MSPA Fanfiction III

[RLabs]

cC that was really incredible. I definitely like the idea that Jade was the one that contacted everyone to bring them together, and the kids' voices came across really well, especially Jade's. Also agreeing with the good portrayal of jerkass Bro.

[Bufu]

cC that was great ;v; just...so much "awwww" everywhere. Voicing my love for asshole-Bro as well. and Ms Lalonde lecturing him! and being named Lily. That works so well and suits her for some reason.

(I kinda want to see some part of their other first conversations though! I'd be so down with that if somebody wrote it)

[nightmarechild]

I sincerely apologize for the fic I posted yesterday. I usually don't have a lapse in judgment like that. I usually just delete them. I admit I deserve all the criticism I have gotten and will try not to let this happen ever again. Here's me trying to at least make up for a little bit.

I'll kill you for dieing:

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No, it can’t be happening. No, damn it get up. Get up and attack me again. This can’t be it, you’re the only one. The only one who ever stood a real threat. Get up and get your sword and stab me. Let me block to only find you an inch behind me. Let me slash my sword in the air you used to be in. Don’t die, it’s to easy. I want, need a challenge.

Damn it human why can’t I kill you again! Why won’t you get up! Why are you just sitting there next to the wingless bird and incinerated puppet and not putting your sword to my throat? I need a challenge or my purpose is null. I’m supposed to be a traitor. How can I betray you if you die? Get up…I said, get UP!

“How does it feel? Knowing that nothing can hurt you? Knowing that there is just no risk that you can’t break through? Have fun in a world made of glass.” No…no…NO! How DARE he die! How dare he not let me kill him for dieing! How dare he…god damn it

I picked up his pointed sunglasses, why did I do that? What purpose does this have, a souvenir? That’s what insane serial killers do; it only leads to their downfall. Tyrants are to full of themselves to do that. They evade death for nearly their entire lives and are killed in their sleep. Tyrants don’t keep mementos that lead the enemy to them. They kill royalty in their way so they have the throne and quit while they’re ahead. Tyrants don’t go farther and kill the only threats to them. They have someone else do it. Tyrants don’t keep mementos that lead the enemy to them and teach them your weakness. Tyrants don’t have a chance to fight to their last legs with honor and belief.

…It’s a good thing I’m not a tyrant.

[Aerodactylus]

De-lurking to post a thing I wrote. If it reads like Wigmund's Karaoke Night series, it's because I was inspired by them like whoa. I love coming up with music that fits characters, so this was a lot of fun to write.

Come Together, Part One

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John was just absently looking through the archives of Earth’s internet when there was a tap at his door. “Come in!” He swiveled his chair around to see Jade entering timidly. “Hi, Jade! I haven’t seen you much lately. What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing!” Jade’s reply was bright but her face fell quickly. “Just settling in, you know, trying to get used to everything.”

John nodded. In the few weeks since they’d begun living with the trolls in the Veil, he and his three best friends had been up to their eyeballs in strange circumstances. The trolls all kept odd hours, brought about by the fact that most of their species was nocturnal, and also that there wasn’t really a day and night in the Veil. Consequently, it was rare that at least one of them wasn’t wandering the halls of their desolate habitat. Karkat had taken the liberty of setting up organized mealtimes, but the alchemized food usually on the menu was neither as tasty nor as nutritious as the real thing. There was a kitchen area in the bowels of the lab, but most of them didn’t know how to cook, so it generally went unused. At least the lab had…somehow…realized that four more bodies were occupying it, and four new tranportalizer pads had appeared in the hub that led to everyone’s sleeping quarters.

John had wasted no time in alchemizing suitable replacements for the movie posters he’d had in his old bedroom, and now Nick Cage, John Malkovich, and the whole gang were there to see him off to sleep every night. All things considered, it could be much worse.

John suddenly noticed the dejected look on Jade’s face, and asked, “Are you okay? You’re not your usual perky self!”

Jade’s look took on a note of helplessness and frustration. “It’s Dave. He’s been really moody and withdrawn since we got here. He hardly ever eats at mealtimes, he barely even acknowledges the trolls, except for Terezi, and even there it seems more like he feels obligated to talk to her after everything they did in the game together. He just doesn’t seem happy, and I’m worried, John.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. He’s been pestering me a lot less lately, and he did not even make fun of me the other day when I told him I was watching Con Air!” Jade nodded in confirmation. “So…what do you think we should do?”

“We need a way to get him to…come out of his shell.” Jade suddenly giggled. “John, this is so silly! Did you ever imagine we’d have to get Dave to be more open and social?”

John laughed too. “It does seem pretty backwards, huh?”

“Yeah, definitely!”

They lapsed into silence for a moment, both thinking hard. Finally John said, “I’ve got nothing. And now I feel bad, too. I mean, we are his best friends, and we can’t figure out how to help him.” He paused. “Did you talk to Rose?”

Jade winced. “Yeah, but she just said to wait, that Dave would work it out on his own. I trust her, I really do, and she is Dave’s sister and everything, but I’m just so worried! I don’t want Dave to retreat from everything. I know he’s really sad about losing his Bro, but…” She trailed off.

“I understand.” John stood and put an arm around her shoulders. “We just have to think harder. I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”

Jade gave a thin smile. “I hope so.”

--

That evening (well, evening as far as the clock on John’s computer went), John found himself on one of the lower levels, heading for Gamzee’s bar. The bar was yet another odd feature of the lab that didn’t seem to serve much purpose for a scientific facility, but made sense in the context of a large group of people living there. On the other hand, none of the humans were anywhere near legal, so the way the lab made its decision remained a mystery.

Gamzee was pouring an already sodden looking Eridan a drink when John entered. The indigo blood spied him and waved happily. “Hey, my bespectacled brother! How’s a fine motherfucker like yourself doing tonight?”

“I am good, Gamzee, thanks.” John saw Rose and Kanaya sitting at a far table, and moved to join them. “Could I get a Coke, please?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely, my brother. I’ll have that shit all up in your business so fast you’ll never notice it wasn’t there!”

John grinned, and sat down beside Rose.

“Good evening, John,” his former server player greeted him with customary coolness. “I don’t often see you down here.”

“Hey, Rose, Kanaya.” The jade blooded troll inclined her head mid-sip. “I was feeling kind of bored, so I thought I’d come and see what this place is all about.” He gave the room a once over. “It seems pretty nice.”

“It is,” Rose agreed. “Though one must be careful after Eridan consumes a certain number of drinks, as he has a tendency to become quite melodramatic and disrespectful of personal space.” Kanaya giggled quietly.

“Shame there’s no music,” John ventured. Suddenly struck by a thought he turned to Kanaya and asked, “Do trolls have music?”

Kanaya looked thoughtful. “In a sense,” she said finally. “Our lusii often sing to us when we are young, but there is little in the way of formal musical displays. An empire bent on galactic conquest has a way of letting the arts fall by the wayside, I’m afraid.”

At that moment, Gamzee swept over to their table with an enormous pitcher of cola and some glasses. “Thought you motherfuckers might like to share,” he said, setting it all on the table with a mellow smile. “Enjoy!”

Jade turned out to be right behind him, taking the last vacant seat at the table.

“You know,” Rose said, “Kanaya and I were really hoping for a private drink this evening.”

Jade laughed, “Oh , Rose, you know we love your company too much to allow that!” A small smile played about Rose’s lips, and they all knew she was joking.

John noticed Jade humming under her breath as she poured a glass of Coke. “What are you singing?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Jade replied. “I was just listening to a song earlier and now it’s stuck in my head.”

“Ooh, what song?” Kanaya asked, with uncharacteristic enthusiasm. Jade and John both gave her puzzled looks. “Oh, I’m sorry…Rose has been teaching me about your human music, and I was wondering if perhaps it’s something I’d heard of.”

“Well,” Jade said, amused, “It’s a song called “Don’t Stop Believin’,” by a band called Journey.”

“Oh,” Kanaya said, disappointed. “I don’t know that one.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t. Journey isn’t exactly Baroque, which is what I’ve been showing you.” Kanaya blushed slightly.

“Kind of appropriate, don’t you think?” John said to Jade.

“What, the song?”

“Yeah. Don’t Stop Believin’ is a barroom staple.”

“Huh,” Jade sipped her soda thoughtfully. “I guess so.”

“What do you mean?” Kanaya asked.

“Well, back on Earth,” John replied, “bars like this would have music playing, like I mentioned earlier, and sometimes people would get up and sing. It’s called karaoke. That song Jade was humming is one of the classics to sing karaoke to.” He laughed. “Dave told me once that you could get an entire bar singing if you…” He trailed off suddenly, and looked at his paradox sister. “Jade, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Jade looked confused for a second, and then her face lit up. “Oh! If we brought in…and Dave loves music…”

“Then maybe…”

“May I ask what nefarious plot has struck both of you?” Rose said.

John just smiled at her, his prankster’s gambit written all over his face. “You’ll see. Jade, you think tomorrow night would work?”

“Definitely!” Jade nodded.

“Alright. We need to make sure as many of us are here tomorrow as possible.”

“I’ll handle Dave,” Jade volunteered.

“What are you both talking about?” Rose was exasperated.

“You will see Rose, don’t worry,” John put a placating hand on her shoulder. “In the meantime, like I said, get as many people to come tomorrow as you can.”

Rose regarded him coolly. “Very well, John Egbert, keep your secrets.”

--

The next night John entered the bar to find it much fuller than it had been the night before. Rose had apparently been as successful on the recruiting hunt as he had, because fifteen warm bodies currently sat at various tables around the room, and at the bar itself. Including…

“This is fucking stupid. Why am I down here?” John heard Dave grouse from across the room.

“Because!” Jade answered sharply, “All you’ve been doing is sitting in your room and moping the past three weeks. You need to get out and be social! Have some fun! I know you’re not normally like that, Dave.”

“The fuck I’m not. I can be as hermit-y as I want. Be like a fucking hobo, riding trains cross country all by my lonesome. Don’t need nothing or fucking nobody.”

Jade rolled her eyes at Dave’s typically overextended metaphor and pointed at a chair nearby. “Sit.”

“And what if I don’t want to?” Dave asked, sounding unusually petulant. Jade gave him a look that she reserved for special occasions, and he backed off, dropping into the chair with a huff. “You still haven’t told me why I should come down here. I’m not drinking anything that clown serves up, so don’t even try it.”

“You’ll see,” Jade said, in much the same tone John had used on Rose the previous evening. Dave fell silent then, looking morose.

John casually walked up to Jade, exchanging greetings. Making sure his back was to Dave, he asked, “So what’d you come up with?”

“It’s over there, under the sheet.” Jade nodded to a large misshapen object covered by a white cloth sitting up against the wall. “It has a database of every song with lyrics written after 1900.”

“Holy shit,” John exclaimed. “Well, that certainly gives us lots of choices!” Jade nodded her enthusiasm.

“Hey, fuckwad!” John felt a hand on his shoulder, and was spun around to face Karkat. “I was told I had to be here tonight. Not that I give a fuck, but what shithive idea did you pink grub suckers come up with that requires everyone’s presence, and me to waste my valuable time?”

“It is a very cool idea, Karkat!” John said happily. “I think you will enjoy it a lot. We should be getting started in a second.”

Karkat opened his mouth to speak, but was promptly distracted by something behind the John. “What the ever loving fuck is that?”

John turned back to where Jade had been standing, and saw that she had uncovered the alchemized karaoke machine. It was quite a sight, nearly as tall as she was, with a large, bright touch screen display and eight microphones in holsters on either side. She pulled one out, tapped it to make sure it was on, and began speaking.

“Um, hey everybody! So, John and I were talking yesterday, and we thought this bar could use a little bit more excitement. So we have karaoke!”

Dave’s mouth gaped open, while the trolls merely stared blankly at each other and Jade. From behind the bar, Gamzee cried, “What the fuck is it, my flighty sister?”

“It’s karaoke! You pick a song and sing it. I alchemized this karaoke machine. It has pretty much every song you’d ever want to sing. Well,” Jade’s face fell slightly, “ever y human song. I don’t know much about troll music.”

“There’s nothing to know,” Karkat cut in. “Music is for bulge sucking wigglers.”

Jade winced at the barb, and John seized his chance to jump up next to her and grab a second mic. “Well, on Earth music is a really important part of our culture, and since we’re all living together, Jade and I figured it would be a good idea to…share a little! Um…Rose, Dave? Do you guys want to come up and sing with us?”

“Fuck no,” Dave said. “I hope this wasn’t what you dragged me down here for Jade, because if you did it was a fucking waste of time.”

Jade looked a little hurt, and John added, “Rose?”

“I’ll pass for now John, but rest assured I will join you at some point.” Rose was sitting off to the side with Kanaya, at the same table they’d been at last night.

“Okay. Then, uh...I guess we start.” John turned to Jade, “You have the song cued up?”

“Oh, yeah. Just, hang on a sec…” Jade moved over to the machine and hit a button, and the familiar keyboard opening of “Don’t Stop Believin’” began. Jade still looked a little down after Dave’s comment, so John nudged her gently, giving her an encouraging smile.

John started: “Just a small town girl, livin’ in a lonely world, she took the midnight train going anywhere…” John had an okay voice, not great, but what he lacked in tone quality he more than made up for in enthusiasm.

“Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit, he took the midnight train going anywhere…” Jade’s voice was much better, a smooth alto, and the lyrics flowed from her lips like water from a glass. Her face lit up and she called out, “Come on, Rose, come sing with us!”

Rose smiled, looked briefly at Kanaya, and then bounded across the floor to join the two of them, taking a third mic from John. “A singer in a smoky room, a smell of wine and cheap perfume…for a smile they can share the night, it goes on and on and on and on…”

Rose’s breathy soprano melded with her two friend’s voices as they sang the next part together. As they sang, Jade snuck a look at Dave, only to see him resolutely studying the floor, seemingly not paying attention. She felt a tiny bit upset, but somehow, singing a fun song with her friends, it was a hard to feel truly sad or depressed. The tension just seemed to melt away.

The song progressed to the guitar interlude, and as it played the three friends smiled at each other. Rose was flush with mild embarrassment, despite her strong singing, and John was grinning ear to ear. Jade looked down at Dave, who at least was looking at them now, and asked, “You want sing with us, Dave?”

Dave’s face remained impassive. “Whatever. You guys can keep your pop crap. I have better things to do.”

“Please, Dave…for me?” Jade grimaced inwardly at how that sounded, but she knew at the same time that it was what she wanted. She needed Dave to sing with them. It just felt…right.

The chorus was mere beats away from starting when Dave suddenly leapt from his seat and ran to John, pulling the mic from his hands. “Gimme that thing, Egbert! I’ll show you how it’s done!”

And indeed he did. “Don’t stop, believin’! Hold on to that feeling! Street lights, people, ohhh, whooooaaaa!”

Rose and Jade made an effort to back Dave up, but he was clear he needed no help. He voice soared, high and pure, hitting every note effortlessly, and at one point he even fell to his knees, head thrown back, wailing into the microphone.

When the song ended, Dave got to his feet, the room dead silent. Then suddenly Nepeta and Feferi began applauding wildly, and it broke the spell, as everyone in some way began acknowledging the performance. Terezi leaned over to where Dave’s chair was. “Good job, coolkid.” She whacked him playfully in the ribs with her cane.

Dave smiled. “Yeah…I mean, I couldn’t let you guys leave with the wrong impression. John’s nice and all, but there’s no way he was doing that thing justice.”

“That ‘pop crap,’ you mean?” Dave turned to see John smirking.

“Don’t get the wrong idea, Egbert. That song is still complete shit. But even so, it deserves a better rendition than you were giving it.”

John’s smirk didn’t fade, despite the jab. “Maybe you could ‘show me how it’s done’?”

Dave grinned in response, the challenge made. “Sure, John. You come back tomorrow, and I’ll put on a show you’ll never forget!”

I'll probably write more to this, since I have many more song ideas to use.

[QuetzaDrake]

@Tenebrais Aww, Becfic. Favorite part was Hass arriving on the island and seeing Bec for the first time. Never thought about how he would feel upon meeting this dog that looks exactly like his old friend/guardian for the first time.

[geeP]

@chronicallyCrafty: Pretty tight, I like it. The Dave/Jade log was nicely done, you nailed his attitude pretty well and it seems like he's already developing a soft spot for Jade, nice touch.

[Wigmund]

De-lurking to post a thing I wrote. If it reads like Wigmund's Karaoke Night series, it's because I was inspired by them like whoa. I love coming up with music that fits characters, so this was a lot of fun to write.

Nice to see I'm inspiring people

[Katrika]

Huh. I wrote I'll Make A Kismesis Out Of You before I read Karaoke Night, but come to think of it, KN DEFINATELY inspired my later character-centric Troll Disney Sings.

(Poor Unfortun8 Trolls and COURT OF 4LT3RN14, specifically.)

[Graven_Image]

So, I'm considering doing more troll SCPs after I finish My Future Self and Me.

Is this awesome (Y/N)?

[Katrika]

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[crash826]

Y^(100^(100^100)).
In short, EFFING Y.

[Aerodactylus]

@Graven I haven't read the first one, but I DO love SCP...

Also, could someone help me out on the whole colortags thing? Rereading what I posted, I want to put colortags in but I know neither how to do that nor what exactly the proper colors are.

[raequiem]

Graven: YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YYYYY

Aero: I sang along. Unashamedly. NOT EVEN THE COOLKID CAN RESIST JOURNEY. Colortags are [color="hexcode for the color in question"] at the beginning, [/color] at the end. You can yank colors from any comic page where they talk (go to view>page source) or any forum post that has the proper colors. About once every five or ten pages, someone posts a list of all the trolls and kids and their specific colors, so you can look back and see if you can find one.

Nightmare: Oh, Jack. You twisted, confused, angry little man. This was really good.

cC: Awwwwwwww! Friendfic! Friendfic is the best fic sometimes. This was excellent, everyone's interactions were great, and you got everyone's voice perfect. I especially liked Rose's interaction with her mom.

[Wigmund]

@Graven I haven't read the first one, but I DO love SCP...

Also, could someone help me out on the whole colortags thing? Rereading what I posted, I want to put colortags in but I know neither how to do that nor what exactly the proper colors are.

To do the color tags, you just type out color="xxxxxx" inbetween brackets [] with appropriate color code (listed below) and when you are done with the colored text just type /color once again in brackets [].

John - 0715cd / Rose - b536da / Dave - e00707 / Jade - 4ac925
Aradia - a10000 / Tavros - a15000 / Sollux - a1a100 / Karkat - 626262
Nepeta - 416600 / Kanaya - 008141 / Terezi - 008282 / Vriska - 005682
Equius - 000056 / Gamzee - 2b0057 / Eridan - 6a006a / Feferi - 77003c

[Aerodactylus]

@raequiem: XD NO. NO HE CANNOT. AND I DO SO LOVE IT.

@Wigmund: Yes, thank you! This is exactly what I needed. You get a cookie.

[SataiDelenn]

Aero: I sang along. Unashamedly. NOT EVEN THE COOLKID CAN RESIST JOURNEY.

Oh man, so did I. The idea of all the kids and trolls hanging out and doing karaoke made me grin so hard.

[chronicallyCrafty]

sdodlfndsf I am a little blown away by all these comments, especially from some authors I really admire (lookin' at you Bufu and geeP! dfnsdfs!!!!). I'm so relieved the general consensus seems to be that everyone was pretty IC, my concern over that was keeping me from writing a lot of kidfics X'D Maybe I'll be trying some more out after all!

@RLabs

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Well, we know that Jade at least introduced John to Dave and Rose, and it's my personal headcanon that the game sets up its players to be introduced through those who already have contact with either the clouds or the voices they hear (see also that other fic I wrote /shameless plug), so it made perfect sense to me that Jade would be the one to know who to contact. Bluh, I am so glad everyone seems to like Bro here, I think I was most worried about him X'D

@Bufu

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I see the bickering between Bro and Mom as similar to that between Dave and Rose, only a little more overtly antagonistic (because it's...well...BRO). But I think a lot of it is just that: bickering. And it is so fun to write X3 I can't take credit for calling her Lily, though, I think that's one of the fan names for her I picked up somewhere. Definitely suits her, though, yes!

Also, more first-contact kids? yespls!

@geeP

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Funny, that's the one log I was most worried about, but I'm glad you noticed that part especially. Dave's soft spot for Jade is one of my favorite things about him

@rae

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Friendfic is sooo cute, and this fandom does it so well~ Hm, but I had plans once upon a time for a Rose+Mom fic, I should consider getting back to that *shiftyeyes*

Also, @Aero, YESSS I need more Dave singing in my life, and this is basically one of the best songs of all time.

[TacticGamer]

Back from the pits of Hell, I'm thinking of writing a fanfic(A fanfic that isn't plastered with boobs and genderbenders) about everyone figuring out that Vriska caused the scratch and later on they assault her and completely deform her (stabbing her eight-fold eye, ripping off her horns and just...) but I'm not exactly sure if that's allowed.

[Decker]

There IS an excessive violence rule. I don't know what you have planned though, and I'm not even remotely a mod.

[-Benedict]

Aero: I sang along. Unashamedly. NOT EVEN THE COOLKID CAN RESIST JOURNEY.

Oh man, so did I. The idea of all the kids and trolls hanging out and doing karaoke made me grin so hard.

I should probably point you in the direction of Wigmund's signature (skip nightmare skip nightmare skip nightmare oh god)

[BlastYoBoots]

Alright, I've never really written fanfiction before, but I was bitten with an idea last night. It's based off an opening line from the Otherland series by Tad Williams.

So yeah, first fic. Here goes:

Out - part 1 (2, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b)

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The metaverse is filled with noise. Murmurings of horrors, the static from temporally separated bubbles of existence, and the crashing energy of pseudo-emptiness, all connected tenuously by the maze-like fabric of almost-being. What chance has an undirected message of happening upon a concerned extra-universal ear? And if one does, why, it is impossible to trace without a return address.

This message certainly had none. Was its source a horror? A guardian, a recording, a story? Some child or father of one of countless races? None could say. Its origin was as inscrutable as its intent - provided it even had one.

Perhaps, eventually, he would wonder if he had voiced it himself.

---

“Try to think about getting out,” it said. "About really getting out."

The Courtyard Droll wasn't scared by the voice. Surprised, certainly. But he didn't jump.

-"Cee-Dee?"-

It had seemed... conversational. So calm and unassuming. And yet, there was a silver undercurrent of absolute truth.

-"Cee-Dee! Quit daydreaming. There's work to do. Over."-

The Droll shook himself out of his vacant reverie, pulling out his two-way.

c3-"Yeah, boss? Over."-
-"Archagent wants you. Report to his office, it's a recon mission."-
c3-"Yeah, I dig, Dig. Over."-
-"Please... Cee-Dee, no puns. Just stick to protocol."-
c3-"Roger that, boss. Over."-
-"He'll be there to meet you in fifteen minutes. Over and out."-

Out.

He'd been staring up at Skaia when it had spoken to him. Whatever it was, that is. Skaia was so far away from Derse, he'd been thinking. It was a battlefield, an enemy, but he didn't really see the big deal. It was nice to look at, didn't interfere with any of their lives. And the farmers there grew some delicious produce. Oh boy, was he hungry; the thought of a nice veggie BLT set him drooling.

But now, he was a bit more deeply distracted. Wandering the non-euclidian hallways of inner Derse, he pondered what he'd heard. Out. Out from where? From what? Out there? Out of the war? Heck, outside himself?

On a whim, the Droll paused, stopped still. He calmed down and relaxed his concentration. He breathed. And then he took a small step back from himself.

And felt something.

It wasn't him, and it wasn't out. It was something. And it was nearby. Down that hallway, in fact.

He walked.

---

The Courtyard Droll was lucky. No matter how ridiculous his situations became - dangling by a toe above a sea of lava, discovered by a squad of Prospitan shock-troops, locked in the White Queen's powder room - he always managed to get out unscathed. Even his fancy new hat had managed to remain in one piece so far, despite his constant reconnaissance trips. His superiors made frequent use of him, even with his rather average success rate; the Archagent loved to throw him the absurd and dangerous tasks, "just to hear how you made it outta this one". Things always happened to arrange themselves so that he'd always - if barely - stay intact and happy.

The Droll had never questioned his luck. He never needed to. But calmly, inadvertently, he had begun to understand it, unravel it.

Could it, perhaps, be redirected?

---

There it was. She was. A Prospitan messenger, holding a ticket, obviously unsure of her way around. This is what he'd felt.

She seemed strangely out of place to the Droll. No, wait, that wasn't it... in place. She was strangely in place. Now, why was that?

He took another mental step back. Something was behind her placement here, a will of some sort. An outside intent. A thread of fate.

He gave it a gentle tug.


The Parcel Mistress hardly noticed the Droll at first, pulling at her dress. "Hey, Miss!"

She jumped a bit, then looked. What a strange and funny little Dersian. And that outlandish headgear...

"You lookin' for one of the Archagents, Miss?"

"Um, I think so..."

"You'll want to talk to Mister Noir, my superior. He's pretty tough, and a little grumpy, but I swear he's the best guy to turn to when you need stuff done right.

"Oh, um, thanks..."

Now that was a pleasant surprise. To think, you'd find a little kindness so far away from Skaia's comforting light.

"Just head back a bit. Third office on your left. If he's out on break, just leave the goods on his desk, he'll get around to it."

The Parcel Mistress headed back around for Archagent Jack Noir's office. Still quite nervous, but no longer terrified. Jack entered after her not a minute later.

The Droll watched.

---

As he headed point-by-point through the complicated series of nodes needed to reach Prospit - the site of his recon mission - the Courtyard Droll glowed with satisfaction. Such a gentle pull on such a wispy thread, and everything was already falling into place differently. He could almost feel those other threads, twisting and rearranging themselves anew. So much he could do, could change! And all he needed to do was touch just the right thread.

But not yet. Something deep inside him told him to bide his time. A drive, an ancestral will. A will borne of countless sessions, countless lives and deaths, his very existence of a game construct. It had latched onto a promise, the hope for one special thread. A silver thread.

And if he nudged enough of fate aside, if he uncovered this thread and took hold of it...

It would carry him straight up. The exit.

Out.

[lucidSeraph]

Hmm.

Guys, should I work on:

1. a more serious/weird/dark take on Davesprite and Dawgsprite / sprites in general OR
2. Fragments of an odd AU/fan theory I've had kicking around my head for a while?

The latter will require maybe coming up with first names for the Guardians, though. I ALMOST want to do it as a fan adventure, but I don't have any time and no desktop yet for drawing with (soon... SOON...)

[Decker]

Hmm.

Guys, should I work on:

1. a more serious/weird/dark take on Davesprite and Dawgsprite / sprites in general OR
2. Fragments of an odd AU/fan theory I've had kicking around my head for a while?

The latter will require maybe coming up with first names for the Guardians, though. I ALMOST want to do it as a fan adventure, but I don't have any time and no desktop yet for drawing with (soon... SOON...)

2
Things kicking around your head tend to keep kicking around until you get them out.

[neuroticIndecision]

Alright, I've never really written fanfiction before, but I was bitten with an idea last night. It's based off an opening line from the Otherland series by Tad Williams.

So yeah, first fic. Here goes:

Out - part 1

show spoiler

hide spoiler

SCROLL UP AND READ IT YOURSELF

I am intrigued! :>b I would definitely love to see where this goes!

And, lucidSeraph -- I can't really decide which one would be more fun to read OR write, but option number 2 sounds most interesting to me!
And Decker is totally right. Those ideas will kick at your head until the hemorrhaging starts.
and then they will keep kicking some more

[lucidSeraph]

... then name suggestions. Give 'em. :|

Joke suggestions are good too.