Act I Part II

Let's Play Dress Up

Unlike Tavros and his Pokémon games that he considered his closest friends, Vriska had tangible people that she could go to if she wanted to have fun. And while, sure, those games might have been a little interesting, but real people were a lot better than virtual pixels named "8itchface" and "8itchlord" could ever be. Even if they were a lot less loyal and didn't attack when she wanted them to, like her Pokémon would have.

Okay, so maybe she was a bit addicted to playing those games. It wasn't like she had anything else she should be doing when she was at home. The moment she walked in that front door of the apartment, she wanted to get out of her stuffy "visiting people" clothes, flop on the couch with the nearest handheld video game system she could find, and drown out her memories of friends with the sights and sounds of whatever Pokémon game she was playing. It didn't matter what her and her friends had done that day, they required her to be dressed up decently, and she hated being dressed up more than anything. She would much rather have spent the entire day at work than in shoes that squished her feet and made it uncomfortable to stand.

Playing her games, though, didn't happen on work nights. Those she needed to spend sleeping. But nights after a day with friends, and the off days where she didn't have work or plans? Those were her moments of lounging around in her white gown and playing Pokémon. And this particular day she came home, kicked off her heels, and wandered to the bedroom, where she planned on changing into her gown. But it wasn't on her pillow, where she had set it that morning. In fact, it wasn't on the bed at all. It hadn't been put in her dresser (which was not where it belonged, clean or dirty), it wasn't in the closet, and it definitely wasn't on top of the large pile of dirty clothes that belonged to her and Tavros.

It was just gone. And no amount of searching that room was going to make it come back, she knew, but there was no sense in not trying. The third time she searched her dresser, she noticed that her favorite blue bikini was also missing. Maybe he had decided he was going to buy her something new, something blue but styled like her gown? Sometimes Tavros did things like that without warning, and although it bothered her, he didn't exactly have the confidence to ask her if it was okay. He just did it and became embarrassed whenever he revealed his gifts.

Speaking of Tavros, where was he? Vriska hadn't seen him when she came in, and she hadn't yet heard him say anything, and she had been home for twenty minutes by that point. He wasn't home, and that probably meant neither was her stuff. Bummed that she didn't have her gown, she threw on the closest shirt and comfortable pants she could find and went out to the couch, where the Game Boy and her copy of Pokémon Silver was waiting for her.

When she picked up her game, there was a note attached to the screen. Written in Tavros' sloppy handwriting, it read: "I went down to Dave's place for a night of fun and games. I hope you enjoyed your day with the girls." He signed it with his name, and a little heart. She sighed, because it was so sweet that he would think to leave her a note somewhere that she would definitely see it, but within seconds the gears of her mind were rotating and she realized that all these things were connected. She knew where her stuff was.

Running out the door and down the stairs as quickly as she could, she made it down three floors in record time, much faster than she would have if she was to have waited for the elevator, which was something she would never do. That third floor down was the floor that Dave lived on, as obvious by all the empty apartments and the loud music coming from the only occupied place on the floor, music that she was not expecting at all. Normally when she was on this floor, she was exposed to hipster music she had never even heard of before, but this time, it was a song she recognized as one of the current pop hits. Her fist hit the door, attempting to knock louder than the music. Five minutes she stood there knocking, until the door opened a little bit, and a near-white blonde head peeked around it, dark shades obscuring the eyes.

"Let me in, Strider," she hissed, and he shook his head. "Tavros is in there, and I demand that you let me in. Now!"

"Can't let you do that, Vriska." He began to close the door on her, until she stuck her hand inside his apartment. "I will slam you in the door if you don't pull out." The music turned off, and she could hear Tavros' scared breathing on the other side. "Okay, fine. Your arm comes off now."

Right as he said that, she shoved her foot inside. "Let me in. I've had enough of your bullshit to last me a lifetime, now give me back my boyfriend and my clothes and we'll call it good."

"I still can't let you do that." Instead of closing the door more, he opened it a bit wider. "Well, I can't give you the clothes back, anyway. That would be a bit hard, due to what we've done with them. Sorry, Vriska, but you're gonna have to leave."

"I'm not leaving without my gown and bikini," she said, pushing the door open a little more. "Those things are mine and I'd like to know they're home safe with me."

Finally, after a few more minutes of this banter, he opened the door all the way, him and Tavros both behind it. "Come on in, I guess, but don't say I didn't warn you." She stepped inside, hands on her hips, a very angry expression on her face.

"What's the big deal here?" Her voice raised, as did one eyebrow. They were still behind her, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to turn around. Thankfully, or maybe not, they came in front of her instead, and she gasped at exactly what she saw. Two grown men, wearing clothes that belonged to her. Her long-time boyfriend, posing in her white gown, which hung limp against his bony frame. Her friend, wearing her bikini, with the top stuffed very obviously with pieces of paper. They were posing, quite obviously mocking her. And she was angrier than she had been before. "Oh, so this is what you've been hiding? Cute."

"Vriska, we were, uh, just trying to see what it's like being you. I mean, you look fantastic whenever you wear this stuff, so we figured we'd give it a try..." Tavros had dropped his pose and was walking over to her, his metal leg braces hitting the ground with every bare-footed step. "We didn't mean any harm by it, okay?"

She glared at him, pushing his hand away when he tried to touch her arm with it. "You could have had the decency to ask, okay? I can't believe either of you, but especially you, Tavros! You know how much I love that gown, and you're now wearing it and you probably stretched it out getting it over your fucking huge shoulders." With only an eyeroll at Dave, she turned around and stormed out of the apartment, running back up the stairs before the tears had the chance to fall. They were disgusting, doing that to her and her stuff. It was wrong of them, and she was so hurt by it. Her door was still slightly open, and she went inside, collapsing on the couch and immersing herself in her video games. After all, her Pokémon were more loyal than those guys.

Hours passed, and the late evening turned to the dark of night. It had to have been nearly midnight when she heard the doorknob turning, and someone stepped inside. She didn't care; her Pokémon needed her, not whoever was there. "Just came to get my clothes, okay?" That was Dave's voice. "I left them here so you could be sure to get your precious swimsuit back. Tavros only told me a million times how much it means to you."

"Get your clothes and then get lost," she muttered in response, focusing more on her game than the fact that this meant that Dave walked through the building while wearing a bikini. "I don't want to deal with your shit anymore."

He disappeared into the bathroom, but when he came out, he was dressed in his normal attire and had her bikini in hand. "Here you go," he said, tossing it at her, "and have fun wearing that next summer. Bet you'll look better in it than I did."

"Yeah, whatever. You can leave now." Her game in one hand and her things in another, she motioned towards the door, which was once again opening, this time with a tall guy in a white gown coming in. "And you, you can just leave."

"I was planning to spend the night at Dave's, so that makes sense. Just came so you could have this back, since I know you won't sleep in anything else." With a sad sigh, Tavros walked past the couch where Vriska sat, not looking at her at all. However, Vriska knew him well enough to know that he was obviously upset at the whole thing, whether he meant to hurt her or not. When she heard the loud, very unmanly sobs coming from the bedroom, she knew she had done wrong, and she had to do something to fix it.

Ignoring the man who was waiting at her door, she got up from the couch and joined Tavros in the bedroom. He sat on the bed, still in her gown, his face buried in her hands. "Oh, sweetie, I didn't mean to make you cry..." It was the nicest voice she could muster, but it still sounded mean. "I'm just mad that you're wearing that."

"Great to know that a stupid piece of clothing means more to you than I do," he choked out, before looking at her straight in her blue eyes. "Why don't you go back out there and play your game, and I can just sit in here and cry?"

She crossed her arms as she stood there looking at his sobbing figure. "I don't want to play. Bitchlord isn't my boyfriend, you are."

"Of course that's what you're gonna say." He covered his eyes again. "Now tell me that you're going to leave me, because I'm waiting for it." When she didn't, he moved his hands and just stared. "Okay, where's the break-up? Where's the 'we need to go separate ways' talk you're about to give? Are you not going to do it?"

"No, I'm not, because that would be the jerk thing to do here. I might have been a bitch back there, but I'm not going to be a bitch now." She got up on the bed next to him. "Sorry about what I said about your shoulders. I like them, just so you know. They're one of my favorite parts about you."

His eyes widened a bit, and he wiped tears from them. "They are? What's your favorite part, then?" To say it, she got right up to his ear and whispered it, making his eyes widen a bit more as she backed away. "Oh, I get it. Well, what do you want to do about that?"

"What do you think?" she sarcastically asked, taking off her shirt and beginning to slide herself out of her pants. "I want you to get what you've got underneath that gown off and for you to join me underneath the blankets."

Standing in the front doorway waiting for Tavros, Dave was expecting maybe a loud fight or two, maybe some bangs, coming from the bedroom. He didn't expect that back room's door to shut, and the occasional loud moan or screamed name coming from it. After standing there awkwardly listening to that for a few moments, he walked out, locking and closing the door behind him. He had already been wearing Vriska's bikini, and he knew how much paper he had to use to stuff that—he didn't need the mental images coming to him of the real things that belonged in that top, real things that his friend was probably getting an eyeful of.


A/N: Originally posted to Tumblr August 2nd, 2012.

Here's more of the old and fun stuff. Things begin to get weird starting with the next chapter. Please let me know if you enjoy this look into my old writing past. (: