thearena | [Open] The voices in my head

Who: Karis Needleteeth, Open
What: Wandering Candyland
Where: Candyland Arena
When: The middle of Week Six
Warnings: Swearing, probably violence.

One kill. She'd managed one kill so far. True, it had landed her a bow and a sword, but still - just the one was frustrating. She ought to have more by now. She'd been here for weeks and still hadn't managed much more then wounding one or two and killing one. Maybe it was the bizarre landscape the Arena was throwing at them. Maybe people had wised up to her. Maybe she was just slowing down.

She didn't think the last one was all that likely.

She'd already done a few sweeps of the arena, wandering from place to place and trying to get past how damn surreal the place was. She'd seen some weird places on her travels, but the whole candyland thing took the cake, as far as she was concerned. The fact that they were expected to kill one another here made it that much more strange. Not that she was going to let something like that get to her. Actually, scratch that. The constant, low-level singing was slowly starting to drive her nuts. She could deal without sleep or food. She could deal with the strange environment. But the noise? The noise is looping over and over in her head and she's sure that long after this, it's going to be burned into her brain.

She's picking her way along the southern shore of the milkshake lake, trying to get to the river that feeds into it so she can cross and swing back toward the Cornucopia. She might as well do some more scavenging, right? She's focused on walking and for once, she's not on the hunt. It's just movement for the sake of movement.

Anyone she runs into is just a bonus.

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Sandy was alone.

She hated this. Hated knowing this was inevitable. But Pruna had needed to hunt and for whatever reason the Doki hadn't been falling for their usual tricks.

But ultimately it was her own fault. She was too sore to keep traveling and so Pruna had helped to disguise her with some melted candy bushes and Sandy was sitting extremely still waiting for her inevitable return.

Sitting by the milkshake lake was soothing. It was so placid and she imagined it would be delicious if not for the fact that she was so sick of sweet things.

And so she sat, covered in cotton candy pushes waiting in silence trying to ignore the burning heat in her crippled leg.

The distance didn't bother her too much. Karis just kept plodding along at a steady walk, sweeping the landscape around her for a sign of any other tributes. She needed to up her count, after all. So far, she hadn't seen anyone - just bushes and the ever-present candy landscape.

Then she halted. For a moment, she thought she'd seen something under a bush further up the shoreline. She squinted, raising a hand to try and block out some of the light. She might be mistaken - but she also might not be. Karis quickens her pace. Why bother being stealthy?

Sandy heard Karis before she saw her. In fact Sandy didn't see her at all because upon hearing someone coming she frozen. Her neck began to ache and her leg throbbed the moment her muscles tensed.

She held her breath afraid that even that would give her away. Her fingers were still curled around the handle of her umbrella and she hoped and preyed the footsteps would just keep going.

Karis carefully slid through the underbrush (even if it was made of candy), candied twigs and leaves snapping off behind her. She wasn't trying to be stealthy. Stealth usually wasn't her strong point anyway. She half-crouched as she approached, still peering forward, trying to figure out if she was seeing something or if it was just her eyes playing tricks on her-

There.

"Got you," she muttered under her breath and then broke into a run, dashing forward to try and close the distance before her target could react.

"Shit!"

Sandy dug her candycane crutch into the ground to try and launch herself to her good foot, only to feel it bend near to snapping. Only by virtue of her light weight was she propelled up and started hopping awkwardly shaking off sticky candy foliage.

Spinning to face Karis she stood leaning on her one good leg and the crutch, clutching a pink umbella in her other arm. She knew this wasn't good already so she did the only thing that might give her a chance.

"ASHLEEEEEEEEY!" She shrieked hoping beyond hope her more capable friend would hear her.

That's it? A crippled kid with an umbrella? Karis was almost disappointed, but hey, it was a kill, wasn't it? Besides, it might still be fun. Karis slowed her rush to a lope and then to a walk as she approached, flexing her claws.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way, kiddo. No one's coming to rescue you."

This...was bad. There was fear chilling Sandy's stomach but something else...anger?

Yes...yes she was angry and she couldn't ignore it. It was making her face red and her leg burn with pain like it was on fire.

"Are you kidding me?" She heard herself saying. "People already hate me back there. If I just gave up...that's giving them what they want!"

She adjusted her grip on the umbrella and dropped the crutch to the ground.

"And you know what? Screw that! Screw this place and screw you! I've gone WEEKS with this screwed up leg and not offed myself! What makes you so special huh? There's someone back there who's been sending me medicine this whole time so even if everyone else hates me, that person wants me to survive. So I'm gonna give them their moneys worth!"

She was angry sure, but she didn't believe for a minute in giving the people what they wanted. She just knew that right now public opinion of her was...really crappy.

If she went down swinging maybe then at least they wouldn't be so hard on her when she came back.

"You've got spirit, kiddo. I'll give you that," Karis rasped as she started to advance again. She drew the sword at her side, the blade glinting in the light as she stalked forward.

"But spirit doesn't mean a damn thing when you're outmatched,"

Karis fell into a guard position and then eased forward, the tip of the rapier flickering as she shifted it back and forth, looking for an opening.

What the heck kind of sword was that? It was so thin! For a flickering moment Sandy felt like she had a chance...and then she remembered having watching on the videos of the last arena. Karis was not someone to mess with.

She swung with the umbrella, the weight of the chainmail hidden inside it threw her off balance and what would have been a swing that came up too short turned into an awkward lunge. At least it might catch her off guard...because it sure caught Sandy off guard.

Karis hissed - she hadn't expected the lunge nad she drew back a pace, blade flickering as she turned the thrust aside. Then she darted forward and lunged into a riposte, trying to put her blade into Cassandra's belly.

She felt the burning of the blade in her gut more then her leg for just a moment, but a moment later and the sensation was numbed by fear. She screamed loudly, so loud and start flailing with the umbrella trying desperately to hit Karis in the face with the heavy chainmail weighted weapon. Logically it was too late. Logically her organs had been punctured.

But logic had no place in the wild terrified panic that urged Sandy to lash out with her only weapon.

[Open] The voices in my head

Sandy needs to die. Want to help?

Absolutely.

Thank you :3

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Sorry about the delay.

No worries