Thunder At Midnight [Candice, Ehefra]

That weariness was a welcome change for Candice, though she resisted the desire to simply pull Ehefra into a bear hug and hold her until they both fell asleep. They'd sparked off each other, a pair of matches striking the kindling, and managed to come out on the other side but Ehefra had still failed to answer her primary line of inquiry. Even at the risk of dragging them back in again, Candice needed to know. She needed to hear her say it.

"No, I have fantastic taste. Because I managed to land you and I don't think anyone else would still be here."

Her hands clung to Ehefra's face, holding her head up just a little so that she did not simply collapse entirely into her and risk passing out whilst still recovering from that rocking headbutt. That was probably unwise. In fact, maybe it wasn't the best idea to lay her down just yet, so she shuffled upwards into an awkward sitting position.

"Now, can you tell me why you just tried to force me away? Because I really want to believe that you like me, and I sure like you, but that was not what you were trying to say."

Candice tried to adjust her position so that she was, for want of a better way to support her, cradling Ehefra in her arms. It had not quite been her original intention, but neither had been giving her a concussion. That was just a consequence of her actions, but hardly one that she had given without receiving. Her perfect complexion would bear that ghastly bruise for days, perhaps even weeks, and it was unlikely that any amount of makeup would properly hide it. That would have an impact on her effectiveness and reduce the places where she could actually show her face, but that was tomorrow's problem.

Still, her words caught in the back of her throat for a moment. Putting it all on the line was a classic Candice move, but leaving that in someone else's hands felt wrong.

"Alright. Look, Heff, if being close to me is only making you upset then you can tell me. But I won't be held responsible for making you miserable unless you tell me so, cos that's bullshit."

One hand was still supporting Ehefra's face, the other had begun to play with her hair. It was an innocent little thing, unintentional and yet it felt natural to Candice. Did it feel the same to her?

"Maybe it isn't always sunshine and rainbows with us, but can you at least try to tell me what about us frightens you? Because, usually, that means that we have a problem and I thought we were going steady."

Ehefra offloaded a lot of stuff right into her all at once, like a torrent of emotions forming into a waterfall that poured down upon her. Candice, despite herself, listened to almost all of it quite intently. She'd even probably met the guy that had been here before her, as it was rather unlikely that there were two people stuck in such a terribly unique and unfortunate position, but that was hardly a problem. She had also seen him and, frankly, there wasn't even much of a contest between them. Sure, he had some tomboyish charm, but that alone could not hold a candle to all of her beauty. The other woman, well, she would make it her business to find out now. Just to be sure. For Ehefra's sake, of course.

Now, there was certainly a world in which Candi had ended up in a similar position to Ehefra and acted as she had, rather than as this Candice Catnipp would. That is to say, she might have allowed herself a moment of self-doubt. That she might not have trusted herself to make the best choices, and her actions to be the best for those around her. It sounded like a bleak alternate reality, one where she was her own worst enemy, compared to the flagrant and intoxicating arrogance that she now wielded like a blunt instrument against her problems. But, on top of all this, there was one detail that had struck a nerve. One key detail that Candi had not asked for, that she had not thought to consider until right this very moment, and that plucked a particularly delicate chord very close to her heart.

As she went to lean in again, Candi pushed her away with a muted huff. If Ehefra had been expecting a look of disgust then she would soon see that she was quite right to do so, with Candi's face contorted into one of rage and humiliation.

"Your little robot is always recording you? It managed to do so when you were wasted, so surely it did when you were sober. So it could've recorded us? That footage might exist out there, somewhere. Or have you already watched and reviewed it? And you didn't tell me? I-- My-- If you had.. What if that footage had gotten out? What the FUCK were you thinking, Heff?"

There were few times when Candice minded getting her picture snapped or recorded, but this was one of them. This was a betrayal of her trust that she could not ignore, and one that stung more than the swelling red mark on her cheek.

"I've seen you in plenty of positions where your spatial awareness was pretty fucking compromised. So what, Beeps has a precise bead on your blood-alcohol level then, or what? I understand you want to keep it a secret, but did that guy know you recorded him then? Did you run him through all that before you got fucked up and set off those triggers?"

Candice grumbled, but it was clear that a lot of the vitriol had disappeared from her comments when it was said that no such recordings of her existed. She still cared about the principle of the thing, sure, but it was far more important that she was not personally caught up in all that. Cyber security be damned, she would have fried that little robot before it got off one free shot of her ass.

"And about all that other shit. No one knows what the truth about it all is but you, so make up your damn mind. I think you're good enough, and I'm greedy enough to try to lock you down regardless of the consequences, but if you don't want that commitment then tell me and I can tell you to grow the fuck up and realise that this can be as fun and open as you want to make it. Thunderqueen knows that's what I did, so why not try setting your own rules and boundaries too?"

Candi's eyes did continue to scold Ehefra about her violation of people's privacy, but she had made her point as clear as she could. Whether it actually changed anything was dubious, as Heff was nearly as stubborn as she was, but it certainly gave her an excuse to fry that perverted little robot if it ever skulked a little too close again. Ultimately, that was all she needed - her own personal security. Making Heff a better person wasn't really her goal.

"You're saying all this shit like you think I'm not in the same boat. I never asked you to be my 'one and only' either, and there's nothing wrong with getting what you want. That's why I'm here. To get what I want."

Heff was tired, and now Candi was tired too. It was certainly showing, as their conversation was beginning to circle around the drain before they both lost themselves to the depths of this insanity. But the blonde persevered because she was definitely not going to let this bitch get away with having such treacherous thoughts. She believed quite unilaterally in providing people with the illusion of choice, after all, so her tone only grew more serious.

"So I don't mind not being your 'one' if that is what you want. BUT take a good long look at those other people and ask yourself if they'd say the same." Her hand rose up, wiping at the blood trailing down her cheek to leave behind a crimson smear as she stared intently at the woman beneath her. "I understand you better than any of them ever could. Ever will. Because I don't think either of them could handle you like this, and I think you know that too."

That free hand then ventured back to Ehefra, caressing her cheek ever so tenderly as Candi pulled her further onto the bed and sunk down into something resembling an embrace. They were hardly under the covers yet, but the Heiress was being to latch on to her prey with intent now. Slowly but surely she edged herself closer, her words now bereft of that sharpness and turning to something resembling bliss.

"As for me? I'm the simplest kind of person there is, Heff. If there's something I want, I take it. And what's important to me is getting what I want. So if you're looking for the big picture, trying to work out how I could screw you over, there's nothing there. Now.. just.. let.. me.. help.. you." Her lips brushed against Ehefra's own, threatening to press on further if invited but not yet claiming the territory. "Because I want to."