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Who| Feferi + Loki, the Signless, Sollux and Starkiller
What| Finding out what Loki's intentions are with her ~~daughter~~ friend; meeting a familiar face she's never met before; letting Sollux in on her secret plans; and the end of the line foe the fishy princess
Where| outside the net cafe; the theater; unspecified mall location
When| Weeks 3 and 4
Warnings/Notes| Mercy killing, talk of violence

[ Loki, Week 3 ]

Sure, pretending to be Thor was amusing, but meeting Dave's boyfriend face to face is even more exciting to her. With those two helping in her trolling endeavors, she actually feels strangely revitalized, as much as you can after weeks of being stuck in a murder arena. As Dave does whatever it is Dave does, Feferi takes a moment outisde the net cafe to get a little better acquainted with the one who's managed to win her new friend's affection.

"So. You and Dave, huh?" You would think, by the way she talks about him, that she's known him for a lot longer than three weeks, and that she didn't meet him by trying to murder him.

[ Signless, Week 3 ]

The theater never seemed that tantalizing to Feferi before. It seems like such an obvious place to hide with how big and dark it is inside. But she wonders if maybe she can stake out a spot to get the jump on anyone who might actually think it's a good idea. She'll just stake out the spot, then go find Sollux. He's the one with the revolver, after all, and they'll have a better time picking people off people together that way. She just... wants to win this. Or wants him to win this. One way or another, one of them needs to catch a break, and then they can look out for each other.

She slinks around corners, trying to be as subtle as she can, looking out for anyone who might be there already. Her only source of light is the screen in each of the theaters, those that are running anyway, and while she manages to ignore most of them, as she slips into the next theater, her eyes are drawn straight to it. It's not that she's particularly interested, but she can't figure out what's going on. It puts her off guard for a moment, as she tries to parse it.

[ Sollux, Week 4 ]

With the lights out and an announcement like that (if you could call it that), it's really hard for Feferi to maintain a strategic mindset. It's hard for her to get into it in the first place. Part of her really wants to think it's a trick, and not let herself get caught, but the sudden dark that falls over the mall, the quietness, the lack of anything popping out in hopes of catching her off guard indicates to her that this might be the real deal.

She's already scoped out any potential escapes, and she hasn't seen any that might be worth pursuing, not in the dark, not now. She can use this time for better things, to talk to Sollux frankly and without worry of being overheard or recorded. Thanks to the flashlight she got earlier in the arena, she's able to pull him aside to somewhere they can hunker down, safely out of sight. She doesn't discount the possibility that others might have a flashlight like she does, so it's still important for them to be hidden. Once they're safe, she switches off the flashlight to conserve battery life. She doesn't need light to talk to him.

"Okay. I know you are-- were mad about what I said, about the thing with Eridan, but I couldn't tell you the whole truth. They were watching us, I couldn't give everything away. But... I have a plan."

[ Starkiller, Week 4 ]

It's not the broken bones that bother Feferi the most, or the various cuts and bruises. It's not the searing pain every time she tries to move herself, to crawl somewhere out of immediate view. It's that she just had to go off alone, and now she doesn't know where Sollux is, and there's no way she's going to be able to find him. She manages to tuck herself into a little alcove, still visible to anyone passing by, but at least not out in the open. Tears sting her eyes as she tries to use the wall to brace herself and stand, but slips back down when her leg can't bear her weight.

She's never been one to give up, but she's out of ideas for where to go from here. Even if she could stand, her arm is busted, and she's pretty sure she's at least got a few cracked ribs. If Sollux were to somehow miraculously find her, she would only weigh him down. The only thing she can hope for is for everyone to take each other out, and she doesn't see that happening-- and that would mean someone has to kill Sollux.

Unsure of what to do with herself, she curls up into her little corner as best she can, hoping that if anyone actually finds her, that they'll make it quick.

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The odds seem to be in Feferi's favor. He's taken a leaf out of Thor's book and has decided to do a few patrols every now and then. Honestly, he isn't sure what he's patrolling for, but it doesn't matter. It's good to get away from the group every now and then. Thor is nice, but he's also a bit more than he's used to- and then there's Anna, who's a different story entirely. He doesn't like to talk about it.

He can't talk anyway.

When he stumbles onto her, he isn't expecting it. At first he doesn't recognize her from the distance, so he moves closer- but then he realizes who it is, and he's quick to kneel down in front of her. There's concern etched on his face, because she doesn't deserve to suffer and he can already tell that she is. Feferi had made a good impression on him, enough that he can feel anger hitting him already at whoever did this.

But he's surprisingly gentle when he reaches out to brush hair out of her face. He wishes he could ask what happened, who did it, but he can't. All he can do is communicate in the most rudimentary way.

It won't matter though, because he's already realizing what he's going to need to do. She doesn't deserve to suffer this way.

At the touch, Feferi jumps, and then cries out as every break and fracture in her body screams in pain, but as soon as she can bring herself to look up at whoever's happened upon her, her pained, frightened expression softens into something like a smile. It's a sad imitation of her usual bright, perky demeanor, but she's trying anyway.

"It's just you." She supposes he would have said something to her first if he could, so she doesn't blame him. She tries in vain to shift more towards him, but her strength is drained. The fight took a lot out of her, and there's just too much pain to justify it. She can only imagine the kinds of questions he would ask, if he could, the questions anyone would ask, so she takes the initiative to explain herself. "I got into a fight. Two fights. I think I... actually killed someone? His friend was mad, and came after me. I think my arm is broken, and my leg too. And my whole chest hurts, it's kind of hard to breathe."

She's just lucky a broken rib didn't pierce her lung. Lucky, in a certain sense of the word. She debates for a moment, asking him to go get Sollux but... what if someone else were to come along? And if he retrieved Sollux, then what? She doesn't want to make him watch her die, but if she doesn't find him, how will he know? She sighs, and just says nothing more for the moment, but the thoughts are buzzing through her head none the less.

If it wasn't obvious before he touched her, it's more-so when he does and her reaction causes her to move and cry out in pain. Whoever attacked her must have done a heavy number on her. He doesn't take offense at her words like some might, knowing what she means by it. He's not a stranger, and she can trust him. As much as one can trust someone who intends to kill them, at any rate. Not that she knows that.

But it's all he can do. He won't allow her to suffer, but he doesn't have the means to help her at all. It doesn't take long to figure out how he wants to do it; quick and painless, so he figures snapping her neck is going to be his best bet.

He's listening as he thinks it over, nodding slowly. The prickle of anger is back when he hears what happens, and before he can bring himself to do anything he wants to know who did it. He isn't sure if he'll manage to get them, but if he can then he will, for her. So he leans back a little and gestures at her, giving her a questioning look that he hopes conveys the question he's trying to ask.

Who did it?

And after he does that, he's going to slowly and as carefully as possible, reach under her arms so that he can pull her up into a sitting position, already feeling bad for doing it. He just needs her in a better position to do what he needs to do in a few moments. He thuds down onto the ground next to her when she's sitting up, and pulls her over to rest against him.

It takes her a moment to put together what he's asking of her, with all the other thoughts running through her mind. She lets him shift her, helping as much as she can with her good leg and arm while she replies, wincing through it.

"I didn't know them. I just went looking for someone... anyone, so we can get this over with." In retrospect, she should have spent longer following them. If she hadn't been so impulsive, she might have seen the two of them there, and had time to back off before she made herself known. Once she'd engaged them, her only other option would have been to turn and run, putting her prone for certain.

Leaning into his lap, she closes her eyes, against the tears, swallowing hard to keep her voice even. She can't stop thinking about Sollux in all of this. She doesn't even care about herself anymore, but rather what it will mean to him. At least she can be thankful that a friend found her. Someone she doesn't think would bother to torture her first. Someone she hopes will find a way to make it quick.

"If you see Sollux--" she starts, but then remembers that he won't be telling Sollux anything, like it or not. She just knows what's coming for her, and she can't ask for much more than swift and painless. She doesn't ask for it, but he seems smart; it's obvious there's no arena left for her. She tries to smile though, at least a little. She doesn't want to go out sobbing and sad-looking. "Nevermind. Come see me when you get out of here, okay? Hey, maybe you'll even win."

A quiet, vaguely frustrated sigh escapes out of his nose when she says that she doesn't know who did it. Now he feels a bit helpless to avenge her, so he tries to push that thought out of his mind. He supposes that after the arena, he can look for the video of her getting beaten up and get them back next arena. Alternatively, he could try and look out for anyone who happens to have her purple blood on them- the former seems a little easier, however.

His eyebrows raise briefly when she goes to mention someone named Sollux, but decides to think better of it. Starkiller can get the gist of it all, and he figures that Sollux must be someone she's allies with. But she's right, there's really nothing he could do if he were to meet Sollux, without a pen and paper on hand in order to communicate.

With her back to him, she can't really see him nod, but he gives her shoulder a very small pat of acknowledgement. It's now or never, he knows that. She seems to know she's dying, so that makes it very, very slightly easier. It's still difficult though, because he's only used to ever having to kill people he doesn't know. It's not the act of killing that bothers him, not when he's kill thousands of people in his lifetime, but to kill someone he feels doesn't deserve to die just makes the entire thing difficult.

Regardless, he's not one to back out of something he has to do. So, slowly as not to jar her, he brings his hands up to either side of her head. His grip becomes firm, and less than a second later he gives her head a firm twist and tries not to shudder at the sickening crack that follows.

At least Feferi will be content knowing that she wasn't part of another cycle of revenge. Those never go well, and she's fine with letting this go this time. She can handle it, even if she didn't mean to kill that boy. What happened happened, and she's still responsible for it. This was the consequence. It's a hefty price to pay, but it just seems par for the course in here.

She doesn't say anything else, just trying to keep herself from crying. But she can't stop the trembling, in her fingers as she rests them over her stomach, going to the pain of moving her arm, and in her fins, as she relaxes them against her neck. She wishes she had her lusus here to guide her, to give her some kind of hint. She wishes she had a planet to look forward going back to. She's died once before, but she never had this much time to contemplate before it actually happened--

She'll have to thank him later; she doesn't get a chance to before he makes swift work of it. No more pain, no more trembling. Just nothing. When she revives, eventually, she'll at least be thankful that it's over, and that he was kind enough to make it fast. She'll just have to find some way to make it up to him.

Usually when people enter his theater, Signless just scrunches himself down as far as possible into his seat and keeps still until they leave. This time though he sees horns, and that's enough to get him to sit up and take a closer look.

It's not Meenah, Meenah has too distinctive a look, but the horns are the same and the fins are the same, he can see that much between the light of the screen and his own decent ability to see in the dark. She's probably from Karkat's group. He tries to remember the name he put to their heiress but it's escaping him; he's not in too good a state to remember particulars right now.

"Peixes?" he tries, in a half-whisper.

Feferi is surprised to hear her own name, and it's so quiet that she can't help but wonder at first if it's some kind of trick. She looks around her and finally spots a dark figure in one of the seats. She freezes for a moment, first sizing up that they're not about to fling a weapon at her, and the wondering if she should do exactly that.

But the voice knows her name, and the faint outline of horns is strikingly familiar. Slipping around the seats to come in closer, she makes a slow approach, squinting to try and get a good look at them.

"Do I know you?" It's not Karkat, she knows that-- Karkat sort of exploded. But it sure does look like him, enough that her throat tightens in memory of her fallen friend.

He shakes his head. Her confusion is understandable; it's something he's come to expect from the people he knows but doesn't really know.

"You don't, but I know of you, from Karkat. You're one of his friends, right?"

Feferi nods slowly, still wary of any tricks, but... it seems too convenient, that this troll who reminds her so much of Karkat would know her name, would know Karkat's name, and just so happen to be in the place she was scouting out. She relaxes a little bit at the thought; he doesn't seem aggressive, anyway.

"Yes, Karkat is-- was my friend. How do you know him?"

"He's my moirail." He refuses to use the past tense. Karkat is probably already alive back in the Capitol. Karkat is probably watching this happen, even. Karkat is fine and he's safe, even if he's probably angry about not being told where his moirail was going until Signless had already broken Terezi out of jail and gone on the run. It's fine. He'll be able to apologize once he dies.

"He told me your name, but it was quite a while ago, I'm sorry."

"Oh." It catches Feferi off guard; the last thing she expected was some revelation about Karkat being in a quadrant with his doppelganger, but she supposes that's really none of her business anyway. (Maybe she'll make it her business, in the event she ever sees Karkat again, but not with this stranger.) She decides to leave it be, since this isn't really the time to be grilling anyone on their quadrant affiliations, and she has bigger fish to fry. "I'm Feferi. Who are you?"

"My name is Signless." It's become second-nature to leave off the 'the' in his title, to refer to it as a name. It's easier for the vast majority of people he meets here.

"It's nice to meet you, Feferi." He knows this is her first arena, he would have seen her before otherwise. It's very hard to miss other trolls whenever they show up. His voice takes on a tone of gentle concern.

"How have you been holding up?"

"Oh, alright I guess! I am not dead yet, so that's a good thing, right?" She peers at him, squinting a little in the shifting light from the screen. "What about you? You're not hurt, are you?"

What else would the bandages be for? But maybe he doesn't want to say so, so she leaves it to him. She patched Dave up, but that was only because she was responsible for his injury in the first place.

He laughs a little, even though it pulls at the burnt skin at the corner of his mouth. It was kind of morbidly hilarious that 'not dead yet' and 'alright' counted as the same thing in this place, and he'd been here long enough and was at the right level of done with everything to be fine with laughing about it.

"That is definitely a good thing."

At her question he looks down at his bandaged arm, flexes the fingers even though he can't really properly feel them.

"Not in a way that I can't work around, for the most part. I was thrown in the deep fryer but the burn was bad enough that I can't even feel most of it... and my horn is cracked," he adds as an afterthought. She's a troll, she'll be able to sympathize with how unfun a cracked horn can be.

"You can't even feel it?" The horn is one thing, and there's not much to be done for it, but a burn that bad... she knows there's nothing in her medical kit that can help with that, but a burn... you can't leave something like that to fester. Sliding into the seat next to him, she tries to get a better look. "Can I see?"

She knows she can't do anything about it as it is, but maybe she can go looking for help. At least get some fresh bandages and some antiseptic, if she can find them. She just needs a good idea of what she's dealing with before she can do any of that.

He's a little taken aback by the question, especially coming from a highblood -- but then, Karkat did always say that Feferi was a little strange for an heiress. It's refreshing, actually, such concern from someone of such a high caste, though perhaps that's just because of his personal stake in the matter. Obligingly he holds out his bandaged arm.

"If you'd like. It's not very pretty to look at, as a warning."

Feferi tenderly pulls at the bandages, trying not to tug them off too hard or disrupt them too much. She just needs a little peek underneath them, and he's right-- it's not very pleasant. Her stomach sinks, because she doesn't know where she's going to get anything even vaguely appropriate to help with it. She's so reliant on her Witch of Life powers for healing, that anything else falls to her very basic first aid skills.

This surpasses anything that she's encountered yet.

"You are lucky you haven't died from an infection yet, but I don't know anything that would help. Do you want me to try and find you some new bandages, at least?"

"That would be extremely helpful if you could," he says. From the look on her face it's obvious that this is something she doesn't really know how to deal with and he hardly wants her to feel like there's nothing at all she can do to help. He knows how terrible that feeling is.

"I've been using torn-up shirts from the clothing shops; the human who first looked at it said that cotton was best."

"Alright." Straightening, Feferi looks back towards the exit, to make sure no one's come up on them yet, and when she determines it's still clear, she looks back down at him, trying to give a comforting smile. "Just stay there. I'll be as fast as I can."

She's already backing away so that she doesn't have to waste any time with goodbyes. Because this isn't really goodbye, is it? She'll be back, and she'll fix his dressings, and maybe she can talk with him for a while to comfort him.

Sollux is different; he can't see any trick to it at all. The Capitol wouldn't allow it. They didn't let him even try to hack a shitty cafe computer, so there's no way something like this would be a trick they pulled. Not with everything - everything - shut down.

He's glad enough to be a troll in this lack of light, though Feferi's flashlight still has use. It has to be worse for a diurnal species, but even now he's on edge. Just because the power's gone doesn't mean the game is over. He looks with Feferi, keeping eye out for other tributes and things of use, but comes up no better for it. When she pulls him off to the side, he lets her.

He's not surprised she'd want to talk. If this is for real, this is a chance to talk more seriously; even if not, it's not something to go silent about. But when she brings up Eridan, that stupid alliance again, it's not quite what he expected.

"What?" He turns to her, seeing more her outline than the fine features with the flashlight off. "Pleathe tell me thith meanth you had an actual reathon for brushing off my complaintth."

He's still not eager to go trusting Eridan for anything beyond his ability to be a pain in the ass, but he doesn't like having to be so frustrated with Feferi. He wants a reason to believe her.

"I did!" Feferi is insistent about this, and serious. "These humans don't know what they're doing, they need our help but they are too blind to see it. That's why Eridan is helping me, I'm going to take over, save everyone from having to play these stupid games, and stop the inevitable full-on rebellion when people get tired of playing nice! They need a proper, good ruler, so why not me?"

Not that she knows there is a rebellion, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that tributes aren't going to sit around and stand for this forever. They're going to organize, and there's going to be a massacre, and it will end well for no one, if something isn't done eventually. She may not be the rightful ruler of this world, but anyone can do a better job than they're doing already.

And that doesn't explain anything about why it has to be Eridan, so after taking a deep gulp of breath, she continues. "That's why I need him. It can't be just some hostile take over, that will be too obvious. We need to play their game and sneak our way in, and that is what Eridan is good at. He knows how to play highblood games and I don't. He is awful, and terrible, and that's what makes him so good at it."

The weight of what she says is too much to take in just at once. It spills out so easy this time, piece after piece, and he listens with open ears even as he tries to line it up neat in his head. It doesn't work so well just yet. The collection sits disorganized in his head, and it takes him a moment to pick through for so much as a place to start.

"Their ruler," he says, like he's not quite sure they're real words. "And you want Eridan to help put you in that thpot."

He sits back. They're probably settled down near enough to something for him to lean against. If anyone was going to be an empress, he'd pick her, and not just for the shade of her blood. (He can't keep the castes straight half the time; why should he care for that?) She wants good for them, and that's obvious, but...

"How are you sure that Eridan'th who you need for that job? I talked to Dave--" He frowns, contrite. "When the computer plathe firtht opened up, he ran into me there and I wath pithhed thtill tho I wound up venting. But he theemed to think Eridan'th the wortht choithe for talking to them. I know he knowth how troll highblood shit workth, but thith ith a different thpecieth."

His head tips down as he considers more, hand coming up to rub at his chin. "And we'll have to figure out how to work me into thith in a way that'th not thtupid. I've been pretty vocally pithhed off about thith to actual Capitol people, tho if I thtart playing along all of a thudden jutht for your plan they're going to know thomething'th up."

Feferi shrugs. She's thought of that, but... "He's got the closest idea of any of us. If some of it can cross over, then he will know it. And it plays into his whole... weird hemospectrum obsession. If he's going to betray me again, it will be when I become Empress, and I am not stupid enough to think he won't try and set that up beforehand. I'll keep an eye on him."

At the thought of Sollux getting directly involved though, she's silent for a moment. She never thought about that, or rather, she wrote it off. It's going to be dangerous, if it comes down on her, she doesn't want it to come down on him too. But she doesn't want to get into another argument, and she knows he's not going to take no for an answer on this.

"That's why we do it slowly," she finally says. "Keep doing what you're doing right now, but ease off. Let them think that you are just getting used to being here. We are both still new, and letting them thing that time and my influence are bringing you around, I don't think they will suspect a thing."

There's no way he can't be involved. Even without arguments, how could she go that far and keep him as her matesprit, knowing all her plan, without him having a part? The danger is a given, but life's been dangerous since before they came here. The only difference is how.

"We can both watch him," he muses. "You've known him longer, and you were hith moirail, but you trutht him more than I do now. Like I thaid I'm not going to thcrew that up for you, but I'm not going to clothe my eyeth and thtop looking out for anything fishy jutht becauthe you've thuppothedly got him on your thide."

Slowly, though - that should work. It's the only way it can, unless they could concoct some convincing sudden conversion, but that would be harder to pull off. Are either of them actors? He knows he's not. "I'll have to learn to pretend I don't hate it here, tho that lineth up with what we need. They can think I'm being convinthed when I'm jutht burying it."

But now, what can he contribute? He's not just going to get dragged along like it's nothing; he refuses.

"Maybe... When it getth to the right thtage, I can hack thingth. I got shocked when I tried to methh with one of the computerth in here, but they can't monitor every electronic they have outthide the arena. There'th whoever that chick wath jutht earlier before the power went out. If she can do that then my thkillth have to be utheful for thomething." There is determination in his features, for all the dark obscures it. "I can't jutht thit on my athh thith whole time."

"I do not trust Eridan that much. I just trust him to be predictable." Which is what it really boils down to. She trusts her ability to predict the worst out of him now, especially since he showed his true colors, but on the other hand, she is taking this truce to heart. If he does wind up behaving himself, then all the better, but if he doesn't, she's ready for it. At the very least, she doesn't want him to defect over to the side of the Capitol. He'll be much less trouble for them if she can keep him off their side. "And there will be something for you to do! There is just not much to do right now at all but I will find you something, I promise. I need to see what happens when we get out of here before I can really start planning."

What she means by that is that she's secretly hoping to get a win for him, but if either of them can win, it'll be a lot easier to push things forward. The Arena doesn't afford her a lot of thinking time, and she hasn't had much of a chance to get used to the faces in the Capitol. She'll need to get to know a few people before she can really start moving this plan forward.

"And we will always have to be ready to improvise, too. It's just how these things work."

"You thtill trutht him more than me. I wouldn't have allied with him in the firtht plathe. Jutht watch out." But didn't they just say that? His lips curls. "Actually nevermind, becauthe we jutht made that point, and now I thound like a uthelethh broken record tho I don't even know why I thpoke up."

And what she says, good-intentioned though it is, ends up pushing his swing further until his arms fold and shoulders hunch in. "Tho I'm uthelethh now, which I bathically already knew but I jutht went and got my hopeth up. I can't hack anything in here, I can't fight, I can't even shoot thith thtupid gun right tho winning it wath a wathte of time. Why are you even hauling me around if I can't do anything worthwhile?"

"I did not say you are useless now!" If she can, she'll get an arm around him to him closer to her. If he's going to be grouchy, he's going to get snuggled until he stops. "I just mean we're stuck in here, and if and when the lights come back on, we will be back on camera again, and they will be watching every one of our moves. Plus the only way we have to contact the human highbloods is through those computers, and then only the ones that let us."

She can't say much on the rest of it, though, leaving her grasping at straws or glossing over them entirely. "Now I cannot shoot your gun or hack anything either, but I still need you here. We are both stronger together, someone on their own might not want to attack us if there's two of us, they don't know what you can do. And I need you with me because I love you."

It's not a lie. She would prefer overall if he wasn't here at all, but if he has to be in the arena, she wants him by her side, no matter what.

He stiffens under her touch, but doesn't pull away. Where would he go, anyhow?

"It wath implied," he insists, "and you can't thay I'm wrong." Even now that they're not being monitored, having the power off means he can't try anything. If he could have hacked the computers, maybe he could have... could have... fuck, he doesn't know. Is there anything useful on the network at all? Does it connect anywhere important? He'd have more direction if he could just see what he's working with, but the shock makes that a no, and he doesn't want to die just to fiddle with a crappy system.

Love is not a small thing to consider, and it's why he's even bothered to stay near, but it seems so useless next to the rest in this moment. "But what if thomeone attackth anyway? I'm jutht dead weight, or at betht a meat shield."

Feferi hates that she doesn't have all the answers, that she doesn't have a rebuttal for everything. There are so many good things about him, but none at the moment that she can build a good argument around his usefulness in this arena. If she's honest with herself, he is just one more thing for her to watch out for. If she didn't have to worry about him...

But that's not a liberty she has. He's here, and he's in the Arena with her, and there's no way she's not going to worry about him. At least the moral support is something, and she's needed it more than she ever thought she would.

"Then we'll deal with that if and when it happens. We can't sit here worry about all the what-ifs. Right now, we are all trapped in here just the same, and we all have to wait to get out of here to do anything of value, and that's okay." She gives him a little squeeze, even if he's being difficult about it. "Just you wait, we'll get out of here and do a little recon, and then there will be more for you to do than you will know what to do with!"

Just like he said: she can't say he's wrong. It's not for malice on her part, and he doesn't really take it as such, but a lack of malice doesn't mean he doesn't hurt for it. It's inevitability, doom and what pessimism already told him, and it's hard for her cheer to lift him out of it. She's his matesprit and he loves and pities her, but she can't piece him apart and put him back together like a moirail might.

He'll take the squeeze, but he doesn't answer her. Optimism is a hard thing. She's built everything on hopes and assumptions he can't see in his mind. She doesn't even have a good rebuttal to his what-if, which in his thought process is as good as a confirmation to what he said. He'd die for her even then if it saved her - he just hates that he can't do much more.

His one concession is how he leans his head in against her shoulder. She really doesn't mean bad.

His voice is quiet and flat as he asks, "Ith there anything elthe I need to know about the plan?"

"No, not yet. I might not be able to tell you right away if something comes up, but I will try." For the exact same reasons she couldn't tell him about her plan until right now.

With that settled though, it leaves her with a distinct lack of anything else to say. She still feels bad; she keeps upsetting him and she doesn't mean to, but she doesn't know what else to do except prove herself to him over time. He'll see in time. He'll be a valuable part of this operation, and she's certainly going to need all the help she can get. "How are you doing? Do you want to rest here for a while? I think we're safe for now, and I don't think I saw anywhere worth trying to escape through."

That thought's not fun to think about. He's useless enough without communication difficulties. Out of the arena he might be able to hack something, but right now his pessimism overrides such thoughts. He's not necessarily trying to make her feel bad, either. At least he keeps quiet on the negative thought of the moment, but silent brooding can't bode much better.

"I guethh," he mumbles to her question. "I feel like crap and I don't want to go anywhere, tho whatever."

What a ray of sunshine: harsh and hard to look at.

"Alright, we'll stay here. If you want to try and sleep for a bit, I will stay awake." She doubts there'll be much to watch out for, but her mind is racing too fast for her to even consider taking a name. She feels... jittery. It's weird, and this Arena is bringing out a lot of feelings in her that she's not used to. But maybe a little extra rest will do him some good. Maybe. She can hope, at least, because besides hope, the only other thing she can do is wait.

Sleep. Sleep wouldn't be bad. He feels bad enough not doing anything, but it's not like there's much he can try right now. His head's already on her shoulder, and the cool presence of her is comfortable and easy - the one positive amongst all what grates him. It's been hard enough to get solid rest that he might as well take the chance.

"I'll try," he says, and his tone is finally softened. He shifts a little for comfort, and after a moment lets his eyes slip closed. "Wake me up if anything happenth."

"Of course."

She doesn't say anymore, wanting to let him rest. They both need all the rest they can get, and she wishes she was of a mind to take a little nap herself. She might doze a bit if she can, but never quite asleep. She'll be happy when she can get a full day's rest again, it seems harder to remember what that even feels like. She knows it's only a matter of time before he tries to make a sacrifice or two for her, so for now, this is hers, however small and useless it is.

"Dave and I...what?" Loki asks, quirking an eyebrow. Okay, so he knew that she was trying to get the scoop on them. He wasn't one to unnecessarily indulge, and he wasn't going to give her information she wasn't asking for. He stuffs his hands in the pockets of his black jeans. They were having fun, of course, and the fact that he could point her towards playing as Thor mean that it was a lot of fun for him.

"Need specifics," he said.

"You know! You're..." Two can play at that game. It's nothing that she doesn't already know for certain, she just wants to hear him say it too. "Friends!"

She has no idea what kind of chemistry they actually have together, and she wasn't able to get a better grasp on it in the net cafe, but out here maybe she can tease it out of him, and in the process tease some of the shippers out in the audience. She's ever-aware that they're being watched and that impressing viewers (especially wealthy sponsors) is key. She catches on quick, and she's not above being so manipulative.

"You mean that Dave's my boyfriend?" he paused. "Or that we're dating?" He watched her, but he wasn't sure what information she was trying to gather, so he left his answer pretty vague. Once he knew, he could be far more specific. He'd even be willing to share some things about them.

You know, for the cameras.

"What about it, then?"

Yes. For the cameras. Feferi's going to milk this for all this works, so she puts her fins back coyly and puts a hand on his shoulder, feigning as if to push him. "You knew what I meant the whole time! Yes, that. I just... well, don't get me wrong but I would never have guessed! You are pretty cute together. How did it happen?"

Hopefully they've come up with a good story together.

Loki didn't need to fabricate. In fact, most of what had happened up to the point of this arena was just them being...well, them. "We talked. We sparred. I gave him my shirt. We kissed. We realized that there's something beyond friendship. I wish it was more interesting of a story to tell, but that's all there is to it."

A simple story was a way to go. Not too many words about feelings or anything complicated. He hoped she didn't really want all of the details.

Feferi stares expectantly, hoping for so much more than he actually says-- for her own benefit just as much as anything else. But when the story comes up short, she pins her fins back and puts on her best pout.

"It could be more interesting, if you did not cut out all the good parts! Why did he need your shirt? And nobody kisses just because!" Well, not normally, but in the Arena, you never know. "I know I still remember everything about the first time I kissed Sollux, there has to be more to it than that!"

"Ah -- so you want the full thing. Every single deet. I get you." He shrugged his shoulders. Yeah, it would make good television. Still, he wasn't going to just start divulging details right off.

Those watching him on camera knew him better than that.

"I kissed him because I had the feels," Loki says. "It seemed like the right idea. He got into a fight, was injured, and -- that was it." Admittedly, Loki thought the actual event was much seen than it was described. "And it was because I had a red shirt, he did not. So I offered it to him." He shrugs, "He looks much better in red than I do."

"The feels? What does that even mean?" His modern internet lingo means nothing to her, but at least she looks legitimately confused. Still, she's not placated, and she huffs loudly to make sure he knows that. "Where did his shirt go? Did it get destroyed in the fight, or did he tear it off beforehand, so that everyone could admire his physique? These details are important, and you know if you don't tell me, Dave will, so you might as well just spill it all!"

She says it like she knows it for sure-- but really, she's only known Dave for a very short while. More than that, she trusts her ability to goad Dave into telling the whole story (or as much of it that's public) a lot better.

"The feels. Feelings. A lot of feelings. Like...the type you get when you don't know what to do." He shrugged. He didn't want to talk about anything that made it seem like there were deep feelings. He didn't want to say too much on video, because that would be committing to it. "I had his shirt. I got wine on it. His shirt is long gone."

He hoped that was enough. He's not one who actually likes sharing.

"Does that satisfy your desire for knowledge?" he asked, his tone was teasing.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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what a mopey jerk

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ahhhhhh man stumbles in late as always

no worries!

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