"Boss, boss, there's another puzzle. Can I solve it? Please?"
"For the last time, don't do the fucking puzzles! Just blow the stupid thing up and keep going."
"You can't keep getting yourself worked up like this, boss." He turned to face the figure materializing behind him. "Just because that flighty broad usurped your place as the leader of this group-"
"She did not!" he screamed. They stood in silence as he caught his breath. "I am the leader! I am the only one of us who has any idea how to win this damn game that she has us playing."
The other man nodded. "You may be right, but you have to keep your head on, boss."
"It's not your job to counsel me, Thief. Your job is to kill shit and do the spacey-thing and that's fucking it."
There was a roar followed by a crackling screech, and the Bard of Time appeared before them.
"I hate time travel!" he growled. He tucked away his robes and turned to the other three. "Where's the Witch?"
"I don't know, and I don't care." He paused, then muttered, "How do we do this fucking puzzle?"
"Ya don't." The Bard of Time replied. "Li'l Mage of Light 'ere blows it up and ya'll git."
"I wanna solve the puzzle!"
"Shut up and just get rid of it already."
The click of heels alerted them to the arrival of the last member of the party. "Aw, only one of you is wearing your God-Tier outfit. They were all so adorable."
The four of them turned at the amused, smoky drawl.
"Well, well, well," he muttered, "if it isn't the Bitch of Void. About goddamn time you showed up."
"Are we back to name-calling, Prince?" She smirked at him.
He snarled at her, then turned back to the mess of clockwork and dials and the blinking spirograph. "Blow it up. We're going."
I have no idea how this would work. Oh well, that's what AU is for.
"Boss, boss, there's another puzzle. Can I solve it? Please?"
"For the last time, don't do the fucking puzzles! Just blow the stupid thing up and keep going."
"You can't keep getting yourself worked up like this, boss." He turned to face the figure materializing behind him. "Just because that flighty broad usurped your place as the leader of this group-"
"She did not!" he screamed. They stood in silence as he caught his breath. "I am the leader! I am the only one of us who has any idea how to win this damn game that she has us playing."
The other man nodded. "You may be right, but you have to keep your head on, boss."
"It's not your job to counsel me, Thief. Your job is to kill shit and do the spacey-thing and that's fucking it."
There was a roar followed by a crackling screech, and the Bard of Time appeared before them.
"I hate time travel!" he growled. He tucked away his robes and turned to the other three. "Where's the Witch?"
"I don't know, and I don't care." He paused, then muttered, "How do we do this fucking puzzle?"
"Ya don't." The Bard of Time replied. "Li'l Mage of Light 'ere blows it up and ya'll git."
"I wanna solve the puzzle!"
"Shut up and just get rid of it already."
The click of heels alerted them to the arrival of the last member of the party. "Aw, only one of you is wearing your God-Tier outfit. They were all so adorable."
The four of them turned at the amused, smoky drawl.
"Well, well, well," he muttered, "if it isn't the Bitch of Void. About goddamn time you showed up."
"Are we back to name-calling, Prince?" She smirked at him.
He snarled at her, then turned back to the mess of clockwork and dials and the blinking spirograph. "Blow it up. We're going."
I have no idea how this would work. Oh well, that's what AU is for.
Ohhh. I love this! : D
I would like to see more too c:
God, I'm away for three days partying and you guys fill like five pages? I'm impressed. Rec me some highlights?
Also, if anyone cares - I'm putting the new NFADT on hold for a little while. I'm not really feeling it at the moment, and I don't want to force it because that is no fun for anyone. Need to rethink some plot in the light of recent updates, also! I might do some little vignettes to keep my writing hand in, though - does anyone have any suggestions?? I'm horrible at writing John, but I could have a stab at anyone else? (probably literally, knowing my usual subject matter...)
I haven't been paying much attention to this thread.
I've been busy with blah blah blah bluh
I know the troll!cop fics are good, all of them really.
Katrika has been making some neat poems about the Lands of ___ and ___.
And self-inserts of course, the finale of 1-up, down-1 is somewhere.
Population's been great so far too, so catch up on that.
But I am sure there are other great ones I am missing.
Trees and Tentacles- Bro's insomnia leads to inspired art and a little brotherly bonding time.
Undone- Dave tries to see his brother one last time.
Supermarket Shenanigans- in an early installment of the Striders, Bro looses Dave in a store. Cue panic.
My House- Dave butts heads with a lady friend of his brother's.
Binary- Bro's life and death are simple and convoluted affairs.
Climb- a brief look at where Bro is after he rocketboards off the roof.
Key- Bro teaches Dave the key behind being an ironic roof rapping ninja.
Parenthood- What Bro had to go through to make Dave what he is.
Parental Guidance- Parent teacher conferences are never fun for anyone involved.
Of Bathrooms and Beatdowns- The Striders' early morning rituals turn into unpleasant experiences at a party bro dj's at; aka roofies are never okay.
The Two of Us Are Dying- Bro has dreamt of his death sporadically for the past 13 years. Fallout.
Rap Battle!- One of the brothers' many sylladex hashrap battles. Chaos ensues.
If Illness was This One- Bro Strider is sick. Dave is not happy. The pumpkin shows up. [what pumpkin?]
Puppets and Porn- Bro Strider runs a faux/real puppet pr0n website from his home. With a minor in it. Of course someone was going to be totally not cool about it.
Puppet Porn pt II- Child protective services get called. Shit gets real. THE APARTMENT IS CLEAN OMGOMGOMGOMG
Voyeur- Jack Noir watches as Bro dies at his feet.
Surprise!- Dave wakes up on his birthday to the usual Strider shenanigans.
When "Puppets" Go Bad- Dave watches a clip of a video on Bro's computer of what looks to be a puppet trying to kill him in his sleep. Though, that's not quite the case.
Aha, I have read Violet Dave and spammed the hell out of Seraph's Twitter while flailing over it, but honestly there is no praise too effusive, so I will say again that it is magnificent.
Also YES more Striderfic (I would also like to say for the record that I totally agree with everyone's take on Dave's reaction to Bro's death. Although that may be because my fanfictional endeavours have led me into thinking that Rose and Dave are both pretty emotionally repressed, which I guess is what will happen if you start taking seriously all the stuff that's played for comedy in canon. ANYWAY.)
What happened to that Dumb!Rose fic? I can't remember if it ever ended...
Also I really feel like writing a Rose Lalondes (Yes I'm going to type the whole damn thing out) 101 Things I wil Never do in a RPG. Again (and capitalization too! Haha!) but I'm still a few short on ideas. I need another three or so or else I run out before I start my Flow, which means I flounder and Eridan takes over.
I'd like to read some decent Karkat/Terezi fics, I'm not sure where to start looking as I'm new here. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance. :]
Karkat didn’t know how bad he had hit his head. All he knew was, he had a hard time seeing and kept on drifting in and out of unconsciousness. He was rather lucky he couldn’t say anything when two splicers approached him.
“This little fish looks like he just had his cherry POPPED!” the closest yelled to the other. “Wonder if he’s still got some ‘Dreams’ on him?”
If Karkat wasn’t hurt so badly, he would definitely have started swinging his wrench at this point. People stealing his possessions while he was unconscious, wasn’t on his to-do list. A powerful and very deep roar made his hair stand on ends.
“You hear that?” the other splicer said, nervously. “Let’s bug!”
“Weak!” the first splicer yelled at his fleeing friend. “You’re a weak chopper!”
“This little fish ain’t worth toeing it with no Big Lusus!” the friend yelled back.
“Yellow! Always have been!” the first splicer yelled at his friend before bowing down towards Karkat. “You’ll be no better off with the metal lusus, little fish.” It said, mockingly. “See you floating in the briney...” And with that it was gone.
Karkat didn’t know how long he was unconscious for. All he knew was that it was dark and something big and heavy was loudly approaching. The next he saw was a giant metal foot, big enough to squash Karkat’s head, and a giant metal drill, big enough to remove all of his innards. All of the,.
“Look Mr. Bubbles, it’s a beast! I can see the colour of his blood, shining from his belly. Something seems weird though...” said the voice of a young girl, yet it had some weird undertone. A small troll girl appeared before him. She was wearing a long green coat and what seemed like a tail. He wished he could see her face, but he still couldn’t move.
“Wait a minute, he’s still breathing!” the girl said taking a step back. The big thing raised its drill. “It’s alright, I know he’ll die soon. And then we can paint with his pretty colour.” She said before walking away. Then everything went black for Karkat.
He awoke again some time later.
“Are you okay, Karkat?” Aradia asked him over the radio. “First time plasmids have a bit of a kick. But you’ll feel better when you realise you can throw lighthing.”
Karkat looked at his hands, and true to Aradia’s words, his hand was now covered in electrical sparks.
“Try firing one at the broken door lock over there. That should fix it,” Aradia told him. With a mere thought Karkat saw lightning jump out of his hand and hit the panel, the door opening just after. Karkat took it all in for a moment before walking through the door, entering a glass walkway giving an amazing view of the underwater city.
“Tell me about these... Plasmids,” Karkat told Aradia over the radio.
“You should probably take a look at what’s happening ahead instead.”
Karkat had barely gotten the warning before a part of the sinking spaceship he had arrived on, slammed into the glass walkway letting massive amounts of water in.
“Fuck,” he yelled running against the stream and past what had earlier been a wing. A blinking lamp and a loud noise told him the walkway next to his had just broken down, and a door he walked past seemed to be unable to hold the water out.
Arriving in a small hall, the door behind Karkat slammed shut, and almost broke from excessive amounts of water. Luckily for Karkat, it seemed to hold.
“Alright. Now, you fucking explain to me why the fuck I can throw fucking lightning out of my fucking hand!” Karkat yelled at the voice guiding him.
“You seem a bit angry, Karkat. Don’t like getting wet? I’m okay with that, but there’ll be a lot more water up ahead.”
Karkat really felt like destroying the radio with his wrench, but he guessed it would be a bad idea.
“What you injected into yourself was a plasmid, though some people like to call them prophecies. They rewrite your genetic code and let you achieve things you shouldn’t be able to. For example throwing lightning,” she continued, while Karkat looked through various trash finding weird syringes holding some kind of blue liquid.
“The plasmids run on a liquid called ‘Eve’ or ‘Prophets’. As long as you have some in your body you can use the power of the prophecies, but the body doesn’t create this by itself. It needs to be injected into your body, like the prophecies.”
“Are ‘prophets’ a strange blue colour?” Karkat asked looking at one of the syringes.
“That’s it,” Aradia told him.
For the second time that day Karkat found himself injecting unknown stuff directly into his bloodstream. “Motherfucker,” he cursed, but at least that one only hurt when he injected it and not after. Actually he felt a little boost of energy afterwards. A splicer entered the room, but it was quickly put down by electricity and wrench attacks.
“You should find some first aid kits as well,” Aradia told him.
“Some what now?!” Karkat yelled back.
“First aid kits. Small boxes with a doctor logo on them. They can heal you quicker than eating,” Aradia told him.
“Huh,” Karkat said, picking one up from the splicer’s dead body. Opening it he found another syringe.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” he yelled. “Do you people have some weird needle fetish?!” he exclaimed slamming the needle into his thigh and feeling his body returning to a seemingly perfect condition.
“Maybe. But it works, no doubt about that, so I’m okay with it,” Aradia told him, as he began to move on.
Going up a flight of stairs Karkat found himself in a giant room, with four elevators shafts. He heard someone yell and the next he knew the top of one of the shafts exploded, sending the elevator downwards at a breakneck speed. It crashed, but as Karkat got closer a new splicer attacked him. Quickly it was beaten as well and Karkat entered an elevator, going upwards.
“Listen,” Aradia began. “I’ve got a kismesis and matesprit here. I need to get them out. But I’ve been cut off from them. If you can reach them in Neptune’s Bounty, then maybe, just maybe... I know you must feel like the unluckiest troll in the world right now, but you’re the only hope I have of ever seeing them again. Go to Neptune’s Bounty... Find my kismesis and matesprit... Please.”
Karkat was taken back a bit by her pleading. He hadn’t exactly expected her to have either of those and especially now in a place like this. It finally hit him just what Exceed was. Now it was a sunken city. A place of insanity and murder, but before. Before, it might have been something else. Something some trolls might have called their home.
Karkat slapped himself. No use in getting emotional. Not at that point anyway. He heard another splicer, this one apparently talking to her baby. Karkat sneaked up behind her, and quickly ended her torment with a shift swing of his wrench to her head. He found that she had been talking to a gun all along. Certainly this was no longer a place for the sane.
“The prophecies. They changed everything,” Araida told him. “They destroyed out bodies and decayed our minds. We simply couldn’t handle such power. Moirails killing one another, austapices leading the ones they should guide into death traps. The whole city went to hell.”
Karkat readied the gun, though he had never used one before. Two doors parted as he got close and he was led into a big hall with part hats and confetti lying about. Apparently there had been a new sweeps party, though it seemed like it had been interrupted. Karkat walked through the room searching for useful killing whatever splicers got in his way.
“If you see splicers in some water hit them with an electro bolt,” Aradia advised him. Karkat noticed two splicers running around in water to their knees and with a simple electro bolt they were fried. Looting their bodies Karkat noticed something on a nearby table. Picking it up he realised it was tape recorder with a tape inside. A small note told him it was by a troll named Diane McClintock. Karkat shrugged and started the recording, sitting down at the very same table he found it on.
“Another New Year’s, another night alone. I’m out, and you’re stuck in Hephaestus, working. Imagine my surprise. I guess I’ll have another drink... Here’s a toast to Diane McClintock, silliest troll in Rapture. Silly enough to fall in love with Sollux Ryan, silly enough to...”
The sentence stopped and explosions and screams filled the recording instead. Karkat sat on the edge of his seat.
“What... What happened? I’m bleeding... Oh, gog... What’s happening?”
The audio turned into static and Karkat pressed the stop button. Even while she was bleeding to death the explosions and screams had continued and Karkat guessed that was what had happened. He left the player where it was and continued his hunt for loot. He had to ask Aradia about it later.
Karkat finally found a way to continue, as the normal doors had broken. Instead he had to use a giant hole in the wall in the women’s restroom. Stepping out his radio suddenly sprung to life.
“Be careful,” Aradia told him. “Would you kindly lower that weapon?”
Karkat did as commanded and found that he had to step onto the walkway above a stage to continue. He then noticed a small girl in a spotlight on the floor. Karkat slowly made his way onto the walkway to get a better look on the girl. He could only see her back, but it was enough to see most. She was small and was wearing a green coat far too big for her. On her head she had two small horns (though bigger than Karkat’s to his fury) and a large blue hat and beneath the coat Karkat could see the tip of a blue tail peek out. She was currently stabbing the body of a dead troll, playing with the green blood.
“Do you think that’s a child down there?” Aradia asked.
“Well, duh. What else would it be?” Karkat whispered to not gather attention.
“Don’t be a fool,” Aradia told him and once again Karkat thought about the pros and cons of throwing away the radio.
“She’s a ‘Little Collector’ now, or ‘Tiny Drone’ if you prefer,” she continued “Somebody went and turned an innocent troll into this abomination. Whatever you thought about right and wrong don’t count for much down here. They carry Adam, or ‘Dreams’ as some people call it, the genetic material that makes Exceed’s wheels go round. Everybody wants it and everybody needs it.”
Karkat’s radio went silent again and he continued forward, thinking about what she had just said. Apparently the small things weren’t as innocent as they looked. The flight of stairs Karkat wanted to use were broken and he had to jump down. From behind a window he could see a splicer trying to creep up on the girl. She screamed and Karkat heard a loud roar. A giant metal monster jumped down from the floor above, its eyes glowing with a furious red and a huge drill in its right hand. The splicer began shooting at it, but it had seemingly no effect. The beast hit a chair out of its way and ran towards the splicer. It wasn’t fast, but it was faster than it looked. With a single punch the splicer was almost send through the wall, and Karkat backed away a little, trying not to get the beasts attention. It picked up the splicer, now lying on the ground, and send it’s drill right through his guts. Even after that it started smashing the dead body against the window and managed to break it in a few hits, though the glass was bullet proof. As the beast turned around to leave, Aradia began talking to Karkat once again.
“That’s a Big Lusus,” she told him. “She gathers Dreams, he makes sure she comes to no harm.”
Karkat waited for a bit after the two abominations had left. He did not want to try and fight such a monster. Not after he had seen what happened to the splicer. If somebody had told Karkat such things existed before he got down here, he would’ve called them a liar and called for the cullers. It wasn't until then Karkat realised he had met two such things before, and he thanked gog that the girl had noticed he was still alive.
Karkat soon after found himself in a new room. Following the walk way he passed under a sign telling him it was the Exceed Metro. Walking down the stairs Karkat found something he didn’t think he would see. In front of him was the corpse of one of the Big Lusii. He wondered if it was the same as he had seen before, but this one was covered in rust and he thought it probably wasn’t. But it was nice to see they weren’t invincible.
Once again the stairs were out and Karkat had to jump the last many steps. He quickly searched the nearby toilets for anything useful but they were empty. Looking up he saw a bright neon sign telling him the way to get to Neptune’s Bounty, however before he could enter metal bars closed before him, making it impossible to continue. Alarms blared and an announcer told him a security alert was in progress. Suddenly he was hit by a wave of flames, and stumbling back he realised a flamethrower had just popped down behind him. Splicers came out of every orifice and Karkat barely had time to think before the first one started to try and bat his head in.
“It’s Ryan!” Aradia yelled through the radio. “He found us! He’s shut down all access to Neptune, but don’t worry there’s another way to get there!”
Karkat would’ve loved to yell at her, but he was too busy with the splicers to be able to do anything.
“Head to Medical,” she told him. “Quickly! Go!”
Putting down the last splicer, Karkat ran the only way he could. Jumping over a fallen pillar he found what seemed to be an airlock. However, before he could enter in slammed shut right in front of him.
“What the flying fuck!? Aradia, What’s going on!?” he yelled at the radio. “Answer me!”
“You’re trapped,” Aradia answered him with an incredible calmness. “I’m trying to override the exit from here.”
A gigantic screen turned on behind him and a picture of the troll, he had begun to hate, Sollux Ryan popped out in front of him while the lisp of the troll blasted through the speakers.
“Tho, tell me friend... Which one of the bitcheth thent you? The emprethth? Or maybe the military? Doethn’t matter. Here’th thome newth for you: Ektheed ithn’t thome thunken thip for you to plunder and Thollukth Ryan ithn’t thome whiny grub who can be thlapped around by government muthcle. And with that, I bid you farewell.”
The screen turned off and several splicers started banging on the doors and metal bars to try and get to him.
Suddenly the door behind him opened.
“I got it,” Aradia told him, calm as ever. “You should get out now.”
Karkat didn’t let her say that twice, but instead quickly jumped in and secured the door behind him. He then turned to the other door and began to open it. He wanted to be as far away as possible once the splicers started coming through.
CHAPTER ONE IS FINALLY DOWN! Only a bunch of other ones left. I'm kinda looking forward to write the dialogue of the many side characters we will see.
About that poll:
So far it's one for saving, one for harvesting and then one for my idea. I COULD make the next chapter into two parts as well and then we could see the complete votes after the first part before I write the second.
I think we'll do that.
MOVE ALONG, PEOPLE! NOTHING TO SEE HERE!
Pesterchum: paperConsumer (deviceJuggler is my troll account)
Stuff: