MSPA Fanfiction IV

[decidingly]

Hm. Didn't think I'd get this dark.

A Strider fic, but not of the cute and cuddly variety.

Dave finds that trying to see his brother one last time only lets him see all of the closed avenues.

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-Stop-

Rewind-

-And he watches, horrified, as Bro's form at the kitchen sink, is engulfed in a bright cloud of noise and fire, and he somehow knows the paramedics will tell him later he never felt a thing-

-Freeze.

-Skip forward, don't scratch.

-Dave stares at an alligator who sends him a blank, toothy grin.

-Rewind.

-His fingers scrabble against the hard top, asphalt cracked in the heat, tearing nails-

-Rewind.

-A small, huddled form is curled on a bed, and it is hot in the small room, and there is blood matting the back of the ginger hair, and his sides are not moving.

-Skip forward. Do NOT scratch.

-The dog-thing is too fast and-

-Reverse-

-The dog thing is too fast and strong and-

-Reverse-

The dog thing is too fast and strong and by now-

-Reverse-

The dog thing is too fast and strong and by now Dave knows-

-Reverse-

The dog thing is too fast and strong and by now Dave knows there is noth-

-Reverse

-ing he can do.

-Reverse

-At some point Dave stops. Dave stops, and he sits with his back up against the wall, knees drawn to his chest, glasses off, iPhone off, hands covering his face. He pesters Rose to lay some cloudy bullshit on his present location to fuddle up Terezi, doesn't explain when she asks why. She does anyway.

The boy, all of thirteen, cries into his knees. He tries to keep it to a minimum at first, just intending to blow the top off this frothy brew of grief and frustration. But at thirteen, he knows that he doesn't have the emotional control to do that, and he starts sounding more and more like a kicked puppy as the hitching breaths at the tail end of crying jags work up.

Some idiots say traffic is hell, and some blundering buffoons say paperwork is hell.

Some assholes say war is hell. Some bigger assholes say love is hell.

They were all wrong.

Hell is repetition.

Poor Dave...
Aside from that, it was really well-written. Great job making it seem so natural. But Dave

[Summergale]

I am going to work through this the only way I know how - sadfic. It's almost 6am and I'm on an iPod but fuck it I can do this.

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She pushes herself away from her keyboard and stands in one fluid motion. Sollux is still staring at his screen in puzzlement, Trollian reflected in his mismatched shades. Her heart aches as she steps towards him with a smile on her face. the Gemini stands up and blinks at her; she simply wraps her arms around him. Equius be damned: what she wants to spend her final doomed moments doing is hugging the only true matesprit she's ever had.

The Alpha Aradia died hours ago. A mixup in psionics had meant that a doomed timeclone had fled the final showdown; the 'real' Aradia perished in the ensuing massacre. Really, paradox space was just tying up loose ends. And it's succeeding, she thinks bitterly. All I wanted was for him to be happy.

If her robotic vessel could, she would cry. As it was Aradia simply took heaving breaths. She'll miss living. She'll miss Sollux. Hell, she'll even miss Equius.

"G00dbye, S0lly," she whispers in his ear. "I l0ve y0u."
She takes a few steps back, closes her eyes, and lets paradox space finish her off.

[JudgeDeadd]

@Judgedeadd and Summergale

I just wanted to say, you do an awesome job at describing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I know that's not what it is really supposed to be, but the symptoms line up so perfectly, along with the emotions of shame and frustration. I love it!

To be frank I pretty much nabbed the idea from four titles

And me accidentally nailing down the OCD symptoms? (I actually thought about mentioning OCD but decided that, since I don't know what this affliction actually is like, I'd only end up messing things up.) Reminds me of Aldous Huxley and how he accidentally predicted Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in Brave New World.

[Douhneill]

And me accidentally nailing down the OCD symptoms? (I actually thought about mentioning OCD but decided that, since I don't know what this affliction actually is like, I'd only end up messing things up.) Reminds me of Aldous Huxley and how he accidentally predicted Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in Brave New World.

GOD DAMN I HATE THAT BOOK.

In completely different news, GOD DAMN YOU PEOPLE ARE AWESOME.
I mean, in the time it's taking me to write my newest fic (which is not going any kind of well), I've got people posting tons of amazing stuff. You guys are amazing. I'm honoured to be a part of this group. Keep being awesome.

[Villainsocks]

Okaaaay. Back with more Multidave. The last chapter didn't get any comments, so I'll have to conclude that there wasn't enough angst. But it's okay, the person on DA who drew GreenDave is gushing over this and linking my shit (hello by the way).

Previous entries: 1|2

So anyway...

Lord English' Interdimensional Orphanage-themed Soap Opera

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Open Pesterlog:

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-- arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling triptuneGammaray [TG] --

AG: Surprise, d8rk ::::)
TG: oh noooo D:
AG: Did you think you could sh8ke me off that easily?
TG: why won't you just leave me alone >_<
AG: No can do, 8u8.
AG: You ruined the timeline for all of us, not just you.
AG: So I'm here as well, and 8oy have I got time on my hands!
AG: Wanna know how much?
TG: it's not my fault!
AG: Wah wah, so8 so8.
AG: Should I call the WHAAAAAAAAm8ulance?
TG: SHUT UP
AG: >::::O
TG: i dont need to take this crap from you
TG: it's your fault, not mine
TG: you tricked him and now he's dead!
TG: all because you had some sort of inferiority complex or whatever
TG: i don't care how many irons you have or where, you're a bad person and i hate you!
AG: Well well, aren't we suddenly ass8rtive.
AG: Bl8ming everything on me again? Let's see what HE thinks a8out that!
AG: Or do you w8nt to stay 8eefed up on coffee forever????????
TG: oh come on
TG: please don't :(
AG: Don't you wanna go seeeeeeee him again?
AG: He'll 8e very sad if you don't!!!!!!!!
TG: he's already dead, uurgh
AG: Are you so sure? It's almost like you want him to 8e!
TG: you're just saying that because you know i'd freak out
AG: But you've grown so much! I'm sure you can h8ndle it ::::)
TG: he was my best frie
triptuneGammaray [TG] is an idle chum.
AG: Nap time 8888)

Meanwhile, three very uninvited rascals spied on a two-man rehearsal.

"They're huge!"

"MILF?"

"For sure."

There were two dersites, one with a violin and the other with a double bass, working on a tango piece retrieved from the earthling Astor Piazzola.

"You're putting far too much pressure on that G-string, dear."

"Can you do it better?!"

"I'm just suggesting you play with a bit of restraint."

"Easy for you to say! Just blow against a violin and sound comes out."

The tall, fancy lady chuckled. "Once more, from the top."

And so the sound of their intruments filled the small sitting chamber, quickly absorbed by the ornate rugs and paintings that adorned every part of the mansion. The violin coursed through flawlessly, but the bass struggled to keep up.

"What do you say?"

"I say we're done for today."

She leaned in and gave the other a peck on his forehead. He blushed, and frowned as strongly as he could.

"Thank you for your time."

"L-likewise."

SnOwman deposited her violin in its case and marched out with elegant strides. Hearts Boxcars decided to wait a little while before beginning the struggle of packing his bass in.

"Did you guys fucking see tha-"

Flare's voice was muffled when the other Daves pushed their hands over his mouth.

"I HEARD THAT. WHO'S THERE?"

The hulking brute peered in their direction. It had been a perfect hiding place, under that commode. Until Flare had to go and open his mouth.

"I CAN SEE YOU, LITTLE RUNTS." Boxcars put the bass down on its side and grapped the commode, heaving it as if it were a bathtub. The Daves quickly scurried away.

They were trapped. The only door was across the room.

"WHICH ONE OF YER'S GONNA EXPLAIN?"

They all looked at Ace. With style comes responsibility.

"Well, um, we were just... Unscrupulously eavesdropping, and-"

"The boob lady caught me off guard, is all!"

Cue slapped the back of Flare's head. Jesus christ, that guy looked angry. So angry his face was assymmetrical or something.

"WHAT, CAN'T TWO AGELESS ADULTS HAVE A ROMANTIC MOMENT AROUND HERE?!"

"Not at all! I mean, yes, of course you can!"

"Congratulations, sir! We're very happy for you." The hulking bassist appeared to be settling down.

Ace whispered to Flare. "(Say something nice, you dunkass.)"

He shifted awkwardly for a moment. "Uh... Nice cello!"

Oops, bad idea. A cry of indignation, and the man took another step closer, driving the Daves into a corner as he towered over them. He launched into a frivolous rant, containing such elements as "DO I LOOK LIKE A SNIVELING CELLIST WHIMP TO YOU?", "A CELLO IS THIS BIG", and "IF THIS IS A CELLO, THEN WHAT THE HELL IS A BASS?"

He finished. The Daves stared in awe. Silence.

Boxcars stepped aside. "GET OUT OF MY SIGHT."

Cue nearly tripped over a billiards carpet on the way out.

---------------

Elsewhere, Dog was being a sneaky little bitch. Spots' apparant slowness from they day before had gotten him curious as to the weird shit going on in the mansion. The first thing he'd done after breakfast was explore, all ninja-like and shit. None of Scratch's weird consorts had seen him.

Eventually, he had made his way to the basement. It contained a whole alchemy set, with a designix hooked into a big screen. He could lock onto any object from any part of the alpha timeline and make a punched card out of it.

The first thing he did - naturally - was alchemize his bro's plasma TV and playstation 2. Secondly, his sylladex to take everything back upstairs. All the awesome stuff would have to wait. He took care not to be seen. Even though there was a delirious amount of grist on hand, he figured Mr Scratch wouldn't be too happy if he knew Dog was messing with the equipment.

Right now he was rocking Mark Ecko's Getting Up. Man, what a shitty game. Someone knocked on the door. Dog hastily captchalogued the whole TV set. "Yeah?"

Oh sweet jegus, one of those creepy amphibian mofos. He held the door open without coming in.

"Your friend is having a nap in the foyer. You'll want to wake him up."

"How do you figure that?"

"You're going to. I just checked."

*sigh* Fine. Can't argue with destiny.

Sure enough, Spots was fast asleep on a fancy bench propped up against a wall, right next to a huge pendulum clock, and also a bunch of smaller ones. Clocks everywhere up in this bitch.

What a place to fall asleep, on this hard bench surrounded by the noisy devices. He seemed to be sleeping lightly. Or maybe Dog couldn't hear him snoring over the infernal ticking.

Suddenly, Spots grimaced and curled up. He made a few whimpering noises before settling down again. But his breathing was still uneasy.

Yeah, night terrors happen. Wakey time.

Dog put his hand on Spots' shoulder. He snapped awake and grabbed the other Dave's wrist. His breathing was panicked, eyes wide open behind his shades. Cold sweat glistened on his forehead.

Nothing Dog hadn't seen before, or experienced first hand.

After a few seconds, Spots began to relax. He let go and sat straight up. A tear rolled down his cheek.

"You okay?"

He opened his mouth to say either 'yes' or 'no', but settled for an ambiguous answer. "It happens every time."

Recurring dreams. Wonderful. Oppurtunity for psychological bullshit.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really..."

"A promise is a promise, dawg."

Spots stared at him for a few seconds. Then he caught on. "You bully >:/"

"Haha, whatever. But let's get away from these clocks first."


A little while later, they sat on Dog's bed. They'd both taken their shades off because it'd be pretty douchey to keep them on. The normally cheery boy was staring at the floor with a burdened expression.

"So what was that dream about?"

"Do you know what horrorterrors are?"

Alright, something we have in common. "Yeah, the big tentacle monsters. I dream about them too, sometimes."

"Well I dream about them every time!" He was about to say more, but fell silent. Dog cocked an eyebrow.

"That's not the whole story, is it?"

Spots took a deep breath. "Do you know John?"

"Egbert?"

"Huh? No, Lalonde." Dog gave him a blank stare. "That's what you meant, right?"

And then he finally put two and two together. "Oh, I get it now!", he said, excitedly. "You're from a timeline where everyone had different parents. Man, that's some metaphysical shit. Oh wait, shit." The other Dave was eyeing him suspiciously. "Do you have, like, a dog for a parent?"

"Yeah..."

So that's why he named me that. He couldn't dwell on this for much longer, though. Spots didn't seem to be getting any happier.

"Sorry. What about John?"

His gaze went back to the floor. "So he was like, all chummy with the horrorterrors. They reached out to him when he slept, I think. And he trusted them. And then..." He seemed to struggle putting the rest to words.

"You don't have to tell every little detail if you don't want to."

Spots rummaged through his hair. His expression was pensive as fuck.

"Is he in your dreams?"

The boy nodded. "Do you have any idea why?"

"They... they claimed him. Or something. I guess." His voice wavered.

Dog put an arm over the other Dave's shoulder. He could feel the big issue was coming up soon.

"Is he dead?"

Spots briskly jerked forward, burying his face in his hands. "I don't know! What if he's still alive, being tortured by them? What did they even want with him?!"

Dog quickly brought his other arm around Spots, embracing him. The latter surpressed a few sobs, before hugging Dog tightly and resting his head on the other's shoulder.

"In my dreams, he's there, trapped in their tentacles. I can see him reaching out to me. I don't know if he's actually in pain or if it's just his corpse being juggled around like a puppet."

Dog tussled the other's hair and let him cry into his shoulder. He could always alchemize more shirts. It was a bit alienating, seeing Spots like this. But it had probably been waiting to happen, like Davesprite had said. Well, whatever he'd said. Dog hadn't been paying attention.

He considering telling Spots that it was okay, John was still alive in the alpha timeline, but decided against it. He didn't feel much affinity with this John Lalonde; it wasn't his John. The same way Egbert wasn't Spots' John.

Soon enough, the sobbing stifled, and the other Dave's shivering stagnated. Spots loosened his embrace, brough his face back up and wiped the tears away. His expression now was a bit more... phlegmatic. Is that the right word? Damnit. I'm gonna have to look that up now.

"Um..sorry about that." His tone was pretty normal.

Dog gave him a generous smile. "Anything for a paradox self."

He stood up and looked down at the other quizzically. "You're not actually all that sugary and cheerful, are you?"

"Bluuuuh." Spots leaned back against the wall behind him. "No, I guess I'm not. Haven't been for a while. But I like to pretend I am."

Dog nodded. "D'you still want to?"

"Meh, I dunno." He looked down at his bermuda shorts and sandals. "These clothes look pretty stupid now, actually."

"Oh, I know where we can get more."

"Are you gonna be all 'shit, lets go shopping' before you lock me up in a basement and use me as a dress-up doll?"

"You got it."

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D8 2
This is so 8ooooooooring! All these D8ves do is dick around and talk a8out their feelings. No smooching or viol8nce or anything! 8ut at least I got some progress

in the way of

character devel8pment





W

Hello to you too! 8D
asdjkl that perserlog D8 Vriska you are horrible. also I not at all surprised she had something to do with this :|

I loved the three Daves spying on Boxcars and Snowman. I kind of love Flare and his big mouth xD

that entire last conversation was both very heartwarming and very heartbreaking 8( poor Spots.
also
"Are you gonna be all 'shit, lets go shopping' before you lock me up in a basement and use me as a dress-up doll?"

"You got it."
ffff I keep trying to picture him in a suit. It's surprisingly hard xD

[Ganato]

I am going to work through this the only way I know how - sadfic. It's almost 6am and I'm on an iPod but fuck it I can do this.

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She pushes herself away from her keyboard and stands in one fluid motion. Sollux is still staring at his screen in puzzlement, Trollian reflected in his mismatched shades. Her heart aches as she steps towards him with a smile on her face. the Gemini stands up and blinks at her; she simply wraps her arms around him. Equius be damned: what she wants to spend her final doomed moments doing is hugging the only true matesprit she's ever had.

The Alpha Aradia died hours ago. A mixup in psionics had meant that a doomed timeclone had fled the final showdown; the 'real' Aradia perished in the ensuing massacre. Really, paradox space was just tying up loose ends. And it's succeeding, she thinks bitterly. All I wanted was for him to be happy.

If her robotic vessel could, she would cry. As it was Aradia simply took heaving breaths. She'll miss living. She'll miss Sollux. Hell, she'll even miss Equius.

"G00dbye, S0lly," she whispers in his ear. "I l0ve y0u."
She takes a few steps back, closes her eyes, and lets paradox space finish her off.

BLUH!
Stop trying to ruin my OTP!
If stuff like this keeps popping up the next few days I'll have to start supporting AradiaxSollux instead of FeferixSollux.
Amazing fic is amazing.

@Wigmund: Sollux is THE sane person.
Or maybe the smartest person.

[Kawa]

Population: 12 Gaiden: The Visit 2: Electric Buggaboo

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"So Karkat, does the little tyke have a Pester-- I mean Trollian account yet?"

"What's her symbol gonna be?"

"Is it just me or did she grow up fast?"

"Where'd Nepeta run off to?"

Karkat found himself buried in stupid questions, most of them about his daughter, some about the processes behind her existance and some just right out of Earth human left field. It was quickly becoming just too much for him, and he couldn't help but slip into an old habit that he had worked hard to suppress.

"SHUT YOUR GODDAMNED PROTEIN CHUTES FOR A MINUTE WOULD YA!?"

Blissful silence.

"One question at a time, please!"

"Okay..."

"Egbert, you go first."

"Right! Ah, does she have an account... yet?"

"Why would you even ask me that kind of questions, you insipid waste of facial hair? Shula can speak goddamn English."

"That reminds me, I always wondered how we could understand eachother just fine even though you're aliens."

"Egbert, that beard is seriously eating your thinking matter, isn't it? We created this world, remember? Ofcourse your silly Earth human English resembles Middle Alternian! It's like in that dumbass TV series you got with the crazy guy in the box -- we don't look human, you look troll, okay?"

Rose took a sip of her drink, then turned towards Shula, who was casting predatory but careful glares back at her.

"Shula dear", she tried, "since Egbert hasn't the social grace to properly inquire, would you mind if I asked about your having an account?"

The little troll took a moment to take Rose's purple prose and paint it a more managable shade of black. Once she got the general meaning, she produced a single captchalogue card containing her PDA.

"Naw. I got the pwogam, but can't think of a good name."

"Didn't anybody else have a suggestion or two?"

"Yah, mistah Gamzee said I could be... fack, I fo'got."

"A'ight. My turn, Lalonde", Dave butted in. "You've got a lotta sass for your age, kid. Even I didn't turn up that heat 'til I was seven. You got that from your daddy?"

Shula beamed with misplaced pride and a grin showing two rows of slightly jumbled, typically razor sharp teeth. For a moment, Jade thought back to a comment she had made months before and hoped Shula's grub form didn't have teeth.

"Pappaw has the foulest facking mouth this side of town", Shula exclaimed as she playfully punched Karkat in the cheek.

"Sure he does. And on the other sides?"

"Mistah Gamzee and mistah... wizzerd."

"Damn straight they'd drop the bomb on a regular basis. Put 'em here, kid!"

Terezi came back with snacks just in time to see her little girl fistbunp her favorite coolkid. Shula's future could be deliciously cool indeed if Terezi played her cards right as a parental figure. She figured that would be a pretty nasty challenge at times, since no troll had fulfilled that role for thousands of centuries.

Lost in thought, Terezi stumbled through the doorway. It was a good thing she had decided to carry the plate of snacks in her Sylladex instead of her arms as they'd all be scattered and broken on the ground otherwise, like so many of Vriska's dice. But this didn't happen, and she didn't even bother with the usual "BL4R". As Terezi fetched the plate, the smell of deepfried goodies filled the air, both from the plate and the card it was stored on. It was only logical that the Scratch and Sniff modus would assign that smell to it.

"Okay, my turn", Jade spoke up as Terezi set down the plate. "Is that your only card, Tula?"

"I'm Shula, and yah. Pappaw said I can have anotha next year!"

"That's nice. And what modus is it?"

Shula was dumbfounded for a moment.

"Trick question. You don't need those if there's only one card."

"RAA!"

"Terezi, here's one for you", Rose started. "If Shula is just over a year old, how come she's already up to a four year old's level?"

"The hell if I know. I dunno how fast human babies grow up", Terezi admitted.

"Hold on there babe", Dave interrupted. "I know for a fact that you and 3D have watched me grow up. How can you not know?"

"We fast-forwarded a lot. Also, you were an ectobiolobaby so you skipped the first few parts."

Karkat, impressed by Terezi's diction, tried to pronounce "ectobiolobaby", failed miserably and glanced at John with a needy look. John also failed. They quickly concluded that "carcinogeneticlone" was somehow easier, even though nobody had used the term back then.

Dave bunped John in the head. "Your turn, bro", he exclaimed.

"Right, ah... do you have any ideas for a shirt symbol yet, Shula?"

Shula remained silent, looked at her mother's Libra shirt, then her father's Cancer shirt.

"Not weally, naw", she answered after a moment in thought.

"Can't blame you, girl", John admitted. "There's a whole lot to choose from if you don't want to come up with something original."

Dave raised an eyebrow at that. "Dare I ask how many, bro?"

John looked pained for a few minutes as he tried to dig up an impressive answer.

Dave found a grin unavoidable.

"You've got to be the biggest fuckin' tool I've ever sat right next to, Egbert."

Too many stupid questions, too little action.

Reader challenge: what symbol and trollTag should Shula get? And for that matter -- teal, red or murky yellow?

[Ganato]

You could always just combine the libra and cancer symbols by for example giving the libra symbol curly ends. I would think red as it sounds like she got most from her dad. Murky yellow would make her look like Sollux's kid.

[Kawa]

When I said "murky yellow", I meant "what Karkat would've had if he weren't a mutant". Something like this? Sollux is more yellow than that, and it's Nepeta on the other side.

[Kassiopeia]

@Douhneill/JudgeDeadd god, for some reason Brave New World was in my primary school library so I ended up reading it at the age of nine. Hello, traumatisation!
@Everyone else's nice comments: THANKS Latest update makes this even more AU, but I have soldiered on.

Notes From A Doomed Timeline II: Symphony In Quartz
3: Witching Hour

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Jade Harley lived the first nine years of her life as an ordinary little girl, every bit as normal as possible given the circumstances. She watched cartoons about kids who lived in the city and had hundreds of friends, brothers and sisters and parents and cats and dogs and parrots, and sometimes she was a little sad that her only company was Grandpa. But then, Grandpa was the best friend an adventurous child could have. The two of them explored the whole island, making expeditions into the ruins and the forests and down to the golden sand of the beaches. Jade swam in the sea and climbed the trees, and Grandpa told her stories about his days exploring the magical lands in the sky. Stories about villages of lizards and ships that sailed through the air, and all manner of other wonderful things.

Grandpa, for his part, thought he had done a pretty good job with the little mite. The strange, bright-eyed toddler who fell from the sky had grown into a cheerful girl who reminded him of his sister, all those decades ago. Little Jade would do him proud, he thought. He only hoped he was there to help her in the coming danger. He had been there for her through every crisis: the accidental gunshot wound which had left her with a permanent scar on her collar-bone, despite her miraculous recovery; her fall from the ruins; the bout of flu when she was six that left her hallucinating feverishly about strange little men building a town in the desert; and in return, he thought, she had kept him young.

As Jade got older Grandpa would leave her alone on the island for longer and longer stretches. She missed him when he was gone, but he would always come back with armfuls of new toys and candy from the mainland, and increasingly baroque tales of his adventures: hiding from Russian spies in Venice, defusing a blood-feud between two quantum physicists in India, solving a murder at an English country house, searching for the source of the Nile. She had begun to suspect that some of his tales might not be quite the essence of the truth, but she knew Grandpa would never lie to her about anything important.

Until, one day, when Jade was nine and a half, Grandpa hopped into his little biplane and flew away, never to return. She waited, long weeks that turned into longer months. When the supply boat arrived, she told them that her grandfather was busy on the other side of the island, and dragged the boxes of food and sundries up to the house herself. It was long, difficult work, but she knew she couldn't tell the men that Grandpa was missing, or they would take her away, and then when he came home she wouldn't be there waiting for him. She got the last crate of canned peaches through the door before collapsing on the linoleum and bursting into tears. Not because Grandpa wasn't going to come back - he was, he was, he wouldn't leave her behind with the scary blue-haired doll and the knights and mummies as her only family - but because she was tired and her arms ached and she was going to have to cook her own dinner again tonight and maybe every night for months.

The plumbing broke and the electricity went out and the roof began to fall in, and Jade had to live with it because she worried that if she called in an expert they would see her unwashed hair and torn clothes and try and take her away from the island, and she couldn't let that happen. So she worked out how to start up the house's emergency systems, and when she grew out of her old clothes she started wearing shirts and sweater vests from Grandpa's closet, and she began to adapt to living alone.

* * *

Aradia visits Jade once or twice, at intervals of a few months. Mostly, she just watches her from the trees, a vague silver figure who shimmers like a heat haze. Just to check that she's all right. She's tried to explain to Dave that the Jade they are now dealing with, with her abrupt mannerisms and lack of patience, is not the Jade of his memories only because he is a sprite, and a sprite with time powers to boot. John and Rose both think of Jade as, respectively, "kind of scary" and "formidable in competence, if not in orthography". Only Dave remembers the girl who liked cartoon squid, who was happy to swap drawings and remixes with him, and who thought nature was "sooo cooool" as opposed to an ever-more-vicious enemy to be opposed with insecticide and machetes.

She first makes herself known to Jade on the day it all began. Under instruction from Rose, John has already set everything in place, and as Jade struggles with her entry item, Aradia makes her way to the kernel and unceremoniously dumps the crushed body of the Draconian Dignitary into its spiralling center. She isn't sure why. It isn't in the slightest bit necessary for the continuation of the timeline. Perhaps she just misses Mr Diamonds.

"The hell did you just do?" Jade barks, "Who are you?"

"I did foresee that I would have to introduce myself all the time," says Aradia, "I suppose that's the problem with time travel. Just go with it, would you?"

By the time Jade arrives in the Land of Frogs and Tundra, Aradia is already gone, and the sprite is bobbing up ahead like a particularly malevolent raincloud. Jade ignores him, looking around in horror. The island is gone, replaced with a broad stretch of scrubby meadow, sloping up to blue-white mountains beyond, where the remains of her house are trapped in layers of ice.

She bites her lip hard and hugs herself. A sensible girl never panics.

"No," she murmurs to herself, shutting her eyes tightly.

"What are you whimpering about, kid?" says the sprite, drifting down the slope towards her.

"Nothing," she hisses, because she isn't about to spill her soul to this guy.

The Dignitary sighs. Some would be struggling with the sudden influx of arcane knowledge, but he takes it entirely in his stride. Some of his questions are answered, regarding his own nature and existence, but the deepest and most pressing - those he could never really bring himself to ask - remain a mystery. Isn't that always the way. Still, he's going to have to work with this girl if he ever wants to get out of this freezing wasteland.

"You must be Miss Harley," he says, in his gentlest and most diplomatic voice.

"No shit," she says, already marching back towards her house.

"I am the Draconian Dignitary," he says, trying to sound friendly. How do you even do that?

"I don't know what those words mean and I don't care," says Jade, scowling. She feels bad for being so rude, but she wants to get away from this guy. She's used to solitude, by now, and doesn't need some hovering shadow-ghost spying on her every move.

"You, of course, may call me Mr Diamonds," he goes on smoothly, "As a mark of my respect."

"Ugh, fine," says Jade, crumpling up on the ground. The mossy earth is studded with tiny star-like flowers, and Jade just knows Grandpa would be able to tell her all about them, and the thought makes her want to cry.

Mr Diamonds looks completely at a loss what to do. He supposes Jack's advice would be to strangle the mopey little wriggler and have done with it, but isn't that Jack's response to everything? Instead, he sits on the ground beside her. From his experience with women - embarrassingly somewhat limited though it is - it's probably better to say nothing.

After a while, she begins to weep, silently. He sits and waits. There is plenty of time.

A/N

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ajkdjfjh writing a sequel is intensely nerve-wracking. I worry enough about the quality of my stuff without having to angst about whether it measures up to the original or not. BLUH.

[raequiem]

Trollbabies and NfaDT are the best things ever to wake up to

[Ganato]

I know what you mean Kassiopeia. I have the same feeling.
I guess there's nothing to do other than give it a try right?
Right.

BIOSTUCK
Chapter 1: Welcome to Exceed
Part 1

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Karkat was slowly drifting towards the surface. He could hardly wait, the inside of the bathysphere beginning to feel cramped.

“Here it comes! The ‘sphere- the ‘sphere is coming up now!” he heard a voice yelling. It didn’t come from the radio so Karkat figured he had just heard the person that was going to come pick him up. Oh he was going to love yelling at that guy about...

“Johnny, security is going nuts. You should probably hurry up if you don’t want to die.”

Karkat’s train of thought was abruptly derailed.

The window was finally above water and he saw a person for the first time in what seemed years. The next was something he would regret seeing.

There were two persons in front of him. The light was faded and blinking and it was impossible to see what they really looked like. The person closest to him was staggering backwards, begging for mercy.

“Please, lady... I didn’t mean to trespass. Just don’t hurt me...”

The second person appeared to be a woman and was hunched over holding two items in hands. They were glowing with an ominous light. The shape first reminded Karkat of sickles and the threshecutioners, but he quickly realised they weren’t sickles, but in fact hooks.

“Please lady. Here, you can have my gun just please don’t...”

In the blink of an eye the troll called Jonny, was violently sliced and stabbed with the hooks of the splicer. Karkat’s mouth dropped in horror. Sounds of the dying troll caught Karkat’s ear as gurgles and Karkat couldn’t help but yelp as the body was thrown away. He regretted doing that immediately as the splicer turned to look at him.

“Is it someone new?” it asked in a raspy whisper.

Karkat jumped back, hitting his back against the lever, as the splicer shrieked with rage. Suddenly the splicer jumped onto the bathysphere running around on top of it, still shrieking and yelling. She tore holes into the roof as she tried to get to Karkat, but luckily the sphere held against the attack and soon the splicer jumped away. Karkat sighed with relief, noting that the light had gone out, and several wires were sticking out of holes in the roof. It was obvious the sphere was now out of order.

“Fuck.”

“Hey, you. Would you kindly pick up that shortwave radio?”

Instinctively Karkat grabbed the radio from beside the door and started yelling incoherent sentences and various curses at whoever was on the other end.

“You seem mad. I’m okay with that,” the receiver answered.

Karkat felt like he could sweat rage. Pure, unconditioned rage.

“I don’t know how you survived the crash, but I don’t question the destiny as told to me by the spirits. My name is Aradia, and I’ll help keeping you alive here. What’s your name?” a flat monotone voice asked him.

“Karkat!”

“Alright, Karkat. You need to keep moving and get to higher ground.”

The door to the bathysphere finally opened and Karkat stepped out, smelling saltwater and blood.

“Now, we need to get the splicer out of hiding. There’s no way you can defeat her right now so you’ll have to trust me,” Aradia told him over the radio.

“Yeah that isn’t fucking likely,” Karkat told her back. “Did you see what she did to that other troll? It took maybe two seconds and he was dead! I'm not going to die like that!”

“Do you really have any other choices?”

“... Fuck!” Karkat yelled angrily, being unable to do anything but follow Aradia’s plan. Walking towards the stairs he passed several protest-signs and posters telling him all bathysphere travel had been denied.

“I am going to wrap you in a sheet...” the raspy voice of the splicer echoed throughout the hall. Quickly running up the stairs he found a small wall made of baggage.

“Just a bit further,” Aradia told him.

The splicer jumped down in front of Karkat ready to attack, but she was interrupted as a beacon of light shone down on her and an alarm started. A small flying machine flew down from the ceiling and started shooting at the splicer. It jumped for its life, climbing a vertical wall to escape the machines wrath. Karkat was speechless.

“Now, would you kindly find something to defend yourself with? Like a crowbar or something,” Aradia asked over the radio. Karkat’s first thought was to find something he could cut with, like a sickle or one of the splicer’s hooks, but all he could manage to find was a wrench.

“That has to do,” said Aradia voicing her opinion.

“Yeah, whatever,” Karkat said, proceeding to break a couple of columns of debris blocking the door. Crawling under the door and looking up the stairs he noticed something burning and before he knew it, there was a flaming couch rolling down the stairs at him.

“Fuck!” he yelled quickly retreating behind the door, escaping the couch and waiting till the flames died out. He proceeded up the stairs, readying his wrench. There was a splicer up there with his name on its death list. And sure enough, just as he walked through the door a splicer, holding a metal pipe, jumped at him. Managing to dodge it, he ran around to its back and hit it over the head with his wrench. He didn’t manage to escape the retaliation from the splicer and the two proceeded to play cat and mouse, Karkat becoming the victor.

“You look beat up. Go grab some food, it’ll take the blunt of it,” Aradia’s voice told him over the radio. Karkat didn’t believe it until he found a bag of chips and could actually feel the pain subsiding eating it. He proceeded to eat whatever else he could find (searching trashcans for cakes? That was a new low) before proceeding up a pair of stairs, which seemed to be the only way to go as the door was blocked and refused to open. Halfway up the stairs he stopped to admire a large mural showing various trolls doing what seemed to be impossible. A female troll was cooking dinner with flames from her hand and a male troll was levitating a brick. The words ‘Pick your plasmid and evolve!’ stood above the happy picture. Karkat shook his head and continued up the stairs.

A recording started to play.

“My –krrfzt-’s smarter than Einstein, stronger than Hercules and lights fire with a snap of his fingers! Are you as good as my –krrfzt-, mister? Not unless you visit a Gatherers Garden you ain’t! Smart –krrfzt- gets smarter at a Gatherers Garden!”

Walking up the last step and taking a turn Karkat saw what had made the strange noise. What seemed to be a large vending machine stood, with two cute troll girls holding the sides to the left and right, underneath a large sign boasting ‘Gatherers Garden’. The machine sunken a bit into the floor and had dispensed a seemingly illuminated bottle of red liquid and a huge needle next to it.

“Inject it into your arm.”

Karkat had two things he didn’t like about that sentence. It sounded like an order and it told him to jam a huge needle into his arm.

“I’m sorry miss. I’m-bat-shit-crazy-and-I-have-a-thing-for-needles but there’s no way I’m jamming that thing into my arm!” Karkat yelled at the radio. He felt kind of stupid doing that.

“What you see before you is a ‘plasmid’ or as we usually call it a ‘prophecy’. These grant you various abilities such as telekinesis and pyrokinesis and are vital for you continuing survival. This one grants you the ability to throw large amounts of electricity at people.”

Karkat thought about it. It would be nice to electrocute the fuckers who wanted to kill him.

“Now would you kindly inject it into your arm?”

Karkat grabbed the bottle and inserted the needle, sucking up the red liquid inside. With unsteady hand he slammed the needle into his wrist sending the liquid into his bloodstream. His vision hazed and his hand started glowing with a blue light. Then the pain arrived.

“Keep yourself together,” Aradia told him. “Your genetic code is being rewritten. Hold on and everything will be fine.”

Karkat would’ve loved to follow the advice, but the pain was unmeasureable. He stumbled backwards, his vision hazing with the red colour his blood was, unable to anything but scream in agony. He kept stumbling and tried to lean against the banisters. Unfortunately they were almost completely rotten and couldn’t hold his weight. He could see the floor coming towards him, too fast to be able to do anything but scream.

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Wow this part alone is already, like, 3 pages in a word document. I apologize for it being so long, but I figure since this is the introduction I have to get as much in it as possible. Later I can skip large parts of running around and looking for stuff. I hope. Also I couldn't think of anything to use instead of 'Dad' in the Gartheres Garden sale speech. So instead you get -krrfzzt-.

PUBLIC POLL FOR THE INTERESTED!

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So in the later part of the next chapter (note; chapter, not next part of this chapter) Karkat will have to choose what to do with his first 'Tiny Drone'. I'm therefore holding a poll to see what he would do.
Does Karkat rescue the small Nepetas? Or does he only think about himself?

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Personally I think he'd garther the first and once he realises what it means he will start to rescue the others.

I'm pretty sure these polls will pop up now and then. Just and FYI.

[QuetzaDrake]

@Kass Aaaaah, I see... how incredibly sad. < Poor Jade...

Although I like Diamonds being her sprite. It makes a bit of sense, actually, since she's the "diamond" of the Kids, and they possibly fit better together now that Jade is angrier at the world.

[Caprisaurus]

JKAHJKDA YAY MOAR BIOSTUCK AND TROLL BABIES!!

And as for the poll
SAVE THEM SAVE THEM SAVE THEM!!!!

And I also feel incredibly guilty that I did not cry at the recent update AND that I am not into TrollCops.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!?

[DJ-P0N3]

@Ganato
I am liking this a lot!
I say we kill them, all of the little sisters. All of them.

@Caprisaurus
I did not feel sad at the new update either. So thats not weird.
But I love TrollCops, so something is most certainly wrong with you.

[Caprisaurus]

@@ MayorSillybiscuits
I just don't get into it that much, minus the fact I love the badguy trio.

AND WHY KILL THEM I MEAN IT'S NEPETA
THE ESSENCE OF CUTE

[DJ-P0N3]

I LOVE NEPETA, I REALLY DO
But we need the plasmids a lot more than we need the cute!

I mean think about it.
Big mean splicer about to tear you a new one, what do ya do?
Be cute, or shock that mofo?

I shock that mofo and live.

[Caprisaurus]

BUT THAT LEADS TO THE BAD END!
Besides, you get compensation for saving them later on, they give you gifts that would be worth what you got if you harvested them
-knowledgeable-

[DJ-P0N3]

Are you questioning my knowledge of Bioshock?
I know we get the bad ending, but its more Karkat-esque.
Besides, I harvested them and had more than enough ADAM for what I wanted.
With the saving you get presents like every 2-3 little sisters.
In the long run Saving is good, but Harvesting gets immediate results.

[lucidSeraph]

@Kass: Oh god poor Jade and poor Dave, too. Though MAJOR LULZ at Dignitary Sprite. ... hell I want Droogsprite for my own.

[sebastian]

@Douhneill/JudgeDeadd god, for some reason Brave New World was in my primary school library so I ended up reading it at the age of nine. Hello, traumatisation!
@Everyone else's nice comments: THANKS Latest update makes this even more AU, but I have soldiered on.

Notes From A Doomed Timeline II: Symphony In Quartz
3: Witching Hour

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Jade Harley lived the first nine years of her life as an ordinary little girl, every bit as normal as possible given the circumstances. She watched cartoons about kids who lived in the city and had hundreds of friends, brothers and sisters and parents and cats and dogs and parrots, and sometimes she was a little sad that her only company was Grandpa. But then, Grandpa was the best friend an adventurous child could have. The two of them explored the whole island, making expeditions into the ruins and the forests and down to the golden sand of the beaches. Jade swam in the sea and climbed the trees, and Grandpa told her stories about his days exploring the magical lands in the sky. Stories about villages of lizards and ships that sailed through the air, and all manner of other wonderful things.

Grandpa, for his part, thought he had done a pretty good job with the little mite. The strange, bright-eyed toddler who fell from the sky had grown into a cheerful girl who reminded him of his sister, all those decades ago. Little Jade would do him proud, he thought. He only hoped he was there to help her in the coming danger. He had been there for her through every crisis: the accidental gunshot wound which had left her with a permanent scar on her collar-bone, despite her miraculous recovery; her fall from the ruins; the bout of flu when she was six that left her hallucinating feverishly about strange little men building a town in the desert; and in return, he thought, she had kept him young.

As Jade got older Grandpa would leave her alone on the island for longer and longer stretches. She missed him when he was gone, but he would always come back with armfuls of new toys and candy from the mainland, and increasingly baroque tales of his adventures: hiding from Russian spies in Venice, defusing a blood-feud between two quantum physicists in India, solving a murder at an English country house, searching for the source of the Nile. She had begun to suspect that some of his tales might not be quite the essence of the truth, but she knew Grandpa would never lie to her about anything important.

Until, one day, when Jade was nine and a half, Grandpa hopped into his little biplane and flew away, never to return. She waited, long weeks that turned into longer months. When the supply boat arrived, she told them that her grandfather was busy on the other side of the island, and dragged the boxes of food and sundries up to the house herself. It was long, difficult work, but she knew she couldn't tell the men that Grandpa was missing, or they would take her away, and then when he came home she wouldn't be there waiting for him. She got the last crate of canned peaches through the door before collapsing on the linoleum and bursting into tears. Not because Grandpa wasn't going to come back - he was, he was, he wouldn't leave her behind with the scary blue-haired doll and the knights and mummies as her only family - but because she was tired and her arms ached and she was going to have to cook her own dinner again tonight and maybe every night for months.

The plumbing broke and the electricity went out and the roof began to fall in, and Jade had to live with it because she worried that if she called in an expert they would see her unwashed hair and torn clothes and try and take her away from the island, and she couldn't let that happen. So she worked out how to start up the house's emergency systems, and when she grew out of her old clothes she started wearing shirts and sweater vests from Grandpa's closet, and she began to adapt to living alone.

* * *

Aradia visits Jade once or twice, at intervals of a few months. Mostly, she just watches her from the trees, a vague silver figure who shimmers like a heat haze. Just to check that she's all right. She's tried to explain to Dave that the Jade they are now dealing with, with her abrupt mannerisms and lack of patience, is not the Jade of his memories only because he is a sprite, and a sprite with time powers to boot. John and Rose both think of Jade as, respectively, "kind of scary" and "formidable in competence, if not in orthography". Only Dave remembers the girl who liked cartoon squid, who was happy to swap drawings and remixes with him, and who thought nature was "sooo cooool" as opposed to an ever-more-vicious enemy to be opposed with insecticide and machetes.

She first makes herself known to Jade on the day it all began. Under instruction from Rose, John has already set everything in place, and as Jade struggles with her entry item, Aradia makes her way to the kernel and unceremoniously dumps the crushed body of the Draconian Dignitary into its spiralling center. She isn't sure why. It isn't in the slightest bit necessary for the continuation of the timeline. Perhaps she just misses Mr Diamonds.

"The hell did you just do?" Jade barks, "Who are you?"

"I did foresee that I would have to introduce myself all the time," says Aradia, "I suppose that's the problem with time travel. Just go with it, would you?"

By the time Jade arrives in the Land of Frogs and Tundra, Aradia is already gone, and the sprite is bobbing up ahead like a particularly malevolent raincloud. Jade ignores him, looking around in horror. The island is gone, replaced with a broad stretch of scrubby meadow, sloping up to blue-white mountains beyond, where the remains of her house are trapped in layers of ice.

She bites her lip hard and hugs herself. A sensible girl never panics.

"No," she murmurs to herself, shutting her eyes tightly.

"What are you whimpering about, kid?" says the sprite, drifting down the slope towards her.

"Nothing," she hisses, because she isn't about to spill her soul to this guy.

The Dignitary sighs. Some would be struggling with the sudden influx of arcane knowledge, but he takes it entirely in his stride. Some of his questions are answered, regarding his own nature and existence, but the deepest and most pressing - those he could never really bring himself to ask - remain a mystery. Isn't that always the way. Still, he's going to have to work with this girl if he ever wants to get out of this freezing wasteland.

"You must be Miss Harley," he says, in his gentlest and most diplomatic voice.

"No shit," she says, already marching back towards her house.

"I am the Draconian Dignitary," he says, trying to sound friendly. How do you even do that?

"I don't know what those words mean and I don't care," says Jade, scowling. She feels bad for being so rude, but she wants to get away from this guy. She's used to solitude, by now, and doesn't need some hovering shadow-ghost spying on her every move.

"You, of course, may call me Mr Diamonds," he goes on smoothly, "As a mark of my respect."

"Ugh, fine," says Jade, crumpling up on the ground. The mossy earth is studded with tiny star-like flowers, and Jade just knows Grandpa would be able to tell her all about them, and the thought makes her want to cry.

Mr Diamonds looks completely at a loss what to do. He supposes Jack's advice would be to strangle the mopey little wriggler and have done with it, but isn't that Jack's response to everything? Instead, he sits on the ground beside her. From his experience with women - embarrassingly somewhat limited though it is - it's probably better to say nothing.

After a while, she begins to weep, silently. He sits and waits. There is plenty of time.

A/N

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ajkdjfjh writing a sequel is intensely nerve-wracking. I worry enough about the quality of my stuff without having to angst about whether it measures up to the original or not. BLUH.

That is an interesting timeline. With no Jade (to all practical effects) there is no robobunny, and Jack don't get the ring, also Bro survive. No contacts with the trolls (aside from Aradia )because it is a doomed timeline so john is not killed by his denizen, so no doomed dream Rose and maybe she'll deal a little less with the horrorterrors. What other conseguences there could be?

[Ganato]

@MayorSillyBiscuits and Caprisaurus:
We seem to be at an impass here.
You both make valid arguments.
Personally I think we should look away from whatever the ending might become.

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Truthfully the bad ending seems more like Karkat than the good one since he is a power hungry mofo

Harvesting = Lots of Adam and quick updates to your plasmids
Then again saving them gets you the Daddy-bodyguard, which is kinda useful (as long as you don't accidently hit him which I did on my first playthrough. A lot) and you can still get the plasmids you'll need.

I think this pretty much boils down to: What would Karkat do?

OH WHOOPS I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS. BETTER WORK ON PART 2.

[Wigmund]

This isn't the final chapter, but it's close!

A Storybook Story
Part 7 (Previous parts linked in signature below

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The two former bandits and the dead body approached a small hovel hidden deep in the woods. They looked around and then knocked on the door.

From inside they hear grumbling and what may be swearing.

Egberto looked up at Tavrik, who would have shrugged his shoulders if he wasn't lugging around what used to be Kartley.

So the duelist knocked again.

This time a small viewing hatch on the door opened and something looked out at them. It may have been inquiring as to why they were bothering the hovel's dweller and to indicate that there was absolutely nothing worth stealing inside.

John and Tavrik exchanged confused glances again.
"Are you the miracle worker who served under the King years ago?"

This earned an especially angry glare and then the thing on the other side of the door spoke to them.
"D--> His Royal Majesty's low-b100ded son fired me.
D--> I should thank you three for e%posing such painful memories. W001d you like to cut me and rub me in salt and lemon juice as well?
D--> Depart now you crude f001s and leave me in peace."

The angry miracle worker then slammed the hatch. Once again, John knocked on the door.
"D--> Go away or I shall be forced to summon the Brute Squad."
"uh, I'm on the Brute Squad."
The hatch opened up again and the broken shades angled themselves to look up at Tavrik.
"D--> You must be the entirety of the Brute Squad."
"Please sir, we need a miracle. It's a matter of great importance."
The man sighed.
"D--> I'm retired. Besides, why w001d someone want to fire a disgrace that the King's noble, yet f001ish, son fired?
D--> I might kill whoever you wanted me to work on."
"Well, he's already dead."
"D--> Oh, he is? Bring him in and I'll take a 100k."

The door opened up and the three heroes walked inside. Tavrik took care and laid Kartley's body down by a fireside bench. In despair, he picked up one of the dead boy's arms and let it fall limp. He tried and failed not to sob.

"D--> I've seen worse."

The creepy blue-blooded troll walked up to the body and looked it over.

"I'm sorry, but we're in a rush."
"D--> Only f001s rush miracles. And I am no f001.
D--> How much are you paying for my services?"
"We only have a dozen boondollars."
"D--> I have never before worked for so pitiful a pay.
D--> Well, I did once, but that was for a truly STRONG and noble cause."
"This is noble!
This man's wife is a cripple and his grubs are about to starve and be devoured by vicious musclebeasts!"
"D--> Filthy low-b100d lies.
D--> Besides, musclebeasts never devour starving grubs - they only go for the STRONG."
"Well, I need him to help avenge the murder of my love."
"D--> Your first story was better."

As this bickering went on, the miracle worker was searching the room for something.
"D--> Now where did I leave those bellows?"
He found them and turned around with a huge device in his grip.
"D--> This is all for some illicit and debased purpose isn't it.
D--> That just makes me sweat. Let's see what this f001 has to say."
"But he's dead..."
"D--> Who is the e%pert at working miracles here?
D--> Your friend is only mostly dead. There's a difference between that and all dead.
D--> Open his mouth."
John did so and the worker inserted the bellows into Kartley's mouth and began to pump.
"D--> Being mostly dead means that he is still slightly alive.
D--> Now, if this f001 was all dead, there is only thing to do."
"What's that?"
The miracle worker stopped pumping the bellows.
"D--> Give him a proper burial. Did you expect me to say that you sh001d rob his corpse?"
The worker then leaned over Kartley's body and spoke to it.
"D--> What do you have that is worth living for? What is so important?"
He then, very carefully, pressed down on Kartley's chest.

From the body came two words.
"....tr...ooo...love..."

Everyone stared at the body.
"True love. Is that not the most noble of causes?"
"D--> That is true. But that is not this poor s001 said.
D--> He said 'To B100f', which must be a low-b100d way of saying 'To Bluff'.
D--> He was cheating at some f001ish gambling game, you s100 him and now you want me to revive him so you can get your money back."

From the back of the hovel a fierce shriek of rage erupted and a woman came storming out into the main room.
"LIAR! LIAR!"
She continued to scream this as she zeroed in on the miracle worker.
"D--> Get back you witch!"
"I'm n0t a witch, I'm y0ur wife!
But after that, I'm n0t sure I want t0 be that anym0re!"
"D--> But...but..."
"The p00r b0y said 'True L0ve'!
Equius. By G0g, he said 'True L0ve'."
Miracle Eq had started to retreat back away from his furious wife.
"D--> I have ceased listening to you, Aradia."

Aradia turned to John and Tavrik.
"He's afraid. Ever since he was fired by Striderdink, his c0nfidence was shattered."
"uh, That's why have Rufio..."
"D--> Aradia! Why did you say that name!
D--> You promised that you would not utter that f001's name here.
D--> You know it makes me sweat. Where are the towels?"
Aradia began to chase the poor man around the table screeching at him.
"Striderdink! Striderdink! Striderdink!"

John and Tavrik just watched this unfold, stunned. Then John stepped forward and stopped the two.
"This is the true love of the Princess.
If you heal him - he will stop Striderdink's wedding."
They both halted and looked at John.

Then down at Kartley.

Then back up to John.

"D--> Why didn't you say so in the first place?
D--> This one will be on the house since you are all going to make Striderdink's life hell."

Aradia laughed in joy.



In short time, the miracle worker and his wife had what looked like a chocolate-covered pill ready for them.
"So that is for Kartley?"
Equius nodded.
"The ch0c0late helps it g0 d0wn easier.
But it will take fifteen minutes f0r full p0tency.
And y0u sh0uld pr0bably av0id any strenu0us activity, for what?"
"D--> An hour."
"Yes, an h0ur."

They hand the pill and the body over to John and Tavrik. As they head out, John turns around to see Equius and Aradia at the door to their hovel.
"Thank you for everything."
"D--> Whatever."

John then left with his companions, the miracle workers waved them goodbye.
"Bye-bye, b0ys."
"D--> Enjoy your storming of the Prince's battlements."
"S0 Equius, d0 you think it'll w0rk?"
"D--> They'll need a miracle."



Eventually, our three heroes found their way up to the outer wall of the castle. Tavrik put down Kartley's body while he and John glanced over the wall to see the sixty Brutes guarding the gates.

Tavrik is shocked by how many guards there are now.
"uh, That's more than thirty."
"At this point, is there a difference?
Come on, let's give our friend the pill."
"Has it been fifteen minutes?"
"We can't wait, the wedding is in half an hour.
We have to strike now."

Tavrik propped up Kartley and opened his mouth. John dropped the pill in.
"umm...So how long do we, uh, have to wait?"
"Hell if I kno-"
Kartley's eyes popped open and he looked back and forth between the two.
"I TOOK YOU FUCKERS ON SEPARATELY. I CAN FUCKING STOMP YOU NOOKSTAINS TOGETHER."
"That was quick."

Tavrik and John move back. Kartley stares at them and then notices something.
"WHY THE FUCK CAN'T I MOVE MY ARMS?"
"You've been mostly dead all day."
"We had Miracle Equius make a pill to revive you."
"Who are you two? Are we enemies?
Where the hell am I? Where's Butterjade?"
"Calm down, please. Let me explain...
actually, that would take too much time - here's the short version:
Butterjade is marrying Striderdink in less than half an hour, so all we have to do is get in, break up the wedding, steal her, and make our escape after I kill Count Eridan."
"Doesn't leave much time for fucking around."

Kartley was watching his fingers, one of which twitched.
"You moved one of fingers! That's great."
"Quick healer.
So what are we facing?"
"Well, there's only one gate into the castle and..."
They lift Kartley so he can peek over the wall.
"It's guarded by sixty men."
"What have we got?"
"Your brains, Tavrik's strength, my hammers."

Kartley just stared at the two.
"We're fucked. If I had a month, I could probably do something. But..."
He shook his head in frustration.

"Yay! You shook your head!"
"My brains, his hammers and your strength against sixty men...
And me shaking my fucking head is supposed to make me happy?"

"Now if we had a wheelbarrow, I could probably plan something."
"Where did you put the assistant's wheelbarrow."
"Over him, I think."
"Why the fuck didn't you mention that?
Now what I wouldn't give for a holocaust cloak."
"Damn it."
Tavrik rooted around in his pack and pulled out a large cloak.
"So that's what this is."
Kartley and John stared at their giant friend in amazement.
"What? Equius gave it to me. Since, uh, it fit me, he said I could keep it."
"You wouldn't happen to have two buckets and some paint?"
"We could probably find some back at the Pit when we grab the wheelbarrow."
"Alright, let's head out."

Tavrik picked up Kartley and the three started to head out.
"Now, I'm going to need a pair of sickles at some point."
"Why? You can't even lift your own arms."
"True, but that's hardly common knowledge, is it?
Now, we may have problems once we get inside."
"That's putting it lightly.
How do I find Eridan? Once I'm done with that, how do I find you? And then with you, how do we escape?"
"John, please. He's had a hard day."
"Sorry."

As they walked away from the castle walls to retrieve their supplies, they could still be heard talking.
"John..."
"Yeah?"
"I hope we win."



In the Princess's chambers, Butterjade sat in her bridal gown. She is beautiful. Not only that, she is tranquil as well.

Striderdink finishes fastening a pearl necklace around her neck.
"You don't seem excited, my love."
"Should I be?"
"Well, yeah. Most brides are at times like this."
"I'm not getting married tonight."

She smiled and looked confidently into the mirror at Striderdink's reflection.
"Kartley will come and save me."

A/N:

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So is everyone looking forward to finale?

I know I damn well am. And we'll also get to meet the greatest character of this story next time.

I hate to do this, but the lack of comments has made me wonder if anyone is reading this. I know everyone hates it when people get naggy for comments, but after the last few installments there hasn't been anything and my paranoia is starting to act up.

But anyways, I know it's odd to put Equius in as the miracle worker, but the interaction between him and Aradia are a great substitution for Max and Valerie's. Besides, Equius' dead pan is a nice contrast to Billy Crystal's hilarity in the movie.

[elation2.0]

No Wigmund, GAMZEE has to be the mIrAcLe man!

[DJ-P0N3]

Finally done with Part 5
Woohoo!

Alright, now for the latest installment

1-up, down-1
Part 5

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The Demon sits silently beside Rose’s Quest bed as he waits for her to ascend, or at least until she begins to ascend. Her dream self begins to shake and writhe as did John’s. He grips his blade and unsheathes it yet again, before he murdered Dream John out of manipulation from Tavros, but now he does this for his own gratification, to assure his victory. Raising the blade high, the blood of Vriska, John, and Dave have stained it. It has mixed into a dark purple color that glistens in the light. As he swings the blade down something snaps, twists, grips his arm and stops him from beheading this vile woman.

˙ƜĀPIɐBɐD SɐŅIʌ NUɐŠĀUIןɐBOU SƎISNظĒɹNʇʇɐ SŪظ ɐظ 'Āʇ Iɐן 'NʇĒQIɹB SĒƜ

“Here I thought you was done using her.” He sneers at John’s floating corpse, the body has begun to decay more and more. The flesh is falling off in chips and a dark layer lay underneath, the Horrorterrors have left very little of John’s freewill intact.

SɐןןOƆ ƎSƎɹƎʇUI ɹI SƜNƜ 'Nʇ ʇƎQ 'SɐŅIʌ ɐʇOUĀןD ISIƎɹʞ ɐD SɐʞƎU ɹI SƜNƜ

“I’m so scared.” mocks The Demon, he looks back at Rose’s Dream self as it begins to rise into the air, “Guess its too late, ain’t it?” He shakes his head, The Demon wanted to make things simple, just because he had a vast and nearly limitless power did not mean he was not one to tire of these meaningless and trivial fights. In the end he would win, plain and simple. It was his plan.

Rose’s body shone brightly, a purple spirograph and aura enveloped it, as did a black glow. Soon her form was transformed. She arose forth, a hood upon her head, a long spiral dress covered her body. A symbol of an eye was placed on the center of the dress. For a moment her world was black, and now she opens her eyes once more to see the blinding radiance of the Skaian battlefield. Seeing The Demon and her mistake that caused this. No, she shook her head, the mistake she had to do because of Tavros. It was something she had to keep in mind.

The Demon stares at her, grips his sword tight and readies for a fight. John floats high into the air to match Rose’s own altitude, he stares at her briefly.

“R-rose….I can’t feel my most of me….” He manages to mutter out, his voice is crackled and pained.

“John…” She sighs, she can not bare to witness him in such misery and distain. “..please, let me help you. I have a plan…”

John’s body begins to shiver and shake, his emotionless face twists into a sick grin, wide as possible, from ear to ear. It began to cackle, the laugh was silent at first, Rose squints at John, she tries to hear him, she wants to hear what he has to say, then, in a split second.

ɐɥɐɥɐɥɐɥɐɥɐɥɐɥɐɥ ʇĪPĀɹƎID SƜNظ NBIƎQ ɹI Sɐʇ ɥɐƎɥɐɥƎɐɥƎɥɐƎɐɥƎɐɥƎɥɐɥƎɥɐ ɥɐɥƎɥƎɥƎɥƎɥƎɥ

Rose’s ears begin to bleed, the laughter of the horrorterrors is something no one should ever hear. It chills her to the bone, her soul can feel itself slowly die inside. She realizes now just how far gone she is form the horrorterrors, she can not even comprehend their babbling anymore. The Demon shakes it off but can feel his ears bleed as well. This was not in his plans, but it seems as though that in this timeline, no one gets what they want.

The Horrorterrors began to spread their tentacles out from the wound in John’s chest, it was once a small sliver, but due to overuse the hole was gaping and wide, if one peers inside they could surely see the face of the horrorterrors themselves.

The Demon arose into the sky to match them, a battle of the three godly powers was about to begin, and all the trolls could do was sit back and hope to god that they would somehow pull out a victory.

The Demon swings his sword at Rose as she narrowly avoids the brutal affront. The tentacles flow forth from John’s chest cavity and wrap around The Demon. Rose takes this opportunity to abscond from the scene, something tells her she isn’t what the Horrorterrors are after, at least not this time.

˙SUOƜĒP ƜOɹD ʇɐƜƎŅɐSƎU SŪظ

“What ya want with me, freak?” The Demon did not have the patience for interruptions from such a disturbing apparition that has taken residence within a child he had already murdered twice before. “Third time is the charm….” He slices through the tentacles and flashes green and sparks with lightning for a moment before reappearing behind the Horrorterror possessed John. He readies his blade for a terrifying upbraid.

John’s neck snaps, cracks, and twists a full 180 degrees around and stares blankly at The Demon. It begins to laugh loudly. The tentacles spew forth from his agape mouth, along with claws and tendrils of all sorts. Eyes peer at The Demon as they entrap and entangle him. He struggles aimlessly, a scythe-like tentacle rises high into the air and swooshes downwards in a cutting fashion.

A gleaming light of blinding white.

A flow of red descends onto Skaia.

The Demon lies defeated, dying slowly.

The tentacles recede into John’s mouth and wound. He holds the ring carefully between his index and thumb. The ring glistens in the light of Skaia. He slides the ring onto his index finger and holds it to the sky, the powers do not flow into his dead body, but perhaps that is not what the horrorterrors are after.

In the distance Rose watches in awe. She is unsure of whether to take this as a sign that the horrorterrors are on her side, or if her foe has gained any strength. She decides to pester Aradia.

Show trollog

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- tentacleTherapist [TT] began pestering apocalypseArisen [AA] at ? : ?? –
TT: Aradia I need your help.
AA: this is unexpected
AA: h0w can I help
TT: You can commune with the dead, correct?
AA: c0rrect
TT: Can you speak to john, try to get through to him?
AA: he is under p0ssessi0n by the h0rr0rrterr0rs
AA: it is very risky
TT: Please Aradia, I know I am not exactly a friend to you, nor do I really matter to you.
TT: Please, risk it for me just this once, okay?
AA: y0u are alright r0se
AA: just this 0nce
TT: Thank you so much Aradia.
AA: just s0 we are clear what d0 y0u want me t0 d0
TT: Rescue John, I don’t care how. Just try.
AA: 0kay
AA: n0w leave me be
AA: this requires f0cus
- apocalypseArisen [AA] ceased trolling tentacleTherapist [TT] at ? : ?? –

Aradia focused her attention on John, she attempted to commune with him telepathically. Her mind slips slowly into John’s conscious, but as she was entering his thoughts she is intercepted by the Horrorterrors. Aradia works her way around, for only a split second does she have the opportunity, with no second thoughts or regrets she risks herself to take the mind of John within her own cold steel carapace.

She falls to the ground, two minds swarming inside of her. That of herself, and that of John Egbert. She slowly crawls over to Equius, he takes a cable and attaches it to her forehead, the other end is place upon a crudely designed robot. The transfer begins and Equius goes to inform Rose of the news.

Show trollog

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- centaursTesticle [CT] began trolling tentacleTherapist [TT] at ? : ?? –
CT: D --> Rose human, I have news to deliver
TT: It better be good news.
CT: D --> It is good and bad news
TT: I guess that will do, what is it?
CT: D --> We have e%tracted John's mind from the horrorterrors
TT: That is the best news I have heard in ages.
TT: So what is the bad news?
CT: D --> Because of your e%tremely risky and f001ish plan, Aradia is
TT: Is what?

Equius looks at the cold machine that pumps his own blood, it had contained the matesprit he had desired for so long. Due to the transfer, due to coming into contact with horrorterrors she has lost herself in the dark void of the furthest ring. Her consciousness is gone, she may be dead. Equius calms himself, he has to be STRONG. For all of their sakes, there has been far too much crying. He holds back his sadness.

Continue trollog

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CT: D --> She is dead again
TT: I’m sorry Equius.
CT: D --> I can not e%press properly how I feel right now
CT: D --> I need to go e%ert myself
CT: D --> To rela%
TT: I understand.
CT: D --> Was the plan worth the risk
TT: Well at the very least we have John.
TT: With him we might be able to finally stop this horrorterrors.
CT: D --> Stay STRONG Rose human
TT: Same to you Equius.
- tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering centaursTesticle [CT] at ? : ?? –

Equius turns back to face the fresh droid standing tall. It looks at its hands, it examines the entirety of its new body. The robot is now possessed by the presence of John Egbert. He turns to Equius slowly.

“So…this is me now…? What happened?” He looks at the design upon his chest, “How is this all? Am I?” John was as confused as ever, he looks disconcerted and upset. A small smile shows as he realizes he is free of the Horrorterrors. Equius goes to him and informs him of what has happened. How Tavros is the one to blame, Rose’s ascension to god tier, even how his new body functions. John interrupts Equius as calmly as he can.

“So…if blood is in me…whose is it?” He is afraid of the answer.

Equius points to Vriska’s corpse, “We were going to ask Karkat for his…but he refused…so we used what we had.” He takes in a deep breath and sighs heavily, patting the back of John harder than he should. He desperately needed to vent.

John winces at the pain for a moment but is speechless. He has missed so much, there was so much he could’ve done, that he should’ve done. He rushes to the husktop and clicks on Rose’s timeline in the trollian client. There is much to be done, so much to be seen, and so little time.

Author's notes

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Something about the more recent parts bug me. Don't know why.
Ah well, the ending is either the next part or the one after.
We'll just have to wait and see.
Also, did anyone notice how while possessed, all john's communications were referred to as "haunting" rather than "pestering"?

Horrorterror translations

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We would prefer it if you refrained from killing her for the time being.

It is not her we are after. (lost in translation.)

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha we will destroy you demon hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

You're not getting away demon.