thearena | [open] your opponent is as big as an ape

Who| Justin Hammer + YOU
What| Trying not to be killed yo
Where| Around the mall. Food court, the department store,
When| Day 2/3
Warnings/Notes| None thus far, but due to the nature of the game, you never know.

The first day Justin hadn’t had much confrontation, thankfully, for his own state of mind. He had met Tony, that in its own right had been something of a shock to him, more so than a lot of other things that he had experienced so far, and even he knew that was a little bit skewed. After that, well, after that he had been doing his best to avoid people. And he hadn’t been doing too terribly.

As soon as he had gotten off the ice he had headed as many others straight for the department store. Perhaps it was beneficial at the time that he didn’t know anyone, because after pulling off his skates he had managed to slip in surprisingly unnoticed. So many others were caught up in looking for friends (could you call them that even if you may have to kill them in the end?), but he had been alone. His first task had been to locate some more appropriate clothes, not that his costume had been too horrible. Instead he had opted for simple slacks, a t-shirt and a hoodie, along with a nice pair of sneakers. Quick. Easy. And not particularly memorable. He had been lucky enough to be able to grab a backpack before they were all gone, and into it went a couple extra items of clothing, underwear, socks, and extra shirt in case for some reason the temperature inside the arena dropped. He found a blanket too, and then snuck to the home goods section of the store. He grabbed a cleaver and kept it at that, and with the skates tied to the backpack he had snuck out again.

Since then, he had been spending most of his time on the third floor. Laying low, as it was, especially during the night. Occasionally during the day he would slip down to the first or second floor, mainly for food, but most of the time he had avoided anything that had caused a lot of noise. Despite Captain America’s rousing speech at the start, well, he still wasn’t sure if that could be trusted. If anything could be trusted, and so he didn’t.

Now though, it was daytime, and he was slowly making his way towards the sporting goods store. He wanted to see if there was anything useful still available. Maybe a baseball bat or a hockey stick, anything that would give him a wider berth. And if he ran into anyone on the way? Well, he would deal with that when the time came. He was going to hold onto the mantra of not making the first move.

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Justin and Tom have similar ideas, although Tom is searching for something more close range rather than something that will give him more reach. He's already acquired a cane that's really more like a long club, and he expects that that will be enough to counter anyone coming at him with a gold club or baseball bat. The object of his desire now is a knife.

The hunting section of the sporting goods store seems the most appropriate place to start the search, and likely the one that will attract the most people, he thinks. Anyone with half a brain in their head would try to arm themselves with something made to kill animals. As such, as he slinks through the aisles, he keeps his grip on the cane and his shoulder bunched, ready to unleash a swing that could save his life and take an opponent's.

But he doesn't feel the need to use that when he turns a corner and finds Justin, cleaver or not, because while there's a moment of startling, neither man makes the first move. Instead they stand at something of an impasse.

"Careful, lad. I'm looking for something to defend myself, not attack you."

Justin's already got a knife, thankfully, so the hunting goods part of the store isn't of that much interest to him, other than to see if maybe there was something more he could use. Maybe some tinned food or jerky, something that would allow him to keep away from the food court, but alas, all that seems to be removed. He has found his hockey stick, even broken off the end of it, and now he's stocking up on survival rope bracelets. They'll come in handy for his plans for the stick, and well, maybe in general, too.

And he knows this is likely a popular section, despite being empty for now. He's still on guard, he's always on guard, though still when someone stumbles upon him, well, he doesn't do much. It's not that he's stunned, but with the other not attacking, he's not going to either.

"And all I have is some rope." He held up one of the bracelets then, and gave a light shrug. Of course he did have a knife easily accessible should it be necessary, but for now, well, it stayed in his pocket. "There isn't much left back there. A couple of little swiss army knives. Practical, I grabbed a few myself, but I didn't see anything big, but then again, I wasn't looking very hard."

And then he paused. "You didn't happen to see a bow and arrow anywhere, did you?"

Tom lowers his cane, although he doesn't rest on it. He still keeps it in hand in case he has to block a blow.

"Why, you have a taking to archery?" Tom actually supposes that a ranged weapon would be useful here, and makes a note to stay in stores with aisles. It'll make him more difficult to pick off if someone else has already gotten the same idea and come to find themselves armed. "I saw bows, but nothing you could actually use to injure someone. I wasn't looking terribly hard either."

Swiss army knives will be useful if he has to build a bomb. He keeps that in mind. For the moment he holds his hand out.

"Tom Cassidy. Always looking to meet likeminded, practical people."

Somewhere among the darkness of the shelves...body moved.

Sandy was creeping along on her own in the shop while Pruna looked for supplies. They had split up reluctantly but Sandy knew Pruna was in shouting distance if she needed her.

With days away from her cell and Pruna at her side Sandy was feeling more collected but no more calm. Her fingers still twitched nervously when she was thinking too hard and though her eye was finally functional again, her vision through it was blurry at the worst times.

It was because of this she tripped on a shoe box and knocked over a display table of cleats that crashed to the ground nosily. She did the best she could to dart out of sight but someone may have spotted her retreating form.

Of course the crash startled him. How could it not? Justin turned to it, the knife he kept in his pocket normally was already in hand, held close to him as he made his way towards the now heap of cleats that laid on the floor. He had seen someone move, but away from it, which was, in part, promising. It meant that they likely weren't set out to attack him, unless they were coming around to get him from behind, but so far it didn't seem like that.

And that was why he followed, albeit slowly. He didn't want to come off as threatening. He wasn't threatening, after all. And though this went against his better judgment, curiosity got ahold of him, and he wanted to see who it was. Maybe they could trade something. If they had something of value to him, maybe he had something of value to them.

"Hey, I'm not here to hurt anyone." He called, though it was still in hushed tones. He winced, though, realising that well, that was what murders always said on TV shows. "I'm even going to put my knife away. A gesture of good will."

"You better be doing." A voice came from nearby. Pruna had gotten a couple of supplies but the crash had sent her running, ice skate in hand. They were still the closest things she had to weapons.

She took in the situation quickly, Sandy trying to hide, the display table, the man with the knife, it all screamed danger and Pruna did her best to look threatening.

"You will no be hurting her."

Sandy heard Pruna's voice and a rush of relief found her.

Pruna was here, she wasn't alone. She wasn't going to have to kill this man on her own.

Peeking out from the shelf she was hiding behind she needed to see how close he was to her. Her hand groped for a weapon and the best she could come up with was a cleat. Still the pointy bits on the other side would probably hurt.

[open] your opponent is as big as an ape

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hope you don't mind the gatecrashing

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