Hey, guys! Sorry this took so long... I won't burden you with the details of my week but suffice it to say that it has been extremely stressful, but now it appears things are looking better.
One note before I continue: If you don't like where this story is going, stop reading. If you don't like that Vriska is getting a higher word count than I originally foresaw, stop reading. If you don't like that I feel the need to add depth to Vriska's character and develop her past the one-dimensional generic evil bitch, stop reading. Unless you leave me constructive criticism, not mindless hate or blatant attempts to dictate how I write to the point of completely warping my intent, I will disregard your opinion. Believe it or not, people who have disliked something I did with an act told me in a respectful way what they didn't like and how I could improve, and I took their suggestions into consideration, and I appreciate that they want to make my story more enjoyable for everyone. Yay, the system works! But, ultimately, I write this story for my own enjoyment (that most of you seem to like it is something I find absolutely amazing and wonderful) and if I decide Vriska is becoming a more interesting character, then dammit, I'm going to write her more (without losing focus on the Erisol, where the story is coming back around to very shortly).
Anyway, many, many thanks to obsessed01616, FanficFinatic2, Bitblondetoday, DJMeow, SilverEnderwolf, region-discontinued, Insert name here, can we not (you will get your wish soon!), and CatastrophicAquarius ("GOOD DOG" omg stahp lol) for your reviews to the last act!
(The end of the first section contains some spoilers for Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 so... be warned, I guess.)
Eridan's hands shook so badly he could barely type and doing anything in Photoshop was completely out. He was beginning to regret drinking so much coffee—he must have had nearly a gallon by now, and all the caffeine was coursing through his veins. He probably would have bled coffee if he'd been cut, and considering how badly he had to pee, he'd probably piss coffee, too. It was time to stop, so after a not-so-quick trip to the bathroom and once he gathered up his belongings, he headed back to the cafeteria building. At least there, the temptation to buy yet another cup of coffee wouldn't be present—the cafeteria had really bad coffee.
To his surprise, about five minutes after he sat down, Fef appeared, looking angrier than he'd ever seen before. It actually kind of scared him a little because she was usually so calm.
"That absolute bitch!" she raged, slamming her backpack on the table.
Eridan resisted the urge to cower under the table. She was really angry—she hadn't made a pun when beach would have been her usual go-to insult. "Um... so I take it not everything is okay?" he asked meekly, half-hiding behind his computer.
"That spider-bitch is stealing my friends right out from under me!"
Eridan felt his eyes widen. "V-Vris? W-what do you mean?"
"I mean, you remember my friend Jade from the swim team?"
"I never met her."
Fef groaned. "Ugh, whatever! Anyway, Vriska somehow has Jade convinced she's just a misunderstood little angel or something, and now they're super-close or some crap like that. Fuck, I told Jade what she did to you and the others, but apparently, she doesn't care!"
"Crap," Eridan muttered. "Think Vris is gonna try to hurt her?"
"I don't know—maybe! I just can't believe Jade let herself get sucked in by her! It looks like she still has her talent for emotional manipulation firmly intact."
Eridan bit his lip. "Well, as selfish as it sounds, as long as she's not buggin' me, I don't really care what she does."
Fef ran her nails through her hair, staring intently at the tabletop as if it could yield all the answers she sought. "There has to be somefin I can do," she murmured.
"Like?"
"Glub with Jade. Figure out what Vriska told her. Figure out how to break this damn spell she has over her. I don't want Jade to get hurt like you or Kanaya or anyone else. She needs to stop."
"Sounds like a good idea. Vris isn't dumb enough to pull the same crap on you."
"I almost wish she was."
Part of him did hope that Vriska wasn't about to destroy another life, but most of him was preoccupied with his sandwich and returning the text that had just arrived from Sol—hey ii2 your brother okay
Eridan was pretty sure he'd sent it a long time ago and for some reason, his phone had just received it. It was probably time to think about upgrading—he'd had it for awhile. yeah i left him wwith meenah so shell probably take real good care of him
Meanwhile, Fef had unzipped her backpack and fished out a couple of books marked as Sociology textbooks. He could have probably worked on his Calculus homework with all the free time he'd given himself, but the prospect of facing homework was frustrating and exhausting.
ew came Sol's response. Eridan was just trying to think up an answer—Sol hadn't given him much to work with—when another message came in. so iif youre up for iit you want two come over and watch a moviie at my place twoniight ii ju2t dont really have the money for a moviie theater or 2omethiing
Eridan grinned. depends on wwhat movvie i guess
2omethiing 2uiitably horriifyiing like texa2 chaiin2aw ma22acre part 2
oh swweet baby jegus no
come on iit2 more funny than 2cary that one anyway .liike the oriigiinal in 1974 or whatever wa2 actually pretty fuckiing 2cary but 2ub2equent iin2tallment2 got darkly funny plu2 biill mo2eley ha2 2ome great liine2
wwhy does that name sound familiar
probably becau2e he2 a horror moviie iicon at lea2t ii thiink 2o anyway
wwhat else has he been in. i might a seen it
well you probably havent 2een texa2 chaiin2aw ma22acre 3d but he wa2 iin that two a2 a diifferent member of the 2awyer famiily probably becau2e the guy who played drayton 2awyer iin the fiir2t place diied and mo2eley2 oriigiinal character chop top wa2 kiilled iin tcm2. he wa2 al2o iin hou2e of 1000 corp2e2 and the 2equel the deviil2 reject2 whiich were fuckiing hiilariiou2 but iim gue22iing you never 2aw tho2e eiither and he wa2 iin repo! the genetiic opera whiich ii2 a rock opera and that actually kiind of 2eem2 liike the iindiie hiip2ter thiing youd love 2o
jegus fuck thats right i saww him in repo he wwas that luigi largo guy wwasnt he
yeah that2 the one anyway he2 fuckiing hy2teriical iin ju2t about everythiing iive 2een hiim iin
Eridan was still a little skittish on the idea of seeing anything with the phrase "chainsaw massacre" in the title but he figured if it got too intense for him, he could always close his eyes and cuddle up to Sol. That wouldn't be so bad.
And he could cover his ears if the screams got to be too much.
alright wwell im a big baby wwhen it comes to horror movvies so if you hear wwhimpering dont be alarmed
thank2 for the warniing my la2t cla22 end2 at two twoday 2o whenever youre ready two go ju2t let me know
yeah sure
And with that, Eridan had plans for the night. He figured Cronus and Meenah would find some way to entertain themselves while he was away, so he didn't feel too bad about potentially not coming home tonight. Besides, Cronus had complained about the noise level.
They couldn't avoid this conversation forever. It was lunch time, and Rose was frantic. She knew that Kanaya was mad at her and she completely understood why, but she deserved a chance to apologize, right? She didn't know what she could do to make it up to her, but she knew that she wanted to do something.
Roxy, in all her drunken wisdom, and been right. Rose had had to decide for herself what she was willing to handle in this relationship, and she'd decided that she was willing to handle quite a bit. She liked Kanaya a lot more than she'd originally thought, and not all of it was rational. She enjoyed Kanaya's company and her conversation and her insight, but she also liked stupid things like the way she licked her lips as she thought and twisted her hair through her fingers and bounced her foot when she was bored and laughed when she thought Rose had said something deliberately naïve. The thought that there might not be anything more between them was potentially devastating—she'd gotten ridiculously attached to Kanaya ridiculously quickly, and now all she could do was pray Kanaya could forgive her.
Kanaya either hadn't left the cafeteria at all or she'd gone back to the same table because there she was, sitting in exactly the same place Rose had seen her last. Rose didn't know if that relieved or worried her—but this time, at least, Aradia was nowhere to be seen and Kanaya was alone with her elbows on the table and her back still to Rose's door. She swallowed nervously and crossed the room, hoping Kanaya would at least be willing to listen.
"Can I sit?" she asked softly, coming around to the side so she could look at Kanaya.
The other girl looked up at her from her phone, annoyance clear on her face, but Rose stood her ground. "Fine," Kanaya said finally, and looked back down at the screen of her phone.
So Rose sat. "Look, I know you're upset with me, and you have every right to be." Kanaya gave a snort of what could have been agreement but didn't look at her. "But I want to apologize. It wasn't a deliberate slight against you—I just had a very long day yesterday and I didn't realize how tired I was. I wouldn't have done something like that on purpose," she added as she realized Kanaya had paused whatever she was watching. Although she still didn't look away from her phone, she did appear to be listening. "So I'm sorry. I don't know how to make it up to you, but I want to, any way I can."
Kanaya finally looked at her, and though Rose couldn't get a read on her expression, it was a relief just to be making eye contact with her girlfriend again. After a moment, Kanaya sighed. "I don't quite know why I'm so upset, Rose. I just am."
"And that's fine."
"I suppose that last night was intended to be a lot of fun with our friends, and spending a vast majority of it in front of the television in your living room was a big letdown."
"I'm sorry," Rose said again.
"I know." Kanaya let out another sigh. "And I spoke with Aradia this morning and we might not have actually had as much fun as we planned anyway—it turns out that Eridan's brother Cronus was shot last night, which rather put a damper on the evening."
That explained the look on Eridan's face earlier. Rose suddenly wished she had approached him, if only to offer whatever comfort she could. "Is he... dead?" she asked quietly, as though speaking the word aloud would make it so.
Kanaya shook her head. "The bullet apparently grazed the side of his head. He's home already, but he had covered for Aradia's sister, meaning it could have been her who was shot."
"Wait, what happened? When was this?"
"Last night, while Cronus was working. It was a robbery gone bad or something, and apparently the culprits didn't get away with much. I imagine the police are scrambling to find them, but they wore masks, so they could be anyone.
"But anyway. Everyone is alive, although last night wasn't as much fun as it should have been. They were all very worried about Cronus."
Rose nodded slowly. It seemed crazy to think that the guy who'd supplied them with alcohol just the week before had almost died last night. She wondered what they'd all be doing right now if the worst had actually happened. "I don't blame them."
"Of course, I just found out about this all this morning. But still. It would have been nice to be there, to know what had happened as it happened."
"I'm so sorry. I know you were looking forward to it. I... well, I wish you had gone without me."
"Why?"
"So you wouldn't have missed it. I mean, it's nice that you wanted me to come with you, but you didn't have to."
"You were supposed to be my ride there, and by the time I realized you weren't waking up, I didn't feel right calling Equius for a ride."
"Oh." Shit. Somehow, she felt even worse than she did before the conversation started.
"But I suppose it's in the past now. If you're really serious about making it up to me, you won't miss Thanksgiving with my family," Kanaya said with a small smile.
And just like that, the guilt she felt eased and a smile crossed her face, too. "Really? You want me to meet your family?"
"Well, it's just my parents and my sister, most likely, unless my crazy aunt Dolores shows up, but I would like you to meet them. Porrim especially has been anxious to meet you. Porrim is my sister," she added.
"So you talk about me to your family, huh?"
"Mostly to Porrim, although I've mentioned you to my parents once or twice. And can you blame me?" Kanaya reached out and brushed a few stray strands of hair behind Rose's ear. "I just... don't want this to turn into another Vriska situation."
Rose caught her hand. "I have absolutely no intention of doing to you what Vriska did. Please believe that."
Kanaya nodded. "I do. I believe you."
So I just watched Texas Chainsaw 3D (although not in 3D) and it was really good but Bill Moseley got bottom billing on the box which is so misleading because he was only in the first five minutes of the movie aND I BOUGHT IT FOR HIM GFDI. Sorry I adore him.
