This is a difficult announcement to make, but at this time we will be putting the Rule and Kill RP on a hiatus.
Due to upcoming and recurring personal and professional demands, we are unable to maintain this group in a sustainable way. The wish of “next week I’ll be less busy” is becoming increasingly more difficult to see come true.
This group has been revived and revamped multiple times in the past, and we do not count that out for the future. We are so proud of the OOC community that has been formed here, and hope you all stay in touch and strongly encourage any 1x1 or small group RPing you wish to continue with each other.
We sincerely hope this is not goodbye, but see you later. Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay creative.
Unprompted, as the first 24 hours in the spaceship expire, tributes may feel themselves gradually lighter, to the point of floating. They learn that they can navigate freely through the ship air as if swimming, able to touch windows and ceilings, but less so to return with their feet on the ground. What at first feels surprisingly nice turns into a whirlpool of gravity after the RAINy system declares a ship emergency, as there are imbalances of pressure and gravity on board. The gravity levels fluctuate between too high (smashing the tributes against the floor and causing severe bone ache, poor blood circulation, nausea etc) and too low, having them float aimlessly.
Similarly, the ship pressure turns from extremely low, to high, making the tributes that are not in reach of a spacesuit helmet prone to dizziness, nausea, blurred vision, fainting and even heart attack in extreme cases. The state of emergency lasts for just roughly an hour and a half, but has lasting effects on all affected tributes.
Under the cut are some prompts for interaction with the 130th Arena.
POSITIVE interactions or “wins” earn tributes $100 each, and are capped at TEN prompts.
NEUTRAL interactions earn $50 in sponsor funds, and are capped at TWENTY prompts.
NEGATIVE interactions or “losses” earn $500, and are capped at TWO prompts.
The prompt caps are for the entire Games (NOT per Plot Drop) and participation is optional. You may interact with none, a few, or all of the allotted prompts. These may be completed in threads or self-paras.
As a reminder, self-paras must be 300 WORDS to count toward task money. Admins request the week’s interaction totals be submitted before 12 PM EST the FRIDAY before Saturday’s plot drops, so admins have time to update banks.
Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!
-The Gamemakers
Positive:
Localize all four airlocks over the spaceship.
Exercise.
Check your vitals on a treadmill.
Chase another tribute down the spaceship.
Have your injuries get scanned.
Find your assigned room in the sleeping quarters.
Find clean medicine and bandages.
Go on a successful space walk.
Successfully use the tractor beam in the Control room to halt a flying object outside of the ship.
Get a microwave or a re-hydrator to work in the kitchen.
Get some much needed rest.
Admire the view.
Open a locker and use the object inside.
Find the combination to the captain’s locker and receive a level 1 item.
Have a moment alone in one of the pods in the kitchen.
Make an unlikely ally.
Use the heating option to warm up on the scanner in the med bay after having been stuck in the freezer.
Neutral:
Communicate with the RAINy system.
Look out of the window so much that you experience nausea.
Record a log in the captain’s private office.
Cry.
Run from a chasing tribute.
Have trouble running away from another tribute in the maze-like laboratory.
Look through the microscope in the laboratory.
Purposefully tell a lie to the cameras.
Scan another tribute’s injuries.
Experience air pressure on your eardrums.
Use the burning spray to soothe your injuries and make them worse.
Take off your spacesuit costume and hide it somewhere you can find it later.
Use brand new (and oxygen-filled) spacesuits.
Be caught off guard in the captain’s room.
Get locked in the captain’s room.
Walk over somebody else already in the captain’s room.
Have a space trip on mushrooms.
Press the red blinking button in the Control room.
Watch tapes of experiments in the laboratory.
Check out the sketches in the captain’s private office.
Negative:
Ingest greenhouse plants and fall mortally ill.
Get partially caught under the vertical doors.
Experience intense bleeding after the skin-tight suits reset.
Get stuck watching fake logs and experience emotional trauma.
Almost drown because of the laboratory water-like substance.
Almost suffocate by wearing the space helmet for too long and running out of oxygen.
Get out of your assigned cabin after almost running out of air.
Use the burning spray and get a third degree burn.
Almost collapse to your death during a space walk.
Not be able to stop eating space mushrooms.
Throw up and faint due to the scent of the flesh plant in the greenhouse.
Get stuck in the freezer almost to the point of hypothermia.
Due to the tribute pool being a bit smaller these Games, and the demanding nature of the players’ personal lives, we’ve decided to make some changes to our post minimums for tributes.
Instead of the 10 posts for Try for Victor tributes and 5 posts for Plotted Death tributes, there will now be a post minimum of 5 posts for TFV and 3 posts for PD per week.
We hope this will offer some stress relief, and make tribute writing and interactions lighter for everyone!
// ACCESS GRANTED: CADUCEUS “CAD” MATOS. OSCAR ISAAC. FORTY-THREE. DISTRICT 3 MENTOR.
What was their childhood like? ( Home, family, etc. )
The Matos family has long contributed to the development of biotechnology and prosthetics for District Three (and the Capitol). One of the family’s ideals is to provide aid to those who need it whether they be friend or foe. This ideal persisted during the Dark Days where they would give medical attention to rebels and Capitol sympathizers alike despite siding with the rebels overall. Their charity led to some hate but they held to their beliefs. Over a hundred years later, that ideal still stood strong and was ingrained into their children. Cad was no exception.
Cad was the last born of Caius and Irma Matos. His childhood in general was not rough, like his brothers he did not take out tesserae – that didn’t mean there were nights where they went to bed with empty stomachs. It was their parents' decision to not allow them to do it as they opposed the games and did not want their children to put themselves at more risk than needed. Whatever they ate was shared evenly among the children, Caius and Irma would go without food if it meant their children had something to eat – that is when they were home for meals. Often they would come in late at night after long shifts and Cad wasn’t even sure if they ate before they would fall asleep. Despite those long hours he never heard them complain about their work–only the restrictions for the people who needed what they worked on. Cad’s brothers, Damian and Galen, essentially raised him with the hours that their parents worked. Which he never held any resentment towards his parents for, knowing they were trying to make a difference in helping people and understood that doing so took time.
In school Cad excelled in sciences, just as his brothers had, and was decent when it came to handling the more technical part of learning the district’s industry (that didn’t pertain to medicine). As his brothers were learning more about advanced medicine, being seven and ten years older than Cad, the more Cad was exposed to the craft. And it was after someone brought a family member who had lost their hand in an accident to their home that things started to change around the house. The brothers did their best to help the injured person, their parents taking over once they got home. The hand was ultimately unable to be reattached but the person was still alive thanks to their actions.
That experience shaped the future for Damian, the eldest brother, who decided to try to make basic prosthetics using discarded materials to give those who were unable to afford the more pricier products that the district produced for the Capitol primarily. There were limitations to those prosthetics but their home became a doctor's office for those who had lost a limb – on rare occasions those who were freshly injured were also brought there. Both Galen and Cad worked alongside Damian, Cad wanting to follow in his brother’s footsteps in the future. Galen would ultimately assist when he could but worked primarily alongside his parents.
Cad’s nature of helping people rather would be tested after his name is called during the 95th Hunger Games reaping.
How did they feel about the games before being reaped?
Cad was always afraid of the games. Exposed to the games at a young age through watching it and hearing his parents solemnly point out those who wouldn’t survive certain wounds before they would die. The reality of how easy it was for someone to die because of a simple injury going untreated, a single slash or stab somewhere on the body, or the force of impact was terrifying to him and he saw it time and time again watching the games.
He always worried for his brothers and cousins when they were eligible, hoping and praying that their names wouldn’t be called out. He felt guilty thinking that way because more times than not the two that were picked returned home in coffins rather than a victor. When he would eventually be reaped, part of him believed that it was karma for only hoping for his family’s safety.
What was their trajectory in the arena & how did they win their game?
Cad didn’t know if he would be able to kill someone. He grew up being told to help people not to harm them. He absorbed what he was taught during training but when it came down to it he was unsure of what he would be capable of doing. He made the decision to ally with his district partner, Dawn Vol. If he could help her, maybe she could win.
**trigger: dismemberment, self-inflicted wounds**
The tributes of the 95th Hunger Games were lifted into a small forest, despite all the trees they could see some buildings in the distance and what seemed to be farmland beyond the trees. The two district three tributes managed to grab backpacks from the cornucopia and reconnected shortly after the bloodbath. Cad tended to their wounds with what they got from the cornucopia. The two worked well together to survive.They steered clear from the buildings, assuming career tributes would be more keen on taking shelter in an actual building rather than outside. Through exploring the arena they found ditches that surrounded the area, intricate pathways with small wooden and metal structures in outcoves.
Three days into the arena, they were traversing the forest when they could hear a whistling fill the air. Close by something impacted the ground and exploded sending earth and pieces of broken tree into the air. Dawn grabbed Cad’s hand and started to run to get out of the forest. All around them explosions erupted, dirt and bark pelted their skin. Dawn continued to yell to keep running. They were about to break the treeline when one of the explosives landed in front of Dawn and detonated. The explosion sent Cad backwards, the heat causing it to feel like his skin was bubbling. The wind was knocked out of him when he hit the ground. Stunned and disoriented, he felt the earth underneath him settle from the impact and the dirt stop falling on him from above. When the world stopped spinning and his hearing came back he could hear screaming–he wasn’t sure if it was his own or not. Stumbling, he got to his feet and walked forward, the air around him was a fog cloud of dirt, but he managed to find Dawn on the ground. It was her screaming. A pool of blood was around her legs, what remained of them, her skin blistered and broken and she was shaking. With the explosions still going off in the forest, Cad knew that he at least needed to get her out of the treeline, so he picked her up and carried her down into the trenches that they had explored briefly about 30 yards away from where they were. Understanding that he would not be able to save her all he could do was hold her and tell her he was sorry as she bled out.
The next few days of the arena Cad spent hidden in the small structures of the trenches, the explosions continued sporadically day and night. He managed to find a cart labeled ‘rations’ and he managed to make do with the expired food. When he finally left the trenches the forest was no more, the grass was destroyed and the earth smoked from all the damage. The only thing that was still standing–though dented and damaged– was the cornucopia in the middle of the destroyed field. Cad’s first sponsor gift came at the same time as everyone else, a gas mask with a single filtration container. He had seen one before in books but never had seen one be used before.
Apart from Dawn, Cad hadn’t encountered another tribute since the bloodbath–they could see them from afar sometimes, fighting or just looking around. It would be one morning, a dense fog covered the field and dipped into the trenches that he would encounter another. He awoke coughing and his eyes stung, his lungs felt as if they were burning so he put the gas mask on. Thinking it was best, he left his safety of the hut and tried to find an end to the fog. Another tribute was thinking the same thing and they were not too keen on having a guest. A scuffle ensued resulting in Cad getting deep cuts into his fingers and palm from grabbing the blade of his attacker, the gas around them irritating the open wound. Cad managed to get the other tribute off of them by pulling down the mask. The knife stuck in his hand, he used it to puncture the other tribute’s filter and mask before running away.
The gas dissipated after a few hours and rain began to pour down into the ditches, the dried dirt becoming mud that made it difficult to walk through. After finding shelter far away from the encounter, Cad attempted to tend to the wound but over the next few days infection set in. Having seen what infection could do to people he made the decision to cut off three of his fingers on his right hand to stop the spread, nearly passing out doing so. The cloth that he had brought into the arena for his token was used to help stop the bleeding. A sponsor gift would come after with medicine and better material for his hand.
Cad would almost lose his other hand when tampering with a box of explosives that he had found, but it would be those explosives that would allow him to win in the end. After figuring out what triggered them–realizing they were similar to the mine plates that were around the pedestals of the tributes in the beginning. He set up a trap in the destroyed field by the cornucopia. Leading the final tribute on a chase, he slid down into a hole left by an explosion and yanked on a wire he stole from an old telephone device. The two explosives smacked into each other and the final tribute was killed.
Victory year: 95th - Age 16
How were they affected by their experiences in the game?
Despite Cad’s efforts to stop the infection from his wounds, primarily in his hand, he would have to have all but his thumb on his right hand removed after his victory. These removed fingers would soon be replaced with prosthetics. With what happened with his district partner, he vowed to support his brother’s business and fund it so people within the district could get proper prosthetics without having to pay an ungodly amount on it. His ‘talent’ that he provided for the Capitol also included prosthetics, more custom designed ones however and the inclusion of biotech.
The trauma from the arena would leave Cad afraid of loud noises and unsure of the dark. He became an insomniac and was often fueled by caffeine or by sheer will of being afraid to sleep. When back home in District Three, he would often spend his nights walking around the district, finding stray animals to take care of and at some point he ended up becoming the owner of 6 cats that live with him in the Victor’s Village – a few of them now outfitted with prosthetics.
Three strengths and three weaknesses :
Strengths: medical knowledge, caring, innovative
Weaknesses: insomnia, hesitant, anxious
What are they like as a mentor?
Cad cares deeply about his tributes, as well as others. He understands that only one person can survive but he doesn’t hope for anyone to make it out or for anyone to not. Cad heavily encourages the tributes he mentors to learn about first aid first and foremost – knowing that it at the very least prolonged his life in the arena. He does not particularly give his opinion on more of the combative side of training and instead tries to push survival tactics to his tributes.
What is their personality? How do they act around other tributes and mentors?
Cad is quiet and caring. He enjoys observing rather than talking but will hold a conversation if needed. Around other tributes, he’s not against giving some advice to them regardless if they’re from District Three or not. When it comes to other mentors, he is friendly and is willing to be a listening ear for someone if they need it or some sort of company.
I would believe that during the rebellion attempts that Cad would have sided with the rebels but would have been more quiet about it. With that, when it comes to developing friendships/relationships he would be more inclined to be around pro-Rebel mentors.
RHEA CARDAIREL and SUMMER HAZER fought over a SMALL MIRROR and SUMMER won. SUMMER’S name will be removed from the draw ONCE and RHEA’S will be added ONCE.
KONNER BOHR and AVENUE BARCROFT fought over SUNGLASSES and KONNER won. KONNER’s name will be removed from the draw ONCE and AVENUE’S will be added ONCE.
KNOX CARBON and CECIL FAUST fought over THREAD and CECIL won. CECIL’S name will be removed from the draw ONCE and KNOX’S will be added ONCE.
HAZEL SAWYER and NOTT S. TONKS (D11) fought over a HEMP ROPE and HAZEL won. HAZEL’S name will be removed from the draw TWICE.
SHILOH GARNER and INDIANA OFIT fought over an EMPTY CANTEEN and SHILOH won. SHILOH’S name will be removed from the draw TWICE and INDIANA’S will be added TWICE.
VIX HOLT and MARIANA FOG (D12) fought over a SMALL HUNTING KNIFE and VIX won. VIX’S name will be removed from the draw THRICE.
Please remember that if the character loses the fight for something from the Cornucopia, they sustain an injury relative to the level of risk for the item.
For example, losing the fight for a level one item may be minor scratches and bruises, and losing for a level three could be a more severe or serious injury like a broken bone. Tributes with district included beside name are NPC and interactions may be played out however you so choose!
TASK 013: THE LAUNCH, THE CATACOMBS, AND THE BLOODBATH
THIS TASK IS FOR ALL CHARACTERS.
Tributes: Write a self para about your tribute’s experiences from leaving the Capitol, the hovercraft ride, the catacombs, and the Bloodbath. Be sure to include your characters emotional state before the Games, their initial reaction to the Arena, and anything, if at all, that they took from the Cornucopia if they run away.
All other characters may also complete this task by writing about their reaction to the arena launch and the bloodbath through either a starter, reply, or self para.
Tag with #ruleandtask to receive $100 in sponsor funds.
Tributes are dressed accordingly, in hermetic spacesuits during the launch. Helmets cover their heads, provided with plenty of oxygen and a built-in microphone, making communication in between nearby tributes possible even in space. These costumes, however, become intolerable once they enter the spaceship, for mobility is limited, and they retain all heat. For that, it is expected that tributes undress these suits. Underneath, they are wearing skin-tight overalls, extremely flexible and light, covering all skin from chin to toes.
What is particular about these suits is that they do not stretch and are airtight, meaning that if a tribute is to get stabbed, despite the blade going in, they suffer no consequences for the time being. The skinsuit system prevents the wound from opening and bleeding out, but all suits reset an hour before midnight, meaning that all deaths resulted from stabbing take place not right away, rather than every night before the fallen tribute announcement. This does not apply for internal organ puncturing, and deaths that occur outside of laceration (such as suffocation, poisoning etc).
This moment is heavily marketed as one of the century’s greatest breakthroughs, marking the 130th Biannual Hunger Games as the launch when the Capitol conquers space itself. The Games are hosted 70 vertical miles over the earth and are broadcasting in real time. These are accomplishments unheard of for all humankind throughout history, as taught in Panem’s schools.
There is no countdown aside from the thirty quiet ticks supposed to accompany and amplify the human voice that is lacking. This is an unplanned, but solemn homage to Head Gamemaker Lysander Vultur’s demise, just minutes before the launch.
The tributes wake up in twenty-eight isolated “pods” splitting the Inner Ring, glass windows granting view to both the Outer Ring of the ship and the Cornucopia. The Cornucopia, only a couple of feet away, is a detached platform in the shape of a star, that the entire spaceship spins around. In order for the tributes to reach the star and the bloodbath items gravitating around it, they have to execute an extensive jump.
As the windows towards the Cornucopia open up, the walls separating the tributes begin to shift, pushing the tributes out towards the glowing star at the center of the spaceship, making jumping and falling into it the only two options. Should a tribute not jump right or at all, they will drift past the Cornucopia, unable to get back, floating towards a slow and painful death.
As the tributes start returning into the Inner Ring (through a second jump), they find out the windows towards the tunnels leading to the Outer Ring have been lifted, freely granting access through all four ways. The spaceship caps after twenty-six entering tributes, if the Bloodbath does not eliminate the excess by default.
*NOTE: Before interacting, make sure you read the explanation on uniforms for this arena as it is tightly intertwined with how interaction is possible during the Bloodbath & in outer space in general, as well as the policy on killing other tributes.
"We’re not meant to save the world, we’re meant to leave it.” - Dr. Brand, Interstellar
The tributes are launched into the inner ring of a spaceship, right between Cornucopia and the rest of the Arena.
Find Sector descriptions below the cut.
Despite the launch being during a spacewalk, the spaceship, which represents the arena itself, is accessible through four airlocks as marked on the map. Returning into space is allowed, though it requires some knowledge in terms of safely setting it up, and can be done to retrieve any spare Bloodbath items. With four tunnels leading the tributes into the eight sectors, there is one possible entrance to the upper and lower levels of multi-level sector: by staircases, from the main level (i.e. you can only walk from the recreation sector into the kitchen, not the recreation sector into the dining area).
The spacecraft spins continuously in order to maintain the artificial gravitation inside. Both ship pressure and gravity are adjusted to mimic earth, hence tributes do not need to keep their helmets on and can move without difficulty into the arena. There are numerous large windows on the ceiling, floor or walls, allowing tributes to peek into the space they are currently navigating through. Sensations of nausea are strictly psychological, but expected to surface, as space knows no real up and down.
The insides of the ship are minimalistic, white and glossy in appearance, without taking too much space. For that, most of the arena is either vacant or contains pliable items, in overhead bins, trapdoors and built-in drawers, most of which slide open when triggered by their assigned button nearby. Object shapes are purposefully built in ways that take as little space as possible, simple and spotless, and are as safe as possible in case of an emergency, curved and pinned to the part of the ship that is assigned to be the floor. Navigating the arena is intuitive and particularly easy for people with experience in technology, but the only descriptor of the rooms are small placards over the doors, with carved-out letters. All passages open vertically and the sensors malfunction occasionally, able to crush, trap or nearly crush tributes underneath their weight.
THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:
There is an onboard computer dubbed the Remote Artificial Intelligence Network (shorthand RAINy) that can be spoken to from anywhere on the station and answer most questions tributes may have at any time, with exceptions. RAINy will not disclose details regarding the locations of other tributes, give explanations of any ship events beyond status reports of systems, or report on anything happening outside of the Arena. RAINy can give basic details about every tribute, however, that would be accessible regularly, which tributes can attempt to leverage to their advantage.
*NOTE: Instead of the traditional cannons whenever a death occurs, a robotic announcement will be broadcast at midnight, recounting who’s died and how many of the crew (the tributes) remain.
The climate is controlled in the ship at a perfect constant of 68 F/20 C.
SPACE, CORNUCOPIA, & INNER RING
The ship’s outer ring is connected by rotating arms attached to an inner ring. From the inside, these arms can be used as a way to quickly move from one side of the ship to another. Each arm has a ladder that climbs upward and attaches to the inner ring, where tributes can choose to go “down” any of the other three arms to other parts of the ship. However, gravity is significantly reduced in the center ring. It will be felt gradually as tributes approach it, as the centripetal force is not as strong and does not simulate Earth’s gravity in the same way as on the main decks.*
The Inner Ring after launch adjusts from the isolated “pods” tributes were launched from to completely open. The walls facing the cornucopia and the ship are made of glass, so tributes have full view of both.
At the very center is the “Cornucopia”, or rather, whatever remains from the Bloodbath gravitating around the central star at the core. The entire ship’s rotation centers around this star at its core. To re-access the items from the Cornucopia, tributes must take another space walk by exiting through one of the four airlocks (indicated by the rectangles attached to the outer ring), and donning one of the space suits hung on the wall just outside the doors. However, to unlock the airlock tributes must find the door code somewhere nearby (writer may use creative license as to where they find this code).
If a tribute goes into space without a space suit, their death is most unpleasant, and in a matter of seconds.
*NOTE: Think of the rotating outer ring as like a tilt-a-whirl– you stay stuck to the wall because of centripetal force, even when the floor drops out. The station is the same on a large scale, but your feet are what are pushed to the floor on the main deck, rather than your back. At the very center, the force is much lighter, so tributes will mostly float in the center. To help you visualize, see this scene from The Martian.
COMMAND BRIDGE - ONE LEVEL
This section opens into a wide floor dedicated to ship command and operations. There are rows of long, curved tables lined with workstation chairs, each with its own screen that monitors a variety of ship data. At the front and center are a few chairs for the highest ranks of command, and a large captain’s chair. A button in the arm accesses the ship’s intercom, where a tribute can project a message to the entire station (share in #arena-locations channel if your tribute does this). The entire space is oriented to a floor-to-ceiling window facing out to the slowly-spinning space beyond and the beautiful Earth below.
On one side wall, there is a door that opens to the captain’s private office. In it is a more comfortable, personalized space. There is a desk with a 3D display screen projected above it, and a couple of knick-knacks scattered over the desk as decor. A digital tab includes a few early sketches of the current arena, in Lysander Vultur’s handwriting.
At the bottom left corner there is an icon that opens the software for the Captain’s Log, and a video pane opens to reflect back at the tribute. If the tribute presses the record button, they can add videos to the log. Unbeknownst to them, they will also be projected picture-in-picture across Panem in real time. Tributes can also access previous logs, including any tributes who have saved a recording, and some mysterious recordings from the station’s captain. They begin mundane, brief reports of the day’s operations, but the final video is choppy and only contains flashes of the disheveled captain, heavy breathing, and a garbled transmission that tributes will not be able to make out. After the first message recorded by a tribute, upon return, they may find response recordings from their loved ones or, alternatively, recordings of themselves saying disturbing things that they don’t remember saying (both are fake and digitally generated).
ENGINEERING - TWO LEVELS
LOWER LEVEL - ENGINE
In the center of the wide, rectangular room, any tributes who enter will find the engine that powers the entire ship. It is caged in by metal railings to prevent anyone from accidentally falling in, but they are not secure enough to stop anyone from climbing or being pushed over. Anyone who decides to lean over the railings, will see the core zap and buzz with electricity in an alarming intensity. Tributes who come within a 5 foot (1.5 meter) radius of the engine will not survive it. Even outside of that radius, lingering for too long will make the tributes’ hair rise and their skin prickle, causing more and more intense discomfort as time passes.
Spread out along the walls are tables that hold built-in touch screens, all of them for regulating the ship’s core. One is dedicated to the cooling down process, another for emergency ejection of the core, and many more. Tributes experienced with technology might understand some of the terminology, but none of the settings can be changed.
UPPER LEVEL - CONTROLS
Two sets of metal stairs, on either side of the engine, lead up to the control deck. The outer wall is a window to the outside, though instead of floor-to-ceiling, it is a narrow, long horizontal stretch running along the entirety of the room. A few tables are angled towards the window, and they once again hold built-in touch screens. On the middle table, there is a projection of the ship and whenever something is damaged, the part is highlighted red as the model rotates by itself. The other tables are dedicated to various things, such as a powerful tractor beam that tech savvy, or lucky, tributes can use to momentarily halt objects flying outside of the ship. On a different table, a button gives rhythmic red blinks, and should a curious tribute push it, a bolt of electricity will make them feel lightheaded and sluggish for a few hours.
LABS & GREENHOUSES
LOWER LEVEL - LABORATORY
Monitors cover one wall of the room, where tributes can access footage of past experiments, most of them harmless, but some of them gone wrong in terrible ways. Rows of shiny tabletops line the room, though the spaces between tables are designed a bit more maze-like, making it difficult for a tribute on the run to navigate through them quickly, unless they choose to jump up on the tables. In the spaces between the tables, there are notes to be found, hastily, mostly unintelligible words are scribbled on strewn out papers. Others are littered with safety goggles or empty, sometimes broken, vials, and on the wall facing the set of stairs leading up to the greenhouse, there are a myriad of white lab coats, some of them burnt from odd looking and smelling substances.
The wall right next to the stairs is covered in tiny, grey mushrooms growing on the surface of the ship, somehow inside and outside. If ingested, these mushrooms create hallucinations so vivid that those who consumed them neglect the fact that they are being in the Hunger Games, all spaceship rooms replaced in their imagination with spaces they are familiar with. These mushrooms are sweet in taste and highly addictive.
Microscopes are firmly rooted on some of the tabletops, too heavy to rip off, but should someone choose to look through the lens, they’ll see strange, colorful particles of a gooey substance moving in the Petri dish. On a table in the corner, there are vials with an unknown crystalline liquid that glitters even in the low light, almost resembling water. This particular table is wet, and a few droplets of blood have mixed with the glistening water-like substance. If a thirsty tribute takes a sip out of one of the vials, the liquid will expand in their body, until the tribute drowns from the inside out. The only possible way to survive, is to get actual water sent as a sponsor gift.
UPPER LEVEL - GREENHOUSES
A single set of stairs leads up to the greenhouse. The walls and ceiling are covered in a mix of heat lamps and LED screens to mimic sunlight through a real greenhouse screen. There are half a dozen rows of plants, including herbs, trees, flowers, and more. Some are from Earth (and, to the observant tribute, perhaps seem to have come from a very recent Arena), but others have strange qualities like glowing leaves, abnormal petal colors, and bubbling sap.
No matter how familiar a plant looks, every single flora in the greenhouse is deadly within 24 hours of consumption. Only a gift of venom antidote will save the tribute’s life. In one corner of the greenhouse is a closed off area with frosted glass. There is a warning sign on the door, but no lock. Any tribute who opens the door will find a tall plant inside, and be struck by the scent of rotting flesh. The scent is so overwhelming it will lead to nausea and, should a tribute stick around, they will faint.
HANGAR BAY & CARGO HOLDS - ONE LEVEL
This section holds a large hangar presumably intended for docking events from Earth, and is about the size of a football field. At one end is a very large airlock that opens the side of the ship for large-scale docking. However, the only craft present is a small pod, barely large enough for one and looking rusty, possibly broken down. A few abandoned tools are scattered beside it.
The other half of this section is a set of cargo holds, each accessible to tributes with a simple face scan. Each cargo hold contains something different– one has a series of empty metal crates, one is packed floor to ceiling with replacement station parts, and one, unassuming and at the very end, contains a curious collection of items that seem unrecognizable to anyone on Earth– strange weapons, jars of knobbly tissues suspended in fluid, oddly shaped objects that appear to have no functional or readily understandable use. The cargo holds provide a place to hide and some materials for craftier tributes, but the door is the only entry and exit to each.
RECREATION
This sector consists of a single level with an open plan design. Though it is only one level, there is one staircase that lead to a lofted track that is .10 of a mile (.16 of a kilometer) with five lanes. There are no banisters or plastic to prevent a tribute from going over the edge, but tributes will find that standing or sitting on the track closest to the wall will make them difficult to see to those below. On the ground floor are several different machines including treadmills, weightlifting machines, and stair climbers. Each machine has a small monitor with several wires attached, so tributes can monitor their own vitals as they exercise. If a tribute opts to tape a wire to themselves, they will be informed on the monitor how many more hours they can go without food or water before they will die.
A row of 26 open lockers along one wall contain various items one would need for recreation: running sneakers, a change of clothes, first aid kit, tape, an empty water bottle, etc. Each locker is labeled with a tribute’s name. There is one closed locker with “captain” on the label that cannot be opened without getting the combination on the lock correct. If your tribute wants to try to receive a level 1 item (-1 in the death draw) or injury (+1 in the death draw), please message the main. The correct combination can be found in multiple locations over the spaceship, and it is up to each player how their tribute, if victorious, got a hold of it.
Near the exit toward the dining center, there are two rooms with some chairs, tables, and cabinets that would presumably be used for socializing in smaller to mid-sized groups in the off-hours. Only one of the cabinets is unlocked, but tributes will find a small selection of well-used games in there including a chess set, a deck of cards, and a set of dice.
KITCHENS & DINING CENTER
LOWER LEVEL - KITCHENS
The kitchen is too large for a space station, where efficiency is more important than anything. A large room full of tile and slick walls is dedicated to mostly empty metal countertops, and there are half a dozen microwaves and food re-hydrators available as the only means of “cooking.” They only work occasionally, if a tribute gets lucky. The cabinets and drawers are metal, and mostly empty aside from some spare trays, dishes, and cups. Next to the openings for the three dumbwaiters are buttons to send them up and down. There is a walk-in freezer full of little packets and trays for breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals, as well as snacks. Tributes will find that these space meals rarely taste like the actual meal described on the container, and many are expired or severely freezer-burned, leading to sickness.
If a tribute spends more than two minutes in the walk-in freezer, they will find the conditions rapidly grow colder, dryer, and more dangerous. After five minutes, they will suffer from fatal hypothermia. There is a door in the walk-in freezer that looks like it leads to another freezer, but no tributes are able to open it at this time.
UPPER LEVEL - DINING CENTER
On the upper level of the sector, there are three distinct locations: the mess hall, the captain’s dining room, and a half dozen “pods.”
The mess hall is a large room with stark white walls and no decorations. There are metal benches and tables for communal eating, though the “serving” stations along one wall of the mess hall do not work. Instead, five dumbwaiters are open without any food. Tributes are able to press buttons to move the dumbwaiter up and down from the kitchen. It is a tight space, but it has been designed so every tribute can fit inside if they are able to curl up tight enough. However, the dumbwaiter requires someone else to push the up and down buttons between the kitchen and dining room.
At the far end of the mess hall are two doors: one leads into a short hallway of pods, the other leads into the captain’s dining room. The pods are small areas with a single chair and a small table, with just enough room for someone to eat silently alone. The rooms have walls that cancel out all noise from the rest of the station, even public announcements.
The captain’s dining room is one of the few parts of the station that are not stark and futuristic. A lush, patterned rug sits in the middle of a hardwood floor. A full dining set has six chairs at a table that is fully set (including knives and forks), but lacking any food. There are abstract paintings hung on the darkly painted walls, and a fireplace in the corner that only has a digital screen showing logs burning.
SLEEPING QUARTERS
The sector consists of three floors. Every floor and room of the sleeping quarters are almost identical. There are 26 small rooms with a twin bed frame, a thin mattress, and a nightstand made of entirely clear plastic so it is totally see-through. Once a tribute claims a room, the doors will open to no one but them. However, these rooms are quick to run out of oxygen and depressurize so that they are not viable for hiding long-term or proper resting. On the third floor, there is a corner bedroom that has no specific name on it, just “captain” on the door. The only thing that makes this bedroom more distinct is that it is larger, with a full-size frame and slightly thicker mattress, and it has a nightstand that is made of a dark plastic so it is not see-through. The only trick is that the captain’s room locks and unlocks freely, meaning it can trap or expose tributes without any warning.
MEDICAL BAY - TWO LEVELS
LOWER LEVEL - NURSING STATIONS, SUPPLIES, ETC.
In the lower level of the Med Bay, tributes will find waist high tables that they can lie down on, or sit, to administer first aid on themselves or another tribute. There’s very little technology involved in the make-up of the tables, but once a few buttons are pressed, the table warms up or cools down, depending on the person’s needs, and it’s also possible to raise or lower them.
The walls are stuffed full with cupboards and high shelves, a lot of them empty, while some of them hold very few stray packets of bandages and band aids. Some of the packets have already been ripped open and have dirty, bloodied bandages stuffed back into them or simply strewn out over the shelves, while others hold a rare find of clean healing supplies. In another cupboard, there’s an antiseptic spray that gives the tributes varying degrees of burns, depending on how often the liquid has been sprayed.
UPPER LEVEL - INFIRMARY
After walking up a single set of stairs, the infirmary opens up into a much wider, spacious room. The tables are similar to the ones on the lower level, but at the first glance it is obvious that they are a lot more technically advanced. Tributes who suspect a more severe injury under their space suit can lie down on a table and get a full body scan from the medical equipment that rotates around the table. The scan will show the tribute the severity of their injuries: whether it is treatable or fatal. The machine can only be operated by two tributes. While one lies down, another must push the button to activate the scan.
Located on the other side of the large room is another, smaller area, closed off by a glass wall. The door is locked and tributes are unable to access it. In the middle is another examination table, though this one is covered in an overwhelming amount of wires and scanning devices that lie or hover unused. On the far side of the wall is a research station with vials and probes, surgical supplies, protective gear and monitors. A metal file cabinet stands slightly ajar as though abandoned in a haste, and some of the folders stick out, showing names of foreign species.
