[open]

[tucky]

Who| Tiffany Doggett AND YOU
What| Tiffany decides to get murderous
Where| The woods
When| midweek, Week 2
Warnings/Notes| If you haven't already, please take a look at her permissions post before tagging her so I know what you are and aren't comfortable with!

Stop making friends. The message had been clear as day - whoever RA was, they weren't happy about the fact that several people had convinced Tiffany to ally with them. And the note hadn't come alone - "RA" and several other people had sent supplies raining down on her from the heavens. Tiffany knows about sponsors, but she still can't help but see these as gifts from God, at least in part, and she sends up a little prayer after each one.

The knives are the most exciting. Compared to what other people have, the flimsy little plastic shiv she's been using is pathetic - and while she doesn't throw it away completely now, she does tuck it into her pocket and put her focus on her new, improved weapons.

She knows what she's supposed to do. The Capitol has made themselves clear.

She chooses the woods because - as creepy as they are - they're more familiar to her than the castle or the medieval village. She isn't brave enough to go in too deep - she finds a good climbing tree a few hundred yards in and scales it, stopping when she's a good ten or fifteen feet off the ground. She uses her ropes to tie all her other supplies up in the tent and haul them up too, securing them to a branch next to her. And there she sits, one of her five knives at the ready, waiting for somebody to walk by. If it's someone she's friendly with or has previously formed an alliance with, she'll hesitate - but if it's a stranger, she'll wait quietly until they're close enough for her to get a good shot in. Then she'll throw, aiming right for the jugular.

Comments

[justoutrunyou]

The time has come to test Tiffany's morality it seems as a small figure creeps through the forest lightly, holding of all ridiculous things...a rose.

Sandy had traveled deep into the forest in part to test her own courage and in part to seek out fresh food. Surely there should be game to hunt in these woods right?

Apparently not today.

Dressed in what looks like a knights tabard with a 12 on it, the girl looks like a figure from a storybook rather then that same know-it-all brat who had talked down to Tiffany in the shops before.

[tucky]

Tiffany's morality is a bit of a highwire act, but luckily for Sandy, she's not quite at the point of rampant kidmurdering yet - especially not a kid she's met before and had sort of gotten along with.

After taking a moment to make sure that Sandy is alone, Tiffany leans forward a little, shaking one of the lower branches to try to get her attention.

"Psst. Psst."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy gives a start at the sound and raises a crossbow that had been hidden in her tabard. It was pointed in Tiffany's direction for a whole thirty seconds before Sandy recognized Tiffany's face and lowered the weapon.

"Geeze, I didn't even see you. Good job." She mumbled sheepishly her cheeks blushing red. In truth she'd been contemplatin the white rose she held and that probably didn't help her sense of perception.

[tucky]

Tiffany nods proudly, but doesn't come down out of the tree. "Where'd you get that?" She points at the crossbow, eyeing it with a little too much interest. "The cornucopia?"

[justoutrunyou]

"Yeah." She smiled smugly, proud of herself for her luck at snatching up a weapon rather then...well nothing at all.

Feeling a chill running up her back she cast a wary look over her shoulder before turning her attention back to Tiffany.

"Good to see you survived your first Cornucopia. Nothing more depressing then dying on the first day...except maybe making it all the way to the last day and getting killed."

She had done both, more then once.

[tucky]

From what she's heard, Tiffany is pretty sure the latter is lot more impressive than the former - which means, to her, it's a lot less depressing.

"Yeah, well, I didn't go at the Cornucopia at all. My people back in the Capitol said to stay away from it; said to not even try. Said it's called a bloodbath for a reason."

[justoutrunyou]

"That's probably for the best." Sandy agreed relaxing her stance once she was sure they weren't about to get ambushed. "But it's hard too surviving till the sponsor gifts arrive. My first arena was nothing but ice and snow. I would have died without some people who took care of me." People she owed her life to even if she'd eventually died.

"Like a place like this? I wouldn't trust the water just as it is."

[tucky]

"I did get some stuff from sponsors. I got a lot of water." Or several days' worth, anyway. It had come just in time, too; she'd dehydrated herself subsisting on rainwater for a week, since the one time she drank a little of the bay water it had made her violently ill.

"How often do they make deliveries?"

[justoutrunyou]

"Erm...kind of depends." Sandy tried to do some math in her head. unfortunately keeping track of time was difficult in some arenas.

"If you're really popular? Once a week. Sometimes you only get one care package though and that's it for the arena. Sometimes it's every couple of weeks. I've gone some arenas where I never got any care packages."

Those were usually because she was being punished but there was once or twice she just hadn't gotten any help.

[whydoyoushine]

Zed is at ease here in the woods, but he's been at ease everywhere in this Arena. Especially when it's dark, when most people just might be getting creeped out by the environment, he's thriving.

He can't stay in the castle forever--the familiarity of it all gets boring--and so he's out there in the woods, looking for something more interesting. The flame marker continues to follow him around, to make him easy to spot, but he doesn't care. He's used to being something most people wouldn't want to mess with. He hasn't noticed her up in the trees yet, and he just looks like a guy on a really boring nature walk instead of a guy wandering around some creepy forest in a deathmatch arena.

[tucky]

Tiffany almost throws - she doesn't see who it is at first, and so she assumes it's a stranger. She's about to let the knife fly when she realizes it's Zed, and in her surprise, she drops the knife.

"Shit!"

It falls to the ground, right at this feet.

[whydoyoushine]

Zed stops walking when the knife lands there at his feet, and he bends to pick it up. "You dropped something," he calls up at the trees, as though it was something totally harmless and not a knife. He's been attacked by worse, and given the angle at which the knife fell, he's not even sure it's an attack. Even if it is, well, wouldn't be the first time someone's tried to stab him.

When he looks up in the tree and realizes who it is, he asks, "You want me to toss it back?" Because he's confident he can throw a knife, have it stick in the tree, and not kill anyone if he wants. They scored him a ten for a reason.

[tucky]

"Yeah." She reaches down for it hungrily, like she's worried that - allies or not - he's going to change his mind and keep it for himself. "Or just hand it. Or I can come down. But I want it back."

[whydoyoushine]

With powers being on in this Arena, Zed doesn't feel like he needs the knife. Therefore, he sees nothing wrong with giving it back. He'll go try to hand it back up to her, seeing as how that involves the least amount of effort on his part. "You got it?" If he suspects she's been trying to hit people with the knives up there, he's not saying anything. He looks just as lazy and unconcerned with everything as always.

[tucky]

"Yeah. Thanks." She runs her finger along the blade's edge, making sure it's still sharp, before closing it and tucking it into her pack.

"How you doing? You kill anybody yet?" She sounds calm and unconcerned too; she's taking her cues from him.

[whydoyoushine]

"Nah, timing hasn't been right." Zed shrugs. "And I haven't seen anyone with anything I wanted to take from them. You?"

[tucky]

She thinks about lying, but ultimately decides not to. "Nah. Timing hasn't been right for me, neither. I could've thrown this knife at you, though. I almost did except then I saw it was you."

[atouchofka]

Alain limps through the woods, leaning heavily on his makeshift crutch. He managed to tighten up the splint on his broken leg when the sponsors dropped him a medical kit, and the burns on his hand are healing fairly well, but he's still in bad shape. It shows in the way his leg drags behind him, in the slow and painful way he kneels to set a snare, then levers himself heavily back to his feet.

But there's nothing wrong with his eyes, or with his Touch. He senses her probably before she sees him, feels her mind like a light in the trees. Out of the corner of his eye, he watches her as he limps between the trees, his injured leg dragging through fallen leaves. But he doesn't turn his head, just eases himself down to set a snare about fifty yards from the tree where she's sitting. He keeps her in his periphery, apparently focusing on his work.

He doesn't look like much of a threat. He's injured and filthy, plump and stolid-looking. But if she does throw her knife, she'll learn differently: his hand moves almost too fast to follow, and suddenly the blade's lodged in the wood of his makeshift crutch.

"How many knives do you have?" he asks, after a moment, still kneeling.

[tucky]

Tiffany can't help but be impressed at those reflexes. Wow. She pulls another knife out of her pack - just holding it, not throwing it - and eyes him warily.

"None of your business."

[atouchofka]

Alain reaches up, pulling the knife out of his crutch and tucking it into the pocket of his vest along with his own folding knife.

"Fair," he says, with a little shrug. "Only you might think twice before throwing them away." Gritting his teeth, he leaves the half-tied snare and pushes himself to his feet (well, foot), turning to look up at her. "You didn't ask my advice. I kennit."

[tucky]

"You fucking stealing my knife?" She looks far more offended than she has any right to look, considering she'd just tried to kill him. "I got that from my sponsors."

[atouchofka]

Hardly feels like theft, Alain almost says. Especially not when you've another in your hand. But he can feel her mind on the edge of his consciousness. It isn't that she's offended, that's not what gives him pause. He's not sure what it is, exactly, except a deeper feeling that this is someone who's been given every reason in her life to be suspicious. Besides, he has a knife in his pocket too. He doesn't need another much more than she does.

He gives it a long moment's thought, standing perfectly still with his hand in his pocket. Then, pulling the folded knife out, he tosses it to Tiffany in a smooth, easy motion. "Don't throw it," he advises, looking up at her. "Knife's not like a gun. You only get one shot."

[tucky]

She hadn't actually expected him to give it back. She catches it and stares at it in her hand, confused and blinking. She'd tried to kill him, or at least hurt him, and yet he's giving her her things back and giving her advice. She doesn't know what to make of this.

She wants to do what the Capitol tells her to - fight and kill and put on a good show. But it's hard to make herself be angry sometimes. She tries to summon some up now, but it doesn't work. Anger can come to her so quickly on its own, but when she tries to force it, it's not enough.

"I don't have a gun," she says, harshly. "I wish I did, 'cause I'm supposed to do attacks from far away; that's what my mentor said. So excuse me for doing as I was told."

[atouchofka]

Alain is quiet for a moment. Then he sighs, raising one bandaged hand in supplication. "Cry pardon. I never was best with knives. Could be I'm wrong." He half-smiles, his expression wistful. "You're not the only one who wishes for a gun, anyroad. Sets me on edge, not having one." Not only because of the surroundings. It's been weeks, and his hip still feels naked without a holster, too light without the weight of his father's pistol.

His hand goes unthinkingly to where that gun ought to hang, and finds nothing but the waistband of the ridiculous leggings they put him in. Sighing, he leans on his crutch and looks up at her. "You're not trained for this, huh?"

[tucky]

"Mm." She nods at his gun comment. She doesn't feel exactly the same, but she would definitely feel better having one, in this situation.

"I'm trained," she lies. They aren't allies. She doesn't want to admit that she's completely unprepared for this. "Maybe I'm just hiding what I can do."