Ooh boy, terrible writers block. I'm sorry this chapter might not be all that up to scratch...

*EDIT* Sorry sorry, I forgot to italicize this chapter, but it's fixed now


Since the conversation that is now taking place between John and one of his 'new human friends' is not of in any way an interest to you, I'm sure, so let's catch up on... How about Aradia? We haven't heard from her in a while.

...

Aradia had asked Rose for some food, and she happily complied, yelling at Mom to clean out the Counter in the Kitchen, which was a special place in the human house for making food.

She'd sat with the tray on her lap, promising herself that she would not start eating until Sollux was awake. But it became harder and harder as the minutes ticked by and the growling in her stomach became more fervent, so she began eating nonetheless. She didn't even taste the food, but even so it was delicious just because it was something to eat. It was only when the tray was half gone that she decided to wake Sollux up.

Aradia shook Sollux in the shoulder. "Sollux! Sollux! Wake up!"

He'd fallen asleep to blissful unreality for a change, and wasn't happy. "Fuck youuuuuu..." He mumbled turning on his side.

"Sollux!" She shook him more fervently.

"Okay, okay, jegus." He sat up, only half opening his eyes

"Food!"

"That's why you woke me up?"

"I was going to eat it all otherwise."

"Like I give a flying fuck." He mumbled, sinking back onto the couch cushions. His eyes were just starting to droop when he noticed a third person in the room, blinking confusedly, and there was a slight twinge in his gut.

He frowned, then moved back up. The twinge traveled up his spine to his head, making him dizzy and confused. "What the-?"

But then the pain hit him in full force. He fell onto the couch and convulsed, his body on fire.

...

"So, you played a game where you died and came back to life with god powers?" Lyon asked.

John nodded.

"That's not a very long story. How did you die? How did you come back to life? What game /was/ this?"

"Um, the game was called, c-called..."

"Called?"

"S, ssss..."

"S something?"

"S, s, Slime."

"Thats a weird name for a game."

John had a strange smile on his face. Lyon knew that smile meant to back off and stop talking. He felt like he saw that smile too much.

Lyon took a breath and bit his lip for a minute. "If you were in this... Game for three years, then... Who was here in your place during that time?" He asked haltingly, as though he didn't want to know the answer.

John looked at the ground. He didn't want to answer.

"Please, just tell me."

John sighed and took a deep breath. "I've never-"

Terezi slammed open the bedroom door. "John where is a computer?"

"Huh? Who? What?" Lyon was kind of tired of being confused.

"Terezi, what's wrong?" John asked.

"Just answer the question!" She demanded.

"There's one in my room. But what do you need it-"

He didn't finish because she'd already ran upstairs.

Karkat stumbled out of the room, looking half-awake and haggard. "Where'd-?"

"My room. Something about a computer?"

He gave a nod and dashed up the stairs.

John put his head in his hands. "Fuck."

Lyon patted his back awkwardly, not sure who this person was, god or kid or friend or stranger, but recognizing that he needed a pat nonetheless.

...

"How are you- How are you... Here?" Roxy asked Calliope, when they finally managed to get some time alone with her.

"What do you mean? I walked here."

"No, she wants to know why you're not... Why you're alive." Dirk responded for Roxy.

"Oh! That! I don't really know myself, but I know that the Gods of the Furthest Ring are bringing players back from the dead for a little while. Well, only players that relate to the ones on this planet, you guys and John and Terezi and Rose and all them."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

"Do you know why you're human?"

She shook her head. "Not really. But I sure can tell you that it hurt like hell to turn into one!"

"It didn't hurt us when we turned troll." Dirk said.

"You turned troll?"

Dirk and Roxy both explained both the troll phenomenon and the meeting with the weird pale man.

"Oh, that makes sense. You were all asleep when you turned into trolls, and your First Guardian probably prevented you from feeling pain!"

"What first guardian?"

"The pale man; who else did you think he was? But then again, that kind of power seems like it's too much for just a First Guardian..."

"What was it supposed to feel like?" Roxy asked, scooting closer to Calliope.

"Well, first it kind of felt like a weird yanking in my gut and I got dizzy, but then there was just this pain! It was horrible! And then..."

...

The pain. The horrible pain. Sollux was covered and filled with horrible pain. He gasped out something like, "What is this? What's happening? Oh fuck, it hurts!"

Aradia was panicked. "It's, it's okay, I think this is a human thing, a..." She wracked her brain for what Rose told her. "A period! Rose told me about it!"

Sollux shuddered as a new wave of pain hit him. "How does it stop?!"

"Umm, I think it just goes away after a few days... ROSE!" She yelled, desperate. "KANAYA! SOMEONE!"

Mom heard the yelling, both of Aradia and Sollux and ran downstairs. "What is it?" She said.

At that moment, Sollux coughed, a terrible, terrible sound, wet and choked. Blood dribbled down his chin.

Mom leaped into action, sprinting down to Sollux and grabbing a towel. "What happened?"

"Um, I think he's just g-getting a human Period. Rose said something about bleeding-"

She faltered, seeing Mom's incredulous look.

Mom turned back to Sollux, who now had blood streaming freely from his nose. "This isn't normal. This isn't normal at all."

...

"I think you get the pain because your body is literally dying and being reborn at once! After that though, I started bleeding, from every orifice. I don't remember much after that part, but I remember feeling paralyzed..."

...

Sollux's eyes were half open, and streaming blood. His head lolled, and he didn't move.

Rose and Kanaya had joined the frenzy around him, and worked as errand girls, running to get napkins and towels and water and bowls and whatnot. Mom kept a steady questioning, asking Aradia about anything, everything, and Aradia became more and more frazzled with each question and the less Sollux responded, and she wasn't sure, but she thinks that at some point she called John's house and frantically left a message.

Finally, Sollux's eyes closed entirely, and he heaved a huge shudder.

Everyone froze, terrified.

He sat paralyzed, almost peaceful looking, as his skin thickened and turned gray. His hair grew darker and coarser, and four horns rose from his head with another burst of blood, but blood that was a green-yellow mustard color.

Mom's eyes widened, but she didn't back away. She tenderly wiped all the blood away with a damp towel, then stepped back slightly to give him room.

Sollux opened his eyes, then winced slightly. One eye was pure black, and the other was white. "Holy fuck, I can see."

He blinked a few times. He tried to turn to look at Aradia beside him, but the slight movement sent spasms of pain through his weakened body.

"Ow. Oh fuck."

"Sollux! You're okay!" Aradia hugged him.

"Ow! Goddammit Aradia."

"Sorry..."

Kanaya let out a shaky breath, one that she'd been holding the entire time.

"You're okay." she said. "You're okay."

When the brief moment of relief was over, the kids remembered moment and slowly turned to look at her.

No one said anything.

Mom walked up to the couch, and gently touched Sollux's cheek. She pulled her hand back, and smiled sadly. "Of course you're not human. You thought that you were having a period."

...

Jake was lost. He didn't have anywhere to go, and there was nowhere he wanted to go anyways. He asked for home, but his home was from a universe long dead. He asked for a friend, but he had none. He was stupid and lost all of them. So he kept walking through the dark streets, the poorly lit nights, the gloominess of dawn. On the point of collapse, he fell against the wall in some alley that smelled like piss. Smiling slightly, he knew he'd found a new home, a new friend. The rocks on the ground cut into his cheeks, and as he bled he cried until the darkness came swirling up from the ground and the sky and he fell into a death-like sleep.

...

Jade just wanted some time alone, is that too much to ask for? She was tired of playing make-believe that she was okay, that the strange empty pocket in her memory didn't bug her. She just wanted to be alone.

Jake was fine, she was sure. She knew that no matter how annoying he could be sometimes, no one would turn him away if he needed to stay with them. He was a good kid, after all.

But she still felt bad. Really bad. She hoped that Jake was okay, really, it was just... Arrrgh. She just wanted to be alone.

It was kind of funny how she had never noticed how big and empty the house was without Beq or Grandpa in it. Actually, no it wasn't funny, it was sad.

Jade grabbed a pillow off her bed and curled up, waiting for the inevitable sleep that always waited in the wings of her consciousness, pouncing suddenly and unexpectedly. But not now. Not today, not when she clutched a pillow and tears ran from her eyes, not when she forever saw Dave lying on the ground, riddled with bullet wounds from her gun, not when she felt over and over that twist as her control slipped from her grasp and she became another person whose actions were alien to her, but her feelings lingered. Anguish. Anger. Frustration. Sadness. Ruthlessness.

Not when she needed sleep the most.

...

Jane took a deep breath as she contemplated the phone that laid in her hand. The number was dialed already, and all she had to do was press "call". Dad stood beside her, reminding her again that she didn't have to do this.

"I want to. It will be good for me, I think." She'd said this enough that she almost believed it.

She pressed the button, and held the phone to her ear.

The phone rang again and again, one, two, five, eight-

"Hello?" A man picked up the phone.

She took a deep breath. "M-Mr. Egbert?"

"Yes?"

"I wa- I want to talk to you and your s-son."

"Who is this?"

"Thi-this is Jane Crocker."

"Why do you want to talk to us?"

"I have... I have some things to say, and I th-think John does too."

There was a silence at the other end. "When and where do you want to meet up?"

...

Terezi logged onto Trollian and contacted Sollux as fast as she could.

-gallowsCalibrator began pestering twinArmeddegons-
GC: SOLLUX!
GC: 4R3 YOU OK4Y?!
GC: 1 JUST GOT 4 W31RD M3SS4G3 FROM 4R4D14
GC: SH3 S41D YOU W3R3 DY1NG!
TA: calm down im 0kay
TA: aa was freaking out i kn0w
TA: but it's all better now
GC: WHY 4R3 YOU TYP1NG L1K3 TH4T?
TA: ...
TA: 0kay this is going t0 be hard to explain
TA: 0r not
TA: im a tr0ll again
GC: WH4T?
GC: HOW?!
TA: yeah we dont kn0w what happened really
TA: but apparently my ghost half came back t0 life and merged with me and it made me a troll again
TA: g0g i cant believe i said that in all seriousness
GC: HOW D1D H3 COM3 B4CK TO L1F3?
TA: h0w should i kn0w
GC: WHY 4R3 YOU 4 TROLL?
TA: i said already WE DONT KN0W
GC: OK4Y OK4Y
GC: GRUMPY
GC: (right here there should be Terezi's horns, but the dumb thing isn't gonna let me use that symbol, so here's the rest of the face. Sorry) :[

She sighed and leaned back.

"Is he okay? What happened?" Karkat asked.

"He turned back into a troll and merged with his newly reincarnated ghost half."

"... I really cannot believe you just fucking said that, and I understood it."

Crisis averted, she tromped back downstairs with the intention of finding more food.

"John, do you have more of that mashed sauce from last night?" She asked.

John at that moment was curled up on the couch being awkwardly comforted by Lyon, who started at Terezi's approach.

John closed his eyes and sat up. He set his shoulders and fixed that strange smile on his face. "You mean the mashed potatoes? Yeah we have some; I'll heat it up for you."

He stood up and walked to the refrigerator to prepare the food, eventually drawing Karkat out to join them.

Lyon took his cue and left, but promised himself to immediately find John the next day at school.

...

The tall, bone-thin boy contemplated the heap of a child lying in a mess on the ground in some alley. His cheekbones jutted out sharply and his skinny limbs that hung limply down his sides held no hint of flesh. He looked like a corpse.

Except his eyes. His eyes were red and wide open, wild and more than slightly deranged. They were the eyes of a person who had seen things they shouldn't have, done things they shouldn't have.

The eyes of Gamzee Makara.

Gamzee contemplated the heap of Jake English who lay in a mess on the ground in some alley.


Drama.

Alright, I apologize for putting off Gamzee's appearance and leaving you only with a vague teaser.

Jesus, English and Harley need to pull themselves together, little drama queens...

Oh and I'd appreciate suggestions! I'm in a desperate stump; I didn't expect to be getting this far this fast. As of this this chapter, I have no idea what will happen. Seriously. Well... I have a sketchy outline, but I don't know the immediate direction. So I will be implementing a SUGGESTION BOX. If you have any ideas, take control of the story, and review!

Parting thought to contemplate until the next chapter: Why is Gamzee staring at Jake like a creep? What will happen at each of the kids' schools? What will happen with the trolls? Will they awkwardly hang around the house under the watchful eyes of the guardians, or will they destroy the neighborhood after being left alone for eight hours? Does the author even know? What does this say about the author if she doesn't know?

Stick around for the next time for a satisfyingly coherent and delightfully flowing chapter full of tension, laughs, and suspense.

Or you could read chapter 7 of this story.