asgardeventide | thr33 • [action + video]

Entry tags:

thr33 • [action + video]

[action; open to ash, kieran, and anyone else who might have reason to show up at tz's hive.]

[An egg shows up in her block. Okay. Eggs were showing up everywhere, right? She must have missed it. And then Terezi gets closer, and then Terezi smells it properly, and then Terezi promptly loses her shit.

So, a miniaturized version of her lusus just, you know, appeared in her hive and she totally knows what to do about it. (This is a lie. Terezi has no idea what to do.) After around thirty minutes of dancing around it and staring into it and trying to see if her lusus will communicate with her, Terezi manages to drag some semblance of wit together and wraps the egg in her shirt, clutching it to her chest as she makes her way from her block into the common area of her hivesuite.

About two hours later, Terezi has ripped the center out of one of the couch's throw pillows and placed the egg of her lusus in the hollow. The couch suffers a similarly violent fate; she pulls every piece of fabric and cushioning she can find off the couch and the human bed sitting in her block. Some things stay intact, but others are torn as she meticulously arranges them into a thick, soft pile at the base of the skeletal remains of the couch. In the hours following, anyone who might show up would see her, in a shirt and her fantastic rainbow-patterned boxers, curled up asleep with the mangled throw pillow-turned-nest tucked in the cradle of her arm, with her forehead just lightly resting against the surface of the creamy white egg resting in the middle of it.

Some time later, when she's awake and clearer minded, she decides there's no point in keeping it a secret and fumbles with her bracelet, clicking the video feed on.]

Greetings, everyone! [Her mouth twists in thought.] I am aware that many of us noticed the eggs that appeared--seemingly at random!--around the city, and were also aware that there was a collection block in which our findings could be placed. After participating in this strange hide and seek activity myself, I discovered the presence of another egg inside my block. [She pauses for dramatic effect.] While I initially assumed the instances were one in the same, I very quickly discovered that this was an erroneous assumption on my part! [Carefully, Terezi lifts the egg from her lap into the view of the camera.]

Behold: Not a mere egg, but the egg of my lusus! After conferring with others I have determined that this is far from an isolated event. Regardless of my initial misunderstanding I still have reason to believe that the two are related.

To other trolls here, I'd like to know if anyone else found their lusii appearing conveniently soon after engaging in this festive egg search. I am aware that Nepeta and Equius received their lusii, in addition to myself. Additionally, did any items randomly appear in your possession? Can we see if this event can be replicated? If so, it would be useful! If not... [She shrugs, lackadaisical, and plops her eggmom back into her lap. For a moment Terezi looks like she's about to terminate the feed, and then she sucks her teeth and pauses for a second.]

Also... uh. Would anyone happen to have any information on caring for dragon eggs?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Nervous, Terezi chirps at him to get his attention. He looks like he does when he and Kieran are telepathically communicating. She doesn't care when they do it, and she told him he could say hello because she shouldn't mind but now he's talking to her and she shouldn't be feeling this way but...

But this is her mom.]

{ashes? ashes! she giggles, smelling warm curls of copper and ginger. she hears her little one's name and croons at him; tereeeezziiiii~~♥ you're my baby's friend? it's good for her to have friends, she's so looonelyyyy.}

[he laughs]

She's pleased you have a friend. Isn't this your Talent here, Terezi? You could talk to her, try.

[he slides his hand on the egg, catches her fingers, puts just the slightest pressure against the shell of the egg. he's not strong enough to be a proper conduit of the thoughts he senses, but he's obviously stronger than terezi is. maybe it will help, somehow. Try. that thought is for terezi, not a demand. if you want her, try. then his attention shifts back to the egg.

I know. she had to be lonely, to take in a pathetic sniveling half-mad boy off the streets. Here. talk to your daughter, eggmom. Difficult. because it is, she has to be able to tell how stupidly difficult and unnatural it feels]

[Her forehead wrinkles and Terezi pulls her hand away, shaking her head.] I can't do that. [She's not a telepath. She's not like Vriska. She can't.]

{tereziiiiiiiiii? ashes! ashesssss. i smell her, why isn't she talking. she twitches her wings, twists in the shell just a little; she can't move very well, she's big, and the shell feels so small. baby? baaabyyyyy.}

[he doesn't take his hand off the egg, even if the last thing he really wants to hear is a worried mother calling for her child. Trying. his eyes flick up to terezi, taking in her expression, the defensive posture. Stubborn. Afraid.]

She wants you, not me. At least open your mind to her.

[Help me. he doesn't know the right thing to say, he doesn't know the why of this fear, why terezi wants her mother so badly but won't reach for her]

I can't use this power. It's not... right. You hear her talk, though? What's she saying? [She squirms in her seat, lifting up on her knees and then settling back down on her ankles anxiously, fussing.] Can you tell me what she's saying? [Fuck, it's been sweeps since she heard her lusus' voice.]

{silly babyyyy, the little dragon croons. silly terezi. silly baby why are you afraid she wonders, laughing to herself as her little claws twitch and her nose tries to sniff through the fluid and thick shell separating her from her little one.]

Talents aren't right or wrong, it's what you do with them.

[it's snapped, defensive, because he'd be out of his mind if he didn't have this power she's calling wrong, that he feels at least half-empty all the time because of what eh doesn't have. he sighs, though. it's not her fault.]

She says 'silly Terezi, silly baby, why are you afraid?'

[his voice doesn't have the amusement, but there's a ghost of the crooning gentleness there, making it obvious he's not speaking his own words. Help me, he projects to the dragon again]

[Someone is leaning against the far wall of the common room with his arms crossed, getting progressively less comfortable.]

For fuck's sake, use what you have and say hello to your mother.

Kai, kii aveh.

[my heart. it's the pretty things in iavaian that ash remembers best. there's no chiding in his tone. if anything, his shoulders untense a little despite the harshness in kieran's tone. he's just asking for a little more patience]

He's right, though, Terezi. Have scruples about anyone else you want to, talk to your mother. It's naive as hell to think that any Talent is inherently wrong or right.

[An irritable rumble rolls in her chest as she snaps her head to look at Kieran. She smiles sweetly, which is to say teeth bared like a manic crocodile and not very sweetly at all, actually.] People who don't know what they're talking about are welcome to shut the fuck up, [she says, also very sweetly. Which is to say, still not anything remotely comparable to 'sweet.']

You're misunderstanding me, [she hedges, once her attention is renavigated back to being on Ash.] I did not mean what I said the way you are interpreting it!

{the little dragon can still smell everyone out there and she hears voices, she hears all of them so acutely but nobody is talking to her. ashessss? she calls out. terezzziiiii?}

[Kieran doesn't even bother trying to make his expression look like a smile, it's twisted with something not quite anger, but close. He's looking at Terezi but speaking to Ash in Iavaian.]

**I don't think you want me to rip your arrogant little friend a new one. Have fun.**

[He meets Ash's eyes for a moment before pushing off the wall and heading into Ash's room, slamming the door.]

[ash makes a little sound as the door slams, the sort of sound one might make if their finger was being slammed in it, but softer. he takes his hand off the egg, runs both of his hands into his hair and pulls his curls until the panic rising in him is transferred into the prick of tears of pain in his eyes. he can do this. kieran is right on the other side of the door. he takes a breath, lets it out, puts his hand back on the egg.

Here, he tells the little dragon. then he looks up at terezi]

You're the one who doesn't know what they're talking about, and you have no idea what it's costing me to sit here, and if you ever drive him off again, so help me, Terezi, I will make you feel this yawning hateful emptiness because that is my heart you just sent away.

[he is furious, and there's nothing mousy or childish or gentle about him. he's almost as frightening as kieran, except it goes out of him after he's finished his rant.]

Then what did you mean, exactly?

[Terezi doesn't say anything. She's still as the grave, dead silent, not even smiling anymore, even when her shark grins are her defense between the rest of the world's violence and her own heart. Nostrils flare as she weathers the explosion, stiff-backed and straight-faced, refusing to flinch when the tang of Ash's rising panic and fury hits her nose.

Something that isn't quite guilt and definitely not pity stirs in her chest. Reproach at herself, maybe a little bit of upset at having to see Ash so distraught. Not enough to apologize. She isn't that sorry. She isn't particularly pleased with the situation, is not sympathetic enough to feel bad about this.

How can she even begin to explain? (She doesn't know, so she isn't going to.) Vriska's grin shadows the contours in the back of her thinkpan, reminding her of how easy it was for her to slip into a self justifying logic and murder hundreds of trolls, little ones just like her, barely five or six sweeps old. How could someone understand how she fears this awful part of her sometimes, worries about turning as heartless and amoral as Vriska?

She can't chance learning how to use telepathy. Being a seer was one thing, but with the way she tears through people's minds... Terezi knows her weaknesses, acutely. She makes a point to do so. She likes seeing problems so she can avoid them.

To take Vriska's power into her own hands would be nothing short of disastrous.]

I mean that it's not right for me to use it.

[luckily, ash doesn't expect sympathy, doesn't expect his pain to mean anything to anyone except kieran. he's still angry, but he's calm, visibly reining himself in from the yelling he'd really like to be doing to mere snappishness]

That is some ridiculous bullshit, Terezi. You don't even know what this Talent does here, do you? Let me tell you, it's not much. And if you're that afraid of yourself, or what's in other people's heads, or whatever it is you're afraid of, then maybe you need to talk to your mother. Who is right there, waiting and worried. Don't use it for anything else if it bothers you, but don't give me a line about how it's not right. It's a tool, and a lousy one, at that. It's not a gun or a sword or even a table knife, this is the dullest spoon of telepathy. I can barely even talk back to her.

I don't think you understand, [she snaps, a hint of a snarl under her voice, but she quiets immediately and reins it in, throwing a quick sniff in the direction of Ash's bedroom. She really doesn't want to give Kieran any incentive to come out. That would be just about the worst thing ever right now.

Ash isn't wrong, though. Her lusus' guidance after she was blinded was what originally pulled Terezi away from Vriska's machinations. She should talk to her. She desperately wants to talk to her. Terezi opens her mouth to talk and all that comes out is the barest whimper.]

Don't even give me that. I'm an empath, understanding is what I do. Whatever happened to you isn't really my business until you make it that way, but believe it or not, I'm pretty familiar with the heinous things people can do to each others' minds. And this Talent is a cheap parlor trick compared to any of that.

You're hurting yourself and you're scaring her. Stop this.

[Trying, he tells the dragon in the egg, and for once it's good that this telepathy is so weak, because even barely mentioning a Survey kind of makes him want to throw up or call for kieran or both]

Edited 2013-04-28 17:19 (UTC)

{the little dragon curls in her shell, crooning toward the smell and sound of her little one in distress. she longs to reach out to her, but her mind has been shrunk down; she no longer has the power to visit her little one's mind. baby, baby, she sings, trilling hopefully in her desire to soothe the young troll's agitation.}

[She's caught.

She can't keep protesting without appearing as the worst and most irrational person in the world. Terezi levels Ash with a frown, then squeezes her eyes closed--

One. Two. Three.

Dave counts seconds all the time. Terezi doesn't see the appeal.]

Fine. You win, wiggler. I hope you know what you're unleashing on the world. [Eyes still squeezed shut, Terezi reaches out and places her hand on the surface of the egg, light, like she's afraid it'll burn. Her fingers pat the smooth shell tenderly as Terezi makes a concerted effort to drop the walls she's built up against the telepathy and allow herself to listen to the voices of other--

oh.]

[ash is careful this time to keep his fingers away from terezi. he doesn't want her to sense how much less calm he is than he looks, how he's nauseated and angry and anxious. he just wants her to talk to her mother.

Talk, he projects at the dragon, because he doesn't know what she can sense without projecting or whether terezi even can. Baby. Listening.]

[The sound of trills and chirps rolls in her head and Terezi may or may not have tears in her eyes, still tightly closed and not opening any time soon, lest Ash see. It's been a sweep since she heard-- oh, oh fuck.]

{little one little darling, terezi dear~ precious baby girl how are you? how is my little one? excited, the infant dragon wheedles out saccharine words of encouragement. she can smell terezi's fingers through the shell; she longs to reach up and curl around her thin wrist and sing her to sleep. some day, some day.}

Hi, mom. I'm... fine, [Terezi says, haltingly. She doesn't bother projecting telepathically, because she knows her lusus can perceive things about the world from her confines inside the egg. It's easier to talk.

She doesn't think about calling her lusus by the human word. She's heard it so much it spills out without her really considering it.]

[this feels like eavesdropping on something deeply personal, something ash can't remember having and isn't sure he wants to hear. he's not sure terezi would really forgive him that either]

Well done, Terezi. I think you have it from here.

[he meant that praise wholeheartedly, but there's no more reason for him to stay and risk leaking his feelings into this reunion. quiet and careful, he stands and heads for his room]

[Kieran may have overestimated himself, in storming off. And he may or may not have been listening at the door to make sure crazy troll chick behaves herself and Ash is alright. But the casual observer would never know that because by the time Ash opens the door, Kieran is sitting casually on the bed, poking through Ash's notes.]

Settled?

[ash is not really a casual observer. he shuts the door carefully behind him and sits down on the edge of the bed, takes off his boots, sets them neatly next to each other at the foot of the bed. then he slowly falls over sideways until he runs into kieran. it's only then he starts to shake. he's angry, sick, sad, relieved, scared, all at once]

Settled.

[kieran doesn't seem surprised by this turn of events -- he's ready for it, actually, and has his thoughts tightly reigned in. the overwhelming anger still leaks through where they touch, but there's really no helping that. it doesn't show on his face as he turns and lifts ash so that they can lie down. his fingers immediately start combing ash's curls back.]

You're too good, Ashes.

[once kieran moves him ash seems to remember he can do that, sprawls over kieran and clings. he's not projecting, because it's pretty obvious he's a mess and kieran doesn't need that unless he asks for it, but he's still wholly present]

Not that good. I almost bolted when you shut the door. Don't hide, I know you're angry. I'm angry. It's not crazy to be angry, is it? Not fair, either, she doesn't know anything, but not crazy.

[he hesitates, then shrugs and stops hiding. he doesn't need to actually answer ash now.

he's fucking furious. she doesn't know about the Surveys, no, but he thinks that terezi is selfish and rude and arrogant and doesn't think of anyone but herself.]

[ash is angry, kieran is angry, but this actually makes ash relax with a sigh. he's allowed to be angry, he's not just being self-righteous and broken. it's not that he likes kieran's anger or that kieran's angry, but at least it's not twisted up with every other damn feeling in the book]

You're not really wrong. Something happened to her, but she threw this away without a clue what it can do. Like me and the gun, remember? Except I was just being a big baby and that didn't hurt anybody.

thr33 • [action + video]

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