[Fic] "Trollstuck," part 28 - Homestuck
Mar. 14th, 2013 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingback to part 27
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Trollstuck, part 28 - aka, Wherein Liz Has Fun With Construction Paper :)
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====>Get this party started
Wow, that's a pretty fucked up definition of a party, even for you! You have no idea why you just had that thought.
But the sooner you get started, the sooner you get rid of the ghosts for good, so whatever. You grab your secret advantage from its clever hiding place (...okay, you grab it from next to your rocket boots, which are next to a giant, blinding pile of treasure, which is not exactly the stealthiest concealment ever; shut up about it, you've been kind of distracted lately!) and abscond back upstairs to your computer.
====>Admire your secret advantage
What's to admire? Yeah, it's awesome and all, but as treasure goes, it's pretty damn ugly. No sparkle or glitter here, just black, black, blaaaaaaaack, like a Magic 8 ball without any window or water inside. You swear sometimes you've seen tiny, space-warping tendrils of shadow waving from the surface of the sphere when you look at it out of the corner of your boring eye, like it's trying to hatch out one of Alonde's interdimensional sushi pets.
Appearances can be deceiving, though -- on the inside, this baby is made of nothing but 24 carat golden possibilities.
====>Open a possibility
You cradle the black sphere in your hands, clawtips resting ever-so-gently against its smooth, frictionless surface. You bring it up in front of your face. You breathe on it -- the warm, moist air doesn't fog the chilly not-glass for so much as a second.
Then you focus your eyes.
Most of the time your vision eightfold doesn't make any practical difference in your life. So you have seven pupils in your left eye. So what! They all let light in to hit the same retina, and even if the inside of that eye is a little bigger than normal, it's not like it works any differently from any other troll's body. You see the same wavelengths in the same proportions -- maybe in a little more detail, maybe a little more 3D, but that's nothing to brag about.
The difference is in your brain.
It's pretty rare for trolls as high as you on the hemospectrum to have psychic powers at all. So you're already totally cool and special just for having some stupid old sixth sense at all... and then, because you're awesome, you take it that last step further. You're not sure exactly how it works (and frankly you don't care, because science is for losers who aren't awesome enough to get actual shit done), but if you concentrate in exactly the right way, you can sort of meld your powers with your eye and see into things.
Even things that may not technically exist under the same set of physical laws as the rest of the universe. And without having to deal with any of that gibberish Alonde's always spouting. Shortcuts are the best things ever.
====>Shortcuts to what, exactly?
Something vast and zoologically improbable swims into your mind's eye.
====>Ask
Hey you, with the tentacles, you think, and start lining up questions in your mind. There are so many things you need to ask about. If there's a way to destroy the ghosts. How to fix things so your friends understand none of this is your fault. What the denizens of the Furthest Ring have seen happen (and not-happen, and unhappen, and maybe-happen, and every other shade of possibility) this night, because if something's fated to go a certain way, why not learn the shape of the board ahead of time so you can make fate move because of you? Nothing in your life ever goes the way you plan, and the harder you try to put things right the worse they get and you are so tired of running to keep up with all the irons you have in the fire.
This time you are going to get some straight answers, or else!
The thing in the abyss turns its attention toward you. It's nothing as concrete as a change in physical orientation or even an opening eye -- just a feeling of crushing weight and pressure surrounding you like a bubble, held in abeyance solely by the horrorterror's choice.
You aren't scared. You know the monsters won't kill you. Not yet, anyway. They've said so themselves. There's something in the future they've seen you doing -- good, bad, who knows, who cares! -- and they don't want to make that unhappen.
Besides, you're a monster too, aren't you? What kind of monster is scared of her own sisters?
====>Ask
You gather your will and--
CONTACT
ENQUIRY
NEED
The concepts impose themselves on your brain like glyphs laser-carved a meter deep into solid stone, smoking slightly around the edges.
====>Ask already!
The billion questions that were flitting through your brain a minute ago have fled under the weight of that dark regard. You have a nasty, squirming, sneaking suspicion that half the reason Alonde does her rituals is to train her mind to deal with this kind of shit, but fuck that. You don't need those stupid crutches. You can focus through will alone!
You can. You can and you will.
(You think the abyss is laughing at you.)
Something pings at the edge of your attention, cracking the fragile blade of your focus. In the corner of your eye, you see a new chat window open on your computer screen. The text is puerile green, like the shreds of dried sopor that cling to the corners of the eye as you wake from half-remembered dreams.
Jarlia Agaion.
This is all her fault! Her and her stupid dreams -- where was she when Tavros fell, huh? Where was she when Aradia sent her ghosts? What is she good for anyway?
Well you'll show her! You're going to take her worst nightmare and make it come true no matter how hard she tries to stop you.
You just wish you could see her face when everything comes crashing down.
====>Receive answer
ASSENT
====>Wait, what?
You don't remember sitting down in front of your computer or setting your secret advantage on your desk, but apparently you did those things because that's where you are and that's where it is.
It also seems to be smoking -- black tendrils writhe and rise like steam and a vague purple glow gathers at one point like a dying star. You stare suspiciously, but even when you use your vision eightfold nothing changes. It's just being ominous for the hell of it.
Stupid alien god squid. What's the use of a magic ball if it doesn't work half the time?
Your computer chimes again and you scowl down at the screen.
====>Answer
You've got a couple hours before dawn and Sollux flies fast. There's no need to send him after Aradia just yet. You can take some time to rub Jarlia's face in her mistakes.
As you click on the chat window, brilliant white-green light flashes in the corner of your eye.
When you look up, your secret advantage is projecting the interior of Jarlia's hive onto your wall, more like a window than a camera image -- you can't see your posters behind the image and you'd almost swear you could step right through solid stone to show the other girl which one of you can really change the future.
You blink. Then you smile.
Now this could be fun.
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---------------
I'm making a teeny-tiny retroactive change to part 27 to bring it in line with this section -- basically, I'd originally had Vriska plan to use the horrorterror summoning sphere as a spy cam, but upon reflection A) it doesn't seem the sort of thing she'd ask for, and B) Vriska's plans never work out right anyway, so I think it makes more sense as an accidental result when she'd meant to ask for something else.
Anyway, next section is Vriska and Jarlia. For timing reasons, this will be the only chat log Vriska has before she puts her plan into action... so tell me, should I leave it at Vriska vs. Jarlia, or should I add Alonde into the mix via yet another inadvisable memo? I can work with either option. :-)
---------------------------------------------
continue to part 29
Now I am going to eat some waffles, work on my Ouroboros remix, and then hit the sack.
---------------------------------------------
Trollstuck, part 28 - aka, Wherein Liz Has Fun With Construction Paper :)
---------------------------------------------
====>Get this party started
Wow, that's a pretty fucked up definition of a party, even for you! You have no idea why you just had that thought.
But the sooner you get started, the sooner you get rid of the ghosts for good, so whatever. You grab your secret advantage from its clever hiding place (...okay, you grab it from next to your rocket boots, which are next to a giant, blinding pile of treasure, which is not exactly the stealthiest concealment ever; shut up about it, you've been kind of distracted lately!) and abscond back upstairs to your computer.
====>Admire your secret advantage
What's to admire? Yeah, it's awesome and all, but as treasure goes, it's pretty damn ugly. No sparkle or glitter here, just black, black, blaaaaaaaack, like a Magic 8 ball without any window or water inside. You swear sometimes you've seen tiny, space-warping tendrils of shadow waving from the surface of the sphere when you look at it out of the corner of your boring eye, like it's trying to hatch out one of Alonde's interdimensional sushi pets.
Appearances can be deceiving, though -- on the inside, this baby is made of nothing but 24 carat golden possibilities.
====>Open a possibility
You cradle the black sphere in your hands, clawtips resting ever-so-gently against its smooth, frictionless surface. You bring it up in front of your face. You breathe on it -- the warm, moist air doesn't fog the chilly not-glass for so much as a second.
Then you focus your eyes.
Most of the time your vision eightfold doesn't make any practical difference in your life. So you have seven pupils in your left eye. So what! They all let light in to hit the same retina, and even if the inside of that eye is a little bigger than normal, it's not like it works any differently from any other troll's body. You see the same wavelengths in the same proportions -- maybe in a little more detail, maybe a little more 3D, but that's nothing to brag about.
The difference is in your brain.
It's pretty rare for trolls as high as you on the hemospectrum to have psychic powers at all. So you're already totally cool and special just for having some stupid old sixth sense at all... and then, because you're awesome, you take it that last step further. You're not sure exactly how it works (and frankly you don't care, because science is for losers who aren't awesome enough to get actual shit done), but if you concentrate in exactly the right way, you can sort of meld your powers with your eye and see into things.
Even things that may not technically exist under the same set of physical laws as the rest of the universe. And without having to deal with any of that gibberish Alonde's always spouting. Shortcuts are the best things ever.
====>Shortcuts to what, exactly?
Something vast and zoologically improbable swims into your mind's eye.
====>Ask
Hey you, with the tentacles, you think, and start lining up questions in your mind. There are so many things you need to ask about. If there's a way to destroy the ghosts. How to fix things so your friends understand none of this is your fault. What the denizens of the Furthest Ring have seen happen (and not-happen, and unhappen, and maybe-happen, and every other shade of possibility) this night, because if something's fated to go a certain way, why not learn the shape of the board ahead of time so you can make fate move because of you? Nothing in your life ever goes the way you plan, and the harder you try to put things right the worse they get and you are so tired of running to keep up with all the irons you have in the fire.
This time you are going to get some straight answers, or else!
The thing in the abyss turns its attention toward you. It's nothing as concrete as a change in physical orientation or even an opening eye -- just a feeling of crushing weight and pressure surrounding you like a bubble, held in abeyance solely by the horrorterror's choice.
You aren't scared. You know the monsters won't kill you. Not yet, anyway. They've said so themselves. There's something in the future they've seen you doing -- good, bad, who knows, who cares! -- and they don't want to make that unhappen.
Besides, you're a monster too, aren't you? What kind of monster is scared of her own sisters?
====>Ask
You gather your will and--
ENQUIRY
NEED
The concepts impose themselves on your brain like glyphs laser-carved a meter deep into solid stone, smoking slightly around the edges.
====>Ask already!
The billion questions that were flitting through your brain a minute ago have fled under the weight of that dark regard. You have a nasty, squirming, sneaking suspicion that half the reason Alonde does her rituals is to train her mind to deal with this kind of shit, but fuck that. You don't need those stupid crutches. You can focus through will alone!
You can. You can and you will.
(You think the abyss is laughing at you.)
Something pings at the edge of your attention, cracking the fragile blade of your focus. In the corner of your eye, you see a new chat window open on your computer screen. The text is puerile green, like the shreds of dried sopor that cling to the corners of the eye as you wake from half-remembered dreams.
Jarlia Agaion.
This is all her fault! Her and her stupid dreams -- where was she when Tavros fell, huh? Where was she when Aradia sent her ghosts? What is she good for anyway?
Well you'll show her! You're going to take her worst nightmare and make it come true no matter how hard she tries to stop you.
You just wish you could see her face when everything comes crashing down.
====>Receive answer
====>Wait, what?
You don't remember sitting down in front of your computer or setting your secret advantage on your desk, but apparently you did those things because that's where you are and that's where it is.
It also seems to be smoking -- black tendrils writhe and rise like steam and a vague purple glow gathers at one point like a dying star. You stare suspiciously, but even when you use your vision eightfold nothing changes. It's just being ominous for the hell of it.
Stupid alien god squid. What's the use of a magic ball if it doesn't work half the time?
Your computer chimes again and you scowl down at the screen.
====>Answer
You've got a couple hours before dawn and Sollux flies fast. There's no need to send him after Aradia just yet. You can take some time to rub Jarlia's face in her mistakes.
As you click on the chat window, brilliant white-green light flashes in the corner of your eye.
When you look up, your secret advantage is projecting the interior of Jarlia's hive onto your wall, more like a window than a camera image -- you can't see your posters behind the image and you'd almost swear you could step right through solid stone to show the other girl which one of you can really change the future.
You blink. Then you smile.
Now this could be fun.
---------------
---------------
---------------
I'm making a teeny-tiny retroactive change to part 27 to bring it in line with this section -- basically, I'd originally had Vriska plan to use the horrorterror summoning sphere as a spy cam, but upon reflection A) it doesn't seem the sort of thing she'd ask for, and B) Vriska's plans never work out right anyway, so I think it makes more sense as an accidental result when she'd meant to ask for something else.
Anyway, next section is Vriska and Jarlia. For timing reasons, this will be the only chat log Vriska has before she puts her plan into action... so tell me, should I leave it at Vriska vs. Jarlia, or should I add Alonde into the mix via yet another inadvisable memo? I can work with either option. :-)
---------------------------------------------
continue to part 29
Now I am going to eat some waffles, work on my Ouroboros remix, and then hit the sack.
