[Fanfic] Momentum
Because kalisona asked~ ♥
Title: Momentum (Parts 1-2)
Fandom: Homestuck
Characters/Pairings: Aradia, Sollux, Nepeta, Vriska, Equius, Terezi, Eridan, Kanaya, Tavros, Feferi; Sollux?Aradia, Equius♥/♠Aradia, implied Eridan♠Vriska, implied Sollux♥Feferi
Warnings: Spoilers for Hivebent (Act5-1) I guess?
Word count: (total) 27,563
1
He heard them, too.
It was one of the first things that drew her to him. Tavros’s off-hand comment that there was someone else on this planet to share her burden escalated quickly into a plan to meet. He arrived at their agreed-upon location without his lusus, and he was floating. A psionic. Aradia’s heart fluttered a little with excitement as she climbed down from her own lizard-lusus’s back and approached slowly, smiling.
“I’m glad you came.”
He hung back, the tips of his mismatched shoes trailing along the ground a moment longer before he settled down.
“You’re apocalypthArithen?” he asked hesitantly, a lisp impeding his spoken words the way it influenced his typed ones. Thick, bi-colored lenses obscured his eyes, masking his opinion of her. But her smile never faltered as she took one more step closer to him, hand outstretched.
“Aradia.” It made her happy to realize that he could say her real name without the trouble her Trollian handle gave him. Maybe it would help make him more comfortable. “Aradia Megido. It’s great to finally meet you in person, tA.”
He didn’t take her hand at first. He just stared at her--presumably--from behind those red and blue lenses, considering her.
It was just as it was online. Sometimes he wouldn’t respond to her for long stretches of time, which used to confuse her and make her uncomfortable. She’d eventually grown to learn it was nothing personal. Sometimes he just didn’t feel like talking.
“Tholluckth,” he finally muttered, still not taking her offered hand. “Captor.”
Aradia blinked. “Pardon?”
The line of his mouth contorted, making his protruding fangs dip into the shape of an upside-down U. Panic shot through her insides like lightning, setting her nerves on edge, and just like that spark of energy, her brain caught on to what he had been trying to say.
“Oh--tA--I’m…I’m sorry, I just didn’t…” Stupid. Stupid stupid dumb! How insensitive could she get?!
He sighed, eventually, and allocated some of his concentration to form shapes in the air between them with the energy now flowing from his fingertips, flashing red and blue. It took her a moment to look up and notice it, the six little symbols spelling out “2ollux.”
“Oh…oh! Sollux, ok! Sorry, Sollux,” she said, her brief, sheepish smile fading. “Oh my god, that’s really awful! That you can’t--”
“Thay my own name properly?” Sollux snorted and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. The letters between them faded as he drew his focus away from them. “Yeah. You get uthed to it.”
Aradia paused. Over under a tree where her lusus had settled down, she flicked her tail once and watched her with her large eyes. Aradia pursed her reddened lips and gave the white form a short glance before turning back to her friend. “I guess you would…”
“Thatth why I prefer talking online,” he said suddenly, his statement punctuated with an absent shuffling of his feet. “Where itth jutht a typing quirk and I’m doing it on purpoth.”
“…Oh.” Her heart sank heavily in her chest, weighted down by sudden guilt. “I--”
“But you wanted to talk about thomething important,” he interrupted. “Tho I don’t mind.” Before her eyes, something about Sollux seemed to shift. It was subtle, but she watched how the hunching of his shoulders turned into a more relaxed, confident slouch, and the nervous shuffling in his feet subsided. “The voitheth.”
Online, he could be direct like this, too. Usually after his long periods of silence he would talk and talk, as if making up for those quiet moments, and during these times he was confident and painfully, sometimes abrasively honest.
“Are you hearing them now?” Her words grew hushed but excited, as if they were discussing a sensitive secret.
“Alwayth.”
“Me too. They’re like a quiet, spooky murmur underneath everything.”
“I don’t get the thame priviledth.” He paused and cocked his head to the side. Several yards away two tree stumps sat close together; they gravitated towards that spot and sat down, he with his feet planted lazily and wide apart, and she cross-legged, leaning forward with her hands braced on her ankles. “The fuckerth are alwayth tho loud. Like thpiritth don’t have anything better to do I gueth.”
“What sorts of things do they tell you?”
“Nonthenth, mothtly. They’ll make all thethe thpooky predicthionth but it’th all muthlebeatht thit. Thometimeth I feel like if I hear one more athinine comment about frogth or brainth being all floaty and on fire I’ll do thome thort of acrobatic fucking pirouette off the fucking handle.”
“It can get pretty confusing,” agreed Aradia, her eyebrows drawing together in concern. “But I guess you’ve gotten used to that, too?”
“Hell no.” What of Sollux’s face she could see scrunched up in extreme distaste. “They don’t ever thut up. Thome dayth I can’t even thleep with all their yakking. Tho I thtay up and code. Helpth to tune them out.”
“I wish I could…take on some of that burden for you,” Aradia told him earnestly. “If my hearing them louder meant they got harder to hear for you--”
“I don’t think that’th how it workth.”
“Yes, but…” Her shoulders slumped a little. “If it did.”
He shook his head and drew his knees up to his chest. “I wouldn’t with that on you,” he said eventually, his entire meaning again lost behind his glasses.
Aradia’s heart pounded a little harder, to her surprise. “…I’d be ok with it,” she told him quietly.
There was no answer. He seemed to have fallen into another lapse of brooding silence.
“…Sollux?” Biting the inside of her lip gently, Aradia leaned forward more, trying to get a good look through his tinted shades. She backed off when he shuddered, suddenly.
“…What did…?”
“They thaid you would be.” His voice sounded dry--hollow, like a dead tree.
“They said I would be what?”
“Ok with it.”
Confusion bloomed on the female troll’s features as she watched Sollux fall further into a pit of silence. “They’re talking to you about me?” She couldn’t help but shudder herself. “Kind of creepy.”
“Voitheth of the dead tend to be,” he agreed morosely. “Anyway, yeah, they talk about you thometimeth. Nothing in detail. Your Trollian name cometh up a lot. Tho do a lot of otherth. KK and Tavroth and Terezthi and your friend arthenicCatnip.”
“Nepeta?” A fresh wave of eerie feelings washed over her, a torrent of unpleasant warmth sticking to her skin like spoor slime. “Why would they talk about her?”
“I don’t know. Like I thaid, it’th uthually jutht nameth. I gueth in a way it’th good, though. I wouldn’t have met any of you otherwithe.”
“Oh…well, then I guess I’m glad.”
“You don’t thound glad.”
“Ok, well, I mean, I guess it’s not all that great that the voices are talking about me, but…” Aradia blushed and glanced aside, down at the roots of her stump where they mingled uselessly with the soil beneath them. “But I’m happy, if it meant I got to meet you.”
She missed a similar reaction in him, a faint golden color rising in his cheeks where in hers there was a deep red hue, and try as he might he couldn’t get his shades to cover it up.
“Then I gueth I am, too.”
The mumbled admission was delayed enough that when she glanced up again, gold had nearly entirely faded back into the gray of his skin, but that didn’t erase her smile. When they eventually parted, she still held it like a patch on her heart, filling it with a strange kind of happiness
2
apocalypseArisen [AA] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
AA: hey s0llux!
TA: hii aradiia.
TA: youre up pretty late.
AA: yep! i just g0t back fr0m digging 0ut my newest excavati0n site
TA: excavatiion?
TA: liike archeology?
AA: y0u g0t it! tavr0s and i just finished 0ur last flarp campaign s0 i figured n0w w0uld be a g00d time t0 start
TA: that2 riight you two are partner2.
AA: team charge f0rever! haha
TA: eheheh 2ound2 liike you guy2 have fun wiith that.
AA: y0u d0nt flarp d0 y0u s0llux?
TA: nah ii could never get iintwo iit.
TA: the game mechaniic2 are two 2iimple and hackiing iit would be two temptiing.
AA: 0h
AA: that w0uldnt be very fair
TA: exactly.
AA: s0 what d0 y0u d0 in y0ur free time?
AA: just c0de all day l0ng
AA: mr genius mcsmartyfangs
AA: 0_0
TA: eheheh wow no.
TA: well ye2.
TA: that2 ba2iically what ii do all day.
TA: but iim no genius.
AA: 0h c0me 0n!
AA: half the time i talk t0 y0u y0ure g0ing 0ff 0n h0w amazing y0u are!
AA: even terezi says y0ure brilliant
TA: 2he 2aiid that?
AA: well 0k n0t in th0se w0rds specifically
AA: but m0re 0r less
TA: iit2 not really all that great ii promii2e.
TA: more liike ii know how two fuck around wiith 2hiit tiil iit doe2 what ii want.
TA: whiich ii dont know ii gue22 ii2 the 2ame thiing.
AA: …
AA: s0 are you agreeing with me 0r n0t 0_0
TA: who know2.
TA: 2ometiime2 ii have a hard tiime thiinkiing iim worth anythiing.
AA: ive n0ticed!
AA: well just between y0u and me s0llux
AA: i think y0ure pretty amazing
AA: and if y0u believed in that all the time instead 0f 0nly half the time
AA: i think y0ud be a l0t happier
AA: anyway its getting light 0ut
AA: we sh0uld b0th be getting t0 sleep
AA: ill talk t0 y0u later s0llux!
apocalypseArisen [AA] ceased trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
TA: …thank2 aradiia.
TA: ii gue22 try not two have two many niightmare2.
TA: or 2omethiing.
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
------
arsenicCatnip [AC] began trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
AC: :33 < *ac spots a ruthless wild beast tamer and quickly ducks behind a huge boulder!*
AC: :33 < *but then she realizes its aa whos come to play with her and l33ps out and rubs against aas legs*
AC: :33 < hiiiii aradia!
AC: oops, i mean
AC: *she says that*
AA: hell0 nepeta
AA: i mean
AA: *the ruthless wild beast tamer wh0s n0t actually ruthless 0r a beast tamer happily rubs the cats belly in greeting*
AA: w0w s0rry
AA: im n0t very g00d at this
AC: :33 < thats ok
AC :33 < its pretty diffurent from flarping!
AA: speaking 0f which
AA: did y0u ask yet
AC: :33 < oh
AC: :33 < yes, i did
AC: :33 < he wont let me :(( hes being purrfectly impossible about it!
AA: did y0u tell him wh0 y0u w0uld be playing with
AC: :33 < yes he made me >:((
AC: :33 < even though terezi would be my partner
AC: :33 < he says shes a bad influence
AC: :33 < and a “disgrace to b100-b100ds” or something stupid like that
AA: i can 0nly imagine what he had t0 say about tavr0s and me
AC: :33 < :((
AC: :33 < i did everything i could pawsibly think of
AC: :33 < i told him if hed just talk to you hed s33 how wrong he was!
AC: :33 < but he wouldnt listen
AA: that seems t0 be the case m0st 0f the time
AC: :33 < more like all of the time!
AC: :33 < *ac rolls up into a ball of bristly anger!!*
AC: :33 < *but thats really tiring so she cant hold it for long*
AA: d0nt w0rry nepeta
AA: y0u did y0ur best
AA: well find s0me0ne else t0 play with us
AC: :33 < :(( good luck!
AA: i supp0se i sh0uld als0 wish y0u g00d luck
AA: it cant be easy t0 deal with a m0irail wh0 d0esnt listen
apocalypseArisen [AA] ceased trolling arsenicCatnip [AC]
------
apocalypseArisen [AA] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
AA: s0llux?
TA: oh hey.
AA: hi
AA: I have a questi0n f0r y0u
TA: fiire away.
TA: mr geniius mc2martyfang2 at your 2erviice.
AA: um
AA: i kn0w y0u said y0u d0nt flarp usually but
AA: we really need a f0urth
AA: i d0nt kn0w wh0 else t0 ask
TA: oh hell.
TA: aradiia we talked about thii2.
AA: i kn0w
AA: s0rry nevermind
TA: nah iit2 cool.
TA: you guy2 2eem really de2perate though.
AA: well
AA: terezi says she kn0ws s0me0ne wh0d d0 it
AA: theyve been partners bef0re
AA: but i d0nt kn0w
AA: ive heard s0me bad things ab0ut her
TA: what from the voiice2?
AA: 0_0
AA: n0 the flarp f0rums
TA: oh.
TA: who know2 that could ju2t be a bunch of 2ii22y newb2 complaiiniing about gettiing theiir a22e2 handed two them.
AA: maybe
TA: doe2nt 2ound liike a challenge team charge cant handle two me.
AA: haha thats right!
AA: 0k i think ill g0 let them kn0w the deal
TA: tell me how iit goe2.
AA: will d0!
apocalypseArisen [AA] ceased trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
------
twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
TA: hey aradiia.
TA: um.
TA: are you there?
TA: gue22 not nevermiind then.
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
apocalypseArisen [AA] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
AA: 0h s0llux hi!
AA: s0rry im a little busy
AA: ill get back t0 y0u 0k?
TA: uh.
TA: ok 2ure.
AA: whew
AA: s0rry ab0ut that
AA: we were just finishing up 0ur campaign
TA: oh crap ii forgot that wa2 twoday.
TA: how diid iit go?
AA: i d0nt kn0w
AA: she seemed 0k
AA: maybe a little aggressive f0r playing with us f0r the first time
AA: she didnt pull any punches thats f0r sure
AA: she sure did seem t0 enj0y picking 0n tavr0s th0ugh
TA: ii2nt that her job a2 hii2
TA: uh
TA: whatever you call what 2he wa2 doiing.
AA: cl0uder yeah
AA: i d0nt kn0w maybe im just being paran0id!
AA: i guess we will see what kind 0f player ag shapes up t0 be
TA: waiit.
TA: ag?
AA: 0h yeah her handle
TA: a2 iin arachniid2griip?
AA: wh0a
AA: h0w did y0u kn0w 0_0
TA: iit2 one of the name2 ii hear occa2iionally when ii do hear iit though iit2 loud.
AA: 0_0
AA: what d0es that mean
TA: ii dont know 2omethiing horriible probably.
AA: 0h n0
AA: what d0 y0u think we sh0uld d0
TA: ii wa2 ju2t jokiing aradiia ii actually dont know that iit mean2 anythiing.
AA: 0h
AA: well 0k
AA: i still h0pe it d0esnt mean anything awful
TA: me two.
TA: ju2t uh.
TA: be careful ii gue22.
AA: we will!
AA: s0 what was it y0u wanted t0 talk ab0ut bef0re
TA: huh?
AA: y0u seemed t0 have s0mething t0 say when y0u started talking t0 me bef0re
AA: 0_0
TA: oh riight.
TA: ii gue22 ii ju2t wanted two 2ay
TA: uh
TA: thank2 for before.
AA: f0r what
TA: before when we were talkiing about me beiing two hard on my2elf.
AA: oh that
AA: y0u already thanked me f0r that silly!
TA: yeah riight ok but ii diidnt feel liike iit wa2 enough.
TA: 2o
TA: ii wa2 wonderiing.
TA: ii know iit2 a long trek and you dont have two iif you dont want two but iif you wanted two maybe come vii2iit 2ometiime.
TA: you know.
TA: you can.
TA: vii2iit that ii2.
TA: nevermiind iit wa2 a 2tupiid iidea forget ii 2aiid anythiing.
AA: 0_0
AA: s0llux!
TA: god what.
AA: this is exactly the kind 0f thing i was talking ab0ut
AA: its n0t a stupid idea
AA: in fact i think its a great idea and im h0n0red
AA: s0 id l0ve t0 c0me
AA: h0w ab0ut in tw0 days
TA: why two?
AA: haha because its y0ur fav0rite number
TA: eheheh
TA: ok iill 2ee you then.
TA: iill be waiitiing for you out2iide.
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
AA: uh
twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
TA: 2orry ii diidnt mean two do that 2o fa2t.
AA: 0_0
TA: 2leep well aradiia.
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
AA: 0_0
AA: y0u t00 s0llux
apocalypseArisen [AA] ceased trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
------
There was a knock on the door. That was unusual nowadays, but right at this moment not unexpected. Tools were set down and blocks were crossed as the impatient knock rapped again on her door.
“I’m coming I’m coming! Geeeeeeeez!”
The heavy panel slid open to reveal the moist and perpetually frustrated face of her neighbor. Living in close vicinity though they did, there was no direct path from his hive to hers. A long distance had to be traveled to get from one to the other on foot, hence the excessive sweating. At least, she hoped that was the cause. He was known to have less savory reasons to sweat.
“Hey Equius! Did you bring it?”
“The radiation engine, you mean? Did you think I would have come all this way without it?”
“Of course not!” Vriska grinned, holding out her hands for the part. “Ok so hurry up and give it here!” He paused, staring down at the girl’s skinny arms and frowned deeper.
“Perhaps it’s better if I brought it in to your work station.”
“Hey sure, whatever.” Shrugging, Vriska weaved her way through her mess of a hive, dodging scattered bits of discarded machinery and clothing and other various items, towards a large central room, where a skeleton of some large machine hung by wires from the ceiling. “You can set it down there.”
Equius carefully lowered the radiation engine to the appointed location and took a step back to briefly glance over her work in progress.
“Thanks buddy! And hey, since you came all this way you might as well make yourself at home and keep me company!”
Brief reactions flickered upon his face in quick succession, half-hidden by his cracked shades, but eventually he nodded and carefully pulled up a chair by her workspace.
“I can accept your hospitality only briefly. Nepeta has been causing trouble of late and I feel it would be wise to return to a position of availability as soon as possible.”
“Oh yeah?” Despite the disapproving look Equius cast her over the gossipy glint in her one visible eye, Vriska didn’t bother to feign disinterest. The motions of her hands as she regained her tools were decidedly automatic as she lent him her near-full attention. “What’s the crazy cat girl been up to this time?”
“You will show me a little more respect by not speaking of my moirail in such derogatory terms,” Equius snapped, his hand clenching a spare tube just lightly enough to bend it into a neat right angle.
“Right right ok, soooooooorry!” A grimace formed and dissolved from her face, though her concentration still deviated from the work at hand. There were several minutes of silence.
“So what’s she doing?”
The tube broke into two pieces. “It is hardly any of your business, Vriska Serket, and you will stop this pattern of interrogation immediately. Had I known your interest in keeping me here longer than I intended was for such impertinent purposes, I--”
“Oh come on Zahhak, it’s obviously bugging you.” Vriska finally looked up, having the foresight to hide a toothy smile. “And with it having to do with her you really don’t have anyone else to talk to, do you?”
The comment sent him careening into surprised silence, and she allowed herself a satisfied smile and a mental pat on the back. Oh, well done, me! Didn’t even have to resort to tricksy mind-powers. Take that, Pyrope!
Equius let out a sigh that was half-angry hiss. “She has been perfectly impossible to deal with all week long. First she wanted to partake in that awful FLARP game--”
“Oh I hope you didn’t let her!” Vriska drawled sarcastically. “It’s dangerous you know!”
Normally at this point he would fly into a rage about her “juvenile” use of sarcasm, but luckily for her, he was already airborne and headed for a different target. “Of course I said no! And to think of the low-bloods she wanted to play with--”
“Wait what? Who asked her to play?”
“Two of the most abject peasants to ever cling like sludge-sucking wormbeasts to the very frayed end of the hemospectrum, and one Terezi Pyrope, who might as well be.”
“…Interesting,” Vriska muttered to herself, but Equius was too worked up to notice. Chair forgotten, he had risen to his feet and begun to pace in agitation.
“And then not three days later she comes regaling me with tales of their…their flushed leanings! It’s positively depraved!”
“Depraved. Yeah. Uh-huh.” Drowning her interest in feigned indifference, Vriska set to work attaching the engine he had given her to her newest doomsday device. “I’m sure it couldn’t have been that bad Equius!”
“Not that-”
“Please don’t sweat on anything,” she interrupted, glancing up with a disgusted twitch to her eyebrow.
“Not that bad!” he repeated, ignoring her. A fine blue sheen had overcome most of his revealed skin, and a faint sound of cracking could be heard as he ground his already ruined teeth in fury. “Getting two days’ worth of nothing but stories of a red-blood and a yellow-blood’s romantic misadventures is not that bad?!”
“…What yellow-blood, I thought-”
“VRISKA DO YOU HAVE A TOWEL?”
She winced and slowly rose to her feet. “Uh…yeah. Just hold your musclebeasts, sheesh.”
Though Vriska kept an unkempt stack in that very same block, she went after one from a different pile down the hall to give herself time to think. If text color was any indication-and it always was-then the red-blood Nepeta had mentioned had to be apocalypseArisen. But the other one was not her failure of a partner. No, then who…
Towel retrieved, she slowed her steps, still deep in thought. What about that hacker kid Terezi yakked about sometimes? Could he be the yellow-blood? Interesting. This was definitely something to be looked into.
…After Equius left. She sighed upon re-entering the room. Though his rage seemed to have calmed a little, he was sweating more than ever and stood still in a corner clutching his elbows with his freakishly powerful fingers. Vriska held the towel out to him by its corner. “Here.” Extending her arm as far as it would go, she tried to keep her face from falling into a deep grimace. A weak grin was all she could manage. “You can keep it. My gift to you. Like in return for the radiation engine. Yeah!”
He took the towel without a word and began to wick the bluish fluid from his forehead. It stained. She felt a little sick.
“Soooooooo thanks for everything, guess you’ve gotta get back to that moirail of yours now huh? Too bad! We were having such a nice chat!” Vriska was spared the unpleasant task of shoving him towards the door of her hive; he finally managed to start walking on his own, and she followed him down the hall to the exit.
“Maybe some other time, buddy, huh? I’ll let you know if I need any more parts! Ok? Alright? Seeeeeeee youuuuuuuu!”
The door closed with a satisfied SLAM behind him, and she leaned against it, a little flushed from both the effort of dealing with her neighbor and the excitement that came from a newly-hatching plan. She had some pretty great information here. All that was left was to figure out how to use it…
------
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]
AG: Heeeeeeeey Scourge Sister num8er two!!!!!!!!
GC: NUMB3R TWO? >:?
GC: S1NC3 WH3N 4R3 W3 R4NK3D?
GC: WH4T 1F 1 W4NT TO B3 NUMB3R ON3?? >:P
AG: Ok yeah sure what8ver you can 8e num8er one if you w8nt.
GC: OK4Y COOL >:]
AG: Or may8e you can 8e num8er one half the time 8nd num8er two half the time.
AG: That’s fair right? ::::)
GC: Y34H OK4Y TH4T SOUNDS R34SON4BL3
AG: Isn’t that like something your h8cker friend does?
AG: Th8t cute little halfsies thing?
GC: OH Y34H H3S 4LL 1NTO TH3 CUT3 L1TTL3 H4LFS13S TH1NG
GC: WHY DO YOU 4SK? >:?
AG: No re8son it just remind8d me.
AG: You t8lk a8out him a lot. :::;)
GC: 1 WOULDNT S4Y 4 LOT
AG: Ok 8nough to m8ke me curious!
AG: 8speci8lly 8s I m8y need 8 h8cker for my new8st project.
GC: >:O
GC: YOU M34N YOUR N3W DOOMSD4Y D3V1C3?
AG: 8f course wh8t 8lse would I mean?
GC: 1 DONT KNOW 1T JUST S33MS L1K3 WH3N YOUR3 LY1NG YOUR T3XT G3TS MOR3 4ND MOR3 OV3RRUN W1TH 31GHTS >:/
AG: Wh8t????????
AG: M8y8e I’m just 8xc8t8d?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
AG: Come on T8rezi I wouldn’t lie to my f8vor8 Scourge Sister would I? D::::
GC: W3LL NO 1 GU3SS NOT
GC: BUT L3T TH3 COURT R3COGN1Z3 TH4T YOU ONLY H4V3 ON3 SCOURG3 S1ST3R >:P
AG: Ok th8 court r8cognizes th8t or wh8tever 8ut you’re still my f8vor8! :::;)
GC: OK4Y TH4TS F1N3
AG: So c8n you put me in touch w8th him?
GC: OK4Y SUR3 1 GU3SS >:/
GC: 1 C4NT PROM1S3 H3LL W4NT TO T4LK TO YOU THOUGH
GC: H3 C4N B3 K1ND OF D1FF1CULT SOM3T1M3S
GC: H1S H4NDL3 1S TW1N4RM4G3DDONS
AG: Just to confirm, th8t’s twinArm8geddons?
GC: …UH
GC: YOU KNOW SOM3T1M3S 1 F33L L1K3 TH1S TYP1NG QU1RK TH1NG 1S 4 L1TTL3 MOR3 TROUBL3 TH4N 1TS WORTH >:/
AG: Nah it’s ok I’ve got 8t!
AG: Th8nks Terezi!
GC: NO PROBL3M
GC: 1D S4Y GOOD LUCK W1TH YOUR D3V1C3 BUT 1 GU3SS TH4TS TH3 K1ND OF TH1NG 1 SHOULD HOP3 YOU DONT H4V3 GOOD LUCK W1TH >:?
AG: H8h8! W8ll you c8n wish me good luck 8nyw8y! It’s not l8ke I’m going to use it!
GC: OK4Y W3LL GOOD LUCK ON YOUR PROJ3CT TH3N >:]
AG: Th8nks!
AG: >::::D
arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]
------
Sollux wiped up the last drip of honey from the floor and shoved the final wire against the wall of his respiteblock, and then moved to the window and glanced out into the star-filled sky. With his elbow on the narrow sill and his chin resting on a closed fist, he had the perfect view of TamaT, one of the forty-eight constellations cemented into Alternian mythological culture. If he believed in that sort of nonsense, this particular one held some sort of special meaning for him. He didn’t, of course. Pretty juvenile, all things told, mapping out your life based on the connections some ancient troll made between dots in the sky that he thought was some sort of unfinished work of art. But he did rather like it in its symmetry. Instead of driving himself crazy waiting, he stared at the collection of stars, focused on where the lines went between those bright spots of light against the dark night sky. It was dipping lower and lower towards the horizon these days; in a few weeks, it would be out of sight entirely, ushering in the end of the 11th perigee.
A groan and some stomping echoed down from the ceiling of his block. Great. Just another reminder of how completely useless his lusus was and how much this 12th perigee’s eve was going to suck--
“Grrrruuuuuuuuuummmmmmmbllllle!”
“Thut the fuck up already, you thtupid good for nothing cuthtodian! I jutht fed you!” Sollux prepared to tear his gaze away from the scene outside his hive to go collect more honey; tonight of all nights was not the time for that idiot to be getting all worked up. But something caught his attention in the very corner of his red eye.
“Oh thhit, oh thhit!” Sollux cast around desperately, making certain everything was in its proper place. Oh man, his respiteblock was still a complete and utter mess. Why the hell had he invited Aradia over? What a stupid idea!! Stupid stupid dumb!
Before his lusus could start up his moaning again, the young troll heard his name being called, the distance to the ground dimming her voice. Too late to start worrying! He’d better head down and get her before she thought he forgot or something. God damn it, what a stupid idea this was!
Red and blue energy prickled the air around him and slowly lifted him off his feet. He would leave from the roof, and maybe succeed in shutting his lusus up before she heard it yammering.
He reached the roof just as a message was sent to his Trollian handle. The noise indicating its arrival sounded, but he was not around to hear it, and in any case his monitor had been shut off.
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
AG: Heeeeeeeey Mr. H8cker Dude!
AG: I need to 8orrow some 8f your 8mazing skills! ::::)
AG: Are you th8re????????
AG: No?
AG: D8mn.
AG: Well get 8ack to me wh8n you 8re ok?
AG: :::;)
arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
“Sollux?” Her voice grew more distinct the quieter his lusus became and the further he got from the rooftop of his hive.
“Thorry I kept you waiting,” he called, trying hard to swallow his anxiety. In the glow of the rising moons she looked radiant, large eyes wide with the confusion that came with unknown surroundings. “It, uh… It wathn’t too hard to get here, I hope.”
“I managed.” She answered him with a smile, but it was weary. His heart felt as if it wanted to crush him.
“Thorry,” he repeated, floating downward until he was near her. It was hard to look at her, what with the light of the moons reflecting pink and green from her eyes and off her hair and especially with the blinding blaze of his guilt. “I thould have gone to pick you up. Or thecured thome other way to get you here. Or--”
“Sollux?” The smile was gone from her face. She stared up at him, floating a few inches above the surface of the planet, and frowned almost deep enough to ground him.
“What?” he muttered miserably.
“Shut up.”
“Ok.”
Aradia took a step closer to him, and another when he backed off in response, and tried to hold his gaze. “It wasn’t any trouble. And even if it was, it would have been worth it. Ok?”
He glanced briefly at her, then away again, feeling his cheeks burn yellow.
“Ok thure whatever.”
“You’re doing that thing again.”
He risked a glance at her. With her lips pursed and her arms folded, she looked ready to punch him--or worse, walk away. But she merely sighed, loosened her arms, and moved forward to touch his shoulder gently. “I can’t be mad at you, you’re doing that enough for the both of us. But I’m asking you to stop. I was ok coming all the way here to see you. And I would do it again.”
“Aradia…”
“So let’s go up, huh?”
Sollux froze. Admittedly, this entire situation hadn’t been thought through all the way, but the issue with this part in particular suddenly dawned on him. He could ask her to climb up all those stairs to the top of his communal hivestem, where he lived, or he could merely take her up with him--but that would mean…that would mean…
Oh my GOD you are such a wuuuuuuuuss!
“What?”
Aradia blinked. “I said we should go up. Is that ok?”
Sollux’s heart was pounding, and suddenly it was not due to the realization that he was going to have to get very close to the girl for whom he had recently come to understand he had acquired some sort of flushed feelings. The voices had never been that direct, that distinct, before. And they’d never sounded like that. What was--
“Sollux…? What’s wrong?”
He shook his head a little, then grinned at her. “Nothing’th wrong. You ready to go?”
“I-yes?” Sollux’s personality could certainly change quickly. But then, that was one of the things Aradia found utterly fascinating about him.
It was definitely a shift, when he took her smoothly around the waist and began to take her off the ground with him. But she didn’t have time to be nervous or to question it; the feeling of flying overcame any fear, and her eyes widened to look down and take in the way the planet grew small and far away below them. By the time they got up to his hive, he was back to his usual shy self, but, she felt, she had seen a side of him he rarely showed to anyone else.
“Oh man. Toooooooo easy Sollux Captor!” Vriska sat back in her chair, grinning and breathless with her achievement. For a mind so supposedly brilliant, he offered little challenge. She would have to try again later to make sure this wasn’t just a fluke, but she was pretty sure that she would be able to make use of him if she needed to. And surely an opportunity would eventually present itself. One always did.
------
apocalypseArisen [AA] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
AA: s0llux guess what i f0und!
AA: s0llux?
AA: are y0u there?
TA: yeah 2orry.
TA: anyway ii dont know ii can never gue22 when you a2k me two gue22.
TA: ii mean ii could but that would be cheatiing.
AA: haha yeah it w0uld be!
AA: s0 d0nt d0 it!
TA: ok ii promii2e ii wont.
TA: but then ii have no iidea what you found.
TA: 2o tell me.
AA: 0k fine mr grumpypants wh0 d0esnt like t0 play games!!
AA: 0_0
TA: are you angry wiith me?
AA: N0!!
AA: i was just kidding
AA: anyway the thing that i f0und
AA: was b0nes
AA: in my excavati0n site
AA: like a wh0le skelet0n!
AA: like s0mething had been buried there
AA: isnt that weird?
TA: whoa yeah that ii2 pretty weiird.
TA: what2 iit a 2keleton of?
AA: im n0t sure actually
AA: here take a l00k
-- apocalypseArisen [AA] sent twinArmageddons [TA] the file “weirdb0nes.jpg” --
AA: what d0 y0u make 0f it
TA: hmm hard two 2ay wiithout 2eeiing iit iin per2on.
TA: the piicture qualiity ii2 kiind of crappy 2orry.
AA: 0_0
AA: i kn0w it is but thats the best i c0uld d0
TA: iit2 fiine but ii gue22 ii cant really help deciipher iit.
AA: with just the picture y0u mean?
TA: yeah.
AA: well why d0nt y0u c0me 0ver and take a l00k at it
AA: if y0ure n0t t00 busy that is
AA: …s0llux?
TA: wow um.
TA: iid be happy two iif you know la2t tiime wa2nt two awkward for you or anythiing.
AA: it was t0tally 0k!
AA: ive 0nly t0ld y0u that like a milli0n times since then!
TA: eheheh yeah ii know.
AA: d0nt y0u dare ap0l0gize again
AA: l00k s0llux i enj0y spending time with y0u
AA: even if y0u think y0ure awkward
AA: maybe y0u are a little but thats 0ne 0f the things i like ab0ut y0u!
AA: s0 d0 me and y0urself a fav0r and st0p w0rrying ab0ut it
AA: 0_0
TA: …
AA: what
TA: ii dont know iit 2ounded liike you really meant that.
AA: 0f c0urse i meant it!
TA: well.
AA: well what!
TA: well ok iif you want me two look at iit.
TA: iit2 better than 2iittiing here 2tariing at thii2 2hiitty piicture.
AA: is it really that bad
TA: no ii wa2 ju2t jokiing.
AA: 0_0
TA: iill be there iin a 2econd.
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
AA: wait s0llux
AA: i didnt mean immediately
AA: 0_0
AA: 0h shit
------
Aradia had never cleaned so fast before in her life. FLARP books were shoved into a pile in a corner, with a collection of six red dice scattered on top; her excavation and adventuring tools were thrown into another corner, now spattered with mud since she’d had little time to clean them off. She herself had been given none of the same attention. Too busy ensuring her respiteblock was presentable, she had failed to remember the state of her own person, and by the time she glanced out the window and noticed the distant glow of the psionic on his way to her hive, she had no time to fill up her ablution trap. She changed hastily, but dirt still sat beneath her fingernails and clung tenaciously in her long hair. Her lusus attempted to lick off what she could of the dirt smeared on Aradia’s face, but in the end, the combination of that and the towel she applied were barely enough to remove the worst of the grime on her person.
Finally, she had to accept that this was the best she could do. She hurried out the front door to her modest hive just in time to watch him descend from the sky in flashes of blue and red that took turns illuminating her form against the darkness of the starlit night. His glasses had been removed, presumably to better see where he was going. Her expression shifted from delight at his presence to confused surprise as she realized that his eyes were somehow exactly the same colors as his lenses.
As he drifted to the ground, he gave himself a moment to return the shades to his face, and she gave herself the same time to school her emotions back into something resembling calmness.
“I wasn’t expecting you so soon!” she said, hurrying over to him, as a way to explain her appearance.
He shrugged a little, seeming more at ease than he had been the last time they met face to face. “You theemed exthited about the boneth tho I wanted to come thee them ath thoon ath pothible.”
Red tinting her cheeks briefly, Aradia smiled a little and nodded, inclining her head towards one of the holes in the earth outside her hive. “Over here, then.”
He followed her on foot now to the location of her discovery. The pit was deep, and a crude ladder made of thin pieces of wood and sturdy vines had been slung against the side for her use in reaching the bottom. She prepared to descend, but he shook his head, instead holding out an arm for her. “I can take uth down,” he promised, and the sureness of his voice and in the way he stood was maddening and intriguing both in contrast to how he usually was. Their contact when she stepped into his arms caused her to blush this time instead of him; her heart pounded in her throat as they descended, and even as she broke away to go clear the tarp from her discovery.
Oh wow look at you! Aren’t we Mr. Confident today?
“Thut up,” Sollux muttered, face pinching in distaste as Aradia was distracted. The new, more insistent voice was back, and he already had a dislike for it that exceeded his usual annoyance. This one had the gall to be both loud and demanding, and he would have liked nothing more than to be able to drown it out. But since it had surfaced it had been nothing but pestering, wheedling, and intrusive, and it wouldn’t leave him alone for a span of more than a few hours at a time.
No way! I’m seriously impressed here! Don’t you think she is too? Look how proud she is of her stupid bones and how much your opinion of them means to her! Soooooooo cute!
Sollux decided to ignore it. Even as it went on to insist that he wouldn’t be able to for long, he erased all evidence of the voice from his expression and stood by Aradia’s side, looking down at the skeleton she had unearthed.
“Wow. Thith thertainly ithn’t a troll, that’th for thure.”
“That’s what I thought, too. But it’s no wild animal I’ve ever seen before. It doesn’t look familiar at all?” Aradia looked up to him, curious, expectant. “I figured if anyone knew what it might be, it would be you.”
Fuuuuuuuuck Captor she’s basically in scarlet throes for you! Damned if I know why she thinks so highly of you!
Sollux had had enough of this musclebeast shit. He wasn’t going to let that stupid voice convince him of anything or convince him to do anything, not today. Not ever again, he vowed to himself.
Oh yeah good luck with that!
It was hard, but he kept his expression neutral as he perused the find. “Maybe if you unearth it,” he suggested, “and lay out the boneth the way they thould go, and take a better picthure, I can write a program to help vithualize what it might have looked like, and then we can find out what it might be bathed on that.”
Her eyes widened at him as if he had just explained to her in simple terms how the universe had come into being. “Sollux, that’s brilliant! I can’t believe I never thought of that!”
Nice job Mr. Smooth Guy! I might be getting all hot and bothered under the collar here myself!
“Eheheh,” he chuckled, managing to display only the briefest of blushes. He hid a clenched fist behind his back. “You jutht got tho exthited you couldn’t think thtraight about how to analythe the thituathion.”
“You’re right, I guess. Wow, I can’t wait to finish digging this up now and get to work on it!”
As he watched her, he couldn’t help but let some of her excitement affect him. Seeing her this happy…well, he rarely experienced much more than a quiet sense of contentment at anything before his usual self-loathing overrode him, but for some reason her achievement--her happiness--more than anything he had ever managed to do, was making him happier than he could ever remember being.
“Aradia…”
“Yes, Sollux?” It was hard to look at him, what with the light of the moons reflecting pink and green off his shades and his hair and especially with the deafening way his intense stare at her was making her heart pound.
As he leaned in slowly, he was sure she could hear his own pulse jamming through veins and arteries like a rushing yellow river, but he didn’t realize it would only be drowned out by her own vital beat. Both felt at once mobile and frozen, stuck on the single track that brought them painfully slowly together, until they were close enough to--
Yes! You smooth operator! Kiss her! Go ahead, do it!
Aradia’s eyes were closed, and anyway she wouldn’t be able to see the way his eyes narrowed in sudden fury behind his dark lenses.
Fuck you! he thought back, enraged. Thtop telling me what to do!!
No way you’re too much fun! Anyway you’re keeping your lady waiting! Come on do it! DOOOOOOOO IIIIIIIIT!!!!!!!!
NO!!
A brief jolt of energy escaped Sollux before he could reign it in, and in his quick thinking he pulled away just enough to keep it from reaching Aradia. Before she could look up at him with eyes confused and probably hurt, he scooped her into a hug and pressed her forehead against his chest.
Oh my god so lame! You basically just ruined any chance you ever had with her!
Get out of my head! Leave me alone!
Fine! But only because you’re being soooooooo boring!
I don’t care what you think about me!
Hahahahahahahaha! But you will! Anyway I’ll leave you alone this time but I’ll be back! Sayonara, Captor!
“Sollux…”
“I thould probably get going,” he murmured into Aradia’s hair, trying not to feel miserable. “I forgot to feed my luthuth before I left.”
They broke apart, and neither could look at the other.
“Ok, yes, you should probably do that.”
“Yeah, well… Let me know when you’ve got thith unearthed. I’ll bring you thomething to take better picthureth with later.”
“Ok, thanks…”
“Tho…”
“I’ll. Talk to you on Trollian, then?”
“Yeah ok thure.”
“Ok. …Goodbye.”
“Bye.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Aradia saw the bi-colored energy pick up around Sollux’s body and lift him off the ground. Her heartbeat feeling hollower now in her chest, she finally looked up soon enough to watch him float away from her, back to his own hivestem. He only glanced back once, but by then he was too far away to see the disappointed frown she made with trembling lips.
Vriska was too gleeful to care whether or not Equius could hear her laughing from across the chasm between their hives. Oh, that had been just too much fun! Sure he’d been able to ignore her command, but that had just made it all the better! Now she knew when he’d listen to her and when he wouldn’t, and thanks to her abilities she knew more about Sollux Captor than she was sure he’d ever wish for her to know. Her run of good luck just never seemed to end!
From her little advantage she knew that her need of this new information would be coming around soon enough. In the meantime, Aradia would certainly be distracted come their next campaign, which would make for an interesting game for once. She couldn’t wait.
------
caligulasAquarium [CA] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]
CA: hey kan
CA: hey
CA: kan are you there
GA: Why Is It You Always Assume That I Am Not Present Or That I Am Ignoring You When I Fail To Answer Within Moments Of Your Pestering
CA: wwoww fuck sorry
CA: im a little agitated here is all
CA: but nevvermind if you arent up to listenin thats fine
CA: forget it
GA: I Apologize For Making Assumptions
GA: Pray Tell Why You Are So Agitated
CA: its your fuckin moirail
GA: Oh
GA: Has She Overstepped Some Caliginous Boundary I Should Be Made Aware Of
GA: ?
CA: if by that you mean shes pretty much dumpin me for some lowwblood chump then yeah id say shes been ovversteppin some boundaries real hard
GA: Wait
GA: What
CA: kar just told me
CA: she just ran some orangeblood shes been flarpin wwith off a cliff or somethin
CA: apparently shes been hittin him pretty damn hard since they started playin
CA: this is musclebeast shit kan she cant do this to me
CA: howw the fucks a assblood like that gonna make a better kismesis than me
CA: you got to do somethin about her kan im beggin you
GA: Hold On
grimAuxiliatrix [GA] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]
GA: Vriska
GA: What Are You Doing
GA: Answer Me
GA: Eridan Just Informed Me Of Your Flarp Escapade
AG: Wh8t?
GA: With A Certain Boy
GA: And A Certain Cliff
GA: Would You Care To Explain
AG: I’m a l8ttle 8usy.
GA: I Imagine That Is Only To Be Expected
GA: I Am Certain His Friends Are More Than A Little Angry With You
AG: Th8t sounds a8out right.
GA: Do You Feel Any Remorse Over This At All
AG: Wow you know wh8t Mary8m 8s much 8s I find your m8ddlesome w8ys utterly r8lieving, l8ke a mess8ge from god 8t the time in my l8fe wh8n I 8m most morally vulnera8le,
AG: 8nd 8s much as I would like to sit here and 8llow you to nurse 8ll my emotion8l wounds for hours and hours on 8nd,
AG: This m8y 8e 8n utt8r shock to you 8ut
AG: I’m a l8ttle 8usy!!!!!!!!
AG: So leave me 8lone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
arachnidsGrip [AG] blocked grimAuxiliatrix [GA]
GA: Vriska
GA: Dont Do That
GA: Vriska
GA: !
LJ won't let me post even half of this at once, so I apologize, but this is about to get obnoxious DX
Title: Momentum (Parts 1-2)
Fandom: Homestuck
Characters/Pairings: Aradia, Sollux, Nepeta, Vriska, Equius, Terezi, Eridan, Kanaya, Tavros, Feferi; Sollux?Aradia, Equius♥/♠Aradia, implied Eridan♠Vriska, implied Sollux♥Feferi
Warnings: Spoilers for Hivebent (Act5-1) I guess?
Word count: (total) 27,563
1
He heard them, too.
It was one of the first things that drew her to him. Tavros’s off-hand comment that there was someone else on this planet to share her burden escalated quickly into a plan to meet. He arrived at their agreed-upon location without his lusus, and he was floating. A psionic. Aradia’s heart fluttered a little with excitement as she climbed down from her own lizard-lusus’s back and approached slowly, smiling.
“I’m glad you came.”
He hung back, the tips of his mismatched shoes trailing along the ground a moment longer before he settled down.
“You’re apocalypthArithen?” he asked hesitantly, a lisp impeding his spoken words the way it influenced his typed ones. Thick, bi-colored lenses obscured his eyes, masking his opinion of her. But her smile never faltered as she took one more step closer to him, hand outstretched.
“Aradia.” It made her happy to realize that he could say her real name without the trouble her Trollian handle gave him. Maybe it would help make him more comfortable. “Aradia Megido. It’s great to finally meet you in person, tA.”
He didn’t take her hand at first. He just stared at her--presumably--from behind those red and blue lenses, considering her.
It was just as it was online. Sometimes he wouldn’t respond to her for long stretches of time, which used to confuse her and make her uncomfortable. She’d eventually grown to learn it was nothing personal. Sometimes he just didn’t feel like talking.
“Tholluckth,” he finally muttered, still not taking her offered hand. “Captor.”
Aradia blinked. “Pardon?”
The line of his mouth contorted, making his protruding fangs dip into the shape of an upside-down U. Panic shot through her insides like lightning, setting her nerves on edge, and just like that spark of energy, her brain caught on to what he had been trying to say.
“Oh--tA--I’m…I’m sorry, I just didn’t…” Stupid. Stupid stupid dumb! How insensitive could she get?!
He sighed, eventually, and allocated some of his concentration to form shapes in the air between them with the energy now flowing from his fingertips, flashing red and blue. It took her a moment to look up and notice it, the six little symbols spelling out “2ollux.”
“Oh…oh! Sollux, ok! Sorry, Sollux,” she said, her brief, sheepish smile fading. “Oh my god, that’s really awful! That you can’t--”
“Thay my own name properly?” Sollux snorted and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. The letters between them faded as he drew his focus away from them. “Yeah. You get uthed to it.”
Aradia paused. Over under a tree where her lusus had settled down, she flicked her tail once and watched her with her large eyes. Aradia pursed her reddened lips and gave the white form a short glance before turning back to her friend. “I guess you would…”
“Thatth why I prefer talking online,” he said suddenly, his statement punctuated with an absent shuffling of his feet. “Where itth jutht a typing quirk and I’m doing it on purpoth.”
“…Oh.” Her heart sank heavily in her chest, weighted down by sudden guilt. “I--”
“But you wanted to talk about thomething important,” he interrupted. “Tho I don’t mind.” Before her eyes, something about Sollux seemed to shift. It was subtle, but she watched how the hunching of his shoulders turned into a more relaxed, confident slouch, and the nervous shuffling in his feet subsided. “The voitheth.”
Online, he could be direct like this, too. Usually after his long periods of silence he would talk and talk, as if making up for those quiet moments, and during these times he was confident and painfully, sometimes abrasively honest.
“Are you hearing them now?” Her words grew hushed but excited, as if they were discussing a sensitive secret.
“Alwayth.”
“Me too. They’re like a quiet, spooky murmur underneath everything.”
“I don’t get the thame priviledth.” He paused and cocked his head to the side. Several yards away two tree stumps sat close together; they gravitated towards that spot and sat down, he with his feet planted lazily and wide apart, and she cross-legged, leaning forward with her hands braced on her ankles. “The fuckerth are alwayth tho loud. Like thpiritth don’t have anything better to do I gueth.”
“What sorts of things do they tell you?”
“Nonthenth, mothtly. They’ll make all thethe thpooky predicthionth but it’th all muthlebeatht thit. Thometimeth I feel like if I hear one more athinine comment about frogth or brainth being all floaty and on fire I’ll do thome thort of acrobatic fucking pirouette off the fucking handle.”
“It can get pretty confusing,” agreed Aradia, her eyebrows drawing together in concern. “But I guess you’ve gotten used to that, too?”
“Hell no.” What of Sollux’s face she could see scrunched up in extreme distaste. “They don’t ever thut up. Thome dayth I can’t even thleep with all their yakking. Tho I thtay up and code. Helpth to tune them out.”
“I wish I could…take on some of that burden for you,” Aradia told him earnestly. “If my hearing them louder meant they got harder to hear for you--”
“I don’t think that’th how it workth.”
“Yes, but…” Her shoulders slumped a little. “If it did.”
He shook his head and drew his knees up to his chest. “I wouldn’t with that on you,” he said eventually, his entire meaning again lost behind his glasses.
Aradia’s heart pounded a little harder, to her surprise. “…I’d be ok with it,” she told him quietly.
There was no answer. He seemed to have fallen into another lapse of brooding silence.
“…Sollux?” Biting the inside of her lip gently, Aradia leaned forward more, trying to get a good look through his tinted shades. She backed off when he shuddered, suddenly.
“…What did…?”
“They thaid you would be.” His voice sounded dry--hollow, like a dead tree.
“They said I would be what?”
“Ok with it.”
Confusion bloomed on the female troll’s features as she watched Sollux fall further into a pit of silence. “They’re talking to you about me?” She couldn’t help but shudder herself. “Kind of creepy.”
“Voitheth of the dead tend to be,” he agreed morosely. “Anyway, yeah, they talk about you thometimeth. Nothing in detail. Your Trollian name cometh up a lot. Tho do a lot of otherth. KK and Tavroth and Terezthi and your friend arthenicCatnip.”
“Nepeta?” A fresh wave of eerie feelings washed over her, a torrent of unpleasant warmth sticking to her skin like spoor slime. “Why would they talk about her?”
“I don’t know. Like I thaid, it’th uthually jutht nameth. I gueth in a way it’th good, though. I wouldn’t have met any of you otherwithe.”
“Oh…well, then I guess I’m glad.”
“You don’t thound glad.”
“Ok, well, I mean, I guess it’s not all that great that the voices are talking about me, but…” Aradia blushed and glanced aside, down at the roots of her stump where they mingled uselessly with the soil beneath them. “But I’m happy, if it meant I got to meet you.”
She missed a similar reaction in him, a faint golden color rising in his cheeks where in hers there was a deep red hue, and try as he might he couldn’t get his shades to cover it up.
“Then I gueth I am, too.”
The mumbled admission was delayed enough that when she glanced up again, gold had nearly entirely faded back into the gray of his skin, but that didn’t erase her smile. When they eventually parted, she still held it like a patch on her heart, filling it with a strange kind of happiness
2
apocalypseArisen [AA] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
AA: hey s0llux!
TA: hii aradiia.
TA: youre up pretty late.
AA: yep! i just g0t back fr0m digging 0ut my newest excavati0n site
TA: excavatiion?
TA: liike archeology?
AA: y0u g0t it! tavr0s and i just finished 0ur last flarp campaign s0 i figured n0w w0uld be a g00d time t0 start
TA: that2 riight you two are partner2.
AA: team charge f0rever! haha
TA: eheheh 2ound2 liike you guy2 have fun wiith that.
AA: y0u d0nt flarp d0 y0u s0llux?
TA: nah ii could never get iintwo iit.
TA: the game mechaniic2 are two 2iimple and hackiing iit would be two temptiing.
AA: 0h
AA: that w0uldnt be very fair
TA: exactly.
AA: s0 what d0 y0u d0 in y0ur free time?
AA: just c0de all day l0ng
AA: mr genius mcsmartyfangs
AA: 0_0
TA: eheheh wow no.
TA: well ye2.
TA: that2 ba2iically what ii do all day.
TA: but iim no genius.
AA: 0h c0me 0n!
AA: half the time i talk t0 y0u y0ure g0ing 0ff 0n h0w amazing y0u are!
AA: even terezi says y0ure brilliant
TA: 2he 2aiid that?
AA: well 0k n0t in th0se w0rds specifically
AA: but m0re 0r less
TA: iit2 not really all that great ii promii2e.
TA: more liike ii know how two fuck around wiith 2hiit tiil iit doe2 what ii want.
TA: whiich ii dont know ii gue22 ii2 the 2ame thiing.
AA: …
AA: s0 are you agreeing with me 0r n0t 0_0
TA: who know2.
TA: 2ometiime2 ii have a hard tiime thiinkiing iim worth anythiing.
AA: ive n0ticed!
AA: well just between y0u and me s0llux
AA: i think y0ure pretty amazing
AA: and if y0u believed in that all the time instead 0f 0nly half the time
AA: i think y0ud be a l0t happier
AA: anyway its getting light 0ut
AA: we sh0uld b0th be getting t0 sleep
AA: ill talk t0 y0u later s0llux!
apocalypseArisen [AA] ceased trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
TA: …thank2 aradiia.
TA: ii gue22 try not two have two many niightmare2.
TA: or 2omethiing.
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
------
arsenicCatnip [AC] began trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
AC: :33 < *ac spots a ruthless wild beast tamer and quickly ducks behind a huge boulder!*
AC: :33 < *but then she realizes its aa whos come to play with her and l33ps out and rubs against aas legs*
AC: :33 < hiiiii aradia!
AC: oops, i mean
AC: *she says that*
AA: hell0 nepeta
AA: i mean
AA: *the ruthless wild beast tamer wh0s n0t actually ruthless 0r a beast tamer happily rubs the cats belly in greeting*
AA: w0w s0rry
AA: im n0t very g00d at this
AC: :33 < thats ok
AC :33 < its pretty diffurent from flarping!
AA: speaking 0f which
AA: did y0u ask yet
AC: :33 < oh
AC: :33 < yes, i did
AC: :33 < he wont let me :(( hes being purrfectly impossible about it!
AA: did y0u tell him wh0 y0u w0uld be playing with
AC: :33 < yes he made me >:((
AC: :33 < even though terezi would be my partner
AC: :33 < he says shes a bad influence
AC: :33 < and a “disgrace to b100-b100ds” or something stupid like that
AA: i can 0nly imagine what he had t0 say about tavr0s and me
AC: :33 < :((
AC: :33 < i did everything i could pawsibly think of
AC: :33 < i told him if hed just talk to you hed s33 how wrong he was!
AC: :33 < but he wouldnt listen
AA: that seems t0 be the case m0st 0f the time
AC: :33 < more like all of the time!
AC: :33 < *ac rolls up into a ball of bristly anger!!*
AC: :33 < *but thats really tiring so she cant hold it for long*
AA: d0nt w0rry nepeta
AA: y0u did y0ur best
AA: well find s0me0ne else t0 play with us
AC: :33 < :(( good luck!
AA: i supp0se i sh0uld als0 wish y0u g00d luck
AA: it cant be easy t0 deal with a m0irail wh0 d0esnt listen
apocalypseArisen [AA] ceased trolling arsenicCatnip [AC]
------
apocalypseArisen [AA] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
AA: s0llux?
TA: oh hey.
AA: hi
AA: I have a questi0n f0r y0u
TA: fiire away.
TA: mr geniius mc2martyfang2 at your 2erviice.
AA: um
AA: i kn0w y0u said y0u d0nt flarp usually but
AA: we really need a f0urth
AA: i d0nt kn0w wh0 else t0 ask
TA: oh hell.
TA: aradiia we talked about thii2.
AA: i kn0w
AA: s0rry nevermind
TA: nah iit2 cool.
TA: you guy2 2eem really de2perate though.
AA: well
AA: terezi says she kn0ws s0me0ne wh0d d0 it
AA: theyve been partners bef0re
AA: but i d0nt kn0w
AA: ive heard s0me bad things ab0ut her
TA: what from the voiice2?
AA: 0_0
AA: n0 the flarp f0rums
TA: oh.
TA: who know2 that could ju2t be a bunch of 2ii22y newb2 complaiiniing about gettiing theiir a22e2 handed two them.
AA: maybe
TA: doe2nt 2ound liike a challenge team charge cant handle two me.
AA: haha thats right!
AA: 0k i think ill g0 let them kn0w the deal
TA: tell me how iit goe2.
AA: will d0!
apocalypseArisen [AA] ceased trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
------
twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
TA: hey aradiia.
TA: um.
TA: are you there?
TA: gue22 not nevermiind then.
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
apocalypseArisen [AA] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
AA: 0h s0llux hi!
AA: s0rry im a little busy
AA: ill get back t0 y0u 0k?
TA: uh.
TA: ok 2ure.
AA: whew
AA: s0rry ab0ut that
AA: we were just finishing up 0ur campaign
TA: oh crap ii forgot that wa2 twoday.
TA: how diid iit go?
AA: i d0nt kn0w
AA: she seemed 0k
AA: maybe a little aggressive f0r playing with us f0r the first time
AA: she didnt pull any punches thats f0r sure
AA: she sure did seem t0 enj0y picking 0n tavr0s th0ugh
TA: ii2nt that her job a2 hii2
TA: uh
TA: whatever you call what 2he wa2 doiing.
AA: cl0uder yeah
AA: i d0nt kn0w maybe im just being paran0id!
AA: i guess we will see what kind 0f player ag shapes up t0 be
TA: waiit.
TA: ag?
AA: 0h yeah her handle
TA: a2 iin arachniid2griip?
AA: wh0a
AA: h0w did y0u kn0w 0_0
TA: iit2 one of the name2 ii hear occa2iionally when ii do hear iit though iit2 loud.
AA: 0_0
AA: what d0es that mean
TA: ii dont know 2omethiing horriible probably.
AA: 0h n0
AA: what d0 y0u think we sh0uld d0
TA: ii wa2 ju2t jokiing aradiia ii actually dont know that iit mean2 anythiing.
AA: 0h
AA: well 0k
AA: i still h0pe it d0esnt mean anything awful
TA: me two.
TA: ju2t uh.
TA: be careful ii gue22.
AA: we will!
AA: s0 what was it y0u wanted t0 talk ab0ut bef0re
TA: huh?
AA: y0u seemed t0 have s0mething t0 say when y0u started talking t0 me bef0re
AA: 0_0
TA: oh riight.
TA: ii gue22 ii ju2t wanted two 2ay
TA: uh
TA: thank2 for before.
AA: f0r what
TA: before when we were talkiing about me beiing two hard on my2elf.
AA: oh that
AA: y0u already thanked me f0r that silly!
TA: yeah riight ok but ii diidnt feel liike iit wa2 enough.
TA: 2o
TA: ii wa2 wonderiing.
TA: ii know iit2 a long trek and you dont have two iif you dont want two but iif you wanted two maybe come vii2iit 2ometiime.
TA: you know.
TA: you can.
TA: vii2iit that ii2.
TA: nevermiind iit wa2 a 2tupiid iidea forget ii 2aiid anythiing.
AA: 0_0
AA: s0llux!
TA: god what.
AA: this is exactly the kind 0f thing i was talking ab0ut
AA: its n0t a stupid idea
AA: in fact i think its a great idea and im h0n0red
AA: s0 id l0ve t0 c0me
AA: h0w ab0ut in tw0 days
TA: why two?
AA: haha because its y0ur fav0rite number
TA: eheheh
TA: ok iill 2ee you then.
TA: iill be waiitiing for you out2iide.
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
AA: uh
twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
TA: 2orry ii diidnt mean two do that 2o fa2t.
AA: 0_0
TA: 2leep well aradiia.
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
AA: 0_0
AA: y0u t00 s0llux
apocalypseArisen [AA] ceased trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
------
There was a knock on the door. That was unusual nowadays, but right at this moment not unexpected. Tools were set down and blocks were crossed as the impatient knock rapped again on her door.
“I’m coming I’m coming! Geeeeeeeez!”
The heavy panel slid open to reveal the moist and perpetually frustrated face of her neighbor. Living in close vicinity though they did, there was no direct path from his hive to hers. A long distance had to be traveled to get from one to the other on foot, hence the excessive sweating. At least, she hoped that was the cause. He was known to have less savory reasons to sweat.
“Hey Equius! Did you bring it?”
“The radiation engine, you mean? Did you think I would have come all this way without it?”
“Of course not!” Vriska grinned, holding out her hands for the part. “Ok so hurry up and give it here!” He paused, staring down at the girl’s skinny arms and frowned deeper.
“Perhaps it’s better if I brought it in to your work station.”
“Hey sure, whatever.” Shrugging, Vriska weaved her way through her mess of a hive, dodging scattered bits of discarded machinery and clothing and other various items, towards a large central room, where a skeleton of some large machine hung by wires from the ceiling. “You can set it down there.”
Equius carefully lowered the radiation engine to the appointed location and took a step back to briefly glance over her work in progress.
“Thanks buddy! And hey, since you came all this way you might as well make yourself at home and keep me company!”
Brief reactions flickered upon his face in quick succession, half-hidden by his cracked shades, but eventually he nodded and carefully pulled up a chair by her workspace.
“I can accept your hospitality only briefly. Nepeta has been causing trouble of late and I feel it would be wise to return to a position of availability as soon as possible.”
“Oh yeah?” Despite the disapproving look Equius cast her over the gossipy glint in her one visible eye, Vriska didn’t bother to feign disinterest. The motions of her hands as she regained her tools were decidedly automatic as she lent him her near-full attention. “What’s the crazy cat girl been up to this time?”
“You will show me a little more respect by not speaking of my moirail in such derogatory terms,” Equius snapped, his hand clenching a spare tube just lightly enough to bend it into a neat right angle.
“Right right ok, soooooooorry!” A grimace formed and dissolved from her face, though her concentration still deviated from the work at hand. There were several minutes of silence.
“So what’s she doing?”
The tube broke into two pieces. “It is hardly any of your business, Vriska Serket, and you will stop this pattern of interrogation immediately. Had I known your interest in keeping me here longer than I intended was for such impertinent purposes, I--”
“Oh come on Zahhak, it’s obviously bugging you.” Vriska finally looked up, having the foresight to hide a toothy smile. “And with it having to do with her you really don’t have anyone else to talk to, do you?”
The comment sent him careening into surprised silence, and she allowed herself a satisfied smile and a mental pat on the back. Oh, well done, me! Didn’t even have to resort to tricksy mind-powers. Take that, Pyrope!
Equius let out a sigh that was half-angry hiss. “She has been perfectly impossible to deal with all week long. First she wanted to partake in that awful FLARP game--”
“Oh I hope you didn’t let her!” Vriska drawled sarcastically. “It’s dangerous you know!”
Normally at this point he would fly into a rage about her “juvenile” use of sarcasm, but luckily for her, he was already airborne and headed for a different target. “Of course I said no! And to think of the low-bloods she wanted to play with--”
“Wait what? Who asked her to play?”
“Two of the most abject peasants to ever cling like sludge-sucking wormbeasts to the very frayed end of the hemospectrum, and one Terezi Pyrope, who might as well be.”
“…Interesting,” Vriska muttered to herself, but Equius was too worked up to notice. Chair forgotten, he had risen to his feet and begun to pace in agitation.
“And then not three days later she comes regaling me with tales of their…their flushed leanings! It’s positively depraved!”
“Depraved. Yeah. Uh-huh.” Drowning her interest in feigned indifference, Vriska set to work attaching the engine he had given her to her newest doomsday device. “I’m sure it couldn’t have been that bad Equius!”
“Not that-”
“Please don’t sweat on anything,” she interrupted, glancing up with a disgusted twitch to her eyebrow.
“Not that bad!” he repeated, ignoring her. A fine blue sheen had overcome most of his revealed skin, and a faint sound of cracking could be heard as he ground his already ruined teeth in fury. “Getting two days’ worth of nothing but stories of a red-blood and a yellow-blood’s romantic misadventures is not that bad?!”
“…What yellow-blood, I thought-”
“VRISKA DO YOU HAVE A TOWEL?”
She winced and slowly rose to her feet. “Uh…yeah. Just hold your musclebeasts, sheesh.”
Though Vriska kept an unkempt stack in that very same block, she went after one from a different pile down the hall to give herself time to think. If text color was any indication-and it always was-then the red-blood Nepeta had mentioned had to be apocalypseArisen. But the other one was not her failure of a partner. No, then who…
Towel retrieved, she slowed her steps, still deep in thought. What about that hacker kid Terezi yakked about sometimes? Could he be the yellow-blood? Interesting. This was definitely something to be looked into.
…After Equius left. She sighed upon re-entering the room. Though his rage seemed to have calmed a little, he was sweating more than ever and stood still in a corner clutching his elbows with his freakishly powerful fingers. Vriska held the towel out to him by its corner. “Here.” Extending her arm as far as it would go, she tried to keep her face from falling into a deep grimace. A weak grin was all she could manage. “You can keep it. My gift to you. Like in return for the radiation engine. Yeah!”
He took the towel without a word and began to wick the bluish fluid from his forehead. It stained. She felt a little sick.
“Soooooooo thanks for everything, guess you’ve gotta get back to that moirail of yours now huh? Too bad! We were having such a nice chat!” Vriska was spared the unpleasant task of shoving him towards the door of her hive; he finally managed to start walking on his own, and she followed him down the hall to the exit.
“Maybe some other time, buddy, huh? I’ll let you know if I need any more parts! Ok? Alright? Seeeeeeee youuuuuuuu!”
The door closed with a satisfied SLAM behind him, and she leaned against it, a little flushed from both the effort of dealing with her neighbor and the excitement that came from a newly-hatching plan. She had some pretty great information here. All that was left was to figure out how to use it…
------
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]
AG: Heeeeeeeey Scourge Sister num8er two!!!!!!!!
GC: NUMB3R TWO? >:?
GC: S1NC3 WH3N 4R3 W3 R4NK3D?
GC: WH4T 1F 1 W4NT TO B3 NUMB3R ON3?? >:P
AG: Ok yeah sure what8ver you can 8e num8er one if you w8nt.
GC: OK4Y COOL >:]
AG: Or may8e you can 8e num8er one half the time 8nd num8er two half the time.
AG: That’s fair right? ::::)
GC: Y34H OK4Y TH4T SOUNDS R34SON4BL3
AG: Isn’t that like something your h8cker friend does?
AG: Th8t cute little halfsies thing?
GC: OH Y34H H3S 4LL 1NTO TH3 CUT3 L1TTL3 H4LFS13S TH1NG
GC: WHY DO YOU 4SK? >:?
AG: No re8son it just remind8d me.
AG: You t8lk a8out him a lot. :::;)
GC: 1 WOULDNT S4Y 4 LOT
AG: Ok 8nough to m8ke me curious!
AG: 8speci8lly 8s I m8y need 8 h8cker for my new8st project.
GC: >:O
GC: YOU M34N YOUR N3W DOOMSD4Y D3V1C3?
AG: 8f course wh8t 8lse would I mean?
GC: 1 DONT KNOW 1T JUST S33MS L1K3 WH3N YOUR3 LY1NG YOUR T3XT G3TS MOR3 4ND MOR3 OV3RRUN W1TH 31GHTS >:/
AG: Wh8t????????
AG: M8y8e I’m just 8xc8t8d?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
AG: Come on T8rezi I wouldn’t lie to my f8vor8 Scourge Sister would I? D::::
GC: W3LL NO 1 GU3SS NOT
GC: BUT L3T TH3 COURT R3COGN1Z3 TH4T YOU ONLY H4V3 ON3 SCOURG3 S1ST3R >:P
AG: Ok th8 court r8cognizes th8t or wh8tever 8ut you’re still my f8vor8! :::;)
GC: OK4Y TH4TS F1N3
AG: So c8n you put me in touch w8th him?
GC: OK4Y SUR3 1 GU3SS >:/
GC: 1 C4NT PROM1S3 H3LL W4NT TO T4LK TO YOU THOUGH
GC: H3 C4N B3 K1ND OF D1FF1CULT SOM3T1M3S
GC: H1S H4NDL3 1S TW1N4RM4G3DDONS
AG: Just to confirm, th8t’s twinArm8geddons?
GC: …UH
GC: YOU KNOW SOM3T1M3S 1 F33L L1K3 TH1S TYP1NG QU1RK TH1NG 1S 4 L1TTL3 MOR3 TROUBL3 TH4N 1TS WORTH >:/
AG: Nah it’s ok I’ve got 8t!
AG: Th8nks Terezi!
GC: NO PROBL3M
GC: 1D S4Y GOOD LUCK W1TH YOUR D3V1C3 BUT 1 GU3SS TH4TS TH3 K1ND OF TH1NG 1 SHOULD HOP3 YOU DONT H4V3 GOOD LUCK W1TH >:?
AG: H8h8! W8ll you c8n wish me good luck 8nyw8y! It’s not l8ke I’m going to use it!
GC: OK4Y W3LL GOOD LUCK ON YOUR PROJ3CT TH3N >:]
AG: Th8nks!
AG: >::::D
arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]
------
Sollux wiped up the last drip of honey from the floor and shoved the final wire against the wall of his respiteblock, and then moved to the window and glanced out into the star-filled sky. With his elbow on the narrow sill and his chin resting on a closed fist, he had the perfect view of TamaT, one of the forty-eight constellations cemented into Alternian mythological culture. If he believed in that sort of nonsense, this particular one held some sort of special meaning for him. He didn’t, of course. Pretty juvenile, all things told, mapping out your life based on the connections some ancient troll made between dots in the sky that he thought was some sort of unfinished work of art. But he did rather like it in its symmetry. Instead of driving himself crazy waiting, he stared at the collection of stars, focused on where the lines went between those bright spots of light against the dark night sky. It was dipping lower and lower towards the horizon these days; in a few weeks, it would be out of sight entirely, ushering in the end of the 11th perigee.
A groan and some stomping echoed down from the ceiling of his block. Great. Just another reminder of how completely useless his lusus was and how much this 12th perigee’s eve was going to suck--
“Grrrruuuuuuuuuummmmmmmbllllle!”
“Thut the fuck up already, you thtupid good for nothing cuthtodian! I jutht fed you!” Sollux prepared to tear his gaze away from the scene outside his hive to go collect more honey; tonight of all nights was not the time for that idiot to be getting all worked up. But something caught his attention in the very corner of his red eye.
“Oh thhit, oh thhit!” Sollux cast around desperately, making certain everything was in its proper place. Oh man, his respiteblock was still a complete and utter mess. Why the hell had he invited Aradia over? What a stupid idea!! Stupid stupid dumb!
Before his lusus could start up his moaning again, the young troll heard his name being called, the distance to the ground dimming her voice. Too late to start worrying! He’d better head down and get her before she thought he forgot or something. God damn it, what a stupid idea this was!
Red and blue energy prickled the air around him and slowly lifted him off his feet. He would leave from the roof, and maybe succeed in shutting his lusus up before she heard it yammering.
He reached the roof just as a message was sent to his Trollian handle. The noise indicating its arrival sounded, but he was not around to hear it, and in any case his monitor had been shut off.
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
AG: Heeeeeeeey Mr. H8cker Dude!
AG: I need to 8orrow some 8f your 8mazing skills! ::::)
AG: Are you th8re????????
AG: No?
AG: D8mn.
AG: Well get 8ack to me wh8n you 8re ok?
AG: :::;)
arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
“Sollux?” Her voice grew more distinct the quieter his lusus became and the further he got from the rooftop of his hive.
“Thorry I kept you waiting,” he called, trying hard to swallow his anxiety. In the glow of the rising moons she looked radiant, large eyes wide with the confusion that came with unknown surroundings. “It, uh… It wathn’t too hard to get here, I hope.”
“I managed.” She answered him with a smile, but it was weary. His heart felt as if it wanted to crush him.
“Thorry,” he repeated, floating downward until he was near her. It was hard to look at her, what with the light of the moons reflecting pink and green from her eyes and off her hair and especially with the blinding blaze of his guilt. “I thould have gone to pick you up. Or thecured thome other way to get you here. Or--”
“Sollux?” The smile was gone from her face. She stared up at him, floating a few inches above the surface of the planet, and frowned almost deep enough to ground him.
“What?” he muttered miserably.
“Shut up.”
“Ok.”
Aradia took a step closer to him, and another when he backed off in response, and tried to hold his gaze. “It wasn’t any trouble. And even if it was, it would have been worth it. Ok?”
He glanced briefly at her, then away again, feeling his cheeks burn yellow.
“Ok thure whatever.”
“You’re doing that thing again.”
He risked a glance at her. With her lips pursed and her arms folded, she looked ready to punch him--or worse, walk away. But she merely sighed, loosened her arms, and moved forward to touch his shoulder gently. “I can’t be mad at you, you’re doing that enough for the both of us. But I’m asking you to stop. I was ok coming all the way here to see you. And I would do it again.”
“Aradia…”
“So let’s go up, huh?”
Sollux froze. Admittedly, this entire situation hadn’t been thought through all the way, but the issue with this part in particular suddenly dawned on him. He could ask her to climb up all those stairs to the top of his communal hivestem, where he lived, or he could merely take her up with him--but that would mean…that would mean…
Oh my GOD you are such a wuuuuuuuuss!
“What?”
Aradia blinked. “I said we should go up. Is that ok?”
Sollux’s heart was pounding, and suddenly it was not due to the realization that he was going to have to get very close to the girl for whom he had recently come to understand he had acquired some sort of flushed feelings. The voices had never been that direct, that distinct, before. And they’d never sounded like that. What was--
“Sollux…? What’s wrong?”
He shook his head a little, then grinned at her. “Nothing’th wrong. You ready to go?”
“I-yes?” Sollux’s personality could certainly change quickly. But then, that was one of the things Aradia found utterly fascinating about him.
It was definitely a shift, when he took her smoothly around the waist and began to take her off the ground with him. But she didn’t have time to be nervous or to question it; the feeling of flying overcame any fear, and her eyes widened to look down and take in the way the planet grew small and far away below them. By the time they got up to his hive, he was back to his usual shy self, but, she felt, she had seen a side of him he rarely showed to anyone else.
“Oh man. Toooooooo easy Sollux Captor!” Vriska sat back in her chair, grinning and breathless with her achievement. For a mind so supposedly brilliant, he offered little challenge. She would have to try again later to make sure this wasn’t just a fluke, but she was pretty sure that she would be able to make use of him if she needed to. And surely an opportunity would eventually present itself. One always did.
------
apocalypseArisen [AA] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]
AA: s0llux guess what i f0und!
AA: s0llux?
AA: are y0u there?
TA: yeah 2orry.
TA: anyway ii dont know ii can never gue22 when you a2k me two gue22.
TA: ii mean ii could but that would be cheatiing.
AA: haha yeah it w0uld be!
AA: s0 d0nt d0 it!
TA: ok ii promii2e ii wont.
TA: but then ii have no iidea what you found.
TA: 2o tell me.
AA: 0k fine mr grumpypants wh0 d0esnt like t0 play games!!
AA: 0_0
TA: are you angry wiith me?
AA: N0!!
AA: i was just kidding
AA: anyway the thing that i f0und
AA: was b0nes
AA: in my excavati0n site
AA: like a wh0le skelet0n!
AA: like s0mething had been buried there
AA: isnt that weird?
TA: whoa yeah that ii2 pretty weiird.
TA: what2 iit a 2keleton of?
AA: im n0t sure actually
AA: here take a l00k
-- apocalypseArisen [AA] sent twinArmageddons [TA] the file “weirdb0nes.jpg” --
AA: what d0 y0u make 0f it
TA: hmm hard two 2ay wiithout 2eeiing iit iin per2on.
TA: the piicture qualiity ii2 kiind of crappy 2orry.
AA: 0_0
AA: i kn0w it is but thats the best i c0uld d0
TA: iit2 fiine but ii gue22 ii cant really help deciipher iit.
AA: with just the picture y0u mean?
TA: yeah.
AA: well why d0nt y0u c0me 0ver and take a l00k at it
AA: if y0ure n0t t00 busy that is
AA: …s0llux?
TA: wow um.
TA: iid be happy two iif you know la2t tiime wa2nt two awkward for you or anythiing.
AA: it was t0tally 0k!
AA: ive 0nly t0ld y0u that like a milli0n times since then!
TA: eheheh yeah ii know.
AA: d0nt y0u dare ap0l0gize again
AA: l00k s0llux i enj0y spending time with y0u
AA: even if y0u think y0ure awkward
AA: maybe y0u are a little but thats 0ne 0f the things i like ab0ut y0u!
AA: s0 d0 me and y0urself a fav0r and st0p w0rrying ab0ut it
AA: 0_0
TA: …
AA: what
TA: ii dont know iit 2ounded liike you really meant that.
AA: 0f c0urse i meant it!
TA: well.
AA: well what!
TA: well ok iif you want me two look at iit.
TA: iit2 better than 2iittiing here 2tariing at thii2 2hiitty piicture.
AA: is it really that bad
TA: no ii wa2 ju2t jokiing.
AA: 0_0
TA: iill be there iin a 2econd.
twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA]
AA: wait s0llux
AA: i didnt mean immediately
AA: 0_0
AA: 0h shit
------
Aradia had never cleaned so fast before in her life. FLARP books were shoved into a pile in a corner, with a collection of six red dice scattered on top; her excavation and adventuring tools were thrown into another corner, now spattered with mud since she’d had little time to clean them off. She herself had been given none of the same attention. Too busy ensuring her respiteblock was presentable, she had failed to remember the state of her own person, and by the time she glanced out the window and noticed the distant glow of the psionic on his way to her hive, she had no time to fill up her ablution trap. She changed hastily, but dirt still sat beneath her fingernails and clung tenaciously in her long hair. Her lusus attempted to lick off what she could of the dirt smeared on Aradia’s face, but in the end, the combination of that and the towel she applied were barely enough to remove the worst of the grime on her person.
Finally, she had to accept that this was the best she could do. She hurried out the front door to her modest hive just in time to watch him descend from the sky in flashes of blue and red that took turns illuminating her form against the darkness of the starlit night. His glasses had been removed, presumably to better see where he was going. Her expression shifted from delight at his presence to confused surprise as she realized that his eyes were somehow exactly the same colors as his lenses.
As he drifted to the ground, he gave himself a moment to return the shades to his face, and she gave herself the same time to school her emotions back into something resembling calmness.
“I wasn’t expecting you so soon!” she said, hurrying over to him, as a way to explain her appearance.
He shrugged a little, seeming more at ease than he had been the last time they met face to face. “You theemed exthited about the boneth tho I wanted to come thee them ath thoon ath pothible.”
Red tinting her cheeks briefly, Aradia smiled a little and nodded, inclining her head towards one of the holes in the earth outside her hive. “Over here, then.”
He followed her on foot now to the location of her discovery. The pit was deep, and a crude ladder made of thin pieces of wood and sturdy vines had been slung against the side for her use in reaching the bottom. She prepared to descend, but he shook his head, instead holding out an arm for her. “I can take uth down,” he promised, and the sureness of his voice and in the way he stood was maddening and intriguing both in contrast to how he usually was. Their contact when she stepped into his arms caused her to blush this time instead of him; her heart pounded in her throat as they descended, and even as she broke away to go clear the tarp from her discovery.
Oh wow look at you! Aren’t we Mr. Confident today?
“Thut up,” Sollux muttered, face pinching in distaste as Aradia was distracted. The new, more insistent voice was back, and he already had a dislike for it that exceeded his usual annoyance. This one had the gall to be both loud and demanding, and he would have liked nothing more than to be able to drown it out. But since it had surfaced it had been nothing but pestering, wheedling, and intrusive, and it wouldn’t leave him alone for a span of more than a few hours at a time.
No way! I’m seriously impressed here! Don’t you think she is too? Look how proud she is of her stupid bones and how much your opinion of them means to her! Soooooooo cute!
Sollux decided to ignore it. Even as it went on to insist that he wouldn’t be able to for long, he erased all evidence of the voice from his expression and stood by Aradia’s side, looking down at the skeleton she had unearthed.
“Wow. Thith thertainly ithn’t a troll, that’th for thure.”
“That’s what I thought, too. But it’s no wild animal I’ve ever seen before. It doesn’t look familiar at all?” Aradia looked up to him, curious, expectant. “I figured if anyone knew what it might be, it would be you.”
Fuuuuuuuuck Captor she’s basically in scarlet throes for you! Damned if I know why she thinks so highly of you!
Sollux had had enough of this musclebeast shit. He wasn’t going to let that stupid voice convince him of anything or convince him to do anything, not today. Not ever again, he vowed to himself.
Oh yeah good luck with that!
It was hard, but he kept his expression neutral as he perused the find. “Maybe if you unearth it,” he suggested, “and lay out the boneth the way they thould go, and take a better picthure, I can write a program to help vithualize what it might have looked like, and then we can find out what it might be bathed on that.”
Her eyes widened at him as if he had just explained to her in simple terms how the universe had come into being. “Sollux, that’s brilliant! I can’t believe I never thought of that!”
Nice job Mr. Smooth Guy! I might be getting all hot and bothered under the collar here myself!
“Eheheh,” he chuckled, managing to display only the briefest of blushes. He hid a clenched fist behind his back. “You jutht got tho exthited you couldn’t think thtraight about how to analythe the thituathion.”
“You’re right, I guess. Wow, I can’t wait to finish digging this up now and get to work on it!”
As he watched her, he couldn’t help but let some of her excitement affect him. Seeing her this happy…well, he rarely experienced much more than a quiet sense of contentment at anything before his usual self-loathing overrode him, but for some reason her achievement--her happiness--more than anything he had ever managed to do, was making him happier than he could ever remember being.
“Aradia…”
“Yes, Sollux?” It was hard to look at him, what with the light of the moons reflecting pink and green off his shades and his hair and especially with the deafening way his intense stare at her was making her heart pound.
As he leaned in slowly, he was sure she could hear his own pulse jamming through veins and arteries like a rushing yellow river, but he didn’t realize it would only be drowned out by her own vital beat. Both felt at once mobile and frozen, stuck on the single track that brought them painfully slowly together, until they were close enough to--
Yes! You smooth operator! Kiss her! Go ahead, do it!
Aradia’s eyes were closed, and anyway she wouldn’t be able to see the way his eyes narrowed in sudden fury behind his dark lenses.
Fuck you! he thought back, enraged. Thtop telling me what to do!!
No way you’re too much fun! Anyway you’re keeping your lady waiting! Come on do it! DOOOOOOOO IIIIIIIIT!!!!!!!!
NO!!
A brief jolt of energy escaped Sollux before he could reign it in, and in his quick thinking he pulled away just enough to keep it from reaching Aradia. Before she could look up at him with eyes confused and probably hurt, he scooped her into a hug and pressed her forehead against his chest.
Oh my god so lame! You basically just ruined any chance you ever had with her!
Get out of my head! Leave me alone!
Fine! But only because you’re being soooooooo boring!
I don’t care what you think about me!
Hahahahahahahaha! But you will! Anyway I’ll leave you alone this time but I’ll be back! Sayonara, Captor!
“Sollux…”
“I thould probably get going,” he murmured into Aradia’s hair, trying not to feel miserable. “I forgot to feed my luthuth before I left.”
They broke apart, and neither could look at the other.
“Ok, yes, you should probably do that.”
“Yeah, well… Let me know when you’ve got thith unearthed. I’ll bring you thomething to take better picthureth with later.”
“Ok, thanks…”
“Tho…”
“I’ll. Talk to you on Trollian, then?”
“Yeah ok thure.”
“Ok. …Goodbye.”
“Bye.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Aradia saw the bi-colored energy pick up around Sollux’s body and lift him off the ground. Her heartbeat feeling hollower now in her chest, she finally looked up soon enough to watch him float away from her, back to his own hivestem. He only glanced back once, but by then he was too far away to see the disappointed frown she made with trembling lips.
Vriska was too gleeful to care whether or not Equius could hear her laughing from across the chasm between their hives. Oh, that had been just too much fun! Sure he’d been able to ignore her command, but that had just made it all the better! Now she knew when he’d listen to her and when he wouldn’t, and thanks to her abilities she knew more about Sollux Captor than she was sure he’d ever wish for her to know. Her run of good luck just never seemed to end!
From her little advantage she knew that her need of this new information would be coming around soon enough. In the meantime, Aradia would certainly be distracted come their next campaign, which would make for an interesting game for once. She couldn’t wait.
------
caligulasAquarium [CA] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]
CA: hey kan
CA: hey
CA: kan are you there
GA: Why Is It You Always Assume That I Am Not Present Or That I Am Ignoring You When I Fail To Answer Within Moments Of Your Pestering
CA: wwoww fuck sorry
CA: im a little agitated here is all
CA: but nevvermind if you arent up to listenin thats fine
CA: forget it
GA: I Apologize For Making Assumptions
GA: Pray Tell Why You Are So Agitated
CA: its your fuckin moirail
GA: Oh
GA: Has She Overstepped Some Caliginous Boundary I Should Be Made Aware Of
GA: ?
CA: if by that you mean shes pretty much dumpin me for some lowwblood chump then yeah id say shes been ovversteppin some boundaries real hard
GA: Wait
GA: What
CA: kar just told me
CA: she just ran some orangeblood shes been flarpin wwith off a cliff or somethin
CA: apparently shes been hittin him pretty damn hard since they started playin
CA: this is musclebeast shit kan she cant do this to me
CA: howw the fucks a assblood like that gonna make a better kismesis than me
CA: you got to do somethin about her kan im beggin you
GA: Hold On
grimAuxiliatrix [GA] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]
GA: Vriska
GA: What Are You Doing
GA: Answer Me
GA: Eridan Just Informed Me Of Your Flarp Escapade
AG: Wh8t?
GA: With A Certain Boy
GA: And A Certain Cliff
GA: Would You Care To Explain
AG: I’m a l8ttle 8usy.
GA: I Imagine That Is Only To Be Expected
GA: I Am Certain His Friends Are More Than A Little Angry With You
AG: Th8t sounds a8out right.
GA: Do You Feel Any Remorse Over This At All
AG: Wow you know wh8t Mary8m 8s much 8s I find your m8ddlesome w8ys utterly r8lieving, l8ke a mess8ge from god 8t the time in my l8fe wh8n I 8m most morally vulnera8le,
AG: 8nd 8s much as I would like to sit here and 8llow you to nurse 8ll my emotion8l wounds for hours and hours on 8nd,
AG: This m8y 8e 8n utt8r shock to you 8ut
AG: I’m a l8ttle 8usy!!!!!!!!
AG: So leave me 8lone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
arachnidsGrip [AG] blocked grimAuxiliatrix [GA]
GA: Vriska
GA: Dont Do That
GA: Vriska
GA: !
LJ won't let me post even half of this at once, so I apologize, but this is about to get obnoxious DX