The future Dave and Aradia caught the demon from the left and right, and it blocked once, twice before the current Dave and Aradia struck at his back. Their coordination was beautiful. The demon had to timeslip: a brief green flash as he vanished to some safe place in the universe, then back in an instant in a new position with sword turned to the rear. Dave felt his own blade slide against his opponents for a moment before Aradia grabbed it closer to the pommel and threw its course. Dave’s blade hit in Jack’s back thigh and he transformed, bolting away in the form of green lightning to safety. The safety eroded almost instantly as Jack was forced to raise his blade again to engage with the Dave and Aradia from just a few minutes past.
The current Dave (as far as his stream of consciousness was concerned, or “Day 23 Hour 3-b” to all the other Daves and Aradias) tried to keep his memories of the fight straight in his head. He knew the ones from the future, Day Twenty-Five Something-Something, would cut off to help his and Aradia’s earlier selve in a moment. He knew because it had already happened, before they had jumped back to reinforce the fight, a few minutes from now. Just another day at the office.
“we have ab0ut forty seconds” said current incarnation of Aradia, hovering to his left. “just after y0u take the hit 0n your br0w and future y0u clips n0ir’s arm”
Dave remembered and nodded confirmation even though neither of them were going to break eye contact off the fight. Of course he remembered. After all, he had the rapidly healing scar to remind him. He watched the fight between Jack and their alternates, waiting for an opening. There was really no room for more than four of them at close range, not without frequently breaking off, and Dave found that kind of coordination with his future selves more complicated than was really necessary.
It was easier to watch Jack. Right parry, left-to-back, shove, parry right again, timeslip to reverse. “Be honest,” he said, count at twenty, nineteen, eighteen… “Fighting an evil demon with our future selves. Best first date, or worst?”
“On my ‘first date’ with Equius I tore out my own heart and smashed it to a pulp on a rock.”
Right, the kismesis. “I suppose I asked for that. You’re going to have to tell me that one.” Spin, blow caught by future Aradia, timeslip out of grasp, stab left, cut right, stubbed elbow to the face. Five, four, three, two…
“n0w”
When demon cut high-right, and they were half way there. Dave’s past self pulled back to dodge but the blade went straight through his shades, slicing through his eyebrow and the bone of the socket. His future self, no doubt waiting for the opening he already knew would come, brought his sword down on the shoulder of Noir’s severed arm and the green light radiating from the demon danced the way it did when he was truly hurt. Their past selves broke away, past Aradia providing cover long enough for Dave replace his shades with a fresh copy and to choke down one of Egbert’s disgusting raspberry potions. In the meantime, the current Dave and Aradia took their places.
Blades clashed, Jack’s sword striking against Dave’s or against heavily armoured robot hands with every stroke, and they left him no room or time to use any more complex powers than basic survival would allow. The constant fencing could not last forever, and perhaps the fact that the Daves and Aradias knew exactly when it was going to fail paved the way for their own mistake. After Jack’s fifth attack in his direction, current Dave’s sword bounced aside just enough to free both of Jack’s hands simultaneously.
“Away!” Future Dave ordered and, fully aware of what was about to happen they all split away at once. Current Dave caught his minutes-younger self on the shoulder as he instinctively approached to take the opening. He pointed to Jack as explanation, whose hand and stump had begun to glow with white-hot power. Jack barked at them, enraged at their prescience.
“We’ll take it from here,” current Dave told himself, and past Dave returned Jack’s call with a smirk before vanishing into the time stream with his partner. The remaining four kept a lock on Jack.
“Big money, big money, no whammies,” Dave muttered as they watched Jack work, sending out his feelers. They knew better than to approach, as lines of light spread out from the demon in a latticework through space and time. The first time they had tried to attack him when the lattice was up and searching, Aradia had been seized and had been forced to abandon her body as he took control. They had only been rescued by their deep future selves, from somewhere even further ahead than Dave stood now, and he had no mind to force them back again. They could handle themselves.
The lattice changed colour, twisting and warping as it slipped into the past, and finally grasped something substantial. The demon braced its stumped arm to seal the catch and Dave tried to get a look across the thread in time to see just what he had found. A tall monster with heavy claws for hands greeted his probing powers at the other end, hunting and otherwise unaware of the temporal hook in its side. All the same, some fragment of its personality fought against the fisherman and the line shook and pulled as though trying to wrench free of its own accord.
“Karkat’s lusus,” Aradia muttered, though Dave, with his mind half in the past, was not sure whether she was the one from his present or future.
The next line, from the same hand, hooked around a smaller beast: feline with two mouths, also hunting. A tiny, noisy figure, impossible for Dave to make out as it was not the subject of the hook, thrashed about in the bush beside it. This figure seemed to be an infant, though it did not much resemble its parent, mimicking and learning and failing to be stealthy to any degree. The cat monster was also unaware of the hook, this time in its eye, but the line shook just as violently. Dave thought he heard the lusus’ soul growling and hissing with ever lash of the thread. Last of all, Jack’s right hand hooked a final beast, but Dave did not have time to take it in before the demon snapped the loose, still-probing lines and charged straight into him. The three temporal connects, resembling hovering balls of colour, floated above Jack like balloons tethered by lines of time and light, and the first line pulsed with an active power.
Dave raised his blade to parry, but Jack reached out with his severed arm and somehow grabbed the blade with an unshakable grip. The future Aradia went for his head before Noir could bring the blade fully to bear, buying Dave enough time to pull aside. Jack turned his attention to her for a moment, just as current Aradia and Dave’s future self joined in and forced him to timeslip. Dave’s sword was freed from the inexplicable grasp, and he was able to get a look at the trouble for the first time. Through the power of the temporal connection to Karkat’s lusus, Jack had sprouted a spectral arm out of First Guardian power, scratching clear and unclear back and forth from the shape of a giant crab claw.
“God dammit, I hate when he does this.” Dave pushed back to the fight, just as the demon slammed the open claw across and into current Aradia’s left arm, ripping open a section. Dave sent his blade up, harmlessly through the semi-tangible arm and into Jack’s chin. The light of Jack's power swarmed in pain and he reverted to his dog self in a spat of senseless, if hideous, barking. Future Aradia seized the initiative. One hand on a music box, she synched her timeline with that of the line hooked to the crustacean lusus, and took ahold. She pulled it hard, yanking it out of Jack’s wrist and control, and then let it drop, where it snapped back to its victim. The line disappearing like mist into time, and Jack’s spectral hand vanished.
Both Daves covered her as she fell back to a safer position. The future Dave left off with a quip: “It’s not nice to steal dead people’s powers, Jack.” Jack returned the quip with another bark, and an honest attempt to bite one of them. Failing that, he tugged with his stump on the second temporal line.
A shimmering of green light appeared near the demon’s muzzle as the second lusus’ powers flowed into Jack. Dave only had a split second to make out the cat mouths forming over Jack’s mouth before claws cut past his face lightning-fast, then his chest, then his leg. The lusus he had linked to was fast, too fast, and the four warriors of time split off into pairs.
“Nepeta would be proud,” the current Aradia said, cradling her split left arm. Dave could see exposed wires in the wound, along with the claw scratches and even true cuts on her breastplate and face. He wished she could have had enough time to duct tape the arm gash, as was her usual course of first aid, but Bec Noir would only wait so long.
“How do you wanna do this?” he asked her. His eyes shifted towards their future selves, who were watching him in turn and waiting for action. Okay then, it’s on us.
Aradia nodded. “…Cover me.”
She jetting off to one side, and engaged Jack again, her damaged arm loose and exposed. Dave followed, and waited. “Cover me,” was that it? Before that day he might have paused, shouted questions or at least quipped in response to Aradia’s orders, but something was different. He was not ready to admit it to himself, and certainly not to her, but he was finding it easier to trust Aradia implicitly. Talking to her earlier that night, to admit about Terezi and be open, had started a change. It was like the way he had learned to trust Jade, John and Rose, when he had finally admitted that he sort of liked drawing his terrible comics, and they had… eh… mostly understood. So if she said “Cover me,” well, he didn’t understand, but maybe he’d put himself out there and give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen?
Aradia and Jack clashed once, fist locking with spectral paw and a headbutt caught with feline reflexes, and she broke away. They clashed again: she took a hit to her leg, and broke away. They clashed a third time: a punch got through to Jack’s chest, another caught by the wrist, and then—
Dave’s caught Jack’s sword in mid-air just as the demon emerged from timeslip. Aradia broke away as Jack pressed the offensive, pushing Dave’s blade away with all his absurd strength. His spectral claws on feet and hand cut light, irritating gashes across Dave’s body, tearing the skin in a dozen places, but the sword would be the real killing blow. Jack’s eyes met Dave’s across their swords and his muzzles, spectral and otherwise, curved up in a disturbing, out of sync smile.
“MoRNINg strIder,” Jack said. The very sound of his voice scratched in Dave’s ear – static, flux and green – and lingered there. Another of Jack’s intentional irritations. True, he was bleeding, badly. True, he could not focus. But the sword was death. He could focus on that, or break away. He held.
Aradia seized Jack’s third temporal line, unseen by both, and Jack and Dave disengaged simultaneously. The third soul, or at least the connection to it that floated just above Jack and Aradia’s head, thrashed left and right violently at the hope of freedom. Jack attacked her, in his fury, but Dave did not even have to glance at Aradia to follow her plan. His one hand already on his timetables, Dave severed the second line and Jack’s feline powers dissipated at once. As Aradia flew past Jack’s blade, the final line still in hand, Jack drew his power through time from the final soul, perhaps not even yet aware that he had lost the second.
As the third and final form scratched into existence about the demon, Jack took on a look of unrealistic juxtaposition. Something about his new shimmering form, and Jack’s trying to compress the creature at the other end of the line to a humanoid size, made him look like he no longer belonged to that reality. He was no longer casting the right shadows and he took on the strange appearance of mass, surreal in that it was just as clear that he gained no size. About his muzzle formed an ethereal beak; from his arms and his stumps came tentacles, dripping.
Turning to face Aradia, who now held the line in both hands, he barked out a hideous sound, a “GLUB” that Dave felt more than heard. The sound swam out in all directions to the edge of the universe, just short of the lab, and echoed back a second time, just as strong.
And nothing at all happened.
A smile played up on Aradia’s robotic lips, a glimmer in her robotic eyes just below a cat-scratched gap on her face. To Dave, she explained the attack Jack had stolen from the third lusus: “...Kills Trolls.”
Dave could not help but laugh as she snapped the line and Jack’s final time-stolen power swept away. The demon returned, visually, to reality – at least until his next fishing trip. Aradia shoved him away, and their future selves did their work. Before Jack could turn on them, future Dave and future Aradia cut into him, through him, back and forth with ruthless speed, and their current selves took their own share. Jack’s powers flashed, the lights warped bright and dim and in and out in all directions, and he fled. The last attack of each fighter cut space instead of Guardian flesh. He would be back, in an hour or three, but for now, they had won. Another day at the office.
Except… “Oh!” Current Dave said, a surreal rising feeling welling up in his chest. “Levelling.” Current Aradia nodded her confirmation, but her arm was back in her hand. It would seem whatever rush had carried her through the fight had since expired.
“Morning!” called future Dave, hovering close as they all began to catch their breaths.
“y0u sh0uld get that l00ked at” future Aradia said to her past self, who had begun picking at her wound.
“Is it that bad?” current Dave asked. “What’s the matter?”
“One of my…” Aradia’s vocalizer was making pained sounds. “My touch sensors is on my heating line.” The one that made her feel warm instead of like cold metal, Dave supposed. “Feels like my arm’s on fire.”
Future Dave nodded, and all four of them took out their time travel devices. “See you in two days,” Dave said to his future self
His future self laughed and then replied: “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t have.”
Their future selves slipped away and, with a few unspoken signals to Aradia, they followed. They headed forward, close enough to morning to wake Equius, but not so far away that they would miss their next watch. After all, the demon would be back. They would have to be waiting.
-------------------------
The horn pile was a terrible bed. Sharing it with Gamzee and Terezi, splayed out in three directions like wheel spokes, just made it worse. Rose did not actually get any sleep that night, but at the same time, did not really mind. She had only lain down about an hour to their usual dawn and she was pumped full of the adrenaline that arrived at that stage of an all-nighter. Rose would never sleep now. She just lay there, wide awake, counting ceiling tiles and smirking every time some new inside joke came to mind. She would not have relived the previous day for anything, but the night had bought her some refuge.
As she lay awake she had trouble remembering if some of the more critical moments from the day before had really happened. Had she really agreed to auspistice for Vriska if she played nice? Had she really ran out of Kan’s room without a single word of comfort? Had the look on Eridan’s face when she had tried to keep him calm been passive, or wanting? No, no, that one was being silly.
But it was hard to be serious when her senses were so shot by the all nighter that she was having trouble coping with the present. Rose got to her feet, with only three horn blats, which she figured was the best she could hope for. She checked the others to make sure she had not woken them, and could not help but smile. She was not sure how they were doing it, but they looked so comfortable, and almost kind of sweet.
Sleeping Terezi did not exactly look peaceful, but definitely more than she ever did awake. She still had Gamzee’s white face paint under her eyes, like a football player stuck on the wrong shade, and clutched her dragon cane in one hand and the dented cane they had retrieved around 3am in the other, crossed like a pharaoh. Rose turned to Gamzee on the opposite side. She found his own face paint smudged from the numerous times he had tried to rub his face in the night, and a smirk on his face from whatever he was dreaming. They were both slathered in sopor and looked ridiculous, but with Gamzee it at least seemed appropriate. He was cute, sleeping. Actually, maybe he was just cute period, beyond the mask. Rose had never given it any thought, and with her mind drawn so thin at the late hour, she was not ready to give it any thought now, either. Woozy and directionless, Rose wandered out of the lab and into the hall
“No offence, but can’t you just turn it off?”
“I turned the whole arm off while we were fighting. I can do it again if you’d – ribbit – like, but that’s about it.”
“Stupid, this is nothing but stupid.”
Rose did not have to walk very far before she stumbled onto Dave and Aradia. The hall from the lab led to the nearest exit if you knew the twists and turns, and her friends had barely reached the first t-junction before dropping down to the floor. Aradia was propped up against the wall, Dave kneeling over her and rooting around and – Rose swallowed a pained gulp – inside of her left arm. The arm that Rose, unfortunately, had just the right the angle to see. Rose tucked behind the nearest corner.
“Just find the sensor before it melts to the line or something stupid like that,” Aradia said.
Dave nodded and worked the gap in her arm wider with an alchemized pocket knife. Rose had to try not to gag: surgery had never really been her thing, robot or no. “I don’t even understand why you’re feeling any pain,” Dave muttered. “I mean, is he that much of a sadist, that he wants his robots to feel pain?”
“This is my soul’s fault more than anything,” Aradia replied, cutting off with a gasp of pain as Dave reached inside and began to move wires. “The soulbot is just reporting ‘damage.’ It’s my soul that says ‘damage’ means ‘pa—’ Ah! Ah!”
Dave pulled his hand out at once. “What? What?”
“You’re touching my nerve! It hurts!” Aradia snapped. Dave waited, wary and unsure of how to proceed. “…Okay,” she said, simulated breathing slowed. “It’s okay. You’ve got to move it to get it off. I get that. I can take it, I’m a Troll.”
“I’m not saying you can’t take it,” Dave said, raising his knife again. “But you’re sure you don’t want to turn it off just because?”
“Yes. You don’t understand, it’s… just what we do, okay?”
“…Yeah.”
Rose fell back a half-step, arms cradling her weight against the corner she used as cover. She considered going out to help them, but they spoke entirely in whispers, clearly edging for secrecy at least in the middle of the night. Besides, Rose knew she would be of no use at all. Even if the whole affair had not turned her stomach, Rose could not imagine that being the Seer of Light would be much help the field of electro-medical repair.
“Okay, I think I see where it is,” Dave said, his multi-prototyped knife shining a penlight. “You ready?” Aradia nodded her ascent, and Dave reached in again and she screamed, only a moment before she cut off her own vocalizer. Silent, her pain still showed clear as day on her face and gestures. Her good arm grasped the one he used for balance, squeezing hard. Though her angle was bad, Rose thought she saw Dave tip his head towards hers in response… though perhaps he was just getting a better angle on the wound.
“…There!” Dave said, his oil-tipped hand pulled free of the gash. “Okay?”
Her vocalizer cracked. “…Okay,” Aradia confirmed, the sound of her simulated breathing back on the air. She dropped her head into his shoulder and her grip slipped loose and off his arm, down towards his hand.
“How’s the sensor? Can you feel here?” Dave asked, trying to appraise his work.
“No,” Aradia replied, whispering straight into Dave and barely heard by Rose. “It not supposed to read so near the wound, that’s fine.”
“Okay. Here?” Dave said, reaching up to her shoulder. Aradia must have nodded, because Dave shuffled back, unwittingly giving Rose a better angle and ear on the proceedings, and reached down her arm. “Here?” A pause, and another nod. Finally, Dave brushed the tops of her metal fingers. “And here?”
Almost imperceptibly for Rose, Aradia’s finger reached up and wrapped around Dave’s thumb, as she whispered: “...Don’t tease.”
A moment’s hesitation, mutual, and they met in a kiss. Aradia reached up with her good hand guided him down into a more comfortable angle, but beyond that the kiss served and ended on equal terms, partners here as well as about. They even met a second time on an unspoken want with a second, shorter kiss before pulling apart as one. Rose hid entirely as they parted, and could not stop smiling. It had been like this a little with Tavros and Eridan. But now that it was her friend, who she loved. Worse, her restraint had been drawn thin by an uninterrupted twenty-four hours of consciousness and so she felt fit to burst. True, there was that jealous wriggle, but she could not hear it at the moment, and would not have listened if she could.
When Dave walked past her, alone, she just had to take it out on him. “Hey coolkid.”
Dave turned, smooth with his hands in his pockets, and raised an eyebrow. “What the hell happened to you?”
Rose reached up to her face and touched the bags under her eyes. “I just had the worst day. But I don’t want to talk about it! Do you know what I do want to talk about?”
She grinned, idiotically in hopes of driving it in harder, and Dave let out a tiny muffled groan before restoring his cool. “You know, it’s not nice to spy.”
“You know,” Rose said, stepping in beside him as he started to walk away. “I actually sort of figured you two might hit Moirails, what with all the saving each other’s lives all the time thing.”
“Oh no,” Dave said in monotone. “You know about what we are doing with the demon. Shock and horror, our cover has failed. Also,” he said in a normal tone. “Is that one of those Troll relationships? That thing you just said. I can’t keep track. I’m trying but stuff Karkat says just doesn’t stick for shit. You had better not be in the middle of one of those, Ro… oh god, you are, aren’t you?” He pushed on her shoulder and she laughed. “I leave you alone for a few hours a day and next thing I know you’re in some sort of stabship with Nepeta or something.”
“Oh, you’re a delight.” Rose kept pace with him as he turned away from the lab and towards Aradia’s section of the lab. “Did she go off to wake Equius?”
“Eh? Yeah. I didn’t want anything to do with that shit.” Dave did not look over for his reply, and he and Rose took a set of stairs together in silence. At the top of the stairs they carried on into Aradia’s zone proper, and Rose caught Dave errantly brushing a hand across his lips.
Rose, her tongue licking at the corner of her own lips in her early-morning deliria, could not help but jump in. “Can’t stop thinking about it, can you? Next thing we know you’ll be picking out doilies together.”
“Rose…”
“Big frilly ones! John and I will come over to help you through these hard, doily selecting times, but then we’ll find out it was your idea! I know these things, Strider. I’m a Seer.”
“No, no. Shut up, you. You have no idea.” He was still touching his lips. “You don’t get it. She’s a robot, but that… that was a really good kiss.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
Dave’s fingers stalled on his lower lip for a moment before he dropped it into a fist. “Hey, that’s not what I meant. I mean, more power to her, but think about it! Assume she’s a good kisser, fine, and think about it why what would be physically possible on a robot! Fuck, Equius is creepy.”
“Aw, don’t worry,” Rose said, slapping him about the elbow. “He’s covered. She hates him more than you hate him.”
“Don’t remind me.” Dave made a fist. “And then she makes out with him too! I just don’t get it yet, Rose. What am I getting in to?”
“Don’t worry, Dave,” Rose said. “I mean, this is all going to turn out in the end! It’s good for you, good for her. If she’s got kiss features, I’m certain that it probably goes—“
“Hey, hey,” Dave cut her off with a finger jab to her temple. “You don’t get to make robot jokes until I know you don’t mean them.”
Rose understood. She had shared the same worry when she first told her friends about her and Kanaya’s plans to vaguely form a relationship when the opportunity presented, as it apparently had not even to this day. She had hoped they would understand, and they had, but sometimes you just felt better when they told you that they were cool with things out loud. “Dave, you know that I…”
But evil thoughts were allowed their turn, and some things had to be said for the sake of humour. “..I’ve always know you were going to date something dead or artificial at some point. That she actually has a personality is just a plus! I mean, I always knew, deep in my heart, that one day you might be using some other creepy guy’s sex toy.”
And he got it, and he laughed. Rose tipped to the side and fell into him, wrapping both arms around him as they walked.
“Now you see,” Dave said as they came up on their rooms. “This, I miss. You ragging me, me ragging Egbert—”
“You shamelessly flirting with Jade?”
Dave tucked an arm around her in turn. “…Hate you.”
“Hate you too, Strider. Let’s be kismeses and the Trolls will stop looking at us funny.”
“Oh hell no,” Dave said, pulling apart so that he could type in his password for his door. “I’m not getting into any of that blackrom shit, and don’t let me catch you doing it either. That’s just too much trouble and you know it.”
Rose felt the sudden need to cough. “Uh, well… funny story…”
The door rattled open, but Dave ignored it, instead lowering his shades with a look of disbelief in his eyes. “Oh, fantastic. Who?”
Rose grinned sheepishly. “Eridan and… and Vriska. Maybe.” But Dave did not hear the “maybe” as he had begun to make a throaty, gurgling sound at the mention of Vriska..
“Forget it!” he said, hand raised for her to stop. “I don’t care! I’m taking a shower.” He slipped into his room.
“Well I can shout all the sordid the details through the door if you want!” she called.
“Piss off, Rose!”
Rose smiled smug at his door, and was all smiles all the way five steps down the hall, until she saw her doorway. It was exactly as she had left it the morning before: heavy stone artefact blocking the open doorway (discarded frog head), sparks now spitting out of the door mechanism and the letters “ERR” flashing over and over again on her keypad. “Damn it, Equius,” she said. “I knew I forgot something.”
The bulk of this chapter was dreamed up on the spot as something to put out before my week away, before I started to write karmic_lizards instead. Pretty much everything before the cut is fresh and new, with everything I had planned for Ch 9 now being in Ch 10. As such, if I gave any chapter numbers or said “in the next chapter” to anyone, I guess you’ll have to offset all those numbers by one. Whoops!
Last edited by SkaianRedeemer; 12-18-2010 at 07:08 PM.
Reason: Minor fixes everywheres
@Skaian: The first part was awesome. The second part was hilarious. I'm glad to see more of this.
@Overwhelmingly positive response to my stuff: I honestly intended to end the adventures of CD-Player Lad and ICBM Girl on that optimistic albeit bittersweet note. But darn it, you've convinced me to make more.
The brain was the hardest part. The rest of the body was nothing but pumps, pneumatics, and joints, but
a troll brain was more complex than any computer, and much more chaotic. Computers had to follow neat little maps and equations to work, but the brain was complex enough to create, lie, make mistakes, and be irrational. Complex enough to be a person with all it's faults.
Aradia's was close, but she had still changed. Maybe it was just the shock of dieing that did it, or maybe it was the side effect of a troll mind trying to fill a container that it wasn't used to. She came back, but she came back surrounded by an angry echo. It didn't work.
Equius thought that he could perfect the process this time. He hoped he could. He didn't have all the tools or materials he did back home, but guilt and desperation pushed him forward regardless.
He was almost done, just a few finishing touches. He reached into a dusty box and pulled out a familiar blue hat. He always thought it was childish, but even annoying things eventually became a comfortable familiarity with time.
They all tried to talk him out of it. Karkat was, unsurprisingly, especially against the idea.
“You saw what that did to Aradia! Your just gonna' repeat your mistakes!”
“She wasn't a mistake!” Equius yelled back. “I brought her back, and I can do it again.”
“You just can't let anything go can you? You already dug her fucking grave. Let the dead rest. Gog knows she earned it.”
Equius snorted and stomped back to his lab. No one saw him much after that.
That was a while ago. Now he was done. He screwed a panel back on her forehead and slipped the hat down on her head. Equius pulled up a chair in front of it and sat down, leaning forward.
“Nepeta? Are you there?”
She opened her eyes.
To Nepeta it was like looking out a window. She could see everything, but it felt slightly separated from her. She lifted up her hand and turned it forward and backwards, staring at it intently. She looked at her other hand, and finally looked in front of her.
“Equius?”
Equius lunged forward and embraced her.
“You're back! I'm so sorry. So sorry.”
It was a few seconds before she returned the hug.
“It wasn't anyone's fault.”
*
Some trolls were uneasy from experience. Others were just happy to have her back. Feferi came running up to the newly resurrected troll.
“Glub! Glub!”
“Hi Fef!” Nepeta smiled. Equius did a good job on her face. There were many, many points of motion in the metal.
“You're back!” Feferi swung her arms around her, and then stepped back and grabbed Nepeta's hands. “You look good! How do you feel?”
“I...don't know. It take s a little getting used to, but I'm remembering things again.”
“That's good! I knew Equius could do it. He's got a good brain under occasionally fat head.”
Equius blushed blue.
“Terezi is going to want to see you! Everyone will. Glub! Glub! Let's go!” Feferi tugged at the robot, and soon they were off re-introducing everyone to the new Nepita. It went about as well as expected. Those who were happy to see her back said so, and those who were uncomfortable at least kept a straight face. Sollux was at least civil enough to welcome her back, even if he did give Equius a venomous look. The rest gave her hugs and asked her how she was.
The one that threw Nepeta off was Karkat. He was as angry as usual, but it seemed dampened by something. He was also asking a lot of questions.
“I thought you would be happy.” Nepeta frowned.
Karkat seemed to fire up again. “To have to deal with the autistic cat-girl again? Yeah, I'm fucking ecstatic over here. Flying higher than Gamzee at an all you can eat sopor slime buffet.
“Hrmp!” But Nepeta was smiling. She was familiar enough with Karkat to know how to translate this.
Terezi was last. By this time Equius was satisfied enough to get back to his lab to clean up, and Feferi was being her usual bubbly self to everyone, talking about how great it is to have Nepeta back.
“Her great tyranny welcomes the esteemed pounceler back to the court after her long hiatus.” Terezi said with her piranha smile.
Nepeta looked slightly confused for a second.
“Terezi!” She said, as if she just recognized her. She gave her usually goofy cat grin and ran up to Terezi, who was already rummaging through a box under the table. She pulled out Nepeta's green a white tablet computer.
“Here. I saved it for you. I charged up the battery too.”
“Awww...thank you Terezi. You don't need to use it anymore?”
“I think I can pull myself away for a little while.”
Nepeta dropped the stylus. She felt clumsy, like she was trying to work with a thick glove.
“Sorry” She said. “This body takes a little getting used to.”
Terezi nodded and handed her the stylus again. This time Nepeta managed to grip it gently between her thumb and forefinger. She began to draw on the screen. Jerky at first, but after a few seconds it smoothed out as Nepeta got used to how her new limbs worked.
“This is fun!” Nepeta said.
Terezi smiled wider. She was worried that Nepeta's personality would have taken a turn for the worse, but she seemed to be her old, saccharine self. After about another two minutes of drawing, Nepeta tapped the screen a few times, and sent Terezi a picture through Trollian.
“Tell me how I did!”
Terezi licked her screen to get a better look. She looked uneasy. She licked again to be sure.
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Was written over and over in green. Nepeta's handwriting was absolutely perfect.
“What does it mean?”
“What? Um...it's for practice. It uses every letter. It makes sense right?”
“Yeah, I guess. Why don't you draw something though?”
Nepeta nodded and drew on the screen for about half a minute. She tapped the screen again.
There was a ding from Terezi's computer. She gave the screen another lick.
Sixteen, perfect, red circles. Terezi didn't think it was possible to draw a circle that round.
“One second, someone is trolling me.” Terezi said. She turned her chair so Nepeta couldn't see the screen and quickly typed.
GC began trolling CT
GC. Equius, get back here. Now.
Terezi brought the circles back up on the screen.
“These are really...good.” She said.
Nepeta looked dismayed. “I didn't do anything wrong did I? I thought you liked red.”
“No. No. They're...perfect. Why don't you draw a picture of a cat? Like you used to. Look.” Terezi brought up one of Nepeta's old pictures on the screen. It was a scribbly doodle of Nepeta with her arms wrapped around Pounce.
Nepeta looked at the screen. She nodded nervously.
“I can draw that! I can...I can draw that. I remember drawing that picture!” The stylus flew across the screen in jerky motions. This one only took a couple seconds. She tapped the screen.
It was an exact copy of the picture Terezi showed her. Right down to every little squiggle.
“Did I do it right?”
“...Nepeta. It's exactly the same.”
“No it's not. I just...I remembered...” Nepeta looked desperately at the screen.
Something clicked in Terezi's head. She took back the tablet from Nepeta's unresisting hands.
“Nepeta. Let's roleplay like we used to. Remember?”
“I remember! I really do!”
“Her Tyranny points a big red claw at the pounceler and demands regally why the pounceler was gone for so long.”
“I was dead!”
“Roleplay!”
“Oh, uh. The esteemed pounceler objects to...to the prosecutions accusations.”
“That's dosn't make sense. And you've used that line before Nepeta. Word for word.”
“The pounceler...the...uh...” Nepeta looked like she was about to cry.
She lunged and ripped the tablet out of Terezi's hands and started drawing on the screen in a frenzy. Her hands were almost a blur as she scribbled for a few seconds and tapped the delete button.
Scribble again.
Delete.
Scribble.
Delete.
She was drawing the same picture again over and over, and each time she tried to will it to be different.
She gave a low growl.
Scribble.
Delete.
Scribble.
Delete.
“Why can't I...” She held her head. It felt like having a name on the tip of your tongue but not being able to say it. She scribbled faster. The computer's processor was having a hard time keeping up.
“Easy there.” Terezi said quietly. “You don't want to...”
“No! I can do it! Just! Just give me a min-NO! LET ME GO! PUT ME DOWN!” She yelled as Equius pinned her arms to her sides from behind. He wrapped his arms around her and picked her up.
“Calm down Nepeta!” He grunted. She was strong, and she was thrashing around.
“No! No! No! I can do it! Give me the tablet! Give it to me!”
And everyone stared at them as Equius carried her out of the room.
*
Nepeta sat on a bench in Equius' lab. She could hear him talking even down the hall.
“What did you do to her!” He growled.
“What did YOU do to her?” Terezi shot back.
“I checked her new brain a hundered times. It's perfect!”
“That's the problem you IDIOT!”
*
The next day Nepeta was gone. So was all of Terezi's chalk.
*
Vriska never realized how big the lab was until something got lost. In this case she was leading Feferi and Sollux through one of the long abandoned halls. What they lost was Nepeta. Sollux waved a flashlight in front of them, but more for the sake of Feferi and himself. Vriska stalked ahead, letting her vision eightfold guide her.
Vriska was staring to get annoyed.
“Why are we doing this again?”
“Because Nepeta is probably lost.” Sollux grumped.
“Who cares! What's going to happen to her? She can't suffocate. She can't starve. Who knows how many miles of tunnels are in this stupid rock! She always bugged me anyway.”
“Humor us, alright?”
Vriska grumbled, but kept walking. After a couple more turns she stopped.
“Hey, look at this.” She pointed to the wall. Sollux turned the flashlight on it.
It was a scribbly picture of Nepeta hugging pounce. He moved the beam of light slowly down the wall. It was drawn over, and over, and over. Exactly the same every time. They silently followed the drawings.
Even Vriska didn't say anything.
The color changed, probably because she wore down the chalk she was using.
“I wonder what's going on in her head...” Feferi whispered.
“I think she does too.” Sollux said. He held up a communication device he had put together as a side project. “We found something. Everyone to my location.”
They kept walking. The pictures slowly went through the spectrum of colors, until the chalk drawings stopped. The next drawing was scratched right into the metal wall. Except for the thinner lines, it was also the same as the ones previous.
Vriska ran her hands over the drawing. The lines were carved deep into solid steel. She absentmindedly touched her left arm. Equius sure built things to last.
The followed the trail farther down the hall. After a few more minutes of walking they found Nepeta slumped against an unfinished drawing. Her fingertips were gone.
She looked up at the three. They could all hear the rest of the trolls converging on their position.
“I can't change it...I can't think right.”
“I know Nepeta. It's okay. We can fix it.” Feferi said soothingly
“Tell Terezi that I'm sorry I used all her chalk.”
“She's on her way. You can tell her when she gets here. You had us worried.”
“I'm sorry.”
Equius, Terezi, and Tavros were the first to get there.
“Terezi, I'm sorry about your chalk.”
“It's fine Nepeta. It's just chalk. I can get more.”
Equius got on his knees down and eased Nepeta's face closer to his.
“I'm sorry Nepeta.” He said as he pulled off her hat. He gently started unscrewing the panel on her forehead. “I...did something wrong. I can fix it.”
“Okay...”
Equius couldn't believe that he had to look her in the face to do this. He gently eased the panel open.
“You're going to shut down for a bit. When I'm done, everything will be better.”
“Okay...” Nepeta's eyes looked like they weren’t focusing. The rest of the trolls were silently gathered around.
Equius, quickly reached in and took a chip out. It was like tearing off a bandage, making it hurt less for how fast it was over. Nepeta's eyes dimmed and she was still.
Equius stood up and dropped the chip on the floor. There was a crack as his boot came down on it.
“There...I fixed it.” He said to the world. Everyone stepped aside as he stomped back down the hall.
The hallway felt bitter cold for a minute, and then it was gone.
I was angry with my friend. I told my wrath. My wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe. I told it not. My wrath did grow.
(Skaian I love Dave and Rose's interaction. And the battle scene was really well-written - usually I skip those in fic because they bore me to death, but this was really good!)
I'm the same person here as I am on AO3 and Deviantart, and pretty much everywhere else. Check out my fics and arts and stuff!
:33 < is everyone ready?
D--> I refuse to take part in this f001ishness.
this is so vvery fuckin retarded, nep
I like t)(e idea!
yeah, gonna have two 2iide wiith equiiu2 and eriidan on thii2 one, nepeta
D--> Actually, sin%e the empress e%pressed a desire to do it too, I have changed my mind.
eq, you're a fuckin tool
yep, goiing two have two agree on that
aradiia, what'2 your vote?
I am 0kay with it
:33 < yaaaaaaaaaaaaay! four to two! we sing it!
:33 < *the huntress clears her throat...*
:33 < we are the players who don't do anything
:33 < we just stay at home, and lie around
:33 < and if you ask us, to do anything
:33 < we'll just tell you, we don't do anything
wwell ive never been to greenland
and iive never been two denver
D--> And I've never yelled at lowb100ds in ST Louie or ST Paul
and I've never been t0 M0sc0w
AND I'V-E N-EV-ER B-E-EN TO TAMPA
:33 < and i've never been to trollston in the fall
wwe are the players wwho dont do anythin
wwe just stay at home and lie around
and if you ask us to do anythin
wwell just tell you wwe don't do anythin
and ivve nevver used my neww wwand
D--> And I've never drawn a whole bow
AND I'V-E N-EV-ER GOTT-EN GRIST, CAUS-E I'V-E N-EV-ER KILL-ED AT ALL
And I've never had a dreamself
and iive never owned a modu2
:33 < and I've never been to trollston in the fall
we are the player2 who dont do anythiing
we just 2tay at home, and liie around
and iif you ask u2, two do anythiing
well ju2t tell you, we don't do anythiing
iive never plucked a roo2ter
And I am n0t t00 g00d at ping-p0ng
D--> And I've never thrown my mashed potatoes up against the wall
and ivve nevver kissed a chipmunk,
AND I'V-E N-EV-ER GOTT-EN )(-EAD LIC-E
:33 < and i've never been to trollston in the fall
W-E ALL KNOW W)(AT T)(-EY DID
BUT W-E'R-E DOWN WIT)( )(UMAN KIDS
W-E DON'T WAK-E UP B-EFOR-E LUNC)(
BUT W-E ALL GULP DOWN FRUIT PUNC)(
W-E DON'T SMOK-E, W-E DON'T STAR-E
W-E PLAY -EXTR-EM-E SOLITAIR----E
AND I'V-E N-EV-ER LICK-ED A SPARK PLUG
and iive never 2niiffed a 2tiink bug
and ivve nevver painted daisies on a big red rubber ball
And I've never bathed in y0gurt
D--> And I don't 100k good in leggings
:33 < and I've never been to trollston in the fall
We are the players wh0 d0n't d0 anything
We just stay at h0me, and lie ar0und
And if y0u ask us, t0 d0 anything
We'll just tell y0u, we d0n't d0 anything
D--> We are the players who don't do anything
D--> We just stay at home, and lie around
D--> And if you ask us, to do anything
D--> We'll just tell you, we don't do anything
"Vriska." Tavros stepped throug the portal, his polearm slung over his shoulder.
"Oh hiiiiiiii, Tavros. Looks like you found me. I was just about wrapping up here." Vriska kept typing without looking up.
"Yes, so am I." with a wide swing he slashed at her, which the girl easily dodged.
"Taking a lady by surprise? That's now how a gentleman fights." she taunted, as she dodged a vertical swing of his lance.
"Good thing I'm not fighting a lady, then." Tavros lunged at her, which Vriska met by ducking under his attack, and slipping past him with a sharp elbow beneath his ribs. With a grunt, he made a clumsy wide swing that missed his target, but hit her laptop. It spinned through the air, and stopped halfway in between the combatants. Its screen turned to Tavros, he nearly dropped his Regilance at what he saw. One of the kids laid on an altar, in a puddle of his own blood, with a black sword pinning him to the rock.
"John..." he whispered.
"Ah, what are you going to do, Taaaaaaaavros? Are you going to take revenge on me for Bec Noir killing that idiot? Are you going to kill the person that made you into what you are now?" Vriska taunted. Tavros began to shake. There was a difference between creating something like Bec Noir, but outright killing someone... He almost didn't notice Vriska taking something out of her pocket. "Now then, let's up the ante, shall we?" With a flick of her wrist, the Flourine Octet was rolled.
Tavros clenched his free hand. Vriska caused the death of the Heir of Breath, but she forgot his second. Though he wasn't able of the raw output that John was capable of, Tavros was a bit more specialised. Though but a page, his position was a highly important one. A second, a comrade in arms, an assistant, never the big hero himself, the page made it all possible. At his hands, a page could make his sire... or break her.
Tavros did the windy thing.
The dice stopped in mid-air. Slowly making a fist, the dice began to shake, the more the longer the effect lasted. Holding his fist closed for a moment, the dice shook at such speeds that they could cut your hand open if you tried to grab them. Then he opened his hand. The Octet shattered into several, but still rather countable, pieces. Bits of blue were strewn around, and nothing happened, the power of the dice broken. A baffled Vriska lookekd up to Tavros.
"Your luck has run out, Serket." he raised his lance for another attack.
"Alright, that's close enough." Putting her hands to her head, she grabbed control of Tavros' mind. Or, she tried to, as she had to roll away from his attack. Trying her abilities again, she was met by another lunge at her head.
"Having trouble with my mind? I'll give you a hint. You can control Tavros, but not me." the Page said while sweeping at her legs.
"But how..." jumping over his lance, Vriska thought about his words. "You... you are not Tavros?"
"Well, technically I am, but it's more complicated. I'm Rufio." he confessed while trying to smash Vriska in half.
Jumping back, Vriska realised what he had said, and began to laugh. Well, it was not as much as a laugh as it was being in hysterics, and nearly fell to her knees in laughter. "Really, Tavros? Just because you've gotten good with that lance it's because you have become Rufio? Oh man, you should see..." She never got to finish her sentence, and may have if she had seen the Regilance coming in from the side, that smashed her off her legs with a tremendous blow.
Her head ringing, she got up to the sight of Tavros holding a cresent in his free hand.
"What's that?" she asked still sedated from the blow.
"Formerly yours." he smiled, as her hands went up her head in panic. On her left horn, she found its claw-shaped tip missing.
"My horn! You broke my horn!" she shouted.
"And you broke my legs, but that's not the point." he pocketed the broken horn.
"But... if you're Rufio... where's Tavros?" Vriska asked, half sedated from the shock.
"In here with me. And you should hear how much he's enjoying this." he walked around her, his lance pointed at her. "Did you know he found this place half an hour ago, but spend all that time building up the courage to go in? He's terrified of you."
"What are you? Some kind of split personality?" she asked, getting on her feet.
"No, not really. Tavros wanted someone to help him, to help him build confidence. That's why he joined you and the girls with the FLARPing And what did you do? You killed one, blinded another, and crippled him. He trusted you, Vriska. And when you betrayed him, he decided he couldn't trust anyone. So he needed to create someone. Me." Rufio explained.
"I'm not a split personality. I'm just like Tavros, except that I have a boatload of confidence instead of his shyness. I'm a reversed Tavros. He's still the boss, and I won't do anything that he doesn't want. Think about that in regard of the beatdown I'm laying on you." He attacked her with an upwards swipe, and another horizontal swipe.
"Then why can't I control you? Because you're some kind of split personality?" she asked, batting an attack aside with her robot arm.
"Sort of like that. The Tavros you know can be controlled because he didn't have the confidence that he could resist you. But I can, because he wants me to." with a quick feint, Rufio speared Vriska through the robot arm. It sparked, seized up, and went limp.
"He doesn't hate you, Vriska. But you need to be stopped, before you kill us all. And I agree." Rufio picked up the pace, slashing at Vriska with such speed that she could avoid serious injury, but not being scratched. With her back against the wall, Rufio grabbed the Regilance halfway, twisted its handle, and discarded the majority of the shaft, revealing a daggerlance. With a sprint, he pushed the bleeding Vriska against the wall with his upper arm, and held the Daggerregilance just below her ribs.
"No! Don't do this, you can't stop Noir without me! You need me! Tavros needs me!" she begged.
"Vriska, what Tavros needs from you is to shut up..." Rufio brought his weapon back, ready to strike.
--
Tavros materialised back with the others.
"Damnit Tavros, where have you..." Karkat stopped when he saw that Tavros was covered in blue blood.
"Vriska confessed to me that she created Bec Noir. So I put an end to her one-troll machinations. Messily. Permanently." Reaching into his pocket, Tavros threw Vriska's severed horn-bit on the floor. The group fell silent. Kanaya buried her face in her hands. Eridan stood dumbstruck. Terezi took off her glasses. Gamzee cursed.
"Now, I'm goint to put some new clothes on. I'll be right back." Tavros stepped back into the portal, and went into his own quarters. As he removed his bloodied shirt, he noticed his Trollian.
OPEN PESTERLOG
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling adiosToreador [AT]
You aren't quite sure how you got to this quiet area in the New York center square.
The silver ball shines in the light. The time, 11:59 PM, Dec 31st.
It's cold, but that's okay.
It means you have an excuse to cuddle with him, Jade.
Of course, Dave doesn't notice. Not exactly.
Rose and John went to get hot cocoa.
There is time alone, now, just you and him.
You never quite realized until then how gentle he is.
Wiping the snow off of your hat.
Cupping his bare hands over yours to keep them warm.
All sacrifices for you.
Of course.
The time flips. 11:59:30. 30 seconds left in your year.
Thirty seconds to make a move. 5 seconds pass.
You scoot closer.
Rose and John still aren't back yet. 5 more seconds pass.
You scoot even closer. 11:59:45.
You are standing chest to chest. 11:50:50.
10.
Your hands wrap around each other. 9.
The world around you fades. 8.
You can't even remember being alone with him like this. 7.
His eyes are so bright and inviting. 6.
When'd he wrap a hand around your waist? 5.
You aren't breathing. 4.
You are pretty damn sure he isn't either. 3.
There's nothing else there but him and you. 2.
You tilt your head up. 1.
He tilts his head down. 0.
You kiss for the first time.
Fireworks explode.
And not just for the new year, but for a new relationship.
A/N:
o.O I think I've been shipping too much lately.
Last edited by flutterShy; 12-18-2010 at 06:37 PM.
Reason: typoes.
Quotes:
From Almost Human's Fanventure:
Originally Posted by CaptainZaven
Originally Posted by Almost Human
Spypoet:
"Almost Human! Why are you trying to help my bully?"
Zaven:
"Why are you trying to hit my girlfr-Wait...bully?"
Story of my life.
Then, the continuation, after Zaven gets the girl:
The brain was the hardest part. The rest of the body was nothing but pumps, pneumatics, and joints, but
a troll brain was more complex than any computer, and much more chaotic. Computers had to follow neat little maps and equations to work, but the brain was complex enough to create, lie, make mistakes, and be irrational. Complex enough to be a person with all it's faults.
Aradia's was close, but she had still changed. Maybe it was just the shock of dieing that did it, or maybe it was the side effect of a troll mind trying to fill a container that it wasn't used to. She came back, but she came back surrounded by an angry echo. It didn't work.
Equius thought that he could perfect the process this time. He hoped he could. He didn't have all the tools or materials he did back home, but guilt and desperation pushed him forward regardless.
He was almost done, just a few finishing touches. He reached into a dusty box and pulled out a familiar blue hat. He always thought it was childish, but even annoying things eventually became a comfortable familiarity with time.
They all tried to talk him out of it. Karkat was, unsurprisingly, especially against the idea.
“You saw what that did to Aradia! Your just gonna' repeat your mistakes!”
“She wasn't a mistake!” Equius yelled back. “I brought her back, and I can do it again.”
“You just can't let anything go can you? You already dug her fucking grave. Let the dead rest. Gog knows she earned it.”
Equius snorted and stomped back to his lab. No one saw him much after that.
That was a while ago. Now he was done. He screwed a panel back on her forehead and slipped the hat down on her head. Equius pulled up a chair in front of it and sat down, leaning forward.
“Nepeta? Are you there?”
She opened her eyes.
To Nepeta it was like looking out a window. She could see everything, but it felt slightly separated from her. She lifted up her hand and turned it forward and backwards, staring at it intently. She looked at her other hand, and finally looked in front of her.
“Equius?”
Equius lunged forward and embraced her.
“You're back! I'm so sorry. So sorry.”
It was a few seconds before she returned the hug.
“It wasn't anyone's fault.”
*
Some trolls were uneasy from experience. Others were just happy to have her back. Feferi came running up to the newly resurrected troll.
“Glub! Glub!”
“Hi Fef!” Nepeta smiled. Equius did a good job on her face. There were many, many points of motion in the metal.
“You're back!” Feferi swung her arms around her, and then stepped back and grabbed Nepeta's hands. “You look good! How do you feel?”
“I...don't know. It take s a little getting used to, but I'm remembering things again.”
“That's good! I knew Equius could do it. He's got a good brain under occasionally fat head.”
Equius blushed blue.
“Terezi is going to want to see you! Everyone will. Glub! Glub! Let's go!” Feferi tugged at the robot, and soon they were off re-introducing everyone to the new Nepita. It went about as well as expected. Those who were happy to see her back said so, and those who were uncomfortable at least kept a straight face. Sollux was at least civil enough to welcome her back, even if he did give Equius a venomous look. The rest gave her hugs and asked her how she was.
The one that threw Nepeta off was Karkat. He was as angry as usual, but it seemed dampened by something. He was also asking a lot of questions.
“I thought you would be happy.” Nepeta frowned.
Karkat seemed to fire up again. “To have to deal with the autistic cat-girl again? Yeah, I'm fucking ecstatic over here. Flying higher than Gamzee at an all you can eat sopor slime buffet.
“Hrmp!” But Nepeta was smiling. She was familiar enough with Karkat to know how to translate this.
Terezi was last. By this time Equius was satisfied enough to get back to his lab to clean up, and Feferi was being her usual bubbly self to everyone, talking about how great it is to have Nepeta back.
“Her great tyranny welcomes the esteemed pounceler back to the court after her long hiatus.” Terezi said with her piranha smile.
Nepeta looked slightly confused for a second.
“Terezi!” She said, as if she just recognized her. She gave her usually goofy cat grin and ran up to Terezi, who was already rummaging through a box under the table. She pulled out Nepeta's green a white tablet computer.
“Here. I saved it for you. I charged up the battery too.”
“Awww...thank you Terezi. You don't need to use it anymore?”
“I think I can pull myself away for a little while.”
Nepeta dropped the stylus. She felt clumsy, like she was trying to work with a thick glove.
“Sorry” She said. “This body takes a little getting used to.”
Terezi nodded and handed her the stylus again. This time Nepeta managed to grip it gently between her thumb and forefinger. She began to draw on the screen. Jerky at first, but after a few seconds it smoothed out as Nepeta got used to how her new limbs worked.
“This is fun!” Nepeta said.
Terezi smiled wider. She was worried that Nepeta's personality would have taken a turn for the worse, but she seemed to be her old, saccharine self. After about another two minutes of drawing, Nepeta tapped the screen a few times, and sent Terezi a picture through Trollian.
“Tell me how I did!”
Terezi licked her screen to get a better look. She looked uneasy. She licked again to be sure.
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Was written over and over in green. Nepeta's handwriting was absolutely perfect.
“What does it mean?”
“What? Um...it's for practice. It uses every letter. It makes sense right?”
“Yeah, I guess. Why don't you draw something though?”
Nepeta nodded and drew on the screen for about half a minute. She tapped the screen again.
There was a ding from Terezi's computer. She gave the screen another lick.
Sixteen, perfect, red circles. Terezi didn't think it was possible to draw a circle that round.
“One second, someone is trolling me.” Terezi said. She turned her chair so Nepeta couldn't see the screen and quickly typed.
GC began trolling CT
GC. Equius, get back here. Now.
Terezi brought the circles back up on the screen.
“These are really...good.” She said.
Nepeta looked dismayed. “I didn't do anything wrong did I? I thought you liked red.”
“No. No. They're...perfect. Why don't you draw a picture of a cat? Like you used to. Look.” Terezi brought up one of Nepeta's old pictures on the screen. It was a scribbly doodle of Nepeta with her arms wrapped around Pounce.
Nepeta looked at the screen. She nodded nervously.
“I can draw that! I can...I can draw that. I remember drawing that picture!” The stylus flew across the screen in jerky motions. This one only took a couple seconds. She tapped the screen.
It was an exact copy of the picture Terezi showed her. Right down to every little squiggle.
“Did I do it right?”
“...Nepeta. It's exactly the same.”
“No it's not. I just...I remembered...” Nepeta looked desperately at the screen.
Something clicked in Terezi's head. She took back the tablet from Nepeta's unresisting hands.
“Nepeta. Let's roleplay like we used to. Remember?”
“I remember! I really do!”
“Her Tyranny points a big red claw at the pounceler and demands regally why the pounceler was gone for so long.”
“I was dead!”
“Roleplay!”
“Oh, uh. The esteemed pounceler objects to...to the prosecutions accusations.”
“That's dosn't make sense. And you've used that line before Nepeta. Word for word.”
“The pounceler...the...uh...” Nepeta looked like she was about to cry.
She lunged and ripped the tablet out of Terezi's hands and started drawing on the screen in a frenzy. Her hands were almost a blur as she scribbled for a few seconds and tapped the delete button.
Scribble again.
Delete.
Scribble.
Delete.
She was drawing the same picture again over and over, and each time she tried to will it to be different.
She gave a low growl.
Scribble.
Delete.
Scribble.
Delete.
“Why can't I...” She held her head. It felt like having a name on the tip of your tongue but not being able to say it. She scribbled faster. The computer's processor was having a hard time keeping up.
“Easy there.” Terezi said quietly. “You don't want to...”
“No! I can do it! Just! Just give me a min-NO! LET ME GO! PUT ME DOWN!” She yelled as Equius pinned her arms to her sides from behind. He wrapped his arms around her and picked her up.
“Calm down Nepeta!” He grunted. She was strong, and she was thrashing around.
“No! No! No! I can do it! Give me the tablet! Give it to me!”
And everyone stared at them as Equius carried her out of the room.
*
Nepeta sat on a bench in Equius' lab. She could hear him talking even down the hall.
“What did you do to her!” He growled.
“What did YOU do to her?” Terezi shot back.
“I checked her new brain a hundered times. It's perfect!”
“That's the problem you IDIOT!”
*
The next day Nepeta was gone. So was all of Terezi's chalk.
*
Vriska never realized how big the lab was until something got lost. In this case she was leading Feferi and Sollux through one of the long abandoned halls. What they lost was Nepeta. Sollux waved a flashlight in front of them, but more for the sake of Feferi and himself. Vriska stalked ahead, letting her vision eightfold guide her.
Vriska was staring to get annoyed.
“Why are we doing this again?”
“Because Nepeta is probably lost.” Sollux grumped.
“Who cares! What's going to happen to her? She can't suffocate. She can't starve. Who knows how many miles of tunnels are in this stupid rock! She always bugged me anyway.”
“Humor us, alright?”
Vriska grumbled, but kept walking. After a couple more turns she stopped.
“Hey, look at this.” She pointed to the wall. Sollux turned the flashlight on it.
It was a scribbly picture of Nepeta hugging pounce. He moved the beam of light slowly down the wall. It was drawn over, and over, and over. Exactly the same every time. They silently followed the drawings.
Even Vriska didn't say anything.
The color changed, probably because she wore down the chalk she was using.
“I wonder what's going on in her head...” Feferi whispered.
“I think she does too.” Sollux said. He held up a communication device he had put together as a side project. “We found something. Everyone to my location.”
They kept walking. The pictures slowly went through the spectrum of colors, until the chalk drawings stopped. The next drawing was scratched right into the metal wall. Except for the thinner lines, it was also the same as the ones previous.
Vriska ran her hands over the drawing. The lines were carved deep into solid steel. She absentmindedly touched her left arm. Equius sure built things to last.
The followed the trail farther down the hall. After a few more minutes of walking they found Nepeta slumped against an unfinished drawing. Her fingertips were gone.
She looked up at the three. They could all hear the rest of the trolls converging on their position.
“I can't change it...I can't think right.”
“I know Nepeta. It's okay. We can fix it.” Feferi said soothingly
“Tell Terezi that I'm sorry I used all her chalk.”
“She's on her way. You can tell her when she gets here. You had us worried.”
“I'm sorry.”
Equius, Terezi, and Tavros were the first to get there.
“Terezi, I'm sorry about your chalk.”
“It's fine Nepeta. It's just chalk. I can get more.”
Equius got on his knees down and eased Nepeta's face closer to his.
“I'm sorry Nepeta.” He said as he pulled off her hat. He gently started unscrewing the panel on her forehead. “I...did something wrong. I can fix it.”
“Okay...”
Equius couldn't believe that he had to look her in the face to do this. He gently eased the panel open.
“You're going to shut down for a bit. When I'm done, everything will be better.”
“Okay...” Nepeta's eyes looked like they weren’t focusing. The rest of the trolls were silently gathered around.
Equius, quickly reached in and took a chip out. It was like tearing off a bandage, making it hurt less for how fast it was over. Nepeta's eyes dimmed and she was still.
Equius stood up and dropped the chip on the floor. There was a crack as his boot came down on it.
“There...I fixed it.” He said to the world. Everyone stepped aside as he stomped back down the hall.
The hallway felt bitter cold for a minute, and then it was gone.
Oh wow, okay
I need to get more of a life.
Well anyway
1-up, down-1
Part 3
If one need not breathe, is he truly the Heir of Breath?
John took off his glasses for a brief moment to think about what had happened. There must be something that he was missing. “Okay…I went to sleep, met you, got dead, woke up….” John couldn’t connect the dots, it was like a big grid with no numbering, how was he supposed to know what was what and when was when? “Maybe…uhm…Okay, what did you have in mind?”
ƜɐןɐB NSŪƜ ɹI ɐŅIʌ 'ɐʞSIɹʌ ɹɐ ʇĀUNɹ
“Connection? That does sound important I guess….” John sat back down onto the altar and began to pester Vriska, whom at this point appeared to already be trying to speak with him.
Show trolllog
- arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling ectoBiologist [EB] at ? : ?? –
AG: John are you okay????????
EB: ()h, i’m alright.
EB: i think i am at least.
AG: John….have you seen yourself?
EB: n(), can’t say i have.
AG: I…well….John…I’m so sorry.
EB: s(), this wasn’t supp()sed to happen?
AG: Something has gone wrong, I…I can’t 8are to look at you right now.
AG: 8e 8ack later.
EB: ()h, ()kay.
- arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling ectoBiologist [EB] –
Vriska takes a deep breath in, and exhales slowly. Where did she go wrong? It had all been planned so perfectly. John goes to sleep, is killed, ascends to his god tier self and gains the power he needs to defeat The Demon. She takes slow steps back down to the computer room, the other trolls all look at her with a sense of morbid confusion, Karkat simply glares with disgust.
As she takes her seat, turning the screen back on an idea arises from the depths of her ever shriveling mind. Taking initiative she got up and slowly walked over to Terezi. “Excuse me, Terezi?”
Terezi knew that voice anywhere, Vriska had been flipping her shit lately, and she was beginning to wonder why. Rather than be friendly or even appropriate, Terezi instead decided to slap Vriska across the face and smile eerily, “Oh Hi Vriska, what do you want?”
Vriska rubs her cheek, a blue mark was showing from where she was hit. Resisting the urge to hit Terezi back, she began to bargain with Terezi. “Can you speak to the Dave human?”
“Why should I do that for you, psycho bitch?” Terezi laughed a bit, “Can’t you do it yourself? Or did he already block you?”
Vriska groaned, “He wouldn’t listen to me even if I told him!” She had no time to deal with this tomfoolery, “He trusts you! So I need you to help!”
“Me? Help you? Jesus Vriska are you trying to make me die of laughter?” Terezi continued to mock and giggle wildly. Clearly she thought Vriska was just trying to pull a fast one on her.
“Fine Terezi, fine. Just forget it.” Vriska snapped, her angered face soon went to concerned and shifted to saddened, “I’ll just…try to fix this myself…” She slumped back over to her husktop and took a seat, sitting their, fiddling with her fingers. She had no idea what to do.
Terezi ignored her for a time, but curiosity began to eat away at her like a hoofbeast gnaws at the grass. She opened up trollian and clicked on Dave’s timeline, trying to get it just before John was killed at the Quest bed as possible. When a good timing was reached, Terezi began to go about a task she may very well regret in the future.
Show trolllog
- gallowsCalibrator [GC] began trolling turntechGodhead [TG] at ? : ?? –
GC: H3LLO D4V3
GC: 1 H4V3 4 F4VOR TO 4SK
TG: oh hey
TG: what is it
GC: YOU N33D TO GO CH3CK ON DR34M JOHN
TG: okay how do i do that
GC: GO TO SL33P DUH
TG: and where do i find him
GC: H3 1S SOM3WH3R3 ON TH3 SK414N B4TTL3F13LD
TG: wow that’s really fucking helpful
GC: DONT G3T MOUTHY
GC: G3T MOV1NG
TG: fine
TG: you sure are being a fucking pushy ass right now
TG: something going down
GC: MOR3 TH4N 31TH3R OF US KNOW
- gallowsCalibrator [GC] ceased trolling turntechGodhead [TG] at ? : ?? –
Terezi could not shake the feeling she had played right into Vriska’s hand. She glared at Vriska a moment, only to see how sad Vriska was, how crushed she was. Everything was falling apart and no one had any idea why. It was up to Dave to fill in the blanks.
Dave found himself confused at present situations, normally this time bullshit didn’t bother him, hell, even now he looked at a fresh corpse of himself from a failed attempt to bite off more than he could chew. So why was this so different? “It ain’t nothing, just got to be chill and fall asleep, that’s all.” Dave walked slowly towards the LOHAC stock exchange, he wasn’t liked there for his abuse of his powers, but chances are it was safer to sleep there than anywhere else now that Davesprite was dead.
“nak nak nak nak!” the Crocodile began to shout, they pushed and kicked Dave. It didn’t harm him, but it wasn’t a very tolerable thing.
“Hey, dumpass…..dumpass……come on….listen!” Dave held back a few tears, The way Terezi was acting strange, he knew something had gone down, something horrible. “I need to go to sleep, aight? Just let me chill here and take a nice rest, that good?”
The crocodiles stared at him a moment, then Dave did something rare, removing his shades slowly, they got a chance to see the look on his face. His eyes, his cheeks, his lips, all of them seemed disturbed and worried. They stepped back, got back to the exchange, and allowed him the sanctuary he had asked for.
He slipped the shades back on, giving a big grin, “Thanks…” And with that he sat back and held himself close, soon he drifted off to sleep, where he found himself waking up in the land of Derse.
Dave opens his eyes, standing up he remembers now. He was last in Rose’s room while on derse, hoping out the window he floats down gently onto the purple cities busy streets. Dave may not be fully aware of how to find John on the battlefield, he has an idea. Taking the next shuttle onto the Skaian skirmish zone he takes one step out and looks around him.
Blood.
Blood is everywhere.
Clearly this won’t be easy or safe, its times like these Dave wishes his dream self was at least armed with some sort of defensive weapon. Though that wasn’t the important issue at hand, he needed to find John, “If I was a lame dorky dude who is also a big fucking hero…where would I be?” Dave continued to speak aloud to himself whilst traversing the Skaian landscape he steps into a river. “What…dammit..ruined my…wait..is that?” Dave looks up a moment, he sees a mesa jutting out of the otherwise bumpy and twisted landscape. He can barely out anything from this distance, but he has a gut feeling, he has found John.
“Hell yes. Hell fucking yes! John I am on my way!” As Dave rushes to the altar, climbing the staircase, a vorpal fission of electric energy surges forth an unexpected foe.
Dave slows his steps as he reaches the top, looking at his shoes he sighs. “This better be worth it.” As Dave steps onto the top of the checker boarded mesa he sees him. The Demon. “Oh fuck…you….I…” Dave is unarmed, he looks over to the altar and sees Dream John. “You cowardly prick.”
“Ain’t a good idea ta be mocking me.” The Demon stands tall and grips the handle of his blade tightly, “Don’t make me do dis.”
“You fucking kill him while he’s unconscious, you son of a bitch.” Dave was steaming, so this was what was so important. The Demon kills John, and he has a feeling that its not just John that dies here. He hopes to god that a trump card will fall out of the sky.
However, no such luck wishes to present itself. The Demon swings once with his blade. Dave can feel the cold, hard edge pierce through his weak, soft flesh. As Dave wakes up, he grips his chest. “..Fuck….I…god dammit…John…he’s…”
The Demon returns to Dream John, who was now beginning to show signs of waking up, this was the instant he had to wait for. Raising high, and slicing low. Decapitating the Heir with a clean, swift slice. The boy wakes to the sight of the horrorterrors, but this is what we have already seen.
It is time we go back to the future, Vriska watches as the blanks become filled. The Demon warped through time and killed Dream John not long before killing Real john. Now because of this investigating she realizes how now the Knight of Time has also lost an extra life. Now John was dead, and the Dave human was down to one life. Not that it would matter much, he could merely no longer go to sleep.
John begins to descend the stairs that had lead him to his death. He can’t feel the gentle cooling breeze that passes over LOWAS anymore, he can’t even feel his own weight upon his dead and tired feet. Indeed it was a strange feeling, or lack thereof, when it came to being dead and alive. John opened pesterchum and began to message Vriska, being cautious, she seemed upset last time.
Show pesterlog
- ectoBiologist [EB] began haunting arachindsGrip [AG] at ? : ?? –
EB: hey
EB: are y()u d()ing better?
AG: God dammit John, please. Not now.
EB: S()rry, i just wanted t() talk.
AG: Why?
EB: i need t() establish a….c()nnecti()n?
AG: Connection?
EB: the h()rr()rterr()rs menti()ned it.
AG: You are actually listening to them?
AG: John, don’t 8e like Feferi and 8e an idiot.
EB: ˙ʇsɐɹdɐs ʌɐu sɯnظ ˙ɐʞsıɹʌ ʇīɹɐp oʞ 'ʇʞıǝʇɐd uɐɯ ʇ,uod
AG: John? What did you just say?
EB: ˙ʇɐʇoɹdɐsǝu sūظ 'nɔıǝʇ sǝ oʞ 'ssıʌ
AG: Oh god…John…
EB:
˙ɯāšǝıʇ ıʇʞıןs ʞıʇ ʌɐu sɹoɹɹǝʇɹoɹɹoɥ
˙dn ɐظāpāɹʇs ʞıʇ ʇɯǝņɐs ʌɐu 'ɐʞsıɹʌ
- arachnidsGrip [AG] has blocked ectoBiologist [EB] –
John wasn’t quite sure what just happened, he was being nice and calm and she flipped out for no reason. He sighed and took off his glasses, wiping them off on his crumpled, stained shirt. He looks back at the conversation. “Those…that’s not….why was I….” He sits silently a moment. Everything about that pesterlog, it was all so wrong. “Did you do this?” He asked the horrorterrors.
“Oh…okay…” John was a little skeptical on what was for his own good at this point. Being dead and alive, he wasn’t really sure what to do. In a way, he felt a lack of purpose. As though he had done all he needed and was pointlessly brought back on a whim of a weathered soul. Which got him to thinking. “Wait…how did you get into me?” He asked, it had slipped his mind since he had woken up, “Who did this? Was it Rose?”
˙NPOB SPOʞ SɐʌɐS ɹI OŠNɹIƜ
Author's Notes
I think the ending is going to make the beginning of part 4 pretty fun. I'll get to work on part 4 soon enough. Oh, and man, is this going to get messy.
Horrorterror translations
Contact Vriska, she is our connection
don't tell me what to do Vriska. You don't understand.
All I said was you don't understand.
Vriska, don't get so worked up.
The Horrorterrors aren't all that bad really.
John, you need to understand we did that for our best interest.
Thanks, Wigmund, Graven, b_Prinny and rae! And I'm glad you liked the battle scene, Graven and raequiem, I was worried about that since it's been a while since I wrote one! Actually, I've been putting off revising another project because I know there will be trouble with the battle scenes...
Now to decide if I want to catch up on fics forwards... or backwards? I'm feeling totally out of the loop.
Originally Posted by KarneWarrior
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