Entry tags:
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Who| Dave, Feferi, and Tom
What| Dave meets his untimely end.
Where| The Abandoned Zones
When| week one
Warnings/Notes| child death, will update as needed
"Do you think we'll find it down here?" Feferi's already shown the key she got from the cornucopia to Dave after she found not just him but his time clone, but she keeps it tucked away now that that they're on the move, slinking down hallways as they wander further into the arena. "I am starting to think I will never find what it goes to."
She stops to try it on locked doors every now and again, but something about the atmosphere down here makes her a little bit nervous. Something draws her further; maybe it's just the curiosity to know what this key goes to, or to see what's actually down here. It seems like the more dangerous something is to obtain, the more it's worth it, and while she would love to do nothing but play it safe, she's got to take a few risks-- and she's not sure the gamemakers would even allow that.
Despite having her Life powers back, Feferi's far more worried about this Arena than the last. The mall provided a lot of space spaces to sleep in, and an easy place to obtain food and water during the waking hours. This is different, and she's keenly aware that she's not the only one with her abilities back. She's actually surprised it's gone on as long as it has without someone mowing the whole place down-- like Sollux's ancestor. She can only imagine what he's capable of. Fretting over it won't do her much, but she can't help but think about it over and over. She smiles, but the way her fins stay pinned back defensively give her away. She's on guard, waiting for someone or something to come out at them at any second.
What| Dave meets his untimely end.
Where| The Abandoned Zones
When| week one
Warnings/Notes| child death, will update as needed
"Do you think we'll find it down here?" Feferi's already shown the key she got from the cornucopia to Dave after she found not just him but his time clone, but she keeps it tucked away now that that they're on the move, slinking down hallways as they wander further into the arena. "I am starting to think I will never find what it goes to."
She stops to try it on locked doors every now and again, but something about the atmosphere down here makes her a little bit nervous. Something draws her further; maybe it's just the curiosity to know what this key goes to, or to see what's actually down here. It seems like the more dangerous something is to obtain, the more it's worth it, and while she would love to do nothing but play it safe, she's got to take a few risks-- and she's not sure the gamemakers would even allow that.
Despite having her Life powers back, Feferi's far more worried about this Arena than the last. The mall provided a lot of space spaces to sleep in, and an easy place to obtain food and water during the waking hours. This is different, and she's keenly aware that she's not the only one with her abilities back. She's actually surprised it's gone on as long as it has without someone mowing the whole place down-- like Sollux's ancestor. She can only imagine what he's capable of. Fretting over it won't do her much, but she can't help but think about it over and over. She smiles, but the way her fins stay pinned back defensively give her away. She's on guard, waiting for someone or something to come out at them at any second.

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"If we don't, I'm going to flip my shit. I will get down on this floor and throw a tantrum, I swear to god." He's fully serious, probably. Even if he's on guard, he's a little overconfident. Having his powers back meant that dying was gonna be pretty tricky. He just needs to make sure he isn't self-sacrificing and he'll be peachy. Simple.
"Hold up, lemme take a gander at that." He jogs forward, moving to inspect what looks to be a sealed door. He pauses for a moment before he decides to push at it gently, hoping not to unleash a torrent of aliens in the meantime. "C'mon, open sesame. Gimme the key." His eyes aren't on Feferi, he's just giving the door a frustrated look.
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She's tucked the key into her suit to make it more difficult to snag off her person, and less obvious to anyone who might come across them, so she needs to fish around under her clothes, groping around to find where's its settled.
"Why don't you check and see if anyone is coming? If there is cool treasure in here, I do not want to share it with them!"
let me know if this works?
When he sees Dave Strider, however, his inclination for self-preservation gives way to his mean streak. He's always bent easily to pettiness, felt himself drawn to the momentary satisfaction of twisting a blade for no reason other than because he can. And he's well aware of Clara's affection for the boy.
He comes up behind his companion with surprising stealthiness. She has a knife at her throat and a hand over her mouth in a flash.
"Morning to you, Mr. Strider."
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He lets his shoulders sag just a little, acting the hopeless part as his eyes dart from Feferi to Tom. "I was a bro to you, pal. I told you a whole bunch of cool stories. Is this really how you're gonna play me off, keyboard cat?" Nah, Tom is a douche. Everyone say the villain monologue, everyone saw him shoot Sandy, this isn't really a wild change of character for him from what Dave has seen.
But the time is helpful.
"So, do you want something or are you just window shopping?" For kid corpses he finishes that question in his mind. Where the fuck are you, clone?
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"I actually do want something. I'm sure you're aware that one of my Mentors is watching this." He drags the point across Feferi's neck, letting just a drop of her oddly-colored blood run down the knife. "I'm interested in a trade."
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"Of course she's watching, everyone is watching. You wouldn't want to sabotage yourself for Miss Congeniality, would you?" He regrets saying that much when Tom drags the knife over her neck. He bristles, his mouth sets into a deeper frown and his brows furrow. "A trade for what? I've got fu- heck all." He spreads his hands as if that proves anything. "So if you just back off and let her go, we can just make like it didn't happen." Even he knows that's a naive attempt.
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"You've got yourself, lad. Perhaps I'm interested in switching up my hostages." His face tightens, darkens, neck and jaw going stiff with hatred. "Or maybe I'm interested in revenge against that would-be mummy of yours."
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In that moment, she cares more about Dave escaping than she cares about winning. Dave stands the better chance of winning than her, with his godtier powers, but if he gets himself hurt or killed here, she's fairly sure it will count as heroic. So let this guy kill her; the chances of it happening eventually, especially in an arena like this, are already pretty high, as much as she hates to admit it. For a second, she debates trying to entice Tom into just offing her straight away to stop this suspicious line of bargaining from going any farther, but instead she tries to shoot Dave a look, gesturing with her eyes for him to just get out of here already.
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His brow arches at the proposition, nose crinkling at the use of the word mummy. "I had no idea my vendetta value was so high." He runs his tongue over his teeth as his duplicate finally stalks into the background. "Look ma, I'm on TV." He says with an exaggerated volume and a wave at the cameras.
"Yeah, deal. Hand her over." He beckons for her with both hands like he's calling for his puppy, but what he doesn't realise is that the reflection of his duplicate approaching from behind is very clear in his shades.
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And that's when he lunges for Dave, the one he's sure is the real Dave, blade at the ready, still wet with Feferi's blood.
"You think you can trick me?" A rich concoction of anger and adrenalin and offense and sadistic pleasure ratchets the tone of his voice up, scrapes it raw.
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Naturally, the other Dave approves of this course of action. He just hopes they make a break for it rather than pulling some hokey hero crap. He'd be confident against Tom in a fight with a sword, but he doesn't hold much weight against him like this. Everything about it is akin to the animalistic attack Molotov made on him last Arena.
In other terms, he's fucked.
He braces as best he can when the older man launches, but he could topple him easily. He's unarmed, why is he unarmed? All he has now is his sarcasm, which he will use liberally. "This is some looney toon bullshit." He hisses, pushing and shoving any way he can to get Tom out of his space.
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He shoves the boy down and runs. There's no need to try his chances against three people at once, even with one of them eviscerated in one quick motion. He steps on Dave's chest as he goes, and then, footprints bloody, he disappears into the dark. His footsteps don't echo for long, as the humid air of the Arena seems to swallow them into its invisible guts.
When he comes to a stop, he blows a kiss towards where he thinks the camera is, grinning as he delivers a message for his Mentor.
"You're welcome for the speedy return of your boy, Clara."
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As she decides to stay and the bloodlust subsides even just a bit, she turns to where Dave was dropped, and falls to her knees next to him. This was her fault, she'd insisted on bringing him along. If he'd been on his own, this wouldn't be a heroic death, but he died to save her and so she was pretty sure which side the coin would land on. Gingerly, she pulls him into her lap, her stomach sinking not for the blood and gore, but for the surge of guilt she fells.
"You big dumb... dummy!" Her pulse is still racing, and she's frantically trying to look over his injury, but there's no way she can put all that back together. At that point, she starts getting misty eyed, feeling at a loss, unable to do anything. "What am I supposed to do now?"
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He doesn't scream, that's not in his nature. He's not scared, he's fucking annoyed. It is impossible to be this frustrated when you're suddenly spraying blood, but here we are. The noise he does make his a haggard wince and he squeezes his eyes shut, trying to ignore the shock and the pain that follows hitting the ground. The weight of Tom's foot winds him anymore, rendering any final sarcasm or anger beyond vocalization as the asshole stalks off beyond Dave's dark, blurred vision.
Fuck you, asshole. He thinks that, but he can't invest the effort in saying it. He strains and whines when Feferi moves him onto her lap, letting out a shuddery exhale that could be a laugh at her reaction. His hand moves to cover the wound, but he's already lost so much blood that the move is sloppy and redundant.
"Win." He breathes out, and it feels like letting air out of a balloon at this rate. "Ff..figure out what the key is for. Duh." His mouth pulls to the side in a grimace as he fights to ignore another chill and wave of pain. It isn't long before even Feferi starts to blot out of his vision, the cold feeling he's getting used to takes on and he doesn't do much to fight it at this point.
He slides his eyes shut and the silence is interrupted by his clone slumping forward and hitting the floor, his powers no longer in effect.
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When she hears the thud behind her, her head whips around, but as soon as she sees that it was the cloned Dave deactivated, the turns back to the one in her arms and shakes her head. She pats his cheek, as if she's trying to wake him up, like it might actually do something. "No, come on, you can't die like this, you are supposed to die doing something dumb!"
Not something dumb and heroic. Her mind races all over again. Was there ever another way to bring back a dead godtier? A kiss shouldn't work, all his dreamselves are spent, but... for some reason, she leans in and tries it anyway. It's worth a shot, right? It so familiar to her, even if the last time she tried it was well over a sweep ago, but this time, instead of coming back to life, nothing happens. Her shoulders slump, her fins pin back.
Gently, she lays him on the floor, putting his arms over his chest. As she gets to her feet, a few tears finally slide down her cheeks, but she goes about her task with intent. She moves over to the slumped-over clone Dave and picks him up as well, laying him next to his original in much the same position. She has no idea if they'll need all the Daves in order to revive them, but she's going to make sure they get at least two of them. It's weird looking at the both of them, but seeing them makes her miss their stupid inter-Dave banter. Backing out of the room, she knows she can't linger there any longer, and finally heads off down the hall, deeper into the Arena.