I meant to finish this yesterday, but I didn't. I just may be able to finish Act 34 today, though! We'll see!

Many thanks to kab, ILLLovvv3TTThhh3NNNo.-3, Katsuke Kurayami, iDreamBig, LinkinPark X, thepeopleofthecrysis, Kurotenshi Rayvnn, CatastrophicAquarius, obsessed01616, Kerra Chan, and scone for your reviews to the last act, and a very special thank you to yuritom (on AO3 and Tumblr) for the awesome fanart, including the temporary story cover! NO ONE'S EVER MADE FANART FOR MY HOMESTUCK FICS (only my Balcifer fics :D) SO THIS IS AWESOME!


"Okay, little monster, here's the last of it." Cronus hefted a twenty-four-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon into the back of Eridan's Beemer while Eridan looked on in confusion.

"I didn't ask for this."

"No, I know," his brother said cheerfully. "It's a gift from me to you."

"Um. Why?"

"I thought that's what cool-kid hipsters drank—shitty beer."

Fef let out a giggle and quickly hid her face in her hands. Eridan closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Alright, that's it, leave now."

Still laughing at his own wit, Cronus turned and headed back toward the building. As soon as he was out of earshot, Eridan went back through the booze in the truck of his car. My Redd's, Ara and Tav's 1800, Fef's Jim Beam, Eq's Dos Equis, Rose's wine, Kan's Skyy, Dave's Jager, John can drink the PBR, and Sol's mead. He was a bit surprised his brother had actually managed to find it, but it didn't look too bad.

All at once, Nepeta bounded up and set a short bottle in the back before skipping away. Eridan picked it up, curious, and whirled around. "Everclear?" he asked incredulously, staring at her. He looked back at the bottle, and almost dropped it when he saw that it was the 190-proof stuff, not the 151-proof variety.

"Yep! It's my furrvorite!"

He blinked at her. Somehow, he was both surprised and unsurprised. "Um. Alright. So, seating assignments. Do we have everyone?"

Everyone looked around and Eridan did a quick head count. Fef was standing next to him, Dave, John, Karkat, Terezi, Sol, Aradia, Equius, Nepeta, Tavros, Kan, Rose...

"Yeah, I think so," Fef said, looking around as well.

Nepeta would probably be going with Equius—they were best friends, after all. Aradia would probably ride with them too... and Sol would want to be with her, so that was four. Those were the only ones he could figure out with any degree of certainty. Karkat, John, and Dave could ride with him, and Tavros, too. Rose, Kan, and Terezi could go with Fef. That was everyone. He was about to make his suggestion when he saw Karkat, John, and Dave heading to Fef's car. He was right about Nepeta, Aradia, and Sol, though—they went to Equius's truck without missing a beat. Oh. Okay, then. He slammed his trunk closed and watched everyone hefting their backpacks and sleeping bags into the back of Equius's truck or into Fef's fuchsia Fiesta. That had been the plan—Eridan would take the booze just in case one of them got pulled over since it'd been his idea in the first place (not that he was planning on getting any of them pulled over anyway), and everyone's assorted other crap would go in the other two vehicles since Eridan didn't have any more room in his car. He still didn't have a real idea for how the evening would go aside from copious amounts of booze and probably pizza or other takeout. Aside from that... Well, the house had a sound system wired through it from top to bottom, so they could probably drop some sick beats (he cringed internally even as he thought the phrase "sick beats") or something... Food, booze, music, what more did a party need?

Someone was probably going to end up playing Battle Shots by night's end.

After Kan, Rose, and Tavros put their bags in Equius's truck (Terezi sneaking into Fef's car as well), the three of them went to Eridan's car and he unlocked the rest of the doors. To his utter lack of surprise, Rose and Kan went to the backseat to cuddle back there, leaving Tavros to sit in the front next to him. He was okay with that—he didn't mind Tavros, but the only time they'd ever hung out was the one night he spent at Karkat's place for their project—but he hoped Kan and Rose would keep it PG-13 back there. He didn't feel like cleaning out his backseat.

Fortunately, though, both of them seemed to have had a long day, because within ten minutes, they were passed out, Kanaya draped over Rose and the blonde with her arms around Kanaya like their lives depended on it, and by the time they hit the I-5 heading north, Tavros had fallen asleep as well.

With no one to talk to, Eridan put on Blaqk Audio on a low volume and sang along softly.


Aradia had tried to convince Nepeta that it was okay, she'd sit in the back, she didn't have to sit next to Equius, they weren't even officially dating anyway, but Nepeta was having none of it. She practically shoved Aradia into the front passenger's seat next to Equius, giggling in a strange way that almost sounded like a purr as she noted the light blush but pleased smile on his face. He also began to perspire slightly, which Sollux pretended not to notice, but Nepeta must have been used to it because she pulled a towel out of the pocket behind his seat and draped it over his shoulders.

Equius waited for Eridan and Feferi to lead the way out of the apartment complex parking lot. It was still light out even though the sun had been setting earlier and earlier in the day, but Sollux felt himself nodding off almost immediately. Aradia and Nepeta were chatting quite happily, though—about what, he couldn't really figure out. He wondered in that half-asleep way people wonder things when they're drifting off what was going on in Eridan's car, if Rose and Kanaya were behaving themselves, what on Earth he and Tavros were going to talk about. He'd contemplated, however briefly, actually riding with Eridan, but in the end, he'd chickened out. Eridan hadn't acted any differently around him—no overtly rude comments, but not unduly friendly, either. It was like Sollux had faded into the background for him. He wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but it would have been weird if, out of nowhere, he'd randomly hopped in Eridan's car, leaving his own best friend to ride with someone else.

The truth was, he would have been much more comfortable in his car if Aradia had been with him, but she'd wanted to ride in Equius's truck, so he followed her. It only made sense for them all to ride together.

The closer they got to Eridan's house, the more he regretted not backing out while he had the chance. He should have—there was no sense in torturing himself like this. Normally, he would have been all for spending time with someone he had a crush on to slowly realize they weren't as great as they seemed, but somehow, hanging out with Eridan had had the opposite effect already—Hell, they'd started off basically hating each other, and now he had a crush on the guy. If he spent much more time with him, he might end up doing something stupid, like actually telling Eridan he liked him. He wanted to avoid that.

"I still can't believe you brought Everclear," Aradia laughed. Somehow, that penetrated through his consciousness, and he opened up one eye.

Nepeta was sitting buckled up in the backseat next to him, but her knees were drawn up to her chest and she was grinning at Aradia. She'd tugged off her blue cat hat and set it on the seat next to her, leaving her bright blond hair hopelessly disheveled. "I know! Most people can't, either! I love it, though!"

"Really? What about you, Equius?"

He shook his head, smiling sheepishly. "No, I fear not. I find it a bit... strong for me."

Sollux chuckled internally.

"Too strong? For you? I thought you were all about the strong things!"

"There is a difference between strong alcohol and rocket fuel," Equius said. Sollux laughed in his head—he'd initially thought Equius had no sense of humor, but he'd agreed to help him with his prank the week before, and he'd made that Dos Equis joke a few days ago, and now he was making another joke. Apparently he was just a master of deadpan.

Sollux wondered if Aradia had seen how bright blue his eyes were.

"Have you ever smelled Everclear?" Nepeta asked. "It has the same stench as paint thinner!"

"So why do you like it so much?" Aradia asked.

Nepeta's grin turned mischievous. "Nothing fucks you up like Everclear!"

"Nepeta, your uncouth language—" Equius started warningly, but she cut him off.

"Shoosh!" She batted at his head before going on. "Except maybe absinthe, but I've never tried that!"

"You're not gonna make us do shots of Everclear, are you?" Aradia half-joked, but there was a real note of worry in her voice.

"Oh, no, of course not! I'm not going to make anyone do anything! But it's always an option if someone else wants to," she added with another grin.

"Oh, my God," Aradia laughed. "I'm not sure I could handle that. I mean, I like tequila and everything, but Everclear is on a whole different level."

"Then you don't have to!" Nepeta insisted. Sollux could see, even half-asleep, that she was all about not forcing people to do anything they didn't want to do. It was kind of nice, actually. "It'll only be fur people who want some! Like me," she said with a grin.

Sollux half-smiled to himself and leaned to his right to rest his head against the door frame. He crossed his arms, closed his eye, and let himself drift back off.


Feferi's car was a party.

She'd cranked I Am the Dance Commander: I Command You to Dance by Ke$ha as loud as it would go on her sound system and Dave had surprised everyone by knowing the lyrics to every song. Feferi and Terezi thought it was hysterical, John grinned and sang along with Dave when he knew the words (which wasn't too often, but he knew all the singles), and Karkat stared at all of them as if he thought they were crazy. This only made Dave sing even louder, and while he wasn't a bad singer, it was very interesting to hear him sing with a full-throated Southern accent. As John once said, "His accent is so thick, I can hear the Civil War in it!"

Once Dave grew bored with just singing, he added ridiculous gestures, causing Karkat to groan and slink down further in the backseat and Feferi to be overtaken with such a debilitating case of the giggles that she had to pull over for a minute.

you okay back there? Eridan's text came through as his brake lights flashed and he pulled over a hundred yards in front of him. Equius raced past them before pulling over himself.

Yea)(, I'm fine, sorry! Just give me a minute and I'll be ready to keep going!

Once she recovered, she waved at Eridan, who pulled back out onto the highway. Equius followed her once she got back onto the road as well.

"Sorry," Dave said with an apologetic smile. "I guess no more choreography."

"Not while I'm driving," Feferi confirmed, smiling.

"Hey," he added, turning to look at John—presumably, since he was still wearing his sunglasses and it was impossible to tell where his eyes were focused. "We should do a karaoke thing and sing and dance!"

"I swear to fucking Christ, Strider, if you perform, I will claw my own fucking eyes out!" Karkat snapped. Then he remembered that Terezi was sitting next to him and flinched. "Uh, I mean—"

"Great, then you can give them to me!" she joked without missing a beat.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

Terezi said something to him so quietly that Feferi couldn't hear it and kissed his cheek.

Meanwhile, John was completely ignoring the two of them and said excitedly to Dave, "That would be awesome! Are we just gonna do one song or more?"

"Probably one will be good for the moment. You're not that familiar with most of her songs anyway."

"Hey, I like Animal!"

"That's great, but that was just the springboard for her career. Still... 'Your Love is My Drug.' What do you think?"

John thought it was a great idea, so Feferi agreed to play it on repeat until he had the lyrics memorized. Once he had the words down, he and Dave started discussing dance moves, Feferi changed the song and hummed along, and Karkat and Terezi continued their conversation, oblivious to everything and everyone else.


I have some really good ideas for the next few chapters, so I'm pretty excited.