Chapter two: Of forests, Striders, and ghost girls.
Oh no oh no oh no oh no. How did you let yourself get lost like this? Okay, okay, just stay calm no scary ghost is going to jump out and try to kill you. Nope. That's not a thing that's going to happen.
"OH MY GOD NO PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!" You pretty much scream and throw up your arms when you hear a branch snap and oh no it's really close and the thing sounds huge and deadly and... oh, it was you. heheh. heh.
You relax a bit since nothings trying to kill you- and wait, did you just call yourself fat?! No no no nonno. You are NOT FAT!
Your name is CASSIDY VANBRUNT and you ARE NOT FAT! You are LOST IN A FOREST you went in when A GHOST YOU JUST MET ran in there with another another ghost that seemed REALLY IMPORTANT. You've always been able to SEE GHOSTS AND THINGS LIKE THAT but you've never told anyone since you're KINDA SCARED OF WHAT THEY'D DO. You tend to get DISTRACTED and have an ARTISTS MIND so the things that distract you can be KINDA STUPID. People like the Striders CONFUSE THE FUCK OUT OF YOU while ROSE LALONDE KINDA SCARES YOU but only because of her obsession with BLACK MAGIC. You don't know what TROLL'S or OMEGA'S are but you know you live in the HUMAN WORLD and that you ARE HUMAN even though you DONT KNOW YOUR PARENTS. You are a LESBIAN and sometimes day-dream about FINDING TRUE LOVE which is a REAL THING no matter what ANYONE SAYS!
You keep walking through this stupid forest-y forest and get your clothes and short-ish brown hair caught on a few bushes and branches and you really don't mean that they're stupid. Even though you might find your way back if you're lucky, you wish one of your friends were here. It's kinda boring just walking out here by yourself. Hey maybe you should sing!
"Look how the light of the town
The lights of the town are shining now
Tonight I'll be dancing around
I'm off on the road to Galway now
Look how she's off on the town
She's off on a search for sailors though
There's fine fellas here to be found
She's never been one to stay at home." You sang, imitating Celtic Woman's song Teir Abhaile Riu and you would have gotten past the first verse if a tree hadn't decided to trip you right there.
You get up and rub your hurting arms that'll probably bruise soon. You look at the tree that tripped you and say "Just because /you/ don't like my singing doesn't mean others feel the same. You don't see any of /them/ tripping me! And it doesn't mean I'm gonna stop either!" to the tree because you KNOW it did that on purpose.
You consider singing again, louder than before, as you walk away. But luckily your friend, who's kind of an ass but you wouldn't say it to him, finds you and now you won't be lost!
"Hi Jake!" You call and run up and hug him.
"Good heavens! Miss Cassidy, thank goodness I found you. The others and I have been searching high and low for you ever since night fell! Which was a gosh darned long time ago. My word, I'd wager that its nearly sunrise! What on Earth happened to you?" He said with his weird accent that you think is just ADORABLE!
"Well, I was following... this girl I met and she ran into this forest to hide this other girl. And we got to this beautiful clearing with this waterfall and just talked for hours and hours. But some time during all that, the girl I followed just disappeared! Then I couldn't ask the other girl the way back since... reasons, so I was wandering around trying to find a way out when I started singing and then a really rude tree tripped me! And... that's what happened." you say.
Jake nods and grabs your wrist to begin leading you back. He really doesn't question things all that much. "Well I'm just jolly glad that you're alright! Now we'd best get back lest the Miss Lalondes decide to 'rip me a new one' as they said." he said with a short laugh at the end.
You look at him with a frown. Ever since he and Dirk broke up, he's been sad and seemed nervous. You worry about him. You worry about Dirk too but with his flawless poker-face you have no idea if he's sad or mad or just doesn't care.
"Jake," You say slowing your walk a bit. "are you okay? After, you know, what happened with Dirk..."
"Now Miss Cassidy, I shall not have you bothering yourself over my affairs, which, might I add, took place a right long time ago. But to answer the question posed to me, I'd say that I'm right as rain!" he said, picking up the pace again.
You shrug even though you dont really know what "right as rain" means and stop talking as the village you live in with all your friends nears. Surprisingly, most all of your friends are orphans like you. Well, except for Jane and her half brother John who have their manly man of a Dad who kinda acts like a Dad to the rest of you! The Striders pretty much raised each other and the Lalondes pretty much raised themselves. Then there's Jake who was raised by his half sister Jade who was actually raised by her dog Bec. But he's a magical dog! So it's not weird.
Oh, and your village is beautiful! It's surrounded by a lush green forest and has this amazing river flowing some-what near it.
"OH MY GOD DIDI!" Roxy said as she ran over and hugged you as you squealed a bit. "Are you okay? Did big scary men come after you? Ohmygod did they TRY TO KIDNAP YOU? Did they had big bags and big weapons and big muscles... mmmmm big muscles. Wait! They were gonna sell ya into the sex slave business weren't they? Ohmygod THEY WERE! OH DIDI WHAT 'AVE THEM AND THEIR SEXY MUSCLES DONE TO YOOOOU?" She says.
You can tell she's a bit drunk but you still can't help but giggle a bit at her obvious theatrics as she squeezes you.
"Roxyyy," you say trying to wiggle out of her grip. "There were no big men or kidnapping. I got lost in the woods, and NOTHING bad happened to me other than a few scratches."
She sniffled and eased her grip a bit.
"Y-You promise?" you nod and she lets go of you. "YAY! Now come on! Now that you're back its time to party like theres no tomorrow! Wait, oh my god, Janey doesn't know yet! IM COMIN' JANEY!" She said running off at the end.
You shake your head and watch her run off. Roxy is one crazy chika. Oh wait, you haven't told your BFF John what happened yet! Oh he's probably worried sick about you, but knowing him he'll probably lie about it to make you feel better and fail because he is the worst liar you've ever met! You wave good-bye to Jake and thank him for helping you then go to find John.
Sure enough, a while later you find him at the other edge of the village Strifing with Dave. Johns panting and has a few cuts. His hammer is hanging a bit lower than usual too. While Dave on the other hand looks as if he just got up from lounging on the beach. Not a single scratch on him, or his sword, and his shades aren't even crooked!
You've always kinda wondered about the Striders shades. They've always had them, but you had never seen them before Dave and Dirk came around. When asked where they got their eye-wear they would always make some sarcastic reply or just deny you the information all together!
"John!" You call out. He turns to you and gets his goofy grin on his face. He runs up and hugs you even harder than Roxy did and it's kinda hard to breathe now.
"Cassidy! Are you okay? What happened to you? Why are you covered in scratches? Ohmygod was Roxy right? What happened? Why didn't you come back? ... Cassidy? Cassidy?!" He says in like one breath but you couldn't answer him because he was going to kill you before you got the chance!
Luckily Dave pulls him off saying something you couldn't hear since you were gasping so loud, but when you look at John he looks pretty sorry so you guess Dave was "ironically" telling him you were about to die... or something.
"John clam down! Wait no, calm not clam oops. But still, I'm fine, Roxy was wrong, and I got lost in the forest is all. There was no scary men or sex slave selling." You say and you guess that pretty Feferi girl and her fish puns are rubbing off on you. Oh John's looking at you weird.
"What are you talking about? What scary men? And what's a sex slave?" he said and Dave smirked for some reason only a Strider would know.
"Isn't that what Roxy told you happened to me?" you ask.
"No! She said that Timberwolves came out of the trees and took you to their lair and were going to make you into a pony eating Timbergirl!" He says, Completely serious.
You can't help it. You flat out laugh at that. That girl and her crazy imagination never stops surprising you. Once you stop laughing you say "No John that didn't happen either."
"Okay, but why did you go into the forest alone?" he said.
"But John, I wasn't alone! I was following the really mysterious and kinda mean and kinda scary girl that I just met!" You say.
John just says oh while Dave just looks at you from behind his shades. You think he's thinking your stupid, but that can't be right. He always seems like that to you.
"Uhhh. Why did you follow her if she was so mean and scary?" John asked after a bit of an awkward silence.
"Because she was so different and I had so many questions! She has kinda grey skin and she doesn't know what a cat is and she said she was sent here to guard a prison and she had a spear!" you say
"Wait, she has GREY skin? And there isn't a prison here. There isn't a prison anywhere near here! Is she still around here?" He asked
"Well no. She kinda just disappeared after we got into the forest and I got lost." you say.
"Just kinda disappeared. Is this girl a ghost or something?" Dave said seriously... you think, you can never tell with those guys!
"NO!" You say a bit too quickly. "Uh... no no no. Of course not! Ghost obviously don't exist. Obviously."
Dave just smirks. "Obviously." he copies you then he just walks away.
Oh shit he probably knows now! Nonononononono that CAN'T happen! This guy always acts like he out to ruin you and he's so apathetic about EVERYTHING! Nonono this will NOT happen!
"Uhh. What just happened? Why do look so mad? Why'd Dave leave?" John said and oh no you forgot he was here! Wait, maybe he can make it so Dave won't ruin you! Yesssss.
"John! I need your help! I need you to go convince Dave to not tell anyone what he just found out. This is REALLY important! Pleeeeeeaaaaasseee?" You sorta half-beg him.
He agrees, comically salutes, then runs after that stupid Strider. You hope this works. Dave's one of the few people that can test your saint-like patience.
You go back to Bethany's "post" and she isn't there. So you sit down and wait for her, thankfully it's a bit past the edge of the village so no one should bother you. You see that troll she was being really mean to before. Didn't she call him Karkat? Hehehe what a funny name. Then miss curly horns is Aradia? And Princess Feferi! Wow, do all trolls have weird names like that?
Wait. You take a closer look at the short, angry troll. Holy Goddess he's glowing! You know you should have seen this a while ago but sometimes you just miss obvious stuff okay? But he's glowing with this light. But it's all twilightly. Like, ooooooooo it's Halloween and I'm a ghooooooost, oooooooooo!
Oh there's another troll coming. This one is wearing red and blue shades and has four horns instead of two. Wait, shades. Maybe that's where the Striders got them! Pshhh, yeah, 'cause they can travel between dimensions, right. Now the taller four horned one is yelling at Karkat, and Karkat is yelling back. Man trolls are so mean to each other, and Bethany says they're getting along. Karkat walks off and so does the other troll and they're still yelling at each other! So you wait and watch other trolls.
You see one with red glasses a bit far off. Hey wasn't that the one Bethany was playing some game with before? Maybe that's that girls post! You keep waiting, hoping for Feferi to show up, but she doesn't. You look at the prison. Big stone walls are all you can really see of it. It's kinda creepy how it's situated right where the village is.
"So you're back." You hear behind you. You jump and look around thinking it was Dave again come back to piss you off. But no, it's just Bethany.
"Hi!" You say hoping to make her smile. She always looks so... apathetic. Like Dave. Wait, is she a Strider?! "Quick, what's your last name?" you say.
She shrugs and sits down.
"Bosteder." She says and would she even react if her arm got chopped off?
"Oh. Oh! Thanks to you I got lost in the woods with Feferi and that scary clown guy!" You say
"Hey, three things. One: It's not my fault you didn't think to follow one of them out. Two: You don't call her by her name. Only purplebloods indigobloods and some bluebloods can do that. To the rest of us she's the Princess. Three: the clown guy's name is Gamzee, don't talk bad about him around me." She says holding up her fingers.
"Gamzee? Wait, oh my god, are you in love with him?" you say
"Depends. What the fuck is love?" She says.
"Wait, you don't know what love is? How don't you know what love is! It's, um, when you have romantic feelings for another person." You explain.
"Alright. Which romance? Matesprit, Moirail, Kismises, or Auspice?" She asked
You stare at her. "What? Bethany, I don't know what any of those are."
She sighs and puts up a hand. "Just Beth. Also I've already accepted that you know nothing of my culture so I'll explain it. A Kismises is someone you hate with every fiber of your being that you're sexually attracted to. Matesprits are practically the opposite of Kismisesses, they have for each other only the most positive of emotions: pity. This also has sexual attraction in it. Moirails are also positive to each other, but its purely platonic. Their tolerance of the other is to the extreme and they keep each other in line so neither one gets culled. Being in an auspiceship is tedious. It's where two people hate each other enough to be Kismesesses but if they did then something bad would happen so a third person comes in and keeps them from going black on each other. Again, platonic. Well it's supposed to be anyhow." She explained.
You have so many questions but one thing is really important right now. "Matesprits! We call them Boyfriends or Girlfriends but it's still the same-ish! Well except our highest positive emotion is love and not pity. But it's really the same thing, right?"
She shrugs. "Why the hell not? So you think I have a flush-crush on Gamzee? I don't."
You were about to say something awesome, but Dirk chose that moment to just waltz out of the edge of the forest that you just noticed was really close. You close your mouth and pretend like you're day-dreaming.
"Hey." He says and puts away his really sharp sword. He sits down next to you, but not where Beth is. She looks at him and raises and eyebrow at you. You think she wants to know who he is.
"Hi Dirk! Why were you in the forest?" You ask him
"I was traveling to another world via a portal in the forest." He says with that pokerface of his.
You laugh. Since he's obviously joking, a portal in the forest? What world would it even lead to?
"Right, right, and I have horns and wings. Wait, do they have horns and wings there? Oh my god if I went there would I get horns and wings? Ooooooohhhh." You say.
You start imagining what you'd look like with horns and wings and miss what Beth said. Probably something mean anyway.
Dirks grabs your shoulder and shakes you a bit. "Earth to Cassidy. Hey, you still with me?"
You snap out of it and you're about to ask something really smart when he says.
"So who exactly were you talking to over here?"
And that kinda stuns you.
Beth nods and strokes her chin like she has a beard. "Well, you're not going to get out of this one easily, if I'm right about him. Which I am. 'Cause I'm awesome." She says.
You pout at her but you think she's right. Dirk looks where you're looking, which is at Beth. You panic a bit. "Dirk, honey, what are you looking at?" But your training as an actress helps you disguise it.
"Depends. What were you pouting at? Wait, let me guess, nothing." He asks turning back to you.
You frown again and why is Bethy laughing at this? "Dirk. I don't want to make you think I don't trust you or anything, which I do! But I really can't tell you who I was talking to or why I can't tell you." You say wanting to get out of this as fast as you can or else you might crack! Because that happens to everyone when they're around Striders, right?
Dirk smirks and acts like he already knows who you were talking to, your secret, and everything else about the universe. He gets up and walks away and you just know he's still smirking like that. But he's just acting. Really it's not like he's a mind reader or something... right?
You turn back to Bethy, and after she recovered from her mysterious laughing fit she says.
"You know, that guy's not nearly as annoying as you. I'll have to keep an eye on him."
"Well he's always like that. I can never tell any of his emotions and did you just insult me?!" You say as you figure it out.
"No." She says. "Of course not. Never. That never did and never will happen. Because I'm just sooo nice that I wouldn't even dream of insulting you!"
You roll your eyes as she goes on about what a good person she is. You know she's just joking, but she kinda reminds you of Dave. Like, a lot. But she emotes more. You wonder about it when she stops talking about herself and starts talking about how stupid you are.
You two talk and talk until you get called back by Dad for his AMAZING cooking. You leave and say good-bye to her. Days pass and you two always meet and talk about the stupidest stuff. Like whether or not bears can be invisible, or what kinds of music there are, or she says perverted things then has to explain them too you.
You are Cassidy Vanbrunt, and you just made a friend! She's really nice and knows the forests really well! You hang out every day and you think you have a new Best Friend Forever!
Oops. Sorry John...