Oh my love, I know you are the Candy Man

[gamemakers]

Although the mood in the Capitol is...taut, once the Tributes are in the transportation craft, things seem to lighten. The peacekeepers almost seem jovial - as jovial as peacekeepers ever seem. About half the Tributes are checked over and given an injection into their tracking device.

In the underground room, the stylists have all their prep teams running busy, dressing up the tributes in bright costumes, chatting with each other, clearly excited to have so much freedom over what their Tributes are wearing in. Each one is dressed in a personalized costume, elaborate, and entirely soft.

Finally the Tributes are placed on their pedestals and sent on up, all gussied up.

25 - 24 - 23

The light is blinding for a moment, before the candy-colored world around them comes into focus. And it's not just candy-colored - it is actually candy. Some Tributes might be reminded of the game Candy Land, if it was something in their home world. Music plays, scarily cute animals roam, and every thing just looks so gosh-darn happy.

20 - 19 - 18 - 17 - 16

The Cornucopia sits, candy-striped itself, and over-flowing with a generous bounty of food, weapons, and supplies. Even these all reflect the nature of the arena, brightly-colored, and cheerful-looking, just begging to be gathered up.

11- 10 - 9 - 8

They've all been warned not to step off their pedestal early. But as the final number ticks off, those Tributes that had their tracking devices adjusted in the transport suddenly feel a sting starting in their arms. A slightly diluted version of what Ariadne was given the day before is dumped in their veins.

The dilution doesn't help them, of course; it just causes the poison to take effect more slowly.

5 - 4

3

2

1

Go.

The burning is starting for half of them, spreading through their body, lighting their nerves on fire. Within 10 minutes it's effecting their motor skills, causing them to stagger, twitch, to move against their will.

Those who are small fall faster, barely lasting 15 minutes in the bloodbath. The stronger and bigger among them might make it 30 minutes at most.

By the time the bloodbath is over, the Cornucopia is surrounded by corpses. Half of the Tributes have fallen without even a single competitor having to touch them.


[OOC: Don't forget the OOC Arena post, especially those of you running for the Cornucopia. Every Tribute must post to this post. There will be a Cornucopia thread, and anyone else feel free to post as you will. Please add a tag with your character's name.

Those who were poisoned are anyone in group 2. You will have a second post up shortly.]

Comments

[sleeplessinalternia]

Unfortunately, he doesn't change direction fast enough.

"Yes," Karkat rasps out. "Yes, fuck, of course I will. Bert, that was Terezi, Terezi and Redglare, fuck. She's dead, Bert, she's fucking dead, she shouldn't have died that fast, she's culled so many more trolls than I ever did, fuck. Fuck."

To his acute embarrassment, he realizes he's crying from his undamaged eye, staining the white of Cuthbert's blouse with red.

[tis_allgood]

"I know. They'll be back in the Capitol waiting for us when this is over." Bert is still firmly in emotional shut down right now and when he judged that there was nothing he could do for them he simply didn't care.

He sets Karkat down as gently as he can, taking the knife since he has no idea what he's up against with the creatures following him and hadn't gone through the rest of his weapons yet.

"Stay here. See if there's anything else you can use to defend yourself in there, but I'll do my best to keep them away."

The singing is annoying, even for someone usually so immune to it as Bert is. He turns to face the dokidokis following them and in a sing song mockery. "Come and see what I have for thee~"

[sleeplessinalternia]

The dokibeasts hiss at Cuthbert's singing, edging away from the two boys. Karkat has the bag open and he thinks he sees a folding knife in there, but the hissing dokibeasts grab his attention and he looks up at them. "Holy fuck. Do that again."

[tis_allgood]

"Do what?" He waves the knife with no effect and then takes a step forward and sings again. "Come and get me~"

He's a little surprised when the dokidokis hiss again and back off.

"Gan, they don't like being upstaged. Well, I'm certain we can do something about that."

He starts singing a few notes, no words yet, just trying to see how effective it is.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Yeah, okay, that's definitely what's doing it.

Karkat starts singing the first thing that pops into his head, which unfortunately is the opening theme to a cartoon show he used to watch as a tiny wiggler and that Tavros still watched as far as he knew because Tavros was fucking pathetic that way. "There is a land that I know, that is true and not just make-believe..."

(Fuck, these lyrics were ridiculous.)

[tis_allgood]

Bert stops singing to turn around and look at Karkat. He wants to laugh, but this is way too serious.

"Don't stop, dear, it seems to be working."

He gathers up their supplies and looks through them briefly. The throwing stars are interesting, and Cuthbert gives one of them a practice throw toward one of the dokidokis. When he draws blood the others turn on it in a rabid pack and Bert takes a startled step back.

"Truly, don't stop. That may be the difference between life and death right now."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"One where friends will defend one another to the end, and you never have to leave!"

Oh fuck. These are probably the most embarrassing lyrics in the fucking world too. Fuck this. Fuck this, fuck the dokibeasts, fuck everything.

"A boy with the love in his heart, 'boldened by the courage in his soul! He will fight for the rights of the fairies and the sprites, a hero among trolls!"

His life is nothing but pain and embarrassment.

"You sitting there watching troll TV, get on up and come with me! Adventure lies and soon you will be, watching Fiduspawn!"

It's at that point he switches to Troll Celine Dion.

[tis_allgood]

"Keep going, they may just leave us alone for a bit."

He regathers their supplies, gives them back to Karkat and picks him up again. He heads to the nearest towering candy cane and sets him down.

"You're as clever as you are lovely in that outfit. But I fear we'll only be hunted down more until we stop the bleeding. Are you in much pain?"

He cups the uninjured side of Karkat's head, trying to get a better look at how bad the injury is without taking the bandage off. It must look fairly scandalous to the audience (and Karkat) like he wants to lean in for a kiss.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat can feel his blood-pusher pound as Cuthbert leans in close to him. Why couldn't he choose one kind of flirtation and stick with it? Karkat likes Terezi flushed, not Cuthbert. Stupid fucking humans and their inability to keep it in one quadrant. He can't even tell if Cuthbert is mocking or sincere--and he's not entirely sure if Cuthbert can either.

A silver parachute floats down to land on the two of them.

[tis_allgood]

"Well now, I can only hope this is something of use to us."

For once he isn't trying to flirt or even flirting by proxy, he's just trying to see what he can do for his tet. And since Karkat has been singing for him for a while he might as well return the favor while he lets Karkat examine their gift.

The song he sings is slow and even, and in a language Karkat wouldn't recognize. It sounds calming, though, like a lullaby.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat opens the silver shell attached to the parachute. Karkat's not entirely sure what the thing inside is at first, but after twisting the cap off and smelling it, he thinks it might be medicine. There's small writing on the side and after a lot of squinting Karkat reads out loud instructions on how to apply it. So it really is medicine.

There's a note attached written in Human, in fancy, sparkly handwriting. "N...ow ki...ss," he sounds out under his breath.

[tis_allgood]

For some reason this isn't all that surprising to Cuthbert, but it's only because half of him thinks it's Karkat manipulating the situation to their advantage. After all, Bert can't read the note for himself to know. But he's grateful enough for the medication that he's not even going to question it.

Kissing means he'll have to stop singing, but the dokidokis are still tearing up the one he injured earlier so it's the best opportunity they're going to get. He takes hold of Karkat's face again, trying to be gentle with the injured part and gives him a surprisingly genuine kiss.

[sleeplessinalternia]

What the--

Oh fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He'd just been reading-- he hadn't meant--

And it was nice, nice and gentle, a flushed kiss, not a caliginous, shit. He shouldn't be enjoying this. Why was he enjoying this? TEREZI WAS LYING DEAD AND HE WAS ENJOYING BEING FLUSHKISSED BY THE BOY HE HATED THE VERY MOST. Fuck, he was such a worthless piece of trash. Couldn't keep it in one quadrant. Couldn't even flip properly. And it didn't matter that he still hadn't managed to tell Terezi how he felt, he still knew how he felt, and this was a fucking betrayal, good fucking job, Karkat.

He wasn't sure he'd ever hated Cuthbert so much as he did that moment for gently kissing him.

Karkat's lips part slightly, but then he jerks his head back because no, fuck, this is no time for this shit. "Not now. We need to get the fuck out."

[tis_allgood]

"Not yet, not with you still bleeding. You saw how those thing turned on the other at the first sign of blood. We need to fix you up then we can go. Agreed?"

He doesn't really wait for Karkat agree before he takes the medicine and helps him remove the impromptu dressing for his eye. He wants to make quick work of it so they can dispose of the rags and keep moving.

As he starts working he starts singing again, just in case. It's slow and deliberate, he wants Karkat to stay as calm as possible while he works.

the bleeding should be stopping after this i think, considering how ridic good capitol medicine is

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Fine," Karkat grumbles. He lets Cuthbert dress the wound for him. He can't see if the medicine is doing its work yet, but the pain seems to be abating and that's something.

He pulls another scarf out of his leotard to tie around his eyesocket once the wound is dressed, leaving the fake rumble spheres a lot smaller than they were at the start of this.

After a while he starts singing along to the 'na na na' part with Cuthbert, figuring it couldn't hurt.

[tis_allgood]

It doesn't escape Cuthbert's notice where Karkat gets the makeshift bandage. When he's done redressing Karkat's eye he throws the bloodied rags as far out as he can, hoping the dokidokis will take that over investigating the two people in their midst further. They have to get up and move again, but Cuthbert is feeling a little better about things.

He stands, offering Karkat a hand up. He doesn't want to stop singing just yet, since they're still so close, so he can't really ask if his partner is okay to walk. If he isn't, Cuthbert can always carry him for a ways further, but it will be easier if he doesn't exhaust himself too quickly.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat manages to stand again, although he wobbles slightly on the way up. There's nothing wrong with his legs though, thank fuck. He nods to Cuthbert, still singing along to the 'na na nas' then starts tugging him in a direction where there doesn't seem to be any dokibeasts.

(Considering the size of the bosom on Cuthbert's own costume, Karkat hopes it's filled with similar padding)

[tis_allgood]

When he's sure they're not being followed, or at least closely followed Cuthbert finally gives up on the song.

"How are you feeling? You were lucky to have that wrapping with you, although I will take a moment to mourn the loss of a good addition on thee."

He's trying to ignore his own padding because he thinks it looks ridiculous on him. But obviously he's feeling more confident if he thinks it's safe to joke again. He's still getting a feel for everything around them, and feeling frustrated with the general lack of cover.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat rolls his eyes. While he can appreciate a good pair of rumble spheres himself, it's not like his fake cloth ones were actually useful for anything except aesthetics. They certainly didn't have any dominance glands in them.

"That wasn't luck, that was being prepared. I asked them to pad them like that instead of using molded cushions because scarves are as useful as fuck."

[tis_allgood]

"I've no idea what they padded mine with."

He gives them an exploratory squeeze and just sort of shrugs. They're nothing all that special. But he knows Karkat is going to be off after seeing his friends dead, and teasing will take his mind off of it.

"I've had a hand full of more convincing breasts. But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate them on someone else. Nor have I missed that you have a skirt to lift now."

fuck yeah, folding knife parachute!

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Yeah, well, so do you," Karkat replies huffily. "And your fake rumble spheres are way bigger than the ones they gave me."

He squeezes them as well to prove his point (and hopefully embarrass Cuthbert.)

Then another parachute bonks him on the head.

[tis_allgood]

It's hard to embarrass someone who willingly embarrasses himself on a regular basis. But he does give Karkat a surprised look when he grabs them. He didn't expect the troll to be so forward.

"I think I may see a pattern here."

He takes the package and opens it, grinning at Karkat the whole time.

"Someone wants us to get along, and they're rewarding us when we do."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Oh hell," says Karkat. "Really?" This is stupid. "Am I going to have to make out with you whenever I get wounded now?"

He sticks his hand out. "That's my knife. It landed on my head, so it's meant for me."

[tis_allgood]

"Fine, I get to keep the big knife. Since I chased it down and stabbed someone for it."

He hands over the knife and rolls his eyes at Karkat. It's not nearly as effective in a fight as the one he got but he can't very well leave his partner unarmed.

"And don't make kissing me sound like such a chore. I don't believe it and it might stop the very kind flow of gifts."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Yeah, well, I've got two little knives," Karkat retorts, grabbing the other one out of the bag. "See? I'll totally dual-wield the shit out of them." He'd demonstrate, only the bag is in the way.

"Anyway," he adds, "it's more that it feels kind of weird to get paid for that shit. If I make out with someone I want it to be because I want them, not because I want a gift."