A few minutes later, Tavros found me waiting in front of his room. "Oh, uh, hi Claire. Uh, what do you need." I didn't answer. "Uh, oh right! I was supposed to show you around. Sorry. I'll go get Rufioh"
"It's alright," I said. Tavros ran off, and returned with Rufioh.
"Sorry claire, lost track of time," Rufioh apologized, rubbing the back of his head.
"It's fine, but where are you going to take me?" I asked.
"Mail room. It's more interesting than it sounds, trust me," Rufioh said.
"Right. Before I forget, the Pyropes asked me to deliver these to you." I handed them their respectful scrolls, labeled T4VROS and ruf1oh.
"Wait a sec, why didn't she give 'em straight to us? This is our job, after all," Rufioh wondered. I shrugged, and each of them put the scroll into their pockets. "Alright, let's go to the mailroom!"
They brought me to the room across from the hallway. Inside was a room with pipes in each corner. Letters, scrolls, and packages were arranged neatly in piles. At one point, a scroll popped out of one of the pipes with a gust of wind. Tavros picked it up, briefly read the label, and put it in the pipe on the opposite pipe.
"What are these? Some sort of mail system?" I asked.
"Uh, yeah. One of the, uh, towns used to use this system. Basically, the, um, wind carries the mail here, through this, uh, pipe. Then we send it through one of these other pipes," Tavros explained.
"Pretty bangarang, don't you think?" Rufioh asked, nudging me in the arm.
"Yes, it's definitely creative. What was this town?" I asked.
"I don't know, I think it was destroyed though," he replied. "Some sort of consort village. Pretty bangarang though," he repeated.
"Right," I said, ignoring the strange word. If I remembered correctly, the salamanders were consorts. If so, then this system could have been based off of that technology. The thought alone made me sick to my stomach.
"Tav, you mind taking Claire to the Megidos? So much to do, so little time," Rufioh said. Tavros raised his hand in protest, but couldn't say anything before Rufioh slapped him on the shoulder and said, "Bangarang, dude!" Rufioh then left the room, leaving his shy brother speechless.
"Uh, okay. Follow me, uh, I guess," Tavros muttered, running his hand through his hair. He brought me to the room between the hunting grounds and courtroom. Inside was a bustling kitchen, full of trolls that probably had the lowest blood color in the hemospectrum.
"Um, Aradia?" Tavros asked quietly.
"I'm coming Tavros, just give me a second." A female troll came up to us. Her horns resembled a ram's, and her eyes were rusty-red. Over her black shirt and gray skirt was a white apron, covered in filth. Her curly black hair was tangled and messy. Though she looked disheveled, she was actually very pretty. "What do you need?"
"You, uh, need to show Claire around. Do you, uh, remember?"
"Right! Sorry, I'm just too busy. I'll get Damara." She ran of to find the mentioned girl.
"I don't think you, uh, will like Damara," he muttered.
"Why?" I asked.
"Uh, you'll see." He was right when I first saw Damara. She had an apron on, much like Aradia, and her red shirt had a rusty red sign for Aries. She had a short red skirt and high white socks. Between her fingers was a rolled up slip of paper.
"雌犬をファック," she said.
"Be nice," Aradia scolded. Damara repeated what she said before. "You just have to ignore her. Anyway, I'm Aradia Megido, and this is my older sister Damara."
"私のお尻にキスをし、幅広い気まぐれ." Aradia slapped her sisters arm. Damara laughed, and said, "、妹を静める."
"I'm Claire. I was told that you and your sister would be showing me around. Also, the Pyropes asked me to give this to you." I took the scrolls labeled 4R4D14 and d4m4r4.
Aradia thanked me and Damara asked, "それはポルノか?私は実際にそれがポルノだと思います."
"This is the kitchen. We take care of all the royal meals, obviously. And further down is the cleaning supplies. Everyone that works here is a rust blood. But we're lucky enough to not be enslaved," Aradia explained.
"Why would you be enslaved?" I asked.
"Most psychics are. Tavros and Rufioh can both communicate to animals, and Sollux has psionic powers. Damara and I also have these powers, and can communicate with the dead," she answered.
"Then I suppose you are lucky," I said. This caste system was getting more unfair by the minute. "Is there anything else?"
"Well, our rooms are the two red doors. But other than that, we're done. Here, I'll take you to Karkat and Kankri. Bye Damara," Aradia said, taking my arm.
As we left, I heard Damara muttered, "最後に、私は愚かな人が離れることはないだろうと思った."
"Sorry about Damara. she always speaks in Japanese. It's probably better that you can't understand her though. She's really inappropriate," Aradia said.
"Well, you seem to handle her well enough," I commented.
"She wasn't this mean, you know. She was really nice before, and she actually spoke English. I guess after we stopped seeing our mom, she just kind of lost it," Aradia said.
I wasn't sure how to respond to that. But, nonetheless, she had piqued my curiosity. "What happened to your mother?" I asked, trying to sound as sensitive as possible.
"I'm not sure. She was raised by this man, Doc Scratch. But then Her Imperious Condescension found Lord English. Doc Scratch was the only person who could communicate with Lord English, so he was hired. Now Doc Scratch watches over Lord English. I just assume that she must be with him," she explained. She opened the door next to the power room and walked down the stairs, beckoning me to follow. "Hold your nose, it stinks down here."
She warned me a bit too late. I got a whiff of the scent, and gagged. I clasped my hand over my nose as my eyes started to water. "Sorry," Aradia apologized, a rust red blush covering her cheeks.
We walked down the spiraling staircase to what seemed to be a dungeon. After the staircase was a long walkway, surrounded by black pits. The walkway split into three paths, each lit with torches hooked on the wall, and Aradia took me through the middle. The paths kept splitting into three, and we kept going through the middle pathway.
"The idea of the paths are to make the dungeon more complicated than it seems. The way you get there is through the middle," Aradia explained.
"Using the deception of complexitity, when really the answer is simple. Clever," I commented. Basically, if anyone was escaping or intruding, they would immediately think that the path to the center of the dungeon was complex. However, the true path was so simple that it evaded everyone, as they would think that the most complex answer would be the solution.
After another minute of walking, we came upon the heart of the dungeon. There were around twenty cells, where consorts, carapaces, and trolls were stuffed together. Two trolls were sweeping the floor. They looked like the sons of the Signless.
The older brother, who was just at average height, was wearing a red sweater. His black hair was neatly combed down and curled around his face. Around his neck was a silver chain, which hung a sign for Cancer. He had black leggings and black boots, and looked very well-bred.
I could not say the same for the younger brother. On his black shirt was the gray sign for Cancer. His pants were grey, and his shoes were black. His hair was messy and seemed to stick up in every way possible. Under his eyes were noticable purple bags, and he had a death grip on the broom.
"Hi Karkat! I brought Claire with me," Aradia said.
"Whoopdy fucking doo. What the hell do you want me to do about it?" Karkat asked.
"Karkat, that may be triggering to many people. Hello Claire, I am Kankri. I wish to make sure that I do not accidentally trigger you in any way. Therefore, I must ask that you inform me about anything that may trigger you in any emotional way. Unless it is too painful and or triggering to bring up, you have my permission to stop me at any point in a conversation. I must apologize in advance for my brothers fowl language, and if he triggers you. In this case..."
"Oh my god, shut the fuck up!" Karkat yelled.
"Karkat, that is very rude and could possibly be mph-" he was cut off as Karkat stuffed a spoonful of peanut butter in his mouth. Kankri tried to talk once more, but couldn't as the sticky substance kept his mouth shut.
"Finally! Alright Claire, this is the wasteland of fucking desolation and despair. Get used to it," Karkat said.
I ignored his rude attitude and handed them the scrolls labeled K4RKL3S and k4nkr1. "Why the fuck did Pyrope ask you to give these to us?" Karkat asked. Kankri blushed a deep shade of red.
"I don't know," I replied boredly, not really listening to them. I looked at the prisoners in the cells. I recognized a few of the consorts. Most of the trolls I didn't know, but four stood out. Huddled together, all somber and silent, were the Signless and his followers. The Dolorosa mentioned something about being sold to Mindfang, then returned to being silent.
The other cell had four carapaces. Three had a black shell, like Spades, while the other was white. Each of the black carapaces were men, dressed in fine black suits. One was ginormous, one was tall, and the other short. The white carapace was the only female, and was wearing multi-colored rags. She was slightly plump, and looked around the same height as Spades, if a bit shorter.
"What the hell is wrong?" Karkat asked, noticing me staring at the carapaces.
"Nothing in particular," I muttered. Spades had mentioned friends being held here. It was entirely possible that these carapaces were indeed the people he had mentioned.
"Whatever. But can you please explain to me why the fuck your Rose Lalonde?"
Dun Dun Dun! Ha, so sorry for the cliffhanger ending. I thought it was a nice place to leave off. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Leave a review telling me what I can improve on.
Alright, I'm out.
