The Author

Be The Author

You cannot possibly try to be The Author. The Author is just too amazing and awesome for your mind to comprehend. She is funny, witty and powerful and she could go on and on about how talented she is but that is not why you are here.

So instead The Author sighs, rubs her eyes behind her glasses and begins her story.

"Before our story can begin, the past must reveal itself. In Tavros Nitram's last game of FLARP, he was controlled by Vriska Serket and sent flying off of a cliff which resulted in him losing all use of his legs. Racked by guilt that arose after she realised she could have helped if only she had been paying full attention to her comrade, Aradia Megido insists on righting that which has been wronged. Encouraged by the spirits of those who Miss Serket had 'culled' in past, Aradia sent them after the spider-like troll. This, naturally, freaks Vriska out and instils a sense of anger and spite for Aradia in her and, in yet another form of revenge, Vriska uses her psychic powers to control Aradia's good friend Sollux Captor, who arrives, floating, outside her hive. Captor is then forced into eating some mind honey which results in a powerful eye blast that incinerates Aradia's hive, her lusus and Miss Megido herself.

Once news of this attack reaches Terezi Pyrope, the second member of Team Scourge and partner to Vriska Serket, she breaks up their team of two and ends her FLARPING days. And yet, even after this small piece of revenge, Terezi feels she should and could do more. So, with help from Sollux, who feels horrible about what Vriska forced him to do and that he was that easy to manipulate, they give news to Doc Scratch, a mysterious being, that Vriska has indeed got his missing magical cue ball. Thoroughly miffed that a mere troll child could outsmart him, Doc Scratch uses unknown forces to make the cue ball explode. And, as Sollux and Terezi had planned it, Vriska was looking into the cue ball with her vision eightfold. The explosion caused her to lose sight in her left eye – an eye which happened to hold seven of her vision eightfold, which reduced it to sight in one eye – and also resulted in the loss of her arm.

You'd think this vicious cycle would come to an end but there was still one more action. And of course this action had to be performed by none other than Vriska Serket. Knowing she was unable to control Terezi directly, she instead gained mind control over Tavros and, using his power to commune with animals, manipulated Terezi's sleeping dragon lusus. Terezi herself was sound asleep at the time and the dragon, which guided Terezi in her dreams, persuaded her to sleepwalk out of her hive and into the forest surrounding her. She then opened her eyes wide and stared into the bright Alternian sun, blinding her.

A truce was formed between Terezi and Vriska – who had enlisted the help of Equius Zahhak, a strong troll who was good with robots, to build her a new arm – so that this cycle would end and keep their friends out of harm's way.

Now, you must be thinking 'how is this important? I already knew all of this!' Well, here's the difference between the troll's life you know and the one I have recorded – Aradia Megido never died. Unaware to all until the damage had occurred, Aradia had been saved by a mysterious spirit that had blocked her from the majority of Sollux's eye blast, instead absorbing it and destroying itself. Aradia emerged from the rubble of her hive hours after Sollux's departure, coughing and spluttering. With no means of contact and nowhere to sleep, Aradia spent the first few minutes of consciousness crying into her hands. But she gathered herself rather quickly as the threat of sunrise plagued her.

Miss Megido found refuge in some underground ruins next to where her hive used to be and, after a day of resting there, she arose the next night to realise that this was her new home. Raiding her fetch modus, Aradia found an old computer of hers and quickly booted it up, contacting the others to say she was okay. She was met with relief from Terezi, distaste but eventual acceptance from Vriska – at least she had destroyed Aradia's hive and lusus; that would satisfy her - and even a confession of love from Sollux.

Now you see, this makes a big difference to the alpha timeline the trolls are on. Since Aradia never died and never obtained the secrets that she needed to tell Sollux to set up SGRUB, their session never occurred and, therefore, they are on a doomed timeline. But this doomed timeline of theirs prolongs their life considerably and our story begins when they are just over seven sweeps old.

Sollux had unwittingly sent Karkat Vantas the exact same code for a virus that he had sent on the alpha timeline, although this one was delayed by over a sweep. And so Mister Vantas used this code to not only explode part of his hive but place a curse over him and his eleven friends. As their lusii died one by one through miscellaneous incidents, the trolls formed a slightly distasteful but entirely practical plan. A plan to band together for survival.

Without their lusus', the young trolls were left vulnerable to other trolls and especially the drones that would 'cull' them. So some trolls met up in pairs and even a group of three before heading out to a specific location while others decided to travel alone.

Our story begins with Sollux Captor, first to arrive at the location he specified to the others. A cave, the entrance hidden by vines, located somewhere in a large and monster-filled forest. Nobody would expect such young trolls to go there, even if they had no options left. And yet this is where the events that became a doomed timeline unfolded - why this timeline is doomed and not the other is unsure. But, for all we know, this could have been the alpha timeline all along."

The Author shuts the heavy book, pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose and proceeds to pass you the book. You open your mouth, possibly to ask why The Author is so stunning, but she just paps you on the head, shooshes you, then tells you to go read on, her little protégé.