the gauntlet discussion

Lyca was still walking around in a bit of a daze after last night's competition -- she hadn't been able to go back to sleep afterwards, and had laid in bed for a few hours before running over to the gallery to see the scores posted. She knew she hadn't been expecting anything special, but 14th? And she was literally minutes away from being disqualified, and she honestly couldn't believe it. That whole competition had felt like it had lasted all of twenty minutes, not almost two hours. She knew her slowest part of the competition had been in the wave pool, since they had the thing on like full blast yet somehow thought it was OK to put the rings tied to the bottom of the pool?

Lyca laid across one of the sofas, dropping her head down into Nathan's lap. She had shoved his diary to the side, making her the center of attention like she might have done with they were children. Call her crazy, she just wanted to take it back to those times. "Hey, Nate. Wanna' play a game?" she asked, mimicking what she might have said so many years ago. She didn't wan't to ask him how the competition had gone for him last night -- to be honest, she hadn't even looked to see what he had ranked.

Nathan was also in a daze, only half awake when Lyca entered the room. He’d just barely made it in under the competition time last night, and he’d still had a ton of soaking wet clothes and books to deal with when he got back. Only to find that they had disappeared. Apparently someone had thought it funny to take his belongings. So he had spent the rest of the night looking for them, only to find them stuck in a rafter in a corridor. Nate couldn’t be completely sure, but he was pretty certain Moss had something to do with it. The jerk. Came in third and ha probably taken advantage of his early finish to grab his stuff and threw them up in the hardest place to get he could find. Then gone back to his bed without having to worry about his placement.

Lyca’s entrance broke Nate out of his thoughts, and before he could say anything, she had shoved his book out of his hand and laid down next to him. Just like when they were kids. It’s funny how that was by no means a simpler time. Instead of being ignored, now she was the center of their parents hatred, and they were pitted against eachother, instead of trying to help each other survive. So it still sucked. He sighed and let his hands fall one on her shoulder, the other on the couch beside his leg. “Sure. What were you thinking?” He asked. He’d already come in 19th to her 14th place finish. Interacting with her at this point couldn't make him any more of a disappointment than he already was.

"I actually was banking on you saying no, I don't even think they have any kind of games here?" she almost laughed to herself, all of the sudden in a much better mood. Lyca had been expecting Nate to shove her off of his lap and completely ignore her, since she had guessed that had been the directions her parents had given him... and Nathan always followed instructions from their parents. But he didn't, and Lyca couldn't have been more pleased. For someone that had come in 14th place, you would never expect it with the glow that had taken over her face. It didn't take a lot to please Lyca, not when it was coming from Nate -- if she could see herself right now, she'd probably be embarrassed with how pathetic she was. Happy just because he didn't smack her away, instead he placed a hand on her shoulder.

With a newfound confidence, Lyca decided to push her a luck a little further. She looked up at him, taking in the bags under his eyes and his still stained and slightly wrinkled shirt. "How did you do last night?" she almost told him how she had done, but she suspected he had already looked... you know, since he cared and wasn't secretly selfish like she was. "Because they don't make the results public, and you don't necessarily have to tell Mom and Dad the truth if you don't want to, no matter what it was." Lyca almost blushed, not trying to be too presumptuous of his results.

Nate could sense the immediate change in Lyca’s attitude, and, had he gotten maybe two hours of sleep last night, he would have been happier about that. Instead, he just glanced around at the common area, and nodded in agreement with her statement. There wouldn’t be any fun games, not in this place. Fun and relaxing would be the last things things one would expect to find here. But Lyca didn’t stop there. He just continued to look at her as she turned and looked up at him, almost hopefully? He hadn’t seen that look in years. At least one of them would feel better after this conversation. “19.” He muttered, barely audible. He knew how she had done, and was already dreading the coming days post-competition.

“But, really, good job L.” He said in concession, patting her shoulder. They both knew she was the better competitor, the one who would survive the Gauntlet if given the chance. He wasn’t going to tell their parents anything, for as long as he could. He’d only been here a few days, and he was already so over it all. He was the exact opposite of their older brothers, and he was just not cut out for this. Lyca was, and she deserved it so much more than he ever would. Or maybe this was the sleep deprivation talking, he couldn't tell.

She could tell he was tired, but she didn't realize how exhausted he actually was. Lyca had the sneaking suspicion that he hadn't been sleeping well since he got here, and not just because of the competition yesterday. She knew how well he preformed under so much pressure, and that was basically all their parents had been supplying him with. Lyca had been basically living the dream since she had come here -- she was training well, getting some quality sleep, and overall she was just happy to be out of the house and away from her home environment. She hadn't thought about how Nathan was taking the change... he was probably more stressed than ever.

"When it came down to the rankings, it seemed like a lot of people were only minutes apart. With how long the competition was, any number of things could have influenced the win." she reasoned, trying to lesson the blow for him. Nate's observations were right, she hadn't looked at him like this in years... and maybe she was being hopeful. Hoping that he would finally have opinions for himself, and realize that their parents influence really couldn't touch him here unless he let it. "I bet we'll both do better next time."

Nate rubbed his free hand over his face and tried to rub the sleep out of them. He hadn’t gotten more than…twelve? ten? hours of sleep since he’d arrived a few days ago. And with none last night, he looked like a piece of work. He never slept well when he was stressed, and he was currently more stressed than he’d ever been in his life. If he was honest, he hated it here. He’d made a fool of himself in front of everyone he’d talked to, including that girl Alice who he’d dumped into the fountain, and his self-loathing had never been higher.

“L, stop.” He said, brushing away her attempts to rationalize the rankings. “We both know I’m not cut out for this.” He looked off, across the room, mostly to avoid her eyes. He didn’t need her pity right now. “If either one of us is going to make it, it’s going to be you. We both know that, and please don’t try and tell me I’m wrong. I’m only here because Mom and Dad think me being here will somehow offset you.” Which was true, if only subconsciously. Of the two of them, Lyca had always been better at everything. He should know, he was the one who helped her get the extra food, training books and everything that he got that she didn’t. "My only chance is to somehow get out alive."

Lyca sat up out of his lap, giving him the space she thought he wanted. She could tell he was messed up, because there was no way he actually just called her L in a sound mind. He hadn't used that nickname for her in who knows how long, but maybe he was starting to allow her to be close to him? Maybe? Of course that's how Lyca would see it, because that's exactly what she wanted. She wanted him to say he was sorry for being brainwashed by their parents into not caring about her, and that this place was making him realize what his future could be -- which ironically, didn't have anything to do with the Gauntlet.

"They want you to win... is that not what you want?" she prompted, sitting on the sofa facing him. Lyca knew what she wanted to hear him say... something along the lines of yes, I want to quit and we can go get our own house together like brothers and sisters do and have each other's backs in the good old days, just like we used to promise when we were little... but she also knew that wasn't going to happen. They had been here for all of like four days and she was already going back on like a million promises she had made to herself; don't let Jo get to you, don't talk to Nate, don't let him in, don't make friends. Ugh. "You can get out alive if you don't run the race, Nathan. That's how you get out alive."

“If by win, you mean get out of that god-forsaken house forever, yeah.” Nate said, looking over at his sister. God, there were so many things he wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her all about how he’d met this nice girl, but he’d screwed it up so bad. He wanted to tell her about his weird roommates, and all of the other stupid things. He wanted it to be like when they were kids, and they would sit on her bed and just talk. But it wasn’t like that now. It hadn’t been like that for years. She was being kind right now even sitting beside him, but that had to be a lapse in her judgement. She couldn’t have forgiven him for all of the horrible things he had done and said in the past few years. He certainly didn’t forgive himself.

“I know.” He said. He had to run the race, that was the only guaranteed way to survive. So, he had to at least do that. “I know.” He repeated, nodding, more to himself than to Lyca. He knew that she could win. She had enough guts and courage to forge through to win. She had enough determination and willingness to stick it to Mom and Dad that she had a solid shot at it. And if he wasn’t going to win… Nate felt the corners of his mouth tick upwards as he looked at his sister, but kept himself from smiling fully. “What about you?” He asked, turning the conversation to her favorite topic: herself. “How do you feel about last night?”

To hear Nathan refer to their childhood home as a that god-forsaken house was kind of like music to Lyca's ears, because he was basically mirroring her every thought ever. If he was finally starting to see that place for what it was, maybe they really did have a shot at becoming close again. Lyca had hopped into his lap to tease him, but she certainly wasn't expecting anything to come of it. She was trying not to let her hopes up to high, because she knew how hard it would be if he just changed his mind about her and decided he didn't need her again, just like he had so many times before. But it would be her fault for letting him in.

"Last night was a joke, honestly. If they're trying to test people, that was definitely not the way to do it. Like what does taking away our shoes do to benefit the competition? Nothing, that's what." she quipped, still secretly bitter she had a shit ton of blisters and had stepped on something she was pretty sure was still stuck in her heel. "And you know winning isn't the only way to get out of the house, you can just leave, I know it sounds like a lot, but I've done it before it's really not that bad. There are a lot of people out there like... me." She could have said us, but that wasn't exactly true.

Nate just nodded in agreement to her comments. He agreed with her, running around barefoot in the night didn’t really help anyone, in his opinion, especially because they were barefoot. They would all be wearing shoes in the actual race, so what was the point of running without them now? That and the rings. Oh, he’s nearly drowned in the Wave pool, since that thing had been on full blast and there had been about twenty people trying to dive in at once. That had not been fun. And then you had to haul your wet and then freezing ass around campus to get the remaining rings. It was borderline torture, and definitely not fun. "So what do you think they've got lined up next?" He asked, since this was the only topic where they had common ground now. He might as well try and see how far he could get with it.

At her last suggestion, Nate avoided her eyes and looked to the side again. Leaving was simple for her, she’d never felt at home in their house anyway. She was the more gutsy one too. He didn’t see it that way, even if he couldn’t stand to be there now, it had at one point been home. If he left for good, he wouldn’t be welcome back, and he’d have to be okay with that. But that didn’t matter for now. “I’m not there now,” He said, probably a little sharper than was necessary, but hoping she’d get the hint and drop the subject.

Being able to tell that he was becoming unresponsive, Lyca pulled back a little bit in her own psyche. She could tell she was pushing, and maybe she should not have gone on the offensive so hard. She wasn't trying to push him away, and though she wanted him to make the right choice, she wanted it to be his idea, not something she had pressured him into. Lyca didn't want to be another person in his life that just forced ideas onto him, she wasn't at all interested in controlling him. Lyca was trying to promote free will, but jeesh could he just like make the right choice?

"I'm not really sure, but I'm not guessing it's anything good. I wonder if they are going to keep doing rewards and punishments though? I feel like they're not even that good or bad, but they're definitely going to increase people's rivalries. I bet training this week is going to be brutal." she sighed, rubbing her arm to try to get some of her warmth back. Lyca still felt like she was running around last night freezing her ass off. "We could train together if you wanted, no pressure, just if you want a little feel of home."

As soon as he said it, Nate regretted the sharpness of his tone. It was almost as if he could feel Lyca recoil and retreat into herself, and any chance he had of opening back up to her this time was gone. Neither of them really knew what to do here, this was completely new territory. Out from under the microscope, they were free to be whoever they wanted, within reason. Could they be friends again? Or even just friendly? Better yet, could Nate get over his own self-pressure and discomfort with this whole situation? Maybe, maybe not. But at least here at Ainsley, the competition gave them some neutral common ground to tread on. If nothing else, they could talk training.

“Yeah, I bet it will be.” Nate agreed. The first competition had been kinda arbitrary, and now that the first rankings were out, the only thing it was going to do was to increase the rate at which people started going after eachother. Backstabbing and undermining would commence, and it wouldn’t end until winners were declared. The best thing to do would be to keep his head down and just train. Which was what Lyca offered. A potential peace offering of training together. Nate glanced at her, momentarily questioning if she was serious or not. But there it was again. That glimmer of hope in her eyes that had been missing for so long. “Yeah,” He said, and let the corners of his mouth turn up a bit at the prospect. “Yeah, I’d like that.” Who knew, maybe he could get his sister back after all.

Happy that Nathan had accepted her offer, Lyca finally felt like she might be able to get some decent sleep. She doubted Jo would be in her room (since she would most likely be trying to avoid Lyca), so there was probably a fine place to take a nap. Worst case scenario, she could bum Daniel's bed from him if he didn't mind. She actually should probably seek him out soon, just to see how he had done last night. She had seen him running around once her twice, but the two of them had probably been in such a sleepy daze, it hadn't even occurred to one another to team up or say hi or anything like that. "I'm gonna' catch some Zs, but I'll see you around then? My room is the first down that hall, so if you want to train just knock."

Nate nodded as Lyca stood up and made it clear she was going to head out. “Yeah, same. I”ll come by a bit later.” He said, and waved to say goodbye. She didn’t have a bad idea, getting some sleep. There wasn’t much else he needed to do for the day, other than get himself cleaned up, and sleep sounded heavenly right about now. And now that Lyca was speaking to him, his life could get significantly less stressful, possibly. Suddenly satisfied, Nate gathered up his belongings from where Lyca had pushed them away, and headed off to his own bed, to at least lay down, even if he didn’t get any sleep

Exhausted from his day of training, but not quite ready to hit the sack, Dan wandered into the common area and flopped down on the closest chair. He was still salty about his encounter with Jamison, but a really long run in the woods combined with the entire afternoon up in the canopy layer had taken care of most of those emotions. Now, Dan was just tired, emotionally, mentally and physically. Dan was about to settle himself in and close his eyes for a moment’s rest when he saw Mitch out of the corner of his eye. Or was it Micah? Dan turned to get a glance at whichever Raemer twin was in the room with him, and involuntarily made a face. “Well, you’ve looked better.” He commented. Mitch’s end of the prank must not have gone so smoothly. If it was Micah in the room with him, then Dan knew he’d have to be careful about what he said, lest Micah find out that it was him who’d swiped his clothes. If it was Mitch, then Dan was a bit safer, maybe.

Mitch grimaced, awkwardly waddling over to the couch. He flopped down but looked none to happy about the result of such quick actions-- pain flared up in the nether regions, and Mitch sucked in a short, seething breath. "For fucks sake," he cursed quietly. His eyes dwindled over to Dan, one a little squished by the quick swelling that was happening in his cheek. "I've felt better, too." Mitch commented. There was a slight bitterness in his tone. "Watch your step. There's an angry blonde dwarf roaming the halls. She likes to hang around room five and kick the shit out of you in her free time." He protectively covered himself in remembrance. After a moment, his eyes were back in focus and he was looking at Dan. "It's Mitch, by the way. Tell no one that it was a girl that beat the hell outta me... unless you mention that she totally wanted to handle my balls." He paused. "So where've you been? Ya looked drained." Dan wasn't black and blue, like himself, but battle scars showed in many different ways. Dan looked exhausted.

Dan had to nod in affirmation. Mitch looked like he’d been mugged, and by some blond dwarf? “I’ll keep my distance.” Dan assured Mitch, glad that he’d offered his name so that Dan knew he was talking to the right twin. Something in the back of Dan’s mind told him that he knew something about the residents of room five, but he ignored that thought, pushing it to the back of his head. Those were details for another time. Dan didn’t need to get beat up by a girl on a mission. There had been a few fights that day, and he didn't need to accidentally get himself involved in one of them.

Dan glanced up at Mitch when he asked about Dan’s day. Dan just shrugged. There was no easy way to explain what had happened that day, especially to someone who didn’t understand the dynamics of Jamison hatred for Dan and his family. Well, Mitch seemed to have that same distaste for his brother, so maybe he would get it. “You know how you despise your brother?” Which Dan still couldn’t really understand, but everyone was different, “And you’d say anything to get under his skin?” Dan gestured to himself. “I have a similar situation with uh… a person from back home.” It was vague, but Dan figured it communicated enough.

Mitch made a face. Yes, he knew that kind of relationship very well-- maybe a little too well, if you asked the trickle of blood drying under his nose. "Very specific." He said vaguely, wondering who this guy might be. And how Dan had gotten out of looking like an abstract painting. This was a skill that Mitch could've used about five minutes ago (of course, Mitch's brain was the size of a peanut, so using such delicate skills purposely may be an impossibility). "Funny how they show up here the same year as you, isn't it? Talk about being bitten in the ass." The world couldn't be that small, could it? It was hard to believe that his brother being here was a coincidence, but it also seemed hard to believe that Dan was dealing with 'a friend from back home' just as much so. It's like they all lived on the same stretch of land, and he could walk down the road and see them all in scattered houses, waving -- or sneering -- from their yards. He's glad that wasn't the reality of it, because he did not want to deal with that small monster every day of his life, and after all this, he wouldn't have too. "So why do you hate him?"

Mitch’s grimace made Dan feel much more at ease. He did get it. The corners of Dan’s mouth twitched upward at Mitch’s comment. Dan leaned back and rubbed his hands over the tops of his thighs, trying to get some blood moving. He didn’t really realize it until he sat down, but he had run a lot today. Lots of emotions to process out, he guessed. As for him and Jamison being at the Academy at the same time, “It’s not that surprising.” Dan said causally, “We grew up in the same circles, we were both expected to compete, it was just a matter of which cycle.” Which was true for a large portion of the rich kids at the Academy, so it didn’t narrow it down any. But Mitch’s last question startled Dan. Why do you hate him?. Dan paused, and chewed on his lip, thinking. There was a time, when they were really little, before they were ten, when Jamison got along with them really well. But then something happened, and he’d refused to even look in their direction. He’d started calling them names, accusing them of always smelling like dirt, for being uncultured monkeys, rock-heads, and other assorted unflattering names. He’d been a coward ever since, and had made every opportunity of insulting and degrading the Moss boys whenever he saw them. “Why do you hate Micah?” Dan countered, “He says stupid shit, and he thinks he’s so great when he’s really a coward.”

Mitch paused, considering this. So hate might be a strong word for what he and Micah had, at least on his end, but if this afternoon had been any indication ... He wasn't about to announce to the world that maybe he just 'really disliked' his brother. Not with his face puffing up like he was taking too much food back to his den for hibernation. "Touché," he said instead, convinced in that moment that, yes, he did in fact hate his brother. He didn't bother asking who Dan's worst enemy was, fighting he'd either tell him or he wouldn't, but that it was his business. "But if we're hating people for those select reasons than we probably won't have a lot of friends here. This academy is whacked. I'm surprised no one tried drown me during the competition." He wouldn't have put it past the others, especially the others that he didn't know. Those were probably the worst ones. And being in fifth place definitely wasn't going to help him next time-- he just hoped he didn't speak to soon about the drowning him thing; that'd be a bummer for both parties he'd put up a fight. "And that wasn't an invitation; keep your sweaty hands off outta my hair." It could've been a warning if he wasn't chuckling.

Dan inclined his head at Mitch’s response. True, if he hated everyone who said stupid stuff, he’d have a lot of enemies. But Jamison was more personal somehow. It wasn’t just a one time thing, but years of irritations built up due to various situations he had found himself in because of the guy. Years of being insulted wasn’t exactly something you could just shrug off when the idiot who was insulting you and your entire family had nothing going for him. It made it even more irritating that you could squish him into a pulp if you wanted, but the law said that was murder. But to Mitch’s, albeit slightly joking, warning, Dan just put up his hands. “Wasn’t planning on it,” He said, “I can’t afford to make enemies with people in the top ranks.” He said it with a laugh, but he was serious. He couldn’t afford to make enemies, and he wasn’t planning on it. Drowning someone would be a pretty quick way to get there. Dan glanced back over at Mitch, “Shouldn’t you get that looked at?” He suggested. Mitch looked like he could use a trip to the infirmary, or at least some gauze to clean that mess up. “You wouldn’t want it to get infected.” That would definitely put him out, which would really suck.

Mitch made a face, "I saw Micah slip past us a few minutes ago looking as banged up as me, and I don't wanna chance running into him if he was going to the infirmary." Mitch's pride was bigger than the undeniable pain that he was feeling, white hot and searing, in his nose. His cheek was pretty numb, unless he poked at it too hard, but his nose was definitely bent out of shape (literally bent out of shape, it was kind of pointing to the left, actually). "I'll swing by later and hope that the academy employs female nurses, maybe when she yanks my nose back into its socket I'll be blinded by her beautiful eyes," A guy could dream, okay? "And not notice how badly it hurts."

Mitch chuckled, "In the mean time, Micah had to walk back to his dorm in nothing but a flimsy towel. I wish I could've seen it, I would've given anything to see that waddle of shame." Mic probably didn't waddle all the way back-- if the towel hadn't been his saving grace, and he'd been flapping in the breeze, then maybe --but Mitch wished he could've seen it anyway. "So you did a great job. Next time I'll think of something that won't get my nose punched into my face." Because his snoze job was not gonna deter his spirit.

Ah, avoiding round two of an encounter. That was understandable. Still, that nose looked a little off center, and unless Mitch wanted people to actually be able to tell the difference between the two twins, he should go get that checked out. “For your sake, I hope they do.” Dan said with a laugh. He hadn’t seen any female employees around the Academy so far, but maybe they did hire nurses. Boobs were a good way to distract guys from their pain. It wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world if that was how they thought.

Dan’s eyebrows shot up when he mentioned their prank. It’d seemed like it’d been days since he’d actually gone and snagged Micah’s clothes. “That must’ve been a sight.” Dan said, trying to imagine a snootier, more self-righteous version of Mitch walking back to his dorm in a small towel. If he hadn’t been worried about getting his head taken off, Dan would have stuck around to watch it play out. “Thanks,” Dan said with a nod. “Anytime.” Anything for a good joke. “We can work on that part.” Dan said. There was plenty of time to come up with other pranks. More elaborate and embarrassing ones. But ones that kept both of them from getting their nose broken, since Dan had no desire to be in Mitch’s current situation.

Mitch nodded in agreement; if Micah thought this was the last time he'd pull something, he'd be wrong. Hopefully he'd know better than to let his guard down, but after years of not seeing each other maybe Micah was dumber than Mitch thought. Maybe. He poked at his nose lightly, staring down hard, trying to see how bad it looked-- it was making his head hurt; also, his eyes were nearly crossed, and that was helping even less. He scrunched his nose, and that definitely got his attention. "Ow, ow, ow." it kind of sounded like a question. The face he made was an awkward one, trying to work around the whole nose problem, "Shit, I should probably go. I'll swing my the infirmary and see if Mic's there or not, maybe duck behind a curtain or something if he gives me a dirty look." Hopefully Mitch could just avoid that whole encounter. Maybe Micah had gone somewhere else, or the visit hadn't lasted that long. Or they told him to go home and he'd agreed. A low hiss escaped Mitch's lips as he got up, still probing his nose like a dumbass, "Find me if you think of something brilliant, kay? Or if you want to rough up that nemesis of yours."

Ouch, that nose looked like it hurt. Dan did not envy the look of pure pain that spread across Mitch’s face as he went to stand up. “Yeah, go get that fixed.” It would suck if he had to walk around here with a crooked nose for the year because he got into a fight with his twin. He wouldn’t want to loose that suave look he had going for him. Especially if he wanted continuing to pranking his brother, which it seemed like he did. “Will do.” Dan said, giving Mitch a small salute with his hand. Whether aimed at Micah or Jamison, it was nice to know he had another partner in crime with pranks. Not that it would take much to ruff up Jamison, Dan already knew that. But it could be interesting to screw with Micah for the reactions. “If you see Micah, let him know that his best outfit his definitely his birthday suit.” Dan said with a grin. As Mitch headed out of the room, Dan closed his eyes for a moment. He really just needed a good shower and a few hours of sleep. Dan blew a breath out of his mouth, before pushing himself to standing position and heading off to his room.