How Did You Expect Your Soul... [Closed]

[celebrityskinned]

WHO| Venus and Guy, Venus and Nasir, then Venus, Enjolras, Jet and Albert
WHAT| Death! Traumatic memories! Chain whips and bad food!
WHEN| Week 5 during the Hellrena, thread with Guy during week 4
WHERE| Throughout the Arena and then near the abyss.
WARNINGS| Bugs, death, some body horror, mentions of child-abuse, two gladiators slugging it out.



She goes looking for water before the Arena descends into Hell. The lake seems to have vanished somewhere into the fog, somewhere that she and Enjolras can't seem to locate despite their best attempts to retrace their paths. Eventually, it only makes sense to split up. They'll stay on the asphalt of the town road and hope that if they both keep moving in opposite directions, finding their way back to the meeting place in the middle will be simple enough.

She takes her chain and her boxcutter. She swings the former while she walks, and it cuts little trails of negative space into the cloud around her. She clicks her tongue as she walks, trying not to let dehydration or exhaustion look too evident on her frame in front of the cameras. Her head's pounding. Her throat is dry and crawling up the back of her mouth.

She stops when she hears something.

-/-

She finds Enjolras again when she's in less than ideal shape. Her fight with Nasir left her bloody, left her with broken bones and, she suspects, internal hemorrhaging. The Arena's already over for her, which would bother her if she ever intended to actually win one of these things. What actually does upset her is the fact that she's crawling back to someone else to slowly die, just like she did last time.

She's selfish. So sue her. She doesn't want to get lost in the fog and let the animals feast on her while she's alone.

There's a strange rage that pulses just beneath her skin, a hunger that creeps along between her bone and muscle that she can't explain. She itches at her flesh and some of it comes off, and her teeth hurt. She tries to not pick at herself, because she doesn't need to be opening new ones when the ones she got an hour ago are still oozing blood down her clothing to mingle with sweat.

The benefit of this strange setting change is that she has her powers back. She teleports back to the meeting place she and Enjolras had, landing with a bit of a squawk of pain as she puts weight on what is, in all likelihood, a broken ankle. She holds one arm close to her body, and the corner of her mouth has been sliced down to the side of her neck.

"Don't look now, but I'm a bit of a mess."

Comments

Nasir and Venus, round two

[calledmenasir]

Agron was dead and since then Nasir had operated without any feeling but rage. He retained reason but only to a certain extent. He had received a first aid kit after being knocked out by Gannicus and his used it to patch up his arm and tend to his other wounds. The bindings showed that he was wounded but the look in his eyes would give most pause. It seemed there was nothing human left, no compassion, thought for strategy, or desire to live. Nothing but a hate that filled him and could not find release.

Afftected by the food, he's almost unrecognizable. Skin pale and slimy like some underwater creature, hair almost entirely gone. Crowbar clutched in hand, he said nothing to Venus as he charged her. There were no taunts or expression of his respect for her for their last fight because he felt nothing.

Re: Nasir and Venus, round two

[celebrityskinned]

If she weren't a trained mercenary, she might have taken the crowbar to the brain, become nothing more than a pinkish-red splatter on the ground and a corpse with a hole in its skull. As it stands she hears him coming just in time, and throws herself to the side.

If she weren't dehydrated and lethargic, she might have spared herself entirely. Instead she only just avoids his body weight and throws her weight at his ankles, trying to bring them both to the ground.

"Nahs-" She almost gasps his name, but the truth is he looks more like Gollum than the gladiator she knew of. The other factor blocking her words is the crowbar hook catching the inside of her mouth and tearing. She feels her cheek split from her gum, from the base of her teeth. She feels hot blood spilling down her chin and neck. She's lands on her hands, grunting as a lance of pain shoots up her wrist.

[calledmenasir]

Nasir didn't waste time. He kicked at her, trying to keep her still on the ground. There was no response to his half formed name. He didn't feel like Nasir anymore. He didn't feel like Tiberius either or a gladiator. He was this thing-- transformed and ugly and he didn't even care any longer.

While he kicked, he brought his crowbar down over her head, planning to knock her out for good so he could finish her off.

[celebrityskinned]

She avoids it this time, using her skill on the ground to slip her leg between his ankles and jerk enough to bring him down beside her. She throws her weight into the punch she swings at his pelvis.

[calledmenasir]

Nasir lost his breath and he couldn't roll away from the punch. Instead he had to endure it. The crowbar had fallen out of his grip as he fell but he reached for it and whipped it through the air. If he could strike her again that would give him a chance to recover and press the attack once more-- without being on the defensive.

[celebrityskinned]

"No!" She can barely form the word, such a simple word, with the damage done to her mouth. Her tongue feels like it's flopping in a careless free-fall. She throws her arm back to grab the crowbar, catching it on her forearm and feeling the bone splinter inside her.

Better her arm than her head.

She throws another punch, now effectively one-handed, this one aimed straight at his nose. She follows it up with a grab for the wrist with the crowbar, looking to repay the broken arm with a like favor.

[calledmenasir]

Nasir let out a sharp, cut off cry as the fist impacted his nose. He heard a crunch of bone and cartilage and the blood came trickling down his nostrils, spilling onto his lips so he tasted copper.

He turned his wrist, trying to twist it out of Venus's grip. His hand flew up, palm facing out, to strike her nose and, if not break her nose as well, send fragments of bone flying up into her brain cavity.

"I will tear you apart for this." He rasped.

[celebrityskinned]

He breaks her nose, although it doesn't have the lethal effect he was hoping for. It stuns her, but she's already partway into a kick towards his midsection. She follows through too hard and falls, blood spraying onto the ground, mingling with the mist.

Tear her apart?

"Maximush did it awready. And be'ter." She flips back to her feet.

[calledmenasir]

Nasir had tried to roll aside so she kicked his back instead of his vulnerable stomach but he was only halfway into it when her foot connected with his body. He groaned but pushed himself up with one arm, even if he was a little shaky.

He readjusted his grip on the crowbar but didn't lunge yet. Steadying himself, he looked at his enemy. Weak. He could kill her so easily if he had a spear, if he weren't injured, if he didn't have a blinding rage blocking any thoughts of how to go about this.

With a grunt, he threw himself at her again.

[celebrityskinned]

She knows when she's lost. The fact is, she believes she could still kill Nasir, if she can hold onto her consciousness in spite of the blinding pain in her arm and face - but she has no doubts that she would die too.

She's not rushing to that like she once was.

She flops back to the ground, a death drop that's surprising in its flexibility and riskiness. It brings her under him enough to avoid his blow, and she rolls forward and springs to her feet. She takes off at a run.

[calledmenasir]

Nasir ran after her despite the sharp ache in his ribs, the pain in his wrists, and the blood that still flowed from his nose. But there was something in him that was more animal than human. He was not a predator but he was out to kill and the anger at having been denied that thrill drove him on.

He yelled her name or rather, something like her name. It was hard to make out through the growl and altered sound of his voice because of his shattered nose.