I closed my laptop and looked at the punched card that I had received not long ago. None of us had made our entry items yet, but it seems like they would actually all fit together. The lights were off, but my kernelsprite emitted enough light for me to at least read things. So far, during the last thirty minutes, we each prototyped something to at least make our game work. I wasn't sure what Sarah and her friend were doing. We lost connection over our pesterchum, so I hoped that everything was alright. Looking up, I gazed at my scalemate kernelsprite, as I prototyped it with my scalemate that I made. The flashing brown, white, and black seemed lovely in the dark. Next thing I knew, the door opened and light engulfed the room, then closed just as quickly.
"Sorry." I glanced over at who spoke and saw the door open again with someone leaving the room. The next thing I heard only moments later was Zoe yelling something. It wasn't that loud, but her next yell was.
"I WANT TO SEE IF THEY TASTE LIKE CANDY CORN!" Well, shit. That was Zoe, of course. Seems like she got a hold of Karkat. I stormed out the door and made my way down the stairs.
"ZOE! Get off of him! Go and make your entry item, idiot!" It took a bit of physical tugging at the blonde before she let go. "And make mine while you're at it, too." I handed her my punched card and watched her skip to the kitchen.
"Hi, Birdie." I looked over at Sam, who was helping Karkat off the ground.
"Hey, Sam. What did you guys prototype your sprites with?"
"Oh, Zoe used her ceramic piggybank, I used a random stuffed albino gator that looks badass, and I'm not sure what Dani used."
"Yo, Dani!" I called to her, and waited for her head to pop out from over the railing. "Did you use pedo panda with your kernelsprite?" I grinned.
"WHAT!? NO, NEVER!" She yelled from somewhere upstairs. Pedo panda was a large, stuffed panda that was in one of the rooms. We used to throw it at one another, and it also had a hole in its butt, adding to the nickname. I noticed the weird looks that I was getting from the trolls, and I sighed. Climbing up the stairs, I entered into the middle room and picked up pedo panda. Once I made it back downstairs, I held the stuffed animal out towards the trolls.
"This right here is pedo panda. Learn to avoid this little shit. He WILL be randomly flung at people, so watch out. Oh, and also he has a rip in the seam at his ass." I tilted the panda so they could see the white stuffing coming out of the large tear. I quickly glanced at every one of the trolls, then locked onto Sollux. He was going to be the first victim. "Think fast!"
"Urk-" That was the only sound that came out of his mouth before he got a face full of stuffed panda ass.
"Birdie! I swear If you hurt him, you're dead!" Zoe yelled from the kitchen, her head poking out from behind the wall. Dammit. Now I can't torture the douchebag off to no end. Even if he was my Zodiac troll.
"Ugh. Fiiiiine..." I sighed. So much for having my own personal space for the next... uhhh, hour and twenty seven minutes. The trolls will be flooding the damn place. Even though this place normally holds thirteen to fourteen kids with around six to seven adults every other Saturday, with the trolls, you'd never know what would happen.
I stared at a small pile of four shapes scattered in the main room. The humans seemed to be havin trouble with puttin them together. Nep, Kar, an Kan were tryin to help them.
"So, what the hell is this thing supposed to fucking be?" Kar tossed a triangular shaped object near another entry item. I sat on one of the chairs, watchin them.
"And what made you think that we knew that?!" One of the humans snapped back at him. "Birdie, the hell are you doing?"
"Doing something." She sat at the end of the long couch, three laptops surroundin her. She looked so much like Sol with all the computers around her. Fuckin asshole with all that damn programmin shit.
"What is 'something'?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just putting some of the shimejis that I have onto yours and Zoe's laptops. And also cleaning out unnecessary shit that would only slow them down. Just something to do for the time being." She glanced me for a second, then at the entry items scattered on the ground. "You know, after I'm done I will try and help with that."
"Cool. Hey, Zoe."
"What." The human stopped playing with Nep.
"You go and grab a few of the others and gather sleeping supplies for each of our sections." She pointed at me. "You help too."
"Fine." I followed the blonde human up the stairs an into a room covered in pillows an blankets. "Uh..."
"Just grab three pillows and put them in the kitchen. And also three blankets." She shoveled up some of the pillows an blankets, then handed them to me.
"Wwhy three...?" I peeked over the mound of softness in my arms.
"Because Birdie said that since there are six players, and twelve of you guys, there will be two of you on a planet with a player. That means three people on each planet! Put the extra blankets in the living room. They have pillows, but no blankets." She shoved me out and I hobbled down the stairs, bein careful not to trip. After tossin the beddin in the designated areas, I dragged myself back upstairs, only to see that Tav's horns were covered in blankets by Ter, Gam, an Vris.
"It's a tent!"
"Uh... guys..."
"Motherfucking chill, bro."
"Seriously... uhh... guys..."
"Smells like it needs more red... Do we have any red blankets?!"
"I shall be queen of this castle! Servants! Obey my command!" I escaped downstairs so that I wouldn't get caught in all of this. Glancing at the countdown until the humans should enter or they risk getting killed; I sighed and stood behind them while they continued to ponder over the entry items.
"Sam! I've gotten the food split out into equal portions! How's the puzzle goin?" I cringed as I stood up, my lower back pulsing in pain due to being bent over while sorting out food for too long.
"Guess, idiot." I looked around the corner at them, then at the countdown.
"Then hurry up. We've only got around fifteen minutes or so."
"What do you think we're doing!?"
"Alright, alright! Zen! I'm just a bit nervous and impatient. It's me, ya know-"
"HOLY SHIT!" I heard a bunch of clatter in the next room and rushed to see what the fuck happened. The four pieces must have done some weird shit, because they were now one item. It was hovering three feet in the air and had four rings slowly circling within each other; each one a different color. Looking around, it seemed like everyone had a heart attack and was latching onto each other, or trying to merge into the wall by plastering their backs against it with shocked looks on their faces.
"What did it do, exactly?" I was curious about the fact that the items had changed from their weird, funky shapes to the floating colored rings.
"I honestly have no clue..." Sam finally had the chance to breathe and speak, unlike the others, who seemed like statues still.
"I'm going to see if it affected the timer..." I glanced at the cruxtruder and noticed something off about it. It seemed to be slowly speeding up. The entry item(s) were doing the same. "Oh shit..."
"What?!" Nepeta strode up to me, completely recovered from the earlier shock, and noticed what was going on. "Oh no..."
"Everyone get downstairs now!" I probably yelled loud enough that so the neighbors could hear it. Gamzee, Vriska, Terezi, and Tavros tumbled over each other while trying to get downstairs. It wasn't working that well due to the blankets hanging on Tavros's horns and head. The others, Sollux, Equius, Aradia, Feferi, and Dani streamed in from the kitchen. I pointed at the floating rings and we all watched as they spun faster and faster. I kept an eye on the countdown.
"What's happening?!" Dani stood next to me.
"The countdown is speeding up due to the entry items." She gazed at the timer.
"It's almost at zero!"
"BRACE YOURSEL-" There was a searing, bright light emanating from the item(s) and an overpowering sound covered my voice, just like when you get close to a helicopter while the blades are spinning. The next thing I knew, someone bumped into me and I landed on my back. The light tried to force itself though my eyelids, but the darkness of unconsciousness got me first.