Left Behind

by RadioactiveRicecake

Civil war. Resistance. Explosions. Kaboom. Lord English being a dick. Kurloz being... Kurloz. And also sort of a dick. Meulin being a cat. Wow. We are all blown away by this stunning revelation. Teenagers fighting although that should technically be illegal. Oh well.

Hello friends! People! Whoever you are!

SOooo this was supposed to be a secret santa present for maracamakara on Tumblr but I'm slightly laaaate. 1 month slightly late.

It'll just be a... 24th of January present? Yeah that's totally a celebration. It's the day where you offer shitty fanfictions to strangers and you ask to the mighty beasts that sleep in your shoes at night to leave you alone for a year. It's pretty useless because they leave your shoes before you wear them in the morning anyway. But hey, nobody likes to find monster poop in their shoes when the morning comes.

Legit.

Anyways! I shall leave you to your reading. (I'm not really proud of the beginning. But it gets better. I think. Maybe? Oh well you'll see.)

---

We are saints made of plaster, our laughter is canned
We are demons that hide in the mirror
But the blood on our hands
Paints a picture exceedingly clear.

-All the World is mad, Thrice

---

The very first scream awoke Meulin and rang in her brain for a few seconds before she could make sense of what was happening.

Another scream. And another. And another. Closer each time, as if emitted by a moaning creature crawling towards her house.

Obviously, something was wrong, very wrong.

She felt her breathing accelerate and a tight knot form in her stomach. She threw her warm blanket on the floor and jumped out of bed, panicking, trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening outside through the window. Her body was convulsing violently. The door opened suddenly, the outline of her mother standing in the light of the corridor.

"Mom!"

"Meulin! You have to get out of here. NOW."

Before she could open her mouth and ask the many questions that were burning her tongue, the woman grabbed her by the hand and flung her out of the bedroom. She pushed her along the corridor, towards the kitchen. "Leave by the backdoor. Take my sweater, there you go sweetie. Now leave, I'll see you later."

"MOM! What's happening?"

An explosion shook the house and a few glasses fell on the floor, shattering in small pieces. She grabbed her mother by the shoulders and placed her head on her neck, holding her as strong as she could, feeling her warmth against her forehead.

"What's going on?" She realised that tears were running down her cheeks.

"There's no time, honey. The army is raiding the village. You need to leave now, and I'll see you when everything is calm again, all right?" She pulled herself out of the grasp, and pushed her daughter out of the house.

"But what are you going to do?"

"I'll be fine! You need to go somewhere safe. And you know I don't run as fast as you do, I'll slow you down. Now, off you go." She winked and closed the door behind her.

Meulin saw the desolated expression on her mother's face, although she was desperately trying to conceal it.

She ran a few steps, and turned around, slowly, as deep inside she already knew what she was going to see behind. She knew every detail, every colours. Still, she looked. With the shouts and pleads for mercy came a bright fire from the other side of the village, as well as the merry barks of soldiers walking along. Her village, her world was burning.

How could she possibly leave without her mother? She stumbled into her house once again, screaming her name, looking frenetically in every single room. "MOM! MOOOOM!" But she was nowhere to be found. The young girl heard the singing men come alarmingly close; she forgot for an instant that she was atheist and mumbled a quick prayer for her beloved mother. She turned around and began running in the opposite direction of the fire, forcing herself to breath slowly and regularly although her lungs were screaming for more air.

The shouts were more and more distant with each step she took, each inhale, each exhale. The cool darkness of the night took over the warm light of the fire. The young girl smiled; she always loved night running, she loved the silence, the wind.

"What's happening, dad? Why is there a fire over there?" A kid was looking at his father, worried. The adult turned pale and his mouth opened, without any sound escaping from it.

She felt like she was punched in the stomach, as she remembered that this was not a night running session. The comfortable feeling that had settled in her head suddenly collapsed. How could she forget something like that? The fire, the sound of children crying, the soldiers, were literally right behind her. She turned towards the father and screamed; "CAT AWAY!" There was no reaction coming from the adult; either he did not understand, or he was too absorbed by the doom coming towards them all. The small child shook his sleeve. "Dad! We need to leave, now!" The father snapped out and came back to reality; he took the child in his arms and ran in the opposite direction. Meulin felt a feeling of relief spreading through her body. She ran again, screaming at the houses, warning them of the impeding fire: many burst out of their houses to follow her. She knew the end of the village approached: in less than two minutes they could hide in the forest and be out of the soldiers' reach. She turned around a corner… And fell on a line of soldiers. They were all waiting patiently, a ferocious smile on all of their faces, barring the road with their armoured bodies.

At their feet some inhabitants were on their knees, head facing the ground, held by soldiers that were proud to display their innocent preys. The father and his child were kneeling next to each other; loneliness distorted their faces.

Meulin felt a gush of angst for the two of them. "I'm so sorry", she whispered, before attacking the soldiers.

The teenager was thrown in the truck tired and covered in bruises. "We would have killed you if you weren't so pretty," said a soldier right before pushing her in the dark of the vehicle. "But the ones in town will be pleased to have a sexy ladaaaaay." She hissed at his ugly unshaved face; the door closed with a loud clap. She sprawled down on the metal ground, exhausted.

"Meulin?" said a voice. "Meulin Leijon?"

The young girl used all the energy she had left to raise her head towards the woman who spoke. "M… Maggie?" A smile appeared on her face, and the excitement chased the pain away. "Maggie! You're alive!" She threw herself in the arms of the old lady and giggled. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"I am so glad to see you too, my child! Where is your mother?"

Sadness invaded her body suddenly; emotions always came quickly, and leave as fast as they came.

"I don't know!" She mumbled. "It's all so confursing… I don't know what happened!" She looked deep in Maggie's eyes, trying to find an answer, but none came. She crawled in a corner miserably. "I'll nefur know what happened…" Her eyes closed, and opened again with a whole new emotion. "But it's fine! I'm sure she survived!" She smiled and put her head on the old woman's lap, and slept right away as a soft purring escaped from her lips.

The trip was long and uncomfortable. The truck was small and there were fourteen of them, men, women and children. They all knew each other (more or less) as they lived in the same place, yet the time spent in this shaking metal box was strangely quiet. None of the villagers felt like speaking; they would listen to Margaret and Meulin with a miserable smile on their faces. The elder told stories and Meulin spent hours commenting on them, studying each character in all its depths and which relationship they could potentially have with whom. When she was done, Maggie told another story, the young girl commented, and so the cycle continued for hours and hours; finally, the three kids who were hiding behind their fathers and mothers began to join in, inventing more stories based on Maggie's ones, falling in love or falling in hate with the characters. Everything was done in the dark; the few rays of light passing through the split of the door were barely lightening the space enough for them to see each other's outlines. Yet Meulin was absolutely pleased, and for a moment forgot that she was stuck in a truck belonging to an army that was not exactly concerned by her well-being. They finally arrived to their destination; the car stopped brutally and, twenty minutes afterwards, a soldier opened the squeaky door. Blinded, they protected their eyes from the light of noon, but they did not have time to adapt since a soldier shouted with a hoarse voice "Get outta here, ya little shits!"

Meulin felt a throbbing pain in her cheek as she was thrown against the concrete. The man threatened to "kick the hell outta you" if they did not stand up right now, so they all stood, their legs shaking of the twelve-ish hours spent in the van, the sun burning their retina. Two men came from behind and told them to go in a building behind them. One of them stopped Meulin and Maggie with his truncheon before they could follow the rest, snapping his tongue against his teeth.

"You," he said pointing at the old one, "Are going over there. We have a special place for people as old as you." The other chortled; Maggie strengthened her back and looked deep into the soldier's eyes. "There's a special place in Hell for people like you." The girl realised how terrifying Maggie suddenly was. She had acquired a petrifying aura, and the strong man could only mumble "over there". She turned towards Meulin and smiled gently. "Goodbye, my child. I know you'll be all right, I can feel it in my old bones."

"I know you'll be all right too!" she answered.

The woman laughed. "Your eyes are full of hope, it is such a pleasant sigh. And yes, I will be all right. I am tired of this place, I am gladly leaving it!" She threw one last deadly look towards the man, and began walking bravely to the building.

When she was gone, the soldiers finally regained their courage and faced Meulin. "And you… are coming with us."

The first soldier seemed startled, and spoke with a fearful voice: "You're not gonna…" "Of course we're gonna," countered the other. "You wanna?" he added with a smirk.

"That is just… No, I won't be a part of it" he said with a truly scandalized look on his face. "It's… sick."

"Nah, it's not. A man has his needs"

"No! this is… arrrrg… But… If you wanna do it, ask permission from the chief first."

"Yeah, yeah… Jonas, you coming?"

"With pleasure," replied the third one.

The two of them pushed the girl in front of them and walked towards a small office on the side. Four others were standing in front of the glass door.

"Hey, Jonas, Flint! Aaaand who's the bitch?"

"I am not a bitch" snarled Meulin, showing her teeth and trying to look as wild as possible. She was quickly stopped by a violent slap given by one of them.

"You'll shut up now, we like our bitches silent" he cackled while the others laughed.

"Anyways," said the one who was called Jonas, "We were going to… y'know…" he winked and the other soldiers' faces seem to enlighten when they understood.

"Wh… can we come?"

"Yeah! Of course. The more we are, the better it is. Just gotta ask the chief's permission."

"We'll watch her close."

"What is that, a tail?"

Flint went in through the small door while the other shook with impatience. Meulin didn't really understand the situation, which annoyed her a lot – she had very bad understanding capacities for a 16 years old – so she just proceeded to examine the base more closely. It wasn't a base, really, it was more of a city in ruins that the army tried to reconvert into something looking more or less like a base. The buildings' holes were covered with dirty canvases, a deplorable restitution of their initial state. The whole city was blackened by an ancient fire, and it was completely devoid of civilian inhabitants. All the metal were rusted, the shops panels whining slowly in the wind. The ground was covered in a soft layer of grey ashes.

Meulin had heard about these brunt out cities; although the television was cut down since a few years and the young girl never went very far from her village, travellers brought the news that America was in ruins. "The army has destroyed everything", they said. "They are annihilating the east of the country. We can thank God the west is still resisting." Her village was right in the frontier, between the East that had capitulated to the tyrant and the west where the resistance grew and thrived. The truth was, the west did not always resist. When the civil war had started, the army had invaded the whole of America – only then were they pushed away by the Rebels. The west was in an advanced state of destruction, yet it was nothing compared to the east. The east didn't even look like an inhabited place anymore.

The soldier came back with a smile on his face. "He said yeah, but we have to do it in the forest. 'No disturbin the camp,' he said. " The others shouted in triumph as they brutally pushed her towards the edge of the city. The six soldiers and Meulin began walking towards the hill, deeper and deeper inside the forest.

"Where are we going?" snapped the girl after twenty minutes of walking in the trees. "Let me go with the others!" She tried to look tall and dangerous; hatred was burning her eyes, yet all they did was laugh and joke around. Finally, after another fifteen minutes, soldier Flint raised his hand suddenly, stopping their small group at once. He turned towards her and smiled.

"Here."

A cable approached his throat, winding around it like an icy snake. Choking the life out of him.

A look of complete surprise arose on his face, his mouth slightly open, one of his fingers pointing the cable as if to politely ask "please, would you have the kindness to tell me why on earth this maleficent piece of string is congesting me to death?"

Another cable leapt out of the bush behind the young man, this time catching his hand; the owner of the weapon pulled on tight, and Flint's hand came hurtling to his face, knocking himself unconscious.

And then everything became confusion. People began to spread from behind the trees, from inside the bushes, from over their heads; the soldiers tried to shoot at these new assailants, in vain. Boys and girls were flying around the group of soldiers. A circular saw yielded with a chain came flying through the air, cutting a soldier neatly at his waist. Both parts of the body fell with a squishing sound, and a young woman covered in tattoos appeared behind the corpse, smiling savagely, the piercings on her face shining with the light going through the leaves. The sun coming from behind gave to her pale body a strange aura. Meulin didn't even have time to say a thing before the soldier to her left was stabbed several times by a girl with shiny red glasses, while the one behind her was impaled on a… Trident?

Meulin stared at all this agitation, astonished. They were all kids with weird weapons, yet they were kicking the shit out of these fully armed soldiers. She watched the show with delight, until she realised the skeleton in the background.

Well, he wasn't really a skeleton, but rather a teenager with a skeleton costume. His curly hair was a brown turmoil dancing all around his head. She looked closer; he was the one with the cables. All his members were attached to those of the soldiers he was fighting, a few feet away from him; his hands were joined to the adult's hands, his knees to the adult's knees, etc. As he moved around the soldier was forced by the cables to do the exact same gestures. So the young adult pulled, pushed, made the man hit himself, again and again, fall on the floor, get back up, crush himself against a tree.

Just like a puppeteer, thought Meulin. That is absolutely pawesome.

The soldier brutally pulled on this left hand, destabilizing the skeleton guy for less than a second, yet that was enough for the soldier to take back the control of his body. He turned brutally, his muscles winning the fight over the thin boy, and faced him.

Before he could do anything, Meulin had already smashed the back of his skull with a stone. The puppet fell on the ground like a soaked mop while the puppeteer looked and smiled. He straightened his back and nodded gently to the girl.

He seemed to have come right out of a Tim Burton movie.

Abnormally tall and abnormally thin, the white make up covering his face formed a skull on his light-brown skin. A skeleton outfit covered his entire body, his crotch hidden by purple shorts.

Omg. You're gorgeously creepy.

"Yo, gurl!"

Meulin reluctantly looked behind; the girl who called her had two long, long braids who ran at her back and continued long after they touched the ground. She opened her mouth, incredulous.

"What?" said the other one.

"Your braids! Omg! They're so wonderfuuuuuuuuur!" She shook her fists in excitement.

"Wonderfur…?"

"And all your weapons, and the mewment where you sliced the guy in two halves? You were all pouncing and screaming and… Omg! That was the coolest thing efur!"

She realised that the eight attackers were now staring at her in bewilderment. She looked at her body, checking if anything was wrong.

"What's the purroblem?"

Nobody said anything; they were all consulting each other through looks, wondering whether they should say anything or not. Finally, a tall girl spoke in a calm and strangely comforting voice.

"I think my friends and I expected to find you quite… traumatised after the recent events."

"Why? Wait a minute," she added before the other could say anything, "You look a lot like her!" Meulin pointed towards the girl with the tattoos whose weapon was a circular saw. "Are you guys… twins?"

"Uhm… Yes we are in fact twins."

"You look alike!"

"Yeah, that's what twins are" said the one with the red glasses. She was quite small, with brown hair falling right under her shoulder blade; her posture was extremely steady, as if even a boulder thrown in her direction could not maker her flinch.

"Where do you come from?" Asked another girl.

"Are you a parking ticket? Because you look expensivwe."

"That was the most pitiful pick up line I have ever heard coming out of your wretched mouth."

"Cronus, shall I remind you of the existence of your loving partner?"

"Yeah, stop flirting with her! It's pathetiiiiiiiic!"

"Does she have a cat tail?"

"Guys! Can we please at least pretend to be cool?"

"HEY EVERYMOBY" said the angry one with the braids. "Clam the fuck down."

"Are you doing FISH PUNS?" asked Meulin with a piercing voice. "That is adorapawl!"

"We're goin back to the glubbin camp NOW." She turned around and began walking straight ahead.

The kids divided themselves in smaller groups and began to follow what seemed to be their leader; Meulin saw that the red glasses one had assembled her two knives into the canes blind people usually use, right before a stupid-looking guy blocked her vision. He was chewing a cigarette that was not even lit up, and was uncomfortably close to the girl, invading her personal space.

"Hey, you" he said with a wink.

"Hello!" answered the young girl, faking a smile.

"Vwell, I think vwe began our relationship on a bad hand. I'm Cronus."

"Hey, Cronus!"

"So, vwat kind of music do you-"

"Why are you meowing like that? Why are you doing those clawful wobbly sounds all the time?"

"Vwowv there! Can you please be more sensitivwe about my quirk?"

"Uuuuh pawy?"

"I'm such a nice guy and you just come towvards me and aggress me with your speech stereotypes?"

"Wait a minute, YOU came-"

"I mean like, seriously? I barely know you!"

"You came towards me and I wasn't aggressive I was just-"

"And I don't need that, I just came out of a sevwere depression. You'll nevwer evwen knowv such a horrible state. People wvould always givwe me all these responsibilities, I beliewve they thought I was the perfect profile for a leader, but I just couldn't, you knowv? I was drowvning so deep under the layers and layers of pressure that I lost trace of vwho I really was inside. I found a consolidation of my true personality through music, but evweryone now thinks I'm some kind of superhero that can do evwerything and they just can't understand that a guy needs to clam – sorry, calm – down from time to time, and divwe into his art with all his soul. Evweryone think I'm so superior, and I'm havwing such a hard time showving to evweryone that you know, hey, I'm just another normal guy? And they're all like -"

Meulin realised half-way though that she didn't actually give one single fuck. Not one. So she smiled and simply walked away. That worked every single time. Someone walking away of a conversation without any explanation would systematically shock people; they would stop speaking, stare at her with wide eyes and a scandalized expression on their faces, but in the end what could they do? Run after her and force their useless speech directly inside her brain? Actually, Meulin did have strong doubts about Cronus, believing until she was safely next to the blind girl that he would, in fact, come after her.

"What's with the cat tail?" said the one hiding behind her glasses.

"What cat tail?"

"Shhhhhhhh!" the girl put her finger on her mouth and began walking faster and discreetly. Meulin followed her example, suddenly very worried by the situation; she bit one of her nails off, realising that her hand was shaking. She had the horrible impression of being… followed. She could feel a presence up in the tree to her left, in the bushes behind her, in the cavity in front of her. Who, or rather what, could it be? The feeling of protection provided by all the brave kids who saved her from the soldiers began to worn off. Why aren't they doing anything? She and the blind girl walked in a state of uncontrolled tension during an hour, or was it a minute? Meulin never really knew how to estimate the time. Her mind saw Time as something quite irrelevant – partly because she never understood how to read a watch (she got fascinated by the ticking every single time and forgot what was her initial intention), partly because she couldn't give less of a fuck. With each step they took, another part of her body began shaking… and the girl with glasses stopped abruptly. She turned slowly, slowly, as if she was expecting nothing less than a giant hound with a hundred legs speaking fluent German to smile behind them and ask them if they wanted cappuccino. Meulin imagined the monster and felt a shiver of horror running through her spine. German had always been a language that terrified her.

The other one turned towards her. "Yeah. I think it's following us."

"What? What?"

The girl punched Meulin's shoulder and giggled uncontrollably. "Your tail, dumbass!"

Meulin screamed and jumped out of fright, until she realised the terror she had stored in her guts was nothing more than a joke. She let it explode and flow out of her through a series of hysterical chuckles. The two of them had to stop to lie down on the floor, laughing until their stomachs hurt, tears in their eyes and a growing pain in their brains.

Once the storm over, they brushed their tears off and began walking faster to catch up with the group.

"I furgot about that!" she stroked the blue tail fixed to her skirt.

"Why do you wear a tail? I guess it goes with the whole cat puns thing."

"I… don't… remempurr…" a gush of sadness went through her face. It disappeared as soon as it came to make place to a smile. "Oh yeah, wait, I do! It was a thing in my village. Efurryone would wear cat things and do cat puns! It was a huge trend! But… then it just stopped. It was so sad! I decided to purrsevere. They all thought I was some kind of weirdo… But oh well! I'm the cool cat!" She giggled and asked "Are you blind? Fur real? Oh and what's your name?"

"I'm Terezi, and yes, I am blind"

"But… I paw you fight! How do you do that?"

"I just fight, cool cat!"

"Without your vision?"

"Yeah, without my vision. All right, look. People tend to forget that we have five senses. They believe without vision, everything is lost. Well they're wrong! Vision is one fifth of our senses; if you loose it, only one fifth of your perception leaves."

"Is it really this easy?"

"Well, yeah. I just avoided this rock without even touching it with my cane, I know you have a tail and I know that you're tall, that you're wearing a knee-length skirt, a jacket, and no bra. You spent some time in an uncomfortable army truck. You have a tendency to completely forget your environment and what is happening around you."

"Oh my god! How did you know all that?"

"Because I'm good, that's why!" said Terezi excitedly. "I'm the Sherlock Holmes of the resistance. I heard you walk around the rock, I heard John say you had a tail, when you speak it comes from a point that is at the height of my forehead so you are taller than me, your skirt makes familiar skirt noises when you walk, earlier I skimmed your back and didn't feel any bra but I felt the jean texture of your jacket, your smell is a mix of sweat and petrol, I guessed you've been in a car, since you came with soldiers I'm thinking military truck, and they're never comfortable, are they?" she said that all at once, barely breathing while enouncing her speech, with no hesitation whatsoever, a smooth and delighted voice. Benedict Cumberbatch would be proud.

"Wow! That was impuressive! Wait a minute, what about the environment thing?"

"The fact that you don't see your surroundings? Well, we are unknown people taking you to an unknown place, fighting with bizarre weapons and looking frankly weird as fuck, and you still haven't asked one single question about it all."

Meulin's look turned into wonderment while Terezi smiled with a creepy grin.

"Hey! Stop flirting with her!"

The voice came from behind them, released by a girl wearing matching blue clothes. Everything was thin about her: thin body, thin face, thin lips, thin nose. She was definitely attractive, yet strangely repulsive. Meulin supposed some could find her scary. Terezi turned around and shouted an aggressive "Shut up you spider freak!" before throwing a passionate glance to the blue girl. "Gotta go" she said to Meulin, who clearly realised the level of excitation of the girl rose in a matter of seconds. "Hope you have fun without me. Go see Kanaya, she'll explain everything!" The blind girl didn't even throw a look at Meulin before running – or, rather, walking as fast as she could – towards the "spider freak". She looked around her, absent-minded, wondering who were these people. She dwelled on the questions that Terezi awoke in her mind; how could she forget to ask where they were going? Who they were? She had learned long ago that her own memory was not to be trusted. She had learned that her mind was unreliable, unpredictable… yet sometimes it felt so wrong, so horribly unfair. She had the constant feeling that her consciousness was slipping between her fingers, while she was desperately trying to keep it in control. How do you keep a wave up on the sand. She smiled at her own reference and realised that one of the twins was waving at her. Meulin ran towards her and followed the sisters' pace.

"I am pleased that you came seeking our company" said the one without the tattoos. "My name is Kanaya, and here is my twin sister Porrim."

"Hey!" said the other one.

They both looked very much alike, although the feelings they conveyed were quite opposite. Kanaya's body was generally relaxed, her shoulders and her back free of any tension, her hands waving peacefully in the air as she walked. Porrim, on the other hand, had a defying posture; she stood proud, and the look in her eyes seemed to dare anyone to contradict her words. Her steps were large and imposing. The black, swirling lines of her tattoos were covering her arms, falling down her chest. Piercings were decorating her eyebrows and her bottom lips.

"I like you" said Meulin to the two girls with a cheerful smile.

"Oh… We appreciate this compliment" answered Kanaya. "I do believe many questions are burning your tongue?"

"Yeah! Oh my god you guys are so clawesome! Anyways. So who are you? Where are we going, to some kind of secret base under the ground? Houses in the trees? Are we taking a purricopter and flying the hell out of here?"

"Feel free to ask more questions, I don't have enough of them yet. That was ironical" she added.

Meulin looked at her with an overly serious expression before groaning, "you confuse me."

"You seem to be unaware of the basic principle of irony. It is fine. We are a part of the resistance taking place in the west of the United States of America at this precise moment. Are you conscious of the current situation of our beloved country?"

"Totally! Oh, wait, no."

"Do not worry, that is the situation of pretty much the whole nation. With Internet and the television out of our every day life, it became hard to document ourselves on the actuality. I will try to keep it short as I am sure Aranea will love explaining the state of this war in its furthest details. Do you remember Lord English?"

"Oh, yeah! He was the hissterical man that ran for the elections? He was a mewn guy, right?"

"Mewn? Oh, mean. Lord, you equal Meenah in her perseverance to place a minimum of three puns per sentence.

"Yes, he was, indeed, a treacherous man with a thirst for power and anti-democratic ideals. The fool wants to establish a cast system based on solely physical appearances. He took over the state with the help of the army, and a resistance rose in the east. It quickly expanded with the help of the populations who refused the reign of this tyrant. Nowadays the resistance is stable, controlling no less than one third of the nation, fuelled by the factories that still work for our cause. The leader of the resistance is called The Signless – you probably heard about him? – and his little brother, Karkat Vantas, decided to mount a small group of resistance of his own, composed of teenagers and even children that did not have a part in the resistance although they could fight."

"Why did they not have a paw in the resistance?"

"Our leader does not want the children to be endangered by the fight. It is one of his greatest fears. We were hidden in abandoned cities, living useless existences until Karkat came and took us right at the border of the resistance, where we could fight and prove we were ready to integrate the movement. We are now walking towards our base."

Kanaya realised the girl wearing a tail was walking with her head down, grief stamped on her face and watery eyes.

"Is there something wrong?"

"The people. They were slaughtered, right?"

"Slaughter is a sweet word for it. The army killed more than half of the total population of America, in unspeakable ways. The ones who lived were made into slaves. Those who are in the best physical state are forced to breed and create a new generation of better men. It is Nazism all over again."

"We remember the colour of Earth" mumbled Porrim, a fist on her heart.

"You see, Lord English considers that the USA are overpopulated and do not need so much 'low casts crap', pardon my expression. There are just enough people to work and sustain the army; the rest is 'unnecessary'."

"How could the army do that? How could the soldiers have such an atrocious catitude?"

"That… is something we ignore. We are aware, of course, that such a strange behaviour comes from a source, a root, a problem, anything. We are aware that it is not natural, that something is provoking it. But the problem is… we ignore what is this source."

They walked silently during a few minutes, pondering what they just said, the despair of their nation on their backs.

"Well, I'm sure we'll catch the answer in due time" she said enthusiastically.

"Catch. Nice pun"

"Thanks, Porrim! Years of pracatctis is the key to success!"

Meulin spent the next four hours walking from person to person, from group to group. She had an eccentric conversation with a boy with a high-pitched voice, a fake moustache and ample clothes, boy that greeted her with a hand buzzer prank. He hooted compulsively when her face contorted due to the discharge. "Hoo hoo hoo! This prank never gets old." His name was John. Meulin noticed a rapid emotion running through his face when he told her his name. Was it… pain?

She also spent quite a lot of her time with their leader ("I'm not the reel captain tho but glub it"), Meenah, a short girl with very black hair and a smile that could slightly creep out anyone who would dare to look at her in the eyes. She complained about the lack of gold due to the shortages during a little more than an hour. "Yep I'm actshoally a rich chilla person" she confessed. "But hey we all grow glubbin tired of our parents. I heard my mom carping about me takin over her company cuz she had some more important fins to do so I thought fuck that shit and I left."

"You left your house? Omg that's crazy! Where did you go?"

"I went to the resistance and I thought that they'll be all happy to have me, yknow, w'me bein the daughter of the woman that financed – nice pun me – the whole campaign of English."

"Your mom's on English's side!"

"She's the glubbin empress so yeah. The bitch is one of the bad guys."

"So how come you're the cattain now?"

"Dunno. I had the stuff."

"No, you had a boyfriend" said john with a smirk.

"Stfu!"

"BOYFRIEND!" said Meulin excitedly. "Who is he? Omg I want to know EFURRYTHING about him!"

"He's NOT my boyfrond!"

"I can see you're lyiiiing!"

"He's not! Anyways, we're nearly here."

Without any warning, she kicked hard into the trunk of a tree, releasing herself of the frustration brought by the conversation – too hard. Meulin saw tears of pain gushing in her eyes as she bit her lips and massaged her numb foot. She thought the group would continue without interruption, but they all stopped beneath the tree, obviously waiting for something. Before she could ask, Meenah screamed a powerful "Hey dickhead get outta here", and the slim face of a teenager appeared up in the tree.

"What?" he said, widely irritated.

Meulin looked closer and realised there was a platform hiding up there, where the boy was standing. It was exactly the same colour as the tree and partly covered in leaves; if she did not know someone was standing there she would have never seen it.

"Stop bein useless and send a message to crabby shouty. Tell'im we're comin, and we got some fish lost in the sea. Meulin Leijon, check her out."

"No!"

"What?"

"No! I won't obey your shitty orders. I want to go back to the camp."

"Denied. Now send the glubbin message you fuck. Ofishial order."

"Nope."

"Aaaarh! You doofish!"

"I won't do it, there's no need to fucking swear about it."

"It's your punishment, stayin up there. That's what you get for tryin to flirt w'me with the worse pick up lines evar. Shelliously, horrible. Even Cronus can't compete with ya."

"Oh, well sorry if Miss Vanity was offended by a joke, but my pick up lines are good. You're just bitter and susceptible. Now just get someone up here, I've been here since two fucking days I'm sick of it."

"Fin! Send the message and I'll send someone!"

"Thank you!" said the exasperated teen. He disappeared in the little hut placed on the platform; Meulin saw an arrow leave it with a shoooo.

"Your authority is impressive, Ô impetuous leader" said a voice behind her. Meulin smiled and turned around; he was the only one she did not talk to yet.

The boy dressed with a skeleton costume. His voice was deep and soothing; a amused tone danced in each of his words spoken with a distinguishable British accent. His eyes were opened wide in an uncanny stare; they were darker than his olive skin, almost ink-black. A tiny smile stretched his lips, making the whole face inscrutable. His dark corkscrew hair was spreading everywhere around his head, floating around him like a frizzy spirit. His white make up in the form of a skull, some ruined 14-holes doc Marteens whose bits and pieces were desperately sewn together with some purple thread completed the disguise.

"Clam up puppet freak" answered Meenah.

"I shall take those treasurable words and consider them as a praise to my glorious mother fucking person." He smiled frankly and walked in front of them alone. Cronus, who was also alone, ran to him and began talking to the skeleton freak. Cronus spoke, and spoke again, and once again, while the other was not pronouncing a single word. Eventually, he grew tired and left him after shouting a "Vwell FUCK YOU" in his direction.

"I hate it vwhen he plays mute" Cronus mumbled when he came near Meenah, John and Meulin.

"Oh dear, do you still believe anyone wishes to converse with you?"

"John! Vwhy vwould you say that? You knovw howv sensitiwve of a guy I am and I really think you shouldn't play with that! Vwould you like me to make comments on your sensitiwve area?"

John's face suddenly became dark and menacing; a silence settled between the four of them. "You really ought not to. You know how much Kankri loathes transphobia."

"Well, I still want to know who's Meenah's boyfriend" said Meulin, hurtling away all the tension at once.

John smiled just a little towards Meulin to thank her, and answered "Oooh, I can't tell anything, I'm afraid" when she saw Meenah's murderous look. "Just rumors that came to my unworthy ears."

They finally arrived to the base after another half hour of waking; Meulin realised they had walked during no less than five hours.

The first sight of the settlement was a palisade.

It was not extremely high, no more than two meters over the ground. No, what was truly spectacular was how it continued for what seemed like forever on the left and right, sinking into the depth of the forest on both sides in a straight line. As they approached from the wall, as Meulin's excitation grew, she realised they were walking towards a small opening – a gate? – in which people were standing, impatiently waiting the slow group. Between them was standing the skeleton guy, perfectly still, his glance directed towards them. When they were 30 yards away from the entrance, one of them began running towards them, looking awfully irritated.

Meulin knew he was Meenah's boyfriend.

She always had a gift in identifying relationships. Maybe it was in her blood, maybe it grew due to the boredom she encountered every day stuck in a small village. With nothing to do all day, she had to invent her own hobbies; shipping people was one of them. As years past her techniques became more elaborate, and she began to see it as an art rather than a distraction.

When she saw him coming towards her, minuscule changes occurred in Meenah's body. Her back straightened just a little bit making her breasts more prominent, her eyes widened, the ghost of a smile formed on her lips and her steps were slightly faster.

The boy running towards them was… small. Extremely small, in fact; Meulin was probably one head taller than him. He stopped in front of Meenah, panting, and began talking – well, screaming would be much more accurate.

"THEY ATTACKED THE SOLDIERS! The fucking resistance. The army conquered the cities around here, close to OUR fucking base, and my brother drove the soldiers out of here. They didn't even let us a fucking fight! Every time we have a chance to see some action he just takes it and painfully thrust it back in our bored asses."

"Karkat, why are you so upset? They are doing it four our own protection" intervened Kanaya.

"For our protection? For our protection? We could have driven them the fuck out! We're prepared and we're strong, and hey, guess what? It just happens that we haven't been in a fight for more than two months. It just happens that's we're all bored out of our minds. It just happens that the fucking reason why I broke my splendid rectum to assemble you guys and all the others is to fight, yet we can't fucking fight, simply because the faecal matter of my brother commonly called the "resistance" steals every single one of OUR battles! So they can take back their shitty "protection" and gently insert it in their blood thirsty throats until it peacefully slides down to their stomach and make them so filled-up that they'll be too heavy to fucking fight our wars."

"If you are going to see it in this way, then I am afraid I cannot say anything that will enhance your well-being." Followed by Porrim, she walked towards the entrance.

"Did you call 'im with the radio? The signless?"

"Of course I did, and don't call him that. Don't turn him into a fucking god, because he's really not. He's just a random guy that realise that, holy shit mother of fucking asswipes, English was a baddie and needed to be stopped, and everyone call him a genius and give him pathetic names to glorify his amazing insight. No need to be a genius to see that English is an fuckass."

"Oh Karkles, is that some jealousy I can here in your voice?"

"Shut your mouth Terezi!"

"Poor little frustrated baby. Your brother didn't let you have fun? He didn't buy you enough toys? Oh noooooooo! What a monster!" said the girl standing next to Terezi.

"Vriska! Do you – "

"We've checked her" said a girl that just appeared behind Karkat. "Meulin Leijon is clear to come in; no reasons to suspect she's a spy, and her mother helped the resistance several times."

"My mom WHAT?" shouted Meulin. "She whaaat?"

"She helped our cause" said the messenger with a sight. "Can I leave now?"

"Yeah, glub off" said Meenah with her usual sadistic smile.

"Paws that mean I can go inside the walls?" she said excitedly.

"No" cut Karkat. "You're going to the cities."

"Why? He just mewed that I can come in!"

"Hey, I'm the fucking leader of this whole nonsense, and I say you can't come in. Someone's taking you to the train station now and you're out of this pacific hell. Only fighters are accepted."

"Baloney! Of course she has the ability to fight!" held John.

"Digest her fucking tail and tell me that afterwards!"

"CAT LITTER!" shouted Meulin. "I can fight. Also, I don't like you" she added, pointing at Karkat. "Give me some claws, and I will destroy anyone." She hissed in his direction, and made sure her position was stable enough to support an attack. Karkat looked at her in shock for a few moment, then sighted deeply.

"Let's bring her to Jade and Dirk and be done with it."

They all followed him inside the gate, where Meulin found… some fields.

There was just a few trees left after the thick wooden wall in order to give the illusion that the forest continued afterwards, but really there was nothing. Only fields, running for as far as the eye could see on every side. She frowned and realised the forest continued after a distance. Wooden towers separated by 50 yards sprang up in a straight line, camouflaged as trees, a small path running at their feet. They took the path and followed it for more than thirty minutes.

Every field was different; wheat, green vegetables, fruits, everything that could grow in this climate was here. From time to time they would pass a farm or a warehouse, all camouflaged in trees, where occasionally boys and girls would come out, chattering happily, and Meulin realised her legs were aching quite a lot. Her whole body, in fact. She wondered why, and remembered that she had been beaten up by soldiers a day ago. She groaned and instantly forgot about it.

The forest finally reappeared, lightened up by the setting sun. Meulin had always loved the night; night brought darkness, and darkness was nothing. No thoughts, no misplaced emotions, no mind out of control. She could just close her tired eyes and feel the darkness fill her, transforming her into a complete void inside.

Oh, how she loved not having a storm of emotion constantly raging in her stomach.

Deeper inside the forest, they found a second wall, this one made of stone and slightly circular. Two younger kids were guarding the gates, standing proudly in some kind of salute, their swords vertically upside down with the tip towards the ground and their right fist on their hearts.

"Yeah, yeah, just open the gates" said a grumpy Karkat.

Maintaining their perfect discipline, they opened the gates with synchronised movements. It was rather a heavy double-door made of stone, rotating on the ground with the help of small casters.

They went past the wall and arrived in a whole other world.

The forest was filled with white structures made of a mix of concrete and stone. Some buildings were flat, other sank into the ground, others were circular, other triangular; although they were all made of the same materials, every single one was different. In the sunless light left by the sky, Meulin could see a series of grey walls and roofs , simple one-floor edifices that seemed to sprout from the ground everywhere.

What was quite impressive was how it was completely in sync with the forest. Whether the trees were growing over the structures or through them, it seemed like not one had been cut, and their leafs were hiding this proof that humans lived here through a thick cover of green.

Karkat and the others went inside one of these buildings through a very small metallic door. A sentence was written on it, scratched on the iron: "Warning: the Anime Master and the Wolf will beat the shit out of you." The door grated infernally, and they all stepped into room dimly lit by torches. That did not surprise Meulin; although the civil war was stabilised, international relationships were scarce and coal and oil, rare in the east of the United States. The electricity was produced mainly through hydraulic energy; it was rarely used outside of the industries.

"Hey, Strider!" shouted Karkat, "Good news. We're bringing you a new specimen that you can thoughtfully chew and spit it out as soon as you've realised that it's rotten inside." Meenah laughed, Meulin hissed.

A young man, although probably the oldest Meulin had seen yet, entered in the room with a smirk on his face.

Meulin giggled impulsively.

"What?"

"Your… Your sunglasses… They're so… funny…"

"Oh. Well that doesn't make much sense."

"They're so… pointy… and so… sharpurr than claws… manga-like…"

She calmed down quickly when she saw the reproachful looks that everyone was throwing towards her (although John and Terezi did look quite amused) and smiled.

"So? Do I have to fight you or something?"

"Yes, that's my job" he sighted.

He turned around and indicated the group to follow him; everyone had left apart from Meenah and Karkat.

The room was an enormous mess; pieces of metal were laying absolutely everywhere. Meulin took a closer look and realised they were actually shattered robots ripped apart. She took an arm from the floor and stared at the cables slipping out of it.

"Why all the robots?" she asked.

"A training program. I build robots, set them into killing mode, and destroy them."

"Clawver!"

"Clawver?"

"Cat puns" clarified Karkat.

"I see."

"So that's how efurryone trains? By destroying robots?"

"Actually… no. Only two of us can beat the shit out of my robots."

"Who? Who? Who?"

"Well, me, for once. What a surprising development. And the second one…" His face was as emotionless as a mask, yet he could not hide the intense pain that settled on it. Meulin could nearly feel it; she knew how the sentence was going to end.

"And the other one is dead" she continued. "My apawlogies. He was your boyfriend, wasn't he?" She whispered so that neither Karkat not Meenah could here them.

"How did you know that? Oh, I see. Facial expression?"

"Yiss."

"Damn. You're good."

"Thanks! Mew I ask, what was his name?"

Dirk took a deep breath and mumbled "Equius" right before pushing another metallic door.

Smaller and with fewer lights, the new room was no less of a mess. It was essentially constituted of weapons of all kinds, mot of them were so elaborated that Meulin couldn't tell how they were used.

"Oh my god, Dirk, you really should clean this shit up sometimes!" Groaned Karkat.

"Why? The only ones that have to endure this mess are Jade and myself, and both of us don't mind it. I have no reasons to come down here and do something that will steal many hours of my life for nothing. Get over it, Karkat. Don't move." He dived into the piles and piles of steel, moving swiftly through the columns of razor-sharp blades.

"Do you purrduce all these weapons?" asked Meulin.

"No!" Shouted Dirk from deep inside the storage. "A guy called Horuss makes most of them. A lot comes from the resistance."

"Where does the iron come furom? I thought it was rare in those times of war…"

"It is. Signless found a way to form international relationships to have a constant supply. It's one of the things we can have as much as we want. I'd hope it would be the same with electricity. Do you know how hard it is to make a robot with barely enough power to cook a steak? The steak would be rare as hell. Not that I don't like it rare. All juicy and bloody… Pretty awesome. What weapon do you want, Meulin?"

She hesitated a few moments before answering "Two daggers would be furmidable".

She heard steel falling down at her left and Dirk slid out of the mountains of weapons, holding two small daggers with an extremely simple design – far from the beautiful shapes of all the other kids' weapons.

"There you go. Ok, let's strife."

Meulin quickly analysed her knives; they were not sharp, but the hard metal would suffice to hurt Dirk Strider.

They went back to the room with the broken robots and from there went to a third room; that one looked like a small arena surrounded by stairs where a potential audience could sit. Meenah and Karkat took place on a step (closer than friends would, definitely inside each other's personal spaces) and watched the match closely.

The two participants took place at a few steps from each other, one with daggers and the other with a katana, scrutinizing each other's eyes.

Meulin attacked first with a ferocious roar, jumping towards her opponent.

Dirk didn't move a bit. He patiently waited for Meulin to fall on him, and slashed his sword at the last moment towards her stomach. She narrowly stopped it with a blow, rolled on the floor, hissed, and attacked again.

They attacked, defended, smashed, knocked, struck, again and again, yet Meulin didn't see any weakness or fatigue in his movements. He simply stopped every single one of her attacks and struck her in every possible way and in every parts of her body, trying to find her weak spots. The steel of his katana knocked her body several times, yet it was never strong enough to give her a serious wound.

She felt the exhaustion slowly growing in her as the fight continued. She was surprised by her lack of energy, but remembered that she barely slept the night before and didn't eat anything during the entire day. I'm in no condition to fight! She cursed herself for not thinking about it before. Using all the energy she could find in her body, she jumped on him for a final attack. His sword came slashing towards her head; she stopped it with both her daggers… and sank her teeth deep into his hand.

His mouth twitched as Meulin tasted blood. Still, she did not let go and, instead, kicked him in the guts as strong as she could, pushing him away as if she was trying to rip his hand off. He grunted and seized her throat, forcing her to let go. She shook her head to increase his pain and finally let go of his hand when the air was no longer coming through her throat.

She fell on her legs and sat on the floor, her head spinning due to the lack of air. She closed her eyes during less than two seconds… and Dirk was gone.

Grasping for air, she looked around, but he was nowhere to be find. This can't be good. She stood up, suddenly panicking, and realised she was holding a puppet in her arms.

A red puppet which was shamelessly exposing his butt in her face.

"How…"

The blow came with an explosion of pain.

Patiently waiting behind her, he had hit her with the extremity of his weapon, right between her shoulder blades. She stumbled on the floor, falling over his puppet, her face distorted by pain.

"OH FUCKINH JESUS, DIRK," bellowed Karkat, "HOW MANY FUCKING TIMES DID I TELL YOU THAT YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF EVERYONE? I ASKED YOU TO FUCKING TEST HER, NOT KILL HER! SHE WAS ALREADY FUCKING COVERED IN SHITSTAINS OF BRUISES!"

"Oh can you please shut up? You asked me to be the one taking care of training your team, but I guess I don't get to have any trust coming from you."

"Guess what genius, I don't fucking know why I did that. Giving you this responsibility was one stupid mistake. You are a horrible, abusive brother."

A silence fell between the two of them, as heavy as a silence could be. Karkat sighted and closed his eyes.

"So that's what it's all about" said Dirk.

"Person. I meant, abusive person."

"No, you meant abusive brother. I feel like you have issues."

"I think you have issues. What does it bring you? Beating everyone up? Do you feel like a king holding this katana?"

"Karkat. Can we please not?"

"You're not a king, Strider. You're just the guy sitting on a pile of dejections, thinking that what he shits every day contributes to raise him towards the sky. You're just the guy thinking that he's over everyone else, but in the end, you're just an idiot with a throne made of crap. How does that make you feel."

Dirk's face stayed expressionless, and only his right eyebrow rose. "You get quite poetic when you're all sentimental."

"I swear, I will fucking…"

"It's not going to work. Screaming at me is not going to bring Dave back to life."

Strider walked out of the room without even glancing at the other one.

"You… you do realise I am fine?"

Meulin was standing up, smiling. "That blow wasn't this hard, and I'm quite strong. I'll be fine." She took a step, trying to ignore the agony spreading in her back. "I'll be fiiiiine" she said once again, trying to convince herself more than Karkat.

"Yeah, you'll be." He seemed extenuated by the fight he just had, calm for the very first time since she met him. "You're accepted here. You're a real fucking warrior. Bravo. Confetti and all that bullshit."

The young teenage girl screamed out of happiness.

"Meulin? Are you sure you are all right?"

Meulin violently shook her head, pulling herself out of her thoughts and back on earth. It was so easy to escape in the palace of her mind, especially when she was tired and hurt. But she would not show weakness, not in front of the resistance, not now that she was a part of it.

"Yes! My back doesn't hurt anyroar. I'm fine."

Aranea Serket looked at the other girl with a concerned glance. She was as pretty as Vriska – good looks seemed to be a thing in the Serket family – but definitely less creepy. Karkat had asked her to show Meulin the base, to which she had agreed excitedly.

"So. What were you saying?" Meulin smiled and tried to stand straight.

"The base, which has been named 'Alternia', is in a circular shape and is constituted of four major rings. You crossed the first one when you entered in here; it's the whole space with fields and farms. That is the fourth ring, the biggest one. Here, we grow our own food, raise our own meat. The resistance help us on many things; cleaning products, fabrics – you may have noticed that all our clothes are exceptionally colourful? Kanaya makes all of them, and she won't allow anyone to wear what she calls 'Colours that make you want to yawn and sleep into eternal dullness'. She makes an exception for Karkat who insists on wearing a black outfit at all times.

"So, I was saying, although the resistance helps us with many products, Karkat insists on Alternia being independent with food. He is extremely affected by the independence of the base. He has conflicted emotions with his big brother; living in the shadows of someone for his whole childhood gave him the strongest determination. Unfortunately, it seems like the Signless is not ready to let him go. He destroys the army every time it comes near Alternia, give us everything we need even if it means the actual resistance will have shortages. He does not see our movement as a powerful branch of his army, but as a playground for the sons, daughters, brothers of the ones who are part of the resistance. He is afraid that the children get hurt in an adult fight, so he places them all in deserted cities, deep into the west of our country, where the fight will never touch them. These cities are ruled by children, as the resistance needs all the adults it can get; in them we have developed our own culture, that you will find in Alternia. As you may have understood, the Signless is a great, generous, strong and determined man, but he is also overprotective, and Karkat hates him for that."

"Oh my god yes! He seems to have more relationships purroblems than this. He had a fight with Dirk earlier, I didn't understood efurrything… They were mewing about someone called… David?"

"Dave" corrected Aranea. "Yes, there is rumours going through the base that Dirk's little brother was once Karkat's boyfriend. I would not know for sure, he does not wish to talk about his personal life."

"Looks like this kid has a lot of issues" sighed Meenah, who completely forgot to hate him.

"Anyways. We are now in the third circle; the training centre." They were walking on a running track that was following the stone wall between the fields and the training underground rooms; the night was now completely dark, and a glowing torch lighted up the way here and there. The wall, that actually formed a circle on a larger scale, was concentric to the other walls that separated the fourth, third, second and main circle, each area smaller and smaller as they walked towards the centre of Alternia. Walking along the wall, Meulin had the strange impression to be in a never-ending turn, as if they were going round and round and round without realizing that they went through that same spot thousands of times.

But they weren't. Meulin first saw the orange lights that the complex was spreading all around; it was an outdoor training center. She gasped in admiration in front of what was there; it seemed like an entire forest… of rotating dummies. They were as tall as an average person, with wooden sticks attached to one side and a shield to the other. There was maybe thrity, fourty of them, close enough for someone to feel surrounded – and probably quite overwhelmed – yet far enough so that the trainee had the space enough to move in between them.

"Oh my god" whispered Meulin.

"Impressive, isn't it? Dave and our engineer, Horuss, made this training system; one has to turn a wheel and all the dummies rotate at once. Then, another pupil goes inside the dummy maze and has to stop the blows coming towards him. This is extremely popular, many of us like to use it to practice our defence skills.

"Oh my goooooooood! I want to try it!... Hmm, purrhaps later" she added when her wounded body sent a silent warning to her brain.

"You will have a lot of times to train. I am afraid that not much is happening around here, apart from roleplaying and training. It quickly becomes dull. The civil war is stabilised, and there is basically no on-going action."

They continued their wandering silently. Meulin marvelled at the shooting targets disposed in straight lines.

"You should see the rest of the underground complex" added Aranea with an excited tone. "It is immense. There is a bodybuilding part, an entire room with punching balls where you can learn to fight with no weapons… There is also a room covered in foam; this room is used for the particularly violent fights where the participants do not want to die during the combat. Terezi Pyrope and my little sister, Vriska Serket, use this room… extensively. They have a tumultuous relationship, yet it seems to suit them."

"Relationships! Now we're mewing!"

"Actually, we are not, I am afraid" she said with a certain discomfort. "I am not a very good gossiper."

"It is an art that I can teach you" answered Meulin with a wink. "Do you heroar the noise?"

"Yes" answered the other one with a smile. "I think it is Gamzee and Tavros training again. They are the youngest of our community."

They fell on two kids, no older than eleven or twelve years old, riding mini karts. One of them, the one wearing a Mohawk, was holding a spear and looking at his opponent with challenge. The other one was… was probably high? Meulin felt suddenly sad, seeing a kid that was already into drugs although he wasn't even out of childhood. He was looking at the other one with a dull smile; his eyes were nearly entirely closed, his pupils dilated. He was holding a club in his left hand; both of them were entirely covered with blue foam armours.

They were both waiting at each end of a concrete platform, their engines groaning.

"Are you ready, motherfucker?" he said with a slightly trembling voice.

"Let's do that!"

They both pressed on the acceleration pedal at the exact same time; for a second Meulin thought they were going to collide, but their karts brushed past… And Gamzee slammed his club towards Tavros' chest, ejecting him out of his vehicle. Tavros fell on the ground and laughed softly.

"You had me! You're, uh, you're becoming pretty good, at this I mean, yeah,"

"Well that's because I have the best motherfucking teacher in this world, brother!" answered Gamzee before picking him up the ground. That would make a purrfect ship, thought Meulin. She realised that Tavros couldn't use his legs; they were floating under his waist, useless as Gamzee was carrying him.

"Oh hi, Aranea" said Tavros with a smile. "And who's, uh, the girl with you?"

"She's new! Her name is Meulin Leijon!"

"Welcome, motherfucker" croaked the fucked up kid.

"Yeah, hi! Uh, and, also, welcome."

"Thanks!"

They continued along the running track that seemed to go all around the whole training area. Eventually, they arrived to a new gate, leading into the second part of Alternia.

"You will notice the wall separating the second and third part is thicker than the two outer walls. The more you go into the city, the thicker the walls. In the possibility of an attack, all the population – we are around a hundred individuals – will go deeper inside the city as the invasion progress. This campsite is one of the more secure you could find, the Signless wouldn't have it any other way.

"There are observations towers all over the forest, outside the base, hidden in the trees. We invented a great warning system; when an intruder enters in our forest, the one who saw him writes his observations on a small piece of paper that he attaches to an arrow. This arrow will be sent from tower to tower, until it finally arrives to the headquarters where Karkat decides what the appropriate reaction would be. What a person travels in an hour, an arrow does it in two minutes or less, allowing us to prepare ourselves way before the attack."

"Pawesome!" said Meulin as they entered into the second circle. Aranea pointed out a structure that was on the left; it was barely visible, vaguely lightened up by the torches that were placed on the top of the wall. She screwed her eyes, and realised she was looking at a boat. A real-sized boat, with real-sized sails and a spider-shaped bow.

"Wooooooooow" cheered Meulin as her jaw dropped. "Omg omg ok that's furtastic."

"Indeed, it is!"

"Why are there trees going through it?"

"We try not to cut any trees, we prefer building around them. They grow through our houses, through the buildings. They provide us with a cover; we do not want Lord English's air force to detect our presence. Though I must admit, he hates air force as it is too "tactical" (he prefers heavy infantry, that he sends crashing against the enemy lines), and the resistance destroys every plane he sends over the Free Land; there is no real danger of him discovering the position of our base. Still, we cannot be too careful, can we?" She smiled and added "Massive roleplaying is an important hobby here. This boat is used essentially by Vriska and Meenah; over there, we have to very small bases made of wood, where two teams can prepare a war and fight with fake weapons. And, right to your left, is Terezi's tribunal, where Vriska was judged more times than a human brain can count."

"So here efurryone just builds whatefur they want, and roleplay with it?"

"Precisely! Roleplaying is extremely intense here. Back in the cities, it was the only activity we had; we took this pastime with us, here. The second circle is essentially used for roleplaying and relaxing. Oh, and here is our common room!"

She pointed out a tall, rectangular house entirely made of wood. Aranea pushed the thick oak door, and a rush of warmness blew over Meulin's face.

The "common room" was, indeed, one big, colourful room. Coloured fabric and coloured carpets covered the walls, the ground and even the ceiling, and piles were spread out all over the cosy place. A corner was entirely filled with an enormous pile of pillows; there was also a pile of horns standing in the middle, a pile of plush dragons dolls, a pile of those disgusting porn puppets Dirk had tricked her with earlier, a pile of squiddles. In the back, a huge fireplace shred light on the whole room, and a few people were sitting comfortably in couches all around it. Meulin also noticed a few table footballs, chess tables and pool tables.

"The catmosphere is so… warm and sweet and great!" she shouted, smiling.

"Yes, it is! It is a very nice place to relax after a day of Dirk's severe teaching. Back there, you will find a ladder that will bring you to the first floor where you will find a library. The books we have here…"

"Dinner fucking time!"

Both girls jumped and gasped out of fright. It was him, again; Kurloz Makara. Aranea calmed down and threw him a mean look.

"Could you please not do this?"

"No. Aranea, I am the bearer of a missive from Porrim. Go and mother fucking see her."

"What?"

"I do believe she is in urgent need of an embrace. Or perchance, something more… fiery."

Aranea's face grew pale and she muffled with a tiny voice "We're not… stop… don't… no it's not true…"

"I shall take the responsibility of showing our exquisite newcomer to the eating room while you go and take care of this lovely fucking business."

She escaped from Kurloz's gaze by precipitately walking out of the room. He turned towards Meulin with a smile.

"Hello, dear. Excuse this small intervention, but one must take care of his motherfucking ships, doesn't he?"

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god! Are you a matchmaker?"

"I would not qualify myself with this honorific title, but I have, as some would call it, the fucking stuff. This," he added while looking at the door through which Aranea left with a certain melancholy, "is most definitely not my favourite pairing."

"Really? Why? Which is your fafurite pairing? What couples are there here? How many ships do you have? Can I be a matchmaker with you? You're sooo pawsome by the way I love the feeline of you, and you smell sooooooooo good! Oh my god did I just mew too much?"

Kurloz began to laugh. It sounded a lot like a series of very amused hiccoughs, interrupted by "honks" from time to time. Meulin had a distinctive sensation of melting inside.

"I am delighted that we share the same occupations! Let us walk towards dinner while I communicate every single potential and already existent couples there is here to you, o fucking charming person."

"Hahaha! Flirty flirty!"

"Please! You do understand that half the population of this base is already fantasizing about you?"

Meulin raised an eyebrow. "What is the ofur half doing?"

"The ofur half is either straight girls or gay men."

"And what are youuuu?"

"I am mother fucking water. I adapt myself to whatever… recipient I encounter, and gladly fill it with my juice."

"Omg you're so so so gross!" She laughed and rubbed her head against his arm, as a soft purr escaped from her throat.

"What a peculiar display of fucking affection."

"So, what's your fafurite ship?"

They began walking out of the house, following a trail of lights.

"Well, there is one that I foresaw long before it actually happened. Did you meet them? Terezi and Vriska."

"Oh my god! Yeessss! They're in a relationship? I thought they were like cats and dogs, purrty opposites."

"Actually, we have here what is commonly called "black romance", also named "kismesissitude". It is…"

"A relationship that goes through hatred?"

"Precisely! You're mother fucking good, lady."

"It wasn't a hard one. But you're right, I am quite clawver in terms of ships."

"Quit dazzling me with your modesty, my eyes are melting like a mother fucking terribly saddened icecube!"

Meulin hissed and punched him in the arm, before bursting out of laughter with him. They arrived in front of a building that looked exactly like the common room, only entirely made of stone.

"There is our mirthful fucking destination: the dining hall. Will you gladly accept to dine in my company, or shall I fall on my knees and beg you?"

"Hmmm… I would adroar to see you begging, but I want to hear more about this black romance!" She could have sworn she spotted jubilation in his spine-chilling eyes.

Holding his arm, they entered into the building that also was one single room. Five long tables were placed perpendicularly in the same direction than the rectangle formed by the room; the light released by the torches hit against the stone walls and created a medieval-like atmosphere. The teenagers sitting along the wooden tables were chatting, laughing, screaming, running between tables, creating a hubbub that ran into Meulin's ear like an exciting melody.

"KURLOOOOOOTHTHEFHTH!"

A boy ran across the whole room towards the two of them; his hair were falling right over his eyes, and they seemed to obstruct them as he tripped over basically everything; the chairs, people that came in his way, his own feet. As far as she could see, he seemed to have no control over his body.

He fell into Kurloz's arms, hugging him as strong as he could (Meulin saw that at the gush of pain that went through Kurloz's face when his friend grabbed him), smiling as much as a human face physically could.

"Mituna!" answered Kurloz with a sweetness in his voice, that could have made Meulin jealous if she wasn't already having SO MANY F33333333LS about the two of them.

Mituna finally let go of him and began letting out an incomprehensible gibberish; it seemed like he was constantly stumbling on his own tongue. "THWEAT TEHF KATTLBYBIOTHF FUCTHK TEHTH FUCK HARE HIELDONG YTHUR ARTHM NOO I DATHN LYSTHK THUT!"

"Calm down! You do know I cannot understand this atypical language of yours when you are in this state of mother fucking agitation." He rubbed Mituna's messy red hair in a fraternal gesture.

"THYE HANSH HOTHHH MSNAY ORFITHEZ PETHETRANATE SHTHAM AJLL BTEHANTH A BUTHSH FUGK THER DZRY ANTH BZY MEHETH A ITHCRAAAAAM!"

Kurloz took a long, deep breath, snapped his fingers and, with a deep, soothing voice, said the single word "sleep." Mituna's broken voice suddenly stopped as his head dropped, although his body stayed straight.

"Did I forget to mention? I am also a hypnotist" he said with pride.

"Oh, my, god."

He quickly placed his left hand on the boy's shoulder. "Deeper deeper deeper deeper and the deeper you go and the better you feel and the better you fell and the deeper you go, aaaaaall the way down. Good. Now look at me."

Mituna's head raised, and his eyes looked up at Kurloz's with a stare of submission mixed with fascination and attentiveness. He was standing perfectly still, finally gaining the control over his own body.

"Excellent! You're doing great, you are the best person I ever hypnotised, you are the best friend I could ever wish to have. Now, I want you to repeat exactly what you just told me, from the moment where I entered in this room until now. When I will snap my fingers you will remember every word you just say and you will repeat it in a clear and intelligible way." He snapped his fingers once again.

"Kurloz! That the kittybitch fuck the fuck her holding your arm noo I don't like that! She has so many orifices penetrate them all behind a bush fuck her dry and buy be an ice cream." He smiled peacefully, as if he just said hello to his neighbour on a bright Sunday morning of August with nothing in his life that could possibly go wrong. His voice was strangely calm and emotionless, although he had a very strong lisp that made the whole thing frankly cute. Meulin was observing the scene, feeling terrorised and fascinated at the same time. She didn't even remember to feel hurt by Mituna's words.

"Oh mother fucking Messiahs, Mituna, those obscenities were quite over our mutual limits, especially with a lady standing right beside me!"

"I'm sorry" answered the other one, looking suddenly very ashamed. "Hey, Kurloz?"

"Yes, mother fucker?"

"Fuck you" claimed Mituna while brandishing his middle finger with a smile.

They both chuckled and Kurloz snapped his fingers; "Wake up, wake up now."

The three of them walked towards a small space on one of the benches when Meulin saw the green and brown banner hanged up at the extremity of the room: We remember the colour of the earth.

"What is that?"

"Did you ever step in a town destroyed by our treacherous army?"

"I did. It's a catastrophe…"

"Burnt to the mother fucking ground, like a greasy fog in the soul of a killer. The earth bartered its colour for a dull grey all over our nation. We remember its colour; we remember those who died for it. We remember how it was before." Although he smiled she realised how tired his eyes seemed.

The three of them went to sit at the closest places. Meulin felt the looks of a hundred teenagers on her back, and she felt the urge to say a bright hello to them all… and that was precisely what she did, waving her hand with a grin on her face towards all the others. They answered quite positively, shouting Hellos and Welcomes and waving with smiles on (nearly) all of their faces.

A smaller (how was that even possible) version of Karkat wearing a red sweater that Meulin was quite convinced came from his grandma pushed his chair away from the table and came towards Meulin.

"Sit" he said with a voice that was supposed to be deep and aggressive but that sounded more like an angry Chihuahua.

Meulin reluctantly obeyed.

"I will now lec- uh dialogue with you on diverse matters. Trigger warnings contain but may not be restricted to; relationships, romantic relationships, sexual relationships, beneficial relationships, polyamory, asexuality, asexual relationships, aromantics, infidelity, break ups, loss of someone we hold dear. Do any of these terms trigger you?"

"… no…?"

"Very well, since you arrived in an unknown place I guess you don't have any moirail or, as you may know them, "best friends" to calm you down in case I enter in a triggering area. If I do, please do not hesitate to stop my speech… I mean, our discussion so that we can work out what is causing a problem, and why. I apologise for the use of the word "moirail"; like any of us I do want you to have a positive integration as one of us, as a small part of our large group or, as some may call it, a fraternity – but be careful with this highly triggering word, it may offend some of us identifying to the feminine sex and make them feel rejected, as "fraternity" defines us as a masculine group, which we are not – and I did not wish to offend you by using a term that you don't yet know, thus making you feel apart from our world and unable to understand our vocabulary. Please accept my most sincere apologies."

"It's… it's fine, I guess?"

" That being said, I will now elaborate on the different types of relationships that I have stated above. I will now start with the most common types – careful again with this, do not forget that they are only the most common and in no way better or worse than any types of relationships. Be aware of your privilege to be in relationships that are traditionally accepted in our societies, while others may feel disregarded and even criticized. These "common relationship" involve all genders; they classically divide in three different types, romantic relationships, beneficial relationships and sexual relationships. Romantic relationships appear when two individuals feel a certain romantic attraction; that means they could be attracted by the intelligence, perspicacity, way of living, cultural knowledge, hobbies, mentality, opinions etc.; they are attracted by the other's personality for various reasons. Romantic relationships do or don't involve sex – while it was long believed romantic and sexual attraction were both entangled and thus two parts of Attraction – with a capital A – we now know that they are two entirely different attractions and they do not need to be conditional, and by this I mean, that they can exist without the other. That means that romantic relationships have nothing to do with sex - keep in mind that this fact is only true since recently. Romantic relationship mostly – but not always – have a very strong sense of infidelity, both parties being extremely sensible about it; by engaging in a relationship both agree to be faithful to the other, that means, not having any sexual intercourse or romantic attraction to anyone else. Of course, the terms of the contract change in every couple, and we must not forget that some couples agree to sexual intercourses or even a romantic attraction to some degree to other individuals. Infidelity simply means not respecting the contract the two individuals set in the beginning of their relationship. Although this contract may not be written nor clearly stated, both know very well what it is constituted of and where are its limits (this is, again, in most relationships, there may be some confusions in some couples.) This contract must not only be respected by both parties, but also by the relatives, friends, co-workers or any people they live with daily, and by this I mean that the people that are aware of this contract must not try to break it, aka they must not try to flirt or try to initiate any kind of relationship that is not strictly platonic (and by saying "platonic", I am speaking both sexually and romantically) with one of them. The ones who initiate in those treacherous acts often know what they are gambling with, which is the strong bond between the two parts of the couple, and they deserve nothing else than hatred and remonstrance for their acts. Sexual relationships, where both individuals consider each other as "sex friends", generally do not include faithfulness; both…"

"Turtleman!" Kurloz boomed with a terrifying voice. "You will stop this maddening babbling and get to the mother fucking point."

Kankri turned back towards Meulin; "Cronus and I, we are a couple, romantically and sexually attracted to each other. Don't try to break our couple. Don't flirt at him like you did earlier. Don't. Do. It. Again."

She took a few seconds to acknowledge the situation. When she finally understood what was going on, she raised an eyebrow and said "oh yiss, I totally flirted with him. You see, his leather pants and his unlit cigarette appealed me more than I could bear. Omg, get a grip, go sharpen your claws on anofur prey! You two are cute, not my OTP but whatefur, but you know his leather pants are too small fur him. I can see it deep in your eyes."

"I will ask you to stop making fun of his leather pants. There are circum…"

"My purroint is, there was no flirting going on earlier. None at all."

"The evidence is against you."

"Evidence? Who said evidence?"

"HAAAAAAAY THEZERIII!"

"Hi Mituna! What were you talking about?"

"Kankri was telling me that…"

"ETHZRIZI WHERE ITH LATULA?"

Everyone stopped talking at once; Kurloz's smile completely disappeared, Kankri looked around, wondering what he should do now in a slightly panicked manner, Meulin held her breath, not understanding why it was all so tense. The only one who kept her calm was Terezi, although the fist clenched behind her back.

"She's coming back, soon. She found a nice road where she can skate and go faster than if she walks through the woods."

Mituna looked miserable. "I mishth her." He began playing with his fingers.

"I… I know you do."

"Hey, Mituna" said Kurloz, breaking the silence. "She told me she bought you a new skateboard."

Mituna's face broke into a cry of joy and he shook of excitement. Everyone went back to their seats, pleased to have escaped from the drama that could have well happened.

A look in Kurloz's eyes indicated to Meulin that Latula was, in fact, dead.

They took a seat between Mituna, a tall girl that quickly presented herself as Jade (Meulin had the impression that everything in her was shining; her hair, her brown skin, her voice, her green eyes, her smile) and a guy with a mask that vaguely resembled to a penis that looked like all the misery of the world had fallen on him.

"You should smile" she whispered.

The boy looked at her with puzzlement. "Sorry?"

"You should smile! If you smile, you will instantly dig out all the pawsitive emotions hiding in the back of your brains. Come on!"

He threw her a crooked smile as she shook her head in approval. Meulin quickly forgot Horuss; she did not even ask his name.

As they ate a delicious dinner – potatoes and carrots and small pieces of chicken – Kurloz, using his usual eloquent speech, exposed all the details, all the positive and negative points, all the risks of all four romances that had been invented by the bored kids in the cities. Meulin listened avidly without thinking about the food that was turning cold in her plate.

"Kurloz here" said Jade agitating her fork in his direction, "is our specialist in blackrom."

"Really? Why do you play with only one type of romance when you have fur to juggle with? I always thought one was not enough!"

"Yes, the Wolf Lady is right. Black is such an exquisite colour, and mother fucking hatred is the clearest of emotions. If I shall speak truly, I would say that I seem to be… colour blind to other emotions. To my greatest despair, I do not seem to see the feeling of love on one's face. It is just a concept that is so far to me it could be in the Pucking Knight's rectum."

Jade spilled out all the water she was drinking on Mituna and puffed in a corner. "That was so funny!"

"Dear girl, I thank you. Kitty madam, why art thou so desolated?"

"Well, you can't even see pawsitive emotions? You can't see happurrness and amusement and joy and love?"

"Scarcely."

A savage smile appeared on Meulin's lips. "You're just a dramatic kitten! Look at you, being all furvent in furont of darkness and negative emotions!"

"Oh dear…"

"Drama drama dramaaaaa!"

"This is strangely entertaining."

"Do you wurnt me to make a little diagram? Smile means happy. Big smile means furry happy."

"Only if you allow me to draw you a diagram in return."

"Deal! What will the diagram be?"

"You shall discover this soon enough."

"I want to know now!"

Kurloz chuckled and winked. "Once you are done with your meal I will bring you to your house. You will see, it is the most uncomfortable place you have ever stayed. You will curse it within two hours."

"I beth one!"

"The fearless rider raises the bets!"

The young boy with the skeleton outfit licked his thin lips and hopped on the table in a surprisingly swift jump for a boy of his height. "Pray, friends! Bets are now opened!"

"What bets?"

"I bet three thousand!"

"Four hundred and thirteen!"

"Six hundred and sixty six!"

"I think we shouldn't throw bets in such a mannerless way. What if he"

"Kankri, shut up."

"Three!"

"Four tomatoes and a banana."

"And the bets are closed!" thundered Kurloz, using his deep and imposing voice to set a complete silence through the whole room. "You are all wrong. Wrong! Dear fools! Oh messiahs, prevent me from falling in their ignorance. The killer was my puppet!" he pointed towards the kid that was karting earlier – what was his name? Gamzee? – who looked towards the ground as fingers pointed towards him and shouts began to ran in his direction.

"Why is it always motherfucking me?" he whined as everyone was boo-ing him. "Bro, I don't want to be…"

But it was too late for the miserable kid, Kurloz's fingers had already snapped and the fatal word, pronounced. "Sleep." The kid had the same reaction as Mituna, his head falling on the side. "Great. You are doing great, brother. Please, come and join me on the table." Gamzee Makara pushed himself up the dining table and stood patiently next to his brother.

"Very well… Who will be your next victim?" Kurloz walked along the table, throwing sceptical looks all around him, his feet softly brushing the wood soundlessly. "Who… shall… be… you." He stopped in front of a boy with strong shoulders and a bright green bowtie that feigned a confident look.

"Boy! What is this tomfoolery? A man of your gown will fall down quicker than my dead grandma – god bless her – the day of her death. Prepare, cowboy!"

"Gamzee?" susurrated his brother as his hand crept out on Gamzee's shoulder. "You know what to do, don't you?" and he added, in a voice that was close from the hissing of a snake, "Attack."

Gamzee screamed and fell on the teenager, who changed his expression to a surprised one – and, this time, it was not feigned. They fell on the ground together, and Muelin heard a loud thump when the metal of his gun met Gamzee's jaw.

"Stop that. Just fucking stop that. I'm getting tired of your creepy shows. I don't know why everyone loves them so much. Maybe everyone's mind is just twisted enough to enjoy seeing your little brother being manipulated and mocked every two nights. So now just get your shit back in place, let your brother go and let's end this night. Now." Karkat was standing up, ridiculously small next to the giant Kurloz was.

Kurloz smiled provokingly and bowed very low.

"Very well, Oh knight, I will obey your every command. I do not wish ill of my little brother. Ô brother, when I snap my fingers you will mother fucking wake up."

He snapped, turned around and bounced back to the ground, right in front of Meulin.

"My lady, let me bring you to your royal quarters."

"What was all that about? That… didn't make any sense!" She babbled once they were outside, in the cold of the night.

He turned towards her, tall, protective, smiling handsomely. She suddenly realised how afraid she was, how terribly, mind-blowingly afraid she felt. She shook and stared at the ground, unable to look at the Tim Burton character standing in front of her, beginning to realise that she was lost in the middle of the forest with only a couple of mad children who crept the cat litter out of her. Realising that she just saw a couple of children kill some soldiers, beat the crap out of her (the ache was still here, spread out through her back), and hypnotise the younger one to attack another one of them.

"Mad" she repeated under her breath.

"This would be the appropriate word to portray the whole lot of us" he agreed. "And I believe you will fit here. Like a motherfucking glove."

His smile comforted her, acting like a balm on her sore back. She chuckled softly, rubbing her left arm with anguish. "Will I?"

"Of course you will!" He cheered. "I give you my honourable fucking word. When each of us set foot in this motherfucking dark carnival, Oh sister, we were all whingeing and crying as if the Apocalypse had finally exhibited her foul, distorted naked body on this mother fucking planet. When you came to our little world, you were smiling. Oh dear, what a lovely sight you gave to this fucking community! They have all been gossiping about you, blabbering on why you were not on your knees imploring the Gods to bring you home. You are mother fucking brave, friend. You should be proud of your accomplishments, and forgive your mother fucking self for this small outburst of panic that just fled through your eyes."

Kurloz pointed towards his left, and they began walking on the dark grass, lightened up by the many torches on their way.

"What is more, thanks to the Mirthful Messiahs, your mother is well alive and part of the resistance."

"OMG I completely furgot about that!" She laughed in an eruption of joy and relief. "Could I speak to hurr?"

"Of course! We acquired a radio to communicate with the whole resistance all over the country."

"Pawsooooooooome!" She inhaled a large gulp of air, feeling her members relaxing one by one, feeling the oxygen flying through her veins as her body was calming itself down.

"I'm not brave, noble sirrcat" she admitted. "I furget. I furget my situation, I furget I am supposed to be afuraid. I am overwhelmed by excitement and all my other emeowtions are suffocated."

"Whatever it takes" he retorted. "What you really need to comprehend here, is that nothing makes any mother fucking sense. None of us make sense. What we do, why we are here? Pray, do not even get me started on this subject. We are lost kids, kitty, we are lost killers. Mad, useless warriors. But what more should we fucking expect? Set some kids with grief in their hearts loose, and that will turn out," he confessed, his hands waving at the diverse wooden installations built around them, probably used in roleplaying. "We live on the hope of revenge. All of us experienced a loss, a tragic death of our kin. We want to avenge them, but how? We haven't had an attack in months and months. Whenever the army attacks, whenever we could fight them back, the resistance saves us of this perilous danger. We end up wedged in this place, doing nothing of our miserable lives than aimlessly training and roleplaying. That would turn any man mother fucking wild.

"That is why you would fit, blue tail. You seem as demented as the rest of us. Pardon my enthusiasm as well as my perhaps inappropriate language, but… You do not make any sense."

Meulin walked silently, secretly admiring the touch of folly that arose in his eyes when he talked so passionately. She suddenly grasped what he just said, and punched him hard in the shoulder.

"Hey! I make sense!"

"Of course you do" he laughed. "The tail is really mother fucking convincing me here."

"Why is efurryone mentioning the tail?" she snapped.

"I think efurryone admire it. It shows that you are one of us."

"Well, you're one to mew when you're dressed like a skeleton! Also, you talk like a Purrince, and suddenly you slip a word that fucks the whole sentence up."

"Actually, this comes from my religion" he claimed. But right at this moment they stepped into the centre of the city-like base, and Meulin had to stop and admire, speechless, the small habitations that spread out in front of her eyes.

They were all made out of wood, small huts built on one another as if the builders tried to fit as much as possible in one small space. They were mixed up with the nature surrounding them, trees growing through them and all around them, leaves recovering the roofs and crackling on the ground. Moss was decorating the outer walls and flowers were growing in front of every door. It was a real city in the woods, resembling to the ones Meulin had dreamt of when she rambled back in her village, starring at the forest, dreaming of adventures and cats.

"Oh my god, that is cute as Hell" she whispered under her breath.

Kurloz took her chin between his long and skeletal fingers, raising her head towards the sky. "Look up the trees, Bastet."

Meulin looked up, guessing what was up there even before she could see anything. It was another city, pitched up in the trees, wooden bridges linking the houses attached to the trees. "They build those magnificent inner walls with the thoughtful idea we would not exceed the 30 inhabitants" explained Kurloz with an amused tone, "We turned out to be around a mother fucking hundred, so our dear leader decided to build up to the sky. And now our little city looks like it is right out of Neverland."

"It's wonderfur."

"It's a miracle." He began walking promptly straight ahead, hands in the pockets of his short, an absent smile decorating his painted face. Meulin shivered as the cold slid through the opening of her jacket.

"What religion do you follow?" she wondered, running to follow Kurloz's quick pace.

"It is ancient and lacks a mother fucking name. Those who preach it are rare and insignificant to this world, but we know its words to be the Ultimate Truth. Its mighty fucking books proclaim two mirthful messiahs will appear on a planet that do not yet exist. Up the ladder, dear."

"We're going up there? Yaaaaaay!" She grabbed the tree, took a deep breath and began climbing it, her hands and feet scratching against the trunk, slipping and pushing her up and up. She could feel her muscles stretch and pull, her breathing accelerating; she imagined the ground disappearing into darkness under her as the stars welcomed her with opened arms.

She was remembering how great climbing felt.

Hoisting herself up the last branch, she took another long breath, the smell of the pines filling her lungs, again and again. Kurloz came up giggling.

"You did realise there was a mother fucking ladder going up the tree, did you?"

"… Well this was… empurrasing."

"Indeed, dear friend."

"Hush, Purrloz, huuuuuuuuush. Nobody needs to know."

"Nobody will. This way." He walked along a footbridge that dangerously creaked when he passed the middle. They crossed a few closed houses, walked on many more bridges, all looking more unreliable than the previous one.

"That will be your home sweet home."

It was a small house, just one room with a bed in the corner and a shelf on the left side. The wood was blackened where the torch was burning, the fire protected by a small globe made of glass and thus not burning the precious little village. The tree on which it was built passed right through the middle, and the whole thing was gently pushed by the wind.

Although it was small and cold and empty and, let's be frank, threateningly unstable as it was five meters over the ground, Meulin fell in love with it; it was so new. She was already thinking of how well she was going to decorate it and how cosy and warm it was going to be and how all her friends were going to want and sleep in her amazing room because holy mother of god, it was going to be beautiful. She turned towards Kurloz and hugged him.

"I love it." Her eyes were filled up with emotion.

"Please, do not cry of joy. Tears are typically reserved to sadness, it confuses me greatly when they are expressed through a fairly positive emotion."

"I wurrill do mrry burrest" she cried as she rubbed her eyes, feeling the purrs rolling off her tongue uncontrolled.

They sat on the platform right in front of her new home, hanging at a fence, starring at the forest and at the city in the woods and at the sky.

"Why do you look so sad?" she threw him a compassionate look.

"I… sorry, what?"

"Your eyes are weeping inside and your paws are shaking a little. I know the signs."

Kurloz disturbingly glared at her for a while, before smiling and rubbing the planks on which he was sitting. "The person who built this magnificent yet unsteady city in the trees was my… partner. Boyfriend? Black relationship… person. Guy. Companion. My black companion. Mother fucking yeah."

"Is he…"

"Dead." He shook his head in approval. "He got sick, and we did not have the intelligence of bringing him to the hospital in time."

"Omg this is catinating! Sorry" she added, covering her mouth of her hands as she blushed of shame. "That was rude."

"That was just fine" laughed Kurloz.

"What was he like?"

"Rufioh? A true asshole. Every one of our friends strongly believed he was a gentleman, when really he despised all of them inside. I helped him get all this hatred out of this treacherous heart of his. Our relationship was… turbulent" he remembered with the glimpse of good times in his eyes. "We would constantly cheat on each other in a desperate attempt to offend the other, but eventually we realised neither of us cared. And that night we had the greatest motherfucking sex of all times."

Meulin burst out of laughter, her entire body shaking convulsively, and she had to hold on to the fence in order not to fall over. "Purrloz, I ship the two of you so, so, so hard. Fur real. Omg!"

"I am pleased you share this ship. Many thought we were incompatible. The noises we made at night begged to differ."

"Why are you so into rage?"

"I think my religion did have a great influence in this domain. It teaches us how to mother fucking accept it. What are we without wrath?"

"We are as dull as sleeping lions."

"Sleeping lions are not dull. They can move, they can shake. They could scream in their sleep when a dark dream raises in their head."

"They are dull! Did you efur see a sleeping lion? The fearful creature is nothing more than a plush toy."

"A very big and very alive plush toy."

"Plush plush plush pluuuuuuuuush! But you digress."

"Indeed. The Mirthful Messiahs will come in a planet that does not yet exist. They teach us that mother fucking hatred must be an emotion unhidden. When it is enclosed in the depths of us, it becomes oh so dangerous. A fucking typhoon that will burst out when its protection is down. Or, some might say, like a feline whose stomach is twisted by hunger that smells cooked meat from afar. With our "motherfucking" and other curses, my brother and I let it out by small doses. Inside, we are fucking healthy, my friend."

"Fucking twatpit covered in slimy shit."

"Lickerdoofus."

"Dicklifter."

"Mother fucking egg."

"Fishraper!"

Kurloz turned his face towards her and… changed. Meulin realised something was wrong right when she saw him; it was naturally… different. His eyebrows were slightly pushed closer, his eyes smaller, his lips thicker; a thousand small changes turned his face into… Cronus'?

"Vwowv, vwas that directed tovwards me? You just hit my sensibility wvith a giant boulder right nowv, vwait let me go in my parent's garage and record a song about hovw important my feelings are and howv cruel the vworld is. You'll see, my boyfrond – boyfriend, I mean – will avwenge me, it's not that I'm too afraid to get into a fight but my hair may get all messy and I can't afford that, do not evwer evwen START with my hair. Don't evwen."

Meulin's face distorted as her back and her stomach were aching with her delirious laughter. "How… Do you… Do that? You were so… so… GOOD AT IIIIIIIIIT!"

"I do thank you!"

"Omg it was his voice! If I wasn't looking at your skeletal face while you were doing it I would've been pawsitive that it was Cronus'. It was… just… purrfect." She sat there, astonished.

"I am undeniably decent at imitation. It freaks people out, the expression on their faces when I perform are delightful to see."

"Oh my god you're such a freak!"

"I am" he acknowledged. "Oh, and I can also reproduce anybody's writing. I drove my poor professors insane."

"Oh my fucking god. So you can just do anything?"

"No, not everything I am afraid. I… I am unable to swim."

"Doesn't matter. I nefur swim. Water is evil."

"Water is the Devil's saliva."

"Hey, Purrloz."

"Yes?"

She laid down on his lap, feeling his fatless legs right under her head. "We need to set this straight, my shipping furiend. There is too little couples fur too many people. That must be changed."

"I categorically agree. Fear us, oh potential couples!"

"Beclaws here we are, ready to force you together!"

"Ready to tie you up to each other for a thousand days and nights until you understand that we are right."

"That you are the purrfect couple!"

"We will terrorize them."

"We will be the supreme masters of Love and Hate."

"The Black Prince and the Red Mage."

"The Black Purrince and the Red Mage."

Meulin closed her eyes and set her imagination loose. Dancing in the stars with her newfound friend, she felt at home.

---

Do you have any idea of how many times I've had to use "laugh" or one of its synonyms? ... A lot of times. A lot.

So yeah, a happy Kurlin fiction! I'll try to write the second chapter within a month. It'll be shorter, and not much is going to happen, a part from... cute as hell moments, essentially.

Oh yeah, and killing everyone before even starting the fiction was a hell lot of fun. I am not sorry at all.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen!

-Radioactive Ricecake