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==> Be (Vriska)
The world is ending.
Well, not strictly the world. Not the universe either. Existence, you guess? Everything. Gone up in the sound of fireworks and brightly flashing cracks in reality itself.
The world is ending and you’re sitting here in nonexistence with the girl who killed you a sweep and a half ago. Was it really less than two sweeps ago? It feels like longer. It feels like decades, centuries. An eternity. Time flows differently out here.
You stare at the girl who killed you an indeterminate amount of time ago. She’s staring off into nothingness. She looks different. Older, sharper. Sadder. You remember her as a pointy-edged bundle of grinning fangs and screeched drivel. Nothing ever seemed to slow her down. Sometimes it feels like you spent your whole life chasing after her. Your afterlife too. She seems more subdued now than you ever remember her being.
You guess you probably look different too, although you haven’t had the chance to check recently. You don’t stop growing just because you’re dead. The person you are now would be unrecognizable to the person you used to be, and you’ve just had that proven first hand.
TEREZI: TH4T OTH3R VR1SK4 YOU M3NT1ON3D
TEREZI: TH3 ON3 FROM TH3 N3W T1M3L1N3
TEREZI: D1D SH3 S33M...
TEREZI: H4PPY?
(VRISKA): Happy? Well, she sure thought she was. Hah.
(VRISKA): It seemed kinda fake to me though. I don’t know. I mean, what the fuck would I know a8out happiness? I’m dead. And irrelevant.
TEREZI: YOU’R3 NOT 1RR3L3V4NT THOUGH! 3V3RYTH1NG 1 D1D W4S TO BR1NG YOU B4CK. 1 H4D TO F1X MY M1ST4K3! 1T W4S 3SS3NT14L TO TH3 T1M3L1N3
(VRISKA): Yeah, and you 8rought her 8ack. She’s the real Vriska now. 8eing all important and essential to the timeline. I’m sure she fixed ev8ryone’s dum8 mist8kes. 8ut I’m still here. You know, dead.
TEREZI: ...
TEREZI: ...
TEREZI: ...4R3 YOU M4D 4T M3? FOR K1LL1NG YOU?
(VRISKA): ........
(VRISKA): I guess I should 8e, huh? That would 8e normal of me. 8ut wasn’t it the logical conclusion of our competition? Don’t you think one of us had to die? Like, in the end.
(VRISKA): And now we’re 8oth dead. So I guess it doesn’t matter much anymore.
(VRISKA): 8ut no, I’m not mad at you. Maybe I was once. It’s hard to remem8er.
(VRISKA): I mostly just...
(VRISKA): Really missed you?
(VRISKA): It feels weird admitting that. Like it goes against the rules of whatever dum8 games we used to play.
(VRISKA): I don’t think I was ever sincere a8out my feelings a day in my life. Until I died.
(VRISKA): May8e dying was the 8est thing that could have happened to me? May8e I should 8e thanking you.
(VRISKA): Or may8e the other Vriska was right and I’ve just turned into a fucking pussy. Hah.
TEREZI: ...1 M1SS3D YOU TOO. W4Y W4Y MOR3 TH4N 1 THOUGHT 1 WOULD
TEREZI: 1 THOUGHT 1 H4D TO K1LL YOU TO PR3S3RV3 TH3 T1M3L1N3 4ND 1 CONV1NC3D MYS3LF THOS3 WERE TH3 ONLY CHO1C3S 1 S4W. M4YB3 1 W4S R1GHT. BUT 1T D1DN’T M4K3 1T 4NY 34S13R TO L1V3 W1TH
TEREZI: 1 SP3NT SO LONG S34RCH1NG FOR YOU 1N TH3 DR34M BUBBL3S
TEREZI: FOR 4 CH4NC3 TO S4Y SORRY
TEREZI: 4ND NOW WE’V3 F1N4LLY FOUND 34CH OTH3R 4ND 1’M D34D TOO.
TEREZI: M4YB3 TH1S W4S TH3 W4Y 1T H4D TO H4PP3N?
TEREZI: M4YB3 W3 JUST DR1FT3D TOO F4R 4W4Y FROM 34CH OTH3R
TEREZI: BUT FOR WH4T 1T’S WORTH 1 DON’T TH1NK YOU’R3 4 FUCK1NG PUSSY
TEREZI: Y3AH YOU S33M PR3TTY D1FF3R3NT FROM TH3 VR1SK4 1 R3M3MB3R BUT HON3STLY SH3 W4S K1ND OF 4 B1TCH >:/
TEREZI: NO OFF3NC3
(VRISKA): ........
(VRISKA): ........
(VRISKA): ........Huh. Yeah, wow. I guess I kind of was a huge 8itch.
(VRISKA): I mean, I guess I already knew that. 8ut talking to this version of me who never got to like, ch8ll out for two seconds???????? Kinda hits the point home. I almost feel 8ad for her.
(VRISKA): She never got the chance to see that always having to 8e the hero isn’t all it’s cracked up to 8e.
(VRISKA): Sometimes it’s just really fucking lonely.
(VRISKA): And you can never tell anyone 8ecause that would 8e showing weakness and that’s coward shit.
(VRISKA): Kinda funny that I never got the chance to just live until after I died.
(VRISKA): So thanks, I guess?
TEREZI: YOU’R3 W3LCOM3 >:]
==> Be Terezi
The world is ending and you’re sitting here in soon to be non-existence with the girl you killed a sweep and a half ago. You’ve waited so long to find her, for the chance to tell her that you’re sorry. That killing her, and saving the timeline, was the worst mistake you’ve ever made. That you would watch the world burn before letting her go again.
(Though you guess you’re already doing that).
You don’t say all of that. It might be too much.
You’ve always felt like you’re too much. Your feelings were all-encompassing, overwhelming, so large you felt like they would swallow you whole. So you pushed them down and focused on justice. You did what needed to be done.
Turns out that was the wrong decision.
Or maybe not.
Killing Vriska led you down this path. It was full of pain and regret, but maybe it all served a purpose. Maybe you had to go through all that to get to the point where you were able to acknowledge just how much she means to you. How much she’s always meant to you. To get to the point where you could finally let go.
You look at her, and smile (not the way you used to smile, wide and sharp and full of fangs, but a gentle smile, the kind of smile you never would have thought you were capable of), and think how lucky you are that this version of her and this version of you were finally able to find each other at the exact time they needed to. How lucky you are to be here with her, at the end of all things.
You think about the other Vriska and the other Terezi, the ones that you circuitously created, and wonder if they’ll ever be able to feel as close to each other as you feel to this Vriska right now.
(VRISKA): Honestly, I look at that version of myself... And I don’t recognize myself at all.
(VRISKA): Like I can o8jectively see how I got from point A to point 8.
(VRISKA): 8ut is that really me? Is that really the person I would have 8ecome if I had never 8een given the chance to, y’know. Slow down?
(VRISKA): ........
(VRISKA): ........
(VRISKA): ........
(VRISKA): Is that the me you were hoping to find all this time?
(VRISKA): Terezi,
(VRISKA): Do you still recognize me?
TEREZI: VR1SK4...
TEREZI: OF COURS3 1 R3COGN1Z3 YOU DUMMY
TEREZI: YOU’V3 CH4NG3D 4 LOT, 4ND YOU H4V3 TH1S COOL PUNKY 43STH3T1C NOW TH4T 1’M ST1LL NOT SUR3 HOW 1 F33L 4BOUT TO B3 HON3ST
TEREZI: 1T 1S K1ND OF 4 LOT
TEREZI: BUT 1’V3 CH4NG3D TOO
TEREZI: 1’V3 B33N THROUGH SOM3 SH1T VR1SK4, JUST L1K3 YOU
TEREZI: 1 TH1NK 1 M1GHT B3 S3V3R3LY M3NT4LLY 1LL, WH1CH 1S 4 TH1NG 1 L34RN3D 4BOUT FROM D4V3
TEREZI: D1D YOU KNOW TH4T HUM4NS H4V3 4 WHOL3 PROF3SS1ON FOR D34L1NG W1TH P3OPL3 WHOS3 BR41NS 4R3 FUCK3D UP? 1 TH1NK W3 *PROB4BLY* WOULD H4V3 B3N3F1TT3D FROM THAT
TEREZI: BUT 4NYW4Y
TEREZI: 4LL TH4T? CH4NG1NG 4ND F33L1NG L1K3 YOU DON’T R3COGN1Z3 YOURS3LF?
TEREZI: 1’M PR3TTY SUR3 TH4T’S JUST C4LL3D “GROW1NG UP”
TEREZI: 4ND YOU ST1LL SM3LL L1K3 TH3 S4M3 OLD SP1D3RB1TCH TO ME >:]
TEREZI: DO 1 ST1LL S33M L1K3 TH3 S4M3 T3R3Z1 TO YOU?
(VRISKA): ........
(VRISKA): Yeah, I think you do.
(VRISKA): I think I *really* missed you, Terezi.
TEREZI: <3
(VRISKA): <3
You sit there together and everything else is stripped away because there’s nothing else left. The world is falling apart and it’s just you and the girl you murdered and the girl you died for and there’s no room for pretense anymore.