ush little Viking, don't you cry, or the Berserker will stab you in the eye...

[ruffntumblenut]

Who: Ruffnut and you!
What: Ruffnut has come to the realization that this place blows. 
Where: A cold, dark, wet alley in the Capitol
When: late afternoon after the mini-arena
Warnings: Only the usual about the hunger games so far.

Vikings were highly emotional people.

This contrasted nicely with them insisting that they were not in fact emotional.

While it was perfectly acceptable on Berk to be happy, or angry, and all manners of loud it was typically frowned upon to mope, And while lamenting a loss or two was acceptable it still wasn't easy to do, 

Ruffnut and her brother in particular did not like to mope in public and as such had both simultaneously but independant of one another discovered the magic of the dark soggy alone place.

In the dark soggy alone place no one could see if you let the occasional tear out, and sobs may be stifled in peace because you were alone. Ruffnut had never really considered her life difficult before because despite how many hardships Berk had faced? They were vikings! Living hard was part of their lifestyle.

So being completely unable to cope with the swirling emotions of failure and hopelessness in her, she had set out to find a new dark, soggy alone place. This quest had taken her away from the Training Center to the darker corners of the city till an appropriately dark and ominous alley opened up to her.

With a Chinese restaurant on one side and a bathhouse on the other this alley was everything a soggy, dark alone place could be. The only difference between this and her cave back home was no roof. She could still see the sky turning an orange as the sun set somewhere out of sight.

She was so depressed she had even let her stylists dress her up nice. Clean hair in neat braids, the latest style of jeans and a fashionable dark green leather jacket that counter balanced some of the chill of the wind whistling through the dark soggy alone place.

Wallowing in her misery Ruffnut may lose track of time and miss curfew at this rate. But she finds it difficult to care. 

Gazing idly down into a puddle as she sits on the ground with her back to the wall for a moment she sees her brother in the reflection. Scowling she swats at the water and he vanishes into the ripples.

Comments

[tricksandmischief]

Being fairly new, Loki had taken to exploring all the dark little corners of the Capitol - and some lighter ones. But he was searching for possible exits or places and people he could use in order to either further himself here or escape this strange place. Despite his public attitudes, he didn't like it - especially being forced to do things against his will.

But he played along with it. He was good at that.

For now they had dressed him not too differently from the style he usually wore. Tunic, trousers, heavy boots and a long coat in blacks, dark greens and golds.

He wandered down into this alley now, looking around and then he noticed the girl.

[ruffntumblenut]

She heard the crunch of shoes on gravel and glanced up offering Loki a defensive stiff glance. He seemed familiar to her but she couldn't put her finger on it...in part because the only Loki she was aware of in the arena so far was the younger one.

"This cold soggy alone place is occupied." She noted, her voice echoing against the brick walls.

[tricksandmischief]

"Oh, I did not realise that. You should perhaps have put up a sign," his tone was slightly mocking.

[ruffntumblenut]

Having never been much for writing (Though she was at least better then Tuffnut at it) she hadn't even considered if a sign would help steer people away from this place. She shrugged.

"Back home people don't really pay that much attention to signs. Vikings ya know?"

Also a reason why she hadn't considered it. She was still in that old frame of mind.

[tricksandmischief]

"Signs have many forms," Loki continued. Vikings, hmm... He took a mental note of that. It could be useful.

So he introduced himself, rather grandly.

"I am Loki, of Asgard. They call me the God of Mischief."

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut blinked once.

Then again.

Then a well sculpted eyebrow arched curiously.

"I...hi? I thought you were younger looking..." She was confused but this was something she was used to. And after all Thor didn't have his powers...why wouldn't Loki be different too?

[tricksandmischief]

It took just a moment for him to realise she must know the other Loki. They had spoken, It hadn't gone very well.

"Ah, you must have met my counterpart... But I am better than him. He is merely a child."

[ruffntumblenut]

Her head tilted slightly as she took this new information in. Then employing use of her limited attention span for contemplation she moved past it deciding to accept this at face value.

"I never met him, just saw him on TV. I met Thor though, he's pretty cool." She acknowledged with a sigh. Her crush on the god of thunder had been waning ever since his peptalk to her after the last proper arena.

After all he looked amazing but clearly he was out of her reach. If only she'd arrived the same age as Hiccup and Astrid!

"So...how you doing?" It was probably some form of grave insult to be so casual with a god but Thor had taken alot of the awe out of it...plus he didn't have his powers right?

[tricksandmischief]

"Thor is my brother...," he raised an eyebrow at her remark about him but didn't elaborate further. The one here was really his brother, and not some alternate. The other Loki proved that it could have been vastly different. There could be other Thors.

He didn't like that thought.

"How am I doing?" He wasn't going to answer that honestly. He was against this place and against being here, being forced into their little games. But that was not the impression that he wanted anyone to have. He had to play their game to survive.

"I am very well. I am enjoying the sights whilst I await the next Arena," he made it sound as if he was very much looking forward to that.

[ruffntumblenut]

Her face fell, apparently disappointed with his answer and she heaved a sigh letting her head fall back.

"Yeah well, what's not to like right? We eat and party, and the outfits are pretty stupid and everyone stares at you. But then we fight these really bloody drawn out battles and die and start it all over. It's...everything a viking could want."

So why did she feel like there was so much missing? It was stupid and she couldn't shake it.

[tricksandmischief]

"So why is it that you look so miserable then?" He had picked up on that. "Why are you out here all alone when you could be inside feasting and making merry?"

Of course, he also wasn't doing that. It had never felt very comfortable to him.

[ruffntumblenut]

It was the most obvious question in the world but she really didn't have any answer for it. She'd just felt progressively more miserable every day since she'd woken up from her recent death.

"It's stupid. I should be having the time of my life right?" She just couldn't seem to motivate herself to do anything in the Capitol. All she wanted was her stiff wooden bed, her smelly stupid brother and most importantly her gas blowing two headed dragon.

"I did plenty feasting and merry making the first couple times I died but now just...eh." She shrugged looking burnt out.

[notdavinci]

Siroc has been attempting to be careful of the curfew, and of doing anything he could get into trouble for, especially now, but walking around the capitol, for the sole reason that he can still do it, is one of those those things he can't resist, especially, and okay, probably, because his escort seemed to think going out today is a bad thing to do that will make him sick or something.

That's reason enough for him to do it, rebelling in the tiny way he can now, and he's turning a corner down an alley where there seem to be no peacekeepers, when he spots someone, the viking girl who reminded him on television of Jacques, hanging out by the wall there. And she does not look especially happy about something. Maybe it's not appreciated, but he's crossing over closer anyway, giving her a bit of a nod.

"So, it isn't just me, then,"

[ruffntumblenut]

Glancing up at the stranger Ruffnut was instantly suspicious of him. She was instantly suspicious of most people in the Capitol but the cleaner they looked the less she trusted them. Still he didn't look or sound like a native of the Capitol so she wasn't overly aggressive.

"What isn't just you?" She shot back guarded in her tone.

[notdavinci]

"This place."

Siroc explained, wary of saying that much, but, there was a part of him that pointed out that things could not exactly get worse than they had been for a while there, could they? He was mostly keeping a low profile, and he looked like he had learned.

"I'm finding it's getting to me, really easily." He answered the question with a little sigh.

[ruffntumblenut]

She considered lying to him, but what was the point? Who was this guy anyway? No one that she knew.

"Yeah well some people aren't cut out for Valhalla. You party and you eat and you fight all the time, it's what every Viking dreams of."

So why did she feel so hallowed out inside? And what was this building anxiety in her chest?

"It's too bad my brother isn't here to see it. He'd love it."

[notdavinci]

No, he was just, there and wandering around. Really, more just a person looking for somewhere quiet to think, where a peacekeeper wouldn't show up.

"My best friend would love that. especially the food and epic odes." Siroc mused, grinning at the thought of Ramon in Valhalla. Spaniard or no, he'd fit in nicely. Here though, things were different.

"Do you know, it is not so much the fighting, but the rest of this? I can handle stabbing and shooting when I need to, particularly since no one stays dead for long. The Capitol, and curfews and the rest...I admit I have no idea what I'm doing in between this. It's all so weird."

[ruffntumblenut]

"Yeah that sounds about right." He had landed on something that drove her nuts and she rubbed her face trying to shake this feeling of stiff uselessness.

"It was great when I started you know? For a few minutes I was even more on the ball then Hiccup and he's like...the smartest guy I know. But now he and Astrid are off getting stronger and smarter and they don't really need me. It was nice to be needed just...by myself."

And now that she wasn't needed, and without her brother she didn't know what she was doing anymore.

[notdavinci]

While a part of Siroc hated that he'd been driven away from experimenting by the peacekeepers, his messing around with the monitors had, really, only been going through motions, trying to recreate a reality, which he had not been doing well with even then.

"I understand." He answered her, quite honestly. "At home, I...there were four of us, and what I did there mattered, and it was something no one else there could do. It was nice to have a skill that made me useful, and to know that, well, yes exactly, that I was needed because I was me. I don't think anybody here needs me right now.

I can't even figure out some of the they're doing here." He added, frustration, just a hint of it, seeping into his words. "We all could fight and shoot and ride, but what they needed me for was different, special. I used science. I invented. It's like it got taken away from me.

I can't imagine that happening with my friends if they were here, but I see how it could, and it would hurt a lot. Is there any way you could find something new, that's yours, and might still help them?"

It was something of an idea, right?

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut shrugged her narrow shoulders hopelessly. "Nothing they can't already do I guess. I mean I'm the only one between the three of us who likes getting hurt...and I like explosions more then they do but Hiccup's the smartest guy I know and Astrid is way better at fighting."

Turning her attention to his problems though she smirked "So you were a smart guy back home but around here you can't measure up? Welcome to the dumb club." Because Ruffnut was used to not being as smart as the people around her.

[notdavinci]

"Who likes..." Siroc started, then paused a minute, thinking about that.


"No, actually, that does make sense. It reminds you you're alive, doesn't it? I don't like pain itself, but there's a thing where...knowing you've upset someone enough to make them resort to hurting you, made them angry...I do like that. You might end up with a few bruises but making someone snap is pretty satisfying. Not exactly the same thing, but I can see your point too.

And explosions are remarkable." He added, grinning now. "I like them too. Well, when I mean for them to happen. When I don't, and they mess up a project, the aftermath isn't the best."

As far as what she said about her friends, he nodded, understanding that pretty well.

"When it didn't come to science and just fighting, it felt the same way with my friends sometimes. d'Artagnan was our best detective, Jacques had a way with her sword, and Ramon's the kind of person everyone trusts the second that you meet him." He should know. It had happened to him.

"I sometimes feel like I'm a little...overwhelmed and overshadowed by it all, or like I don't belong with them but off doing experiments somewhere." He had to laugh at the little welcome there.

"The dumb club." He repeated, shaking his head a little in amusement. "I guess that is where I belong here. Maybe it's not so bad when there's more than one person in it."

[ruffntumblenut]

Finally! Someone else that understood why pain and explosions were so great! Ruffnut's mood was steadily climbing the more this guy seemed to understand her problems.

"Exactly! Back home Hiccup was the smart guy and the rest of us just had to keep up. Then when the fun stuff happened we'd all get to blow stuff up, light stuff on fire and stuff. But here we don't have any dragons, we don't even have any of the other vikings. And those peacekeepers have those lightning taser things that make is so we can't even fight back!"

Actually she liked the tasers from the look on her face, but it was a little annoying that all it took was one hit of those things and she was on the ground for at least five minutes.

[notdavinci]

It was not something he shared exactly, as far as pain went, but Siroc got it anyway, and would be the first to admit there was satisfaction in the ability to take a lot of hits and still get up to fight, and explosions, well, those were just amazing, tactically, AND fun to set up.

Ruffnut's story sounded amazing right there, and he had to grin at the description. "We never had dragons, but we did have our share of interesting things. A knight from the 15th century....er, sorry that is, about two hundred years before any of us were alive, came back to life to fight us once, and we've tried out a flying machine powered by energy, though I think that someday it will be improved. It would be nice if there was some sort of safety device designed to keep anyone from falling out in midair. And a witch cursed every man in Paris into complete obedience once, and we had to be rescued by our friend Jacques..." He trailed off, smiling as he remembered that, at least for now.

"Do you know, I would not mind their having tasers if we were armed as well? I mean, they set up cornucopias in their arenas. You'd think if they kept meaning to fight us on everything, they'd at least be able to face a challenge, make things interesting. They don't have to arm us directly, but at least give us a chance to fight back, right? I hate the way they don't want to play fair."

Something in talking to her had brought out a new side of Siroc. The terror that he had felt after his visit from the peacekeepers, the idea that he must obey at all costs, found itself slipping away as resentment took over. "I wonder if there IS any way to get ahold of something without being caught. It's probably a stupid idea, but if it worked, the game would change a little, wouldn't it?"

[shedevilwithsword]

"What in the world do you believe you are doing?"

Or what in the world did she think she was doing in the middle of some alleyway in the city...alone. That usually spells trouble, or something was going on in the girl's head.

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut gave a jerk hearing the familiar voice of a warrior woman she actually respected. It actually chilled her blood a bit to realize she'd been caught moping.

"I uh...using a cold, soggy, alone place?" She answered unhelpfully and suddenly feeling decidedly foolish in her answer. Why did she care was the larger question, after all it's not as though she was unused to coming off as stupid in front of others.