Chapter Text
Terezi Pyrope was blind.
This was new information but it wasn’t surprising. She had been told her ‘entry fee’ would be her sight. Now she was face down on what felt like a road.
She reached out and her hand fell on something and suddenly her mind burst to life. She could, for want of a better word, see everything. It wasn’t detailed as actual sight; lots of things were just blocky grey shapes. In exchange though she wasn’t limited by her eyes any more. She was aware of everything going on all around her. Her view was a full 360 degrees around her. One of the more interesting aspects of all this was the bright light shining out of the heads of each person. She didn’t know what was going on but she didn’t have time to work things out.
Picking up the things she had put her hand down on she got to her feet. Feeling them in her fingers she pricked her finger as one of them opened. They were pins obviously but she couldn’t ‘see’ the design. Nonetheless one of them was letting her see so she pined them both to the inside of her jacket’s collar.
That done she took stock of her location. She was in her home town that was for sure but she didn’t recognise the road. The man who had put her in this game had told her she would need a partner or she wouldn’t survive past the first day.
Seven days without your most precious thing. One week of struggling. Survive and you will be brought back to life.
Yes another piece of information that was relatively new.
Terezi Pyrope was dead.
She effectively was a ghost, invisible to the people passing her and forced into a weeklong game to be reborn. She didn’t know what the Reapers got out of hosting this game but it didn’t matter to her.
It was then that the rustling started. From the sides of her vision she caught glimpses of something moving. How something could be on the edge of her vision when had no blind spots she didn’t know but they were there. It was almost like they were gathering, waiting, circling like vultures. Whatever the shadows were they would be the things that would kill her if she didn’t find a partner soon.
“OK anyone out there that can hear me looking for a partner?” Terezi called out.
From out of an alley she heard someone respond but couldn’t make out the words. They sounded like they were in trouble though. Taking a step forwards Terezi stumbled. It was harder to get used to this new way of seeing than she thought. She moved over to the wall and put her hand up to support herself from falling and made her way into the opening of the alley.
“Hey dumb ass hurry it up would you!?” the grey blob in front of Terezi was on the floor and for some reason didn’t have a burst of light around her head. Assumedly that meant that she was a player. She was also surrounded by the shadows. “Look just get over here and we can make a pact and get rid of these noise ok!?” She was pushy but Terezi was in no position to argue so she moved over and held out her hand.
As soon as the two girls’ hands met there was a flash of light and the shadows stopped lurking around. They bulged out from the wall and floor and formed into a snarling vicious pack of animals ready to attack them. Before they could move however the other girl raised her free hand, something on her glove glinted and lightning burst down to strike one monster after another until they all just faded away. “Been waiting to use that baby since I joined this game.” She got up and dusted herself off but was heavy on one of her ankles. She looked Terezi over and made a face. “Looks like I didn’t get much in the way of a partner but that doesn’t matter with me here we already have aaaaaaaall the luck. What not gonna say anything dumb ass?”
As each word was spoken the shape in front of Terezi flashed blue at the rough location of its mouth. Since she couldn’t ‘see’ people’s faces it would be good to have a way to see who it was who was speaking. “You really are a loud mouth. But I guess we are partners now. The name’s Terezi Pyrope.”
The other girl moved forward and pushed Terezi hard into the wall of the alley. “That’s a fine way to greet someone you need to live.” Terezi clicked her tongue at the hypocrisy on display here. “Well listen up dumb ass my names Vriska Serket and I’m your only hope.” Her eyes flicked down towards Terezi’s chest momentarily and her mind wandered momentarily but then she forced herself to focus. “Wait! You have a cure pin!? Then why didn’t you fucking offer to fix my ankle!?”
Terezi kept her face calm as Vriska stared her down. “To be honest I didn’t know that was what the pin was.” She held out her hand and a can of drink formed in it. “You want it take it. I can’t very well have any dead weight on me. And you would make for plenty of weight.”
“YOU CALLING ME FAT! Ugh what the fuck ever.” She snatched the can and broke the seal with a hiss. Gulping it down she felt her ankle reknit and the pain faded out. Crushing the can she turned her attention back to Terezi. “So how could you not see what the pin was? You blind or something?” Terezi just smirked and cocked an eyebrow. “Oh man, I’d apologise but I’m not even sorry.”
They stood there for a while neither wanting to be the one to back down. When their phones buzzed Vriska was the only one to reach for hers. Terezi figured she wouldn’t be able to read hers anyway so there was no point. Vriska stepped away before reading out the words “ok day one and I have to give you something to do. I don’t know go get me some fucking beer or something.”
“Well that should be easy enough. This guy setting the missions is either incompetent or underestimating us.” Terezi moved towards the entrance of the alley. Walking was getting a lot easier now that her brain was getting used to taking so much more input.
“Hey dumb ass you can’t see this but we have timers on our hands! We only have ten minutes to get this done!”