[closed]

[fintastic]

Who| Feferi Peixes & Sollux Captor, Eridan Ampora, Dave Strider
What| A heart to heart talk between gillfrond and buoyfrond; later, Sollux wins himself a gun in the scavenger hunt, and Feferi goes to get advice on how to use it, then to tend the wounds of her second favorite nerd.
Where| all around
When| Week 1/Week 2
Warnings/Notes| None yet!

[ Sollux, week 1 ]

Feferi is pretty sure they have this store all to themselves; at least, if anyone is hiding, they're doing a damn good job of it. With the door shut tight, and the spoils of their venture to the food court laid out in the little alcove made by the register stand, she's ready to sit down and leg her legs rest. She's been moving all day, and her knees are bruised, and she's so tired.

But she still has something to do.

Nestling herself into the little pile of clothes she's gathered for them to sleep in, she relaxes a bit and starts picking at the food. She doesn't really feel all that hungry, but she knows she has to eat something.

"So. What did you do today, while you were missing?"

[ Eridan, week 2 ]

When something actually showed up in her locker, Feferi was surprised-- even more so when something showed up in Sollux's. Between the two of them there's a lot of useful stuff there, including not just one, but two actual weapons. The crowbar is heavy in her hands, and she's used to thrown weapons, but she can make do. The gun, however...

She loves Sollux, she really does. But somehow she doubts that he's going to know how to shoot it, and neither does she. There's only one person in this Arena who she knows to be capable of shooting well, and he's not exactly the kind of person who would take well to giving Sollux shooting lessons. Her, on the other hand...

There's hesitance on her part to leave Sollux alone, but he's got the computers to play with, and she can't bring him with her. She leaves the crowbar with him, taking the revolver, and sets off into the rest of the mall, trying to find Eridan. How hard can it be? He's bound to be trying to show off somewhere.

[ Dave, week 2 ]

After finishing up with Eridan, there's one more stop Feferi needs to make, before heading back to the computer cafe. There's a little business left over from last week that she really needs to see through. She's still got the revolver on her, and she's a little wiser on how to use it now, but she's also got her first aid kit with her. There's a particular blond human that she's looking for-- she has no idea where Dave went after they split up, but this mall isn't that big.

She's got a one in three chance that he's on the same floor as her, at least so she makes a tour, trying to track him down in stores and niches, trying to remain unseen otherwise, though the bright orange horns make that hard. It's a risk, but she takes it anyway. If she doesn't find him here, she'll go back and find Sollux, and just wait until they find Dave again on their own. They're bound to run into each other eventually.

Comments

[shenunigans]

Needless to say, some shit has gone down since then for Dave. By now, his bruising is looking better and he's feeling a hell of a lot better than he did since they parted. He's had plenty of time to work through everything that was weighing on him, now he can get back to comfy, comfy apathy.

As it happens, he'd been hovering in the vicinity of the computer cafe, having fallen to the allure of internet sometime ago. His fascination didn't last long once he realised the possibilities were limited, so he'd wandered off in search of something more entertaining. He catches a flash of those horns and he's relieved to identify them as friendly horns, but they look to be horns on a mission and he can't help approaching with an unintentional amount of stealth.

"He's probably rubbing up against a computer." He calls out from a small distance, assuming she's looking for Sollux. One hand is holding his skateboard under his arm and the other is sloppily bandaged and hanging by his side.

[onthelii2p]

Sollux doesn't feel hungry either, in all truth, though he knows his stomach has been empty since near the start of the arena. He pokes at things, but doesn't actually put anything to his mouth. And though tired, he doubts he'll manage to sleep much tonight.

When the question comes, it makes sense. He did show up looking weird, notably bloodied, and in rather distinct clothes, so he sighs and sets himself to explaining.

"I fell off my podium when the ekthplosionth happened, then got found by a clown - not Gamthee, not the Initiate, I don't know hith name - who bathically forthed help on me until I agreed to let him drag me off the ithe. That'th where the blood wath from. Then I took my thkateth off, ran up to the third floor, found thome athhole in a shitty troll dithguithe and found the thtore he got thtuff from thinthe I guethh themed thtoreth are a thing. I got the shirt and the pantth there and put the thkateth in a pail becauthe it wath eathier to carry even if it wath grothh. Then I went down to thecond floor, found a bookshop, and hid mythelf there until I heard Dave thcream."

All at once, nice and perfunctory. It skips the part where he saw Karkat explode, where he had to close his eyes to keep from looking for signs of chipped horn, how he was sick once he got back on his feet. It leaves out how he heard them arguing before the scream, and how he kept hiding anyway. He's not about to leave her now, and won't anytime soon, but the debate was strong enough that it took an outside hand to force him.

[unconchonable]

Eridan was pretty pleased with his own find, his locker presenting himself with QBZ 95-B carbine. A rifle was definitely more his suited preference when it came to guns, so it felt so natural in his arms, even if it was notably light. Though, after toting around a legendary rifle larger than his own body, anything would be light in comparison.

When Feferi comes across him, he's actually in a book store, looking through the titles with a bored sort of indifference, though the gun was firmly in both hands. Held properly too, though Feferi wasn't exactly the educated sort to recognize that. If she were, she wouldn't be seeking him out. He spotted her in the corner of his eye however, though his mind disn't register that it was her at first, and so he swung around, gun aimed directly at her, his expression dark and dangerous.

"Thought you could get the jump on me, didn't you-- oh shit. Fef--I-" his voice went from murderous to something a bit more soft, almost meek sounding, "I didn't realize it was you."

He lowered his aim, eying her almost a little embarrassed at how quickly he jumped to the offensive. He was a little on edge, and the bruises around his face, and the few missing teeth that were obviously gone when he spoke was pretty telling. he had switched out of his blood stained clothes by then, but it was obvious to anyone with a brain that he had gotten into quite the scuffle.

[fintastic]

Feferi startles at first, when she hears a voice, but when she spots Dave, she waves and bustles right over to him. Her eyes go straight to his hand, and before she even greets him, she reaches for it to inspect his haphazard bandaging.

"There you are! I was looking for you, actually, not Sollux. He was on a computer the last time I saw him. How's your hand doing?"

[fintastic]

"Sound like you had a rough start." She picks up a cracker and offers it to him. "Here, try this, it'll be easier to eat."

Even though she's eating slowly, she's still eating, but he's just been picking at it so far. He needs to eat; she's not going to see him starve to death. Aside from every other part of her that's sore, her heart aches. She can tell he's hurting, but she doesn't know how to broach the topic. It's unusual for her, because she always knows what to say, or will just chance it, but this-- this seems different. She saw the horns. She wonders if he noticed too, but if he didn't she doesn't want to be the one to tell him.

"So that's what happened. But how are you feeling?"

[fintastic]

Her heart definitely leaps as he aims the gun at her; for a second, she thinks they're going to have a repeat of their encounter on the meteor. When he finally lowers it, so do her fins, and she forces a little smile, even though her pulse is raising. She didn't even thing to raise the pistol in her hand.

"Look at you. You've been busy, huh?" Feferi's got a few battle scars of her own, most notably bruises that are covered by the long sleeved shirt and yoga pants she found to wear in lieu of the feathery atrocity she was in when she started. She's less worried about the bruises and teeth, the latter will probably go back, but she wonders about his mental state. "Well, if you're not too busy... reading, I wanted to ask you something."

She holds up the pistol, finger on the trigger-- at least she's got it pointed towards the ceiling.

[onthelii2p]

He takes the cracker and looks at it for a long moment. Easier to eat? What, does she think he has a stomach illness?

(He's felt nauseous enough for it.)

"I'm in a big murder game," he says, carefully going into how rough things really have felt. "I feel like shit."

He eats the cracker, then picks another from the package.

"You theem like you're dealing with it better, thomehow."

[unconchonable]

The last thing he wants is to repeat that dreadful day. While he's still on the fence about how he should feel about the whole thing, he does know for damn certain he doesn't want a repeat.

"You could say that," he retorts with obvious bitterness. He isn't happy about how that turned out, about how he had to be saved, or he would have died. Probably. It's humiliating, and if he doesn't have to go into details, he'd be better off for it.

"What is--" he doesn't even get to finish before Feferi wields that gun, pointing it at the ceiling with her finger on the trigger. His eyes widen, his fins perking and he instinctively reaches out to put his hand on the revolver, trying to push her aim downward.

"Take your prong off the trigger if you ain't plannin' to shoot no one!" he growls the order out, obviously sounding a bit more worried, than angry. She could have easily shot him with that little maneuver, or her self! At the very least the ceiling, or a fixture, and last he needs is Feferi harming herself because she doesn't know how to hold a gun proper!

[shenunigans]

Dave doesn't wave back, Dave is too cool to wave. He no longer feels wary when she approaches, but that doesn't mean he won't at least try to pull his hand away from Feferi when she reaches for it.

"If he doesn't wean himself away soon we're going to find him shriveled up like a sun-dried lemon. I was only there about twenty minutes and I was sweating more than a whore at a nun factory." What. "It's doing a lot of things." Hurting, mostly. "I'm starting to find patches of grey on my skin, nubs on my skull, my teeth feel pointier and I have the urge to be violently annoying. I'm changing, man. You did something to me."

[fintastic]

Dave is just too cool for school, whatever that is.

"Hold still, I want to look!" She tightens her grip on his wrist trying to peek inside the bandages. In her other hand is the first aid kit, and she holds it up. "Let me fix it. It is the least I can do, without my powers here."

[fintastic]

"What?" She stares at him for a second, and then watches his hand. She's confused, but takes her finger off the trigger. "Okay, but how am I supposed to shoot it now?"

At least she sounds honestly curious. That is what she came here for after all; it isn't going to her a lot of good to snap at him for trying to help. She stands still, not wanting to mess up again, not entirely sure what mistake she made. It was enough to make Eridan worry though, and that's enough for her.

[fintastic]

"I don't know," she admits, munching on a cracker of her own, drawing her knees up to her chest. "I almost killed your human friend, just because he was looking for you."

It was an easy mistake to make but... she didn't like feeling so vicious. She was capable, but she preferred to meet people by something normal like a greeting first. Not by biting their hand.

[shenunigans]

"But moooom." He grumbles, knowing full well she has no concept of what a mom is or why they would pester him. He sees the medical kit and he's almost less inclined to let her look, but he relents and lets his hand hang limp for her.

"If it'll soothe your conscience I guess I'm obligated to play along." Have a little shrug. "You wanna sit down while we do this?"

[onthelii2p]

His lips press together tightly. It's true that Dave will have to die eventually, more likely than not, but Feferi trying to kill him... It's not so pleasant to think about. "You thought he wanted to hurt me," he says.

He doesn't know if he should try to comfort her. It's not a bad instinct to have in an environment like this, but misunderstandings aren't going to make anything easier.

It's not what he meant, though.

"You're cheerier than me. You have a better idea how to keep going with thith. When I thtopped you you jutht perked back up like nothing happened and took uth looking for clothing," he clarifies. "That'th better than me."

[fintastic]

"More importantly, it will make you feel better! But yes, let's!" She'll gladly follow him to sit down, though, placing the first aid kit down next to her, then tenderly removing the messy bandages from his hand. She investigates the remaining damage first, before she starts unpacking things from the first aid kit: alcohol swabs, proper bandages, medical tape. "What have you been keeping busy with anemoneway? I mean since we split up."

[fintastic]

"Well... that's just what I'm good at. And you're good at other things." It's sort of a cop-out answer, but she doesn't actually know what else to say. He has a lot of great qualities to her, but when it comes to the arena and fighting in this game, his ability to self-sacrifice and put everyone ahead of him isn't going to help him. "Now that I found you though, I'm not letting you go. We'll stick together from now on, for however long we are in here."

It's not really a promise she can make, and not one where she wants to think about the implications of breaking it, but it seems like the right thing to say. She has to comfort him, and there aren't many ways to do that right now.

[onthelii2p]

Sollux snorts, crossing his arms. The crackers are forgotten. "Nothing that'th good in here, and you know it."

The tension in his posture doesn't stick as well as he'd like, though. Together, she says, and staying that way. The implications come straight to mind before anything else. He can't keep them out. One of them sooner or later must die, if not both. It's the nature of what they're in.

He remembers, too, their conversation from before. She might want to let him win, but he won't allow it if there's anything he can do. For all he might have been scared to find those he knows at first, he can't just go his separate way now. She's important to him, too important to let go.

He might not be able to protect her without the right skills, but he would lay down his life if it saved her even once.

His arms slink out of their fold, and he finds her hand and squeezes it. It's not a word - if he says anything, the debate of before will just reignite - but it has a meaning that should be clear.

[unconchonable]

"Unless you're plannin' to shoot me, you shouldn't be firin' it right now.
Only put your prong on the trigger if you're gonna be firin' it. It sawes you from misfirin' and possibly cullin' someone--or hurtin' yourself."

He retracts his hand from her gun, hoping she'll take his words to heart, because he really rather not get shot at all. he's dealt with enough as it is, and being shot just isn't cutting it.

"If you want me to teach you, I'll teach you. I can't wery well in good conscious let you go around with a gun that--" he looks to it, and notices the name engraved on it, or at least what he can see of it. He reaches for it again, if only to make the name more visible, if she'll let him.

[shenunigans]

"Yeah, it was really weighing me down." He grumbles, sliding onto the ground like it ain't no thing to be there. He stares off in the distance when she inspects, because he doesn't want to see how gross it is, it'll mean it hurts more when she disinfects it or something.

"Oh, you know, the usual. Fighting off rabid little gills, having a whale of a time. Been chilling with my boyfrond, mostly." He tries not to look a little smug over his puns. "Probably been about the same for you, huh?"

[fintastic]

Feferi appreciates the fish puns, but she doesn't comment on them, listening intently as she unwraps one of the alcohol swabs and, holding his wrist tightly, draws it over the wounds she left behind before. She tries to be delicate, but there's only so much she can do with rubbing alcohol.

"Yeah, pretty much. Sollux and I are sticking together for the most part, but he should be safe right now. I didn't know you had a buoyfrond. Why haven't I met him yet?"

[fintastic]

"Oh. Okay." Maybe that was obvious to Eridan, but to Feferi it comes at news. She would have assumed you needed to have your finger on the trigger, even if you weren't going to fire it right away! She mentally notes it, and takes her finger off the trigger, though she's not quite clear where she's supposed to put it now.

When he grabs for it, she doesn't really stop him. Now that he's already told her off once, she's wary of doing the wrong thing and accidentally shooting him for real. That's the last thing she needs-- ruining their already-shaky truth by accidentally gunning him down. She's pretty sure her first aid kit won't cover a bullet wound.

[fintastic]

"Well..."

She doesn't have a good argument for that. She wants to, but she opens her mouth and there's nothing. Nothing she can even twist in the most abstract of way to make it sound like a positive. "We'll get through this. We always do."

As he reaches for her hand, she links her fingers in his, and squeezes back, shifting closer so she lean up against him, slipping an arm around his shoulders. With nothing left to say on the matter, all she can really do is snuggle up close and try to comfort him at least a little. She has other important things to talk about, things that she wants him to be a little more comfortable for, or at least as comfortable as he's going to get.

[onthelii2p]

Exactly what he expected. He knows his limits, and didn't have enough time before the arena started to pick up any real skills. A little knife flinging can't help him now when he could barely hit the target, much less its center.

It's hard not to feel useless for it. Feferi's not helpless and never has been, but he wishes he at least had the chance to do something for her. Some way to fight, some way to defend her, or even just himself. He's got, what? His own horns and teeth? Some ice skates? Those aren't proper weapons, and when he's never been a close-range fighter, he'd prefer to avoid using the former.

There's nothing for it. So long as they're still in here he can't train meaningfully, meaning he'll just have to survive for what time he can.

We'll get through this, she says. In a sense they probably will, and he offers he back a nod as answer.

For a time he falls silent, too, and eventually he does resume eating properly. Their situation is awful, but not eating (no matter what he feels like) is only going to make it harder. Her line of thinking is correct: he's not all that comfortable, but he's as close as he can be under present circumstances.

[shenunigans]

Honestly it's a good thing she doesn't comment, because it gets him wondering about why she wouldn't and if they weren't up to scratch and then he's distracted when she whips out the swab of misery and burning.

"Sounds about rrrrrrwhhhhyyyy the fuck does that hurt like a goddamn biiiiitchmotherfucker." Is he done? He don't rightly know. Focus on something else- anything else. "Because I met you like a week ago, probably." He twitches his fingers. "And it only happened like a week ago too, coincidentally. These murder games really get my motor running, y'know?"

[fintastic]

"I guess so. Hold on, I don't know what this will feel like." She squeezes a bit out of a tube of antibiotic onto his wounds, spreading it about with a cotton swab before she sets to actually bandaging up his hand properly. "I'd like to meet him. He must be a very lucky guy. If I didn't have Sollux around, I'd probably be a little bit jealous."

What can she say? For a human, Dave is charming and cute (but not as cute as Sollux, she's established that already) and anyway it makes for good smalltalk as she winds the bandage around his hand.