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plot blog for o8liter8ed >>

[orphead-blog]

You can’t even really fathom what’s going on.  Vriska’s dead, Vriska can’t be here, you saw her corpse, but oh god she’s hugging you this is real she’s really here.  And that cynical, pessimistic part of you just shuts up shop as you realise that Vriska is back, she’s not just any Vriska but she’s yours.  All that remains is the warmth in your heart, the elation that the girl for whom you professed your love is—quite literally—back from the dead.

There’s no time for coherent thought and conversational negotiation, no time to hash out why or how she’s even still alive because it doesn’t matter.  There will be time for that later.  As she releases you from the tight hug and takes your hand, uttering that rakish “hey” as if this were the most casual reunion in the world, you can’t resist it.

“You son of a bitch,” you say, and kiss her on the lips.

[8lackguard-blog]

Well.

This was certainly not exactly the reaction you were expecting, though it's far from unwelcome. Her kiss is returned with gusto, and you are so fucking happy right now that you never want to stop kissing her. You don't even care that the door is wide open and anyone could walk by at any time; you're back, and she's here, and you can finally be together like you both want to be. There's nothing to worry about anymore.

Everything is behind you, in the past, whispers of a time when there was fear in your heart and a lump in your throat. A time when you were scared for yourself, for her, for the well-being of all of your friends. A time when there was a great evil threatening to exterminate everything and everyone you held dear to you.

But it's gone, it's over, it's done for and it will never come back.

Happiness has long been just out of your reach, but now, now the final chasm has been crossed and you're grasping it tight in your hand, and damn it, you're not going to let it go.

You've forgotten how to breathe during a kiss and end up breaking for air, grinning a little lopsided smile at her. "I've always been a son of a bitch, though. Hell, I'm the bitch, too." You rest your forehead against hers and let your hands travel to her waist. "I love you, Rose Lalonde. I do. And I promise I will never leave you again."

[orphead-blog]

Your travel (facilitated by Void; you’re going to save so much on your electricity bill now that your abilities have been realised and refined to the point where you can move at will) straight from your Toronto apartment to the door of your landlord, and after a brief, pleasant conversation, you provide her a check, and then take the elevator to the top floor, steeling yourself mentally.

Approaching the door, your eyes are shut.

You adjust your glasses.

Smooth your shirt out.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Your fingers guide your key to its lock.

A half turn,

click,

and—

unlocked.

Ajar—six inches,

one foot,

wide

wide

open.

Vriska is standing in the doorway, seemingly about to leave herself, keys in hand.

You suddenly understand jack shit.

[8lackguard-blog]

At first, you are confused.

Then, overjoyed.

A smile quickly spreads across your face, ear to ear, and you drop your keys before rushing forward to pull her into a hug. It's only been a short time since you've seen her, but to her it's been a month, and you can only imagine how terrible it must have been for her. You're kind of hoping she says something, anything, but for now you're content with just knowing that she's okay. You pull back from the hug and slide your hands down to hold hers.

"Hey."

It's not much of a reunion kickstarter, but it's all you can manage right now. That and a smile, and everything is okay.

[orphead-blog]

It’s around that time to pay for utilities on your New York apartment, but this time you leave for it with a heavy heart.  The last time you came to do so, you met with Vriska, declared your attraction, and started a relationship—only to have her killed just a single day later.  The memory weighs on you significantly, and after a good deal of coaxing by Aradia, you manage it.

She wants to come with you, but you know this is something that you need to face alone.

At least this time around.

It’s a way of coming to terms with what happened, of finding some kind of inner peace with yourself, of processing the pain and the anger in a way that will allow you the room for remembrance, for grief, and for the beginnings of acceptance.  You haven’t really had time for grief, with the life-threatening assault from all sides throwing you into disarray for many of the subsequent weeks.  Now is a good time to pull yourself away from that and find a fresh start, for everything.

And then, after that, you can think about the right step forward.  You’ll probably sell the apartment; too many bad memories there, and the loss of Mother only amplifies it.  A little time away, too, to visit your grandfather might go a long way at establishing some healing.

[8lackguard-blog]

As soon as you find yourself back in the penthouse, you head straight for your room to change. There's about a month's worth of dust on everything, so you wipe off your dresser and strip out of your shirt before rummaging through your drawers for something not garish. You're planning on heading to Rose's apartment in Toronto to surprise her, and damn it, you're going to look good when you officially come back from the dead. A blue cropped top that says "nothing says I love you quite like fisting" is the first thing you pull out, and, nope. Nope you are not wearing that. Twenty novelty shirts later and you finally find something acceptable.

You run a comb through your hair and fix your makeup. Once you've deemed yourself presentable, you hum the theme to Friends and head downstairs to the kitchen for a snack and your car keys. Everything is still where you left it before everything with the Handmaid happened, and you don't know whether to be relieved or saddened. It's clear that no one has been here in at least as long as you've been gone, and you find yourself worried for Rose. How has she been holding up? Is she okay? Did she move on?

It's all tossed away with a shake of your head as you snatch up your keys and head for the door.

[helmsight]

> Rose: make preparations.

[helmsight]

“I didn’t mean it so literally.  The only wait you’ll have to suffer through is preparing again to send you back, to minimise the gap between your absence and your return.  Now, all Dave and I need to do is organise the—wait, where the hell did Dave go?” you say, turning around, only to find no birdsprite around to establish a temporal loopback.

You leave her there for a moment, floating around in search for Dave, to no avail. “He must have gone off on a dreambubble date or something.  No matter.  We’re roughly one month in the future from the point of your collection, but the gap shouldn’t prove excessively discomfiting from the perspective of cosmic observation.  So, if you’re ready, let’s begin.”

[8lackguard-blog]

She's speaking some sort of language but you sure as hell aren't understanding it. So you just nod along and wait for her to get back, picking underneath your fingernails and twirling your hair in your fingers while you wait for her to return. After only a moment, she is back, and asks if you're ready.

Yeah, you're ready. You want to go back home and tell everyone that you're okay.

A month, though. That's a long time. Will you have been gone a month? What is Rose doing? How is she holding up without you? Did the Handmaid eventually get to Aradia? Were your efforts in vain? So many questions fill your head but you shake them away, shoving your hands in your pockets and pursing your lips at Rose.

"I would say I was born ready, but we both know I wasn't born. Regardless, yeah, I wanna go home. How, though?"

[helmsight]

> Rose: make preparations.

[helmsight]

“I think the technical expression is ‘someone just saved your ass’, Vriska. Specifically, we inhabiting the extratemporal space where those not gifted the boon of a life free from the o’erhanging doom that must needs claim us all, eventually, but in particular the iterations of us—of you—that must see their time in Paradox Space terminated before your line ends.  To put it more simply, your doomed alternate was tapped to take your place and claim death as hers, while your purpose, though not yet served, must wait to come.  And for that reason precisely are you standing here instead of in a pool of cerulean, with your soul extinguished,” you say, almost automatically, a small sigh coming to you after the fact as you consider the aftereffects.

You’re going to miss Vriska as a friend, but you know this needed to happen.  And you’re okay with that.

“So, from one member of the imminently deceased to one whose life was spared by another’s, allow me to extend deepest congratulations to you! Your time to die has not yet come.  And, if you wait for just a small while, you can be returned to your home in due time, and reunite with your friends.  How does that sound?”

[8lackguard-blog]

Your left eye twitches behind your glasses as you listen to everything Rose is saying.

“Uh, okay,” you finally say, verbose and loquacious as always. It’s hard to believe that you narrowly escaped death, and also somewhat disheartening. You had been so ready to die that you had no idea what to do in the statistically impossible scenario of you somehow surviving. Of course, it was clearly not as statistically impossible as you had thought, because here you are, on Derse, and very much alive.

Rose mentioned waiting before going home. Sounds fishy to you, but you’ll take it. Anything beats spending the rest of your life on this floating hunk of purple rock.

“So how long would I have to wait before I can go home? I sort of have very important people to me that think I’m fucking dead.”

[helmsight]

> Rose: make preparations.

[helmsight]

With a great motion of your hands, a sort of over-elaborate message to Dave that you’re about ready to begin the second wave of this, you summon the Void, move into it yourself, pinpoint the exact location you need, and through Time’s and Space’s junction with the past you find the Vriska whose time has not yet come, and pluck her from the jaws of the fate of certain death, just as you rescind, with willing heaviness in your heart, the fate of the Vriska who was your friend for years.  

Your time would be up in a similar fashion, before too soon.

It doesn’t make it any easier to draw away the one who is to live, to think of all the ways that she isn’t the Vriska who is—was—your friend.  But making hard choices is really all you do any more, performing actions in selfless acquiescence to the needs of the alpha timeline.

Soon, no doubt, Rose would need your aid in saving her from the jaws of mortality, and you’ll be there as an assurance.  At least, then, you’ll have the weight of doom lifted off your shoulders.

And happily, you think, Vriska’s had the same boon given to her.

[8lackguard-blog]

About three seconds ago you were staring the Handmaid down and totally ready to die to save Aradia, Equius, Kanaya, and everyone else at their house.

Now?

Now you're on Derse and confused as fuck. Rose is standing in front of you, but she's not your Rose; she's not the same girl you fell head over fucking heels in love with and she's not the girl you want to find and hug right now, but she is Rose and you trust Rose fully. No matter what. As such, you need answers, and you know she can provide them. "What the fuck just happened?" Eloquent as always.

It's not that you're not thrilled that you're alive--it's that you have no idea how. That split second after the Handmaid disappeared from your line of sight, you felt hands on your back, pushing you toward the sudden rift in existence, the tiny tear of the Void. You need to know who, what, and most importantly, why.

If someone just fucking sacrificed themselves to save you, you're going to be incredibly upset. You're not worth it, and you know it, but the thought of someone being willing to lay their life down, and for you, is somewhat... assuring. Like maybe you're not as terrible of a person as you thought you were.

Or, you know. Maybe you are. Who knows.