Camping trip!

[knifewithnoname]

Who| Pruna, Sandy and open
What| Sandy gets a tent, the girls go on an adventure. Come meet them!
Where| Candy arena, all places (they are traveling around)
When| Week 3
Warnings/Notes| Let us know if you want both girls, just Sandy or just Pruna in your subject line! Also if she doesn't know you Pruna may attack so let us know if that's okay/if you want your character to be injured

[At the gingerbread house] Pruna stabbed another doki doki and threw it as far as she could, watching as the others ran after it leaving the path to the house clear. It was becomming annoying, they were attracting more doki doki than they could eat.

And almost more than they could handle. She went to open the door when she saw a parachute attached to a larger than usual package, and a second one with a smaller package. Picking them up she saw that they were both for Sandy. She burst into the house with a grin.

"Someone do be liking you." She threw them over.

[Throughout the week, anywhere] The tent is a small fit, and difficult to carry when Pruna was still mostly carrying Sandy, but it meant they could leave the house.

It was strange that night and day were so short, and the noise was starting to drive Pruna crazy even though they took turns using the ear plugs she had got in the package she had grabbed at the Cornucopia.

But still, moving around and seeing more of the arena, it made Pruna feel like she was doing something.

Comments

[justoutrunyou]

"stop...stop here."

Sandy had spent so much of this arena completely dependent on Pruna, honestly she was amazed that anyone had sent her any gifts to begin with. But there was nothing she could do. Her leg was a useless mangled mess from below the knee.

At least, there was nothing she could do till now.

"Look." She pointed at some stalks of candy cane trees that were younger and thinner then the other. Leaning hard on the chainmail lined umbrella Sandy was looking thoughtful and irritated at the same time.

"We still got some rope?" She turned to look back at Pruna hopefully. Pruna had been in charge of the rope in case they needed it for traps and the like.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna stopped, standing close in case Sandy was tired and needed help. She was keeping her irritation hidden as best she could at their slow pace.

"We do be, do you be having an idea?" She slipped the waterproof bag off her back and dug around in search of rope.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy nodded, and leaning hard on her umbrella she began to hobble slow towards the red and white striped trees.

"I can't let you ACTUALLY carry me through the whole arena. It'll just slow you down. So let's make me a crutch." She explained. Her speed was hindered both by the leg she feared putting any weight on. The other hinderance came from the awkwardly shaped umbrella she was currently using as a cane.

[knifewithnoname]

"That do be being a good idea." Pruna grinned and dug around in the bag for rope before handing it to Sandy and speeding ahead towards the stupid trees.

"How many branches do you be needing?"

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy grinned back holding the rope and watching her scurry ahead.

"Let's start with four, that way if I screw up we have an extra." She'd never actually made one before but she could picture in her head what a crutch needed to look like. Surely she could make something so simple right?

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna nodded and surveyed the trees to work out how best to take the branches. They looked too solid, and not bendy like real branches to break off. So she went back to grab the sword.

Measuring the distance with her eyes she stood in a solid position and swung the sword towards the first branch, soon she had four candy sticks to hand to Sandy.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy sat down slowly at first but gave up halfway to the ground and sat down hard. The aching muscles in her good leg and the arm that had been taking most of the extra weight of her leg thanked her. studied the sticks feeling their weight and how flexible they were, as if she had even the faintest idea what she was doing and tried to position them the way they were supposed to look. Now that she actually had the puzzle pieces in front of her she could see that it wasn't nearly as easy as she had envisioned in her head.

Still desperation and a burning lump of self loathing in her chest urged her hands to work and she set about binding the sticks together as best she could. It seemed all that practice tying knots had finally paid off.

She had to trim one of the branches into smaller pieces to provide support but finally she had something that looked...well it looked silly really. A candy cane crutch? There were times where Sandy just had to stop and realize how absolutely silly this arena was. She imagined a room full of grown ups in stupid suits like the kind they wore to parties and one of them sits up and says "Gentlemen! I want a world made of candy."

Back in the moment she used her umbrella and Pruna's help to stand up, asking the girl to hand her the crutch. Slowly, tentatively she put her weight on the item feeling it dig into the soft ground. The longer pieces had a little give to them, and the handle dug into her armpit very uncomfortably.

But it held.

"I can't believe this actually worked." She muttered somewhat prematurely. She had not after all used it to walk yet.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna watched carefully, memorising the knots and how it had been put together, in case she needed to make one herself in the future.

"It do be looking good." She grinned when Sandy began to test it and pointed to the trees, "Be walking over there."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy looked up to the trees and choked down a moan that threatened to escape her. Even this short distance seemed to stretch on for miles knowing how much her leg hurt with even the slightest pressure or motion. But if she was careful maybe she could manage it.

One way or another she'd have to make it work.

Crutch first, then putting her weight into it and her foot moved. Then crutch, then foot. Her arm was already sore from having the crutch dig into her armpit but she kept pushing on in this awkward jerky fashion.

A stumble, she grunted and put all her weight into the good leg to keep herself from falling all the way. Her bad leg brushed the ground and she let out a whimper, clamping her eyes shut.

Still as she could, quivering from the pain she remained until she had gathered herself, and began moving once more.

In precisely twenty steps she reached the line of the trees and slumped against the sticky bark of one red and white peppermint scented piece of the forest. Sweat was dripping off her flushed face due in no small part to the stupid panda costume she was still stuck in.

But she'd made it. And the crutch was in one piece!

Too bad it had taken her twice...maybe three times as long as it would have taken Pruna just to walk that far.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna wasn't going to let her give up before she had even began and she glared at Sandy until she started walking. She walked next to her, slowly, ready to catch her if the crutch failed to hold her weight.

She grinned when she reached the tree. "It do be working, you did be doing well." She wrinkled her nose for a moment and then poked Sandy in the forhead.

"I can be teaching you a trick, so you do no be feeling the pain so bad. If you do be wanting."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy's eyes suddenly focused sharply at the offer and she looked shocked.

Biting back her original response to yell about why Pruna hadn't brought this up sooner, she swallowed it down to form a rock in her stomach to weigh on her while she answered much more politely.

"Really? How!?" She was eager, desperate to learn how to block out the pain like Eva's note had suggested.

[knifewithnoname]

To be honest Pruna had just assumed that at Sandy's age she would have known how to already, and the fact she was obviously failing she had just put down to her being bad at it.

But she had realised over the last few days that maybe Sandy didn't know, after all until Kant had taught her Pruna had had no idea about the emptiness and Sandy, even though she had had a dad, he had been captured and put in prison, so maybe he hadn't had time to teach her useful stuff.

That made Pruna feel a bit bad for her, that no one had taught her stuff like that. So Pruna would do her best. "Okay it do be being called the emptiness, and it do be taking away all your feelings for a little why. But no just the bad ones, the good ones as well so it do be feeling a bit strange. Be imagining a storm in your head first."

[justoutrunyou]

"The Emptiness" sounded ominous to Sandy and a creeping anxiety settled over her for a moment. But Pruna had only ever tried to help since they became allies so Sandy knew to trust and at least try this trick.

Anything was better then the alternative.

"OK...Storm." She closed her eyes and pictured one of the almost weakly storms that would pound down upon New York. It was easy, such rainstorms were her lullabies. The sound of water pounding against pavement was soothing and familiar to her even if it had once seemed oppressive and gloomy.

[knifewithnoname]

"Okay, then you do be putting everything into the storm. Be starting with the pain, and all your bad feelings, but everything do be needing to be going in there."

She watched carefully, giving Sandy time to try.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy tried to picture it, like the pain was all on a sheet of paper and the paper was swept up and make soggy by the storm. Ripped out of her hand and sent fluttering into the shadows.

She wasn't sure this was going to work.

"How? Do I just...think really hard about it?"

[knifewithnoname]

"Yes, you do be imagining it all and be throwing it in the storm, and then you do be throwing all the nice feelings, and everything in there. One at a time but you do be having to be seeing it. Closing your eyes might be helping."

She reached out to help Sandy sit down, as not having to stay upright might help her as well.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy took the help and was lowered to the ground. That did help.

So there she was, on the rooftop of a building in the middle of the storm.

First the pain. Then fear.

Anger.

Confusion.

Hope.

Each one a piece of paper swept away by the rains and winds till she couldn't see them. It was like she was a glass being emptied. She tried to imagine how that would feel.

Hollow.

Still.

And when she opened her eyes she wasn't sure it had worked, the pain was still there but...then she realized she could think.

"I don't know if I did it right." She confessed unable to ignore the heat and throbbing in her leg.

[knifewithnoname]

"Almost I do be thinking." She wrinkled her nose, "Be sending all your memories in too, everything, and this arena, all the people you do be knowing."

[justoutrunyou]

That froze Sandy cold to her core. Her eyes snapped open and she looked quizzically at Pruna voice startled and confused.

"All of them? Even you!?" It was a frightening prospect being forced to abandon the first people she'd felt a connection to since arriving here.

Pruna. Effie. Even Prim had started growing on her before the whole cuff thing.

[knifewithnoname]

"Yes, even me." Pruna looked annoyed, "I do no be going anywhere, just be doing it." She understood why she didn't want to, Pruna hadn't wanted to at first either. But it was this or be in agony.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy's expression wilted and she swallowed hard. Her stomach was twisting in knots and her heart stiffened at the idea.

"It's not...like permanent right?" She mumbled sheepishly "My fiends are all that's been keeping me...alive." She added.

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna wrinkled her nose, "You will no be forgetting us completely, just what you do be feeling about us." She shrugged, "I do be using the emptiness all the time and it do no be doing me no harm."

[justoutrunyou]

She trusted Pruna, she had to. After everything the girl had done for her...

...so why did this feel so wrong?

It's not like she had known any of them for that long. And feelings were starting to get the better of her.

"Alright...alright just for a little while." She closed her eyes again and felt exhaustion creeping into the edges of her awareness.

The storm howled around her thrashing at her clothes and ripping at her hair. Each little ball of paper with a name, a feeling, a picture torn from her fingers and flung into the cyclone.

It felt like tearing out ribs. Like pouring out a glass and all that was left was transparent and dirty. Used.

Empty.

When she opened her eyes her lips were drawn in a frown and her eyes glassy with fatigue.

"I still don't think I did it right." She mumbled even though something did feel very different. And she wasn't so focused on her leg.

It just felt...sour. Like all the sugar around them was rotting her from the inside.

[knifewithnoname]

"Hmm." Pruna frowned, she was no teacher. She wasn't like Kant who knew everything. She barely understood the emptiness herself, just enough to enter it.

She was silent a moment, finding the emptiness herself, her eyes blank, like Sandy might have seen her before, whilst fighting or killing. The small trembles of the body seemed to have stopped she was so still. Even her voice sounded empty.

"No but you do be being nearly there I do be thinking. You do be needing to be practicing, and be wanting it."

She let the bubble burst and smiled, "You do be being afraid of it, and that do be being an emotion, you did no be putting that in the storm."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy couldn't help but shiver seeing Pruna so easily shut everything off. It was like she became something else. Something not human.

And just as quickly she was smiling and the chill left flooding Sandy with heat and warmth, embarrassment, relief, and the pain in her leg which was lessened but still burned as her body fought off all manner of potential infection and tried to stave off the screaming nerve ends which had been exposed.

"Beats sitting here crying about it." Sandy muttered and offered Pruna a soft smile. "If anyone can help me find it, you will."