thearena | Along came a spider; OPEN

Who| Disciple, Vriska, OPEN
What| Disciple meets the Spider troll and later gets attacked by a spider. Coincidence? Yes.
Where| Fountain in Park; Main Street
When| Backdated Pre-Hellrena
Warnings/Notes| Possible violence? Arena warning.

A. For Vriska

It's quiet here, in the park. Quiet and mostly deserted. The buzz of insects is somewhere nearby but she thinks she can rest. The fountain is crumbling, like everything, but enough remains to sit on for a moment. She can even close her eyes, think about something beyond the next step for a moment. She's tired and a little hungry, so when her bag slips off her shoulder onto the crumbling cement beside her, she lets it lay.

Time seems to slip past her as she starts to half doze. She was never much good at noon, especially not after days of wandering aimlessly.

B. OPEN

The buildings appear suddenly through the fog as she steps carefully over a crack. Some time, maybe a few days ago or maybe several, a crack has split open wide under her feet and it was only her quick reflexes that kept her from dropping to her death. She knew it was before she had found Signless and Karkat, but not exactly when. Time isn't exactly easy to keep track of in this place, with fog so dense it seems to make the world perptually grey. It didn't really matter. Lesson learned.

Before her, shapes move in the twilight and she watches one of those strange bugs drift near the front of a house, buzz up--then quickly away. She frowned, watching it disappear into the fog. Not going to catch that one, she thought, and walked on. She'd have to catch one at some point. She didn't have the time or safety to put up a trap for some beast.

With her mind was so preoccupied with the hunger swirling in her stomach, she didn't hear the shift and scatter of rooftiles until a pale leg was already in front of her face and a sharp claw hooked in her shirt.

"Shit."

A quick kick only brought those claws closer, grabbing at the clothing and digging into skin. No, breath, think. The next kick is at the horrible mouth, worse than any horror she had seen--and briefly she wonders if this what the Empresses's lusus looks like, terrible and frightening--but she has no time to think about stupid things. The spider, if you can call it that, had dropped her and every second counted.

"Shit shit shit, never going to prioritize food over people again." Stupid quadrants and descendants sending her back out into this madness. Find them and keep them close next time.

A sound behind her might be a person or it might be another creature come to share the feast and honestly at this point, she's sure things can't get worse.

"If you're coming to kill me, can you wait just a minute? I'm--" And she has to duck another claw, all the while trying to find that wrench she stupidly left in the bag, "I'm busy!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"One of Karkat and Terezi's friends as well?" She tested the waters, unsure of this stranger. Nepeta had never mentioned her, but there had been little mention of anyone really, besides her absent moirail. She made a terse promise to herself to work on that. Nepeta and Terezi would be full of interesting information about their time, if only the Disciple had been smart enough to ask for it.

"Nepeta only really spoke of her moirail honestly, given he's not been here, but I'm sure she's around here somewhere." She glances upwards, "I haven't seen her in the sky but I haven't been able to pay much attention really."

She hadn't given her name in return and was curious to see how much this stranger pushed.

Oh boy, there was a tricky question. If she knew Terezi then more likely than not her dear darling sis has smeared her name with what ever grievances she had towards her. Honestly, she was all out of fucks to give to what Terezi's beef was with her. But....... Just to be on the safe side of things, Vriska kept smiling like everything was normal and skirted around the question.

"Yeah, I know them too. In fact, a few nights ago I was just sitting around a fire with Karkat and his new friend. Shared a few bugs." Which wasn't entirely a lie, though she left out the part where they got into a fight over Spineless and that the bugs shared was not with her.

"You must be talking about Equius. He was a neighbor of mine. He fixed my arm when I lost it. Well........" She looked to her left flexing her wrist. "I don't have that problem anymore."

When the other troll turned her attention to the sky Vriska's eye flickered down to inspect the bag slung over her shoulder. Heh. Looks like there's loot inside. Soooooooon.

After a moment of silence she spoke up again, taking a step forward. "So you got a name? Or should I just call you Nepeta 2.0?"

There had been talks of Vriska before, when Terezi had moved into her room during that...'family and friends' thing that had happened. Whatever that had meant. Her hands curled at her side, for a handful of fur that was not there and for a weapon she didn't have at hand. All she really knew was that Terezi didn't trust her. Not with her things and not with What Karkat had to say on this troll was unknown.

"Equius, that was it." She paused, running her nails along her legs, filing them slightly against the fabric. It wouldn't help, it wasn't rough enough, but it soothed her as she thought. Once she had given out her hatchname, afraid of the wrath the title might bring down upon her. Afraid of the stigma that came attached. Now it seemed more prudent to go the other way around.

"The Disciple. That's my title at least."

“The Disciple?........” Vriska repeated to herself as her one good eye looked her over again. She looked a little guarded still, unsure of her. Which to be honest, yeah, thats safe bet with her. But she really wanted that bag and its loot that it might contain inside. So she tried to play it off, like nothing was wrong, relaxed as if they were best buds. Maybe she’ll drop her guard just a bit……..

After a pregnant pause she gave her a small grin as she leans up against the crumbling fountain, arms crossing. “Well it’s nice to meet you. We trolls have to look out for one another, right"

She laughs at that. Trolls have to look out for one another? She likes to believe that, that's her whole ideal, but she's not so silly as to believe the rest of troll kind actually means it or believes it.

"Clearly you haven't met the Initiate. He is--or was--a firm believer in quadrants first and everyone else can die. I tend to believe the best of people but I know the best is often more theoretical."

There was a pause as she blinked at the other troll. Whoa wait. There was yet another one of them here? Shit, this place really was the land of the cast away trolls. Maybe it'll just be her luck to run into ALL her friends. Just great. That would be perfect.

"The Initiate?" She cocked a brow at her, "Wait, are they here? I don't think I've ran into them if he is."

"Tall, sort of wavy horns. Indigo blood? I'm fairly sure you can't miss him." She pauses, raising her eyebrow back, "He's in the Arena at least. I get the feeling there were more adults here at once point but it's just The Initiate, Signless, the Psiionic and I right now."

She thinks on it for a moment, "Oh--there was a seadweller when I arrive but he disappeared. I never got his name. And a brownblood that I never really got a chance to speak to."

Along came a spider; OPEN

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