DAY :33

[wille]

[ Fatigue is the clearest sense that bleeds through when she opens the link, but it's not dwelled upon, just an old bedfellow grown familiar. In contrast, Misato tries her darndest to seem nothing but determined, confident, enthused. It's not a lie if she also believes it. ]

( Hey everyone. We've found a few things we can use to our advantage.

First, if you want to pander to the judges' preferences, you should go colorful, electric, violent, sexy and loud. It's no time to be shy. Miss Mystery hates forest green and wears shoes dipped in liquid metal. Saldo Saldo likes soft vore, shiny and over-the-top body modifs and, uhm, transformations, like ugly duckling turning into a swan stuff. Now Talius Rex loves exotic pets, the more human-like the better, exploit that, he also likes cute things and dressing them and himself up. You may have seen his pets around . . .

Sam has also found that the chips the competitors wear are tracking their vitals, location and they act as credit cards. We may be able to use this. I know we've got a few tech-savvy people out there.

Lastly, I've got some experience choreographing giant weapons, so talk to me if you want help with that.

We can win this! I know it! Let's do our best!! )
 

Comments

[sizeofyourbaggage]

( Should've thought of that before you signed up. )

[wille]

( Sam, tell this idiot to loosen his pants and win us the game. )

[ Manners? What's that? ]

[sizeofyourbaggage]

( I can tell him, but hell if he'll listen to me. ) [ There's a pause, then, ] ( But he ain't an idiot, not really. )

[wille]

( Fine, coward. )

[ Misato . . . when she gets fired up. ]

( We don't have room for people who are only in it for the ride. He might as well stay back. )

[sizeofyourbaggage]

( I just know when to pick my battles. We aren't in charge of anyone here, and I sure as hell know that people throwing out orders never made me any more motivated to follow them.

Doesn't mean it ain't frustrating as hell that people wanna throw their lot into things and then not work together. )

[wille]

[ Picking battles is never her strong suit. It takes such great effort for her to inhale slowly . . . and unclench, even then the frustration bleeds through. ]

( I don't know about you, but too many here don't get what it means to own up to their choices. )

[shiro2hero]

(I should have thought about being told to practically strip in front of people before I signed up?)

[sizeofyourbaggage]

( Maybe you should've thought about signing up to compete in an arena when you didn't know what the hell it was gonna entail. )

[ Sorry, Shiro. He'll be more sympathetic later. ]

[shiro2hero]

(Is now really the time you want to have this conversation?)

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[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ There's a faint hesitation where the irritated part of Sam wants to say damn right now's the time to have it, but he lets go with a sigh. ]

( No. You're right, I'm sorry. That's a conversation that should just be you and me. )

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[shiro2hero]

(Yeah, agreed.)

(You know I said I'd do what I had to. In order to complete the mission.)

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[sizeofyourbaggage]

( I know, I'd never fault you for that. I just don't know why you thought this was what you had to do when there were other ways to try to get the mission done. )

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[shiro2hero]

(Maybe because when I signed on, there didn't seem like there were other options.)

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[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Sam... isn't actually sure if they're fighting here. And he pauses, takes a step back, because he doesn't want to fight. He gets it, he does, of course Shiro would do what he had to in order to complete the mission and would sign up for the way he thought he could help, it's just...

He's hurt. And he's trying not to be, he's trying to distance himself from this and go you do what you're gonna do and I'll do what I'm gonna do, it's fine. It hurts less if he doesn't think of them as a team, or as partners, just as two people on the same mission operating as best as they can.

Except he doesn't want to distance himself like that from Shiro, either, because if he starts doing it now, what else is he gonna end up doing it with? ]

( I get it, man, I do. I guess you're not used to thinking of me as part of your team. )

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[shiro2hero]

[It's like a kick in the chest. Hard and sudden and just as difficult to recover from. There's no way he can keep all of that feeling throttled down. Not from anyone.]

[So instead...]

(I need to have this conversation in person. Please?)

[Because he's going to pull away from the connection as gently as possible. On his way to go find him.]