(no subject)

[hangingaround]

Who| Redglare and Terezi
What| Red is back in the Capitol and she and Terezi have a "talk"
Where| The Tribute Tower
When| A few days after Redglare's death in the arena
Warnings/Notes| Terrifying adult alien traumatizing teenage alien, possible arena discussion

She'd died. She had outlived her entire allied group, had watched one of them kill another and then killed one of them herself out of mercy. She had survived weeks in the desert, she'd made it so close to the end and then she'd died. To say she's angry is an understatement.

Every emotion she'd suppressed during the arena, the anger, the grief, the shame that came with being used for entertainment, felt intensified by tenfold and she had no way to get rid of it. The moment Redglare was allowed to leave she does so quickly and without a word. Woe be to anyone who crosses her path on her way back to the Tribute suites.

Comments

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi can't say that she is fairing much better. She's not exactly pleased with how that arena turned out, but she managed to do what she needed to do--what she felt that she needed to do. She expects that Karkat won't be happy with her, so she's been doing her best to avoid him (and Nepeta and everyone else, pretty much). She did her best to support the remaining members of their party, as well. It didn't help them to the end, but it was as much as she could do.

She's wandering about the Center now, heading towards the Training Arena for lack of anything better to do. As she rounds the corner of the corridor, the sound of footsteps reaches her ears. She recognizes the scent almost immediately, and her reaction is split between relief and fear. It's good that she's back, but Terezi doesn't really want to run into her, either. Especially not after that almost-argument following Signless's death. She still remembers the tension between them, and Terezi finds herself slowing to a halt and taking a step back. There's hesitation clear in her posture before she casually turns back the way she came and rounds the corner.

As soon as she's out of sight, she bolts, heading back towards the elevator.

[hangingaround]

Redglare's sight and hearing are better than Terezi gives her credit for. When she catches sight of Terezi her feelings are...mixed. Part of her is glad to see her in one piece but that relief doesn't last. She's already started to follow her when Terezi starts to run and that's when her foul mood and legislacerator training win out over any warm feelings she might have. She gives chase. After all, only the guilty run.

"Terezi!"

[pythianjudgment]

She should have known better than to run. She really should have, considering who she was running from. As soon as she hears her name shouted down the hall, panic flutters up in her chest. She reaches the elevator and pounds her fist into the button, but the elevator doesn't seem to be coming quick enough. It's wasting precious time, and she can't wait for it.

She hesitates indecisively by the doors before choosing to race for the stairs instead. There's no telling how far behind her Redglare is when she slams open the stairwell door. She doesn't turn to find out.

casually bullshits stairwell set-up for rule of awesome

[hangingaround]

Oh, Terezi. That was a terrible decision.

Redglare may be taller and faster than her descendant but it still takes her a few extra seconds to make it to the stairwell. She leans over the rail, narrowing her eyes as she watches the younger troll race down the stairs. She glances between the stairs next to her and Terezi. She takes a moment to weigh the pros and cons of her next action then decides fuck it, she's doing it.

She wraps one hand around the rail and half-jumps to climb on top of it. After a brief pause to gain balance she leaps from the rail, falling through the air before landing hard on her feet not far in front of Terezi. The force of her fall makes her crouch into a kneel but she quickly stands despite the sharp ache and quaking in her legs. Even behind her glasses her gaze is hard and set on the younger troll.

casually shrieks quietly

[pythianjudgment]

Both the noise and the sudden appearance of her ancestor in front of her has Terezi skidding to a stop--a reaction that send her skittering down a few steps and dropping onto her backside. Her eyes are wide, staring blindly up at Redglare with the sort of terror that comes from knowing exactly what comes next. She's read about her ancestor in scenarios like this... She never thought in a million sweeps that she would be on the receiving end.

Terezi scrambles to her feet, backing up a few steps under the intensity of that gaze. She doesn't know what to do. She knows all of the wrong things to do, all of the things that she's read in stories and in her own escapades. She knows she shouldn't run. She knows she shouldn't make excuses. She knows she shouldn't beg. But that doesn't stop the thoughts from flitting through her mind, even as she viciously crosses them out.

But what is the right way to handle this, then? She doesn't want to die. Even more than that, she doesn't want her own ancestor and childhood idol to look down on her like that. She hasn't done anything wrong--not really, but she doesn't know how to convince Redglare of that. She doesn't know what to say.

Against her better judgment, Terezi turns and runs back up the stairwell for the corridor door again.

[hangingaround]

Redglare's face twists into a scowl. Terezi is just making things worse for herself with all this running. Her ancestor hadn't had any plans to kill her before but the more she runs, the more tempting it's starting to seem.

She bolts after Terezi, reaching out and grabbing her arm. She's not careful nor gentle when she all but throws Terezi against the wall and looms over her. She'll probably be punished for this somehow later but at the moment she's beyond caring.

"We need to talk."

[pythianjudgment]

The force of hitting the wall knocks the wind from her lungs, effectively cutting off the panicked yelp that had initially issued from her lips. She stands with her back pressed to the wall, her eyes wide and unblinking. She tries to mask her terror, tries to stand straight and not cower, but it's easy to see the way she presses herself back flush against the wall, small and frightened beneath Redglare's looming form. Worse than the terror is the weight in her stomach--the steadily increasing dread of failure and disappointment and loathing, and all the things that she hoped would never be directed from Redglare to her.

"I didn't do anything wrong," she finally says, her voice not registering as strongly as she would have hoped.

backtags the fuck out of this

[hangingaround]

The older troll is silent for a moment, looking down at her with a hardened gaze. She thinks, just for a moment, about how small Terezi looks at this moment. Like a trapped animal who knows Death's Handmaid is near but still thinks if it can plead enough it will live. She's seen this look countless times before on nearly every criminal she's ever apprehended.

"Then why did you run?"

[pythianjudgment]

"Because..." Her voice falters. Because she knows that her ancestor thinks she has. Because maybe she did do something wrong, but not for the reason that she thinks. Because she was scared.

"I didn't want to talk." It was the truth, at least, as much of it as she could admit. "There isn't anything to talk about."

[hangingaround]

"I disagree." Her voice is surprisingly even for someone as angry as she is. It's not a good sign. "I think we have plenty to talk about when it comes to a blatant act of betrayal."

[pythianjudgment]

"It wasn't--" Betrayal. She feels sick, just at the thought. She shouldn't care--she knows what she was doing, but the look that her ancestor is fixing her with and the tone of her voice... She wants to crawl under something and cover her head. She shouldn't explain, but jegus, does she want to. Redglare would understand, then, wouldn't she?

"He wasn't going to make it--" No, that was a lie. If she really believed that, she wouldn't have done what she did. She wouldn't have been afraid to let the pieces fall where they did. "He couldn't be allowed to make it to the end."