Mmm watcha say

[shenunigans]

Who| Dave and OPEN with some closed prompts
What| Dead one day, back tomorrow. Accepting that you're probably not okay is hard.
Where| D9, D6 and the roof top
When| Just after the mini-arena.
Warnings/Notes| N/A

It's no surprise that he wakes up with a jolt. He'd passed out the moment his body slammed against the water and he'd been colder than he's ever been in his whole life. He can still see Clara's face ingrained in his fucking memory like a broken Etch A Sketch and he doesn't understand why he would feel guilty. He did a good thing, a great thing, he's too nervous to find out if Clem and Clara made it without him, he thinks he'd do anything to avoid seeing their reactions.

Feeling around on the bedside table finds him his shades and he presses them on his face like it hurt to be without them. It's not even that he's self conscious, not anymore, it's just that having that little reminder of the present his best friend gave him is pretty damn important at this point in time. He feels more like himself with them, because he doesn't really want to remember who he was in the arena. He clung to his brother, threw a guy overboard, nearly drove himself to killing someone else and sacrificed himself for a girl he'd spoken to three or four times. The last part, he thinks, he probably wouldn't change, but he could do without hearing about it.

Despite the wide variety of viable and fashionable clothing, he's opting for a stylishly worn shirt and red pajama pants that no stylist would ever hope to see him in. His clock print boxers stick out the top because he's too cool to pull his damn pants up and he drags his feet out of his room in search for people to distract him from his pity party.

There's a letter taped to his door and he tweaks it off, wondering who else saw it before he tucks it into the waistband of his pants and makes his way to his first self appointed task of the day.

[District 9 Suites]
Once Dave is back from his morning trip, he descends upon the couch shamelessly and claims it as his own. He's sprawled across it with a game controller resting on his stomach, but he isn't playing anything. He'd just prefer to be out somewhere he can see people rather than holed up in his room feeling sorry for himself. He's dreading some of the conversations, but he's confident he can derail them into something inane.


[The Roof]
By the time Dave makes it up here, it's well and truly night but not too dark. The view is pretty good, and if you squint, it doesn't look too different from home. It's relaxing to sit out here alone, even if he feels something like a stoner and a loner doing it. He feels a little more zen than he did, but deep down there's a niggling feeling. It's the guilt of feeling settled here in some ways and the discomfort of being jerked around so much. There isn't really a middle ground for it, you either settle or you fight it so much that things will never be the same. It's a tough pill to swallow, but if you can't be deep the day after you were meant to die then when the hell can you?

Comments

[closed to Bro and D6 people if they like]

[shenunigans]

It's early when Dave comes poking into the District Six Suites. Uncommonly early for a teen, really. He doesn't linger long around the commons once he's checked to make sure there's nobody to nag him from wandering in so early, he's making his way quickly to Bro's room and inviting himself in like he has a Press Pass.

He doesn't want to admit it, but his heart sinks when he sees the empty bed. There's no logic around to point out that it looks freshly slept in, but it's the sight he was expecting. An empty room with no Bro. It's probably for the best, but he's too tired to really feel anything but unimpressed. He trudges forward and flops himself down on the empty bed head first. His face is pressed against the mattress and his arm hangs over the side and drapes against the floor, but he doesn't really give a fuck.

A while later he'll slink out, less bothered about bumping into any of the residents as he makes his way out.

[plushaeusrumpified]

The bed is empty, but the Bro's only just gotten up from lounging in bed for entirely too long. You could easily call him lazy at this point, but hey. He's fucking earned a lazy day for all the shit he's been through, alright? That mini arena has him a little more rattled than he'd expected it to. It seems as if life just wants every animal ever to kill him. First a flying dog monster, then a shark?

Fuck the shark in particular, that wasn't fun. At least a sword through your chest is fucking quick. Getting torn apart by sharks? Yeah, not so much. That shit was agonizing. That's the kind of shit you have nightmares about for a while.

But no one's gonna now how rattled he is, least of all Dave. Unfortunately for the younger Strider, his timing is bad. Bro's in the bathroom taking a piss when Dave decides to come in. When he's finished and steps back into his room, he's almost not surprised to find Dave there. Dave's face is still a welcome sight, though. As soon Bro had stopped lounging around and gotten dressed for the day, he'd have headed in Dave's direction, so this is convenient. He moves further into the room, quiet as ever, til he's at the side of the bed.

Just like he did not too long ago, Bro falls forward across Dave majestically. "S'up, buddy." He sounds tired, but he's trying to mask it with casualness as if there's nothing eating away at his mind.

[shenunigans]

You know what they say about assumptions, well, Dave is the ass right now. After how much the Capitol has fucked with him lately, it seems entirely too likely that they'd send Bro back home again. Or bring him back half dead so he can murder Dave again. Fuckin' yay.

Of course, Dave is oblivious to Bro being rattled because he isn't even sure he's here. Even then, he doubts he'd lose sleep over any of it. He feels like he's regressed so much in a single Arena, clinging to his brother for help and yet, he managed to surpass him. What's the deal with that? He doesn't feel particularly victorious in any sense, but he feels like he might not have fallen back in shadows entirely. It's a bit of a wake up call to stop being such a depreciating ass and work on being someone more reliable.

Especially now that Bro is gone, aga- ugh. Dave doesn't have the time to hide the elephantesque harrumph he makes when Bro falls onto him. His legs fling up behind him and fall to hit the bed with a thud and he's instantly trying to claw his way out from under Bro.

"Oh, you know, the usual. Being crushed to death by some massive assknuckle. I'm fucking peachy." He squirms. "Get up, you're smothering my lungs- my ribs are breaking- ow."

[plushaeusrumpified]

When Dave lets out such an elephantine noise, Bro flashes back to the arena when Dave let out a similar noise right in his ear. It brings out a laugh in him, and even as Dave starts urging him to get off, all Bro does it prop himself up so that a little less weight is on Dave. "Nah, I ain't going anywhere. Gravity's suddenly hella strong, I'm not sure if I can fight it."

He doesn't realize that Dave is there because he'd come to check if he was gone. Bro just sort of assumes he's here because brotherly bonding is cathartic. When he thinks about it enough, he'll probably put two and two together, but for now he's content to just keep trolling Dave like he always does. "I'm gonna get a complex about my weight if you keep this shit up, y'know. First you call me Snorlax, then you go and accuse me of breaking bones? Bitch, I'm light as a feather."

As it turns out, the whole brotherly antagonistic bonding thing actually is fairly cathartic, he's already feeling better as he falls back into the swing of things. As if to emphasize his point he starts rolling back and forth over Dave like a majestic steam broller.

Fortunately for Dave, he'll only do it a few times before he decides not to torture him any longer, so he'll roll off further down until he's off of Dave, laying at his feet before crawling forward so that he can sit cross-legged next to him.

[closed to Terezi]

[shenunigans]

When he wafts out of the District Six Suites, he doesn't feel inclined to head straight back to Nine. He lingers between the floors in the elevator before his finger finds the magical button and he's on his way to Three. He sneaks in again, this time even more careful as he weaves his way to the rooms and slips into one in particular. This is a little more unexpected and his head is telling him its fucking weird, but his tired feet are shuffling him toward the sleeping troll anyway.

He lingers for less than a hot minute before he lets himself flop forward, his stomach hitting Terezi's midsection with a soft thump and a grunt.

"Man overboard." He grumbles over the side of the bed, hoping this isn't one of those moments where a freak out is in order.

[pythianjudgment]

Never let it be said that sleeping isn't the best way to get through a stressful situation. She knows full well that there's nothing she can do. She's stuck out here while all her friends are in the arena--or being revived from dying in it. There's too many doors that she wants to wait outside, and not enough of her to go around. So curling up in her bed and trying not to think about everyone being gone is really the only acceptable solution right now.

At least until something lands on top of her.

She very nearly lashes out at first, after being woken so abruptly to find something pinning her down--until she recognizes the voice. The shock is probably too apparent in her expression--as is the distress and sudden relief.

It's Dave. Just Dave. Just one of the few people that she's pretty sure she'd go insane over if they ever left him for dead. That's all.

She doesn't know what the right response is when you suddenly find your human ex-boyfriend flopped across your mid-section after dying in a murder arena. Frankly, she doesn't care. He started it, so he can't exactly complain if she twists and curls up around him, draping one arm over his shoulders. They're bound to be a tangled mess before too long.

"You are not even close to being as funny as you think you are."

[shenunigans]

The regret comes almost as soon as he feels himself flop down. This is definitely weird, what kind of creepy guy lets himself into a girl's room and gets on top of her? This guy. He's predicting that she'll roll him onto the cold hard floor any second now, so he's surprised when she shifts to curl around him. It's weird, there's an awkwardness to it, but the regret is dissipating pretty fast.

"I know." He won't even try to argue that one. "I wasted a hundred years of references, didn't know how much time I'd have before you woke up." He doesn't care if that implies that he was standing around trying to think of something clever to say, he doesn't really care about much right now. He's comfortable, even if doing shit like this keeps making him more and more confused about his feelings toward Terezi.

He pulls himself further up on the bed so the blood stops rushing to his head, but he's avoiding looking right at her. "Did you watch?"

[pythianjudgment]

"No, I'm blind, remember?" One dumb joke deserves another, and he should know that he walked right into that one. More to the point, she follows up her answer with something a little more serious.

"I was in...some club thing. They had the arena showing." She pauses, her body tensing with the new topic of conversation. "I left some holes in the table." That's probably all she needs to say about that, unless he asks for more. There's better things to talk about than how emotionally freaked out she was.

"I had the idea to punch you again, but that will have to wait." At least until she's done being glad that he's still here. She rests her forehead against his shoulder. "Have you talked to Rose yet? ...She was there, too."

[closed to Loki]

[shenunigans]

After finally having read the letter Loki sent him, Dave's first reaction is to scrunch it up in his hand dramatically as if it were a ransom note. He's upped the ante now. Shit is off the charts, his face is only burning becaise he's full of a powerful need to one up Loki. Which he will do, eventually, but he's off his game.

He puts off seeing him for a long while, both out of a need to look like he isn't too eager and because he needs to get his shit together in his head before he does. It's mid-afternoon by the time he's wandering to the District Two suites, realising he has absolutely no idea which room Loki is in or whether he even hangs around here. He stands awkwardly in the doorway for a long while before he decides to cycle through the common room like a sad ghost in ugly pants.

[onedirectiony]

Loki realizes he probably should have told Dave where to meet him after everything. Therefore, he stayed near the District 2 lobby, where his eyes could remain on it. He figured that was likely where he would go, especially since it was the common area and din't require going through rooms.

"Miss me?" he asked, propping himself against a wall. His tone was teasing, as usual for him. "I missed you. I wasn't lying, though, you did pretty well." Considering everything, at the very least.

Loki was good at subtlety, but that wasn't what he was going for here. Subtlety would not gain attention for his interactions with Dave.

[shenunigans]

He snaps out of his little daze when Loki talks, but he doesn't look particularly surprised. Loki is what he came here for, after all, he's not that much of a space cadet. Most of the time, anyway.

"Is that even a question?" He quirks a brow at Loki, feeling himself challenged already by how good he is at setting the scene. God damn it, this guy is cool. "Were we watching the same Arena?" He asks with a faint smirk on his lips, shuffling a little closer. "I wouldn't exactly call it my shining moment buuuut. I guess knowing I kept your attention for so long makes it impressive in itself."

[arrogantalloy]

Tony had wandered up for his customary time up high that was a habit he's gotten kind of glad that he's picked up, despite the fact he keeps bumping into people up here. But even that he's starting to enjoy, not only that but he was up here without a drink.

That's got to be really weird all around, right?

For now, he was taking a break from his staking out Tesserae to watch the mini-arena in all it's awful glory. Turns out there's only so much murder and mayhem you can watch before getting both angry and nauseous. Probably explains why Tony ignored the news, relying on J.A.R.V.I.S to keep him up to date.

He sees Dave's figure in the darkness and moves in that direction, the dim light soon giving Tony enough to see who it is.

"Would have thought if you were up here, you'd be wearing a thick coat or something."

[shenunigans]

Tony is the last person on Dave's mind right now, but oddly, he's a little happy to see him. Ironman went through shit, Ironman continues to go through shit, but he deals with it. Bro is Dave's hero, but he thinks he relates a lot more to Ironman than he ever did with guys like Superman or Captain America. Shit like that, however, is universally uncool and better left unsaid.

"It's summer." He says instead, not even turning to look at Tony. Cool guys never look directly at explosions. He's a little chilly, it's true, but it's not unwelcome even if he did come out of one of the coldest experiences of his life. "Aren't you a little old to be gallivanting around the roof at night? You might break a hip."

[arrogantalloy]

"It's still night, and you just took a header off a boat. After something like that, some people don't really like to feel cold."

Tony shrugs as he offers up his logic. To be honest he has no idea if the kid is cold or not, but he at least knew how unfun being at the top of Stark Tower was when just in a tshirt. It's not something that would have him lingering on his landing pad.

"I can always build a new hip. Shouldn't you be tucked in bed in a onesie listening to Mozart?"

Dave isn't the only one who can make jokes about age.

District 9 suites

[revvinguptheharley]

"Pssst."

A hissed sound from...underneath him?

If Dave were to look down onto the cushions of the Sofa he would find a pair of baby blue eyes peering up at him from between the cushions.

"If you're gonna sit there for awhile get me a soda?" Chirped Mentor Harley Quinn from the depths of the furniture.

[shenunigans]

"Woah- shit." Dave is lurching upward, instinctively clambering back onto the arm of the couch to perch on it. He'll always deny being part bird, but he makes it hard for himself when he does shit like that.

"The fuck are you doing?" He asks, genuinely curious. The request for a soda, for the moment, is going entirely ignored while he searches for a deeper truth.

[revvinguptheharley]

She sat up, rising out of the cushions to reveal herself like some kind of sofa zombie.

"Language young man! Don't you know you're on TV?" She admonished waving a finger at him and stepping out from the insides of the sofa.

"I was looking to see if that was a good hiding place. And apparently it was. You didn't even see me." She snickered wickedly.

"The look on your face was priceless!"

The Roof

[seestheman]

Clara isn't that fond of heights. Hell, the last time she was up here was during her first week here and the only reason she had been up here as long as she was that time was because of Tony. But she's following a gut instinct and she can only hope that it's right.

So finding Dave on the roof is a huge relief. Especially after the day she's had, what with trying to find Alex (and getting the excuse that he's getting repairs done on him) and trying to follow up with everyone she had run into in the Arena. As much as she cares for Dave, she saves him for last because she isn't quite sure if she can face him. So she approaches quietly before wrapping her arms around him. "Please don't ever do that to me again."

[shenunigans]

After what they went through, a discomfort around heights would be understandable. Dave wasn't lying when he said he was used to it, though. Most of his childhood was spent gallivanting around on the rooftops and the satellite tower, highlighted by some very uncomfortable falls down the stairs. Somehow, despite all of that, it's still his free-fall on the ship that fills him with a deep, anxious discomfort. One that comes back hard and vivid just from a quick glimpse at Clara's face.

When she moves in to hug him, he very nearly scoots away. He should be used to this happening by now, but he still doesn't feel anymore competent with hugs. He stays put for her sake, but he's not sure what he's meant to do at this point other than letting his arms hang limp by his sides.

"Alright- no. Wait, what?" He isn't about to show all of his cards straight away. "Do what?"

[seestheman]

Clara didn't like heights before the ship. She likes them even less now and the only reason she isn't freaking out the slightest bit up here is because she's so laser focused on Dave at the moment.

She almost says something about how it keeps driving her nuts that her boys are so stubborn and refuse to be involved in proper hugs and make her do all the work. But, to the best of her knowledge, Dave's never met Alex (and that also means thinking about Alex and the fact that supposedly the Capitol's currently doing something to help him maintenance wise, so she hasn't seen him since a couple days before the mini-arena, and she doesn't want to think about that right now). Silly boys and their silly noodley armed reactions to hugs.

“Get yourself killed. Or try to pull some sort of heroic sacrifice thing like that.” She doesn't mean to, but her hug tightens just a little bit as she remembers watching him drop. “If you had just given me another minute, I could've saved you too,” she whispers into his hair, as if she's really convinced herself that, if he hadn't done that, she would've been able to keep him safe.

The Roof

[thegirlwonder]

Rooftops feel right to Helena.

So do caves and mansions.

Okay, so her life has been a little weird. Whose hasn't?

Somehow, she'd managed to skip all of the mini-arena stuff. Which, thank god. Too soon. Others hadn't been so lucky, though.

Helena pauses on the roof. She's dressed as casually as she can manage, in dark colours. Her hair's pulled up in its usual ponytail.

"Hey cutie," she says softly. "Are you okay?"

[shenunigans]

Together they've lived some mutually weird lives, because Dave's fondest memories of roofs involve fighting his brother with shitty katanas and getting his ass kicked. Man he would take a life of brotherly beatdowns over this any day.

When Helena approaches, he's daydreaming heavily enough that he doesn't quite notice her until she speaks. The question earns her a very underwhelming shrug in response, but he's happy to see her.

"Been better. Been worse too." He muses, breezing past that as best he can. "S'up? Come here often?"

D9 suites

[frozenfractalsallaround]

Between the situation with Hans and then the trauma of the mini arena, Elsa hasn't been the most eager to socialize. One or the other she could handle better, but the two on top of each other? Not so easily. But for today, she's back to old habits. Conceal, don't feel. Put on a show. She can't in good conscience not go see Dave, especially after how awful it was for him, too. She'd watched, even if it had been painful.

And maybe, at least she hopes, the interaction will be good for both of them. She misses Dave. A lot. So maybe it'll make her feel a little less empty and dead on the inside.

Thankfully as she exits her room, he isn't far. When she spots him on the couch, Elsa smiles, and it's even genuine. It feels like they haven't spoken in so long, and in the back of her mind she bitterly blames Hans for emotionally crippling her and making her go back to being a bit of a recluse. She makes her way over to him, and nudges one of his feet out of the way so that she can sit down.

"Hello," she says, looking him over as she does so, trying to get a sense of what kind of state he's in. Elsa herself is... somewhat of a mess. The bags under her eyes are proof that she isn't sleeping much, even with the tea that used to help so much. But despite that, she's trying to sound happy, and it's almost easy when it's Dave she's speaking to. "How come you aren't playing?" she asks, nodding to the controller. "I usually can't pull you away from them."

[shenunigans]

Dave has missed Elsa a considerable amount, but things have been a shitstorm lately. He's not even fully aware of what happened with Hans, but there's been no downtime since the Arena ended. Family reunions, creepy crownings and friendship reforging had all been wedged in between the fallout of the fire bombings. They'd seen each other and they'd talked, of course, but their conversations hadn't had the depth and time to really go deep. And most of the time, both of them need a little depth, because who else are they going to tell?

As such, he'd noticed her absence, but it hadn't been something he'd pinned on her and her alone. He'd had his part in it, so he's happy to see her as she exits her room, though he doesn't smile like she does. He hasn't quite gotten to that point in the don't conceal, do feel handybook. He shifts his feet at her nudge, only to bring them back up on her lap like a good friend.

"Hey." He retorts, and he's not babbling from the get-go so it's probably already obvious that he's feeling a little withdrawn. "Muh? Oh." He looks down at the controller when she asks about it. "Yeah, I couldn't pick anything. Then I couldn't focus." He picks it up and fiddles with the buttons idly. "Truly a tragedy when a master is off his game."

[frozenfractalsallaround]

As Dave speaks, Elsa isn't sure what she should do. When Dave doesn't babble, that's a sure sign that he isn't as alright as he wants to appear to be- or at least, she thinks so. It's what Anna does, and the two of them are similar in a lot of ways that she thinks she can get a good grasp on how Dave is, too.

But does he want to talk about it? Should she try? That's the part she doesn't know. Anna and Dave are different in the sense that Anna doesn't mind talking things out, but Dave has always been a bit more withdrawn. She hadn't been able to get him to open up too much about his powers and how they've caused trouble in the past, so she knows he's not the type to talk about things too openly. Times like this, she doesn't know what to even do.

"You, having trouble focusing on...Vidy games?" That feels wrong, but she continues anyway, reaching out to press a hand to his forehead. "You must be sick!" She's trying to joke with him, anything to lighten the mood a little. She opens her mouth, almost deciding to ask him if he's okay, before deciding against it for now, so she closes her mouth and just smiles at him, hoping he doesn't notice what just happened there.