lucybox | this is a terrible voicetesting option but #yolo

this is a terrible voicetesting option but #yolo

[ the compound is located under a dome. there's grassy fields and woodland and even a desert under the dome, too, with scattered buildings, but they all stay in the compound...mostly. there are things beyond the other "contestants" that can kill them in the wilds. it's the usual murder game scenario. there's a host, there's motives, and there are contestants. there are many people with many personalities and they don't get on always but whatever. some of them, like thalia, argue that they will never kill, no matter the motive. this tides her over through offers of power, through promises to change the past, through the ability to save any one person from death and bring them back (she does not look at luke). luke, the complete idiot (thalia's words), probably has argued that everyone will kill, given the proper motive. if not publicly, at least in private. but thalia has always been prideful and while she has also always been aggressive and willing to fight, she sees herself as a hero. she's a demigod, the lieutenant of artemis, a huntress. she will not bow to the whims of some idiotic game.

then it's the sixth week and they're called to the main courtyard of the compound and the holoscreens give this week's motives: hostages. kill or yours dies.

there's a boy with electric blue eyes and a scar on his lip from when he'd tried to eat a stapler when he was a baby. there's annabeth chase, looking mad as anything. and thalia grace whirls on her heel and stalks off, her bow appearing on her back as she leaves the compound entirely in a rage.

it's not like it's an uncommon reaction to motives. people always get mad. thalia especially always gets mad, and often loud. and while she's probably found herself talking to luke eventually more often than not, she's never found herself outside his assigned room's door before, about to prove him right in the worst way possible.

because it's thalia, she just. hammers on the door until it opens after she finally gets back from her stress-related hunt, and she glares at him whenever he bothers to open the door to find the one person from home on the other side. ]

We need to talk. [ it's not a question and if he doesn't step aside she will elbow him in the gut and let herself into his room. this is fine she's fine she's just gonna prowl around the place like a caged tiger it's chill. ]

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[When he had first woken up in the compound six weeks ago, Luke Castellan was Angry. He was angry he was pulled away from his mission, angry he was pulled here without his consent just like the gods have chosen people like him for things, and angry moreso that this place was a lie to him. He'd woken up and found he wasn't the only one from home. Thalia was here. Thalia who used to be his best friend, Thalia who he'd watched sacrifice herself, Thalia who he wasn't sure how to react to anymore, but they were different people now. She was a huntress and he still served under Kronos.

Here though...sometimes they worked together to talk about what was going on in the game and how to survive. Luke made it his business to try and talk to people, figure out their motivations and pinpoint who the murderers were. In a way it was a good exercise in what not to do. Not many of the motives swayed him, fully believing that once he won Kronos would reward him with something greater.

Then week six came. Annabeth's face on the screen is enough for a lead weight to sink into his stomach. He sees Thalia's harsh reaction and his eyebrows raise as he turns his head and watches her stalk off into the woods. He doesn't know who this boy is, idly wondering if he's someone from a life before. He doesn't think to ask. Thalia's business is Thalia's business and when they're dismissed he immediately goes back to his room even with Backbiter strapped to him.

It's a while later that he hears the knock and it surprises him enough to furrow his eyebrows together as he gets up. He opens the door a crack, opening it wider upon seeing her on the other side and his expression's blank as he moves to let her in. He's not afraid of her. She's scary and powerful and could kill him if she wanted to, but he isn't afraid of her. In fact he's just settling on his bed again as she paces around.]

This doesn't really look like talking. [Maybe now isn't the time to be a smartass.]

Not the time, Luke. [ thalia will slam the door shut if he hadn't closed it because this is 100% private. she'd tried to make him "castellan" for a while but it never worked because thalia kept fucking it up because they'd grown up together and it was luke and no matter how many times she attacks him she's never actually tried to kill him.

...here. she definitely had tried to kill him back home. but he'd been the one to kill himself and she knew it and she's never sure how the fuck to handle a luke who hadn't finally changed his damn mind? not that she would be sure of how the fuck to handle a luke who had. even if she tried they wouldn't be able to go back to before she'd turned into a tree, when they were thick as thieves and on the same side. there's too much time for them to be exactly the same as what they once had been.

and right now she doesn't care to think about it too much. she doesn't like to dwell, it's useless, and it doesn't matter what they could or couldn't be. what she needs from him right now is to be the jackass who lied to everyone.

and also her best friend. some weird mix of the two.

thalia stops pacing, whirling to face luke and scowling. she can't even threaten to kill him, because right now more than ever it won't hold water. she'd never, ever chance annabeth's life and right now it's tied to luke's.

to luke's killing someone.

so. ]

We need to kill two people. What plans do you have?

[ if he mentions anything about how she swore never to do this she will punch him in the face (again) because thalia knows that but it turns out he was right about leverage and this is hers.

she has absolutely no illusions about jason or annabeth being okay with this solution, ever. but she'd choose to damn herself over them every time, so it's...probably okay. or something. maybe. ]

[It should say a lot that he doesn't bother looking scandalized or even try to deny that he's been trying to think of a plan. Annabeth had been up there, and stupidly, he had sort of assumed that maybe everything was wrong and Annabeth was for both of them and their overseers had made a mistake.

But Thalia says "two." He appraises her quietly with a lifted brow, knowing better than to say "I told you so" but not enough not to smirk slightly. This is a Thalia he's familiar with, one who wants to listen to his ideas and one who's ready to take action. He's under no illusion it'll be the way it was, but this is something he knows how to sort of handle.]

A few, depending how much time we want to waste setting things up. [But he lays on his back then and folds his hands behind his head. He's trying to pretend he's casual, but if anyone can recognize the nervous uptick of his voice it would be her.] Two though? Feeling a little more ambitious than usual? [He wants an explanation who the boy is, mostly. It's puzzling.]

[ the smirk is enough that she punches him. since she needs him to be able to like, talk and think, she punches him in the shoulder really hard instead of in the nose like she wants. dodge or take it, luke.

she can't kill him, but sometimes she kind of still wants to strangle him. a lot? this is probably a problem.

after a sullen silence of one minute she actually answers, though. ]

He's my little brother. [ and annabeth's her little sister. her best friend, her daughter, her...whatever annabeth is. her person whom she is not about to allow to die, and she knows (or wants to believe) that luke can never change so much that he'd allow annabeth to die. not really die. she has to believe it, because if that isn't the case she's fucked. ] So yeah, we're killing two people. And you're going to tell me what options you have that take the least time. Because like hell we're letting anyone else have this.

[ she's always been competitive but this is not remotely about that. this is entirely about the fact that if someone else "wins" jason and annabeth's lives could be forfeit and that's simply not an option. they win or she...

thalia has no idea what she does in that scenario. the only scenario she is entertaining is the one in which she murders two people with her ex-best friend in order to save her little brother and annabeth. ]

[He's quick enough to dodge for once but probably only because he's grown used to Thalia punching him daily? Maybe twice a day at this rate. He isn't sure he's in the clear but he does watch her for a moment with the patience that comes from someone with time on their hands.

The explanation comes and he raises both eyebrows in surprise. The words "you never told me you had a brother" are on the tip of his tongue but he knows now isn't the time for that, either. He knows Thalia never liked to talk about her life back in Los Angeles before the two of them met. If Thalia had a brother though, where had he been this whole time? Those are a lot of questions but he knows he has to bide his time.

So. He nods along.] Fine. All of my plans were really keeping one murder in mind, but I'm flexible. The thing I've learned about this place is that everyone else is going to take their time strategizing and figuring out how to best execute a plan. If we strike tonight or tomorrow, we're ahead of the game.

The thing about it is we have to make sure we can frame somebody else. That's always what a good plan boils down to. [I mean. He framed Percy for a lot of things so...] The other thing about it is...people know you and I aren't stupid. They would have higher expectations of us, wouldn't you think? So the other key is to plan a murder that looks so obvious it trips everyone else up in terms of solving it. Preferably with people that have tension with other people. [There's a pause.] For example, if it were someone else working on this plan they could kill either you or me and frame us for it. Think about that.

[ at least if and when he gets around to asking, the whole "i thought he was fucking dead, okay?" part will likely answer everything. although the where jason was would require getting into the romans and honestly it's easier to not think about the bullshit their parents pull. they have enough to deal with without split personality gods.

something in the line of her shoulders eases a hair, like she wasn't sure he'd help her, because she's always on edge with this new luke, but she nods, frowning and listening...although she pulls a face at the end. ]

That's stupid, I wouldn't actually - [ kill you, but uh, she's sure tried and she keeps threatening it, so thalia just shakes her head and breaks that off. she fiddles with her bracelet. ]

So we need someone like [ spins ya fiction wheel ] Harry and Draco. [ something else occurs to her, and she does smirk, although it's completely humorless. ] And I get to keep beating you up.

[ because otherwise it'd be suspicious. ...like, not like her stopping was really a priority, but. ]

[There's too much bullshit that comes with being a demigod, they both know it. He gives her a look though when she starts to protest. He doesn't think to verbalize it because the last thing they need is to actually fight right now. Working together is the only way this plan will work. (But he's still not convinced entirely.)]

Right. To both of those, I guess. You can even punch me in front of more people this week to really sell it. Anyway doesn't Draco have mommy issues or whatever? I could absolutely buy that he'd kill someone he despises to save her, kind of like I'd buy Harry would act on the defense and maybe accidentally kill Draco, too. That takes care of our who. [He sits up again and he cups his chin in his hand in thought.]

Killing people with your arrows or Backbiter is too obvious. You're a Hunter now. [Though the way its said expresses a little distain with the matter.] Do they teach you how to identify plants and stuff in the wilderness better than Camp did?

[ she's about to go off on him about the disdain for hunters like she undoubtedly has before - she remembers turning them down when they were still a team but then he'd betrayed them like zoe always said he would and suddenly thalia had no reason to say no so whose fault was it she was a hunter? - but remembers they actually need to work together for the sake of jason and annabeth.

with a serious amount of willpower, she doesn't chase down the topic, though she's glaring. it evens out as she considers the question. by a hair. ]

You want to poison someone. Yeah, they taught me a lot about plants and wilderness stuff. Can't say for sure if it's better or worse than what Camp did. [ she...did not get a chance to spend much time there? ] Though I'll assume better. Lady Artemis is the goddess of the hunt. Mr. D is the god of really bad headaches.

[ or the cause of them, basically. whatever. ]

So Draco kills someone with poison, Harry kills Draco in defense, and that nets us two bodies. [ and they team frame the protagonist of an opposing series. ] Who's Draco killing?

[ who are they killing. Besides those two. ]

[Unless she really wanted a fight of the century, it was best she didn't bring up that it was Luke's fault, if only because he'd then argue it's actually the fault of a stupid prophecy he didn't ask for. It's all very complicated business. He doesn't have warm and fuzzy feelings about either god, but he can consent to that knowledge.]

Yeah. Draco's supposedly good with poisons anyway, says so on his profile card. It'd have to be someone who isn't naturally suspicious of stuff like that. Someone who's never been that far on the outside. [Spinning the YA wheel again, he's racking his brain.] Could kill that Newt kid. He's lived inside a compound his whole life, he might not even know the difference before his insides are corroding. Or we go younger but. [He gives her a curious look. He's not sure how Thalia feels about murdering kids?] It should be someone Draco doesn't spend enough time with that he could consider expendable, but not unfamiliar enough Harry wouldn't jump in.

There's one more important thing you and I have to consider.

[ ok but consider she wants the fight of the century...she just has to put it off. they can have it out when they are not responsible for the lives of the two most important people in thalia's entire fucking universe? artemis aside, but honestly, artemis might not have much of a foothold against jason and annabeth.

the curious look finds a stormy, determined glare. thalia...does not like the thought of murdering anyone, let alone kids, but if she's committing to jumping off the deep end sensibilities be damned. if they do this, they need to get away with it. if that means going younger, fine. she'll hate herself before, during, and after. but that doesn't matter. in the long run, she does not matter when weighed against these two lives. and...neither do most of these other people. whoops. ]

What's the important thing? [ if she sounds wary it's because she is, and she crosses her arms a tad defensively. ]

Alibis. [It's another area of expertise, another place he's good at residing. Thalia's always been a hero and a demigod through and through from the time Luke had met her until her death and even now as a Hunter. She had a hero's heart and Luke knows that. Luke, on the other hand, has a heart that may be starting to rot a little, motivations and morals be damned.]

We can't have you blowing this because you have some weird heroes guilt complex hanging around. Do I have to be concerned about that with you? [Because if so...maybe he could kill himself for those kids. But he sort of misses teamwork like this. He's been receiving that in their trials, but there's something different between Strangers and Thalia.]

[ okay forget alibis for a second. he's right. thalia is a hero. she's always thought she was, anyway. she's always done the right thing. she sacrificed herself for luke and annabeth. she always fought on the right side. she's never crossed that line separating heroes and villains.

she'll have a weird heroes guilt complex. that's non-negotiable. ]

I won't fuck it up. If I do, Jason dies, and that's not happening. If you fuck it up, Annabeth dies. Also not acceptable. So we can worry about our feelings after we pull this off, if at all. [ jason's her hostage. she has to kill to save him. leaving things to luke would save annabeth, but she lost jason once already. and he doesn't deserve this. annabeth doesn't. the people they're planning to kill don't.

well, draco maybe does. he's kind of a dick.

it's wrong. it's not right. she knows that. but she can't just sit around and accept the people she loves dying, even if that's right. thalia can make it through bloodshed and a trial on sheer willpower and pride alone, can't she? and love. and then she can shatter into a million pieces or whatever comes after when she stops acting and starts thinking. ]

I'd ask you the same but we both know you already did a triple backflip swandive into oblivion.

[ look she can only go so long without jabbing a finger into a gaping wound between the two of them to see if it still hurts. despite the fact that the answer is always yeah, still hurts, please stop tearing me open any day now.

wait shit right she's supposed to be, like, enticing him to work with her here or something. play nice. right. why's that so hard? ]

I'd say no offense but, you know. Let's just split the difference and say "go team".

[There's another stretch of silence, especially when Thalia brings up Luke's betrayal. Like. Of course this is his own doing. Of course this is something he's done on his own, something he thinks is right, something he doesn't think he has to explain to Thalia when the girl didn't want to hear it.

On the other hand, he finds it almost insulting anyway.]

Even if I hadn't, do you really think I'd ever let anything happen to her? [The tone's sharp and he's already prepping for a fight. Niceties don't last long these days, especially with so many broke pieces. He could leave it alone but no, now he's really wondering.]

[ well. all the examples of TIMES YOU HURT ANNABETH she could give are things he doesn't even know happened because thalia can't actually sit down and give an unbiased summary of luke's history. she gets mad and sad and frustrated and ends up shouting, usually. and regardless of those times existing, he'd never been able to actually do away with annabeth.

so he wins a frustrated sigh as thalia tries very hard not to attack him again. like she keeps doing. by habit. shit. ]

No, or at least you wouldn't let her die. [ sure would do other things ] I think we'd be having this same exact conversation except with maybe less shouting. Does it really matter? [ it does, of course it does, but even with potential eternity stretching before her on the hunt thalia had been unable to entirely come to terms with luke castellan. it's worse when he's here and doesn't even really get why. ]

[It's a little like a housecat, patiently waiting and knowing he's being a little shit and that he's probably done something wrong like knocking a vase off of a mantle and also knowing he can't fully be blamed. That's pretty much the look he's giving her.]

Believe it or not, I still care about her just as much as you do. [But he also has other priorities. That's where things get a little sticky.] Actually, forget it, I don't need you to believe me when I'm proving it by helping you plan a murder. So. Alibi. Let's hear your ideas since I just planned out the kill.

[ she attempts kicking him in the shin for looking like a smug cat. and then flops onto his bed without asking permission, because whatever he's hardly going to kick her out at this point. it's luke. and this is for annabeth and jason. ]

We probably shouldn't share an alibi, right? [ you're the sneaky one, luke, so if it sounds like a question it's because it is. ] I can hang out with Katniss for most of the day. It shouldn't take that long to...do what we have to do. If we time it right I can make it look like I was with her the whole time, we just got split up hunting or whatever.

[ that's one. ]

And I can get you confined to your bed if I break a bone? [ she's not actually serious. m...ostly. ] Who are you friends with?

[She's not wrong, he won't get rid of her. It's Thalia and she's pretty much allowed to do as she pleases since after being removed from Kronos and his goals for so long, he's starting to remember what's important. He's remembering that she can get away with just about anything with him.]

Definitely don't share an alibi, but a piece of the alibi can match up so we can also confirm it. The key to creating a good alibi is focusing on habits we've developed. You're on the right track with thinking like that. Nobody's gonna question if you and Katniss are hunting in the woods. And do me a favor and don't break bones.

[He leans back, staring at the ceiling blankly.] Friends, or alliances? Those are two different things.

Who are you either with?

[ what the hell does he even categorize thalia as? it's not like she's particularly good with differentiating between "friends" and "alliance" despite herself, but luke is..."complicated". facebook status it's complicated. gods. ]

But fine, we can avoid breaking your bones. Wimp.

[ that's almost teasing but not quite. because she's a little too worried to tease, and also: luke. ]

It's not being a wimp, it's keeping you clean. You're the only one in the complex who wants to break my bones. You know somebody would twist it to be that you broke my leg because I saw you kill somebody. [He's also on the borderline of teasing but he's cautious. He's cautiously hopeful that they can make things work to their benefit.]

...since you started becoming friends with Katniss, I took on Finnick. Not a bad guy, really clever if you think about it. Uh, and that Lightwood kid. Alex? No, wait, Alec. Him.

[...it should say a lot about Luke's priorities that he hasn't really bothered to get to know that many people aside from what he's familiar with.] I'm working on it. I have alliances more than I have friends here.

Wait a second.

[ she half-turns on the bed, glaring. ]

You became friends with Finnick because I started hanging out with the one person from his world?

[ is there a right answer here. probably not. ]

...no? [Yes. And the fact that he's not looking at her entirely is enough to say that that is precisely the reason. They're both flopped on opposite ends of his bed and this conversation's weird because it backs Luke right into a corner.] It kind of happened and I thought it made the most sense to keep an eye on him to learn about her in case she decided to turn on you.

[So. In some fucked up way he was kind of looking out for Thalia. It makes sense to him.]

[ she's kind of clearly torn between yelling at him or not. people aren't allowed to look out for her, generally. luke used to have clearance to do so, but that got revoked, didn't it? but she is here asking him to like, follow her into hell. so.

shit. ]

If she were going to it'd be over this. I don't know what your friend told you, but I think her hostage was Prim. Her kid sister. Shit, what's with all the kids?

[ not that jason's a kid? he's actually probably technically older than her now in terms of actually having aged and lived out those years, which is weird to think about, so she usually doesn't. ]

So, have you killed for him before? A human being. Not monsters.

[ the lord he decided to ditch everyone for. or is she his lucky first? maybe this is a bad question but her brain to mouth filter has never exactly been stellar. ]

[There's a short pause because yeah, this made things awkward din't it? He's staring at the ceiling even if she's sort of turned to face him. It's hard to stop himself from making a face because yeah, what's with all the kids? Annabeth could run circles around her captors and probably kill everybody who stood in her way, but it didn't make it less worrisome.]

His hostage is his wife. The thing about this is that a lot of us have hostages we'd kill for. Dunno about Katniss, but I know this isn't the first time Annie's been taken away from Finnick. This is where we have to be careful. We're either going to have to cover our tracks, or fight our competition.

[Thanks for asking an incredibly complicated question, Thalia. His eyes widen a bit and he holds his breath as he debates how to respond.]

…no. Up until real recently I was inside Camp most of the time. [Should he bother telling her he tried to kill Percy?] This is gonna be new for both of us. But I can tell you something. Murders will only be murders with intent behind it. No half-assing. We have to stick around and make sure to get the job done, not just leave them and hope for the best.

[ luke she already knows about your repeated murder attempts regarding percy jackson. thankfully everyone sucks at trying to kill him? but okay. she's...actually not sure if luke had killed by the time he died. thalia made very very certain to never ask that question.

and then just completely barreled into it here. but. ]

No, really? I already know what Jason dying would be like, okay? [ she lived through that. he'd been alive, but she'd figured he was dead, and she'd left and never spoken about him again because it'd hurt too damn much. ] And Annabeth - and you know what, I'm a Hunter, I do know that you don't leave a job half done. So I'll...do whatever I need to do. Have you told Finnick or anyone else anything about us?

[ not their skills or abilities. she means them. thalia and luke and annabeth when they were younger. when they were friends. does anyone know that while thalia's at luke's throat most of the time, she'd come to him like this?

she hasn't said much to katniss beyond really hitting the "he's a traitor and also i hate him" note hard when it comes up but. well. ]

[It's still weird to think that Thalia knows more about his life than he does and it's weird that she's…not a tree? The timelines being fucked up isn't helping any of this so he can't even give her a proper answer.

Instead, she snarks back at him and it's almost familiar and if he weren't actually worried about Annabeth he'd probably laugh. He almost seems to ignore her question but then he focuses again. Right. There was a question, not just "shut up Luke I know what I'm doing."] Don't worry, you're not associated with the enemy or whatever. I just told people that you and I are from the same world and we used to know each other. That's pretty much the truth, isn't it? [There really isn't a right answer here, is there?] That would have come out eventually. I'd rather it be from me than something else.

It's not about associating with the enemy, it's about whether or not anyone would figure I'd actually...

[ ask him for help with murder? that luke would actually go along with it? because that sure would be a stupid stumbling block to getting away with this. ]

That we'd actually work together.

[ well. they used to work together well and it's kind of terrifying that still appears to be true. ]

They wouldn't have a clue. I try to keep as many lines clear as possible in this place because I don't trust any of 'em. Even more reason our alibis should be clear and distinct and that this murder won't lead back to either of us.

And anyway I don't think anybody would suspect you of asking for help in the first place, so there's that.

I'll have you know I'm a team player.

[ amazingly, lightning does not strike her down???? like. she works ok with certain people and she's since learned to be a better team player in her time with the hunters, but it's still not like she's percy jackson levels of working with people. ]

Anyway so that's my alibi settled. Do you think you could hang with Alec or whoever? Or again, putting you "out of commission" still sounds like a plan to me.

[There's a derisive snort that he tries to cover because yeah, sure, okay. One woman army Thalia Grace sure is a team player. They used to work really well together, he knows that, but he wouldn't call that being part of a team. Even the Hunters work in smaller packs as far as he remembers.]

I'll make it work. Don't worry about me. [He lifts an eyebrow.] You really just want to break something on me, don't ya? I still think that might be a little too suspicious.

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this is a terrible voicetesting option but #yolo

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matching lineface a+

the true reason they're friends tbh

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