Author's Notes: Somebody slow me down. Introducing another troll here. Hope you like. Just so you know, I like to think that Vriska still calls Kanaya fussyfangs now, but as a term of endearment.
Behind Blue Lies – Part 3
There's enough shock, enough respect for what happened, enough fear of her in that moment that a purple actually moves towards the fallen body, hand reaching for the hilt, before he remembers what's going on. Then he's frozen still like all the others.
"No? Okay. I'll get it myself," Vriska says, starting to stride forward, but making damn sure that she's moving slow enough that when Veruna invariably stops her, it will be well out of arm range.
"You..." Veruna's voice growls, high pitched and painful in its intensity. "How dare you?!"
"First, it's early, and I'm tired. You take forever with your kills, Highness. Second, he was too fucking stupid to be worth your attention. Finally if he was going to be free for the kill, he'd already done more than enough for me to claim the right."
"But he was mine!" Veruna roared with fury.
"Then you should have beat me to him."
Tension, fury, approval, and then all Vriska can feel is amusement as the fuchsia bursts into laughter. She'll live through the day... for now.
"I should have at that. Honestly, girl, I didn't think you had it in you. You've never bothered to bloody your hands before."
"Never felt the need before. The less blood directly on my hands the harder it would be for an enforcer to pin things on me."
"If all my followers used there pans so well as you, this would all be smoother. Then again, I'd likely find myself with backstabbers to..." The last words came with a meaningful glance, but there was no true suspicion behind it so Vriska didn't even flinch. Sometimes her empathy was a true blessing.
"Can we just get on with this now? I'm absolutely bored."
"Of course," Veruna said, full of graciousness now, "And here, let me help with your dagger."
The dagger slid easily from Calgor's back. Well, easily was sort of a relative term. There was a sickeningly wet sound as the blade slid free, and if Vriska hadn't heard the blade grind against bone before, she and everyone else could now. Yet it was nothing but a quick jerk from Veruna and the blade was free. The fuchsia turned the blade in her hand, inspecting it for a moment, then with a delighted grin she returned her attention to Calgor's body. One quick slice and the torn fin was cut free from his face. This too Veruna contemplated for a moment, and with a wider grin she dipped the tips of the fin into Calgor's pooling blood. A few quick brushes of the fin and there were new, feathered streaks of violet gracing her gown. A bloody finger soon added spots of violet to the tips of her horns, and finally, with an audible snap and a quiet groan from all watchers, Veruna snapped the jagged horns that looked like the teeth in a shark's mouth from his head. Those would soon grace her belt, no doubt, and the very idea made Vriska sick.
At last Veruna rose from her gruesome task, and sauntered back to the front of the cave. When she reached Vriska her hand was held out, the dagger and fin resting in the upturned palm.
"You said you should cut the fin from his face. And you did kill him. Consider it a token of the triumph of pan over fists."
There was no refusing, and no accepting with anything but composure. Quickly Vriska took back her dagger, pausing only to wipe Calgor's blood off it with the corner of her solar protection garment before sheathing it. The fin was taken gently, as if with pride and reverence, and slipped into a pocket in the inside of her garment. Veruna nodded with approval and at last turned her attention back to the rest of the trolls.
"I think after this morning's little show, we won't get much done. You may all leave. I expect your return here in two weeks. Now, get out of here."
Vriska, as all the others, bowed before the fuchsia before turning and stepping over Calgor's body, through the crack the Keeper had reopened. No one lingered, not even to gossip as they were wont to do. No one wanted to earn Veruna's ire. Or Vriska's for that matter. So she was left alone to pull up her hood, careful of the tear, and strike out into the now blazing sun. The hive and comfort of Kanaya's arms were hours away, and standing around would get her nowhere fast.
She only made it a mile before collapsing, the true weight of what she'd done finally catching up with her. What little she'd managed to get down at supper forced its way back up, turning the sand before her blue from the bile. When nothing else could come up she fumbled for the pocket inside her garment, and pulled Calgor's tattered fin forth. Carefully she stumbled back to her feet and with a flick of her wrist the fin dropped to the sand. Quickly Vriska kicked sand over both fin and vomit, hiding them in the brilliant, scalding white powder.
She'd done what she'd had to do to survive, not that the knowledge made it any better. Vriska had seen a few deaths before, and they were never easy on her empathic gift. The final wave of feelings was thick with fear, anger, sorrow, and so many things that there weren't names for and it was overpowering on its own when by natural causes. But a violent death? That was a whole other level of trauma. Vriska'd had the misfortune of witnessing one of Veruna's punishments early on, and had she been in the eyes of the others, they'd have known her gift instantly, or Veruna would have had it from here eventually. The emotions had literally doubled her over in pain, filling her head with echoes of fear, pain, utter terror, and Vriska could do nothing about it.
Vriska hadn't killed Calgor because she wanted to, but because she needed to. Letting Veruna do it could have driven her mad, so Vriska had instead taken a life.
There was blood on her hands, and it didn't seem to matter that it'd saved her. Even if she'd let Veruna kill Calgor, the fuchsia only would have done it because Vriska forced him to reveal his stupidity. Either way the blood was on her hands, and for what? To try and help the surviving loved ones of a dead brown?
No, not dead. She couldn't be sure of that. Not dead until she could prove it. She would find the beasttalker and do something to undo some of the damage Calgor had wrought.
All she had to do was find a possibly dead troll.
Easiest thing in the world.
Absolutely.
Fuck.
It's nearing sunset by the time Vriska makes it back to the hivestem, and hauls herself through the door and into the safety of her hive. Problem is that it's nearly sunset, which means Kanaya has been up for at least an hour, and would be bustling around like the fussyfangs she was. Normally Vriska didn't get back until Kanaya had shuffled off to her work. Normally Vriska had hours to compose herself before she saw her matesprit. And now...
Now she wasn't quite sure if she cared how her matesprit saw her. The walk had been as long and hard as ever, but emotions had been higher and... And. That was the problem, wasn't it? For once, she didn't give any of the fucks about what Kanaya felt or thought about her. She just wanted to collapse on the slab and forget. Pretend she was just a normal cerulean without vision eightfold, without empathy, and without blood on her hands. All she wanted was rest without daymares, memories, or anything else. Sleep and forget. Sleep and stop being Vriska Sekret.
"Vriska? I was not anticipating your return before my own departure, so I fear that I have not prepared an extra serving of evening meal to share with you."
Some small part of Vriska's mind, the part reacting to Kanaya's delight and surprise at her matesprit's return, wanted to pretend everything was normal. The rest of her couldn't give any of the fucks, and it wasn't even worth it to try. So she just unstrapped her solar protection garment, and let it fall to the floor behind her as she made for the couch. The dagger sheathe strapped to her thigh soon followed, making a loud thunk on the floor as she finally flopped down on Kanaya's favorite couch. The familiar padded cloth was cool pressed up against her cheek, and Kanaya's taste in everything meant it was soft as well. All in all it was a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.
"Vriska?"
There were footsteps now. She should care, should really fucking care, but it's just not happening. The only thing that is are the tears mercilessly stinging in her eyes, threatening to stain the lovely couch should she let them fall. They're almost enough to block out the echoes of Kanaya's emotions, which she'd grown so attuned to that she didn't even need to be in the same block as her matesprit to sense them. Except the tears are a miserable block against emotion when a gasp from Kanaya is accentuated by a wave of fear and concern. Fuck, Vriska'd forgotten about all Calgor's blood on the corner of her garment. That and the dagger she normally hid now being left in plain sight... Fussyfangs was going to have a fit.
"By the Mother Grub. Vriska, just what has occurred since I saw you last? To whom does this blood belong? Are you uninjured? Vriska..."
"Kanaya," Vriska responded, forcing her voice to come out strong and even. "Don't. Just don't ask. Because if you ask again, I'm going to have to tell you. For my sake... For Gamzee's sake, don't ask me."
There was no response, just the odd cold feeling Vriska got when her matesprit got upset enough to emotionally shut down. After the sound of footsteps and door opening and closing, Vriska was left alone with her tears. And she let them flow freely.
She could apologize to Kanaya later for the stain.
The thing about crying is that in the end, it's a great way to fall asleep. Then again, Vriska noted as she jerked awake some hours later, it also left you with serious panaches. Between that and the overload on her empathy, Vriska was left groaning as she pushed herself up into a seated position. Her pan felt as if it had been struck multiple times by exceedingly heavy hammers. As much as she wanted to crawl to the slab, flop down and sleep the rest of the night and maybe the next day, her pan had to be dealt with first. So Vriska shoved herself off the couch and aimed herself in the direction of the hygiene block
Unfortunately the second she stood, the hive seemed to spin around her. That just wouldn't do. Stumbling around a hive full of pretty art pieces and sharp corners wasn't on her list of desires. So, with a sigh, Vriska sat down on the floor and patiently waited for the spinning to stop. When, after a few minutes, it seemed quite certain the block would not comply and her head wouldn't allow for patience, she took the last avenue available to her: crawling. Wasn't like there was anyone around to notice the lack of dignity.
By the time she reached the hygiene block her vision was swimming, and for once she was thankful for Kanaya's need for perfect order in the hive. When she hauled herself to standing, her hands tightly gripping the reinforced hand ablution trap as she fumbled for the door of the remedy case, her hand knew exactly where it'd find the pain suppressor medications without looking. No need for trying to force her vision clear long enough to find the damn bottle. All she had to do was pull it down, open it, and pop a few pills.
Opening turned out to be the hard part, and in the end the bottle broke under the concentrated efforts of her clenching fist. No, that wasn't right. The real hard part was making sure that she didn't take shards of plastic instead of pills. Still, soon enough Vriska was perched on the edge of the ablution trap, swallowing the pain suppressors and willing them to take effect. Sadly they never did fast enough, so Vriska stripped down, crawled into the ablution trap, and turned the water on as hot as she could tolerate—no where near as hot as Kanaya could, of course. The spray of water warmed her body, and soothed the panache away, but did nothing to help the thoughts running rampant through her pan. Didn't soothe away the ills of the morning, no matter how much she wished it would, even if the water and pills managed to free her of the dizziness. No, what had happened had happened, and she had to do something about it.
Which begged the question: how was she going to find the brownblood?
The answer leapt to her mind like one of Gamzee's often toted miracles. Without even letting her head clear the rest of the way, Vriska threw herself from the shower and pulled on a towel. Then it was off to the second respite block that she and Kanaya used as an office, where her husktop was powered up and waiting.
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
AG: Weeeeeeeell if it isn't my favorite troll.
TA: 2hiit what do you want now vrii2ka
AG: Can't a girl just want to talk to her old friends?
TA: maybe but that appliie2 two normal giirl2 doe2nt iit
AG: And I'm not normal?
TA: no
AG: ::::O Well, when you're right, you're right. I need some help.
TA: when dont you never miind what do you need
AG: The full power of your networks and your woooooooonderful 8ees.
AG: I have irons needing tending.
TA: fiigured iit wa2 2omethiing liike that more data plea2e
AG: I've found, 8y the usual means, that our mutual friends have 8een out visiting again.
AG: 8ut there's a pro8lem.
TA: ii2nt there alway2 wiith you
AG: I was l8 finding out a8out this. I've got noooooooo clue who the visitee was.
AG: I need you to find him.
TA: waiit you want me two fiind 2omeone you dont even know the name of who miight already be dead
TA: what do you thiink ii am
AG: My miracle worker.
TA: hardly
AG: You found me didn't you?
TA: and iive been payiing for that ever 2iince
AG: 8etter you than Cyclos, right?
TA: ... riight
AG: I'm not treating this like you still owe me.
TA: liike ii can ever pay you back for what you diid for u2
AG: You don't owe me, Sollux. You've more than done that in spades now. :::;D
TA: that wa2 2o funny ii forgot two laugh that moron 2hout2 iin hii2 2leep you know
AG: Really? I'll pass that on to his m8sprit. May8e he'll make a trip out to visit. Still, you're protecting him, despite everything from the hierarchists. What more can a troll ask for?
TA: clearly favor2 ton2 and ton2 and ton2 and ton2 of favor2
AG: AAAAAAAALL the favors! ::::D
AG: Anyway, I need to find this 8rown, dead or alive.
TA: fiine have anythiing more two go on than the blood color
AG: Well, he's a 8easttalker. Does that help?
TA: ii 2uppo2e ii could try gettiing iintwo the p2ychiic regii2try datacomb no promii2e2 though
TA: that thiing ii2 harder two crack than your pan
AG: I'll have aaaaaaaall the faiths in you, Sollux.
TA: 2ure iill get back two you when ii diig 2omethiing up
AG: Thanks, Sollux. I'll owe you for this.
TA: then get thii2 damn 2houtiing rage machiine out of my hiive
AG: D:::: Sorry, Sollux. Can't do that. He's still got two sweeps on his internship down there.
AG: Trust me, his m8sprit is pretty un8eara8le at times 8ecause of this. Hell, Terezi is un8eara8le without him around.
TA: ii doubt theyre nearly 2o unbearable a2 kk ii2
AG: You'd 8e surprised.
AG: Anyway, I've got some things to get to. Good luck.
TA: iill need iit
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]