mad, i tell you! you and this boy slim shady! [backdated]

[just_0k]

Characters: Aradia Megido, Vriska Serket [visioneightfold], Roy Mustang [thewarisover]
Location: the agency..!
Rating: PG-13? they AARE six after all.
Time: October 30, evening.
Description: After putting the puzzle together, Aradia wants to see Vriska in person. Roy's there because of potential violence.

Comments

[thewarisover]

It's been a while since Roy has been to the Agency. It was a group he had helped build, and had once been his office, but beyond the occasional visit to Edgeworth, he really didn't have any business being there anymore.

Vriska Serket, however, had a talent for disruption it seemed.

The man looked up from where he was seated in the man lounge, and nodded the moment he recognized Aradia.

"Hey."

[just_0k]

"Hello," Aradia says politely with a smile. She must brace herself for what she knows will likely occur. "I appreciate this, Roy. Things wouldn't turn out very nicely if you weren't here, I don't think. You know more about the situation than I do."

She pauses, looking around the room. If only Roy knew the things Vriska has done in the past. What would the humans do to her? She puts it on her list of things to research about the new society they're living in. But that is not the directive.

"Can I see her now?"

*main, what is that typo

[thewarisover]

He only smiled and shook his head.

"I'm just doing my job." Roy stood up, then, and headed for the small corridor that branched away from the main office.

"Follow me."

You people and your nested comments.

[visioneightfold]

Vriska was looking significantly worse for wear. Battered, bruised, bitter, and sore, she had collapsed into sleep shortly after her capture, and had remained that way for the next several hours. In fact, she had finally woken only an hour ago. She sat darkly at the end of her cot, looking dishevelled and exhausted. For once in her life, Vriska looked like nothing so much as one very tired, very moody teenage girl.

It was safe to say she wasn't expecting guests.

:'D

[just_0k]

Aradia nods, and follows him through the door. She expects to catch Vriska off guard, because that's the best way to catch her. She won't be able to plan anything in advance.

Glancing at other cells, she wonders if they'll truly be able to hold her. When they arrive at Vriska's, Aradia looks down on her and takes in her general appearance. The answer to her question is obvious. "How are you holding up?"

And until something interesting pops in, you can skip this guy. XD

[thewarisover]

At that point, Roy quietly moved to the side of the door, letting Aradia come forward and talk to Vriska better, if she so desired. The Meister leaned back against the small writing desk they had set up in the corner, and lit up a cigarette.

The two were welcome to talk, but he wasn't going to leave unless expressly ordered to. It wasn't really about listening in on the conversation, and more about making sure Vriska didn't get any ideas.

If you're sure!

[visioneightfold]

...?!

Was--

In all fairness, Vriska had not seen Aradia's face--her real face, flesh and blood and chitin and bone--in... sweeps. The last time hadn't even been through her own eyes, but through Sollux's, her vision skewed by mind-honey and the ugly bifurcated vision filter that his freak thinkstem slapped over everything. Of course, she'd seen the girl--happy, curious, cheerful, living--all over the networks, chatting up the humans, shoving her busystem where it didn't belong, but seeing her in person...

She took a moment to recover.

(The lingering 'how' got pushed to the back of her brain, overridden by the more pressing matter of the lowblood's immediate presence.)

"... seriously?" Vriska just looked at Aradia--all eight eyes trained in on her, but it was obvious she wasn't in the mood for this. For a moment she held it, her eyes locked with Aradia's--was that a challenge--but she spoke again, she sounded drained, her voice bitter.

"What do you think?"

[just_0k]

"Not well, but I'm sure you put on a real show for the watch members, so it's well earned," she answers. Aradia looks at Vriska in deep concentration, staring into her eyes. Not harmfully, no, she mostly looks disappointed. In order to seem more friendly, Aradia carefully sits on the floor and smooths out her skirt. After a moment, she looks back up at the fugitive.

"If you think I came to insult you, I didn't," she says. "Ultimately, the cycle of revenge is done. We both got what we were after and there were good and bad consequences. I want to make amends. Formally."

[visioneightfold]

Vriska stared at her for another moment, then burst out laughing--hard, raucous, caustic laughter, which lasted only a few seconds before Vriska sobered entirely, mockery gone.

"Fuck you." Venom leaked into her voice, adding acid. "Fuck you, completely. You know as well as I do that's complete bullshit." She shifted, sliding off the edge of her cot to stand, staring down at Aradia. She could still taste the dried blood between her teeth, her matted hair lying heavily on her back and shoulders. "What are you really doing here?"

[just_0k]

She lets Vriska get everything out before speaking again, simply staring up at her. When she asks her real purpose, Aradia shakes her head.

"It's exactly that. But I guess you still haven't learned. There is nothing more, we have each sacrificed a life to it. What is there now?" It's a rhetorical question, but if Vriska can manage to find an answer to it, Aradia will take it. "Between you and me, anyways. I don't know what's going on with you and Kanaya-" (a lie) "-but for us...?"

Aradia coughs, scratching her cheek. "Especially since we've left the Incipisphere."

[visioneightfold]

Vriska bridled under a combination of resentment and incomprehension. She stood, seething for several seconds, her expression indecipherable, torn between disbelief and anger.

'What is there now?' Oh, things had been over--back when Aradia was a piece of metal and Vriska had her wings and all of that bullshit was behind them in favour of a much more pressing goal. Then they had been over. There'd been nothing then. They were through.

But now, with Aradia sitting here in front of her, breathing and speaking and radiating life and reason like she had any right to be here alive while Vriska rotted in some human cage alone, like she had any right to be, like she could be happy, the scales had tipped, the balance broken, and any sentiment of reconciliation was entirely gone from her.

It would have been easy to blame Vriska's reaction on an inability to understand the sentiment, and to some extent this was true. But the real problem?

Was Aradia.

i'm sorry that this is short orz

[just_0k]

Except it wasn't. At least, not from Vriska's perspective. "I thought you would be this way, because this is past you," she says calmly. "But soon things will change, looking at the events of the Alpha timeline."

And how.

However, there is nothing Aradia can do until that time. She knows that Vriska is the way she is for a reason, and that's 0kay. Time will tell, and if there's anything that Aradia has...

"I thought I would get a head start on it," Aradia simply looks at her. She stares into all eight pupils Vriska has. "In the future, we are equal."

Ffff short what

[visioneightfold]

Vriska stared at her for a full minute, the gears in her brain churning; then, not so gradually, she got it.

The look on her face contorted through several expressions--shock, rage, confusion--before finally settling on stock disbelief.

"You?"

Then suddenly she sneered and her countenance turned cold, her voice caustic.

"Don't lie to me! You don't have a dream self. Didn't. Whatever! The point is that of all the people to try and pull this on..." She laughed. It was not a nice laugh.

herp

[just_0k]

Aradia takes no offense from Vriska's words and expressions. "I have no reason to lie, Vriska. I'm here to make amends, remember?"

She just leaves Vriska with that thought. Knowing that it will still take her a long time before things are completely settled, they seemed to be going in the direction predicted. "There is a reason we imagined that I didn't."

Thanks for giving me persimmons for this. Also I'm so tired the writing here is awful.

[visioneightfold]

Aradia was sitting fairly close to the bars. This would prove to be a mistake--Vriska stepped forward and seized the other girl by the horns, hauling her up and yanking her towards her so that Aradia was standing suddenly, her face pulled into the bars. Vriska's own face bore a false grin, fangs bared dangerously. It was obvious she didn't care about Roy.

"Oh yeah?" Her voice dropped down to a near-hiss, thin and vicious like a blade. "Okay then." She pulled Aradia even closer. "Lay it on me."

oplz, raile.

[just_0k]

She knew the risks of being so close, and merely closes her eyes when Vriska grabs her. When she opens them again, Aradia is trying to remain as collected as possible. Patience, she tells her self. Vriska must give her a reason to counteract.

"You'll find out," she says dryly. Perhaps it came out more malicious than intended.