thearena | (no subject)

Who| Asha and Venus, then Asha and Beck!
What| Fights and deaths
Where| Dessert arena, near the river
When| Week 7
Warnings/Notes| standard death warning!

She's stayed by the river for this entire arena, because brown and foaming as it may be, it was still the closest thing to water. This might've meant not running into as many people as she would have if she were actively attacking, but given the risk involved in death here-- that she might not come back, if she died, which was so much smaller than the certainty back home-- it was better to hedge her bets. If she should die here, at least she'll be near the water, and the churning sounds were more comfortable than the neverending singing, try as she might to drown it out with reaving songs of her own.

Food was an issue; though she discovered that the surroundings were believed edible, their sweetness and consistency made her stomach ache worse than nothing at all, and she was not looking forward to trying it again. What food she had won at the beginning were long gone, though as she still had her weapons and mail, she could still continue. There was still a chance of taking from others, though their supplies were likely as meager as hers were.

She stopped when she heard footsteps over the rushing water and mindless chirping, reaching for her dagger. Live or die, fighting was better than slowly going mad.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Venus doesn't bother to quiet her footsteps as she approaches the water. Between hunting doki-dokis and her successful most-recent kill, she's on a bit of a high. She knows she's made it to the end, and given that she doesn't want to win this, that means she can afford to play a little looser. She's already made it far enough and received enough Sponsor gifts to feel certain that she's put on a show; even amidst all these people, she'll be a face to remember.

Her Catwoman mask is up to hide the fact that her hair has become greasy and gross with no water to clean it up. She's been sucking a red lollipop to keep her lips looking glossed and ruby-red. Two black and white streaks in charcoal and powdered sugar decorate her cheeks like war paint. Her feet are bare, and she tries to ignore that her toes on her left foot are sticking together with some sort of syrup.

She reaches the top of a hill and sees Asha at the bottom, hand already on her dagger. While she knows that she has an advantage in having the high ground, she also remembers very well how Asha can throw a knife. Her own hand reaches for the pommel of her pink katana, then drifts from that to the broken arrow she's made into a shiv.

"Well. Look what the cat dragged in." Venus giggles a little bit. "Meow."

Her pose shifts when she realizes who it is-- not relaxed, if anything more on guard, but with an air of cockiness that wasn't there before. She knows the weight of her dagger as though it was one she brought from the islands, knows the bulkiness of its handle and the fact that it's her only weapon; she wouldn't dream of throwing it now.

There's no way Venus isn't armed, to make it this far, either from spoils from the Cornucopia or off bodies she killed. There would be a time when Asha would be sure of the outcome of the fight, considering the advantage given to her by the chainmail, but that time was not when she had been without food for almost a week now, struggling on a few hours of sleep. Still, she smiles, and plays with the blade in her hands to be sure it catches the light.

"Are you still around? Well done, little girl, perhaps there's some hope for you yet."

"Oh, come on. You knew I was a professional." She wraps her hand around the shiv, although she cocks her hips and tries to just make it look as if her arms are akimbo, a brash pose of someone who wants to imply she has a trick up her sleeve. "You're looking a little weak down there. Sponsors not feeding you as well as you thought?"

Truly, the Sponsors have mostly abandoned Venus, too. She isn't sure what she should be doing differently to get their attention - she's tried murder, romance, friendship. She's got half a mind to strip naked and spend the rest of the Arena in her panties.

She takes a few steps, watching to see what Asha will do. "You got anything I want, sister?"

She laughs, giving Venus a look over, see how she's faring; she might be armed, but she'd be foolish to still be walking around with food. Foolish, or incredibly lucky, and no one here was lucky. "There were no sponsors on the march to Winterfell, where we had nothing to eat but our mounts and each other. I can handle myself without help from above." No, here she had weapons and warmth, she had her hands unshackled and little chance of finding herself upon a pyre. She had been in worse places.

She smiles, shifting her feet slightly further apart, bracing against the ground and making her intentions clear enough. "Aye, there's a nice river behind me. I'll ensure you make it to the afterlife, if not the Capitol."

Venus' catty confidence wears away. The tip of her tongue parks between her teeth and her jaw tenses. "Was that a threat, Asha? I don't think I particularly like being threatened by someone whose best defense is war stories."

And with that she throws herself down the slope, picking up momentum as her shank comes out. Sugar sprays from her heels.