thearena | [closed]

Entry tags:

[closed]

Who| the Signless, Terezi (Later: Terezi, Signless, Initiate, Redglare, Nepeta)
What| Terezi has split off from the group to take her usual Cornucopia-hunting duty, and Signless is her pack-mule. Cue chatting about Rebellion and other topics while they traverse the sands. (Later: Terezi slits Signless's throat because no one needs a Rebel victor. There are mixed reactions on this.)
Where| Desert arena.
When| Week 3, Mon-Tues-ish. (Later: Thurs-Friday-ish?)
Warnings/Notes| Death, blood/gore?

Splitting up every few hours had become almost like a schedule of itself. It was a routine she and the Initiate had fallen into: Cover more ground separately, then return for a few hours to share spoils and recuperate. It was a good system, and Terezi usually spent her time scouting for the Cornucopia and gathering food. She could leave the actual killing to her partner, as far as she was concerned. It suited him far better than it did her.

This time, however, she was quick to claim Signless as a traveling partner. "Someone has to carry the shit I find," she stated, rather bluntly without even trying to mask her disdain for his uselessness. "He's the only one who can't fight, so he'll earn his keep with me."

She didn't mention her promise to Karkat--to keep him safe. Or her intention to keep him away from the other two highbloods as much as possible. It didn't matter if one was her partner and the other was her ancestor. She had a job to do, and she didn't trust them not to mess it up. Nepeta, she could have trusted, but... There were a couple things she was curious about, and no one else really needed to be privy to them.

It's at least a good hour of walking before Terezi finally gets around to a topic more meaningful than polite but intermittent chatter. She seems to take an interest in Signless for a few seconds, sizing him up and down with a few sniffs before speaking.

"So... It is really no secret by now that the Helmsman absolutely hates your guts... But for all the boonbucks in the known universe, I can't figure out why. You are kinda worthless as a hate-machine, you know?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It did sting, a little, to know that even in his favored environment he was more of a burden than an asset. When Terezi specifically requested his help he was more than happy to come along, even if it was just in the capacity of an extra pair of hands.

Why she had to break the silence to ask that, of all things, he doesn't know. Maybe she doesn't know the can of dirt noodles she's opening, or maybe she does and is pretending she doesn't to get a more interesting answer. Either way, it takes him a few moments to figure out how to respond.

"There are a lot of reasons. Mainly, he blames me for the sweeps he spent as a helmsman." And he can't fault the other troll for that, not really, after seeing the scars.

"Blames you?" The skepticism in her voice is difficult to miss. Clearly she doesn't think someone of Signless's stature and demeanor could be capable of actually causing someone misfortune.

"What could you have possibly done to cause that?" She snorts a bit of laughter through her nose. "Forget to say Excuse Me when holding the door for a sea-dweller?"

She really doesn't know. Not about any of it. He supposes he shouldn't be surprised - Karkat had no idea, and even Redglare who was so devoted to the memory had a lot of it wrong.

"It's more complicated than that. I may have actually spearheaded a rebellion. A peaceful one, but a rebellion nonetheless. So it's more like I personally slammed a door in Her Imperious Condescension's face."

If anything, Terezi's incredulous look only increases at that statement. There's never been a record of a peaceful rebellion. Violent ones, sure. Every so often, a few of the lower castes get it in their heads to hurl themselves against the system like so many wrenches in a machine... But it never works out. It never sticks. It only serves as a reminder for the next few generations what violent tempers and poorly thought out plans could get you.

But a peaceful rebellion... No, she's never heard of that.

"I can appreciate a good sense of humor from one troll to another, but I'm trying to be serious here! Come on, you can tell me what you actually did. I won't laugh."

Edited 2013-07-20 07:30 (UTC)

"I am being very serious, Terezi."

His tone is certainly serious. One does not joke about the revolution.

"I attempted to lead a rebellion that was founded upon compassion and nonviolence. I told my fellow trolls that if we rejected the idea that the caste system made some trolls inherently better rather than simply inherently unique, Alternian society as a whole could be happier. The Helmsman was one of the trolls who listened and believed, and he escaped from slavery to join me."

This is where it gets difficult. He measures his words very carefully as he speaks.

"At some point in my future and his past, the rebellion failed, and we were captured. I was killed. He was given to the Empress. So his line of thinking is that if he hadn't listened to me, he could have lived a normal lifetime as a normal slave, rather than a hundred lifetimes as the Empress's personal battery."

Honestly, she might have laughed at him again if the reminder of the Helmsman's fate hadn't sobered her reaction. She still couldn't wrap her head around that in terms that didn't relate to Sollux, couldn't imagine the yellow-blood as a younger troll without seeing her friend in him.

She doesn't tease this time, or even smile. There's a quiet sort of intensity as she sniffs at him a second time--reassessing her previous conclusions. Her expression is dead serious, and after a time, she turns her attention away from analyzing him. She keeps her focus on the area around them as she speaks again.

"So, you are a traitor, then?" It's not ground out with contempt or thrown like an insult at his feet. It's only a question, a clarification to the narrative. "Putting aside my own skepticism for the moment, and ignoring the question of how you could actually have thought that would work... How did you manage to get anyone to listen to you in the first place?"

"I'm a traitor in that I spoke against and refused to live by the ideology imposed by those in power. What one troll might call a traitor, another might call a revolutionary, or a preacher." Or a god, but that's still way too weird for him to address.

"And I found the best way to get others to listen to me was simply to speak to them." The corner of his mouth quirks into something that isn't quite a smile. "More people than you'd think want to hear stories of a peaceful and loving society."

"You mean fairy-tales," she remarks dryly and not without the insinuation that he's shithive maggots. Were there really that many bright-eyed idealists in the past that he could just scoop up a rebellion by telling them nice stories?

"There is no peaceful and loving society in Alternia. There never was and never will be. Trying to change the system like that is like throwing yourself against a brick wall that will never budge. And trying to inspire people with lies is downright cruel."

Edited 2013-07-20 17:12 (UTC)

"There was, before Alternia was Alternia. You played Sgrub with Karkat, didn't you? In a past life, I played Sgrub with twelve other trolls as well. We failed, and were given the opportunity to reset so that our descendents might have a better chance. The world we came from was that compassionate society I spoke of, and I'm the only one who remembered. It fell to me to help my fellow trolls remember as well that we didn't have to be cruel and violent."

A hint of defensiveness has crept into his voice. He knows he failed, Karkat made that very clear. No matter how much he believes in his cause, he'll ultimately make no difference, and the insinuation that his memories of Beforus are just fairy-tales and lies on top of that has his hackles up.

Edited 2013-07-20 17:30 (UTC)

"Except we did have to be cruel and violent." She actually stops for a moment, despite the ground that she knows they have to travel. The look she gives him has circled around back to incredulous again, but for an entirely different reason this time.

"I don't know why you can actually remember SGRUB, but if you remember that much, then you should have known it wasn't possible. You reset the session. You wanted us to be able to win, and that was what you got! Bloodthirsty, eager to compete, eager to win. You got survivors; you got trolls who could actually play the game like it was meant to be played!" She doesn't sound angry, even as her voice grows more animated. It's the way things are. Or were, at least. It's hard to get truly upset over a civilization that's been dead for over a year.

"But you turned around and tried to undo it all, and you expected the universe to let you? Our timelines don't work like that. It was never possible for Alternia to be anything like Beforus. That was the deal you made when you scratched. Every one of you."

It's been a few days since their cornucopia excursion, and Terezi is still mulling over what she learned. The Signless, a rebel. Not that it matters to her, considering the price he already had and would pay for his treason. Not that she really cares, deep down in her heart, about a centuries-old treason against a dead civilization. She might have a year ago, but there were a lot of things that she might have done a year ago.

Still, she does have to care a little. He's Karkat's ancestor, and more importantly his moirail. She made a promise to protect him, one that she intends to keep.

But there are parts that bother her... She can't deny that he's an idealist. He's rather charismatic in that way and easy to like. He cares. And if she's being honest, she would have to admit that he's not very clever. At least not clever enough to know how to avoid being caught, and that is the part that worries her. It didn't bother her to watch that human woman being tortured and executed, but Signless?

She's not sure how much that would bother her. It would do more than bother Karkat, she knows that much. And even if she's still cross with him--even if his opinions are still poorly guided--she doesn't want to see him hurt like that.

If she really thought about it--and she had most certainly thought about it quite a few times now--Signless was better off in these games. In here, they were being watched and guarded, dying over and over. But they were contained. Hadn't some of the others said as much? What was the worst they could do to a person who was already scheduled to die endlessly? Deny them support? Make their death more gruesome? But if he was out there and free from the cycle, stirring up the masses like he allegedly had on Alternia... It wasn't difficult to imagine what might happen.

Which followed that she couldn't keep her promise. Not like Karkat wanted her to, at least.

She spent a lot of time mulling this over, and a lot of time working with the wire she'd nabbed from the cornucopia, scrapping a rock against the outside of the wire to sharp a length of it into an edge. At first, she wasn't sure if she would even use it. Maybe she wouldn't have to, maybe there would be an accident or a misstep, maybe he would die and she wouldn't have to do a thing. But it wasn't happening, and each day that passed made her a little more nervous. Each cannon boom meant one step closer to his potential victory.

Finally, she couldn't wait any longer. As much as she didn't want to do this herself, she couldn't just leave it up to chance. They're gathering up their meager supplies to break camp when she palms the spool of wire. It's not really that suspicious to approach Signless from behind. She's been nothing but friendly with him, save for her general harsh bit of humor. She hasn't made a single threatening gesture against him since he arrived.

She winds her end of the wire around her fingers, unraveling the length that she had been sharpening and holding onto the spool at the other end. A quick motion flips the wire over the shorter troll's head. No thought, no feeling. The wire presses against his throat, and it's only a jerk of her hands that causes it to slice into flesh. She pulls hard, making sure it cuts deep.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[closed]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

A few days later...