thearena | [Closed]

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Who| Adachi, Howard, and Diana
What| One of these days, Adachi will figure out that his way of thinking is unpopular.
Where| Candyland arena; around Sweetheart Valley
When| During week 7
Warnings/Notes| Character death, Adachi being a creep

There was something sweet and cute bouncing around like it was going out of style, totally oblivious to the pair of eyes peering out from the massive twizzler shaped grass. It kept going on like nothing was amiss... and suddenly with a battle cry, Adachi leaped out of the grass, sword pointed at the little critter...

Or at least where it was; the critter had darted off as soon as the twizzlers parted, chittering what may as well have been curses as it disappeared into the Valley. Adachi ended up eating dirt -- or whatever the hell it was that passed for ground in this place -- letting out an unhappy groan. He hated this... the landscape could have been edible, but it was hit or miss, and he really wasn't in the mood for diarrhea again. Those critters would have made a good meal! A little bit of chocolate, heat it up...

His stomach let out a growl of protest, and he let out a whine, putting a hand to his stomach.

"M-man... this sucks..." he whined.

He let out a sigh after a moment, casually kicking a lollipop that was left broken on the ground, and not really caring how much noise he made.

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Howard stays still as he hears the noise; he doesn't recognize the voice, not from afar and over the incessant doki-doki singing, which has, by itself, produced an unpleasant ringing in his ears. Diana's sleeping and he's keeping watch. As loath as they are to let their guard around each other, they can't stay awake forever, and she was vigilant for the few hours while he rested before this.

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," he says, prodding her with two fingers in her bony shoulder and then pulling back so she doesn't startle and lash out as him as she wakes. "We got company."

He stows their things in a crevice of the gingerbread mountain and peers over towards the sound of the noise, and the they go to investigate.

The two teens approach less like kids and more like lanky coyotes surrounding prey. Howard recognizes Adachi, but the noisy behavior seems almost uncharacteristically unwise. He wouldn't be shocked if Adachi were suffering some kind of brain injury. Or rabies. It'd totally be like the gamemakers to lace this place with mad cow disease or something.

"Detective?"

Diana grumbled in complaint as she awoke, yawning and running a hand over her face. "What kind of company? More charming, charred princes?"

She carries the crossbow in her hand as they slink towards the noise, it already prepared to shoot when needed.

Pausing, she looks at Howard as he speaks to the guy in familiarity. "Geeze, Howard, you get around. And you called me out for the Caine thing but you seem to have hooked up with every person going."

Adachi swiveled around, grinning as he spotted Howard and giving a wave... and then noticing he had a friend with him. Oh ho... Howard, you dog; he was crushing on someone and had a girl on the side? Lucky bastard.

"Hey, kid!" he called, meandering over toward them. "Glad to see you still around."

He flinches. He can't help it. He thought Diana would be above taunting him about the people they burned to death.

"Not dead yet. You looking to get killed? We could hear you from down the mountain, even with all this noise." Howard makes a gesture around his head and rolls his eyes at Diana, before saying as an aside to her, "I try not to make everyone an enemy, okay?"

She seems him flinch and guesses he's thinking about the gingerbread house. She actually meant his own burns but doesn't bother correcting the misunderstanding, it's not like he doesn't already think she's a coldhearted bitch.

"That's usually you're schtick, Howie." She answers back before hitting Adachi with a gorgeous greeting smile.

Adachi deflated at that, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. Before he could answer, though, his stomach answered for him, letting out a loud grumble of protest. A sheepish laugh escaped from him, which only got even more sheepish when he saw that smile; well... this day could have potentially gotten better...

"Eh heh... sorry about that, but I finished my rations a couple days ago..."

A hunter his isn't. Killing Shadows? Sure. Hunting? HA.

"You don't know how to hunt quietly?" Howard's estimation of Adachi's survival skills is just plummeting. He sways slightly foot to foot, deciding how to approach the situation. "You got anything to trade, Detective?"

He gestures to Adachi with his thumb for Diana. "He's one of my roommates."

Diana arches an eyebrow at Adachi. "So, what's all this 'Detective' stuff? One of Howie's special nicknames?"

"Oh, a bunk buddy. Cute." She sighs and shifts her weight to one leg, hand idly rubbing the scabbing on her collarbone.

"Ah, no; that's what I am," Adachi replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "Detective Tohru Adachi, Inaba Police Department."

Adachi paused a moment thinking, before slipping off the sunglasses he had been wearing.

"Eh, I need to eat more than I need these. My hunting skills suck."

"Don't worry, he won't bust you for prostitution," Howard says to Diana, a bit of a sneer on his lips. He jerks his head to the side, back in the direction of their cave, and winces.

"Come with us, Detective. We can cut a deal."

Diana rolled her eyes and smirked. "Oh good, because how else I am supposed to pay you off, mr pimp?"

Swinging the crossbow at her side, she hangs back just behind Adachi. "Maybe you'll be lucky and catch us in a generous mood."

He really hoped they were joking around... then again, she was really hot for someone her age. Wait, how young was she? Not that it mattered, but still.

Adachi let out a sheepish noise, rubbing the back of his neck. "Hey, I'm a decent guy. Even though he never believes me, I'm not interested in killing anyone."

Howard pauses, then looks at Diana, at the way she carries her throwing star blade in her pocket.

"It's not that you have to be interested in killing someone. It's a matter of willing."

Diana closed the gap between her and Adachi with a little bound, flashing him another pretty smile and a wink.

"Or just be very desperate." She said before continuing along.

Adachi let out a sigh, shaking his head. "I'm more willing and desperate to find a way to make the gamemakers eat their own shit," he replied, his tone becoming a bit dark. No one could question him on how much he hated this place; he was only going along with it because he hadn't found a way to counter attack yet.

As they got closer to the cave Howard indicated, Adachi slid his sword back into it's sheath. He was in good company, after all.

"Oh, good, scare away all the Sponsors Diana hasn't managed to get us." Howard would shake his head here, but his head's been pounding since he got that head injury Adachi looked at earlier. He scrambles into the cave, casting a look at Diana. He touches the food without permission, we shank him.

Diana rolled her eyes at Howards comment and scales the rocks after him. Meeting his eyes for a brief moment, she nods in agreement before flipping her hair and turning back to Adachi.

"So, what are you offering?"

Adachi rolled his eyes at Howard as well, though he missed the look exchanged between the two of them. He was more concerned about how much worse Howard had gotten since he last saw him.

He slipped off his glasses, offering them over to Howard.

"That's what I've got on my at the moment," he replied, his expression softening a bit. "Keeping the glare off your eyes might help."

He waited for Howard to take them, before continuing. "The only other thing I have to offer is back at my camp."

Howard takes the sunglasses, then passes them over to Diana. "Alright. Points for uniqueness. Haven't seen a pair of these around."

But it tells him that Adachi probably came in with these, or got them early on, and hasn't managed to pull in much else.

"What's the other thing you have to offer?"

Diana smiles and slips them on. "Cute."

Cute. But not really worth enough to give up food. Diana would much rather take a bit of glare than feel hunger pangs. She's sure Howards the same.

Peering over the top of them, she adds to her companions question. "Had any Sponsors?"

"Er... sponsors?"

Yeah, he'd heard people talking about them, but he mostly ignored it. He's already made it clear he's got no interest in killing people; he doubted any sponsors would go for that. Adachi let out a sheepish noise, reaching back to rub at his neck.

"Er... a-anyway," he continued. "I got this umbrella thing... it's got some kind of plating on the inside. Not really sure what it was supposed to be used for..."

Guess that answers that, Howard thinks.

"Well, because I know you," he says, taking the leadership role before Diana can, "I say we all sleep here tonight. Alternating watch in threes means more sleep for each of us, and we're all running on fumes. Tomorrow we'll grab your umbrella and see what it's good for."

He glances out the cave. "Probably not safe to travel in the dark anyway. Can't hear people coming over the music."

Diana shrugs and sits herself down. "Whatever you say, Howie."

The crossbow lays across her lap and she starts to play with the sunglasses again. "Who's on first shift?"

Adachi sat down himself, planting his head against a hand.

"...should I even bother volunteering?" he asked. He sure as heck wasn't tired, but he doubted Howard trusted him enough for first watch. Or any watch.

"Well, you two figure it out. I've been hiking up and down caves with a brain injury all day. If I don't sleep soon, I'm going to collapse and be seriously the opposite of vigilant."

He takes a seat. He still has his sleeping bag, or the cut up remnants of it, as a sort of nest here.

Diana giggles. "Don't put yourself down so much, babe."

She gives a long stretch and twists her neck. "Me and Howie are running on pretty much empty. Think you can handle a watch?"

Adachi looked a bit surprised by that, before he gave a faint smile.

"Yeah, sure. No problem; I wasn't tired yet anyway."

"Night night. Don't let the doki-doki bite." Howard lays down and curls up in his pile of shredded sleeping bag. He's asleep quickly, making quiet snoring noises that get lost in the fabric and the singing in the air.

Diana gave Adachi a small smile back before laying down and rolling to face away from him.

"Riiiight," Adachi replied, rolling his eyes as he went to sit over by the entrance, curling himself comfortably around his sword and humming faintly to himself. It took him about an hour to realize he went from one of the bands he listened to growing up to one of those damn annoying ring tones off of Saki's old phone. He let out an exasperated sigh, one that was soon drowned out by the sound of his stomach groaning in protest.

...stomachs weren't supposed to groan. This couldn't be good.

Adachi flopped his head on his knees with a whine, quietly telling his stomach to shove it. It had gone on hunger strikes before, when cabbage wasn't on sale at Junes! He could manage...!

When it sounded like all the Shadows from the TV world were going to pull a gut buster on him, did he finally look back into the cave. The... the kids were asleep, right? They totally wouldn't miss a little something out of their food? Adachi weighed his options for a moment, before he uncurled himself from his sword, leaving it at the entrance as he snuck back in as quietly as he could. Now, where would they keep the food...?

It wasn't until Adachi had found the food store that something cut through the silence of the night.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Diana was sat up. Her hair was tussled at the back and on her left side pressed flat against her cheek.

But her eyes were sharp and awake. It was hard to read exactly what was going on behind them, but she was glaring right at Adachi.

And in her hands she held the crossbow.

Slowly, she started to stand up. "Well?"

...crap.

Adachi held his hands up, slowly turning around, just like they drilled in your head to do at the academy.

"Easy kid... just need a little something to keep my stomach from waking you all up, that's all."

As if to put emphasis on the point, his stomach let out another loud grumble. Amazing how it could still focus on being hungry while he had certain death pointed at him.

"So you thought you'd just help yourself?"

She walks towards him. The hands holding the crossbow are shaking. From anger? Nerves? Who knows.

"I was just going to take a little something," Adachi replied slowly, trying to placate her. She looked like she was going to snap any second, and he needed to be ready to defend himself... h-he can totally dodge crossbow bolts, right?

"'Sides, you already have my glasses. A couple bites isn't too much to ask for."

"I don't care if it was a little or alot. You don't touch our food. Ever."

She tries lowering the crossbow, tries listening to his reasoning. But she's just so angry. So angry and scared. He doesn't know what it's like to be truly hungry. He can't know.

His last words push her over the edge. A combination of no sleep, paranoia, post-traumatic stress disorder and the food trigger and she points the crossbow decisively at him, arms still shaking.

"It is! It's way too much to ask for!" She screams, before shooting.

Shit.

She was too unpredictable; he didn't realize she was just going to snap and shoot like that. He tried to dodge, tried to protect his chest, but the bold hit him square under the collar bone anyway. Adachi crumpled to the ground as he felt everything from his neck to his belly button go numb on his right side. Even on the ground, he struggled to move, trying desperately to get up and bolt before she could reload for another shot, but everything felt like it was swimming.

He wasn't getting out of this one.

It was over in a second.

All of sudden she was aware of herself again. The moment had passed and she was stood there, with an unloaded weapon.

What had she done? What had she done?!

She screamed loudly, dropping the crossbow.

"Howard!"

She scrambles towards Adachi, falling to the floor beside him. "I'm sorry!" She sobbed, reaching for him. "I'm so sorry!"

She tries to press her hands against her wound. Tries to stop the bleeding. Tries to save the person she just shot.

She just shot.

The arrow is too large. Too awkward. But she can't pull it out, that'd be worse. She keeps apologizing. As if that suddenly changes the fact she's the reason he's bleeding to death.

"Howard, wake up! Help me! Howard! Help him!"

Hunh, it was funny... it took awhile, but his body was realizing it was in pain now. Weird how humans couldn't figure out they were hurting sometimes, or a few minutes after the fact. He could hear something kind of distant, like someone was screaming through water, and it took him a moment to realize it was Diana. Hunh... why was she screaming? Didn't she just say that she was okay with killing people?

Adachi forced himself onto his back, letting out a pained breath at how difficult it was to do that. It took a moment for him to move again, raising a hand a beckoning her over. Or maybe she was closer than she looked? Weird, he couldn't tell.

"H-hey... kid..." he gasped out. "R-relax, hunh?"

Edited 2013-09-01 04:18 (UTC)

Howard jumps awake, hand on his knife, flipping it open. He doesn't run to Adachi's side, nor does he aid Diana. Instead he pins himself back to the wall and takes stock of the exit. "Who's attacking us?!"

There's wet droplets landing on Adachi's face. Diana's gripping at his clothing that're starting to become bloodstained. Twin lines of wetness running down her face. "I'm sorry."

She yells. "Howard! Stop being a coward and help me!"

Breathing: it was a thing and it hurt like hell. He could tell she was crying though, and he felt bad; it wasn't fair for a kid to have to kill... Shaking, he reached a hand up, trying to pat her leg in an effort to get her to calm down.

"H-hey... just finish me off... i-it'll be okay," he gasped out. "I... I'll..."

He let out a horrible sounding hack, coughing up blood in the process. Ow, god... everything hurt...

"Oh my god, oh my god, what happened?" In the dim light he can see Adachi covered in blood, hear Diana's cries, sees blood on her too. And sees the bolt through Adachi.

"Oh my god. What did you do?"

"I woke up and he was going through the food." Diana's voice is cracking, torn between being accusing and trying not to cry more. "I told him to stop but he said it didn't matter if he took some. I panicked."

She looks at Howard. Her eyes look pleading. But whether it's a plea to help this boy or to just not to blame her even she doesn't know.

"You shot him? You shot him?" Howard's voice, while a whisper, still takes the urgency of a shriek. "Oh, Jesus, Diana!"

He drops down next to Adachi and places a hand to the wound, but he's seen bleeding out before. He's seen it.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" She shouted at the ground, what little self control she had left stopping her from screaming in Howards face.

"I know, alright?" She claws at the ground before trying to look at Adachi again. "Just do something, since you're clearly so amazing!

Edited 2013-09-23 21:57 (UTC)

"Do I look like a fucking doctor?" He holds a hand to Adachi's neck. "Detective, can you hear me? Are you still there?"

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[Closed]

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Should we leave Diana and Adachi alone to get into a misunderstanding?

Okay

Fine by me; sorry for so much slow.

Re: Fine by me; sorry for so much slow.

Re: Fine by me; sorry for so much slow.

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Maybe Diana wakes up and sees Adachi checking out the food stores?

Or wake Diana up too suddenly. Whichever works for Adachi-mun

lmao I was actually going to have him go for the food.

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