thecapitol | The dead walk

Who: Karis; OPEN
What: The wandering zombie.
Where: The Lounge; the training center
When: Sunday afternoon
Warnings: It's Karis. Swearing abounds.

The Lounge

Karis has kept to herself over the last few weeks. She's preferred it to actually talking with the other tributes - Breathers, the lot of them - and it's only recently she's decided to come out of her self-imposed isolation. Aside from a few times when she'd ventured out. She didn't exactly enjoy the attention she got (although it was kind of flattering to know she had fans; she'd been getting a steady stream of fan-mail). Today she's finally in the lounge. Nothing else to do but sit around and wait for the next Arena to com. Which is really what she hates: the waiting. Waiting is dull. Absolutely boring and she can't even hurt anyone until they say so.

But today, she's entertaining herself by singing (loudly) a rather obscene ditty about a Night Elf and a Tauren and it makes her feel better. She's got to be annoying someone, right?

Training Center

She moves on to the training center later. It's something to do, after all. Even if she feels proficient enough already. She toys with one of the practice bows and then picks it up, testing the heft and the pull of the weapon. She contemplates it (she's never been a huge fan of bows, but they're useful) and then plucks a few practice arrows out of the box. SHe bends the string and lets fly. The arrow quivers as it buries itself in the target - not a bulls-eye. She frowns at herself and then picks up another shaft and fits it to the string.

She's out of practice.

She bends the bow again and sends another arrow shooting down-range.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Burning bridges is her specialty, yes. She has a tendency of not just burning them, but also cackling manically while she does. Still, R is one person she hasn't burned one with. She follows his glance and shrugs, "Eh, not really. I learned how to use one ages ago - pretty simple, but I guess it takes some practice."

She pauses and then adds, "Wanna see?"

R croaks out one of his almost-laughs at Karis calling this "pretty simple". Yeah, of course she'd think that. For her, complicated tool use is no big deal. She doesn't have the same hand-eye coordination problems all the other Dead R know have. She twitches but doesn't struggle to move like everyone else.

"Sure," R says with a nod. He pauses and then a flash goes off in his frontal lobe, the kind of thing that's rare because it's forward thinking. "Not...on...people though."

Because you never know if that was Karis's idea of a demonstration. R's happy to say he beats her to the punch.

"No one around for me to shoot anyway," Karis laughs. She's taking it as a joke and laughing it off as one. She bends the bowstring back and then pauses. Then she releases the tension and holds the bow out toward R.

"Give it a shot."

She's not making fun of him. She's serious.

Wait, is Karis serious? She's serious, isn't she? R stares like she's decided no, she doesn't feel up to eating today and announced she's going on a diet while she's at it. She's serious.

"I don't...know how..." but R's hands are already creeping out to the bow, the part of him that wants to fit in and do an activity with someone that isn't groaning/shuffling/more of the same kicking in. R's a follower like that sometimes.

He fumbles with the arrow's shaft, his fingers sliding. Even getting the arrow notched looks like it'll be a small miracle, much less getting everything up and aimed and hitting anywhere close to the target.

"You gotta start somewhere," Karis replies with a shrug, "Maybe if you practice, you'll get better."

Completely serious. She watches him for a second, her worn and rotted features twitching as she tries to figure out whether to laugh or frown. She shakes her head and steps forward to help him, trying to guide his fingers and hands.

"Here. I know it's probably not easy, but-"

She grunts and cuts herself off. But maybe he'd get better.

The zombie definitely needs the help. With Karis handholding him through the process, R manages to hold onto the arrow and even get it notched. His aim wobbles all over the place, R favoring sliding to the left for some reason no matter how much she tries to guide him back.

His first shot clatters to the floor, nowhere close to the target - even if it was, it wouldn't have hit with enough force to actually penetrate, R's bow drooping down as he stared at the arrow and then turned to look at Karis.

"Try...again?" Look, even he can tell that was a bad shot. It isn't like he was planning to shuffle around shooting people, but there's still that part of him that wants to impress Karis and go hey, he can learn too. He isn't always...stuck like every other corpse out there.

Well, that wasn't exactly stellar. Karis shrugs, "Sure, knock yourself out. You might as well keep trying. It can't hurt."

She pauses and scratches at a bit of loose flesh on her neck, "You wanna try by yourself or you want me to help you out again?"

R waffles between the two options, unsure. "...Try...by myself. Stand...back?"

Safety first, he guesses, not that they have to worry about that. R takes forever and a day to notch another arrow in. It drifts again to the left and manages to hit the very edge of a target - it's not the one he was supposed to be aiming at, but it still counts, right?

Karis laughs, "Hey, there you go. Keep trying."

There's a faint glimmer of hope. Maybe he'll make it. Somehow.

Karis's laugh is about as pointy and rattling as the rest of her. R decides he'll take it as encouraging. "Okay. Maybe...give me...space?"

Because he's getting a little shy with Karis eyeballing him and his archery skills this close.

"Huh? Yeah. Sure."

Karis eases back a few steps and settles in to watch. Well, maybe he'll get better. By a minor miracle.

Unfortunately she goes his left instead of his right, R starting to drift predictably that way without realizing it. He means to aim at the target, hit it dead center like no one's ever nailed it before and impress the claws off Karis with his new skills. That's the plan. That's what rattles around his dusty skull as he tries again, feeling like this time he'll do so much better just because he wants to.

Instead he shoots an arrow at her instead of the target. Oops.

Well. She wasn't expecting that. She jerks to one side and then there's a 'thud' and the arrow quivers as it buries itself against the side of her ribcage. She blinks down at it, looking almost quizzical. Then she glances up with a sigh, "Well... at least you hit something."

"Sorry," R groans, wincing. The arrow's still quivering where it sticks out of Karis's ribs. "Aimed ffff...or...target. Really."

He's suddenly thankful she's not human. This could've been a lot worse, R deciding maybe archery isn't his thing. He can't hit the broad side of a barn and he's worried about hitting someone on accident, someone who might find getting shot more than an inconvenience, like Karis.

The dead walk

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Did you want to do that thing where he almost shoots her?

yes!

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