The Population Series - Under New Management

[Rimbaum]

This is me looking forward to epic fics. I approve of TaraniXTom.

Thanks for outlining the years and such you guys.

Also I just got a Formspring question about other Population FSers. Who's up for that? Or crazy enough?

As soon as I can figure out a quirk for Gabe, I'll do one for him.

[Nexev]

NEW CHALLENGER errr, TROLL APPROACHES
Your name is Kawika Nomis and god is today exciting!

Well it's actually just a normal day, but gog damn it you'll make it exciting! There are milllions of things you have not done yet. You are very interested in doing new things.

Also pertaining to your interests is being UNBELIEVABLY STUPID. It's that that your actually dumb, it's that YOU FIND IT FUN. Your very impulsive, thinking has a tendency to WASTE TIME SPENT NOT THINKING. You pretty much rely heavily on your GAY MOIRAIL to keep you from doing something terrible by accident. Something like ALMOST ANNIHILATING EVERYONE YOU KNOW, though those were complete accidents, and either way THAT ONLY HAPPENED THREE TIMES. Well besides that you enjoy FIGHTING though YOU NEVER TAKE A FIGHT SERIOUSLY. It's ALL IN FUN AFTER ALL. Besides your destructive habits, you also like VEHICLES, particularly FAST ONES. Occasionally you will get into sports.

His strife is unknown. He is a result of FeferiXEridan via ectiobiology.

There are allot of similar children, mainly cause Gamzee accidently wandered in one day and played with the buttons.

Eridan raises him on his own. Surprisingly he is a very good father.


I will do Oberon and Kawika

[Katrika]

Ask away.

[Rimbaum]

Sorry for the colors, I'm just using the ones given for Tarani and Gabriel. Katrika asked me to format and post this, so... I did. Whoo. Enjoy the moirails.

show spoiler

hide spoiler

-- gossamerWeb [GW] started pestering requiemsOverload [RO] --


[GW]: Hey,/Gabe.
[RO]: hey T@r@ni...
[RO]: wh@t's up?
[GW]: The/prank/war/was/a/draw.
[GW]: And/dad/is/getting/really/protective.
[RO]: um...
[RO]: shouldn't you just tell T@vros @bout it?
[RO]: I me@n...
[RO]: he didn't re@lly know @bout the whole thing in the first pl@ce... did he?
[GW]: No.
[GW]: He/didn't.
[RO]: then you ought to tell him
[GW]: I/don't/know...
[GW]: I'm/not/sure/he'd/approve.
[GW]: And/I/don't/want/him/mad/at/Tom/for/hurting/me/accidently.
[RO]: I h@te to s@y it...
[RO]: but...
[RO]: if you won't tell him, I will
[RO]: I don't like s@ying @nything @bout wh@t I c@n see...
[RO]: but sometimes it's for the best...
[GW]: How/is/it/not/my/choice?
[RO]: I think...
[RO]: T@vros will feel better if he he@rs it from you...
[RO]: but if I told him...
[RO]: he'd w@nt to know why I didn't do @nything to stop it
[GW]: It's/not/like/I/was/doing/anything/dangerous!
[GW]: I/can/handle/myself!
[RO]: I know th@t
[RO]: but...
[RO]: he doesn't
[RO]: I wish I knew why
[GW]: Probably/something/else/my/mother/fucked/up.
[GW]: Or/Ferris.
[RO]: prob@bly
[RO]: Vrisk@ @nd Ferris sc@re me
[GW]: ...they/scare/me/too.
[GW]: But/he's/gone/now.
[RO]: T@vros w@s bullied by Vrisk@ when they were kids...
[RO]: if I @m remembering things right
[GW]: She's/been/bugging/me/lately...
[GW]: Hey/Gabe.
[RO]: ye@h?
[GW]: Did/she/ever/do/anything/with/spiders?
[GW]: Is/that/why/dad/won't/let/me/have/any?
[RO]: I don't know
[RO]: I c@n only see things h@ppening right now
[GW]: Nobody's/talked/to/you/about/it?
[RO]: ...
[GW]: They/won't/say/anyhing/to/me.
[RO]: not th@t I c@n remember
[RO]: m@ybe I c@n @sk D@d
[GW]: Alright.
[GW]: I'll/tell/dad,/I/guess.
[RO]: ok@y
[GW]: But/you/have/to/be/there.
[RO]: I'm your moir@il...
[RO]: of course I'll be there, silly
[GW]: Heeheehee.
[GW]: I'll/talk/to/you/later.
[GW]: I/need/to/figure/out/where/Tom/hid/the/cricket/food.
[RO]: ...
[RO]: you c@n @lw@ys @t le@st @sk me where he's setting up the next pr@nk
[RO]: I won't tell you wh@t he's doing...
[GW]: That's/cheating.
[GW]: And/it's/over.
[GW]: Where'd/he/hide/it?
[RO]: behind the lo@d g@per
[GW]: Thanks.
[RO]: w@it
[GW]: They/say/thanks/too.
[GW]: Yeah?
[RO]: not in your pl@ce...
[RO]: he hid it in K@rk@t's b@throom
[GW]: ...uncle/Karkat's?
[RO]: ye@h
[GW]: God/dammit.
[GW]: This/will/be/hard/to/explain.
[RO]: ye@h
[GW]: Maybe/I/should/talk/to/dad/first.
[RO]: let me c@ll K@rk@t...
[RO]: it's Tom, @fter @ll...
[GW]: True.
[RO]: he t@kes @fter John
[GW]: I/don't/remember/much/of/any/of/the/humans.
[GW]: Mom/didn't/let/me/see/them/when/I/was/little.
[GW]: And/they/came/when/Ferris
[RO]: I c@n sometimes see them if I close my eyes
[RO]: they're...
[RO]: connected? I think th@t's right...
[GW]: ...can/you/see/Ferris?
[RO]: ye@h
[RO]: he's just sitting. if he's pl@nning something, though, I c@n't tell wh@t it is
[GW]: I/hope/he/doesn't/ever/get/out.
[RO]: I c@n't s@y...
[RO]: but I h@ve @ b@d feeling...
[RO]: I just c@n't pl@ce wh@t it is
[GW]: If/he/comes/near/me/I'll/kill/him.
[GW]: You/know/I/mean/it.
[RO]: ye@h...
[GW]: And/if/he/comes/near/you/I'll/kill/him.
[GW]: So/don't/worry/
[RO]: @nyw@y, shouldn't I he@d over?
[GW]: Yes.
[GW]: See/you/soon.

-- gossamerWeb [GW] has ceased pestering requiemsOverload [RO] --

Also, Gabe has a Formspring!

[Douhneill]

My gog this was SO MUCH FUN to do. Obvious credits to Katrika for collaborating the entire story.

The prank war of 2037

show spoiler

hide spoiler

Thomas was walking around the New alternian compound, trying to get a grip on the new surroundings. Despite having moved in a week ago, this was his first time truly being able to explore. As he did, he noticed Tarani sitting in the corner, nose buried in a book. Curious, he moved closer. Noticing the young man in the top hat, Tarani shut her book on insects and made eye contact.

"Oh. Sorry to intarrupt."
"...it'ss okay. You're, ah...Thomass?"
"Yes. I think we met at my bathday party last week. Tarani, right?"
"Yess. Oberon'ss mentioned your mother to me."
"Oh? I see. What did he say?
"Sshe knitss." She said with a shrug. "Ssomething about fasshion."
"Yeah. She's the mast fashion-oriented one in the family. She made my tuxedo herslef."
Disinterested, she began to pick out imperfections on her dress. "That'ss nice."
Tom took the opportunity to sit down next to the older troll girl.
"so... who makes your cloths?"
"My brother."
"He's rally good at it."
"Yess, he..."
Tarani stopped, and shot an irritated glare at Thomas.
"Sorry, am I botering you?"
Indignant, Tarani stood up and motioned for Tom to leave.
"Go away."
"Of course." He said while brushing himself off. "Nice to be able to chat again, Tarani."
"Yeah, right. You're teassing me."
"I don't have a cloe what your speaking about."
"..."
"Well, licks like I should go."

Tom tipped his hat and walked away

"Firsst thingss firsst!"
"Eh?"

Tarani whistles, and Tom felt himself getting hit in the back of the head by something he later realized was bird poo.

"Ssee ya."
"See you."

Content at the exchange, Tarani went back to reading her book to find a note within the folds.

I hear you're good at making things happen. How about a contest? Whoever's Prankster's gambit is highest by the end of the week is the winner.
- Thomas

DAY ONE

Tarani snuck into Tom's room in the middle of the night. She rearranged everything except his bed onto the ceiling with liberal use of special superglue, and snuck out again. Tom woke up to find everything in his room suspended from the ceiling.
"heheheh. This is going to be a lot more interesting than I thought."

That evening, the Egberts were invited to the Nitram Hive for dinner. Tom took the opportunity to rummage through their washroom and switched Tarani's shampoo with a bleach. That night, as Tarani took a shower as a part of her evening routine, there was a loud screech.
"D-DAD!"

DAY TWO

Tom woke up early at night for a suprise visit to the Nitram hive. Unfortunately, the outside was not so easy to navigate as he had thought. Eventually, he found Tarani's second-story window and climbed in. This caught the attention of a certain owl, who began hooting loudly at the intruder.

"FERRISS!!!"

Panicking about being caught by an obviously angered Tarani, Tom lept out the window and rolled the landing as his uncle had taught him, spraining his ankle. Painfully picking himself up, he noticed Tarani looking at him through the window.

"...you sscared me. You okay?"
"Yeah... I think..."
"I thought you were... Nevermind."
"Yeah... I'm... gonna... go back home to sleep now..."
"...why not come in?"
"Umm... okay."
"Jusst for a break in the prankss."

She let him into the hive, and took notice of his limping.

"...aw, sshit. Ssit down."
She pulled out a chair, and he politely sat down.
"Thanks."
Tarani hastily searched through the cupboards for a first-aid kit.
"It doesn't feel too bad. Probably just sprained again."
"I ussed to get lotss of ssprained ankless when I lived with mother." she said with a light frown. "You sshould be okay."
"Yeah." He said, thinking of some way to continue the conversation. "I didn't know you had a pet owl."
"Sshe'ss not a pet." She said firmly. "Sshe'ss a friend."
"Oh, sorry. What's her name?"
Tarani answered the question by making a soft, hooting noise.
"I'm gassing you didn't come up with it." He said with a chuckle.
"Sstop it. With the wordss."
It took him a moment to realize what she was talking about.
"Sorry." Understanding why she was getting annoyed, "Far... force of habit."
"Why?"
"You know, I don't remember."
"To make people feel dumb?" There was a hint of frustration in her voice.
"I think it started with mom, actually." he chuckled. "She kept teaching me more and more fancy words and would always get mad if I messed up."
"Did sshe hit you?"
Tom was shocked at the question.
"No. Did..." He paused, looked at her, and looked back at the floor. "N-no. Dad's the disciplinary anyway, stealing all my things."
"Why'd he do that? You ever get him back?"
"Not yet. As mom says: 'he is simply the best there is.' Besides, if he took something, there was usually a reason to it."
"Yeah, my dad'ss pretty reassonable too." she said with a smile. "Hey, who'ss winning?"
"Umm... Well, I'm pretty sure my gambit went down for this, so I'm thinking it's you. Unless changing your hair colour was that much of a deal."
"Well, all trollss have black hair, mosstly, sso everyone will ssee you got me. Mother will probably try to lecture me, too." She looked down. "I wissh sshe'd jusst leave me alone again. Jusst becausse Ferriss got taken in for being a crazy basstard... ah, forget I ssaid that."
"Yeah, okay. I'm gonna need to get home soon, though."
"Yeah, you need to ssleep, right? Dad will be coming home ssoon, too."
"Yeah. Nice talking to you again."
"Next time we meet, the war iss on again."
"Heheheh. Good luck to you."

Later that night, Tarani snuck into Tom's room, and replaced his day clothes with a lovely blue silk dress. Leaving, she trippped over the family cat, whose yowling woke the entire household.
"Sshhhhh! Oh, sshit..."
"Jasmine? What's the matter, gir-"
Tom was sitting on his bed squinting unbelievingly at the troll girl lying next to his cat.
"...It'ss not what it lookss like."
"Uh huh. I'm... I'm just.. gonna go... back to sleep now."
"No, wait!"
"Eh?"
"Help me out here! I fixed your ankle!"
"Alright. Okay. Umm.. Hide in the closet."
As Tarani took refuge in the closet, Tom hastily arranged his things to make it seem like something fell on the cat. By the time John arrived to see what was going on, Tom had Jasmine in his arms, doing his absolute best to calm the irritated animal.
"What's wrong with Jasmine?"
"My things fell off the dresser and one of them must have hit her while she was sleeping."
Once Jasmine calmed down, Tom put her back on the ground. John yawned and began to close the door.
"Well, goodnight, then."
"Night, dad."
"Say, how's the prank thing going?"
"Day 2 isn't going too well, actually. I didn't know she had an owl in her room."
"Heh. Good luck."
John left and clicked the door shut. Tarani peeked out of the closet, tiptoed closer, and whispered to Tom.
"You assked your DAD for help?"
"Not help so much as permission. I'm not usually allowed outside at night."
"Oh. Well, tomorrow will go better. I'd better go."
"Yeah."

DAY THREE
Tom's alarm went off. He sleepily hit the snooze button, reached for his glass, missed, reached again, grabbed it, and proceeded to take his morning medication, only to find his glass of water has been replaced with a glass of clear gelatin.

Tarani woke up in the evening and slipped on her slippers, before trying to walk over to her loom. Her slippers happened to have been tied to her bed, and she fell flat on her face and got a black eye.

DAY FOUR
Tom recieved a message on his pesterchum account. He opened the message, wondering who could be pestering him at this hour. The message opened a link to a certain music video.

You're no stranger to love. You know the rules, and so do I!

He got another message:
GW: Vintage prank.

Tarani, meanwhile, was opening up a jar of food for her crickets, and was promptly spring-snaked in the face, causing a SECOND black eye.

DAY FIVE
Tom was stupefied to discover a stand of flamingos in his room, and almost equally as beaten up trying to get them out of the house.

Tarani stepped out of her shower, putting on her bathrobe and drying her now amber-blonde hair. Leaving the bathroom caused a bucket full of sand to fall on her, ruining the whole thing, and causing her to have to start over.

DAY SIX
Today was Tom's first day in his new school. When he got back, he found himself a witness to a group of mice in tutus preforming swan lake with Jasmine in the role of Odile.

Tarani opens the door to her room to hear a song she had never heard before.

Tonight, I'm gonna have myseeeeeelf a real good time...

She never found the mechanism that started the music whenever she would open her door.

DAY SEVEN
Tom was beginning to get nervous. It was almost the end of the day and there was still no action from either side, and the calm was getting to him. When Rose said she needed ingredients for dinner, he took up the opportunity to go, thinking a walk outside might calm him down. Unfortunately, it didn't. Not paying attention to his surroundings, he bumped into Tarani, and the two immediately jumped back about three feet.
"ACK!"
"AUGH!"
"Oh, it's you."
Noticing that their challengers were right in front of them, the two young teens sat down on a bench nearby. Neither of them were looking in particularly good shape from the results of each others' pranks.
"You look like you got hit by a train."
"Jusst your prankss."
"Yeah, sorry about that."
"Dad'ss getting really protective now."
"I'd sure be."
There was a long pause in conversation as the two pranksters sat next to each other. Eventually, Tom decided to try to break the silence.
"So, uh, what'd you think of my pranks so far?"
"Really good. I dunno how you ssnuck in and got all that sstuff done. Did you bribe them?"
"Bribe who?"
"My friendss."
"Not.. not exactly."
Tarani gave a confused look at Tom.
"What'd you do?"
"Well, you follow a really neat schedule, so it was easy to do stuff when you weren't around and they couldn't alarm you."
"Oh. Uh, you... Might not wanna let dad know we were in a prank war."
"yeah."
There was another long pause.
"Uh..."
"...yeah?"
"You don't... uh..."
"...what?"
"You don't... have a day 7 prank today, do you?"
"...no. That wass my prank."
"Me too."
"Gabe ssaid the abssence of ssomething can be the sscariesst thing."
John smiled, and looked upward, exhaling a sigh of relief.
"...sso who won?"
"How about we call this a draw, and go from there?"
"Okay. Sso what now?"
"I dunno. Uh..."
"Yeah?"
"Well, uh, would... would you... wanna hang out sometime?"
Tarani let out a wide grin.
"SSure. There'ss not really many of uss closser to your age, iss there?"
Embarrassed, Tom looked at his feet.
"N-not really."
"Well, we can hang out. There'ss ssome really nice placess around here. I'll messssage you later."
"Kay."
The two teens stood up from the bench and started their separate ways.
"Well, I gotta go pick up some stuff for dinner. See you!"
"Bye!"

A/N

show spoiler

hide spoiler

I'm thinking of adding colour tags to let us know who the speakers are, like with the rest of the fics I write. Maybe later though. It's two in the morning right now and I'd like to sleep.

[Kawa]

I like it. There's just two things that irk me:
1) as described back on page 2, there is no "Nitram Hive". Rather, there is Hivestem Delta. On the other hand, this would invalidate "Spider", so let's just say Tavros moved out to his own house at Nitram Organics some time before Tarani was born. The Googlemaps would have to reflect this.
2) The Egberts living in New Alternia, considering the Trolls are nocturnal.

Both are not that big a problem, all things considered.

And yes, I can totally make Googlemaps and am considering remaking the LOWAS map for practice.

[kmsumrall]

Just wanted to add my two cents regarding ages and time.
I imagined Ferris at being one year younger than Shula, and 'Population: Ferris' happening around the time Ferris turns 17.
Thinking about that, it would be interesting to see how the other trolls would smooth over Ferris's whole insurrection and killing humans thing.

[Kawa]

Here's another two cents: I intended Blaise to be at least a 2nd gen troll.

[Douhneill]

Augh. I'm still trying to figure out who's who for the first group. Just gonna repost the list I have so far so we can finish this up.

Year 0 - Shula, Dylan, Felix
Year 1 - Ferris, Carmen
Year 2 - Carter, Parker, Gabriel
Year 3 - Tarani, Oberon
Year 4 -
Year 5 - Thomas.

Gen 2 - Blaise

This leaves Gamzee II, Sirius, Squirrel, Miracle, Elisha, Desinova, and Felicia that I have no clue about.

[Kawa]

Personally, I'd put Squirrel, Gam2 and Elisha in Gen 1.

Here, have a future president.

Notice anything special aside from his tallness attribute?

btw: U+2042 - ⁂ (Asterism)

[Douhneill]

His glasses are peculiarly Nanna/Hass...

[Kawa]

Nope, that's not it.

[Douhneill]

Well, there's the Peixes horns, but I didn't think that was it either.

[Kawa]

Considering he's Ryan Andrew Peixes, the horns are a given.

[Douhneill]

Considering he's Ryan Andrew Peixes, the horns are a given.

As I said, I didn't think that was peculiar. It was identifying, but not peculiar.
I'm out of ideas. Unless it has something to do with his symbol or hairstyle (which don't ring any bells to me), I'm not sure what to look at in the first place.
Anyway, I'm gonna go look for work. Back in a few hours.

*edit* on an unrelated note, I really like his tie.

[Kawa]

It's his skin tone. He's a brighter gray than the other trolls so far, probably due to genetic mixing over the generations. Note how the human characters are depicted with white skin, making "lighter gray" the logical choice of color.

[Nexev]

Personally, I'd put Squirrel, Gam2 and Elisha in Gen 1.

Here, have a future president.

Notice anything special aside from his tallness attribute?

btw: U+2042 - ⁂ (Asterism)

He's a landweller.

O:

Edit: HA! SO HE IS X-GEN! Sweet.

I can just imagine how the prank war reached it's truce.

Tarani got Oberon to sleep in Tom's bed in the middle of the night, then when Tom wakes up Oberon pretends they did it.

Instant hillariouty.

[Kawa]

OFCOURSE he's X-gen! He's the 64th POTUS for gog's sake!

Also, he's a landdweller because of jade blood.

show spoiler

hide spoiler

His middle name is Andrew. Think hard about that and his blood color.

[Nexev]

...Andrew hussie?

Dear gog.

Anyway I am going to make a crack gen. This is pretty much ectiobiology gone wrong and a damn good example why Gamzee shouldn't be allowed near the lab.

I am unsure of how many possible trolls will wind up from this, haven't chosen a number.

Hybrid trolls are also possible, since these are ectiobiolobabies. These won't probably have the troll jegus complex however and just be weirdos.

I will need to plan more.

[Kawa]

I'd seriously prefer to limit the number of ectobiolobabies for reasons outlined in the original Population 12. As for the possibility of troll/human hybrids... well, that depends on how Ferris came to be.

[Nexev]

I am not going to make allot of them rest assured. Plus since they would be two random trolls mixed it's pretty much the same addition to the gene pool as normal, unless they are pure clones.

I think atleast.

Main reason for this is that the number of potential mates is limited when you have to go for romantic reasons and such.

Eridan for example, would be completly kicked out of the gene pool since no one seems to like him.

Equius's strength also dooms him to be alone.

Since Karkat was only willing to do other trolls pretty much once he is kinda exed out of the genepool now except with Tezeri.

And so on, and so forth.

Thus the list shrinks down allot.

On the other hand if the cause for birth was that Gamzee pushed allot of buttons on a machine, freak crack babies can abound.

Infinite possibilities.

But I'll try to refraim from Ectobiolobabies.

So I need to go get more dice.

Meanwhile assume that rather then being a extiobiolobaby, Kawika just came to being from pitysex.

He is still raised almost exclusively by Eridan.

I sortof have a headcanon that Eridan would be THE single parent stereotype.

[Douhneill]

I really like the idea. Just make sure to state what year they're "born" so I can keep the chart up-to-date.

Also:

Keep being awesome and creating amazing offspring.

That statement, when taken out of context, could be SO awkward.

[Katrika]

Asfor the things Kawa brought up about the prank war, I envisioned Tavros making his own hive, yeah. Also, me and Douhneill decided that either the Egberts were staying on the compound for a month or so in the summer or they moved to the nearby town.

Also, Tom didn't realize they were nocturnal, and Tarani's sleep schedule is iffy, what with Tavros being up during the day and possibly Gabe being up at day, too.

[Kawa]

Katrika, those are some excellent points.

A work in progress Googlemap of the colony. Right now, the colony itself is missing from view until I shop it into the tileset but whatever. Yes, the "nearby town" is Beatty. Personally, I'd expect the Egberts to stay at the compound but maybe that's just me.

[Douhneill]

Well, the fic assumed the Egberts were in the compound, so I'm gonna go on ahead and say that's how it is.

I'm also considering the possibility that Tom has a younger sister. Is this a good idea? (Y/N)