Resort Island- I Scream, You Scream

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Five minutes.

Carmen sighed into her palm, tilted her uniform hat and blinked, her sea-green eyes boring into the clock on the opposite wall. Five minutes and she would be done. If she strained her ears, she imagined she could hear the crashing surf that was just waiting outside. Five minutes and she'd be out that door, conquering those waves.

"Oh, gods of surf..." Carmen rolled her eyes heavenward, plastic gloved- hands clasped in reverence."If you be kind and gentle, don't let anyone walk through that door in the next five minutes. Please, please, please-"

Her prayer was interrupted by the ringing doorbell. Darn. She put on a strained smile and tried not to think about the waves.

"Welcome to Ice Cap Ice Cream! How may I serve you?"

[SHM 128 III]

Unfortunately for the otter, it would appear as though the 'gods of surf' weren't just ignoring her, but actively giving her the bird, if the person who had just entered the shop was any indication.



A red hyena walked into the ice cream shop, trying his hardest to not look suspicious. Although he had an overall raggedy-looking appearance, his gloves looked surprisingly new. Somewhat dirty, but not well-worn in any way like the rest of him was. He appeared to be taking in his surroundings rather carefully, but his attention always seemed to drift back to his right hand, flexing it constantly and wincing in pain as he did so. Finally, he looked at Carmen standing behind the counter and smiled, although for all intents and purposes, it probably came off more as disconcerting than anything else.

"Oh, don't mind me. I'm just seeing if this place looks as campy on the inside as the out."

The heavy sarcasm in his statement probably wouldn't alleviate any fears.

[@ Dizzy @]

"Uh... yeah." The faintest smirk formed on her lips. "You're not even working here. I have to sing when they tip me. Don't tip me." Carmen spoke while twirling a pair of rather large ice cream scoops in her hands with practiced flair. There was something off about the guy. But then, you couldn't really judge people by dirt. He could be some sort of construction worker or something, which was a perfectly acceptable reason to be dirty. "So... what'll you have? We've got Special Zone sherbert today. Cherries and Blueberries. Do you want to sample anything?" She just had to get this guy out of here. . .

[SHM 128 III]

The hyena responded by sauntering over to the counter and leaning against it, keeping direct eye-contact with Carmen while discretely emptying the "Leave a Ring, Take a Ring" tray.

"Oh really? In that case, maybe I should just leave a tip and forget the ice cream. Watching you dance around due to contractual obligations would be far more worth my money than whatever sugar-laced concoctions you're offering."

[@ Dizzy @]

Her ears picked up the faint tingling of rings, and she frowned. He wasn't the only one to jack the ring jar; she'd actually gotten in trouble for berating someone. Rather than risk another write-up (even though she knew she was right) she bit back the flash of anger.

"Don't bother. I'm off in four minutes." Her hands moved automatically to the kiddie cups. She grabbed her spoon and dropped a scoop of Chaos Chocolate (c) into it, holding it out to the hyena across the counter. Her eyes didn't leave his; ice cream making was an automatic process to her.

"Free if you leave."

[SHM 128 III]

Axe just stared at the chocolate ice cream, unamused. Quickly glancing upward, he noticed the security camera mounted on the wall. Darnit, looked like he'd have to be careful about this, especially since it didn't look like there was going to be any 'subtle' way of pulling this off with the otter there.

"Four minutes, huh? Doesn't give me a lot of time to consider your offer, now does it?" the hyena mused, inching towards the opening in the counter that led to the back of the shop while keeping his eyes on the girl, "So tell me, will your replacement bless me with as sharp a tongue as you have?"

[@ Dizzy @]

Carmen actually snorted, rolling her eyes. "My manager's on next. She'd probably cut you in two with words alone. Not to mention-" She took a quick look around, as if speaking of the woman would cause her to materialize out of thin air. "Kick my tail for giving away freebies. Take it before she gets here... and leave." A brief flash of anger glinted her eyes at the last word, and she stepped forward, holding the cup out over the counter. Something about this guy was raising her hackles.

[SHM 128 III]

There was a short pause where Axe quickly glanced left and right, making sure that there was no one else around. If he was going to make his move, it had to be now. Just had to make sure to keep his face away from the camera...

Bracing his nerves, the hyena looked back at the otter. He was still smiling, but now all attempts at hiding his intent were gone, and in its place was a sinister grin made up of considerably sharp teeth. He reached out, seemingly to grab the ice cream cup... But instead suddenly grabbed Carmen by the arm. Hard.

"Well, for your sake, I hope she doesn't kick your tail for sleeping on the job."

Not waiting to be questioned about what he meant, the hyena sprung into action. In one quick, fluid movement, he ducked around the counter, twisting the otter's arm behind her back while he got behind her, and then proceeded to use his free hand to try and smash Carmen's face against the counter for a quick knockout.

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[@ Dizzy @]

"Ow! HEY! LET ME GO, PUTA!" She struggled against his grip- frustrated at herself for letting it get this far.She should've kicked the fool out when she had the chance, she should have been more alert, her mother was always telling her- Suddenly, the counter was coming at her face.

WHAM!

[dice=6]

"Nngh..." Darkness flooded the corners of her vision, and everything was painful. She desperately tried to keep her eyes from closing. This... filthy thief.. wasn't about to make a fool out of her.
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[SHM 128 III]

Satisfied with the resonating sound of cranium meeting countertop, Axe let go and let the otter's body slump to the floor. He was actually honestly surprised that went so well, not to mention his slightly-burnt hand didn't protest to that move at all. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing.

"Well, that was painless... For me, anyway," the hyena mused as he knelt down and began rummaging through Carmen's hammerspace, "you, however, can just go straight to Hell. Now where's the key to the cash register?... Ah! Bingo!"

Axe came up with a small 'Ice Cap Ice Cream' keychain with a few, clearly labled keys on it, one of them straightfowardly marked 'Register'. Of course... Why stop there? After a little more pillaging, he also came up with her wallet. Satisfied with that, he got back to his feet, making sure to keep his face away from the camera, and twirled the keychain around on his finger.

"And I'm not a 'puta,'" he added with disgust, "I know my species is a little gender-confused in the testosterone department, but it's not that bad..."

That said, he went over to the cash register and began to rapidly empty its contents. If he really had only four minutes... he had to work quickly.

[@ Dizzy @]

Don't pass out, Carmela.

Don't quit.

Rule number one- if you consider yourself defeated, you will lose the battle before it begins. You are your own worst enemy. Rise and fight!

Carmen clenched her fists as her mother's voice pounded in her head like so many drums. She was still awake, albeit woozy and seeing fuzzy. The thief was still right there, and he had the keys. The place was being robbed. On her shift. IN THE LAST FIVE MINUTES.

She got off her knees slowly, twisting her body around until she was almost lying down on her backside. Then, she struck, coiling her leg and releasing a powerful kick right at the hyena's knees. The drums were still pounding in her ears, but now it was the rhythm of battle.

[dice=6]

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[SHM 128 III]

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Next thing Axe knew, he suddenly found his legs getting kicked out from underneath him. He quickly dropped to the floor, slamming his jaw into the now-open cash register on the way, sending the rings that he had yet to pick up flying every which way. After taking a moment to get over the pain shooting through his mouth, he turned and glared at Carmen, who was now in a far different - and attacking - position than when he last looked at her, while stumbling back to his feet.

"Didn't I already knock you out?" he grumbled, rubbing his jaw, "Okay, so clearly I failed to render you unconcious the first time... How 'bout a round two?"

And with that, he raised his foot and promptly tried to stomp on her face.

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[@ Dizzy @]

[dice=6]

(The original roll was a 1- no idea why it changed.)

Funny enough, this wasn't the first time she'd been kicked in the face. Of course, those had been sparring matches- almost like dancing. That, and her mother had not been wearing sturdy boots at the time. Stars danced in front of her vision, and she'd barely had enough time to clench her jaw and move with the blow. It still hurt- but at least her teeth felt like they were still in the right place. All the pain did was piss her off further. She was going to pay for it later, but as for now...

"You're not leaving with that money, or your teeth, puta!" She pulled back both legs, tucking them against her chest, then kicked- both feet outward, right at his chest.

[dice=6]
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[SHM 128 III]

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Axe felt the wind get knocked out of him as he was sent flying backwards, comming to a stop only when he slammed into the side wall. Shaking the stars out of his head, the hyena glared at the otter. Why was she proving to be so hard to subdue? He was certainly having bad luck choosing victims as of late...

"Oh, I don't plan on it, Sweetheart," Axe replied, adjusting his neck with a loud crack, "I'm going to leave with the money and my teeth. It's not an either/or thing for me."

With that, he whipped out both switchblades and grinned sinisterly at Carmen.

"Now, are you going to back down, or am I going to have to knock you out a little more... perminately?"[rand=552248693569379620837036788570012132309942737511565960537234350851]

[@ Dizzy @]

"Ooh, knives, you think you're bad, don't you?" Carmen wiped the bit of blood that was trickling from her nose, then smiled in an almost sinister fashion. Her eyes flicked around for something to defend herself- and she snatched up the pair of large ice cream spoons from the counter. This guy looked barely older than she was- and he seemed to have a little issue that she could definitely exploit. This was a real fight- and it was far past time to play dirty.

"My mother told me I should never hit other girls. But for you I'll make an exception." She started to sway in the small space, keeping ready on the balls of her feet.

[SHM 128 III]

*twitch*

Axe was starting to get quite annoyed at all the jokes targeting his masculenity, but it was the sight of her grabbing 'weapons' that really ticked him off. Great, another fighter... And if her previous kicks were any indication, she was actually pretty good, too. He was not going to lose a fight to a girl. That koala was embarassing enough.

"Yeah, well I hit whoever the Hell I want, so I guess that works out, now doesn't it?"

Rushing foward, the hyena began by taking two quick slashes with his blades - one at Carmen's chest, the other at her face - before ducking behind her and attempting a kick in her back.

[dice=6] - Chest-Slash
[dice=6] - Face-Slash
[dice=6] - Kick
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[@ Dizzy @]

[dice=6] Chest slash

[dice=6] Face slash

[dice=6] Kick

Carmen winced as the small blade tore straight through her apron and shirt. She brought up the spoons to guard her face, feeling the clang of the knife against the stainless steel spoon. She had to get out from behind the counter, this was a far too narrow corridor to- His foot hit her square in the back, and her body tucked and rolled automatically. She came back up low, but on her feet, and she moved from behind the counter, striding backwards out toward the table.

"Come on, you dirty freak. Let's see who the better woman is."[rand=04003000997401873771132726442441912176922665419765047334100163710646]

[SHM 128 III]

Axe paused when he saw her move out into the open area of the shop. Great, she was trying to invoke a 'fair' fight... And all things considered, he had no insentive to fight fair right now. Glancing quickly at the clock, he noticed it was now only three minutes until the shift ended. Granted, it was probably unlikely that the manager would be percicely on time, but he didn't want to take that chance.

"You know, it's girls like you that remind me why I date outside my species..." the hyena growled, carefully picking up one of the tubs of ice cream lying in the back, "Trying to prove that you have bigger balls than us guys... What ever happened to the old stereotype of you girls sitting in front of the TV, watching soap operas while stuffing your face with ice cream? I liked that stereotype. In fact..."

Suddenly, a full tub of ice cream was flying right at Carmen's face.

"... Why don't we indulge in the second half of that right now, huh?"

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[@ Dizzy @]

[dice=6]

Carmen easily sidestepped the flying tub of Cyanice (sweet cream and almond) and snatched up a metallic napkin dispenser from the nearest table. She wound up and launched it, hard, right for his forehead. If he wasn't gonna come out, she'd make him pay until he did.

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[SHM 128 III]

[dice=6]

CLANG!

You could practically hear the metal box ring as it ricocheted off of Axe's head, knocking the hyena clean off his feet and landing flat on his tail. Letting out a few choice curse words as he stumbled back to his feet, he shot his eyes back to the security camera. That thing was holding him back, seeing how he didn't want his face to show up on it...

... Well there was one easy way to solve that problem, and it involved Axe picking up another tub of ice cream (Chaos Chocolate) and throwing it at the camera, hitting it right off the wall in a shower of sparks.

"Well, that takes care of one eye-witness..." Axe announced as he stood up with his arms outstreached like he was making some sort of incredible announcement, "Now, what to do with the other?..."

Grabbing yet another tub of ice cream (this one labled "Sea-Salt Ice Cream"... What kind of Mickey Mouse company came up with this stuff?), Axe chucked it at Carmen again...

[dice=6] (if Carmen fails this roll, she automatically fails the following roll due to ice cream in face)

... But this time, the hyena immediately rushed her after throwing it, hoping to tackle her and smash her into the table she just grabbed that infernal napkin dispenser from.

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[dice=6]

[dice=6]

Flying tubs of ice cream were notoriously unwieldy. Carmen sidestepped the tub with ease- and found herself suddenly on the ground, Axe having barreled right into her and knocking over the table. All thoughts turned to "get this -insert Spanish expletive- off of me." She did three things in rapid succession. She screamed bloody murder, her knee came up between Axe's legs- and her forehead went straight for his nose.

[dice=6]

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[SHM 128 III]

[dice=6]
[dice=6]

The result was, for a lack of better term, a "double-header." Axe quickly rolled off of Carmen, curled up in a fetal position with one hand covering his nose and the other covering his groin. And if he had extra appendages, he probably would've used them to cover his ears, as well.

In any case, he simply... laid there, moaning occationally, but otherwise not showing any signs of making another attack. It seemed like Axe... was actually down for the count.

Again.

By a girl.

Again.

He really hated his life right about now.[rand=42831958873640314543964779344350536982746477954278638889531188105]

[@ Dizzy @]

Headbutting a guy minutes after taking a faceplant into a counter was not the smartest course of action. Carmen picked herself up slowly, wincing at the pain, and the way the floor tilted under her feet. She looked over at the curled up hyena, and grinned to herself. "That's right. No babies for you. And THIS is for earlier. " She stepped over to him, carefully placed her foot above his head, and brought it down, hard. "Karma's a puta, and so are you."

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[SHM 128 III]

[dice=6]

However, right before foot met face, both of Axe's shot up and grabbed Carmen's foot. Hard. Digging his claws into her shoe (not to mention tearing the sides of it with the switchblades mounted on his wrists), he simply gave her an evil, toothy grin.

"Fooled you."

He then twisted her foot and pulled down hard, guaranteeing that her head - along with the rest of her body - would get quite aquainted with the linoleum floor he was also lying on.[rand=4371705363790605567230712226842115755412105651399931671281170233]

[@ Dizzy @]

What was it her mother was always saying? Never kick a man when he was down? Well, if she'd known it was because he might not be as down as he looked, she probably would have listened more. She had barely enough time to avoid him twisting her ankle by moving with him, but her balance was compromised. Her head smacked the tile, and that was that; with one head injury too many, concussion overcame adrenaline, and she slipped into darkness.

[SHM 128 III]

With the otter finally down for good, Axe got to his feet, dusted himself off, and looked at the time. Two minutes. That certainly didn't give him a lot of time. Eyeing the mess that they made, Axe glanced back down at the unconcious otter. Even with the security camera down (and, in fact, maybe even because of that), it was still very clear that something had gone down. Even worse, there was always the possibility that Carmen would still be very much aware of what happened after she came to. How could he make sure she wouldn't rat him out?

There was the 'final' solution, of course, but that was probably a little much. It was really kinda a cop-out, not to mention that it meant you couldn't come up with a better, more elegant alternative to keep the witness quiet. Plus, he was trying to keep a low profile, and murder would draw all sorts of unwanted attention on his head. But if he didn't just 'get rid of' the girl, how could he keep her from telling on him?

"My, my... I did a number on this place, didn't I?"

Cue scarcastic smile. The answer was simple: destory her credibilty.

"And guess who's going to take the blame?"

Kneeling down, Axe picked up Carmen's body and began dragging her back behind the counter. Once there, he hoisted her up and dumped her body over the cash register, giving the appearance that the otter had fallen asleep right there. That taken care of, he went out and quickly cleaned up the store a bit. He set the table back up, put the napkin dispenser back on it, and put the tubs of ice cream back in their rightful places. The place still looked messy (and there was really no way to fix the security camera), but at least now it looked like the result of a negligent worker rather than an all-out fight.

All that put him into the very last minute before the manager returned, so he ran back behind the counter and picked up the scattered rings on the floor to add to his collection. However, he placed a few of them back in the cash register and shut the drawer and slipped the keys to the register back into Carmen's hammerspace.

Standing back, Axe admired his work. The store was dirty, but not totally wrecked, and the register was short on cash, but not enough to look robbed. Instead, with Carmen out cold on the counter, it simply looked as though she had fallen asleep on the job. Granted, there was still the broken security camera, but... Even so, who'd believe a girl who was clearly just trying to come up with excuses for why she was slacking on the job? That said, Axe gave her one final salute.

"Have fun trying to explain yourself, puta."

And with that, Axe ducked out the back door and made his escape, taking with him a few hundred rings from the cash register, Carmen's wallet... and, quite possibly, her job.

[@ Dizzy @]

"Wake up! Wake up, you lazy girl!"

The first thing Carmen noticed was the pain. She opened her eyes, and immediately closed them as pounding set in. "Ugh... Que`... what happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened! You fell asleep right at the register! Who do you think you are, huh?! This place is a sty- what have you been doing your whole shift?"

Carmen groaned as she straightened up, wincing in pain and clutching her forehead. She had to leave in five minutes... she had- that guy! Where was the puta?! And the... the money- Hurriedly, she dove her hand into her hammerspace, feeling around. The keys were present, but her wallet was decidedly not. "Oh no, no, no." With her manager still going off in her ear, she quickly unlocked the register and opened it a crack. There was definitely money missing. Without warning, the burly gorilla that was her boss shoved her aside. Her ears rung. She stared around at the dining area- there was ice cream there, wasn't there? And the table she'd hit... and...

What the heck kind of thief would clean up after themselves?

"And what's this?! This money is a mess! Turn out your pockets, missy, right now!"

"But, but ma'am- something happened- there was this guy, and he-"

"Not another word! I don't want to about the customer you were ogling! Return those rings before I have you arrested!"

"Ma'am-" The word was forced now. Carmen put up her hands as if to ward off blows. "If you'd just stop yelling for a moment and let me explain what happened-"

"I know exactly what happened, you dirty little thief. You fall asleep on MY time, then you pad your pockets with tip rings and skim from the register!" Her large finger pointed directly in Carmen's face, shaking repeatedly. "I'll tell you what, I'll be checking over the records for every minute you've been in this place, and I'll be calling the police as well, don't see if I don't-"

A tiny muscle underneath Carmen's eye twitched. She'd just gotten her tail handed to her by a complete stranger, because she'd been trying to do the right thing. She'd tried to defend the place, even though she really hated waiting on people and probably wouldn't eat ice cream for a good year. She hadn't been written up once, and this woman was going to treat her like this? Carmen clenched her teeth, and something inside her went snap.

"Get your finger out of my face, you %*#%ing fat puta. I just got my nose bloodied trying to protect that register, when anyone and everyone else would have sat back and let him walk away with all of it. I took my shift alone because you were too maricon lazy to find me a replacement. I put up with this cheesy costume, and singing for tips like I'm some kind of %*@%ing trained monkey! And after all that- you walk in here, find me unconscious, and accuse meof stealing with absolutely no proof?!" She paused for breath, taking momentary pleasure in the way her manager's face had gone purple. "Besame el culo, puta! I'm done! I QUIT!"

She wasted no time in grabbing her things, throwing her work shirt down on the floor, and walking right out the door into the clean, open air.