"Excuse me?" Vriska could only imagine what Sollux would want with her, and her guess was not only a good one, but accurate. Yet he was not angry as she would have expected, but rather apprehensive and very confused.
"You thaid that you have… weird powerth?"
"What?" she frowned, mock puzzled at his words. Okay, so she knew exactly what he meant, but delaying it was kind of fun. His expression was turning a little irritated as he too knew what she meant. But in addition to the teasing, there was also a part of her that did not want to accept it just yet, and she felt that not saying it to the full extent out loud would make it fake for just a while longer.
"You know what I mean. You thaid yesterday while feeding Tavroth-"
"Whoa, you, uh, make me sound completely incapable there."
"Shush!" both Vriska and Sollux said to the boy.
"Ath I wath thaying. You thaid that you could make him thit up. And yeth, I mean where one parkth their rear on a chair. That thit," They all allowed themselves a brief island of amusement from this Group Eight in-joke, before Sollux got back to the matter at hand. "Tho… what did you mean by that?"
Vriska beckoned Sollux over to the sit on the main bed, and so they formed an odd group, with Vriska and Tavros lying side by side, leaning on the headboard, and Sollux facing Vriska, leaning on the back-board of the four-poster.
"Okay, so yesterday, I lied."
"What?" Tavros gasped, annoyed and insulted that she had tricked him into eating the meat… but he still could not find it within him to hate her for it, or even any feelings near hate. It was the vegetarian in him, his mother would have teased, making him act so soppy.
"I couldn't make him sit up or anything at that time in particular. I just, I don't get it! It's hard to control," Vriska leant her head back further, staring up at the ceiling as if it would magically give her the answer to the problems she had been having. Then to calm herself down a little, she swept the main body of her hair over one shoulder and began to fiddle with the ends of it. "When I was really upset, or stressed or something, it was like… something would kind of click in my head, instructing me to do certain things."
She then slid her hands into her hair, cradling her head, and curled into a foetal position, her mane of hair hiding her face. It was stressful for her, these weird powers, despite how useful they could be because they were simply so alien to her.
Tavros slowly rested his hand on her shoulder, knowing that if he moved too fast he could startle her. At the moment she was an injured young animal: scared, jumpy and likely to lash out at any time. Indeed, when his palm made contact with her shoulder, she flinched and turned to look at him.
"Hey. It'll be fine." he smiled, reassuring her the best her could. Her cheeks turned a shade bluer as she uncurled, sitting with her legs out on the bed once more.
"Ugh, whatever. So yeah. It was first when that bloody woman, when we were getting our items checked, tried to bin most of my dice. I got pissed off at her and suddenly something in my head made me look her in the eyes and tell her what to do. So I did and it actually worked, and I don't know why, it's just, bluh," she looked up at Sollux and stared him in the eye. "See, if I tell you to do something now, it doesn't work. Sollux, stand up."
Suddenly, something in his eyes changed as his face turned slack and his eyes widened. As if possessed, his body swiveled from its position on the bed and indeed he stood up. At first, Vriska began to have in internal panic attack. Would she never be able to look people in the eye again without possessing them? Oh god, no! But then his arms raised in the air and he made loud groaning sounds like a zombie.
"Urrrrg, brainth…" he moaned.
"Oh fuck you, Sollux." she said, rolling her eyes with a small smile on her face.
"Ath you wish, my lady." Then with a smirk he joined her on the bed, straddling her and reaching for the front of her boiler suit with a suitably rapt expression.
"Jesus Christ, Sollux!" She kneed him in the groin and shoved him away, but was laughing none the less. "You men. You just can't help yourselves around me!"
"I believe I was pothethed and under your control."
"Yeah yeah. I think that really, my overriding womanly scent must have been affecting your poor mind," she sighed in mock exasperation, quoting the lines Sollux had used on her a few days ago. They allowed a smirk at one another before the conversation was steered to more serious matters once more. "So yeah. That's all there is to say on that matter really."
"Well, I'm thorry, but I'm not going to believe thith until I thee it."
Any humour in the atmosphere left as Vriska's expression turned stony. With an ironic smile she said, "Of course, because I'd totally lie about something like that!"
"Well come on. Being able to control peopleth mindth? It'th pretty far-fetched."
"You honestly think I'd look so disturbed about something I was lying about? Hell, that Tavros would freak out over what I was saying and eat meat despite his vegetarianism if he hadn't seen it and it was fake? Seriously?"
"Could be," Like Vriska, Sollux too turned serious and cold. "But until you prove it, I'm gonna athume you're lying. Fuck, maybe Tavroth ith in on it too."
"Tavros? Seriously? Come on, make believe time is over now," Vriska leant over a little and cupped Tavros's face in her hands, turning it to face to Sollux and ignoring how his cheeks were warming under her touch. "Look at this face. Could this possibly lie to you? Or anyone for that matter?"
"Get off," Tavros wriggled free of her grip, embarrassed at the attention. "And, uh, I can lie."
"Oh? Go on then. Lie for me, wriggler," Gosh, her teeth were sharp, he thought as her grin widened, making her look rather vampire like.
"Well, uh, anything I say, you're gonna know that it's a lie."
"Hmm, well pointed out."
"Vrithka, come on. Leave him out of thith."
Her gaze was sharp. "You didn't. Anyway. How about this. Tell me two truths and a lie. If you can smuggle the lie past me, then you win and you're apeshit banana's at lying. But if I pick out your lie then… well, you're not apeshit banana's at lying. Simple. I'll give you a minute to think them up."
And so the thinking began.
"Okay then… uh, so," Tavros composed himself before starting, "I have a cat, I have a computer and I don't have a bedroom door."
"You don't have a cat," Vriska said after a few seconds of thought, solving it. "It was a clever idea to use mundane things though. Very sneaky. I'll make a con artist of you yet. But jeez! You don't have a bedroom door?"
"Well, they removed it before I… uh, left because we were redecorating. Anyway, how, uh, how did you know so fast?"
"That midget Scottish girl's hat was covered in cat's hairs, and when she introduced herself to you, you sneezed and apologised, telling her it was from your allergies."
"You remembered that?"
"Hey, don't go all sentimental on me. I just remember pointless things. Anyway, what the hell? We've completely derailed here! Sollux! I'll prove to you that I can do this," She turned to him and stared him in the eyes, fingers at her temples and a lull to her voice, "Stand up."
But he did not stand.
"Stand up."
Again, he did not stand.
Frustrated at her lack of control, she broke off eye contact, shut her eyes and focused, searching deep inside her. Then suddenly, as if it made sense, her lids slowly opened once more as she calmly looked him in the eye.
"Stand up."
Sollux stood up. With a malicious grin, she instructed, "Fall over," And he fell. "Slap yourself around the face," And he slapped himself around the face. "Oh no, Sollux, looks like you were wrong."
"V-Vriska. Stop this."
She turned, not breaking off the connection, to see a horrified Tavros. "What? I'm not going to kill him. Just mess him about a bit. He insulted you as well!"
"Uh, yeah, I guess, but… just beating him up isn't the answer." He did not once look in her eyes, terrified that she might take it out on him as well.
"Any other zen quotes you'd like to shoot at me, or are we done here?" she snapped. "This is lame anyway."
Breaking off control, she turned once more to stare at the ceiling. It was then when a strange, ambient voice filled the room. They sounded like a woman, but it was hard to tell just what gender it was.
"This is an announcement from the head of this facility. So far groups Two, Five and Six have been annihilated, leaving seven groups for four spaces. A little under half of you will have to die yet before this is over.
'Information: each of the remaining groups must have killed another group before the end of this confinement. There will be no exception to this rule. If one of the final four groups has not killed another group, then they themselves will be eliminated. So far only groups Eight and Ten have killed. That is all."
From the inside of the observatory, Feferi pulled a grim expression, one matched by Vriska's.
"It would be that creep Eridan who murders someone, wouldn't it?" she chuckled. "Knew it."
Sollux, having finished taking in the words of the woman, heaved himself back up to his feet before settling back down again on the bed with a sigh.
"What? Is that it?" Vriska said. "You're not going to try and spear me or anything?"
"Nah," For Sollux knew that appeasing her violent side would not only end with his butt sorely kicked, but also that Vriska would get more out of him fighting back than if he remained dull. "Tho, then it ithn't too hard to believe that… well I gueth we owe you an apology Tavroth. I have noticed you find it hard to fall to thleep, tho I gueth, maybe the intruder hath weird mind control powerth ath well."
"Yeah, I had a hunch about that as well." Vriska admitted, much to the chagrin of her team mates.
"You mean you jutht let me be a complete dick to him for no reathon?" Sollux did not get overly theatrical with his emotions often, for that was Vriska's zone, but occationally it was needed. "You're a huge bitch."
"I didn't want to accept my own problems, dickhead, so I was keeping quiet about it." she pouted.
For a while Tavros felt a sense of accomplishment while Sollux glared at Vriska from behind his glasses, but he then stopped and continued the conversation, "Tho where I was going with thith ith that I think I may be getting thomething thimilar."
"And you still had the gall to accuse me of lying? Wow, thanks. Well I won't believe you, then, until you show us." she pouted, having soon forgotten the woman's words. They were relatively safe now, having murdered someone already. If they lay low they could get through relatively easy. It was a nasty business and a terrible thing to feel so relieved about, but in their situation, Vriska merely wanted to live.
"Thith could actually be dangerouth," Sollux warned, but Vriska was dismissive, telling him that as long as he did whatever this was in the opposite direction to them, they would be fine. And so he stood, and took off his dual-coloured glasses, holding them loosely by a handle with his eyes screwed shut. "Tho if you all die, or whatever, it'th your fault, Vrithka."
Turning his head towards a wall where a rather atrocious painting hung, he then opened his eyes, and two beams of energy shot out from them, one red, one blue. While this was going on, Vriska was vaguely aware of her mouth making noises like 'Holy fuck!' and 'Shit man, what the actual hell, Jesus!', but they were hardly conscious and she barely noticed them, in awe of the power this mustard blooded boy. The energy flowing from his eyes looked almost like jets of brightly coloured water, giving off a collectively purple coloured light that one could probably read by.
The painting caught fire and burned rapidly, giving off a thick, noxious, black smoke.
"Aw thit, I forgot about that. And yeth, I mean the expletive," The glasses went back on as quickly as possible as he left to get water. "Come on, Vrithka. We need to put thith out."
"See, Sollux? This is why we can't have nice things!" Vriska cried jokingly and also rushed to the bathroom for some water to put it out.
The smoke, dark, heavy and entirely visible began to sink down into the room, making Tavros choke and cough. But he could not move his legs, so he could not leave the room.
"Vriska! Shit, ugh…" he called. "Vriska!"
But he then descended into a mass of coughing and spluttering as the main body of smoke reached his face. Still there was no response, so he reached out to his side to grab the wheelie-chair and try to get onto it, yet he had no such luck, the chair scooting away from his fingers due to a misplaced lunge, and shooting across the room, leaving him in an awkward pile upon the floor. But he did not give up, because who knew how long it would take Sollux and Vriska to find a receptacle for water? They were incapable enough on their own, but with their powers combined, shit would undoubtedly go down.
The best he could come up with as a response to moving without legs (lousy goddamn stupid Vriska) was to do a strange, improvised army crawl across the floor. But the bloody painting was still spewing smoke into the room, the energy in Sollux's optic blasts, as they would later call them, was somehow allowing the combustion to last far longer than it should.
"Vriska…" he croaked, before the smoke descended further down the level of the wooden flooring, and Tavros blacked out.
== PSYCHE. Be Feferi before the murder
You are now Feferi Peixes on the night before the murder, where we left off before.
The water hung pleasingly around her body like a duvet, and it was such a comfort that Feferi lay at the bottom of the pool for a couple of hours. Had she known before that she had such an affinity for the water – being able to breathe in it nonetheless – she would have gotten a pool installed at their flat, or at least organized a holiday to some remote island so they could go diving. Being a princess of sorts came with such privileges. Actually, wait... a horrifying thought flittered through her mind: what if her gills were only adapted for freshwater? One of her dreams upon discovering this mutation a day or so ago was to explore some of the sunken cities of old, all encased within saltwater. But hey, she should be content with having gills and lungs to start with! So enough of this moping!
Outside, nothing was visible due to night falling, turning the vast windows into mirrors, all showing the same slightly plump girl with a mess of dark hair climbing out of a pool. The plump girl, of course, being Feferi. Now outside the warm water, she was freezing and soon realized her error at not thinking of towels and the like. She couldn't very well put on her dry clothes on top of the wet ones, that would just be plain stupid, so instead she scuttled into the nearest bedroom and wrapped herself up in some spare bed sheets until she was dry. Next time, she would make sure to bring a towel... if there were any around here that is.
Because of this, she decided to spend the next couple of minutes seeing if she could find any of these elusive towels, as she could see herself spending much time in the pool sized bath getting used to her gills. Also because she did not want to face a certain teammate quite yet. A bit of planning was needed before such a route would be taken.
After searching through countless airing cupboards and closets, she still could not locate any towels, although she found many more bed sheets. Honestly, who built a pool, but forgot towels? Sheesh. In fact, at first it had enraged her so much that she had taken her trident and shredded several of the bed sheets in a fit of rage, not to mention a few vases. One of the walls in a spare bedroom had been gouged, even. A credit to whomever had made the trident that it could cut plaster.
Then again, Feferi scolded herself, she had been given a safe house for Group Ten, with food and the near guarantee that they would not be killed. A lack in towels was hardly something to be complaining about. Imagine how it was for all those other poor people; having to hide the best they could and hunt or scavenge for food, even! Some had died already, and others inured beyond hope of repair. They, however, were living on the lap of luxury. Yeah, she definitely had no right to complain about a mere lack of towels.
Well, it was pretty clear that Feferi had no hope of finding these towels, so with a sigh, she conceded defeat and placed a small pile of spare bed sheets in the bathroom with the pool-bath. Although she dreaded it, she thought, 'Well that's all I can do here. Time to go face the music.'
As silently as possible, she crept up the spiral staircase, deciding upon which tactics to get Eridan to forgive her... not that she had really done anything wrong in her opinion. If showing people their amazing hidden skills was wrong, then hell, she did not want to be right. Feferi knocked their code knock on the wood of the trapdoor and Kanaya swung it open, silhouetted into a dark shape by the moon overhead, making her only recognizable by her characteristic tufted hairstyle.
"I was wondering where you had gotten to, Feferi. I checked the pool but you were not there." Kanaya said.
"Oh," Feferi whispered, seeing that the hipster was asleep and not wanting to wake him... yet. "Sorry! I went to go dry off, but I couldn't find any coddamn towels, so I had to improvise."
"Yes, I saw the trail of footsteps," Kanaya smiled. "So that is what I assumed you were doing. Anyway, now that you have joined us, you can take your shift. Today, you have got the first half of the night, and I the second. Well, I am going to sleep now. Goodnight."
The Russian girl settled down at the opposite side of the observatory, drawing the nest of sheets and pillows around her before drifting off to sleep. Ugh, guard duty was super boring, Feferi decided, while dragging the heavier items in the glass dome across the trap door and making sure that the Arab's Cross-stitch, ahem, Ahabs Crosshair was in place and ready to be fired if necessary. At least she got the view of the gardens, which looked particularly beautiful at night.
Feferi swept her gaze across the expanse of moonlit lawns before beginning her plan to get on Eridan's good side once more. A smirk lit up her face, almost sadistic in nature, as she lifted up the bedcovers and slid in behind him, wrapping her arms around his torso and pressing her face into his back, just between the shoulder-blades. Clear as daylight, she felt him flinch and stiffen, but as she rubbed small circles onto his side with her thumb, he soon relaxed once more. For Feferi this was completely platonic in origin, although those coddarn voices brought on by puberty were whispering things in her mind that made her blush a fine pinky-purple.
"Hey," she murmured into the dark fabric of his vest, trying to distract her mind from its racy suggestions. "You're not still mad at me, are you?"
"You knoww full wwhale it's hard to when you're like this, Fef," And although she could not see the smile on his face as he said it, Feferi could certainly hear it in his voice. "But seriously, you almost made me hawe a heart attack wwhen you jus' sat on the bottom of the pool wwitrout movin'."
"Aww, you worry too much, Mr grumpy-gills! You know what else you know full 'wwhale'? That I'm not a complete dummy! It's pretty shrimple really."
"Wwell that's disputable, don't you think?" he teased, earning him a playful cuff around the back of the head before Feferi settled back down again so that they were in the double s shape they were in before. "Pretty shrimple? Hawen't heard that one before, princess."
"Seriously, though. See? No more fish puns. I am sorry that I made you so upset. I just thought it would be easier to show you." Feferi sighed, her piece-de resistance about to be unveiled. But on second thoughts, it could be hamming it up a little too much, and she definitely did not want for that to happen; that was Eridans job… the hamming it up that is.
"Aren't you supposed to be lookin' out or somethin'?"
"Aren't you supposed to be sleeping with the fishies, mister?" she retorted with a grin. Ah, yes, it was nice when he was not being grumpy at her. She would not need to use the final stage of her plan.
"Touché, Fef. But it's kinda hard gettin' to sleep wwith you distractin' me," Eridan smirked. "Anywways, 'sleepin' wwith the fishes' is more like murderin' someone than actually sleepin'."
"Aw, but I was frond of that one!" Feferi pouted. "But yes, I probably should be keeping watch... but you're so warm!" As if this needed reinforcing, she gave him a quick squeeze.
"Yeah, if I die, Fef, I'll hawe to bream it on you. Not that I don't appreciate your company, or anythin'."
"Urgh, fine." she grunted, placed a quick kiss on the ridge of his spine, before she heaved herself from the covers to sit on the chair in the centre of the room with the best vantage point.
Halfway into the night, judged entirely by the position of the fake moon in the sky, Feferi gave Kanaya's shoulder a gentle shake to wake her, and she then took over the guard duty. Feferi slid back into Eridan's nest-bed and resumed the position she had been in before –hugging him from behind. But no sooner had she done this, Eridan, still half asleep, rolled over, told her to turn over (which she did, although fairly confused) and then took the position she had previously been in. That is to say, hugging her from behind, as he muttered, "I don' wwanna be the little spoon again."
Feferi merely giggled before an idea struck her.
"Hey, Eridan, do you think you could sing the lullaby?"
"Huh? Oh, sure, Fef." He cleared his throat before beginning to sing quietly, his mouth right next to her ear, so he barely needed to raise his voice. It was an old song that Eridan's father had sung to them when they were young, and the Russian words in Eridan's low wavy voice calmed her instantly, her eyelids drooping after a few seconds of the lyrics. However, being half asleep, the Russian lines soon morphed into the exact reasons as to why Eridan disliked potato salad in English, making Feferi giggle once more before settling down to sleep.
The next morning, Kanaya's suggestively raised eyebrows and 'hint-hint what were you two up to last night?' coughing aside, was especially pretty. The lack of shampoo she had used on her wet hair had made it extra frizzy, though, and it gave her the impression of a dark haired lion's mane. Eridan was practically drowning in hair when they awoke, and her locks had dried off. He was spluttering and clawing hair off his tongue for a good few seconds after waking.
Breakfast was a lengthy affair, with none of the fear and barely suppressed hunger that many of the other groups would be feeling, due to their safety. Feferi, for example, had two tins of peaches with a scoop of ice-cream for good measure. Yes. Ice-cream! Christ, they were living the high-life compared to Vriska and her team! Coddamn fucking ice-cream. Fuck yes. Hell fucking yes. But okay, whoa. We all need to settle down here.
After they ate, Kanaya, as usual, took out her sewing equipment and began to work on her tailoring.
"I think you would suit blues and greens, Feferi. Anything brightly coloured." She would often smile. And when asked what she was making, she would give an elusive smile and not answer. Whatever it was, it was large and made of a rich purple fabric. After the first day, Eridan and Kanaya got on fairly well, and often when Feferi would return from one of her walks around the grounds, they would fall silent as if discussing something to do with her. Hmm… suspicious. Very suspicious. They were lucky that she trusted them not to be bitching about her behind her back, or there would be hell to pay. For Feferi may look generally tame, but she could be a vicious girl when she wanted to.
Each morning after breakfast, Feferi would go for a stroll around the perimeter of their refuge, partially for intruders, and partially to escape from the cloying atmosphere of their situation. Trident in hand, she set off, lifting the trap-door up and floating down the spiral staircase… okay, so maybe she did not float down the stairs, per se, but she was still fairly graceful, as a princess should be. Wait, no. None of this high-bloods are better nonsense. Eridan was rubbing off on her, and that was the exact opposite of what should be going on. Arg, all that stuff going through her mind last night…
As she reached the doors, deep in thought on Eridan's decent into snobbery, a male voice cried out, "Wwait, Fef!"
She turned, not too surprised to see Eridan behind her since he was the only guy in their vast mansion. Damn, after last night she kind of wanted to think things over a bit, but she could not exactly shake him off.
"Mind if I join?" he asked.
"No," she replied, but inside she was thinking, 'Well I cannot exactly say yes, can I?'. "But I'll warn you now, I'm not going to be any fun. Just thinking and stuff."
"Oh." Wow, had he actually picked up on her subtle hint?
"'Oh' what?"
"Wwell, don't feel you have to wwalk wwith me. I'll be fine on my owwn."
Feferi so desperately wanted to think about things, that she agreed with him, and so they parted ways. He looked a little down trodden at this, but she was already lost in thought by the time he split off.
They had always slept in the manner they had last night: curled up together. It would be weird to sleep without Eridan's comforting mass nearby for Feferi. But as of late it had been getting more and more awkward, as expected really. Hell, she was not stupid. Feferi knew exactly why this was, but she did not want to accept it. They were growing up, and both members were finding the other increasingly attractive… or at lease she was. Eridan probably still saw her as a sister, knowing him. Far too busy to think about romance, no doubt. Yes, she would have to stop thinking about him in that way. Imagine if they did date, and they then broke up… it would be the most awkward thing afterwards. No, she could not handle a life without him, as he was so central to her, so even just as a friend, this is how it would go:
An official ban on any romance related thoughts about Eridan. There would be no dating of Eridan. No fly zone. Done.
Besides, it was one thing being his friend/sister with all his quirks, but being his girlfriend with all those? She then proceeded to think about his quirks.
Although very controversial, there was much speculation about whether the higher up the hemospectrum you are, you more violent you turn out to be. This was certainly the case with indigo bloods, where they had to have certain drugs to keep them from 'flipping out'. For most, this was just an urban legend, or a rumor whispered between school friends, but when Feferi asked, Feferi got… well, before the mutation business that is. She sincerely hoped that there were not any indigo bloods here, as that would be pretty coddamn awful for them.
But enough of the meandering, the reason she was thinking this was in reference to her morail and his ever worsening temperament. A combination of the aggression in the blood, and the fame were making him act like a bit of an asshole. Moments like the night before had been getting further and further spaced as the fame increasingly went to his head. Just knowing him was getting more and more stressful as he grew arrogant and possessive of her. Thankfully, he still had his sweet moments, and if not for those she would have clocked him around the head a long time ago. Seriously, though. When she got back from this, she would have another talk on the matter of the subtle genocide hints. They were royalty, and they were idols. Wanting to kill people would not do for people in their position. They had responsibilities! And besides, she loved him like a brother (that is what it was, totally, no other feelings than sisterly affection, no sir), and you don't let those you love do stupid, reckless things. Like killing people. That was pretty stupid.
But this aggression was working its way into her head as well. Recently, the littlest things were making her flip out, like the lack of towels as one example. She had destroyed that guest room, and had come out feeling ashamed, but a hell of a lot better. It horrified her.
Feferi twirled the double-ended trident between her fingers like a baton, the concentration it took ebbing her anger away. She had hoped that the water would calm her, and indeed it did for a while, but it could not keep it back for long. She would have to find a more long term solution than randomly destroying stuff, so until then she would try and soak in the pool.
So far, she had not come across anyone on these walks, but hey, there's always a first. Although how they could climb over the three metre walls with coils of electrified barbed wire toping it… she had not a clue.
"AAAAURGGGH!" The yell filled the air… an oddly familiar voice and adrenaline shot through her veins.
"Eridan," she muttered, and sped towards the source of the scream, the trident in an attack ready hold. "Eridan?"
Thankfully, the open lawns made it hard for anyone to hide themselves, and so she soon spotted the intruder. In the distance she could see someone running, a vast plume of fabric billowing out behind him – Eridan. And behind him, someone else. Someone lithe and quick.
"Eridan!" she cried, before letting out a scream of fury as he fell, something sticking out of his back. "Back off!"
This gave her another boost of energy as she sped forwards, arms pumping back and forwards to help her gain momentum. Damn it, why couldn't she go faster? The intruder kicked Eridan in the ribs, and she could hear his howl of pain from where she was several metres away.
Feferi roared in anger and leapt towards the intruder, smacking the trident in an arc towards their head, knocking off their headgear and allowing a mane of hair to tumble free. The intruder snarled and ripped the knife from where it lay embedded in Eridan, making him whimper, before whirling it in her hand, cutting Feferi a notch in her collarbone. In response, the idol thrust the trident forwards and stabbed the girl in the arm, leaving behind a three piece wound. But she quickly realized that a long range weapon had its limits in a knife fight, and so she would have to keep this intruder girl at tridents length.
They then began their dance; Feferi trying to keep her at a far enough distance to hit with the tridents knives, and the intruder trying to get close enough to cut deeper wounds, but Feferi had the slight edge and managed to gouge her in the leg, stopping her from dodging quite so agilely a minute in.
"Enough," The intruder spat now she could no longer fight that way, and limped back towards Eridan, hoisting him up by the scarf and holding the knife at his throat. "I'm done playing fair. Try that again, bitch, and this weirdo gets it, and you'll all die."
The light in her eyes made it clear that she would indeed slice Eridan's throat open if Feferi made another movement, and so the royal-blood stood her ground, still wielding the trident in her hand in case an opening revealed itself to her. The aggressive attitude could defiantly be explained by the indigo blood leaking from the intruder girl's wounds, yet desperation could also have caused it. There were other wounds from before their scuffle, probably caused from the barbed wire… although that did not explain the electricity.
"So. This is nice. We can talk like civilized people," the indigo-blood smirked, her flaming red hair shifting over her shoulders as she moved. "I'll agree to let Eridan go, if you let my person go. Zankuo."
"What? Is that what this is about? We haven't got anyone!"
"Don't play cute with me, princess," At this Feferi flinched as only Eridan really called her 'princess', and he was lying on the floor with multiple stab wounds. "Your group has really fucked up mine. First, you sliced off Turiox's hand, and now you've kidnapped Zankuo. Well. I'm not going to allow that. Group Five is not going down," As if to reinforce this, she dug the tip of her boot into one of Eridan's wounds, making him scream and scream as she laughed, a rapt expression on her face. "Oh my, I could listen to that all day. Honey, you really should just fall unconscious already."
The girl then gave him another kick before her wild, grey-eyed gaze settled upon Feferi, or rather her stomach. "So. Is what they said about you being knocked up true?" Oh god, a FefEridan follower.
At her question, well, if she was not in fear of Eridan's life, and as a result her own she would have laughed aloud, or perhaps cried… she was not sure which. Bloody shipping. The girl before her was a typical textbook definition of an indigo blood: the violent mood-swings between normal and sadistic.
"Seriously? We're thirteen! I haven't even started my fucking periods yet!" Okay, maybe she could do a little bit of screeching. The rumors had really gotten to her, and for the first few days after they had began to spread through the tabloids, Feferi had holed up in her room with only ice-cream and a box-set of documentaries on the oceans for company.
"Well, maybe there's a reason for that?" she replied with a small, suggestive smirk. "Hey, seriously, I'm sorry for this. I kinda get into the fight a bit too much. And any other time I would be asking for your autograph, I mean, holy shit, you're Feferi Peixes!" Wow, she was a… fangirl? Hmm, Feferi could use this.
"Uh… well."
"And, oh man. Are you two actually an item? As in dating and shit? Because I've heard these rumors and… no… what the hell am I doing?" The girl shook her head, as if clearing her mind of these distracting thoughts, and clearing the way for those more befitting for murdering her idols. Yet before she could do this, Feferi lunged forwards with the trident and stabbed her in the stomach, twisting it before yanking it out, the intruder tumbling to the ground.
"Bitch!" the girl chuckled. "You actual bitch! Stabbing a fan? Wow. So you know… you know what?"
The knife still in hand, she sliced out the knife in a practiced motion and stabbed Feferi through the foot, fixing her to the ground. The purple-blood screamed, falling on one knee as she sobbed in pain, hands flailing wildly around the handle, not sure what exactly to do.
"Try getting stabbed in the gut," the girl sighed before she pushed herself to her feet and pulled another knife from her belt, arm clutched around her midriff to stem the bleeding the best she could, and hold in any organs threatening to jump-ship. "If Group Five is gonna go down, then so is yours."
Feferi barely took this in, still staring at disbelief at her foot. The intruder staggered behind her, knife raised high… and a bolt of energy sailed past Feferi's ear, skimming off the girls arm and turning it into fluid.
With a curse, Kanaya raised the Ahab's Crosshairs once more, hoping for a better shot the next time round. But it was doubtful she would have another shot. By now the intruder had already accepted that she would die, and was determined to bring Feferi down with her, and so raised the knife again.
Now knowing the girl was prepared to stab her with her dying breath, Feferi, cool and collected, picked the trident back up and with a quick twist of the body, jabbed one of the outlying prongs into the base of the girls ribs and upwards until she reached the heart, a spray of indigo catching her in the face and staining her boiler suit. The intruder coughed up a small amount of blood and fell forward onto the trident. She had died.
After a few seconds, the yellow-blood with only one hand, the one whom Kanaya had carved with her chainsaw, suddenly screamed as his body filled with a buzzing pain before he collapsed and seemed to sink through the floor, the ground absorbing his body leaving no trace. Simultaneously, a blue-blood being carried by another muscled blue-blood shrieked the calls of a dying man all of a sudden, making Equius, the carrier, drop him in a nearby garden before dashing off, worried people would be attracted to him by the noise. This blue-blood also died soon after. Group Five were gone, making the count of downed groups a grand total of three from ten.
Dropping the Ahab's Crosshairs to the ground, Kanaya rushed towards the fallen duo, Feferi looking a great deal worse now covered in indigo blood to join her own soaking through the materiel.
"Shoosh shoosh shoooooosh," Kanaya crooned as she stroked the hair from Feferi's face. "Don't look. I'm going to count down from three, and I'm going to pull it out-"
"No no no! D-don't tell m-m-me, just pull it. Get it out, get it out!" Feferi sobbed, cursing as soon as Kanaya's fingers so much as touched the handle of the knife in her foot. Putting a piece of fabric between Feferi's teeth to stop her from biting her tongue, Kanaya made a quick mental countdown and ripped the knife from the ground and foot, swearing when she realized the soil from the ground would likely infect the wound. "Owwww! Aurgh!"
"It's all okay, now. Don't worry, Feferi. You're going to be fine." Kanaya then turned to where Eridan lay, looking for all purposes like a harpooned whale with the knife sticking out from his side. Already, Feferi was limping over to where Eridan lay, batting off Kanaya's mothering feebly and inspecting her morails wounds. He had been stabbed in his side and in the back, as well as the odd slice on his legs. This girl had not been beating around the bush, she had meant to kill.
Well, Feferi did not need to be a doctor to tell that Eridan was pretty much stuffed as far as living a long and healthy life went.
"Eridan? Eridan? Are you still… still awake?" Feferi was going to say alive, and it was clear to all those around her, but she did not.
"Fef?"
"Don't worry," she whispered, repeating the words of Kanaya just a while before. "You're gonna be fine, Eridan. You're not going to jump ship, okay? And see? You know everything's shrimply fine because the puns are still there."
"I can see somethin'… somethin' shiny." he mumbled, looking upwards at the fake sky.
At this the fish-girl choked back a sob. He was going delusional before his death. Perhaps due to the loss of blood? Yet Kanaya followed his gaze and frowned.
"Of course, Eridan." Feferi stroked the purple highlight in his hair.
"He is correct, Feferi."
She turned, and indeed there was a small shiney object tumbling to the ground. It landed just before them, and she saw that it was a small round container. Unscrewing it, she found a tub of salve and a note.
'Sew up wounds then apply three times a day.'
With a relieved smirk, the kind that only those that have dodged death can appreciate, Kanaya commented, "They really cannot allow you to die, can they? But come, we are not out of the fire just yet. We need to stitch these wounds up."
Your name is Eridan Ampora,
In recent months you've been developing an overpowering GENOCIDE COMPLEX, but you are keeping it on the low until you have figured out exactly whom it is you want to kill. All those without purple blood flowing through their veins? Haven't had much luck with that, but maybe tonight's your night.
You hold a fascination for MILITARY HISTORY AND LEGENDARY CONQUERORS. You have dubiously modelled your profile and exploits after the most notorious figures and their stories. It is an image you are careful to craft through EXAGGERATED EMOTIONAL THEATRICS, and your penchant for mass murder notwithstanding, the general public tends to regard you as a BIT OF A TOOL.
You also like MAGIC, even though you know it to be FAKE. Like a made up friend, the way wizards are. Made up make believe FAKEY FAKEY FAKES. It's still fun though.
Recently, you found yourself in the odd predicament of turning GREY, which was made odder by your long time PLATONIC SOUL-MATE THING going grey at the same time. You both attempted to HIDE FROM THE MEDIA, but they assumed you had got your aforementioned PLATONIC SOUL-MATE THING PREGNANT, which made things super awkward, so you CAME CLEAN. You're both only thirteen anyway! Sheesh.
Lousy goddamn stupid radiation.
A/N: Sooo, is this needing more humour? Because Homestuck is like, the queen of poking fun at itself, and I feel that Saltwater Room is somewhat lacking in this. And I think I shall use the term morail now and again, because typing out 'platonic soul mate thing' every three seconds is bluh xD
+ I find it super hard coming up with all these fish puns, lol. Anyone got some good ones they would like to see in here? As I have a little list of them on my iPod, and it's pretty short at the moment. So any you send in would be super appreciated thanks!
Also, a good wodge of FefEri fluff there. I know he's still too nice here, but he will change in due time *evil grin*.
And finally saw what Mr. Hussie looks like IRL. Did not expect him to look like that at all D:
And thank you so much for reading ^^
