MSPA Fanfiction IV

[mythmonster2]

And now for something completely unexpected and different. Well, kind of different but not completely different.

It's not sadfic but is still update-related, in case you were looking for a reprieve (yeah who am i kidding you all are probably loving the sadness everywhere)

The Rationale of Hope

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She found him hunched over one of the dark gunmetal alchemiters of the asteroid, surrounded by schematic drawings.

“Eridan?”

“Hey, Fef.” He didn’t turn- just kept doing whatever he was doing. The dim lighting only served to further underline the singular lightsource, enclasped in his hands- and once in a while, an errant spark would burst out in an incandescent flare before burning out. “How’d you get in here?”

“Eridan, you haven’t been out of your rooms for, well, since we got here! What have you been doing?”

For a second there was no response, and Eridan remained still, his lean frame obscuring whatever source of light it was that stood behind him. The silence reminded Feferi of introspection, of meditation- Eridan’s focus had been quite complete, apparently. Maybe she shouldn’t have come and interrupted him?

“…Eridan? I guess if you’re not… I’ll be leaving now…”

“Nah, Fef. Stay a bit, I guess. I’ve been getting bored here, don’t really want to admit it but I could use some company now. Where’s Sollux?”

“I didn’t tell him I was coming… to see you. You know it would have made him mad.”

Eridan gave a low, dry chuckle- the kind of laugh that comes only when one hasn’t been hydrated for days, and shrugged. “Well, that’s all the better for me. Can’t have low-bloods disturbing me now. Still, I guess he’s not all that bad once you learn not to antagonize him too much.”

He still hadn’t turned towards Feferi, who was now cautiously advancing forward, careful in her steps not to make too much sound or to break the air. There was a sacred feeling to Eridan’s chambers, she realized now- she’d never been in here, but somehow the light emanating gave the entire scene a supernaturally dramatic feel.

“…You’re taking this well, Eridan.” With a few more steps, she nimbly leapt and took a seat atop the alchemiter, legs dangling over the edge, and looked down at the light enclasped in Eridan’s hands, curious to see what he was so engrossed with.

“Yeah, I guess I am. I just found something that’s more important, you know?” Eridan turned to look up at her, with a slight blush, and quickly retreaded his words- “Uh, not to mean you’re not important or anything, that’s not what I meant-”

“It's okay, Eridan- is that-”

Eridan was holding a fusion blowtorch in his hands, and he was cutting the alchemiter’s side open. He looked down at the searing hot edge of plasma, cutting a neat series of right angles through the armored plates, making sure that nothing was going wrong- and looked back up with an abashed grin, something that reminded her of the old days, sweeps past, all those times where he injured himself and it was always her who patched him up-

“It’s nothing, just a project that I’m interested in, I guess, if you want to think of it that way.”

“You’re using that without any form of protection- you’ll damage your eyesight permanently if you keep doing that!” She leapt down and put her hand on his shoulders, and with just a slight jolt he spun around-

“Don’t do that Fef, you really scared me there-”

And while he wasn’t completely focused on his work, his hand slipped- and he dropped the torch.

It fell with a whoosh-crack, and from its shattered position on the floor, a small wafting sinusoidal glow trickled out, exploding into fire towards Eridan in the presence of oxygen, scorching his foot- and he bounced back, hopping up and down in the way Feferi knew so well. It was just part of him, she thought- every single time he’d skinned his knee or broken his arm or dislocated his shoulder, he never made a sound, he’d always bitten his lips and held it in. He had always been like that- trying his best to be as hard as the emperors he looked up to.

“OW FUCK OW FUCK FUCK OW OW BLISTERING FUCKWADS FUCK.”

“Eridan!” She leapt down- one sweep from her trident sent the shards flying out through a transportalizer into space- “Are you alright?”

“...Dammit. That’s just… I’ll have to start over.”

The path cut by the torch as it descended had scraped through the finely detailed incisions Eridan had made, scarring the inside circuitry and mechanisms, and with a single look Feferi realized that there was no way that the alchemiter was still functional.

“…I’m so sorry, Eridan, I should have warned you-”

“Nah, Fef. It’s cool, I have a dozen more to work on anyways and there’s no way I’d have gotten through them all anyways.” With a shrug, he pulled another torch out without putting on any eye protection, it’s like he didn’t even pay attention to her- and stooped down at the base of another alchemiter, methodically beginning to cut his way through the metal again.

“Eridan! I’m serious, you have to put on some eye protection, you’ll blind yourself this way!”

“Sorry, Fef. I can’t go alchemize a makeshift visor that’ll work well enough, that’s too much time for me to spend.”

“What’s so much more important to you than your own eyes that you’re spending days in here without even coming out to talk to any of us? Eridan, even Sollux is weirding me out looking for you!”

“So he is, huh? Tell him I’m not interested in a duel with him, or anything like that anymore.”

“…What the glub, Eridan? What happened to you? It’s like you really don’t care about, well, anything anymore!”

She was getting worried- for all she knew, he’d been brooding up in his area for all this time about her and Sollux, and he had never been that tolerant in the first place-

Eridan, for his part, turned off the torch like a responsible person who was working with power tools, and turned around to face Feferi once more.

“I guess I should probably answer your first question, so that you know what I’ve been doing in here all this time.”

“Okay, Eridan, you can talk.”

“It’s one of those things I never got, Fef. It’s what you never got either, and what the others never either. I used to think that because we were royalty, we belonged together- but that’s not really even the point here. You’ve never really been interested in that anyways and that’s fine.”

“Eridan, I-”

“Remember the last time we saw each other? I asked you then if you wanted to come with me, and you said no, because you wanted to stay with Sollux even after he kicked my ass, and that’s fine too. It’s what you really wanted to do at the time, even if I was too much of a blithering idiot then to get it.”

She didn’t say anything- and she knew that in the dim lights that he probably couldn’t see it, but her eyes were starting to water up.

“I really didn’t want anyone to show up here before I was done, but… Well, I’ll just give it to you straight.”

A moment of silence as Eridan fidgeted with his royal signet ring, nervously twisting it around and around.

“I’m going to go find Jack Noir as soon as I finish the setup, and I, I really won’t tell you to come with me. I don’t want you involved.” But I wish you would come with me, I wish you cared and trusted me enough…

“…Eridan, you’re not really serious about going to find Jack, are you? Aren’t you overestimating your abilities?”

“Of course I am, and you should go now and tell everyone else. I’ve got nothing to fear now. It’s do or die at this point, and empirically speaking I’m the strongest of all of us, even Vriska with her luck powers, whatever those may be defined as mathematically, and I’m the most well-equipped to deal with Noir.”

“…”

“Fef?”

“…You shouldn’t go- you can’t beat him and you know it- I don’t want you to die, we’re all fine here and he won’t find us- Jack Noir is insanely powerful, Eridan, I don’t want you to do anything foolish by fighting him-”

Ah crap, she’s really tearing up now.

“Fef, can I tell you a story? It’s a great story with a great lesson at the end. I’m sure you’ll love it.”

“…Sure, Eridan, go ahead…”

“Alright, here goes. Once upon a time, there was a purple-blooded grub, prince of all trolls, who had become used to his position. Though he was a brilliant scientist and a master of logic, he was a tyrannical being. He used his great intellect and power to dominate everyone and make their lives miserable by killing their lusii.”

He turned on the blowtorch again.

“And sweeps later, he found himself trapped, without any of his past authority. The girl who he had loved had left him for a peasant, and no argument could convince her, for she followed her heart.”

The superheated plasma cut through the darkened metal plates easily.

“The troll was despondent and even fought the peasant, but he was defeated. The more he tried to impose his past existence on his new one, the more he found that he was without vigor and life.”

The first metal plate fell away at Eridan’s feet.

“He retreated to his private chambers with nothing to do but think and pity himself, when a good friend arrived.”

Eridan shunted aside the piece of metal with his feet as he continued working.

“The good friend bore a small, marble stick, and spoke to him with care and wisdom. She said that she brought forth a great tool of power, but that its power was only equal to that of the wielder’s hope and soul. It would only create as much goodness as the user had goodness inside of him.”

He put the torch aside, and, reaching through the white-hot molten edges, extracted several multicolored wires.

“She said that she hoped that it would make him understand the true value of hope once more, but the prince was confused and did not understand how he could make such a thing work for him.”

Wires were cut, and reconnected. Red to green, purple to yellow, brown to blue.

“But as he pondered the question, he began to understand a thing that he had, perhaps, known all his life but never truly paid attention proper to.”

Eridan shoved the new tangle of wires back into its metallic cage, like the heart of a mechanical organism.

“The arts he had adored were not for only his selfish good. It was for the unselfish good, the good that belonged to everyone. Science was the art of hope, of wanting something and working towards it with all the power that he had.”

Eridan grabbed the metal plate and resealed it with his torch, slowly fusing the edges together once more.

“And at that moment, Fef, I was reborn. I’d never really understood my title as the Prince of Hope, thought it was just some stupid lofty name without any real meaning.”

He stood up without turning around, bending over the alchemiter as if it were some sanctified altar.

“People don’t really understand what science means as an idea. They think of trolls in laboratory suits, or complicated math equations, or weird-shaped beakers of colorful fluids. Science isn’t that. Science has always been how we rescue ourselves from the world, it’s always been about having hope for a brighter future and working towards that better world. Science has always been about helping others, helping everyone. At the core of science is the hypothesis that implies the expectation of a new future- at the core of science is the hope for success. And for those who use science as a sword, not a chisel, those who use it as a weapon and think of it as such, there’s nothing left for them but their inevitable ends. I guess I used to be like that, before I figured it out.”

“…You’ve really changed, Eridan. You really have.”

“Yeah, I guess. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t figure it out- would my story have ended in tragedy and death? Fef, you know, back when we were still moirails, I think you must have spent every waking moment worrying that I’d do something stupid.”

“Eridan, you… It took you this glubbing long to figure that out? Of course I was worried about you! And the worst part of it was you couldn’t even tell I was worrying about you!”

“But now, Fef, now we both get it, right? There’s something purifying in the quest for truth, something that drives away foolishness and bias like light drives away darkness. For the first time in sweeps, I have hope for the future- you have no idea how gratifying it is, you bouncy glubby girl, you.” He turned and grinned at her-

She was smiling at him.

How long had it been since she had truly smiled for him- for him, not just smiling at him and his failures or laughing at him in her usual effervescent tone?

“…Feferi.”

“You know, Eridan, if you’d been like this your entire life I think… I think things would be different.”

They probably would have been, but he’s not the player of Time, and he can’t really do anything about it.

And after a minute of silence, Eridan quietly turned around again, back to the alchemiter, poking at buttons and knobs, and spoke again.

“I slaughtered enough angels to know their limits and how to kill them best, and the lord of all angels prophesized will be no different. As the Prince of Hope, I am uniquely qualified to exercise unbounded idealism in such scenarios like this in which all hope has been lost. I will kill Noir with science- namely, a scientifically modified alchemiter, changed in ways no alchemy could ever achieve.”

“You know, you never answered my question. What did you do to that alchemiter?”

Eridan grinned.

“Oh, that? I’m just trying to rewire it a bit to have infinite grist in all categories and to compress it into something more portable for battle. Jack Noir will be very surprised when I crush him under an infinite stream of acid or that oxygen-ignited plasma from my blowtorch or something else like that.” He kicked the machine. “Haven’t gotten it to work, though. I’m sure science will prevail sooner or later.”

“Eridan, you’re so glubbing crazy, hehe.”

“Oh, and Fef? Forget what I said about telling everyone. When you leave, don’t tell anyone else any of this stuff. They’ll just think I’m being my usual weird self again. Especially Sollux, there’s no way he’d believe you.”

“Heh, I guess you’re right, Eridan. Are you still planning to go ahead and hunt Noir down?”

“…You know, before you showed up here, I really was going to leave as soon as possible without telling anyone. Now, though… Well, now I’m somewhat reluctant to leave. Thanks for coming all the way down here, Fef.”

“No problem, Eridan! Bye!”

And with that, she bounded away to the transportalizer, vanishing in a flare of murky silver light.

“...You know, I don’t believe for one second that she’s not going to have spilled this entire conversation to everyone in the radius before the hour ends.”

He shrugged, and went back to his work.

“Meh, better her telling everyone than Kanaya doing it instead, I guess.”

Author's Notes:

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I suck at writing emotions, to be honest. I've always been more of a rationalist and doing Feferi wasn't incredibly difficult but it did provide something of a challenge. Apologies if any of it sounds forced or disjuncted.

This. This is the best thing. It is awesome and don't doubt yourself about emotions.

[sarasvati]

throwing in with all the sadfic. sort of.

how about an eridan introspective piece?!?!

all of a sudden i miss everyone
karkat says he's being an idiot, but this is the smartest he's felt in a long, long time.

this is why i don't write trolls, ever

[Katrika]

Bluh bluh stupid.

Alphabet

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A is for Advance, or perhaps Abscond
B is for Bilious, yet to be spawned
C is for Cal, your very best friend
D is for Derse, or sometimes Descend
E is for Egbert, our young heir of breath
F is for Feferi, and now her death
G is for Ghost, like really? Huh. Strange.
H is for Homes to extend and to change.
I for Incipisphere, where this takes place
J is for Jade Harley, the Witch of Space
K is for Karkles, so full of pure rage
L is for Lalonde, the wannabe mage
M is for Meteors looming in view
N is for Nooksniffer, that’s to say, you
O is for On Top, which is where you’ll be
P is for Power, all of it, for me!!!!!!!!
Q is for Quest Bed, on which you must die
R is for Revenge, venomous and sly
S is for Strider, the coolest of cool
T is for Trolls, out of this world tools
U is for Unbound, not playing this game
V is for Versus, to kill and to maim
W is for Wake Up, in pyjamas clad
X is for nothing, now don’t look so sad
Y is for Yellow, you’ll wear on Prospit
Z is for Zenith, you’ll reach bit by bit

[egregiousBass]

N is for Nooksucker, that’s to say, you

You're a snarky broad, Katrika.

Also it's Nooksniffer.

[mythmonster2]

Huh, is there really nothing that starts with X in Homestuck? Didn't know that.

[Katrika]

Fixed!

[mutecebu]

Yay, Quote. I love you so. Yay, !sad fics.

Also, Tim's time powers seem to be one of the most mutable forms of time travel. But I digress.

[draconicAlgorithm]

@ JudgeDeadd: Aw, thanks.

@ Zerovirus: Not to sound like everyone else, but... really, why couldn't this have been canon? ;-;

@ Kat: Poem! c: That was adorable.

EDIT:

throwing in with all the sadfic. sort of.

how about an eridan introspective piece?!?!

all of a sudden i miss everyone
karkat says he's being an idiot, but this is the smartest he's felt in a long, long time.

this is why i don't write trolls, ever should write trolls all the time

Fix'd.

Just wanted to say, again, that it was beautiful.

[Graven_Image]

Also, Tim's time powers seem to be one of the most mutable forms of time travel. But I digress.

They're actually prettgy straightforward.

He can reverse the flow of time for himself. He can (and has) gone backward throughout the session, forestalling any and all fatal mistakes Meat Boy and Co. make. The thing is, he cannot fast-forward, so he's stuck taking the long road, making sure everything goes according to plan.

If he ever got to God Tier, I'm sure there would be more varied powers at his disposal. But honestly, what are the chances of that?

[lucidSeraph]

Also, Tim's time powers seem to be one of the most mutable forms of time travel. But I digress.

They're actually prettgy straightforward.

He can reverse the flow of time for himself. He can (and has) gone backward throughout the session, forestalling any and all fatal mistakes Meat Boy and Co. make. The thing is, he cannot fast-forward, so he's stuck taking the long road, making sure everything goes according to plan.

If he ever got to God Tier, I'm sure there would be more varied powers at his disposal. But honestly, what are the chances of that?

man if anyone's getting to God Tier it's the kid

he touches the bed and instantly dies

[Doodled]

So many good fictions, both sad and not!

Wow...

Also, Mayor, yours made me giggle like an idiot.

[DJ-P0N3]

@Doodled
Mission accomplished?

[Doodled]

@Doodled
Mission accomplished?

Yeah.

I guess.

[Nexev]

So I got tired of all the sadfics and everything and wanted to write a story about sunshine and rainbows, instead this happened.

----EXCITING ADV-----ENTUR-----------E!!!!! 38D

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Well, that could have gone better, not that you mind dying, but your worried about Sollux, left alone with that... that THING.

A dark skeleton man is offering you tea, you guess it would be reel rude to adjure it.

...

OMG THIS IS THE BEST TEA EVER!

The skeleton man manages to crack a smile... somehow.

He pulls out a board game, probably about to ask you to play a round, but the world starts shaking.

A divine heavenly being looks upon you. His ogle managing to disconcert you with the sheer wealth of knowledge and benevolence behind his gaze.

As the godhead fondly regard you, just one of his many creations, you begin to understand your purpose.

You realize how often Eridan was about to succeed in his insane landweller genocide scheme. How each time the only thing that stayed his hand was his thoughts of you.

You see how without your kiss, Sollux would have never waken, you saw how that one silly act of flushed romance saved not only your comrades, but created billions of those strange fleshy humans.

Everyone has a important job to do. You have been using that as your mantra for so long.

It took death for the Witch of Life to truly understand this.

The godhead nods to you, your job is still not done.

With a single tear of liquid black sorrow, Death removes the clarinet from the door to life and opens it for you.

You exit the flower, and land in a dream bubble.

Your tanglebuddies bubble with happiness. They missed you.

You start to shed your own single tear, but not of black sorrow, you never knew how important you were to them.

You always thought that people only cared about your blood. That if they took away the gills and the trident then they would find a empty being.

But blood means nothing to the elder gods, what difference is there between a noble ant and a normal ant to the eyes of a mountain.

And despite your royal glamor being nothing to them, they still cared.

But you can't get all glubbing emotional right now. You still have a whale of a job to do.

You swim to Tavros, he is scared, confused, he does not understand why he died, he thinks he has no purpose.

But his powers are strong, strong enough to penetrate the mind of even the most ancient of the elder gods.

You take the poor cowfish under your fin.

Everyone has a important job to do, especially in death.

[morpheoMancer]

So I got tired of all the sadfics and everything and wanted to write a story about sunshine and rainbows, instead this happened.

----EXCITING ADV-----ENTUR-----------E!!!!! 38D

show spoiler

hide spoiler

Well, that could have gone better, not that you mind dying, but your worried about Sollux, left alone with that... that THING.

A dark skeleton man is offering you tea, you guess it would be reel rude to adjure it.

...

OMG THIS IS THE BEST TEA EVER!

The skeleton man manages to crack a smile... somehow.

He pulls out a board game, probably about to ask you to play a round, but the world starts shaking.

A divine heavenly being looks upon you. His ogle managing to disconcert you with the sheer wealth of knowledge and benevolence behind his gaze.

As the godhead fondly regard you, just one of his many creations, you begin to understand your purpose.

You realize how often Eridan was about to succeed in his insane landweller genocide scheme. How each time the only thing that stayed his hand was his thoughts of you.

You see how without your kiss, Sollux would have never waken, you saw how that one silly act of flushed romance saved not only your comrades, but created billions of those strange fleshy humans.

Everyone has a important job to do. You have been using that as your mantra for so long.

It took death for the Witch of Life to truly understand this.

The godhead nods to you, your job is still not done.

With a single tear of liquid black sorrow, Death removes the clarinet from the door to life and opens it for you.

You exit the flower, and land in a dream bubble.

Your tanglebuddies bubble with happiness. They missed you.

You start to shed your own single tear, but not of black sorrow, you never knew how important you were to them.

You always thought that people only cared about your blood. That if they took away the gills and the trident then they would find a empty being.

But blood means nothing to the elder gods, what difference is there between a noble ant and a normal ant to the eyes of a mountain.

And despite your royal glamor being nothing to them, they still cared.

But you can't get all glubbing emotional right now. You still have a whale of a job to do.

You swim to Tavros, he is scared, confused, he does not understand why he died, he thinks he has no purpose.

But his powers are strong, strong enough to penetrate the mind of even the most ancient of the elder gods.

You take the poor cowfish under your fin.

Everyone has a important job to do, especially in death.

This is utterly fantastic, but now I'm all confused as to whether I feel happy or sad.

[Nexev]

Feel happy.

Everything happens for a reason.

I am a complete optimist, mainly because I am uncomfortable being sad.

I plan on doing another one later with Deadferi chatting with Aradigod.

[mutecebu]

Also, Tim's time powers seem to be one of the most mutable forms of time travel. But I digress.

They're actually prettgy straightforward.

He can reverse the flow of time for himself. He can (and has) gone backward throughout the session, forestalling any and all fatal mistakes Meat Boy and Co. make. The thing is, he cannot fast-forward, so he's stuck taking the long road, making sure everything goes according to plan.

If he ever got to God Tier, I'm sure there would be more varied powers at his disposal. But honestly, what are the chances of that?

I guess I meant that, for him, time usually is mutable. He can rewind, do things differently, and this assumedly doesn't send everybody careening off into an alternate doomed timeline. He has to prototype the ring, though.

It's not really a problem. I'm sure there's a perfectly good technobabular explanation.

man if anyone's getting to God Tier it's the kid

he touches the bed and instantly dies

Yes! Love it.

Although, it would be ironic if it's the one thing in the universe that DOESN'T kill him, and he's got to try to find a way to die.

[morpheoMancer]

Feel happy.

Everything happens for a reason..

<3 You're wonderful, you know that? *hugs*

[DJ-P0N3]

Hey guys
Should I write more sad!fic?

[Nexev]

The appropriate question is this:

Do you WANT to write more sadfics?

Don't just do it because someone said "sure why not" and you don't feel up for doing a nonsad fic.

That being said don't refraim from crafting one simply because one has the opinion that enough sadfics exist presently, I am sure you will manage a creative spin to make the sadfic different from what currently exists.

As such I recommend using a die to decide.

[DJ-P0N3]

I enjoy writing sad!fic for a lot of reasons.
I just need the right motivation to write them.

Right now I have an idea swirling around in my head, but a headache and Mafia-based paranoia is making it hard to focus.

[Nexev]

This is the voice of a guy pretending to be your conciosness.

Pull your act together and write the story.

Focus on this as you type.



Then let the creative juices dribble and stuff.

[DJ-P0N3]

Do you guys really want to see Equius accidentally killing his true love?
Then again, Equius accidentally killing anyone is saddening

[Nexev]

Not really to be completely honest.

That just seems a bit over the top.

[DJ-P0N3]

Then you are a heartless and cruel monster.