Happy Little Accidents – Part 3 - Arrival
The Meteor and & Dream Bubbles Concurrently, 5 Days Before Arrival at the Human Alpha Session (Meteor Time)
It was coming up on the group's third year living on the meteor; and only five days remained until their penultimate arrival to the reset Session. Much had changed for their group; friendships forged and weakened, identities reshaped. But much had stayed the same as well.
In the depths of the Meteor, once again, Vriska slept an unsound sleep. The covers had been thrown to the side from her tossing and turning. And a thin veil of sweat coated her skin. The nightmares had been getting more bearable over the years, but they still arrived every night to extract what due they could.
Standing in her hive; a young Vriska, still only three-and-a-half Sweeps old, went about washing dishes in the sink. Her late-night meal having recently been concluded, and the sticky sauce that sat coating the plate demanded to be cleaned off before it hardened.
As she washed, she peered out the window and extended her mental awareness; feeling out the presence of her satiated Lusus, it's belly also full from having just eaten as well. Her stomach tightened slightly at the reminder, but she managed to keep her own meal down. The horrid routine of feeling now just another unpleasant part of her life.
Stopping in her task, she let the plate and it's blood-like stain fall into the soapy water and out of her sight, the feeling of melancholy pervading her mind. It wasn't fair she thought, as she pulled her mind away from her Lusus. The other Lusi took good care of their Troll charges. No one else she knew was had to do these kind of things in order to feed theirs, no one else had to kill on such a regular basis under the threat more deaths, possibly even their own. The only comparison she could make was a Troll she'd heard of named Feferi; but her Lusus apparently ate other Lusi, not Trolls.
The young Vriska dried her hands and proceeded to sit on the floor beneath the sink, pulling her knees up to her chest as a wave of depression overtook her. She hated this, feeling weak, being cajoled into doing these horrid things to feed her supposed caretaker. Her neighbors avoided her now, even the few nice ones, it didn't matter that she was trying to feed only the worst people she could find to her Lusus. She was dangerous now, and a pariah. Not that it seemed to motivate anyone to stop her or slay her Lusus. Not on desensitized Alternia.
And so she sat, silent tears of frustration and sadness staining her cheeks, her head buried into her knees. And she would have stayed that way for an hour, had a distant noise not disturbed her.
It started out quietly, ignorable at first, with her passing it off as some distant unimportant thing. But then it grew louder, building quickly into a roar like a freight train, her Hive shaking from the rumbling. In shock Vriska hauled herself off the floor, getting shakily to her feet as the entire world seemed ready to come apart.
As she stood up fully, a bright light erupted through the window as a meteor came shooting over her hive. Vriska watched as the meteor fled out into the distance and came crashing down planet-side with a meaty BANG many miles away, her pains and misery temporarily forgotten as she stared in amazement; she had never seen a meteor strike before and the experience left her awestruck.
Suddenly, a voice seemed to whisper from the recesses of her mind. "Investigate."It said.
She whirled around at the unexpected mental intrusion, her eyes darting about the room, only to find that there was no one there and her hive empty. A look of confusion crept across her face, replacing the shock. For a moment she wondered if it had been Spider, but it couldn't have been; their thoughts didn't feel like that, and besides, she could feel the Lusus still asleep in its post-meal stupor, if partially disturbed from the meteor impact.
Slowly, her gaze wandered back to the window and the hazy glow in the far distance from where the meteor had impacted. Again, the voice whispered into her head, "Investigate".
Her resolve crumbling and her curiosity piqued, she went to investigate.
The dream jumped forwards as the young Vriska found herself far from her hive and up to her knees in tall grass. She stumbled onwards, her eyes transfixed on the smoky plume of her goal, heedless of her steps and having set out with minimal preparation.
The night, though still far from over, was growing darker as the twin moons began to set on the horizon. Adding to her difficulties were the cuts she'd gotten from a briar patch and more than a few bruises she'd gained from tripping in her inattentive wandering. But despite all this she continued onwards, moving towards the fallen rock as if in a trance, the meteor calling to her.
Eventually she crested a grassy hill and lay eyes on the meteor directly for the first time since it had landed. It's shape was indistinct amidst the dying vestiges of moonlight, but its core still seeming to be surprisingly still intact, sitting in the middle of a large crater almost a mile across that had been blasted into the landscape from the impact. Small clumps of vegetation still burning at the edge of the impact zone. This was it, she'd made it.
Tightening her jacket around herself to keep off the chill, she took a step forward to continue on to the meteor itself, only to give a yelp of surprise as the very ground she stood upon gave out beneath her.
She fell fifteen feet into the cavernous interior of the apparently hollow hill, her short scream of terror cut off as she hit the ground hard, the air forced from her lungs. She lay there stunned as more dirt fell around her from the ragged edges of the hole; struggling to get her wits back about her.
Eventually she regained enough of her senses to take a look around, primed for and expecting danger as she pulled a flashlight out of her sylladex, the one piece of preparation she'd managed for the journey. Sweeping the beam of light around, she illuminated the interior of the hollow hill but found nothing else moving aside from herself.
Escaping the continuing shower of soil, she got up and took a closer examination of her surroundings. The walls holding up the hill were of a wicker and root construction; weaker in some areas than others, like where she'd fallen through. In the center of the chamber, not far from where she'd fallen, was the skeleton of a long-dead adult Troll laying on a stone slab. Curious, she wandered over.
For someone who warranted a crypt, the dead Troll seemed to have meagerly few possessions. Laying on the Troll's chest, with their arms crossed over it, was a weighty tome. While lying next to the Troll was a simple white orb, and a bag of what proved to be nothing more than dice when opened.
The meteor now forgotten, Vriska pocketed the orb and the dice into her sylladex and then gingerly removed the tome from the clutches of the deceased Troll, curious about what it contained. Sitting down at the base of the slab, she wiped a layer of grime off the cover and then shined the light on it. The title of the book revealing itself to be a name, Maquis Spinneret Mindfang. She spared a quick glance back at the body before opening the book to read the content within.
The book quickly resolved itself to be some sort of diary or journal; it told the exploits of a swaggering pirate, who did nothing lightly and who overcame every obstacle that stood in her way. Vriska read on hungerly for hours, excited and enthralled by the exploits of this Mindfang. She ignored the passing hours, staving off hunger with the meager snacks she had in her sylladex, and moving only to relieve herself and to avoid the deadly sunlight as it came through the hole she'd tumbled through.
Suddenly though, she stopped. Her hand hovering hesitantly as she was about to turn yet another page. Her appearance was now that of her older self, and she was sitting not on the floor but in her wheelchair.
She sat there with the journal in her lap, the dream now lucid and her well-aware that it was just a memory. Running her fingers over the text, she sat with a sad look on her face as hindsight showed how many wrongs the text embellished. Realizing with muted acceptance that she no longer idolized Mindfang as she once had. Seeing clearly in her head Mindfang's mistakes, as well as her own in her attempts to emulate the piratical madwoman.
Tossing the book onto the floor in disgust, Vriska looked around at the lucid dreamscape. This wasn't the first time a dream-memory had been disrupted by her becoming aware, and in fact this was now the norm. But it was still jarring every time.
She let out a sigh of veiled frustration at the disorientation and waited for it to pass. Waiting for herself to inevitably wake up fully in her likely-soiled bed. But the awakening didn't come. Instead the crypt dissolved in a wash of colors and she her found herself sitting in the middle of an open desert, alone.
Looking around in confusion, she tried to make sense at what had just happened. Curious at what this could all be. But as the moments passed she shook it off, deciding to roll with it. She summoned her wings and sprung from her chair as she had so many times in the waking world. Turning around to put the chair into her sylladex before rising fully into the air. With the freedom of mobility and the chance to explore this strange dreamscape, she picked a direction and went off. Deciding that it was only a dream after all; what was the worst that could happen?
Meanwhile, Tavros and Sollux made their way through the desert on the ground, the Mustard-Blood in the lead. They'd been walking for an hour, and there still no sign of what they'd set out to find. Tavros shook his head, the gesture exaggerated from the weight of his bull-like horns. He called up to Sollux. "Are you sure we're going the right way? We're getting pretty far from the others."
Sollux stopped and turned around to face him, the impatience showing on his blank-eyed face as he crossed his arms. "I'm telling you I felt something out there. Something… familiar. And I didn't ask you tag along. You're free to turn back. You don't have to worry about me. I can pretty much handle myself you know?"
Tavros held up his hands defensively. "Hey, whoa. I was just saying. And you know I can't let you wander around on your own, buddy system, remember? That's the one thing we all agreed on."
Rolling his blank eyes, Sollux silently turned back around and continued forwards, Tavros trailing behind. Before long though Sollux stopped again, this time of his own accord. He stayed still and held up a hand for Tavros to be quiet as well. He stood there, tilting his head back and forth, trying to get a read on what was bothering him.
There! In the distance and to the left slightly. What was that? It sounded almost like… a scream? Sollux's eyes narrowed and he squinted into the distance. Realizing suddenly that the sound wasn't auditory but mental, something he was hearing exclusively in his head. But it was still tangible, still real, he knew it. Then suddenly his eyes caught motion on the horizon. "There!" he said, pointing to direct Tavros's gaze while doing his best to push the mental disturbance off to the side.
Whatever it was, it was getting closer, coming towards them. The first detail that they could make out was that it was flying. Then as it got closer the shape resolved itself into a person, then as a Troll, then… there was no mistaking it. Those wings, that orange jumpsuit. It was Vriska, it had to be her.
Sollux flicked his gaze back and forth between the still-as-stone Tavros and the still-approaching Vriska. If he'd know she was what they'd find out here, he'd have brought the whole damn camp, not just Tavros and himself. But as his gaze flickered back on Vriska, he made out that something wasn't right. Multiple somethings.
First, from the feeling he was getting she wasn't dead, not yet. Which made her appearance in this place all the stranger. Second, there was something wrong about the way she was flying, as if she was injured. But dead or not, injured or not, he had his mind firmly made up to not be a part of this little reunion. Though… even he couldn't just abandon his sometimes-fearless leader like that.
He turned fully to Tavros, watching as a grim expression was plastered on the Bronze-Blood's face. "Hey." He said, snapping to get his attention. "You good? You got this bro?"
Tavros looked at him confusion for a moment, as if he hadn't been paying attention and was backtracking what he'd said. He shook his head. "Yea… yes. I've got this. Head back to camp if you want."
"What about the buddy-system?" Inquired Sollux, not believing he'd gotten out of the drama that easily.
Tavros looked past Sollux as Vriska finished her descent a dozen feet away, hovering just off the ground and kicking up a small cloud of sand with each wingbeat. "This won't take long." He said with an edge of steel in his voice. "She's not coming back to camp."
Sollux hesitantly began walking off, sparing a few glances backwards as he picked up the pace in order to put distance between himself and whatever the hell was about to unfold.
Staring her down, Tavros closed the remaining distance between himself and Vriska. As he approached, she proceeded to toss his wheelchair out of her sylladex and land in it, sheathing her wings in the process and ending the miniature dust-storm.
He just watched, dumbfounded that even she had the gall to do something like that, just use the wheelchair she'd put him in like it was some sort of glorified couch. But he didn't know why he was surprised. This was Vriska he was talking about, putting salt in wound was her specialty. But still he couldn't believe that THIS was the first thing she decided to do after what she did last time. He squared himself up and opened his mouth; ready to tear into her, to deliver back every piece of vivitrol and crap she'd ever put on him. But something made him pause, something other than his good-going nature. He's finally noticed the look on her face, not cocky and sure, but weary… almost exhausted. Staring back at him in readable apprehension.
Realizing that he was just standing there with his mouth open like a fool, he decided to finish what he'd started to do. But with a little more tact.
"Why are you in my chair?" He asked. His frustration still edging through despite his best attempt to maintain an even tone.
For a moment she looked confused, before a moment of shocked realization shot across her face and she put her hands up defensively. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's not what you think." She sputtered out, clearly on the defensive for once in her life.
He narrowed his eyes; wondering what bullshit it was then.
She continued. "I'm, well…" She let out a sigh then leaned forwards, grabbing one of her legs with both of her hands and lifting it up a few inches before letting it drop down again, the appendage clearly limp.
"I'm paralyzed from the waist down." She said simply, a sheepish expression on her face as she gave a nervous grin, clearly unsure how he'd react. But then he wasn't sure how he was going to react either. "How…?" He lead on.
She let out an abortive chuckle. "Yea… funny thing about that. Remember how I killed you for trying to stop me from going after Jack?"
"Vaguely." He replied in a dry tone.
"Well." She continued on hurriedly. "Terezi was a little more successful. She saw what was going to happen if I went to fight him and, well, she stopped me. With her sword. Hit me straight in the spine. I passed out from the pain, and when I came too." She motioned to her lamed legs.
The silence between them was deafening. A few moments passed, and in the silence Vriska leaned to the side, watching Sollux walk off into the distance. "Is that Sollux?" She inquired. "Where's he going?"
"Back to the others." Said Tavros. "They're camped some ways away from here." He reappraised Vriska, his earlier anger giving way to morbid curiosity. "So… wait. How did you get this deep into the Dream-Bubbles? Aradia said you and the others were on your way to the new Session. You don't look like you died." He said, motioning to his blank eyes as he did. "Did something happen?"
"I'm dreaming…" She said, sounding skeptical and confused once again. Then her face lit up with surprise. "Wait, this is INSIDE the Dream-Bubbles? I thought it was just a dream. But you're here… Hold on, you said others?" She sat rigid in his… her chair, clearly more attentive now than she'd been previously.
Tavros jerked his thumb Sollux's way. "Yea, we're all here. All of us that died. Me, Sollux, Nepeta, Fef, Equius. Aradia had been with us but then she flew off to somewhere else, don't know where. Sollux's Doom powers helped us find each other." He oversimplified.
"Oh." Said Vriska, clearly taking in the newfound reality that everyone she'd though was gone was still hanging around in some way.
With the silence lingering for the third damn time in their conversation Tavros decided he had to reassess. He had no idea what Vriska had been through. But clearly it had been something, enough to change her. There was always the possibility she was faking, but pretending to be a bleeding-heart case didn't suit her style. Then there was the other matter to consider. He'd made a promise… well, more a hurried sort-of agreement to do something, but still. The Universe had seen fit to actually get the two of them in the same place, and with her in this state and condition for him to see... He had to go for it. He wouldn't get another chance, not likely.
He cleared his throat to get her attention and she looked up expectantly. "I have something I was told to give to you by this really weird… guy I met here in the Bubbles."
She looked at him quizzically as he pulled the Ring of Life out of his pocket and held it out for her to see. "This, apparently, is called the Ring of Life." He explained. "It can supposedly heal wounds and even bring back the dead. If it works as advertised it should be able to give you back your legs."
She tensed up as soon as he said it. A primordial fear welling up in her eyes as she all but flinched away from what was being offered. Quickly, she recomposed herself before looking back up at him in worry. "Are you sure you want me to have this?" She asked. "I mean…"
He knew exactly what she meant. "Don't misunderstand. I have my reservations about giving you this; but yea, I'm sure. I was given it along with the specific task to get it to you. And even if I'm not sure why that was, I'm determined to see it through at least this far."
He took another step and stretched his arm out towards her, ring in hand. She extending one of her own hands to receive it. Then with little ceremony it was out of his hand and into hers as he dropped it into her grasp.
"Um… thank you." She said hurriedly, before promptly sliding the ring into her own pocket; tucking it away and not using it.
His eyes widened at the unexpected action but she continued on before he could say anything. "And… Tavros, on the off chance this isn't all just happening in my head. I just want to say; I'm sorry, for everything. When you were alive I was a horrible person to you. I used to think I had… justification for what I did. But I didn't. And even if I had, what I did would have still been wrong."
Tavros thought on that. Still processing the fact that she hadn't immediately shoved the ring onto her own finger the second she'd gotten it. An actual apology… from Vriska. If someone had told him earlier that this would happen, he would have brushed them off as blowing hot air. But here it was, coming straight from the hoof-beast's mouth. He was still skeptical, but there was no sense in treating it as if it wasn't genuine. It would be nice to pretend at any rate.
"I… wow. Ok. Um. Apology excepted. I'm glad you finally came around."
His words seemed to take a weight off her shoulders. A burden she hadn't even known she was carrying. He started to reconsider his earlier harshness. Wondering in what harm there could be in letting her come back to camp with him and Sollux.
"Well… hey, maybe we can-" He started, but was cut off by Vriska suddenly vanishing. Alarmed and surprised he looked around frantically before putting his eyes back on where she'd been. She HAD said she was sleeping right, and that that was what had brought her here? So maybe something had woken her up? That made sense, he guessed.
He shrugged, having no way to confirm what had happened. Then, just to be sure, he felt around the sand under where she'd been. His search coming up empty. Now satisfied that the Ring seemed to have been taken back with her. Wherever she was.
His task done and with nothing left to do, he flew up into the air and back towards camp. Passing over Sollux, who swore loudly before taking up flight himself to follow.
Vriska woke suddenly. Her eyes snapping open and darting around in groggy confusion as she made the disorienting transition from sleep to wakefulness. As the fog cleared from her head, she became aware of a loud pulsating noise. The alarm she'd set on the clock next to her bed.
Reaching over in uncoordinated annoyance, she groped at the top of the infernal device until she found the button to turn the alarm off.
She lay there, gathering her thoughts before checking the time. The clock read 1:00am, local time. Right for when she'd set it. She had to get going soon, she had an appointment to keep. But then the memory of what had just happened in the dream crystalized in her mind.
She sat up in a flash, throwing her legs over the side of the bed before frantically digging around in her pajama pockets. She had to know if… Her heart stopped as her fingers made contact with the Ring of Life. Her breath stuttering as she jerkily removed the Ring from her pocket. She turned on the nightstand lamp and viewed it in the light.
The dream. That had all really happened then. Tavros and the other were out there. And this ring, it…
She nearly tossed the ring away from herself in apprehension.
This ring… it was dangerous. She could get her legs back now, but at what possible cost? Losing her legs had been one of the better catalysts in her life, at least by her measure. If she got her mobility back and relapsed into her old ways… No, she couldn't think like that. She looked at the clock, it read 1:02 now. Quickly losing time, she hurriedly stored the Ring in her sylladex, out of sight and out of mind. She'd deal with that catastrophe later, she had to get ready. She had an appointment to keep.
Outskirts of the Alpha Session, Two Days Before the Arrival of the Meteor
Spades Slick rocketed through space on his way to the Session, propelled forwards by rocket exhaust coming out of his now-mechanical ass. He was unsure what exactly he was going to find here, but one thing was certain; this place was somehow key to Lord English's operations, so he was going to mess things up here real good. Slick had lost track of how long it had been since English's goons (now his goons) had messed up his bar. Days, months, maybe a Sweep? Who knew, who cared. It was the principle of the matter, that fucker had messed with him and now he was going to get his licks back in Spades.
As he continued on though, something seemed to change, as if he'd crossed some sort of invisible line. Now, despite going at full throttle it seemed like he wasn't going anywhere. As if the space between him and his destination was getting stretched out.
Suddenly, some stupid broad teleported infront of him in a green flash, causing him to slam on the breaks. The space-stretching effect seeming to stop at the same time.
He sized up the dame. She was wearing some goofy getup, a red fascist uniform that was doing its best to clash with her coke-bottle glasses and white canine ears. He didn't know what her story was but he knew a Hero of Space when he saw one.
Whatever. It didn't matter, she was in his way. He'd rip through her like paper and then continue on to bigger things. He yanked his club out of his Strife Deck and got ready to go to town. He'd never used the thing since he'd gotten it but how hard could it be to use? Just swing and whack right?
With a fearsome yell and a burst of rocket propulsion he charged at her, only to find himself encompassed by another green flash.
When his vision cleared he looked around and found himself in some sort of prison cell, weaponless. He growled, frustrated. The slammer huh? What sort of a chump did they think he was?
He quickly assessed and reprioritized. He knew this paint-scheme. This was a Derse prison, and he knew Derse prisons, being a Dersite himself. A quick check of his deck showed that aside from the club everything else was there, including his crew, all nice and tidy in storage. He could set them loose now, and be free before anyone could say 'Bob's your uncle'. But then… Momma didn't raise no fool. That Space girl was clearly like Doc Scratch was, which is to say trouble for him. No… Spades Slick was going to sit nice and tight, get the lay of the land and all that jazz before he pulled his ace from his sleeve. Best to err on the side of caution in these sorts of situations.
He went to the cell door and peered through the bars to see what he could see. Across the corridor, in a cell just like his, was some goofy mook looking right back at him. The fellow looked rather orange, and more than a little bird-like.
"Hey man." Said the bird-boy. "What'd they get you for? Littering?"
This was going to be a long stay.