thearena | [S] Fustercluck

Entry tags:

[S] Fustercluck

Who| Karkat, Cuthbert, Lottie, and Shepherd (closed)
What| Karkat and Cuthbert pick up a girl, but then complications ensue.
Where| Dessert Arena
When| During the third week
Warnings/Notes| Language, character death, multi-threading

They avoid the corpses whenever possible. Whatever-it-is that's growing inside them creeps Karkat the fuck out. If he didn't know better, he'd think they were sprouting candy. They make him feel uneasy, off-kilter, much like the extremely short three hours off/three hours on day/night cycles.

And still, still, they are looking for tributes to murder.

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The human girl is pink, plump, and quite alone. Easy prey, Karkat figures. "What about her?" he asks Cuthbert.

Edited 2013-07-09 04:39 (UTC)

"Her? Not much of a challenge."

But they could use an easy win, honestly, so he nods and takes out his knife. He doesn't intend to use it unless he has to, but it might work just as well to scare her out of her belongings. And if she fought back it would be easier to kill her.

"Fine, but we don't have to kill her unless she really puts up a fight."

Lottie had her little bundle of supplies, and was trying to find a new spot to hide.

This arena was stick, disgustingly gross, but they had been there awhile, right? Maybe if she hid longer, she could make it out. Just let everyone else kill themselves off. But Some had needed the caves, so she had volunteered to find her own place apart from him.

Of course her hiding skills here were hampered by the fact she didn't want to touch anything here, whatsoever. She didn't nearly hear them until they were almost on her, spinning to face them.

"Bert?"

"Lottie?" He immediately reaches a hand out to Karkat to stop their approach. It's one thing to kill people they know, but he can't imagine it will look too good for them to kill an innocent and unsuspecting woman like this. He wants his face and name all over the Capitol, but for the right reasons.

"I know her, she won't put up a fight, but we don't need to kill her." Which is more code for 'I don't want to kill her', but it's close enough. He walks closer with his hands out to show they're empty.

Karkat rolls his eyes. "Fine," he says, folding his knife closed and slipping it back in the bag. "We're still taking her shit, right?" he hisses to Cuthbert.

She smiled brightly as she see Bert, clearly not expecting him to hard her. Thankfully she's right in this one.

"How are y'all doing?"

It's a friendly, bright greeting. Since leaving Some she's been lonely for company as much as anything else.

Karkat gets a poke to the chest for being rude in front of a lady. He tries to keep his voice low so Lottie can't hear it. "If we're taking her things then we're taking the lady with them. I won't leave her here with nothing, she would not last a day."

Then in a tone that Lottie can hear clearly. "We're doing well enough considering there are only three eyes now among the two of us. And please don't mind the outfits, I hope you understand they weren't our choosing. I'm glad to see you've made it this far. I hope you haven't seen much mishap."

Which hopefully explains why they're both dressed up like Magic Girls.

Oh fuck. Bert likes her, doesn't he? Is this what humans think is attractive? Soft and pink and yellow? She reminds him, weirdly, of Tavros, probably because she has that same air of total incompetency.

Not the stutter too, at least.

"We killed the guy that got Cuthbert last arena," Karkat says. "The sponsors liked that. They sent us cake shaped like a heart."

She pressed her fingers to her lips. Their outfits were much more suited to her shape then theirs, but it, and the cake.

Well.

She was trying not to laugh.

"I have not, besides the mishap that is this godforsaken arena." She hesitated to say this was the worst so far. But god she loathed it. "I'm sorry for your eye...but...glad for your. That."

Did she congratulate for that? Seemed right for the camera.

He really couldn't believe Karkat was trying to show off about that, of all things.

"You'll have to forgive his rudeness, Karkat has all the manners of 6 year old child." He gave the troll in question a sharp look to go with his insult.

"What all do you have so far? We're not exactly full of supplies at the moment, and it will be harder to hunt for three than just two."

"Trolls call them sweeps," Karkat corrects him. He's annoyed that Cuthbert is turning his age into an insult just because Bert's older.

Karkat frowns. He's seen this woman before, but for the life of him he can't think of what the fuck her name is. He turns back to Lottie and Cuthbert. "Either of you recognize her?"

Edited 2013-07-09 04:40 (UTC)

Bert squints through the darkness, trying to get a better look at the person they're potentially facing. His eyes are sharper than most, but they still need light to work properly. Still, he doesn't see anything he can quickly identify in the stranger.

"Not I. Lottie, have you met this one before?"

Lottie glances over, not expecting to recognize them in the slightest.

Except, she did.

"That's the-" She caught herself before saying something very unlady like.

"She stole my things, earlier in the arena."

"Did she? Bitch." Karkat snorts, fully ignoring the fact they'd planned to do the same to Lottie before Bert had realized who she was. "We should shank her and take it back."

That subtle 'thwack' sound was just Cuthbert hitting Karkat in the back of the head.

"A gentleman doesn't talk like that around a lady. And just because you're dressed in a skirt does not let you off the hook on being a gentleman."

He gave a little nod to Lottie and then added. "But I agree, we should get back whatever Lottie lost and then some."

Lottie gave him an indulgently thankful smile.

Not that she could really talk, since that was what was about to come out of her own mouth.

"I doubt she still has what she stole from me..."

Meanwhile, from where she'd been crouching, Shepard sighed. One thing was for sure, these weren't professionals— or at least not enough of them were to keep quiet those that were. She gave them time, trying to focus on setting her snare, and only gave up when it became clear that whatever else, they thought they were being subtle.

Like I need this.

Ah well, another day another death; she shifted subtly, cracking her neck to loosen the joints, unfolding her bootknife with one hand, waiting. Eventually they'd get around to trying something and she'd be ready. Maybe Thane's Arashu would help her out, for once and it'd even be soon.

"We'll steal the rest of her stuff to make up for it, then," Karkat whispers back to Lottie. His two folding knives are unfolded, at his hands and ready. "I'll go in first," he adds even more softly. "I have the advantage."

With that, he runs forward, knives at hand, at the Shepherd he can see even more clearly now than he could during the day. If he can't kill her, the least he wants to do is to injure her.

She heard him coming, was tensed, ready, but the whirl was blind in the dark and as she turned, she caught the edge of his attack on her guard, slicing a shallow swath across one forearm. She felt the fabric flap, the coolness on her skin, but was already committed. Shepard seized both his wrists, oriented blind by his charge, and with no thought for the pain pulled him downward as she thrust her knee upward as hard as she could. That was the key; if you were going to strike, be sure to hit, and hit hard. Commit fully to any attack and make sure that there is nothing left to retaliate.

You picked the wrong fight, kid— but even so, she had to finish this fast. Those damn rabbit-vultures would home in their little ambush soon, and that'd make things a whole hell of a lot more interesting for everyone involved.

Lottie didn't even have a chance to speak before Karkat was rushing into battle.

But this went very much against her passivity in the arena. And really, Shepard had stolen her things, but she could have done much worse. Even if she had bruised Lottie's ego.

"Wait, everyone, just..."

Cuthbert knew better than to jump in and risk getting hit by Karkat as well as their new opponent. He would never ever live that down. He reached into his bag and brought out his throwing stars. He had very little practice with them, but as long as he didn't hit his partner he would be okay.

"Karkat! Get down!"

He didn't want to give much more warning than that before he threw three of them one after the other. Had his aim been more laterally accurate it would have been a devastating hit. Unfortunately the only neck that took the brunt of his weapons was Lottie's.

Karkat hits the ground, just in time to see Lottie fall not too many feet away from him, one of Cuthbert's throwing stars embedded in her neck. He stares at the trickling blood--as red as his, he'll never get over that about humans--and then back up at Cuthbert and Shepherd.

"Fuck," he says.

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[S] Fustercluck

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