Your name is ERIDAN AMPORA and you have a lot to get done today. The stakes are high, and there is no room for failure.
Eridan stood up and impatiently paced back and forth across the palace floor, glancing out the window every few seconds to keep tabs on the ever-growing crowd. Trolls of all types and blood castes were crowded around the shiny metallic gates of the Imperial Palace, and Eridan knew hundreds more were on their way. They were all shouting and pushing at each other trying to get at the front of the crowd. Even from inside the palace, he could hear the angry shouting and unforgiving tones echoing off the stone walls as bottles of Faygo and half-eaten dinners went flying in people's surprised faces.
Eridan frowned as he started to see the chaos die down as the Highbloods claimed their spots at the front of the assembly. The Lowbloods hung back, defeated, as they had been for longer than any of them could remember.
Feferi would not like this. Not one bit.
He could almost see her face now. Ashen at the sight of her subjects; rioting and as divided as ever. She would look to him for guidance and support and he would give it to her with his whole heart.
Eridan was nervous because today was the day they were going to change everything in Alternia. There would be new rules and laws of the land devised by Feferi and Terezi that everyone would have to get used to. Including him.
It wasn't like their rules were outrageous or cruel. In fact, these rules were just what Alternia needed and had neglected for thousands of years.
Eridan realized with a sigh that he would've been upset with these new terms just a few sweeps ago. And even now he hated to admit that he liked the air of superiority he possessed as a Highblood. But deep inside, he knew he was wrong for thinking things like that. But his pride would not allow him to admit it.
But like it or not, that was all changing tonight.
As if on cue, Feferi skipped in, humming and holding her brush in her clasped hands like a bouquet. Eridan couldn't help but laugh when he saw her giddy and as excited as ever. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.
"Good morning, Princess," Eridan gave an over exaggerated bow and grinned up at her.
"Good day, Prince," Feferi responded, trying to hold in her laughter, "are you ready to change Alternia for the better?"
"Yes. I am always ready, sweet maiden," he flirted, taking her hands in his and putting her brush on the granite table, "are you?"
But Feferi was already looking out the palace window as her draw dropped. "Oh cod. I wasn't expecting this many people!" She pulled Eridan off the floor where he was still kneeling in front of her. "I-I don't think I can do this," she admitted sheepishly to him, squeezing her eyes shut, trying to wish the large crowd away.
"Fef, of course you can do this," Eridan whispered to her as he put his nose to hers, "you have nothing to fear from this crowd. The stuff you're gonna say today should make them happy as a clam in the sea. And don't forget- they chose you to be Empress."
Although the rule about the highest blood getting to rule Alternia had been shot down, their friends and many others had still chosen her to be the Empress despite this. And Feferi had always wondered why. Eridan laughed every time she asked this. It was because she was fair, reasonable, and kind. She always took her responsibilities seriously and she was a great person to talk to, plus she would always listen to what you had to say. And she never thought higher of herself; a quality that Eridan struggled with even today. He wished he were half the troll Feferi was. To Eridan, Feferi was the beacon of light shining on his dark waters enabling others to see him better.
"I guess that's true," she sighed, looking down at her feet, "but I know some people won't agree with what I have to say."
"There are fish like that in every sea," Eridan said, turning her chin up to look at him.
"Yeah, but I don't want to deal with them!" She pouted, blowing her cheeks up and expelling a jet of hot air in Eridan's face. Normally that would've messed up his entire hairstyle. Good thing he had put a ton of gel in his hair this morning.
Feferi laughed at this, "Doesn't this thing EVER move?" she asked, touching his carefully styled hair, "You used the whole bottle, didn't you?" she accused him.
"A Prince should ALWAYS look his best," Eridan responded, "there is nothing I can do about it."
"Nope," Feferi giggled, "it just makes you look dumb!"
"I'm not dumb!"
"Dumb!"
"Am NOT."
"Are too!" Feferi mocked him.
She laughed her head off and then grabbed his arm affectionately with a knowing stare, "it's almost time to make our appearance."
"Hmph."
"Oh come on, Mister Grumpy Gills. Don't be like that. I'm sorry," Feferi walked over to where he was hunched over, and that's when Eridan caught her by surprise.
He swooped her up in his arms and ran her over to the bathroom where he grabbed some of his hair gel. He pretended to squirt some in her hair as she squealed in surprise.
"Gotcha."
"ERIDAN!" Feferi couldn't hide her laughter. "I thought you were actually going to put your gross gel in my hair, you little-"
Eridan was already making his escape out the bathroom door, but not before Feferi leaped onto his back, sending them both spiraling onto the bed.
"Nice prank there. You definitely got me on that one," she smiled down on him, "but Vriska is still WAY better than you with that kind of stuff!"
"Well Vris has got her little windy human to teach her about that stuff. ALL my stuff is original," Eridan stated matter-of-factly, "I really should've gone into the magician business. People would've liked my tricks there."
"Oh, because people would PAY to have hair gel poured onto their lovely hair."
"Hey! Maybe they would!"
"And maybe they would throw fruit at your hair instead!"
"That's ridiculous."
"Or maybe they would-" but Feferi was interrupted by someone knocking on the front door.
"It starts in five minutes," a familiar voice whispered from behind the door. Eridan realized that it was Equius's voice. He hadn't gotten any less creepy over the years, and he had a feeling his sweaty friend had been listening to their entire conversation.
"WE WILL BE OUT IN A SECOND!" Feferi called as she stuck her tongue out at Eridan. "Dummy."
"Guppy."
Eridan walked Feferi out onto the balcony gentleman-style as the whole crowd looked up at them applauding. Eridan had never been so self-conscious in his life. He looked over the railing, to his relief, to find that all their friends from SBURB were at the front of the crowd; looking up at them and making ridiculous faces that he and Feferi couldn't help but laugh at. Even Sollux nodded up to Eridan from down below and Eridan nodded his approval back at him.
Feferi was ecstatic. Eridan could tell from the smiling faces in the crowd that mostly everyone adored her. Not as much as he did, of course, but definitely quite a lot. She waved to everyone in the crowd with a big smile on her face. It was much different from the nervous one that had been forced upon her a mere twenty minutes ago. Eridan was glad he was able to make her happy. Feferi deserved the best on this crazy day that was unfolding.
Terezi Pyrope soon walked up to the balcony with them, a large, toothy smile spreading across her cherry red lips. It was time to begin.
"You ready, Ampora?" Terezi giggled at him.
"You know I am," he replied, running his fingers over his hair, smoothing out everything one last time.
She patted him on the back. "Well then, get up to that podium and start us up!"
Eridan walked up and cleared his throat before he began, suddenly feeling nervous as he felt all eyes go to him. "Welcome, trolls and humans of the new Alternia. Thank all of you for coming today as we set out the new ground rules for our planet."
Eridan tried very, very hard to talk as clearly and as rationally as possible. Even though he had mostly gotten rid of his speech impairment sweeps ago, occasionally it would come back when he was feeling particularly stressed or uncomfortable. But Eridan absolutely would not allow it to happen today.
"Queen Feferi and head of the Alternian court, Terezi Pyrope, have written down new rules and changed some old ones over the course of these last few weeks. Today, they will share them with you as we rebuild our world for future generations to come."
Eridan bowed and stepped to the right as both Feferi and Terezi went up to the podium. Terezi stood slightly behind Feferi and nodded her head for her to begin.
"Shello everyone!" Feferi called to the tense audience, "I hope you are having a lovely day. As you know, me and Terezi here have made a few necessary adjustments to the rules of Alternia." A genuine smile spread over her face and Eridan could feel the crackling tension ebb away. It was good of her to relax everyone first, and then lay down the serious stuff that would undoubtedly cause controversy.
"For the first rule, we decided that it was time to crack down on the problem that some young trolls face with their Lusii," Feferi started.
Anyone who knew Feferi well would know the constant torment she felt when feeding dead trolls and other lusii to her lusis. Eridan himself knew, because he had helped her do it all those sweeps ago.
"So many trolls have been forced to feed others of their kind to their lusii for many different and unique reasons," Feferi continued, "no one should have to go through or deal with that in this new world we are building," she paused for a moment.
Eridan could hear some idiot in the crowd saying "that happened?"
Like the asshole didn't know.
"… So we have decided to prevent young grubs from getting lusii that they cannot handle by themselves." Feferi looked down over the crowd, and she found that her eyes had locked with Vriska's. The gaze was sad understanding that could only be shared by them.
Feferi's gaze was broken when people began cheering for the new rule. Eridan let out a sigh or relief. He could only hope that they would take a liking to the next rule.
Feferi looked a little nervous as she read the next one.
"As for the second new rule, mutant bloods will not be culled or harmed or discriminated against."
This caused a wave of discussion to break out over the crowd, and Eridan saw Karkat avert his eyes away shamefully. He had to do something.
Before he could do anything, someone shouted something from the crowd.
"And how come? Why should we save them? Everyone knows they're from the fiery pits of hell. Mutants should have never been hatched!"
Angry shouts of approval and disapproval rang out again and Feferi tried her best to get everyone to calm down, but Eridan knew it was his turn now.
"You want to know why?" He propelled his voice over everyone else's and people slowly turned to look at him. "Because mutants are just like you and me. They just have different blood. Blood shouldn't determine who you are as a person, anyway."
"And how do you know they're not bloodthirsty monsters, fancy pants?" Another troll yelled.
"Because," Eridan glared at them, "I know one. And he's my good friend and one of the bravest trolls I've ever known. But YOU wouldn't know that because you've never met one. And maybe if you would just open your eyes for a damn moment to consider that they are trolls, too. And they deserve a say in how they are treated."
This drew up a few surprised gasps and a respectful applause.
Eridan felt satisfied with himself, and Feferi took this opportunity to lead them into the next new rule.
"And branching off on what Eridan said," Feferi flashed a grateful smile at him, "the next new rule deals with the caste problem. This is probably the most important rule of all. From now on, it doesn't matter if your blood is yellow or purple or green or red. It doesn't matter if you're human or troll. All of you are equal."
She was met with a stunned silence, but Feferi held her ground and waited for someone to say something.
"But it's been this way for thousands of years!" yelled a frantic Highblood from somewhere to the left.
Eridan took a step forward again, but Feferi was already looking down upon them, her expression a determined frown. "That doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. And it doesn't mean we can't change things now. Just because our Ancestors decided it would be this way doesn't mean we have to do it the same way, too."
Soon the entire palace was erupted in cheers from Lowbloods and Highbloods alike. But there were still many faces that were still twisted in unhappy scowls of disapproval. Eridan got a nasty feeling he would be dealing with them very soon.
"And the last rule for now is…" Feferi blushed and didn't say anything for a few seconds. She then looked mischievously over at Eridan. "Would you like to read this one?"
He couldn't very well refuse her. "Sure."
Eridan took his place at the podium again and began reading the last rule Feferi had chickened out on. "The last rule is that no troll is required to…" Eridan's face went purple with embarrassment and shock. No, no, no. He. Had. To. Read. This.
"Something the matter, Eridan?" Feferi had a funny little grin on her face.
You win.
"Nothin is the matter at all, actually," he would not let her have the satisfaction of knowing how he felt right now.
He took a deep breath.
"The last rule is that no troll is required to," Eridan choked out these last few words, "no one is required to fill a bucket anymore. The Imperial Drones will stop by your hives only if you want to give them the goods."
The entire crowd burst out in laughter, and although he was totally humiliated, he felt like he had done something right by making the last part of their speech into a joke. Maybe the more disagreeable trolls might accept the rules easier now. Or maybe he had just screwed up everything for all time.
Before he realized what was happening, Feferi was pulling him off the podium as she called out, "Thank you for coming everyone! You may stay in the square until dawn for the celebration."
Eridan was soon lying down on his bed and he let out a sigh.
"Oh cod I messed everythin up…" he covered his face with his hands.
"Oh Eridan, no! You did amazing!" Feferi laughed and wrapped her arms around him. "You were just the comical distraction we needed!"
"Wow thanks. Now everyone thinks I'm desperate loser now or something."
"No they don't! Everyone thinks you're REELY funny now. You actually got some of those grumpy trolls to change sides."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Stop doubting yourself!"
Eridan sighed and plopped down on their mass of pillows again, groaning while smothering his face in the feathery softness.
"Your grumpiness, will you escort me to the party down in the courtyard?" Feferi said in an elegant voice.
Eridan looked up at her and raised his eyebrows. "Fine. But I'm not staying long, okay?"
"All right, Eridan," Feferi rolled her eyes and led him over to the door.
Once they had arrived, they saw a mixture of a few of their friends the SBURB days along with random people Eridan barely even knew who all said Eridan did a splendid job on his part of the speech.
Eridan just blushed and walked away after a while. He could talk to these guys later. But before he could escape back up to his room, he heard someone call his name.
"Hey Ampora. Where the fuck do you think you're going?"
Eridan turned around to find that Karkat was the one who had called his name. "Yes Kar? What is it?"
Karkat scowled, "Leaving the festivities so soon?"
"Yeah," Eridan sighed, "It's been a long and brutal day, thank you very much. Now I'll see you later." He turned around to continue walking but Karkat stopped him again.
"Listen, fuckface," Karkat leaned uncomfortably against the wall.
Eridan sighed, "Yes?"
"I… I wanted to thank you for standing up for me earlier today. Well not only me, but for other people like me in the future. So thanks."
"Oh. Well, you're welcome, Kar. It was my pleasure. You're my friend, after all."
Karkat nodded, embarrassed, and started walking away. But not before he gave Eridan the middle finger, shouting, "SEE YOU SOON, FISH FACE!"
Eridan wasn't even mad. He laughed back at Karkat's retreating body. Eridan understood perfectly well that what had just happened was Karkat's way of showing affection. He was glad he was able to help his friend. To be honest, Eridan didn't expect any form of a thank you or compliment from anyone, but he was pleased to hear that people appreciated his efforts. Especially since his relationship with Karkat was still in the process of healing after his breakdown while playing SBURB.
Eridan was debating going back to walking around with Feferi when someone tapped him on the shoulder.
Eridan chuckled before turning around, "back so soon, Kar?"
But there was no one there. Eridan narrowed his eyes. He swore he had heard something. Maybe it was just a dumb prank.
He took a step forward and heard something crumple under his foot. He scooped up the crumpled up paper and opened it suspiciously, his eyes scanning the page.
Ampora,
I must say that I expected more from you. You've let down your ancestors as well as the dignity of the Highbloods. You are a disgrace and a fool for allowing the Lowbloods taste freedom. My sources tell me that just a few sweeps ago, YOU were the one planning mass genocide for the Lowbloods. You've grown soft, Ampora. You and the government are weak. You best watch your back. You will pay. Feferi will pay. Your friends will pay. Don't think we will follow these new rules.
It was signed from no one.
Eridan choked out a gasp before he grew angry, trying to cover up how scared he was right now. "You fuckin bastard," he muttered, crumpling up the paper and running back up to his bedchamber. He wasn't really in the mood to party anymore.
Eridan stopped for a moment and debated telling Feferi about it, but he shook his head and kept pushing on. He didn't want to ruin her good time. He would tell her all about the letter tomorrow.
There was a lot to think about.
Hey guys! =D
Kind of a bit of a cliff-hanger, huh?
I hoped you liked the first chapter of my first fanfiction in history. (more is coming soon after I get back from my vacation)
Please drop me a comment or two! (it inspires me to write more)
Thank you so much for reading!
