There will probably be some people who got the notification that the new chapter is up or something and they'll see this and go "wait i've already read this chapter." fear not friend i simply put this chapter as ch. 7 even though it was originally posted as ch. 6. If this has confused you, then here's what you do: Go to what's listed as ch. 6. That is the new chapter as of now. (Also sorry if I'm wrong i'm not 100% sure how this works on ff)
why doe2 terezii thiink iim a poliice car
"Sollux, off the computer. This is the fourth time I've told you today," Porrim said gently as she lowered Sollux off the chair behind the desk. Porrim sighed as she backspaced his typing, muttering to herself, "How you even know how spell and use a computer at this age is beyond me..." Sollux opened his mouth to whine, and Porrim looked down at him, nudging him away with a soft, "Why don't you go play with the other wrigglers?"
"I don' wanna play with the other wrigglerth! They're boring and I don' like any of them!" He shouted back.
"I wasn't asking you to go," Porrim frustratedly retorted, taking Sollux's hand and pulling him back into the classroom. She pushed him a few steps forward into the chaos that was preschool, but he didn't waste a second before using his psiionics to open the door again. Porrim caught him on his dash for freedom and shut the door behind her. "No," she said bluntly, pushing Sollux out into the room again, this time standing guard by the door as he stood glaring her down.
"Sollux! Sollux!" Sollux sighed, recognizing the excited voice as Terezi. "Sollux, come on, Mindfang escaped from jail again!"
"Maybe you thould get a better jail..." Sollux grumbled back as Terezi grabbed his arm and tried to climb on top of him.
"Come on, police car! We don't have much time!"
"Terezi," Porrim interrupted Terezi's siren noises, "Maybe Sollux doesn't want to play."
"No troll's unwillingness will stand in the way of justice," Terezi said gravely. Sollux sighed, looking to Porrim, who didn't seem to know how to react, with a pleading gaze. He flinched as Terezi lightly kicked him in the side as if spurring a horse, shouting insistence that Sollux act as her justice vehicle. Begrudgingly, Sollux started carrying Terezi across the room, flashing his eyes red and blue after even more prompting than it took to get him moving in the first place.
"Police; stop!" She shouted, aggressively pointing at Vriska, who stood in the corner of the room, trying to look menacing. Vriska laughed maniacally, flipping her hair like a mean girl in a high school drama.
"Redglare, we meet again! I'll do whatever I want," she shouted back, picking up a block and hurling it at Terezi. Terezi leaned back to dodge, pulling Sollux directly into the block's trajectory. The wooden cube collided with Sollux's brow, and he grunted in pain as he threw Terezi off his back.
"I'm not playing with you guyth anymore!" he cried, not making much attempt to hold back a few frustrated tears. "Thith thuckth and I hate both of you!" He went on, violently returning the block to a half crest-fallen, half furious Vriska before stomping off towards the corner.
"Sollux, wait! Justice didn't win yet!" Terezi called, following him. Sollux turned and shoved her away.
"I don' care about 'juthtith'! Lea'me alone!" he growled at Terezi. Finally, Porrim approached the pair before anything got any worse.
"Terezi, I think it's time to leave Sollux alone," she said, guiding Terezi away. "Sollux, how about you go find someone else to play with?"
"No," Sollux whined. "I don' like any of the trolls."
"Have you met any of the other trolls?" Sollux hung his head defiantly as he muttered admission that he hadn't, as well as his refusal to do so. Porrim sighed, calling Karkat to her. "Try playing with Karkat. I think you'll get along okay." Porrim ignored Sollux's protests, walking away to leave him with Karkat and an ornately dressed seadweller who came over with him.
"Hey," Sollux petulantly replied to Karkat's shy, meek greeting. "I'm Thollukth. Who'th your friend?"
"I'm Eridan," The seadweller said, stepping forward. "W-we're playing Threshecutioners."
"Do you wanna play with us?" Karkat asked, his voice loud compared to his introduction, but still quiet compared to the two other wrigglers.
"Thure," Sollux resigned, looking over the trolls. They were, even if only by a little, the palest ones in the room, telling Sollux that they were the most recently pupated, and giving him hope that they might be at least a little less violent than the other trolls. "What do I do?"
"W-we threshecute each other," Eridan said.
"We have different Threshecutioner teams," Karkat elaborated. Eridan looked over Sollux and whispered to Karkat that he didn't have a foam weapon like theirs. "Oh. Sollux, you need a sickle to play."
"Can I have one?"
"No," Eridan said dourly before Karkat could reply.
"Okay... I have thiionicth, I don' need a weapon," Sollux tried to reason.
"You have psiionics? That's cool, how do they work?" Karkat excitedly questioned, taking a step closer to Sollux. Eridan suddenly struck his back with a foam sickle, loudly announcing his sneak attack. Karkat immediately collapsed in a pile of screeching and giggles, wrestling with Eridan as they each took every opportunity to exchange maladroit blows with their sickles.
"SOLLUX! HELP!" Karkat laughed. Sollux telekinesissed Eridan's cape over his face, giving Karkat a chance to jump up out from under him and be chased across the room. Sollux smirked at their refreshingly lighthearted combat as Eridan quickly caught up with Karkat and knocked the sickle out of his hand. Eridan continued his assault on Karkat until he submitted, at which point Sollux ran over, picking Karkat's sickle up off the ground and hitting Eridan in the back of the neck with it.
"Okay, I killed you," Sollux declared.
"No you didn't 'cause I'm a highblood!" Eridan spun around, turning on Sollux. This, of course, initiated an epic sickle fight. Karkat soon returned from the dead to tackle Eridan to the floor. Eridan, by only a narrow margin, was able to get back up, but could only sustain so many fake punches and kicks from Karkat before falling over on top of Sollux. Sollux's glasses fell off, but he made sure to get in enough hits on Eridan's face for Karkat to declare victory before searching for them.
"I had a shield that blocks ev-verything," Eridan argued.
"NO YOU DIDN'T!" Shouted Karkat.
"Yes I did, because I'm royalty and royalty gets whatever they want," Eridan went on, obviously convinced by his own logic.
"But that'th cheating!" Sollux blurted, returning his glasses to his face.
"ERIDAN'S NO FUN TO PLAY WITH," Karkat went on, still yelling for who knows what reason. Sollux flinched at the volume of Karkat's voice, convincing him to speak more softly. "Let's go play with someone else, Sollux." Karkat reaped Eridan's sickle for his spoils as the victor, and began wandering away with Sollux until Eridan called out to them.
"W-wait, I lied, I don't hav-ve a shield, I'm dead, look," Eridan pleaded all at once. Karkat giggled triumphantly and turned around to return to the seadweller, when an announcement from Kankri stopped everyone.
"It's snack time, everyone," he called, performing the amazing feat of silencing the room of toddlers. Eridan leaped to his feet and followed the rest of the class, including Sollux and Karkat, into the other room, where they were all offered juice boxes and crackers. Eridan was the only one not to eat, instead turning his nose up at the meager offerings like the "royalty" he was. He only scoffed when Sollux asked why he wouldn't eat.
"Eridan gets lots of stuff so he's really picky, but he's fun to play with so it's okay," Karkat whispered to Sollux in response to his confusion.
"Hello, Karkat," greeted a brightly dressed troll as she approached Karkat. Karkat identified her as Kanaya with an excited exclamation of her name as she sized up Sollux and Eridan. "How's your day?" she politely asked, sitting criss-cross applesauce next to a much smaller Karkat.
"I MADE FRIENDS!" Karkat shouted, throwing himself onto Kanaya to hug her. Kanaya hummed in acknowledgment, staring at Eridan's uneaten food.
"Are you going to eat that?" she asked. Eridan shook his head, allowing Kanaya claim his crackers and apple juice.
"That one is Sollux, he has psiionics," Karkat went on whether Kanaya was listening or not as she bit into the side of the juice box, drinking through the holes she made. Kanaya hummed an "m-hm" like Sollux had heard John and Dave do to each other so many times when one of them was busy. "And that one is Eridan. He's a seadweller, so that means he's a prince!" Kanaya looked up from her meal, wiping herself clean of juice running down her chin and throat.
"Really? You got a prince to be your friend?" Kanaya questioned, more curious than disbelieving.
"Yep!" Eridan chimed in. "I'm the second highest blood!"
"And I'm assuming the first highest is her?" Kanaya pointed to another seadweller eating by herself across the room, dressed in a bright, sparkly, pink shirt that covered neither her shoulders nor belly button, and washed-out, low-rise, short shorts adorned with more sparkly trinkets and accessories. Eridan nodded. "That's Feferi," Kanaya said, then coolly shifting her attention to her crackers. Eridan frowned.
"She doesn't look like a troll royalty w-would asso- ashotia- asco- uh... Talk to," he said, managing the keep his whiny tone all throughout his mispronunciations. Kanaya finished eating her crackers before replying to Eridan.
"I talked to her a little bit. She's nothing like she looks. Her mom dresses her that way."
"Huh," Eridan idly whispered as Kanaya returned to her juice.
"How come you drink the juithe like that?" Sollux meekly questioned after a second of silence. "There'th a little hole in the top where you put the thtraw in," Sollux pointed to the spot he referenced on Kanaya's juice box. Kanaya turned away from Sollux, draining the box dry before tossing it aside.
"I drink like that because I'm gonna be a rainbow drinker, like my mom, Porrim," She answered. Sollux looked over Kanaya for a second before he put it together.
"Oh, you're the teacher'th dethendant," he said, somewhat awed and earning a nod from Kanaya. After a pause and another small epiphany, Sollux continued: "And Karkat'th kinda your brother?" Karkat nodded enthusiastically.
"Huh," Sollux breathed as Karkat and Kanaya ventured into their own conversation, losing the rest of the group.
"Should I talk to Feferi?" Eridan suddenly wondered aloud.
"Um..." Sollux took a bite of cracker and shrugged. "I 'unno, but you're thtill playing with uth, right?" Eridan started thinking about it, but Kankri suddenly announced that snack time was over and outside time was starting, opening the sliding doors to the outside world, however fenced in it may have been. Kanaya and some girl with an oversized coat and what looked to be a tail were the first two to dart outside, followed by Terezi chasing Vriska. The rest of the trolls stood up, picking up their trash at Porrim's command, and walked outside far more calmly than their predecessors.
Kanaya opted to relax in the sun, so Karkat rejoined his original trio. Sollux was somewhat surprised that Terezi and Vriska actually left him alone, leaving him to his heated discussion about the rules of Threshecutioners with Eridan. Eridan argued that Sollux's psiionics weren't fair, and Sollux argued that Eridan's highblood excuse wasn't fair. Karkat just occasionally, quietly, suggested compromises.
Their argument came to a close not when they came to a consensus, but when Vriska, standing atop the playground and claiming herself a pirate, hurled a small rock at Eridan, labeling him the "sea monster."
"We don' wanna play, Vrithka," Sollux spoke up.
"You're just scared you're gonna lose!" Vriska shouted back, throwing another rock, this time missing. Eridan picked up both rocks and threw them towards Vriska, but they both hit the railing of the play structure with a loud clank, and fell back to the ground. Vriska laughed at the pouty seadweller, and the group had the misfortune of Terezi catching wind of the situation before anyone had another chance to retreat. Terezi suddenly jumped onto Sollux's back like she had several times earlier, knocking him down.
"JUSTICE UPON THE SEA MONSTER!" She cried, getting a chant of agreement from Vriska.
"Get off me..." Sollux whined in a strangled voice as he struggled to get up with the weight of Terezi on his back.
"What's this? You're on the sea monster's side?" Terezi taunted. Sollux ignored her, using his psiionics to fling a rock at Terezi, prompting her to get off of him.
"He'th not a thea monthter," Sollux argued, still not quite to the point of standing. Terezi grunted and lightly kicked Sollux in the calf for revenge. As Sollux made it to his feet, Terezi lunged at Karkat, who had backed away from the conflict.
"What about you?" She demanded, only a few inches from his face. "Who's side are you on?" she ostentatiously twirled a stick around in the process of pointing it at the smaller troll in front of her.
"ERIDAN'S MY FRIEND," Karkat explained, making Terezi flinch at the unexpected volume of his voice.
"Oh," Terezi said simply, taking a step back and pausing before pointing her stick at Vriska. "Well, then, Mindfang, it looks like us two are alone on this one!" Terezi climbed the playground in a matter of seconds to join Vriska's side. Sollux sighed as he prepared for "battle," frustrated with the unwanted playmates, but also somewhat happy to get to go against Terezi without the risk of ending up on her bad side.
Between outside time, story time, learning time, and nap time, the first day of preschool went by surprising quickly. Before Sollux knew it, he was already waking up from his nap and being dragged into his parents' car to go home as he whined about leaving Karkat and Eridan.
"Sollux..." John grumbled, going back and forth between closing the car door and Sollux flinging it open. "Your friends aren't even here any more, Sollux! They all went home!" John tried to explain, causing nothing but a moment's pause before the next time Sollux flung the door back open. John grelled, throwing his head back. Dave suddenly approached, still looking backwards, finishing up his farewells to Latula. John, holding Sollux back from running free, stared pleadingly at his sympathetic husband.
"Here," Dave said, hoisting Sollux into his lap as he pulled himself and his son into the center of the back seat. John slammed the door shut again, in the process discovering that, fortunately, Sollux wasn't well-versed enough in car doors to open them with psiionics. Not that that stopped him from trying. "Sollux, chill out, you're gonna see them all tomorrow," Dave assured the little troll.
"Why?" Sollux demanded.
"Because you get to come to school every day," John, getting into the driver seat, talked before Dave got his chance to.
"Every day?" Sollux questioned, wide-eyed.
"Well, not every day..." John clarified, buckling his seat belt. "You get weekends off." John positioned himself to drive, but first looked back and convinced a begrudging Dave to put a seat belt on before leaving the preschool's premises.
"So, then, Sollux... How was your first day?" John asked. Dave looked expectantly to Sollux, almost more eager for his answer than the person who actually asked the question.
"Okay," Sollux groaned in reply.
"Why okay? What happened?" Dave asked.
"Terethi and Vrithka were mean and my friendth kept talking to other wrigglerth..." Sollux explained. "Altho they didn't let me uthe any of the computerth."
"Well you're supposed to be learning and socializing, so..." Dave contended.
"You can do that with computerth, though!" Sollux argued back. Dave opened his mouth to argue, but only drew blanks. He and John exchanged glances via the rear view mirror, through which John communicated that he didn't have anything either.
"Well, either way," John started, refocusing on the road ahead, "I hope you're ready to go back tomorrow."
"...I am," Sollux admitted stubbornly, giving up his upright position to squirm lower on his seat.
A/N: Okay so first off: JEGUS FRICK I DID NOT REALIZE IT'S BEEN ALMOST A MONTH SINCE THE LAST UPDATE. I AM SO SORRY. ...But hey, look, the first super fluffy chapter, and also the longest one yet... Hopefully the wait was worth it? Hopefully I successfully wrote them as preschoolers?
Second: for the part where Karkat and Eridan are described as the palest ones in the room, I should clarify that I have this headcanon that when trolls first finish pupating, their skin is almost white and it darkens to gray over time, finishing by around the time they start puberty, and, sometimes, when trolls are much older, (maybe, like, mid-thirties (in years) or so) they might start darkening again until they're pretty much black, like what we've seen of the ancestors.
Lastly: I don't know if anyone noticed, but I actually used this chapter to coin a new term: "Grell." I was fed up with "ugh" not having a verb, (you know, like, to describe someone going "Argh!" you might say they "cried out" or "screamed" or something) especially for it being such a common, natural sound with meaning based on context, so I just invented my own word. Since this is technically not yet a valid word, please spread the literal word so that it can become an actual part of the English language. I'm probably dreaming a little too big here, but please bear with me nonetheless. Thank you in advance for the whole "grell" thing, and regular thank you for reading my fic!
