thearena | master of disguise

Entry tags:

master of disguise

Who| Feferi & Dave, Venus
What| Feferi engages in "creative" camouflage techniques, finds friends, and slays geese with them
Where| the forest and then the pond
When| week 2
Warnings/Notes| violence against geese?

[ closed - for Dave ]

After a few days in the Arena, Feferi realizes that her technique of trying to hunt others down isn't going so well. Maybe they hear her coming, or maybe it's just bad luck, but it seems like she always winds up somewhere after someone else has moved on. Her tracking skills could use quite a bit of work, so she decides to come up with a new strategy. It takes some effort to put it all together, but she winds up with... something special. It's getting on into the evening by the time she's done, and she's failed to run into anyone yet, but she's come so far that she can't just give up on it.

Settling herself between a couple well-placed bushes, she's pulled a mass of branches and leaves up to cover the rest of her. With a sharpened, pointed stick, in her little pile of forest refuse, she has built herself a rather conspicuous fortress. From the outside, while it might not seem too off from a distance, once anyone gets close, it's pretty obvious that it's been put together by someone. But that's what the stick is for. She listens closely for anyone to approach, ready to jab the stick out at them.

If they wanted her to be better at this, they would have given her a little more warning, or maybe put them on a tropical island with a beach nearby instead.

[ goose hunting - for Dave and Venus ]

It's a good thing that Feferi is a light sleeper and an early riser, otherwise sleeping outdoors like this would take a tougher toll on her than it already has. As it stands, waking up cold is unpleasant, but this morning she has a little extra warmth that she steals from Dave. It doesn't take her long to get up and on her feet and get her things stowed away. She's wary of staying resting in any one place for too long. She'll remember her way back to the little alcove of rocks, but also be mindful that someone else might find it and get the same idea.

First order of the day is to find something to eat. She's had moderate luck slaying animals and either eating them raw or building a little fire to cook them over, and armed with her trusty stick-- rock-sharpened at one end and heavy at the other-- she's almost as perky as ever. You'd never think she was here to murder people, but that comes after breakfast.

"Come on, time to get going! Those honkbeasts are not going to hunt themselves!" There's no need to announce it-- she tells Dave she's going to go hunt some geese as soon as he's awake-- but it's worth repeating to try and get him to follow along once she's ready to go.

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"Jesus Christ!"

Venus has been hunting geese without success for the last several days. Whenever she's gotten close enough they've fluttered off, as explosive as fireworks as they burst out of the reeds. She's been left scavenging like an alleycat for frogs and minnows, most of which she swallows whole and sometimes alive. Her fingernails have taken on the jagged appearance of a corpse's from having been in the cold pond water so much, and dark bands of mud are visible beneath the formerly flawless French manicure.

But today she's had some success getting her hands on a goose - but not killing it. To her surprise it attacked back, taking a chunk out of her cheek that's spitting blood across the front of her parka. She's wet up to her knees, her toes practically blocks of ice within her boots.

"Well, fuck you, too!" she yells at the goose, not caring who hears her, humiliated and made brasher for it.

It takes a little while to rouse Dave, because the cold is making him more lethargic than usual. He hates all weather, honestly, but he's trying not to be too much of a bitch about it. Apparently wearing two parkas and a blanket shawl is not, in fact, being a bitch about anything.

Somehow, Karkat and Dave had managed to wrangle one of the elusive geese on one of the earliest nights and Dave very vividly recalls the fact that it was delicious. They were bitches to catch and even harder to prepare, but they're good eating. He is in full support of attempting it again with Feferi, particularly now that he has a hunting knife on hand. He just can't help that he's following behind a little sullenly like a kid that got brought grocery shopping.

The faint sound of honking leads him toward Venus, but when he hears her yelling he's a little faster on his feet in the hopes of being helpful. He's expecting a vicious person, not a vicious goose, and he sort of skids and rears back when he almost crosses the path of a bird in a rage beeline.

"Woah, Nelly- Crisis alert." He glances around his person for Feferi, the goose flapping off in another direction before he can bother to actively pursue it. Instead he glances toward Venus and raises a brow. "Hey, I thought we were meant to eat them."

Edited 2015-02-11 11:46 (UTC)

When Feferi hears yelling, her first instinct is to go on the defensive, so when Dave starts running towards the noise, it's all she can do to not knock him down in an attempt to preserve the both of them. She's not going to let him die again on her watch. Once was one time too many.

She's not far behind when he stops, and Feferi takes a moment to survey the situation, noting both the goose and its hapless victim, who Dave seems to recognize. She looks to him, then to her, then to the goose as it flaps away, and back to Dave again, frowning.

"It's getting away!" She points an accusatory finger at the retreating bird, but doesn't make a move to do anything about it. None of them are in the way of any kind of weapon useful for plucking a bird out of the sky, at least as far as she can tell. Her home-made spear can only do so much, but she doesn't have the kind of accuracy she does with her trident. The weight is all off.

Turning to Dave's friend (were they friends?) she sizes up the injuries at a glance. "It really got you good, huh?"

She whips around when she hears people running up to her, but she stops well short of going on the attack when she sees who it is.

"Let it get away! I hope it gets hit by lightning! I hope Sandy Marko eats it or something!" Venus shakes a petulant fist in the general direction of the goose, as much for comedy as out of anger at this point, as if she were part of a laugh-tracked routine rather than in real life.

Finally she turns back to Dave and Feferi, pressing her gloved fingers over the cut on her face. It's deep, oozing blood that seems more purplish than anything else. She may as well she rubbing away mud for as much pain as she seems to be in. It's a flesh wound, and she dismisses it easily.

"Hey Dave. Who's your friend?"

Dave's shoulders slump when the goose well and truly flies the coop. Is that how that metaphor goes? Whatever. He watches it a little mournfully before his attention is back on Venus as she curses the remainder of it's existence.

"Note to self, do not pick up the geese." He muses out loud, raising a brow at her before opting to avert his eyes from the blood. He's not squeamish around it, but he still doesn't like to see it.

"Sup." He retorts with a nod, glancing at Feferi when Venus addresses her. "This is Feferi. She likes fish puns." He answers, reaching out to nudge the back of his hand against her wrist in a vague attempt to be reassuring. "This is Venus. She likes cider."

"Hello Venus-who-likes-cider!" Feferi shoots Dave a withering sidelong glance, but smiles towards his friend. "Have you known Dave-who-like-cheeseburgers very long?"

She doesn't make any secret of it, she's really just trying to make fun of him. She's gotten on his case about the fish thing before.

"I like more than just fish though, I like eating too. That's what I was going to do with that goose! Now we'll have to find another one." She looks around, her dark eyes darting this way and that, before her attention snaps back to the conversation. "You are welcome to join us, if you want! The more the merrier!"

"Would that make her Fishferi?" Venus asks, mood cooling significantly, as if she can't bear to be cranky right now. Down that path there be dragons. Wed yourself to unhappiness and it'll bring a dowry full of memories about what happened only a few weeks ago at the Cornucopia.

She looks between the two of them with a friendly sort of detachment, still feeling as if, somehow, she owes Dave for taking his friend's eye out, for not considering him part of her crusade to protect the children here, for not properly apologizing when she was called out for using that as a skein for protecting just Kankri and Ellie.

Might as well help them get dinner. It'll keep her mind off things, and Feferi seems nice and also oh, oh so young.

"Revenge on geese? I'm down."

"It makes her my gillfrond, technically." He pointedly ignores the withering look in the hopes that fishpuns will sate her, only he doesn't seem to realise that strongly associating her with fish and only fish is a thing that has earned him a variety of pointed looks from her.

"Don't talk about cheeseburgers now. I can't fool my stomach into thinking goose and saltines meets the epitome of unadulterated cheese and grease that encompasses my very existence." He gives his stomach a sorrowful rub, babbling both out of nerves, discomfort and because he doesn't know how to stop himself when he gets started.

"This is a dark twist on the Mighty Ducks if I ever saw one." He glances around, trying to listen for ominous honking. "Where do we start, anyway?"

Someday, she'll teach him. Today isn't that day, but she shrugs it off. It's not worth wasting energy on, and not in her nature to belabor the point anyway. She focuses back on the task at hand, and that's getting food, because her stomach is starting to rumble, and she's sure it's loud enough to attract the entire arena.

"Well, on Alternia, honkbeasts love water. If the Earth kind are the same, then we can keep going and we're bound to find a couple. Then we find the weakest looking on... and attack!"

It's just that simple. At least, in her imagination, it is. She gestures off down the banks of the pond. "Let's get a move on. We're not going to find them standing around here."

There's something deeply charming about how simple it is, and that part of Venus' heart that's felt squeezed since before this Arena started tenses even more. She feels it more in her throat than her chest, so tight that she wonders if the blood on her cheek is spitting out harder for all the pressure.

"We'll make gooseburgers. I got some cheese in a can, we can add that and a little wishful thinking."

And with that, she starts to wade into the water, thinking as the adult in the group that she should be the one to approach the animals first. Just in case the geese get frisky again.

Feathered motherfuckers.

"If we fuck that much up, we probably won't be here long." He adds darkly, despite the fact that he's pretty confident they'll do fine. The added allure of makeshift burgers makes it easy to wade in after her, but he pauses to extend a hand for the person who is probably more adept with water than he'll ever be. It's a courtesy thing, and it's also great for the cameras. Not that he needs cameras to think about Feferi, but that's another thing entirely.

"Do we know goose calls? Should we know goose calls? Heh, goose calls." To his credit, he's trying to whisper, but he's going to babble anyway. "God damn it, Percy. I told you to stop honking this number."

"You're going to get wet like that." Feferi nods in Venus' direction, sincerely stating such an astute observation. "Don't humans die if they get cold and wet?"

Still, she follows along, and doesn't head for the water herself. She could easily dive in and come up under one, but that won't do her any good if she scares them out of the water beforehand.

"I think I saw it land over there, through those bushes. There might be more over there!" If only Nepeta were here-- well, she wouldn't exactly wish this on Nepeta, but of all her friends, she's the most talented hunter. She'd have no problem in the wilderness, and Feferi guesses she's hunted a few honkbeasts herself. Just think like Nepeta, Feferi tells herself. It shouldn't be so hard, they did share a mind once upon a time.

"You think a little temperature's going to take me out? Have you met me?" Venus teases, pretending that Feferi doesn't have a point. Still, her eyes drop to Dave's ankles, the water creeping up past his knees, and she clenches her toes, already going numb, in the unseen mud.

"Hell yeah. Goose massacre. I can get behind this." Sure enough, there's a flash of feathers in the reeds.

Venus crouches forward, her butt only just staying out of the water, her shoulders tight and pumping invisibly like a lioness' creeping through tall grass. If she were to move forward, it would be an artful lunge, not a lurch. She turns her head almost without moving her body at all and holds a finger to her lips at Dave.

"We're going to need to shrivel up into pink, puckered man-prunes before we actually die. It's a slow process." He says that, but he's having mild regrets the deeper he goes. His legs are already telling him this is a bad idea, he's not sure he wants to experience the high definition sensation of cold swamp water against his dick.

He falls, surprisingly, silent for a while as he steels himself for it. He fights back an unpleasant noise and instead makes a face, a face that Venus turns around in time to see. He nods in understanding, turning from side to side as he tries to locate Feferi behind him. He then copies the gesture, raising a finger to his lips at her even if he's the one who keeps talking to himself.

Feferi follows along, staying closer to the shore and trying to move ahead, in hopes of cutting off a potential retreat route for the goose. She stays towards the shallows, but does a good job of not making too much noise splashing. She knows how to splash, but more importantly, she knows how not to. She's done her share of hunting for snacks in tidepools and shallows, where crabs and snails like to congregate.

Stalking around, she hunkers down low, not quite in the water, but like she's ready to pounce at a moment's notice. All in all, she looks sort of ridiculous. She doesn't have the required predatory grace to make this look cool, but she stalks their prey functionally. At least she has that much going for her.

So far Dave has tracked down a few people briefly, but Karkat is who he has managed to keep around. Karkat and his sweet swag, that is. He wasn't expecting such a vast array of sponsors but he isn't disappointed. Well. He's a little disappointed that he can't find Feferi, because he has a lot of goods he wants to share and he's worried about her. The fake relationship is secondary to the fact that she's his friend and that being here sucks.

He probably looks a little unfamiliar, considering the fact that he has two parkas on at once and a blanker draped around his shoulders like a fashionable cape/shawl. He spies the strange fortress from a little while away, and while he has no way of even imagining it's Feferi, he's compelled to approach it anyway.

Dave makes his way over slowly, hunting knife hanging in his hand and not raised and at the ready. His eyes scan the foliage and surroundings for clues, uncertain as to whether this is a joke or a trap.

From where Feferi sits, she can't exactly see very well. This is clearly the one and only fatal flaw of her plan, and nothing else. She can only see outlines where the approaching figure's shadow blocks out light between the leaves, but now she can't build herself a view port, since she'd have to practically take the whole thing down and build it again. Survival 101, Feferi, always build yourself a viewport.

This will have to do. She's hunted worse before anyway, in the depths of the oceans. It wasn't that much different. She waits until the figure gets closer, trying to figure out just how close it is, even with the lessened depth perception. When she thinks it's close enough, she jabs her makeshift spear out from the pile, aiming for the legs. Disable the target first, then she can worry about what to do with them.

Feferi Peixes, mighty huntress. All in all, she's pretty proud of herself in that moment, shoving a pointy stick through a crack in a pile of leaves and sticks and branches. She's done pretty good for herself.

Dave's second mistake (his first one being approaching at all) was not addressing the strange person who thinks they're being subtle here. He probably should have anticipated that they were looking to attack approaching legs.

Luckily his reflexes are still on point, because he rears back fast the moment the leaves start to rustle in front of him. He grapples for his knife, slipping it out of the fabric holding it there so he can hold it out defensively.

"Cool your boots, Elmer Fudd. It's not rabbit season yet." He pauses. "Also I'm not a rabbit. Fight me I-R-L if you're gonna keep poking me with sticks."

It takes a second to click, but she knows that voice! The horns come first, before the rest of her, and as the pile crumbles under the disturbance, some of the leaves and smaller sticks tangle in her hair.

"Dave! You should not just walk up to strange piles! I could have hurt you! Again!" Even if it's questionable how much damage her stick would have done. She starts untangling herself from her now-ruined shelter, frowning as it collapses at the slightest provocation. "Well, there goes that idea..."

"Yeah, the splinter damage would have been immeasurable." He answers dryly and rolls his eyes behind his shades. He watches as the shelter comes crashing down with a blank look, eyes flicking from it to her before it occurs to him that this is A Moment.

He slips his knife back into the makeshift casing and steps forward almost robotically before he wraps his arms around her and draws her in for a nice, protective hug. Now that he's over the calculated awkwardness of making it happen, the hug is pretty sincere.

"You have leaves in your hair." He points out, romantically.

It is most certainly a moment, and it's a good thing Dave noticed, because she never would have. The problem with faking a relationship isn't that she's bad at being affectionate, it's that she's not very good at cashing in on opportunities that simply present themselves. She can make opportunities for them, but things like this go straight over her head. And she is surprised for a moment, until it occurs to her just what he's doing. Jamming her stick into the ground, she slips her arms around him in reciprocation, giving a big smile.

"Well, yes. I got them for you, I thought you might like them." With one hand, she reaches out to pluck a leaf from her own hair, reaching up to place it atop his head. Now if that isn't adorable and heartwarming, she doesn't know what is. "There, now we match."

With one arm still around him, she starts picking more leaves and sticks from her hair. "I guess you've got good timing though. It's getting kind of dark, huh?"

Together, they make a good team. Dave is particularly good at singling out cliche moments and milking them for the cinematic weight they hold, but he's never been good at affection. Luckily, Feferi reads his cues well enough that his awkward attempts are well received and returned in a manner that seems more organic.

It's not that he doesn't want to hug her, but he gets to thinking he needs to hug her a certain way and then he needs to look cool doing it and then there's Feferi just effortlessly hugging him and... putting leaves in his hair. Alright then.

"Awesome. There is nothing I value more than leaves, there is absolutely nowhere you can find these things, they definitely aren't falling down from any plant life by the barrel full." He drones on, glancing up at the leaf as best he can before casting his glance down to watch her. He reaches out as idly as possible, attempting to weed out leaves and sticks as well.

"Yeah, great timing. Practically made of the stuff. Was that pun intended?" He quirks a brow at her, but he moves on. "I'm glad I found you." He says with as much weighted meaningfulness as he can.

"Pun?" It takes a second, but finally she laughs. She lets it go, though, happy to let him think she made it on purpose. She has a punning reputation to uphold. "I'm glad you found me too. Come on, I know the perfect place."

She lingers there for a moment, before she reluctantly pulls away from him. Her hand slides down his arm, to take his hand in hers. She snacks her stuff from the fallen leaf pile, then leads him off, seemingly at random, into the woods. She's marked herself a little trail discreetly, and she destroys the evidence as they go-- a leaf stuck on a stick here, a snapped branch there. She leads them up to a small outcropping of rocks, finally taking her hand from his. She moves a rock aside, revealing a small alcove within the rocks.

"Buoys first!" She tosses her stuff in, then gestures him in after it.

It's her turn to get the little withering look they've mastered between one another. Hers is better, of course, because she can only see his brows do that particular wrinkle and his mouth does that particular twitch.

Unsurprisingly, he still allows himself to be lead along like the glorious and glorified pack he is. Only he isn't carrying anything, so at this point he's just a mule.

He raises a brow at her as the rock reveals their new hiding spot, but he doesn't waste time getting his ass in there as best he can. "Clever girl." He mutters, casting a glance over his shoulder at her. "You've been alone this whole time?"

"Mostly!" As soon as he's in, she follows, and turns to pull the rock back over the opening. A little bit of light creeps in through the cracks, just enough that a human might be able to see a little bit; with the waning daylight, though, it's not bound to last for long.

"It's not so bad though. It's kind of quiet, when animals are not trying to murder me. Oh, and I saw your... what's the word? I saw Bro, and he almost got killed by a honkbeast, but I saved him. Just so you know." With the alcove sealed off, she sets about getting her things situated, so that she can make a hasty retreat, if need be, then settles down into a little nest of dried leaves. It's not amazingly comfortable, but it works. "What have you been doing?"

It's a little unsettling to be sitting in the dark like this, but there's also an undeniable amount of safety in it. At the very least, he isn't too proud to keep his shades on, so he's plucking those off and tucking them over the top of his shirt.

"Good." Is his initial response to Bro's peril. "I hope you let it bite his ass first, that makes for good viewing. Gifs will pop up in no time." He rubs his hands together, partly out of conspiracy and partly because it's still a little chilly in here.

"Me? Uhh. Found Karkat, killed a goose, met a guy in the Strider family tree. The usual." He shrugs, even if it isn't too visible. "I never thought I'd miss the mall, but I do."

"There's another Strider? What did you do with Karkat, he didn't die, did he?" Once she's comfortable, she reaches out a hand to try and grab for any part of Dave, and guide him closer to her. "Come here, it will be warmer that way."

She'll be warmer that way, but that's a given. Even if she can't convince him, it's still her lucky day. She doesn't often get to see him without his shades, so when he takes them off, she smiles wider for it. Even in the dim light, she can't help staring at them; it's probably better that he can't see her back quite as well.

"And no, there was no butt-biting, I was pretty sure the goose was going straight for the kill... they would probably make gifs of that too, though."

That is a whole bunch of questions at once and it earns Feferi a raised eyebrow. He's about to answer, but then she's pulling at him and it seems so heartless to deprive her off his natural human body heat. That is absolutely the only reason he obliges and leans in, not because he doesn't have a problem being affectionate because he enjoys being affectionate with Feferi or because he's worried about her or anything like that.

Nah. Definitely not.

"Can't believe he let a goose get the better of him." He grumbles that to himself, but he sounds more amused than anything. "Yeah, there's another Strider. From another world, even. He looks nothing like me but he cooks a good fish." He refrains from saying she should meet him based on that alone. "Karkat is fine- I mean. As fine as he gets, anyway. And we haven't done much just Arena stuff."

Give her an inch, and Feferi takes a mile, snuggling right in happily, casually. She chooses not to acknowledge the look he gives her, it's not her fault she hasn't seen him in practically forever. Now she's all caught up-- how's that for efficiency?

"I want to meet him! And I want to find Karkat. And speaking of fish..." Yes, Dave is probably wise for not making the comparison. "Come find food with me tomorrow."

Which may, in fact, turn out to be fish, though goose has thus far proven to be far more easily obtained. The lake is cold, and while she can stand it, it's getting warm again that's difficult, even with the clothing she's got on. She's only tried it once so far, and she isn't eager for a repeat, but if it means the difference between the two of them starving to death and... well, not, then she'll deal it.

She breathes in and out slowly, the rest of her body actually relaxing now that she's comfortable, and her eagerness fades from a roar to a loud whisper. "Who gave you permission to be so warm, anemoneway?"

There's something about Feferi that makes going about your business in a terrible place a little more cheerful. Dave is suddenly looking forward to finding old Strider with her, and Karkat. And. Fish. She makes this too easy.

"If you can stand the stench you can meet the ancient hobo. I mean, Karkat. We can visit the museum of Strider as well, if he hasn't concealed himself with his forest-man-magic." He gives his chin a contemplative stroke, slowly easing more into the contact. The fact that it's dark and concealed away from everyone and everything makes it easier to just relax about it all.

"Well. My planet was literally made of fire. And heat. And I'm from Texas. I was destined to be at least fifty percent lava god." He holds his hands out in front of them, then moves them so they can press inelegantly against Feferi's face. "What was your planet anyway?"

Feferi laughs; Karkat doesn't smell that bad, but she doesn't try to defend him either. Immediately, she claps a hand to her mouth, not wanting to be too loud and give their place away to someone who might be lurking in the area. It would be tough to find them in this little alcove, but not impossible, if she makes too much noise. It's hard sometimes, since Dave is too good at being funny.

"Oh right, I forgot. Well then I guess you are allowed to remain warm." As if she would have a say in it. "My planet was the Land of Dew and Glass." She says it with feigned amazement, like it's something grander than it really was. "Mostly it was just a lot of wet grass and some weird glass statue things everywhere."

The greedy part of Dave enjoys the validation he gets from making people laugh, so it's hard not to keep at it when she lets that slip. It doesn't help that it's cute, even if it's muffled, but he's trying not to give any real consideration to those thoughts.

"Why would I turn off the self-heating system at a time like this anyway? That's not smart thinking." Most of that is muttered because he can't help but be contrary, but he moves on. "So you mean it was a fish tank?" He asks blandly, daring her to tell him he's wrong.

"Like a really boring one without enough water to even swim in." If you discount the dome her hive landed in. That doesn't count, though. The water in there was too stagnant for her to stay in there for very long anyway. At least, she doesn't find it worth mentioning it. If she did that, she might get distracted from staring awkwardly at his face in the dark.

To stop herself, she takes the liberty of tucking her head up under his chin, mindful of her horns as ever.

"Do you know, Sollux's had a lot of fire too. Do you think that says something about me?" She pauses, then adds, "I mean, besides that I am always cold."

"Should've called World Animal Protection on whoever thought that was a good idea. You're an endangered species, we can't have you milling around in subpar enclosures." His voice wobbles as she tucks in closer, but he defiantly keeps talking through it. Enjoy those throat rumbles, Feferi.

"That you have great taste, probably." He points out, though there's an internal flinch when he thinks of Sollux. He's not sure why he feels guilty, he's just watching out for his girl. It's not like he's stealing her. It's not like he wants to steal her. It's not like she wants to be stolen. Right? Right. But she's cold, so he isn't doing his job anyway.

"I just had a thought." He announces, because this is turn of the century stuff. He shifts back, unzipping his coat and opening it as invitingly as he can in the dark. "Step into my office."

It takes Feferi a second to pick up on what he's implying, but as soon as she does, she doesn't waste a second in nestling right up against his chest, wriggling her arms in around his torso. It takes a good few seconds to get properly situated, trying to navigate the horns as well, but one she stops moving, she heaves a very contented sigh.

"Have I ever told you that you are my favorite human? Because you are definitely my favorite human." Sorry Jade. Not your fault for not being there to give Feferi warm snuggles, but what can you do?

It's a good thing they're being filmed, because this is rare stuff. Dave likes to imagine the cameras can't get to them in here or some such, because he certainly doesn't mind being affectionate when he doesn't feel like someone is breathing down his neck while he dishes it out.

But whatever. Emergency.

"I assumed." He answers blandly, as if he isn't sincerely flattered by it. He gets about midway through zipping it up over her before he considers her hair, so he very gingerly hooks a hand under the bulk of it so he can properly drape it away from the zip. "I'd say you're mine, but the last thing we need is Karkat summoning himself in here, flaring his nostrils and shrieking."

Meanwhile, Feferi hopes they're getting this on camera. This is some primetime adorableness that she's laying on him right now. It doesn't help that she's actually taking a great deal of enjoyment from it, or relatively so, anyway. Dave is warm and funny and charming in a dopey way, and his snide remarks about Karkat get her to snort, while his gentle handling of her precious hair has her blushing a bit.

"Oh, that's a good idea though. Save that one for later, next time we need to find him!" The worst, or perhaps best part, is that she can almost picture it actually happening. "It's okay though, you don't have to say it. Who is going to take first watch?"

She's all ready to doze off when she stops to think that maybe they should still take turns sleeping. Just because they're tucked away in this little cave doesn't necessarily mean they're safe. Anyone could find their hideout at any time during the night. Though even if they're both awake, it's sort of like fish in a barrel...

"If you even want to take turns. I don't even know if it matters."

"Trust me, I know all the turns and tricks for summoning him. I'm a blood drawing and a candle away from being able to pull his essence out of thin air." And it's something he prides himself on too. He adores Karkat, but he also takes great pride in winding him up to great pinnacles of rage and letting him go.

The fact that she's dozing off is pretty obvious just from the way she's breathing against him. He's pretty buzzed. Tired, but still alert and still eagerly protective. Too much-much to sleep at this point, so he just rests his chin on her head while avoiding the horns as best he can.

"You sleep. I still got braining to do. I'll give you a nudge if I feel myself drifting off." He won't, and she probably knows, but that's irrelevant.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

master of disguise

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am I not turtley enough for the turtle club

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