusiastically. Clem thought about it for a moment. I mean, it’s a three against one, so our odds are pretty good. But...Tommy? Even though Clem didn’t really know the boy, Tommy didn’t exactly paint himself as too friendly during the start of the games. She witnessed how he chucked a knife into Gardevoir’s head. What’s the harm in it? “Okay, I’ll help you out. But I’m not going to kill Tommy,” Clem told them. The other two tributes seemed to respect this wish, and they headed on their way to Tommy’s base. They soon saw some puffs of smoke rising in the air in the distance. 

Elsewhere, Sans prepared himself a little base up in the trees. He slept through the night, dreaming about what the games would bring next. I really want to look around, but I don’t feel like doing anything, he thought, wondering if Frisk was safe for the night or not. I hope that kid’s doing alright by herself. 

Finn is able to look for shelter after killing Glitchtrap. Throughout the night, he has to hold off a group of aggressive foxes trying to steal his supplies. However, he is able to set up a safe place for the night. This ain’t going to be easy to survive, but I’m ready for it, he thought. I already took down one tribute. How difficult could another one be? 

Somehow, Circus Baby was able to climb a tree and rest there, against all the odds that she would break the tree branches. But she manages to sleep safely for the rest of the night. I wonder how Ballora and Funtime Freddy are doing back home, she wondered as she slept peacefully. 

While wandering around the forest, Kyoko noticed a large amount of smoke rising in the air. Smoke. That’s a sign of a nearby fire, she thought. And if there’s a fire, there’s definitely going to be a tribute nearby. She held onto her dagger firmly as she went to explore the campsite a bit closer. She saw three different tributes, all sitting around the small campfire together, telling each other stories, laughing, and having a great time. One of the tributes, who looked like a little girl, spotted Kyoko. “Hey, you! You’re welcome to come down and join us if you want!”, the girl said to her. The other tributes seemed to be a bit hospitable. 

Normally, it would be unwise to accept this kind of offer. But seeing that they don’t seem to view me as a threat, I don’t believe they will be agitated by me, Kyoko thought, as she went closer to the campfire. She sat down next to a girl who looked older than the kid; her skin and hair looked pink, and her eyes were black with yellow irises. “Hi there! I’m Mina! Nice to meet you!”, the pink girl said, shaking Kyoko’s hand. 

The little girl with the blue-and-yellow striped shirt spoke up. “I-I’m Frisk. I come from District 8. Hello,” she said. 

“I go by many names; the Blade, Technoblade, but you can just call me...Techno,” the pig-man looking tribute said to her. Kyoko couldn’t tell whether Techno really was a pig-man, or if he was wearing some kind of costume. 

“My name is Kyoko Kirigiri. I am the Ultimate Detective and I am from District 9. My district is often known for grain farming, but I managed to make a career for myself as a homicide detective there. I was an acquaintance of a tribute from District 1, Makoto Naegi. He was my...it’s difficult to explain,” Kyoko said, with a grim and saddened expression. “I’m sure you know by now that Makoto is dead. Murdered by that District 12 boy who betrayed me.” 

“Oh my God...I am so sorry to hear that,” Mina said, offering her sympathy. “Losing someone you care about...it’s never an easy thing to get over.” 

The rest of the group spent the rest of the night comforting Kyoko and making sure she was alright. For the most part, this group of four seemed to get along well. Not a single bit of fighting occurred with them that night. Sadly, it didn’t make Kyoko feel much better. 

Tommy was busy with the campfire he was setting up to get some warmth. “Come on, you stupid twigs! I’m freezing my fucking balls off out here!”, he yelled frustrated, trying his best to start the campfire. After a lot of frustration and anger, Tommy finally managed to bring a few sparks to life, and soon enough, was able to create a moderate campfire for himself. “If I could, I would cook some marshmallows,” he said to himself. The fire was nice, warm, and relaxing to him. 

Unfortunately, he forgot that the fire was creating a smoke signal for other tributes to see. And this was what Clem used to track Tommy’s location. It wasn’t until the group of Homer, Katniss and Clem were about 40 feet away from his campfire that he noticed them. “Oh, shit! Shit! Shit!,” Tommy yelled. “Don’t you fucking try it! I have a blade and I’m not afraid to use it!”

“Bring it on! I’ll crush you to death, you little child!,” Homer said, charging at him. 

“Homer, stop,” Clem calmly told the fat man. Then she turned her attention to Clem. “Tommy, this is your only warning. Give us your weapon and your campfire or we will open fire,” she told the boy. 

“Bring it on, bitch! Hit me with your best shot!,” Tommy screamed. Clem did exactly as he asked, and shot an arrow that narrowly missed Tommy’s shoulder. Tommy’s fight-or-flight instincts kick in once the adrenaline was triggered by Clem. She continues to shoot at Tommy with arrows while Katniss ran in across the other side to flank Tommy. She slashed with her knife, but Tommy was surprisingly good at melee combat, as she was able to defend himself against Katniss’s attacks. 

Eventually, the fight carries on for so long that Clem decides it’s not even worth it anymore. Man, that guy’s much better at fighting than I first thought. Perhaps I misjudged you, TommyInnit, she thought, before leaving the group and heading back into the forest. Homer and Katniss retreat back after Tommy puts the tip of his blade of the fire and chases after them. “That’s right! Run from me, you little bitches! YEAH!!”, he celebrated. 

Survivors: 20

Death(s): None tonight

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

To be continued on Day 2 and Night 2...