Maybe everything would turn out well this time.

"Hello, Snake of Stunning Eyes." Rose said. Her tone was low.

It greeted her back. The greeting still held Jade's bright lilt, in a way, but there was a weight to it. The corners of the gardener's eyes, the light in the irises themselves had dimmed. Jade's shoulders had slunk back, like a snake would with its body in case of an attack. The list of questions, prepared that morning in Rose's head, began to slide into her current thoughts and out of her mouth. One by one, like a lineup for the cafeteria.

"You've told me that you want to return to your queen. I assume you favour her?"

Denial.

"I see. I'm under the assumption that there was another entity, capable of hosting the likes of you, in that world you were cast into. Have you any thoughts on her?"

Neutrality.

Rose let a thin smile creep onto her face. This was a pretty good plan. Not that much time had passed; there were minutes still for question.

This was, however, the last stable part of the conversation.


Ding dong! John prodded the doorbell with his finger. No one answered for a while, making him wish he had brought keys out with him. But nope. Not spying anyone from behind the glass windows nor hearing any footsteps, John thought he would have to pull some movie-worthy heist shenanigans. A rope, maybe. And then climbing skills. That bush would be an obstacle. Would a rope even be necessary, when one had a selection of past selves that could show up any moment?

Guess not. Nanna had pulled the door open while John was in his reverie. Her air of warm cookies and lighthearted pranks flooded through the entrance and lifted the corners of the trickster's smile, but the hardness in her eyes, hard as bad muffins, did otherwise. Seeing that hardness was a stab in the heart. Not that this stab would kill him like the last one 4 years ago, anyways, but it ached all the same. For Nanna to be worried, a lot would have happened. And from the hiss-like echoes from the second floor? A lot had happened. Another stab.

"Nanna, I'm home! What is…what is going on?" John asked.

"John, were you aware Rose came over?" Nanna countered.

"Rose came over?"

"Oh, I suppose you don't. But she came, John, and she's still here! Doing what, you may ask? She's using her power, John. On Jade. And it hasn't ended for the past 2 hours – I'm beginning to think that it isn't healthy for either girls to be doing that." Nanna closed the door behind her grandson. "I sincerely apologise, John. I know so little about those powers of yours, I don't know what I should be doing! It would be wrong to alert the authorities of this. Any ideas in that noggin of yours?"

"Geez, I don't know, Nanna! I guess I could go upstairs and talk to Rose myself, but…how would I avoid going under her power? I am not sure if my hood is enough. Oh, wait! Can you blindfold me, Nanna?" John asked. "Any strip of cloth will be fine. And don't worry about me bumping into things a lot!" With a bucktoothed smile, the trickster handed a towel on the kitchen table to his grandmother. In response, she pulled it around and around John's head, stretched and contrasted from the backdrop that was his dark hair. The world had gone all black in the eyes, but nothing had changed sound-wise. The red cloth had been tucked behind the ears.

Stumbling, John felt his way to the stairs. He took a step, alternating between clutching the handrail and smushing his palm against the white walls. He took more steps, and more, until Nanna's calls of encouragement died away and the hissing grew ever louder in its place. Now, which way was the feeling jam room? Left? Yeah, that was right. Left. John went left, letting the murmurs pull him to his destination. This had to be the feeling jam room, or else it was the bathroom.

Yup. It was the feeling jam room. And in it, were Rose and Jade.


"Nanna?" A single name, drenched in tears and venom. Gasping for air. This was not the way Rose knew herself, but who cared about that? "Nanna, is that you?"

"No, Rose, it's me, John. I just got home, and I went up here because Nanna told me you were using your power for a very long time!" John. The airiness in his voice, the one that could carry breezes and turn windmills – Rose didn't know how long it was since she last heard humanity. Nanna hadn't come up since those intended 3 minutes had dwindled away. It was fresh. It was the last thing she wouldn't come to ruin, because someone would ruin it for her in time.

The psychoanalyst did not return his smile. It didn't take eyes to see that. "Look, John, I appreciate that you cared to stop by, but I must be left alone. This isn't…this is not…" A thesaurus turned itself in Rose's head, but it gave nothing. "John, listen to me."

"I'm listening."

"We are all going to die. We are going to meet the Mekakushi Dan, and that snake, the Snake of Clearing Eyes, is going to take our lives, one by one. Have you seen yourself, John? You took a hammer and tried to defend yourself, but he stabbed you from behind with a sword. Dave's sword. John, that'sour future."

"Rose, that's…Geez, I am not really ready to believe that!"

"But believe it, John. The snakes don't lie. I need to do something about it. I'm going to find some way to get to Japan. I need to save us. This is going to repair our fate! I need to know more." More venom than tears. More exhaustion than venom. John, having put a hand on Rose's shoulder earlier, lifted it as he felt her tense. He expected Jade to be in agony. He expected right.

"Rose, no! Can't you see? You have gone mad from all this…this…snake research! Rose, I am really sorry to say this, but you have gone off the deep end."

"As is painfully obvious to anyone with half a brain," she chuckled.

"Exactly! Resist the urge to go deeper! Don't take revenge!" Even if John spoke loud enough to alert the entire Washington State, Rose didn't hear it. Her body, arms and legs and eyes, had become as taut as a rubber band. She leaned forwards, until her face was only inches away from that of Jade's. "Rose, no!"

There were tears streaming from the corners of her eyes now. She pushed.

A headache was clawing at her temples. She pushed.

Jade's voice, now hoarse from all the snake had spent using it, made her dizzy. She pushed.

And so on, and so on. The internal plea for even the tiniest droplet of rest was squashed beneath Rose's will. How it screamed, begged like a little child. So then?

It all came crashing down on her, and the world went black.

John slipped off the blindfold, adjusting his eyes to actual sight again. Jade had come out of her stupor. They both looked exhausted just by a glance at one another, but the passed-out psychoanalyst leaning against John surpassed their own tiredness by miles.

"Jade, are you okay?" John asked. "I do not want you to pass out either."

"I think so," Jade answered. There was a dazed look in her eye, a raw pain in her voice that didn't know the outside world nor her body anymore. It was obvious when her feet jerked and she stumbled. But she was quick to adapt. Together, the two black-haired kids lifted their friend and lowered her onto the puppet pile that had become so iconic to the room.

If anyone else were around to hear it, they would have thought they heard a teenage girl mumble "you make a halfhearted attempt to resist the urge", with a dead chuckle throughout. But there wasn't anyone else.

End


AN: This marks the end of the character arcs!
Fun fact: Rose's story here is the longest out of all of them, with the word count up in the mid three thousands. By contrast, John's story
(Red on a Green Ghost) was 1625 words counting the endnotes. Nothing less for Rose Lalonde, master of verbosity among her friends, right?
Anyways, I suppose I should add that Mekakustuck is a much longer series than you already see here. There are even acts and an intermission - though only 2 acts
and
1 intermission at that. This is the second last story of ACT 1 if you were wondering.
Well, thank you for reading
The Seer's Thirst and the Mekakustuck series as a whole! Comments and criticism will be much appreciated. ~YellowTangerines