IMPORTANT NOTE: I, Op3ratic, did not write this fic. This fic belongs to a great friend of mine that is in complete denial of her wonderful writing skills and asked me to upload it for her. Without any ad-due, let's continue with the fic, shall we?
Chapter one: Of ghost girls, checkers, and forests.
Just another boring day. Guard the prisoners. Piss off Karkat. Avoid the Princess. Ignore the humans that only you could see. Fight off monsters. Corral the escapees. Shoot hypotheticals with Terezi. Try not to get culled.
You're name is BETHANY BOSTEDER, you live in the WORLD OF TROLLS but you are not a TROLL. In fact you'd rather DIE than be one. You are an OMEGA, which you've learned to be a sort of MUTATED HUMAN/TROLL THING. Your kismesis is KARKAT VANTAS and you had a short flushed-fling with ERIDAN AMPORA that you really wished never happened. You and other outcasts have been sent to this SHITTY PRISON to guard it. You're pretty sure that HER CONDESCE only sent you few here to KEEP YOU OUT OF THE WAY and MAKE AN EXAMPLE out of you. You're honestly surprised you haven't been CULLED yet due to your VIOLENT BEHAVIOR and OBVIOUS DEFORMITIES. You are BETHANY BOSTEDER, and you're bored out of your fucking mind.
You stab your mandatory weapon, a spear that's totally not taller than you are, into the ground then sort of lean/nap on it for a bit, letting you're glasses that you need but don't care about slide down your nose. Well you would have but then you felt someone staring at you. You opened your eyes to glare daggers at whoever was eye-balling you, to find somewhat translucent ones staring back at you. Oh, it's her again. That weird human girl that always seems to know where you are.
You know all the tales of humans, they're pathetic beings that have dozens of morails, with weird skin and hair colors, no claws, no horns, not even fangs! Even though you don't have horns or actual claws. But you do have sort if sharp fangs, sort of black curly/wavy hair, sort of grey skin, and shut up. The point is that humans are a blight on the planet and nothing more.
You always wondered why they weren't more substantial though. They're just like... funky mist, or something. Always walking through buildings and fences like there's nothing there. The muted light of the perpetually setting sun always shining on them through the mass of clouds, even in the shadows and at night! Like they're fucking luminescent but the lights coming from around them not from them. Weirdest part is how no one but you seem to notice them, and no one but the chick who's still staring at you seems to notice the trolls. Not even Terezi knows they're there with her weird licking and smelling thing!
You take a quick look around to make sure no one can hear you. The only ones you see in the immediate area are humans that don't know you're there anyway.
"Who are you and what the fuck do you want?" You quietly ask the girl with a half growl in your voice. She steps back out of fear, you guess, then she backs off completely and ignores you again.
Well you can get some sleep now without her staring at you like you're Equius in one of Kanaya's dresses. Oh, fuck, now that is a disgusting visual.
Wait. No. You were supposed to do something. Something important. Something to ensure you're survival through the day.
Oh right, playing checkers with Terezi. Of course remembering it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you are being pegged in the head with checkers, nothing at all.
You sigh and take your spear out of the ground. You pick up the pieces she threw at you and began walking over to her. Damn girl has got one hell of an arm to be able to throw so far. But other than the saliva covered pieces and the fact that you always spectacularly lose, your weekly game with Terezi isn't all that bad. Since she still has some influence with Vriska she can keep you out of her half-assed manipulation frenzy, that you're not worried about being in at all. It's not a bad trade off in the end.
When you, finally, get over to her she's as excited as a freaking dog. You can't stand dogs.
"Bethany! You're late!" she yells at you when you get in range. You stop and rub your ears because fuck you're sensitive hearing and her shrill voice.
"Yeah yeah yeah. Get over your self Terezi it's not like this stupid game is even important. I'm just bored enough to go along with it and your obsession with winning." You half lie knowing she'll catch it and not caring.
"Oh so you're just bored enough EVERY WEEK?" she says with that fucking smile that just screams "extreme sadist, right here!"
"Yes," you reply as you take a seat and set up the pieces, she's red you're black. Always. "Now are we gonna play this stupid game or can I go back to napping?"
"Napping? Is THAT what you were doing? Well it SOUNDED like you were talking to someone." She said and oh gog she's playing Legislacerator again. Trying to find the guilty and punish them. You begin the game and idly wonder how she hasn't made herself deaf as well as blind with her freakish senses and loud high-pitched voice.
You point behind you to where you KNOW that human is watching you again like the creepy stalker chick she is. "Hey Terezi, what do you see over there?" You ask just to reassure your self that you are, in fact, bat-shit crazy. She rolls her eyes behind her pointy red glasses, you think, and "looks" to where the human is, "looks" right at her.
She says "There's nothing there Beth! The only thing that was over there all day was you!" in a slightly annoyed yet excited tone. But then again, she always seems excited for no good reason. Just another reason she annoys the crap out of you. But you need her, so you act like you don't give a fuck.
"Exactly, so who the fuck would I be talking to?" You say, somewhat rubbing it in that you verbally bested her once again. But she can't see the girl, who is obviously a figment of your imagination, which proves that you're losing more than just this game of checkers.
She pouts a bit before taking one of your pieces that you stupidly put in danger. She licks it, either claiming it as her own, enjoying the taste which is apparently black licorice which you don't really care for, or just succeeding in grossing you out. Though you'd never let her know it you feel a bit of vomit coming up at the sight. Motherfucking trolls and their personality quirks.
A few moves later you have one piece and she's toying with you. This is what you get for rubbing in a win. You claimed a total of three pieces and fuck hasn't this been dragged out long enough? You feel like smacking her, but you need her, so you just sigh and claim another slimy piece she practically gave to you on a silver fucking platter.
It used to be a weekly chess game, but she loved to win and you were too good at it and too competitive for your own good. So she kept changing it until she found something you royally suck at. A.K.A checkers. So now she's as happy as a fucking- oh she's giggling again. Shit, you need to stop that rambling thing.
You look at the board and realize she got you in the middle and you don't have a single move. You say the words you absolutely hate saying, and she fucking knows you hate it.
"I give up."
And right after you say it she cackles like the fucking mad-woman she is. You would growl at her and maybe put your spear to her throat, but your not going to give her that satisfaction of seeing you break. You just shrug and get up, wiping your slightly slimy hand on your pants.
You turn to go back to your post and see that girl sitting near your spot, like she was waiting for you or some shit. You make the walk back there, eyes never leaving that hu-figment of imagination you mean. Humans don't exist. Just stupid fairy-tails, like magic and peace and not being culled by your neighbor. Just fanciful ideas used to taunt stupid trolls like Tav- oh she's looking at you like she's determined or some shit. You arrive at your post and sit on your rock, kicking up little swirls of dust from the dead fucking wasteland you suffer in. You turn to her and she's still looking at you like that, but you've decided to stop being mad at her because SHE'S NOT REAL.
"You gonna run away this time too?" You say tiredly, because hey you have conversations with yourself all the time, why not do so aloud?
She pursed her pierced lips in what looked like anger and that weird glow-y thing happened. Like the wind was moving leaves on a tree and it's shadow moved. But there was no wind right now and all the trees looked like they would fall to dust at any moment and- oh she's talking.
"Why are you here?"
You shake your head and chuckle a bit to mock her. "You dogged the question."
She raised an eyebrow and looked like she was mocking you back. "So did you. And no, I'm not running until I get some answers."
You don't like being mocked so fucking poorly. "Right, so after you get answers /then/ you'll run away?" She just glares at that so you shrug and answer the question like you don't give a fuck. 'Cause you don't. "I'm here because Her Condesce ordered me here to guard the prison." She looked confused at that and you wonder why. She's part of your mind right? So she should know everything you do. So if she's confused then she must not be a part of you. Meaning humans are real. But NO THEY ARE NOT! Because there is no way that something so weak could exist and there is NO WAY IN FUCK you are descended from those idiotic things. So they must NOT BE REAL!
The girl spoke again and snapped you out of your thoughts that obviously weren't rambling. Obviously.
"What are you?" She asked looking as confused as you felt because what the fuck is going on?!
"Lets back up a bit." You say making a twirling gesture with your finger. "Hi. I'm Bethany. I'm an Omega. Those are Trolls. And you are a figment of my imagination." You say talking slow-ish, gesturing to the things you're talking about, and enunciating like Kanaya does.
She nods slowly and says, like you did, "Hi. I'm Cassidy. I'm a human. Those are also humans. I've never met you before. And you're a ghost."
You nod like she did. "Right. Right. Because humans aren't just fairy tales. And I'm truly sorry to say this: but no, I am not a ghost." You say, rolling with the punches so to speak.
She gets up and seems like she's condescending. "Humans aren't fairy tales. I mean I'm /right/ here aren't I? Wait, oh my god, what if humans aren't real? What AM I?" but gets a bit frantic at the end.
You chuckle at that. But wait, why is that funny? Whatever, you deal with that later. Mainly to subdue her and for no other reason you say "Fine, so humans exist. Now explain to me why the fuck only I can see you."
Which was met with an "Uhh, maybe you're special! Like me! I'm the only one who can see any of you guys!" that ended a bit peppy, like how Nepeta usually speaks but without the feline puns.
"HEY DUMBASS!" You hear behind you and aw fuck you do not want to deal with Karkat right now. "What the fuck are you doing thats more gogdamned important than your fucking job you moronic bulge-licker!" He shouted because, really, he only has two volume levels: too fucking loud and holy shit my eardrums!
"Oh, sorry Karkat." You say overly nicely. "I was just over here talking with you're intelligence."
"What the fuck are you talking about you nooksniffer? There's nothing there!"
"What's a nook?" You hear that girl ask. What was her name again? Wait, she doesn't know what a nook is? Maybe she is a human... oh Karkats still talking.
"Am I stupid to you or something? Do you really fucking think I would fall for something as IDIOTIC as THAT?"
You interrupt him with "One: you said that you are stupid, not me. Two: if you're ever going to have a successful matespritship you need to learn to shut up." At this he blushes and starts screaming things at you that you ignore. Really his failed red relations are almost as bad as Eridans. Tried with Terezi, like she did with everyone else she toyed with him. Tried with Sollux, they were constantly quadrant flipping because of his weird ass mood swings. Tried with Nepeta, she couldn't stand his constant yelling and self loathing. He even tried with his moirail Gamzee! That one might of sort of kind of worked if Tavros hadn't come in the picture.
"-AN ASS MUNCHING FUCK MEISTER. ARE YOU EVEN FUCKING LISTENING TO ME, YOU LUSES-LESS DOUCHE CANOUE?" He stopped screaming for a second and that caught your attention.
"Hm? Sorry, seemed like you weren't saying anything different from your usual horse shit so I just tuned it out. Were you saying something of actual importance this time?" You say purely to piss him off.
It actually shuts him up for a few seconds. Then he walks away flipping you off and mumbling something about listening to stupid bitches.
Huh, usually he would arrogantly pursue an opening to be a long winded douche like that. Must have something else occupying his mind. And now you've stopped caring about it.
"Um... could you answer some questions for me?" That girl you absolutely didn't forget about said. What was her name? It was "C" something. Caaaa, Caaaaaaaaaa, Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- fuck it.
"Depends what are your questions?" You ask because you're bored anyway.
"Well, he's a Troll-thingy, right?" You nod. "Well why were you so mean to him?"
You nod again because she is obviously a clueless hermit who doesn't know the basics of troll culture. "Well, he's my kismises." you say because maybe she meant "meaner to him than others."
"Okay." She says dragging out the word. "What's a kismises?"
You just stare at her. Then sigh.
"Do you know /anything/ about the quadrants?" You ask her and you really don't want to have to explain the quadrants to anyone.
"What quadrants?" she asked with a slight tilt of her head. "And how does that explain why every ones so mean to each other?!"
"What do you mean? For a guard made up of reject-trolls it seems like they're all tolerating each other pretty well." You are honestly confused right now.
"But everyones yelling and arguing all the time! The only ones that ever seem actually happy are the girl with the curly horns, the girl that's obsessed with cats, and the girl with the really pretty pink dresses!"
"Curly horns is probably Aradia. What the fuck is a cat? And the dress girl is Princess Feferi, don't watch her. Just stay away from her. Always." You say because you do NOT want to get on a Tyranbloods bad side, even a young one like the Princess.
"Oh. Well. Isn't that her right there?"
You follow where her misty finger is pointing and look behind you. Sure enough, the Princess is walking straight towards you. Fuck. You obviously don't scramble a bit panickedly into the kneeling position that's mandatory for everyone to assume. Weapon in front, arms behind, not looking at her, horns- head, you mean head, pointed away, body facing her. Because you don't scramble, and you don't get panicked. Obviously.
She comes up to you and stops in front of you and fuck you're about to be culled you know it gog no take Karkat instead! Her personal guards aren't there and is she panting?
"Guard, Bethany, please you have to hide me. Quickly!" She says a bit breathlessly, glancing behind her every second or so.
You get up and lead her into a small thicket of trees, if you could call them that. Once there, you lead her to your second favorite hiding spot. It has a small-ish waterfall that is the source of the prisons water and has notably more life around it than the prison. A few bushes here and there, some semi-dry grass all over the place, and even some bugs hiding in it.
That girl followed you too. Wait, she said the word "cat" right? Whatever, you're calling her that.
You are insanely curious as to why the Princess needs to hide and doesn't have her guard with her, but you don't dare ask. You don't talk to a Tyranblood without being invited, and even then you might be culled.
She sits down on the ground and catches her breath. This place is actually pretty far away from the prison, which is looming at you on the distance. Of course you're tired too, but you stand at attention. You take the place of one of her personal guards for the time being. Your spear, that you grabbed before running, ready to kill anything and everything.
You look around and what the fuck does Cat think she's doing!? Just standing over there, her face not two inches away from the Princesses looking at her horns and she should be damn happy that only you can see her otherwise she might be dead already. Really Princess Feferi is much more lax about things than Her Condesce, but it's better to be safe and alive than sorry and dead.
The Highblood cleared her throat. "Tank you for brineing me out here, Bethany." You nod and dont laugh at the fish-puns. "It's just everythings getting to be too glubbing much for me! I mean Eridan with his mossdarned drama, and Gamzee who usually so nice to be around was worried about his morey-eel so much, and not even MY morey-eel could kelp me because of his mood swings. It reelly means a lot that you would kelp me like this." You nod.
You hear Cat say "See? She's so much nicer than the rest of you!" and you fight the urge to smack her. Doesn't this bitch know danger when she sees it? Wait, she's a human. A fact that you'll deal with the implications of at a later date. But she probably has no idea about the caste system or horns or how much of an idiot she's being!
The Princess talks. Cat talks. Minuets turn into hours. Night comes, and you still haven't said a word. You haven't moved from the spot or the stance you assumed when you got there. You wonder how long you've been standing there when Eridan and Gamzee come into the clearing.
"FEF! Why the glub did you run off like that?" Eridan said grabbing her shoulders and lightly shaking her. But he's a purpleblood. He can do that.
Gamzee stood in front of you. "Hey my motherfucking sis, thanks a lot for takin care of fefsis while we were lookin for her." He gives you a side hug and you're about to say something for the first time in /hours/ when Eridan turns to you and starts yelling.
"YOU!" he says looking surprisingly like a puffer-fish.
"Me." you say apathetically.
"Why the glub didn't you tell us where she was!?" his volume was rivaling Karkats now.
You were about to verbally rip him a new one, because while the Princess is the highest there is Eridans just an arrogant purpleblooded fish dick and you don't give a fuck if you piss him off, when the Princess stepped in.
"ERIDAN! I'm the one that told her to take me here, why are you yelling at HER?"
Eridan cringed at this, like she had slapped him. But considering how their moirailship ended, he's always on thin ice around her. You smile and snicker a bit at his obvious discomfort as he stumbles over his words and tries to show her she's wrong without insulting her, because you're a bit of a sadist yourself and he pisses you off anyway.
You take this argument as your cue to leave. On your way back you wish Gamzee good luck with Karkat.
Even though you can't stand the small and mutated troll, Gamzee's... well the two of you connect in a really weird way. It doesn't fit into any of the quadrants or "friend". Really, friends are just enemies you tolerate and that doesn't describe you and Gamzee at all. You don't hate him in the least, in fact you want him to be happy but you don't pity him either. It runs deeper than just keeping each other in line like moirails do.
Whatever. You'll care about it later. Maybe.
You head back to the bunks to get some shut-eye since your shift is over, but then think about sleeping in the vicinity of others and change your mind. No, you're not shy. You just don't want Karkat trying and failing to end you in your sleep.
You change you're destination to your absolute favorite hiding spot so far.
A clearing in a dense forest quiet a ways away from the prison. You can barely see it in the distance. The ground is covered in soft grass and carpet-like moss. The trees here are huge and very much alive. You take off your glasses and lay down, spear thrown to the other side. This is where you keep your preferred weapons, a set of duel swords that you know like the scars on your hand. You grab them and set them in reach before you let yourself sleep. After all, never know when someone or something more competent than Karkat might want you dead.
You lay on the ground staring at the moon and stars and totally don't think how beautiful they are and how calm everything is out here. You idly wonder where that human girl is and if you just imagined all that. You don't notice when you fall asleep and start dreaming of crazy things. Things like hope, happiness, peace, and trust. You don't really care about when it happened either. The point is, dreams are nice and you don't want them to end.
You are Bethany Bosteder and you are in a rut on this most boring of days. You're always in a rut and you're always bored. It just happens to be a different type of rut and boredom every day.
Yup, just another boring day.