Play Stupid Games Win Stupid Prizes

[wrecking_yard]

 It's been maybe a few hours since I woke up, and I'm still muzzy from anesthesia and sore and achey from surgery and "almost getting gutted from behind".  The doctors assured me when I woke up that, particularly with the amount of time we weren't able to get to proper treatment, if I hadn't been a powerful Esper I wouldn't be alive right now. 

Which doesn't make being vaguely conscious in a hospital bed any better, really.  It's not a trauma trigger, at least, just 'well fuck, this again'. 

And of course, under half an hour after I've woken up, there's the swift clicking of heels on tile outside the door before Triki pushes it open and sweeps in, barely visible behind a spray of get-well flowers. 

I turn to look, but not much - too much energy, too much effort, too awkward around my horns.  "For me?  Oh, you shouldn't have!" 

"You know I had to."  He sets it on the stand by the bed.  "I've already gotten a full report on everything, and made sure there's a nice bonus for Zora getting you home in one piece.  I knew you two were the only ones that could handle whatever was out there."  He's smiling widely, but the cadence is a little rushed and he's carrying himself too tense - he's still rattled. 

"Well, you know what they say.... play stupid games, win stupid prizes."  The last word ends with a hiss and a sharp look at him.

He goes from about to squeeze my shoulder to taking two big steps back until he's against the door in a heartbeat.  "Come again?"

"Making nice with the Shadow Covenant.  I told you it would bite us in the ass one day."  I am too tired and too exhausted and post-drugging and everything to even opt for "petulant", glowering at him. 

He shrugs and makes a nervous noise.  "Small miscalculation.  They saw the opportunity before I did and took it first, that's all." 

I snort and roll my eyes.  "And you were one of the ones who thought it was a *great idea* to go in on helping that mining town get rebuilt with them, when they were vague about what they wanted out of it besides materials, and to expect them to keep their side of the bargain even a LITTLE."  He's shrinking into his collar slightly.  "And I told you that you were being a naive moron for dealing with them the same as everyone else." 

"I am not naive-", he bristles, and I cut him off.

"You're expecting them to think like you would, and they don't!"  His mouth's hanging open and he's pointing at the air, but he's still visibly rattled that I'm being openly pissy.  "You're all for 'survival of the fittest', sure, but you believe in ACTUAL survival of the fittest, where sometimes the fittest are the wolves who work together and watch each other's backs!  They're social Darwinists at best - anything not theirs is prey to be taken advantage of or a challenge to subjugate, and the ones who aren't Darwinists are Nihilists who don't even care if they live or die themselves!"

He closes his mouth and finally does shrink into his collar, sulking; there's flickers of green flame as he's clearly trying to find a comeback, but he's struggling.

"They haven't respected the terms of our agreements - they've poached people from under us in Graywater and there was that attempted assassination they tried to pull, and you know if I hadn't gone to play 'tour guide' bodyguard for their target they would've just waited until my back was turned.  They haven't tried to take over Graywater yet because your little pretend buffer zone is still useful to them for cover, and they're smart enough to be working on cutting you off from resources and weakening your power base before they start making demands." 

He wilts and glares at me for predicting the only two decent possible retorts he could've found.  "I'm not placing my bet until I know which side's winning." 

"Then stop waiting to bet and start rigging the game."  Head fuzzy, running out of energy to be confrontational.  "If they get what they want, your choices are going to be kneel or die - you did get a full report, right?"  I wait until he nods.  "We didn't see any of their real 'projects', just the little prototypes they deemed useful enough to be distractions."  Zora's not stupid, but she's not a big-scale tactician and she doesn't speculate; it was probably a very cut and dried report, laying out what we encountered and how it was being run.  She wouldn't have mentioned implications, and Triki's been acting rattled enough about this that he may not've thought about it enough himself to see the other shoes waiting to fall. 

"And you think they're working on an army."  He's given up on arguing and is just... matter of fact following. 

"At the least.  With what they had there alone... if they stepped that up, they could swarm an area with what looks like wild miramon, wreck infrastructure, and wear down any defending Espers until they can waltz in easily; or get everyone tied up fending off the artificial beasts while they slip around the back somewhere, plant them where they can take out targets and make it seem incidental... and that's assuming they aren't working on worse." 

He scowls with a quiet huff, but it's off into the middle distance, hunching against the door.  "Which we'd be fools to assume they aren't." 

"Mm-hnn."  He knows what I'm capable of; letting how badly I got rolled by their little diversions speak for itself should work from here. 

"Of course we can't openly work against them without being well prepared, which also rules out any open counter-alliances."  Which would be a last resort for him, anyway; he doesn't like anything more involved than short term bargains and rules of engagement on his neutrality with anyone else.  He wrinkles his nose and sighs, straightening posture and pulling back a little of his normal mask.  "Well, I have much to think about, and you should be resting.  Am I forgiven yet?" 

I grumble-growl.  "If I'd been that mad at you, I would've just ..... waited 'till I'm recovered and left.  Start working on being prepared the next time they pull shit, and we're good." 

That cuts a lot of the tension - he'll never admit it, but it's clear he was half expecting me to turn on him for sending me into that, and was afraid of losing me over it.  

And I'm hitting half-awake after that; too much energy and too much stress agitation for the condition I'm in right now, not worth bothering with more until I'm in better shape for it.  

He swans back over to the bedside with a hand on my shoulder.  "The doctors told me you're on strict restrictions for another day or so - I'll take some of that time to pick over the candy stores."