spaghetti metaphor, ig | soft-closed(?)

[pathlit]

WHO: Abby, Jayce & Viktor (& peanut gallery if applicable?)
WHAT: Noodle nerd orchestrates friendly competition between meatball nerds
WHEN: After castaways, before expo, evening-ish
WHERE: Staffed dining area, Gallows
NOTES: How it started;

"My arm's still tingling," complains Jayce, if in a rather woebegone way, as he sets down two mugs of tea beside their meals and seats himself next to Viktor in the dining hall. It's dinner time for most, but breakfast for this particular pair thanks to losing track of the time while fine-tuning their main exhibition project. When he'd asked for coffee, the kitchen staff had shot him such a look of disapproval (that might have also had to do with the state of his hair, wherein flashes of blue and green occasionally dispersed from the tips like static electricity) that Jayce had meekly retracted his request and opted for the more socially acceptable tea at-this-time instead.

This pins-and-needle side-effect of indulging in the foolish curiosity of 'what will happen if I touch my anchor to this lyrium-based contraption of glass-and-other-things?' prior to their descent to the dining hall comes at the heels of a nearly resolved sunburn of moderate unpleasantness, of which Viktor has likely heard a whine or two since his return (see: rescue) from a(nother) mission gone wrong. He's still undecided on how he feels about Viktor's complete lack of awareness of the situation until they'd been brought back. On one hand, that is extremely like him. On the other, ouch.

What is no longer ouch is wearing a shirt, so -- small victories.

Comments

[grindset]

"Research things," Viktor confirms, his unruffled presence now in conspicuous contrast to that of his partner.

As he makes eye contact with Abby, the angle of his eyebrows takes on a fleeting hint of told-you-so. See? Jumpy. Even with nary a bush in sight.

He doesn't expect the two of them to get out their wrestling arms right here and now—in fact, he hadn't expected Abby to acquiesce so quickly to what amounted to a Why Not category idea, apropos of absolutely nothing. Honestly, at this point, he's just kind of going with it.

"Just some residual static." Kind of. Sort of.

[armd]

"Research things," Abby echoes, convinced. She thinks that it's probably good for her to never really know what the hell is going on in Research. Let them do... their stuff, over there. She doesn't need to understand.

Viktor lifting up his eyebrows is obviously code for 'are you going to do the arm wrestling thing?'. Abby lifts her chin slightly at him in assent. Yeah. She was planning on it. Is the residual static about to play into it, though?

She takes a seat across from Jayce, propping her elbows on the table.

She says (perhaps meanly), "Does he know?" to Viktor, and clearly indicates Jayce with a nudge of her head in his direction.

[pathlit]

Curiosity overwrites self-consciousness as Abby sits, doubly so when she addresses Viktor verbally whilst head-canting at Jayce.

A third, drawn out, "uhhhh," to fulfill the rule of three. His gaze slides from Abby to Viktor; his head follows in a belated glance. He's seen Abby in passing, particularly in the library. Perhaps they've shared generic pleasantries, but Jayce's social circle is still incredibly small in Thedas -- smaller than the already-small circle it had been in Piltover.

With two sets of eyes on Viktor, the answer is obvious: no, Jayce doesn't know.

[grindset]

With two sets of eyes on Viktor, the self-consciousness torch now passes to him. He leans, neck first, into the posture of an incredulous scavenger bird. Still holding that little torn-off piece of bread, still undunked and uneaten.

"What— just like this?" At the dinner table? Abruptly? "Now?"

No, indeed, Jayce does not know.

[armd]

All this self-consciousness is enough to make a girl also feel self-conscious. Abby's ears are growing hot.

"I'm sorry," she says, not sounding sorry at all, "was I supposed to book in a time?"

Hold on, Jayce. They'll get to you.

[pathlit]

His eyes dart between Abby and Viktor as curiosity rises into mild confusion. One can surmise a possible plan hatched but not yet ironed out between the two parties. As his gaze flows back to Abby (to spare Viktor the prolonged attention), Jayce reaches with his right hand for his mug of tea and gently blows at the steam, otherwise quietly waiting for more information to drop.

The last, little bit of blue-green energy crackles off his hair with a soft pop.

[grindset]

"Well, no, but—"

But nothing, there is no but. After a little visual sputtering, the snag in his throat instead pops loose as a sigh. To Jayce, without actually looking at him directly,

"I had mentioned to Ms Anderson that I thought the two of you should engage each other in a friendly contest of arm strength." Again his hand gesturing stops his bread short of fulfilling its ultimate purpose. "But I was hoping it would develop a little more organically than this."

[armd]

"He didn't say that," Abby supplies, her gaze flicking toward the edges of his hair, that crackle and pop of energy. Seriously, if he's positively charged right now maybe she really will come back later. "He contacted me out of the blue and asked if I'd arm wrestle you, he didn't say when."

She followed the instructions, Viktor. She is here to arm wrestle.

To Viktor, "How did you think this was gonna play out, exactly?" Like, explain what you mean by 'develop organically'.

[pathlit]

A thoughtful consideration, sparing Viktor attention. It evaporates approximately two seconds into his sputtering. Jayce's eyebrows slowly rise as Viktor explains the foundation of their current positions, respectively. With it, a whiff of humor.

His gaze naturally flows back to Abby when she responds, the corners of his lips quirking up with amusement with every sentence. With his body angled toward Viktor, elbow on the table, cheek in his palm, Jayce moves to pluck the bread from Viktor's grasp, saying, "Or approximately."

He is not doing a very good job of smothering his smile.

[grindset]

"First— excuse me, did you not just eat?"

One may correctly receive the impression that this isn't the first time Jayce has helped himself to his partner's provisions. Bread so daintily snatched, empty hand now free to gesture unimpeded, he now tries again:

"First of all, you," Abby, "just repeated what I said, but rephrased it. Secondly, when one plants a seed, one does not impose his will upon the sprout. I had simply planned to..." He begins to tear a replacement morsel from his dinner roll. "...nurture whatever might grow."

[armd]

"No," Abby says, as patiently. "I meant that you didn't say you wanted it to happen organically, or whatever. You can't ask somebody that and then be disappointed they don't pick up on the subtleties."

Duh.

Jayce looks like he's enjoying this all very much. Abby sizes him up and drops her elbow on the table, sitting up straight. To him, "You in?"

May as well, right?

[pathlit]

No, Abby patiently replies as Jayce chuckles quietly. Seeds, sprouts and calm indignation. It’s endearing.

He pops the filched bread into his mouth. When Abby faces him, he swallows and faces her in return, nearly a mirror image save for the opposing arm. “See what kind of green thumb he has?” he jokes, still entirely amused, but not taking her lightly. She looks… rugged, almost like Caitlyn’s acquaintance — that non-apologetic, self-assured brawler from the undercity who possessed hurts he couldn’t fathom. Didn’t want to.

He still wishes she hadn’t approached him.

(He still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that he agreed to her proposal.)

A small part of him wonders upon what (or whom) Abby had cut her teeth. A question for another time. A question for never, maybe.

[grindset]

"When did I say I was disappointed?"

That would be a fair interpretation, but they're bickering, he can't simply agree. Will his bread ever make it to his mouth? It's visiting the soup now—

"And I have a black thumb, thank you."

Nutrition achieved at last, with crisp finality, and a whiff of airy disdain, as though the mere idea that any of his digits could be any other colour is a vulgar one. But check out the gleam in his eye—he is absolutely delighted to see those elbows on the table.

[armd]

Abby doesn't seem to care what kind of thumb anybody has, she's just waiting. And Jayce is looking at her a little like he's seeing somebody else, or at least thinking about other things; steadily, her confidence wanes.

A glance at Viktor. Back to Jayce, and she jaws at something non-existent. Her lower lip juts out slightly when she frowns.

"... Seriously, if this isn't the time, I'll come back later."

Or never, because it's getting slightly embarrassing now.

[pathlit]

"It's fine," he says with a casual wave of his free hand; his other is open, waiting. "I'm in."

Cocking his brow at Viktor, he asks, "Are we playing for anything or is this just an odd ice breaker?"

[grindset]

Viktor's answer is a lingering shrug, shoulders and face alike, his mouth more or less a downturned C. He is but a spectator, it says, not at all responsible for this now that it's evolved from a whim to spontaneously manifest before his very eyes. Innocence thus established,

"As I said, just friendly," he adds, between chews. "Unless you'd find greater motivation in a wager... but you two are more than capable of working that out amongst yourselves."

[armd]

Recovering, she finds a spot for her elbow on the table, mimicking Jayce's open-palmed readiness. She doesn't take his hand just yet. Viktor being here to watch is quite weird but hasn't this entire thing been already. No backing out now.

"We should probably start with a friendly warm-up," is a suggestion that is both good-natured and kinda bolshie. "Before you wanna go betting anything."

[pathlit]

Their current situation isn't the weirdest of his benign shenanigans; there are a plethora of odd (and oddly endearing) encounters one naturally discovers when interacting with a good-natured and wholly sheltered daughter of one's upper-class patron who very much wishes to break through her shell.

In comparison, this is just a bit of good, if unexpected, fun.

"Fair enough," he says, nearly grinning. There is no further discharge of arcane energy when their hands clasp, no unfair advantage in a sneaky spark. The silent comparison of Abby to Vi isn't unmerited, he soon finds, because Abby isn't just talk. Their first round concludes with a final grunt as he pins her arm down to the table, expression creased with effort.

He releases her hand, and with it, an airy little chuckle, almost relieved. "Best of three?" he asks, massaging his hand because ow.

[grindset]

It's maybe a little weird—arguably it would be weirder if they were entirely alone—but Viktor makes a very casual audience, at least. He counts them down with bread in his hand and observes through placid chewing, only slowing in those long hanging seconds before an arm is pinned at last... and it's Abby. She'll come back at him with a little fire in her belly, he thinks.

Sedately, off a sidelong look at Jayce's hands, "Are you sure?"

[armd]

Does she wanna be the girl who interrupts his dinner just to wreck him at arm-wrestling? Yeah. She kinda does. But she quickly realises that she's gonna need to try harder than she is; Jayce is strong, and he's already got her arm too far down.

Valiantly she fights back, and he still wins.

It surprises her slightly. Fuck. Well, okay.

"Yeah," she breathes, seemingly energised by the loss, propping her elbow back up. She wiggles her fingers at him. "I'm good. Holy shit. What do you bench?"

[pathlit]

"Not enough," he laughs, positioning his elbow back onto the table. "Do you have a setup here?"

An easy enough assumption that she might given the question.

Their second round ends with Jayce trembling against the inevitable descent of defeat. A thin sheen of sweat coats his skin; his teeth are gritted and his brows pushed together as he strains to turn the tide, but 'tis a futile effort. When his arm meets the table, he exhales noisily and stretches his hand on release, leaning backwards with a tired smile.

"Not that I'm throwing the towel in yet, but I'm sort of glad we didn't bet anything."

And he'll be doubly glad soon enough, because after he barely manages to win the third round, Abby absolutely pummels him with a decisive victory in the fourth. At that point, his entire upper body, not just his arm, is humming with the pleasant ache of strenuous activity; his face is flushed and his hairline is damp with sweat, but his lips crack with a faint smile, impressed.

Massaging his flexors, he shakes his head and says, "Think I'm-- yeah, I'm gonna yield. Wouldn't want to face you in a fight."

[grindset]

Out of sportsmanlike respect—and there are very few opportunities to accuse him of sport-related behaviour—Viktor has little commentary to offer while they're in the thick of it. By the fourth and final round, he's simply leaning on his arm, knuckles at his cheek, and toggling looks between various points of interest. Anyone looking from a distance could easily mistake this posture for boredom, which it is not—not in the least.

That he happens to be licking what's left of his dinner from his teeth, on the other hand, is purely a coincidence of timing. It's not a sex thing, as Abby had so tactfully inquired—truly, it isn't—but there is and has been a measurable imbalance in the quality of his attention.

"Yielding at a draw? That's chivalrous of you."

His gaze darts to Abby. What does she think of that?