The Meteor – 8 hours after departure from The Green Sun
As Vriska slept, the nightmares came. They always came, though she'd never admitted it to anyone. The nightmares had always taken the form of her memories, even before the death of her dream-self. The familiar horrors were just too ingrained to go away, no matter how deep she pushed them away in her waking state.
There she was, three Alternia Sweeps old (six years in human terms), just a small Troll child sitting in her repiteblock. She was scribbling away at a messy drawing on a piece of paper when she felt a psychic twinge in the back of her mind. She paused her work and focused; there it was again. Her Lusus, the spider, was calling her. She got up to see what was going on, checking the upstairs window to make sure there wasn't any danger. (Dangers abounded for an Alternian toddler). Making her way to the door she walked out of the repiteblock, out of her hive, and down into the gorge that sat next to the hive. She ran her hand along the cliff walls as she descended the path.
In the gorge was a depression, not quite a cave. Inside sat a massive albino spider, easily the size of a boxcar. This was her Lusus, her caretaker. All Trolls had a Lusus of one species or another, they served as the equivalent for parents in their society.
At this range Vriska could understand the psychic impressions much clearer, it was almost like speech but garbled. "Hungry, hungry, feed." spoke the Lusus. Vriska smiled, spider was hungry. She knew how to feed herself at this point and so figured herself up to the task. This would be easy, her Lusus would be so proud of her. She made the trip back to her hive and into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and pulled out a variety of ingredients; bread, meat, grubsauce. She made a sandwich, the biggest sandwich anyone had probably made ever, and then carried it down to the spider. This should do the trick!
As she approached again, she could feel waves of discontentment and grumbling coming from spider, causing her to slow. She hoped she hadn't taken too long. She sat the towering sandwich down and stepped back, beaming proudly at how good a job she had surely done.
Her shock and confusion were written upon her face when the creature took one long leg and swatted the sandwich to the side, scattering its contents over the ground. The impressions became angry, violent. "Wrong, wrong, hungry feed!" Vriska was becoming frightened, she sent back a counter-impression, trying to communicate that she didn't know what giant spiders ate. She was doing her best.
The Lusus grumbled, turning itself around and grabbing something from the darkness behind it, tossing it towards Vriska. The object rolled to a stop in front of her. It was a skull, A Troll skull.
Vriska felt fear, her legs became wobbly and her breathing quickened. She spoke out loud, too uncomposed to send the impression psychically. "I don't think I… I can do that. I don't know how."
The spider rolled all eight of its eyes. "You, mind, force, move, here."
Vriska stopped breathing as the meaning becoming clear. Spider had been teaching her a trick, a fun little magic trick. If she focused really hard she could make people do what she wanted sometimes. But it was just supposed to be harmless, a game. She looked up at spider, wringing her hands. Sensing her hesitation it sent another message, one that would seal her fate. "I move, more hungry, more hunt, more eat."
Vriska jerked away. Her little mind racing. She had to do it right? You Lusus was your caretaker and you had to do what they said. They knew what was best for you. Right?
The dream jumped forwards, Vriska was sitting under a tree crying. She couldn't do it, she just couldn't do it. She was scared to go back and scared to not go back. Her whole world was teetering on edge, it could go either way. Then the universe went and gave her the wrong push down the darker path.
Two more Trolls, teenagers, came up to the tree. Looking for a private place. The boy had horns that jutted sharply back while the girl had horns curled like a ram's. The boy noticed Vriska and gave a groan of contempt. The girl shrugged, urging him forwards.
The boy walked up to Vriska with a bad attitude and surly expression, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. "Hey, pipsqueak, move it. This is our spot now."
Vriska said nothing, just looking up at him before looking back down. Rooted to the spot.
"Hey, come-on, BEAT IT." He said, prodding her with his foot for emphasis.
The girl rolled her eyes and threw up her hands. "Yea, you know what, the moment's past. I'm out."
The boy called out. "Damara, babe, come on!" Watching as the girl sauntered away without him. He clenched his fists, turning to Vriska, venom in his voice. "Damn brat, I was this close to getting some." He went to kick Vriska but froze in mid-swing.
Vriska looked up, her face devoid of expression. She dried her tears and got up. Then began to walk home, the older Troll following her against his will. The first kill was always the hardest, and whether he realized it or not, the fool had helped to open the floodgates.
Vriska awoke suddenly with a panicked shout, nearly falling out of the wheelchair. She struggled against the blanket that had been laid on her, eyes darting around, not remembering where she was at first. But then she remembered. She had fallen asleep in the wheelchair, which explained her sore neck. But she didn't recognize the room she was in.
She must have been moved here so she could sleep undisturbed. The room was small. A storage room hastily converted into a living quarter. There was a pile of blankets on one side of the room and a table on the other. On the table was a tray of food with a hand-written note that read "~John".
She worked to compose herself, closing her eyes and slowing her breathing. Counting slowly to ten, she buried the memory as best as she could. Buried one of her worst moments of weakness. Rattled, but in control of herself, she opened her eyes and began wheeling over to the food. Her stomach growling. She poked at the food with a utensil and sniffed it before determining that it was indeed edible. As she ate, she discovered that it was still warm. A further consolation.
After eating her fill she backed away from the table and looked herself over. Her clothing was disheveled, covered in dried blood and sweat. It was going to be a challenge to figure out how cleaning oneself worked without functioning legs. But she'd managed, she always had.
Sitting there, she paused to consider her options. She needed to talk to someone about what she was feeling. She'd kept her feelings to herself for years, but she couldn't do it anymore. In her current condition the nightmares were only going to get worse. Her eyes drifted back to the note on the table. John. He'd been an open, if not unjudgmental, ear previously. Though they'd only interacted through chat client before. He saw the best in people while she was, herself. She wasn't an idiot, she knew what others thought of her and the horrible things she'd done.
She made up her mind. She'd find him and talk to him; she could always back out if it got to be too much. Rolling out the door, she left the room and started down the corridor. Feeling a small weight lifting off her shoulders at the decision.
Behind her at the opposite end of the corridor, unseen by Vriska, stood another Troll. He crouched in the shadows; his face adorned with clown makeup. The clown chuckled to himself at her predicament, delighting at the irony. He could use this, by the Dark Carnival he could use this. The plans would take time to come to fruition, but by the time he was done, these people he used to call friends would be no threat to the Mirthful Messiah.
John looked at the cards he'd been dealt and winched, this was not a good hand to start off with. Dave had unfortunately discovered John had a deck of cards on him and offered to teach him poker; John had thought that it was going to be a nice friendly game, wrong.
They were just a few hands into the games played for keeps, and John had lost half his BoonBucks. Sure, the currency was worthless outside of SBURB, but John was starting to sweat regardless. He looked at Dave who was cool as a cucumber, a smirk on his face. Was wearing shades cheating? John didn't know.
Dave opened the pot with a whole pile of BoonBucks, which John begrudgingly met, deciding that his luck had to get better at some point. John looked over his options and decided to discard the maximum three cards and got three new ones, Dave kept all his.
The new cards with the old got him… a single pair of 4's. Dave made his move "I raise" he said, doubling the pot in the process. John stared, aghast, and decided to fold and cut his losses.
Dave's shit-eating grin got bigger as he revealed his cards, showing that he'd had nothing. John stood up and shouted "WHAT!" Dave let out a laugh as he took in John's money. "Dude, you're impressively bad at this. You should see your face right now. It's hilarious."
John decided to stop right then while he still had the clothes on his back. "Ok, that's it, I'm out." He said, gathering up the cards. "I'm going to stick to magic tricks from now on thank-you-very-much."
Dave mocked being hurt. "John, buddy, come on. Just one more hand."
"No." said John. Stubbornly refusing to lose any more money.
Dave leaned back, kicking his feet up onto the now-empty table. "Well it was good while it lasted. But seriously though; you never played poker before? That seems like the sort of thing your Dad would have been all over teaching you." Dave spoke, remembering too late to avoid the subject.
John froze. For a moment a dark expression clouded over his face, but then it vanished and a chipper expression bloomed. "Yea I think the two of you would hit it off. I'll have to introduce you two to each other."
Behind the shades, a look of concerned-alarm shot across Dave's face. "Um… John. You do remember that your Dad's…"
"Hm?" Said John, picking up the last card.
"dead?" Squeaked Dave. Uncharacteristically cowed.
John paused, tapping the deck of cards against the table before letting out a laugh and slapping Dave on the shoulder. "I know that. I'm not crazy dude. But like we reset the timeline and stuff. He'll be around."
The concerned look did not slide off Dave's face.
John picked up on his friend's concern and sat back down. "Tell you what. How bout we go another round, but this time without the betting?"
Dave verbally parried, acting nonchalant. "Naw, that takes away half the meta."
John shrugged. "Your loss."
"I'll play." Said an unexpected voice.
The two boys turned to see Vriska wheel into the room. She looked dazed, but no longer like death was looming over her. She came up to the table, the wheelchair not quite the correct height but manageable none-the-less.
John leaned in. "Are you feeling ok? Dave filled me in. I'm sorry that happened."
Vriska waved him off, eyes flickering to the unplanned company. "No I'm doing well; considering. So, what's the game?"
"Well it's called Five-Card-Draw. Dave was teaching it to me. It's a betting game." John started.
Dave interjected. "While I admit three players would be move fun, do we really want to teach this game to the girl who can manipulate luck?"
A smirk split across John's face. "Why Dave, it sounds like you're worried about losing your, what did you call it? 'Worthless fiat tender'? What's the matter, chicken?"
"Yea come on Dave, I want to play." Vriska said eagerly.
Dave spread his hands, relenting. He couldn't say no to his best friend and a girl who should honestly be in a hospital. "Ok, ok. But we're putting in some ground rules. We each get a pool of 60 BoonBucks. Once you're out, you're out. And no powers." He said, looking at Vriska with that last one.
"Sounds fair to me." Said the Troll. "So how do we play?"
"Ok here's the run-down. The dealer, that's me, deals everyone 5 facedown cards..."
Half an hour and plenty of bantering later; John was out while Vriska and Dave were on their 7th one-on-one hand. Vriska was slightly ahead by a few BoonBucks, with Dave having pulled out of a nosedive just two turns ago. John looked from one to the other in apprehension. This was the final one, no-holds-bar. Vriska had put her entire pool into the pot, and Dave had went in too. Intent on having the game finished one way or the other.
They spread their cards onto the table. Vriska beating Dave's three of a kind with a straight flush. Dave let out a groan while Vriska took the spoils, beaming triumphantly.
Dave was suspicious. "No way. Are you sure you didn't cheat?"
Now it was Vriska's turn to act wounded. "Now Dave, I am offended at that accusation." But a huge grin appeared on her face. As she moved one hand to her sleeve and pulled out a pair of kings. "But you'd be right. I believe the stated house rules were 'don't use your powers'? You didn't say anything about sleight of hand."
John's jaw dropped. When had she done that? He'd thought he was pretty good at card tricks, but he hadn't even noticed her do that.
Dave let out a low chuckle. "Heh, ok. Fair game, I'll let it slide. But that would have been a real stupid thing to pull in an actual establishment."
Vriska shrugged.
Dave stood up. "Well this is where I take my leave. Good game everyone, we'll have to do this again sometime. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go see what food we have left lying around" He walked out of the room.
John turned to Vriska. "So. How do you really feel?"
Vriska let herself collapse onto the table. "Uhg, I feel like shit." She peeked her head up. "But I am feeling better than before, so thanks."
"You're welcome."
Vriska sat there, happy for the company. She tossed the original reason she'd gone looking for John back-and-forth in her head. Just about to renege on her original decision, when John spoke up in his stupid, earnest, voice. "So, anything you'd like to talk about?"
Sitting up straight Vriska decided to dive right into it before she could second-guess herself anymore. "Well, there is one thing I've got on my mind, but it's kind of heavy. No reason to bother you with it."
John looked at her. "I can handle heavy. Go on."
"Well you know how Trolls have Lusi right? Well I had some issues with mine."