Entry tags:
just your typical arena week
Who| Feferi Peixes & OPEN, plus Clementine, Dave, and Psiioniic
What| a weeks worth of Arena antics, and then some
Where| all around
When| Week 4
Warnings/Notes| The Nessie encounter can alternately be Week 5, she'll try to befriend them as much as she canand attempt to build a Nessie army
[ open (week 4) ]
While others are being lured into the caves, Feferi finds herself driven out. The Jabberjays are going to have to try a little harder to pull one over on her, but for a second she wonders-- is that what it feels like to be Sollux? She hears his voice among the others, alongside Karkat’s and Dave’s, and more of her friends. When she gets to the mouth of the cave she’s taken temporary shelter in and finds no one there, she grows suspicious; as she keeps listening, she starts wondering if they’ve put speakers in the trees, just to mess with her.
She takes her things with her, still-loaded gun held close, and a knife at her hip. She moves away from the caves, heading towards the nearest body of water. There's something in the waters that have intrigued her over the past few days, and what else does she have to do with herself? Well, besides killing people.
When she does finally make it to the river, she spots one almost immediately, hovering under the water. It's too cold for her to get undressed and hop right in, and that would leave her at a disadvantage. So she does what any sane troll would do: try to coax it out with what little food she has on her, supplemented by a dead branch with a few leaves still hanging on. With a few furtive glances over her shoulder, she manages to coax the beast out of the water, and with little caution, proceeds to reach out and touch its snout. It's not a sea creature, whatever it is, but it reminds her of one, and she takes small comforts where she can.
[ Clementine (week 4) ]
With the caves no longer an option, Feferi needs to seek out alternate shelter for the time being. She turns back to her original hide out from the start of the arena, backtracking her way to an outcropping of rocks. It wasn't really a cave, exactly, just a little natural shelter that let her take cover and keep warm for the first week or two in the Arena. Along the way, she finds some nice branches with leaves and pine needles still stuck on them, just a couple to bring with her.
At a point, she stops and wonders if someone else has happened upon the prime hiding spot. It's not out of the question. As the recognizable silhouette of the rock formation comes into view, she reaches into her backpack to pull out the revolver she managed to win, dropping her branches a few feet away, as she sneaks closer to scope out the entrance.
[ Psiioniic (week 4) ]
It's not that she's looking for him, specifically-- she's never really looking for anything in the Arena, except to survive-- but it's like she was meant to find him there. A troll she's only caught in glimpses, and not had the courage to talk to yet, and here he is, laying bloodied and unlikely to survive. The shock of yellow and the dual horns atop his head make her heart clench and her stomach churn, but he's not Sollux. No, this is another Captor, and yet she can't help but feel that same pang of concern.
"Oh, no..." It's all she can say as she kneels down next to him, her hands hovering like she wants to try to heal him, but even with her powers, it would be a tough sell. He's lost a lot of blood already, and there's only so much she can do. All she has is some gauze and antiseptic, barely enough to treat a couple scratches. Her mouth moves, several times trying to say something like are you okay or can I help you, but what comes out finally is a sigh, as she lets her hands fall to her lap and she just stares, brow furrowed, and unsure if touching him would be appropriate, or if she'd just wind up hurting him more.
[ Dave (week 2) ]
By the time the snow starts to fall, Feferi's started getting used to the cold. The wetness doesn't bother her, and the chill is oddly reminiscent of visiting her lusus. By the time the snow stops falling, she's presented with a precarious predicament: she's a little bit trapped.
She managed to find a safe place to bunker down, but her little ring of dry ground underneath a tree is surrounded by almost three feet of snow. It comes up to her waist and then some, and while under any other circumstances she might find it a bit humorous, it leaves her stranded, trying to think of a way to get herself somewhere a little less precarious. Anyone taller than her (there are plenty of people like that here) is at a great advantage, and could just as easily pick her off. Studying the snow, she knows she has to leave-- and she doesn't just want to stay there, anyway-- so she starts debating the best way to dig herself a tunnel. Could you even safely tunnel through snow? She's going to find out.
What| a weeks worth of Arena antics, and then some
Where| all around
When| Week 4
Warnings/Notes| The Nessie encounter can alternately be Week 5, she'll try to befriend them as much as she can
[ open (week 4) ]
While others are being lured into the caves, Feferi finds herself driven out. The Jabberjays are going to have to try a little harder to pull one over on her, but for a second she wonders-- is that what it feels like to be Sollux? She hears his voice among the others, alongside Karkat’s and Dave’s, and more of her friends. When she gets to the mouth of the cave she’s taken temporary shelter in and finds no one there, she grows suspicious; as she keeps listening, she starts wondering if they’ve put speakers in the trees, just to mess with her.
She takes her things with her, still-loaded gun held close, and a knife at her hip. She moves away from the caves, heading towards the nearest body of water. There's something in the waters that have intrigued her over the past few days, and what else does she have to do with herself? Well, besides killing people.
When she does finally make it to the river, she spots one almost immediately, hovering under the water. It's too cold for her to get undressed and hop right in, and that would leave her at a disadvantage. So she does what any sane troll would do: try to coax it out with what little food she has on her, supplemented by a dead branch with a few leaves still hanging on. With a few furtive glances over her shoulder, she manages to coax the beast out of the water, and with little caution, proceeds to reach out and touch its snout. It's not a sea creature, whatever it is, but it reminds her of one, and she takes small comforts where she can.
[ Clementine (week 4) ]
With the caves no longer an option, Feferi needs to seek out alternate shelter for the time being. She turns back to her original hide out from the start of the arena, backtracking her way to an outcropping of rocks. It wasn't really a cave, exactly, just a little natural shelter that let her take cover and keep warm for the first week or two in the Arena. Along the way, she finds some nice branches with leaves and pine needles still stuck on them, just a couple to bring with her.
At a point, she stops and wonders if someone else has happened upon the prime hiding spot. It's not out of the question. As the recognizable silhouette of the rock formation comes into view, she reaches into her backpack to pull out the revolver she managed to win, dropping her branches a few feet away, as she sneaks closer to scope out the entrance.
[ Psiioniic (week 4) ]
It's not that she's looking for him, specifically-- she's never really looking for anything in the Arena, except to survive-- but it's like she was meant to find him there. A troll she's only caught in glimpses, and not had the courage to talk to yet, and here he is, laying bloodied and unlikely to survive. The shock of yellow and the dual horns atop his head make her heart clench and her stomach churn, but he's not Sollux. No, this is another Captor, and yet she can't help but feel that same pang of concern.
"Oh, no..." It's all she can say as she kneels down next to him, her hands hovering like she wants to try to heal him, but even with her powers, it would be a tough sell. He's lost a lot of blood already, and there's only so much she can do. All she has is some gauze and antiseptic, barely enough to treat a couple scratches. Her mouth moves, several times trying to say something like are you okay or can I help you, but what comes out finally is a sigh, as she lets her hands fall to her lap and she just stares, brow furrowed, and unsure if touching him would be appropriate, or if she'd just wind up hurting him more.
[ Dave (week 2) ]
By the time the snow starts to fall, Feferi's started getting used to the cold. The wetness doesn't bother her, and the chill is oddly reminiscent of visiting her lusus. By the time the snow stops falling, she's presented with a precarious predicament: she's a little bit trapped.
She managed to find a safe place to bunker down, but her little ring of dry ground underneath a tree is surrounded by almost three feet of snow. It comes up to her waist and then some, and while under any other circumstances she might find it a bit humorous, it leaves her stranded, trying to think of a way to get herself somewhere a little less precarious. Anyone taller than her (there are plenty of people like that here) is at a great advantage, and could just as easily pick her off. Studying the snow, she knows she has to leave-- and she doesn't just want to stay there, anyway-- so she starts debating the best way to dig herself a tunnel. Could you even safely tunnel through snow? She's going to find out.
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As usual, his timing is impeccable. Dave is pushing through snow in the near distance, approaching the tree when he's sure he sees the familiar colour and shape of horns dancing in the distance. He could be imagining candy corns, which is equally troubling. The only way he'll know for sure is by plowing forward, eventually making it toward Feferi's circle of safety.
"Remind me never to get myself stuck in prison with you." That is some shoddy tunnel-thinking, Feferi.
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"You need to warn me before you sneak up on me! This is getting to be a very bad habit!"
She's not really mad, not at him, just frustrated at all of her failed attempts at being a survivalist. First her leaf pile, now her snow tunnel... she's not cut out for these outdoor arenas.
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"Oh, right. I'll just start wandering around Arenas yelling ahoy from now on then." He shrugs, not terribly perturbed by the frustration so he's just rebuffing it. He looks at her for a long moment, sizing up her situation here and the distance they'll probably need to travel before he steps a little closer. "Are you too short to walk properly?" That was a very sensitive and delicate way to ask, of course. "Do I need to carry you so you don't drown in this stuff?"
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"Maybe if you could just take me somewhere less stuck," she finally says with a shrug, trying to brush some of the snow off her and not doing a very good job of it. "It's not my fault this snow is so high, you know. Maybe if they wanted me going around and doing things, they wouldn't have made it almost as tall as me! Snowing everybody in does not seem very productive to me."
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"I can do that. My pack mule efficiency is off the charts." He wades forward, starting to crouch in front of her since he assumes that's as good as a yes in this situation. "I'm sure they've got wild plans for it, but I dunno. Maybe people weren't dying fast enough." It sounds grim, but he's getting used to them bringing out the big guns at particular times. "At least it isn't sirens."
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She's going to buy him a mountain of cheeseburgers. Once she's secure, she nods, and points off in a random direction.
"Onward, my trusty steed! Away!" Guilt or no, she's still going to have a little fun with it.
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"You get one of those. One. One more horse joke and I'm gonna buck you off and canter into the forest like the majestic, wild stallion I know I am." And yet, he's starting to trudge forward anyway, pushing his legs through the deep, icy bullshit.
"Do you think we're gonna find a volcano somewhere soon?
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She can just see it now, a volcano popping up out of nowhere to torment them. She's cold, but not so cold as to wish that upon the arena. She'll stick with the snow, thank you very much.
"Where are we going, anyway?" She looks around, trying to get a bearing on her surroundings, but all she sees is a bunch of white. She doesn't recognize any of it from the night before, with everything piled over in snow. "We are going somewhere, right?"
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"I want them to get ideas." He says bitterly, kicking all too aggressively at some of the snow in front of him. It does nothing but spray some of it back at them and it definitely doesn't make this easier.
"Forward. Mountainward." He shrugs, jostling her when he does. "I swear it was lower where I came from." Where that is happens to be a bit of a frustrating memory at this point.
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"Okay but you know I can't swim in lava? I know that I am hot, but I am not that hot!" Zing. Slowly, she thinks, she is mastering the art of matching wits with him, finding that there's not a whole lot of difference between that and straight up trolling. "Don't mountains have snow too though?"
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While Nick and Luke went off to find somewhere new for them to stay, Clementine had taken refuge in an outcrop of rock that offered shelter from the wind. They'd left the supplies they couldn't easily carry with her to guard, which she does by keeping her bow and arrows close to hand.
It's hard to hear anything at the moment though, so Clementine is unaware this spot had already been claimed by someone and that she's about to have company.
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"Uh. Hello there. I didn't know anyone else had found this place." She offers up a half-smile. "Maybe... we could share?"
The past few months have seen a lot of allies come and go, but it couldn't hurt to try and make some new friends.
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The speaker is a troll, one Clementine isn't familiar with. She thinks she's seen her around before, which isn't hard when they all live in one building half of the time, but she never actually spoke to her. "Um... I didn't know anyone else was staying here." she doesn't want to leave and the troll woman doesn't seem to be too upset about Clem being here. "Sure, uh, if that's okay."
She wants a fight less than she wants to leave, so if she was asked to go she probably would.
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In the dim light, Feferi can see perfectly fine, so she moves about getting herself situated and comfortable. Well... as comfortable as one can be in a small rock cavern. Once she's nestled in, she turns to her new companion, a big smile plastered on her face.
"I kind of forgot to introduce myself, huh? I'm Feferi!"
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Clementine shuffles back a bit, giving the girl more room to make herself comfortable since this was apparently her place first. She drags her bundle of belongings with her too, putting it behind her to use as a backrest. "My name's Clementine. Thanks for letting me stay in here."
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This is the part where smalltalk gets awkward, so Feferi decides to cut right to the chase. "How long have you been here? You know, doing these... Arenas?"
They've got to have something to talk about, and she's always kind of curious. She feels like she sees a lot of other tributes at the cornucopia, but so many of them die before she gets a chance to encounter them herself, so none of the faces ever really stick beyond being passingly familiar.
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It's might be a bit presumptuous to assume all the trolls know Dave but Clementine knows they're from the same world and so many people who come from the same worlds seem to end up knowing each other, it's probably not that far fetched. "Uh, I think almost a year now. This is my fourth of the big one's."
She'd also been in two of the mini's, bringing her total up to six. That's depressing.
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She thinks she's getting better, but this is only her third go around, and she has a lot more to learn. The past couple weeks have demonstrated that fairly well, but at least she's still alive.
"I have only been here... a few months, I think! Not a whole year, at least. This is the third big one for me. I keep hoping the next one will be underwater!"
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Clementine shrugs a little, "I guess. I had practice at surviving before I came here. Most I can really do is scavenge and hide, I'm not great at fighting." she has a bow and arrows now, thanks to sponsors. Most of the time though she hid and she scavenged, sticking close to other stronger people for protection.
"Underwater?" her eyes go to Feferi's fins, "Do trolls live underwater?"
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"I don't know, surviving is kind of important, if you ask me! I wish I could hide better, but..." She gestures towards her head, her horns in particular. "Especially out here, they are tall and kind of hard to hide! Anyway, it seems like being smart is more important than being strong."
And it seems like winning has to do more with luck than anything, but in the interest of not being depressing, she keeps that to herself.
"Most trolls do not even like to go near the water, but some trolls like me live underwater! We have fins and gills that help us. That's why I've got them, and Signless does not! He is a landdweller, and I am a seadweller."
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Of course her thoughts unknowingly echo Feferi's. Luck is a major factor in surviving an arena, where the Gamemaker's can throw any cog into the works that they feel like.
"And you can breath on land too? That's really cool. You could probably go hide in the river or the lake, just wait it out until the end." Unless it was too cold for her.
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She shrugs again, having given more than enough thought already as to how to disguise her horns, and deciding she'd be better just sharpening them to use them as weapons. Maybe someday.
"I thought about the lakes and rivers, but there are other things living there, and it is a little too cold for me to stay down there for very long. I think I would be okay for a little while, but I don't think they would let me win that way. They would probably find a way to get me out eventually." Like electrifying the water. She shudders to think about that unfortunate loss.
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"So, how long have you been here?"
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She has to consider her response for a few seconds, before she comes out with a very uncertain, "A few months?" She makes a face, then shakes it off. "I think that's it. I don't know, I'm still getting to used to keeping Earth time. Not as long as you, I think, but long enough. I got here right before the Arena where we were in the mall. The first thing I did was bite Dave's hand..."
It was a little embarrassing at the time, to find out he was Sollux's friend, but now it's just kind of funny. He doesn't seem any worse for wear from it, and they're still friends. She wonders if he actually told anyone else what happened, though... well, Clementine's going to know now, if she didn't already. She doesn't mind sharing, though-- she's already getting attached, kind of.
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The frown drops off her face when Feferi tells her she bit Dave, dissolving into laughter that cuts through the general feeling of misery that being in an arena brings. "He never told me about that, why did you bite him?"
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"Well, I thought he was coming after Sollux to try and kill him, so we got into a fight, and he put his hand in my face, so I just... bit it! As hard as I could. I didn't have a weapon and I didn't know what else to do!" She snorts, trying not to laugh too loudly and attract unwanted attention. "I guess I'm glad it didn't kill him, it might have made it hard to be friends..."
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"I bet he whined about it after." Dave had a thing for dramatics, that was for sure. "He's like that."
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It's nice to not be alone and despite just meeting her Clem feels like she can trust Feferi in this.
a good end point, perhaps?
True to her word, she waits until Clementine is asleep, and starts trying find ways to pass the time. She doesn't have a watch or anyway of knowing how much time has passed, but even without that, her secret plan to let the human girl get a little extra sleep shouldn't be too hard to pull off. She's gone longer on less sleep before, what's the worst that could happen?
Yep!
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He thinks of it as a mercy killing, really, and he's decided that targeting the weak ones might be easiest, at first. He'll make it as painless as he can, after all, and it's best that he gets to them before someone much worse comes along. So when he spies the strange, horned girl-thing on the riverbank, he figures that this is as good a time as ever.
His hunting knife drawn, he makes to sneak up on her. He'll just ease up right behind her and slit her throat real quick-like. Unfortunately for Aldo, all thoughts of stealth go out the window as his booted foot comes down on a twig. The loudest fucking twig to ever exist, apparently. He freezes. Maybe she won't notice...
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"Is anyone there?" Her fins pin back, and her eyes dart around, trying to focus through the trees for the closest threat. "I do not want to shoot, but I will if I have to!"
Anyone experienced in shooting could see that there's a strange disparity-- she holds her gun properly, but her hand is unsteady. Eridan only taught her to keep her finger off the trigger and how to aim when she actually had a target, but being at the ready is still a skill she's working out.
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He tried to place her. Signless had mentioned the sea dweller girl, telling Psii that she was not to be feared. But he had also said this of the clown, who was unsettling at best. If Psii wasn't the overly paranoid friend, who would be? Thankfully, he wasn't aware of his future self's history with Feferi's ancestor. He would have legitimately lost his shit.
"Thtuff gone.... Don't have.... anything...." he rasped, hoping she was just here to loot. That was all he was good for, now. Just leave me alone to die.
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Can what? Make it quick? She doesn't have the heart to say it, so she sighs and changes direction. "I can make you more comfortable. It is the least I can do."
He's going to die either way, but now that she's here, it's going to be hard to get her to leave. Even at his prime, he'd have a hard time warding her off, if she could just get over how much he reminded her of a certain other Captor.
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Did Helmsman make friends with her too? He was tired of wading through past-future-him's stuff.
"Jutht.... want to lie here.... think about all my.... terrible life dethithionth—Don't cull me," he suddenly wheezed, almost panicking again. She was a highblood. The expected thing for her to do would be to cull him. "It hurtth.... but I want to think. Tho many.... tho many die thudden, and their ghothtth never at peathe.... Need to thort my shit...."
He would know. He saw visions of people dying all the time back home. The cold snow burned, but after a while he had begun to lose feeling in his limbs as well as his blood. Astonishing. He didn't even know he had that much in him.
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To die alone. It's hard to say it; the word balls in her throat and sticks there in a little lump. She tries to keep her best smile on, tries to give him her gentlest of looks. There's a lot she wants to say, but none of it seems suitable. It's not like he's in any shape to have some kind of deep, meaningful conversation with her.
"It will be alright. You can sort everything out when you wake up."
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"Every death ith real."
His arm was bent near his head at a weird angle, but that allowed him to tap his temple with a bit of effort. Every other troll knew about his visions, why shouldn't she be the same?
"Alwayth.... chanthe we might not come back. Kankri--" His eyes widened with sudden anguish. Every time he died in an arena, there was always the chance he might not see his best friend again. "Signless, you watch out for him. Capitol. Don't.... don't feed my tribbleth."
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"I will look out for Signless and make sure that he does not get into any trouble, or feed your... things." Pets? He must mean pets, right? But don't you usually feed a pet, instead of... not feeding it? He must be more delirious than she thought, and it's not unexpected.
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"Tribbleth," he croaked with certainty. "They'll breed out of control if they eat.... even a little bit. SS knowth, everyone knowth.... Then they'll get taken away. My pile. Culled." No one ever said he couldn't make a pile out of living tribbles. "Thoothing.... Make little cooth.... You should try them thometime...."
He closed his eyes, trying to imagine lying in a pile of them right now. Even the cold of the snow was ebbing away into a cushioned numbness. Perhaps he was delirious; he saw a troll of royal blood and believed she would listen to him.
"Look out for him and.... don't let thith planet.... be another Alternia."