[OPEN] They say Curiosity killed the cat...

[pythianjudgment]

Who: Terezi; OPEN
What: Exploring the city, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Come meet the blind alien girl, let her sniff you, etc.
Where: District 3 Quarters, Training Area or out in the Capitol. (Anywhere that she might run into your character!)
When: Shortly after arrival; nowish.
Warnings: None that immediately come to mind.



Most people might be more apprehensive upon waking up in a strange place, being given a strange device, and told that they'll be participating in a strange--and rather macabre--death match event. Terezi Pyrope, however, has never been one for timidity.

She finds herself wandering the tribute-accessible regions of the Capitol, sniffing about whatever colorful bit of the city catches her fancy and interrogating whoever she comes across... So long as they seem in the least bit knowledgeable. That rules out most of the foppish looking citizens, but hey. There's always time for a break to harass the locals while on the hunt for Truth and Justice.

She realizes that she could probably find more immediate contact over this communication device, but let's be honest: She doesn't trust it as far as she can throw it.

Comments

[amourtician]

Jay's in the lounge when he spots Terezi -- he doesn't immediately recognise her, but assumes that she's a Tribute, like him. After all, no trolls are citizens of the Capitol, yet. Some of them dress like it, but Terezi's dressed too soberly to be anything but the genuine article.

He hesitates to approach her, at first, but the trolls seem to like him better than humans (or, at least, Initiate and Signless do) and he figures he might as well try making some more allies before the next Arena.

He comes up to Terezi, unsure how to announce his presence. He hasn't got a lot of experience with social things, let alone social things with people who cannot see him. Eventually, he clears his throat as loudly as he can and chirps, "good morning, dearest!"

[pythianjudgment]

Her head jerks at the sound, one eyebrow quirk in the general direction of the voice. She could smell her company perfectly fine, but it's a bit amusing that they felt the need to "tip her off" to their location. She sniffs a bit, and her other eyebrow rises to meet the first in an expression of skeptical amusement.

"Wow, I am pretty sure that there is nothing particularly "good" about this morning or any morning, and there is nothing particularly "dear" about me!" She grins a bit. "Do you want to try that again, Mr. Blueberry Cocoacrunch?"

[amourtician]

"Blueberry? I think I'm a more exotic fruit than that," Jay says and giggles at his own terrible joke. "And the morning is good, sweetness. We're alive, not in an Arena and nobody's trying to kill us or get our autographs. That's as good as it gets around here."

He looks Terezi up and down and adds, "and, my dove, you'd be quite dear if you followed your stylist's advice and ditched the troll uniform. I do approve of your blood colour, however! Very vibrant. Almost blue."

Blue is the best, after all.

Terezi's apparently hostility is not fazing Jay at all. She seems neither as inherently nasty as the Psiioniic nor as prone to explosion as Karkat. Prickliness he can handle.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat is leaving the movie theatre--where he'd just seen Feelings Unsaid, a somewhat indie romcom about love blooming between two Avoxes--when he sees her across the street. At first he thinks it's some terrible coincidence, a troll fangirl who'd had her skin dyed grey, who'd actually paid attention when they'd said horns didn't come in those colors, who'd picked such a spikey pair by chance--but that swagger and the way she sniffs the air is completely unmistakable.

"Terezi?" he whispers. Then, louder, calling out to her, "TEREZI!" Fuck, where's the crosswalk, never mind, he'll just dart through traffic--shit, that was a close one, fucking humans and their ridiculous, dangerous vehicles--

Okay. There. He's over there. She's here. Holy fuck, she's here.

... is it just him, or is she taller than he remembers?

[pythianjudgment]

If there was any doubt still lingering in his mind, that's probably gone when Terezi's head snaps around to the sound of her name. She would recognize that voice almost anywhere, but she's half convinced that she's hallucinating when she doesn't immediately smell the owner. The clothing in the Capitol is much more distracting than she's normally used to.

She smells him when he starts dashing through traffic towards her, though. She moves to meet him at the curb, yanking him forcibly away from the street when he's finally in reach. It's a miracle he didn't get run over. She's not sure whether to feel more irritated or relieved at the moment, but she's certainly glad that she's not alone anymore, even if it doesn't come across in her greeting...

"Are you crazy?" she snaps, mostly of concern and still holding onto his arm.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Shut up," Karkat replies irritably. Normally he'd be yanking his arm away from her hand, but right now her touching him is okay, really, because it means she's really there. "I've been fucking worried, okay? I didn't know if any of you guys were alive or dead."

He takes a deep breath, looks up at her face. "I guess they got you too, then. Shit." When they'd asked Karkat what he missed, he'd said her like a complete and utter nooksniffing moron. Fuck. Fuck, she's here because of him.

[honeyedwords]

Holmes is, as ever, skulking about the District 3 quarters. He's spent the past few days laid up with a particularly trying bout of ennui (and withdrawal), but has finally decided that enough is enough and ventured out of his quarters. Just in time to meet one of the new tributes too, it seems. Should've checked the transmissions they sent him about new arrivals, oh well, he'll find out more useful things through direct contact anyway.

"Hello," he calls from across the room, where he's currently applying ice to a bee sting. One of them got out of the self-contained hive and panicked before he got the chance to usher her back home. A shame, really. "Enjoying your stay here?"

There's a particularly bitter bite to his voice implying that he does not expect an answer in the positive.

[pythianjudgment]

"Oh, yes! Being kidnapped from my psuedo-home and thrust into death match cage arenas is my favorite pastime. My utilization of your human sarcasm is how my species expresses our deepest and unyielding affection for such magnanimous considerations!"

Somehow, Terezi doubts this stranger will be thrown too much by the deceptively cheerful response.

She makes her way over to him, taking a moment upon reaching him to sniff lightly in his direction. Human, she's mostly certain, now that she's bothering to clarify that. He smells a little scruffy around the edges to her, not much like the clean and crisp scents that have been greeting her nose since she woke up in this place. Which means at the very least, he's probably not responsible for her being here. Not directly, anyway.

"So, who are you?"

[honeyedwords]

"Good to hear," he replies in kind. Hopping to his feet, Holmes places his icepack on the table and looks the new arrival up and down. Unfortunately he hasn't met enough trolls to be able to infer as much as he'd like at a glance. The sniffing is odd, and the redness to her eyes looks different enough from the Psionic's up close that he has reason to suspect there's something wrong with them, but she seems confident enough. It could be that his assessment is entirely off the mark, or that trolls rely less heavily on sight than humans.

"Sherlock Holmes. I won the Hunger Games before our exalted Capitol figured out how to conscript new tributes from places unknown for their bloodsports, so I'm intended to teach you and the others assigned to District 3 how to smile and wave and try not to die."

He extends a hand to her for a handshake, mostly just to see what she'll do about it. This is, perhaps, a good time to note the black and yellow stripes tattooed up the lengths of both his arms.

[likewhatilike]

Mickey is in the training area spending times with the knives again, because you might as well start with something you're familiar with, when Terezi walks into the room.

"What the fuck are you?" he says loudly.

[pythianjudgment]

Well. That is honestly one reaction that she hasn't gotten in a while! It's almost a refreshing break from the excitable chittering awe of the locals.

"Trollicus Alternian. Species native to the planet Alternia. Technologically advanced. Incredibly invasive. Carnivorous. Easily provoked by loud noises and stupid people." She grins wide, a mouth full of perfectly aligned teeth that could fashion themselves better as Exacto knives.

"You should really brush up on your intergalactic zoology. For your own sake."

[likewhatilike]

How could she not have gotten that reaction in a while? Really, has she seen herself lately? She's a walking billboard of what the fuck happened to you crossed with should be locked in a fucking lab somewhere. Mickey doesn't believe in aliens, he just believes that some people are more fucked up than others and congratulations you even surpassed Molly (his half brother who thinks he's a girl with a girl penis because his mother told him so).

"Cut the bullshit," he says incredulously, "someone must have fucked you up good."

Weed. He needed weed right now. And alcohol. A shit ton of alcohol.

[polyturtle]

Terezi was right about the comms; Don certainly didn't trust it. He rarely used it, at least in comparison to many of the others. On his part, he was in the Training Center, practicing with a bo. It had been awhile since he'd used his best weapon. It felt right. At least something did.

Perhaps Terezi could smell the turtle upon her arrival. He was certainly difficult to miss, blind or otherwise.

[pythianjudgment]

She does not miss the turtle. Even being blind and new and whatever other factors might be playing into this... She does not miss the very large turtle.

She "watches" for a while--meaning she stands at a distance and stares at him with sightless red eyes while sniffing the air. She's never met someone with the same fighting style as her before, or at least the same weapon proficiency. "Sticks" usually didn't have enough lethality to be popular among troll youth.

"Isn't that cheating?" she calls after a while. "Having a built-in shield has to be against the rules or something; I'm calling foul."

[polyturtle]

"Hmm?" At this, Don turned to face the...new troll. Huh. They were quite in demand, weren't they. "If that's so, you'd have to discount people who use any self-defense whatsoever. Since that's technically a 'built-in' shield."

He gave her a smile.

"So...hi."

Glasses. Either this girl had a sight problem or-

[arachnoble]

Oh, good. Her newest tribute. She's not sure what to do about the sniffing, but she can work with a troll. She's seen enough of them out and about (and she's heard stories from the other escorts, those poor souls), so Sybille is almost certain she can handle Terezi.

She approaches her in the three common room, dressed to the nines in a deep blue dress that's long and flowy but actually horribly simple by Capitol standards. It shows off her tattoos, at least. (Though, really, most anything she would wear would show off the tattoos on her chest, a very subtle glimmer that looks like she was covered in web.)

"Oh, good. I'm glad to see you up."

[pythianjudgment]

The screeching halt of Terezi's thought process is probably not audible to anyone but Terezi herself, but it's certainly visible in the way that she turns and stops, motionless. The spiderwebs and the deep blueberry cloth... There's even something in the air about her that smells cold and unpleasant.

It hits her in a wave, a gut-wrenching reminder. She has to wonder if this human did it on purpose, or if this is some sort of comical coincidence. Either way, her guard is up almost instantly.

"That makes one of us," she answers without humor. "What do you want?"

[teethofneedles]

Karis looks (and smells) dead. All dark colors and rotted flesh, broken up by the sharp, acid yellow glow of her eyes. She still doesn't spend much time out in the Capital (she doesn't like getting stares, even if some of them are fans from her last excursion into the arena). So she spends her time lurking around the lounge, mostly. She's used to strange people, but a grey-skinned girl with red eyes is a bit different then anything else she's seen here. At least so far.

"You're different," she comments in a raspy, gravelly voice, "They just drag you into our little game?"

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi's nose wrinkles at this one. The scent of death isn't something that she's fond of, even being as familiar with it as she is. The acridness of it burns her nose a bit.

"Not as different as you! Even I can tell that." Terezi rubs her nose to ease the sharpness of the scent. Give it a minute or two and it'll die down, she knows that well enough. "But yeah, consider me recently dragged. Dignity intact, no kicking and screaming here. ...What about you?"

[tis_allgood]

Bert is surprised to see an unfamiliar troll wandering the capitol, and his first instinct says that it's some citizen who took the troll trend a bit far. But she isn't acting like a citizen. This will require some further investigation.

"Pardon me, sai, are you lost?"

[pythianjudgment]

With the words "Pardon me", Terezi is already bracing for more of the local's drivel about her horns and her glasses and her species in general. It's hard to go even a block without getting hassled by some vapid human dolled up like a fruit tart (according to her). She's relieved when the person addressing her smells... normal-ish.

"That depends." She flashes a razor sharp smile. "Can I be lost if I'm not really going anywhere?"

[celebrityskinned]

Venus, like Terezi, is attracted to every part of the Capitol she can get her feet to. It's much more difficult now that she can't teleport, but she supposes that now that she's eating food for flavor with her new tastebuds, it's good to work off those calories by walking around.

It's not that she doesn't trust her stylists, but when she sees a bakery she pops on in and sniffs around. It may not be a celebrity fragrance, but Venus has to admit she loves foodie scents. The rising buns reminds her of when she was little and her mother used to turn the breadmaker on in the morning, so they'd come home to a fresh loaf.

But she tries not to think about people who aren't here and never will be, so she focuses on the people she can see. She focuses on another girl poking her head in and greets her with a peppy, friendly grin that can be heard even in her voice.

"Awesome horns. They natural?"

[pythianjudgment]

"If they're not, then someone's been lying to me for seven sweeps."

Terezi grins back at the girl who greeted her, momentarily distracted from those warm heavenly scents that led her in here in the first place. She was poised to fling her credit card onto the counter and scoop as many pastries into a bag as she could, but she should probably do the meet-and-greet thing first. Or at least somewhat simultaneously.

She indeed flings her card onto the counter, but only grabs a cherry turnover.

"I am going to guess that you are also here to enjoy the salacious financial freedom that we are being granted before our untimely demises."

[andproper]

Prim could be seen as quite timid, in comparison. Not that she wasn't brave, in her own way - but it was a very... quiet bravery. As willing as she was to risk herself for whatever she held dear, she much preferred the cautious approach. Especially when it involved others who might be at risk too.

Still, that hasn't stopped her from exploring the city - and, occasionally, she's a bit more curious than she would have thought when it comes to the trolls. How do they work? Do they heal differently? Can they survive well here? So far, the naswer here seems to keep being yes... but there's a lot of them, and they're all so different.

So. She finds herself approaching the woman.

[pythianjudgment]

Being out in the city attracts a certain amount of attention. Not st much as some of her fellow trolls, since she has yet to set foot in the Arena, but there's still a certain level of gawking and general invasiveness that Terezi has been trying very hard to block out.

As such, she doesn't immediately notice the girl approaching her, and even when she does, all she really manages as far as an expression goes is to lift one brow above the edge of her glasses in greeting. And grin.

"Hello. Yes, they are real. No, I will not autograph your spleen. And if you touch my glasses, I will rain the fury of a thousand angry dragons upon your tiny daffodil head." Okay, so no one has actually asked her to autograph their spleen--or anything else for that matter. But she's fully expecting it before too long.