witchesreign | [action] the lobby near the dormitories.

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[action] the lobby near the dormitories.

[Since arriving and being interviewed, Sollux had spent the entirely of his stay at Balamb Garden curled up in his room. He couldn't sleep - not when he was so wound up and distinctively lacking a recuperacoon. But the outward world was a scary place, and he didn't have very high hopes for it. Despite the fact that his hosts had yet to actually do something terrible to him, it was nigh impossible to put the possibility out of mind.]

[But eventually he goes out, if only to prove to himself that he can and that he's allowed to. He's almost surprised when nobody stops him from leaving the dorms, and once he's to the lobby he's officially out of ideas of what to do with himself. Everyone he's seen is the same, pink skinned alien race he saw in Timber, and he doesn't feel comfortable talking to them. At least not of his own accord.]

[So he finds a slightly concealed area of the lobby and perches himself on it, watching people pass by, and trying to coax himself down from persistent idea that he should be trying to escape. It's not like he actually has anywhere to go.]

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[He can't really blame him for being upset. Just hearing about it is making him feel distinctly uncomfortable, but he can't feel angry at Vriska about it - it just doesn't feel real. Not about his Vriska anyway.]

[It's a long time before he says anything, and when he does it's quiet and musing.]

She...She's the one that helped me find Aradia again. Without her, I'd still be...

[He trails off.]

Well good for you.

]

I'm so glad you never had to loose her.

]

[Sollux flinches at that, but initial flash of guilt he feels dissolves quickly as sweeps worth of memories and pain wash over him.]

I did lose her. [It starts out harshly, but fades into an unfocused, pained ramble as he speaks.] Or she lost me. I thought she was dead, they made me think she was, and even when I found her again I couldn't do anything. I just kept pushing her away, I couldn't...I couldn't remember...

[And he glances down at Sollux, tense and overwhelmed with a sudden shame for even having said that to him. He seriously hadn't needed to hear it, and he was obviously just making things worse.]

Fuck. Fuck, I'm sorry.

[He pulls away.]

]

No it's fine, I'm sorry too.

]

We've both dealt with bad shit. Okay. We can both agree on that, but this is a dumb thing to even be talking about.

Good things have happened to you, right? Tell me about that.

[He nods vaguely. Honestly, everything before his incarceration is kind of fuzzy because so it's hard to pick out anything particularly glowing to talk about. Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind is how good it was to see Aradia and Karkat again - but saying that about Aradia seems insensitive, considering, and Karkat...]

[Well, telling a six sweeper about how you had a steamy evening with you matesprit probably isn't very appropriate.]

Yeah. I mean...growing up was good for us. We all kind of stuck together, and... [He hesitates on this a bit, but decides to say it anyway.] When it came down to it, we got KK away from the Empire before they could get him.

Okay good awesome. An easy wrigglehood. Full of video games and late night programming binges and violent mood swings and people being alive. Aces all around.

[He snorts in a bit of amusement at that, then looks at him thoughtfully.]

...what about you?

]

Mostly the same I guess. Minus the whole... Flarp.. Revenge theme I guess it was alright. Before the planet got destroyed by meteors. I guess I had Feferi then though.

]

...The Heir?

[His eyebrows shoot right up at that. The wait he says "the Heir" implies a certain about of strict formality, as if referencing her is something that makes him a little nervous.]

]

Yeah, I guess. She hates being called that though. These are her goggles.

]

[He frowns contemplatively.]

I guess...I guess it's not like her position would matter if you weren't in your universe anymore. [If he was understanding the implications of Sgrub right.]

I never really knew her.

She never wanted it to matter. I mean, she wanted to be empress, but she hated people treating her differently because of it.

]

That's shitty. She was really cool.

...But yeah I guess sgrub changed a lot of stuff, like KK's blood didn't really matter anymore either, which was cool.

[From the way he's talking about her, Sollux is unsure of if she's still around. The goggles and the past tense seem to imply something happened, but he's not sure he wants to ask. It doesn't seem like he'd really want to talk about it.]

[So instead he tries to focus on something positive.]

I talked to her before I came here, I guess. She joined the Rebels. Went undercover. [He pauses.] It was brave of her.

[And then he frowns.] Yeah. That stuff kind of fucked everything up for us.

]

Yeah. She was.

]

Heh, don't tell KK that, he'll feel guilty and start yelling at you.

[He snorts in quiet amusement.]

He's the one that keeps demanding that he still owes me. Even after everything he's done to help me. He's...different. From the one I remember at your age, anyway.

Hehe, yeah well whatever he gained over the sweeps you knew him prepare to go back to the 6 sweep version.

Hey, have you found the computers yet?

I saw some when they brought me in. I haven't really looked at them though.

[He thinks on it for a seconds.]

Tech level here seems okay.

[His reaction to the idea of computera is a bit less vibrant than young Sollux may be accustomed to expecting.]

Yeah, I mean I knew it had to be at least decent when I saw that the school was a giant flying building, but if you think about it we really lucked out, I mean we could have gotten stuck in the stone ages or something.

Did you know all the schools computers are connected to the same network? I was thinking it would be pretty easy to crash them all.

[In Sollux's experience, doing most things with a computer was pretty easy, and there had really ceased to be any thrill in the experience.]

Yeah. Kind of a dumb set up. Don't really see the point in crashing it, though. Might try lifting some files from the administration folders once I've checked the system out, though.

]

Well yeah, obviously, but stealing files is boring. You know what's fun? Writing a comprehensive computer virus that can take out an entire network and that is impossible to remove. Don't you do things for fun?

[He kind of remembers being thrilled about doing that stuff when he was younger, if only to prove that he could, but these days there was no real need to prove it. He knew he could.]

[He shrugs with one shoulder.]

...One of my jobs was to write viruses that would self destruct entire battle cruisers. [He frowns, looking suddenly very weary.] Gets old.

]

Yeah, okay but you write one battle cruiser self destruction code and you've essentially written them all. I'm talking about writing a virus people will be able to try and get rid of, you have to code it to be unfixable! That's the fun part, that's the challenge!

[Well okay, that much was true, but Sollux just regards his younger self for a moment as he realizes that he's totally missed the point of that statement.]

[He's a young troll. Of course he would.]

Destroying things is easy.

]

Dude.

That's corny.

[He doesn't falter at all.]

It's fact.

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