[partly backdated] The crossing of the wires...

[pythianjudgment]

Who: Terezi and Initiate
What: Catch-all for late-arena shenanigans.
Where: Floor six, mostly?
When: End of Week 4 and onward.
Warnings/Notes: None.

[Multiple threads within.]

Comments

[backdated to Feb 14th]

[pythianjudgment]

It's only been a few days since Terezi split off from her previous group, and she's still trying to fall into a comfortable rhythm. She worries. Each time a canon goes off, she wonders if it's one of the people she left behind. One of the people she refused to help anymore because she couldn't help all of them. She couldn't pick who should live to the end and who should die.

It's almost gotten to the point where she listens for it, counting the number of canons against the number of Tributes left. Calculating the odds. But the only good it does her is to pick up the ding of the elevator nearby when it sounds. She takes a mask with her when she goes to check the contents. She returns with one less usable mask and a package for the two of them.

"Special delivery for the asshole brigade," she tones, tossing the thing to Fraysong when she gets back to where she left him.

Re: [backdated to Feb 14th]

[carnagecarnival]

The Intitiate starts and catches the package. It's not the first thing he's gotten this arena- food and a note of blood (which garnered a raised brow then the slightest bow) from claudia, first aids from both Azula and Pasha, the latter insisting that he use it on his ruined face. He's not exactly sure what all he'd have done to earn it this time around though, not like the others.

He frowns at it and opens it up. Nothing could've prepared him for what he finds.

"Oh sweet motherfucking mirth, what the holy fuck," He says as he finds the first heart and note of red. He opens it up more. It doesn't end. Everything is pinks and reds. Everything is heart shaped. His ears are tipped the purest indigo and his eyes are wide.

[pythianjudgment]

As soon as she smells the package and realizes what those deliciously fragrant scents are, Terezi clamps a hand over her mouth. Oh god, this is... either really hilarious or really mortifying, and she's not sure where it falls yet. It is the most blatantly flushed offering she has ever smelled in her life.

"Jegus, I hope that's for you," she mutters through her hand before she can stop herself.

[carnagecarnival]

Well that settles it then.

He folds it up and says simply, "NO." The gift is then shoved at her, for her to take.

He's not doing this. He's not being bought or brought into this terrible courtship ritual what all be of the capitol. He is so not pailing any of them.

"Take it," He commands.

[pythianjudgment]

"Nope, you opened it. It is completely one hundred percent yours!"

Terezi shoves the thing back at him, refusing to take it for even a second.

"In fact, I hope you and your secret admirer are very happy together. May you have a long and successful quadrant together! And many happy pails!"

[carnagecarnival]

"NO!" He shrieks.

The Initiate's shoving only gets ever more insistent.

"I ain't pailing no deplorable fish-faced motherfucking capitol cad! YOU PAIL THEM IF ALL IT PLEASES THAT MOTHERFUCKING MUCH! You got to grabbing it first-like!"

[pythianjudgment]

"Shhhh!" Terezi hisses back at him, but it's no use hiding the teal flush to her cheeks now. She snatches the package away from him, only to firmly shove it into his lap.

"You're going to bring every idiot on the floor over if you keep yelling like that." It's hard enough to get him to use inside voices. He doesn't need to be screaming obscenities through the museum.

"What if we just... share it?" she says, trying to sound less flustered than she feels. She continues hurriedly, trying to explain herself before he starts freaking out again. "It's just food. So we'll just treat it like any other food."

[carnagecarnival]

Hard to get him to control his volume? More like near impossible.

"DON'T SHOOSH ME," He snaps first. Then, "Alright, fine."

He takes the package and sets it down-- rougher than necessary-- between them. He scowls at it, ears still indigo.

[pythianjudgment]

"That wasn't a shoosh. That was a shut up you're going to get us mugged or worse."

Terezi sits down across from it, glad that they've come to an agreement, but still uneasy over the contents of the package. Sharing it may solve the problem, but there's...an awkward sort of implication in that vein.

She opens the box again and gingerly picks through it. "It's... not that bad. Just weirdly quadrant themed." Flushed, to be exact.

"Here." Terezi pulls out some kind of... roll thing in the shape of a heart and tosses to him.

[carnagecarnival]

He catches the heart and makes a face most displeased at it. He won't waste it, it's food. But he's certainly not happy with how it leaves him to appear as if he's anywhere near accepting this as a gesture of flush affection. He hasn't even the faintest idea who the motherfuck all they are.

Even if they're not necessarily fish-faced.

He growls and sinks his fangs into the confection, tearing it free and sulking. Now, well, now they look like they're having a romantic meal.

"WOULDN'T HAPPEN," He argues, for the sake of itself. "I'd cull any who tried."

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi plucks some fruitcake looking thing out of the package, sniffs at it and takes a bite. The taste is definitely better than the cultural association given to the food.

"I feel so safe," she drawls sarcastically back at him. She's not going to admit that she actually does, though. It's one reason why she's not too mad at him for shouting. He's right. He could probably handle anyone who did stumble across them.

[carnagecarnival]

"GOOD! A sister all up and could consider at herself to be lucky. NOT ALL MANY COULD JOKE THEMSELVES SAFE WITH THE LIKE OF HE," He points out, haughtily. He chews on the heart roll she tossed him.

"Could all make like to be a goddamn honor near-like," He taunts between bites. A picture of (in)elegance.

[pythianjudgment]

"That's just because I have a sense of humor that's better than yours," she shoots back, just as easily. She picks a piece of candy out of the package as well and throws it at him.

"You would be significantly less humorous if I wasn't around. By at least 63 percent."

[Following Terezi's thread with Some]

[pythianjudgment]

[Link here.]

The trek back to their rendezvous is an excruciating ordeal. Teal blood drips periodically in a trial behind her as she makes her way. Her staff was abandoned back at the scene of the fight, leaving her with only a small folding knife to defend herself. She doesn't mind that so much. She wouldn't have been able to use it anyway.

What she does mind is the way she leaves a trail behind her for anyone to follow, and the way her mind races with paranoid thoughts. She doesn't have a mask on her to check her future. She's relying purely on instinct and hoping against hope that she doesn't run into anyone. She's easy pickings like this. Honestly, she's not sure why Some didn't just come after her to finish her off.

Not for the first or last time, she curses her stupid idea of picking a fight with him. If she died now, it would be no one's fault but her own.

She stops briefly at a water fountain, trying to rinse out the wounds, but that only makes them bleed more freely. At least it'll help stave off infection, if she manages to survive that long. After too many long minutes, she finally makes it back to their meeting place on the sixth floor and hunkers down in the shadows with her back to a wall. Her knife is out, gripped tight but shaking in her left hand. Her right one is cradled against her, putting pressure on the worst of her injuries as she tries to stop the bleeding.

She hopes that no one finds her. She hopes that Fraysong has the good intuition to come back soon. She hopes he doesn't just leave. She doesn't think he'll go so far as to kill her, but an injured partner is more a burden than an assistance. He's not obligated to deal with this. She wouldn't blame him at all if he left her here to die, even as much as she hopes he doesn't.

Re: [Following Terezi's thread with Some]

[carnagecarnival]

He feels the fear first, the mask still on his face and power going as he returns to their place of meeting. He knows her fear enough to know it's her, the feel and tone of it, something so uniquely individual, it could be no one else. He doesn't like how strong her fear sings. He hardly has to reach for it at all, her fear doing all the work for his voodoo on its own. He could find out the why of it if he wanted, but not without digging, and so he leaves her be.

He doesn't drop his club when he finds her. At least, not right away. His eyes go wide and he freezes where he is for a second, face twisting in alarm. "TEREZI!" He calls.

He starts forward immediately a second later, rushing to her and then dropping down to his knees, only then putting his club down. His hands hover over her. She's injured, bleeding. He drops his hands down.

"What happened?" He hisses through the mask.

[pythianjudgment]

She hears the footsteps before anything else, even before she smells him. Her grip tightens on the knife as she cowers back against the wall, anticipating a fight. But it never comes.

He shouts her name and rushes forward. After the initial surprise, she relaxes, her arm dropping down to her side, knife hanging loosely from her hand. Relief spreads through her, she could almost laugh. Fraysong is here... He came back. And she's going to be okay now.

"I picked a fight... with another tribute." She doesn't specify which one. She started it. She got away. As far as she's concerned, that's all that matters. "Not my best moment, huh?" She laughs a little at herself, forced though it is, but trying to lighten the atmosphere.

If she can laugh it off, she can live with it.

[carnagecarnival]

That is... infuriatingly vague. Even with what fears he can feel off her. He doesn't miss the way she dodges over a name. He growls.

"PYROPE. He wishes to actually be up and motherfucking apprised. NOT LEFT AT GETTING UP A MOTHERFUCKING CONJECTURE PONDERED UP AND ON," He snaps. He's got no more of the first aids he had. All ran the fuck out when he should've made at trying to save it. He didn't get thought for anybody but his own self, and he'd hardly think to much up on mending himself.

"You ain't got nothing either," He says out loud. "FUCK KNOWS IF XANTHOUS GOT FOR ANYTHING, NOT ALL AROUND..."

[pythianjudgment]

She flinches when he snaps, and a frown pulls at her lips. He wants a name, but she's not going to give him one. "I bolted when I realized I couldn't win. They didn't follow me, so I came back here. That's all that there is to it." And all that she plans on elaborating on the matter.

"There are some cloth scraps in my backpack." The one with Karkat's face on it. She probably should have ditched that thing a while ago, but she wants to hang onto it. It reminds her that he's still out there, despite the odds. "I can use those for bandages... But no, I don't have other supplies."

[carnagecarnival]

It's something what all he can do, and so he does. He looks for the backpack, spots karkat's face and freezes for a moment. Then, growling, he grabs the thing, rougher than necessary, and digs for the cloths strips.

He turns back to her, frowning and passes her half. Then all of them when he realises she'd likely prefer bandaging her own self.

"And what all if they come back? WHAT AT IF THEY WANT TO MAKE A MOTHERFUCKER PAY? I ain't asking cause all I want at to gossip, Sister," He grumbles.

[pythianjudgment]

"I know you're not asking to gossip. That's why I'm not telling." She takes the scraps and starts wrapping them around wounds, covering up scratches and cuts and bite marks. Having washed them out at the water fountain already, there's not much else to do for them. She wouldn't have minded so much if he wanted to help, but she's not going to ask outright.

"I started that fight. I don't want you going out and massacring them for something I did. They were only defending themself. Leave it be."

[carnagecarnival]

"THEY HURT YOU!" He snarls. He watches her dress her own wounds, fists clenched tight. "Why the fuck all shouldn't I? WHO ALL COULD IT BE WHAT ALL MAKES YOU THINK AT YOU NEED TO PROTECT THEM!?"

[pythianjudgment]

"Because I attacked them!" she shoots back, but not nearly at the volume she could. "What part of that don't you understand? I got hurt because I chose to attack them. They weren't doing anything to me before that. They weren't even hostile. They were friendly, and I thought I could take advantage of that." Her stomach twists a little, saying that. It was such a stupid idea in retrospect... why did she think that was okay? Because it definitely wasn't.

"They don't deserve to die for that. So drop it. It's done."

[carnagecarnival]

He looks at her in disbelief.

"It's a death game, Pyrope! THERE AIN'T NO MOTHERFUCKING THING ABOUT DESERVING. We keep on going at killing until every fucker but one up and dies," He says. He shakes his head, still not understanding and continues, "WE'RE ALTERNIANS. We're motherfucking Trolls. SO WHAT ALL IF THEY WERE FRIENDLY UP IN HERE? They were strangers and they weak for their actions. YOU AND I GOT ALL FOR EVERY MOTHERFUCKING RIGHT TO MAKE TO KILL THEM."

He can't believe this isn't obvious. It should be. This is something every troll knows. It doesn't even need all to be talked about.

[pythianjudgment]

"Then maybe I'm a piss-poor troll because I can't stand killing," Terezi snaps, more vitriol than she means to. It's something that she's been thinking for a while, but she didn't want to say it. It's hard to admit that you don't even fit in with your own species.

She pauses in the dressing of her wounds, head bowed as she silently ticks off numbers on her fingers. When she gets to four, she stops to double check, and then holds up her hand to show him. "Four," she says, frowning up at him with more guilt than pleasure. Her voice is softer now, more serious. "That is how many people I've killed with my own hands. Three of them were in these arenas, and I hate it. I hate how it makes me feel, I hate the weight of it on my shoulders."

[carnagecarnival]

He doesn't understand and it would show in his face if he weren't wearing a mask. He hasn't the faintest damn clue what she's talking about. What weight? How could...

"...You've only made at to kill one? HOW THE FUCK ALL ARE YOU ALIVE?" He says it with disbelief, and for all it could be strewn as an insult, he asks it like an honest question. He genuinely doesn't understand how all this troll could be alive right now with only one mark of blood on her hands-- and he knows it was a recent cull, her friend.

This all doesn't make sense. She doesn't even have at for a lusus there could all be no motherfucking way she should be alive.