Flight School: Predator

Circular Line

"Are you two friends?" The shrike asked with the strangest smile Io had ever seen, and a subsequent chill ran down the back of his spine.

The immediacy of his thoughts were seized by the counteracting nature of his beliefs. There was first the option to lie and second, the content of the latter in relation to the one he was speaking to.

Reux had posed the question to both he and Vaughn and, suppose he take responsibility for the question, determined the shrike's intentions having heard the answer. Therefore, it was apparent to him that the only way to direct Reux's attention (or suspicions, for the matter, regarding whatever that was going on in his mind) elsewhere was to give the exact same answer that Vaughn would.

Knowing the vulture and his lies, a 'no' was the more probable answer to his question. Were they friends? No, absolutely not in a million years—sounded exactly like Vaughn, at least in Io's mind, it did.

So he decided upon the lie.

Within the mere fractions of a second that they had to think, Vaughn had somehow arrived at a similar conclusion and that was to give the answer that Io would in order to make the shrike leave out of lost interest.

To Vaughn, Io was—by far—the most disturbingly honest human being on the island and there was no doubt to this. Considering this and the fact that Reux was aware of his supposed role as a spy among the old Hearts, he was certain that an acceptance of the shrike's conjecture was necessary.

So he decided upon the half-truth.

"Yes." "No."

They turned to stare at each other.

All attention was on the pair who so coincidently sat by one another, tension pulling taut in the air as the smile on Reux's face took the form of something close to predatory—the spotting of a newfound catch.

"Nice, nice. Very nice."

Nice? Victoria, perched above on the gallery where Avians had to remain was having a hard time controlling her anger. The shrike's presence was disturbing and felt to her almost like a fly in her face. Although...well, she never really came across a fly in the first place. This then, would be her first.

"Maybe you two can discuss beforehand before coming to an agreement?" Reux went on in a tone that did not sit well with anyone at the table. He sounded overly-sarcastic to the sensitive few and others, an attempt at mockery. "And Iolani. I heard you like sunflower seeds."

Io blinked, staring blankly as a brown packet of roasted seeds was placed before his tray. Reux had reached past Io's shoulders—a little too close for comfort—to do so and the act had garnered the former some serious backlash.

Mostly in the form of a golden eagle. "Io doesn't need that."

The packet of sunflower seeds were, all of a sudden, subject to absolute scrutiny. It was rare and unlikely that a predator—let alone the leader of their competitors in the coming games—to leave tokens of appreciation.

Obvious to any who had a functioning mind, Reux did not drop by to greet the sparrow out of courtesy and respect for his opponents. His purpose, then, had to be something far off and hence rather unwelcome at the table.

"Thank you for your opinion," the shrike said with a smirk that was primarily directed at Luka. "But it is rather unnecessary, as you can see."

Io was already popping the bag of sunflower seeds open.