You Are a Witch

[draconicAlgorithm]

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Attempting a text adventure once again. I have a lot of ideas for this, so it should be interesting. Hopefully.

> You are a witch.

Your name is Karkat Vantas, and you have just come to the realization that you are a witch. Also, you are kind of flipping the fuck out over it.

Just a few moments ago, you were minding your own business and practicing with your sickles in your respite block when your hand slipped and you managed to cut yourself. You raged a bit after that, of course, because it meant that you would either have to contain yourself in your hive for the next week or very carefully cover the healing wound in a way that would not be immediately conspicuous. After all, you had mutant candy red blood. If anyone saw it, you'd be culled.

After raging, you came to your senses and realized you should probably do something about the wound itself. When you went to look at it again, however, it was gone. Blood still smeared the skin where it had been, but there was no trace of the wound itself. It had simply vanished. Almost like… well, magic.

That gave you a sinking feeling. Just to make sure, you pulled down your sleeve and gave yourself a second shallow cut in a place where your shirt would cover it. To your horror, almost as soon as you removed the blade, the gray skin knitted itself back together. It looked as though you had never been cut in the first place.

It was this development that lead to your realization. Witches were the general term used for trolls who exhibited strange and unnatural powers that they often could not control. The problem with this was that witches were even more abhorred by the general populace than mutants. They were considered to be evil and despicable, mostly due to imperial propaganda that was spread throughout Alternia, which you happened to know was a bunch of musclebeast shit before you ever became a witch. However, any troll convicted of being a witch was burned at the stake.

That is why you are currently flipping the fuck out. It is one thing to just have mutant blood, but being burned is worse than being culled. A culling is usually quick, but a burning is much more painful. You know this from experience. When you were much younger and the burnings were still held publicly, you happened to see one. It has since haunted your memory and left you with an extreme fear of ever becoming a witch. A fear which had, until quite recently, been left unrealized.

Now, though, you are finally starting to calm down and think a little more rationally about things. You know you're a witch, but you also know that there are ways you can hide your, well, witchy-ness. So now that you know, what will you do?

[noxious]

>Well don't get injured obviously. What else is there to do about it? Sucks to be you I gueeeeeeeess!

[medmedina007]

>Fight magical girls
>Talk to some no good dame about this.

[draconicAlgorithm]

> Don't get injured.

Well, that's a pretty obvious thing to do. You've tried to avoid that to begin with, what with the fact that you have mutant blood and all. Really, though, that seems to be the worst of your problems. Witches rarely have more than one power (you've heard this from a very reliable source), so if this is the extent of it, you guess it won't be that hard to live with. At least your power is a lot better than those poor saps that blow stuff up or set things on fire without realizing it.

What bothers you more is just the anxiety. You almost wish there was someone you could tell about this, so that you could get it off your chest.

> Fight magical girls.

Okay, this is the stupidest fucking idea you have ever heard. Wouldn't magical girls be witches too? And why would you want to fight a bunch of other witches? You would all just bring unnecessary attention to yourselves and probably get burned for the trouble.

Really, try to think of something better to do. Fuck your past self and his stupid, nonsensical ideas.

> Talk to some no good dame about this.

You don't know any girls that you would honestly want to talk to about this. With Terezi's fucked up sense of justice, she'd probably want to come start a bonfire for you in your own hive as soon as she found out. And sure, Kanaya's pretty cool, but you've never talked to her about witches before. You have no idea whether she believes in the Empress's propaganda or not, and you sure as fuck don't want to risk it just to have someone to talk to about it. The only other girl you can think of is Nepeta, and you don't want to bring it up with her, either. You're pretty sure she has a stupid little crush on you, and, well, everyone knows that her old moirail was a witch who turned himself in. While she would likely not tell anyone about you, you're afraid the information might make her cry. And you sure as hell don't feel like dealing with a bawling autistic girl right now.

There is someone else you can talk to, though. Someone you know will understand your fear and anxiety and never turn you in. After all, he's a witch too.

So, should you or shouldn't you troll Sollux?

[draconicAlgorithm]

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Well, since it's pretty obvious that no one is going to offer up any commands, I'll just go on with this and hope someone does after this update.

> Just fucking troll him already.

When the voices in your head that you do not even realize are there fail to give you any good reason to or not to troll Sollux, you decide to do it anyway. After all, he's the only one who will understand your predicament.

If he's not being a total asshole, anyway, which is actually pretty unlikely.

When you sit at your desk with your husktop and bring up Trollian, you notice that he is in fact online.

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-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling twinArmaggedons [TA] --

CG: IS THIS CHAT ENCRYPTED?
TA: KK when are my chat2 NOT encrypted?
CG: SHUT UP, IT WOULD BE JUST LIKE YOU TO HAVE ONE OF YOUR FUCKING BIPOLAR MOMENTS AND DECIDE TO TURN OFF WHATEVER KEEPS THESE FROM BEING READ.
TA: ii'm glad you thiink ii'm fuckiing p2ycho. thank2 KK.
CG: PSYCHO IS A FUCKING UNDERSTATEMENT.
CG: BUT SERIOUSLY, I HAVE SOMETHING REALLY HUGE THAT I NEED TO GET OFF MY CHEST.
TA: ii 2wear iif you are ju2t goiing two tell me about your new hate cru2h ii am goiing to change my trollhandle and never 2peak to you again.
CG: I ONLY DID THAT ONCE, SO SHUT UP FUCKASS.
TA: twiice.
CG: … OKAY MAYBE TWICE.
CG: BUT THIS SHIT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN A HATE CRUSH.
TA: ii wa2 not aware that anythiing wa2 more iimportant than a hate cru2h two you.
CG: WELL THERE IS.
CG: I THINK I MIGHT BE A WITCH.
TA: oh, ii'm 2orry, ii wa2n't aware that the 2iituatiion wa2 2o diire.
TA: beiing a wiitch ii2 2o horriible, ii'd probably kiill my2elf iif ii wa2 iin your 2hoe2.
TA: oh waiit
CG: YOU ARE SUCH A FUCKING ASSHOLE TODAY.
CG: FINE. I'M DONE TALKING. JUST LAUGH TO YOURSELF WHILE I GO CONFESS TO THE NEAREST INQUICINERATOR AND SEAL MY OWN FATE.
CG: BETTER TO DIE IN A FIRE THAN PUT UP WITH YOUR SARCASTIC REMARKS.
TA: fuck KK you know ii'm kiiddiing wiith you.
TA: 2top beiing 2uch a drama queen.
CG: I AM NOT A FUCKING DRAMA QUEEN, I HAVE JUST FINISHED FLIPPING THE FUCK OUT OVER THIS AND I'M A LITTLE EMOTIONAL.
TA: alriight fiine, no more joke2.
TA: 2o what'2 your power anyway?
TA: the way you're actiing, iit mu2t be 2omethiing iincriimiinatiing.
CG: WELL. WHEN I CUT MYSELF, IT HEALED IMMEDIATELY.
TA: 2o you've got healiing power2?
CG: SOMETHING LIKE THAT.
TA: KK you fuckiing iidiiot that ii2 pretty much the be2t wiitch power ii've ever heard of.
TA: di2creet and really helpful.
CG: REALLY?
TA: ye2 really. better than blowiing 2hiit up or 2omethiing.
TA: you'll probably never get caught, a2 long a2 you don't tell the wrong per2on.
CG: OH. UH, THANKS. THAT MAKES ME FEEL A LOT LESS FREAKED OUT.
TA: wow, you're actually thankiing me? you really mu2t have been 2cared out of your thiink pan.
CG: YEAH SHUT UP, IT'S A FUCKING SCARY REVELATION.
TA: not really.
CG: FUCK YOU. IT WAS FOR ME.
TA: becau2e you're a drama queen.
TA: okay before you 2tart cu22iing me out or whatever
TA: ii have a que2tiion for you.
CG: THEN FUCKING ASK IT ALREADY.
TA: iif ii were to a2k you, could you lead a group 2omewhere?
CG: WHAT, IN ONE OF YOUR GAMES OR SOMETHING?
TA: uh, yeah. kiinda liike that.
CG: I GUESS? I MEAN I'M A FUCKING HORRIBLE LEADER. I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU'D ASK ME.
TA: you're not horriible. ju2t unte2ted.
TA: anyway ii have to get goiing, ii'm waiitiing for 2omeone to get back to me.
TA: later KK.
CG: WAIT, WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU TALKING ABOUT? WHAT GAME?

-- twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG] --

That fucking asshole! Who the hell drops something like that on someone and then leaves? You attempt to start another conversation with him, but it's too late. He's already logged off. Cursing, you push yourself away from your husktop.

Sollux has never asked you to play one of his games before. You usually don't play games, not like he does, but it has never particularly bothered you that he never even asked. It was his thing. He usually stuck to one-player games, anyway. At least, that's what you thought.

And now he was asking you to play one in the future, to lead a group in one? Without even telling you what it is? You grit your teeth in frustration.

When you were younger, you used to think you were a born leader. It was in your mutant-colored blood. Someday you would lead thousands into battle, battles you would win. You would be unstoppable.

But now that you're older, you've lost that fervor. Your own self-loathing, which has groan exponentially over the seven solar sweeps you've been alive, has all but beaten that dream out of you. You're useless. A nobody. You'll be the first culled when your age group gets drafted into the work force because everyone knows they match your job to your blood color. You'll have to reveal it, and when you do, you'll be finished. So much for being a great leader.

Better than being burned as a witch.

Fuck this. You are tired of depressing thoughts and agonizing over the future. You need to do something to get your think pan off of all this shit right now. There's plenty to do in this hive. You just need to think of it.

[AceOfSpades]

>Experiment to see if there is a limit to how much the power can heal you.

[SkyKat]

Exposit on how those "powers" will hide your blood color.

[draconicAlgorithm]

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Oh my gosh, I didn't think anyone would ever submit more suggestions for this! Thanks. I'll be happy to continue.

> Exposit on how those "powers" will hide your blood color.

That's pretty obvious. If your witch powers heal your wounds, you don't have to hide them. Clean up any leftover blood and you're good to go. Really, it means you're better off than you were before, as long as you don't get in a fight in public. Or a physical one, at least.

In retrospect, you're pretty sure the only reason that your past self freaked out was because of that burning you saw when you were younger. Once you knew you were a witch, it was all you could think of. It's still seared into your mind—the fear on the yellowblood's face, the screaming, the smell of burnt flesh and hair. The thought makes you shiver.

Although now, you sort of wonder if being burned would even kill you.

> Experiment to see if there is a limit to how much the power can heal you.

You get an idea. You go downstairs and grab the box of flint-based firestarting sticks and take them back up to your respite block, thankfully without alerting your lusus. Dealing with him is the last thing you need right now.

Once back in your block, you sit down and take one of the sticks out of the box. You hesitate only for a moment to wonder how stupid your future self is going to think this is in a few minutes before striking the stick. It ignites in a fwoosh, and you stare at the flame for a moment before lifting your other hand and sticking your index finger in the center.

You bite off a cry of pain and hold your finger there for what feels like an eternity before the stick is burnt down and the flame is threatening to burn the fingers of your other hand. You blow out the flame and survey the damage.

Your gray skin is almost pink where the burn is, and even the open air against the still-hot wound burns like a bitch. The longer you stare at it, though, the more the pain lessens. To your astonishment, so does the pinkness. Soon, both are gone, and nothing remains of your experiment but a silvery scar. So, you can heal burns as well as cuts.

You're still curious. What is the extent of what you can heal from? Can you heal a fatal wound? You don't think you have the guts to try that, not when you don't have a guarantee that it will work. You can heal burns, but would that save you if you are burned at the stake? You can always attempt to fake your death, but as that little test has shown, it would still hurt. You aren't sure if you are quite desperate enough to go through that much pain.

And can you heal others? Or are your powers limited to yourself? You don't know. You aren't sure how well you can control them, anyway.

Before you can give more thought to the idea, though, the narrative quite suddenly switches perspectives. Who to?

[Kíeros]

> the fuckiing a22hole.

[draconicAlgorithm]

> Be the fuckiing a22hole.

You are now Sollux Captor, and you are waiting for someone to contact you. Oh, and you're a witch, but that's not a big deal. You've been one for about as long as you can remember, so it's nothing to flip the fuck out about.

You are currently coding a virus, one you'll likely delete as soon as you finish it. There's something relaxing about coding, which is why you do it whenever you're feeling particularly stressed. Like now.

Unfortunately, even coding is not helping your stress. This conversation you are about to have is going to be the result of months of careful planning, and if anything goes wrong, you're not sure what you're going to do. Then again, if something goes wrong, you might not have to debate about what you're going to do, because you might be dead.

Yeah, you really need to find something to distract your mind for awhile.

So how about it, voices? Any ideas?

[Xindaris]

>Play Rocktroll 3.

(I'm referencing this)

[Kíeros]

> Take a nice, relaxing walk.

[draconicAlgorithm]

> Play Rocktroll 3.

Rocktroll 3? Never heard of it. You Troogle it and find out that it's a video game. Oh. Well, that was pretty obvious. You download it and start playing.

It's not as bad as you were expecting. The plot and difficulty leaves a lot to be desired, but the gameplay and graphics are nostalgic. You waste nearly an hour on this before you finally, FINALLY, get an alert that someone is contacting you on Trollian.

Unfortunately, it's KK. Who, by the way, was NOT who you were waiting for to contact you.

You proceed to have a conversation we've already seen.

You admit that you were probably a little short with him. But he was being an idiot anyway. Now that you think about it, though, him being a witch actually makes things a little easier. That was why you finally started talking to him about your plan. Without actually telling him what was going on.

The fewer people that know until it gets set into motion, the better.

> Take a nice, relaxing walk.

You… guess that might help. Not that there's a whole lot of space to take a walk in multi-dwelling hive like yours, but you could at least go up to the roof and feed your lusus.

You grab some of the mind honey you cultivate just for this purpose and head to the roof.

As you wait for your idiot of a lusus to finish, you stare at the sky. Living in a city like you do has some definite disadvantages, like the fact that the only things you can see in the sky, even on a clear night, are the two moons. No stars, no constellations, just a ceiling of blackness with light at its edges.

You kind of like stars. Aradia used to send you pictures of them from her hive out in the middle of nowhere. Before the whole thing with Vriska.

You push that thought to the back of your mind before you dwell on it too much. You have to stay focused and not let your duplicity and your inability to commit to fuck everything up. You're so close to finally fixing everything. For her and yourself.

The wind picks up, and with it comes a sense of relief. Everything is about to change, maybe even for the better. At least, you hope it is.