thecapitol | The dead walk

Entry tags:

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.

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It's not long for R to wander into the Training Center and almost get himself shot for his effort to get here. The only thing that saves him from an arrow through the skull is the fact he's so damn slow, shuffling along at a snail's crawl right in front of the target and busy trying to think of how to approach Julie about....stuff. Romantic stuff. Date stuff. The bright light behind Karis shines in his face as R stares at it, unblinking and not even thinking to squint.

There's a rasp, the creak of something that sounds almost like bones against rotting flesh. R knows that sound on an instinctive level, enough to groan out:

"K...aris?"

He's had enough of studying the human body for now. Any more and he'd go insane (because thinking about all of that happening inside of him is pretty disturbing. Especially considering he was a program who made out of nothing but circuity and...well, programing.

At least training feels somewhat familiar.

Beck doesn't like the weapons, though. They're all unfamiliar, except for a select few things. A bo-staff feels a lot like a light staff. A chakram feels very familiar, like his identity disc...only he didn't like the idea of derezzing. No thanks.

Normally, staying down in the center makes him feel better. But when he sees someone familiar shooting arrows...that feeling goes away. And it's replaced by a very angry feeling that he's never really felt towards anybody else before. Beck feel himself going on the offensive before anything can happen, clenching his fists and taking a step backwards. But...

"Easy, Beck." He ends up muttering to himself. Count to ten, wasn't it? Count to ten and continue on.

So, he did. But he didn't feel any better.

And when it didn't he made his way over to the chakrams. Beck picked up the one and observed the weapon and its sharp edges, trying his best not to focus on the zombie-thing that decided to flaunt his death in front of his face for no given reason.

Karis slowly lowers her weapon as she watches R shuffle out into the firing range. She's bemused at first and she shakes her head. She likes the kid, she really does, but he's so slow sometimes. She speaks up with a laugh, "Yeah, it's me. What's goin' on, R?"

Karis pauses when she spots someone else joining her in the training room (someone familiar, as it turns out). She watches him out of the corner of her eye as she tenses and then moves on (that makes her laugh to herself). She's glad that someone's afraid of her - or hates her, she's not sure which. She'll count either as a victory. She watches him a bit longer, pretending not to see him as she sends a few more arrows down range. Then she carelessly tosses the bow aside with a clatter and turns on her heel and swaggers toward him, hands tucked into her pockets, like this is the most natural thing in the world.

"See anything you like, lunchbox?"

"Not...much. Rotting," R grunts out and shrugs and starts the annoyingly slow process of shuffling over to Karis, using her voice until he's out of the way of the lights. "Didn't know...you liked....arrows?"

He took Karis for a more up close and personal dead girl. He's seen her in action, after all. R stops there to stare at the bow in her hands, eyes going back up to her face.

"I like weapons," Karis corrects with a raspy laugh. Feet shuffling through gravel, really. She tips the bow over one shoulder and walks over to R (with much more grace and speed, although there's still that tell-tale jerk and angle to her limbs).

"If it gets the job done, I'll use it. I'm not picky."

She slings her arm around his shoulders like they're old pals and grins.

"Whatcha been up to?"

He wants to think that whoever made the clatter just accidentally dropped their weapon.

Then he hears footsteps approaching him. And even though he's almost begging in his mind...

Yep. It's her.

"Yeah, I see a lot that I like." He said in-between his teeth, keeping his eyes down on the chakram. It seemed so familiar, but at the same time, it made him miss home. It reminded him a lot of his identity disc...only his identity disc wasn't so sharp. And it glowed. And he could remove it from his back, rather than it just being permanently stuck there.

"I like this the most, though. I heard sharp things keeps the zombies away."

(he was hoping that he got that right. Corrupted Users were defined as zombies, right...?)

If a zombie like her was running the show back home, R was sure that city would've been overrun, finally, a long time ago. He doesn't flinch away at her touch as he shrugs. "Trying to...repair. After....Arena. Apologies."

He doubts the word "apology" is in her vocabulary, even as huge as hers is. She probably burns a lot of bridges. Unlike her, R's trying to make an effort to patch things up. He's non-confrontational like that.

R glances back over at Karis's bow. Those aren't really weapons you see a lot where he comes from - the survivors tended to favor guns, crowbars; anything good for killing zombies, plural, not just one at a time - and he brings up a finger to point shakily at it, curious despite himself.

"Hard to...use?"

Edited (added a little bit more, typo) 2013-06-11 10:07 (UTC)

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?"

"Hate to disappoint, but I love sharp things. Makes my job that much easier," Karis grins widely. She ambles around him, watching the intensity with which he seems to be regarding the weapon in his hands.

"You look like you're ready to snap, boyo. Better be careful. Don't wanna hurt yourself, right?"

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.

Yeah, that probably wasn't the best thing to say.

Beck chomps on the inside of his cheek, and continues to look over the weapon he holds. "I'm fine." Is pretty much all he says, before placing it back on the rack where he got it. Maybe training while she was around wasn't the best idea. Beck couldn't say he was exactly the happiest User with her around. "Just leave me alone."

And he turns to leave. Just walk away Beck, walk away...

"Running won't save you in the arena," Karis calls after him, a sing-song lilt to her voice. With her usual rasp, it sounds very strange.

"Might as well get ready for me to kill your ass again, lunchbox!"

"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?"

It did sound kind of funny. Like a Program with its vocals adjusted a bit too much. Too raspy, too rough. But then again, everything sounded kind of weird to him here-

Beck clenches his fists and holds back everything that tells him to turn, to show Karis what he can really do. He knew more about his User body than he ever did before. Beck knew what he could do, and what he couldn't. He didn't have to play the innocent part anymore.

"We'll see." He mutters under his breath, before making his way out of the Training Center.

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.

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The dead walk

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because i love karis ok

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who doesn't?

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haha, very true! : P

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

yes!

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