So Much To Lose

Ch. 3 Hesitance

Mic hung out with Soap and Pickle downstairs through the afternoon. She and Soap shared stories from the game, while Pickle continuously beat them at some street fighting game.

Mic wanted to ask Pickle if he had anything he wanted to share from the first season, but opted not to. If Soap wasn't encouraging him to do so, it probably wasn't the best idea.

By about two pm, Mic's tiredness was catching up to her. She passed over her controller to Soap and yawned.

"I'm gonna catch up on some sleep, Mephone set the last challenge at an ungodly time in the morning."

A half-truth, Mic doubted Mephone had any idea that the last challenge would involve abduction and spacecraft, but she was tired nonetheless.

"Alrighty, you coming down to watch the episode later?" Soap replied

Mic didn't reply, but the way she grit her teeth and slowly shook her head told Soap everything she needed to know.

"Hey, don't worry about it, most contestants don't want to see themselves get voted out. You should have seen all the fits of anger Nickel went through each time someone wanted to rewatch the episode he got out in."

"Phew, that's good to know, g'night though. Or- Is it good afternoon? Good nap?"

Soap chuckled "Go get some rest you goober."

Mic nodded and began making her way up the stairs. Almost everyone was down in the lobby or in their own rooms, though she did wave YinYang a hello. Yin reached his hand up to respond, before Yang started yelling at him to stop being so friendly.

Before an all out fight began between the two broke out, Cherries came by, and led them off. Mic made a mental note to be careful when talking to YinYang.

When Mic entered her room it looked almost exactly the same as when OJ had shown it to her before, save for a few decorations being added to the nightstand. The clock was actually plugged in, unlike before, where the electric display stood silent (no use wasting power, Mic guessed).

The other difference was a picture of the grand slams, judging from the players missing it must have been taken around episode eight.

Mic admired the picture for a moment, before setting it back on the table, and climbing into her bed. The episodes air around seven o'clock, so Mic hoped she would wake up from her nap before anyone came to her room asking questions.

Afterall, it wasn't like anyone had just quit the game before, especially considering how vague her statements were on why she was doing so. She guessed Marshmallow had also quit, but there was still no sign of the gravity defying contestant, so one could only guess.

Mic decided it was best not to dwell on it, laid down, and felt her body almost immediately give in to the first mattress she'd slept on in months.

-------------------------------------------

When she woke up, it felt like she'd gotten no rest at all, though it probably didn't help that she was being shaken awake either.

"Wh- what?"

"You QUIT?" Mic could hear Soap ask, entirely too loudly. She sat up in her bed, mumbling.

"Why!!?" Soap continued questioning.

"Calm down, I'll tell you - just shut the door, please."

Soap did as Mic asked, taking deep breaths to calm herself down as she did so. It was at that moment that Mic realized she had no idea how to tell Soap what had happened.

It was Soap, after all. Since parting with Taco she's the person Mic trusts most, they're friends. Mic was worried that if she didn't word this just perfectly, maybe they wouldn't be anymore.

She didn't even realize how heavily she was breathing until Soap brought her arm to her back to stable Mic.

"Hey, sorry I kinda freaked there, but seriously what happened?"

"I..." Mic took a deep breath in to steady herself "I'm gonna need you not to freak because I made a lot of bad decisions after you left. None of which I'm proud of."

Soap nodded, encouraging her to continue.

"During that filler episode, before all the garbage that went down in the maze, I went into perilous forest to have some alone time." Mic withheld the part about wanting to write in her diary, after Taco's breach of her privacy, she had decided that was on a need to know basis. The only person that needed to know being her.

"I met Taco." She heard Soap take a quick breath in, but continued her sentence before she could interject. "She.. Offered me help, for a fair price, and after you left I didn't really have any 'friends' in the game so when the challenge rolled around... I agreed."

Soap's expression was hard to read, it was stuck somewhere between confusion, anger, and pity. "I don't know much about Taco, Pickle has dropped me a few tidbits here and there about how she 'used to be' but besides that everyone in the hotel seems to avoid mentioning her, especially OJ. It's strange. Especially since half the time Pickle isn't even nearby."

"I knew she had cheated last season, from what Knife told me and all the horrible things Balloon said about her early on but beyond that, nothing seemed out of the ordinary."

"Sort of like Balloon and Suitcase's situation then?"

"Yeah! I knew she was bad, and she made bad choices, that much was easy to know just from interacting with her. I mean. We were actively cheating. But besides that she seemed sincere."

"I thought I'd give her a chance to change, or at the very least have a friend."

Soap smiled "That's a nice gesture, but judging by how solemn you've been this whole time I take it it didn't go well?"

"That's one way to say it I guess." Mic replied.

"I knew it wasn't going to be easy, hell, Balloon who was arguably way tamer than her had his moments of pure rudeness but every chance I gave her to make up a plan that didn't involve hurting someone she failed to ever meet that mark."

Mic's voice shifted into a annoyed tone as she listed off examples

"Change her plan to just intimidating Balloon instead of hurting him, complements me, then forgets forever."

"Steal from TestTube. Wow, neat, a plan that doesn't hurt anyone! Proceeds to ignore when two people get sucked into a literal time vortex."

"I flat ouT ASK HER NOT TO USE VIOLENCE, TESTTUBE'S DEAD THE MOMENT WE GET ON THE SHIP!"

Mic didn't realize how loud she was raising her voice until Soap helped her lay down.

"Hey, hey, it's okay."

"It's not though."

"It's not okay but that doesn't mean that it's your fault." Soap calmly replied, using a finger to swipe away the tears Mic hadn't even noticed were dripping down her face.

"So that's why Tube hates your guts huh, she didn't see her did she?"

Mhm Mic mumbled, emotions too jumbled up to form words. Sitting up to hug Soap, letting her limbs go limp and just bawling out everything that had piled up in the last few months.

Soap didn't say anything, just firmly hugged her back. All Mic remembers after that is momentary bliss, and drifting off to sleep.