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苏州工业园区中新·领袖天地市政工程
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苏州工业园区中新·领袖天地市政工程
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&a href=&http://archiveofourown.org/works/136167&&&strong&A Hand in Holding Hands (Original Draft)&/strong&&/a& (143271 words) by &a href=&http://archiveofourown.org/users/SkaianRedeemer&&&strong&SkaianRedeemer&/strong&&/a&&br /&Chapters: 24/?&br /&Fandom: &a href=&http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Homestuck&&Homestuck&/a&, &a href=&http://archiveofourown.org/tags/MS%20Paint%20Adventures&&MS Paint Adventures&/a&&br /&Rating: Teen And Up Audiences&br /&Warnings: Major Character Death&br /&Relationships: Caliginous Vriska Serket/Eridan Ampora, Tavros Nitram/Eridan Ampora, Tavros Nitram & Vriska Serket, Caliginous Aradia Megido/Equius Zahak, Sollux Captor/Feferi Peixes, Pale Gamzee Makara/Tavros Nitram, Jade Harley & Nepeta Leijon, Aradia Megido/Dave Strider, Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, Terezi Pyrope & Gamzee Makara, Ashen Rose Lalonde/Vriska Serket/Eridan Ampora, Pale Kanaya Maryam/Karkat Vantas, Ashen Feferi Peixes/Aradia Megido/Equius Zahak&br /&Characters: The Trolls (Homestuck), The Kids (Homestuck)&br /&Additional Tags: Ashen Romance, Pale Romance, Caliginous Romance, Flushed Romance, Troll Puberty, Weird Alien Shit, Xeno Culture&br /&Summary: &p&(Original Draft)&/p&&p&An Ashen fanfic.&/p&&p&No friendships. Ever. That's what Kanaya told her weeks prior, but Rose never really grasped the full of it until she found herself at the end of an Ashen crush. Now the Trolls are growing and the culture gap widening, the demon pounding on the door and the horrors whispering in ears. At the centre of it all: Rose, trying to stand on both sides of the shore: without magic, without guidance and without one of her closest friends thanks to the very gap she is trying to bridge. This fic is dedicated to the Alternian third wheel.&/p&
Published:Updated:Words:143271Chapters:24/?Kudos:299Bookmarks:Hits:19775
(See the end of the chapter for
"day five h0ur seventeen.
d0es this mean i sh0uld c0ntinue with my timestamp plan?""Yes, it's helped us keep organized and together so far," Aradia said.
Dave just scoffed.
"Although, if I had known you were disembodied, I would have known the date.""0h.
d0es that mean this is the 0nly time i will be disemb0died"
Aradia's past ghost kept an admirable, equal pace with them as they headed toward past Dave and Jack."Don't get your hopes up too high, babe," Dave said to the empty space before them.
"But not if I can help it.
Even if it's been a while since we saw anyone from the future to prove it.""h0w characteristically gallant if predictable from y0u david""Oh Christ," Dave muttered to his chronological companion.
"I forgot you used to call me 'David.'"The present Aradia smiled to him.
"And I forgot you used to be gallant but totally predictable.""Yeah, now I'm full of nothing but rudeshit surprises."
He readied his sword.
"Except when I'm grabbing my dumbass past self out of trouble just like how I remember.""So we'll attack while Jack is still searching with the lattice?"
Aradia spoke quickly, as there were only seconds left to decide.
"Excuse us," she said to her ghost."0f c0urse""Why not?" Dave said.
"It seemed to work when I was watching me do it."Past Dave – the Dave of Day Five, Hour Seven – cut, dodged and kept in constant movement, too afraid to land any real blows of his own.
His opponent: the robotic shell of Aradia Megido, Day Five, Hour Seven, with one of the demon's energy tendrils impaled through her chest and her spirit ejected.
Jack gained very little combat advantage from her, a puppet he did not understand how to control, but with Aradia displaced she could not stop him, and it gave him something to do as he searched through time for fresh powers.Dave of the present took it all in stride.
He knew the next five minutes well enough.
He knew that he was supposed to fly between Jack and the action figure he had made out of his girlfriend's past self.
He would stare down Jack, cut up some of Jack's chronological net while Aradia kept her old self busy, and when the time was right he would sever Jack's connection to the robot body and both past selves would go home.
Only then things would get new and interesting."Evening, Jack," he greeted as he arrived on the scene.
The demon ignored him: concentration was everything to him when the lattice was up, searching through hundreds of lines for something to leech.
Aradia engaged her past self with a crash, showing far less restraint than Dave probably would have, and he could not help but grin.As Dave approached his target, he could not help but watch the rest of the latticework spreading from Jack's body, searching the time stream.
It was habit, he said some times.
Professional interest, real Hero of Time stuff.
Maybe it was just hypnotic.
At the end of one of the more active lines, Dave could make out a rippling shadow.
Human-sized — no!
Smaller than him, younger.
As Dave watched the figure, the strangest thing began to happen.Dave knew about as much about synaesthesia as the next ex-friend of Terezi's, even accounting for the times she had tried to force-feed him chalk, but he knew what he was encountering when it happened.
As he followed those lines and pictures made out of Jack's raw thoughts, he saw the internal narration that went along with them, like had never happened before.
The voice he read was not Jack's."I'm four sweeps old today, you know."It was a young girl's voice, one he had never heard, and yet found familiar.
The shadow seemed to reply, and dream-like omniscience told Dave it was typing, but he heard no voice.
Rather, the girl's voice seemed to lead to the shadow.
She spoke again: "It's polite to say 'happy wriggling day,' Sollux."Of course.
The wavering figure Dave was seeing in the vision was none other than their ever-delightful hacker friend, at a younger age.
But while it would make a passable joke, Dave was now positive that the energetic girl he was reading in his ears was not that of a younger Sollux.
That meant the speaker, all things being likely, was..."I think it's fourth dynasty," said another memory, to an older Sollux, one that was drawn even closer to Jack.
"But it's possible that it's a seventh dynasty reconstruction, or possibly a mimic of the style from the second renaissance.
I'd like to analyze the clay, but I'm not sure I have the tools."Aradia.
Dave realized with a tightened feeling in his chest that he never would have been able to identify her original voice.
True, it was likely the voice he was "reading" was not quite her speaking voice, the way any person never really hears their own voice unless from a recording, but it was still a revelation, and it helped Dave realize what was going on.
The robot.
Jack was absorbing her memories, learning about his opponents.
He was using those memories to find his next crop of powers, and he had targeted Sollux.
Dave knew well enough to not want to fight Jack armed with Sollux's powers.
He knew the guy was just plain dangerous.
So why was Jack hesitating?
Aradia's memory played out rapidly, toward what Dave realized with a wrench was its original end.
His girlfriend died in his head, in force and burns and he had to hear it.
Sollux, almost defined in detail, had to see it.
But even when Jack saw what Sollux was capable of doing, he did not move his temporal claw more than a few eager inches.
He kept his eyes on Sollux even after his guide had lost him.And then, in the deep past, the Glub hit.
Even though it was not real in the physical sense, it overwhelmed his ears.
He remembered, more than heard, Aradia trying to call him to attention.
He remembered Jack's arms spread wide, with his temporal net like a glowing second set of wings, and his future self stood stock-still like an eclipse.
The Sollux of the past buckled and vomited as he was pulled into the Medium: only then, through Jack's eyes, the eyes of a game construct, did Dave see what Jack was looking for.
Deep in Sollux's heart, a flame sparked.
A flame the roiled from Dersian purple to Prospitian yellow, and carved itself out into the elemental emblem for "Doom" as he died.
Sollux had become a player, and gained a seed of his powers.
Only then, did Jack strike."Hell no," Dave said before cutting in and severing the tendril at once.
Dave felt lucky that Jack was far too distracted to respond.
He did not even flinch when the line was cut.
Instead, his focus shifted elsewhere.Jack turned again to Aradia's memory, absorbing it at a rapid pace.
"my feelings f0r equius are... derailing my f0cus!" she said.
"i have t00 much w0rk t0 d0 to spend time with him and explain things, and yet I find myself drawn.
it's a g00d thing we never met in life, as he is far t00 STR0NG for a normal—"Jack struck out at the Heir of Void's dreamself and Dave dove, intercepted and cut loose the thread before the Demon could seize Equius' powers."Aradia," Dave said at a speaking voice, hoping his girlfriend's robotic ears would hear what would send his past self into a rash panic.
"He's trying to steal our game powers!"Jack was not perturbed and continued at once.
Dave knew he was too to the lattice.
He knew that the moment Jack lost interest in this game he could turn on Dave and seize him like he had the Aradia of Day Five.
That would be the end of it.
His human body would be impossible to repair the way Equius had had to repair Aradia's soul bot, but he pressed on.
Jack did not seem to be waiting for the dead any longer.
He pressed on against the living, the dreamself, and worse.
It would take days to do the work on the timestream it would take to prevent this from happening again, but for now all Dave could do was cut Jack off at the source.
He could not let Jack have the players' powers, now that his plan was so clear.
Aradia's memory rolled on."Nepeta seems perfectly capable of containing Equius on her own—"
Cut."My Exile seemed to think Vriska needed a lesson in humility, or at least that was how he phrased his machinations.
Having a better perspective on this than I think he understood, I obliged with a firm ha—" Severed."The Humans' leader is named John, I think—"Dave whirled, slicing through not just the searching line but the one holding the puppet Aradia as well.
Jack did not notice.
"You try to touch my friends again and I'll stop playing nice, Jack!"
The Demon did not respond, or knew better.
The next fishing line was already out.
Dave turned back to the others as he took stock in the situation.
"Go!" he shouted to his past self.
"Get her back in her 'bot and go!"Jack was now cycling through what he had forcefully pulled from Aradia's memory at that last moment.
Dave could only hope that he had not absorbed enough to identify all sixteen of them through the time stream.
"I'm starting to have peculiar suspicions about Gamzee—"
Severed."The Witch and Sylph of Space are working excellently together—"
Slice, slice."she d0es n0t seem to realize the c0nsequences 0f her 0wn c0urse of action"Dave saw the rippling past image of Rose for only a moment before something felt wrong.
The more he and Jack stared, the worse it became and as one they clutched for their heads as a repulsion seemed to form up against them, wall of bars in sick-green and nausea.
It passed after a moment, and Jack pressed on."The Horroterrors are getting to her, word by word, but the False Derse is almost complete and then we will have words with her."Jack sent out the tendril again, at full speed, but the repulsion started up anew.
A symbol seemed to form in Dave's mind, the barrier's true appearance like a... branch of sorts, but he could not make it out before something new passed before him.
It was an all-too familiar face, too clear to be from the past.
His brother's face looked out at him from the memory of Rose, eyes replaced with coals."Dave," greeted the incubus aspect of the Horrorterror of Many Minds, the aspect Dave knew best.
In that off-voice Rose had supplied him, he spoke to them both.
Can I make a suggestion?"And then Dave felt a tug on the back of his shirt.
Aradia yanked him hard away from his opponent and gave him a hard shake.
"Dave!" she shouted to his face, and Dave felt the real world snap back at once.
He tasted bile and blood, and the incipisphere spun about him.
When he finally found focus it was toward his girlfriend, but her plastic eyes were no longer on him, but gawking at Jack.
He turned and saw that their opponent had likewise been flung back, every strand of his temporal net grabbed as if by a massive hand that led them off through time to the same point.
Guided by that hand, they seized on the same target, and Jack began to shine with starlight.The ghostly image of the possessed began to form about the demon, but different than Dave had ever seen before.
The spirit Jack inadvertantly held glowed with power at the end of a hundred temporal lines, but for the first time did not struggle against its captivity.
Its power flowed freely into the Sovereign Slayer and spread out like Feferi's lusus had not been able to do.
Lines of light spread out in a matrix and a form grew in between: a great and mighty body, held strong and high on a dozen legs with cloven hooves, each stocky and built, yet twisted to fit a frame the size of a warehouse.
White fur thick as a field of grass grew on every surface where it was not cut by a hundred gruesome blows sheared to the muscle and bone.
Two horns sat on a head atop a long neck, horns twisted seven times into a spiral that drove out at its end into gore-points like oaks.
Five eyes, spread about the massive head in an arc, stared down.Aradia's grip tightened on Dave's shoulders but her voice spat emotion her robot body rarely conveyed.
"ARIES.""maid 0f time" said the Denizen of the Land of Qwartz and Melody.
"as i f0rt0ld i live again unchanged and stagnant as the m0untain""Just a ghost," Aradia said.
"And now a puppet.""like y0u"
Dave held on to Aradia's arms, still trying to find his balance, but he felt that if he did not this creature might have well made her wrench away at once.
"but different.
y0u a l0st s0ul and pawn of the great detestation and pr0spit"
The Denizen raised up its neck to its full height and shook its head, snow falling down and hovering in the strong not-air of the Incipisphere.
"i have risen ab0ve.
i serve the black throne of derse thr0ugh its archagent and i reunite with him n0w in vict0ry as my master"
Somewhere beyond its shimmering, semi-transparent form, Dave could make out Jack, in triumph.
"the situati0n has trimmed to its ideal.
it is stagnant and unchanged.
pr0spit has fallen and its g0d left infertile.
derse has achieved its perfect stasis""Ugh," Dave said.
"Do they all sound like this, with the fucking lecture?
I thought it was just mine."The Denizen lowered its head.
"knight 0f time the l0st hepaestus will f0rge again as derse has f0rged the perfect end t0 all"
And then he bleated, like a roar, like a ram could echoed and magnified.
"in perfect timelessness!"Dave, realizing he was clinging to Aradia as he had been during his nausea, raised one hand.
"Okay, that's it with the Final Fantasy bullcrap.""I agree," Aradia said, her earlier rage vanished in synch with Dave's own.
"I have had enough of Dersian rhetoric over the course of time it took to dispatch of Aries and his fellows.""my new king has struck d0wn y0ur th0usands maid 0f time""Hm," was all Aradia said.
"A thousand ways that didn't work.""cheek"
The Denizen leaned so close that it was almost breathing on them.
Though it was nothing but a ghost, Dave could swear that he could feel its breath.
It was frigid.
"call y0ur legi0ns i w0uld be rid 0f you at last""No.""No?" Dave asked.Aradia shook her head.
"The odds of there being any of our temporal selves left to fight are unlikely.
Think about it.
We haven't fought this fight yet.
From here on out, if we live, we'll have to spend all of our spare time trying to keep Jack from ever binding a Player or a Denizen again.
There won't be any more temporal selves left to help us."
Dave could swear he could see Jack grinning.
It was win/win for him.Aradia was grim.
"But more importantly, I've got another chance to see you off, Aries.
Time to do it properly, I think."
And she kissed Dave and broke from him, floating toward the monstrosity Jack had summoned.
She was like a gnat before an elephant, and as she approached Dave felt the strangest sensation.
Wind blew through the Incipisphere, and on it a chill like he had never known in Texas.
Cold winds, below freezing, began to whip and spin about them, catching Aradia's hair in the mix.
Dave could do nothing but watch her go.She turned her head back.
"Are you coming?""Oh, do I get to come too?" he asked.
"I thought you were making a point.""Oh no," she said.
"You can definitely—""ins0lence!
ill crush you b0th and time itself will die!""...that's not even how that works." Dave said.
"Does he ever stop talking?"Aradia held out her arms, bolds of energy charging in her palms.
"he has a script, but it is very long""All right, only one way to shut this up."
Dave drew his sword.
"C'mon, Jack," Dave said on his own.
"We'll take ewe both on.""That was awful.""Shush, I'm nauseous."Dave could not be certain through Aries' semi-transparent form, but it almost looked like Jack was enjoying himself as much as he and Aradia.
He laughed as he listened to their taunts and finally raised his own hand toward them.
The puppet responded and the winds picked up.
Dave saw his breath catch in the air and wiped the condensation from his brow lest it freeze there, despite the salt.
Aries roared and spat snow and ice shards towards them."then die" the Denizen commanded.
"embrace the end of eternity at the hands of the beast 0f fr0st!"Sometimes Dave could swear he could see them: the game mechanics.
Perhaps it was just the way Sburb and Sgrub liked to arrange themselves, but there were times he felt he could hear the music in his mind, the way his Bro used to play his retro boom box at full blast while teaching him a throw or a block.
He could see the words "BOSS STRIFE" scratch into existence, would get a feeling that he had a good gauge of his opponent's health bar, silly as it all might sound.
He had a grasp of everything to the point that it became routine, and he relished the little surprises.
He had had no idea that fighting a Denizen again would make him feel so alive.
Even though he knew how Denizens were tuned to their player, he could never have predicted how it would feel to be with Aradia as she engaged hers for the first proper time.
He had no idea how amazing he would feel to even play bait as she severed it from Jack, or to take the fight to Jack again before he slipped away.To reach Level 99 after all that was an experience all its own, and there was even a simple relief in how good a hot shower felt after seven hours of fighting a giant yak and the winged dog-man it kept in its stomach.
He had no idea how good it would feel to rest in the hall, Aradia slumped next to him in a closer semblance to life than he would have imagined before he got to know her.
There was only ten minutes to spare in semi-timeless space, but sometimes ten minutes of sharing inactivity could feel wonderfully like forever, though he'd never admit it.
It did not even occur to him that he had forgotten something.In a battle that swept across space and several times came dangerously close to the lab, Time and Frost had clashed until subtly was buried by magnitude.
The true victory had not gone to the Maid and Knight, or to the Sovereign Slayer.
A wayward blow, meticulously pre-arranged by impossibly alien minds, had clipped between the Knight and the Beast.
Energy had cut towards the lab and cracked the tiniest seam into the dark side of the False Derse that kept the half of them in the lab safely asleep at night.
In the end, true victory had gone not to Human or Troll or Dersite, but to the Furthest Ring and Elder God of Many Minds.
"Good morning, Rose darling."Rose wakes up in a luxurious castle hall, with a ceiling so high it stretches out beyond sight and sound and little alcoves every ten paces.
Each alcove holds a fine marble vase decorated with rainbow flowers.
She wakes up standing, walking, but it's been so long since she dreamed that there was no way she could have become lucid.
The flowers are spread from red to violet and there are Troll words above the door ahead, below the trident-like symbol of the Empress.
In the centre of the crest is another sign, like a branch, that Rose knows she has certainly seen before, but for some reason escapes her.
She pushes open the door, though it rises into infinity, and opens into a quiet, tidy dining room, where a white-carapaced woman sits, pouring tea."Good morning, Rose darling."Your majesty, Rose means to say, though she says nothing at all, and the woman reacts as though she had all the same.
She has a ring on each hand: four and twelve, shining with the light of normal jewels, and is otherwise wearing a casual, plain dress and is unadorned.
The table before her is a beautiful oak with a short, yellow tablecloth down the middle with a tea set atop: china with pink paint and gold leaf."How have you been?""...C-cold," Rose says for certain this time.
She looks to the left, for the room expands further in that direction, and sees a fireplace waiting there.
The queen smiles to her when she looks back, and offers her the opposite chair, which she takes and sits down."It's been so long since we had a chance to sit and chat.
Hasn't it, Rose darling?"The teacup and kettle are intricately painted, with the central design matching the trident symbol from before.
Where the branch symbol was embossed before, here there is a gap in the pink paint, and if Rose had bothered she could have made it out clearly.
She does not, because the symbol is everywhere in her dreams.
Rose accepts the tea gracefully.
It's an English breakfast tea, not a favourite but certainly suitable first thing in the morning.
At the queen's gesture, Rose sits down and settles under the heavy white tablecloth, as the butler serves them both from the food arranged."I hear you've formed a matespritship.
Tell me about her, would you?""Oh, she's wonderful," Rose says.
The violet blood finishes serving the musclebeast and the toast with grub sauce and moves on to the Empress.
"I wish you could meet her.
Would you like to?""What about your auspisticeship?
I expect good things from you, my dear.""Oh, they're all right.
They're not honestly very good at it."
Rose laughs.
It seems, conversational.
She plays with her fork.
"I mean, they want to, but it's how it is."
It certainly is.
There's less food on their plates.
"How have you been?""Have you given much thought to the future?""Why?"
Rose frowns: her mother is not usually so directly intrusive.
Rose picks at the musclebeast sausage and cuts off a piece."I'd like to think you'd apply yourself, my dear."Rose drops her empty fork back to the fine china plate in mock surrender, and Vodka Mutini scuffles off the table and down the long hall.
He didn't do anything to deserve that.
But now there is an act to upkeep, and Rose turns off to the side of her chair and looks away.
"I am applying myself.""You do have a plan?""Yes."
Asteroid, mousetrap, Eridan jumping off of catwalks, Nepeta kissing Jade behind the ear.
It all seems so horribly abstract in this civilized part of the world."It won't work.""Of course it'll work," Rose snaps.
Her mother smirks at her from across the kitchen counter, a brandy snifter in hand.
"All we have to do is get close to him and—""I don't care about the details, Rose darling.
It's simply another in a long series of the same mistake."You're wrong.
Rose can't feel the heat of the fire any more, and it bothers her.
She should be shivering."Sburb was never one to just give up its players if they ignore its purpose.
Your friend disrupted the game so Sburb adapted the Sovereign Slayer to compensate."Rose clutched her arms close to her chest as she shivered.
She did not want to look back at her tormentor.
"So we kill Jack.
That's what I just said!""You can't kill the final boss without playing the game, Rose.
Not the way you've been.
You tried to break the game.
You had help, and it would have worked, but now you've abandoned your help and Sburb won't stand for that.
You can't win.""We can." Rose is not sure where that outburst came from, but it gives her the strength to stare down the Black Queen.
She reaches a hand up to her own right shoulder, feeling like she had a friend there.
She knows she's alone, but it's reassuring."What's the point of the game, Rose?"Do carapaces ever move their mouth?
"To... create a universe.""No, that's the game's function.
Something that could have run on its own.
What is the purpose of the game?""Why am I here?" Rose demands.
She takes to her feet and feels the heat of the fire to her left, and it makes her wonder why she was still so cold.
The other torch to her right is no better.
Though she stands her ground, her legs tire.
Like she had been running.
Like she wants to.
But the room is so soothing, she does not want to really run.
Sandstone, with firelight casting wonderful highlights and shadows in a way electric lights could never manage.
Frescos line the walls and the throne beyond is of perfect ancient craftsmanship.
The branch symbol lies above it – Rose does not notice."Rose."His hand is so heavy on her shoulder.
Her legs are even more tired.
It would be so much better to sit, but she knows she shouldn't.
She has to look up so high to see his face."Take out your wands, girl."She does.
Not the Quills of Echidna.
The other wands.
The ones John folded into her hand and asked her to put away at the top of her tree.
She feels an odd sensation, weightlessness and the feel of light touches on her body like a shower of gravel.
She has her wands.
Carefully she passes one to her opposite hand, but it's so hard to move that hand when his hand is so heavy."I know you want out, Rose.
I know your friends want out.
Take out your wands and live.""What do I have to do?" she asks.
His eyes are so deep-sunk, like he doesn't want her to look into them.
"...I know you.""It's been so long since we had a chance to sit and chat.
Hasn't it, Rose darling?"Rose gasps in air.
"I... kn-ow you."
Her legs are so tired, his hand is so heavy, her chest is so sore from breathing so fast.
He squeezes her shoulder.
So hard."I think we'll do it more often from now on."A memory tugs at Rose as she looks at this king, the symbol just beyond.
The voices she had created in her head for people she had never known, echoing.
A memory tugs at Rose at just the edges of her psyche.
Dead faces, lost faces, familiar faces and strange...She can't breathe.The world grows black around her, and she swears the torches burn out.
A crawling black sinks out from beyond his face, out and around, closing tight and again.
To keep from falling she reaches out to hold him by the waist.
"How do I get out?""I already told you.
All I said was that you could not do it without me.
Should I tell you again?"Rose nods as her stomach turns, and a strange thought enters her mind.
He's doing this.
If she can stop him she'd be free.
Her hands grip her wands behind his back, but she makes sure to keep her eyes on the pits he calls eyes.
Pits that glow with dead firelight and are suddenly, genuinely warm.
And then she's falling."KILL JACK NOIR."Rose feels the lurch of power shoot out from her wands before she's even done thinking about using them.
Power lances out, strikes and explodes with impressive force, considering her own weakness.
Rose wakes up standing.
Gamzee's jaw doesn't close as he stares at her, his arm steaming heat, and he rolls off of the solid horns and into the slag of the rest of them."...mOtHeR... fUcK..."And then there's a sharp blow across her head, and Rose is unconscious before she can hit the ground."Yes.
I do think we'll do it more often from now on."
Rose woke only a few moments later, and does so only to silence and a leering Troll face."Hi Rose," Terezi said.
Her smile did not break even when she tapped Rose twice on the nose with the red-bloody tip of her cane.
Rose tastes the now-putrid taste of Gusher still lingering in her mouth.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Terezi asked, raising her blurry free hand.It was three, but Rose was having trouble getting that information from her eyes to her mind.
"I... I don’t... what?"Terezi immediately slapped her.
"How many fingers this time?""Well it’s not going to be any easier now!" Rose snapped, trying to force herself to a sitting position only for Terezi to slam her back to the ground."...oh," Terezi said, mindless of her own actions.
"Do Humans not get more focused when you’re in pain?"Somewhere in the distance, Rose heard Jade's voice.
"No!"And Terezi began to chuckle.
Heh, sorry Dave."Dave answered, though he sounded sort of busy while he was saying it.
"Yeah, it explains a lot, doesn’t it?"At the sound of his voice, Rose realized what direction it was coming from.
"...Gamzee!" she shouted and lurched up again.
Terezi grabbed her hard and pinned her down a second time.
"...Where are my wands?" Rose asked instead.
She could smell it.
Rubber and meat.
She could smell rubber and meat.Terezi outright laughed.
"Not with you!"Rose looked about and realized she was on the transportalizer in the main lab, head facing toward Kanaya's side of the room.
The others were all standing around, looking at her or toward the horn pile, where she saw John working for a moment.
She could not see past him but she could see Gamzee's arm, or what she thought was Gamzee's arm.
Purple-black.
John shifted Gamzee and she was sure.
Something purple-black sticking out near where his shoulder should be.
He was conscious, and he smiled up at John and then to her."Oh... heya gally," he said, before Rose's view was cut off by a boot."HOW THE HELL LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING TO THEM?"
Karkat dropped down next to the platform and grabbed her face, slamming her head to the ground once for good measure.
"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PUTTING EVERY SINGLE FUCKING PERSON IN THIS BUILDING AT RISK FOR YOUR OWN GODDAMMED JOLLIES?"Voices.
The faces of the God flickered past Rose's vision in pain, but what remained was worse: Karkat's hissing voice in the back of her mind.
Karkat's voice was breaking in his moult, like Eridan's and Tavros' and Vriska's had before him.
While the others' seemed to have passed in time, Karkat's was fresh and new and the undercurrent hiss spoke to her of hunter and death.
Karkat had her surrounded all at once, and her body screamed that it could not move and its back was against the wall.
She began to hyperventilate again.The others started shouting out against Karkat as Rose tried to keep her focus.
She was able to make out Terezi best of all, since Terezi was still sitting on her chest.
"Hands off my prisoner," she said, and pushed him off with her stick, a little more indignantly than Rose felt was procedure.
Kanaya was the one that pulled him off of her entirely, and Jade who pulled her off of him.
Dave came in their wake, looking haggard but alert.
Rose did not know what was going on any more."Gamzee," she sputtered.
Dave shrugged, and Rose's breath was cut short again.
Something primal cut through her confusion as the scene moved on around her.
A little voice, an impulse at the back of her mind, spoke up with the only clarity she had left.
Dave keeps me safe, it said.
It was hardly simplistic.
In better days, days when she was not confronted with Horrorterrors and angry pubescent Trolls, it just a fact in her brain.
It was a label outlining his patrol in her memory.
Dave and Aradia keep us safe, and all that implied.
But Aradia was not there, and this little line was all Rose had in sanity.
"Dave," she repeated.
"...help."From his crouched position, Rose could see over the top of her friend's shades, and saw scared red eyes beyond, but he nodded.
"Pyrope," he said.
"Truce?"Terezi looked about.
"Yeah, okay," she said.
She jumped to her feet and lifted Rose up with her.
She was already one step away before Rose spoke again."Not the trans... not the...""Of course we're not using the stupid transportalizer," Terezi said as she hefted Rose to her shoulder.
"Come on."
Up ahead of them, Dave started toward the main door.
They passed so close to Gamzee, but Dave made a point of interposing his body as Terezi led the way out.
Rose had to settle for Kanaya.
She looked like she was waiting for Karkat to make another move, to tear his arm off.
Rose hated that Kanaya's feelings for her had overrided her trust of Karkat, but that was just lingering consciousness under a mess of sick and worry.
Kanaya's eyes were not watching Karkat, but Rose, like she was going to cry.
But she stayed.
Terezi looked up at her and she stayed."Where the hell are you going?" Karkat shouted at them, and Terezi laughed again."INT3ROGAT1NG THE PR1SON3R!"Rose felt the eyes on her as she left, and even felt the tickle of Vriska's mind on her own, but Vriska had never been able to probe further than that.
It smelled so awful, even into the hall.
Rose shut her eyes in a failed attempt to shut out the scent, and she let Terezi guide her into the hall and duck down into the access tunnels."S-shut the hatch," Rose pleaded once they were all in.
Dave did so as requested and they pressed on.
At the first ladder it seemed like they had given up, but Rose found the strength to climb it unassisted.
She was surprised it was even there, but the weakness was self-imposed and deep down she knew she could still climb.
She asked that Dave go up first.
Dave keeps me safe.
She wanted him to be there when she got up."Ow," Terezi said as they passed down another nameless passage.
"Have to excuse a poor blind girl.
I've never been here before and it's really musty.""I'm so sorry," Rose said.
And then she stopped.
She had to put out a hand to force Terezi to stop with her, but her legs were so tired.
Her hand caught on a rusty beam and she slipped down, pulled up against the pipes that ran against the back wall and began to cry.
"So sorry."
The others exchanged glances and, Terezi first, sat down beside her."Gamzee?" Rose repeated as the words found their way back to her lips."John thinks he can replace the arm," Dave said.
"He's got some weird ecto-healing plan he came up with Karkat that just might work.
I mean, if he doesn't Equius probably can, but you know."But Rose was not listening.
"Oh god, I took off his arm.
Oh no..."Rose felt an arm on her back as she started to cry again.
A small hand: Terezi's.
She rubbed her back gently for a moment before pulling close, and Dave did the same.
Her friends did not speak to her and certainly not to one another, but Rose felt snug held between them.
She wiped her eyes and nose against her sleeve."Lalonde," Terezi said when it seemed that there was a break in the tears.
"How long have you been talking to them?"Terezi, her mind said, still confounded and lost.
Stupid plans, law and order, and yet, bread fights.
With Terezi, things are normal.
"I don't know," she said honestly.
"He shows up in the transportalizer.""Ugh, of course," Terezi said.
"That's why you kept avoiding them.
I figured you were just being 3CC3NTR1C!"
And she flashed a smile, and Rose felt a laugh in spite of herself."And today he was just there."
Rose shook her head.
"I hadn't seen him in weeks, and he was just there.""Were you asleep?" Terezi asked."I don't know," Rose said honestly.
"I mean, after he started talking to me, yes.
He told me to kill Jack, that I couldn't do it without his help because we had been 'ignoring the game.'""Did he make Gamzee look like Jack?" Dave asked.Rose clung closer to Terezi.
She could speak here.
I was trying to kill him.""Well," Terezi said, "I can shove that down Karkat's throat, if nothing else."Rose buried herself closer to Terezi.
"I'm so sorry," she choked out.
"He's right, I put everyone at risk... 'm so sorry.""Hey, shh," said Dave, "you don't gotta talk.
Fuck, you're making me nervous."
It was probably meant to be a joke but it struck harder than intended.
He adjusting his hand to account for her position, held her arm.
So gentle.
Thank god, so light.
And Terezi, if reluctantly at first, held her firm as she needed."Do you have any idea why he just showed up?" Terezi asked, almost professionally.
Rose shook her head."Well," said Dave.
"There was a lot going on last night.
I mean..."
Flounder, recover, sweet catch: "...on the sensors.""Dave," Terezi cut in.
"I know.""Oh," Dave said.
He sheepishly pulled back in an attempt to recover his cool, but Terezi caught his arm and gently pulled it back to Rose, where she brushed it lightly with her fingertips as the only thank you she had the pride to give.
Perhaps humbled, Dave began to give out some of the details of the night before.
His story ended abruptly, after ten minutes or so when he got back to his feet."I'll have to leave you with that gripping, mutton-filled break for a bit," he said.
"But I've run out of seeing-my-friends-and-girlfriend time and have to get to work.
I'll send someone back to get you both out of here, if you want.""Yeah, whatever coolkid.
Go," Terezi said, and Rose nodded.
For a while, they were left alone there in the dark, before another sound called their attention and another friend approached."Dave needs to, I don't know, make a map to where he wants people to go instead of letting them get lost and stuff."
John's head popped up by the nearby ladder.
"Oh hey, there you are!"Rose looked up at him, breathless, but her mind was still too fogged.
It was Terezi who had to ask the obvious question.
"John," she said only as a cursory greeting.
"Gamzee?""He's okay," John said at once, and Rose felt tears slipping out onto poor Terezi out of sheer relief.
Terezi reached up a hand to John, who took it in surprise and got a squeeze from the Troll girl for his efforts.
"I mean, he's stable.
Kanaya had to amputate, though, but he's stable!"
He clapped his hands together and rubbed them with the fervour of the mad scientist Rose used to tease him that he would become.
"We're going to have a new arm cooked up for him in no time!
Right now he's got his best friend bitching him back to health in the proud Troll medical tradition, but—
H-hey Rose."Rose clung her arms around John's neck, still crying.
John's my leader.
If I trust him... it will be okay.
That one was childish, Rose had known John for so long, and childish things were so much easier to grasp.
John broke out of the hug and cupped Rose's face."Are you okay?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"Dave says you were trying to attack the bad guy.
I don't really blame you for that.""You believe me?" she asked."We all believe you!" he insisted, but Rose did not believe him even as lost as she was.
Terezi changed the subject quickly, perhaps detecting John's utter inability to lie for long."Can we see him?" she asked.John hesitated.
"I... don't see why not."Rose did not much remember the visit to Karkat's ecto laboratory after the fact.
Almost everyone else was there, but Rose was not prepared to count.
She knew that Dave was not there, nor Kanaya.
Everyone looked up at her cautiously as she came, worst of all Nepeta, who hid behind Equius.
Jade came up to hug her, she remembered, and Karkat was silent and Rose was not listening.
The only speaker she remembered was Gamzee."Hey Rosie," he had said.
He had burns on his face, and the rest was covered in a blanket.
There were things bubbling in nearby canisters.
"You've got a good mad face but I think I'd prefer not to see it again, eh gally?"
It was too much.
John led her away, and she trusted him to make things okay."Do you want someone to stay with you?" he asked he settled her on her bed.
Her things, which they had found dumped by her sleepwalking at the foot of Aradia's transportalizer, were gathered on her desk."No," Rose said.
"Sleep.""Okay," he said, and smiled at her, but as he headed through the door, he stopped.
I'm going to lock you in.
It's no biggie, anyone will be able to let you out if you call.""Yes," she said.
"Yes you should."It was surreal to undress and shower in her mood.
Rose almost did not want to risk the latter, but she felt filthier than she had ever imagined, and the shower did what it could to help.
Her mind turned to literature for analogues, but found no comfort.
She soon curled up in bed with a soft shirt and panties and settled in.
She did not look at her clock, too aware that it was only morning.She woke some time later to the sound of voices at her door.
She could not make them out and did not dare stare at the neon on the opposite side of her room to tell the time.
She could identify Kanaya, outright screaming, and Karkat, screaming right back, and Jade and John and Dave.
As her ears focused, she only picked up one thing of value."She was possessed!"
It was Kanaya.
Her voice, too, was moult-breaking, perhaps thanks to her utter fury.
Rose heard her hiss behind her ear, cornering her like she was one of Nepeta's ratlings.
Even Kanaya.
Even her voice was a torment.
"Isn’t that obvious?"Karkat.
"She was not fucking possessed, she said so herself!
I want those things gone!""Karkat," John.
"If Equius can't snap them, what do you want?
Jack's destroyed the Forge.""She shouldn't have to do anything!" Kanaya.
"Don't you trust her?""You only trust her because you're fucking her!""I am not!"
Kanaya hit the wall hard.
"...Karkat...""You think I don't want to trust her?
I trusted her and she blew my best friend's arm off!" Karkat said.
"What the fuck do you want me to do?"
"Huh, Kan?""...I want to see her," Kanaya said."Like hell."I'm hot, Rose's body said, not interested in the shouting that followed.
Her conscious mind, laser-focused on survival, confirmed and agreed.
Fever, it said, or certainly enough like it.
She kicked off her blankets and immediately fell back to sleep, undisturbed by dreams or voices: real, hissing or Horrifying.When Rose woke up, she lay in one critical moment of silence where she did not remember what had happened before and simply existed in drowsy normalcy.
It was like a bad morning back at home.
Any moment now her mother would come in with scratch-made chicken noodle soup, proclaiming that Rose could only be sleeping in because she was deathly ill, and Rose would be too tired to counterattack.
In that way, sleep had done its job: when her memories came back, she was back in control.
She reached up and checked her forehead, but her fever, if any, had passed.
Relieved, she rolled over and briefly considered returning to sleep before she discovered that she was not alone."Kan," she whispered.
At once she pinched her own arm, wanting to be sure this was really Kanaya and not the God again, but the pain was real and Kanaya smiled to her from the desk."...Hi," she said."Hi," Rose replied.
She did everything she could to bury the echo that came to her, that undercurrent hiss.
She reached down and pulled up a sheet from the foot of her bed, suddenly aware that she was under-dressed."Sorry about that," Kanaya said, and the noise was still there.
"I realized you would not want to be disturbed."
Stop it, Rose told her instinct as it squealed on about the predators voices surrounding it.
This is Kanaya, she is not going to hunt me.
Kanaya set down the book she was reading on the desk, next to the items from Rose's sylladex that were now neatly stacked in piles."It's all right," she said.
"...Why are you here?""Because I trust you," Kanaya said.
"And so do the rest of us."
She reached over to the desk and picked something up.
Rose could not help but notice her lipstick, clearly on display by the other side of the desk, where she could clearly see it, and out of Kanaya's quick reach.
Solemnly, Kanaya handed her the Thorns of Oglogoth."Wh—no!"
Rose pulled back from the needlewands.
"These should... Kanaya, these should be destroyed, Kanaya!""We tried," she said.
"And failed.
Your dark friend has seen to that.
I said I wanted you to have them back.
Many of the others agreed.""Kan..." Rose said, breathless.
"...No.""Please, Rose," Kanaya said.
"This is what we decided."Rose shook her head.
"Who...?""Myself," Kanaya started.
"John, Dave, Jade, Terezi, Eridan—""Eridan!"
Rose could not even imagine it.
"Why?""He was very impassioned," Kanaya said.
"Said he was already trusting you with his life so he could certainly trust you with 'a bunch of crazy advanced science sticks.'"
Rose shook her head again, but Kanaya continued.
"Equius seems to trust you as well, and Feferi, and Tavros.
A simple majority vote.""Tavros!
But... his moirail!
Rose's mind shifted, and she pushed aside the wands.
"How's Gamzee?"Kanaya looked for a moment like she was thinking, and Rose worried about her response at first, until she heard it.
"He is... in a vat.
I do not quite understand the procedure, though John tried his best to explain.
Something about cloned stem cells and a number of game concepts I did not follow with my mastery limited to Space.
John is monitoring him closely, Feferi and Nepeta make frequent trips to contribute, but if anything goes wrong John has promised to allow us to proceed with a robotic arm at once.
Either way... he is going to... live."Rose slumped back to bed, relief pouring over her like a wave, but when she looked up she remembered the wands."Why is no one mad at me?" she whispered."Several people are mad at you," Kanaya said.
"I never said otherwise.
You didn't tell us about these frequent visits from your tormentor, and Karkat in particular is furious.
But he has calmed down.
As a matter of fact, I got my first 'Are we still friends?' plead today, after he accused us of..."
Kanaya coughed.
"Well, suffice to say you missed an excellent show."Kanaya leaned in.
"What I said was that they trust you.
The only votes solidly against you were from Aradia and Karkat, for strictly technical reasons.
Kanaya shrugged.
"And Vriska.
She was trying to spite Eridan, though, I think.
As I said, he was adamant.""Why not give them to someone else?" Rose asked, though somehow knowing that her friends would not have ignored such a simple solution."Because as loath as I am to lay this on you, we believe you may be our best defence against your tormentor," Kanaya said, and while Rose could appreciate her honesty, the rock in her stomach was not getting any smaller.
"While you've0 proven susceptible to this 'Terror in the past, we realize that the risk that the fifteen of us could easily be worse is be very high.
There is an ugly fear that Feferi may have been seeded for this purpose via her Lusus, though we did... not exactly broach the subject in front of her."The wands were made of carved oak, Rose saw.
She had never bothered to look at them before.
They had so quickly become absorbed into her plan that they had become common and normal, just like her tormentor would have wanted.
Lines were carved about them, like tentacles and thorny brambles at once.
"He wants me to... open the universe," Rose explained, the words slipping out.
"Anyone could do that, though it'd probably kill them.
If... If Terezi hadn't hit me..."
Kanaya did not react, which Rose found impossible.
How could she know this, if Rose had not known it herself until this very moment?
Dave seemed the best answer.
If she had already done this, in an alternate timeline, he might have already had to clean up after her.
An uncomfortable feeling began to well up as she considered the possibility until it seemed like a near certainty.
Rose imagined the bramble carvings writhing under Kanaya's hands.
She would have to speak to Dave, and soon.Kanaya again raised the wands towards Rose.
"Rose, these are terrible things, but... they are a gift from your allies.
I know you'll keep them safe."The echo, that sound that spoke in Kanaya's voice and frightened Rose on such a primal level, was like a shriek in context with the wands.
Whispering voices and dark magic.
Rose had had her fill of them.
But Kanaya held out her hand firm, and what could Rose do if not trust her?
She sighed, but she reached out a hand.
Please, she prayed, to she could not imagine who or what, don't let me regret this.And she took back the wands.
Kanaya smiled to her, as reassuring as she could be, and then handed her back the items from her sylladex, one by one, until it was buried once more.
It became a routine, over the hundreds of items she had to replace, to take them mechanically from Kanaya such that when the last was placed, she did not notice until Kanaya reached out and took her hands instead."Now," she said, "I think a walk would do you well."And it did.
Except for a dismal moment where Rose insisted to Kanaya that the lock be kept on her room during the night, Rose changed in private and headed out with her girlfriend to lead her.
Many of the others were back in the lab when they returned."Rose," said a tiny voice.
She looked down and saw Nepeta on all fours below her, playing with a small stuffed toy.
All sign of the damage to the horn pile nearby had been removed, and Rose could not help but notice that Nepeta had stuffed a number of stuffed toys under it to inflate its size.
Kneeling, Rose sat down before her and waited for some response, only to be overblown as Nepeta tackled her with a hug.
"I was so scared!" she sniffed.
"I know you didn't do it," she said.
"...Jade says you didn't do it.
Equius says you didn't do it.
Karkat says you're—""'Negligent,'" said the man himself.
"Hey moron."Rose looked him in the eye.
"C'mon, oh fearless leader.
Surely I deserve more than that.""Like hell," he said.
"I know the difference between fucked over and fucked in the head, now that I've... thought about it."
He harrumphed, not even passing off the blame to his past self.
Nepeta gave Rose another squeeze.
"But if you so much as smell this guy I want a full report first damned thing, you understand?
If you talk to anyone but me or Egbert first I'll have your tongue.""Yes sir," Rose said."...Day off for work," Karkat said.
"I'll see you first fucking thing in the morning, of course."
Rose nodded.
She could not believe it.She could still not believe it when they went to the ecto lab.
Eridan was there when she arrived, to support Tavros as he waited by Gamzee's side.
The lab was quiet, except for Tavros, who was softly reading a story to Gamzee from a book.
"I hear you're my champion," Rose said sheepishly as Eridan approached."Bah," was all he had to say.
"I was just backing up Kan is all.""You really..." Rose tried to remember Kanaya's exact phrasing.
"You really trust me with your life?""What?"
Eridan was confused.
"What do you call this shit with me and Vris?
Because if you don't have my fucking back, Roz, I swear..."Rose smiled to him, genuinely like she had never done in her auspisticeship, and hugged him.
"...Thank you," she whispered.
"I don't deserve it.""Fuck, there's no sense in arguing that," he said.
"... 's just silly.""How's Gamzee?" Rose asked after a time.
She could see him, floating there in the vat of strange fluid mixed with a light but colourful touch of sopor slime, dressed in a bathing suit from who-knew-where and a breathing mask.
His arm was already half grown back, if Rose understood it, and she began to wonder just what time of day it actually was.
If it was just the afternoon, like she seemed to think, John had done remarkable work.
She even admired the setup.
John would have appreciated any Star Wars comparisons, so she intended to make them, secretly hoping there'd be some way to work the Christmas Special into conversation since she knew that was his favourite."I think he's gonna be okay," Tavros said, his eyes not actually leaving his moirail.
"Thanks for, uh, coming Rose.
I know he'd appreciate it.""Tavros," Rose said, "this is never going to happen again, I swear I will not let it happen."He smiled.
"Aw, I know that, Rose.
I know you wouldn't hurt him for real."
Rose looked up at their suspended friend and wondered that same thing over in her mind.
Through the translucent plastic of the mask, Rose noticed that even in unconsciousness, Gamzee was grinning like an idiot."I don't deserve this," she told Kanaya later that night.
She was smiling again, and had even been laughing with Jade before they had separated at the transportalizer."It was never your fault," Kanaya insisted.
"What more can I say?""Nothing," Rose said.
She sat next to Kanaya on her bed and kissed her cheek.
The echoing hiss on Kanaya's voice was worse at this private volume, but Rose was already ignoring it.
It was her girlfriend's voice.
If this is how it has to sound for the next few weeks, Rose was not going to hide from it.
She pulled closer, ready to dive into it.
"T-thank you."Though they sat in silence for a time, the couple soon began to talk, and things were almost wonderful.
Rose honestly believed that if Gamzee was back among them, she would feel all but free.
There would still be guilt to work off, but she was as happy as she could have hoped, considering.
Kanaya nestled up against her.An errant question drew Rose's attention to the book Kanaya had been reading when Rose had woken up.
It was one of the books Rose had hoisted on her in the past, and they soon began an eager discussion.
As they began to discuss the early story, Kanaya kissed Rose casually on her cheek.
When it was Kanaya's turn to talk, Rose felt well obliged to return it and followed with another towards her ear.
When they turned to the second chapter, which was markedly dull but important to the plot, Kanaya settled in on Rose's shoulder.
From there, she would stroke her cheek or arm, or kiss her lightly from time to time.
In a pause in the discussion, Rose turned about completely and nuzzled her nose against her girlfriend's."You've been so wonderful today," she said.
"All of you have been wonderful, but you..."
She felt Kanaya's breath tense on her lips.
"...I can thank you."
Rose had planned on kissing her, she wanted to, but some hesitation or cowardice pulled her aside, emotionally and physically.
Instead, she planted a kiss just to the side of Kanaya's lips and began to trail them down her neck.
If Kanaya had detected the sudden change in plans, she did not well reply, and gave a happy murmur as Rose kissed her in the curve of her neck, as she might well have predicted.Somehow, the conversation continued.
Rose supposed they honestly did want to talk about the book on some level.
They were still eagerly discussing characterization when Kanaya drew a finger down Rose's side, errantly to her waist, cold fingers warming against her skin where her shirt was cut too short, but going no further than to just that far.
There was still a line, a strict and even dangerous line that neither of them would dare cross, and they approached so warily that it seemed they might never know where to find it, but that was the wonderful game.
Their whispered conversation assured that Rose was haunted by the undercurrent whisper at all times, and despite her fantasies it never became a welcome force, even if it enwrapped her in "Kanaya." She ignored it, and its pestilent tearing at her primal instinct.
Happily, Kanaya was doing well enough at enwrapping her on her own, pressed to the bed and one another.The feel was surreal, as they never admitted what they were doing in conversation.
The closest they came was when Rose hissed Kanaya's name involuntarily as her girlfriend kissed her just behind the ear.
Kanaya left not long after that.
It was late, and technically the conversations and excuses had run out long before.
Their li their hands never more than brushed bare skin.
While Rose would not have stopped for the world while she was there, after Kanaya had said goodnight she was left with her thoughts and emotions, wondering what on earth had just happened.
Contrary to what had just passed, Rose could not shake old feelings of guilt and cold that snuck up from the morning and wished Kanaya was back for a proper conversation.
Unfortunately, Rose suspected that if Kanaya returned, talk and psychology would not be on their mind.
The room seemed suddenly musty and enclosing.
Rose took to her feet, feeling it would be best to step out to get some fresh air.As she explored Aradia's section of the lab, she passed by the transportalizer.
Weak, she almost wished she could use it and re-embrace the old days of simple tortures if it meant today would have never happened.
She would be happier seeing Dave's late older brother a thousand times, to be taunted about Lust like some old, forgotten childhood crush given demonic teeth.
But she knew she would never again see the simple seven sins personified.
She knew that the game between her and the Outer God had changed, forever, like so much else.
While writing this, I was enjoying the rough mental picture of Aries as a big, multi-legged, fluffy Arceus.
I think that says more about me than I really like.I finish this chapter with much trepidation, because it means I'm bearing down on the dreaded 16/A03 18.
The forum crowd knows I look on 16 like "a nut that needs to be cracked" because it's... well, complicated.
There's so much left to do before then, and only three chapters (two of The Dargon Arc) to use to buy time without looking like I disappeared off the Internet.
Like fruit carts.
The intermediary chapters are like fruit carts to throw before my, uh, pursuers.
I think it's time to stop writing, maybe.
My metaphors are broke.
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