thecapitol | whoops wrong floor

Who| Anna and Terezi
What| Clearing the air after Anna's last Arena death.
Where| D3
When| Backdated to after the last Arena
Warnings/Notes| Probably none, aside from descriptions of death.

It'd been rough, for Anna, to make it through so much of the Arena, only to have her time run out so quickly. Maybe it would have been easier if her demise had come about from a face-to-face attack. It would have seemed more dignified, somehow. But having been tossed over a railing and hung like a prisoner was scary and even now the thought of it is nausea-inducing. Especially remembering those last few moments, the feeling of falling that had ended when her neck had snapped.

It's not something she likes to dwell on.

And she's distracted, worst of all. It was a rough Arena for her emotionally speaking, and one doesn't bounce back from the shit she went through in a matter of weeks. She's starting to feel more and more beaten down the longer she carries on here in the Capitol. So it's not really surprising when she doesn't notice that she's pressed the button for the wrong floor on the elevator. She steps off into the District 3 suites, and zombies forward into the lounge. And she doesn't stop, doesn't even notice that she's on the wrong floor, until she sees her. The troll girl who murdered her. Just standing there. And Anna's just too close to her when she notices, so she stops in her tracks.

"Oh, no. This isn't Four, is it."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The sudden presence of a stranger on her floor isn't particularly noteworthy. people come and go all the time, and she doesn't really have the time to keep up with the social lives of all of her district-mates. However, after a moment, Terezi realizes that this stranger isn't exactly as unfamiliar as she first thought.

There is a plate of some pasta and meat concoction in her hands, and it seems like she was intending to sit down in the lounge--and probably try to find something not terrible on the TV. But with this girl here--Anna, her brain helpfully supplies... There isn't much chance of her doing that now.

"No. It's Three." She sets the plate of food down on the coffee table. "You're Anna. Right?"

"Whoops." Anna hovers on the point of turning and fleeing for a moment, before a desire to be an adult about this whole thing keeps her planted. Right. She can do this. Nothing personal, right? Right.

"Yeah," she says faintly. "Anna." She takes a deep breath. "And you're Terezi. You're the one who...yeah."

"Yeah. I'm the one who hanged you," Terezi finished the sentence helpfully. She's aware that humans don't take quite as keenly to the idea of death as trolls do, but there's something to be said for not skirting around the edge of what they both know is true.

"Dave told me about you, afterwards. I didn't know you were a friend of his." She says it like an explanation, but not so much an apology. She's not actually sorry for trying to kill the girl, not with what information she had at the time. She is sorry that she ended up back at the Capitol again, though.

"I wasn't expecting you to come back. I would have tried to find you sooner."

"Right." Anna lets out a shaky laugh, trying to relax. She's pretty sure Terezi isn't a threat to her, she's not about to jump her again. It was just an Arena. "It's...it's okay. Nothing personal, right?"

She steps a little closer, perching on the arm of one of the sofas. "So you're Dave's friend, huh? What exactly did he say about me?" She ignores the comment about not coming back. She knows all too well that fear, and it's really not a subject she wants to broach right now.

Dave's friend. Yes, that's what they are. It's still sort of weird to feel like she's been demoted back to 'friend', after everything they've been through. She feels like there should be a better word for what she feels like they are, but there just isn't. Terezi scrunches her mouth up to one side briefly, thinking about that. But the moment passes and she doesn't remark on it.

Anna perches on the arm of the sofa, and Terezi takes the nearby chair, sinking into the cushions and pulling her plate onto her lap. "He said that you were a friend of his. A nice friend. I got the impression that he wasn't too happy that I killed you. Very awkward."

Anna's not quite sure what to make of that passing change in facial expression, but she's polite enough not to comment on it. Dave had mentioned, once upon a time, that the two of them had been a thing, but Anna's not exactly going to bring that up, so she lets it rest.

Letting her legs dangle from the side of the sofa, Anna shrugs her shoulders a bit, trying and failing not to be a little happy that Dave seems to have cared so much. "Oh, wow. Well, um, I'm sorry, I'm sure that is pretty awkward." And then the princess takes a deep breath, in and out, air whooshing out of her nostrils in the kind of sigh that means you've decided something. "Well, look. Any friend of Dave's is a friend of mine." She hesitates. "If--if you want, anyway. But I don't hold it against you. Killing me, I mean."

Terezi blinks in what is probably surprise. The plate of food sits in her lap, but it's left untouched at this revelation. Friends? After Terezi killed her in the arena? That is not usually the route that most of the other tributes tend to take. Sure, there's a general assumption among the lot of them that things done in the arena are unavoidable, so long as it doesn't involve malicious cruelty. Water under the bridge and all... But being friends with your murderer? Most don't go that far.

"Sure, if you want," she agrees, though there's a note of hesitance to her tone. Instinct has her wondering if she should be wary of this olive branch being offered, but at the same time, Anna seems pretty guileless.

"I guess friendship necklaces are out of the question?" she adds, testing the waters of her morbid humor.

To Anna, it's not so complicated; the princess never really had friends growing up, so her offer is in the spirit of kind-heartedness. Forgive and forget, that sort of thing. It doesn't occur to her to hold what Terezi did against her; after all, she's heard her side of things by now and it seems straightforward enough. It's not like the troll girl had a personal vendetta against her. So she smiles, even if Terezi can't see it. "Of course! I love making new friends," she chirps.

And then Terezi makes the necklace comment, and that actually makes Anna laugh. "Oh, goodness--that's a good one," she chuckles. "Maybe we'll stick to bracelets."

The laughter is encouraging. A bit of a smile pulls it's way onto Terezi's lips, and her posture eases up a bit.

"Bracelets..." She scrunches her mouth to the side again, lifting a finger to tap it against her chin in a mockery of deep concentration. "Nope. Can't make any noose jokes about that one. We can do bracelets. Assuming that you know how to make these friendship bracelets. Friendship was not a topic highly instructed upon in schoolhive, and I am sorely lacking in any know-how that concerns friendship knots."

Anna giggles through her fingers. "See? Perfect!" Terezi's assumption has her snorting, though.

"Please. I had a ton of free time growing up. I can make a friendship bracelet like no other." Even if, strictly speaking, she didn't have any friends. It beat needlepoint as a hobby, and gave her something to do to fill the time between eagerly devouring books.

"Wow, I didn't know that I was in the presence of a friendship expert!" Terezi feigns the surprise that goes along with her exclamation, eyes comically wide and one hand raised to cover her mouth.

"Please, teach me your ways. And then when we're done, we can dump all of our bracelets on Dave. I am sure that he will appreciate the surplus of friendship that we are about to prove to him."

"Oh, yes, absolutely! I have so many friends. Like, at least three." Not a trace of irony in her voice, either. She lowers her hand to her lap, grin growing wider.

"Absolutely. That sounds like a perfect plan. We all know how much he loves over-the-top displays of friendship and affection, after all!"

Wow. Three whole friends! Terezi nods, clearly impressed by this very hefty number. It only barely crosses her mind that Anna might not be joking about that number. Even living in a tree int he middle of the forest, Terezi had managed to acquire more friends than that.

"He does. I bet he would be even more impressed if we tied all the bracelets together and made a sweater out of them. Then he could wear all of our friendship at the same time."

This is getting just a little ridiculous. Maybe.

Anna giggles, spurred on by Terezi's continuous ridiculous suggestions. "Oh my gosh. Perfect! And then we could make matching pants. A whole suit of friendship." The idea is far too absurd, and she nearly tips off the couch laughing.

And once she calms down, she shakes her head. "He would hate that."

whoops wrong floor

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