hope you choke / perry, day 1

The whole stuff falling from the sky actually happens way sooner than she expects.

She's already worked the whole sponsorship angle before the Games started. Played nice with the rich people. Made them laugh and titter as she shovelled scathing remark after scathing remark on the pile of losers that was supposed to be her competition. Popularity? It's never been a contest. It's not cocky if it's true.

And lo and behind - Perry only makes it a few steps into the creepy, gloomy, (terrible smelling, like holy shit, why) woods until something falls directly onto her head.

"Wha-"

She jumps, hand flying up because umm?? It feels like someone just chucked a brick directly at the back of her skull, you've got to be kidding me. Hasn't she suffered enough already? She cradles the back of her head and frantically scans the treetops, dutifully ignoring the way the branches overlap and reach for her like gnarled fingers -

"Alright, nice aim, come on out asshole."

There's no response.

"Cas, if that's you out there, I swear. I'm not dealing with this sneaking around shit again. I'll gut you."

Still nothing. Perry spins around again, trying to track any kind of movement from within the gloom, but there's nothing. The weak sunlight filtering in glitters off of the black tar spilling from the trees. It falls down them in rivulets and gathers in nasty puddles on the ground, shining like miniature oil spills. There's a box sitting innocently in one of the puddles near her foot. Not suspicious at all.

She grabs it, wipes the tar off with her fist, and then opens it, obviously.

Bad decision!

A stream of shadow shoots out of it - bugs? Holy shit BUGS?? WHAT IS THAT?? WHAT - and she nearly drops the stupid thing, flinching back immediately. It stings as the mass swarms her. "For fucks sake- WHAT-." She flaps her free hand at the shadow (BUGS?!?) and tries not to lose her goddamn mind at how quickly her luck's turned. Then, just as soon as it happened, it's over. The silence of the forest comes back, oppressive and creepy as ever.

The skin of her shoulder's raw. Her head hurts. Some blonde bitch stomped on her foot on the way out and Perry's already cringing at the massive bruise she's probably gonna have. Shit, what if she has a concussion now? She doesn't know the signs of a concussion.

"This is the worst day of my life." She moans. Then she points up to the sky, accusatory, "This is the WORST day of my life!"

She glares at the inside of the box. The sparkle that hits her eye only makes her feel marginally better. There's a ring sitting in it. All that for little piece of jewellery.

It is kinda pretty though.

She pulls it out and slips it on, tossing the box over her shoulder. It suits her pretty well actually. Maybe the day isn't so bad after all.

With that very cheery thought in mind, Perry takes another step forward. Only to put her foot directly in one of the tar puddles. Annoyed, she glances down. Tries to pull it back out.

She's fucking stuck.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

She viciously yanks her foot out of her shoe and reaches to pull it out, muttering the whole time and hopping around on one leg. Then something decides to ominously crack in the underbrush. She freezes. Narrows her eyes at the thought of the box-thrower.

"This isn't funny, asswipe. Cut it out, face me like a man."