[Fic] "The Time-Traveler's Kismesis: Counterthesis" -- Homestuck

Back in 2013 I had a story idea for the Ladystuck Dark challenge, which I called "The Time-Traveler's Kismesis." It was born from a couple stories I'd seen that had the Demoness tracking the Condesce through her life, and hating her passionately. And I thought, yeah, that works... but the thing the Demoness would hate most isn't casual entitlement. It's hope. And the person who has that, the one who tries to change the world for the better, and most particularly the one who also has personal experience with slavery, is the Dolorosa. The Demoness knows nothing is ever going to change. Nothing will ever matter. And the Dolorosa, despite being caste-bound into a form of servitude, and having her son killed in front of her and his movement destroyed, and being mind-controlled and raped, keeps on going.

I never did write that story. But this is one of the scenes that would go into it: shortly after the Dolorosa flees the brooding caverns with the Signless, she meets the Demoness for the second time... at least from her perspective. (825 words)

[ETA: The slightly revised final version is now up on AO3!]

( The Time-Traveler's Kismesis: Counterthesis )

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Now I want to outline and write the rest of the story properly. Stupid plot bunnies!

the trials and tribulations of tabletop gardening

Warning: this is a long and very image-heavy post! I am therefore putting most of it behind cuts.

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First, the Better Bell pepper that Mom gave me, hereinafter referred to as Mom's pepper. You may recall it was decapitated by a marauding squirrel back in late June, but managed to recover from the shock enough to grow new leaves and even put forth some slightly misshapen flowers.

Well, around midafternoon on August 11th, it got beheaded again. :-(

This time I held onto the severed leaves and dropped them in the empty pot (which was empty because another pepper had been completely murdered earlier in July). Then I went away on vacation for a week. When I got back, the leaves were inexplicably not dead. O_o I think they may be in the process of dying now, but they’re acting as a squirrel distraction so I guess the sacrifice is not in vain?

Also, the roots and remnants of Mom’s pepper are trying to regrow from ruins a second time. I doubt the poor plant will make it to the flower stage again, let alone produce actual peppers, but even so. I am VERY impressed by its tenacity!

( Mom's pepper )

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Next up, my bonsai pepper!

I first put it outside around July 25th, whereupon it was promptly mauled by a squirrel. I got it rerooted before it could dehydrate and shrivel, and brought it back indoors to recover. Then I put it back out in early August.

It survived my vacation in style and continues to grow despite some incidental scuffling with the local squirrels. It’s still tiny, and still running behind the other peppers -- it’s at least a week or two away from flowering -- but hey, it’s cute. :-)

( bonsai pepper )

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And the rest of the peppers! Generally speaking, the ones in the terracotta pots have done better than the ones in the plastic pots. The one in the squarish gray-blue pot, however, is doing excellently, and the one on the far left just in front of the onion seems to have been badly affected by the pesticide I sprayed back in early July, since its leaves went all funny at the top and it never developed buds at all. (And it was bent in half by a squirrel last week; I’m not sure it’s recovering well from the shock.)

As you can see, some of the plants have begun to bloom, and a few of the flowers have even dropped off to reveal the beginnings of actualfax peppers! There would be a lot more of these, but, as always, SQUIRRELS. In fact, the tiny baby pepper in the final photo is no longer with us, having been chomped off sometime before this evening. *shakes tiny fist of rage*

I have purchased some animal-be-gone spray and will attempt to apply it tomorrow. The trick is, I can’t spray it directly on the pepper plants since they are meant for human consumption. But I can spray the mulberry tree, and the porch railing, and the porch floor, and the garage roof, and so on. Hopefully that will be enough to set up a perimeter of safety.

( all of the other peppers )