I'd rather run the other way than stay and see

[pythianjudgment]

Who| Terezi, Disciple, Karkat (but not at the same time)
What| Visitors! Terezi doesn't want them, but she's going to get them anyway. There's people with things to say.
Where| District 3 Suites, Terezi's room
When| Not long after Terezi's return in Week
Warnings/Notes| None so far



After her fight with Fraysong, Terezi hasn't felt much like leaving her room. She's already gone over as much of the broadcasts as she really cares to. Everything has been hashed and rehashed and quite honestly, she's tired of hearing the Capitol voices on the television screen going on and on about how tragic or exciting their lives are. It's enough to make her sick.

Save for her venture to the roof, her only other excursion consisted of a trip to see the Disciple. Or rather, to slip a picture under her door with a note written on the back. There's other places that she would like to visit, but the risk of running into people that she doesn't want to deal with is too high. So she retires to her room to whittle away some hours browsing the network.

It seems that not everyone has been as preoccupied with the arena as she has.

Comments

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

It's easy enough to figure out who the note is from when she notices it. Her body is still used to sleeping at different times and with all the exhausting things she'd been dealing with, it's at least half a day before she picks it up.

Familiar strokes of color. She would peg it more for a barkbeast if not for that strange patterning. Something closer to what she saw on a tribble than the markings on Maximus's clawbeast. She almost doesn't turn it over but the feeling of waxy crayon against her fingertips prompts her too.

If she needs anything. She tilts her head, why the question mark? Was her gift not welcome--did Terezi not understand what she was being thanked for. But she brought her a gift anyways. Hmn. She pins it under the strange window changing device to let the Avoxes know not to clear it away and makes her way up to her room. District 3, room in the back to the right.

And so she ends up there, hand poised to knock. Nervous, no. Maybe she just doesn't want to hear about all the things that happened from a voice outside her own head. Maybe they can avoid the topic. Unlikely, when she comes half to ask about the gift, but she can dream.

She knocks three times, a pause, then three times again. A stupid ritual from a younger time, but one she still keeps to.

[pythianjudgment]

At the sound of the first three knocks, Terezi hesitates to answer. There's a number of people that could be knocking on her door, and also a number of people that she doesn't want to talk to. The second set of three knocks confuses her a little. That was a weird way to announce one's presence.

"...Who is it?" she calls, hoping that she won't regret not pretending to be out.

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

She hesitates. She could walk away really. She doesn't, but she doesn't open the door yet. She hasn't been invited in.

"The Disciple."

[pythianjudgment]

Silence answers the Disciple's words for more than a few moments. Then, the click of a lock is heard and the door cracks open just a bit. Terezi stands there, sniffing at her warily.

There doesn't seem to be anyone else out there, though, so eventually she opens the door more fully.

"Hey..." There's a bit of awkwardness in her posture, but she tries to stifle it. If the older troll is here, it must have meant that she got the note. Which means she read the directions on the back. Which means she saw the offer of 'if you need anything' that Terezi had given. Therefore, she must need something, she concludes.

"What's wrong?"

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

She pauses, not sure what to say. Is anything wrong? Well everything is wrong but that's hardly the point. She almost just bows a little thanks and leaves but she didn't get herself dressed (much to the delight of her stylists) and leave the two floors that had become her homes just to slink right back.

"Was my gift not appropriate? I saw Karkat had given you food and a knife and I simply chose the next thing I thought might be useful. Maybe the insect repellent would have been more of an apt gift?"

She knew she should have asked her escort for advice. But no, she had been foolish and done it all without even asking.

[pythianjudgment]

"Oh..." Terezi seems a little at a loss for words when faced with the Disciple's question. She did appreciate the gift. How could she not appreciate someone sending her supplies when in the mothergrub-forsaken hellhole? But the gift she sent... Did she really not know?

"No, it was fine. I just..." Shit, how does she explain without horrifying her? Terezi briefly considers the idea of not telling her, but she's bound to find out eventually. It's better that she know now rather than continue to be oblivious. It's better to hear from Terezi than from some Capitolite on the streets...

"The wire was the weapon I used. In the previous arena. I thought you knew, so... I didn't know what you were trying to say." She pauses a moment, then adds quickly: "I guess it makes more sense now, if you didn't know."

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

"Oh." She speaks softly, as the wheels turn to work things out. Last arena, she used wire. What happened last arena with Terezi, she didn't know, she didn't watch it. She had purposefully changed away from it when that came on. Because Karkat told her to not watch it because--Right. Right. It's easy to watch the revelation spread over her features, wide eyes and the way her face goes still. Her eyes dart away and her mouth forms into a thin line.

"Oh." She shook her head, breathing out an exhausted sound that might be a laugh, a sad sad laugh. Of course. She's an idiot--and god why did it matter if she had seen Terezi kill him if she had sat down and watched those three deaths in excruciatingly loving detail over the past few weeks.

"That...Only I would make that mistake. I'm sorry, I didn't intend..."

[pythianjudgment]

"I didn't think you did." It's the truth, even though she knows that Signless would more than deserve it at this point if the Disciple wanted to see a little justice done. She had watched his death in the arena... That was probably the worst part of the whole thing, but it wasn't him that she felt sorry for.

"I wouldn't blame you if you did, though. If he's going to be that bad at using his brain, he doesn't deserve to be sending oxygen to it."

She hopes that the older troll understands that for the joke it is, and not as the threat it sounds like. Regardless, she steps back from the door and motions inside. "...You can come in, if you want?"

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

The Disciple snorted, then immediately felt a pang of guilt. God she's such a terrible quadrantmate sometimes. She bit her lip and sighed, running a hand through hair straightened by chemicals, creams and ridiculous amounts of time. It still felt weird. Oddly heavy on her shoulders. Was she talking about this whole situation or her hair--god she needed to stop thinking about all of this. She'll drive herself insane.

"I don't want to intrude." She suspects none of them is very good with company lately, "I...saw what happened, I don't know if you really want my company."

[pythianjudgment]

Ah. Honestly, she's getting a little tired of people saying that. She's aware of the loving detail that the Capitol paid to that whole mess of a situation. It was one of the first things she noticed on the broadcasts, once she returned. It's one of the reasons she's been reluctant to leave the Tribute Tower. She really doesn't want to be accosted by people in the city about her personal decisions.

"You're not intruding." She makes another motion for the Disciple to step inside. "If I didn't want your company, I wouldn't have given you directions to my room."

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

Stepping inside hesitantly, she glances around. Similar enough to her own room that she doesn't feel too out of place. Was every room a copycat.

"I honestly don't know why you gave me directions I suppose. I didn't think you liked us enough to invite me."

[pythianjudgment]

"I never said that I didn't like you. It's your matesprit that I don't like."

Terezi shuts the door behind her, clicking the lock back into place. She hopes that it doesn't spook her guest. It's easy enough to unlock from this side, and she doesn't want anyone just barging in unannounced. The room must have been scrubbed down while she was in the arena because there's only a few half-hearted scribblings on the walls. Next to the bed, the scenery-wall has been set to depict a lush forest. An Earth forest, but that's as close as she can probably get.

"I don't know which 'us' you mean other than him," she says, heading over to the bed and flopping onto it. "But I have a strict no-factions policy. I'm not taking sides in your weird shitty politics."

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

Disciple doesn't sit, looking at the fake view. She had hers set to some huge canyon and desert. Day of course but more like home. Finally she drags her eyes away, watching her flop on the bed.

"I'm too used to it being the four of us that i hardly notice saying that. Our -Alliance? Grouping?- kept us alive. We..."

She clasps her hands and smiles faintly, "I'm used to the sentiment as I've told you. I just didn't realize you liked me. I thought I was a...meddling adult."

[sleeplessinalternia]

It takes a little longer for Karkat to show up than it does the Disciple, mostly because he's trying to plan how the talk will go. It starts out as a list of topics to cover and ends up as a flow-chart. In the end, though, he throws both list and chart away in frustration and settles for standing outside Terezi's door, trying to psyche himself up to knock on it.

Finally he ends up beating his head against the door in frustration with his own cowardice.

[pythianjudgment]

The banging sound almost makes Terezi jump. She wasn't expecting it, and honestly she has no idea who it is. There should really be peep holes on these doors... Maybe she'll ask about having one installed, even though it's not likely.

"Who's out there?" she calls through the door, after crossing the room. The door remains locked for the moment.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Well, that was one way to make the decision. "Me," Karkat calls through the door. "I think we need to talk."

He feels around in his pocket, nervously, his fingers brushing against the fur of the fuzzbeast--not the extra black one he accidentally made when he fed Signless' white one a piece of baabeast flesh, that one's still in Signless' room, but one he bought properly with the cullmoney he got from Sherlock.

It trills at him.

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi recognizes the voice instantly. She winces internally, hesitating in her response. There's no going back, he already knows that she's in here. She might as well talk to him.

"...What about? I thought everything was pretty straight-foward at this point." She doesn't unlock the door yet. She knows well enough that if she lets him in, it'll be a huge pain to get him back out again.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Stuff," he says. "Look, even after I shunned you for over a perigee, you still tried to save my life. I'm not so much of a worthless piece of shit that I can't acknowledge that. You don't have to let me in, but could you at least open the door?"

[pythianjudgment]

"Talking doesn't require the door being open," Terezi responds. It's stupidly petty and petulant, but she doesn't feel like she has to open the door for him.

"If all you want to do is talk, you can do it from right there. I can hear you just fine." And so can her other district-mates, probably. But she doesn't really care about them.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat gives a long-suffering sigh. "Yeah, but giving you a thing does, all right?"

[pythianjudgment]

Giving her a thing. Like a present? Terezi frowns, leaning her forehead against the door. She's not sure what to think about more gifts. He already sent her a gift in the arena, and she wasn't even sure how to feel about that one.

"Who says that I want it?" she asks, after a pause. Her voice sounds quieter than before.

[sleeplessinalternia]

He snorts. "You aren't going to know until you see it, are you?"

He takes the fuzzbeast out of his pocket.

[pythianjudgment]

"I'm not going to see it in the first place," she retorts. It sounds a little off-key, though, lacking in the full flavor of her usual snarkiness. She can't seem to find that old groove to fall into--and she's not sure that she wants to go back that easily, anyway.

There's a lengthy pause as Terezi tries to figure out what she wants to do... It's probably not too much to at least find out what he has. But regardless of what it is, she's not sure that she wants it.

Eventually, there's the sound of a lock clicking. Terezi slides the door open, just enough for half of her face to be seen.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"This is a fuzzbeast," he says, holding it out to her. "It's made of fur and smaller fuzzbeasts and it makes soothing noises."

If Terezi sniffs the air, she might notice that the so-called fuzzbeast is obnoxiously bright cherry red.

"Don't feed it unless you want more fuzzbeasts," he adds after a moment.

[pythianjudgment]

"They're called tribbles," Terezi says flatly, not opening the door any wider than it is. She can smell the furball in the palm of Karkat's hands and hear it trill and coo, but she doesn't make any motion to open the door wider nor does reach out to take it.

She's still not sure what to think. Maybe once upon a time she would have accepted a token gift as an apology, but that time isn't now, anymore. She doesn't know what to do with the gift or with the motivations behind his offering.

"...What are you expecting this to do?" she asks, after a moment. "Presents aren't going to fix everything that's happened. It doesn't stop being a thing for me or for you, just because you brought me something red."