Sorry about the belated update! I had a rough few days and today was pretty bad, too, but hopefully I'll be able to update again tomorrow. My plans are starting to come together...
Many thanks to walomadolo, Livis, iDreamBig, kab, fangirl4you, obsessed01616, thepeopleofthecrysis, stahp-it, BlOo KiSsEs, LinkinParK X, CatastrophicAquarius, RandomAnonymous, scone, Kerra-Chan, and Heki564 for your reviews to the last act!
Eridan didn't know where Kanaya was leading him until he saw a small knot of people sitting in the grass underneath one of the few trees on campus that wasn't a palm tree. It was actually a massive pine tree that several students had tried (and failed) to scale before. Currently, a boy with dark hair and a blue shirt was hanging from one of the lowest branches by his knees, his shirt falling down around his face, and a blond kid with sunglasses was swatting at him.
Sollux was there, too. Eridan found himself unconsciously searching for him for reasons he couldn't quite fathom (except for the fact that he recognized Aradia and assumed he would be there too) and there he was, sitting up against the trunk with one knee pulled up to his chest and his arms looped around it.
"Um. Are we goin' over there?" he asked hesitantly.
"Of course. They're waiting for us."
"Um. I only recognize Sol an' Ara." And Karkat... and there was Gamzee and Tavros, even though he'd only seen the two of them that one weekend.
"They are present for moral support."
"An' what kind a' moral support is that?"
"We have a common enemy with others."
"Other people Vris have destroyed?"
She flashed him a wry smile. "Certainly you didn't think we were an isolated entity." She continued walking and Aradia stood up and practically sprinted to meet her, flinging her arms around Kanaya. Almost involuntarily, Eridan looked past them to Sollux. For a second, he was sure the other boy was looking at him, too, but he blinked and Sollux was looking down at his shoe. Eridan looked too. The left one was was white and the right one was black, but aside from that, they appeared to be identical. He wondered if Sollux had actually bought two separate but similar pairs of shoes just for the purpose of mismatching them, and then he wondered if his socks were mismatched, too. He couldn't see them from here but he wanted to know.
Aradia led them to the group. She sat back down next to Sollux and Kanaya gracefully slid to the ground next to her. There was a space open in between Karkat and a huge guy with sunglasses who also looked familiar somehow. He knew several of the people in the group, but he felt separate from them, detached. None of them were really his friends. They were all friends with other people—Kanaya had Aradia and Sollux, the blond kid with the sunglasses and his dark-haired friend and Karkat, Tavros had Gamzee, the big guy next to him and the tiny girl with the cat hat... Eridan wondered which one of them had been wronged by Vriska. His money was on the guy—the girl looked too happy.
Eridan drew his own knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them as Aradia stood up. She positioned herself in the middle of the awkward circle and pushed at the head of the dark-haired boy still hanging from the tree limb. He stuck out his tongue and scrambled up, righting himself and balancing carefully on the branch.
"You're gonna get a concussion," the blond kid said. The sunglasses made it impossible to tell where he was looking and he had a pair of headphones hanging around his neck.
The other boy shook his head. "I'll be okay!" His voice had an unnaturally bright quality to it, and if Eridan closed his eyes, he'd think he was being cheerful, but his expression didn't match his tone. For a second, it looked like he'd be okay with falling.
"As long as he pays attention, he can stay up there," Aradia said, looking pointedly up at him.
He waved in acknowledgment.
"So. I think we all know why we're here right now."
No one said a word.
"Right. Kanaya, what time does that Photography class end?"
"Four."
"That gives us nearly two hours to come up with a solution to this issue. Oh, sorry about asking you all to skip your classes, but I figured you'd welcome any excuse."
A faint chuckle went around the group. Sollux laughed, too, dropping his head and laughing at his knee. Eridan half-smiled.
"So. What are we going to do about Vriska?"
No one had an answer.
"Nothing? Surely one of you has an idea."
"W-well," Eridan stuttered, fighting to keep his voice level, "I think that hurtin' her like she hurt us is a good start."
"Okay, great. How do we do that?"
As to that, Eridan didn't have an idea. He didn't want to talk about this—it was a part of his life he wanted to forget. He didn't want to talk about how she'd hurt him. She'd been using him for his money and as an easy lay, and he'd been sucked into it, made to think it meant something to her. He'd never been in love with her—he'd had no delusions about his true feelings for her—but it still meant something to him. He imagined his (hypothetical) sexual partners would have some meaning to him, not just someone manipulating him. Maybe that was why he'd focused so sharply on Feferi after Vriska crushed him. Fef wouldn't hurt him—not intentionally, not like Vris had.
He couldn't even imagine what it would take to make Vriska feel like she couldn't trust people like that.
Instead, he pulled out his phone and texted Fef. so vvris wwas in my photo class an kan an me left an noww wwere at this thing ara planned for people that vvris hurt an i guess wwere plannin some wway a gettin back at her or somethin
"I find infidelity a difficult illusion to maintain," Kanaya said carefully. "It would take considerable planning as well as recruiting others to our cause to implement the plan. I don't see that working."
Sounds arduous. W)(at's )(appening?
nothin yet. no one has any good ideas. please come okay i dont knoww half these people an they all got friends a their owwn
Up in the tree, the boy with the dark hair nodded and sighed. "She sucks."
Karkat groaned and smacked his forehead. "Of course she does, John. Now would you get your windy blue ass down here?! You're making me nervous."
A ripple of laughter went up at the description of John's ass as windy and blue. Even Eridan laughed and pretended not to notice when Sollux looked at him even though he was secretly pleased.
W)(o else is t)(ere besides Aradia and Kanaya?
sol an kar and gamz and tavv an some guy named john an a couple other people i dont knoww
John let out a frustrated groan, tilted his head back to look at the upper branches, and then finally, reluctantly, dropped down. Aradia stepped out of the way just in time and John landed feet first, tucked his body, and rolled in between Karkat and the blond boy. Neither of them looked all that amused, but the tiny girl with the cat hat giggled and clapped her hands. John sat up properly, face red.
Alrig)(t, let me swim off from class reel quick.
Eridan rolled his eyes but put away his phone, relieved that she would come. He felt strange here, considering the only person he was really friendly with was his rival. Who'd offered his own strange brand of comfort earlier today and had even made him laugh when he hadn't felt like it at all.
"Right, okay. Now that that's been resolved..." Aradia rolled her eyes. "Do you guys even want to do this?"
"I think she's evil," Tavros said suddenly, his voice raising at the end as if he were asking a question or as though he hadn't finished his sentence. Still, he stopped talking, although his hand gripped Gamzee's arm tightly. The taller boy had his legs splayed with Tavros right in between, his arms wrapped protectively around him. Before this, Tavros had been running his fingers over Gamzee's arms, but a second or two before he spoke, he abruptly dug his nails into his arm.
Gamzee hadn't appeared to notice or be bothered by it, though. He simply moved his free arm to the back of Tavros's neck and rubbed.
The girl with the cat hat tore her eyes away from John long enough to say, "I agree, but... is it fur—I mean fair, sorry!—to, like, gang up on her like this? This kinda seems like bullying."
"She approached me early and asked me to spy," the big guy next to her said quietly, before Aradia could say anything.
"She... she what?" she asked.
The big guy nodded. "Specifically, she wanted me to ask you about Miss Maryam's whereabouts."
Miss Maryam...? Oh, Kan.
"Why you?"
Suddenly, the big guy looked highly uncomfortable. "I knew her in elementary school. She was the girl I told you about, the one who lost her eye in the crash."
That's how...? He hadn't known that. Apparently, neither had Kanaya or Tavros, since their eyes widened in surprise.
"That was a long time ago," Aradia said. "Why now?"
"We... we used to be friendly."
"They used to be best friends," the girl with the cat hat explained.
"Nepeta," the big guy said warningly.
"Shoosh!" She swatted at him, although he didn't even flinch. "It was twelve years ago, though! And she left school right after the accident!"
"We lost contact after that," the big guy added.
Aradia pinched the bridge of her nose. "Crap, this is a mess. Alright, Equius, at least you told her no. That's what counts."
Eridan's glance strayed toward Sollux again. It was hard not to look at him—he was right across from him. Sollux was rubbing the back of his neck, brows furrowed and full lips pursed. Eridan would have given half his fortune to know what he was thinking.
He didn't have long to wonder, though. "Look," Sollux said slowly, starting to look up, "I have an idea, and you can feel free to reject it if you want.
"From what I've seen, she thrives on attention. She loves making people feel awful. So the idea is to just... ignore her. It sounds simple, but it'll kill her. Now, it's probable that she'll move on to tormenting other people, but if that ends up happening, we could have more people on board with ignoring her. If the people she wants to hurt just pretend she doesn't exist, she could stop completely."
No one spoke for several long moments. Eridan had to admit, it sounded like a pretty good idea. Simple—that was true—but the simplicity made it beautiful. Vriska's love of manipulating people was a weakness as well as a strength. If they could cut their reactions, pretend she didn't exist, it would strip her of her power. It was a good idea.
"I like it," he said before he could stop himself. The group looked at him in surprise, not the least of which was the pleasantly stunned look on Sollux's face. He almost looked to be fighting a grin, and Eridan didn't like the way his heart rate picked up at that smile.
"It has merit," Kanaya seconded. "Simple and elegant seems the way to go."
Aradia nodded slowly. "John, Tavros? What about you two?"
Tavros nodded, too. "I think it's a good idea." His voice still rose at the end, but he smiled as Gamzee kissed the back of his head.
"John? You on board?" the blond kid asked, nudging him.
For a second or two, it didn't look like John had heard him. But then, after an interminable wait, he nodded. "Yeah. Okay. Let's do it."
"Good," Aradia said. "But we all need to do this—it can't just be them. All of us have to ignore her. Tell your friends, too. Make sure they know not to acknowledge anything she says or does. And we should meet again sometime soon to check in on each other. Agreed?"
There was a murmur of assent and a chorus of nodding heads, and Aradia grinned.
"Good," she said again. "And with forty-five minutes until the end of Vriska's class."
Gamzee almost jumped a foot in the air. "Motherfucker! I'm late!" He grabbed his backpack, planted a quick kiss on Tavros's cheek, and said, "Motherfuckin' World History, motherfuckers!" Without further ado, he dashed off to the second-closest building, and Tavros actually laughed.
After that, everyone started getting up and picking up their belongings, wandering off in twos and threes. Feferi hadn't shown up—Eridan figured she hadn't been able to skip like she'd said—so he slung his bag over his shoulder, shot one last glance at Sollux—he was looking back and the moment their eyes locked, he immediately looked away—and headed off toward the campus coffee shop. He needed a caffeine pick-me-up.
I kind of adore the Gamtav in this chapter. SORRY NOT SORRY. (Also Rose wasn't here, which I didn't realize until the end, but my excuse for that is the same as Feferi's: she could not afford to skip class.)
Good night, Night Vale. Good night.
