It's been like, a billion years since I've updated this, holy crap. Writer's block combined with shitty life equals no updates, but things sort of seem to be looking up? Yeah~
I want to thank everyone who reviewed and encouraged me and gave me support when I needed it, it was really wonderful, and I am so grateful!
And as it turns out? I don't actually need to call "my ex" my ex anymore. :)
-Also, I want to reply to ElizaBeGood (reviewed on chapter 15): So I sorta already explained how John died, it was a car accident. An actual accident, and taking another chapter to add more detail is a tad unnecessary in my opinion, so I don't think I'll do that? But thanks for the feedback~
Anyways, here's the chapter, a little shorter than what I wanted but hey, it's the best I can crank out right now! Enjoy~
Jesus balls is Karkat ever pissed at you.
"What the fuck were you even thinking? Oh yeah, let's just bang each other in some random bed in Karkat's house! Great idea!"
You rub your eyes in boredom at the screaming male, adjusting the blankets to keep yourself and John covered. You aren't phased by Karkat's yelling, despite the fact that it woke you up, but John looks terrified.
"Do you even know how much of a mess the rest of the house is? And of course you guys had to come and defile this room too! Holy mother of fuck, I told Terezi this was a terrible idea!"
You brush it all off, chuckling, "Someone obviously didn't get laid last night."
"Oh my god, SHUT THE FUCK UP, STRIDER! First of, maybe I did get 'laid', maybe I didn't, and either way, it's none of your fucking business! Can't a guy get upset at people having sex in his house without getting blows at his manhood? Seriously, Dave, you're such a fucking idiot! I mean, just because you got laid and feel good about yourself doesn't mean-"
You tune him out at this point, throwing the blanket off of you to collect your clothes, which Karkat seethes at further.
"Oh my fucking god I do not need to see that, holy shit learn some respect!"
You really don't care if he sees you naked, it's not like you're an eyesore or anything. Plus, you're basically just a dead guy, so what does it really matter?
"I want you two out here and cleaning up in 10 minutes, I fucking mean it!" Karkat finally orders, leaving the room and slamming the door behind him.
John finally finds words, speaking slowly and getting dressed with you.
"Boy, he sure was mad, wasn't he?"
"No kidding, man. Seriously, not like we hurt anybody, sheets can always be washed."
John bites his lip, going silent. It's not a good sign.
"What's up, John?"
"Um..exactly how drunk did we get last night?"
Oh god, not this..
"I don't know how drunk you were, but apparently drunk enough to jump my bones first chance you got."
"You were coherent?"
"Somewhat."
"What did we do, Dave?"
He doesn't even remember?
"Exactly what Karkat said, John."
"We had sex?"
You nod slowly, running a hand through your hair to fix it, or at least try to.
"In the..?" John trails off, instead gesturing with his hands.
"Yes, John. We had sex. My dick was in your ass. Get over it," you snap.
You'd be lying if you said you weren't even a little upset right now, and you don't even try to hide it. You finally take your shades, putting them on your face and exit the room, promptly leaving John behind.
One thing you don't leave behind though is your pounding headache. Oh, the joys of a hangover.
You help yourself to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, downing a few Advil and washing it down with tap water. You look in the mirror, mess with your hair a little before exiting to the living room, where Hell awaits.
Hell on earth, at least.
Not many people are left at Karkat's apparently. There's Terezi, Sollux, Eridan, yourself, and John. Karkat is ranting at the other three in the living room, directing them to clean up certain areas. You join in, and Karkat puts you on dish duty.
That's when you find yourself in the kitchen, absentmindedly loading the dishwasher when you see John come in, arms full of trash from the living room and other various areas of the house. He deposits the trash into the garbage can before leaning up against the counter, facing your back.
"Look Dave, you can't stay mad at me forever. I'm sorry I can't remember. But that doesn't go to say I regret anything, because I don't."
You don't reply, instead letting John's words sink in. He sounds sincere, sounds like he means them. During the silence, Sollux brings in more dishes for you and promptly leaves the kitchen thereafter.
"I love you, Dave. Quite honestly, there's no one else I'd rather do all of that with. Really, please don't stay mad at me. We have a mission, remember?"
You do remember. You have to take care of Casey with John. Watch over her, make sure she's safe.
"Yeah," you finally answer. "We should probably introduce you to her today. I just..I have no idea how she's going to react. She's young, but she's not stupid. She might just notice the resemblance between you and herself."
"I guess we'll just have to hope she doesn't?"
"Yeah."
You finish loading up the dishwasher, and bid farewells to everyone left in the house. You even get Karkat aside, speaking to him.
"Look man, I'm sorry about the whole guest room thing, okay? Uh, yeah, next time I'll see you, I can get you another cool movie or something, okay?"
"No.." Karkat replies slowly, rubbing his temple. "Don't worry about it. I just feel like shit, I guess I kinda snapped at everyone. It's probably this massive headache, I have no idea how many drinks I even had.."
"Yeah, tell me about it. You'll make it though, buddy."
"I know. See you, Strider. Egbert."
And with that, you and John take your leave.
As it's still early morning, not even noon yet, shit, you hate being up this early, you decide not to visit Casey quite yet. Instead, you find yourself at the edge of the dock again with John, at that special pond. You're in your angel forms yet again, invisible to the world, wings hanging leisurely from your back. Relaxed.
But you're still curious, perplexed about something John mentioned last night in his drunken state.
"Hey John?"
"Yeah?"
"I have a question about something you said last night. A few things, actually," you tell him, looking down and picking at your nails.
"Yeah? Go for it," John replies, awaiting your question patiently as he looks out to the water. It looks really warm, hell, it's a really nice day out. It probably is really warm.
"You mentioned something about the 'chains in God's room'? To be honest, I don't even know who this God figure is, I haven't met him. Why?"
"Oh..." John furrows his eyebrows, trying to think of a way to phrase what he's about to say. "You've met him. He's not exactly "God", per say, in fact I don't really think there is a "God"? It's more like slain, I guess. Entertain the humans. Or maybe we just call him that because nobody knows his real name."
"Who is he?"
"I think you should figure that out on your own. In time, you know. It's better that way."
"Okay, what about the chains then?" you press, looking at John, studying his face for a clue.
"If I tell you about those, it'll give away who he is!" the brunette exclaims, though not angrily.
"Big deal. I think I'll live."
John rolls his eyes, sighing. "Fine. You remember the Judge? Yeah, he's kind of the big man up there. Like the Chief Justice Supreme Court guy of Heaven. You remember the room we were in? That's 'his' room."
"Oh...oh..." It finally clicks. You remember quite clearly being curious, and also quite terrified of the chains on the wall in that room.
"What are the chains for?"
"I think you know, Dave..."
"Humor me here. I'm a new kid, remember? I don't know shit about Heaven," you chuckle, which draws the briefest of smiles from your fellow angel.
"They're for the "bad" angels."
"Bad?"
"The fallen ones. The ones that betray "God". Or ones that commit terrible crimes. They're put in the chains, they're tortured. It's horrible."
"How so?" Your curiosity's gotten the best of you, you want to know more.
John huffs. "Are you really going to make me explain?"
"Yes." You tell him this with a completely straight face. John rolls his eyes again.
"They tear the flight feathers out of the angel one by one, and burn the follicles so they can't ever grow back. They can whip the angel, they can slash their wings, they can clip of the edges. They can choke them, burn them, hurt them, stab them. Anything goes. It's horrendous. They can even kill the angel if the crime is bad enough, if they've committed enough of a treason to 'deserve' it under His terms. Erase them from existence, obliterate them. It's terrifying."
Your eyebrows raise in surprise. This was something you did not know, you had no idea happened. You just thought the chains were to hold a resisting angel, maybe. But holy shit, torture? It's beyond believe, and immediately gives you a searing anger towards the Judge. Sure, he's the "big man", but since when does he get to justify the existence of someone? You call bullshit. Lots and lots of bullshit.
"That's terrible."
Those are the only words you can find.
"I know. A lot of people are afraid of Him, even me...he's kind of condescending."
"Yeah, no kidding."
"I'm lucky I didn't get hurt. For not saving you."
"It was my fault though!"
"You sacrificed yourself, I think that's the only reason I was let off as easy as I was. Not only that, but my...uh..you know. The person in charge of me? He sent me on the mission kind of illegally, technically. I was too young. That's another factor. I'm surprised he didn't get punished for it."
You're kind of shocked into silence. Here you thought you'd have a lot of liberties as an angel, you could be free. Apparently not, there were strict rules set for everyone.
"What makes someone a fallen angel?"
"I guess they're 'fallen' if they've defied Him. If they do something against His word. Quite honestly, fallen angels rarely reside in Heaven, they stay mostly on earth and elsewhere. They're rarely caught, as they have a sort of secret unity with each other, almost as if it's like a secret society. If they're seen in Heaven, they're put in the chains."
"Shit man. Remind me not to be fallen."
"Yeah..."
Conversation dies off there, and you let your own thoughts absorb you. You wonder if Aradia can communicate with the fallen angels. John sure seems to know a lot about them, but that's probably because of how long he's been in Heaven. He was practically raised there, of course he'd know everything about it.
You don't know how much time passes, because pretty soon John is shaking you awake, when did you even fall asleep?
"Dave, it's like 3 o' clock. I think we should go visit Casey."
You stretch your wings out and yawn, replying afterwards, "Sounds good to me. Let's hit the road."
You don't actually hit the road. You fly there, and enter the house with the same method as last time.
You're the first one to speak to Casey, finding her in her room once again, and she seems to be concentrating quite hard on drawing a particular picture. John isn't in the room yet, he seems hung up about the rest of the house. He sure is lucky his parents can't see him, they're right in the living room, watching some sitcom on the television.
"Hey Case," you whisper right next to Casey, causing the poor girl to jump. She speaks quietly, in a whisper.
"Dave?"
"Yeah, it's me," you reply, making yourself appear, sans wings. She grins at you, giving you a hug and giggling.
"I missed you! It's been a few days, why haven't you come?"
"I told you it'd be a little while, silly," you chuckle, ruffling the young girl's hair.
"Did you bring your friend?" Casey asks excitedly, practically bouncing with all her excitement.
"I sure did!"
You're about to call for him, when you realize John. You can't say John, she'll know he's her brother! Shit, you really didn't think this through.
You're quick to freeze time, quickly going out to the living room and snagging John from where he is, watching his parents watch TV. He looks mesmerized.
"They haven't changed a bit, have they?"
"John, snap out of it, come meet Casey!"
You bring John to Casey's room, quickly telling him, "Your name is Jake from now on, 'kay? Okay. Glad we cleared that up."
John barely has time to nod before you unfreeze time, and John is revealed.
"Here he is! His name is Jake!"
Casey looks a little confused, but soon, a smile spreads across her face and she hugs John too.
"Hey Jake! Dave told me all about you, he said you know magic tricks and stuff!"
This seems to snap John out of his state, and he soon grins, hugging her back tightly. "I sure do! You want me to teach you some?"
"Yes!"
You stand to the side, smiling. These two are obviously going to get along just fine.
Eheh sorry for ending another chapter like this, just silly card games, but I promise next chapter will have some more actual interaction~
Other than a little bit of stuff I have planned, I have no idea what Dave, John, and Casey should do? If you have any ideas, please review and suggest them to me! :)
Until then!