[closed]

[onthelii2p]

Who| Sollux and Terezi
What| A belated reunion and general catching up.
Where| District 5
When| A couple days after Terezi's death in the arena.
Warnings/Notes| Possible talk of death? Nothing particular.

The thing about not knowing where to find people, and not even knowing their names to ask, is that it makes the search an aimless, meandering thing. Sollux has had people he wants to find ever since he came back, and more since talking to Feferi. Some are easier; he knows names or where to more likely see them, and more than once he's been found along the way. But for the most part he wanders up and down across the tower, drifting around, looking lost as anything for reasons other than direction.

(He hasn't stepped foot outside. He doesn't want to deal with the Capitol.)

He gets a system to it, eventually. District floors are easiest, quickest, but less thorough for it. Out the elevator, a sweep of the common area, a glance into the kitchen, and out if nothing's there. (Or not nothing - not whom he seeks - but it's as-good-as for his desires.) It becomes easy and mindless. Check, ride down, check, ride down, another on the way up. It doesn't fill all the hours of the day, but it takes a little time, and it's enough.

He's not honestly expecting to find anyone this time as he lands on District 5's chunk of building; the few gathered on couches and chairs aren't the ones he wants to see. It's when he peeks at the opening to the kitchen that something catches him: bright, banded orange; two fine, conical spikes. She looks taller, older, but he knows those horns like anything.

For the first time he steps in. "Terethi?"

Comments

[pythianjudgment]

The sound of her name still makes Terezi jump a little, even after being out of the arena. It might be too much to expect to just be left alone, but it doesn't stop her from wishing that she could disappear for a while. Maybe that's why she's been content with hiding out in Fraysong's district instead of her own.

But at least the voice that calls her is one she recognizes.

She turns, and there's a brief look of unidentifiable concern in her expression before it levels out to something like resignation. For a moment, hearing that lisp, she had almost hoped that the Psiionic had come back. She feels a little guilty for hoping it was him and not Sollux, but only a little. This isn't a place that she really wants her friends to be.

"Hey," she greets him, and it probably sounds as underwhelming to him as it feels to her. The past few months have been unusually hard on her. With Meulin and Karkat's deaths still hanging on her thoughts, she doesn't have the energy for a proper greeting. Belatedly, she remembers the brand on her cheek and turns her head away a little, as if to hide it from him.

"Welcome to the shittiest place on Earth."

[onthelii2p]

Underwhelming is the word. Perhaps it's selfish, but he finds he expected a reaction a little more excited than he got. But it makes sense. The arena was hell and left him drained, left him still with issues he's not past, and has led to all his stupid wandering about. He knows she's been through... well, shit before the arena, but even that's a lot. He catches the brand now as she turns her face; it calls attention to it, but begs away from notice. He can't begrudge her that.

"No shit." His shoulders are slumped, and he rubs absently at his arm. He doesn't step any closer yet. "Can we talk? It'th been a while, kind of."

[pythianjudgment]

Can we talk. The three most infamous words that you never want to hear. It is like a social cue that you are not going to like whatever it is you're about to talk about, but there is no graceful way to avoid it. It's usually better to just get it over with.

"Yeah. It's been..." she trails off, not only because she has to actually remember how long it's been, but also because maybe she shouldn't be telling him that so casually. She doesn't even know what he remembers, so she just shrugs as an end to her sentence.

"I've been staying in Fraysong's room. He's out right now. I don't think he'll mind if I let you in." She motions for him to follow as she picks up her snack and heads towards the tribute rooms.

[onthelii2p]

He's younger, and he still has his eyes and fangs (and the lisp with it), so it should be obvious it's been a while. He's not even sure what all they'll end up talking about, but he feels they should talk anyway. Even just for this place there has to be room to catch up.

"Who'th Fraythong?" he asks. It sounds enough like a troll name, but who knows in this place. He follows only at her beckoning; he'd be hesitant to go otherwise.

"It'th been like a perigee for me, give or take. I don't know for you. You look older?"

[pythianjudgment]

Fraythong.

Terezi actually has to give herself a moment not just to laugh at that lisped name. Oh man, she has to remember that one for later. At the very least it brings a genuine smile to her lips.

"Fraythong," she repeats with more amusement than strictly necessary, "is also called the Initiate. He's the indigo troll. The... one that's left, anyway." It's a little hard to believe that the other Kurloz is gone already. She didn't even get to thank him for the sign language lessons he was offering to her and his alternate.

She leads him down the hall and into Fraysong's room, letting him come in before she shuts the door behind them. The room is...tidier than they usually keep it. But there's a pile in the corner of the room, albeit a rather neat pile.

"I am older," she answers his sort of question, sitting on the edge of the bed rather than the pile. "...I haven't talked to you in over a sweep." That would probably put things into perspective better than anything else could.

"...What's the last thing that you remember before coming here?"

[onthelii2p]

Oh god damnit. Sollux frowns and starts, "You know what I meant," but the rest of the answer cuts him short. "The Initiate? I know him. I didn't know hith title had that too. And I met the other one, but..."

He shrugs, a bit helpless. It's not the loss that Karkat was, but he feels a strange disappointment that he couldn't learn more about him directly, or thank him properly for his help in the arena. Instead he follows along, on into Fraythong the Initiate's block. He'd take a seat, but he's not sure where, and he doesn't just want to sit on a bed that's not his without invitation.

His eyebrows shoot up. "A thweep? Pleathe tell me future me didn't methh up our friendship thomehow."

He does have hope if she's speaking to him now, but who knows what the reason is without explanation? He might have died. He may well have died. He knows his doom back there, and once again he feels the strangest sense of missing that here.

But maybe he shouldn't worry about that just yet. She'll tell him, he hopes. For now...

"It wath one of your memoth, the one you made after Karkat'th dumb thpeech about trolling the humanth. Tho you know, before Eridan went thtupider than he already wath and tried to join Jack, and all that shit." He phrases it deliberately; he feels he should let her know he's aware of at least that much.

[pythianjudgment]

After one of her memos. Jegus, she barely remembers that. It was probably the fruity rumpus factory one, right? That was so long ago, it's almost nostalgic.

"Yeah, I remember that. Barely." Eridan's stupid stunt, too. She can't lie, it's one of the reasons that she got to really enjoy Kanaya's company. She kind of wishes her friend was here now. It would make dealing with Eridan a lot more amusing. "Eridan got his, in case you were wondering. And no, you didn't mess up our friendship. You just... haven't been around. That's all."

That's all. He just died, is all. Half died. Terezi isn't really even sure anymore what his status of living was when he and Aradia left. But he hasn't been around for over a sweep, and she's struggling to find that familiar rhythm that she had with her friend back then. It would be so much easier to fall back into that, but she feels like such a different person than she was back then. Not as strong. She can't help but worry that he's noticed it, too.

"You left about half a sweep before I came here. Sometime after the point you're from. I've been in this place for half a sweep after that."

[onthelii2p]

A sweep is a long time, and he can't blame her for fuzzy memory. This isn't the first time he's gotten the impression that he's far behind... well, everyone. Utterly everyone, save those from the past, and even they seem to know more than he does. It's a frustrating position to be in.

It doesn't help that Terezi's so vague.

"'Left'? What do you mean, left? We were on a thpathe rock waiting to die; I can't jutht dethide 'thcrew thith' and leave. Tell me what happened. I already dealt with that book from the arena not telling me my future; I'm not going to let you keep me in the dark too."

He's curious about Eridan too, what she meant about how he 'got his', but his thoughts on that can wait.

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi looks visibly unsure if telling him how he died is a thing that she wants to do. Though to be honest, he had told her how it was going to go down enough times prior to it actually happening. The only thing he was really missing were the details.

"It's complicated," she says at first to preface the whole thing. It's tempting to just leave it at that, but she doesn't. "You remember Jack, right? And how we were stuck out on that meteor? Well... We figured out a way to get to the new universe. Except we didn't have any way to actually fly there, and Jack was ready to pounce on us the second we came out of hiding. So you... When we needed to leave, you propelled the whole meteor in the direction that we needed to go. It was insane, but you did it. And... you died for it. But it got us where we needed to go, and it kept us away from Jack. You saved our lives."

Like that isn't a depressing thing to hear. She's still amazed that he managed to move that monstrous thing, even now. It's probably obvious in her voice how deep her appreciation for that runs, and she's a little embarrassed that he might have heard that.

"After a while, we met up with Aradia and... another you. Who I guess was only half-dead or something, I do not claim to understand even a fraction of the shit that happened in that game. But you two went one way and our meteor went a different way, and... That was the last time I smelled your dumb mustard face."

[onthelii2p]

Sollux crosses his arms as he settles in to listen, and he gives a nod at the preface. It's still recent in his memory on the scale of things. And honestly, he's guessing death already. He knew it was coming. So when the answer comes, it's less his death than the manner that ends up surprising him. He saved their lives, she says, and he catches that note to her tone.

He remembers the battle against the Black King, and how he flung around meteors then with Aradia to help fight, but that was different. Redirecting space rocks isn't the same as piloting one, let alone well enough to keep away from Jack.

His eyebrows scrunch at the last bit. "Half-dead? ... No, if you don't know, I'm not going to forthe you to try to make thenthe of it. My visionth never mentioned that. And what do you mean, met up with Aradia? She wath already there with uth--Did thomething happen? And I had to have gone blind thometime before all that, right?"

[pythianjudgment]

"Hey, hey. Slow down." Terezi holds her hands up at the string of questions that Sollux tosses in her direction. They may seem like simple questions, but the game made everything so complex... How does she even begin to tell him about Aradia, or Eridan's rampage--and what that meant for Feferi and him. It's a little daunting.

"You were blinded, yes. By Eridan." The way that Terezi says the seadweller's name isn't friendly at all. He's barely been around for that long, and Terezi has already had enough of him and his bullshit. "He attacked Kanaya, and then Feferi, and then you. It was... a mess by the end of it all." Her shoulders sag a little with the weariness of remembering it all. Just five trolls left. Five and half, if you wanted to be technical; but only four on the meteor.

She doesn't really like remembering the disaster they came from.

"Aradia's robot exploded at some point on the meteor. We didn't find out until later that it was because her dreamself revived. So she was alive, but I don't know where she is at this point. Or you, I guess."

[onthelii2p]

Sollux frowns. He wasn't going that fast, was he? But as bidden he stops, giving her time to think and answer. Some of it isn't as new as she seems to think though.

"He did?" he asks. "I heard about the big fight and how he killed them, and... Kanaya came back thomehow?" That part gets a squint. "Feferi told me thtuff, but not the detailth, and mothtly I wath too shocked to athk at the time." All he'd been told was that Eridan knocked him out, but then if Feferi died like that, how was she to know that blinded him?

The rest he takes longer to consider. He doesn't ask about Aradia's dreamself. As much as they all thought she didn't have one, Terezi would have no reason to bring it up if that were still true. And to think of her exploding... Ugh. He doesn't know the circumstances, but he can't imagine it as a good thing. Especially after Karkat.

"I'm glad she'th alive again," he says quietly. With as little as they spoke after she became a robot, he doesn't know fully what to think, but he means that.

[pythianjudgment]

"Yeah. Me, too," Terezi agrees, though her response seems a little detached. It's strange, talking about this. After everything she's been through here, that meteor feels like a million miles away. Like another life that she barely remembers anymore. There's a bit of guilt nestled in there that she's not more invested in her past life, but that's not something that she wants to show him.

"Kanaya was actually a rainbow drinker. Did Feferi tell you that?" she asks, trying to subtly shift the subject just a little. "That was how she came back."