Vriska couldn't sleep. She had gone back to her sector with Gamzee hours ago and left him sleeping in one of her empty secret blocks. She had made sure that there was no way he could escape before moving a huge machine in front of the sealed door. She was now in her respiteblock, behind two closed doors that could only be opened with two different passwords. She was not worried about the clown, even if he somehow managed to break free and reach her, she would only need to mind-control him again. No, that was the least of her worries. She just couldn't sleep; she was too excited for it. After all, John had come back from a doomed timeline under Terezi's orders only to save her life. That was an inscrutable proof that these losers needed her to win this game. She was not surprised, actually, only glad that someone had finally recognized her talents. She had so much to do, there was no time to sleep. But, what should she do first?
Ok. As Marquise used to say, or at least write in her journal, first step of any plan is reconnaissance and gathering information. She got up of her pile of dices and broken 8 balls and opened one of her treasure chests. She took out one of her magic 8 balls and brought it with her to sit back on her pile. She had questions that needed answers and her magic balls had always been useful. Where to begin, though? What would her ancestor have done in her place? Well, she doubted that someone as intelligent and cunning as Marquise Spinneret Mindfang would have ever found herself in her situation. But if Marquise was here, she would probably begin at the beginning.
"Did Terezi kill me in the previous timeline, when John didn't intervene?" was her first question.
She looked into the hole and saw the word 'YES' appear there. Well, she already knew that, but it was always good to test the ball with questions that she already knew the answer to before asking the important ones. Now, she needed a question which it's answer was no.
"Did I die Heroically?" she asked again.
The next answer appeared almost immediately, and as expected it was 'NO'. Of course, she had already known that fact. There was nothing heroic in being backstabbed. However, she was God Tier, and it was not exactly easy to kill her. If it hadn't been a heroic death, there was only one option left.
"Was my death Just?"
'YES'
Well, there was no any doubt anymore, not if even that stupid ball could see it. She should be honoured, really. Having a Just death meant that she was doing something significant that other people considered wrong. It was a subjective opinion. However, that didn't mean that what she was doing was truly wrong, in an objective way. She was going to kill Jack, if that was not heroic, she didn't know what would be. She should have been flattered instead of being condemned to die without a proper explanation. Unless…
"Did I die a Just death because I killed Tavros?"
'NO'
Ok, so killing Tavros had not been considered bad, or at least not by the Sgrub standards. Then, why was she still feeling remorse about that? It was unnatural, she was a troll and a blue-blood even. As such, she was supposed to cull low-bloods and other lower beings by the hundreds without feeling guilty about it. She had actually done that for sweeps during her FLARP campaigns, all to feed her lusus. It was not something she was actually proud of, but she hadn't had any option; it was them or her. She had never felt remorse for those losers, though. However, killing Tavros had felt different. Maybe it was because she didn't have to do it? Her lusus had been dead for a perigee at that point, and her sprite didn't eat anymore, so she technically didn't need to kill anyone to feed her. She had not killed him because she needed to, but because she wanted to. Maybe that's why it had felt so weird afterwards, she could not use the excuse of needing to feed her lusus to justify her actions. However, Tavros had deserved it. She had given him hundreds of opportunities to get stronger, to be better, but instead he had run away every time, like the coward he was! He was so infuriating and made her so mad that, in the end, seeing him trying to stop her from becoming a true hero, being brave at least only to try to kill her, had been too much. Yet, it had been ridiculously easy to kill him. After all those sweeps annoying her and refusing to take any change of improvement, everything ended in a second. It was almost anticlimactic, all that effort for nothing. Still, it didn't explain why she felt so guilty and empty afterwards, though. She had even gone crying to John in a vague hope of comfort. It didn't make any sense! She was a troll, the descendent of the infamous pirate Marquise Spinneret Mindfang! She shouldn't feel remorse for killing a weakling, it was in her genes! She was a hero! She did NOT deserve a Just death!
"Why did Terezi killed me?"
'TRY AGAIN'
Aaaargh! These balls were so annoying sometimes! She tried to think of a way to ask the same, but that could be answered with yes or no. She had no clue of why Terezi killed her, so it was hard.
"Did Terezi killed me in vengeance for Tavros' dead?"
'NO'
"Did Terezi killed me because she hates me?"
'NO'
"Did Terezi killed me in a whim?"
'NO'
"Did Terezi killed me because she had become crazy?"
'NO'
"Did Terezi want to kill me before she actually did it?"
'NO'
"What was Terezi thinking?!"
'TRY AGAIN'
That was soooooooo annoying! It was a shame that she didn't have her white cue ball anymore. Although, knowing who was behind it, maybe it was better that it was lost. Last time that Vriska used it, she had ended up with half her body destroyed. She had run out of ideas of why Terezi killed her by now, but maybe that was not the most important question anyway.
"Did Terezi make a mistake when she killed me on the last timeline?"
'NO'
What? That was false! Of course she chose the wrong option! It was Terezi! Both of them had made their mistakes in the past and got vengeance over the other, but they never actually tried to kill each other! The only reason that she could think of Terezi killing her would be if she had no alternative.
"If Terezi had not killed me, and instead let me go on our last timeline, would we have been doomed?
'YES'
Ok, that was not what she had expected this time. If killing her had not been a mistake, then why did they all ended dead in that alternate timeline? More specifically, why that alternate Terezi decided that keeping her alive would avoid their doomed fate this time?
"If Terezi had let me go instead of killing me, would have Jack killed us all?"
'YES'
Oh. So she would have lost and then Jack would have find the meteor and killed everyone else.
"Did Terezi knew that letting me go would end with all of us killed?"
'YES'
"Did Terezi use her mind powers to predict the future of my actions before deciding to kill me?"
'YES'
Well, that explained it. If Terezi had let her go to fight Jack, all of them would have died. Vriska knew herself enough to admit that there was no way she would have been convinced to stay, and with her highblood resistance, she was not exactly easy to knock out. So, Terezi really didn't have any other option. Vriska had been so sure that she could win that fight, or at least not die. However, she never thought that her decision would have led to everyone's death. How did she miss it? Was she really so full of herself that she went into a suicidal fight without a good plan? Her? Even Tavros saw that her plan was a mistake and tried to stop her. He had been trying to save her and everyone else from her own stupid ego. For once, he had been trying to do the hard thing for everyone's sake, to be the hero. Like Vriska had always wanted him to be. And she rewarded him with murder. She felt guilty again.
Vriska let her ball fall on the surface of the pile while she thought about it, where it mixed with her broken balls. That had been a wrong move for her part, it would be hard to find later, if needed. She shrugged; it would be a problem for later, not now. There was nothing she could do for Tavros anymore; their only option now was to avoid doing the same stupid mistakes that happened last time. No more dead trolls, it was clearly not the way to go. Whatever happened on the doomed timeline, they couldn't afford letting it happen again this time. She would begin by personally ensuring that no one else died. She was alive, so things were already different. Killing her had not been a wrong move at the time, had actually made them avoid a doomed timeline, but in the end the result had been the same. So, maybe it was not the fact that she was killed last time, but that her absence had led to the others' failure somehow? Without her here it would have been only Karkat, Terezi, Gamzee, Kanaya, Sollux, and the humans. And the carapacian, but she seriously doubted that creature could contribute to anything. No, wait, Sollux was not there last time either. So, Krabkat, Terezi, the crazy clown, miss Meddlesome and the stupid aliens. Yeah, not the best team. The only one worth something was Terezi, but she was no leader, especially because she was always letting Karkat play at leadership. Was that it? Was the lack of a proper leader the only reason they had failed? She picked up her ball again.
"In the last timeline, did everyone in the meteor failed because they did not have a good leader?"
There was no answer, the screen was still black. It took her a moment to realise that she had picked up a broken ball instead of the only functional magic ball in the pile. Crash. She knew it had been a mistake to let it mix with the others the moment she did it. Resigned, she spent the next five minutes looking for her missing ball. Luckily, it was still on the surface of the pile, so it didn't take that long to find. She repeated the question again.
"Did everyone in the meteor in the last timeline failed because they did not have a good leader?"
'TRY AGAIN'
"Was Karkat the leader of the meteor's team in the last timeline?"
'TRY AGAIN'
"Did my friends died in the last timeline because a lack of leadership?"
'TRY AGAIN'
Weird. She was getting more error answers than usual even in questions with yes/no answers. Maybe the ball could not answer specifics of the last timeline? Or her questions were too general? It had known the answer when she asked about Terezi killing her, though. Well, if she was exact, it had known the answers to questions of events until she died in her last timeline. This was her magic ball after all, she was the only one that could use it, so maybe it had lost its power with her death? Was there a way to test it?
"Did Terezi wanted me dead in the previous timeline?"
'NO'
"Did Terezi regret killing me in the previous timeline?"
'TRY AGAIN'
That seemed to be it. She tried other combination of questions for a while, only to be sure, and every time she asked something that happened after her death or that had an answer that was not yes or no, she obtained the same answer again and again: 'Try again'. It was clear that she was not going to get useful information about the doomed timeline with the 8 ball. She let it fall to the floor and rested fully on her pile. Was there another way to obtain information from a doomed timeline? Usually only those that had actually lived, and probably died, in a doomed timeline knew what happened in it. Maybe they would find a ghost of someone from that particular timeline eventually, but with so many possible doomed ones, it would be hard. So, only John would be useful to ask, future John in particular, but he was clearly not coming back. She didn't blame him. He had come back to the past, changed what was necessary and left. If he had stayed, he could have affected their timeline with his presence and undoubtedly lead them into a different doomed fate. Leaving after changing some crucial things had been the most intelligent approach. If nothing else, that was what convinced her that it had been Terezi's plan. John was a lot of things, but he was not a tactician.
A tactician. Maybe that was what they lacked last time? Karkat was good at convincing people to do what he wanted, and in avoiding in-fighting for long periods of time. Kanaya was always gossiping and mediating between all pitch relationships without anyone asking her to do it. Terezi had a good moral compass and knew how to hold her own in a fight, but she was no strategist. Gamzee was annoying, crazy, and he probably played for the other side. Sollux had not been here last time, and even if he had been, he was too disinterested and pessimist to be of much help. He was powerful though, if he managed to get back his psionics before they arrived at the next session, he would be a strong weapon. But a weapon was useless without anyone using it. Regarding the humans, she did not know them or their abilities enough to determine their usefulness. As far as she knew, Strider was a Knight of Time and was good in a fight, but he was quite stupid. And Lalonde had her moments, like when having a general idea of the best plan to win, but she was clearly bad with the details needed for a careful plan. So that was it, they did not have anyone qualified to design a well-thought and detailed plan. They had probably winged it when they reached the new session. It was not surprising that everything had gone wrong, it was a miracle they had actually survived that sweep and a half on their own.
That was something she could do. She was the best at strategy and planning, and after all her experience in FLARP, it would be as easy as stealing a candy from a grub. She got up again and looked into her chest, looking for something in particular. She had spent all her grubhood in FLARP campaigns, for her it had been more a necessity than a hobby. FLARP was the easiest way to get food for her lusus after all, dead lowbloods didn't exactly grow from the trees. That didn't mean that she had not enjoyed the games, though. She had played all types of campaigns: survival games, single-player games, co-ops in teams, treasure hunts, games where she needed to steal, to get a particular information, to kill someone in particular, to manipulate and cause chaos and infighting, or even some campaigns were she had to mediate between teams in war with each other. That last one had been weird and boring and had ended with her killing both leaders and unifying both teams under her own sign. She had been disqualified for it, but it had been so worth it. However, the fact was that she had experience in all types of campaigns, and she had kept a detailed record of each of them in her FLARP notebooks. It didn't really matter if she had won or lost the game, she had kept detailed record of all of them. Every plan, strategy and trick learned in those games had been useful for later campaigns, and eventually for her in-real-life manipulation schemes, too.
She had lost some of the notebooks with her hive and her planet in the hands of Jack Noir, but she always kept with her the most relevant ones. She brought them out of the chest and contemplated her current situation. Eventually they would have to kill someone with the abilities of a First Guardian, which was stronger than Gl'bgolyb, a literally horrorterror. She picked up the notebook of the campaign where she had to kill the strongest purple-blood she had ever meet, and be subtle enough doing it that nobody knew who had been the murderer. She was pretty high in the hemospectrum but killing a purple-blood was no joke. Of course, it could not compare to their current boss level, but the context was similar enough that she might find something useful in there. She put the notebook to the side and contemplated the rest. Considering her current situation, she had to somehow survive a sweep and a half in an almost empty rock. More importantly, she needed to make sure that everyone in her team survived and was physically and mentally ready to kill an unkillable boss. She took the notebook of the longest campaign she ever did, when she spent three perigees surviving outside her hive, alone and with the minimum of resources. It had been hard in the beginning, but she got really good at it towards the end. The worst part had been coming back home to a hungry and pissed of lusus. She put the notebook on the side too, and picked up another, this time from a campaign where she had to keep alive the worst team of sobbing, weak losers ever to exist. When she was done with them, half of the team was in conciliatory relationships with the other half. She almost felt bad for them when she led them directly into her lusus' mouth, once their campaign had finished. At least they went down together, that's supposed to be romantic, right?
Three notebooks should be more than enough inspiration for her current campaign. She began putting the rest of her journals back into the chest when her eyes fell into the blue cover of one of them. She picked it up and opened it, trying to remember which game was that one about. The memories came back as soon as she saw the code she used in it. This journal was from the only time she had played as an information collector from inside of the enemy's territory. It was not exactly the same situation that she was currently living, but maybe she could find some good ideas regarding how to obtain information of their alternate doomed timeline. Knowing the exact events that had doomed that timeline could be the key to avoid it happening again. Four journals then. Now, where should she begin?
First things first, she needed a new notebook. Luckily for everyone, she always had an empty one buried in her sylladex for occasions just like this. Armed with the empty notebook and several pens, she looked at her old FLARP notebooks, scattered on the floor in front of her. Probably best to keep the same organisation for this planning, even when it would be the longest and more important campaign that anyone will ever play. Her system worked before, so better to stay with it. First, she needed the most important thing: a campaign name. It had to be something witty but intimidating, easy to remember but that reflected the importance of the situation. And the most important part: it needed an 8 somewhere. She opened the last page of the notebook and began writing possibilities. Ten minutes later she had run out of clever references to eight and moved into doggy puns. Fifteen minutes after that, she had crossed half of her previous attempts and moved into phrases with 'Jack' on it. Finally, twenty minutes later she was deciding between two options. However, none of them was satisfying her, there was something missing. She needed a second opinion. She got up from the floor, cracking her back to a correct position after too much time leaning over her notes on the floor, and sit back on her pile while she decaptchalogued her palmhusk from her sylladex.
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]
AG: if you had to choose 8etween 'Jacksination pl8n' or 'Universal g8me' which would you pick?
AG: I like the fusion of jack and assassination 8ut this g8me is 8igger than him
AG: he's also a 8astard and don't deserve any mention
AG: Terezi?
AG: are you even getting this?
gallowsCalibrator [GC] is offline
AG: ::::(
AG: are you actually sleeping when there is soooooooo m8ch to do?
AG: why I'm always the only one th8t caaaaaaaares!
arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]
That had been a complete waste of time. She sat back again and looked at her candidates. No, none of them would work, she knew there was a perfect name waiting to be discovered. Vriska would not insult it by using a second-grade name, even if temporarily. She didn't like it, but she had no choice: she would have to begin planning without a proper title. A perigee ago she would have avoided that situation at all costs because it was bad luck. Now however, she owned luckiness, she had all the luck in paradox space. Title postponed; next step was to determinate the main objectives. She went back to the beginning of the notebook and skipped the first page, which would be reserved for the title, and began writing on the second.
G8ME PLAN
O8JECTIVES
The first one was clearly killing the big boss. He was the responsible for trapping them in their session and blocking them from their prize, and he was trying to kill them. He was also the main problem to solve if they wanted to win the human's game. Once Jack had been dealed with, everything else should be a walk in the park.
1. KILL 8AAAAAAAASTAAAAAAAARD!
Second objective was, of course, wining the game properly this time. What was the point in beating the final boss if you don't get the final recompense? It had been frustrating enough the first time, never again.
2. WIN G8ME
Ok. Those were the principal objectives. Killing the boss and winning the game, that was all that was needed. She was not missing anything, right? She reclined back over her pile while she thought it over. She could not think of anything else they would need to do to win the game. If they knew what went wrong last time, they would be more prepared. She definitively needed to find a way to get all the information possible. Probably it will have to wait until they got to the new session, and if what Lalonde told them was true, they would not have a lot of time before having to fight the final boss. Well, they had a Time player with them now, in particular one that could travel through time. She was not sure if Strider could send other people to the past or if it was only himself. However, it could be useful. She wrote a note in the margin of the page to remind herself to check how his powers worked later. Going back to the objectives, maybe she should consider add getting to the new session? Not only getting there, actually, but to do it with a physical and mentally prepared team. She added two more objectives
3. GET TO NEW SESSI8N
4. KILL MURDER CL8WN
Yeah, it was important to remind herself that Gamzee had gone into a murder spree on them before, and nothing said that he wouldn't do it again. For now he was contained with her mind-powers but it would be a pain in the nook if she had to keep doing that for a full sweep and a half. Getting rid of him would be the easiest way, but she was not sure that it was a good option. It had been clear by previous events that killing trolls tended to send them into doomed timelines. Maybe it would be better to check with their Seers before making a stupid mistake again. In any case, killing him would be easy, so it shouldn't be considered a main objective. She didn't know what she had been thinking. She crossed the fourth objective from the list.
4. KILL MURDER CL8WN
So, three main things to consider. She turned a page, time to begin.
A few hours later she had moved from her respiteblock to the bigger block at the entrance of her section. The one with a computer with a register of the meteors' impact in Alternia, and another with the exiles' server. None of them worked, of course, like half the machinery in the meteor. However, the room was bigger, even with the huge broken glass tube in the centre. She was sitting in a small pile of 8 balls and dices, with all her old journals and a couple of new ones spread in front of her. She had tried to be organized, but sometimes in the middle of planning murder schemes she remembered something that they would need to ensure happened if they wanted to win the game. Then, that though lead to another and another, until in the middle of that, she got the idea to check if they could get food or other things out from the dream bubbles, which was something more related to the third objective. It was hard to be organized when her mind didn't work like that. So, in the end, she had decided to have three different notebooks, one for each objective, in an attempt to keep certain level of order. Now she had three notebooks with random ideas regarding each objective, and three more where she tried to organise those same ideas in a way that made more sense. It was not working, she had only managed to make a bigger mess. She needed a way to see all the relevant information at once, something bigger. The wall at the end of the block looked promising. Just then, her palmshusk biped repeatedly in an annoying way.
gallowsCalibrator [GC] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]
GC: YOU W3R3 TH3 ON3 TH4T TOLD US TO G3T SOM3 SL33P DUMB4SS
GC: D1D YOU SL33P 4T 4LL?
GC: WH4T 1M SAY1NG OF COURS3 YOU H4V3NT
GC: YOU 4R3 4LR3DY OV3RTH1NK1NG 3V3RYTH1NG R1GHT?
GC: 4ND BOTH T1TL3S 4R3 HORR1BL3
AG: hey Tez, just the tr8ll I needed!
GC: :o
GC: WH4T R34LLY?
AG: of course, silly, I need your expertise in something
GC: :]
GC: HOW C4N TH1S HUMBL3 L3G1SL4C3R4TOR B3 OF H3LP TO SUCH 4N HONOUR4BL3 C1T1Z3N?
AG: this citizen name is Marquise Mindfang, and she is not an honourable citizen at all
AG: in fact, she is not even a citizen
AG: she is a pir8
AG: and she is in the most important and dangerous journey of her life!
GC: 1 S33
GC: 4ND WH4T F3LON13S H4S TH1S F34RSOM3 P1R4T3 DON3 TH1S T1ME?
AG: she has not done any fel8ny in a long time
AG: in fact, she is trying to redeem herself
AG: she is currently carrying a group of refugees to a safe place
AG: she is still fears8me though
AG: :::;)
GC: 1TS NOT H3R ROL3 TO D3C1D3 1F SH3 1S 4LLOW3D R3D3MPT1ON
GC: TH4TS TH3 JOB FOR THOS3 PROT3CT1NG TH3 L4W
GC: HOW3V3R
GC: 1F SH3 1S SUCH 4 GR34T 4ND 4CCOMPL1SH3D TROLL WHY SH3 N33DS A L3G1SL4C3R4TOR 1N TH3 F1ST PL4C3?
AG: she doesn't need any 8oring legislacerator, only one can help her in this matter
AG: only one has the experience and tools for this extremely dangerous 8ut crucial job
GC: :]
GC: ;]
GC: 4ND WH4T 1S TH4T D4NG3ROUS BUT CRUC14L ROL3?
AG: see, Marquise was ela8or8ing a plan for her mission, 8ut her writing tools were not enough
AG: too much information for so small space
AG: however, she was contempl8ng this huge empty, 8oring wall in one of her 8locks
GC: :o
GC: 1M COM1NG!
AG: ye8h!
AG: scourge sisteeeeeeeers!
AG: don't forg8 your chalk
arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]
AG: ::::D
arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]
Vriska captchalogued her palmhusk back into her sylladex and decided to get up from the small pile. Surrounding her, the floor was covered by all her notebooks and sheets of paper with random notes and ideas. She hoped that Terezi could help organize it a bit, at this point even she had problems to find anything useful in that mess. If Terezi was coming, she needed to unblock the transportalizer to her section. The platform was in a short hallway on the next floor, taking the stairs in the corner of the block. She walked towards them but stopped just before the stairs. On the wall next to the stairs, there was the secret entrance to the small room where she put Gamzee the previous day, maybe she should check on him, just to be sure he was still trapped. Before opening the door, she used her mind-powers to reach the clown's sponge and make sure he was still asleep, she also sent him a new wave of sleepiness only to be sure. Then, she pushed two hidden buttons in the wall, simultaneously, and a part of the wall moved away. In the small room, Gamzee was resting on the floor, asleep and prong and strut pods still tightly tied. Good. She closed the door again and walked up the stairs to the entrance. Over the transportalizer there was one of the heavy machines that were everywhere in the meteor. It was too heavy for her to move it, but luckily it was small enough to fit in her sylladex. She captchalogued it and sent a quick message to Terezi, letting her know that it was open. Once back in the big block, she stopped in front of the exiles' terminal and pushed buttons at random. Still not working, she didn't know if it was because there was no energy, if these computers were somehow blocked or if they simply didn't work so far from any session. She moved to the other computer, which showed the meteor impacts in her old planet. She wondered how much information about Sgrub and their session was still in those dead terminals, it could be useful to be more prepared for the next one. Maybe their resident hacker could do something about them, At least that way he would be of some use, now that he had stupidly lost one of their most powerful weapons.
"Are those Sgrub terminals?" she heard somebody ask.
She turned to the stairs, where Terezi had just appeared.
"Yeah, this one is the meteors' impact countdown and the other I believe is an exiles' terminal," she explained. "They are both dead, though."
"Maybe Sollux could do something about them," commented the teal-blooded troll. "They could still have useful information about the sessions."
"Exactly what I was thinking, my dear legislacerator," smiled Vriska, happy that they were in the same wavelength.
Terezi smiled her full-face smile to her and Vriska felt satisfied. That was a much better look on her than the defeated, doubtful face she had the previous day.
"So, where is that boring wall you mentioned, my dear pirate?" asked Terezi, still with the same smile.
"This way," answered Vriska while turning away.
She brought Terezi back to where she had all her papers and jumped back into her pile. It wasn't until she was on top of it that she realised there was no space for Terezi to sit on. Her pile was too small to fit them both and, anyway, that idea was a bit too pale. Not that she would particularly mind it if Terezi decided to sit there, next to her. If it was someone else, she would kill them before they got close to her space, she was not really a pale person, she needed to keep some social distance. Not even Kanaya, who had been her moirail for sweeps, was allowed on a pile with her. However, Terezi had been her friend since they were grubs, and, even if the other troll still had grudges against her for stupid mistakes that should stay in the past, Vriska still considered her a friend. Maybe the only truly friend she had. So, probably sitting in the same pile wouldn't be so bad if it was Terezi. It didn't even had to mean anything, it could be a totally platonic pile-sharing situation. She was about to offer that option, when her friend decaptchalogued her own pile of dragon plushies next to hers and sit down on it. Oh, Vriska tried to not feel disappointed about it.
"I'm sure you haven't eaten anything yet, I am right?" asked her friend. "Have you even slept?"
"I'm not hungry," protested her. "And I will sleep later, this is more important."
"Vris, it had been more than ten hours since the dream bubble," said Terezi in a deadpan voice. "Tell me you slept at least an hour, specially after you were the one ordering everyone to sleep."
Ten hours already? It couldn't be. Vriska took out her palmhusk and checked the time, it said that it was midnight already. Oh, she had really spent half day working instead of sleeping and she had not even realised it.
"I couldn't sleep," she grumbled, a bit ashamed.
Terezi only sighed, decaptchalogued a couple cans of TaB and two sandwiches made of what looked like grubmeat, and offered her one of each. Vriska realised then that she was indeed hungrier than she thought so when her digestion bladder made a complaining sound. She took a can and a sandwich and began eating while Terezi checked her papers.
"Don't lick them or you will smear the ink," warned Vriska. "Let me explain what I have been working on."
She explained her three main objectives and the information and ideas she had collected for each of them, jumping from one idea to another the moment she remembered it. When she finally finished her sandwich, she took the first notebook and began reading aloud what she had missed, jumping to another when she couldn't find an idea she was sure it was written somewhere. Terezi didn't say anything for a while, just listening and processing. However, it wasn't long before she interrupted.
"Wait, stop, stop," she said. "You have mentioned 'destroy Green Sun' twice already, and 'collect food' at least five times."
Vriska squinted her eyes at that. That could not be, right? It was right there in the notebook in her hands that was about 'getting to new sessi8n', as it should. Only to be sure, she went back to the last notebook she had been reading aloud and noticed that it also had 'get food' there in the section of 'win g8me'. Crap. That was a mess.
"We need a better system to keep track of everything," sentenced Terezi while getting up. "You were right, you clearly need my skills."
Vriska rolled her eyes yellow, but didn't complain when Terezi decaptchalogued her colourful chalks. That was the whole point of inviting her here, after all. She got up and stole a blue chalk from the other troll's prong before transforming into her God Tier form and flying to the top of the wall. Better to use all the space they could. She began writing 'K8LLING JACK' but Terezi stopped her.
"Wait, we should do it in chronological order," she said. "And don't use your quirk, let's make it easier to read for everyone."
"Whaaaaaaaat?! My quirk is the easiest one to read!" she complained. "Yours is a lot more troublesome, miss 413. And what do you mean by 'everyone'?"
"Well, I assumed you would want to have meetings with the others eventually to properly use all of our resources," she commented. "Especially Lalonde's abilities, as she is a Seer of Light."
That actually made sense, how have she not thought about that? As much as she hated it, Lalonde had already proven that her powers to predict their best outcome could be useful. However, the others would probably not be as resourceful as the Seer. Nevertheless, those meetings sounded like a good way to keep everyone in check and contributing.
"Does it have to be in my private section?" grumbled her.
"Where best to keep all information updated?" insisted her friend. "Now, quit complaining and write the title 'Survival game' on the first column."
"You changed my title!" complained Vriska, while reluctantly admitting to herself that it was a way better title this way. "Stop bossing me around!"
"You are the one that called me here AND stole my chalk," answered Terezi with a huge grin. "I can't fly either, so until we get to a height where I can reach, you will be my scribe. Better like this anyway, your organising system is trash."
"My system works perfectly fine!" she defended herself, still writing on the wall. "But, sure, let's try your way for now. Don't lick my notebooks, Terezi!"
The other troll already had her tongue out, ready to mess with Vriska's nice handwriting, but stopped at her complain.
"Fiiiine, but you will need to read some parts for me, your letters are to small to sniff them properly," argued her, then.
"Sure, just keep your tongue to yourself," insisted Vriska. "Ok, the title is there, now what?"
"First, let's divide the wall in three sections, one for each objective," instructed Terezi. "Here, use red for 'Killing Jack' next, and for the last part… purple?
"No, not purple" refused Vriska, she hated both that colour and the caste with that particular colour in their blood. "Do you have violet? Or fuchsia? Those should be different enough to the ones we already have to make it easy to read."
Terezi nodded and throw her the mentioned chalks. Then, under Terezi instructions, Vriska separated the wall in three parts and under each title she divided all the information in several subtitles. In the 'Survival game' section, everything was divided into the category's 'resources', 'needs', 'roles' and so go on. They did the same for each objective, and Vriska had to admit that it was already looking much more organised and clear this way than with her notebooks. It was easier to avoid repeating ideas when they could clearly see all of them, and having a 'need' subsection in each objective helped to showcase where they still had work to do. She was writing about collecting information of the previous timeline in the 'Win game' part when Terezi stopped reading ideas aloud. She turned towards her, still floating in the air, and saw that her friend was frowning to one of her notebooks. Was it something she couldn't read? She flew down until she could see over her shoulder what was causing so much trouble for her. In the middle of the page there was a sentence written clearly in big handwriting: 'WHY DID TEREZI KILL ME?'. Oh.
"I wanted to ask you about that, but then I got so focused in other things that I forgot it," she excused while eyeing the other troll. "I'm not mad or anything like that, I just want to know where I went so wrong to deserve a Just death."
Terezi didn't say anything for a couple of moments, and her shoulders shrank a bit. Her doubtful expression had come back and she was keeping her eyes fixed on the notebook.
"I messed up," she muttered. "It was clearly a mistake."
"Wait a moment there!" argued Vriska. "It's true that it led to a doomed timeline, but I don't think it was the fact that you killed me what caused it."
"What are you talking about?" protested Terezi. "Of course it was that! Future-me send John back to fix my stupid mistake! I was blaming you for all the deaths when it had been Gamzee and Eridan's fault! Even with John's clumsy messages, I still suspected it was you!"
Wow, that was NOT what Vriska had been expecting. She didn't know that Terezi was feeling so guilty about all that situation, and she hadn't even killed her this time. How would she be feeling if she had actually killed her? Did the alternate Terezi felt so guilty, too? Was that why everything went wrong last time?
"But you killed me," she insisted.
"Thanks for keep reminding me of my mistakes!" yelled Terezi.
"No! I mean, you actually managed to kill me, for real," she tried to explain. "I'm conditionally immortal, so if it had been a stupid mistake you shouldn't have been able to properly kill me! It was clearly not a Heroic death, so that means that it was Just. Whatever the reason, I deserved it."
"Oh," muttered the teal-blooded troll. "You actually killed Tavros, so maybe it was for that?"
"No, it's not it, I checked already with my magic ball," insisted Vriska. "However, I didn't kill anyone else, so, if it was not for something I did, maybe it was for something I was going to do?"
Terezi tensed up at that, confirming her theory that her friend had used her Seer powers on her and acted in behave of that. She had seen something horrible in their future if Vriska went to fight Jack, and she had done what she had to do to avoid it.
"You used your powers on me, right?" she asked, only to confirm it.
The other troll nodded, still not looking at her and without saying anything else. That was absurd.
"Quit doing that Tez! It's not like you at all!" nagged Vriska, annoyed with her friend's attitude. "If you are really feeling so guilty about something that another version of you did in a doomed timeline, the least you could do is explain me why!"
There was no other answer from Terezi than hiding her face in one of her dragon plushes. It was worse that she had thought. She had known the other troll for sweeps, and she knew perfectly well that Terezi only did that when she was feeling really bad with herself. That had to stop.
"Tell me what your saw, the consequences if you had let me go," she ordered in a firm voice she hardly used on her friend. "Then, I will decide for myself if killing me was a mistake or not."
"I knew I couldn't stop you without betraying you and stabbing you from behind, I Saw it," whispered Terezi, finally. "If I had tried to knock you out or tying you, I would have lost our brawl and you would have gone anyway. Nothing would have changed."
Ok, so that was as Vriska had thought. Terezi was a good fighter but, as a highblood, Vriska had a higher stamina and pain tolerance. She was also God Tier, while Terezi was not. Additionally, Vriska could use her powers to steal all of Terezi's luck in a battle, if needed. Fighting her in equal conditions would have gone bad for her friend, maybe she would have ended killing Terezi in vengeance without really wanting to. She waited for Terezi to continue.
"There were two options then: letting you go or killing you," kept explaining her friend. "If I had let you go, you would have gone to confront Jack as planned, but he would have avoided you. Instead, Jack would have follow the smelly trace you left behing to the meteor. Then, he would have killed me and Karkat and brought our bodies to you."
That… that was the most treacherous, sneaking, trickery fuckery she had ever heard of! The fucker! No respect for proper duel protocol at all! And he had the nerve to kill HER friends and show their corpses off to her like some kind of creepy trophy! Oh, she was going to kill the bastard, she was so going to destroy him, dismember his only arm and kill him with it!
"Did I kill him at least?" she asked, trying to contain her rage. "Did I win my fight with him?"
"I don't know," confessed Terezi. "There was some weird interference in my vision, it looked pretty equally matched, but I couldn't see the end. However, what I'm sure is that you hit him with your best move, and he was still there, like nothing."
That was bad. So, not only her selfish decision to confront Jack by herself would have led to everyone's death, but she would not even manage to kill him. Letting her go would have meant that both Karkat and Terezi could have been killed for nothing because Terezi wasn't even sure that Vriska was going to win in the end. That's why her death was Just. She was going to put everyone in mortal danger just for her egocentrism and her pride.
"You did the right thing," she decided. "It would have been better to just knock me out, like John did, but if you already saw that it was not possible, killing me was the best solution."
Terezi finally turned towards her, with an incredulous expression. She seemed really surprised of hearing her say that.
"I was going to kill you," she insisted. "I was going to stab you in the back."
"I knew that the moment you span the coin," argued Vriska back. "That was the real bet there, me letting my guard down and giving you the opportunity to stab me."
"You didn't think I was going to do it," maintained Terezi. "You trusted me not to kill you."
"That was not it, it was not trust, Terezi, it was arrogance," confessed Vriska. "I convinced myself that I was doing the rightful thing, so it would not had really mattered if you stabbed me on the back because it would not have been a Heroic or Just death. I would have been revived again and got my revenge afterwards."
That was the problem actually. As the only troll that ascended to God Tier level, she had felt invincible. Letting her guard down was not a problem anymore because she could resuscitate. She was also so sure of her actions that she stopped listening to everyone else, not that she did it much before, anyway.
"I killed Tavros because he was trying to stop me from fulfilling my destiny, in his wrong presumption that I was making a mistake," kept saying Vriska. "It turns out that he was right all along. I was about to doom us all, only to fulfil a self-obsessed wish. I killed him for doing the heroic thing."
"You were risking your life to kill Jack," muttered Terezi. "Trying to save someone else instead of only yourself, for a change."
"I underestimated Jack's intelligence and I was going in blind, without any plan or strategy," countered her. "I don't know why I was so sure that it was the only option. It was just so clear on my mind: I would go out there, kill him and save everyone. Probably dying in the process but that was part of the deal, the brave heroine sacrificing herself to protect her friends."
"The martyr role doesn't really suit you," said Terezi with a smile. "That's more Karkat's area of expertise."
That made Vriska laugh because she really could see the fool throwing himself in front of Jack in a futile intent to protect everyone. Luckily for him, there had always been a full hemospectrum range of trolls ready to pull him out of the fire. Even the humans seemed charmed with him and they had just met him in person a few hours ago. The crabnub was just too fucking adorable for his own good.
"He would not have the opportunity, didn't you hear Sollux before?" she laughed. "He literally said he would save him from Jack and then push him away from the new universe. Talk about mixed signals."
Terezi cracked laughter bloomed up at her comment. It was nice to hear her laugh now, after their previous awkward moment.
"They are so fucking embarrassing!" she laughed. "And did you notice Dave black-flirting with him, too? He probably didn't even know what he was doing!"
"Why is that bossy big-mouthed nub-horned stupid excuse of a troll having so many potential kismesis all of a sudden?!" complained her with a growl. "I swear that him and Sollux barely interacted during our game."
"He was probably too busy playing leadership, and Sollux had his thing with Eridan and Feferi," added Terezi, always loving her gossip. "I doubt it got anywhere though, not enough time for it."
"Eridan is the worst candidate for a kismesissitude, I'm telling you," replied Vriska with revulsion. "Too insecure and fluctuating."
"Yeah, I don't think Sollux considered him for any quadrant, and especially not for the black one," smiled her friend. "It's clear to me who is inhabiting that part of his blood pusher."
"Fuck Terezi, that's gross! Don't talk to me about the mustard-blood's feelings!" complained Vriska while doing fake throwing up gestures. "Anyway, it doesn't matter because KrabKat will never settle enough in a quadrant to have a proper quadrantmate."
"Well, he almost has a quadrant filled already, so I don't think it is so hard to believe," commented Terezi while thinking it over. "And for how he was hiding behind Kanaya and the way she was smiling at him, all pale-like, I don't think it will take long for them to make it official."
Wait, what? No! Kanaya and Karkat were not moirails! They couldn't because Kanaya was HER moirail! It was true that they had not been talking a lot lately, but Vriska had been busy training Tavros and being awesome at the game. They didn't have any fight or argument or anything like that! Well, Kanaya had somehow died and revived as a rainbow drinker without Vriska knowing it, but the jade-blooded girl had killed Eridan to save her! It had been to save her, right? Not that she needed it, of course, but that was what moirails did for each other, right? She really didn't know, actually. It had always been Kanaya the one meddling and pushing her until she talked about her worries and fears. Had the other troll ever talked to her about her own problems? She couldn't remember any ocasion, but it sure happened at some point!
"Vriska? Are you fine?" she heard Terezi saying, which brought her back from her thoughts.
"They are not pale, they can't," decided her. "She is MY moirail, not HIS!"
Oh, she was going to kill Karkat. How did he dare to try to steal something from HER? She took out her palmhusk and saw that Kanaya was connected. She hurried to send her a message.
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]
AG: where are you now?
GA: Good Night For You Too
GA: Not That Is Your Business But I am Currently Getting Some Nourishment At The Moment
AG: al8ne?
GA: I Am In The Presence Of The Humans And Our Leader
AG: Karkat is with y8u?
AG: why is he with you, why is he always with y8u?!
AG: and don't call him leader, that dum8ass is not the leader of 8nything!
GA: How I Choose To Call Or Not To Call My Friend Is My Business And My Privilege
GA: What Is The Cause Of This Interrogation
AG: nothing, just worried a8out MY moirail!
GA: …
GA: I See
GA: I Understand The Situation Now
GA: I Though I Had Been Clear About This Topic But It Seems That I Had Misjudged Your Intelligence
AG: what are you talking a8out?
GA: I Believe This Confrontation Should Be Done In Person
GA: I Am In Karkat Section Now But We Could Meet In A Few Minutes If You Wish So
AG: how are you in his section?! he never lets anyone there! why are y8u there?!
AG: is it true then?
AG: are you cheating 8n ME, Maryam?!
AG: ::::[
GA: Vriska We Are Not Moirails Anymore
GA: We Havent Been In A Perigee
That… that was a lie. A perigee? It couldn't be, that would mean since they began playing the game. All that time? But she had not said anything about it, Vriska was sure. Now that she thought about that, she didn't even remember when had been their last conversation or what it had been about. She scrolled back in their trollian's chat, ignoring the warnings of new messages being added at the bottom. Last time they talked it had indeed been almost a perigee ago, when Vriska pestered her about her costume-made dress. Wait, no, Kanaya had actually sent her a couple of messages a few nights after that, but she never saw them. Until now.
GA: This Is Not Working I Am Tired Of Being The Only One Making An Effort In This Relationship
GA: You Are Not Even Reading My Messages Anymore Am I Right
GA: I Hate You
Vriska felt a freezing chill going down her spine pole. She checked again the date she received those messages; it was a couple of days after they began playing the game. She didn't even remember hearing the sound alert of her palmhusk warning her of her new message, but she had definitively used it several times after that. She remembered seeing the alert once when she went into Trollian to talk with Terezi, but she did not give any importance to it at that time. Just Maryam being meddlesome again, how annoying. She had postponed checking their conversation and eventually forgot about it. That had been a perigee ago, when Kanaya had stopped trolling her and she had not even noticed. Her moirail broke up with her and she didn't even care enough to make her the honour to read her parting message.
"Vris?" she heard someone calling her.
She turned to the source of the voice and found Terezi looking at her with a worried expression. She had forgotten she was even there. Good job Vriska, keep ignoring everybody, see how it works out for you.
"Kanaya…" she began but her voice failed. "Kanaya broke up with me."
Terezi's worried expression turned into an angry one, and a low snarl could be heard in Terezi's voice.
"Wait, I thought you had broken it weeks ago!" was her first reaction. "She was acting so pale with Karkat but she hadn't broken your diamond until right now?" she growled. "And she did it through Trollian?!"
"No, you don't understand," tried to explain Vriska, hurt and ashamed to admit that she had done that to herself.
"I understand perfectly," was the angry answer of Terezi. "The coward didn't have the abdominal sausages to at least tell you in person. I will kill her!"
"No!" yelled then Vriska, grabbing Terezi's frond and stopping her from getting up and leaving the block. "It was my fault."
"Oh, Vris, don't say that," refused the other girl with a gentle voice. "I'm sure that's not true."
"It is! It is my fault!" she insisted before taking a drastic decision. "Here, read it yourself!"
Terezi took her palmhusk, confusion on her face while she read the messages, but she sat back on her pile a moments later with a sad expression in her face.
"Vris…"
"She sent me that a perigee ago and I never even read it!" she yelled, ashamed and regretful. "She stopped trolling me after that and I barely noticed! Which kind of moirail I am?!"
Vriska hugged her knees to her torso and hid her face between them. She was not really sad about it, instead, she was feeling a bit guilty and ashamed of herself. She had taken Kanaya for granted and had been a very bad moirail for her. It had always been about Vriska's problems and Vriska's mistakes, never about miss fussy-fangs' feelings or doubts. Even someone as stupid as Equius had a healthy moirallegiance! She was a failure of a troll. It had been a one-sided relationship from the beginning, so why was she hurt now that Kanaya had done the mature thing and broken up with her?
"You should read the last messages she sent you while you were moping," she heard Terezi say then, pushing her palmhusk back into her hands.
"I don't want to," she protested weakly.
"Do it," her friend insisted. "You will feel better afterwards, trust me."
Vriska didn't want to read any more messages and she didn't want to trust Terezi either, but refusing to check her messages had brought her here in the first place. The key to be the best was to learn from one's mistakes, right? And she wanted to be the best. She forced herself to read.
GA: I Assumed You Had Reached The Same Deduction And Agreed That We Are Not Meant To Be
GA: My Phrasing Last Time Might Have Been A Bit Overemotional But In My Defence I Was Going Through A Wicked State Myself
GA: I Realise Now That I Should Have Made The Effort To Confront You In Person Instead Of Assuming You Had Understood The Message
GA: I Apologize For That
GA: However You Did Not Show Any Intent To Reply Or Contact Me Afterwards
GA: You Did Not Even Say A Word To Me When We Met Before The Final Battle
GA: Even If There Were Other More Imperative Circumstances To Worry About At The Moment I Anticipated Some Confrontation So I Presumed You Did Not Want To Talk About It And Preferred To Pretend We Had Never Been Quadrantmates In The First Place
GA: I Should Have Been More Upfront About The Situation
GA: I Am Truly Sorry About That Vriska
GA: …
GA: I See That You Do Not Want To Keep Dialoguing With Me Anymore
GA: I Comprehend That And I Promise That I Will Respect That Decision
GA: However First I Would Like To Express My Regret For Being Such A Bad Palemate For You
GA: The Truth Is That My Feelings Were More Inclined Towards The Red Quadrant Than The Pale One
GA: In Retrospect Now I See That I Was Indeed Too Inconvenient And Meddlesome For You
GA: And I Could Not Be Open About My Feelings With You Because I Was Mortified By Them
GA: So Again I Am Regretful For Not Clearing This Situation Previously
GA: I Will Let You Be Now
AG: w8 Kanaya!
GA: …
GA: You Truly Read All Of It I Did Not Thought You Would
GA: I Am Regretting Every Embarrassing Word Now
AG: it was not your f8ult!
AG: well, the red quadrant vacillation thing may have 8een your fault
AG: I didn't have any idea you felt that way
AG: 8ut the rest is all on me. I was an horrible moirail
GA: …
AG: I notice that you didn't 8other refusing that, Maryam
GA: You Were Saying
AG: yeah, right
AG: I actually just read the last messages you sent me a perigee ago
AG: thats why I was not answering just now
GA: …
GA: I Guess I Should Be Surprised But I Already Had An Inkling That It Might Be The Case
AG: so yeah, my moirail 8roke up with me and I didn't even notice 8ecause I was so fucking busy thinking only ab8ut m8self!
AG: so if one of us has to carry the title to the worst palemate, it is me
GA: Maybe In Its Place We Should Just Agree That It Was Simply Not Meant To Be And Leave It At That
AG: what? NO! it was my fault, I should 8e punished for it!
GA: As Delightful As That Suggestion Is A Moirallegiance Is A Dance Between Two Trolls
GA: It Is Supposed To Be A Partnership Where Both Parts Get Emotional Support And Fulfilment
GA: I Was Not Satisfied With What I Was Getting But I Did Not Say Anything In A Futile Hope Of Eventually Fluctuating Together To The Red Quadrant
AG: see? I was a 8ad moirail for you, so it's my fault
GA: I Appreciate You Owning Your Part In This Messed Up Relationship
GA: I Never Anticipated You Would Do It But Lets Not
GA: I Do Not Blame You It Was Both Our Fault
GA: We Just Do Not Work Well Together Lets Accept It And Move On
AG: okay, 8ut can we still 8e friends?
AG: I will probably need some time 8ut lets not make this an even more awkward situation that it has to be
GA: I Agree
AG: I might 8lock you for a 8it 8ut I promise to un8lock you again when I'm ready
GA: That Is Reasonable
GA: Should We Made It Official Then
AG: yes, we should. you are right, it's for the 8est
GA: Okay Then
GA: |
AG: |
GA: Good Luck Vriska I Hope You Find A Suitable Palemate
AG: yeah, I hope you too are happy with Karkat
GA: Wait What Do You Mean
arachnidsGrip [AG] stopped trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]
arachnidsGrip [AG] blocked grimAuxiliatrix [GA]
Vriska captchalogued her palmhusk and dropped her thinkpan on her knees again. It was over then. Should she feel different than before? She did not feel sad or disappointed. If she had to put a name to her feelings it would be shame and the sensation that she had failed a test. Not even a life-treatening test either, just a regular one. It was not like she needed a moirail anyway, she could be a bit aggressive sometimes but it was normal for a troll, right? And having a moirail had not stopped her from paralysing Tavros, killing Aradia and blinding Terezi. Without their planet and the Condesce's expectations, she didn't need to submit to the moirallegiance system anymore.
"Do you think that now that there are almost no trolls around we still need to fulfil our quadrants?" she asked aloud.
Next to her, she heard Terezi stop typing on her palmhusk, which she had been doing during her private conversation with Kanaya, and moved closer in her pile to confront her properly.
"I'm not the best to answer that question," was her reply. "If you want to talk about quadrants you should go to Karkat."
That was a terrible idea. She might not be sad about her broken quadrant, but she knew better than anyone how vengefully she could be. And she didn't like other people stealing her things.
"I asked you," she growled.
"Ok, let me think," answered Terezi with a calm voice. "Moirallegiance never was the most government-approved quadrant, right? I mean, none of the conciliatory ones meant anything to Condy, she only cared about black and red."
"I guess," nodded Vriska. "There was a lot of insistence on filling pails for the Mother Grub."
"Exactly," affirmed her friend. "So, having a moirail or an auspice were not strictly required but most trolls had had one of them at some point in their lifes."
That was right, even Tavros had been moirails for a bit with a troll girl she met on a FLARP campaign. However, she had disappeared mysteriously one night, and no one had seen her again. Vriska had not felt an ounce of regret for that particular lusus's food.
"Yeah, especially highbloods," added her.
"Well, and the lowbloods who were their moirails," laughed Terezi. "With the exception of Feferi and Eridan, the rest of highbloods in our group were moirails with someone lower than them in the hemospectrum."
"Gamzee did not have a moirail," argued Vriska.
"We both know that Karkat and him were moirails in all but the name," corrected her. "If he had not gone murder-crazy, I wonder if they would have end making it official."
Maybe it had happened anyway in the previous timeline, if someone would be able to calm down a mad-crazy Gamzee it was Karkat. The grumpy nubs had something that made everyone a bit pale for him, it had been clear in his stupid memos. In the end, those had been the place to go if you needed to vent about your relationship problems, or if you were just that desperate for someone to listen to you. The fact that Karkat also acted like a lusus with everyone didn't help his self-imposed image of a rough, bloody leader. He was just too pitiable for that.
"So, you think that having a moirail is something actually beneficial for trolls, especially highbloods," concluded Vriska.
"No offence, but all of your kind are too hot-headed and violent," insisted Terezi. "However, it might be good for you, but it doesn't mean that you need one, in my opinion. All of us are capable of self-restraining ourselves with a bit of practice."
"I guess I will have to learn, then," shrugged her.
"Vris…" muttered her friend with clear compassion in her voice.
"I think I'm tired now, I should try to sleep," she said, getting up and beginning captchaloguing everything back into her sylladex.
"Okay," acceded Terezi, getting up and collecting her things. "I will leave you be then. I'm taking the chalks with me, though. If you want to keep working in our Wall of War, troll me."
Vriska nodded and followed her friend to the entrance, blocking it after she left. Then, she went to her respiteblock, blocking each transportalizer and secret door in her way. Gamzee was still in her section after all. She would have to do something about him, eventually, but for the moment he could stay put where he was. She jumped back to her pile and forced her eyes closed until she finally fell asleep
ALTERNIAN DICTIONARY: most words are obtained from the troll terminology list in MS Paint Adventures Wiki with some new ones and additional context specifications. Trolls higher in the hemospectrum use some words similar to the humans (eyes, can, fridge…)
- Grubhood: childhood
- Prong: hand
- Strut pod: foot
- TaB: a sugar-free zero calorie diet cola originally from Alternia
- Digestion bladder: stomach
- Grubmeat: an insectoid meat typical from Alternia
- Abdominal sausages: guts (some alternian words are so funny)