#and then what if she and kanaya furiously made out over his dead body
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obscenicon · 3 months ago
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THE GOOD END....
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riverboundao3ff · 4 years ago
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Riverbound, Chapter 1
Your name is MSPA READER, and you are currently vibing outside of the known multiverse.
Well, you don’t really use that name anymore, on account of it not actually being a name. Names sound something like Emily, or Muhammad, or Patrick, or Shamita, or a million other put-together syllables and sounds.
Names are something personal. A title is anything but.
You do have a new title, though, one you like much better.
The Guardian.
Because that’s what you became when you yoinked the timeline away from the control of Ultimate Dirk and that Director lady, whoever she was. You looked Canon-With-A-Capital-C in its ugly face, spit on it, and then bent over to wipe your ass with the fabric of reality itself. Out of desperation, love, and most importantly sheer spite, you took it upon yourself to defy fate so that there is at least one timeline where everybody gets to live happy lives. This was victory at its finest. This is what it felt like to finally get everything you wanted. Your friends? Safe. Multiverse? Secure. Hotel? Trivago.
In the vast and rich history of pro-gamer moves, you believe you might have made the most powerful move of all.
After using the Green Sun- no, sorry, the Green Sun to make your own timeline, you did what any other person would do and took a big fuckin’ snooze, curling up around your universe like a mama cat protecting her kittens. You earned it.
And, if you were being completely honest with yourself, that’s how you would have spent the rest of time.
It’s not like you didn’t want to live. No, living was good. It’s just… you were so damn tired. You’re tired of always running from place to place, person to person, era to era. You’re tired of being injured, scared, and alone no matter how many friends you made. All the gods of the Furthest Rings know you’d gone through more in like a year than most people go through during their entire lives. Couldn’t a bitch just enjoy eternity in the void?
Apparently not.
The dreams began innocently enough. Playing video games with Dave, John, and Karkat. Exploring Jade’s island with Jake and Bec. Baking with Jane. Kanaya teaching you and Sollux how to sew. FLARP-ing with Vriska.
Laying side-by-side with Roxy as you two watched the sun rise. Role-playing with Nepeta. Movie night with Eridan. Getting high off your ass with Gamzee and scaring the shit out of some teal visiting their kismesis a few hives away. Discussing politics with Feferi.
Escaping that hellhouse the Soleil twins called their home. Watching those eerie lights in the corpsefield beside Fozzer. You and Remele beating a purpleblood to death.
You barely realize how nightmares had invaded your mind until you woke up with Karako’s yowls of terror in your ears. You didn’t have ears anymore, though, or a physical form, so it just sounded like your favorite clown son was screaming all around you in the abyss.
Okay. This was fine. This was fine, you kept telling yourself. After everything that’s happened to you, you were bound to develop PTSD at some point. That was completely natural.
Except this wasn’t just PTSD. This was something else entirely, because even when you were awake you saw the faces of your oldest friends burning in your mind’s eye. Something churned in your gut, ancient and primal. It was a feeling you knew well, and was usually accompanied by you launching yourself into whatever stupid shit you found next. The longer you tried to ignore it, the stronger it became, until you were permanently wrapped up around yourself like the most pathetic ball of Guardian that had to have ever existed.
You knew long before you actually put words to what was going on.
Of course. Of course it wasn’t over, because why would you ever get to have anything for yourself? Why would you ever get to just rest? For the first time in… who even knows how long, you sob hysterically into the sleeves of your hoodie.
A galaxy twinkles in the outer shell of your universe, lighting up the zig-zag sign on your chest. Mallek’s lazy smile fills your thoughts. If at all possible, everything hurts even more, until you can’t even cry to let out the pain.
Did he miss you? Did all of them miss you?
Oh, God, Daraya. You promised her you’d take her to Earth sometime, and then you just totally fucking vanished from the face of Alternia. What a fucking dick move. Granted, you hadn’t meant to do it, but still!
Your traitor-asshole brain reminds you of the fact that all of them are dead now. As in, Tyzias tried to lead a rebellion against the Alternian Empire, and then they all got killed. Your traitor-asshole brain also notes that it’s all your fault for encouraging those kinds of ideas.
Way to go, you absolute tool.
Except… they don’t have to be gone. You are the Guardian of your universe, and you make the rules. It feels so wrong to even think about it, but… yeah. You’re basically a god now. You can do what you want and nobody has the power to stop you.
Which brings about a whole new plethora of fuckery. If you were to go back, if you were to rewrite history… are you any better than Ultimate Dirk? Granted, you’d do it out of love, not because you’re a power-hungry bastard, but still. Shenanigans of this level are not to be taken lightly, even by sad Guardians with absolutely nothing better to do.
You sleep on it, which of course results in you waking up bawling like a baby as you remember the best roleplay sesh of your life, which was when Wanshi proudly gave your Soldier Purrbeasts OC her full name: Twinklemoon. You had a Soldier Purrbeasts OC named Twinklemoon. That’s why you were crying.
That’s it. You couldn’t stand it anymore.
You need advice, and you know exactly where to get it.
<>
You find her on the 8rigantine, furiously scribbling something down on a chart with a bunch of little figurines in the middle of it. You know better than to just haul your little friendslut ass up there while Vriska Serket is in the zone, so instead you knock on the hull and call up to her.
“Hello! Lady Spinneret, an old friend is in dire need of some advice!”
It takes about two seconds for a familiar spiky head to poke over the side of the deck. Vriska’s one dark eye lights up upon meeting your gaze, followed by a toothy grin that’s both menacing and completely genuine. She reaches back to grab something behind her. A rope ladder drops down and nearly nails you in the noggin, just like it did whenever you dropped by to FLARP with her.
“What the hell, bitch! I missed you!” she yells. Despite everything, you can’t help but smile. Vriska’s wild personality and no-bullshit attitude was just what you needed.
You’re very proud of yourself when you scale the ladder with ease and scramble up onto the deck without getting too much out of breath. With the amount of insane shit you’ve gotten yourself into during your travels, getting into shape came pretty easily. You’ve been told by several reliable sources that your legs are to die for.
“The 8-ball foretold your arrival. I brought snacks.” Vriska points to a bag next to her chart, not looking up from where she was drawing an impressively detailed kraken-looking thing. “Eat something before you start gabbing.”
That was sound logic, so you drag the back closer to you and start rooting around for something good. You find a bag of stinkroot chips, open that bad boy up, and start munching. Damn, did it feel good to eat something, and to also have a corporeal body to eat things with.
As you gather your thoughts, the hairs on the back of your neck prickle with the sensation of somebody’s eyes on you. You instantly look up to see Vriska staring at you. Her expression is blank, but her good eye held all the energy of a thunderstorm.
You swallow your chips. “What is it?”
“You look… different,” she says, setting down her pencil. “It’s like I can really see you now.”
“Huh?”
Vriska huffs, but she still doesn’t take her eye off you. “Before, you kinda looked like… I dunno, like somebody cut out a whole in reality and shoved the silhouette of a person inside? Like, I know what you looked like, but I couldn’t tell you the color of your hair, or what facial structure you have, or, like… dude, you have freckles.”
“I have freckles?” You reach up and touch your cheekbone, feeling the soft skin. Oh, hey, there’s some acne. Dammit. “Are they cute?”
“Sure? I think freckles are more of a human thing, so you’d have to ask John or Jade or whatever. Also you’re blonde, like Rose,” she tells you, thoughtfully scratching at her chin. “You’re still short as fuck, though. I could probably punt you off the poop deck.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Congrats on not looking like a hole in reality.”
You finish off your chips and flop back to stare at the night sky. With all the time you’ve spent on Alternia, you can now name a lot of the constellations. Right now, the Empress’s Trident poked up at a forty-five degree angle behind the pink moon. “I think I know how we can overthrow the Alternian Empire.”
Vriska’s pencil falls out of her hand.
You continue. “Have you read any records on a rebellion that occurred about… like, fifteen sweeps ago? I don’t know the exact date.”
Vriska’s mouth opens and closes a couple of times, and then she nods. “I sure fuckin’ did. Sollux did some of his mumbo-jumbo and got me some documents. He called it an early wriggling day present, but I know he wants to help my little… agenda. How do you even know…?”
“Because I helped encourage the right people to do it. I was there, Vriska. Those kids were my friends, and now they’re dead.”
She’s silent for a moment. “The leader was a teal named Tyzias.”
Your eyes are hot with tears. “I knew her. We met because she tripped on the sidewalk while carrying a shitload of her homework, and I helped her pick it all up when it went everywhere. She had a matesprit named-”
“Stelsa,” Vriska mutters. “Holy shit. She worked closely with some jades who lead their little army. They caused a hell of a lot of damage to the Empire before it all went down, I’ll give them that.”
Neither of you speak for a long moment, which you appreciate as you try and hold your messy self together. The longer you think about your old friends and all the good times you had with them, the more you’re certain about what you want to do.
They deserve to be here.
Your blood pressure spikes just thinking about it.
It’s Vriska who puts your thoughts into words. “You want to go back and help them win the rebellion.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s fucking crazy.”
“Yeah.”
She scooches over to you so she can stare down into your soul. “If we combine our resources and collaborate back and forth between the past and the future, we can make it so less people die. We could even take out that pathetic bitch of an Heiress they had back in the day. With your powers…”
“It’s possible I could compact time itself to create a world where we… where we can make things right. We could even help Feferi…”
You can’t bring yourself to say it in case you jinxed something, but by the look on Vriska’s face, she knows what you mean.
“It could work,” she breathes.
Slowly, you sit back up. Your heart was pounding so hard you felt it in your skull. “How do you think the others would feel about it?”
“Oh, they’d shit themselves,” Vriska snorts. “A full-scale rebellion across time and space?”
“True.”
“But it could work!” she repeats, staring into empty space.
“And they’d have a huge advantage they never had before. Me,” you say, talking to yourself more than to Vriska. You’d created this universe with your own power. It was time to protect it. “Vriska, I need to go before I chicken out. Tell the others what’s happening and that I’m sorry if this all goes to shit.”
“Wait!”
You look back at her as she grabs your arm, claws digging into the fabric of your hoodie. “I… you need supplies. No frickin’ way you’re going anywhere without at least a hydration flask.”
You know what she’s trying to say, and your chest fills up with all the warmth of a bonfire. God, you love this absolute bitch of a kid.
Vriska drags you to your feet, and then you’re both sprinting for her hive.
Amazingly, you don’t die trying to keep up with the cerulean as you charge up the stairs to her respiteblock together. You’re still out of breath by the time you reach the top, though, but Vriska’s already grabbing a backpack and tossing shit into it.
“Get me that jacket off the door,” she orders as she tosses in what looks like a small medical kit. You obey and throw her the jacket, the black leather one with the bright red hood.
She then waves you over, and you slip around her desk to see what’s up. In her hands is a black sheath, with a matching handle sticking out at the top.
Vriska pulls the sheath off to reveal the blade: a brilliant silver-blue metal that nearly glowed in the darkness. It’s incredibly beautiful and very scary to look at.
“I’ve had this thing forever, so I’m giving it to you, okay? Don’t fucking lose it. Press that little gray button at the top of the handle to heat up the blade. Good for starting fires and cauterizing wounds.” She shoves the jacket into the backpack and hands you the dagger.
“Vriska, I don’t know what to say,” you begin, but she smacks you.
“Shut up and strap it to your belt. You better come back soon. I want a detailed report on everything. Single-spaced,” she snaps.
You grin. “Yes, ma’am. I should be back, in like, ten nights. Maybe eleven.”
“Ten,” Vriska growls. “I’m coming for your ass otherwise.”
“Noted. Tell everybody I said hi.”
“Obviously.”
You reach into that little part of yourself, which in turn reaches back out into that chaotic river that is the flow of time. You throw the anchor down and wade upstream. It’s a little rougher than usual, but you won’t let that stop you. There was no turning back now.
Time travel is always like trying to hit a moving target, but you have great aim, and when you find what you’re looking for you feel your face split into another huge smile. There’s nothing different about this part of the river than any other, but you know. When it comes to the people you care about, you always know.
Everything feels more real to you than it has in years. Two moons shine even brighter in the sky, the chilly air stinging your face, and you’re no troll but it still feels like you’re going home.
You open your eyes.
“Ten nights,” you say to Vriska, and you let yourself fall through the current.
Your name is MSPA READER, and you are currently vibing outside of the known multiverse.
Well, you don’t really use that name anymore, on account of it not actually being a name. Names sound something like Emily, or Muhammad, or Patrick, or Shamita, or a million other put-together syllables and sounds.
Names are something personal. A title is anything but.
You do have a new title, though, one you like much better.
The Guardian.
Because that’s what you became when you yoinked the timeline away from the control of Ultimate Dirk and that Director lady, whoever she was. You looked Canon-With-A-Capital-C in its ugly face, spit on it, and then bent over to wipe your ass with the fabric of reality itself. Out of desperation, love, and most importantly sheer spite, you took it upon yourself to defy fate so that there is at least one timeline where everybody gets to live happy lives. This was victory at its finest. This is what it felt like to finally get everything you wanted. Your friends? Safe. Multiverse? Secure. Hotel? Trivago.
In the vast and rich history of pro-gamer moves, you believe you might have made the most powerful move of all.
After using the Green Sun- no, sorry, the Green Sun to make your own timeline, you did what any other person would do and took a big fuckin’ snooze, curling up around your universe like a mama cat protecting her kittens. You earned it.
And, if you were being completely honest with yourself, that’s how you would have spent the rest of time.
It’s not like you didn’t want to live. No, living was good. It’s just… you were so damn tired. You’re tired of always running from place to place, person to person, era to era. You’re tired of being injured, scared, and alone no matter how many friends you made. All the gods of the Furthest Rings know you’d gone through more in like a year than most people go through during their entire lives. Couldn’t a bitch just enjoy eternity in the void?
Apparently not.
The dreams began innocently enough. Playing video games with Dave, John, and Karkat. Exploring Jade’s island with Jake and Bec. Baking with Jane. Kanaya teaching you and Sollux how to sew. FLARP-ing with Vriska.
Laying side-by-side with Roxy as you two watched the sun rise. Role-playing with Nepeta. Movie night with Eridan. Getting high off your ass with Gamzee and scaring the shit out of some teal visiting their kismesis a few hives away. Discussing politics with Feferi.
Escaping that hellhouse the Soleil twins called their home. Watching those eerie lights in the corpsefield beside Fozzer. You and Remele beating a purpleblood to death.
You barely realize how nightmares had invaded your mind until you woke up with Karako’s yowls of terror in your ears. You didn’t have ears anymore, though, or a physical form, so it just sounded like your favorite clown son was screaming all around you in the abyss.
Okay. This was fine. This was fine, you kept telling yourself. After everything that’s happened to you, you were bound to develop PTSD at some point. That was completely natural.
Except this wasn’t just PTSD. This was something else entirely, because even when you were awake you saw the faces of your oldest friends burning in your mind’s eye. Something churned in your gut, ancient and primal. It was a feeling you knew well, and was usually accompanied by you launching yourself into whatever stupid shit you found next. The longer you tried to ignore it, the stronger it became, until you were permanently wrapped up around yourself like the most pathetic ball of Guardian that had to have ever existed.
You knew long before you actually put words to what was going on.
Of course. Of course it wasn’t over, because why would you ever get to have anything for yourself? Why would you ever get to just rest? For the first time in… who even knows how long, you sob hysterically into the sleeves of your hoodie.
A galaxy twinkles in the outer shell of your universe, lighting up the zig-zag sign on your chest. Mallek’s lazy smile fills your thoughts. If at all possible, everything hurts even more, until you can’t even cry to let out the pain.
Did he miss you? Did all of them miss you?
Oh, God, Daraya. You promised her you’d take her to Earth sometime, and then you just totally fucking vanished from the face of Alternia. What a fucking dick move. Granted, you hadn’t meant to do it, but still!
Your traitor-asshole brain reminds you of the fact that all of them are dead now. As in, Tyzias tried to lead a rebellion against the Alternian Empire, and then they all got killed. Your traitor-asshole brain also notes that it’s all your fault for encouraging those kinds of ideas.
Way to go, you absolute tool.
Except… they don’t have to be gone. You are the Guardian of your universe, and you make the rules. It feels so wrong to even think about it, but… yeah. You’re basically a god now. You can do what you want and nobody has the power to stop you.
Which brings about a whole new plethora of fuckery. If you were to go back, if you were to rewrite history… are you any better than Ultimate Dirk? Granted, you’d do it out of love, not because you’re a power-hungry bastard, but still. Shenanigans of this level are not to be taken lightly, even by sad Guardians with absolutely nothing better to do.
You sleep on it, which of course results in you waking up bawling like a baby as you remember the best roleplay sesh of your life, which was when Wanshi proudly gave your Soldier Purrbeasts OC her full name: Twinklemoon. You had a Soldier Purrbeasts OC named Twinklemoon. That’s why you were crying.
That’s it. You couldn’t stand it anymore.
You need advice, and you know exactly where to get it.
<>
You find her on the 8rigantine, furiously scribbling something down on a chart with a bunch of little figurines in the middle of it. You know better than to just haul your little friendslut ass up there while Vriska Serket is in the zone, so instead you knock on the hull and call up to her.
“Hello! Lady Spinneret, an old friend is in dire need of some advice!”
It takes about two seconds for a familiar spiky head to poke over the side of the deck. Vriska’s one dark eye lights up upon meeting your gaze, followed by a toothy grin that’s both menacing and completely genuine. She reaches back to grab something behind her. A rope ladder drops down and nearly nails you in the noggin, just like it did whenever you dropped by to FLARP with her.
“What the hell, bitch! I missed you!” she yells. Despite everything, you can’t help but smile. Vriska’s wild personality and no-bullshit attitude was just what you needed.
You’re very proud of yourself when you scale the ladder with ease and scramble up onto the deck without getting too much out of breath. With the amount of insane shit you’ve gotten yourself into during your travels, getting into shape came pretty easily. You’ve been told by several reliable sources that your legs are to die for.
“The 8-ball foretold your arrival. I brought snacks.” Vriska points to a bag next to her chart, not looking up from where she was drawing an impressively detailed kraken-looking thing. “Eat something before you start gabbing.”
That was sound logic, so you drag the back closer to you and start rooting around for something good. You find a bag of stinkroot chips, open that bad boy up, and start munching. Damn, did it feel good to eat something, and to also have a corporeal body to eat things with.
As you gather your thoughts, the hairs on the back of your neck prickle with the sensation of somebody’s eyes on you. You instantly look up to see Vriska staring at you. Her expression is blank, but her good eye held all the energy of a thunderstorm.
You swallow your chips. “What is it?”
“You look… different,” she says, setting down her pencil. “It’s like I can really see you now.”
“Huh?”
Vriska huffs, but she still doesn’t take her eye off you. “Before, you kinda looked like… I dunno, like somebody cut out a whole in reality and shoved the silhouette of a person inside? Like, I know what you looked like, but I couldn’t tell you the color of your hair, or what facial structure you have, or, like… dude, you have freckles.”
“I have freckles?” You reach up and touch your cheekbone, feeling the soft skin. Oh, hey, there’s some acne. Dammit. “Are they cute?”
“Sure? I think freckles are more of a human thing, so you’d have to ask John or Jade or whatever. Also you’re blonde, like Rose,” she tells you, thoughtfully scratching at her chin. “You’re still short as fuck, though. I could probably punt you off the poop deck.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Congrats on not looking like a hole in reality.”
You finish off your chips and flop back to stare at the night sky. With all the time you’ve spent on Alternia, you can now name a lot of the constellations. Right now, the Empress’s Trident poked up at a forty-five degree angle behind the pink moon. “I think I know how we can overthrow the Alternian Empire.”
Vriska’s pencil falls out of her hand.
You continue. “Have you read any records on a rebellion that occurred about… like, fifteen sweeps ago? I don’t know the exact date.”
Vriska’s mouth opens and closes a couple of times, and then she nods. “I sure fuckin’ did. Sollux did some of his mumbo-jumbo and got me some documents. He called it an early wriggling day present, but I know he wants to help my little… agenda. How do you even know…?”
“Because I helped encourage the right people to do it. I was there, Vriska. Those kids were my friends, and now they’re dead.”
She’s silent for a moment. “The leader was a teal named Tyzias.”
Your eyes are hot with tears. “I knew her. We met because she tripped on the sidewalk while carrying a shitload of her homework, and I helped her pick it all up when it went everywhere. She had a matesprit named-”
“Stelsa,” Vriska mutters. “Holy shit. She worked closely with some jades who lead their little army. They caused a hell of a lot of damage to the Empire before it all went down, I’ll give them that.”
Neither of you speak for a long moment, which you appreciate as you try and hold your messy self together. The longer you think about your old friends and all the good times you had with them, the more you’re certain about what you want to do.
They deserve to be here.
Your blood pressure spikes just thinking about it.
It’s Vriska who puts your thoughts into words. “You want to go back and help them win the rebellion.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s fucking crazy.”
“Yeah.”
She scooches over to you so she can stare down into your soul. “If we combine our resources and collaborate back and forth between the past and the future, we can make it so less people die. We could even take out that pathetic bitch of an Heiress they had back in the day. With your powers…”
“It’s possible I could compact time itself to create a world where we… where we can make things right. We could even help Feferi…”
You can’t bring yourself to say it in case you jinxed something, but by the look on Vriska’s face, she knows what you mean.
“It could work,” she breathes.
Slowly, you sit back up. Your heart was pounding so hard you felt it in your skull. “How do you think the others would feel about it?”
“Oh, they’d shit themselves,” Vriska snorts. “A full-scale rebellion across time and space?”
“True.”
“But it could work!” she repeats, staring into empty space.
“And they’d have a huge advantage they never had before. Me,” you say, talking to yourself more than to Vriska. You’d created this universe with your own power. It was time to protect it. “Vriska, I need to go before I chicken out. Tell the others what’s happening and that I’m sorry if this all goes to shit.”
“Wait!”
You look back at her as she grabs your arm, claws digging into the fabric of your hoodie. “I… you need supplies. No frickin’ way you’re going anywhere without at least a hydration flask.”
You know what she’s trying to say, and your chest fills up with all the warmth of a bonfire. God, you love this absolute bitch of a kid.
Vriska drags you to your feet, and then you’re both sprinting for her hive.
Amazingly, you don’t die trying to keep up with the cerulean as you charge up the stairs to her respiteblock together. You’re still out of breath by the time you reach the top, though, but Vriska’s already grabbing a backpack and tossing shit into it.
“Get me that jacket off the door,” she orders as she tosses in what looks like a small medical kit. You obey and throw her the jacket, the black leather one with the bright red hood.
She then waves you over, and you slip around her desk to see what’s up. In her hands is a black sheath, with a matching handle sticking out at the top.
Vriska pulls the sheath off to reveal the blade: a brilliant silver-blue metal that nearly glowed in the darkness. It’s incredibly beautiful and very scary to look at.
“I’ve had this thing forever, so I’m giving it to you, okay? Don’t fucking lose it. Press that little gray button at the top of the handle to heat up the blade. Good for starting fires and cauterizing wounds.” She shoves the jacket into the backpack and hands you the dagger.
“Vriska, I don’t know what to say,” you begin, but she smacks you.
“Shut up and strap it to your belt. You better come back soon. I want a detailed report on everything. Single-spaced,” she snaps.
You grin. “Yes, ma’am. I should be back, in like, ten nights. Maybe eleven.”
“Ten,” Vriska growls. “I’m coming for your ass otherwise.”
“Noted. Tell everybody I said hi.”
“Obviously.”
You reach into that little part of yourself, which in turn reaches back out into that chaotic river that is the flow of time. You throw the anchor down and wade upstream. It’s a little rougher than usual, but you won’t let that stop you. There was no turning back now.
Time travel is always like trying to hit a moving target, but you have great aim, and when you find what you’re looking for you feel your face split into another huge smile. There’s nothing different about this part of the river than any other, but you know. When it comes to the people you care about, you always know.
Everything feels more real to you than it has in years. Two moons shine even brighter in the sky, the chilly air stinging your face, and you’re no troll but it still feels like you’re going home.
You open your eyes.
“Ten nights,” you say to Vriska, and you let yourself fall through the current.
Your name is MSPA READER, and you are currently vibing outside of the known multiverse.
Well, you don’t really use that name anymore, on account of it not actually being a name. Names sound something like Emily, or Muhammad, or Patrick, or Shamita, or a million other put-together syllables and sounds.
Names are something personal. A title is anything but.
You do have a new title, though, one you like much better.
The Guardian.
Because that’s what you became when you yoinked the timeline away from the control of Ultimate Dirk and that Director lady, whoever she was. You looked Canon-With-A-Capital-C in its ugly face, spit on it, and then bent over to wipe your ass with the fabric of reality itself. Out of desperation, love, and most importantly sheer spite, you took it upon yourself to defy fate so that there is at least one timeline where everybody gets to live happy lives. This was victory at its finest. This is what it felt like to finally get everything you wanted. Your friends? Safe. Multiverse? Secure. Hotel? Trivago.
In the vast and rich history of pro-gamer moves, you believe you might have made the most powerful move of all.
After using the Green Sun- no, sorry, the Green Sun to make your own timeline, you did what any other person would do and took a big fuckin’ snooze, curling up around your universe like a mama cat protecting her kittens. You earned it.
And, if you were being completely honest with yourself, that’s how you would have spent the rest of time.
It’s not like you didn’t want to live. No, living was good. It’s just… you were so damn tired. You’re tired of always running from place to place, person to person, era to era. You’re tired of being injured, scared, and alone no matter how many friends you made. All the gods of the Furthest Rings know you’d gone through more in like a year than most people go through during their entire lives. Couldn’t a bitch just enjoy eternity in the void?
Apparently not.
The dreams began innocently enough. Playing video games with Dave, John, and Karkat. Exploring Jade’s island with Jake and Bec. Baking with Jane. Kanaya teaching you and Sollux how to sew. FLARP-ing with Vriska.
Laying side-by-side with Roxy as you two watched the sun rise. Role-playing with Nepeta. Movie night with Eridan. Getting high off your ass with Gamzee and scaring the shit out of some teal visiting their kismesis a few hives away. Discussing politics with Feferi.
Escaping that hellhouse the Soleil twins called their home. Watching those eerie lights in the corpsefield beside Fozzer. You and Remele beating a purpleblood to death.
You barely realize how nightmares had invaded your mind until you woke up with Karako’s yowls of terror in your ears. You didn’t have ears anymore, though, or a physical form, so it just sounded like your favorite clown son was screaming all around you in the abyss.
Okay. This was fine. This was fine, you kept telling yourself. After everything that’s happened to you, you were bound to develop PTSD at some point. That was completely natural.
Except this wasn’t just PTSD. This was something else entirely, because even when you were awake you saw the faces of your oldest friends burning in your mind’s eye. Something churned in your gut, ancient and primal. It was a feeling you knew well, and was usually accompanied by you launching yourself into whatever stupid shit you found next. The longer you tried to ignore it, the stronger it became, until you were permanently wrapped up around yourself like the most pathetic ball of Guardian that had to have ever existed.
You knew long before you actually put words to what was going on.
Of course. Of course it wasn’t over, because why would you ever get to have anything for yourself? Why would you ever get to just rest? For the first time in… who even knows how long, you sob hysterically into the sleeves of your hoodie.
A galaxy twinkles in the outer shell of your universe, lighting up the zig-zag sign on your chest. Mallek’s lazy smile fills your thoughts. If at all possible, everything hurts even more, until you can’t even cry to let out the pain.
Did he miss you? Did all of them miss you?
Oh, God, Daraya. You promised her you’d take her to Earth sometime, and then you just totally fucking vanished from the face of Alternia. What a fucking dick move. Granted, you hadn’t meant to do it, but still!
Your traitor-asshole brain reminds you of the fact that all of them are dead now. As in, Tyzias tried to lead a rebellion against the Alternian Empire, and then they all got killed. Your traitor-asshole brain also notes that it’s all your fault for encouraging those kinds of ideas.
Way to go, you absolute tool.
Except… they don’t have to be gone. You are the Guardian of your universe, and you make the rules. It feels so wrong to even think about it, but… yeah. You’re basically a god now. You can do what you want and nobody has the power to stop you.
Which brings about a whole new plethora of fuckery. If you were to go back, if you were to rewrite history… are you any better than Ultimate Dirk? Granted, you’d do it out of love, not because you’re a power-hungry bastard, but still. Shenanigans of this level are not to be taken lightly, even by sad Guardians with absolutely nothing better to do.
You sleep on it, which of course results in you waking up bawling like a baby as you remember the best roleplay sesh of your life, which was when Wanshi proudly gave your Soldier Purrbeasts OC her full name: Twinklemoon. You had a Soldier Purrbeasts OC named Twinklemoon. That’s why you were crying.
That’s it. You couldn’t stand it anymore.
You need advice, and you know exactly where to get it.
<>
You find her on the 8rigantine, furiously scribbling something down on a chart with a bunch of little figurines in the middle of it. You know better than to just haul your little friendslut ass up there while Vriska Serket is in the zone, so instead you knock on the hull and call up to her.
“Hello! Lady Spinneret, an old friend is in dire need of some advice!”
It takes about two seconds for a familiar spiky head to poke over the side of the deck. Vriska’s one dark eye lights up upon meeting your gaze, followed by a toothy grin that’s both menacing and completely genuine. She reaches back to grab something behind her. A rope ladder drops down and nearly nails you in the noggin, just like it did whenever you dropped by to FLARP with her.
“What the hell, bitch! I missed you!” she yells. Despite everything, you can’t help but smile. Vriska’s wild personality and no-bullshit attitude was just what you needed.
You’re very proud of yourself when you scale the ladder with ease and scramble up onto the deck without getting too much out of breath. With the amount of insane shit you’ve gotten yourself into during your travels, getting into shape came pretty easily. You’ve been told by several reliable sources that your legs are to die for.
“The 8-ball foretold your arrival. I brought snacks.” Vriska points to a bag next to her chart, not looking up from where she was drawing an impressively detailed kraken-looking thing. “Eat something before you start gabbing.”
That was sound logic, so you drag the back closer to you and start rooting around for something good. You find a bag of stinkroot chips, open that bad boy up, and start munching. Damn, did it feel good to eat something, and to also have a corporeal body to eat things with.
As you gather your thoughts, the hairs on the back of your neck prickle with the sensation of somebody’s eyes on you. You instantly look up to see Vriska staring at you. Her expression is blank, but her good eye held all the energy of a thunderstorm.
You swallow your chips. “What is it?”
“You look… different,” she says, setting down her pencil. “It’s like I can really see you now.”
“Huh?”
Vriska huffs, but she still doesn’t take her eye off you. “Before, you kinda looked like… I dunno, like somebody cut out a whole in reality and shoved the silhouette of a person inside? Like, I know what you looked like, but I couldn’t tell you the color of your hair, or what facial structure you have, or, like… dude, you have freckles.”
“I have freckles?” You reach up and touch your cheekbone, feeling the soft skin. Oh, hey, there’s some acne. Dammit. “Are they cute?”
“Sure? I think freckles are more of a human thing, so you’d have to ask John or Jade or whatever. Also you’re blonde, like Rose,” she tells you, thoughtfully scratching at her chin. “You’re still short as fuck, though. I could probably punt you off the poop deck.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Congrats on not looking like a hole in reality.”
You finish off your chips and flop back to stare at the night sky. With all the time you’ve spent on Alternia, you can now name a lot of the constellations. Right now, the Empress’s Trident poked up at a forty-five degree angle behind the pink moon. “I think I know how we can overthrow the Alternian Empire.”
Vriska’s pencil falls out of her hand.
You continue. “Have you read any records on a rebellion that occurred about… like, fifteen sweeps ago? I don’t know the exact date.”
Vriska’s mouth opens and closes a couple of times, and then she nods. “I sure fuckin’ did. Sollux did some of his mumbo-jumbo and got me some documents. He called it an early wriggling day present, but I know he wants to help my little… agenda. How do you even know…?”
“Because I helped encourage the right people to do it. I was there, Vriska. Those kids were my friends, and now they’re dead.”
She’s silent for a moment. “The leader was a teal named Tyzias.”
Your eyes are hot with tears. “I knew her. We met because she tripped on the sidewalk while carrying a shitload of her homework, and I helped her pick it all up when it went everywhere. She had a matesprit named-”
“Stelsa,” Vriska mutters. “Holy shit. She worked closely with some jades who lead their little army. They caused a hell of a lot of damage to the Empire before it all went down, I’ll give them that.”
Neither of you speak for a long moment, which you appreciate as you try and hold your messy self together. The longer you think about your old friends and all the good times you had with them, the more you’re certain about what you want to do.
They deserve to be here.
Your blood pressure spikes just thinking about it.
It’s Vriska who puts your thoughts into words. “You want to go back and help them win the rebellion.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s fucking crazy.”
“Yeah.”
She scooches over to you so she can stare down into your soul. “If we combine our resources and collaborate back and forth between the past and the future, we can make it so less people die. We could even take out that pathetic bitch of an Heiress they had back in the day. With your powers…”
“It’s possible I could compact time itself to create a world where we… where we can make things right. We could even help Feferi…”
You can’t bring yourself to say it in case you jinxed something, but by the look on Vriska’s face, she knows what you mean.
“It could work,” she breathes.
Slowly, you sit back up. Your heart was pounding so hard you felt it in your skull. “How do you think the others would feel about it?”
“Oh, they’d shit themselves,” Vriska snorts. “A full-scale rebellion across time and space?”
“True.”
“But it could work!” she repeats, staring into empty space.
“And they’d have a huge advantage they never had before. Me,” you say, talking to yourself more than to Vriska. You’d created this universe with your own power. It was time to protect it. “Vriska, I need to go before I chicken out. Tell the others what’s happening and that I’m sorry if this all goes to shit.”
“Wait!”
You look back at her as she grabs your arm, claws digging into the fabric of your hoodie. “I… you need supplies. No frickin’ way you’re going anywhere without at least a hydration flask.”
You know what she’s trying to say, and your chest fills up with all the warmth of a bonfire. God, you love this absolute bitch of a kid.
Vriska drags you to your feet, and then you’re both sprinting for her hive.
Amazingly, you don’t die trying to keep up with the cerulean as you charge up the stairs to her respiteblock together. You’re still out of breath by the time you reach the top, though, but Vriska’s already grabbing a backpack and tossing shit into it.
“Get me that jacket off the door,” she orders as she tosses in what looks like a small medical kit. You obey and throw her the jacket, the black leather one with the bright red hood.
She then waves you over, and you slip around her desk to see what’s up. In her hands is a black sheath, with a matching handle sticking out at the top.
Vriska pulls the sheath off to reveal the blade: a brilliant silver-blue metal that nearly glowed in the darkness. It’s incredibly beautiful and very scary to look at.
“I’ve had this thing forever, so I’m giving it to you, okay? Don’t fucking lose it. Press that little gray button at the top of the handle to heat up the blade. Good for starting fires and cauterizing wounds.” She shoves the jacket into the backpack and hands you the dagger.
“Vriska, I don’t know what to say,” you begin, but she smacks you.
“Shut up and strap it to your belt. You better come back soon. I want a detailed report on everything. Single-spaced,” she snaps.
You grin. “Yes, ma’am. I should be back, in like, ten nights. Maybe eleven.”
“Ten,” Vriska growls. “I’m coming for your ass otherwise.”
“Noted. Tell everybody I said hi.”
“Obviously.”
You reach into that little part of yourself, which in turn reaches back out into that chaotic river that is the flow of time. You throw the anchor down and wade upstream. It’s a little rougher than usual, but you won’t let that stop you. There was no turning back now.
Time travel is always like trying to hit a moving target, but you have great aim, and when you find what you’re looking for you feel your face split into another huge smile. There’s nothing different about this part of the river than any other, but you know. When it comes to the people you care about, you always know.
Everything feels more real to you than it has in years. Two moons shine even brighter in the sky, the chilly air stinging your face, and you’re no troll but it still feels like you’re going home.
You open your eyes.
“Ten nights,” you say to Vriska, and you let yourself fall through the current.
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bladekindeyewear · 6 years ago
Text
Boots Reads Homestuck Epilogue(s) Part 13 - Candy Page 23
==>
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This is going well, despite all the weirdness... it might not be so bad by the time I get to the end of all this.  Maybe my stomach can stop clenching as much from the Meat poisoning.
Then again, that’s what I thought when I was up to four-fifths through Meat and thought things were going to be resolved before the end.
So.
Anyway.  Reading.
In fact, all she did was tip her head at him and blink a few times, her long eyelashes catching the light, making her eyes look like mirrors. It was disconcerting for reasons that he couldn’t put his finger on. It’s not like Roxy had ever been argumentative, exactly. He just seems to remember someone from his youth who was somewhat more contrarian in spirit than this person he’s married to now.
God damnit... hypnotized, basically dead Roxy is worst Roxy.  I need that fucking explanation soon.
If she doesn’t get upset after what he’s about to pull today, then...
John doesn’t know what he’ll do.
Gosh that’s horrible.  I wish I didn’t have to go back to Meat if I ever wanted any more Real Roxy again... please, PLEASE, if NOTHING ELSE gets fixed in this stupid fucking Candy arc, PLEASE HAVE ROXY BACK TO NORMAL BEFORE THE END
That... that would be just the fucking icing on the cake, wouldn’t it?  I was already upset about Dirk not getting his due.  I was traumatized over how Jane, Jade, and Rose were left.  But ROXY was fine.  Roxy, pretty much my favorite character next to maybe Jade, or a good number of the others.  If this timeline gives me an alternate cliffhanger to lean on that spares the others to leave HER to shit, then I’d basically be left with nothing to stand on!  It’d be fucking worthless almost.
My stomach isn’t clenching YET, but I’m starting to fill with dread.
JOHN: harry anderson, don’t tell your mother but... JOHN: we’re getting a new addition to the family today!
Pfffff
serious kidnapping
And who said John was just a blank slate with no will of his own?? Fuck you, Dirk.  You knew about this timeline and you STILL said it.
Dave and Jade materialize behind everyone, he in a pressed red suit, she in a glittering Space dress. They’re both holding gifts wrapped in spare printer paper.
Look, you two looking cute is just rubbing salt in the wound of the relationship you fucked over, Jade.  You should have waited to make sure Dave and Karkat FINALLY ACCEPTED THEIR FUCKING RELATIONSHIP before moving in and potentially pushing one of them out, WHICH HAPPENED.
Oooh, smart human babby Tavvy.  ...He isn’t going to want to leave his family situation, is he.  John’s off the mark isn’t he.
Dave ruffles Harry Anderson’s hair. It’s nice that Dave is so woke and great with kids, but that really does invite the question of why he and Jade don’t have any yet. There’s still something sad and wistful about Dave at the moment, as he pointedly avoids letting Jade take his hand while they’re led into the game room.
GAAAAHHHHH
Could we at least BE ALLOWED TO PRETEND THERE’S A POSSIBLE FUTURE WHERE THESE PEOPLE’S RELATIONSHIPS ARENT THOROUGHLY FUCKING MESSED UP?????
I KNOW THESE CHARACTERS ARE MESSED UP BUT YOU HAVE TO AT LEAST GIVE US HOPE
AND WHERE’S THE HAPPY POTENTIAL PAIRING FOR JADE??? IT SEEMS LIKE THERE’S NO POTENTIAL FOR REAL MUTUAL HAPPINESS FOR HER BESIDES JADE X COMA!!!!!!!!!!
X(
God damn it Jane can be creepy.
She gained his affection the same way she gains everyone’s affection: she fucking bought it.
UUuuuuuuggghhhhh
...pff stars vs enemies of the state
John, stop making this so stranger-danger.
JOHN: are you ACTUALLY happy about it? JOHN: about... everything going on here? TAVROS: I suppose,,, TAVROS: My mother tends to get displeased when i’m unhappy, so,,,
uuuugughghghuhh
TAVROS: It just seems like a thing that would eventually happen to me, does it not?
D:
Oh wow, callback to Dirkbro abuse.  THAT’S gonna set John off.
Oh wow, Tavros knows his situation is bad enough that he’s willing to GO for it. All he’s worried about is the security.  YEAH John!!  Do your Breathy thing and get him out of here!!!
Tavros takes in a sharp breath before spinning on his heel and stumbling toward his closet. John catches the ghost of a smile on his face before he turns and that’s all it takes to turn the pounding of his heart from terrified to thrilled.
AAaaaaAAAAAH THIS IS ADORABLE SOMEHOW
She twitches her dog-ears and raises her face. Her mouth is a neutral line, but her eyes are burning furiously.
OH NOOOOOOO
FUCK, Jade don’t stop it!!! She’s... she’s gonna put her foot down and stop this just so everything can be all candy-coated and good on the SURFACE without hurting people OPENLY even if she and Jane and all the others are DEEPLY hurting everyone else under the surface!!!! D:
JOHN: jade, i don’t know where you’ve been these past few years, but i don’t think things CAN get any worse!
Yes exactly
JOHN: but there isn’t one, because everyone’s been all... brainwashed by marriage, or whatever the hell happened over the last few years that made things be this way!
Hmmmmmm
JOHN: well, you’re nothing like the jade i used to know either!
D:
Alright, huge blowup. Let’s air out some feelings.
JANE: I let go! I was actually RELIEVED to hear he died!!! ROXY: uhh ROXY: janey wut
HAhahahaah YES let’s get all that dirty laundry OUT IN THE OPEN
......Okay that didn’t end as well as expected.  Or... well I guess I KNEW it wouldn’t end well, but I’d hoped otherwise.
==>
Wait, so Terezi and John’s conversation is “in the dream bubbles”? Is that just because he’s talking to her while she’s skirting the edge of the storm in the Void rocketways, or because John’s from a somehow doomed/irrelevant/side timeline?
(Why does Terezi always have to be dying.  She figured herself out and how awesome she is.  Stop dying.  And I don’t mean like the sad walking off in Meat, though I guess that kind of counts.)
JOHN: if she cared about you as much as you care about her, she wouldn’t have fucked off like this forever.
YES JOHN
LAY
ON
THE
TRUTH
(Ghost!Vriska is the only one who really deserves to matter anymore.  This “alpha” Vriska just sank deeper into her problems and delusions beyond being able to really redeem herself or recognize them.  That diatribe she gave her ghost self was horrible back when.)
Wait, wait hold on
JOHN: if she cared about you as much as you care about her, she wouldn’t have fucked off like this forever. JOHN: driving you crazy with doubt and uncertainty, making you chase her through infinite nothingness until you almost starve to death... JOHN: she would have at least given you the courtesy of closure!
Is... is Andrew talking about the comic here and his relationship with the readers
is this some sort of apology for not giving this closure, like, as if he were the vriska that launched himself into the sun over his own artistic ideals or
hmm
JADE: doomed is not a word i would use to describe the condition of those on this world. JADE: even if my work is unsuccessful, the stakes for everyone here have nothing to do with the issue of mortality. JADE: to frame the matter that way would be misleading. JADE: to the extent that it is my naturally endowed duty to defend the innocent from wanton acts of destruction, from degradation and dissolution, JADE: it is also my duty to tell the truth to those i protect. JADE: and the simplest statement of truth for all of you to know is this: JADE: we are the lucky ones.
Calliope lets out a long, thin sigh from between the teeth of Jade’s corpse. It’s more for effect than anything, as corpses don’t actually need to breathe.
JADE: we are the ones fortunate enough to live in a reality that is beyond the influence of the prince.
Geez, it’s like escape from Lord English’s influence all over again.
They won only for everything to just fucking start over, everything they struggled to stop?  That sucks!!!  >:(
Anyway, still reading... god damnit Terezi don’t fly off and die for no fucking reason.
JOHN: then what DID you want?! TEREZI: L3TS S4Y... TEREZI: 1 JUST W4NT3D TO G1V3 YOU TH3 COURT3SY OF CLOSUR3
Fuck.  Yeah, let’s just keep fucking over Terezi, another one of my favorite characters.  Yes she lives and goes to fuck off somewhere in Meat with the villain of the week, but FUCK, couldn’t we get a SLIGHTLY clearer picture of her potential happiness than just THAT?????
It’s like the whole purpose of these epilogues was just to remind us that these characters were too fucked up to ever be happy!!!!
Couldn’t we have at least been left to IMAGINE OTHERWISE?!?????
JADE: not until i am able to deal with the prince myself. ARADIA: and when will that be
The meteor is passing beyond the fall of night. Dead-Jade, standing half in light, half in darkness, looks up at the sky.
JADE: not soon enough.
Ahh.  I’m getting an idea of the Postscript’s circumstances, then.  That was alt!Callie in this black-hole-powered Jade body going from THIS Candy timeline to go chase after Dirk and help stop him like everyone else, giving her a more powerful card to play than just the adult Jade she was having guide the others. (Maybe she could have that adult Jade FUCKING WAKE UP AND ABLE TO HELP instead of keeping her in a coma. That would be a pretty fucking nice change of pace.  Too bad we have to just IMAGINE IT without any reassurance that she’ll be awake or okay for YEARS TO COME, HUH.)
Also that means that resistance fighting is gonna break out with artillery and stuff because Jane is apparently a dunpass in both timelines.  Fuck.
==>
Swifer, can you stop swifing?
KARKAT: HOW THE HELL DO YOU TWO TOLERATE EACH OTHER? KANAYA: Quite Thoroughly Enthusiastically And Often
Pffffff :D
...Oh my God MEENAH landed here???  All ring-of-lifeways from the other timeline?  I guess the Furthest Ring was outside the scope of those timeilnes so she could’ve fallen in any of them... huh.  Heck, maybe the same Terezi who experienced those conversations eventually met the John from the Meat side of the timeline too.  And she said John smelled younger than she thought he was, oh my GOD, it WAS that.  It was that exactly.  The Terezi we’re hearing was the same across both Epilogue-halves.  That’s actually fucking fantastic!!!
MEENAH: capisces?
Fuck that pun
(Also Meenah is talking about how they lost, but she was knocked away before she saw the conclusion of the fight, so.)
...Holy SHIT Meenah is really taking to this!!! This is adorable.  :D
==>
John’s having some canon/existential ditherthoughts, hm.
He’s been contemplating this melodramatically for maybe ten minutes when the sky rips opens above him and flashes violent waves of red and green across the landscape.
Hm.  So do the black hole wormholes have some tie to the cherubic portal device from Hiveswap?
It’s his father’s car.
Mhmm, that confirms all of it, really.  Same Terezi in both stories.
A vast cry of sorts.  :(
Heading out for a while; gonna start from Page 27 in the next post.  I feel pretty good, somehow.  The way these two timelines tied together with Terezi outside them makes it feel like it all may have ultimately meant something.
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inkyjaguar · 6 years ago
Text
Extra Story of ROTL
(This takes place right after they have the talk about quadrants)
Aradia drifted back to her tent after Karkat telling them that they were moving camp. It seemed like such a trivial thing. They were going to get caught anyway and would be killed for their crimes against the abominable royalbloods. That sounded nice and peaceful. The medium world was one she knew well and would have fun being among the dead. Why was being dead so much better than being alive?
Something hit her back and she ran forward a few steps from the momentum. “Oh! I’m sorry Aradia!” She turned slowly to see one of the new girls. The one who had something against Kanaya. The bronze blood swatted invisible dust off her shoulders in an apologetic way. “I was thinking to myself and hadn’t noticed I was getting that close to you! Are you okay?” Aradia should say something, but did she feel like it? No. She didn’t have any energy to say something rude or empathetic to Jade. Instead, she turned on her heel and floated the rest of the way to her tent. At some point in her life, she might’ve had something to say to that bronze blood. When did her life turn into a monotone book? “Um, alright. See you tomorrow Aradia!”
Why say goodbye? With their luck, they might die in their sleep and not have to see each other again. They should be wishing each other happy deaths. What would one say to another to convey that phrase? That was too straining to think about.
Aradia found her tent and slipped inside. Nepeta sat in the dark; scribbling furiously into her book. It was a different book from the one she took notes from the meetings. This one was colorful and Nepeta never let her see it. Why did she need two separate books? Why was this one more colorful? She’d admit that sometimes she’d get this urge to dig into Nepeta’s stuff and look through everything, but that urge usually disappeared after a moment of sitting.
“It has a great dynamic!” Nepeta hissed as she picked up brown, green and jade pencils. “I wouldn’t have expected it! Oh, this is going to be lovely!”
“But what if it’s not?” Aradia’s curiosity spoke up. Nepeta looked up sharply from her book and clutched it closer to her chest. Aradia had never interrupted Nepeta’s muttering sessions before. Even she didn’t know why she had done it. Her curiosity had peaked up and spoken before it died away like the rest. Still, she waited for an answer as Nepeta stared at her in surprise and suspicion.
“Well, it could go bad,” Nepeta muttered reluctantly and peaked down at her book. She sighed. “This is something that could go bad very fast. I’ll have to keep a close eye on it. Maybe, stoke it a little bit? But then that’s intervention and it’s not natural!” Nepeta returned to ignoring Aradia. Perfectly fine. This dynamic has gone on for years between them. It was almost unspoken. Aradia would provide Nepeta with company while she muttered to herself without looking insane.
She slipped out of her shoes and prepped her bed. It was going to be a boring journey tonight. She knew her birth village inside and out and so the ghosts would not be as interesting as the other places they’ve gone. They also won’t be as friendly as the others one as well. Still, she couldn’t really stop herself from going into the medium world while she slept. Aradia settled on her back and stared at the darkness of her eyelids. She wasn’t going to force it to happen like she did at the village, it’d happen on its own.
Nepeta’s muttering started to warble as if underwater. The smell of rosemary tickled her nose and she could hear the everyday happenings of her birth city. She stayed where she was though. She wasn’t going to waste energy on something that was going to happen. Every pore in her body pricked up and felt herself diving head first into the rabbit hole. The seams sprang apart easily and the smell of rosemary slid down her throat and filled up her lungs like water. Everything compressed in on her as if the hole was getting smaller and then it opened up as her head was dragged from her body and into the tent. The tent walls were blueish grey and Nepeta shined a golden light. It was pretty blinding honestly and so Aradia drifted through the tent wall altogether.
Golden Karkat stood by the fire, making the blue flames die out before he would go off to bed. He was boring to follow to though. She wanted to explore the woods around them. See if anything was interesting or new. She floated away from the campsite and into the grey woods, on the lookout for spirits to converse with.
After just out of the light of their camp, a golden light caught her eye. She froze where she stood and turned to face the golden light. It quickly disappeared behind a tree. Someone had followed them from the village. Karkat was right. Oh, she hated it when he was right! Still, she had people to defend! She should hurry back to her body and tell everyone! Wait, they could be getting themselves into an ambush. She should investigate and then go back to tell everyone so they could make a plan.
She silently drifted over to the place where the light had been. Wait, why was she sneaking? They couldn’t see her at all. She was pretty much dead at this. Straightening up, she drifted through the tree that the golden light had hidden behind. The light was gone. No one stood behind it. Where did they go? She turned around and caught a glimpse of purple light in the far distance.
Was someone else out here? Two people? She drifted as fast as she could after the purple light. Maybe she was being stupid and it would actually be people from her own camp. That would be some relief, but also a huge waste of her time! She could actually get lost out here! And if she wasn’t back to her body by the time she was supposed to wake up with the others, they’d all worry over her and make a big mess of things.
The purple light popped out ahead of her and she saw a bit of gold as well. So, there were two people and they were in cahoots! The lights stopped moving and she drifted through another tree to see who it was. A single man shined both with purple and gold lights. It was split perfectly down the middle but the purple light was weak and didn’t shine as brightly. His back as to her as he stared out at her camp.
That was weird. She only knew one person who could shine with both lights. It couldn’t seriously be- “Sollux?” She asked. Why had she called out? If he was alive, he wouldn’t be able to hear-
The man turned around to face her and it was him! Sollux! He stood there! Alive! He was so handsome! And he was here! “Sollux!” She yelled and flew at him; wanting to wrap her arms around him!
She realized that she wouldn’t be able to hug him properly because she was a ghost. Halfway to him, she fell back and her arms dropped. Sollux narrowed his eyes at her. “Why did you thop?”
“I can’t touch you. I’m a ghost right now, Sollux,” she replied but started to drift closer again. He remembered who she was?
“Well, I couldn’t thee ghoth before dying tho let’th thee if I can-” he ran over to her and picked up her ghost form around the waist before twirling her around in a hug. She gasped at the sensation. He didn’t feel like a human would but like a ghost would. It was crazy and she amazing! He was back! She laughed as she spun and wrapped her arms around his head to hold on to him. He laughed too. He put her down on her floating her and she smiled up at him.
“How can you see me? Wait, you said that you died?” She frowned.
“Wow, AA. Can’t we jutht focuth on uth right now? I haven’t theen you in forever. I mithed you.” He admitted quietly with his arms still tucked around her waist. He missed her? He was admitting that he missed her? He had been the one thing that kept her going through the whole Equius thing. He had been the first thing she had cried about in her emotion ridden body. Sollux had been her hope and he was here. She grabbed his face excitedly and kissed his forehead.
“I-” she kissed his nose, “-missed-” she pecked his lips, “-you-” she kissed his lips harder than she liked, “-too.” She gasped out before kissing his lips again.
He kissed back and she couldn’t help but smile under his kisses. “Can you thop thiling? I’m trying to make up for all the dayth I haven’t been able to kith you.” He sounded a little bit grumpy but she laughed despite what he said.
“I’m too happy! I haven’t seen you! You’re here! I could just,” she grinned, “die right now.” He rolled his eyes and kissed her forehead.
“You and your thupid punth. I might juth keel over and die again tho I won’t have to hear them.”
“Okay, explain that,” she poked his cheek. “You died?”
He shrugged. “Duh. I wouldn’t have thayed away from you for that long juth becauth of a mithin.”
“Why haven’t I seen your ghost then?” He squinted his eyes in concentration.
“Well, becauth I went to Prothit.”
“Prospit? I thought you were a Derse dreamer?”
“I am, AA,” he settled his hand on hers that clung onto his cheek and he leaned in her hand with closed eyes. “I have two dream thelth. One that ith Derth and the other ith Prothit. I had been dreaming in my Derth one but when I died, my thoul went to Prothit and I couldn’t leave the dream world. I even tried to find your dream thelf, but you weren’t anywhere on thoth planetth.”
Aradia shook her head. That was… weird to know. She hoped that maybe one day someone would wake up her dream self and then she wouldn’t be dragged to the medium world every night.
“Okay, so you were just lost up there? With no one to talk to?” She asked. Sollux nodded into her hand and turned to kiss her palm.
“Yeah. The Prothpithanth are really thupid. They didn’t know what wath going on with me either. I juth wandered around there, thinking about you.” He kissed her knuckles and she smiled a bit. He thought about her every moment like she did him? That still didn’t explain something though.
“How are you here then?” She asked quietly. He gave her hand little kisses that made her giggle a bit.
“Thomeone found me. Thee told me that you guyth were going to need me again. That I wathn’t done. Thee cath a thell on me and I woke up in my body in a cave thomewhere.” He stopped kissing her hand and looked up at her. “Do you know how I got in that cave?” She shook her head.
“I had no idea you had even died. You just stopped showing up at the door. I didn’t know what to think. I even put out a reward for information about you. You have a sign up in the post office, you know.” He grinned at her and kissed her wrist lightly.
“You thought a normal perthon would be able to find me?” His kisses slid up her arm until he wasn’t even fully putting his lips on her arm; gliding up her arm. She shrugged her shoulders.
“I had to do something to find you. You were gone for so long and Equius-”
“Equiuth?” Sollux mumbled at her shoulder and nipped at her shoulder with his teeth. She nodded her head.
“Yes. Equius has made me his matesprite.”
“Well,” Sollux whispered against her neck. “I’m going to have to show him that you’re mine. How do you think I should do that?”
She lifted his chin up to her face and raised her eyebrows laughingly. “By doing what you were wanting to do to my actual body. Not this ghost form.”
“Can you thneak out of your tent and meet me here again? Thith will be the only time I can interact with you before you guyth move.”
“Will you not be able to follow us?” she asked worryingly.
He shook his head. “No, I will be able to follow you guyth. It will look thuthpithith if you vithit me every night. We have to play it thafe. You only get to thee me onth a week. No one can know I’m alive. I’ll be your guardian angel.”
She smiled and leaned her forehead against his. “I don’t know if my body will be as reactive as you hope. I’m pretty dead there too.”
“You are right though. I want to do thomething with all of you. Your thirit can visit me whenever you want but your body can’t. Pleath, AA?” He asked. She laughed breathily and nodded.
“I’ll be back. Just, wait for me a little bit longer, my love.” She pulled away from him but he quickly kissed her hand.
“I’ll wait in the thky, my love.”
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