The Second Trial [text + video]

[terezi_pyrope]

[When she awakens, it's to a very unpleasant yet equally forcibly pleasant morning -- which is actually more like in the afternoon.]

SO 1 4M GO1NG TO 4SSUM3 TH3YR3 4TT3MPT1NG TO TRY TO ST4RV3 US NOW?
WH4T3V3R PL4N TH3Y H4V3 TH4T 1NVOVL3S TH1S 1S BOUND TO F41L
ON3 OF WH1CH M4Y OBV1OUSLY B3 TH4T M4K3S SUR3 W3R3 W34K3N3D WH3N TH3Y R34LLY ST4RT TO SHOW TH31R H1DD3N H4NDS
TH3 GUY B3FOR3 M3 H4S QU1T3 TH3 1D34 THOUGH
4ND S1NC3 W3R3 UN4BL3 TO F1ND 4NY CLU3S 1T WOULD B3 W1S3 TO FOLLOW 1N H1S FOOTST3PS

[And now she hits the video function where she takes a wave; she was sitting on top of a building. For a while she accidentally has it upside down.]

I wanted to also ask if anyone else has been experiencing "seeing" any weird things. Something like places or objects that are not supposed to be there?

Comments

[terezi_pyrope]

[Terezi follows along pretty easily. Even with that smile on her face, the affects of an alien force start to die in the face of guilt. She laughs, but it's cold as a harsh winter's touch.]

...I've tried that, but she wouldn't hear any of it. At least the first time I tried. I'll just have to try again. Even if she's so impossible, I don't want to give up on her.

[She sighs.]

I know this probably means trying to make sure I don't get so riled up by what she says. But it's hard.

[She sometimes would think about paging Vriska over the network, but she'd probably ignore it. Or something.]

[chainsawspistice]

[She steps out onto the welcome mat.]

That would be a good idea, yes. I've found patience to be the greatest asset in dealing with Vriska.

[Hypocrisy? Of course not.]

[terezi_pyrope]

[if terezi finds that statement hard to believe, she doesn't voice it.]

...Well, it's been great having you over. It could have gone better, but ...

[she laughs a little.]

Next time we'll actually have a party or an investigative get-together!

That would be great.

[chainsawspistice]

A party would require a reason for celebration. Investigation, maybe.

[She turns to leave, but pauses in her step... and looks back at Terezi. Late reaction is late.]

Just a moment ago. Did you say "in my time"?

[terezi_pyrope]

A mock trial, then?

[she blinks and when kanaya says that, terezi mentally panics. did she slip up somewhere somehow and didn't even notice it at all? GODDAMNIT SELF WHY YOU'RE THE MOTHERFUCKING SEER YOU DON'T SLIP UP.

she reviews every piece of conversation had in her head quickly. okay, no, she's got this.]

What? What are you talking about?

[chainsawspistice]

[look at those master cover-up skills]

You were saying "in your ti..." And then you backtracked all of a sudden.

[terezi_pyrope]

[ty, she tries.]

Ohhhh, hahaha! That--well I've been pretty tired and stressed lately. Hehe, sometimes I just say weird things and I don't even know why!

Must be a Seer thing.

[chainsawspistice]

[terezi_pyrope]

[omg.

this is like a bad game of mafia and for some reason every lie that comes out of her mouth sounds like bullshit. except she doesn't even know if that exists, whoops.]

...What? None of that sounds plausible? At all???

[chainsawspistice]

[A game of what now]

Duplicity has never been your strongest card.

[terezi_pyrope]

[you know. that one game.]

But it's not like I haven't pulled it off well before...not that I would have reveled in doing that--[orchestrating the demise of the wiiiicked with her former sister.]--nevermind.

I swear I don't even remember saying anything like that at all!

[to be honest, she doesn't, but she's still banging her head on a imaginary wall. because SERIOUSLY.]

Well, I guess you caught it. But I don't think it's a good idea to really explain that sort of thing.

[chainsawspistice]

[nope 'fraid not.]

Not a good idea? I thought you were eager to investigate the facts surrounding our situation. What is the discrepancy that convinces you we are from different points in time? [Since Terezi seems the same as ever to her.]

[terezi_pyrope]

[omg noooo.]

I do, but...

I don't want to create a doomed timeline! If you know certain things, you might end up taking action in a way that results in everyone getting killed. Brutally, in your time.

1/2

[chainsawspistice]

[That was a pleasant little detail at the end there.]

I already began to suspect that my timeline -- and possibly yours, I don't know -- was doomed when we arrived in this facility with no apparent means of return to the Veil. The nature of my fetch modus dictates that I was to plant the matriorb in the meteor's core, but the excessive length of our detour here suggests that I was not brought here in concordance with the designs of said modus.

2/2

[chainsawspistice]

However, I was told that once we escape back to our respective homes, we will have no recollection of what occurs here, and that it will be as if no time has passed since we left. Provided this is true, my timeline may not be doomed after all, and what information you tell me here will have no bearing on my actions in the Veil.

[terezi_pyrope]

[hey, that's just how it is!!

in the face of all of this, she whips out ichijou's book, and checks it herself. then, frowns slightly.]

I cross-referenced it, but it would be nice if we had an account from someone whose left the town and not had a prolonged stay. Including the part where they're not getting a...

[that's what the plan was. to give you a boner. booooner, because seriously that's what it sounds like what ichjou's getting over resarci in this book.]

...well I don't know. A weird human fetish with one of the main criminals.

But that sounds a bit more relieving--but I don't want to be responsible for another unnecessary death. I'll tell you the exact discrepancy if you insist you're prepared to face the consequences in case our memories here do end up carrying over.

[chainsawspistice]

[... Fetish.

Another?? But she'll button her lips under the assumption that it will all be explained shortly.]

As prepared as my limited foresight allows me to be.

[terezi_pyrope]

It's the simple fact you have the Matriorb. It's destroyed in my time by a doofus named Eridan Ampora. That wasn't very hard to figure out, once he started his wand at people and going nuts with it. A wand you created...but you couldn't have known he would use it like that.

[well it was at first, but shh.]

Don't worry, you end up stopping him by force later on. But, that's what tipped me off.

[chainsawspistice]

[oh mothergrubber, she already made that wand for him in her timeline]

I...

See.

[if she ends up stopping him by force anyway it should be okay if she does it just a little earlier before there's any destruction of any important one-of-a-kind race-saving orbs right]

[terezi_pyrope]

[sigh, she knew this was a bad idea!!]

...Kanaya, I warned you. And now that I'm assuming you're thinking of doing things about it, I'll have to advise you against it! Even the slightest deviation from what's happened will cause a split from the alpha timeline. You'll be in the split that's the doomed timeline. Tempting, I know, but it's not worth it to watch everyone die in front of you and being unable to do jack shit about it.

[chainsawspistice]

How can you be certain your timeline isn't doomed to begin with?

[terezi_pyrope]

[in a way, she kind of doesn't. but she highly doubts it.]

...I have made the correct choices, and so has everyone else, to prevent that to be a thing. Besides, we would have ended up dead already, and we're already so far along that I think it's pretty impossible.

[chainsawspistice]

[Uncertainty clouds her thoughts. To know of and allow such a thing to happen...]

Then the troll race is doomed to extinction.

[terezi_pyrope]

Is it really? You say that with such a finality, but I can see why you would, not knowing what lies ahead. Even if it's more trouble.

But we'll survive! We have to, for our sakes and for the ones who haven't.

[chainsawspistice]

Sorry. It's just that... guarding and nurturing the matriorb was my one and only task. [Set forth by her lusus, no less.]

For it to be destroyed by a wand of my own design is an almost unthinkable irony. I effectively shot myself in the foot... Only things might have been better if I had actually literally shot a hole in my foot. At least then, I might have never alchemized that wand, and there may have been a chance of the matriorb's survival.