Revelations Cycle Seventh Iteration: Clothed with Love of Old
First off, I'm sorry for the delay. I took some time off while we learn a bit more about sburb in canon, but it's seeming like I'm actually going to have to do very little rewriting, so I'm just going to press on with this, because fuck, it's been a month, how did that happen, let's just pretend that I have not been caught in a complete time warp these last few weeks.
This chapter is going to be the last time we hear from Johntroll in the 'present' tense for awhile, maybe until about Act Two of this thing, even. Which I swear to fuck I will get to eventually, just see if I don't.
Also in this chapter: dragons.
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They met in a timeless place, the Butler and the Maid, a place of white, endless planes and no sky below them, no real ground above them. Her robe and hood rippled in a wind unseen and unfelt by him, as whispers filled his ears like waves against the shore of a lake. As he approached, translucent fingers gripped and pulled, tugging lightly and curiously, then released him, uninterested in the ways of the living. "Hey, Aradia," he greeted her, the barest hint of ice slipping into his tone, unbidden. This was a time to be cool in more ways than one.
"Hello again, Dave," she said to him, using that name, and oh, how he loathed her sometimes, but how could he be angry? Here he could feel his mind coming apart, unraveling, and the shards of a thousand men's memories drifted around him-- if he so desired, he could reach out and grasp a hundred of them, more, where he had answered to that name and been glad of it.
He hated coming here. It always made him feel sick and weird, and now that Aradia was herself, it was only worse.
"I'm not him anymore," he reminded her, pinching the bridge of his nose behind his glasses, trying to stave off the headache desperately trying to build and form like a thunderstorm behind his eyes. "We're trying to stick to one timeline, here, remember? You're the one that told me to in the first place."
All she gave him in response was a sigh, heavy and truthful, bearing the weight of the world; she had no time for his shenanigans. But that wasn't true, he told himself as pressure beat against his temples, a band of invisible iron tightening over his forehead. She had all of the time in the world. All of the time in any of the worlds.
And, conversely, in this place, there was no time at all.
"You are not the David Strider I wished to speak with," she told him, sounding disappointed, her patience wearing thin. She was kinder in this form, a voice whispered to him, tugging at his sleeve and trying to pour itself into his skull through his ear. The presence was like cold oil against his eardrum, slick and sickening. Once she had been, at least. They could be friends. They could--
Daevid Strida was no man's friend, he told himself firmly. He only had use for enemies, and people like Egbert who didn't quite fit into either of those categories. (And TZ, but he wasn't about to dwell on her case just then. Or ever.)
"Yeah, well, tough shit," he grumbled, instinctively feeling for the sword at his side and finding it gone. The damn thing was always buggering off at the most inopportune times, as though it had a mind of its own, which was utterly retarded. "He's not here." The presence pressed a bit harder against the inside of his ear, a foul wind that rocked through his very soul, that somewhere far away made the usurper stars tremble in their ill-gotten sky. Daevid gasped as Aradia grinned, all sharp shark's teeth and lips that were ichor black, only happy mirth where there should have been malicious hatred in her eyes. Daevid hated her, hated her, and the depths of the blackness dragged him down inside of himself, to make way for the other power rising. He hated her--
And then the world twisted and shifted and stretched and
---
Karl remembered nothing of passing through the gate, or of what, if anything, had come before that time. In his mind there was nothing but blackness, pure and gentle as silk, engulfing him and wrapping him up, and a voice like angels telling him to awake, its tones so melodic, so exquisite, that it had been physically painful, and he'd woken with tear tracks drying down flushed cheeks, perversely glad to have landed in his blind friend's domain where no one would be able to see his shame.
He'd been put down on what felt like the top of a hill, and the sun shone above him, so brilliant and bright that it took several seconds of blinking to make his eyes stop feeling like seared meat. There was a breeze, too, a cool spring zephyr that tasted like salt and brine, having most likely originated over some Silurian sea capped with foamy crests. If he concentrated he could hear the steady crashing of sheets of water against beaten rock, a cliff-face, and the infuriated shrieks of slighted seagulls, their wings clipped against updrafts as they circled and dove. Karl didn't need to see these things, he found-- he simply knew that they were, and allowed himself to take a moment of pleasure in the knowing, feeling the wind brush blades of tall grass against his cheek, before sitting up and running a hand through his mussed hair, working out accumulated tangles and burrs.
When he managed at last to look around himself, he was nearly stunned by the beauty. Teri's land looked like nothing so much as the distilled, processed essence of every photograph of Ireland that Karl had ever seen, all rolling waves of emerald green grass over chalk and stone, as though the land were the sea and the sea the land. The sky was endless and blue, wisps of clouds wreathed like cotton, drifting aimlessly. Off to his left the land fell away downward at a perfect right angle, the jagged ledge giving way to a sheer drop and then the ocean, slate gray and restless though the sky was clear, and in various locations between the hills and on top of them strange monoliths rose, sometimes appearing man-made, sometimes a natural growth of whatever rocky outcropping they belonged to, with strange symbols painted on them in white and pale, rusty red. There was no sign of Teri or her consorts, and so Karl warily stood, brushing the dirt off his back and getting a feel for the land. It was solid under his feet and showed no signs of collapsing beneath him, which was favorable. He could live with this, definitely. In many ways, it was good to see light again.
A spark caught the corner of his eye and he paused midway through his first step, foot hovering an inch or so off the ground indecisively as he tipped his head skyward again, tracking the progress of what seemed like nothing so much as a firework burning across the clouds. It left no trail of smoke in its wake, being barely large enough to see, but it was there nonetheless, like an arrow shooting into the distance, where Karl could just see the rainbow glimmer of the gate if he truly tried. He blinked and it was gone save for a residual trail of light scraped across his iris, burning there in spastic alternating purple and teal, and it was forgotten in the next moment as another small dot appeared from the clouds, falling down, down, down towards the sea, glimmering gold as it was struck by the sun's light.
The moment was magical in the best and least silly sense of the word, the sense that it had meant when that word still had connotations of reality, of things eldritch that could be seen and touched and tasted, and Karl savored it as he trotted down the hill and toward the cliff, careful not to fall off. It was at that point, naturally, as he stood alone with awe unfurling like a warm banner in his heart, that his phone beeped, and Karl promptly returned to his usual state of violently cursing everything there was in the world.
GT: karl, i would like it very much if you would stop ignoring me.
GT: it's not very nice.
AG: JESUS, EGBERT, WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE ABOUT YOU?
AG: I JUST WATCHED MY FRIEND DIE AND NOW I'M WAITING FOR TERI TO SHOW UP ON A MAGICAL DRAGON AND TAKE ME AWAY FOR RAINBOW PUPPY SPARKLE ADVENTURES IN NEVERLAND.
AG: I GUARANTEE WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING IS NOT THIS INTERESTING.
GT: sorry...
GT: i guess i didn't realize that it would affect you so much, since you're so tough!
GT: especially considering that you'll see her again soon.
AG: YEAH, I KNOW, SHE TOLD ME.
AG: BUT FUCK, THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT'S NOT JUST THE TINIEST LITTLE BIT UNSETTLING TO FIND OUT WHAT THE INSIDE OF SOMEONE'S SKULL LOOKS LIKE.
GT: yeah. sorry about that.
AG: UGH. JUST... SHUT UP A MINUTE, OKAY?
AG: OR AT LEAST GET TO THE DAMN POINT. WHAT'D YOU WANT THIS TIME?
GT: um. nothing, really. just to check in.
GT: i thought you'd need a friend, but now that you found teri i'm kind of superfluous, huh?
GT: just like always.
AG: OKAY I AM GOING TO JUST GLOSS RIGHT OVER ALL YOUR CRYPTIC PSYCHOBABBLE NONSENSE AND SIMPLY NOTE THAT I AM IMPRESSED YOU MANAGED TO ADD BIG-BOY WORDS TO YOUR VOCABULARY SINCE THE LAST TIME WE SPOKE.
AG: WHAT'D YOU DO, EGBERT, SWALLOW A DICTIONARY?
GT: ...hehehe. no.
GT: i'm going to miss you, karl. even if you do insult me a lot.
AG: WAIT, WHAT.
AG: DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE GOING TO SELF-TERMINATE TOO.
AG: I HONESTLY DON'T THINK I COULD HANDLE THAT RIGHT NOW, EVEN IF YOU ARE KIND OF AN ASS-HAT.
GT: no, of course not! that would be silly. i don't think i ever found out where my quest bed is for this session.
GT: i just meant that you're gonna get really busy soon.
GT: i probably won't talk to you much for awhile, but that's just because i'm going to be busy too.
GT: lots of irons in the fire and such!
AG: FUCK, THAT'S WHAT THAT INSUFFERABLE PRICK SAID TOO.
GT: who, tg?
GT: he's really not that bad, karl.
GT: and trust me, there will come a time when you're very glad you know him,
AG: YEAH, WHATEVER. LOOK, THERE'S A GIANT FUCKING LIZARD HURTLING TOWARDS ME THROUGH THE AIR, AND I'M GOING TO MAKE AN EXECUTIVE DECISION AND DECLARE THAT THIS TAKES PRECEDENT OVER PEOPLE I HATE.
GT: ...wait. do i count as a person you hate?
GT: karl?
Karl didn't know how to answer that, so clearly the best solution was to ignore it and snap his phone shut, which he did with aplomb and an angry flourish, watching as the golden object halted its drop mere feet above the water and came sailing towards him at alarming speed. As it moved closer Karl could see leathery wings like a bat's, branching out from powerful shoulders, extended flat over the waves to catch updrafts. The thing was definitely Saurian in shape, a flat, wedge-shaped head preceding a body that undulated back and forth as it flew as though cutting through the air like water. The tail flowed out behind it, a streamer of light made flesh and bone, and atop its bony back resplendent with thorny spines Teri rode, whooping and hollering with excitement as the dragon banked and turned, bringing her parallel to the sea before soaring up the side of the cliff. Karl took a step back automatically as the dragon aligned itself perpendicular to the ground, its belly practically scraping the cliff's edge as it passed.
His breath left him then, and had not returned by the time the dragon had set itself down atop the hill Karl had recently vacated and Teri was sliding off its back carefully, the dragon nudging her side with its wide nose to help her to the ground. "Hey, Karl," she called, those red-rimmed tinted sunglasses pointed in his direction as though she knew exactly where he was, could sense his very soul. She'd acquired a new cane somewhere along the way, Karl noticed, tipped with the brass head of a dragon to match the thing now standing behind her. Karl fancied that the dragon was watching him suspiciously, a thought that was only confirmed when it gave a great huff of steam and half wrapped a wing around its human charge, protectively. "Meet Senator Lemonsnout. I think you'll be good friends." This declaration was punctuated by her usual cackle, and Karl rolled his eyes, hesitantly making his way towards her.
"Yeah, right. Teri, seriously, that thing is going to eat you." The dragon Lemonsnout narrowed its eyes, a demonic sort of intelligence playing over its serpentine face, and snapped its wide jaws in Karl's directon. A flash of white fangs the size of kitchen knives curved backwards to rip and tear at weakened flesh was all Karl saw-- or needed to see, either. Stifling a yelp of fear he hopped backwards again, heart going a mile a minute. After his previous experiences with consorts, Karl was not about to take any chances. "...Or me," he amended at last, cursing the shaken tone his voice had taken.
"No he won't," Teri told him, completely assured of this fact for, as far as Karl could tell, absolutely no good reason. "He's a good dragon. Not like the rest of them. Anyway, if he gives you any trouble, just whack him on the snout." Her toothy grin widened as she patted the dragon on the side of the face, making it wince but not devour her whole as Karl would have expected. "He knows his place." She said it in the kind of way that made Karl vaguely and disquietingly wonder what had happened to the dragons that didn't.
"Forgive me for not wanting to make friends with your pet monster," Karl snapped, aware that the dragon was still watching him with beady black eyes. There was something insect-like about it, too, the way the plates of its scales overlapped into armor, the way it moved, and again something deep in Karl's soul stirred, afraid. He pushed down that fear, though, transmuted it into anger as he always did and always had; the anger would keep him alive. "Haven't you noticed by now that the consorts kind of, I don't know, want to kill us?"
Teri shrugged, idly stroking one of the dragon's horns, which at least had the side effect of distracting its attention away from Karl and making it produce an ominous rumbling noise not unlike a purr. A very angry purr. "This one doesn't. He protected me from the rest of them after they ate my sprite. There was a bird with him, but she's gone now."
"Your ability to keep your cool in the midst of utter fucking insanity is very inspiring, really, but I think we should get the fuck out of here before imps show up and try to slaughter us," Karl suggested, edging away from the dragon and in the direction of the distant gate. It looked a long way to walk, nearly all the way across Teri's land, and if they wanted to make any sort of good time, they'd have to start soon. Karl didn't know if time even mattered anymore particularly much, considering that there wasn't jack shit they could do for their friends who weren't in the game yet at this stage, but he did know that he damned well didn't want to hang around a world where dragons roamed free.
His friend seemed to disagree, though, snorting much as the dragon had at this assessment. "You worry too much, Karl," she informed him, stepping away from the dragon with the aid of her cane and towards him. Karl noticed that she was relying on it a lot less than she used to, in the time that seemed a million years ago but was really but two days, using it as a walking stick more than a visual aid. Her footsteps were confident and sure, and she did not trip or falter on the small stones in her path. The dragon lay down in her absence, having judged Karl to be anything but a threat, and curled the barbed tip of its tail around its nose, wings folded again over its back. "Anyway, the dragons took care of the imps. I doubt we'll be seeing any of them for awhile."
"Is that how you got those?" Karl asked, gesturing towards the spiffy new cane and Teri's wardrobe, which was... different, from the black, leg-hugging jeans to the red leather skirt over them, and the black t-shirt striped with teal. She was wearing a tie, too, for some reason, in blood red with a strange symbol marked on it in the same teal color that clashed horribly-- not that she'd have been able to tell that.
"Mm-hmm. Plenty of grist to go around. I got this, too," she said, pulling a fancy new cell-phone from her pocket. It was one of the newer ones with the keyboard separate from the phone part of the phone, and about ten dozen apps that no one knew the precise use or function of, and a map generator that wouldn't work, and probably some sort of instant messaging program. It also had a stylized broken heart symbol embossed on the back, again for reasons that utterly escaped him. "A friend of mine gave me a bunch of codes."
"Yeah, me too," Karl said automatically, without thinking about it, because it was true, wasn't it? Suspicion hit him in turn, and he glanced at his own phone. "It was that asshole guy you're always messaging in class, wasn't it? I hate that insufferable prick."
"You're just jealous," Teri informed him primly, snapping her phone open as it buzzed.
"I am not either!" he protested, but Teri silenced him with a glare and a wave, hitting a few buttons.
"Shush, Karl, the big kids are talking." And, true to form, a voice began to emanate from the device, cool and suave with a hint of a drawling accent that wasn't quite Texan, but wasn't quite anything else, either.
TG: hey tz
TG: sorry about cutting out on you earlier some shit came up
TG: its all cool now though
TG: i am running at the top my game bro
TG: you ready to blow this thing straight out of the water?
"How's it doing that?" Karl demanded, stalking over to her and looking over her shoulder. "It's just a text service, right? You're not actually calling this guy?"
Teri rolled her dead eyes behind her glasses. "First of all, chill the hell out, Karl, it's none of your business anymore if I call him. Secondly, no, you dick, of course I'm not doing that, the roaming charges alone would be ridiculous. He wrote me a program that reads his texts to me. It's a lot less buggy and stupid than the one I usually use, anyway, so fuck off for a minute, I want to talk to him. Go make friends with Lemonsnout or something."
Grumbling, Karl went, the sound of frantic typing and her friend's stupid voice following him up the hill. He halted before the dragon, which opened an eye and stared at him for a moment before twitching its tail a bit and returning to sleep. Cautiously, Karl leaned back against its solid body, feeling the surprising amount of warmth it exuded. He would have thought dragons would be cold blooded like lizards, but perhaps it was the fire in its belly that was radiating outward now, its scales warm and sunlight-kissed even where they'd been in the shade of its wing. There he sat and stewed in impotent anger, unsure of why he cared so much. She might have broken up with him, but it never would have worked, anyway. Karl didn't like roleplaying, and he didn't like cop dramas and those damn courtroom shows, and he'd always secretly suspected that she'd try to introduce him to the pleasures of autoerotic asphyxiation, and if someone else wanted to deal with that, then fine. More power to them. Karl was fine with that.
Except for the part of him that wasn't, and it bothered him. (All of this has happened before)
AG: NO.
GT: what?
AG: WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WHAT? I SAID NO.
GT: ...oh.
AG: I THOUGHT ABOUT IT, AND...
AG: FUCK, I DON'T KNOW. YOU'VE BEEN REALLY HELPFUL AND SHIT
AG: AND CLEARLY BEING MAD AT YOU FOR BEING A COMPLETE AND UTTER MORON ISN'T WORKING BECAUSE IF I BLOCK YOU I'LL HAVE TO DEAL WITH TERI'S ASSHOLE FRIEND AGAIN
AG: I GUESS I JUST LACK THE CAPACITY RIGHT NOW TO HATE YOU MORE THAN I HATE EVERYTHING ELSE, SO IT'S KIND OF EVENING OUT TO ME NOT HATING YOU AT ALL.
GT: well... i guess blackrom wouldn't have worked out anyway, heh. you're too cute to hate!
AG: YOU KNOW WHAT, I DON'T EVEN HAVE THE ENERGY TO ASK WHAT THE GODDAMN FUCK YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW.
AG: SO I'M JUST GOING TO PRETEND THAT MADE ANY SORT OF SENSE WHATSOEVER AND GO ON WITH MY LIFE
GT: it makes lots of sense!
GT: but, um, i guess i probably shouldn't explain it right now, heh. might freak you out!
AG: OH YES, HEAVEN FORBID YOU FREAK OUT THE GUY WHO IS TYPING THIS WHILE HANGING OUT WITH A GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING DRAGON.
GT: hehe
GT: anyway, you still owe me a favor!
AG: OH FUCK THAT SHIT SO HARD.
AG: YOU KNOW WHAT?
AG: I TAKE IT BACK.
AG: FUCK YOU AND THE DRAGON YOU RODE IN ON, EGBERT.
AG: I HATE YOU MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF.
GT: no you don't.
AG: I HATE YOU MORE THAN THAT TG ASSHOLE.
GT: no you don't.
AG: I HATE YOU MORE THAN I HATE MYSELF.
GT: no you... don't?
GT: actually that one's depressing either way.
AG: YEAH YOU'RE RIGHT THOUGH, YOU'RE NOT QUITE THAT TERRIBLE.
GT: you shouldn't hate yourself, karl.
GT: just remember, none of it's your fault.
GT: it never was.
AG: SHUT UP, EGBERT. YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT ME.
GT: i know everything about you, karl. i told you, i've known you all your life.
GT: and before that, too.
GT: i can't tell you everything right now, but one day you'll know.
GT: i just hope when that time comes you can forgive me.
AG: FOR WHAT? FOR BEING AN ASSHOLE?
GT: no, for letting this happen.
GT: for failing to stop it time and time again.
GT: and... gog, i shouldn't be saying this but if it'll help you wake up...
GT: for letting you die.
AG: WHAT?
AG: NO, REALLY, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU...
AG: EGBERT, WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS GAME? WHAT IS IT REALLY?
GT: i have to go now, karl. lots of irons in the fire.
GT: if you need to speak to one of us again, try gg
AG: DAMN IT, WHAT IF I WANT TO TALK TO YOU?
GT: you will, and i won't be able to answer.
GT: but that's okay, because i'll see you again. i'm sure of it.
GT: and i'll talk to you soon, maybe!
GT: just... please, try to stay alive until i can get there.
AG: JESUS CHRIST, AT LEAST GIVE ME ONE STRAIGHT ANSWER BEFORE YOU GO.
GT: okay.
GT: i promise.
GT: just one answer, completely truthful, and then i'm gone, really.
AG: OKAY, OKAY. I... FUCK.
AG: OKAY, I GUESS I WANT TO KNOW... WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? HELPING ME, I MEAN? WATCHING OVER ME LIKE SOME FUCKING FAERIE FROM A DISNEY CARTOON? YOU'RE BEING SPECTACULARLY FUCKING OBTUSE ABOUT IT, BUT STILL. I JUST DON'T GET IT.
GT: really, karl?
GT: sorry, i guess i thought that was obvious.
GT: i'm helping you because i love you.
AG: ...
-- ghostyTrickster [GT] ceased trolling abysmalGuardian [AG] at ??:?? ! --
AG: FUCK, NO, THAT'S NOT FAIR.
AG: EGBERT YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT FUCKING NOW.
AG: I'M NOT PLAYING, DAMN IT.
AG: ...FUCK.
"Hey, Karl!" Teri shouted from the land below, but Karl's mind was still elsewhere, his head in the clouds. Inside his chest something was roaring, a grief as sudden and spectacular as it was inexplicable. For a moment--
(You are in a space station, cold and sterile, but his words are bold and blue, telling you he is on his way, somehow, that he will save you, but in the dead of eternal night you know his words, so hopeful, cannot help but be false, and you weep for the both of you and innocence soon to be lost)
--tears pricked at his eyes, and Karl tipped his head back to the sky as the dragon raised its head, snake-like tongue flicking out to lap at unfallen tears. "Fuck," he muttered, aloud, hands balled to fists, nearly hard enough to crush his phone. Why was this so hard? Some creepy internet troll had just declared love for him, he should have been skeeved out and deleting the kid from his contact list with the vengeance of an angry god, not mourning for something he'd never known and would have been hard pressed to explain. Confusion assaulted him--
And then Teri assaulted him, rapping him in the head with the end of her cane. "Karl, are you in there?"
"I think so," he told her, pocketing the phone and scrabbling again to his feet, backing out of her range while rubbing the sort spot on his skull. Instantly his inner turmoil faded, and while he continued to not be weirded out by it, the mad desire to track down Egbert again and say something to him, anything, had gone.
"Good, because I think it's time for us to leave."
"Why?" Karl growled, some of his anger returning again to cover his embarrassment. "Did your little boyfriend run out of terrible rhymes?"
"He is not my 'boyfriend', that would just be silly. ...And his rhymes are not terrible, they are sick."
"Same difference."
Teri swiped at him again and Karl just barely hopped out of the way in time, the cane making a 'whoosh' noise as it sliced through the air but inches from his face. "Will you shut up for five seconds and pay attention, please?"
Not wanting to incur any more of her wrath, Karl nodded, and then added, "Yeah, yeah, fine. What's up?"
"That," she said gravely, pointing to the sky as a shadow passed over the sun. Looking up, Karl gulped and went quiet. A flock of dragons had gathered, and was coming right towards them.
---
Your name is not Karkat Vantas. Nor is it John Egbert or Aradia Megido or Terezi Pyrope. You are nameless now, blank, nothing in this instant that goes on forever. The future speaks to you, and the present and the past, and whispers across worthless ages you could leap in a milisecond if you so desired. Whispers, choose. Which of you is real? You must decide, and keep deciding, every day and every minute or this knowledge will split your mind apart. There is little difference either way-- all such entities are real --but the difference it makes could be catastrophic.
In the end there is no choice; you are bitter about that, but it is true. He has always had the best memories, the ones least tempered with pain.
Your name is Daevid Strida, briefly and for the last time, and then you melt away, becoming but a voice in the night, immaterial. And then you are no one.
---
"Get on!" Teri shouted as the dragon knelt, grabbing its spines and hauling herself up on its back, and Karl didn't need to be told twice. It took him two tries and several false starts but he did it, coming to rest between the dragons wings behind her, instinctively wrapping his arms around her middle for dear life as the dragon lurched to its feet again. "Hold on tightly now," and Karl nodded against her shoulder, not quite daring to speak.
He did, though, when the dragon flapped its wings and rose, bounding forward on powerful legs, and what came out was mostly profanities. "Fuck!" he nearly screamed into her ear when the dragon was galloping, bouncing him around between its shoulderblades while Teri got the prime seat at the base of its neck, and she winced away from him, giving him a dirty look.
"Karl, if you keep shouting, I'm not going to be able to steer," she warned, and for the first time, Karl noticed that the dragon had reins of black leather, and Teri was gripping them firmly, her knuckles white from stress.
"It lets you steer?" Karl gasped incredulously as the dragon, having reached sufficient speed, barrelled towards the cliff edge. "Why don't you steer it somewhere not completely insane, then?!"
"It's going towards the cliff, right?"
"Yes!"
"Then relax, Karl. I know what I'm doing."
"I severely doubt that!" Karl said, or tried to say, but then the dragon was over the cliff and they were falling, falling, fuck he was going to die and it was such a goddamn waste. Teri tugged hard on the reins and the dragon's wings opened again, catching an updraft, and then they were sailing, the broad wings flapping rapidly, bearing them upward and towards the mass of enemy monsters.
"This is just to get a little height," Teri shouted over the rushing of the wind in his ears and their hair as the dragon climbed, and when they were close enough that Karl could see sunlight glinting off the sharp talons of a malicious dragon whose deep blue scales treacherously reminded Karl of something, she pulled the reins again, banking them off to the left and back towards shore. They were still gaining both height and speed, rocketing over plains and past hills, passing up dozens of those strange monuments. Nowhere was there a building, a sign of Teri's house or a bed like the one Alice had died on, nowhere a river of blood or hill of bones, only glorious light and the heat of the dragon below them, a cloud of sparking smoke billowing from its slightly slack mouth as the beast panted with exertion. It was rather magnificent, Karl had to grudgingly admit, feeling the world pass by around him as the wind pulled at his clothes.
There was danger behind them, though, and that was distracting; glancing over his shoulder, Karl could see the pack gaining on them, all teeth and claws and fire, and fear dug into him, gripping hard. "Can't you make it go faster?" he asked, frantic, squeezing his eyes tight shut.
"No," she replied tersely, giving the dragon Lemonsnout's neck an encouraging rub. "He's working as hard as he can to begin with. Can you see it, Karl?"
"See what?"
"The gate. Nell told me about it before she ran off to find Earl, but I don't know exactly where it is, obviously. Are we still going the right way?"
Karl looked up again, scouring the horizon for a sign. "Yeah, it's there," he remarked. "We're gaining on it, too. Just a little more..." It wouldn't matter, though, he was suddenly sure. The lead dragon, larger and fancier than the others with red brocade rimming its cerulean scales, was so close that it was snapping at Lemonsnout's tail now, and there were hundreds more behind it, so thickly packed that their wings blotted out the sky. They were flying over a forest, dense and thick and green, and it was pretty, but Karl didn't want it to be the last thing he saw.
The alpha dragon was beside them now, letting out a shriek of frustration and boundless anger, and Teri swore, swerving hard enough away from it that they did a barrel roll, tumbling through the sky haphazardly. Karl held on tighter to her, but he still felt as though he would fall, an impression not destroyed when they were righted again and he saw that they'd fallen a hundred feet or so, the tips of the tree tops dangerously close. The alpha dragon dove, and before Lemonsnout could move it had rammed into his side, driving him into the foliage. Karl shouted in surprise and panic as the branches clawed at him, scraping his face, making him lose his purchase on the dragon. He was falling, freely falling, with no dragon to catch him and the world coming up fast. The branches broke numerous tiny falls, nearly snapping his limbs in the process, and he was sure he passed out for a few minutes, because when he opened his eyes again he was laying on his stomach, a stab of pain in his ankle showing that it was badly twisted.
Groaning and looking around, Karl propped himself against the trunk of a tree and sat, mouth dry, hoping that shock would not settle in.
Teri was gone, at least for the moment. Alice was gone. All his friends were in other dimensions. Egbert was... somewhere, not answering.
For the first time in his life, Karl was utterly alone.
---
--and Dave Strider blinks behind his brother's glasses, the voices around him quieting at last. "Sup?" he asks with a nod, the ghost of a cocky smile hovering over thin lips.
"Come on, coolkid," Aradia laughs, and the sound is like bells. "We've got work to do."
==>
This chapter is going to be the last time we hear from Johntroll in the 'present' tense for awhile, maybe until about Act Two of this thing, even. Which I swear to fuck I will get to eventually, just see if I don't.
Also in this chapter: dragons.
<==
~~~
They met in a timeless place, the Butler and the Maid, a place of white, endless planes and no sky below them, no real ground above them. Her robe and hood rippled in a wind unseen and unfelt by him, as whispers filled his ears like waves against the shore of a lake. As he approached, translucent fingers gripped and pulled, tugging lightly and curiously, then released him, uninterested in the ways of the living. "Hey, Aradia," he greeted her, the barest hint of ice slipping into his tone, unbidden. This was a time to be cool in more ways than one.
"Hello again, Dave," she said to him, using that name, and oh, how he loathed her sometimes, but how could he be angry? Here he could feel his mind coming apart, unraveling, and the shards of a thousand men's memories drifted around him-- if he so desired, he could reach out and grasp a hundred of them, more, where he had answered to that name and been glad of it.
He hated coming here. It always made him feel sick and weird, and now that Aradia was herself, it was only worse.
"I'm not him anymore," he reminded her, pinching the bridge of his nose behind his glasses, trying to stave off the headache desperately trying to build and form like a thunderstorm behind his eyes. "We're trying to stick to one timeline, here, remember? You're the one that told me to in the first place."
All she gave him in response was a sigh, heavy and truthful, bearing the weight of the world; she had no time for his shenanigans. But that wasn't true, he told himself as pressure beat against his temples, a band of invisible iron tightening over his forehead. She had all of the time in the world. All of the time in any of the worlds.
And, conversely, in this place, there was no time at all.
"You are not the David Strider I wished to speak with," she told him, sounding disappointed, her patience wearing thin. She was kinder in this form, a voice whispered to him, tugging at his sleeve and trying to pour itself into his skull through his ear. The presence was like cold oil against his eardrum, slick and sickening. Once she had been, at least. They could be friends. They could--
Daevid Strida was no man's friend, he told himself firmly. He only had use for enemies, and people like Egbert who didn't quite fit into either of those categories. (And TZ, but he wasn't about to dwell on her case just then. Or ever.)
"Yeah, well, tough shit," he grumbled, instinctively feeling for the sword at his side and finding it gone. The damn thing was always buggering off at the most inopportune times, as though it had a mind of its own, which was utterly retarded. "He's not here." The presence pressed a bit harder against the inside of his ear, a foul wind that rocked through his very soul, that somewhere far away made the usurper stars tremble in their ill-gotten sky. Daevid gasped as Aradia grinned, all sharp shark's teeth and lips that were ichor black, only happy mirth where there should have been malicious hatred in her eyes. Daevid hated her, hated her, and the depths of the blackness dragged him down inside of himself, to make way for the other power rising. He hated her--
And then the world twisted and shifted and stretched and
---
Karl remembered nothing of passing through the gate, or of what, if anything, had come before that time. In his mind there was nothing but blackness, pure and gentle as silk, engulfing him and wrapping him up, and a voice like angels telling him to awake, its tones so melodic, so exquisite, that it had been physically painful, and he'd woken with tear tracks drying down flushed cheeks, perversely glad to have landed in his blind friend's domain where no one would be able to see his shame.
He'd been put down on what felt like the top of a hill, and the sun shone above him, so brilliant and bright that it took several seconds of blinking to make his eyes stop feeling like seared meat. There was a breeze, too, a cool spring zephyr that tasted like salt and brine, having most likely originated over some Silurian sea capped with foamy crests. If he concentrated he could hear the steady crashing of sheets of water against beaten rock, a cliff-face, and the infuriated shrieks of slighted seagulls, their wings clipped against updrafts as they circled and dove. Karl didn't need to see these things, he found-- he simply knew that they were, and allowed himself to take a moment of pleasure in the knowing, feeling the wind brush blades of tall grass against his cheek, before sitting up and running a hand through his mussed hair, working out accumulated tangles and burrs.
When he managed at last to look around himself, he was nearly stunned by the beauty. Teri's land looked like nothing so much as the distilled, processed essence of every photograph of Ireland that Karl had ever seen, all rolling waves of emerald green grass over chalk and stone, as though the land were the sea and the sea the land. The sky was endless and blue, wisps of clouds wreathed like cotton, drifting aimlessly. Off to his left the land fell away downward at a perfect right angle, the jagged ledge giving way to a sheer drop and then the ocean, slate gray and restless though the sky was clear, and in various locations between the hills and on top of them strange monoliths rose, sometimes appearing man-made, sometimes a natural growth of whatever rocky outcropping they belonged to, with strange symbols painted on them in white and pale, rusty red. There was no sign of Teri or her consorts, and so Karl warily stood, brushing the dirt off his back and getting a feel for the land. It was solid under his feet and showed no signs of collapsing beneath him, which was favorable. He could live with this, definitely. In many ways, it was good to see light again.
A spark caught the corner of his eye and he paused midway through his first step, foot hovering an inch or so off the ground indecisively as he tipped his head skyward again, tracking the progress of what seemed like nothing so much as a firework burning across the clouds. It left no trail of smoke in its wake, being barely large enough to see, but it was there nonetheless, like an arrow shooting into the distance, where Karl could just see the rainbow glimmer of the gate if he truly tried. He blinked and it was gone save for a residual trail of light scraped across his iris, burning there in spastic alternating purple and teal, and it was forgotten in the next moment as another small dot appeared from the clouds, falling down, down, down towards the sea, glimmering gold as it was struck by the sun's light.
The moment was magical in the best and least silly sense of the word, the sense that it had meant when that word still had connotations of reality, of things eldritch that could be seen and touched and tasted, and Karl savored it as he trotted down the hill and toward the cliff, careful not to fall off. It was at that point, naturally, as he stood alone with awe unfurling like a warm banner in his heart, that his phone beeped, and Karl promptly returned to his usual state of violently cursing everything there was in the world.
GT: karl, i would like it very much if you would stop ignoring me.
GT: it's not very nice.
AG: JESUS, EGBERT, WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE ABOUT YOU?
AG: I JUST WATCHED MY FRIEND DIE AND NOW I'M WAITING FOR TERI TO SHOW UP ON A MAGICAL DRAGON AND TAKE ME AWAY FOR RAINBOW PUPPY SPARKLE ADVENTURES IN NEVERLAND.
AG: I GUARANTEE WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING IS NOT THIS INTERESTING.
GT: sorry...
GT: i guess i didn't realize that it would affect you so much, since you're so tough!
GT: especially considering that you'll see her again soon.
AG: YEAH, I KNOW, SHE TOLD ME.
AG: BUT FUCK, THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT'S NOT JUST THE TINIEST LITTLE BIT UNSETTLING TO FIND OUT WHAT THE INSIDE OF SOMEONE'S SKULL LOOKS LIKE.
GT: yeah. sorry about that.
AG: UGH. JUST... SHUT UP A MINUTE, OKAY?
AG: OR AT LEAST GET TO THE DAMN POINT. WHAT'D YOU WANT THIS TIME?
GT: um. nothing, really. just to check in.
GT: i thought you'd need a friend, but now that you found teri i'm kind of superfluous, huh?
GT: just like always.
AG: OKAY I AM GOING TO JUST GLOSS RIGHT OVER ALL YOUR CRYPTIC PSYCHOBABBLE NONSENSE AND SIMPLY NOTE THAT I AM IMPRESSED YOU MANAGED TO ADD BIG-BOY WORDS TO YOUR VOCABULARY SINCE THE LAST TIME WE SPOKE.
AG: WHAT'D YOU DO, EGBERT, SWALLOW A DICTIONARY?
GT: ...hehehe. no.
GT: i'm going to miss you, karl. even if you do insult me a lot.
AG: WAIT, WHAT.
AG: DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE GOING TO SELF-TERMINATE TOO.
AG: I HONESTLY DON'T THINK I COULD HANDLE THAT RIGHT NOW, EVEN IF YOU ARE KIND OF AN ASS-HAT.
GT: no, of course not! that would be silly. i don't think i ever found out where my quest bed is for this session.
GT: i just meant that you're gonna get really busy soon.
GT: i probably won't talk to you much for awhile, but that's just because i'm going to be busy too.
GT: lots of irons in the fire and such!
AG: FUCK, THAT'S WHAT THAT INSUFFERABLE PRICK SAID TOO.
GT: who, tg?
GT: he's really not that bad, karl.
GT: and trust me, there will come a time when you're very glad you know him,
AG: YEAH, WHATEVER. LOOK, THERE'S A GIANT FUCKING LIZARD HURTLING TOWARDS ME THROUGH THE AIR, AND I'M GOING TO MAKE AN EXECUTIVE DECISION AND DECLARE THAT THIS TAKES PRECEDENT OVER PEOPLE I HATE.
GT: ...wait. do i count as a person you hate?
GT: karl?
Karl didn't know how to answer that, so clearly the best solution was to ignore it and snap his phone shut, which he did with aplomb and an angry flourish, watching as the golden object halted its drop mere feet above the water and came sailing towards him at alarming speed. As it moved closer Karl could see leathery wings like a bat's, branching out from powerful shoulders, extended flat over the waves to catch updrafts. The thing was definitely Saurian in shape, a flat, wedge-shaped head preceding a body that undulated back and forth as it flew as though cutting through the air like water. The tail flowed out behind it, a streamer of light made flesh and bone, and atop its bony back resplendent with thorny spines Teri rode, whooping and hollering with excitement as the dragon banked and turned, bringing her parallel to the sea before soaring up the side of the cliff. Karl took a step back automatically as the dragon aligned itself perpendicular to the ground, its belly practically scraping the cliff's edge as it passed.
His breath left him then, and had not returned by the time the dragon had set itself down atop the hill Karl had recently vacated and Teri was sliding off its back carefully, the dragon nudging her side with its wide nose to help her to the ground. "Hey, Karl," she called, those red-rimmed tinted sunglasses pointed in his direction as though she knew exactly where he was, could sense his very soul. She'd acquired a new cane somewhere along the way, Karl noticed, tipped with the brass head of a dragon to match the thing now standing behind her. Karl fancied that the dragon was watching him suspiciously, a thought that was only confirmed when it gave a great huff of steam and half wrapped a wing around its human charge, protectively. "Meet Senator Lemonsnout. I think you'll be good friends." This declaration was punctuated by her usual cackle, and Karl rolled his eyes, hesitantly making his way towards her.
"Yeah, right. Teri, seriously, that thing is going to eat you." The dragon Lemonsnout narrowed its eyes, a demonic sort of intelligence playing over its serpentine face, and snapped its wide jaws in Karl's directon. A flash of white fangs the size of kitchen knives curved backwards to rip and tear at weakened flesh was all Karl saw-- or needed to see, either. Stifling a yelp of fear he hopped backwards again, heart going a mile a minute. After his previous experiences with consorts, Karl was not about to take any chances. "...Or me," he amended at last, cursing the shaken tone his voice had taken.
"No he won't," Teri told him, completely assured of this fact for, as far as Karl could tell, absolutely no good reason. "He's a good dragon. Not like the rest of them. Anyway, if he gives you any trouble, just whack him on the snout." Her toothy grin widened as she patted the dragon on the side of the face, making it wince but not devour her whole as Karl would have expected. "He knows his place." She said it in the kind of way that made Karl vaguely and disquietingly wonder what had happened to the dragons that didn't.
"Forgive me for not wanting to make friends with your pet monster," Karl snapped, aware that the dragon was still watching him with beady black eyes. There was something insect-like about it, too, the way the plates of its scales overlapped into armor, the way it moved, and again something deep in Karl's soul stirred, afraid. He pushed down that fear, though, transmuted it into anger as he always did and always had; the anger would keep him alive. "Haven't you noticed by now that the consorts kind of, I don't know, want to kill us?"
Teri shrugged, idly stroking one of the dragon's horns, which at least had the side effect of distracting its attention away from Karl and making it produce an ominous rumbling noise not unlike a purr. A very angry purr. "This one doesn't. He protected me from the rest of them after they ate my sprite. There was a bird with him, but she's gone now."
"Your ability to keep your cool in the midst of utter fucking insanity is very inspiring, really, but I think we should get the fuck out of here before imps show up and try to slaughter us," Karl suggested, edging away from the dragon and in the direction of the distant gate. It looked a long way to walk, nearly all the way across Teri's land, and if they wanted to make any sort of good time, they'd have to start soon. Karl didn't know if time even mattered anymore particularly much, considering that there wasn't jack shit they could do for their friends who weren't in the game yet at this stage, but he did know that he damned well didn't want to hang around a world where dragons roamed free.
His friend seemed to disagree, though, snorting much as the dragon had at this assessment. "You worry too much, Karl," she informed him, stepping away from the dragon with the aid of her cane and towards him. Karl noticed that she was relying on it a lot less than she used to, in the time that seemed a million years ago but was really but two days, using it as a walking stick more than a visual aid. Her footsteps were confident and sure, and she did not trip or falter on the small stones in her path. The dragon lay down in her absence, having judged Karl to be anything but a threat, and curled the barbed tip of its tail around its nose, wings folded again over its back. "Anyway, the dragons took care of the imps. I doubt we'll be seeing any of them for awhile."
"Is that how you got those?" Karl asked, gesturing towards the spiffy new cane and Teri's wardrobe, which was... different, from the black, leg-hugging jeans to the red leather skirt over them, and the black t-shirt striped with teal. She was wearing a tie, too, for some reason, in blood red with a strange symbol marked on it in the same teal color that clashed horribly-- not that she'd have been able to tell that.
"Mm-hmm. Plenty of grist to go around. I got this, too," she said, pulling a fancy new cell-phone from her pocket. It was one of the newer ones with the keyboard separate from the phone part of the phone, and about ten dozen apps that no one knew the precise use or function of, and a map generator that wouldn't work, and probably some sort of instant messaging program. It also had a stylized broken heart symbol embossed on the back, again for reasons that utterly escaped him. "A friend of mine gave me a bunch of codes."
"Yeah, me too," Karl said automatically, without thinking about it, because it was true, wasn't it? Suspicion hit him in turn, and he glanced at his own phone. "It was that asshole guy you're always messaging in class, wasn't it? I hate that insufferable prick."
"You're just jealous," Teri informed him primly, snapping her phone open as it buzzed.
"I am not either!" he protested, but Teri silenced him with a glare and a wave, hitting a few buttons.
"Shush, Karl, the big kids are talking." And, true to form, a voice began to emanate from the device, cool and suave with a hint of a drawling accent that wasn't quite Texan, but wasn't quite anything else, either.
TG: hey tz
TG: sorry about cutting out on you earlier some shit came up
TG: its all cool now though
TG: i am running at the top my game bro
TG: you ready to blow this thing straight out of the water?
"How's it doing that?" Karl demanded, stalking over to her and looking over her shoulder. "It's just a text service, right? You're not actually calling this guy?"
Teri rolled her dead eyes behind her glasses. "First of all, chill the hell out, Karl, it's none of your business anymore if I call him. Secondly, no, you dick, of course I'm not doing that, the roaming charges alone would be ridiculous. He wrote me a program that reads his texts to me. It's a lot less buggy and stupid than the one I usually use, anyway, so fuck off for a minute, I want to talk to him. Go make friends with Lemonsnout or something."
Grumbling, Karl went, the sound of frantic typing and her friend's stupid voice following him up the hill. He halted before the dragon, which opened an eye and stared at him for a moment before twitching its tail a bit and returning to sleep. Cautiously, Karl leaned back against its solid body, feeling the surprising amount of warmth it exuded. He would have thought dragons would be cold blooded like lizards, but perhaps it was the fire in its belly that was radiating outward now, its scales warm and sunlight-kissed even where they'd been in the shade of its wing. There he sat and stewed in impotent anger, unsure of why he cared so much. She might have broken up with him, but it never would have worked, anyway. Karl didn't like roleplaying, and he didn't like cop dramas and those damn courtroom shows, and he'd always secretly suspected that she'd try to introduce him to the pleasures of autoerotic asphyxiation, and if someone else wanted to deal with that, then fine. More power to them. Karl was fine with that.
Except for the part of him that wasn't, and it bothered him. (All of this has happened before)
AG: NO.
GT: what?
AG: WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WHAT? I SAID NO.
GT: ...oh.
AG: I THOUGHT ABOUT IT, AND...
AG: FUCK, I DON'T KNOW. YOU'VE BEEN REALLY HELPFUL AND SHIT
AG: AND CLEARLY BEING MAD AT YOU FOR BEING A COMPLETE AND UTTER MORON ISN'T WORKING BECAUSE IF I BLOCK YOU I'LL HAVE TO DEAL WITH TERI'S ASSHOLE FRIEND AGAIN
AG: I GUESS I JUST LACK THE CAPACITY RIGHT NOW TO HATE YOU MORE THAN I HATE EVERYTHING ELSE, SO IT'S KIND OF EVENING OUT TO ME NOT HATING YOU AT ALL.
GT: well... i guess blackrom wouldn't have worked out anyway, heh. you're too cute to hate!
AG: YOU KNOW WHAT, I DON'T EVEN HAVE THE ENERGY TO ASK WHAT THE GODDAMN FUCK YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW.
AG: SO I'M JUST GOING TO PRETEND THAT MADE ANY SORT OF SENSE WHATSOEVER AND GO ON WITH MY LIFE
GT: it makes lots of sense!
GT: but, um, i guess i probably shouldn't explain it right now, heh. might freak you out!
AG: OH YES, HEAVEN FORBID YOU FREAK OUT THE GUY WHO IS TYPING THIS WHILE HANGING OUT WITH A GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING DRAGON.
GT: hehe
GT: anyway, you still owe me a favor!
AG: OH FUCK THAT SHIT SO HARD.
AG: YOU KNOW WHAT?
AG: I TAKE IT BACK.
AG: FUCK YOU AND THE DRAGON YOU RODE IN ON, EGBERT.
AG: I HATE YOU MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF.
GT: no you don't.
AG: I HATE YOU MORE THAN THAT TG ASSHOLE.
GT: no you don't.
AG: I HATE YOU MORE THAN I HATE MYSELF.
GT: no you... don't?
GT: actually that one's depressing either way.
AG: YEAH YOU'RE RIGHT THOUGH, YOU'RE NOT QUITE THAT TERRIBLE.
GT: you shouldn't hate yourself, karl.
GT: just remember, none of it's your fault.
GT: it never was.
AG: SHUT UP, EGBERT. YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT ME.
GT: i know everything about you, karl. i told you, i've known you all your life.
GT: and before that, too.
GT: i can't tell you everything right now, but one day you'll know.
GT: i just hope when that time comes you can forgive me.
AG: FOR WHAT? FOR BEING AN ASSHOLE?
GT: no, for letting this happen.
GT: for failing to stop it time and time again.
GT: and... gog, i shouldn't be saying this but if it'll help you wake up...
GT: for letting you die.
AG: WHAT?
AG: NO, REALLY, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU...
AG: EGBERT, WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS GAME? WHAT IS IT REALLY?
GT: i have to go now, karl. lots of irons in the fire.
GT: if you need to speak to one of us again, try gg
AG: DAMN IT, WHAT IF I WANT TO TALK TO YOU?
GT: you will, and i won't be able to answer.
GT: but that's okay, because i'll see you again. i'm sure of it.
GT: and i'll talk to you soon, maybe!
GT: just... please, try to stay alive until i can get there.
AG: JESUS CHRIST, AT LEAST GIVE ME ONE STRAIGHT ANSWER BEFORE YOU GO.
GT: okay.
GT: i promise.
GT: just one answer, completely truthful, and then i'm gone, really.
AG: OKAY, OKAY. I... FUCK.
AG: OKAY, I GUESS I WANT TO KNOW... WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? HELPING ME, I MEAN? WATCHING OVER ME LIKE SOME FUCKING FAERIE FROM A DISNEY CARTOON? YOU'RE BEING SPECTACULARLY FUCKING OBTUSE ABOUT IT, BUT STILL. I JUST DON'T GET IT.
GT: really, karl?
GT: sorry, i guess i thought that was obvious.
GT: i'm helping you because i love you.
AG: ...
-- ghostyTrickster [GT] ceased trolling abysmalGuardian [AG] at ??:?? ! --
AG: FUCK, NO, THAT'S NOT FAIR.
AG: EGBERT YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT FUCKING NOW.
AG: I'M NOT PLAYING, DAMN IT.
AG: ...FUCK.
"Hey, Karl!" Teri shouted from the land below, but Karl's mind was still elsewhere, his head in the clouds. Inside his chest something was roaring, a grief as sudden and spectacular as it was inexplicable. For a moment--
(You are in a space station, cold and sterile, but his words are bold and blue, telling you he is on his way, somehow, that he will save you, but in the dead of eternal night you know his words, so hopeful, cannot help but be false, and you weep for the both of you and innocence soon to be lost)
--tears pricked at his eyes, and Karl tipped his head back to the sky as the dragon raised its head, snake-like tongue flicking out to lap at unfallen tears. "Fuck," he muttered, aloud, hands balled to fists, nearly hard enough to crush his phone. Why was this so hard? Some creepy internet troll had just declared love for him, he should have been skeeved out and deleting the kid from his contact list with the vengeance of an angry god, not mourning for something he'd never known and would have been hard pressed to explain. Confusion assaulted him--
And then Teri assaulted him, rapping him in the head with the end of her cane. "Karl, are you in there?"
"I think so," he told her, pocketing the phone and scrabbling again to his feet, backing out of her range while rubbing the sort spot on his skull. Instantly his inner turmoil faded, and while he continued to not be weirded out by it, the mad desire to track down Egbert again and say something to him, anything, had gone.
"Good, because I think it's time for us to leave."
"Why?" Karl growled, some of his anger returning again to cover his embarrassment. "Did your little boyfriend run out of terrible rhymes?"
"He is not my 'boyfriend', that would just be silly. ...And his rhymes are not terrible, they are sick."
"Same difference."
Teri swiped at him again and Karl just barely hopped out of the way in time, the cane making a 'whoosh' noise as it sliced through the air but inches from his face. "Will you shut up for five seconds and pay attention, please?"
Not wanting to incur any more of her wrath, Karl nodded, and then added, "Yeah, yeah, fine. What's up?"
"That," she said gravely, pointing to the sky as a shadow passed over the sun. Looking up, Karl gulped and went quiet. A flock of dragons had gathered, and was coming right towards them.
---
Your name is not Karkat Vantas. Nor is it John Egbert or Aradia Megido or Terezi Pyrope. You are nameless now, blank, nothing in this instant that goes on forever. The future speaks to you, and the present and the past, and whispers across worthless ages you could leap in a milisecond if you so desired. Whispers, choose. Which of you is real? You must decide, and keep deciding, every day and every minute or this knowledge will split your mind apart. There is little difference either way-- all such entities are real --but the difference it makes could be catastrophic.
In the end there is no choice; you are bitter about that, but it is true. He has always had the best memories, the ones least tempered with pain.
Your name is Daevid Strida, briefly and for the last time, and then you melt away, becoming but a voice in the night, immaterial. And then you are no one.
---
"Get on!" Teri shouted as the dragon knelt, grabbing its spines and hauling herself up on its back, and Karl didn't need to be told twice. It took him two tries and several false starts but he did it, coming to rest between the dragons wings behind her, instinctively wrapping his arms around her middle for dear life as the dragon lurched to its feet again. "Hold on tightly now," and Karl nodded against her shoulder, not quite daring to speak.
He did, though, when the dragon flapped its wings and rose, bounding forward on powerful legs, and what came out was mostly profanities. "Fuck!" he nearly screamed into her ear when the dragon was galloping, bouncing him around between its shoulderblades while Teri got the prime seat at the base of its neck, and she winced away from him, giving him a dirty look.
"Karl, if you keep shouting, I'm not going to be able to steer," she warned, and for the first time, Karl noticed that the dragon had reins of black leather, and Teri was gripping them firmly, her knuckles white from stress.
"It lets you steer?" Karl gasped incredulously as the dragon, having reached sufficient speed, barrelled towards the cliff edge. "Why don't you steer it somewhere not completely insane, then?!"
"It's going towards the cliff, right?"
"Yes!"
"Then relax, Karl. I know what I'm doing."
"I severely doubt that!" Karl said, or tried to say, but then the dragon was over the cliff and they were falling, falling, fuck he was going to die and it was such a goddamn waste. Teri tugged hard on the reins and the dragon's wings opened again, catching an updraft, and then they were sailing, the broad wings flapping rapidly, bearing them upward and towards the mass of enemy monsters.
"This is just to get a little height," Teri shouted over the rushing of the wind in his ears and their hair as the dragon climbed, and when they were close enough that Karl could see sunlight glinting off the sharp talons of a malicious dragon whose deep blue scales treacherously reminded Karl of something, she pulled the reins again, banking them off to the left and back towards shore. They were still gaining both height and speed, rocketing over plains and past hills, passing up dozens of those strange monuments. Nowhere was there a building, a sign of Teri's house or a bed like the one Alice had died on, nowhere a river of blood or hill of bones, only glorious light and the heat of the dragon below them, a cloud of sparking smoke billowing from its slightly slack mouth as the beast panted with exertion. It was rather magnificent, Karl had to grudgingly admit, feeling the world pass by around him as the wind pulled at his clothes.
There was danger behind them, though, and that was distracting; glancing over his shoulder, Karl could see the pack gaining on them, all teeth and claws and fire, and fear dug into him, gripping hard. "Can't you make it go faster?" he asked, frantic, squeezing his eyes tight shut.
"No," she replied tersely, giving the dragon Lemonsnout's neck an encouraging rub. "He's working as hard as he can to begin with. Can you see it, Karl?"
"See what?"
"The gate. Nell told me about it before she ran off to find Earl, but I don't know exactly where it is, obviously. Are we still going the right way?"
Karl looked up again, scouring the horizon for a sign. "Yeah, it's there," he remarked. "We're gaining on it, too. Just a little more..." It wouldn't matter, though, he was suddenly sure. The lead dragon, larger and fancier than the others with red brocade rimming its cerulean scales, was so close that it was snapping at Lemonsnout's tail now, and there were hundreds more behind it, so thickly packed that their wings blotted out the sky. They were flying over a forest, dense and thick and green, and it was pretty, but Karl didn't want it to be the last thing he saw.
The alpha dragon was beside them now, letting out a shriek of frustration and boundless anger, and Teri swore, swerving hard enough away from it that they did a barrel roll, tumbling through the sky haphazardly. Karl held on tighter to her, but he still felt as though he would fall, an impression not destroyed when they were righted again and he saw that they'd fallen a hundred feet or so, the tips of the tree tops dangerously close. The alpha dragon dove, and before Lemonsnout could move it had rammed into his side, driving him into the foliage. Karl shouted in surprise and panic as the branches clawed at him, scraping his face, making him lose his purchase on the dragon. He was falling, freely falling, with no dragon to catch him and the world coming up fast. The branches broke numerous tiny falls, nearly snapping his limbs in the process, and he was sure he passed out for a few minutes, because when he opened his eyes again he was laying on his stomach, a stab of pain in his ankle showing that it was badly twisted.
Groaning and looking around, Karl propped himself against the trunk of a tree and sat, mouth dry, hoping that shock would not settle in.
Teri was gone, at least for the moment. Alice was gone. All his friends were in other dimensions. Egbert was... somewhere, not answering.
For the first time in his life, Karl was utterly alone.
---
--and Dave Strider blinks behind his brother's glasses, the voices around him quieting at last. "Sup?" he asks with a nod, the ghost of a cocky smile hovering over thin lips.
"Come on, coolkid," Aradia laughs, and the sound is like bells. "We've got work to do."
==>