A/N: Hello folks, I have returned with another Chapter! This is yet another one which features a sprawling mess of POV's and characters, as I continue setting the stage for a few main events. In other news, nothing is really going on over here on my end, so normal wait times for chapters are to be expected.
I obviously own nothing save the Oc's, and I hope you all enjoy.
Upon a land of Light and Rain, a lone figure sat in a dark parlour.
Wrapping up her conversation with Kanaya, Rose folded her laptop closed and sighed. It seemed that her distant alien friend was going to continue to nag her about being responsible and safe.
Standing up and idly rubbing circles from her eyes, Rose scoffed at the need to be 'safe' and 'responsible', in a failing session that was rigged against them from the start. It was all clear to her now.
Well, mostly clear.
Anything that Dave or Jade would try to plan or figure out, even with Kanaya's help, was inevitably doomed to fail. The very session was stacked against them. If they played by the rules, nothing would succeed. Jack Noir would kill everyone, trolls and humans alike.
The only option thus, was to not abide by the rules at all...
But rather, to break them...
To that end, she was beginning to make progress. Through her dreams on Derse, she was able to make contact with an emissary of the horrorterrors, incomprehensible lovecraftian beings dwelling outside the galaxy.
She had initially assumed that the furthest ring was utterly lifeless, due to the whole, 'no functioning laws of physics,' thing that was going on out there. The fact that time and space literally did not exist there, in the bleak and empty expanse at the edges of reality, did not help matters either.
Apparently, it was host to a...race? ...Well, no, not quite. More along the lines of a...collection of completely independent and separate beings known as horrorterrors. Utterly alien and incomprehensible amalgamations with a million eyes and mouths, their forms distorted by writhing tentacles and beaks and jaws.
Despite still not having been awakened, her dream-self on Derse was contacted by one of their number during an eclipse of the purple chess planet.
The being that had made contact with her, had called (herself?) itself Ebrietas, the celestial emissary. It had offered her the knowledge and support of the smallest pantheon of their kind, the only ones that had any real concern or interest in mortal affairs. It spoke of granting her great powers, and tutelage in the darkest arts.
...This offer was not suspicious in the slightest.
Obviously, Rose had poured much thought into it, and well...the benefits of their patronage heavily outweighed the risks of their obvious secret agenda. With great hesitation, she accepted the emissary's offer.
The results were initially underwhelming.
Her soul was not signed away, she was not possessed (as far as she could tell), and no evil voices began to whisper in her mind. Positive results, also initially seemed negligible. No new forbidden knowledge or superpowers were gleaned.
'Though, the key word really was initially,' she mused.
Soon enough after, she was granted the black knowledge to give her wands an...upgrade. The newly minted 'Thorns of Oglogoth', were noticeably different than the originals. Initially, having been prototyped with a black grimoire, they radiated dark majjyks and power. But now...
The old wands were little more than a shadow on the wall, compared to the utter blackness that the new wands radiated. Even with them sitting on the coffee table beside her, they seemed to suck the very light and warmth out of the room. The surge of power she had experienced just from holding them, was...exhilarating, to say the least.
Rose still wasn't entirely sure how her still sleeping dream-self could have actually made contact with something, particularly while she was still awake, but the contact had been made, nonetheless. It was as if the dream-self had acted like an intermediary between herself and the emissary.
Still, she now had more than a few tricks up her sleeves, should Jack Noir come calling. The horrorterrors had not yet begun any tutelage or patronage on her behalf, but that would likely come soon. Besides, she had things to do, places to be, and most importantly, secrets to unlock. Gazing at the white orb that sat in her lap, still refusing to surrender it's knowledge to her, Rose frowned. It had resisted her long enough, the time had come to deal with it...
Rising from the couch, captchaloguing her wands and the troublesome orb, she walked through the dim house towards the kitchen. Idly, she noted how warmth seemed to flood the room, and how the lingering darkness retreated into the shadowy corners of the room, now that the Thorns of Oglogoth were sheathed within her fetch-modus.
Incidentally, the sourceless whispering that she'd been hearing had also went away.
'Good riddance', she inwardly muttered.
They certainly were quite cool, and definitely useful for the 'dark witch' persona she was trying to cultivate, but when they never shut up or went away, even in private...that was when they began to grow annoying.
Sighing, she stepped into the slightly better lit kitchen, where a few thin streams of light came in through cracks in the blinds. At the table, Chris sat, plinking away at his laptop, happy and oblivious to the world.
Leaning against a counter-top, she coughed, "Ahem,"
Suddenly taking notice of her, Chris snapped his head up, and hurriedly pulled out his headphones.
"Ohyouredone!" he excitedly burbled, "canwe goand dosomething now? Imbored"
Rose nodded gracefully, "Why yes, we may."
Turning to the back door, she continued, "In fact, I have a target in mind, that would offer a much appreciated change of scenery."
Motioning for him to follow, she went outside.
Walking across the sparkling sands a good distance away from the house, she turned and glanced upwards, waiting for her companion to catch up. After a few moments, a bedraggled Chris exited the house, and slowly waded across the sand towards her.
Still grumbling incoherently about his aversion to sunlight, he came to a halt beside her.
Nodding upwards, she pointed at the fourth portal above her house. It was about a mile in the air, a coin sized circle of violet runes in the sky. She had broken the secrets of the seven portals a while ago, with the destruction of the first one.
They all led to various locations in the medium, acting as a form of level based progression that made sure that players could only access areas once their house was built high enough, thus assuring that they were of an appropriate skill level to handle the new challenges in that area.
She though, had destroyed the first, and now intended to skip the next few. This would be a bad idea... for those not armed with eldritch sorceries and knowledge of the blackest arts, as well as being accompanied by a god-tier.
"Do you see the fourth portal Chris?" she asked,
Squinting through his metal helmet, he nodded slowly.
"Good. We are going to pass through it, and travel to Dave's planet." she continued, "Do you understand?"
"yep!" Chris exclaimed cheerfully.
Satisfied with his understanding of the plan, she turned her gaze upwards, uncaptchalogued her wands, inadvertently sending Chris stumbling away from their awful aura, and took to the skies, trailing a corona of dark tendrils and shadows.
Chris shivered, took a deep breath, and fluidly lifted into the air with gog-tier majjyks.
Following the trail of inky smoke his new friend had left was far from challenging. Gracefully pushing himself higher and higher, he passed several really neat portal...things, before finally reaching the one Rose had entered. Pausing just before it, Chris took a deep breath.
He really hoped this wasn't going to be like that other door portal...
With that, he pushed himself upwards a few more feet, and into the slowly rotating purple circle. With a violet flash, Chris was gone...
XXXXX
Upon a Land of Heat and Clockwork, two figures sat inside a particularly large sprawl of industrial machinery.
Sitting beside his coolkid companion, Evan was browsing pesterchum, trying to get in contact with Chester again. Dave had mentioned earlier that the time for fooling around and executing Terezi's mysterious and unproductive plans was over, and that they actually had to try to figure out how to fight Jack.
Evan snorted. He knew full well how to fight this Jack fellow. Chainsword to the ribcage, followed by a few bursts from his flamethrower. Stomping on skull for added effect. Easy peasy.
He really didn't see what all the fuss was about.
These namby pamby children had probably just never killed anyone before.
Slowly shaking his head, he returned his gaze to his monitor. It was kinda odd, Chester seemed to be offline. Not one to usually get concerned about things, Evan simply shrugged. His internet was probably on the fritz or something. If he didn't come back on in half an hour, then he'd get concerned.
With his primary goal unachievable, he simply grunted, and glanced up at Dave. His companion had been trying to message Rose, who was apparently related to him through 'ecto-biosomething shenadigans', or something like that. Judging by the fact that he too, was idly scanning the horizon, it seemed that Rose was also unavailable.
Evan frowned. This meant that they'd have to figure out a plan together. He hated doing that. Rolling his eyes and sighing deeply, he ventured conversation,
"...So, I guess that rose person is offline too"
Dave nodded slowly, "it seems so, she was supposed to get in touch with me so we could get all crafty up in here, and actually figure out what to do, but she's apparently got some kind of other ideas."
Pausing for a moment, glancing out at the lake of magma beneath them, he added, "then again, jack might have suddenly watched a 'fix your life video' a few minutes ago, decided to stop being a lazy waste of space, and has started picking us all off one by one..." Ominously, he trailed off, before quickly continuing, "...or she's just being uncooperative and secretive...that's a possibility too"
Evan shrugged, "Chester seems to be offline too, maybe there's a problem with their hardware", he suggested,
Dave dramatically gasped, and turned to him slowly,
"oh. my. gog." he theatrically whispered, "he got them too..."
Evan frowned, Chester was probably alright, what was Dave talking about?
Continuing the elaborate charade, Dave non-nonchalantly shrugged, "well, i guess there's nothing to be alarmed about, they're obviously pranking us or something, the obvious and logical thing to do now is clearly to split up. all those footsteps upstairs are clearly just the wind. the glass breaking downstairs is obviously just our imaginations. anyway, do you want to go investigate the dark, spooky basement for no logical reason, or should I?"
"There's no basement here..." Evan began, wondering if Dave had hit his head recently.
"nah, never-mind, just busting into hardcore word-smithing again," Dave dismissively replied,
The look of confusion in Evan's eyes never went away, but he remained silent. Then, Evan's calm was broken when his pesterchum notification beeped.
Immediately assuming the messager to be Chester, he frantically reopened the chat client, and navigated to respond to the message. To his deep disappointment and surprise, the sender was not Chester.
Nor, was it anyone else that he knew.
With a gruff sigh of annoyance, he replied. Just his luck, this was probably another of those stupid fake aliens. A curious Dave scooted over, and glanced over his shoulder.
"Probably another dumb fake alien," Evan grumbled as a preemptive explanation.
-arachnidsGrip [aG]began pestering EnragedExtremist [EE]-
aG: Hey there human,
EE: ...Alright then, what do you want?
aG: Why do I specifically have to want something, hmmmmmmmm?
aG: Can't I just I just talk to the interesting aliens 8ecause I'm 8ored?
EE: uhh...
EE: I guess, I don't know
EE: Why are you bothering me though,
aG: oh no reason, no reason at all
aG: ...Say, you know, that gets me thinking...
aG: You know what really gets on my nerves?
EE: Do I look like this interests me in any way?
aG: Weak and spineless trolls...err...humans
aG: Aren't they simply the worst? Holding everytroll else 8ack, and 8eing little more than useless dead weight?
EE: I guess, the weakness of others usually gets on my nerves, but how is this relevant here?
aG: Oh no reason, no reason at all...
EE: Why are you bothering me about it then? I don't even know you
aG: Oh, I guess we'll have to rectify that, shall we?
aG: Vriska Serket, charmed, I'm sure
EE: Uh...
EE: Evan Mc-Cready, and you still haven't answered my question...
aG: Say, you're a pretty skilled killer, aren't you?
EE: Well...
aG: Great, so I have a little pro8lem that I think you'd 8e wonderful in solving
aG: You see, there's a very incompetent and useless troll on our team...
aG: ...and he is just a8out totally worthless and spineless in every way...
EE: That sounds like a you problem...
aG: ...so since you're quite proficient at murdering things, and 8eing strong and useful, I was hoping you could have a chat with him, and teach him to 8e less pathetic
EE: Well, err...
EE: Ummm
EE: I don't really like weakness or cowardice, but I don't think I'm the one you want to deal with this,
EE: I've spent years on Chris, and he still hasn't changed or improved.
EE: God knows I've utterly given up on Chester...
aG: That should 8e fine, toreadum8ass is a total doormat,
aG: if you tell him to get stronger and stop 8eing a wimp, he'll do it out of sheer fear and an ina8ility to say no, if nothing else
EE: ...I still haven't agreed to anything...
aG: You'll do it? Wonderfull, I knew I could count on you.
EE: Are you even listening to me?
aG: His tag's adiosToreador
aG: Thanks again, you're helping a useless coward make something of himself
EE: Hey, wait just a second here!
-arachnidsGrip [aG] ceased pestering EnragedExtremist [EE]-
Evan frowned in confusion.
That was the single strangest conversation he had ever had, bar none. Even when compared to the strange horse-loving fake alien. For a few moments, he quietly sat there, staring at his laptop screen in disbelief.
Dave poked him, "what's going on" he questioned.
Evan snapped back into the present, "Uhhh..." he began, "Some fake alien or something wants me to go bother another fake alien"
"that's not terezi, is it" Dave asked,
Evan shook his head, "I think her name is Vriska something or other..." he replied,
Dave paused thoughtfully, "i think tz mentioned her once...can't quite remember what she said about her"
Evan shrugged, "Probably nothing important," he dismissively muttered,
"are you going to do what she wants" Dave asked, eyeing the screen with mild suspicion,
"might as well, Chester's being uncooperative anyway" Evan grumbled, halfheartedly typing in the other troll's username,
Apparently the other fake alien was a weakling coward or something, and she wanted him to...give a motivational speech or something... because he was so good at those.
He sighed, rubbing the back of his head. He was a fighter for democracy and freedom...he most certainly had never signed up to deal with cowards and spineless scum.
'Besides', he reflected, 'My motivational track record with Chester and Chris is far from the greatest,'
Still, this was worth a shot. If he could fix the flaws of even a single (Definitely not an alien) person, it would be worth it. Thus, he finished entering the target's chum handle, and upon finding a matching account, messaged it.
-EnragedExtremist [EE]began pestering adiosToreador -
EE: Alright you worthless sack of shit, listen up!
aT: uH...HELLO
EE: Don't you 'hello' me
EE: One of your friends has had enough of your spineless crap, and has called me in to fix you,
aT: ,,,IM SORRY,
aT: bUT,,,UH,,,WHO ARE YOU,
EE: That's not important,
EE: I'm here to make you a strong and useful person
EE: So shut up and pay attention,
aT: iM SORRY, bUT YOU SAID ONE OF MY FRIENDS TOLD YOU TO TALK TO ME,
EE: Yeah, vrisky serkoot or something like that,
EE: I would have ignored her, but Chester's offline and I've nothing better to do
aT: uHH,,,DO YOU MEAN VRISKA SERKET
EE: Probably, I don't know
EE: Now then, the first part of being a stronger person is to actually become physically stronger,
EE: I expect you to begin every single day from now on with sixty pushups, sit ups, chin ups, and about a five mile run.
EE: That should be a good set up to condition you for harder routines,
aT: i DON'T THINK I CAN DO MOST OF THAT
EE: Are you talking back to me?
aT: nO, iM SORRY
aT: oR, nO, i MEAN YES
aT: i MEAN, i HAVE BROKEN LEGS SO I CANT DO MOST STUFF LIKE THAT
EE: Broken legs aren't an excuse, there are plenty of exercisers you can do while crippled
EE: Besides, how'd you even break your legs in the first place, fall down a flight of stairs
aT: wELL, eRR
aT: vRISKA SENT ME OFF A CLIFF
EE: Holy heck in a hand-basket, she pushed you off a cliff?
aT: nOT QUITE
aT: sHE MIND CONTROLLED ME, aND MADE ME WALK OFF
EE: That's preposterous
EE: Humans can't mind control people
aT: uHH,,,BUT I'M NOT A HUMAN THOUGH
EE: Stop lying to me, of course you are
EE: The first time was funny
EE: The second time got old really fast,
EE: The third time was just plain irritating
EE: Do you want to try and see what happens the fourth time one of you tries to trick me
aT: ,,,UH,,,NO IM SORRY
EE: Yeah, well, whatever
EE: So you say she pushed you off a cliff,
EE: Why?
aT: wELL,,,UHH
aT: ,,,
aT: tHAT'S IT, i'M NOT GOING TO STICK UP FOR HER ANYMORE, sHE IS JUST REALLY MEAN
EE: ...She pushed you off a cliff because she's mean...
EE: I wish I had friends that interesting
EE: Still, that gives me a brilliant idea
aT: ,,,uHHH
EE: Since you're too much of a wimp to strengthen your body, you're going to strengthen your character
EE: She pushed you off a cliff and broke your legs?
EE: Return the favor.
EE: An eye for an eye and all that
aT: uHH,,,I DON'T THINK I WANT TO DO THAT
EE: ...Alright, I'll humor you
EE: Why not?
aT: wELL, hURTING OTHER TROLLS IS BAD
EE: For a second there, I thought you had a good argument,
EE: Firstly, who taught you something as stupid as that
EE: Hurting people is neither good or bad, if you gotta do it, you shrug and do it
aT: aND,,,UHH,,,I'M KINDA SCARED OF HER
EE: Alright, whatever your name is, listen closely;
EE: She's gonna look a whole lot less scary when she's lying paralyzed on the ground a hundred feet below you
aT: mY NAME IS TAVROS
EE: And I'm Evan,
EE: And I swear, if you try to convince me that you're an alien,
EE: I'm going to find you, and break your arms, so they don't feel left out
aT: ,,,PLEASE DON'T DO THAT
EE: I probably wont if you don't irritate me any more than your weakness already does
EE: Now then, are you going to brainstorm and find the nearest cliff you can throw her off
aT: wE'RE HIDING INSIDE A METEOR BASE FROM JACK, tHERE ARE NO CLIFFS
EE: ...Do I have to state the obvious, throw her down a flight of stairs then, take a sledgehammer to her in her sleep, break her spine with a door,
EE: Figure it out yourself, it's not hard
aT: bESIDES, i PROBABLY CAN'T DEFEAT HER ANYWAY, sHE'S REALLY STRONG AND TALENTED
EE: That's not a problem, get the jump on her, slip drugs in her food, empty a bucket of grease down a staircase, tie tripwires inside doorways, tie her shoes together
aT: i DON'T THINK I EVEN WANT TO DO ANY OF THAT TO HER
aT: aND I,,,UHH,,,DON'T APPRECIATE YOU TELLING ME TO HURT MY FRIENDS
EE: Why not?
EE: She seems like a pretty awful person, all things considered,
EE: I won't and can't force you to do anything, but you should really take this moment to evaluate your life,
EE: Are you happy being a doormat that gets pushed off cliffs and defends the people that pushed him off?
EE: Are you happy having those people think of you as a useless waste of space?
EE: Are you happy with being too weak willed to even think about taking action about it?
EE: ...Think about it, whatever your name was,
EE: I don't really care what you do, but if you're tired of being a worthless doormat, I've given you plenty of ways to change your lot in life,
EE: Where you go from here, is entirely up to you.
-EnragedExtremist [EE] ceased pestering adiosToreador -
Evan exited the conversation, satisfied that he gave the pacifistic coward something to think about. He didn't really care what the fake alien did, and Evan certainly doubted he'd have the character and moral integrity to actually do anything. Once a coward, always a coward.
Still, he just went ahead with the Serket girl's strange demands out of sheer curiosity and a desire to kill time, more than anything else. It wasn't as if the other fellow would actually take anything he said to heart.
After all, his brilliant advice had failed to fix Chester and Chris, and he'd even pulled out all the stops for them. Slideshows, lectures, demonstrations, Q and A sessions. This was just him half-assedly rambling at a total stranger, and making assumption after assumption about his life.
Still, gazing out at the lava beneath his feet, he idly wondered if anything that he'd said would have any effect...
XXXXX
Upon a dim meteor, deep within the veil, an orange blooded troll sat behind his husktop, nervously tapping a robotic foot.
Tavros Nitram was wracked with indecision. Out of the blue, some odd human had began yelling at him through pesterchum. Furthermore, it was revealed that Vriska had sent the human. Why? To torment him further than she already did?
He weakly glanced downwards at his metal legs. She had already taken so much from him, and despite the understanding they had come to, she seemed to want yet more.
He never pretended to fully understand her interest in him. Apparently it had something to do with their ancient Alternian ancestors, and whatever they had gotten upto. Still, all that meant nothing. He had heard only brief snippets about his ancestor, the Summoner, but what he did know was that he was a revolutionary, a fighter for freedom, a leader of trolls, ...a hero.
Wistfully breaking a faint sad smile, he leaned back in his chair. He was no hero. Vriska was right, the...Evan fellow was right. He was weak, he was pathetic, and he was spineless.
Now the Evan human was pushing him to take revenge on her. To avenge his own wounds, as well as all the innocent lives that the cerulean blood had taken over the sweeps. To perhaps, take a step towards fulfilling his ancestor's legacy.
Gritting his teeth, he sighed. It was impossibly hard to think about. Every-time he thought he had come to a conclusion, thoughts of better times with Vriska floated, unbidden, into his mind. Their thrilling adventures in the early days of FLARP, before the...incident. Their later plundering of treasures in the medium, working together for the first time in...a long time.
Even when he managed to push those aside, doubts came to replace them. Even if he tried to fight her, even if he mustered the resolve and the courage, he simply wouldn't win. Vriska was an experienced killer. Utterly ruthless and alternatingly cold and sadistic, she had slain many trolls, both in games of FLARP, as well as simply hunting down unfortunate trolls to feed her lusus. She was no stranger to taking lives, and was rightly feared on Alternia.
He was a weak cripple that never even tried to take lives in FLARP. Even with his new-found metal legs, courtesy of the odd blue-blooded troll, Equius, he was utterly no match for her. Worse still, she was a gog-tier, he was not.
That particular thought brought back even worse memories...
Even at her dying pleading and insistence, he couldn't bring himself to kill her then. What hope was there now? Sighing, he rested his hands on his metal legs, finding the coolness of the metal quite pleasant.
Perhaps, he thought, he would contact her. Maybe then, he could figure something out.
Just then, as he stewed in indecision, his pesterchum beeped. With sudden trepidation, he opened the chat window.
-arachnidsGrip [aG]began pestering adiosToreador -[1]
aG: Tavros, your stupidity sometimes surprises even me.
aG: The next time you decide to gush at an alien girl...
aG: Make sure her chat client isn't being holographically projected for all to see, ok?
….
XXXXX
Tavros stared at the empty screen in a mixture of burning anger and shame. Vriska had organized Jack's creation? So that she could have a worthy adversary? What on Alternia was she thinking? She was even entirely unrepentant about it, and still thought she could defeat the monster she'd created at any moment.
Worse, he thought back with embarrassment, she had seen him talk to Jade. He had made some...questionable statements, back when he was still brimming with false confidence and bravado.
Afterwards, he thought little of it, as Jade was a nice human, and wouldn't hold it against him. Vriska on the other hand, had wasted no time in tearing into him, and ripping his self-esteem to shreds.
His hands shaking, he suddenly stood up, pushing away from the table. Glancing at the door, he had made a desision. Vriska intended to leave the safety of the meteor. She planned to fight Jack... She was going to die, and lead him right to them all.
With a heavy heart, he knew that this was something he could never allow.
'But how could I possibly fight her', a dejected voice in his head muttered sadly.
He paused in thought, before looking up again, the light of a plan burning in his eyes. The Evan human had given him much to think about, after all, and many good ideas...
Vriska thought him weak, cowardly, spineless...he was going to show her just how wrong she was...
A/N: So, the [1] bit represents a chunk of text I somewhat paraphrased from MSPA, mainly due to it showing the start of the main conversation with Tavros and Vriska, where she reveals her involvement with Jack, and drives Tavros to fight her. Again, that part is only vaguely mine, and the non-paraphrased parts are credited to Hussie.
Anyway, I thank you all so much for reading, I hope you all review, as it greatly encourages me to write faster, and I hope you all have an excellent Day/Night/Whatever.
P.S, Ebrietas is a BloodBorne reference. Given the lovecraftian themes involved with the noble circle of the horrorterrors, I couldn't resist.