[Fic] "Trollstuck," part 21 - Homestuck

[edenfalling]

back to part 20

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Trollstuck, part 21
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====>Troll Vriska

-- ghastlyTrickster [GT] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG] --

GT: ~~ hi vriska!
GT: ~~ i know you're there, you haven't left your hive in nearly a week.
GT: ~~ i have something really important to tell you!
GT: ~~ rrrrrrrreeeeeeeeaaaaaaaallllllllyyyyyyyy important!!!!!!!!
AG: Go away, Jothan.
AG: I don't want to talk now.
GT: ~~ because of aradia's ghosts?
GT: ~~ is that why you've been so mopey the past few nights?
AG: How did you know a8out them????????
AG: I didn't tell any8ody! She didn't tell any8ody!
AG: Or w8, has she 8een gloating?
AG: She's 8een gloating, right? Just 8ecause I m8de a tiny little mist8ke that anyone could have m8de!
AG: I w8s trying to help that dum8ass 8ut he wouldn't listen!
AG: No8ody ever listens to me!!!!!!!!
GT: ~~ chill out, aradia didn't tell me!
AG: Then how do you know?!
GT: ~~ that's the bad news.
GT: ~~ jarlia just tried to trick me into pretending to be a ghost and freaking you out for real.
GT: ~~ i know you're strong and you won't let a bunch of stupid ghosts keep you down or make you do anything stupid!
GT: ~~ and i guess everyone else knows that too.
AG: As they should!
AG: I would never let something as pathetic as a ghost 8reak me!
GT: ~~ yes well, that's why the others are conspiring against you now.
AG: Wh8t?
GT: ~~ what else would you call it?
GT: ~~ jarlia said she had a dream about you killing aradia, but i know you wouldn't do that.
GT: ~~ so she must have been lying.
GT: ~~ i'm sorry to tell you all that but i think you deserve to know!
AG: That doesn't m8ke sense. Why would I kill Aradia?
AG: She's a l8mey l8me little wanna8e meddler, 8ut it's not like I h8 her or anything.
GT: ~~ i don't know, i am just passing on what jarlia said.
GT: ~~ maybe she's going to realize her ghosts won't faze you and try something worse?
AG: WORSE????????
GT: ~~ are the ghosts that bad?
GT: ~~ why would any ghosts hate you anyway?
AG: ........
AG: Would killing her m8ke them go away?
GT: ~~ i don't know, maybe?
GT: ~~ does it even matter? she shouldn't have done that in the first place. you didn't do anything to her!
GT: ~~ it's tavros's choice whether to hit back, right?
GT: ~~ and he hasn't, so that's that.
GT: ~~ i know you didn't mean things to go so far. if you apologize and maybe get equius to make some robot legs i bet tavros will be glad.
GT: ~~ vriska?
GT: ~~ are you still there????????
AG: I want them to go aw8y.
AG: I can't sleep.
AG: I can't th8nk.
AG: I can't go 8nywhere 8ecause they keep following me and p8ssing through me, 8nd they h8 me, I c8n feel it in their he8ds, they h8 me just like every8ody h8s me.
AG: They w8nt to p8ll me down 8nd m8ke me just like th8m unt8l I scream for8ver 8nd ever 8nd no8ody c8n he8r and I c8n't t8ke 8t 8nym8re!!!!!!!!
AG: I need th8m to g8 8w8y!
AG: How do I m8ke th8m g8 8w8y????????
GT: ~~ ok that is it, i am coming over to your hive.
GT: ~~ we will play stupid dice games and watch "wherein an investerrogator is lured to a lowblood cultist colony in an attempt to save his former matesprit's moirail, etc."
GT: ~~ i have the extended cut with the bees and everything.
GT: ~~ and then i will listen for a whole hour while you tell me about the troll you think was my ancestor.
GT: ~~ just breathe and wait for me.
GT: ~~ we'll figure out how to fix this, i promise.
AG: No you won't. No8ody can fix this.
AG: Except me.

-- arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling ghastlyTrickster [GT] --

====>That doesn't sound good

You're right, it really doesn't! You'd better hurry and find a way to make Vriska feel better before she does something stupid. Sometimes when she gets upset she does things she doesn't actually mean, and you hate seeing how torn up she gets afterwards. It makes something in your chest twist up and hurt, and you'd give a whole perigee's living allowance to go back and make problems unhappen so she wouldn't be depressed, but unfortunately time travel is not a thing that exists. (No matter how cool it would be.) So you'd better not screw up tonight.

You are about to jump on your rocket bike and do an acrobatic barrel roll out the window when your computer pings at you.

Oh, not now! You don't have time for this!

The new Trollian window calls to you with a seductive pull, fighting against your determination to save Vriska. You really have to stop talking to every random person on your chumproll just because you might get a chance to set up a spectacular joke. There are more important things in life than pranks, hard as that is to believe.

But addiction is a powerful thing.

====>Have a brilliant idea

You suddenly remember you have a handheld wireless computing device complete with souped-up satellite connection capability, which you snagged from a dead troll's hive in case you and Gamzee ever got totally lost out at sea and needed to call for a rescue. You can talk on that while you fly!

...Or maybe not, that's probably dangerous. You really need to get an autopilot installed one of these nights.

Maybe if you fly really high you won't crash into anything?

It's worth a shot!

====>Hit the road

That would be silly. You hit the sky instead.

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So that conversation was like pulling teeth to write. Vriska, why so impossible???????? Also, they hardly talked about anything anyone suggested, but the only way I could get Vriska to participate AT ALL was to let her be completely at the end of her rope. I mean, in canon she succumbs to Doc Scratch's provocation after what, a couple hours of ghost treatment? Possibly as little as a couple minutes? (Reference: page 4140 through page 4145.) In this story, she's been dealing with them for a couple days. Nights. Whatever. And while the canon ghost assault may have been compounded by the need of the dead to make sure the Sgrub train ran on rails all the way to the destruction of the universe, I am sure that even without the destiny aspect it is no picnic for an empath to be constantly bombarded by the fear and loathing of her victims, as well as her own guilt and self-doubt.

Moving on.

Who is trolling Jothan? Remember that Karkat and Terezi are talking right now, as are Alonde and Jarlia, so they are collectively unavailable for a while. Davven is asleep until Terezi wakes him later, and Nepeta is also not an option given that she knows nothing of the problem until Karkat tells her later. (Aradia and Sollux are unavailable for obvious reasons.) So that leaves Gamzee, Tavros, Feferi, Eridan, Equius, and Kanaya as your possibilities. I have no opinion. Go wild!

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continue to part 22

And now to bed. :-)

Comments

[askerian]

Whoops, I forgot to catch up when i came back from vacation. That means I had more chapters to read! :D

I kinda want to ask for Feferi, just because that would be weird as hell and I have no idea what their normal interaction is like, but at the same time it means I have no clue what to suggest they talk about.

Maybe Tavros? He could want to talk about Vriska. Though, hmm. Does he even want to even HEAR about her right now... :X

[branchandroot]

*winces* Serious trainwreck in progress. Jothan, you weirdly optimistic troll-boy.

Kind of inclined to Tavros, to get some of his pov on all this.

[edenfalling]

You know, I have no idea how Jothan and Feferi interact! Though I am sure it involves her teasing him about his phobia of Alonde, which she finds hilarious. Jothan and Gamzee do take sailing trips into the ocean in search of goatdad. Maybe they meet Feferi sometimes and pretend to be ancient explorers or something?

I am pretty sure Tavros doesn't want to talk about Vriska right now. He doesn't want to talk to her either. But he might think he needs to/ought to, and might think Jothan is more approachable -- though I am not sure how true that actually is in practice.

[edenfalling]

John's optimism is steel-clad, even when it shouldn't be. It's one of his simultaneously endearing and infuriating character traits. *sighs and pets him anyway*

That is two votes for Tavros. *marks tally sheet* (If he ends up not being the person on the other end of this chatlog, he will definitely appear in chapter 7. He might appear there anyway, but I refuse to let this plot arc conclude without hearing from him at least once.)

[red-volpe.livejournal.com]

I...kind of want to see Jothan/Equius interaction. I didn't realize it until just now, but I really, REALLY want that. Jothan would troll him. SO. HARD.
Unless he wouldn't, and that would be fine too. :)

[edenfalling]

John and Equius talking to each other would be... well, I don't know exactly what, but a Dali painting comes to mind. Even if the mysterious person on the other end of the next chatlog turns out to be someone else, I must remember to have Jothan and Equius talk sooner or later. :-)

[red-volpe.livejournal.com]

...This comment wins the internet forever. :D

[explodingfrogs.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

I don't really have much of a strong opinion either, but I'm gravitating towards Gamzee, Tavros, or Kanaya.

(Possibly a memo, if you can justify it with shenanigans? Memos are always fun.)

Gamzee is the weakest option of the three in my mind, if only because he's relatively uninvolved and and a chat with him seems likely to derail Jothan. Otherwise, I'd be very interested to get a glimpse of their relationship, and what Gamzee is like in this AU. (Even if he's mostly the some, one would expect at least a few changes from canon however minor.)

Tavros could be interesting given the Vriska connection. How does he feel about Jothan's attitude toward the FLARP incident? (How does he feel about Jothan in general?) Does he recognize that Jothan is well-meaning, if naive and blind to Vriska's worst qualities, or does he perceive Jothan's behavior as a callous dismissal of his suffering? Does he know about the Jarlia's vision yet, and how is he likely to react to being told that Vriska might be planning to kill Aradia? (For that matter, how would his reaction differ based on hearing it first from Jothan as opposed to someone else?) Is Jothan inclined to listen to Tavros and respect his opinion, or steamroll him like almost everyone else? In the latter case, would this be deliberate, in a "I don't like doing this but it's for the best" sort of way, or would he be oblivious to Tavros's crippling lack of self-confidence? Would they be likely to argue over who's to blame for the current mess and whether Vriska is really capable of doing something like this? If Jothan brings up how tormented Vriska has been for the past week thanks to Aradia's haunting and how she freaked out at what he told her Jarlia said, will Tavros pass this on to Alonde later and will Alonde be able to make use of the information?

Kanaya could also be interesting, for reasons that have only a little to do with their shared relationship with Vriska. To sum it up briefly:

====> Kanaya: Auspisticize.

Is Kanaya still Vriska's Moirail, as she is in canon at this time? If not, why? How does she react to the news, assuming Jothan shares it? How does she feel about Jothan and Vriska's friendship--either as a Moirail, as another friend, or as someone secretly flush-crushing on Vriska? (Assuming that she still does in this AU.) How is this likely to impact her attitude towards Jothan and her reaction to any information he might share? Kanaya has a reputation among the trolls for skill in Ashen mediation, almost to a fault (at least in canon)--will she try to "mediate" between Jothan's overly idealistic perceptions and the brutal reality? Or between Vriska and Aradia?

[edenfalling]

Kanaya is not Vriska's moirail in this AU. She has made gestures in that direction, but it's universally acknowledged that Vriska only listens to her when she's already feeling nice, so that's never become an official (or even quasi-official) relationship. As for her flushed interests... not saying. :-)

Gamzee is visiting Tavros right now, so a memo is indeed justifiable! ...I will think carefully about your other points when writing, but I can't answer them right now on account of being braindead and tired, sorry about that.