towerofanimus | I was the more deceiv'd

Characters: France [AU2] open to all
Setting: Floor Eleven, night time
Format: Either is fine
Summary: Francisca's just returned from being 'home' for about a month, straight after her shaky recovery from the teddy bear event. Needless to say, she's lost it.
Warnings: potential violence, potential suicide, language.

She felt cold.

On her abrupt return to the tower after weeks of wandering the decimated streets of France alone, after weeks of feeling as if someone had cut her heart out with a rusty knife, after week of nothingness, she broke down. She'd barely had enough time to get to a bathroom to vomit whatever little her stomach had held and proceeded to fall into a state of hysterics, screaming and clawing at her skin in the empty cubicle, her nightgown soaked with sweat and bare feet kicking at the walls.

Now that she'd 'calmed' somewhat, she'd come out of the bathroom and found it was night, the tower lights dimmed and no one in the hallways. Restless, she'd made her way to the eleventh floor, needing the comfort of life after so long without that when she reached it tears had started streaming down her cheeks as she got trembling handfuls of flowers, holding the delicate blossoms to her face and inhaling the scent.

Following the sounds of running water, she stumbled to the lake, mutely staring at the phantoms that seemed to dance under the reversed rainbows in the darkened sky. Strange that she found the sight of such apparitions more comforting that frightening - her people had been dead and not even their ghosts had left whispers behind. The phantoms let her be as she stumbled into the lake, dropping several flowers in the process and letting the little blossoms float around her in the rippling water. Soon the water was to her knees and she felt some relief in the cold she could feel seeping up her legs, contrasting with the warm air around her, but it wasn't enough. She felt numb and soon she was crushing the flowers in her hands, nails digging into her palms as she began to have another panic attack, breath coming faster and louder.

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Oh hell no. He wasn't letting her go through with this. One, because it was stupid. Two, because it was really stupid. Three, because she'd regret it most likely and he didn't want her to go getting herself killed. But really, this was stupid.

"Except, that's stupid. That is the dumbest thing someone could have thought up." He was trying to wade in quicker, except he was really just floating again. He can't swim and she was taller. The water reached up to him faster than it did on her. On the upside, thank fucking god he can fly. This would end disastrously otherwise.

"It's crazy enough that no one in the tower would think to do it- Don't you see!?"

When she couldn't hold her head above water any more, she glanced back at him and smiles, a flicker of her old self showing as she murmurs, "Au revoir, Dave."

With that, she dove into the water, swimming downwards with practised ease.

Terezi just got eaten by a giant spider that didn't belong to the tower. No, it belonged to Vriska. He's pretty sure that this was just going to end with her waking up in her bed.

He splashed and clawed after her immediately, trying to grab her arm or anything to pull her back in the surface. Part of him was panicked that he wouldn't be able to get her back to the surface, the other part of him was terrified that he'd go down too. Neither were too good on his conscious.

Francisca floundered when he managed to grab her arm, struggling before surfacing with a loud gasp for air.

"What are you doing!?" she sputtered, wiping the water from her eyes as she stared at him.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Wow, did his voice crack? Man, that's fucking embarrassing. He's already trying to drag her back towards the shore. "What were you even trying to accomplish?"

No he isn't panicked. He was just pretty sure she wasn't going to surface again if he didn't grab her or anything. He wasn't freaked out or worried or anything. "Don't answer that, because you're going to say something about dying on your own accord was a good idea, except it fucking wasn't."

Francisca allows herself to be dragged along until she can feel the floor of the lake with her feet. At the moment she dug her heels in and refused to move.

"I just want to leave this tower, why is that a stupid idea!?" she hissed, trying to wrench her arm out of his grip.

"Everyone wants to leave this shitty tower. You seriously going to tell me that killing yourself will actually work though?" He cocked his head to the side, water dripping from his hair. "Forget the fact that some people here probably died because sitting in a circle singing kumbaya isn't possible when half the residents here are sociopaths." He didn't let go, although he stumbled a bit as he ended up being a dragged a bit with the action.

"You do know that people have been getting eaten the past week or whatever right? Wasn't the Tower's fault. Just someone's giant pet spider decided it fancied flesh. They all came back though. Pretty sure drowning goes under the list of shit you'd just wake up again from."

"Eaten-" she began before turning to grab his upper arms. "Who has been eaten!? You haven't been, right? Is Romeo safe?? What about Francis, is he alright?! And Arthur!?"

For the first time since she'd been out there that night, her eyes were clear and sharp with focus, needing to know that her friends were safe.

Oh, hello to you too. Wasn't really expecting that. "Uh. No. My first thought when seeing a giant fucking spider is hell no I'm gonna just ollie outtie. And you're asking me too many questions about a lot of people I don't think I've ever talked too. I haven't talked to Romeo before, but he was on the network. He's fine. He took being eaten like a real trooper apparently. I don't think I've seen the other two around, but I assume they're okay. Hell bells if I know. I kind of decided to take a mental vacation from trying to worry about shit since the labyrinth bullcrap they shoved down our throats." He was doing a terrible job at it though, still browsing the network to keep track of whatever is going on while he traveled around the tower. He also made sure to keep up with all his friends.

He thinks he's covered mostly everything she asked. "Welcome back to the land of walking into large bodies of water with suicidal tendencies is a bad idea. We missed you."

Aaaand she's gone again, withdrawing from Dave and muttering to herself, "Romeo was eaten... labyrinth... Dieu, Francis and Arthur-"

She covered her mouth with a hand, feeling sick again, as bad as when she'd just returned. If her stomach hadn't been completely empty, she would undoubtedly have vomited then and there. She clenched her eyes shut, free hand rising to grip her hair at her scalp, nails digging in so she could focus on the physical pain instead of the emotional turmoil she was feeling.

Feel free to assume those tears are just lake water on her face Dave.

He was about to ask if she was okay, but that was dumb. But he grabs her arm. The one that's trying to dig into her scalp, because that's seriously freaking him out.

"Hey. I'm not gonna ask if you're okay because that's stupid as shit. I'm not going to tell you that things are going to be alright because that would make me a lying asshole too. But how 'bout we get out of the water? I don't think you'll want to keep standing in here. You'll get funny thoughts and then you'll have to deal with my spazzy ass trying to drag you out again."

She slowly let her arms fall limply and nodded, quiet and chastised like a child, the guilt at failing to protect those around her gnawing away at her inside.

He starts leading her back to the shore, both of them now thoroughly dripping wet from being in the water so long.

"You know it's not your fault. You got guilt written on your face with a giant red, permanent marker."

"If anything it should be written in blood," she murmured, staring down at the rippling water as they walked. "How did you die the last time?"

"Battle Royale trope. They threw us into a labyrinth and thought it would be funny if we all fought to the death. Death via giant fork to the chest." He says it too casually. The death itself wasn't as scarring as the punishment that went after it. He hasn't quite recovered from that, but as long as he doesn't talk about it, it's okay. No one needs to know.

I was the more deceiv'd

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