I knew I had to get this finished and posted tonight since I have duty tomorrow...laaaaaame. Next update on Tuesday. Probably.

Many thanks to BlooKisses, SilverEnderwolf, iDreamBig, Bitblondetoday, can we not, CatastrophicAquarius, region-discontinued, pendaly, and Haruko-Odagari for your reviews to the last act!


Art History was stupidly boring for Sollux, but he'd taken it because he needed another liberal arts class. Apparently Creative Writing wasn't enough for his Bachelor's requirements so he was stuck in a class he could barely tolerate.

Fortunately, the class was in a lecture hall as opposed to the regular classrooms and he sat right in the back, so he killed time and kept sane by turning the volume on his Nintendo 3DS all the way down and playing Pokémon X while glancing up every so often to make it appear that he was paying attention. The teacher had already said the only thing that really counted was the final and his classmates posted halfway decent notes online, so he had it all covered. He wouldn't have even bothered to show up if it hadn't been for the school's policy of not counting a class if you missed so many sessions of it.

They were dismissed at one-forty-five, and Sollux quickly packed his bag (he hadn't taken much out of it in the first place) and slipped out the door before anyone else. He never stayed back to talk to anyone because most of his classmates in this particular class were all way too excited about the course—all hipster, art-loving douches who actually reminded him a lot of more-annoying versions of Eridan.

He grinned to himself. He could only imagine how much better the class would be with Eridan actually in it. He probably still wouldn't pay attention, but there would be another reason for his distraction.

And now he would be heading back home to watch terrifying movies with Eridan. The intent really hadn't been to scare him or anything, but if the night ended with Eridan huddled against his shoulder, it would be a bonus. He'd be willing to change movies if it got too intense, but there wasn't much truly terrifying about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2. Really, Bill Moseley's lines just made everything funny.

Then again, while Aradia shared his warped sense of humor, not everyone else did. Maybe this was a bad idea. He didn't want to freak out Eridan too badly. hey iim out of cla22 but lii2ten iif you dont want two watch tcm2 we dont have two

its okay, i can handle a little blood an gore an besides i made you sit through harry potter

yeah well harry potter ii2 not remotely terriifyiing two me then agaiin neiither ii2 the tcm franchii2e but you 2aiid iit 2care2 you

wwell honestly i nevver saww any a those movvies before so idk if those ones wwill scare me. wwho knowws i might end up likin them

oh okay well iif you change your miind ju2t let me know hey when doe2 your cla22 end

supposed to be 2:30 but shell probably let us out early. she usually does since its friday an no one pays attention on fridays anywway

hahaha fact of cour2e ii dont pay attentiion becau2e the cla22 ii2 utter bull2hiit

wwhat class

art hii2tory

aww that is crap! its a really interestin subject! howw can you not like it?

2ay2 my boyfriiend the art nerd but prof mendiicant get2 way long-wiinded. liike iim 2ure 2he2 a great teacher but 2he ha2 a tendency to ramble al2o art 2tuff ii2 not my deal

oooooh yeah i did hear that about her. an you havve that class in the lecture hall right

yeah

not a real learnin-conducivve envvironment

ii ju2t 2iit iin the back and play game2

By then, Sollux was back in the cafeteria and heading toward the table Aradia and Nepeta were sitting at. He set his bag down next to Aradia's seat and pulled out his 3DS to continue playing Pokémon while she and Nepeta paused only a moment to greet him before returning to their conversation.

"Alright, so Halloween wasn't so great, but we can do something pawesome for Thanksgiving, right?" Nepeta said.

Aradia laughed. "Most of us are going to be with our families."

That prospect sent a wave of dread through Sollux. He wasn't looking forward to seeing Mituna again—it was the main reason he hated holidays. He did kind of miss his mom, but he'd have to clue her in on his life and considering he could barely go five minutes without thinking about Eridan, he was sure to come up at some point. That, and Mituna would probably spill the beans before Sollux was good and ready for their mom to know, so that was almost guaranteed to be a train wreck. Maybe he could just skip out on the holidays this year or spend them with someone else like Aradia or Eridan.

Or maybe not. Maybe Eridan's family wouldn't be as accepting as his own mom was. Sure, Cronus seemed like a cool enough guy (certainly the idea that his younger brother was fooling around with another guy in the next room didn't faze him) but their parents could be completely different. And as far as Sollux knew, Eridan hadn't come out to them—although there also might not have been anything to tell them, Sollux reminded himself. After all, Eridan hadn't expressly said that he was bi or something. All he'd done was imply that he was pretty sure he might be, and at this point, that wasn't enough for Sollux to go leaping to conclusions like that.

"Yeah, I guess, but we could still have a purrty or something the weekend after or before Thanksgiving! I had fun last weekend—what about you?"

"Yeah, actually, it was pretty awesome."

"So we could do something else. I was hoping we would have more people last night but..." Nepeta looked sad for a moment. "I don't think anything could have fixed last night. But if it hadn't happened, and more people had joined us, like everyone from last weekend, we could have had a blast!"

"That is definitely true. We should probably organize another discussion on Pesterchum to plan that. Although going up to Eridan's house should probably not be involved," Aradia added with a laugh. "Not that it wasn't fun, but that holiday drive would be stupid ridiculous."

"Dibs on not hosting that party," Sollux mumbled.

"Oh, no one was asking you!" Aradia said, messing with his hair. "No one would want to hang out at your place, either."

"Thanks," he said sarcastically. He stuck out his tongue.

"It's okay, I think Equius would be okay with us doing something at our house. We got enough floor space and a pull-out sofa in case anyone ends up staying the night."

"And what would we do?"

"Play games! Like... um... pin the feather on the turkey?"

"Oh, Jegus," Sollux muttered.

"And drunk Twister! Oh, and we can do our own Thanksgiving dinner!" Nepeta squeaked, as though the idea had just occurred to her (it probably had). "Equius is really good at Thanksgiving turkeys! And everyone can bring something else to eat!"

"Which will be great since ED's a vegetarian and FF's a vegan," Sollux added. He was becoming more invested in the conversation as it progressed, mostly because it seemed like a great alternative to seeing Mituna. Although if Terezi came and happened to bring along Latula... He tried not to think about that. Doom. Only doom.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Well, we'll just have to make sure we have vegan-friendly food there! No big deal!"

my class just got let out

oh good theyre talkiing about thank2giiviing plan2 now

Sollux stood back up and made to abscond, but Aradia grabbed him by the wrist, keeping him in place. "So, where are you off to?" she asked sweetly.

"Uh, home."

"Oh, good. I'm coming over this weekend. We're hanging out."

"Um, okay."

"You better be ready, because I will drop in with zero notice."

"Wait, tomorrow or Sunday?"

"Yes."

"That's not an answer."

"Sure it is."

"It wasn't a yes or no question!"

Aradia just grinned. "Be on your guard, Sollux Helena Captor. I'm like a ghost. I'll walk through your walls and watch you while you sleep."

Sollux rubbed his forehead, exhaling slowly and deliberately through his nose. "Go creep on Horse Cock."

Both Aradia and Nepeta let out squeaks, but where Aradia looked embarrassed, Nepeta seemed highly amused. "I'm gonna assume that 'Horse Cock' is your nickname for Equius."

"He started it!" Aradia said accusingly, pointing at Sollux as he backed away. "He said that ever since he found out Equius was going to be a horse for Halloween, all he could think about was 'Horse Cock'!"

Nepeta dissolved into laughter, tears welling up in her eyes. "Oh, my God!" she wheezed between giggles.

Sollux figured now as a great time to leave since both Nepeta and Aradia were preoccupied, so he hitched his backpack higher and scurried away. As he left, he happened to glance to the side and see Kanaya and Rose tucked away at a corner table, and part of him envied how uncomplicated their relationship seemed. Even after a week, the amount of drama between him and Eridan had reached headache-level proportions.

Not that he didn't like Eridan, because he liked him a lot (he had it bad for him, and he could only hope this wouldn't blow up in his face), but sometimes he wished they could just be them without worrying so much about what other people thought.

Eridan's BMW was idling outside the cafeteria building when he finally got outside, so he hopped in and tossed his backpack on the back seat. "Hey."

"Hey, what's the word?"

Sollux couldn't resist a smart-ass remark. "A combination of letters and sounds that existentially should have no meaning but—"

"I'm gonna hit you."

Sollux gave a snort of laughter as Eridan pulled away from the curb. "Nah, but AA and NP are on about this Thanksgiving thing they want to do, like a friends-only kind of thing. NP has this idea of EQ making turkey and people bringing vegetarian and vegan-friendly food."

"Oh, that's what you meant. Shit, I don't think any a' them would know vegan-friendly food if someone flung it at their face."

"It's a lot of shit no one really thinks about," Sollux said, not sure if he should take offense to Eridan's comment or not. He was pretty sure he knew what vegan diets entailed.

"Yeah, there's milk an' eggs in stuff most people don't realize."

"Well, NP really wants some vegan main course for you and FF, so... I hope you have ideas."

"A few, but Thanksgivin' at the Ampora house usually involves me eatin' a lot of mashed potatoes and carrots. I'm not really big on the tofu turkey."

"There's also green bean casserole."

"For me, yeah, but it's not vegan-friendly. That cream a' mushroom soup has all kinds a' non-vegan stuff in it."

"Oh. Crap, yeah, I didn't even think about that."

"Am I goin' the right way?"

"Um." Sollux looked around at the street around them. "Oops, no, whip a shitty right here."

Eridan slowed to a stop at the red light and turned to stare at him for a moment. "What?"

"Make a U-turn. Sorry. That's what my mom calls making a U-turn."

"Whip a shitty, oh, my God," Eridan muttered, putting on his blinker and getting into the turn lane. "Where am I goin' after this?"

"You were here yesterday," Sollux pointed out.

"Yeah, an' I was distracted by the thought a' your bee costume. I thought you were jokin' but you clearly were not. Oh, hey, this looks familiar."

"Yeah, that's because it's my building—and you just missed the entrance."

"Fuck." Eridan scratched the back of his head. "Alright, I'm goin' around the block."

"Fine and dandy, except that's a one-way street and it's going the wrong way."

"Why are the streets here so fuckin' stupid?" Eridan grumbled.

Sollux chuckled and leaned back in his seat. "So what are you actually going to do for Thanksgiving?"

"Parents' house, probably. Same as every year. Except this time, Cro will pretty much have to come. My parents are gonna want visual proof that he's alive an' unharmed."

"Relatively."

"Relatively. An' I know my grandparents are gonna be there this year for the same reason—my parents have probably told everyone in the damn family that Cro got shot so everyone's gonna wanna fawn all over him. But, hey, as long as they're not hoverin' over me..."

"That sounds... really irritating, actually."

"Yeah, well, me an' Cro are the only kids in the family. None a' my aunts an' uncles had kids so everyone just kinda zeroes in on us. Great when it came to presents when we were younger, actually—fewer kids meant we got some mad Christmas mornin's, but for Thanksgivin'... not so much."

Sollux had a few cousins he hardly ever saw, mostly because they were on his dad's side of the family and he hated them as a rule, and the only relative he had on his mom's side (besides his mom) was his maternal grandfather. The guy was overall pretty nice, but he drank way too much and started talking about his days in the Navy, so his mom kept both him and Mituna away from the guy. Essentially, his whole family was nuclear—in more ways than one. Still, he was a bit jealous of the way Eridan had grown up. He'd obviously been surrounded by a lot of love as a kid, and it was hard not to wish he'd had a little more of that.

"You okay?" Eridan's voice broke through the cloud of his thoughts and Sollux realized they'd parked.

"Yeah, just thinking."

"You need to talk?"

Sollux shook his head. "Nah, let's just go inside."


I have heard the howling of the masses and the next intermission will delve a little more into the Davefef relationship. And the actual Act 71 will pick up right where this one left off.