Lending Support and Comfort

[Arietta]

[ooc: Date is September 6th, day after the fights. Open to Arietta's friends, so hiccup, Princess Luna and anyone else who could be considered a friend. For the most part Arietta has been unconscious until today, so she knows nothing about any fight after hers)


Her head hurt, it hurt like crazy. It was as if someone was trying to play the drums on her noggin. She couldn't remember anything after the fight with Sync. Trying as hard as she could, the small pink haired girl couldn't remember anything. All she could remember was that he had won and had knocked her out. So where was she now? Opening her eyes, she gave a light scream of pain at the brightness of the light. 

Once her sight adjusted, Arietta tried to sit up and figure out where she was. It was a small room, was this the nurse's office?  Glancing down at her clothes, it was no longer her regular attire but rather a hospital gown. Had her injuries been that bad? Just what had that green haired jerk done to her?  Along with that, her arm was wrapped up and it hurt more than her head did. It must have been broken. 

'Ow...' she muttered as she tried to get out of the bed to walk. She couldn't even manage that as pain entered her chest. Then her thoughts returned to her friends. Had their fights gone well, what about the others? What had become of them? 

[Hiccup]

He felt bad.

Hiccup's primary concern after finding out that his girlfriend had been in one of the fights had been to make sure he watched her fight. After the fact, though, he'd come to realize that he hadn't stuck around for Luna or Arietta's fights. He'd only realized that something was amiss when Arietta didn't show herself around the earth circle dungeon. So, in spite of it being a Saturday, Hiccup was up and running for the nurses's domain. In the process of making his hurried arrival, Hiccup had managed to trip over a cat he hadn't seen (one who, as it turned out, was none too pleased to be tripped over and had given Hiccup a set of scratches  to remember him by) and landed flat on the floor. Once he'd shaken himself off and recovered, though, he got a look around and saw who he was looking for.

"Arietta!" Hiccup gasped. She looked awful, needless to say, and he could only wonder just what sort of hell her opponent had put her through. If they could do that to her, he shuddered to think of what kind of danger anyone else might have been in. He almost hated to ask what had happened. The dumb question would have been 'are you okay?', and thankfully Hiccup avoided it.

"That Sync guy did this to you. Didn't he."

[Arietta]

The pink haired girl was a bit surprised to see Hiccup had come to see her. Not that it wasn't a nice thought, it was just...well she didn't want him to see her look like this. Though she was grateful that someone besides the nurses, who happened to be a cat and a very nice woman with white hair, at least from what she could tell since she saw both walk out to get something.

At Hiccup's question, she nodded, looking at her hands. "Uh-huh." she muttered. "B-but hey you should see him. I gave him a good scratch across the nose." she laughed.

[Hiccup]

"Just scratching him is hardly compensation for all of... This!" Hiccup blurted out as he gestured to Arietta's injured form. He didn't even seem to realize that a human scratching another human was weird... At least for the moment. His concern was the fact that his friend was hurt as badly as she was. Someone in the fire circle, Luna's circle, had done this to their friend. He wondered if Luna even knew how brutal this 'Sync' had been. What would she have said if she'd seen Arietta like this? Hiccup didn't rightly know, and he wasn't about to put words in the alicorn's mouth. Mostly he was upset with himself for not being there to witness what had happened.

"I... I'm so sorry, Arietta. I wasn't there. I didn't know how brutal this guy was to you," Hiccup said at length. Not that he'd been any place he wouldn't have wanted to be. Watching Astrid's fight had been particularly important to him, and he'd been there to see that through to the end. He did feel rather guilty for not supporting Arietta and Luna in their own fights, though. ...Maybe it was better he hadn't seen. After all, if Arietta's opponent had been as brutal as the injuries looked he couldn't imagine how long he'd be able to stand watching.

"To be honest, I'm just glad you're alive at this point."

[Arietta]

Areitta looked down at her injured body. It was bad and in truth she realized that she had hardly even did any damage to Sync himself. She had scratched him and used magic on him but in truth he was really really stronger than her. "Yeah, me too.." she replied to Hiccup about being alive. She fidgetted nervously in the hospital bed. "...I'm sorry." she said. "I'm sorry, I promised I would win."

[Hiccup]

"Hey... Don't apologize," Hiccup said. He eased his way into a nearby chair and scooted it closer to Arietta's bed. Everything was just going wrong. Astrid had been hurt in her fight, Arietta had practically been beaten to a pulp... What on earth had happened to Luna? Truthfully, he hadn't seen Luna around anywhere that day. Maybe that was because they were in different circles, but he hardly cared. She was still his friend. What mattered for the present, though, was that Arietta felt guilty about what had happened to her. That wasn't right at all! She shouldn't have been blaming herself or worrying about whether or not she'd kept her promise. The promise had been stupid, anyway.

"You shouldn't beat yourself up for this. I mean... Uh..." Great word choice. Hiccup winced internally at his own words, and he glanced at his hands for a moment to try and rectify his train of thought. There had to be some better way to word it. ...Yes, there was. He'd just thought of it.

"Don't worry about it, okay? You did your best. Besides... It's an occupational hazard, am I right?" he asked. Hiccup tried to laugh at his statement, but it felt a little forced. Hopefully Arietta wouldn't notice, though. He'd hoped to make her laugh, and that was the best he could do. Maybe it had worked? He really didn't know if he was much of a comedian.

[Arietta]

Arietta couldn't help but giggle despite the pain she was in. Hiccup, awkward or not had made her feel a little better. "I guess that's true. I mean, I did manage to make him bleed a little so at least I'll have something to show for it to my other members." she held up one of her muscles, it looked rather silly because of her bandaged self but her smile had come back. "Plus if you think about it, these scars and stuff just can make me feel stronger and I can strive to get better to beat him in the next battle we are in."

Though in truth she hoped that she wasn't going to face Sync in a long time, maybe in a few months but hopefully not the next fight. They wouldn't make her fight in this condition would they?

And then she remembered...Luna. Luna had been in the fights. "Is Luna okay? Did she win?"

[Hiccup]

"Heh... That reminds me of something my girlfriend said once back home. She'd said that the classes we were taking to deal with dragons would only be fun if we got a scar out of it. So I was like 'I know, right? Pain; love it'," he said. Hiccup had to laugh a bit more, and this time it was genuine. He never would have thought that Astrid's statement would be reiterated in such a way before. Maybe it would make Arietta feel better than she had before. Gods knew she would need all the help she could get to feel better with all the injuries she had.

However, Hiccup's laughter died down and his expression turned a bit more melancholy when Arietta asked about Luna. He didn't have an answer for that. That much was something he felt guilty for. He was supposed to support his friends, and all he'd done was support Astrid up until that point. That much was reasonable enough, Hiccup supposed, but now... Well, he had more to worry about than just Astrid. Of course he would worry about her as much as he could! She was his girlfriend, after all. But Arietta and Luna were his friends. He had to support them, too.

"I... I don't know. After I found out Astrid was fighting, I lost track of Luna. I couldn't just not watch her fight, though, right? I mean... Astrid's my girlfriend. I had to make sure she was okay..."

[Arietta]

Arietta laughed, and smiled. Glad to have a friend here and not be alone in the medical wing. At the mention of his girlfriend, Arietta's eyebrows knitted in concern. "Oh, that's too bad. I guess I am feeling kind of selifish thinking of just my friends. And not everyone else on the list." The pink haired girl stood up and rubbed her arm uneasily. "I hope that you won't have to fight anyone anytime soon. But if you do...I'll cheer you on."

[Hiccup]

"You and me, both," Hiccup murmured. After having to watch Astrid fight Rahne, he only wished more fervently to avoid having to fight anytime in the near future. Astrid had been teaching him, it was true, but with what skills he had Hiccup was almost certain that he wouldn't survive for very long in a fight. What good did mentioning that do, though? It wouldn't do any good at all. Besides, he didn't want to bring Arietta down. She already felt bad enough for being in the present state she was in. Why would Hiccup's own problem have mattered in the slightest? It was obvious that he was a twig, and Arietta probably didn't need to hear about how much of a pathetic excuse for a Viking he was even with Astrid's help.

"If worse comes to worse, I guess I could always try to just run around and avoid getting hit. ...Not that my girlfriend would find that all that amusing since she's been helping me learn how to defend myself, but still. I'm nowhere near as good as she is," he said. It was almost amusing. ...Almost. Hiccup knew for a fact that Astrid wouldn't have been laughing if it actually happened, though. She'd probably be yelling at him to get his ass back in the fight or something. Hiccup did find that much amusing, though. Long ago, he never would have imagined Astrid caring very much about what happened to him. He'd always been the one to admire her from afar and wonder what it would be like if she were to actually notice him. She'd been one of many who thought of him as an embarrassment to the Viking name. Now, though? Well, they were boyfriend and girlfriend. That much couldn't be denied.

"...Where did you learn to fight, anyway? And how? I mean, you're so... Er... You're not exactly tall or anything..."

Wow, that sounded awful. Hiccup had to refrain from smacking himself. What if he'd just insulted her? He honestly didn't know what he'd do if that was the case.

[Arietta]

Arietta tried to imagine Hiccup's opponent watching him run around trying not to get hit. A smile formed on her face and she tried to hide her laughter at the image of that. "Oh, I'm sure you could kick your opponent's butt, its not like we have giants or gods here." she said. And then the question of how she knew how to fight came to play. Her eyes lowered and she kicked her feet back and forth uneasily.

"Um, well, I grew up with animals. Ligers to be exact." she said. "My village was destroyed by a tidal wave. I was found by a family of ligers and was sort of raised by them. I guess I have animal instincts."

[Hiccup]

"Oh, yeah... You mentioned that before, didn't you?"

He wasn't sure how he had forgotten the story she'd told about being raised by ligers, but that seemed to be the case. Still, it was quite remarkable. Hiccup had never really thought that he'd meet anyone that was... Well, kind of feral. How had Arietta survived the tidal wave, though? Hiccup knew that a liger had rescued her, but how on earth had a child (at least, he assumed she was a child at the time) survived getting swept away by a massive wave? Hiccup never would have been able to figure that out. He was glad of it, though. If she hadn't survived, he wouldn't have met her. That wouldn't have been good for either of them.

"I guess you've got the whole 'I look small and frail but I can fight' thing down. I don't know if I do," Hiccup said. He certainly had the weak part down, but small? Not quite so much. He at least was taller than Arietta to some degree. At the very least, though, he could say that he may have gained some skills later on. It all depended on how much more training he and Astrid could get in together. Until that time, he was still kind of pathetic.

"You've got to find some way to get back at the guy that did this to you. I don't know how, but... You'll figure something out... Right?"

[Arietta]

Arietta smiled, at least Hiccup had said that, most would just have called her weak or an animal. But he said it in a nicer way. At least that's what she thought. "I am going to figure something out, if not me maybe someone from my circle will be able to knock him off his high horse." she said, wondering just when the next set of fights would be anyways. And who would be there. Would she go watch them?

Part of her knew that it would just be uncomfortable to see someone get beat up, but a dark part of her mind wanted to see if someone would beat Sync up and give him a taste of his own medicine. "And I think you could fight...you know if you really had something to fight for." she said. "I am not sure but here it's more of a "just beat each other up and hope you win." In war, it was things you could protect or someone you cared about. Here, well, here it wasn't like that.

"M-maybe you could just fight like your life depended on it, and fight for your girlfriend."

[Hiccup]

"Astrid would probably kick my ass if I didn't fight for her sake," Hiccup laughed. Okay, maybe she wouldn't. But still, it was an effort to cheer Arietta up. That was what counted in the end, he supposed. Arietta did have a point. Here, there didn't seem to be a lot of strategy to the fights until they actually happened. He could potentially use that to his advantage. ...Or just get his ass kicked the second he walked into the ring. That was, of course, assuming that whatever opponent he went up against didn't just laugh themselves silly when they saw how scrawny he actually was. There also was a chance for them to laugh at his prosthetic. No one had done that much so far, but it was still a thing that could happen.

"If only we could figure out how they determined who people are supposed to fight. That would give me a better angle to work at, you know? Then I could know just what kind of strategy to try for," he said. The chances of him actually working out who he'd fight in advance were rather slim, though. Hiccup knew that as fact. Still, a guy could dream regardless of that fact. He just had to work out how on earth he was meant to get better at fighting. Astrid was still helping him, of course, but until he improved or until Toothless magically appeared in the arena to protect him it was going to take a miracle for him to pull off some kind of victory.

"It doesn't help that there aren't any clubs or anything that I've seen to get interested in. Like... Archery. Why isn't that a thing? If I could learn to use a bow then maybe I'd stand a chance. They're lightweight, the arrows are easy to carry... But who'm I kidding? There probably aren't any clubs here to speak of anyway."

[Arietta]

Arietta nodded and thought about it. How did they decide who fought who? Did they draw names or was it all magically generated. Maybe something else. She didn't want to think about it. "Whoever decided this, has a very dark sense of humor." she muttered. When the scrawny boy brought up clubs, her eyes lit up. That would be fun, it would be a fun way to get away from the idea of fighting.

"Maybe you should try to start a club." Arietta suggested. "Or we can see if one of the teachers can set it up." Though chances were that teachers couldn't do much with getting clubs started.

"I wouldn't mind there being an animal lovers club or something like that."