Matthew 'Punchy' O'Connor (
nunpunching) wrote in
thearena2013-07-15 10:50 pm
Entry tags:
I've Been Wrong More Than I've Been Right [Closed]
Who| Tim Drake, Tim Drake-Wayne, Punchy, AndrAIa and the Initiate
What| AndrAIa dies and the boys tussle.
Where| Desert Arena
When| Week 3
Warnings| Death of a pre-teen girl, violence, blood.
Punchy's never been good at sitting still. Even back when he was programming on a regular basis - back when he had a computer and wasn't frying like an onion in a pan in this desert hell - he had to get up every ten minutes to stretch his legs, was constantly toggling between screens and monitors, and used a spinny chair specifically to give him something to twirl on when he was penting up energy. Shockingly, the criminal lack of energy drinks in his current diet of cooked rabbits and cactus juice has failed to rein in his restlessness.
As such, he's been spending less and less time with the Tims and AndrAIa, usually using the excuse of going to take a leak and wandering around looking for Holiday and Topher. He's seen Holiday losing an arm on the screen, but her image hasn't appeared in the sky, and he hopes she's not hurting too badly. He keeps his eyes peeled as he circles their camp in ever wider circumferences, despite how red his eyes are from rubbing at them. Who knew that eyes could get sunburned?
But at this moment, he's supposed to stay put with AndrAIa, because the Tims are out finding dinner. He likes the girl; she's a bit of a weird one but so's he, and it's nice to have someone else with an idiosyncratic way of speaking around. But even still, the listlessness is there, and he's hoping Tim and Tim get back soon so he can wander off and do anything but poke at the embers of their fire with a stick.
And when he sees another screen light up again in the distance, he can't resist anymore. He gets to his feet and brushes sand off his rear. "Yo, kid, you stay here, I'mma bump up on that screen and eyeball it close-up. Be right back."
And he takes off.
What| AndrAIa dies and the boys tussle.
Where| Desert Arena
When| Week 3
Warnings| Death of a pre-teen girl, violence, blood.
Punchy's never been good at sitting still. Even back when he was programming on a regular basis - back when he had a computer and wasn't frying like an onion in a pan in this desert hell - he had to get up every ten minutes to stretch his legs, was constantly toggling between screens and monitors, and used a spinny chair specifically to give him something to twirl on when he was penting up energy. Shockingly, the criminal lack of energy drinks in his current diet of cooked rabbits and cactus juice has failed to rein in his restlessness.
As such, he's been spending less and less time with the Tims and AndrAIa, usually using the excuse of going to take a leak and wandering around looking for Holiday and Topher. He's seen Holiday losing an arm on the screen, but her image hasn't appeared in the sky, and he hopes she's not hurting too badly. He keeps his eyes peeled as he circles their camp in ever wider circumferences, despite how red his eyes are from rubbing at them. Who knew that eyes could get sunburned?
But at this moment, he's supposed to stay put with AndrAIa, because the Tims are out finding dinner. He likes the girl; she's a bit of a weird one but so's he, and it's nice to have someone else with an idiosyncratic way of speaking around. But even still, the listlessness is there, and he's hoping Tim and Tim get back soon so he can wander off and do anything but poke at the embers of their fire with a stick.
And when he sees another screen light up again in the distance, he can't resist anymore. He gets to his feet and brushes sand off his rear. "Yo, kid, you stay here, I'mma bump up on that screen and eyeball it close-up. Be right back."
And he takes off.

ANDRAIA AND GHB
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But even though she was a warrior, here she was at a disadvantage. They didn't have any weapons that she was used to using, and she was not proficient with the knife they had given her yet. Besides that, she seemed to need more water than the rest, so it might be risky to go out hunting without enough for her. So most of the time she sat in the makeshift camp, watching for others. At least she wasn't alone; Punchy was often there, too.
Except now he says something and runs off. AndrAIa huffs, frustrated. It's his prerogative, and she can probably look after camp by herself, but lately she hasn't wanted to be alone. She has a lingering fear every time they leave, that they won't return. Like how Enzo and Frisket never reappeared. Or how it must seem to Dot and the others in Mainframe, after they lost that game.
She looks around, then follows Punchy just a bit. Just enough to try to keep him in sight while also staying within sight of camp.
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He grips the crowbar tight in hand, grin stretching wide to reveal his fangs. It'd been so long since he'd killed. So long since he'd preformed proper rite to the Messiahs. A long time being bored. He stalks towards the camp, quiet, eyes trained on the wriggler-child, excitement and bloodlust running high in his veins.
Oh sweet wriggler, the ticket takers' come. A voice sing-song's in his head. He holds back a laugh.
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Sand wasn't particularly quiet, but when one lived on a beach-- lived and fought and survived-- one learned a few tricks. He eases just close enough, then lunges forward. She's small; a low kick would do.
With a spin, he aims for her middle, something to send her flying should it land.
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She doesn't recognize her attacker. He looks very different from the sprites she's used to, and from Punchy and the Tims for that matter. Another game sprite, maybe? One hand reaches for her knife while she flexes the fingers of the other, extending her claws. If she could just get close enough to give him a good scratch...
"Stop!" she shouts, as loud as she can. "I do not want to hurt you, but I will if you attack me!"
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He watches carefully, both as claws extend and she reaches for a blade. Fine with him. He smirks and readies the crowbar.
"Girl," he says. "AIN'T YOU GOT AT UNDERSTANDING AS TO WHERE A SISTER IS? You're in a death game preparing for carnival. AND HE HAS COME BEFORE SHE AS HER MOTHERFUCKING TICKET TAKER. Ain't about to bargain for things what she can't even offer whole. TRY AGAIN."
With no particular aim, he swings the crowbar at her.
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"We play the games by our own rules," she retorts as she ducks under his swing and lunges. She makes a swing of her own with her knife hand, a telegraphed slashing feint, hoping to make him right into scratching range of her other hand.
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Her claws are too clearly ready. A dual wielder of clubs, he's preformed similar moves himself. But something he learned from facing so many other trolls, too many motherfucking sea-dwellers, and that was that sometimes, the price was worth the reward. Sometimes it was worth just the look on their face.
He seems to fall for her feint, dodging the blade's swing to fall in easy range of her claws. As the cloth and grey flesh give way to marks of indigo-purple it puts her into range herself; eyes alight, he swings the crowbar at her once more.
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She topples and just barely catches herself with her clawing hand. She doesn't bother to push herself back to her feet; instead, she gathers herself into as much of a crouch as she can manage and waves her knife in a threatening gesture. She couldn't defend herself, much less attack him, but she hopes to dissuade him from attacking her again until her paralyzing claw effect kicks him
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He's not sure what her plan is but from his end, it isn't a wise one.
He twirls the crowbar in one hand like a baton, like his old clubs, then rushes her again to try and land another hit.
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She tries to lever herself to her feet and gasps at the pain in her midsection. She'd gambled on being able to incapacitate him and lost. Now her best chance was to stall him until Punchy heard and returned, or the Tims came back from their hunting trip.
Still on the ground, she holds herself up with one hand and raises her other arm to shield herself from the blow. It'll cost her a broken bone in that arm, at least, but she ignores the pain and kicks out at his legs when they're in range, trying to knock him off balance.
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Then, he leaps. One rake of claws over her mid-section, then maybe her face, if she doesn't avoid him.
THE BOYS
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And anyway, they hadn't died yet so that was great.
Punchy had been left behind, and... Tim One (hey, the other guy was here first, it was only fair) and Tim Two (second mouse gets the cheese!) had gone hunting. Yes, hunting, like cavemen, or something equally as savage that looked much cooler on television or in comic books than in real life. They'd managed to cut a slab of buffalo flank (jerky, anyone?) and were now making their way back to camp. And Tim Two (that'd be Tiny for you! isn't this great?) kept on wondering about the girl. Who wasn't really a girl, supposedly, but... And see, he just doesn't know the company the way his older self does. Blisters are starting to hurt something awful and his eyes are drying up but if he blinks twenty thousand times a second, he can keep some moisture in them. He's not so disgusted at towing a slab of meat behind him, the food in a bundle made out of extra cloth, or if he is he's just gotten better at keeping from retching.
"D'you really think we should've left them alone?" Alone as in, without one of them there to look out for the remaining two in the gang. He notices he's slurring his words a little. This game is really starting to chip away at him. Tim trudges forward, not even looking at one when he asked his little pointless question.
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"I don't know if it was a good idea. I don't know AndrAIa. Punchy is safe. I met him in the last Arena. You wouldn't believe the head wound he was walking around with. I saw how he got it in the Capitol: protecting other Tributes. I'm not even sure if he knew them. I don't think he's the closest thing to safe we're going to find. Either we babysit them constantly or we eat. To be more blunt, we risk them killing each other, or we all starve to death. Stop here." He dropped the weapons he was carrying: a makeshift staff, formerly the long handle of the scythe, and the metal edge of said weapon, now on just a two foot stick, to the ground and took the ends of the meat sleigh from his younger counterpart. They were closer to the camp then they were to the kill site. He didn't want to keep dragging a blood trail that lead right to them.
Tim got down beside the meat and unravelled the rope that he'd tied around his waist days ago. Clever fingers trussed up the flank, wrapping it once vertically and twice horizontally before deftly knotting it. He'd left a good sized loop for a handle and was able to easily heft the slab up onto his back as an experiment. Tim held it out. "Think you can carry it, or do you want me to take a turn?"
Personally, Tim preferred being the one toting the weapons, but being the one on the higher weight class was a positive for both fighting and heavy lifting. Besides, it wasn't like either of them were stupid enough to not drop the meat and fight.
And then there was the scuffling of feet on the sand. Tim spun in the direction of the noise and saw only a rising dune. He glanced over at his counterpart and down to the meat, then shoved the scythe into Tim's hands. The message was clear. You've drawn guard duty.
Holding the staff at the ready, Tim silently crept over the dune.
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Punchy's mulling this all over as he takes a piss on a cactus, because it's really a much more pleasant thought than how his urinary output is practically shrieking 'serious dehydration'. Even the water they got from Timaeus and their occasional runs to the watering hole can't keep the four of them well-wetted when the sun's beating down on them, and Punchy's not much of a fan of the clear and flavorless sorts of beverage. Besides, he's not going to push to try and take more than his share of water when the littler guys and girl need it.
He beatboxes as he does his business. He's that bored.
He zips back up, wipes his hands on the thighs of his pants and, out of habit more than out of any necessity, wipes his brow, too. There's not really any sweat there - they've all spent too long in the sun - but it feels more productive than just baking. He's about to turn around and trudge back to camp when he casts one last longing look at the sky, where the images of the other Arena were moments ago, and sees someone creeping over the dune from the corner of his eye.
His hand reflexively goes to Judy, tucked into his belt, but he drops it when he realizes it's just Tim. He raises a hand to wave, then pauses as he hears something faint back in the direction of camp.
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He tears the off sleeves of the suit they forced him, at the shoulders, pulls apart what isn't needed and what restricts and restrains. He mutters prayer to himself, bids the soul carnival bound, for judgement and the joyous. Assuming, of course, the capitol didn't intervene again. Then, he bends to take the girl's blood and spreads it in lines over his hands and arms, the only canvas available here.
He gives the body one last nudge, then starts off over the sand hill, painted bright. He makes sure to have his crowbar readied.
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He makes no attempt to hide the frustrated growl. "For your sake, that better not be one of the cacti that we could eek a water supply out of. If it is, that one's yours."
There were, after all, now four mouths to feed, four thirsts to quench, and these were now his allies, however unlikely. Tim took responsibility for all of them, despite the fact that all of them seemed stubborn enough to take off on their own in a huff the second that Tim let even so much as a whiff of protection leak out.
He's about to lay into him a little more when he, too, hears something in the distance. From the top of the dune, Tim jumps forward and locks his knees, letting himself the momentum slide him down the loose sand into a slightly hunched position besides Punchy. And then it hits him. Punchy was going to the bathroom. A male teenager was not about to do that in front of a... "Where's AndrAIa?"
Don't point that way. Don't point to the noise. Don't point back to camp. Tell me that she's relieving herself two dunes east, his eyes plead silently.
The sound is coming closer, and Tim silently curses movie night for introducing him to the Scream trilogy and the rule about not going off alone. He doesn't like this. It's the sun, it's the heat, this is all fine. This is the side effects of the desert, and he had warned himself not to trust his senses completely. Calm down. It's only AndrAIa approaching, returning from wherever she'd sequestered herself. The odds are good on that.
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But then Tim asks a question that manages to shake Punchy as if his lungs and guts were jelly. He glances back at the sound, glances back as the sound dies as if it were being cut off. It sounded like white noise from a radio out here, lost in the buzz of the desert, but voices nonetheless. "She was right..."
Punchy's eyes meet Tim's, and no words need to pass between them. Punchy doesn't need to ask where the other Tim is, or talk out the logistics of why it's ninety-percent likely that AndrAIa's fine, because he's only been gone a few minutes. Call it Spidey-Senses. Call it superhero instinct. The fact that Punchy doesn't have an answer to Tim's questions speaks loudly enough, and the realization that their fortress gate has been left open spurs Punchy to action.
He turns on his heel and sprints in the direction he left her, in the direction of the sound. Sand kicks up behind his shoes, rolls into little crescents at his heels as he moves, moves, moves up the dune and over it with speed that manages to overpower how clumsy the terrain makes him. Going down the dune is faster, and then up the next-
"Tim!"
He doesn't even pause when he sees a nearly seven-foot figure, painted the crimson of a little girl's death, at the base of the next dune, next to a small canyon that seems more like a crack in the soul of the Earth than a natural figure. He doesn't stop, doesn't think long enough to untangle what the situation is, because the Initiate is so clearly a foe and Punchy has so clearly failed in his one assigned task that there's nothing to consider except how hard and how fast the momentum from barreling down the slant will allow Punchy to hit him. Punchy moves less to tackle the Grand Highblood and more to slam into him like a train on the tracks.
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He doesn't look to see if any others are close.
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Tim digs the end of his staff into the sand as he jumps, using it to launch himself higher and reach a higher target while he's still unnoticed. Airborne, he draws the staff up to have at the ready, in case the flying kick intended for the back of the attacker's neck is ineffectual.
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Sand gets in his eyes, and bringing an arm up to try and clear them only seems to scratch him up. The sun against the Initiate's back makes the already-tall killer look monstrous. The red smears of blood disappear into a black, horned silhouette looming over Punchy with a crowbar.
And yet, rather than expect death, Punchy notices a figure flying through the air towards the Initiate's back like a ballistic missile, like a meteor, like the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. And with lightning fast reflexes, Punchy gets his feet under him and slams a fist at the Grand Highblood's limbs, spitting dirt from between his lower lip and his teeth. Better to give Tim a clear shot at a distracted target.
"Come at me, motherfucker!"
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He kicks, spinning with a high roundhouse at Punchy. And in doing so-- kick landed or not-- he turns just enough to see.
He knows he's made a mistake once Tim catches his eye. Split-seconds lost in a second-whole, but lost as a wreck to sea. He keeps expecting to still be able sense when others are near, to feel the unease roll of them and return to him in cycle.
And for failure, disgrace of sin, atonement was called to thee, and retribution held above in disdain stained lips as the fiery eyes beheld with mirth for the requital...
Late, he tries to swing the crowbar anyway. Let it hit the other, give him defence against opposing weapon, but if neither were to be granted by Messiahs, he would brace for the blow.
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This is when he should talk his way out of the fight. It hasn't served him poorly as a tactic this far, but AndrAI's body is burned in his mind. Tim is finding it hard enough to muster the generosity to stay his hand, and the compassion and forgiveness that letting him walk away would require. The temptation is there - take out such a violent Tribute, and increase the odds for his friends. Tim would be downright mercifully in comparison.
But he's supposed to be better than this. A reversible murder is still a murder, and there are people that Tim wants to look in the eye again someday. He's not an impressive size, but he tries to stand taller, look beefier, spin the Bo to a ready grip with enough bravado that leaves no question: he knows how to use his weapon. "You're outnumbered," he growls out.
He sounds worse than Bruce; he is a synthesized effect away from Jason. Jason would have blown the troll's head on sight, even before he saw the getup, bloody war paint, and crowbar. That would have earned a posthumous double tap to the heart for good measure. Tim allows himself to smirk at the thought. God, he wouldn't be annoyed in the slightest if that happened. "Do yourself a favor. Get away while you can fucking walk."
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He doesn't hit people in the back. Homeboy don't roll like that. He recognizes this troll, the one painting all the pictures in the Training Center, but even if this were a stranger he wouldn't strike the back. He's already not comfortable going two on one, even with...
...even with a dead preteen on the ground. He understands, now, why people throw the rules of combat to the side. He understands why someone would kill. And it makes him want to vomit, almost as much as the knowledge that AndrAIa's dead body in the sand is his fault. But he can't bring himself to attack from behind.
So he flanks.
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The Initiate stops. Even straightens when the human before him spins his staff and speaks. Then, he scoffs and spins the crowbar in mirror. A different balance to it, but not so far off from his clubs to be anywhere near unusable. He smiles, unkindly, at them both, moving in an almost snake-like sway, side to side.
"You think I ain't done this before, Brother? YOU THINK I AIN'T HAD SO MANY AS TWO WHAT WANTED TOOTH AND CLAW AND WEAPON CLASH FOR SAKE OF ONE FUCKING THING OR OTHER? You truly up and believe I ain't painted my hive with the heretical guts of more than this? DO NOT MOTHERFUCKING PATRONIZE ME. Messiahs plead I should turn those words on you."
He lunges forward with a feral grin and aims to bring the crowbar down hard on Tim's shoulder-side.
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Not a good landing, none of that perfect crouch here when loose sand doesn't provide enough surface friction for his legs to stay beneath him. His feet slide out, Tim is left on his knees. His shoulder hurts too much to try bracing himself on it, but he picks his head up immediately. Reassess. They're up against a religious fanatic, never a good sign. Too many religions have violence interwoven in their history, sacrifice, martyrs, wars, crusades. My god has a bigger dick than your god, and the Initiate already thinks they're heretics.
What else? His staff is fine, luckily, because he wasn't deliberately taking caution to not break it in the fall. His shoulder is damaged, how is unclear. Dislocation, separation, tendon tear, broken clavicle, too many possibilities and not enough time. It hurts like a bitch to move it at all, and Tim gasps when he tries.
let me know if I should change that
This is the part where he should have a snappy one-liner. Where he should have a response to the absolute driveling bullshit that this way-too-tall Juggalo wannabe is spouting. This is the part where, better yet, he should have a plan. He doesn't, so instead he grabs the back of Tim's clothing at the nape and helps to try and pull Tim to his feet like a mother cat with her kitten.
He puts one foot behind him and, right-handed because now he intends to hurt, because now he wants to break ribs or cause internal bleeding, he throws his fist at the Grand Highblood's trunk. And, unfortunately, he leaves the space right under his left ribs open.
Same here; if anything needs changing, let me know!
He sees the human's fist aiming before he can try to stop it and he knows then that he's entirely too open to it. He's gotten sloppy in his time in the capitol, in his time where he did as told and spared every life he encountered. This wouldn't do. The punch hits hard and in his mind, it would serve as reminder. It would be his punishment on Messiah's unspoken word for transgressions. For his sin. But he wasn't the only sinner here.
He slides just slightly back on the sand, fangs grinding to keep noise from sounding. He will almost certainly bruise and will feel it even more so later. But now wasn't the time for dwelling on pain, it was the time for inflicting. Now was the hour for performing holy rite of motherfucking murder, third ring of carnival, finest rule.
It's all in few seconds that everything happens. He sees the opening left by Punchy's hit and with the crowbar gripped in hand, he swings. He tries to make it hard enough to hear, to feel the sweet, wet crunch of bone, but the swing is awkward at best.
So, he pulls back quick , spins the crowbar in hand, and sinks the sharp edge into Punchy's shoulder. He kicks the motherfucker down.