Out the corner of her eye, she watched as Equius built her small garden shed into a now 5-story building as he explained her "hive" required to be at least 10-stories high in order for the different machinery to fit.
Although she found it quite silly, for her shed was tiny and the blocks were twice it's size and length making it look like the product of a two year old's building blocks.
Their conversation had just ended a minute ago, with the current topic referring to "prototyping a kernelsprite" whatever that meant. She looked to her left and saw the weird machine that Equius called a Cruxtruder. It reminded her of the engines of the first automobile made in America. She stood up from her cross legged position carefully stepping over the dead bodies of half elf, half fairy...things.
They had gotten on 'her' nerves so 'she' killed them off. All of them.
She lightly stepped unto the Cruxtruder and examined the cylindrical chute that protruded from the base. Sapphire brushed a little dust off the top and found a small latch.
With her small hands, she grabbed what seemed to be a small slit and pried the opening of the Cruxtruder.
It opened up with a pop. Sapphire peered inside and saw black. An endless abyss, she concurred.
She bent over and grabbed a burlap sack that was near the device. She covered her nose and turned the sack upside down and dumped all the contents into the Cruxtruder, as instructed by Equius.
Suddenly the lid slammed down with a bang and the Cruxtruder lit up and started shaking. Sapphire gave a small shriek and dove into a makeshift barrier. She planted her gloved hands over her sensitive ears as the Cruxtruder made screeching and whirling noises.
When the noises stopped she peered out slightly. The Cruxtruder was fine, but was that all that was going to happen?
She stepped out and immediately something jumped out in front of her. She shrieked and started whirling her earphonekind specibus around erratically.
Sapphire stopped when she heard a combination of chittering and mewling. She opened her eyes and widened them in surprise.
"Oh..." She whispered hoarsely, reaching out and petting the thing's head. Or at least tried to. Nevertheless her 'kernelsprite' ('At least I think it is.' She thought. ) purred and lowered its huge, floppy ears. She smiled a little sadly at the bunny-cat hybrid sprite.
"Did you know my blood is black?"
Sapphire's face suddenly twisted in pain and she keeled over, groaning in pain. She once again covered her ears to try to block out the voices in her head. She shut her eyes tight and gritted her teeth.
"Bloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodblood..."
Sapphire gasped loudly and sat up, a little hunched over. Strands of her wispy blue hair fell out of her hood. She covered the mask's eyeholes with her hands to block out the light. Her kernelsprite had lowered itself to her level, purring worriedly and rubbing its nose in her cheek. She sighed lightly calming down a little, until she realised what her kernelsprite was doing.
She launched herself, so suddenly, halfway across the yard, chest heaving up and down rapidly. The sprite looked at her worriedly and started to float toward her but Sapphire stopped it, screeching wildly.
"No! NO! Stay away! Don't! PLEASE!"
The sprite looked at her and realisation dawned in its eyes. It nodded solemnly and pointed toward the Cruxtruder. She turned to look at the device. It still looked fine although there seemed to be some type of glass sculpture* on top of a small counter top. She slowly crept toward it and put in in her backpack.
"N-now what?" She asked her sprite.
Her sprite chittered and gestured to a device that looked like a big sewing machine with more complicated knobs and switches**.
"Do I put it there?"
A nod.
She stared at her sprite for a long time. "What do I call you?" She asked suddenly.
Her sprite cocked its head to the side and shrugged.
Sapphire looked down and crossed her arms, thinking for a few moments, unaware of the countdown that started a few moments ago.
"...Carry." She spoke with clarity. Her sprite looked at her, confused.
Sapphire looked at the sprite. "Your name is Carrysprite. A combination of my pet's names, Cally and Furry since I, um, "prototyped" you with them."
The newly named Carrysprite blinked at her for a few moments then nodded, chittering pleasantly then pointed to the device once more.
"Oh, right!" Sapphire exclaimed. She carefully took out the glass like cylinder thing. She looked at the device then at Carrysprite.
"Um...where do I place this?" She asked him. Carrysprite pointed to the space in between the needle and another small platform.
Sapphire tilted the cylinder sideways and placed it in the space. The device shuddered for a few seconds, then rapidly spun the cylinder shaping it into a fancy looking vase.
Sapphire took the vase and captchalogued it. She was about to ask Carrysprite what to do next when a loud beeping noise made her turn towards the Cruxtruder. She noticed now that the Cruxtruder had a timer and was slowly counting down to zero. It was already at 2:14.
Sapphire took a step back. "What's it counting down to?" She asked Carrysprite in a panicked voice. Carrysprite shook its head, apparently surprised by this turnabout.
She looked towards Carrysprite who pointed to a large machine that was one big round platform with a smaller round platform at the side of it***.
Without thinking she rushed to the device and placed the glass unto the smaller platform. Sapphire pushed some buttons and the device shuddered a little before stopping.
On the bigger platform she saw that an object had appeared.
It was a piece of meat. But something wasn't quite right about this particular piece of meat. Instead of a juicy cooked brown color or a nice raw red color, it was black. But it didn't smell burnt.
She picked it up. It felt smooth, unnaturally smooth.
Sapphire looked at Carrysprite. "D-do I have to eat this?" She asked, holding it up. Carrysprite chittered in response. She took a whiff at the piece of meat. It didn't smell rotten, in fact it didn't smell like anything at all.
"N-now?" she asked Carrysprite, still feeling dubious.
Carry looked towards the sky then to the timer then shook its head. Sapphire looked at Carry with a worried expression.
"S-so I eat this just before that timer reaches zero then?"
Carry looked at her and shrugged. Sapphire shrugged, suddenly feeling helpless. Captchaloguing the piece of strange meat, she sat down by the side of the platform and hugged her legs. Carry sat down beside her but at a distance. She rested her forehead on her knees and thought silently.
'I thought this was supposed to be fun.'
Sapphire winced slightly, hearing the distaste and boredom in 'her' voice.
'T-they said it would be, o-once it actually starts.'
She heard 'her' blowing a rasberry.
'Hmph. Just kill the damn spirit thing.'
Sapphire's eyes widened. Her head shot up suddenly, her face expressing her anger. Carry floated back a bit out of surprise, blinking rapidly.
'We can't do that!'
'Don't be such a pussy! That thing is useless! It's not telling us anything!'
'The game hasn't started yet!'
'And so? We'll be fine without it.'
'No we won't! Equius said-'
'Equius-shmecius! Why the fuck are you listening to a loser like him? Don't drop lower than you already are, dumbass.'
Sapphire stayed silent, face turning grim. She decided too shut her out...for now. She squinted up at the suddenly cloudy sky and the rapid building of her 'hive' from just a tiny shed to a currently six block high tower. She stood up and walked towards the building, Carrysprite floating close behind. She stopped in front of the door to her shed and hesitated. She took a deep breath and didn't move for a few moments. After a while she opened the door and took a peek inside.
The shed looked like it's dirty, empty self, as she usually left it, but it had one thing that made it stand out.
It had a pure, white staircase leading upwards.
She looked up and gasped. The staircase was huge! And really long too.
It spiraled up all the way to the current block that Equius was building. Heck, she couldn't even see the top of the staircase. It was pitch black. She stepped back and closed the door and turned around to look at the Cruxtruder.
It was at 0:15
Her sensitive ears picked up on something approaching. She looked around her and saw nothing approaching apart from the dead bodies and fallen leaves. Sapphire looked around, confused and worried. Where was that sound coming from? She stopped, eyes widening.
"It can't." She murmured quietly as she slowly looked to the sky and gasped as she confirmed her worries.
Meteors.
Flaming balls of rock are coming to the earth.
They're not slowing down or cooling down.
And they were coming in fast!
Sapphire started panicking and looking around her.
'What should I do? What should I do?!' Sapphire held her head in her hands and started shaking her head, hyperventilating.
Loud chittering brought her out of her senses, she looked up and saw Carry pointing to the tower. Without thinking she darted inside and shut the door, locking it.
"Now what?!"
Carry brought their long arms together and cupped her hand together in front of her mouth and made biting motions.
Sapphire looked at them for a moment, really confused.
Then she understood.
5
She took out the piece of meat.
4
She sank her teeth into the piece of meat.
3
She ripped off a piece and winced, it tasted like nothing.
2
She started chewing it, trying not to choke on the piece.
1
She finally swallowed it.
0
The last thing she heard were cars honking and crashing into each other, people screaming and the world going black.
(I don't own the Homestuck characters mentioned in this chapter)
*Cruxite dowel
**Totem Lathe
***Alchemiter