[Fic] "Trollstuck," part 23 - Homestuck

[edenfalling]

back to part 22

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Trollstuck, part 23
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====>Crash

Yep, looks like that's going to be a thing that happens!

Of course, nothing says you have to be on your bike when it plows into the ground at high speed and explodes in a fiery ball of certain death. You don't have a parachute (yours got kind of trashed last perigee when you and Gamzee tried using it to parasail and you keep forgetting to replace it) but if you time this right and find a convenient tree or something to cushion your holy fuck a doomsday device oh shit oh shit oh sh---

====>Crash

No! None of Vriska's doomsday devices ever work the way they're supposed to -- living next door to Equius hasn't translated to any noticeable improvement in her own technical skills -- but that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous!

You slalom your bike through the jagged spikes that make up the half-finished framework of this device. Giant panels of mirrored glass hang between some of the supports, reflecting your exhaust flames in a confusing whirlpool of red and gold. You should just gain altitude and escape, except now you're deep inside it, and there are panels overhead and underneath as well as to each side, and everything's heating up around you and you keep spiraling around and you're not quite sure which way is up anymore.

What the hell is this thing even supposed to do? Focus sunlight into a laser tornado or something? How would that even work? Why are you thinking about irrelevant crap when you're about to die?

Your bike whips in an ever-tighter spiral until finally you reach the center of the device and see open sky. You tilt back, heading nearly straight up, and barely miss slamming through who knows how many layers of glass and steel.

Just as you get up and over the device, your bike stalls.

====>Crash already!

You are hanging dead in the air between Vriska's and Equius's hives; the doomsday device is strung in the canyon between them. In about one second, gravity will overcome the upward inertia of your bike and hammer you to the distant ground. You are a blueblood and therefore exceptionally tough, but not even Feferi is tough enough to survive that kind of impact.

But. One hive is closer than the other. If you are very fast and very lucky...

You throw yourself sideways, kick off your bike for a tiny extra bit of momentum, and tuck into a ball.

Your bike smashes through the doomsday device and plummets to its fiery doom at the edge of spidermom's web, trailing a shower of wreckage in its wake. Meanwhile you smash through one of Equius Zahhak's windows and slam hornsfirst into a reinforced wall.

As you pass out, you think you hear the chime of a Trollian window opening.

Your friends have the worst timing ever.

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It's a short part, I know, but I wanted to get something up so as to work myself back into the habit of more frequent posting.

Question: does Equius find Jothan before he wakes up and answers Eridan, or does Jothan answer Eridan and then get interrupted by Equius coming to see what damage the (as he thinks) exploding doomsday device did to his hive? I have no preference and can make either option work.

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continue to part 24

In non-writing news, I got an unexpected phone call this morning from Frau Martin, who was my host mother when I spent a month in Nürnberg in high school. I was just about to leave for work, so I asked her to call me back later... but I think I may have accidentally told her to call me at 7am tomorrow morning instead of 7pm tonight, since it is now 9:30pm and my phone has not rung.

Oops.

Comments

[branchandroot]

*dies laughing at that last line*

[edenfalling]

:-D

[askerian]

Ahahaha XD

Equius finds Jothan passed out! With that kind of impact, come on. XD I want to see how he's going to handle it.

[edenfalling]

Okay, can do! Hmm. You know, I think this is the first time in the story that two characters are going to have an actual face-to-face conversation. *gasp*

[vehrec.livejournal.com]

Psh, that guy's out cold, blueblood or not. A blow to the head is a blow to the head-he should count his lucky stars he's not earned a trip to the nearest culling center and holocaustpital, no wait, that's a terrible and tasteless name for a troll medical center. Though I have no idea what kind of medical facility you can pun with violence to get a better one.

[edenfalling]

Yeah, I phrased that badly -- Jothan is knocked out. The question is how fast he comes to versus how fast Equius gets around to investigating the strange noise down in one of his lower floors.

[red-volpe.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I think a blow to the horns like that would knock just about anytroll out.
So!

[edenfalling]

I doubt Equius would loosen up enough to use THAT many puns, but I suspect one or two will slip out despite his best efforts. :-)