DimensionalSpades

Hello my delightful dears, hope you spend today with friends and family in love and eating good food!

The smell of the oven's handiwork undoubtedly travelled down the protocol's hallways at the ripe hours of three in the morning, the kitchen preoccupied by none other than Clove themselves monitoring their late night treats and thus far eluding the attention from Valorant's fellow night owls. Troubled by their lack of exhaustion and a small, peckish stomach, they found themselves in the kitchen making their usual peanut butter brownie recipe that was more of a Tiktok ripoff than anything authentically important but authenticity didn't matter when their appetite was concerned.

Crouched in front of the oven they watched as their simple mix began to bake into their late night treat, completely engulfed in their own anticipation with blue eyes fastened on the gradually growing brownies that they hadn't heard footsteps until they were close enough to click with the kitchen tile. Blinking, they glance behind them and grin at the first sight of one of Valorant's very small population of blonds. Really, how was that possible?

. He liked to think he practiced what he preached, but the truth was he was just as bad as the others when it came to insomnia. Sometimes it was nightmares, sometimes it was just a restlessness that sent little bolts of discomfort up his arms and legs. Thankfully, just the latter for the night.

An hour in the shooting range usually helped, monotonously firing arrows at targets- trying to tire his limbs out enough. With the dummy prosthetic in, it gave him enough challenge to keep his brain occupied enough to not wander. And yet, he was still awake afterwards- just hungry.

Catching the smell of something sweet, Sova poked his head in, singular eye looking over the scene for a moment.

Fortunately, the other didn’t squander too much time ruminating, speculating, what, or rather who, was to blame for decking him, and diverted their attention to the elephant in the room. Or should he say: the mind flayer parasite squirming in their heads...

‘Yep. I don’t know much about these brain wrigglers, but I have a feeling they will be quite obdurate when it comes to our endeavours to evict them — after all, these monsters crawled into an orifice they shouldn’t’ve been able to crawl into...’ Luran muttered, gently massaging the eye that had endured the housing of his tiny, tentacled comrade...

The elf skimmed their environs with his unobstructed eye. The lands were foreign to him, but he could hear the susurrations of the sea — perhaps there was a settlement, or a fishing village nearby?

. The face he pulled was one of minor disgust. What a way to recall that. It wasn't wrong- maybe it was just any attention called to the worms.

He called on divine power through an oath of vengeance, not fealty, but there was still something especially defiling about housing an ilithid's parasite. It rankled his oath, like a sharp nail driven into his skull demanding the satisfaction of vengeance.

"More trouble, but I wouldn't mind finding some," he replied. There was an almost pleasant settling, his mind already accepting that the pair were, at least, allies; driven by the same purpose. Traveling together seemed almost a given. "Not my oath, but my pride would appreciate the ability to give back."

Thera was a Big Gun - second only to Jadzia (third, if you counted Sisko, but he was still a little high on the chain). Semi-notorious herself for closing off and locking doors, this might have been just another normal invite ... if not for her arriving at his doorstep instead of over the comm. If not for the casual lean in the doorway that said he could refuse, but she would want to know why.

Really why, not a platitude. She saw through those because she used them, too.

. His exhale was a sharp little thing, lips pulled to the side as he stared at nothing, eyes following the flecks of imperfections in the carpet, arms tucked into his lap. He never really knew what to do in conversations like these. Thera knew him well enough and her stubbornness met his own with energy to spare. There was a certain trepidation about being here, now, still trying to push through and say what was bothering him instead of asking her to join him in the holosuite for a hike or just to sit in silence at the conservatory.