Soteriophobia and Snark
part two: song and dance
Kanaya's hands ball into useless fists again as she stares at her computer screen, at the darkened glass where the faint outline of her own face gazes calmly back. She keeps her normal breathing style, in and out, in and out, but she really wants to just smash something.
She has not yet gotten a message from arachnidsGrip [AG].
The urge to smash something fades into common sense. What would she smash? Preposterous.
Kanaya is really awful at being angry at her friends. When people annoy her... oh, she fears for those people. She excels at grudges and revenge and epic domination plots, but if the anger is at someone she cares for, (such as a friend,) she just drops it. She lets it fall, slowly and secretively, into the pit of unexpressed emotions inside of her. Someday it'll bubble over and burn her hands and heart like boiling water, but someday isn't now, so she pretends it isn't happening.
Kanaya recently made Vriska a beautiful, slender dress to fit her beautiful, slender form, and one whole week later, Vriska has not yet uttered those two words.
Thank you.
Kanaya wants them more than she'd admit; she wants them so badly that sometimes, when she's depressed and lonely, she buries her face in her hands and cries say it say it say it. Say the words. But she knows that it's a quest of futility, and she doesn't really understand why she is holding out hope for it. Her moirail isn't the thanking type.
Vriska runs roughshod over people she hates, and she barely tolerates the ones she likes. Kanaya is still baffled that she's looked after the Thief of Light since they were only a few sweeps. Vriska Serket is a tornado. She burns bridges with everyone she knows... actually, more like she burns bridges, pathways, sidebuildings and the town halls they're connected to. She's positively outrageous and extremely dramatic, the ultimate epitome of what they call a high-maintenence friend. One of those ones who suck your energy and make you sigh exasperated sighs at ridiculous times when you are supposed to be sleeping.
The first time they had ever talked it had been about some roleplay game they had been interested in a long long time ago. When chatting with her on Trollian, Kanaya had brushed Vriska off as a know-it-all-y loner type who only cared about success, and when Kanaya told her this in her usual decisive manner, there was no response from Vriska until late that night.
It had proceeded to go a little something like this.
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]
AG: H8y. I think it was pretty br8ve of you to share your opinion of me. Not many trolls have str8-up said that I act stuck-up.
GA: Youre Joking
GA: Being Sarcastic
GA: Right
GA: Now Youll Go Be All Huffy
AG: Nope.
AG: You don't m8ke me feel irria8ted as much as some of the others do. In consquence, I do not dislike you.
GA: Interesting
GA: So You Say Your Name Is Vriska
AG: Yeah. What's yours? Not that I care a ton or anything.
The troll girls had proceeded to stay up that entire night, with Vriska doing most of the talking. Kanaya gained many new nicknames, plenty of them curses, some of them playful variations of the final choice name: Fussyfangs. Kanaya learned, eyes weary with need to sleep, that Vriska liked to FLARP to feed her lusus, who was a giant spider, and she could be a little bit overdramaaaaaaaatic sometimes, and whenever she said "cahoots" she turned it into "cahoooooooots." Vriska learned that Kanaya typed responses slowly when she was tired, and because of this, Kanaya learned of Vriska's mile-wide impatient streak. Pictures were exchanged, hive descriptions were given, and terrible jokes, the later the worse, were shared. Kanaya, for reasons unknown to her, saved the chatlog as a document, feeling the tingle in her chest cavity that... probably signified a potential friendship?
Anyway, many sweeps and all-night pity parties later, it's so hard to hate Vriska, even though she's hyper, melodramatic, volatile, and doesn't say thank you. For every bad trait the messy-haired girl has, Kanaya can think of a matching good one.
Her computer gives off a signal and dark blue text fills her screen, and Kanaya's heart skips a beat.
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]
AG: Oh h8y. The dress fits gr8, Fussyfangs, but the neckline could be better, more low cut, ok8y?
Kanaya sighs and grins in spite of herself.
She types quickly, eager to make her moirail happy.
GA: Okay
Kanaya, before hitting the OK to send off the message, suddenly feels that's a little too infinite without punctuation, even though it's her style. So she fixes it.
GA: Okay.
This is their song and dance. And Kanaya is willing to go along with it, because as long as she doesn't provide fuel, Vriska won't burn their bridge.
AG: Fix it soon, Fussyfangs! The shoulder adjustments took foreeeeeeeeveeeeeeeer.
Their weird, grand-but-crooked, slightly worn-out, mostly-finished unrequited-love half-assed-pretend-hate bridge.
