This chapter has been Very Hard to Do. I have had to redo this chapter opening several times.
___________________________________
Not long into Ms. Pyrope's report, Karkat started to drift. It was late, the adrenaline from the battle had long since faded, and Karkat could barely keep his eyes open. Ms. Pyrope was talking to Dad, something about needing his assistance as a seer, but Karkat couldn't focus on the words, it was too hard to pay attention. "Kid, hey kid," Dad says when he notices how sleepy Karkat is. "You should maybe go to bed."
"M'fine," Karkat says immediately. He stubbornly wills his eyes to stay open. This is less than an effective tactic.
Dad is smiling at him a little bit. "You're tired. Go to bed."
"I can get him to bed, Mister Vantas," Terezi offers, like a traitor. Karkat glares at her, but she just snickers at him.
"Thank you Terezi," Dad says.
"You have to go to bed too," Karkat says, frowning at his dad. "How much sleep have you been getting?"
Dad snorts, amused. "You are not the parent, I am. Go to bed. Also, we have guests. Scram."
"You just don't want me to hear anything important," Karkat accuses but lets Terezi tug him toward the stairs.
"I promise to fill you in. Tomorrow." Dad says the latter with amused emphasis. "Bed, both of you." He gives Terezi's mom a questioning look.
Ms. Pyrope shrugs. "Might as well make it a sleepover."
Karkat lets himself be shooed upstairs, where he and Terezi take turns getting ready for bed. This involves putting on pajamas and then pulling out an air mattress and tugging it into Karkat's bedroom. Karkat is almost too distracted to help make the bed, and Terezi pokes his forehead. "What's going on in there?" she asks.
Karkat shakes his head. "I'm remembering the fight, the trip back, the talk with Avvram and Merril," he says. "I feel like my head is full of I don't know, televisions, each showing a slightly different movie about the same story." He waves his hand. "If Dad's the seer, why do I see so many points and connections?"
"Are you seeing more points?" Terezi asks, lying on the mattress with her chin perched on her crossed forearms. Karkat sits with his back to his own bed.
"Yeah, I'm worried about Gamzee's dad, and I'm pretty sure most of the worry is actually coming from Gamzee and his grandpa. Then there's the update from your mom and the attack at the hospital. Am I a seer too or something?"
"Seers detect and perceive. You'll be more inclined to encourage connections you think will foster growth, and discourage connections that don't. Your dad would be more inclined to offer advice and educate."
"Like you're doing?" Karkat says, not quite jokingly.
"I am the best seer," Terezi says. She yawns. "Go to sleep," she says.
Karkat gets up and gets into his bed. "I'm not sure if I can," he mumbled around a yawn as he settled into bed. "Head's too full." When he closed his eyes he could see flickers of images; nothing like a premonition, unless he was having a premonition of heavy traffic along the interstate they took to get to Alba. I don't even know why that would be a thing. He also saw little flashes of the battle in the hospital and replays of the meeting with Avvram and Merril.
"...Centered breathing?" drifts sleepily up from the floor.
"Mmm?" Karkat moves just enough to peer over the edge of the bed to look at Terezi.
"Relaxation exercise," she says.
Karkat blinks. "Yeah...that's a thing that exists," he says and rolls flat onto his back. Terezi snickers at him. "What if you're too distracted to count your breaths or whatever?" Another snicker.
"Just do your best? It doesn't really matter if you lose count, so start over."
So Karkat does that. The relaxation exercise takes a while to work; he's still twitchy, while at the same time exhausted and fog-brained. It's easy to get frustrated when he loses count, even if the counting didn't really matter, except as a way to drown out whatever thoughts were keeping him awake.
Karkat floats more than walks through a foggy wood. The air is cool and the sound seems muffled. Up ahead, strangely unobscured by the fog is a white wolf roughly the size of a pony. Karkat stops in his tracks, and when he does, the wolf does too, looking over its--Her-- shoulder. "[Space]?" he asks, (he doesn't say "Space." He doesn't know what name he just used) just to be sure. (Is that something he needs to be sure of?)
"Come on, let's go!" Space says, and continues down the path.
"Fine, okay. What's going on?" Karkat asks, breaking into a jog to catch up. It doesn't seem to work; his legs just don't want to move in a reasonable way. His were slow and strange, and he couldn't see where he was going for some additional reason besides the fog, as if he were stuck looking at things from a particular angle.
Space abruptly stops just before a white dome that curves through the trees. Karkat skids and almost knocks into it, the appearance of the dome is so sudden. He flails a bit but manages not to land on his ass. The dome is brighter than the fog and reminds Karkat of something. "The temple?" he asks.
"Not exactly," Space says. "Warded, sacred space." She lifts a paw to scratch at the surface of the dome--it's not a pleasant sound, somehow combining the worse aspects of chalk screeching on a blackboard and a fork scraping a stoneware plate.
"Like that altar in the crow woods?" Karkat asks. He looks around at the flat white fog and dim shapes of trees. It looked a lot like where he and his Dad had gone camping--weeks ago. (So much had happened since then.) "Is that where we are?"
"No," Space says. "The forest is a metaphor." She turns to look at Karkat. Her eyes are vivid, glowing green. She's a dog and a girl with dark hair, green eyes, and glasses simultaneously. Then she's a girl with pointed dog ears on top of her head.
"Very anime," Karkat says. The girl grins at him, her teeth are pointed like a dog's. "What are you showing me?"
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 20/?
Fandom: Homestuck
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Relationships: Karkat Vantas/Beta Kids, Karkat Vantas/Alpha Kids, Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Jade Harley/Karkat Vantas, Dirk Strider/Karkat Vantas, Rose Lalonde/Karkat Vantas
Characters: Karkat Vantas, Beta Kids, Alpha Kids, The Trolls (Homestuck), The Signless | The Sufferer, Rose Lalonde, Dave Strider, Dirk Strider, Jade Harley, Terezi Pyrope, Feferi Peixes, Eridan Ampora, Sollux Captor, Jane Crocker
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Godstuck, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, The Alpha and Beta Kids are Elder Gods, Humanstuck, Karkat Is Stuck in A Horror Movie, Unspeakable Spooning, Tentacle Snuggles, Smol Angry Bean, Ancestor Cameos, Jade is a goddamn furry, Jade don't need a quad suit, A slowly growing list of tags, Crows are feathery assholes, Eldritch Cockblocking, Jake uses the term "mongoloid", Outdated terminology to go with outdated slang, Date Fail, Romance Fail
==>Karkat: wield the maybe-not metaphorical sickle of the one who defends
Karkat wakes up with a large black, four eyed cat sitting loafed on his chest. It blinks at him, the smaller set above, and then the larger set below. “Gah,” Karkat says intelligently. He manages not to flail around in surprise. “Hello there, I hope you know you weigh a million tons,” he says. He reaches out a tentative hand to give the weird mutant cat a skritch behind the ears. “Yes, yes you do. Super dense matter kitty,” he says as the cat starts to purr. “I really hope you don’t turn out to be super intelligent and make fun of me for baby talking you. That would suck.”
(they flow from form to form) for the fic writing meme, ☼☠?
...i tried to answer this previously, but didn't find the post, so here's the second try.
✴ The primary inspiration is a fan art by I think, Sybla Tortue. The art features a humanstuck Karkat having close encounters with trollstuck alpha beta trollstuck tentabulges. I reblogged thinking "hmmm eldergodstuck " and as is often the case, a bunny was spawned.
My primary influencers for the world building are Shirley Jackson for her grasp of mundane yet horrible/horrible yet mundane, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman's Chapel Hollow novels. (And of course very slight scribble scrobbling in the Mythos.)
Basic plot follows the format of "the new people don't know how weird the quaint little town is until suddenly there's altars in the forest and inhuman chanting under your window." And also, the elder gods think you're cute.
☠ Hardest part is usually the pacing. I have/had problems with the plot because stubborn muses and I am a Pantser by nature. So I have to take breaks, and work on other things until what happens next occurs to me.
18 20 22 24 for latula and mituna in eldergodstuck?
Mituna/Latula from (they flow from form to form)
18. What would be their love motto?
Mituna and Latula's relationship largely depends on them having each other's back in most circumstances. They literally interact as an informational power couple. Mituna is more or less in charge of the Temple computer/database and pretty much anything related to sys admin duties. Latula is a librarian. Specifically, she's the librarian of the Temple's restricted archives. Despite Mind and Doom not "working" well together, and despite not being able to get married because of same, they have a strong relationship. (The issue here is that Mind and Doom both have a tendency toward severe depression, and Doom powers affect Mind powers and vice versa in ways that makes the depression epic.)
This did not stop Mituna or Latula from being drawn to each other, or from having a relationship, which turns out to be very stable if they keep a certain distance/balance between themselves and their powers. (Finding out that balance was Fun.)
Because they are absolute dorks who love making their kids scream at them because of the cheesiness, it would be "I Got You Babe." (They would sing it a lot when the kids were small, so of course when Sollux and Terezi got older it became Embarrassing.)
20. What is a promise they have made to each other?
Essentially, to not let the restrictions of their Aspects, or not being able to get married because of same get between them and their relationship.
22. If their lives were what was originally intended at birth, would they have still fallen in love?
I am not if or how this question would apply to them. I'm also not really sure what this question means. The assumption here seems to be that the otp in question are star crossed lovers who were never otherwise intended to meet, I think? And they went under some fate defying experience together. Except that would be impossible in this case, since Mituna and Latula grew up in the same town together. And they're only "star crossed" in the sense that their Aspects don't interact well with eachother.
Otherwise, they are both doing exactly what they want to do/more or less what their parents hoped they'd want to do.
24. What is something they have each had to forgive the other for?
Mituna: Latula had a bad few months when she found out she was pregnant with Sollux and Terezi. She was very upset and angry and went into a depression spiral. She didn't want to see Mituna (or pretty much anyone) during that time and she said and did some things that she would not have done if she hadn't been going through a depression spiral.
Latula: In high school, Before Mituna started taking medication for his depression and mood swings, he would go through periods of being a complete son of a bitch. This was highly stressful and unpleasant and came to a head when Mituna actually tried to get into a physical fight with Latula. (The fight was over Mituna's friendship with Kurloz Makara. The fight was stopped by Kurloz Makara, which caused Latula to reassess her opinion of Makara, even if he was hanging out with Damara.)
(In short, they have mostly had to forgive each other for things they did or said while having Depression or shit their Aspects have done in reaction to each other.)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 21/?
Fandom: Homestuck
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Relationships: Karkat Vantas/Beta Kids, Karkat Vantas/Alpha Kids, Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Jade Harley/Karkat Vantas, Dirk Strider/Karkat Vantas, Rose Lalonde/Karkat Vantas
Characters: Karkat Vantas, Beta Kids, Alpha Kids, The Trolls (Homestuck), The Signless | The Sufferer, Rose Lalonde, Dave Strider, Dirk Strider, Jade Harley, Terezi Pyrope, Feferi Peixes, Eridan Ampora, Sollux Captor, Jane Crocker
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Godstuck, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, The Alpha and Beta Kids are Elder Gods, Humanstuck, Karkat Is Stuck in A Horror Movie, Unspeakable Spooning, Tentacle Snuggles, Smol Angry Bean, Ancestor Cameos, Jade is a goddamn furry, Jade don't need a quad suit, A slowly growing list of tags, Crows are feathery assholes, Eldritch Cockblocking, Jake uses the term "mongoloid", Outdated terminology to go with outdated slang, Date Fail, Romance Fail
Summary:
Karkat attempts to rescue a freshman from what he assumes is some kind of super horrifying Satanic Panic hazing ritual. Things go steadily downhill from there.
in which Karkat is a first level paladin and things go sideways.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 19/?
Fandom: Homestuck
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Relationships: Karkat Vantas/Beta Kids, Karkat Vantas/Alpha Kids, Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Jade Harley/Karkat Vantas, Dirk Strider/Karkat Vantas, Rose Lalonde/Karkat Vantas
Characters: Karkat Vantas, Beta Kids, Alpha Kids, The Trolls (Homestuck), The Signless | The Sufferer, Rose Lalonde, Dave Strider, Dirk Strider, Jade Harley, Terezi Pyrope, Feferi Peixes, Eridan Ampora, Sollux Captor, Jane Crocker
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Godstuck, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, The Alpha and Beta Kids are Elder Gods, Humanstuck, Karkat Is Stuck in A Horror Movie, Unspeakable Spooning, Tentacle Snuggles, Smol Angry Bean, Ancestor Cameos, Jade is a goddamn furry, Jade don't need a quad suit, A slowly growing list of tags, Crows are feathery assholes, Eldritch Cockblocking, Jake uses the term "mongoloid", Outdated terminology to go with outdated slang, Date Fail, Romance Fail
Summary:
Karkat attempts to rescue a freshman from what he assumes is some kind of super horrifying Satanic Panic hazing ritual. Things go steadily downhill from there.
“Yeah,” Karkat says, just as quietly. “Terezi, c’mon, wake up.”
“No one tells a dragon to awaken,” Terezi says, voice muffled as she snuggles. “‘S Saturday anyway.”
“You’re not a dragon and it’s Tuesday, c’mon. There’s pancakes and bacon.”
Terezi stirs, and finally lets him go. “Good, bring me some,” she says, and rolls over.
“Haha, no,” Karkat says.
Build a Life from Scratch
“Disciple?” one of the Demonesses leaning against Highblood asks.
“Dirtblood heretic of a false--” Highblood mutters, glaring at you, for lack of anyone else to glare at. The Demoness in his lap reaches up and smacks his cheek Her hand lingers, stroking where she smacked him.
“Shhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooosh,” she says, a humming vibration that manages to somehow send shivers down your spine.
“Stop that,” Highblood mutters.
“No,” the Demoness in his lap says. “Rub my neck.”
“I’mma break your neck,” Highblood says, but does what he’s told.
“Disciple?” The Demoness prompts, pouring another drink. This one she hands off to you.
“Catskin’s in one piece, and decided to leave me in peace instead of pieces,” you say, and take the cup. The contents are definitely alcoholic with notes of honey. You take a sip.
“Mead,” Demoness says.
“Don’t drink it, shit’ll make you crazy,” Highblood says.
“It’s not mind honey,” Demoness says back. “Just honey.”
jam fic I wasn’t able to sufficiently make grotty or nsfw enough, tentatively titled (glaciers melting in the dead of night)
Posting the whole thing since it’s super rough
(Warning for mild dub con, body horror and some really gross biotech + depression/suicidal ideation +HIC being kind of Captain Bad Touch.)
So, disintegrating "I failed" Dirk from Game Over doesn't die or actually disintegrate, that would be too easy. Instead he gets pulled between multiverses and goes through a hole punched into reality by the Psiioniic who is going through a "rough patch" of space. (Because weird shit and I half stole this concept from roachpatrol.)
So he's in real, actual space and you cannot actually breath in real actual space even if you're a god. Dirk might have ended up a seagull slamming into the ports of HIC's flagship but HIC is curious enough she has Psiioniic pull him on board before he can like, die.
This particular iteration of HIC is curious about the strange creature that appeared and has him sent to the infirmary so they can figure out this new alien psiioniic. Dirk is unconscious and doesn't have much say in the situation. When he wakes up he still doesn't have much say in the situation, but it too depressed to care or even pull out the various tubes and IV-equivalents.
In a bid to commit suicide.
After a week of Dirk being semi-catatonic, HIC decides to check on Dirk herself.
This...doesn't go well. Dirk rouses out of his stupor and promptly attacks HIC. HIC defends herself, but does not actually want to kill her new pet so she has Psiioniic restrain him. Dirk tries to pull the soul stealing thing, and gets his ass knocked out and then drugged.
HIC is advised to put the psiioniic down, it's obviously some kind of assassin/trick/what have you. HIC does not agree. She also makes a habit of repurposing weapons used against her. As you do.
She has Dirk moved to her quarters, which actually take up a sizable chunk of the ships space. She takes care of him more or less by herself, with some assistance from Psii. Dirk is either non-responsive or tries to attack her, and she doesn't know why because she a) does not speak English b) Dirk doesn't do a lot of talking while he's attacking.
So, Operation Strange Alien Taming begins.
So, Dirk has been pretty much hunger striking since he woke up. He is not aware at first this is a different reality/universe's HIC, though the fact that this universe has trolls should have clued him in. He can understand what she's saying ("sugar grub, you don't want to have that tube worm made permanent do you? C'mon sprat, point at the picture and tell me what it is...") But she can't understand him, so he has that.
So he has a food tube and something like an IV for hydration. There is also a catheter involved. He has made a few attempts to remove one or the other of the tubes, which are literally some variety of bioengineered worms because why not include some body horror. Dirk basically ends up restrained because he keeps trying to pull them. Imagine a big gel filled bean bag chair that's too big to be moved or shifted and is possibly also alive. The restraints are bright fuchsia straps over his legs, arms and chest and hips. The gell filled possibly also alive bean bag shifts and moves every so often, so he doesn't get bedsores or something.
HIC does not get bored or very annoyed in the face of Dirk's obstinance. She's very interested in the way he pretty much seems to understand her, and even recognize her. (In a weirdly personal way. Like she was something personal to him, part of a revenge cycle or something, which pointed in the direction of him being and assassin of some kind, but there's no species matching his description in the databanks yet, so what the hell?)
Dirk is kind of confused. And also angry. But mostly confused. He would have expected offhand culling or maybe torture, not this weird persistent demi-kindness.
He is also aware that there are other trolls here? He comes up with random theories he could probably solve by asking questions but he doesn't bother asking questions. Because he is also depressed.
He is more depressed than goddamn Shinji and there is no one to tell him to get in the mech. He is more depressed (but less of an asshole) that Thomas Covenant. He is more depressed that someone walking through the Doldrums.
He thinks he might actually be in a dream bubble somehow.
Dirk talks, eventually. Staying quiet when you have oh, a decade or so brave speeches for when Confronting Fish Hitler At Last is pretty much impossible. And maybe he also wants to push, to figure out what the fuck is actually going on, because he's finally figured out HIC, this HIC doesn't speak English, and is apparently trying to teach him Alternian.
So there's a point where he declares that she won't wear him down with this. He'll defy her to the end in the name of the millions she drowned and tortured and in the name of his ancestor who defied her to his last breath and so on and so forth. It's a really good speech and doesn't sound at all like something he practiced in front of a mirror when he was oh, twelve or so.
HIC listens to the Brave Speech, spoken in more or less good Alternian and is completely dumbfounded. "Guppy, water you e-fin talking a-boat?" she asks. "I've never met your species or been to your planet." On the other hand, he knows Alternian, and definitely has some kind of beef with her, so she's a little confused, and even more curious.
Dirk...is pretty sure that's genuine confusion in her voice. He's also pretty sure that HIC would have no reason to play at being confused, or like she didn't know who he was. He's pretty sure she doesn't actually know him at all, which makes him think in terms of again, dream bubble, and she's dead-dreaming much earlier in her career.
The question is, does he want to remind her she's dead? The answer is: no, probably not. (Dirk also goes on a slight tangent on whether or not he's still alive, and kind of distracts himself and falls silent, pretty much ignoring HIC.)
HIC, who is actually alive, and likely to stay that way trying to think her way through various possibilities. "Maybe it's like that story where there's a time traveler trying to kill some fish before he can make a military mistake or some-fin."
"If so, who ever it was had lousy aim," Psii says.
"Whale, see if any explorers have found a planet with mammalian trolloid lifeforms."
(They haven't.)
What she's going to do once she finds the planet, she's not sure. Maybe keep them from developing time travel technology because she can't really sea that going whale. (Especially if you get dumped out in the middle of space.) Maybe this grub popping up is what directs her to find the planet.
She brings this up with the alien, who gives her the strangest look. He doesn't say anything, and she can tell he doesn't want to. "Whale, how about you introduce yourself, since you're talkin now?" She asks, and pets his hair. The alien turns his face away and doesn't answer. "Rude," HIC says. "I'm--"
"Your Imperious Condescension," Dirk says.
"Whale yeah, boat I like you," HIC says, still petting Dirk's hair. "And you're a pitiful little ship, so you can call me by my hatch name, with is Meenah Peixes, when it's just us."
Dirk starts into his "you won't break me" speech. Meenah is not actually impressed. Amused and a little baffled, maybe, but not impressed. She covers his mouth with one hand, and shooshes him. "You're all ready a broke up wreck, sugar grub, either trying to krill me or yourself, maybe both I don't even fucking know, I'mma more curious about how to put you together."
Dirk starts into his "you won't break me" speech. Meenah is not actually impressed. Amused and a little baffled, maybe, but not impressed. She covers his mouth with one hand, and shooshes him. "You're all ready a broke up wreck, sugar grub, either trying to krill me or yourself, maybe both I don't even fucking know, I'mma more curious about how to put you together."
This is where Dirk gets scared. She has, as far as he can tell, called his bluff. (He did not in fact have a bluff.) He also gets an inkling now that this is not an HIC he knows. This is not Betty Crocker, but she no less dangerous, and he has no fucking clue about what to do. Nothing is going according to script. He just kind of stares up at her.
Meenah can see that he's scared. Which would make sense if he's some kind of rebel of a planet she hasn't found yet, whose gone back in time to defeat her. ("'Tuna, why is my life suddenly a really bad sf movie?" she asks. "It was bound to happen sooner or later, Empress.") "You're already talking to me, sprat, you might has well tell me your name, before I make one up."
Dirk does not want to be called "Fluffy" or the Alternian equivalent. This is a feel that emerges from the bleak gray sea he's been floating in. "Dirk Strider," he says. Meenah pretends a shocked gasp. "The notorious rebel, Dirk Strider who I never even fucking heard of," she says. "What an honor! Except not, because you were mostly a flitterbug on Tuna's windshield."
She tries to get him to talk some more, but Dirk is not a great conversationalist at this point. She eventually heads off to do Empress Things, but leaves Dirk with an entertainment unit and a remote control. ("Tuna see how well he can read the menus and shit." )
Dirk does end up watching movies! Someone of the medical persuasion comes in to check on him. Dirk does not actually try to fight them. He's offered food, which he refuses. Medical person sighs fills up the UV worm, the food tube worm, and cleans up the colostomy bag worm. (Dirk is both grossed out and fascinated by the biotech.)
Meenah works up a steady campaign of bringing food, little snack foods and drinks with her when she visits Dirk. She asks him questions related to the time travel theory she has concerning his presence. (Dirk lies a lot. Meenah is pretty sure he's lying. Sometimes he tells the truth and she's still pretty sure he's lying.)
HIC typically offers food or drink, then tries to get Dirk to talk. Sometimes she can get him to eat. Occasionally Psii comments. "This is weirdly pale Your Imperious Condescension."
"Sometimes a beach is just weirdly pale, 'Tuna," Meenah says. She pets Dirk's hair, which is starting to grow out. She also strokes his cheek, which makes him shiver. "Lying around all day ain't good for you. Want to get up and move around?"
Dirk has not idea what to do about this, or about this weirdly honest sounding question. "If you're going to bribe me into betraying my family, why don't you do it with questionable sugar coated rosewater candies?"
"Wouldn't know where to get that. Want a deep fried water beetle?" Meenah pops one in her mouth and chews. "So, family, you're ancestor who I don't know but apparently cacked and...?"
Dirk talks a little about his Bro, but he's hesitant. Part of him really does think talking about Bro is a betrayal, like he's giving away details. He's pretty sure by now he can't do that, that he's somehow in a completely different universe, but it's still in the back of his head despite jokes about betrayal. "Your ancestor and his--moirail I'd guess--sound like they'd be bitchtits opponents," Meenah says. She finishes off her deepfried water beetle and offers him one. "Haven't found your world yet, but I guess we can find out?"
The idea of HIC going to Earth, invading Earth even an alternate Earth to find out what kind of opponent his Bro was makes Dirk's stomach flip. It cracks whatever reserve he's been able to maintain. (Not much of one.) "Please no," he says, even though he knows on a certain level it should be (hopefully) impossible. Alternia's universe created the Beta universe, after all.
"Sugargrub, from my end, I got attacked first," Meenah points out reasonably. "A beach has to snap back or no one'll respect her." The look of sheer horror on Dirk's face is at once hilarious as fuck and pitiful as all hell. Meenah almost laughs, but it looks like Dirk might throw up, which wouldn't be funny at all. "Aw, sprat, no," she says and goes for the nearest trash receptical.
She almost doesn't catch it in time. Also, the position is pretty awkward given how he's strapped down. The poor grub turns almost gray-white and heaves up a bunch of bile and nutrient solution. "Shoosh, Dirk," she says. "Fuck, you're a wreck, I'm almost sorry for doing that, you don't blink at half the shit I say sprat. Is that actually what happens?"
"No," Dirk gasps, voice hoarse and raw. "No." And in a voice like he doesn't even know that he's saying, it. "I don't want anything else to be my fault.
Meenah spends some time shooshing Dirk though most of what she's doing either only works for trolls or would only work for humans who are not Dirk. She does eventually get him settled down, making no promises of course that she won't conquer his planet if she happens to find it. "I had a little surprise planned for you on the recreation deck, maybe let you exercise some, but you look like carp, so maybe not," she says. "I have something that might calm you down though" She pushes a needle into the UV worm and presses a plunger.
"It's drugs," Dirk says.
"Just something to keep you calm," Meenah says. "We can go another day."
Dirk tries hard not to have his interest piqued. He's not all that successful. He's been watching the entertainment screen, mostly and he's at the point where he'd be wanting to build something, or take it apart and put it back together. "Really?"
"You'd be restrained because I don't trust you not to attack me or run around like an untrained barkbeast, but yeah."
"It's a dog park isn't. You were going to take me to a dog park," Dirk says. Meenah stays with him till he goes to sleep, feeling weirdly hopeful at the prospect of being able to walk around, even if hobbled. It's another couple of days, but Meenah makes good on her offer of an outing. She dresses him in a black uniform with orange trim. He tries to dress himself, but she smacks his hands. she cuffs his hands and ankles, and links them with a chain. The final item is a choke chain collar and a fuchsia leash. She grins like a shark as she puts the collar around his neck. "If you're good, I won't have to hobble you in the future," she says.
"I notice you don't say 'won't put me on a leash'," Dirk says.
"Whale, parading rebels around on leashes is just how it's done."
So, Dirk gets walked. Meenah occasionally stops to talk with courtiers. Courtiers stare at him and delicately question the uniform, which turns out to be a standard dress Threshecutioner uniform. Meenah does not answer questions about the uniform or about why an alien that tried to kill her is wearing a Threshecutioner uniform.
The entertainment deck has restaurants, theaters, gyms, pools and a large parklike area. Meenah walks through the park, eventually finding who she's looking for: Her Chief Threshy. Said Chief Threshy takes one look at Dirk as asks in a pained voice, "Empress, why is an alien assassin wearing a Threshecutioner uniform with tabs for my goddamn flaysquad?"
Dirk stares back and tries not to react. The troll is not especially tall, but he's broad, with short hair that just barely long enough to curl, and short rounded horns. The uniform's trim is bright red, and so are the troll's eyes. He's pretty sure he's seen this troll before.
"I ain't so shore he's an alien assassin Carpkat," Meenah says. "Water you got for me?" She asks.
What he has is a picnic lunch. A cold roast bird, fried beetles, a tray full of rolls of meat and cubes of cheeses and something that might be potato salad if it wasn't blue. There's also bottles of some kind of beverage. "Carpkat" makes a plate for the Empress.
"Are you mute or something, asshole?" the troll asks Dirk.
"He's just shy," Meenah says. "He don't talk much aboat anyfin unless I make him." She pokes Dirk. "Say somefin."
"So, why am I wearing a Threshcutioner uniform?" Dirk asks.
Breakfast and arguing wakes Karkat up the next morning. His head hurts a steady throb just behind his eyes. He can smell eggs, bacon, pancakes, and hear a conversation about whether or not to call the police and why that isn’t going to happen. Karkat recognizes the voices of Ms. Pyrope and Si, as well as his dad. His arm has fallen asleep and Terezi is clinging to him like a lemur. He tries to pull free, but this just results in Terezi frowning and clutching at him.
“Heh, cute,” Mituna says quietly. He’s sitting in a nearby chair, watching the news, but also watching them. “So, you kids made up?”
“Yeah,” Karkat says, just as quietly. “Terezi, c’mon, wake up.”
“No one tells a dragon when to awaken,” Terezi says, voice muffled as she snuggles. “‘S Saturday anyway.”
“You’re not a dragon and it’s Tuesday, c’mon. There’s pancakes and bacon.”
Terezi stirs, and finally lets him go. “Good, bring me some,” she says, and rolls over.
“Haha, no,” Karkat says. He sits up with a stretch and gets up out of bed. “Anyway I think your dad wanted to yell at you.”
“That was at least half the plan,” Mituna agrees.
“Uuuuuggggh,” Terezi says, and throws a pillow that could have been aimed at anyone.
“Do you have a headache?” Mituna asks Karkat. “Do you still feel tired, dizzy?”
“Not really dizzy,” Karkat says. “Maybe still tired? And a headache. Also I’m hungry.”
“Let Feferi take a look at you,” Mituna says. “You might need to take a nap, later.”
Karkat nods, and heads for the bathroom. Behind him he can hear Mituna talking to Terezi, and Terezi not being very cooperative at all. He’d be a little more worried if he didn’t know Terezi wasn’t a morning person. After a visit to the bathroom he heads into the Pyrope’s kitchen.
Si is at the table drinking coffee, as is Feferi. Dad and Ms. Pyrope are over by the stove, arguing, with occasional comments from Feferi or Si. In addition to Ms. Pyrope, Feferi, Si and his dad, there’s a kid sitting at the kitchen table sullenly glaring at the plate in front of him. The kid’s maybe twelve, his clothes are tore up and dirty, and his eyes are the darkest blue Karkat’s ever seen, and his hair’s a rat’s nest tangle of black curls. “Hey, you’re the kid who wrecked my bike,” Karkat says, suddenly and completely sure. He hadn’t actually gotten a good look at him, but this was definitely the kid. The kid just glares at him.
This breaks up the ongoing conversation between dad and the others. “Karkat?” dad asks turning to Karkat with a frown. “You’re sure?”
“Yeah. I mean, I didn’t see him, but…I’m really, really sure he wrecked my bike,” Karkat says. “Why is he here?”
Dad sighs. “He was one of the assailants who attacked Ms. Pyrope and Mr. Captor while they were attempting to help me. When I realized they were about to imprison a minor without even calling the police--”
“He was going to be taken to Ivy House with the other prisoners. He would have been questioned, nothing more,” Terezi’s mom says.
Ivy House was the home of the High Priestess, Karkat recalled. Feferi was living there part time, studying her Great-grandmother’s grimoires and the works of previous High Priestesses. Apparently, Ivy House had a dungeon, which was weird, disturbing, and about what you’d expect from a secret cult.
“Without the presence of a parent or guardian, or even a lawyer? And you’ll forgive me if I don’t feel comfortable about anyone being taken to this Ivy House of yours,” dad says.
“I hinted really broadly Kankri could take the kid into custody, which he did,” Si says, and drinks some more coffee.
“Maybe I should tell him what that custom is actually about,” Terezi’s mom says crankily.
“Believe me; I’m aware,” dad says darkly.
“Yes we’re terrible and take battle captives and bind them as servants!” Feferi shouts in sudden exasperation. Her voice cracks a little, and Karkat notices that there are dark smudges under her eyes, and her hair is in a slightly ratty looking twist. “And slavery is illegal unless you’re in prison where you can be forced to work!”
Dad frowns at Feferi. “And I find both abhorrent Ms. Peixes,” he says. “I only took the boy ‘into custody’ as Mr. Captor says because I didn’t want him to be ‘questioned’ by your priests.”
“I’m fine with that, Mr. Vantas,” she says around a sudden yawn. “But you can’t assume he wouldn’t be disappeared by the cops either.”
“It’s kind of our town, Vantas,” Osiris says. “Any of them could be part of whatever faction’s targeting the High Priestess--and you.”
Dad rubs at his face with one hand. “I wish things were less complicated,” he says. “Are you all right Karkat?” he asks with concern. “They attacked this place as well.”
“We’re okay,” Karkat says. “We--it was mostly Terezi--were able to hold them off til help arrived. Um. Mituna says Feferi should check me out,” he says, looking uncertainly at Feferi.
“Shore!” Feferi says, looking a little brighter. She pushes back on her chair, gets up and comes over to Karkat. “Checking out” involves holding the palms of her hands just over the sides of Karkat’s head for a few minutes, occasionally asking him to move his head. She’s not touching him, but he can still feel her, Karkat thinks. It’s not exactly warmth or pressure, but something a little like both. “I think you’re all right, for your first battle,” Feferi says. “I’ll go check up on Terezi!” She heads out of the kitchen, and Terezi’s complaints get a little louder.
This leaves him in the kitchen with Terezi’s mom, his dad, Si and the angry kid. Karkat does not feel particularly comfortable about this, but he takes a seat. “So, what happened,” he asks, sitting down at the table. He ends up sitting across from the kid.
Dad sighs, and sits down at the table next to Karkat. As he does, Terezi’s mom sets a platter full of bacon on one side and piles of fried eggs on the other. Then she sets down another dish, this one full of pancakes. “Thanks for helping with the fried eggs, Kankri,” Terezi’s mom says.
“You’re welcome, Latula,” Dad says. Karkat can feel that he’s distracted and uncertain. “Why don’t I get the coffee--” he starts to get up again.
“The coffee’s handled,” Terezi’s mom says, sounding amused. “Don’t worry about it. Talk to your kid.” She pours coffee for Si, herself and then Dad.
“You make it sound easy, where there’s an audience,” Dad mutters.
“It would be just as hard without. Do the thing, Kankri.”
“Right, do the thing,” Dad mutters. Karkat can feel his Dad’s distress and self-blame over what he had happened. “What happened was that I tried to use a spell that would predict the best outcome for…leaving town,” he says. “I’ve been worried about you, worried about what’s been happening, worried about…everything basically. So I used a spell that I wasn’t ready for and it got out of control, and drew you in,” Dad continues. He glances over at the kid. Karkat finds himself doing the same. “I’m told I was ‘influenced.’” (The kid sneers back.)
“When Si and Latula had just freed me from the spell, at a critical moment, they were attacked,” Dad says.
Terezi’s mom sits down and snags a few pancakes and some fried eggs. “It wasn’t something we hadn’t expected,” she says. “I don’t think anyone expected you, however.”
“Uh. What happened? Karkat asks. He senses a sudden wave of guilt, combined with a sense of, I was defending my home I have no reason to feel this guilty from Dad. He catches images of burning figures, and the sound of ambulances, and does his best to pull away from his dad’s headspace.
“Kankri stumbled out of the house and set fire to the attackers and most of the lawn,” Si says, also serving himself. “Rage kid over here wasn’t line of sight and managed not to get burnt.” (The kid scrunches down in his chair like he expects to be hit or something. When nothing happens, he straightens up a bit.)
“Jesus,” Dad says, looking uneasy. How can you be so calm about this? He thinks. Just as quickly he says, “sorry.”
“That was either apology for blasphemy or an apology expecting us to be repulsed by the name of Christ,” Terezi’s mom says in in an almost cheerful tone.
“Of course not; I’m agnostic anyway, as ridiculous as that might sound to you,” Dad says. He starts to fill his plate with eggs and pancakes.
“Sounds fake, but okay,” Mituna says as he enters the kitchen, followed by Terezi and Feferi. “Sol and Aradia are still sacked out in Terezi’s room,” he says. He collects a hug from Terezi’s mom and sits next to her. It’s pretty crowded, but the kitchen table is the kind with an insert to make it larger, so everyone pretty much fits.
“My exclamation was mostly because of how blasé you all are about this kind of…feuding,” Dad says. “You even bring children into it.” He gives Terezi, but also “the Rage kid” a pointed look.
“Not sure we could keep them out,” Mituna says. “The older kids anyway.” He looks over at “the Rage kid,” who still hasn’t gotten himself anything to eat. “Teeny kids like this on the other hand…”
The kid glares back at Mituna, and something nasty and dark starts coming off of him. It’s like being alone and knowing you’re being followed. It’s like a shadow where there shouldn’t be a shadow. It’s a shape in the dark that’s watching you. “I can take you,” the kid says, voice a weirdly distorted growl. “I can take any one of you, you think I can’t?” The kid’s voice sounds menacing all out of proportion to the kid’s actual size.
Karkat can sense the way the kid is pushing hard against Mituna, against everyone at the table. Everyone is frozen, tense and breathless, even Si. He can feel it too, it slips around him, surrounds him. He shivers with the malevolence of it. The only one not affected is Dad, who frowns at the kid. “Stop that right now,” he says firmly.
The kid tries a sneer. “Try and make me,” the kid says. “Got in your head before.”
“Only because I didn’t expect it,” Dad says. “Now I know what to look for, so stop it.” There’s a burning force to the last few words that seems to make the air crackle.
The building dark collapses like a soap bubble, and the kid flinches back. (Everyone else startles, like someone banged a book down hard on their desk.) There’s a look on the kid’s face like he’s trying not to burst into tears, and he scrubs at his eyes with one hand. Karkat can see the kid’s shaking like a leaf; can sense how scared he is.
“Settle down and eat,” Dad says in a more gentle voice. “Did you think I put the plate in front of you as a joke?”
“Not hungry,” the kid says. He curls in on himself, and Karkat has the impression that yeah, the kid thought it was some kind of joke. (Miserable at having been captured, terrified about what might be in store; angry and trapped and a fuck up besides.)
“I’m not convinced,” Dad says. “You’re skin and bones. Humor me, have one pancake, one strip of bacon and one egg.”
A lot of hostility goes out of the kid. He gets the required bacon, pancake and egg and eats them almost angrily. Then he gets seconds, a few more of each. The kid looks at Dad before he takes anything, and Dad nods, silently encouraging him.
The rest of breakfast is questions directed at Karkat and Terezi about their defense of the house. Si wants a report on the fray motif Karkat performed with Terezi. This wanders into a general lecture on attempting fray motifs with an inexperienced user. (This was apparently a bad idea usually, though Si admits that it sounds as if they had formed a solid duet.)
“Sounds like I wasn’t the only one attempting dangerous magic,” Dad says frowning at Karkat.
“For values of dangerous,” Si says. “Terezi pushed herself very hard. It’s good that Karkat was able to support her.”
“Not for long though, I think we would have gotten knocked out or worse if Terezi’s dad? Hadn’t shown up,” Karkat says.
“Half-dad,” Terezi says immediately.
Dad gives Mituna a curious look, but doesn’t ask the question.
“She’s Sol’s twin sister. They split pretty evenly Doom and Mind,” Mituna says. “It wasn’t safe having them together until they were a little older, and a little more in control of themselves. She’s pissed off she doesn’t have a cooler adult male role model slash bio dad.”
“Yes, that’s totally why,” Terezi says. “Not because I thought you were just my mom’d dorky boyfriend til middle school.”
“It would have been a little better if they’d been both Doom or both Mind,” Terezi’s mom says. “But an even split doesn’t play nice, traditionally and apparently actually.”
“It’s a mystery why we’re such a cool couple,” Mituna says, pushing his chair back. “And why the kids are besties fistbumps forever.”
“It’s because we’re awesome babe,” Terezi’s mom says. She settles into Mituna’s lap with a grin. “It totally cancels out the Doom and Mind together thing.”
“I’m going to go check on Sol and Aradia,” Terezi says, rolling her eyes and getting up from the table. “Before you guys start singing ‘I Got You Babe’!” She yells as she absconds.
“I will play it on repeat forever!” Terezi’s mom shouts back.
“Seems like the kid’s feeling better,” Si says.
“Yeah, I’m relieved,” Terezi’s mom says, leaning against Mituna.
After breakfast, Dad tells the kid to get up from the table, which the kid does, a little woodenly. “If you need to use the bathroom, go do that. Take a shower. Don’t leave the house, break anything, or try to communicate with your people, okay?” The kid nods, and heads off.
“Dad?” Karkat asks, remembering Feferi’s comment about “binding servants.”
Dad sighs. “He’s a minor; I doubt his caregivers are taking care of him if he’s apparently a child soldier. And I didn’t want him to be locked up in Ms. Peixes cellar, or disappeared by Ms. Peixes enemies.”
“It really is the best way for him to not get disappeared,” Si says. “You can help him this way, and find out who his masters are.”
Dad frowns, then sighs rubbing his face with one hand. “I’m more interested in helping him, to be honest.”
“And part of that will be finding the people who turned him into a child soldier,” Si points out.
The kid’s name is Gamzee Makara. He’s about twelve, and is apparently a prodigy when it comes to Rage. He’d apparently “gotten into” Dad’s head and inspiring him to use the scrying spell that filled the house with weird red vines and branches. Gamzee had been up in a tree for a few days “pushing” at Dad, who hadn’t really noticed with all the other uneasiness he was feeling. After Dad, Terezi’s mom and Si had taken care of the other attackers, Gamzee had tried and failed to make a run for it.
(Karkat spends some time kicking himself for not talking to his DAD about learning how to tell when someone was messing with his head. Dad is amused and reassuring about it. It doesn’t really help. Past Karkat is an idiot.)
Where Gamzee is going to be sleeping is as much of a concern as where Karkat and Dad were going to be living. Peixes invites them to live at her grandmother’s house. “Are you sure you should be offering Dr. Foster’s home?” Dad asks. And then she offers Ivy House. “I’d rather not take you up on that offer,” Dad says. “Is there any way my house can be made safe?”
“Si and me can walk you through the protection and alert spells,” Latula says. “If that’s okay?”
“We can also work on combative spells,” Si says.
“Agreed,” Dad says. “I’d rather not accidentally cast fireball while defending my home.”
