Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Waking up was always an ordeal for Dave Strider, especially when it felt like he’d been hit by a truck – if that truck was a psychopath on a rampage, going eighty-five miles an hour in the carpool lane, and he was a defenseless hitchhiker on the side of the road that had been flung off a cliff and impaled on the sharp rocks at the bottom. He was lucky he even remembered his name as consciousness slowly pulls him from what was probably a hibernation period. As he became aware, his limbs struggled for purchase on something; anything solid, but he found none. Instead, his hands seemed to glide through some sort of slime. This should have been alarming, but a small voice in the back of his head told him it was fine. He’d woken up in stranger places during The Game.

The Game, or Sburb to use it’s actual name, was the single worst nightmare Dave had felt he’d never wake up from. He and his friends had embarked upon a quest that had been seemingly endless. Toward the end, it had even felt futile. Had they even succeeded? He had a difficult time remembering anything about Sburb now. Attempting to save the universe from total annihilation was such a stressful life, and visions of the horrible events flashed before his eyes, prompting him to finally open them and look around. 

Pitch black welcomes his vision, and for a moment, Dave wonders if he’s blind, at least until his eyes adjust to the dark room. The slime-filled pod he was in was fairly easy to lift himself out of and once his feet were on the floor, he was reminded of the name of the container. A recooprecoon… Where had he seen one of these contraptions before?

Right, on the ship that they’d shared with the trolls. This thought prompts another memory reel, forcing Dave to lean back against the hard surface of the cocoon. He recalled that final battle, standing face to face with Lord English with an army of ghosts and his friends beside him. Accompanying the visions were stabs of pain; he could almost feel the bullets as they tore through his body – no, bodies , since every time he’d fallen, another Dave had risen to take his place.

Eventually, the wave of total recall passes, replaced instead by a wave of nausea. He barely has time to make it to the ablution chamber nearby before he’s on his knees, heaving into the load gaper. There’s nothing in his stomach to evacuate, but it’s an unpleasant experience nonetheless. As soon as the nausea passed, he hauls himself back to his feet and braces his left arm against the counter, smacking blindly at the wall with his right until he finds the light switch. He’s blinded for a beat as his eyes adjust, almost sending him into another fit of retching.

He managed to keep himself on his feet until his vision finally cleared, but his breath was stolen from his lungs in a sharp gasp as he met his own eyes in the mirror.

The person standing there was undoubtedly him. The same narrow face and thin features coupled with his broad shoulders and toned from fighting arms and chest. He was a bit gangly really, and always had been just because of his height, but that had been paired with hardly eating due to The Game. Or even before that. Apple juice and Chinese takeout didn’t make a healthy teenager, much less a healthy adult.

At least, he assumed he was closer to an adult now than a teenager. He couldn’t accurately tell, however, because he found himself staring at a Troll in the mirror. Like his friend Karkat and the others they’d played The Game with. Yellow, orange and vermillion horns rose from the apex of his skull, then flicked out and back, like the tail of an eighth note. Bright, nearly glowing yellow sclera surrounding a bright red iris that was ringed with dark grey, like they were still in the process of changing colors. A glance at his chest in the mirror shows that his once-peach skin was now a light, warm grey, and instead of a belly button, he had a pair of large, keloid-like black scars on either side of his ribcage. His originally white-blond hair had been replaced by an inky black, and when he tilted his head in the mirror to look at it more closely, he noticed hints of red underneath.

He stared at himself in the mirror for a long moment, making faces and waving his arms to see if the person reflected back at him copied the motions. Then, to check if he was dreaming, he pinched his arm hard enough to bring tears to his eyes.

Clearly, Dave was awake and not imagining things. He was now, seemingly magically, a Troll. There were worse things in the universe to be, sure; dead or still in The Game were two of those things. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Deciding to embrace the changes, Dave finally let go of the counter in favor of stepping back to view more of himself in the mirror. Oddly enough, his nipples were still present though they were black now instead of pink, and so had his genitals. In place of his junk was a hard, domed, Ken Doll-esque spot. From conversations he’d had with Karkat, he could only assume that was what housed his ‘bulge’. He’d have to worry about that later, though. A loud, familiar electronic chime echoed from the respite block behind him, letting him know someone was sending him a message.

Dave gave up on inspecting his bodily changes in favor of finding clothing. Making his way back into his room, he looked around the various objects that littered the space, using the light coming from the ablution block to locate the switch for this room. A familiar piece of tech stood near his recooprecoon; the wardrobifier. He was grateful to see the machine, and made a note to come back after he’d rinsed the remaining slime from his body.

It was after nearly an hour of luxuriating in the hot shower that Dave finally allowed the automation to dress him. He’d completely forgotten about the chime on his computer, and instead had been fidgeting with the settings on the wardrobifier while his skin cooled from the steamy water. Eventually, he’d settled on something similar to what he wore when The Game began, a black and red raglan tee, paired with black skinny jeans. Emblazoned on his chest was the red outline of his record decal, and he turned this way and that way in the mirror on the front of the wardrobifier to observe the form-fitting clothing in full. Because they were computer generated, tailored precisely to his measurements, the clothing fit him better than anything on Earth ever had. This was a pretty fucking rad machine, he decided, even as he toed out of his perfectly-fitting shoes to walk around his hive in just his black socks.

Finally observing his room, Dave noticed the desk in the far corner. It wasn’t the cinder blocks and plywood he’d grown up with, even though the room appeared similar to his one on Earth. Instead, the desk seemed to be made of a dark, solid, red wood the likes of which he’d never seen before. Maybe it was something particular to the trees of Alternia, but he decided not to worry about it too much. From what he remembered, most things on this planet were made out of things he ‘didn’t’ want to know the origins of. The same could be said of the plush gaming chair in front of the computer; one of those expensive rockers that he’d always been too broke to afford. Even begging Bro for one had been fruitless. The only familiar items in this area were the shelf of dead bugs, embalmed birds, and oddities he’d collected, and the slate-grey, altogether boring grubtop, similar to the ones they’d used on the meteor. He’d have to spice that up with some stickers or something eventually.

He pushed that thought from his mind in favor of settling into the soft gaming chair and waking up the idle computer. There was no password set, thankfully, and on his homescreen he clicked on the application he recognized immediately. Trollian opened, followed quickly by another couple of boxes, one filled with all-cap grey text, and one with lower case blue. Dave closed out the blue, ignoring it in favor of responding to Karkat.

–carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling turntechGodhead [TG] at 20:07–

CG: HEY DUMBASS

CG: YOU AWAKE YET?

CG: DAVE?

–carcinoGeneticist [CG] is now an idle chump–

TG: keep your panties out of their twist im awake you dont need to worry anymore now that ive decided to grace you with my presence

CG: FINALLY. I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOUR ASS FOR OVER AN HOUR.

TG: im flattered you waited for me so long

TG:  whats up

CG: “WHAT’S UP” HE SAYS. LIKE THAT EVEN BEGINS TO COVER IT.

CG: YOU’RE ON ALTERNIA NOW, RIGHT? YOU’RE A TROLL, TOO?

TG: nah dude im still on earth what are you talking about

CG: CUTE, STRIDER.

CG: TOO BAD FOR YOU, I’VE ALREADY SPOKEN TO THE OTHER SOFT PINK HUMANS AND I KNOW YOU’RE LYING.

TG: so why bother asking

CG: I’M GLAD YOU’RE OKAY, THOUGH.

CG: WE’LL HAVE TO HANG OUT SOMETIME.

TG: hell yeah man if you think you can handle it

CG: WHATEVER, DOUCHE. GO TOOL AROUND YOUR HIVE, I’M SURE YOU HAVE NEW SHIT TO GET USED TO.

TG: im so flattered you thought to check on me

TG: im swooning over here vantas

CG: SHUT UP.

CG: I’LL TALK TO YOU LATER.

TG: later

–carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased trolling turntechGodhead [TG] at 22:06–

Dave leaned back from his computer after closing out the application and sighed a bit to himself as he pushed his hair back from his eyes. He made a note to himself to find some shades to keep the locks out of his eyes as he stood up to do what Karkat had suggested. While it was nice of the troll to check on him, Dave had been a little disappointed that only the nubby-horned brat had thought to message him. Most of the trolls didn’t give him the time of day to begin with, especially after their fiasco trip on the meteor. Maybe it was his own fault for being an insufferable prick all the time. He cast off that line of introspective thinking, however – it was a path that would get dark really fast, and he didn’t relish the idea of being depressed about the odd loneliness that clung to him. 

Instead, he preoccupied himself with exploring the rest of his hive after hefting himself out of his comfortable chair. The respite block was mostly the same to his room on Earth (though he noticed his music equipment was missing), so he stepped out of the room and into the hallway outside. There were a set of stairs to his right, so he wandered off to the left, poking his head in every room he passed by. The first door across the hall was a small ablution block, and the one immediately beside it seemed to be a guest block, furnished with everything that another troll would need to spend the night; recooprecoon and wardrobifier included. Beside his own respite block was a very plain, bare room. The only object he found inside was a daybed, covered from end to end in pillows and blankets. At the end of the hall was the final door, and Dave nearly sobbed with relief when he saw a full music studio-style set up inside, complete with his mixing table. Various records and CDs littered the block’s bookshelves – he can’t resist the urge to step into the room and run his hands along the spines of the collection with a small smile. He’d be spending a lot of time in this room, he just knew it. Before leaving the room, he spotted a pair of his shades folded neatly on his turntables, and he snatched them up to put them on, finally completing the Strider look as he walked out to finish his exploration.

He traipsed back to the stairs, running his hand down the solid wood banister (seemingly the same red wood as his desk) as he followed them around a corner to land on the ground floor. There, he found what he assumed was a block for the custodians trolls had. He hadn’t seen the Lusus yet, but from what he could guess based on the nest in the room, it was probably a bird of some sort, which suited him just fine. Passing the stairs toward the back of the hive, he caught sight of a giant white crow behind the counter in the kitchen on his right, as well as a spacious living room on his left. As he approached, the massive corvid squawked at him, and hurried over to nip at Dave’s ear in what he could assume was affection, since it didn’t hurt more than a pinch. Still, it was better than having a creepy puppet follow him around as he headed in to inspect the kitchen.

Dave silently prayed to any gods that may be out there as he opened the fridge that it wouldn’t be full of swords – thankfully, it was stuffed with food instead and he readily set about making himself and his Lusus a meal. The ingredients were all different colors than he was used to, but it wasn’t hard to piece together by smell and general look what each item was. Eventually, he sat at the bar counter with a heaping collection of multi-colored eggs and meats on his plate, as well as a bowl he’d set across from himself for the extra large crow. Now that he had time to consider all the food on his plate, he realized everything on Alternia went by blood color, which meant he was probably eating someone's lusus that had been unlucky. The minor disgust only lasted until he tasted the food he’d prepared. Then his hunger took over and he quickly devoured everything on his plate until it was so clean, he could almost put it back in the cabinet.

After breakfast, he stepped into the living room to browse what was in there. He found another large collection, this time of various gamegrubs and systems that littered the space in front of the television. There were a couple familiar games that he recognized based solely on the box art. It seemed, like movies on Alternia, that the plots of the games were actually the titles.

Since his shades hadn’t chimed to tell him he had any messages, Dave figured a hardcore game of Mad Snacks Yo wouldn’t hurt, so he settled on the couch with a controller in his hands.

He ended up spending the better part of two nights playing video games or working in his music room, when he wasn’t catching up with Rose, Jade, or Karkat. On the third night, he finally got a message from someone new, and he dropped his game controller in favor of responding to Dirk, smiling at the familiar bright orange that filled the screen.

–timeausTestified [TT] began trolling turtechGodhead [TG] at 22:32–

TT: Hey.

TG: sup bro

TG: you came along for the ride to alternia too right?

TT: Why wouldn’t I?

TT: I went through that game, just like the rest of you.

TG: yeah

TG: thats true

TG: whered you end up?

TT: I’m in a community hive. Kind of like the old apartment.

TT: Where are you at?

TG: a desert

TG: i can smell the sea tho so i guess it must be close

TT: That’s a logical assumption.

TT: This part of Alternia is really bustling with life.

TT: I’m going to guess it’s further inland then your hive. You’ll have to come visit some time, see what the city is like.

TG: youre probably right

TG: i can come visit pretty much any time

TG: my lusus can fly

TT: So can mine.

TT: In fact, I need to come out toward the desert anyway.

TG: what for?

TT: Jake.

TT: I need to….

TT: I need to talk some things out with him. Would you mind if we met at your hive? From what he’s told me, and the crudely drawn map Roxy gave me, it would be a good middle point.

TG: i have a guest block so i guess that works out

TT: Thanks man. I appreciate it. I’ll get back to you with more details soon.

TG: cool

–timaeusTestified [TT] ceased trolling turntechGodhead [TG] at 22:48 pm–

Dave sighed to himself as he picked his controller back up, closing the chat with a stiff blink of his eyes. He’d never admit to holding back tears over the situation – while he was excited to get to see Dirk, it wouldn’t be a social visit for the two of them. Sure, it was kind of cute that Dirk wanted to try to make things up with his ex-boyfriend (if their relationship could be called that), but if he was honest with himself, he was more jealous that they’d be using his hive to talk. A small part of Dave wished it was a different circumstance though, and Dirk cared enough to actually spend time with him.

Or really, anyone cared enough to spend time with him. He’d always assumed he’d die alone and the grueling hellscape of The Game had left him to his own devices again and again, most of the time with no one but himself for company. Being alone was something Dave should have been used to by this point. It kind of totally sucked that he didn’t have anyone he could really turn to for companionship even now, on a planet full of people. Karkat was constantly busy with his own shit; even if Dave could get out as far as the nubby-horned one had described, he’d probably be too preoccupied to do much. Dave didn’t really relish the idea of going out to see Jade. She lived too close to John for him to want to make the trek. Rose would be the only one worth seeing, but even then, she’d probably spend the entire time psychoanalyzing him. And the other trolls? Forget it.

Solitude seemed the only option until Dirk and Jake arrived and let him third-wheel in his own hive, so Dave cast his loneliness aside again in favor of playing more video games. 

They seemed like a better thing to focus on than being lonely on a hostile planet anyway.

It still fucking sucked.

Chapter Text

It had been nearly a week of lazing around his hive before Dave had finally settled into being a Troll. He’d learned to duck when he entered doorways, avoid hanging light fixtures, and to not lean too far into the fridge. These had all been hard-learned lessons, of course. His horns ran into everything, and he’d gotten the hooked end of the keratin stuck on one of the shelves in the fridge while trying to get himself some apple juice. Crowdad hadn’t been able to help much in that situation outside of squawking like a bird-brained idiot, so Dave had adapted to avoid it. 

He’d also learned that his bodily functions were entirely different with his new anatomy. The first couple of times he’d gone to the ablution block to relieve himself had been a confusing ordeal. After conferring with Rose, he’d found out that sitting down to take care of his needs was the right way to go. According to her, things weren’t too different.

Ablution issues aside, it was finally the night that Dirk and Jake were scheduled to arrive. He’d decided to make himself scarce for most of their stay in his music room. Since he’d met Jake only a few times, and the conversation was sure to be uncomfortable, it seemed like his best option. Jake reminded him too much of John anyway, which made sense in a roundabout way, considering their ectobiological similarities. Of course, by that logic, Dirk was also his dad. They were bros, but not also technically not bros. He tossed the train of thought away, like a metaphorical ball through a hoop, and focused on the window overlooking his lawn ring instead.

There were a few other hives in his little neighborhood, not that he’d explored much beyond his own ten-foot circle of blue-green grass. His hive was at the end of the block, settled neatly beside a mountain range. With no neighbors to his right, just the cliffs and trees, it was easy to spot the large white bird gliding over them toward his hive cluster. A single rider on the back of said bird told Dave that it was time to let the pair of scorned lovers into his hive, and he left his music room to let them in the front portal. Despite his nervousness at seeing someone in person for the first time in what felt like years, Dave couldn’t contain his excitement and flash-stepped down the stairs, letting the door whizz open in front of him.

He took a nonchalant stance in the entrance, leaning his back against the cold metal door jamb, and waited patiently for the large bird – a seagull – to land in the limits of his lawnring. In one graceful move, Dirk slipped off the back of his lusus and dusted himself off from the flight before moving toward Dave and the open hive. As he approached, the pair of Striders sized one another up like usual, exchanging curt nods as they drew closer to one another. As soon as Dirk was close enough to hear it, Dave gave him the simple, typical greeting of “Sup, bro?”

Dirk didn’t reply right away, and to Dave’s surprise, the other Troll advanced on him so quickly that if it were an attack, Dave might not have survived. Instead, Dirk swept him into a tight hug, leaning their heads together as much as their horns and Dirk’s own pointy shades would allow. An affectionate “Hey little man” was muttered into Dave’s hair as they clung to one another for a long, drawn out moment, and when they finally separated, the slightly shorter Troll was fairly certain he could see tears in the corners of Dirk’s startlingly orange eyes. It wasn’t like Dave was any better though, and the two both took a long minute of staring at each other in silence to compose themselves before a loud bark broke the tension.

Jake’s arrival was confirmed when a large, fluffy, white dog bounded into the clearing and the dorky rider on its back waving excitedly to the pair of Striders outside the hive. Dave kept their interactions brief, showing them to the living room before absconding back to his music room. He didn’t want to be near them while Dirk tried to win Jake back, or talk out their bad relationship, or whatever it was they were doing. Some things needed to be kept private.

After a few hours of mixing music by himself, Dave was rather proud of the song he’d assembled, and was mid play-back when Dirk called him back downstairs. Jake was gone, leaving the brothers Strider to sit in the living room together and catch up finally. The conversation was slow at first, and mostly superficial, but it suited Dave just fine. At least until Dirk started talking about the conversation with Jake.

“I don’t really even know why he bothered to show up, man.” Dirk heaved a large sigh, shaking his head slightly as he grabbed for the TV remote and turned on the device. Some background noise and something else to focus on for both of them would make conversing easier, Dave decided before he responded to the other.

“How’d it go?” Seemed the easiest way to prod for more information from Dirk, and Dave turned his shaded eyes on the TV so he didn’t have to look the other in the pointed sunglasses anymore.

The other Strider let out a small snort, tossing the remote back onto the table in front of them. “About as well as you’d expect a conversation about a failed relationship to go. I apologized, he kept talking about Jane.”

Dave winced at that, shaking his head lightly as Dirk settled back into the cushioned couch beside him. “That superiorly sucks, dude.”

Dirk nodded in confirmation, and that seemed to be the end of the conversation. They focused back on the TV, and went silent, though it was a fairly comfortable passage of time. Eventually, they spoke to one another again, recounting their discoveries since they became trolls, comparing some of their experiences.

Over the next few days while Dirk stayed with him, Dave and he spent time together doing whatever came to mind. Video games were played, pizza was ordered, music was made. They had a few more conversations, but for the most part were content to hang out in silence. It was nice to have someone close enough to talk to if he wanted to – Dave had found that Crowdad made for horrible conversation.

Day four of their visit found the pair sitting in front of the TV again, idly watching some show that Dave had decided to call ‘Real Blood’, since troll titles were too long. It was basically softcore porn with an overarching plot of vampires somehow, but both he and Dirk seemed to be absorbed in the drama of who Stokie Shouse would sleep with next. It also helped normalize their new genitalia to them both, from the brief, somewhat uncomfortable conversation they’d had right after discovering the show. They were right in the middle of a heavy scene, Stokie having finally met back up with her original matesprit, Billam, for a day of passion when the broadcast was interrupted.

In unison, both Striders let out a groan of protest at the empty black screen, before a slow ticker tape began scrolling across the screen reading ‘AN ADDRESS FROM HER IMPERIAL BENEVOLENCE, FEFERI PEIXES’. Dirk raised an eyebrow at Dave before leaning forward to snatch up the remote and turn the volume up slightly so they could hear the message. As the picture finally loaded, Dave wondered where he’d heard the name ‘Feferi’ before.

The screen showed a stage with a tall, muscular girl in what seemed to be a swimsuit covered by a skirt standing behind a podium made for someone even taller than her. Dave recognized the tyrian purple color that adorned the stage – in fact, the color covered everything. It was draped on the podium, the backdrop, if any decoration could be the royal color, it was. Almost as interesting as the background were the other trolls that accompanied her on stage. To her right, were two other girls. It took Dave a moment to recognize Rose since he hadn’t seen her since they’d been in The Game. Her bright purple squid-like symbol was the real giveaway. Paired with her iconic black dress and striped purple sleeves, she fit in with the regal decorations that were strewn about. Beside her was another tyrian, who actually looked like she was older than the one about to speak. Dirk helpfully interjected on Dave’s train of thought to inform him that her name was ‘Meenah’. To Feferi’s left, there were two more trolls that stuck out like sore thumbs in comparison to the others on stage, or even in the crowds. One was a tall, skinny yellow with the Gemini symbol on his chest. Beside him was another highblood wearing a cape of all things, and like that wasn’t enough, he wore the most garish striped scarf that matched his pinstriped pants.

Before Dave could really tear apart the horrible outfit, though, Feferi drew the attention back to her. She had a commanding presence that caused a hush to fall over the assembled crowd, but when she spoke, that intimidating aura of her dissolved. She was so overly friendly and bubbly, it was more like listening to troll Barbie.

“Hi there everybody!” A wide grin crossed the tyrian ruler’s face, showing off shark-like teeth. She spread her arms wide, as though she was trying to hug the entire world in one move. “I’m soooo excited to be your new Imperial Benevolence! I’m shore we’ll all be the very best of chums!” Dave wasn’t quite sure how he could tell, but she was definitely making fish puns in an official address to the planet. The way she emphasized her words was almost obnoxious, but with her bright demeanor, it came across as cute and cuddly. She had to be the same age as him and the others in The Game – maybe that was where Dave had heard her name before.

“Whale I know we’re still adjusting to this new order of things, the first thing I wanted to address with all of you is abolishing some laws that are long overdue.

“Starting now, there will be no more Hemospectrum!” There was a pause created by a simultaneous gasp from the crowd in front of her. From what Dave could make out, there were mostly highbloods in the group; the only troll lower than a blue was the yellow-blood on stage. Maybe there were more trolls there he couldn’t see off screen, but it seemed like the new ruler had picked the wrong audience to announce this to. Still, she pressed on, ignoring the murmuring that had begun to happen in the sea of faces below her. “We don’t need our blood colors dictating our jobs and lives! Everyone should be equal!

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be your new Imperial Benevolence! I’m going to do my best to be as kind and caring as some of my previous ancestors! Glub to you later! Bye!” The peppy princess waved to the crowd and cameras enthusiastically as she exited the stage, trailed by the four others after a couple moments.

Then the screen went black again as the broadcast was cut off. After another minute or so, their show resumed, and both Striders fell back into Stokie’s antics. Neither of them spoke about the broadcast – there wasn’t much to say.

Dirk went back to his own hive the night after the transmission, and Dave resumed his rather quiet life of making music and playing video games. Even though he’d just spent nearly a week with the closest family he had, Dave found his solitude overwhelming almost immediately. Maybe it was the lack of someone else in his hive, but he was going stir-crazy by the end of the night.

It was a couple days later that there was a loud, pounding knock on his door, startling Dave into dropping his controller in the middle of his latest game. When he answered the knock, the entrance opened to a large, white, crustacean-like thing that towered over him. It was easily twice his size, having to kneel in the doorway to even look Dave in the eyes. What threw him off the most about this visit, however, was the bright magenta envelope with glitter calligraphy spelling out his name on it. 

The large drone handing him a gaudy envelope seemed like something to laugh at, and as the letter was passed into his hands, Dave couldn’t contain himself. The sound clearly irritated the drone, because it shot him a dirty look before stomping away, carrying a basket full of the brightly covered packets to be delivered to others on the planet.

After stepping back inside, he opened the letter, glancing over the white cardstock with pink writing on it. He was surprised to find it was entirely personalized on the inside, even starting with his name. Clearly, Rose had been giving the new ruler information on the other Sburb players.

Dave Strider, Knight of Time;

You are cordially invited to the 1st Annual Ball of Champions as an honored guest.

A personal block for respite and dinner will be provided.

By invitation of:

Feferi Peixes

Her Imperial Benevolence

Dave made his way over to his favorite lounge chair in the living room as he poured over the rest of the contents in the large envelope. Smaller, black lettering dictated the time and date of the ball, and had contact information for where to get clothing made for those who needed it. 

The handle provided seemed familiar, and when Dave opened Trollian on his shades, he remembered Kanaya’s name. Her and Rose had been so close, how could he have ever forgotten the tall vampiress troll? He sent her a quick message about the ball, and spent most of the remainder of his evening discussing the most garish outfit he could possibly commission from the fashionable troll.

He wasn’t going to ignore an official invitation from Her Imperial Benevolence, after all. He would show up in the most ridiculously, ironically ugly thing he possibly could, though. Dave had a reputation to uphold after all.

Part of him wondered if Kanaya could work a striped scarf into his ensemble, but the idea was quickly shot down by the designer. She did, however, relent on his idea for the tie after some persuading.

Dave glanced at himself in the mirror in Rose and Kanaya’s shared room at the palace, appreciating the most atrocious outfit he’d ever put on. It was undoubtedly the worst thing he’d ever set his mind to wearing, and was sure to offend at least one troll at the swanky get together. The obnoxious red velvet tuxedo was as bright a red as Kanaya could find in the material, with a darker red for the piping along the hems. His favorite part of the whole ensemble was the tie they’d compromised on. It was without a doubt the worst accessory he’d ever seen; an absurdly bright candy red, rust, and mint green plaid.

Yes, he was going to go out in public like this, and enjoy every minute of making the other partygoers look at the horrid combination of offensive colors. Since it was a royal ball, there were plenty of nobles around to stick their noses up in disapproval. The suit was so horrible that even Rose was trying to convince him to change his mind about wearing it.

“Can’t I talk you into wearing something more… attractive?” Rose asked, choking back her mortification while she helped button the sleeves of the perfectly tailored jacket. She sounded hopeful, but when Dave shook his head, she looked positively irate with him.

“There’s basically nothing you can say that will stop me from doing this.” Dave replied as he finished adjusting his tie and gave himself another once-over in the mirror. “Besides, if I change now, who would match Dirk?”

“Both of you were very specific in your requests.” Kanaya was far less judgemental of his outfit as she busied herself with checking her work, smoothing the lapels of Dave’s jacket over his vest before finally nodding with approval. “The suit fits perfectly, Dave, however, should you change your mind, I took the initiative to prepare another suit for you as well.” She motioned to the clothing rack behind him, and Dave curiously peered at the line of suits and dresses hanging off the structure. He didn’t have to ask which one was for him; the silky-looking black suit with a red undershirt was easily identifiable as his by the Time cog embroidered onto the black tie. He almost wanted to change when he saw the fine details Kanaya had put into the other outfit – it was an absolutely gorgeous suit. Someone must have told her about his fondness for being done up.

A knock on the door gave him the time he needed to decide to proceed with his garish velveteen outfit instead of the silky black one as Kanaya opened the portal to admit a tall, willowy seatroll Dave had seen once before. Now that they were in such close quarters, Dave’s focus was drawn to the other troll immediately.

“Hey, Kan, is my suit done?” Dave almost hadn’t recognized the troll from Feferi’s announcement without that horrible scarf he’d been wearing.

“Of course, Eridan. It’s behind the green dress on the rack there, next to Dave.” Kanaya’s reply was surprisingly stiff for someone usually so kind. An odd tension hung in the air that Dave longed to break with a joke, but a glare from Rose made the words die on his tongue. Apparently, this wasn’t the time. “Your hair looks nice without the violet streak in it. You don’t look as flushed anymore.” The jade blood punctuated her words with a smile, and the unease in the room seemed to dissipate.

“When I woke up again, it was gone and I didn't have the time to put it back in… You think it looks better like this?” The clearly self-conscious seatroll pushed his hair back a bit at the comment, glancing at himself in the mirror beside Dave with a wary look. He seemed not to notice the velvet-clad troll in the room, because as soon as he’d finished his peek in the mirror, his eyes fell to the floor like he didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone.

“Yes.” Rose and Kanaya spoke at the same time, answering his question in unison before looking at one another with coy smiles. They were sickening, Dave decided. 

When no one spoke up again, Dave stepped back to motion the other troll toward the clothing rack so he could get at his suit. The seatroll took the opening, moving past Dave toward the frame. As he stepped close, time seemed to slow down for a moment – the human-turned troll immediately noticed the red strings that surrounded them both while the scent of the sea spray on the wind drifted through Dave’s nostrils. While most other seatrolls he’d met so far had smelled strongly of the salty water that covered half of Alternia, the willowy violet-blood in front of him was shrouded by a soft, sweet perfume of the sea, sky and clouds. It was so attractive that Dave had inadvertently slowed the time it took for the other to pass him, and once he finally released his hold on the line, he wished he’d kept things slowed down so he could get to know the other. It was unwise to continue manipulating time like that, though. The other troll quickly grabbed what he needed off the rack before disappearing to try it on. Dave lingered, despite his better judgement, pretending to consider the second suit on the rack a bit more, just to see if he could get another glimpse.

When the seatroll came back into the room, he was fiddling with the sides of the shirt. He looked uncomfortable as he made his way over to Kanaya, carrying his suit jacket over his arm. “The shirt feels awfully tight, Kan.” He muttered, staring at the floor in front of the mirror, as though he was embarrassed of his own reflection.

“It’s supposed to be fair form-fitting, Eridan. So you can wear the jacket over it.” The jade pulled the jacket free of his arms and helped him into it before making sure the whole outfit was set properly on the other’s build.

Dave might have been staring out of the corner of his eye at the skinny seatroll, though thankfully his shades kept most everyone from noticing where his eyes were. He couldn’t pull himself away, too busy noting how the fine silken fabric Kanaya had draped him in fit him so well. Skinny as he was, there were some nice curves to his boney hips, and the slender, athletic legs of a swimmer below them. Every time Kanaya smoothed out a line in the fabric, Dave’s eyes followed the new dips and curves he spotted. Compared to the ridiculous striped pants and oversized long sleeve he’d walked into, the suit was almost plain. A vibrant violet shirt was the only color, covered mostly by a black suit with thin white pinstripes lining the slacks and jacket. On his tie, Dave noticed the stitched in symbol for Hope, a little pair of golden wings.

“And what’s the deal with this?” He held the tie up, glancing at the wings on the bottom with a small frown. There was a distinct lack of hope in the seatrolls eyes, in fact, behind those thick glasses, Dave could see something more akin to despair. He clearly would rather be anywhere but the royal ball he was attending.

“Hope was your Aspect, Eridan. You should be proud of it, no matter what transpired during the game.” Kanaya’s tone was almost motherly as she secured the buttons on the seatroll’s sleeves. She nodded with approval of her finished work, then gently patted him on the back.

Eridan scoffed and glanced around the room, trying to find something to focus on, though one look at Dave’s suit made him wrinkle his nose before moving on. “My hope was long gone before you killed me. Some Prince a’ Hope I shaped up to be.”

“The fighting is done, the war is won, and we are alive, Eridan. Anything in the past is the past, and we shouldn’t worry or hate anyone because of what they did during such a tumultuous time. Feferi is having this ball to prove that point to everyone. Don’t worry about other people and keep your chin up. Be that arrogant prince we all remember and everything will be fine.” Kanaya smiled at him again, more gently than before, and grabbed the jade-colored dress off the rack.

As soon as her back was turned, the violet responded, almost quiet enough that it couldn’t be heard; “Thanks, Kan.” Eridan was out the door with a flourish. Had he been wearing his cape, it might have been a more dramatic exit. Of course, a backflip would have been Dave’s choice.

“Well, that was tense.” Rose spoke, breaking the silence that had filled the room in Eridan’s wake. Kanaya seemed entertained, laughing it off as she stepped away to change into her dress.

The new Empress sure knew how to live in style, Dave decided. From front to back, the entire palace was plush, tyrian purple, and filled with cuttlefish kept in large tanks. If that wasn’t enough, the little cephalopods decorated nearly every nook and cranny in the place. The drapes, napkins, plates, and even silverware had Feferi’s favorite sea animal as their primary motif. If that wasn’t enough, the cake that stood as the centerpiece of the dining table was nearly two feet long, and just as tall, expertly styled to look like the creatures of the deep. Everything in the place was designed around them.

Everything except the trolls at the ball, of course. There were trolls of nearly every blood color present, from Aradia’s rusty red to Roxy’s bubblegum pink. Some of the more vivid colors stuck out like sore thumbs but there to take the attention off Karkat and the other mutant candy-red partygoer was Dirk and Dave. Their obnoxious orange and red suits matched, making the pair look nearly identical. If it weren't for their trademark shades and their horns, they probably could have switched outfits and no one would be to tell.

Thankfully, all of the other trolls in attendance knew how to dress themselves better than the two Striders. Or more accurately, Kanaya knew how to dress all of their team for a ball. As Dave observed the party, he noticed that everyone’s outfits had to have come from the designer.

Karkat was dressed up in a slate-grey suit, with a candy-red undershirt and black tie – somehow, it managed not to clash with Terezi beside him, wearing a short teal gown that was heavily embroidered. A closer inspection showed that Karkat’s tie housed the Blood symbol, while Terezi’s entire dress was covered again and again with the Mind one, the tails of each symbol touching. The two seemed to be locked in a heavy conversation off to the side of the party and if Dave wasn’t busy sticking out like a sore thumb, he might have gone to speak with them. 

Something told him they were trying to avoid attention, however, so Dave moved on, his eyes finding Aradia in the crowd instead. Instead of a ballgown, she wore her preferred tunic and leggings, with a golden whip curled up on her left hip as an accessory. Standing beside her was the sweaty, long-haired Equius who had actually been convinced to trade in his shorts and tights for a royal blue button-up, black tie, as well as a black vest and slacks. Dave made a note to himself to ask Kanaya exactly what material the blue-blood’s clothes had been made out of, since they seemed to hide the persistent and profuse flop sweat he was always covered in. He still looked uncomfortable, but that was probably just Equius.

His attention was drawn to Vriska when she laughed obnoxiously loud, and Dave turned his eyes on her, but looked away almost immediately when he noticed she was hanging on John – who was trying his hardest not to look down her extremely low cut dress.

Dave’s eyes scanned over them quickly to the buffet table, where Tavros and Gamzee seemed to be locked in a small, shy conversation about the finger foods laid out. The pair wore matching suits, which reminded him vaguely of peanut butter and jelly. Gamzee’s suit was rumpled from how he slouched, but he still looked terrifyingly striking; at least until he spotted Dave looking at them. Then he scowled, flipped the once-human off, and turned back to Tavros. Fucker.

When Feferi finally swept into the room, her princess-style tyrian purple ball gown caught every eye in the room. Her bubbly demeanor fit right into the style, and surprisingly, so did Sollux in a black and white ensemble beside her. While the tall, skinny troll looked like he’d rather be anywhere but where he was, he did have a fond smile for the empress beside him whenever she looked back at him.

Dave had been about to look around more, since there were plenty of people he didn’t know in attendance, but his attention was drawn away by Karkat and Terezi, who both had surprised him by asking to dance. Before he could escape the dancefloor, Feferi had grabbed him too. In the end, he danced with almost everyone he knew. When dinner was called, he finally escaped from the ballroom to take a quick break before their meal.

Chapter Text

During his brief respite from the party, Dave decided to change into the other suit Kanaya had made him. He could be an eyesore at the party, but dinner was a more close affair with their friends and co-players. Apparently, Dirk had the same idea, because both of them ended up in Rose and Kanaya’s room to change at about the same time. When they entered the dining hall, they’d been directed to their seats, which were arranged by blood color. It seemed like a huge oversight for the empress who’d just abolished the hemospectrum, but chances are it was a habit that they’d have to break.

This left Dave sitting between Karkat and Aradia. Karkat would chat with him off and on, though his attention was often drawn away by the other candy-blooded troll beside him, or even Feferi at the end of the table. When Dave had eavesdropped on Aradia and Tavros’ conversation, he’d found out they were talking about a game – FLARP or something like that. Beside them were Sollux, another yellow blood, and Dirk all of whom had struck up a fast conversation about computers and technology. An occasional question would be thrown his way from the others sitting around him, but for the most part Dave focused on his meal.

Directly across the table from him was Eridan, who was decidedly not in the mood to talk to anyone who’d tried so far. He also had barely touched his plate, and when he wasn’t looking, Dave had swiped some extra food off his plate, which had made Eridan’s cheeks puff out in annoyance as he tried to find the culprit. He’d given up fast though, and went back to being disinterested in everything going on around him.

As the meal went on, Eridan looked more and more uncomfortable in his position seated between Rose and another violet blood Dave hadn’t met before. Something must have been said to set the seatroll off, because he stood up abruptly and stalked out of the room, drawing an end to the conversations on their half of the table. Feferi seemed concerned, her eyes following the other from the room and she even moved to get up, but Sollux’s voice sounded from Dave’s left and stopped her.

“It’s fine FF. I’ll go check on him.” Sollux set his own napkin on the table and left through the same door Eridan had, his long legs taking him quickly out of the room. As soon as the door shut behind them, conversations resumed, filling the dining hall with noise again.

Entrees were cleared away to make room for dessert just as Sollux reentered the room and took his seat again. Dave had never seen anything like the dish set in front of him, but it closely resembled ice cream. He’d just taken a spoonful of the color swirled, frozen sweet when someone down the table mentioned it was ‘frozen grub cream’. Dave thought better of eating the ‘delicacy’ at that moment and set his spoon back in the bowl, only to watch it be swept away by Aradia and given to Tavros who’d somehow already finished his bowl.

Dave excused himself from the room, feigning having to use the ablution block. Really, he just wanted to escape the crowded room and have some time to himself for the first time that night. The palace was large and grand, but he still managed to find his way up to the Lusii Sanctuary Feferi had set up for all of those who’d flown or ridden out for the event on their lusus. Crowdad would be among them, and honestly, the bird-brain seemed like a better conversation partner than where he’d been sat for dinner.

As soon as he stepped out onto the rooftop oasis, Crowdad came at him squawking, insisting on his usual habit of nipping Dave’s ear before nuzzling his huge white head against the troll’s chest. Dave petted the corvid’s feathers affectionately while he looked around at the other lusii gathered there. The only other lusii he recognized were Gulldad and the twin pair of fluffy white dogs that belonged to Jake and Jade, though.

“Hey.” Dave scratched the feather’s between his lusus’ eyes as he looked around. “What have you been up to out here? Is it more fun than being inside?”

The large white bird simply tilted his head at the questions, letting out a quick squawk before it waddled back over to the freshwater pool in the center where most of the lusii had gathered. There, amongst the sea of white scales, feathers, and fur, Dave spotted a splash of royal violet, and he cautiously followed behind his lusus to get a better look at what was out there amongst the custodians. 

His quiet approach thankfully didn’t spook the seatroll that was sitting amongst the flock. Eridan was curled up with a giant white seahorse, his back leaning against its body while the lusii’s head laid in his lap. He was affectionately rubbing at the spot between the seahorses’ closed eyes. Even though there was a small smile on the seatrolls face, there were translucent violet tears streaking down his cheeks. Dave couldn’t really judge him, either. If there was any spot in the palace to cry on a night like this, it would be surrounded by the various custodians who all seemed content to fuss about him.

When Dave’s shoes scuffed at the concrete beneath his feet, Eridan’s violet-grey eyes snapped up to his face, and the smile disappeared in favor of a sour frown. He quickly brought his hand up to wipe his eyes, trying to hide the fact that he’d been crying. “I told Sol I was fine. What do you want?” Dave expected his voice to be more snappy, since he’d interrupted what was clearly a moment for the seatroll, but instead he just sounded defeated.

“I came to get away from the rest of the crazies in there.” Dave jerked his head back toward the door before reaching out to give Gulldad a scratch when the large bird came close to him. Of course, not to be outdone, Crowdad decided he wanted attention too, and Dave ended up using both of his hands to scratch at the pair of feathery lusii. “Kinda got tired of everyone else talking.” Dave continued, still feeling the icy glare from the seadweller. Out of courtesy, Dave didn’t look the other in the eyes. 

“You have two lusii or somethin’?” Eridan finally spoke again, his attention drawn to the two birds crowding Dave. He seemed more interested in the feathery assholes than his seahorse was comfortable with, because the petulant marine life snorted in annoyance when Eridan stopped rubbing his head.

“Nah, only this one. The other one belongs to Dirk.” Dave patted Crowdad’s head lightly, unable to stop himself from smirking at the way the large corvid nipped at his shades. He glanced back over at the seatroll, watching as the seahorse in his lap relaxed again when Eridan lightly stroked it’s head. Deciding to test the waters a bit, Dave tried to strike up a conversation. It was probably futile, but worth a shot. “What’s got you all in a twist?”

Violet flooded the other trolls' faces, from fin to fin while he looked more surprised than anything. He hesitated for a moment before tentatively replying. “That’s a discussion for a moirail. Not someone I barely know.” There was no other way to describe the way Eridan stared into the pond in front of him than sad. He seemed to take solace in watching the pair of tiny tinkerbulls play around in the water while Dave slowly made his way closer to the central pond.

“Morail. That’s the diamond-y quadrant right?” When Eridan didn’t respond right away, Dave took the time to remember the raps he’d written about the quadrants on the meteor in a fit of boredom. With Karkat’s help, he’d actually started to understand the somewhat complex romance system the trolls had. “They’re like the closest friend you could ever have.”

“A soulmate.” Eridan corrected him coolly. “Someone you connect with more than anyone else. And that would not be you.”

Dave shrugged off the other’s tone. It wasn’t worth letting the other get to him. “Just thought maybe you’d want to talk about things. Trying to be nice.”

“Yeah, well, some advice then? Don’t be nice to me. I’ll just end up blowin’ a fuckin’ hole through your stomach.” The other’s seahorse lusus sat up at the comment, snorting at Eridan iritibly, as though trying to reprimand him. They shared an intense moment of silence staring at one another before Eridan won the test of will and the lusus laid down again.

“Alright, well I’d rather keep this piece of Strider swag whole and intact, so I’m gonna bounce.”  Dave shot Eridan a smirk accompanied by a finger gun before turning to leave. When he kicked the door back open, Eridan actually laughed behind him, bringing an actual smile to his face as he went back downstairs to rejoin the party.

Chapter Text

Dave didn’t see Eridan again for the rest of his time in the palace, and Sollux had informed them the next evening that he’d left after talking to Dave on the roof. He hadn’t even gone back to Kanaya and Rose’s room to pick up his clothes, according to the pair.

While he didn’t mean to, Dave quickly forgot about the exchange with the seatroll. Feferi should have mentioned that this was going to be an extended stay in her letter – the night after the ball, she’d commandeered all of those in attendance into helping her re-write the Alternian laws. Mostly, Dave and Aradia were busy running tests to see if they could remove the Hemocaste system entirely from history. It proved to be futile, over and over again, and eventually they had to give up. Some things were just too ingrained to mess with, so instead they focused on smaller things they could fix with time manipulation. When they’d exhausted all those avenues, it was time to hit the books. Studying, reading and writing laws was a horridly long process. In the end, they’d made it legal for adult trolls to stay on the planet for work, and even to care for grubs as a lusii of sorts after they exited the trials. Kanaya had been very eager to see this get written in, and Dave expected that if he ever went to visit her and Rose, the two would probably have a gaggle of grubs to care for.

All in all, it took almost a perigee of being in the palace to finalize all the changes and laws they’d created. When Dave finally was able to leave and go back to his own hive, he was thoroughly socialized and equally exhausted. His bent up hive appearing on the horizon was a blessed sight, and even though the entire place was covered in dust when he stepped inside, he was glad to be back in his own space. Sure, a few of his gamegrubs had gone missing, probably stolen by his neighbors, but Dave couldn’t bring himself to care too much about them. He was relieved to find his music room had gone untouched – he didn’t need to play games if he could make music. Plus, being in Feferi’s council meant he had more caegars to throw around. He could pick up more gamegrubs whenever he wanted. Or more accurately, whenever he had time. Once a perigee, he would have to return to the palace for council meetings and other things. Wasn’t that just peachy?

Still, he made the best of the time he had at home. He spent the first couple of nights back cleaning out all the dust and small creatures that had taken up residence in his hive while he was gone. Crowdad happily ate every squeakbeast he found, while Dave tried his best to toss them into his neighbor’s lawnrings to let them deal with the pests. They’d even had to chase out a particularly angry, large, white racoon that had taken over Crowdad’s nest; Dave had nearly lost a finger in the fight.

Every inch of his hive had to be scoured, rinsed, scrubbed, or otherwise cleaned from corner to corner. When they were finally finished, the place practically shined. Then they’d had to go pick up food to fill the fridge back up, and Dave splurged on a couple new gamegrubs he’d never played before.

Unfortunately, even the new games couldn’t stave off boredom. He’d spent the next three nights consecutively playing the games he’d bought, and they lost their shine pretty quick. Fiddling with his music only passed one night, his creativity having been sapped by all the activities in his life as of late. He hadn’t even been back in his hive a week before he was starting to go stir-crazy.

The restlessness was overwhelming. He’d spent so long surrounded by other people, being told what needed to happen over the course of the night, so now that he had no structure or company, it was difficult to get himself to do anything. Typically when he’d lived on Earth, he’d make music, play games or go urban exploring in their neighborhood. On Alternia, it wasn’t the best idea for Dave to explore the closest city. One wrong turn could end up with him dead, and he didn’t relish the idea of fighting his way around just to explore.

His collection of dead things and curios needed expanding, though, so when Crowdad caught him coming downstairs from his music room and squawked loudly at the door, Dave determined they both could use a little time out from their hive. 

“You wanna go out and fly a bit?” Dave asked the giant corvid as he pulled on his shoes, then grabbed his katana from its place beside the stairs before joining his lusus who croaked in excitement as he approached. As soon as he opened the door, the giant bird was outside, stretching his wings while he waited for his ward to lock the door. After a moment to get himself limbered up to fly, the bird knelt down to allow Dave to climb on his back, and within seconds they were soaring through the air, over the mountains toward the sea.

A large cloud bank engulfed the lusus and his rider, making the world below disappear in favor of soft, white, humid clouds. It immediately seeped into Dave’s clothes, even sending a chill up his spine, but he didn’t stop the lusus from flying through the thick blanket of condensation. The salty scent of sea water reached Dave’s nostrils before he could see the ocean, but when they finally broke free of the cloud bank, it was above the dark, churning blue waters of the Alternian sea. The twin moons were high in the sky above them, casting light down on the beautiful waves below. Dave observed the options available to them for exploring as they glided down closer to the ocean. After a moment, he spotted an old ship lodged into the largest island in a small chain. It was fairly isolated and the black stones the ship was perched on seemed to blend in with the dark blue sea water.

Dave decided that seemed like a good place to start his exploration, and he urged Crowdad toward the cluster of islands. “Let’s check out that ship.” He called out over the wind to tell his lusus where to go, getting a loud caw of reply before the bird started to descend in that direction. It was a slow trip downward, and Dave was enjoying taking in all the details of the low cloud cover over the mountains behind them. The crashing of the waves was like music to his ears; he made a note to see if he could sample them to add to a track at some point. Salt spray filled his lungs, and he greedily took it in, despite the thin air. Of course, he nearly choked on the thin air, but the small taste of the salty air was worth it in his opinion. In the midst of his amazement, though, he’d forgotten that he was on a planet of hostile trolls, all of whom would try to kill him if they were given the chance. It also escaped his mind entirely that he was a close combat fighter, with no way of defending himself in the air. These realizations come to him in the form of a rip of blue light, coupled with deadly heat as it tears past his head; so close he can smell the acrid aroma of burning hair. He frantically looked around for his attacker at the same time that Crowdad reacted in fear of the flash, bucking wildly underneath him. Dave was thrown from his lusus’ back, and then plummeting toward the churning depths of the sea below. He flailed wildly, trying to grab onto something, anything for purchase in the air, but came up empty. A loud, involuntary scream ripped from his throat as his many lives flashed before his eyes. His shades flew off, and the last thing he saw was Crowdad attacking an equally sized white seahorse with a rider carrying a rifle larger than his leg.

He was so far away from them now, there was no way that his lusus would be able to get him, so he tried to spin around, to slow his descent, anything before he hit the water. The deafening splash as he hit the surface of the waves was the last thing he heard. Pain wracked his body, followed immediately by the shocking cold of the water soaking through his clothes and skin. Dave’s consciousness slips away as he sinks into the vast, dark ocean. Everything was black for what seemed to be forever. Silence was deafening, cold wracked his body. This is what they’d always said space was like in school right?

The rush of water around was a surprise, stinging his senses as it filled his nose and mouth. It was hard to discern what was happening, but he had to be surrounded by water. Was there anything else around? Someone had a tight grip on his arm, then around his chest. He couldn’t tell if he was being dragged upwards or downwards by whatever force held him. Dave wasn’t even able to struggle as they hauled him through the depths of the sea.

A sudden warmth touched Dave’s face, then the rest of his body as he’s pulled onto some sharp rocks. The light of the moons above him seemed far away, but so close at the same time. Was he even awake? How could he feel the pointed stones digging into his hips while he was unconscious? He even thought he could feel someone panting just above him, and hands scrambling over his chest and face frantically. Did he get slapped? The sting in his cheek makes him think so.

“Fuck! Fuck! I didn’t want to kill anyone! I thought it was just a passin’ lusii!” The voice above Dave stuttered and wavered, sounding almost as scared as he’d felt falling through the air. There was a distinct timbre to the voice that Dave recognized; aristocracy and two-toned, like there was a barely discernible high and low pitch to the troll's voice. So a seadweller had shot him out of the sky while attempting to murder his lusus? As soon as Dave recovered, he was going to punch that asshole out for all of this nonsense – it was entirely uncool for Dave to be in this twilight state on a rocky beach.

The first thing that he becomes fully aware of, though, is that he can’t breathe. His body is even convulsing. Was he choking? That’s what it felt like; gagging and gasping desperately for air that his lungs couldn’t find.

“Shit, shit! What do I do?” Dave’s murderer-turned-rescuer was panicking, he could hear it in his voice. He wished he could tell the idiot to give him CPR, to try to resuscitate him instead of freaking out. He could only choke though. Thankfully, someone was looking out for him. A loud nicker broke through the other troll’s frantic word spill, and Dave was grateful, because that seemed to kick the seatroll back into gear. He tried to protest, but a familiar squawk made the mysterious troll swear to himself.

Dave felt the other trolls breath on his lips a moment later, followed by a snarky sounding “I hope you fucking live” before a pair of freezing cold lips were pressed directly against Dave’s. A deep breath of much-needed air was forced into Dave’s lungs, making the organs burn lightly. The pain in his lungs was quickly forgotten when the troll above him started compressions on his chest. That hurt more than the fall and air being forced into his lungs combined.

It took a few more hard compressions, and another breath passed between their lips before Dave was rolling himself onto his side, sputtering and coughing. Water fell from his lips, and he retched, expelling more liquid from his body each time. The sounds he made were awful – Dave could only imagine what he looked like, vomiting water onto the rocks below him. Thank the gods he’s skipped out on eating that evening so there was nothing else in his stomach and lungs to expel. 

“You’re alive! Thank fuck you’re fucking alive!” Dave finally opened his eyes to see the seatroll was sitting on his knees beside him. Terror was still evident in the troll’s voice and body language – the pair of them were dripping wet, the other must have jumped into the water to save him. “Are you alright?”

“Alright?” Dave’s voice came out strained and hoarse. He coughed again, covering his mouth with his hand for a moment as he sat up so he didn’t get even more water on himself. Dave hoped most of the water was out of his lungs by now, but the organs in his chest still burned with every deep breath he took. “I feel just fucking peachy. I could run across the whole planet. Bound over mountains, swim oceans, conquer far-off, distant worlds. Wonder what I could do when I haven’t drowned.” He didn’t really mean the venomous words pouring from his mouth, but as always, when Dave was at his most vulnerable word salad spilled from his lips. He had to cover his eyes from the light of the moons when he finally realized his shades were gone, and squinted around at the world to get a better grasp of his surroundings. To top it all off, Dave was monumentally cold, shaking from head to toe like a leaf in a hurricane. This whole ordeal had left him vulnerable with another troll; his katana was nowhere to be found and his red eyes were a dead giveaway that he wasn’t a normal color on the hemospectrum. Hopefully his savior wouldn’t get hostile over it.

The seatroll beside him was staring at Dave in awe, as though he couldn’t believe he’d actually saved the other. He seemed to be awfully concerned for some troll who’d been trying to murder his lusus a few minutes ago, so maybe he actually had a good heart? Hopefully, he’d be willing to help Dave out more — wait, had he seen this troll before?

Dave hoped he wasn’t concussed, but his memory was foggy at the moment, and he couldn’t place where he’d seen the other previously. Maybe it was in town? Dave lived in what was probably the closest above-ground city. Or it could have been at Feferi’s ball?

Before Dave could determine how he knew the troll across from him, the other spoke again as he took to his feet on the rocky shore. Of course, that took him out of Dave’s limited eyesight. His poor eyes were so weak to light, a side-effect of always wearing mirrored sunglasses. “You don’t have to be a total bitch about it. I did just save your life, you know?”

“You tried to kill my lusus, so I think we’re even.” Dave shot back, even as the other troll pulled him up onto his own two feet. The shorter seatroll even went so far as to support him with an arm under his, keeping Dave steady enough to stay standing. He was, however, leaning heavily on the smaller troll, and now that Dave could see the other’s face again, he was treated to a pathetic pout.

“You’re fuckin’ heavy.” The seatroll complained, but he didn’t move away to let Dave flounder on his own (heh flounder). “An’ excuse me, I’m sorry I got fuckin’ thin’s to do that might have involved killin’ your lusus, but I did let him live an’ then I rescued your ass from the ocean. Ungrateful shit.” Together, they turned and took a few steps forward, but Dave had to pause to cough up more water almost immediately.

“Y-you kiss your lusus with that mouth?” Muttered under his breath because of the cough, Dave’s voice still had a small bite to it as he followed the seatroll toward the ship he’d wanted to investigate earlier. Now that it was up close and personal, Dave should have guessed this was a troll hive, not just an abandoned wreck. Light-blocking shutters like the ones on his own hive covered the windows, and there were lights on in a couple of the upper levels. Things would have turned out different if he’d waltzed into this troll’s hive instead of being shot out of the sky. He may have actually died.

But in the end, Dave got his wish of inspecting the ship anyway. The seatroll led Dave right up to the door and shoved his thumb against a cleverly hidden scanner, which sent the door in front of them whizzing open almost silently. Damn. He wished his own door was that quiet when it opened. He doesn’t get much time to wish for an ultra-quiet entrance portal for himself, since the other troll pulled him over to the couch and dropped him onto it rather unceremoniously. He walked away for a moment, and when he came back, a towel was draped over Dave’s shoulders before the troll stomped around the couch and stood in front of him.

“You might have a concussion. I’m gonna ask you some questions, and for fucks sake, just answer them without being a drama queen.” The troll pulled his coffee table over to sit on the edge of it, drying his hair slightly with a towel of his own Dave hadn’t noticed before.

“Fine. Sure.” Dave managed to nod in acknowledgement of the minor requirement of his behavior. He could hold it together right? He’d only just fallen a little over a thousand feet into solid sea water. In Dave’s opinion, he had every right to be a little bitchy. Clearly though, trolls were made of tougher stuff than humans. A fall like that on Earth would have killed him. Or maybe it was just that Dave was a god-tier Sburb player. Who knew?

“How many fingers am I holdin’ up?” The seatroll held his hand up, nearly pressing two ring-covered fingers into Dave’s face. Some of the stones welded to the rings were as large as Dave’s eyes, and nearly all of them were a vibrant violet hue.

“Two.” Dave muttered, suppressing the urge to roll his eyes. He knew this was a necessary thing to do, checking his mental state was important. He had no idea how long he was unconscious or how hard he’d hit the water. He knew all of that — but he’d still act like a petulant wiggler if he wanted.

The seatroll surprised Dave by grabbing his chin gently, forcing him to stare directly into the beautiful, intense violet-grey eyes of the troll seated across from him. Now that they were up close and personal like this, Dave noted that his savior was entirely pretty and smelled like the salt-spray of the ocean. Why was that so familiar?

“What’s your name?” He cut off Dave’s thinking again by letting go of his chin and sitting back to ask his next question. A small part of Dave missed the touch right away. He’d never grown up with much physical touch, and now that he’d experienced small doses of affection from Dirk and his friends, he craved more.

“Strider. Dave Strider.” He answered automatically, but had to put his own spin on it. That was the right answer, though, because the troll across from him smirked. The seatroll was a movie fan then. His smirk disappeared quickly though, replaced with a look of confusion. 

“An’ how old are you?” They pressed on with the questions, but this was the hardest one for Dave to answer. Alternia had a different system of aging, and for once, the human-turned troll was having trouble remembering exactly what the conversion had been. He knew he’d written a rap about it at one point...

“Like nine sweeps? If I’m doing the math right — I’m not that great at math though.” Dave shrugged a bit, wracking his brain for a more exact number.

The seatroll proceeded cut off his trail of thinking again. He seemed to be really good at getting into Dave’s head like that. “Who’s the current ruler?”

“Feferi Peixes.” 

“An’ your blood color?”

“Are you actually asking to check on my thinkpan, or are we playing 20Q like a first date?” Dave gave the seatroll in front of him his best, most flirtacious smirk, forgetting entirely about his lack of shades. He was already being the most open and vulnerable with this troll he’s ever been with anyone. Might as well ride the train to the final station.

“Just answer the damn question.” The seatroll snapped at him, turning violet from fin to fin. Dave even noted that his cheeks puffed out when he was irritated, and that was cute. The seatroll turned that look away from Dave’s view though, before standing back up.

“Red.” He answered truthfully. The other had already looked him directly in the eyes. There was no way he wouldn’t have noticed that rare coloration. “My turn.” Dave sat forward on the couch slightly to watch the seatroll walk over toward the door they’d come in through. “What’s your name?”

The seatroll huffed at him, pressing the door pad to open the portal and admit the pair of squalling lusii on the other side. He was handed a pair of glasses by a large white seahorse as it floated in, and he put those on before turning back toward Dave on the couch. “Eridan Ampora.”

Well that name rang a bell. Now that Eridan had his glasses on as well, his face was familiar too. His aura seemed to ooze asshole, but most of their friends were assholes anyway. No, what was intriguing about that aura was that underneath that foppish, haughty attitude of his, Dave could identify loneliness, despair. He was shivering a bit now, still standing by the open door in wet clothes. How Dave hadn’t noticed the twin violet waves emblazoned on his chest was a mystery. His trademark cape and scarf were missing, but sewn into the cuff of his sleeve was a pair of golden wings. The Hope symbol.

Everything clicked back into place then. He was at Feferi’s ball, the one who Kanaya had made the pretty suit for, who smelled like the ocean breeze, wind, and clouds. The same Eridan who had threatened to put a hole in his chest on the roof of the palace. The one who Dave had made time slow down for without even realizing he was.

“I remember you; Prince of Hope.” Dave nodded to himself as he tried to stand up. In a few quick strides, Eridan had come to his aide, surprising both of them with the gesture. The seatroll stared directly into Dave’s eyes again, his violet-grey eyes wary behind thick lenses.

“How do you know that title?” Eridan’s voice came at Dave in a very harsh whisper, as though someone else would hear them in an isolated ship on an island in the middle of the ocean. He was trying to be intimidating now, but Dave wasn’t exactly in a fighting mood. It would be better to come clean than to poke at the seatroll’s buttons.

“I’m the Knight of Time. I played and I died. Same as you.” Dave shrugged as nonchalantly as he could about the whole situation. The Game was a sensitive subject for all of them. “I don’t remember ever talking to you while we played, but I saw you at Feferi’s ball.” Really, he’s only talked to a few trolls in the game, it made sense that Dave hadn’t known who the other was before the ball. Karkat and Terezi were the only ones he talked to on a semi-frequent basis. Sometimes Nepeta too, but he’d had to be introduced to most of the others in person.

Eridan had accepted that answer though, and laughed softly to himself though it wasn’t a happy sound. More of a dry, sarcastic one. “You’re one of the ones that used to be human. Like Rose.” He shook his head as he urged Dave to walk a bit, helping him carefully move around the living area. When he’d established that Dave was strong enough to hold his own weight, he finally let the other troll go. “I can’t believe I almost murdered a fuckin’ human. I’d have been in so much trouble for killin’ you.” The weight of the situation was being worked out with rather inane laughter from the thin seatroll, who looked like he knew he was going to get in trouble either way.

“Yeah, maybe. That’s kinda not something to worry about right now though. I’m kinda fucking freezing my ass off here.” Dave gestured to his wet clothes, peeling his shirt away from his skin a bit. Now that he was more aware, the drenched garments were weighing down his sore muscles, and making it hard for him to move.

“What ass?” Eridan had the audacity to smirk at Dave, like he was suddenly the one in control of their conversation again. “I’ll get you somethin’ to wear. Sit back down. An’ don’t you fuckin’ dare go to sleep.” The seatroll motioned Dave back to the couch before heading toward the stairs behind them. Meanwhile, the seahorse lusus of Eridan’s was floating in slow circles in front of the open door. What was it waiting for?

A loud squawk sounded from the open portal just as Dave had resumed his early seat on the couch. He looked up just in time to see Crowdad come in through the door, shaking his white feathers out to rid himself of some of the water collected in them. Of course, Eridan’s lusus wasn’t exactly happy with that action and the two large, white, flying animals were quick to strike up a conversation in their own way. At least until Crowdad broke off to come see Dave.

The corvid dropped a freezing cold pair of shades in his lap, and Dave reached up to pet the bird in thanks. He praised the small action while the seahorse lusus closed the door and floated it’s way upstairs after Eridan. “I love you, you dumb bird.” Dave muttered to his feather friend, scratching the feather’s between his eyes. 

“These might be a little tight on you.” Eridan’s voice announced his presence as he re-entered the room, carrying a bundle of clothes over to where Dave sat. He set them on the coffee table, before heading toward the kitchen, leaving Dave to get himself up and changed into the violet’s clothing.

Eridan was correct, of course. The long sleeved tee with the Aquarius symbol on it was tight across Dave’s shoulders, and the pants barely fit over his hips, but they were dry. He piled his soiled garments up on the towel, setting them with Eridan’s discarded towel from earlier before Dave took his shaky legs for a spin. He followed Eridan over to the kitchen, spying the seatroll already hard at work preparing them a meal.

While Dave leaned against the kitchen counter, he noticed Eridan had changed into dry clothes as well, though he’d forgone the usual cape and scarf. When he noticed Dave standing behind him, the seatroll jumped slightly, like he’d already forgotten the other was there. Then, for some inexplicable reason, he turned violet from fin to fin.

Usually, he’d press the issue and try to find the source of whatever had made Eridan embarrassed about his appearance in the kitchen, but instead, Dave decided to meddle in his cooking. Swiping things away, moving them around behind the seatroll when he wasn’t looking. When he finally realized it was Dave’s doing, he’d simply laughed and flung a hand towel at him.

No thanks to Dave's meddling, they still ended up with a good meal. It turned out the seatroll was a fantastic cook, not that the other would tell him that. Exhaustion prevented Dave from wanting to talk much more, anyway.

Eventually, Eridan helped him into a guest block and Dave crawled into the recooprecoon there to sleep away the night’s events.

Chapter Text

“So the thing about time travel is that you can’t overthink it. You have to just kinda roll with it and see what happens. But above all else, you have to try not to do anything stupid.” Dave waved his fork in a little circle, illustrating how time moved to the seatroll sitting across from him at the table. Explaining how his Aspect from Sburb over breakfast might have been a little heavy, but Eridan had asked. It was something they’d been talking about for a while that evening; nearly two hours had gone by since Dave was woken up personally by the violet.

The wake-up call had been a surprise, but what had baffled Dave about it more was that Eridan seemed uncaring about waltzing around naked in his hive, even with a guest. This led Dave to believe he didn’t have company much. Of course, he really wasn’t one to question the choice to be in the nude whilst in their own home. When he’d lived on Earth, Dave had spent a number of sweltering hot summers naked in the apartment. Only part of that had been the broken AC unit. Otherwise, it was comfortable.

Still, it had been a shock to wake up to. Some people might have found it uncouth, but in Eridan’s defense, he had no real figure to consider hiding. The seatroll was so skinny, he could shimmy through the portholes that lined his ship hive. How they’d gotten onto that subject, Dave had no idea, but he definitely didn’t want to see Eridan climb out of one naked again.

If anything, it made Dave worried for Eridan’s health. He could visibly count Eridan’s ribs — it was like the seatroll never ate. There was evidence to support that idea as well. They’d sat down to finally eat after a tour of the hive, and Eridan seemed more intent on pushing his food around his plate, rather than eating it.

The tour of his hive had been nice, even if Dave had to talk Eridan into doing it. He didn’t have company much it seemed. The ship was littered with all sorts of things, bits and bobs of historic relevance could be found all over. Dave was informed that the vessel Eridan’s hive was built out of was named ‘ The VWanderlust’ and had previously belonged to his dancestor, Orphaner Dualscar. History seemed to be a passion both of them had shared, since stacks and shelves of books, tomes, and scrolls could be found in every room. Eridan’s personal fascination was wizards, however, and he was a little sheepish when he admitted that to Dave. Statues of famous wizards from various shows, movies and books guarded huge piles of gold and jewels in several rooms as well. Out of curiosity, Dave asked how Eridan had come to possess so much loot, and was confused by the answer. Apparently, it had all been collected over years of playing a game called FLARP; the very same game he’d overheard Tavros and Aradia talking about at Feferi’s ball.

Dave had pestered Eridan with questions about the game while watching the seatroll cook, until they’d started talking about Sburb after the violet started asking questions of his own. Dave told him about LoHaC, and in return, Eridan had tentatively given him information on LoWaA. The violet seemed uncomfortable talking about it for too long, so Dave had taken over the conversation again to talk about the various imps and enemies he’d fought. In return, Eridan briefly spoke of the serpentine angels of his world. He admitted as they’d sat down for breakfast that he wasn’t actually supposed to kill them all, but they’d had a way of getting into his head that had scared him into destroying the creatures.

This of course, had brought them to their current discussion. In between shoveling bites of food in his mouth, Dave had been explaining Time. He’d almost finished his plate by the time he’d ceased his description of the Aspect, while Eridan had barely eaten, seemingly absorbing the exchange of knowledge instead.

“So you can jump between timelines an’ stuff, but you can’t change anythin’ too drastically, or you’ll be up to your nook in dead Dave’s?” Eridan’s question was mumbled around a dry bite of plain toast, which he made a face about. Dave took the time to slide the jam over toward the seatroll before responding to his question, though Eridan made no move to use it.

“Yeah, and while Daves are cool and all, wading through an abundance of dead ones really isn’t.” Dave scooped another forkful of orange scrambled eggs into his mouth, then quickly reached over to snag a piece of oinkbeast off of Eridan’s plate.

The seatroll made a face at that, even going so far as to push his plate in Dave’s direction and set his fork down in favor of downing half his water. “Do you always eat like that?” Eridan’s question was probably meant to be more of a barb, but there was no real venom behind it.

“I’m a growing troll. I need my daily caloric intake of ridiculously ironic proportions.” Dave informed him, already stealing more food off of Eridan’s abandoned plate. In truth, the food Eridan kept in his hive seemed to be of a much higher quality than what Dave was able to buy in the city closest to his hive. He probably paid a hefty sum of caegars every time he shopped for the finest ingredients. Dave wasn’t sure when he’d get to eat like this again, so he’d made the most of it while he could. Even with the hemospectrum laws abolished, it would be a long time before he had as much bullion as Eridan to throw around. 

The dining room went quiet again as Dave finished both his own plate and the seatroll’s. Eridan had found something to stare at in the bottom of his water cup, and had been pursing his lips at it for a few minutes. He seemed to be thinking way too hard, and his companion decided that lightening the mood was the best way to go.

“So is the bucket really necessary?” Asking the most offensive question he could think of out loud as Dave pushed the empty plates away, he was treated to watching Eridan’s face fill with color. He even choked a little on his last drink of water. That was Dave’s fault for asking him mid-sip, though.

“What kinda question is that?” Eridan deflected, slamming his cup back onto the table while his fins fluttered in embarrassment. Buckets were such a taboo subject for whatever reason, but the seatroll was the one who’d decided to traipse about the hive naked this evening. As far as Dave was concerned, it was a way of balancing out the awkwardness of their earlier nude encounter.

“I’m just honestly curious, bro. I haven’t had a whole lot of time to spend playing around with what’s new south of the belt.” Dave shrugged as he sat back in his chair, throwing a smirk in Eridan’s direction. The seatroll was now refusing to look him in the eye, his arms crossed over his skinny chest while his fins flared. 

“I can’t believe you’d seriously be askin’ me about buckets. I’m not your moirail, you empty-panned peasant. Ask Kar!” Eridan stood up abruptly, using the table to push himself to his feet. He grabbed their empty dishes before stalking off into the kitchen with them, leaving Dave’s question unanswered.

Someone was especially touchy about inter-troll relations. Dave made a mental note to talk to Karkat later, but more to ask about Eridan, rather than how sex worked. He’d pry the information from the seatroll eventually.

It took awhile for Eridan to calm down, but eventually, he came back to check on Dave and make sure he didn’t have any injuries they’d missed the night before. The seatroll stayed entirely silent with his jaw clenched tightly shut while he examined Dave’s head, arms and legs around the borrowed shorts and tank top Eridan had given him to wear that evening. After a bit of a process, the other had declared Dave fit to travel.

He never answered Dave’s question, though, which was only a bit disappointing. 

Even though Eridan had told him he was allowed to leave, Dave wasn’t sure he wanted to. The ship-hive and its inhabitant were interesting. Dave found himself wanting to learn more about Eridan. It seemed like the seatroll was in need of a friend just as badly as Dave was, and the human-turned-troll almost didn’t want to leave him in such a pitiable state.

It was Crowdad who made the final call, however. His lusus became more and more impatient until finally, the giant white corvid had placed himself in front of the door to squawk obnoxiously at his ward in an effort to get him to move. He was even holding Dave’s katana in his beak when the troll joined him by the entrance portal. Patience was not Crowdad’s virtue.

Surprisingly, even after the awkward silence that had fallen over them since they’d finished breakfast, Eridan had followed Dave to the door. His ring-covered hands nervously fidgeting with the end of his scarf that hung over his right shoulder. He’d even wandered out onto the rocky shore after the pair, and watched as Dave had climbed onto the back of his lusus. 

Just before Dave could say goodbye, Eridan spoke up slowly, seeming to think about each word as he said them. “You’re… welcome to come back again.” The seatroll even stuttered a bit in the most endearing way, and he shuffled on his feet like he was worried Dave would say no. The fabric of his scarf had to be strained as well, wrung into a thin cord by his restless hands. When Dave didn’t respond right away, he continued to say “That is, if you wanna come back.”

Dave was a little caught off guard by the invitation, but it was a pleasant thought knowing he could come back to visit the violet again. He’d already thought about flying out to visit unannounced anyway, just to pester the skinnier seatroll into eating another meal with him.

Most things in Dave’s life called for stoicism — at least that was what he was taught growing up. Something told him this wasn’t the proper situation for it, though, so he gave the seatroll his best smile. “Sure. Give me your trollhandle, though. I don’t want to get shot again.” 

That brought a genuine smile out of Eridan, giving Dave a glimpse at his shark-like teeth. “You sure? I won’t miss a second time.” Before the red-blood could retort, Eridan answered his question, forcing any words Dave had to die out on his tongue. “I’m caligulasAquarium.”

“I’ll add you when I get back to my hive.” Dave nodded to the seatroll. He gave a simple wave in lieu of an actual goodbye, and Crowdad started to lift them off the ground with a few quick beats of his wings. Just shy of being out of earshot, he called back to Eridan who was still standing on the beach below them. “I’ll talk to you later!”

Minutes later, while they were soaring easily over the vast Alternian Ocean, Dave took a chance and turned back to look at the shrinking islands in the distance. He saw Eridan still standing on the rocky shore, watching as Dave and his lusus disappeared into the night sky.

Dave realized just how isolated Eridan was on that island as a cloudbank enveloped them, obscuring the remote destination from view entirely. It occurred to him up there in the clouds that maybe he wasn’t the loneliest troll on the planet after all. There was at least one other person that had virtually no friends and nothing productive to do with himself.

The thought makes things objectively suck less in Dave’s mind. At least now he knew he wasn’t really alone after all.

Chapter Text

It had been nearly a week since Dave had gotten back to his hive after his most recent near-death experience at the hands of Eridan Ampora. The week had nearly flown by — as soon as Dave had been to the ablution block inside, he’d messaged Eridan to let him know, and the two had been talking near-constantly. They really only stopped messaging one another when they were asleep.

Though, over the course of that week, Dave had also learned that John, the only person in his previous life he could have called a ‘best friend’, was back together with the insufferable spider bitch, Vriska. 

It should have been less of a shock to Dave than it was. He really had no right to be so upset over a relationship that would not, and could not ever happen. Somehow, it still hurt, though. The idea of John with someone else kind of crushed Dave inside, not that he’d ever admit to it.

Of course, John had no way of knowing that Dave was basically in love with him. Dave’s secretive nature had prevented that information from ever being made public. The only other person who knew besides Dave was Dirk, and they both kept every detail about their lives under such a heavy lock and key, it was likely no one would ever know. Both Strider’s love lives were messy. Maybe at some point, one of the two of them would learn not to fall for a straight man. ‘No homo, dude’ only covered up so much.

Dave really had no right to be angry about John’s choice. In fact, he shouldn’t have been, but he was. An overarching ideal of betrayal was clouding his mind, making it hard for him to function beyond playing gamegrubs and watching shitty reruns of TV shows. He’d also watched a few RomComs with Karkat over Trollian, and had been talking with Eridan a lot too.

He’d never really pictured himself getting as close to Karkat as he was now prior to Sburb. Still, it had proven to be a valuable relationship for Dave. He wished he could say Karkat was his moirail — he certainly understood what the word meant whenever he thought about the nubby-horned mutant troll. Unfortunately for Dave, however, that quadrant was already exclusively filled by Gamzee, even with everything that had happened between them. It was mildly disappointing, but Karkat would still take the time to ‘feelings jam’ (as he called it) with Dave. 

Some of their conversations had even been about Eridan, though Dave was irritated to know that Karkat’s knowledge of the violet blood seemed to be held under lock and key. Beyond superficial information, the candy-blood would deflect the conversation to a show or game instead.

Karkat had laughed for several minutes after hearing that Eridan had shot Dave out of the sky. Something about imagining a purple-cape-wearing seatroll prince riding a giant white seahorse through the sky was comical. It came in ranked at probably the third weirdest thing to ever happen to Dave. Become a god and being up to his not-dick in dead Daves beat out Eridan’s murder-flight, but only just barely. 

Dave was about halfway through a rerun of some drama series he’d nicknamed ‘Game of Horns’, which was a fairly decent show in his fine opinion. There was enough suspense, gore and sex to keep him watching, but he’d seen this particular episode about four times at this point. He ended up deciding to give his TV a break, shutting off the contraption in favor of retreating to his respite block. 

With any luck, he’d be able to convince Karkat to jump into a game with him online. Karkat usually brought along other people, and it could get chaotic with everyone yelling at each other, but Dave could put up with it for a while. If he was really lucky, he could drag Eridan into it, too. He’d only been able to play online with the seatroll once, and it was a game of chess, of all things. Dave had won on a ‘bullshit technicality’ and Eridan had swore revenge, but only if they could play on his personal chess set.

Unfortunately, after sitting at his desk, Dave realized Karkat wasn’t online, erasing his first idea immediately. Large games wouldn’t be quite as fun without Karkat and his squad of rowdy gaming buddies. It had been a while since he’d heard from Eridan, too. It’s only then that Dave finally looked at the time — it was nearly eight in the morning. Everyone else had probably gone to coon an hour or two ago, before the sun came up. This left Dave up shit’s creek with no one to talk to.

Dave scrolled through his chumproll, trying to find anyone to talk to. He thought vaguely of bothering Tavros, or sending Gamzee a series of vague messages, just to be an ass. That would be an effective way to pass time until he was finally tired.

Instead, Dave found someone even better to have an actually intelligent conversation with. Eridan’s handle was surprisingly lit up to show him as online and feeling ‘devious’ according to the little icon beside it. The idea of Eridan being devious made Dave snort a little with laughter as he double-clicked on the other’s name to bring up a chat box.

Oops. It looked like Eridan hadn’t messaged him for a while because Dave had kind of left him hanging without a reply to his last message. He had been pretty absorbed into Game of Horns, admittedly. Thankfully, they had never seemed to have an issue picking right up where they left off.

–turntechGodhead [TG] began trolling caligulasAquarium [CA] at 8:02am–

TG: whoops kinda left you hanging there
TG: whats keeping you up this late?
TG: you wouldnt happen to be watching game of horns would you
CA: fuckin hell youre still awwake
CA: an no you knoww i wwont wwatch that swwill
TG: its actually pretty good
TG: youd probably like it being you like to try to murder innocents and all
CA: youre hilarious
TG: i know im basically perfect
CA: that wwas an accident an you knoww it
CA: an to answwer your question i couldnt seem to sleep
CA: wwhats your excuse
TG: i was watching game of horns and got a little caught up in the main protagonists story whatever his name is
TG: its pretty intense
CA: youre so bored youvve lowwered yourself to wwatchin morning shows
TG: basically
TG: except im having trouble sleeping too
CA: is that because of john
TG: you heard about that then
CA: a course vvris told me earlier tonight she takes any chance she can to rub her business in my face
CA: i dont knoww him personally but i can guarantee you hes bitin off more than he can cheww wwith that evvil land-hag
TG: thats basically what i thought
CA: so
CA: are you alright
TG: what do you mean
TG: im fine
TG: totally fine
CA: youre lyin
TG: what was your first clue
CA: do you wwant to talk about it
CA: is that wwhy you trolled me at this hour
TG: talk about what
CA: feelins
TG: i dont have feelins
CA: dont make fun a my typin so you can make me mad an change the subject
TG: fuck
CA: look i wwas just tryin to provvide an avvenue for you to vvent
CA: you dont wwant it thats fine
TG: arent feelings reserved more for moirails as you so helpfully tell me all the time?
TG: are you flirting with me?
CA: im just offerin you help you self-absorbed waste of troll
TG: ok that was uncalled for
TG: but thanks for the offer
CA: anytime i guess
CA: unless youre goin to be all ‘no pale’ on me evverytime
TG: you started it
TG: i dont know talking to you has kinda been refreshing
TG: i kind of feel better
CA: well if youre really bored you can always come over again
CA: i promise not to shoot you for a lusus lunch this time
TG: you know what
TG: that sounds good

Dave and Eridan spent a few more minutes deciding on a time for their visit, and seatroll even offered to let the other stay with him again to extend his stay another night. Eventually, they finalized every detail, and decided to head off to their coons for the day. 

As Dave stripped his clothes off and piled them on the floor, he rethought Eridan’s offer of talking about feelings. The way he saw it, Eridan was probably the only other troll he could talk to about the emotions Dave was experiencing. Karkat would try to give horrible advice based on shitty RomComs and Rose would just psychoanalyze him to death. Even though the seatroll had threatened to blow a hole through him when they first met, then actually tried to kill him the second time, Eridan had shown himself to be someone Dave could trust.

Additionally, Eridan was probably just as lonely as Dave. Misery loves company right? 

Staying over for one night turned into two nights. Then once a week visits turned into twice a week. They talked possibly more in person than they did online, about anything and everything. Their conversations seemed to never stop. Dave taught the seatroll about human life on Earth, Eridan taught the other about Alternian history. They’d watch movies and TV shows (Dave had finally roped him into ‘Game of Horns’), and played video games together until early in the morning. More recently, Eridan had started teaching Dave to cook – apparently, he’d learned from the various books around the house, and taught himself to churn out culinary masterpieces.

Tonight, Dave was in charge of cooking their last meal before the sun rose because Eridan had gone out ‘hunting’. Usually, they’d be at his hive after one of these trips, but Dave had spent the day over before and it didn’t make sense for them both to travel. Instead, Dave had finished putting touches on their stew and was busy looking around the other’s ship hive. 

Since this was the first time he’d been left alone in the seatroll’s space, Dave wanted to be a bit nosy. Sure, Eridan had shown him the whole hive, and they’d even hung out in several of the various rooms within the ship, but Dave was a curious creature. Plus, he had no idea how long Eridan was actually going to be gone, so occupying his time seemed like a good way to spend the remainder of the night. Naturally, he did the only thing he could when he had complete unsupervised access to Eridan’s personal respite block.

He went snooping. Of course, this plan could very likely blow up in his face and make Eridan angry, but what Dave had found out about the seatroll after spending so much time with him was that Eridan was never really mad for long. Sure, he’d huff and bluster and sometimes, he’d even yell. But after a little while to cool off, he was always happy to go back to hanging out with Dave. At times, they’d have to talk things through too, but communication was a big part of their relationship since they’d first started hanging out. 

That’s how Dave justified poking around in Eridan’s personal storage block that was adjoined to his respite. There were mostly boxes of old books and tomes in the room that Eridan had clearly read through, and then put away. Each book Dave picked up had notes written in the margins, or sometimes small doodles, and it was entertaining to read Eridan’s thoughts as they’d come to him. Dave worked his way around the room, flipping through novels, checking out the various baubles and curios more precious to Eridan than the others that littered his hive. It was on his way out of the storage block that Dave had found the large, heavy black bag; nearly tripping on it as he exited the room. Unlike most of the other objects in the room, the bag wasn’t covered in dust – clearly whatever was inside got used with regularity.

He probably shouldn’t have, but his desire to know more about Eridan got the better of him, and Dave found himself untying the golden string that held the sack shut. After looking at the contents of the bag, Dave was glad he’d gone prying – what was inside was so incredibly embarrassing, it would make Eridan’s fins flutter in that ridiculously cute way to know Dave had found it.

The ensemble housed within the bag was something Dave could only akin to a cosplay, something people wore to conventions or faires, but not publicly. The quality of the fabric and armor were well above anything else in Eridan’s hive. If he’d made this, it was a labor of love. And if he hadn’t made it, he’d paid a lot to have it made. Once all the pieces were laid out in front of Dave, it finally occurred to him what the costume might be for.

Terezi, Aradia, and Tavros talked about FLARP a lot. They even had their own named characters they played, and Terezi had mentioned something about wearing a costume for her persona ‘Redglare’ before. The violet clothing creation in front of Dave was likely Eridan’s personalized character regalia. The cape was high-quality with even, clean stitching and possibly even nicer than Eridan’s every-day raiment. His armor was hand-forged, so skillfully crafted that Dave couldn’t even see any seams or imperfections in the flawless violet and black metal and all the pieces were attached with thick leather straps. Every piece was heavy and built to withstand the blows of real weapons.

From what Terezi had told him, it was probably a good thing that the armor was so sturdy. If memory served correct, Vriska was part of their FLARP league, and she was never gentle about anything she did.

An idea struck Dave as he looked over all of the assembled pieces. The chestplate was certainly large enough for the troll to wear, and he could probably wear the striped pants as well. Before Dave really thought over whether it was a good idea or not, he was fully dressed in Eridan’s costume. Everything but the undershirt had fit him, but the armor fit over his own shirt just fine. Dave had looked over the outfit in Eridan’s mirror as he exited the storage block, and he stopped to appreciate the craftsmanship once again. 

For some reason, being dressed up so regally made Dave incredibly gleeful. He’d done his share of roleplaying in the past, online in chatrooms with other people who were always willing to act a part out to escape reality. He hadn’t had the time to roleplay in years, though. Not since they’d started The Game. So it was refreshing to pretend, even if it was just for a little while and in borrowed gear.

Dave wandered out of Eridan’s respite block, searching around the various rooms of the hive for a weapon to complete the pirate-y ensemble. He was trying to get in character as well, recounting all the pirate media and literature he’d consumed as a child to craft the persona he assumed the other took during games.

That was how Dave ended up cavorting about Eridan’s hive, yelling any sort of salty sea-dog words that came to mind. He picked up a ceremonial cutlass from one of Eridan’s sword filled rooms, and was brandishing it at every wizard statue he found. He’d threatened a few of them with various acts of sea-scourge violence, not that he would actually destroy Eridan’s shit, but because it was fun.

There were no witnesses to Dave’s plundering about the hive with a golden gem-stone inlay handled cutlass. He was actually thankful that Crowdad couldn’t talk when he dashed by the large white bird, though the corvid tilted his head to watch his ward intensely. Out in the middle of nowhere as Eridan’s hive was, there was no chance of anyone but the seatroll walking in on Dave making a fool out of himself. While it would be embarrassing to have Eridan see him cavorting around like a wiggler, if there was anyone who wouldn’t judge Dave for it, it would be Eridan.

So instead of putting the items away and going back to acting like a grown troll, Dave decided that he’d embarrass both of them. He’d ambush Eridan when he got back to his hive wearing his roleplay gear, stunning him with the vision and hopefully, sear it into his ocular orbs to watch over and over again later. Dave didn’t even have to wait long. Just as he’d settled into his hiding place behind the couch, he heard the crunch of stones under shoes outside. Eridan’s voice followed behind it a second later, bickering with Seahorsedad about something, by the sound of it. As Dave listened, his voice grew closer and closer, until finally, the door whizzed open revealing Eridan and his lusus.

“Davy? You still here?” Eridan called out to the other troll as he set his saddle on the stand by the door. He even double-checked that everything was secure before hanging his cape up on the hook beside it. It gave Dave plenty of time to get himself into position, so at the exact moment Eridan turned around to face him, the once-human launched himself over the couch at the seatroll.

With a cry of ‘AYE! AVAST!’, Dave landed in front of Eridan, cutlass drawn and dressed in his FLARP costume. Eridan shrieked in surprise, tripping over his own feet. He nearly fell into Dave, though thankfully he kept his feet. For a moment, Eridan bared his shark-like teeth at the other troll with a growl, until he realized it was actually Dave who’d jumped out at him. Then he saw what Dave was wearing and he turned violet from fin to fin.

“Why are you wearin’ my FLARP costume?” The violet huffed a little, his fins wiggling at Eridan in what was probably supposed to be a threatening manner. Instead, when paired with his rather adorable stutter around w’s, it was just cute. A frown settled on the seatrolls face, though it looked more like a pout with the violet blush and how mussed up his hair was from his flight. “An’ why did you think it was a good idea to attack me in my own fuckin’ hive? Do you have a pan leak?”

Dave leveled the gold-hilted cutlass playfully, taking a dueling stance as he spoke up, though he didn’t answer Eridan’s questions. Instead, he continued to talk in the closest approximation to a pirate voice he could manage. “Ye best be ready for a fight, matey, because I’ve come for the treasure I was promised. And I won’t be leavin’ empty-handed.” The words came out with a bit of drawl to them and sounded absolutely horrid, which just sent Eridan into a fit of shoulder-shaking giggles he tried to suppress.

Then the seatroll grabbed Dave’s katana from the holder by the door, unsheathing it carefully. A pointy grin crossed Eridan’s face as he turned back to the other. “You expect me, the great Dualscar to take you seriously with that flimsy excuse for a blade, wiggler?” Eridan looked positively gleeful as the two of them began circling one another around the living room. Each step Dave took, the seatroll knew how to counter. He was clearly trained with a sword, even if he didn’t use one, and the prospect of clashing blades with someone who knew how gave Dave a surge of excitement. They could duel safely, with an incredibly minimized chance of harming one another.

“Your defenses were weak, practically nothing for me to sneak past!” Dave took a step toward Eridan, and the seatroll easily took a step back. Their blades clashed a few times, light teasing blows that more caused the metal to ring out than anything, but a loud whiny from Seahorsedad had them both lowering their swords. Clearly, it wasn’t a good idea to keep this bullshit up inside, or the lusii would involve themselves.

Judging by the grin on Eridan’s face, he cared about as little as Dave did for the protest they received. For the first time since they’d met one another, Dave could clearly see there was a playful side to the typically uptight seatroll. Dave stepped toward him, grabbing his arm, and twisted him around until he had Eridan held against his chest, then pinned him to the wall as gently as he could with the seatroll struggling lightly. The aim wasn’t to hurt one another, and Eridan must have known that because he could have easily gotten away if he’d really wanted to.

Dave leaned in close behind the other, making sure to very nearly press his lips to Eridan’s earfin when he spoke. “You’re going to give me what I want, Dualscar. Else I end you where you stand.”

“An’ just what is it you want from me when I’ve already given so much, my moirail?” Eridan practically sneered the words back, even going so far as to curl his lip up over his teeth. Dave was so caught up in the moment, he didn’t notice the choice of words, or really even find it odd. Instead, he pressed on, lightly pushing Eridan against the wall a bit more.

“I want some information, and the word on the seas is that you can give it to me.” The once-human released the other to turn him back to face him, then caged him in with his arms by Eridan’s head.

“Tell me, Dualscar, are the mother fucking buckets necessary?”

Chapter Text

In the end, Dave had never gotten his explanation for the buckets, because Seahorsedad and Crowdad had both fussed at them for seemingly ‘fighting’ inside the hive. They weren’t really, of course, but how were the giant white animals supposed to know the difference. Dave had gotten a loud squawk session from his corvid guardian, and both of them ended up having to clean the mess they’d wrought on the living area during their playful skirmish. 

They were under constant watch for the remainder of the night while they ate their stem, and then most of the next night after that too, like the lusii were afraid they were going to fight again. Unfortunately for Dave, Eridan refused to discuss ‘concupiscent acts’ with either of the large white animals in the room. Apparently, it embarrassed him.

In the end, it was fine really. They’d used the time under constant surveillance to come up with Dave’s new FLARP character. Eridan had taught him how the game worked after their escapade in the hive. After he’d finished explaining all the rules and worked with Dave on his persona, Eridan had contacted all the FLARPers within their circle of friends and asked them if they wanted to start a league again. To both of their surprise, every single one of the previous players readily agreed. Eridan had come barreling over to Dave’s hive with full sketches of a costume for the other troll just to tell him the news.

Together, they wrote a basic backstory for Dave, fleshing out The Composer. Eridan even wrote a little synopsis for how his life had gone before joining up with Orphaner Dualscar, Eridan’s own character. They’d settled on a design for his clothes, then sent them into the official FLARP costume creator (Kanaya, of course) for approval and creation.

Within just a couple weeks, Dave had the perfect costume and persona made, and their first FLARP campaign went off without a hitch. So did the second, and the third. Soon enough, Dave and Eridan were doing about one game a week with their group of FLARPers, each of the teams rotating Gaming Flapstractions to activate the match.

Dave found himself quickly immersed into the intricate plotlines. He loved the treasure he hauled in with each win, and climbed the achievement ladder quickly thanks to the more experienced players in his league helping him along. Soon enough, all of them were the same level, and their coalition of teams were some of the highest ranking FLARPers on Alternia.  Team Scourge with Vriska and Terezi, Team Charge with Aradia and Tavros, and Team sound with Eridan and Dave topped the leaderboards every week, and they were all happy to gloat and preen at check in.

Since the game was usually played in two teams of two, they’d had a little difficulty splitting campaigns into a three-way battle at first. Sometimes, Dave and Eridan would split up their team to join one of the others and make it a three-on-three battle royale, but the split meant they were all evenly matched and there were always two people to make sure Vriska didn’t get too out of hand.

They could all play almost harmlessly. Of course, some injury was to be expected, but killing and maiming weren’t necessary to the game, at least according to the Clouder of their team, Eridan. FLARP had really dialed back on the murder since the world had been reset, and one of the trolls in their league mentioned offhandedly that Beforus trolls were probably the main reason for the change.

Nevertheless, their plots typically ended with capture instead of maiming, and where they were in their current campaign, it seemed that Team Charge was coming up on the losing side.

“You ‘good guys’ always make it so easy for the bad guys to catch you!” Mindfang slapped a high-five with Dualscar, her grin wide enough to make the bound trolls in front of her feel uncomfortable. Something about Mindfang always just oozed malice when they were in a game, but that’s why Redglare and Dualscar were there to reign her in. Knowing they were nearby her at all times made it easy for them to continue the scene in relative comfort. Or as much comfort as the members of Team Charge could be in, lashed to the mast as they were. The Composer couldn’t see his team mates really, his mask blocked them slightly from his periphery, but he could hear Summoner when he spoke up from his right side.

“You, uh, won’t get away with this!” The Summoner tried to sound defiant in the heat of the moment. “You’ve only won, uh, for now! We’ll beat you!”

“And you wouldn’t have us at all if it weren’t for that dirty move you pulled, Dualscar!” The Handmaid called out from the Composer’s left side. The masked member of Team Charge remained silent, even as Team Scourge started to circle around the three tied up trolls.

Dualscar stopped directly in front of the Composer, kneeling down near him. “All’s fair in love and war, Handmaid. Isn’t that right, traitor?” He prodded at the troll with his hilt of his gold-hilted sword, trying to goad him into speaking. “My own moirail dared to betray me, I believe I’m entitled to a dirty trick or two.” His use of their relationship status never failed to make the Composer smile slightly, and he was glad he was looking at the ground, or he’d have gotten points taken off him for breaking character.

Instead, the Composer straightened his face out, and slowly leveled his eyes with Dualscar’s, sending him a vicious glare. “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?” He finally spoke, surprising the seatroll in front of him. Dualscar looked ready to retort, but his response died on his tongue when the tell-tale sound of rope snapping caught his attention. There wasn’t any time to warn his teammates -- the Composer had broken free of his bonds somehow and tackled the slightly smaller troll to the deck of the ship. They wrestled on the wooden surface for a moment, and when the Composer came out on top, he stabbed a gold-handled dagger into the ship’s deck beside the Orphaner’s head. He made sure not to actually put the blade anywhere near Orphaner’s head, but it gave the seatroll just enough of a shock for the Composer to steal his sword. Behind them, Summoner and Handmaid were clashing with the other members of Team Scourge. The sound of metal hitting metal rang over the ship deck as the battle drew on. 

“You won’t get away!” Mindfang shouted, just as Composer took to his feet with the Orphaner’s blade in his hands, though it was unclear who she was yelling at specifically. As the Composer tried to get away, Orphaner grabbed for his ankles, pulling him down toward the ground again so he could reclaim his sword.

They didn’t get to finish, however, because Tavros spoke up. “Uh... guys? It’s almost dawn.” The mock battle drew to a quick stop when all of them realized how late in the evening it was.

Eridan was the next to take his feet, pulling Dave up beside him so they could walk over to the other and join the conversation. The seatroll dusted himself off lightly, while Dave pulled his mask off to squint at the horizon behind them all. “Good call Tav. Some of us have a ways to go to get back to our hives.” Dave commented, offering Eridan back the cutlass he’d taken.

Vriska was the only one to protest with a light huff as she put her weapon away. She looked around at the group that was gathering with a small grin. “You guys could always stay here for the day. Spidermom won’t mind and we could pick up where we left off tomorrow --”

Dave exchanged a look with Eridan that told him everything he needed to know about the offer. They would not be staying there for the day under any circumstances, it seemed. “No, that’s fine Vris. Dave and I can just go back to mine.” A loud whistle had everyone’s lusii rushing to join them, the large white animals restless and ready to get their wards back to their hives. The group all moved to their respective lusus except Tavros, who went to walk with Aradia instead.

Just as Dave and Eridan were settled on their lusii, Aradia seemed to remember something, waving over to them. “Hey! Wait! I forgot to tell you guys. Feferi’s having another ball! She wanted me to let you know since we FLARP together.”

“When is it?” Dave asked, while Eridan pursed his lips beside him. Something told him the seatroll was still displeased with the last time he was at the palace -- Eridan held onto things much longer than any other person Dave had ever known.

“It will be a few nights from now. I’ll send you the details when I get back to my hive!” Aradia waved to them both again, then spoke up again, looking directly at Eridan this time. “She expects to see you both there.” Eridan went slightly violet and looked away, urging Seahorsedad to take off, just to escape the conversation, and as he started to retreat, Aradia looked back to Dave. “We’ll see you there, right?”

“We’ll be there.” Dave affirmed, kneeing Crowdad gently to get him to take off as he cast a wave of his own to the slowly shrinking trolls below them. Once they were in the air, it was no trouble to catch up to Eridan settling into a steady flight pattern with the other so they could talk. Eridan’s face was set in a sour glare, his eyes staring straight forward toward the ever-growing vision of the sea on the horizon.

It takes several minutes before Eridan speaks up, his voice trembling the slightest bit. “What do you mean, we’ll be there, Dave?” That adorable stutter of his came back full force, and Dave had to prevent himself from smiling despite what was sure to be an uncomfortable conversation.

“I mean that we’re going, obviously.” Dave spoke just loud enough over the wind that the other could hear him. They relaxed into silence again, Eridan looking contemplative for the rest of their flight back to the seatroll’s hive.

Their feet had barely touched the ground outside of Eridan’s hive when he spoke up again. “I don’t want to go…” He shuffled a little in nervousness, sending a couple stones rolling on the slope of the beach. Dave had to pause and watch him for a moment, seeing clear discomfort hanging over Eridan like a cloud. Hopefully, he could make this better before they turned in for the day.

Dave opened the door to Eridan’s hive himself, reaching back to pull Eridan’s arm lightly and get him to come inside. “Why don’t you want to go?” He asked, already working his cape and armor off while their lusus stepped inside and the door got shut. His boots and armor were left beside Eridan’s own raiments next to the door to be taken care of later. Instead of going upstairs to coon right away, Dave pulled Eridan over to sit next to him on the couch so they could talk.

Eridan looked a little lost as they settled into the cushions, busy taking his rings off to set them on the coffee table. “You know why, Dave.” He muttered, shaking his head lightly. “I don’t want to be anywhere near her --”

“Is this really still about what happened in the game, Danny?” Dave tried his best not to roll his eyes. Sburb was still a sensitive subject for Eridan, even though he’d been told multiple times by almost everyone in their circle that things were forgiven or at the very least, moved past. Dave reached over to push Eridan’s hair back, fixing it how he liked it before continuing to talk with him. “It’s not a big deal anymore. And besides, she’s got so much more to focus on now, you really think she holds that over you? It’s not worth your time being upset over it.”

Eridan continued to pout, even when Dave slipped his arm around him to pull him in closer. “I pitied her, Dave. You know that’s not somethin’ that’s easy to just… get over.” He muttered, looking at the floor. He didn’t pull away from Dave though, instead he curled up against the other’s side hiding his face from view a bit.
Dave grabbed for one of the blankets on the back of the couch to wrap around them, resting his chin on Eridan’s head between his horns so they didn’t have to look at one another if Eridan didn’t want to. “I know I told you before, but just because she didn’t feel the same way about you doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there who will feel that way for you. Stop beating yourself up about stupid shit from the past.”

“But Dave --”

“The only ‘but’ in this conversation is the one you’re being.” Dave rolled his eyes, pulling Eridan in closer so they could lay down together on the couch. “I know it’s hard, but do you remember what you told me? Just a few weeks ago?”

Dave could feel the other troll smiling slightly against his chest, and saw his fins flutter lightly. Eridan did always appreciate when Dave listened to him and remembered what he said. “...I told you that there are more fish in the sea…”

“Exactly. So if there are more fish in the sea for me, there are more fish in the sea for you, too.” Dave reached over to turn the TV on for the two of them, settling on some reruns of ‘Real Blood’ before Eridan could protest. They laid on the couch, cuddling in silence for a while, watching Stokie try her best to pail yet another vampire troll.

Eventually, Eridan spoke up again, his voice starting to get sluggish from how tired he was. “Do we really have to go, Davy?”

“Yeah, we do.” Dave sighed softly, lightly rubbing Eridan’s back to soothe him. “We already established that you and I are going to make an appearance with Aradia.” Eridan whined childishly, burying his face against Dave’s chest in protest before looking up at him with a rather adorable pout on his lips. The once-human just smiled at the expression, then slowly grinned, taking on a mischievous look. “...And while we’re there, we’ll do something so ridiculous that we’ll never be invited to another royal ball again.”

That clearly interested Eridan, because he perked up a little, sitting up on his arms to look Dave in the eyes. His curiosity always got the best of him. “...Like what?”

Dave took a long moment to think about it, figuring out what would be the most offensive way to relieve them of the social pressures, at least for a couple perigees. What came to mind made him laugh and made Eridan stare at him eagerly, awaiting a response. “What about streaking through the dining hall?”

“…What's streakin’?”

Chapter Text

They’d had a few nights to prepare themselves for the wild embarrassment they were about to put the current ruler of Alternia through. Eridan had been hesitant at first, then the more they planned, the more they talked things through, the more he warmed up to the idea. The pair had politely excused themselves from the ball, just before dinner started, claiming the need to change clothes. Thankfully, no one had questioned them, and they’d met up in the respite block Feferi had loaned Dave for the weekend. It was perfectly located down the hall from the dining area, making it an accessible rendezvous point for them after they’d finished running through the party naked as hatched grubs.

Eridan was trying to keep a straight face as the pair tossed back a couple shots of strong Alternian liquor. The bottle Terezi had pilfered for the two of them happened to be orange flavored, and like most of the candied alcohols of the planet, it was incredibly sweet. It went down easy as they handed the bottle back and forth for the liquid courage needed to be naked in front of so many people.

“I can’t believe we’re going to do this.” Eridan muttered, taking another large swig of the bottle. Despite his hesitant words, he was grinning at Dave, his eyes alight with mirth. He loosened his tie slightly, taking a stumbling step closer to Dave when he handed him back the half-drank booze container. “She’s going to kill me.”

“You’re not goin’ to cluckbeast out on me, are you?” Dave asked, loosening his own tie before pulling it off entirely to set it on the dresser. He sipped from the bottle again as Eridan worked on his cufflinks with shaky hands. After a moment of watching him struggle, Dave set the bottle down and helped Eridan get the little metal studs off his jacket.

“I’m gonna do this. Mostly ‘cause it’s gonna be funny.” Eridan took his own tie off to set it beside Dave’s. For a moment, Dave appreciated how his red looked next to Eridan’s violet. Upon hearing that the pair were quadranted together, Kanaya had made some alterations to their suits so Eridan’s violet tie had little strands of red, and Dave’s was mostly red with matching violet. “Are we comin’ back here?” Eridan asked, undoing a couple of buttons on his shirt to make it easier.

“After? Yeah. We’ll need to get our clothes and stuff before we leave.” Dave capped the bottle of liquor and pushed it back toward the wall behind the dresser so it wouldn’t get knocked over. “I think we need to be back at your hive before the night’s over though.”

“Yeah, probably shouldn’t spend the night in the palace after pissin’ off Her Imperial Benevolence.” Eridan giggled, even letting out a couple of snorts as he took his glasses off. Maybe he’d had a little too much liquor? Either way, he looked ready to rumble just as Dave was toeing out of his dress shoes. “You know… I never would have even thought about doin’ somethin’ this ridiculous until after I shot you out of the sky. You really bring out the worst in me.” Eridan mirrored the other, kicking his own shoes off a bit less ceremoniously before he stepped toward the door.

Dave had to come up behind him and keep him on his feet. He took a moment to draw Eridan to his side and gave him a small affectionate nuzzle against his temple. “I prefer to think I bring out the best in you. That’s what a moirail does, right?” Eridan nodded instead of verbally replying, giving Dave a small, genuine smile before the pair stepped out into the hallway together.

They walked to the dining hall and stood outside the door, both of them preparing themselves for a moment before Dave shot Eridan a grin. Eridan smirked back, then motioned to the door, which Dave gladly kicked open to admit the pair entrance to the room packed full of trolls. 

As soon as they were clear of the door, Dave and Eridan took off running; whooping and hollering wildly as they ran circles around the main dining table and stripped themselves free of their clothes. Everything seemed to stop for a few moments in the well-filled dining room. The trolls in the hall stopped eating to watch the show of the high blood and a mutant stripped themselves bare. Even as Dave’s voice started to become hoarse from screaming, he kept making noise. The pair met at Feferi’s seat at the head of the table, taking a few seconds to dance around her particularly while the empress turned pink from fin to fin. She and half the other guests were gaping at the pair, unenthused by their display.

A few others didn’t find it as mortifying as she did though -- Jake and even Dirk got up to follow their lead, along with a couple other trolls Dave hadn’t met yet (a yellow-blood and another violet). Terezi was cackling wildly, even though she couldn’t actually see what was going on, and Karkat had dropped his face to the table, his shoulders shaking as he tried to hold back laughter.

With their mission accomplished, Dave and Eridan slapped high-fives with the new naked posse they’d accumulated before exiting the dining room through the same door they’d entered. All in all, they’d spent maybe three minutes total in the hall, before heading back to their borrowed room to the temporary respite block. Eridan had started laughing as soon as they’d exited the doors, quickly darting past Dave to get into the room.

Once they were both safely inside, Dave shut and locked the door behind himself, grinning over at Eridan who’d ended up leaning against the dresser to keep himself upright. “We’re never going to be invited to one of these parties again.” Eridan managed to speak through his giggles as he put his glasses back on and looked at Dave. Genuine happiness could be read in the lines of Eridan’s face as he beamed at his co-conspirator, and for some reason, the look made Dave’s blood-pusher beat faster in his chest.

“Yeah, Feferi’s goin’ to hate us forever.” Dave chimed in, moving to retrieve the liquor from beside Eridan. “But I think you deserved to be the one to embarrass her for once.” He uncorked the bottle and took a large swig before offering it to his partner in crime.

Eridan took the bottle, smiling still as he drank from it as well. “To a job well done.” He muttered, before taking another drink and offering the mostly empty container back to Dave. As Dave was tipping the liquor back to finish it, Eridan spoke up again, looking directly at the red-blood with the most beautiful, vulnerable, pitiful look he’d ever worn in front of the other. “...Thank you, Dave. I’ve never had the courage to do anything like that before you came along. An’ I’m glad to have you as my… moirail.”

Dave swallowed down the last of the liquor, looking into the empty bottle as he tried to think of how to tell Eridan about his recent change in feelings. It had been building for weeks now -- Eridan had gone from being his acquaintance to his best friend and moirail fast, but now the feelings between them seemed to be dangerously close to red. In the end, the conversation couldn’t happen, however, because just as Dave had figured out something to say, there was someone angrily pounding on their door.

“Dave! Eridan! Get out here right now! I swear to cod I am going to krill you two!” Feferi’s voice came through the panel as her fist fruitlessly banged against the door. She even tried the handle, trying to get in to give them the shouting-at of a lifetime it seemed.

The color that had settled in Eridan’s cheeks because of the alcohol and rush of cavorting about instantly drained from his face, replaced instead by fear. It was like he sobered up in that moment, scrambling over to pull on some pants as Dave headed toward the door, still entirely nude to get rid of the fishy empress outside. She’d already seen the business, no real reason to put pants on now.

“What’s up?” Dave asked nonchalantly after he’d opened the entrance to the room and leaned in the door-jamb. Behind him in the room, Eridan was hiding slightly, his arms protectively covering his sides like Feferi would actually dare to attack them.

“‘What’s UP’? ‘WHAT’S UP’?” Feferi was fuming, her tyrian purple eyes flashing with anger while her fins flared widely at Dave. “You just embarrassed me in front of all of our fronds!” Even as angry as she was, the empress never missed a chance to drop a fish pun. It was kind of hard to take her seriously the more she did it, though.

“And you think they can’t take the joke? It was me and Eridan.” Dave snorted a little at Feferi, staring at her through his shades. “And Jake, Dirk, and whoever those other guys were. They know it was all in good fun --”

“That wasn’t finny Dave!” The Empress of Alternia was actually stomping her foot at him like a petulant wriggler. Her glare was decidedly fixated on the once-human troll and Feferi’s fins were flared wide. “And I know this had to be your idea because Eridan isn’t smart enough to come up with it on his own!”

He felt more than heard Eridan’s small gasp and when Dave looked back at the seatroll, he looked like he’d been slapped. Shock was evident on his face, then he went silent, tucking himself further behind Dave out of view. His fins even drooped slightly, and as soon as Dave saw that defeated look on Eridan -- the look he’d worked so hard to never have to see again -- something in the red-blood snapped.

“No reason to get snippy, Empress. This was all my idea. Eridan just wanted to join in, like the others. Don’t go blaming him.” Dave took a step forward, putting less distance between him and the angry fish princess, but more between her and Eridan. He crossed his arms protectively, taking up any space in the door he could to prevent her from even seeing Eridan behind him. “But even if it wasn’t his idea, he had every reason to do it.”

“What reason could there porpoisely be for you to humiliate me in front of everyone I know like that?” Feferi demanded, putting her hands on her hips while she pouted at Dave. She looked so angry she was ready to cry. Somehow she was still beautiful, and for a moment, Dave realized what exactly it was Eridan had found pitiable about her for so long.

Still, she’d insulted Eridan and Dave was more than pleased he could defend his favorite troll from his past. Dave drew himself up to his full height in front of Feferi, scotting at her before finally replying. “How about leadin’ him on for sweeps, makin’ him think he had a single chance at being more than a friend with you? He considered you his moirail, and you barely gave him the time of day. You left him high and dry without a friend in the world, even though he put aside so much of his time for YOU.” The once human glanced back at Eridan, pointing to the chair they’d ditched their regular clothes on before the ball, hoping Eridan would take the clue to get dressed. “He still goes hunting for you, helps with anything you message him about, even though they’re your responsibilities not his, and you want to know what gives him the right to prance around your palace naked for three fucking minutes?

“Do us both a favor, Empress. Never insult my moirail again. And get over yourself.” Dave shut the door behind himself as he turned back around, moving to join Eridan in getting dressed to leave.

Eridan had finished dressing as Dave shut the door, and was staring at him with a shocked look on his face. After a moment, the seatroll moved. For a brief moment, Dave thought Eridan was going to attack him. Instead, Eridan threw his arms around the other troll and even nuzzled against his chest a bit as he started sobbing. Dave abandoned putting on clothes for a moment and wrapped the smaller troll in a tight hug.

He didn’t know how long they stood there; Eridan crying against his skin while Dave lightly rubbed his back in an attempt to calm him down. That urge to talk about his feelings came up again, and Dave had to push it down. This wasn’t about his own wants right now. Still, the urge to bundle Eridan up in his arms to keep him safe and sound for the rest of their lives was incredibly strong.

His knowledge of quadrants was fair to middling at best, but even Dave knew that the way he felt for Eridan wasn’t covered by the Pale quadrant.

Chapter Text

Three nights later, and Dave was still staying with Eridan after the ball. Eridan clearly hadn’t been in a good mood when they had returned to his hive the same night they’d been shouted at by Feferi. Dave was doing anything he could to distract the other troll in that time. Sometimes they’d throw little FLARP props around, or play games.

Tonight's activity was sitting idly on the couch, watching shitty TV shows. They were several episodes into the troll version of Sherlock. Shockingly, it was just as badly written as the human one, but it seemed to entertain Eridan enough that he kept watching. Sometimes, Dave would speak up to tell Eridan that the human and troll shows were exactly the same, which would send Eridan into a cute little rant about how the shows were entirely different. As far as Dave could see, they weren’t.

They were about halfway through season 2 when the show was interrupted by a newsreel, making both Dave and Eridan sit forward to watch as the screen showed images of a large-scale riot. The entire view was chaos; items being thrown, fights breaking out, protestors of some sort holding signs. As they showed this horrid visions, the usual announcer began to speak as well, giving some additional details on the events unfolding.

“Today in Yellow City there was a riot at the largest transportalizer hub on Ochre Street. We have been told by local threshocutioners on scene that the protestors have been forcibly dispersed and the situation is currently under control.” They showed a few more clips of the scene, broadcasting the same message over again a few times before finally, the show came back on.

Almost immediately, Dave and Eridan were sucked right back into the events of the show and the emergency transmission was entirely forgotten.

“Dualscar, you should just end him!” Mindfang grinned, pointing to the Composer, who lay on his side, bound and gagged on the deck of Dualscar’s ship. The Composer didn’t struggle or try to speak, instead just staring up at his Moirail, his face mostly hidden behind his mask. Dualscar was standing proudly by the helm, his eyes downcast to stare at the Composer while his violet cape floated majestically in the wind.

“I went to the trouble of catching him for you!” Mindfang continued, poking the Composer’s cheek with the toe of her boot. Above him, she was leveling her weapon as though to deal a death blow, though there was no chance she’d actually hurt him with the watchful eyes of her teammates on her.

“He hasn’t stood trial yet, Mindfang.” Redglare spoke up, her arms crossed over her chest in defiance. She was still her usual grinning self as she spun a coin in the hand not occupied by her cane. “Every troll deserves a trial, fair or not.” She cackled loudly, flipping the coin into the air before catching it in her palm.

“Preferably not.” Mindfang let out her own crow of laughter and the two high-fived around Redglare’s cane. Dualscar just frowned sadly down at the Composer. Ever the good actor, that one.

“How could you do that to me?” Dualscar asked, leaving the helm to kneel down by his moirail. He paid his quadrantmate an act of kindness by pushing the Composer’s hair out of his eyes gently so they could look at one another. “I gave you everythin’ you have, I gave you a life you never would have had without me.” The two stared at each other intently as the women nearby them giggled and jeered.

The Composer’s red eyes looked a bit sad as Dualscar stood up over him once more, leveling Ahab’s Crosshairs down toward the bound troll on the deck of ‘The VWanderlust’. The girls went silent, watching intently as the fear finally gripped the Composer and he began to tremble, unnoticeable to anyone but his Moirail.

“Should we let him beg for his life?” Mindfang suggested, approaching them again. She also knelt by the Composer, reaching over to untie his gag. “You can tell Dualscar one more time just how much he meant to you, since you two were moirails and all.” She jumped back when the Composer tried to bite her and growled down at him, even as the red-clad troll went back to passively staring at the group surrounding him.

The Composer remained silent as he struggled up to his knees. He stared directly at Dualscar, as if there was no one else there and said his line, the cue for the others to come get him. “Moirailigance is magic.” Dualscar frowned and was probably about to start some speech about magic not being real, but it was too late. The Composer had already alerted his team to spring into action.

One moment, the deck was entirely silent. The next found the Summoner swinging down from the crowsnest, his large lance in hand. The Handmaid appeared not long after, crawling on deck from the side of the ship and immediately snapped her whip at Redglare to take her cane from her hand. 

“You messed with the uh… wrong guy this time, Mindfang!” The Summoner shouted, pointing to her with his weapon. Mindfang growled and reached for her Flourite Octect while the Handmaid moved to subdue Redglare entirely. The pairs squared off on the deck, pairing off like they usually did to keep their games even. The Composer, still laying on the wooden flooring, took the moment of surprise caused by the commotion to launch himself toward his sword, which lay by Dualscar’s feet. 

“Fuck! How did they get on board?” Dualscar growled, unawares of what was going on by his boots. The Composer managed to get his blade out of its sheath and was fervently trying to cut himself free, glancing around from time to time to ensure he wasn’t seen. He noticed the Summoner was doing a good job of keeping Mindfang from using her weapon, which was honestly better for everyone involved. And to the other side, the Handmaid had successfully entangled Redglare in her whip, effectively removing her from the battle. The only enemy left was Dualscar, who had finally realized what the troll by his feet was doing with the sword in his hand.

“Fuck!” Dualscar scowled, kicking the blade away from the troll on the ground below him. “You’re not gettin’ away that easy, not after all the trouble I went to capture you.” He bent to pick up the sword himself, stowing it back in its scabbard before sliding it into his belt beside his cutlass. Then he turned to the others, observing the situation while trying to figure out possible solutions.

“Give me my sword, Dualscar.” The Composer said, already working at the loose ropes with his fingers. If he kept the other distracted long enough, he could break free of his bonds. 

Dualscar scoffed slightly above him, shaking his head before responding with only “Come get it.” The words were half taken by the wind as the caped seatroll ran toward the side of the ship, preparing to jump the railing. The fighting on the deck stopped as all eyes turned to watch. In a flourish that fanned his cape out behind him, Dualscar was gone, disappearing over the side of the ship. He was sure to win style points for that exit.

As quickly as the fighting stopped, it resumed once Dualscar was out of sight. Once the other members of Team Charge had managed to subdue and restrain both Mindfang and Redglare, they’d cut the Composer loose. The red-blood took his feet with the Summoner’s help and lightly rubbed at his wrists to relieve them of the ache of being bound for so long.

“What should we do with them?” The Handmaid asked in a near-perfect mock Mindfang’s high-pitched, nasally tone. Clearly, they’d been playing together too long.

“Do what you want. I’m goin’ after Dualscar.” The Composer growled out his response before heading for the port side. He slipped his own cape off his shoulders, letting it pile on the deck of the ship below him as he prepared himself mentally for copying Dualscar’s move.

“It’s just a sword, uh, Composer!” The Summoner called, trying to stop the other troll. “We can, uh, get you a new one!”

“Keep ‘em busy till I get back.” The Composer responded, jumping over the railing as well. Dualscar wouldn’t be too far from his teammates -- or too far from his moirail. He knew that much about the showy seatroll.

The Composer landed on his feet right where he knew he would; on the out-cropping for the second deck that he and Dualscar had built themselves quite recently. They’d needed more spaces for FLARPing, and had taken the project on to pass the time. He followed the path there toward the couple of rooms they’d converted for gaming purposes. The Composer knew his moirail well enough to know the captain would be hiding in his quarters.

The Composer snuck up on the room, pausing in his tracks just outside the door. When he strained his ears, he could hear the tell-tale sound of boots clicking on wooden planks, confirming his suspicions about where the other troll had gone. Dualscar was beyond the door carrying the Composer’s trusty blade. Now he just had to think of a way to retrieve the sword without having to fight.

The trouble with Dualscar, though, was that he always wanted a fight. He knew that there was only one way out of this, and the Composer steeled himself as he slowly pushed the door to the captain’s quarters open.

As soon as the door swung back on its hinges, a flash of bright blue light ripped through the open portal, straight past the Composer’s position. Even on its lowest setting to stun, not kill, he could still feel the unnerving heat of Ahab’s Crosshairs.

“Get the fuck back.” Dualscar’s voice growled from within the room, muffled by the distance between the two trolls. “I know you’re out there, traitor.” Despite the seemingly sticky situation, both trolls grinned widely. The game was afoot now, and only Dualscar and the Composer were there to play it, not that either of them minded.

“I came for my property, Dualscar.” The Composer responded, stepping into the open door, leaving himself defenseless. He even raised his hands up for dramatic effect, showing the other troll that he had no weapon. “And you’re goin’ to give it back.”

“And why would I do that?” Dualscar asked somewhat nonchalantly, though his shark-like grin was still apparent. So he was learning things from his moirail after all. Dualscar was perched against his desk, holding the Crosshairs across his lap. He tried to settle his grin down to a frown, but it wasn’t really working well. “I bought it for you. I should keep it anyway.” He shrugged as he set down the gun and pulled the blade free of its holder to examine it carefully.

“You gave it to me. It’s mine.” The Composer replied, moving toward Dualscar a few steps at a time. He was slowly closing the distance between them, trying to take his time so he didn’t spook Dualscar into running off again.

Thankfully, it seemed the seatroll wasn’t going anywhere. Instead, he placed the Composer’s blade back into its sheath, and dropped both on the desk beside him. “If I gave it to you, then it’s legally mine. Of course, if you want it, you’re free to come get it.”

The Composer didn’t really expect his moirail to attack him, so he started edging toward the other troll carefully. Dualscar watched him, but made no moves to attack, allowing the Composer to get within a foot of him.

“You won’t hurt me, Dualscar.” The masked troll held out his hand between them, toward the blade beside Dualscar, though he made no move to grab it himself. He wanted the satisfaction of the violet putting it in his hand. “So give it back.”

Because of how close they were now, Dualscar had to tilt his head up to look at the masked troll in front of him. “What if I don’t want to?” A cocky smirk crossed the violet’s face, and he stood up off the desk, putting even less space between them. “What if I want to keep it with me?”

The Composer rolled his eyes, thankful that the other couldn’t really tell because of his mask. He closed the distance between them, pressing his chest right against Dualscar’s. Despite the closeness, neither of them bothered to move away. “Why would you want to do that?” Their eyes were locked on each other, testing wills. It was like playing a game of cluckbeast, and the Composer had no idea who was going to win.

“You’ll keep comin’ back for it, a course.” Dualscar tilted his chin up at the other defiantly, a smirk crossing his face. 

“I need it now.” The masked troll insisted, using his extra four inches of height to attempt to intimidate Dualscar. “Just give me the sword, my moirail,” The Composer muttered softly, leaning his head down toward the others. “And I won’t have to hurt you.”

“No.” As he refused, Dualscar tried to back up, pressing himself against the desk behind him again. Their eyes were still locked on one another and the masked troll closed the distance between them again to keep the violet from fleeing the scene.

“Give me my sword, Dualscar.” The Composer spoke softly, reaching up to push his mask back against his horns so they could stare directly at one another.

Dualscar swallowed nervously, staring right into his moirails captivating red-grey eyes. The Composer had never acted like this before. He’d certainly never gotten this close -- at least not in this fashion. It both excited and scared Dualscar, even though he knew the other troll would never hurt him. There was no black in their relationship, only a pale pink. Maybe a pale red, not that he’d ever admit it. He didn’t plan on ruining the only good relationship he had in his life.

Either way, he knew he wasn’t going to get hurt. But the Composer was sure doing a good job of making Dualscar shiver. He couldn’t really put his finger on why, but their proximity excited him thoroughly. Dualscar closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to think of something to say back to his moirail. Unfortunately, he didn’t even have a chance to speak.

It took Dualscar a second too long to realize what was happening. The Composer was kissing him -- No. Dave was kissing him.

All thoughts of their FLARP game disappeared from Dave’s head as soon as his lips were against Eridan’s. He had no idea what had possessed him to just lay a smooch on his moirail, especially when he’d planned to actually talk with Eridan about his ideas of quadrant vacillation, but when the seatroll eagerly started to kiss him back after a moment of astonishment nothing else mattered.

The match, the other players on the deck above them, everything about their environment faded away as Dave wrapped his arms around Eridan’s waist and pulled him in close. The seatroll’s hands found their way around his neck, and even though their armor rubbed together oddly, potentially chafing them both, neither pulled away. Dave felt so hot all of a sudden, and keeping Eridan’s cooler body against his seemed to be the only thing he needed to remind him that this was real.

That overwhelming urge to never let go of Eridan floods Dave’s thinkpan, gnawing away at any other thought that could have possibly gone through his head while the pair were lip-locked. Nothing else mattered more to Dave at the moment than keeping Eridan close and safe forever.

Which is probably why Vriska walking into the room makes Dave jump about a foot in the air and let out a loud growl as he spun on his heel toward her. “Well, well, well.” Vriska grinned at them both from the doorway, leaning against it. “Look what we have here!”

Chapter Text

“What the fuck, Vris?” Eridan stumbled slightly when he tried to step away from Dave. Unfortunately for the less-than-graceful seatroll, this meant he went back over his desk and stumbled around until he was basically on the floor. His cheeks tinted purple at the same time as his fins flared, making him look more adorable in his embarrassment than he was probably going for.

“Yeah, what the hell, Vriska?” Dave turned toward her far more casually than Eridan had. Thankfully, with his Composer mask on, Vriska couldn’t see the glare he’d fixed her with for interrupting them. He greatly wished she’d never entered the room at all, so he and Eridan could go back to where they were before. Holding each other, and lip-locked. That was the best place Dave could imagine being now that he’d had that for a moment, but as usual, Vriska had gone and ruined the fun.

And she had the audacity to stand in the doorway, grinning from ear to ear as she looked back and forth between Dave and Eridan. She blocked the doorway, preventing them from escaping from her rather unnerving gaze. “Soooooooo… is there something you want to tell the rest of your FLARP group?” She crossed her arms over her chest, turning away from Eridan to fix her gaze directly on Dave, smirking like she had some juicy secret now. “...Or maybe you want me to tell John? You know, he’s had some suspicions about you--”

That was Dave’s cue to end the conversation immediately. He snatched up his katana and marched toward where she was blocking the door, completely content with the possibility that he’d have to fight her to get out. “Why don’t you keep your bullshit to yourself?” He muttered as he pushed past her to head toward the deck, stomping along the wooden deck the whole way.

“I swear, Vris, you are the biggest fuckin’ bulge block on the fuckin’ planet!” It seemed Eridan finally recovered himself enough to shout at the other troll, just as Dave rounded the corner out of earshot. It brought a smile to Dave’s face to know that Eridan was just as pissed off about the interruption as he was. 

Now that his excitement was sufficiently killed by Vriska and her big mouth, Dave set his facial expressions back to blank. He stepped up onto the main deck of the VWanderlust, finding the rest of their FLARP party meandering around, cleaning up anything that had been knocked loose in the fray. “Hey, Dave!” Aradia waved him over from the opposite side of the deck where she was busy cleaning up some barrels that had spilled over with Terezi and Tavros’ help. As Dave moved to join them, he noticed their weapons were all stowed away, indicating that their session was over for the night.

“We’re done for tonight.” Aradia confirmed Dave’s suspicions as she relaxed against the neatly stacked barrels to stretch herself out for a moment. She glanced over to where the other two trolls had begun animatedly talking about something -- Pupa Pan, from the sound of it -- before turning her gaze back to Dave. “I have something to talk with you about. Could I possibly stay at your hive for the day?”

Dave actually couldn’t contain the slight frown that crossed his lips as he thought about the question. Whatever she had to talk to him about couldn’t be good, if she didn’t want the other members of their FLARP team to know about it. And then there was also Dave’s recent encounter with Eridan. Dave wanted to stay on the ship so he and Eridan could talk about what had happened between them below deck. On the other side of that, it could be a potentially bad talk; feelings weren’t exactly Dave’s strong point and that was sure to be a discussion of them.

As Eridan and Vriska came up on deck, Dave made a split-second decision he was hoping he wouldn’t regret. “Let me get changed first, and Crowdad and I will give you a lift out.” He nodded to Aradia, who just dipped her head back in agreement as Dave headed down to Eridan’s hive to change his clothes.

When he emerged a few minutes later, Crowdad in tow, Eridan looked downright sullen from where he was standing by the mast with the rest of the FLARP team. “You’re goin’ back to your hive today?” He couldn’t hide the clear disappointment in his voice as he watched Dave help Aradia load up onto his lusus’ back.

“Yeah, someone needs to take Aradia home.” Dave replied, climbing up behind her. Crowdad seemed to have more to say though, and he squawked happily at Eridan, even butting his beak against the seatrolls chest in the same affectionate way he would Dave’s. “I’ll let you know when we get back.”

Eridan looked ready to say something, but Dave cut it off probably a bit too easily by digging his heels into his lusus’ sides just enough to tell him to take off. In a few beats of his wings, Crowdad had lifted off the deck of the ship, leaving the rest of their FLARP team looking rather confused below them. Aradia waved, and Dave joined her, trying to convey that nothing was wrong, even if there was clearly something happening. Dave would find out soon enough what it was.

They were halfway back to Dave’s hive when Aradia finally spoke, shouting the slightest bit over the wind. “Have you watched the news lately, Dave?” She asked, having to lean back against him so she could talk over her shoulder enough for him to hear.

“Not really. Just the shit they auto-broadcast, and that’s only when I’m actually in front of the TV to watch something. Usually, I’m busy doing something.” Dave shrugged slightly, redirecting Crowdad’s course just a little as the hive blocks started to come into view. When Aradia was quiet for another minute, he prompted her to continue talking with a shout of “Why?”

“There’s been a bunch of rebellions all over the planet. Riots about the Blood Caste System.” Aradia’s face set in a more grim look, and she shook her head slightly.

Dave frowned a little to himself before responding. “That doesn’t make sense. The System was abolished -- what could they possibly be rioting about?”

“Just because the System was taken out of law doesn’t mean things have changed.” Aradia replied. It was the last thing either of them said before touching down in the circle of Dave’s lawnring.

Dave helped the other troll down off of his lusus before heading inside, opening the door for Aradia and Crowdad. For once, his hive was exactly as he’d left it. Coming back every few nights had proven to deter raiders, which was better for Dave in the long run. It meant that no one visiting could ask questions about just how often he was out at Eridan’s hive. He basically lived out there now.

“So what’s the big deal with these riots, Aradia?” Dave asked before they could both get too comfortable. He continued talking as he meandered into the meal block for a snack. “I don’t understand why you want to talk to me about this.” He managed to root around enough to find a large bag of grubcandy, which he dumped in a bowl before making his way back over to join Aradia on the couch.

The other troll took a deep breath before sitting on Dave’s favorite lounger instead of the couch while Dave gnawed at some of the candy. “Dave, Feferi asked me to remove the System from the timeline.” Her words made him pause, dropping the bowl rather unceremoniously onto the table.

Dave found himself at a loss for words for several moments as he recounted once more all the times he and Aradia had already messed with the timeline. So many deaths for a small trial that had gone horribly. “Is she stupid? We already know that removing the timeline doesn’t work. It would kill us all.” Despite his best efforts to keep his emotions in check, Dave found himself getting overwhelmingly angry. Maybe it was FLARPing all day until he was exhausted, or the pent up emotions of making out with his moirail. Either way, the once-human was indescribably angry. “It’s literally impossible! We’d all die before we even started to remove the System! We tried this already!”

Aradia didn’t even flinch at his outburst, just nodded along in agreement while her eyes slowly lowered to her hands resting in her lap. It took her a moment to respond while Dave stood up to pace, burning off the fuming energy inside him. “She doesn’t believe me, Dave. She doesn’t think the timeline will actually shatter, she thinks I’m too scared to try it. And then, she accused me of sympathizing with the rebellion. I don’t think she really meant it, I think she’s just feeling helpless…” When Aradia lifted her face up to look up at him this time, there were rust-tinted tears in her eyes and running tracks down her cheeks. “...She’ll come ask you next, because there’s no way Damara will help her. And she definitely won’t be as kind or forgiving to you as she was to me. Feferi’s still really mad about you and Eridan running around the palace naked.” Even though she spoke so dourly, a small smile crossed Aradia’s face at the memory she spoke of. Clearly she’d found their escapade funny.

It helped Dave calm down a little, and he smirked to himself as he sat back down on the couch. After a moment, he reached up to take his shades off and toss them on the table to rub his sore eyes. “These riots… they’re only the beginning, aren’t they? There’ll be attacks next. That’s what she’s really scared of.”

“...If enough trolls on the warm end of the spectrum decide to attack those blue and above, or even the palace itself, Alternia could have an all out civil war.” Aradia confirmed his suspicions. “And this planet is already a constant warzone.”

Dave nodded and sat back up, putting his shades back on. “Is there anything we can really do?” He asked, looking over at Aradia again. She looked just as tired as he felt -- FLARPing while thinking about this all night must have been a big weight to carry around.

“I don’t know, Dave…” The other troll let out a small sob, more tears accompanying the sounds. “We’re going to have an all-out world-war, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”

For the first time since Dave was in the Game, a wave of inevitable doom and destruction washed over him. A lot like watching his brother die, or himself dying on a loop; visions of the planet he was starting to care about going up in flames. Which brought his mind back to Eridan, whom he’d left to avoid talking about his feelings.

He was starting to understand how Feferi must be feeling -- helpless.

After setting Aradia up in his guest block, Dave had returned to the lounge room to sit in his favorite chair with the previously-abandoned bowl of grubcandy. He turned on the TV and flicked through the channels until he finally found one with news reports on the world, deciding to do some research for himself. The same reporter he’d seen before with Eridan the other night was on screen, talking about the recent rebellion in Rust City. Apparently, it’d been even larger than the one in Yellow. Thirty-two trolls had been killed, another ten injured. His stomach churned watching the footage; picture after picture of the damaged city, fighting, blood spilling everywhere.

It was an all-out bloodbath. Chilling to the bone to see, like standing face-to-face with Lord English. The battle with English had been long and arduous, and cost so many lives; but it was beginning to look like the battle for Alternia would be even harder.

A report of a riot in Green Metropolis flashed on the TV the next night, just after Dave had sent Aradia home. Everything was going to hell in a hand-basket from the looks of the gruesome reports, and Dave was starting to get sick every time he saw the bloods of different trolls splattered across his screen. Unlike human reporting, they didn’t bother to censor or avoid sensitive visuals on Alternia.

Even though he tried to shake it from his mind as he locked up his hive and climbed onto Crowdad’s back. He still couldn’t rid himself of the impending doom of war and how it was going to affect his live, even as he made his way over the mountains and through the clouds to Eridan’s ship-hive.

When he arrived at the island, everything was quiet except for the crunch of the rocks beneath his feet and the crashing of the waves on the shore behind him. It did nothing to calm the swirling thoughts in his mind -- he was so distracted by them, he didn’t even bother to knock as he entered the ship through the front door. It was a good thing Eridan had re-coded the lock to let him in as well, or Dave would have probably walked right into the metal.

“Eridan? We need to talk…” Dave called out to the other troll as he tossed his hoodie over the back of the couch. He intended to tell the seatroll about the riots, the war, and Feferi’s request. Getting his opinion on how to proceed before actually meeting with the Empress seemed like a good idea. Since he and Feferi had been close for so long, he’d have some information on how to proceed.

At least, that had been the plan up until the exact moment that Dave and Eridan finally saw one another again in Eridan’s hive. Then everything else had been forgotten, lost the moment that Eridan had flung his arms around Dave’s neck and kissed him breathless.

Talking about the goings-on of the world could wait.

Chapter Text

‘ Quadrant flipping is a common occurrence between the Flush and Pitch quadrants. ’

‘ Quadrant flipping in the Pale and Flush quadrants happen on rare occasions. ’

‘ In Pale to Flush flipping, trolls will often lose both quadrants, as feelings are not reciprocated. ’

‘ Most trolls will not admit to Flush feelings for their Pale quadrantmate for fear of losing the relationship. ’

The truth was that Dave had started to research quadrant flipping after the pair had streaked through the palace. His suspicions had been confirmed almost immediately after reading a couple forums -- quadrant flipping with Eridan was not a good idea. All the research he’d done said that it hardly ever ended well in any quadrant, but that Pale to Flush was the least likely to succeed. That seemed to be because most of the time, one troll wound up in the ‘friendzone’ as Dave would have called it on Earth. ‘He’s Just Not That into You’ came to mind when thinking about how quadrant flipping was a weird triangle. Karkat had shown Dave that movie to try and explain things.

All of the facts and things he’d learned scroll through his mind like the ticker tape on the news, even as he laid with Eridan on the couch. He could feel the other’s weight on top of him, comforting and cool; Dave had no intention of letting go even though Eridan’s skinny hips were digging into his own. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy kissing Eridan -- even if he wasn’t very good at it, Dave still enjoyed the feeling of their lips pressing against one anothers again and again. What Eridan lacked in skill, he made up for in fervor and it was adorably charming.

But Dave couldn’t help overthinking it. He had several important things to talk to Eridan about, starting with the upcoming Rebellion, Feferi’s request, and ending with a potentially lengthy discussion about both his and Eridan’s feelings. While usually Dave would avoid such conversations, if there was anyone he could have them with, it would be Eridan. Or at least, he could if it wasn’t so hard to concentrate on anything but the troll lying on top of him.

Eridan’s body pressed against his was just another thing added to draw Dave’s focus, immediately followed by what the fuck was going on in his pants. He knew he was turned on. That didn’t feel much different than before, like there was a cog slowly tightening in his core, set to spring at any time. Every nerve ending in his body felt warm and tingly while his brain slowly ceased normal functions to make Eridan his center of attention. His knees even felt a little weak, so he was grateful he was laying down. The only thing about this situation that was odd was that there was something between his legs, and it was moving . On its own . 

That was just weird, and had distracted him enough for Eridan to notice. Eridan had sat up somewhat on Dave’s hips, separating their lips so they could finally both breathe. The seatroll looked a little worried, even though his face was flushed violet and his ear fins were wiggling the slightest bit. It was utterly adorable, especially when he started speaking with that sweet little stutter of his that so rarely made an appearance. “Davve? You okay?” Eridan’s hand gently set itself on Dave’s cheek, rubbing it with the pad of his thumb slightly. “You’re real tense…”

Dave swallowed any nervousness he felt as he looked into the beautiful eyes of the glasses-wearing troll above him. He was flushed and beautiful, his lips slightly parted and swollen from kissing. Nothing he’d ever seen before in porn online could ever compare to how Eridan was looking at him now. The seatroll was the most gorgeous, most alluring, most tempting sight Dave had ever seen.

But it kind of took second place to finding out what the fuck was happening in his jeans. “Eridan, this is a serious question.” Dave took a deep breath, trying to clear his head enough to phrase things in a way that wouldn’t scare him off. “...Why the hell does my bulge… move ?”

Eridan stared at him incredulously for a moment before audible laughter bubbled up in his chest. He seemed to find Dave’s question hilarious, and after a long moment to giggle about it, Dave spoke up again. “What’s so funny?”

“I just forgot you weren’t hatched this way.” Eridan commented, moving himself to sit up fully on Dave’s hips. The action sent a shiver through Dave, his jeans and underwear brushing up against his bulge as Eridan settled on top of him. Eridan slowly stripped off his shirt, casting it off to the floor before he went for his pants.

Dave’s hands snapped out to grab Eridan’s before he could remove the article. “Hey, I’m confused. What’s going on here?” There was a hint of fear climbing into Dave’s mind with every beat of silence that passed between them. He wasn’t sure what was happening at all -- in his pants, or between him and the pretty seatroll. No matter how stoic Dave normally presented himself, he wasn’t going to put up with an uncomfortable situation; he needed some clarity.

“An anatomy lesson.” Eridan muttered, smiling down at him reassuringly before gently pushing Dave’s hands away. “You need to know what you’re workin’ with first, or things could get awkward.” He worked on unbuttoning his own striped pants with a little difficulty, clearly having to battle whatever was hidden in his underwear. “Trust me, Dave. I’m gonna show you -- it’ll be easier than tryin’ to explain it.”

Pacified with the potential for learning more about his new species, Dave settled his hands on either side of the couch near Eridan’s legs, his eyes instantly raking a path down the seatrolls skinny chest toward the juncture of his hips. Eridan had coerced his bulge out of his pants, and two things became very obvious to Dave right away. One; it was violet, matching Eridan’s blood color perfectly. Two; it was a tentacle.

As far as tentacles go from hentai to Cthulhu, it was definitely more on the ‘hentai’ spectrum. Tapered at the head, and fairly thin over all, there was a soft-looking line of frills along the underside. When it starts to tangle with Eridan’s hand, it leaves a trail of translucent violet material that Dave can’t help following with his eyes. He even reached up to take off his sunglasses, tossing them onto the coffee table for a better look.

When he finally made eye contact with Eridan again, the seatroll was blushing from fin to fin, a nervous smile on his lips. “...Humans must have been real different, cause you’re starin’, Davy…” He seemed to be slightly hiding his bulge with his palm now, though he didn’t put it away immediately.

That gave Dave sme time to scramble his brain and try to recover how speech worked. It took a little too long, but eventually, watching Eridan play with the soft, squirming bulge familiarized him with the idea a bit. He finally managed an eloquent ‘Nice’ in response to Eridan, which just made the troll above him laugh lightly again.

“Dave, you are alright aren’t you?”

It was Dave’s turn to sit up, carefully helping Eridan remain in his lap as he did. He rubbed his back lightly, trying to reassure the other before slowly working his way out of his own shirt. “I never really got around to see what’s going on down there. It’s kinda different from what humans had, so I guess I needed a minute to come to terms with it.” He admitted fairly quietly, but Eridan’s fins perked right up to let him know the seatroll had heard him.

The small purr that ran through Eridan when he finished speaking was a soothing sound, and brought Dave’s eyes up to meet the others. The seatroll leaned in close to lay another kiss on him, bringing his hands up to thread them through Dave’s hair. “They’ve got a mind of their own, I’ll admit. But… it feels good. I promise you that.”

Dave smiled against the other’s lips, giving him another small kiss. “So I definitely have one of those in my pants?” He reached a hand up to take off Eridan’s glasses, setting them beside his shades on the table so they could look one another in the eye without the odd bubble of glass between them.

Eridan smirked in an almost perfect copy of Dave’s own trademark expression. “You’ll have to see for yourself.” He muttered, even though he released Dave’s hair in favor of working the button of his pants open. He leaned his head in against Dave’s shoulder as he worked the others jeans and underwear down, having to shift his own legs to the side to get them off. It also gave him the space to take his own off.

The once-human caught a glimpse of his own tendril as Eridan crawled back into his lap. Bright red in contrast to his grey skin, the appendage was nearly identical to the seatrolls. Only, instead of soft frills, the underside of his bulge was ridged, providing an interesting sensation when he got his fingers tangled up in it. After some experimentation, he realized he could actually control its motions if he thought hard enough about what he wanted to do. His bulge was also incredibly sensitive, particularly at the very tip where it flattened out somewhat into a soft point.

Eridan sat back enough to watch him the entire time, keeping his own bulge out of the way with his hand. When Dave released his own bulge, Eridan’s eyes came back up to meet his, another smile playing at his lips.

“What now?” Dave’s question wasn’t very loud, but it clearly motivated the seatroll, making Eridan shift a bit closer in his lap. Then, they were kissing again and Dave forgot what he’d asked entirely. Now that they were naked and making out on the couch, Dave was nearly overwhelmed with the intimacy of their situation. He’s never been this close to anyone before -- ever -- but that didn’t stop him from feeling like where he was right now, with Eridan in his arms, was where he belonged. 

Dave cherished the feeling of their bodies pressing together, the skin on skin contact was honestly exhilarating. Each time their lips touched, Dave committed the sensation to memory. If this was going to be his only contact with the other, he’d make sure it was imprinted on his mind. It was a much more pleasant souvenir than most of his other recollections.

The sound that escapes Eridan when their bulges finally touch is also written into Dave’s memory bank. A sweet, high moan that he was likely never to forget, that settled into a happy purr as their bulges entwined tightly together. Dave echoed the sound a bit more brokenly, not used to making the noise nearly as much as the other troll. When Eridan’s arms slide around his neck, Dave can’t help wrapping his arms tightly around the smaller troll's middle to pull him in closer. As soon as their chests meet in the middle, Eridan starts to grind his hips down against Dave, forcing a low moan to escape the once-human and completely halting his attempt to purr.

Their bulges coil and slide around one another, providing a steady rhythm of friction, making that slowly building feeling of pleasure inside Dave’s core more apparent. The way their bodies moved together flowed like music, and no one would ever be able to convince him that it wasn’t the sickest beat Dave had ever laid down. When combined with Eridan’s now near-constant moaning and how the seatroll panted against his neck, Dave almost wished he could record their sweet music to keep for himself. No one else would ever be able to experience this bliss with Eridan, if he had his way.

Pleasure built higher and higher in them both when Dave grabbed Eridan’s hips to make him move faster, and the wanton keen that the seatroll let out when the other wrapped his bulge more tightly around Eridan’s was obscene. He’d do anything to hear that noise again. Their rhythm was unstoppable now, and they were fast approaching the finish now that the bass had dropped. Eridan’s moan of his name is the last warning Dave gets before his own vision whites out from pleasure. 

Wave after wave crashed over him and Eridan, the pair still wringing one another’s bulge through the entire sensation. There’s going to be a mess between them, Dave can tell before they’re even finished by the way Eridan’s painting his stomach in lines of violet. His own red mixed in, of course, leaving them both a sticky mess on the couch.

Neither made a move to correct the situation, however. Instead, Dave slumped back against the arm of the couch, still holding Eridan against his chest. They laid together on the cushions to catch their breath. For a few minutes, only their soft panting sounded within the empty living room.

Eventually, Dave finally worked up the ability to speak, and his red-grey eyes met the violet-tinted orbs of the troll lying atop him. “Holy fuck.” Was about as eloquent as Dave could manage, which just made Eridan chuckle lightly.

“I’ll second that.” The violet confirmed after a moment to laugh. He nuzzled his face against Dave’s chest, taking a few deep breaths before speaking up again. “And that wasn’t even matin’.” Eridan’s mischievous, shark-like grin emerged, giving Dave a reason to provide a smile of his own.

Instead of asking more questions, Dave simply kissed Eridan’s forehead before letting him go when the seatroll insisted on sitting up. Their stomachs were coated entirely in a mix of red and violet -- Dave couldn’t help but take a moment to admire how nice their colors looked side by side like that. At least until Eridan grabbed a shirt from the floor at random and started to sop up the mess with it.

Dave noticed a bit too late that it was his shirt Eridan was using, but he could just pilfer one from the seatroll anyway. Eridan did always like it when Dave took his clothes.

“You know, it’s less than I expected. Considerin’ how much Vantas harps on about the bucket stuff, I thought there’d be more.” His mouth got the better of him, and Dave let the comment slip, though he noticed the only response it triggered in Eridan was a small snort of laughter.

“Well, like I said, that wasn’t actually matin’, Davy. Frottin’ kinda gives a different response biologically. It’s hard to explain, but it has to do with hormones.” It wasn’t really sexy talk at all, but Dave was still enamored watching Eridan try to explain the scientific side of things. He always got long-winded in his explanations, giving the other plenty of opportunities to observe him when he was at his most passionate. Seeing him lecture naked would probably have been a huge turn on, if he and Eridan hadn’t just spilled all over themselves and the couch.

Eridan tossed the shirt he’d used to clean them both up onto the floor, then laid back down on Dave’s chest before continuing, which made the once-human pout a little -- not that Eridan could see the expression from his angle. “When you’re matin’, you’d penetrate the nook with a bulge and it would cause a hormonal shift. It allows for enough genetic material to release to fill a bucket.” His statement was punctuated with a rather dramatic yawn before he looked up at Dave again. “It probably had to evolve that way over the years with the Mothergrub comin’ into play. I don’t want to bore you with the details.”

“I’m going to assume that all makes sense. You’re the scientist, Danny, not me.” Dave muttered, slipping his arms back around Eridan to hold him close. Naked cuddles on the couch seemed to be an appropriate after-sex activity, and Dave would enjoy every second he could get of the contact.

Eridan craned his neck up to kiss Dave’s cheek softly, reaching a hand up to push his hair out of his face. “I’m more of a historian, really. I just like to read a lot.”

“The diagrams and models laying around say otherwise.” It was Dave’s turn to yawn, and after the sound escaped them, a comfortable silence enveloped the room. They laid together for what felt like a long time, trading occasional kisses. Neither was ready to let the other go it seemed.

“Davy.” Eridan had to go and break the silence, his voice a pathetic little whine that made Dave immediately snap his attention to his slightly smaller lover’s face. The seatroll fixed him with a saucy little pout, sticking his bottom lip out before speaking again. “Make me somethin’ to eat.”

Dave couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him at the audacity of the words. Eridan truly was a spoiled little brat sometimes, and the worst part was, Dave was going to give in eventually and make them both food. But not without messing with him back a bit first. “Go make your own food, Danny. You’re the one keeping me from moving, laying there all cute like that.”

Eridan’s pout only seemed to intensify before a small smile crossed his face. He sat up just enough to kiss Dave again, taking his attention away from their previous conversation in a matter of moments. One kiss turned into another, and then another; food was forgotten entirely for several long minutes before the seatroll finally pulled his mouth away from the other’s. Despite Dave’s adamant protest, Eridan got up, urging the other to his feet until he could take over the space on the couch that had been previously occupied. “There, you’re up. Now go make food!”

~~~~~

Approximately an hour later, Dave and Eridan were sitting on the couch in front of the TV, watching one of the shitty movies the seatroll had in his collection as they ate their fresh-baked, store-bought pizza. Eridan had been hesitant about buying the meal at first, but once Dave had suggested the melted cheese and meat dish after their post-coital cuddles, he’d relented to let the other make the pie. Sometimes, Dave’s insistence on convenience food worked out in their favor.

Eridan had nestled himself against Dave’s side as they ate, and had even procured a blanket from somewhere in the hive for them to cuddle up together under. The seatroll was still idly picking at his second slice of pizza when Dave pushed his plate away, the crusts left on it the only evidence of the four slices he’d consumed.

Dave sat there in silence, trying to figure out how to approach all the things he had to talk with Eridan about. No matter what he started with, it wasn’t going to be a comfortable conversation for either of them, and the more he over thought it, the worse it was going to get. He was ready to swallow his pride, take a deep breath, and just start talking, but as usual, Eridan beat him to the punch.

“Davy…? Why did you go hive with Ar yesterday? Rezi could have taken her home.” Eridan set his half-eaten slice of pizza back on his plate before looking directly at the troll beside him. Dave caught a brief glimpse of what appeared to be jealousy on the seatroll’s face, and the expression soothed him slightly. He was worried about their relationship, seeing Aradia as a potential threat, so hopefully explaining that would lift a weight off Eridan's shoulders.

The once-human took a moment to rub his temples, trying to figure out the best way to phrase things before he responded. “She needed to talk to me about Time shit. Apparently, Feferi asked her to remove the Caste System from our timeline. Again.” Dave shook his head at the thought, giving a small, incredulous chuckle. “She’s an idiot if she thinks that will solve any of Alternia’s problems. From the trial and error we did, removing the system was more liable to destroy the planet than save it.”

Considering this for a moment, Eridan hummed softly to himself. After he’d had a moment to process, he spoke up again. “What does Fef’s request to Ar have to do with you?”

“Aradia refused her. Now, in theory, she’s goin’ to talk to anyone who had the ability to manipulate Time. That leaves the other Megido, who Aradia said would refuse her as well, and me.” Dave shrugged a little, grabbing Eridan’s abandoned slice of pizza to finish it. “And word on the street is that she won’t be as kind to me if I refuse.”

That made Eridan wince as a frown settled on his face. His eyebrows drew together with thought, and he seemed puzzled as he kept speaking. “Removing the System… wouldn’t that kill everyone? At least all of us that were in the Game?”

“That’s what Aradia and I told her the first time she asked. And what Aradia told her this time, but apparently, Feferi refused to believe her.” He spoke through his mouthful of pizza, tossing the crust onto the ever-growing pile on his plate. “So… I’m probably going to have to spend a few nights at my hive. At least until she’s come and gone.”

Eridan looked disappointed at the idea, but nodded in agreement after a beat. “...You’re gonna stay today though, right?” Those pretty violet-grey eyes looked up at Dave with such unbridled hope and affection in them that there was no way he could say no. Especially when Eridan stuck his bottom lip out in an adorable pout like that.

“Of course, Danny.” Dave leaned in to give the violet a small kiss before pulling him in close. He contented himself and quieted the screaming voices in his head with cuddling the smaller troll against his side for the remainder of the night, then crawled in to share his recooprecoon for the day.

It was the best Dave had slept since he’d woken up on Alternia. While he wished he could stay, just move his things in and tell no one else where he’d gone, his noble idealism of seeing things through won out, and he returned home about halfway through the next night.

Chapter Text

Dave arrived at his hive at right about midnight, feeling a little empty as he strolled inside with Crowdad hot on his heels. He hadn’t spent more than a couple days away from Eridan for nearly three perigees now, and Dave was honestly concerned that the violet wouldn’t take care of himself in Dave’s absence. On the flight over, he’d convinced himself that if Eridan didn’t, Seahorsedad would make him, and that provided enough solace for him to settle into his dusty hive.

The other concern Dave had was the decidedly more flushed feelings he was having for Eridan. After their conversation about Feferi, Dave hadn’t wanted to disturb their peace, so he’d left the rebellions and feelings talk for another time. He really wanted nothing more than to get back to Eridan’s hive and talk things out with him. Their conversations on Trollian were mostly superficial; it seemed both of them preferred to talk about sensitive subject matters face to face. 

It certainly didn’t make staying alone at his hive any easier. Dave spent the first four nights basically unable to sleep, choosing instead to play his gamegrubs and message Eridan. Apparently, the violet had just as much trouble sleeping as Dave did. It was somewhat comforting to know he wasn’t the only one uncomfortable.

When the fifth night rolled around, Dave finally passed out, his body deciding it had had enough of his restlessness. He woke up the sixth night, feeling refreshed, hungry, and as he made himself food, almost overwhelmingly lonely.

He’d barely started to explain to Eridan that he’d been asleep for the last nearly thirty hours in between shoveling bites of food into his mouth when there was a loud knock on his door. The sound was almost immediately followed by someone shouting ‘Dave’ at the metal entrance panel.

Dave recognized the voice as Karkat’s, and he sent Eridan a quick message to let him know he’d explain things soon before abandoning his food to open the door. Karkat entered the lounge block first, strolling over to Dave’s favorite chair to drop himself in it as Feferi stepped inside. The Empress wore a large cloak, drawn up over her face to hide her appearance. She probably didn’t want to be recognized out and about with the current political climate. Even worse, someone might assume Dave was someone important and begin to ask questions.

What threw Dave off about the whole entrance was John Egbert walking in behind Feferi, looking at anything but the once-human Sburb player. Dave elected to ignore them all, moving back to his kitchen to grab his plate of food as they all occupied his couch.

As soon as the door shut, Feferi’s cloak was pushed off her shoulders, and she didn’t even wait for an invitation to speak before starting up. “I assume you’ve talked to Aradia?” Her question didn’t seem to be a legitimate inquiry. She knew they FLARPed together, like most of the other people in their group of ‘friends’. It was easy to piece together that the two Time Manipulators kept tabs on the goings on with each other at the very least.

He elected not to respond to Feferi right away, content with finishing his meal and letting Eridan know that the group had arrived. An encouraging message came through, but Dave had to swipe it away as he dunked his plate into the sink to be taken care of later.

“Yeah, I talked to her.” Dave finally answered her question, borrowing the same flat tone that Feferi had spoken to him in as he made his way into the living room. He stationed himself near the TV, keeping only Feferi and Karkat in his view. As far as Dave was concerned, John wasn’t there. Just like he hadn’t been the entire time they’d been on Alternia. “We FLARP together all the time, so we see each other pretty regularly. But you know that.”

Mentioning the game made John and Karkat both snort with laughter, and Dave was grateful he’d put his shades on that evening so no one could see him rolling his eyes. Even the Empress managed a small bubble of laughter -- apparently being a nerd was still a laughable offense on Alternia, just like it was on Earth. Wonderful.

“So you know why I’m here?” Feferi managed to control her giggles as she asked, even going so far as to make eye-contact with Dave’s shades.

Dave shrugged a little, waving her off rather dismissively. He was lucky there were no drones around to experience the attitude he was radiating, or he’d be a red splatter on the floors and walls. “You came here expectin’ a different answer than the one both Megidos gave you. And you’re goin’ to have to be disappointed, Empress. I will not -- no -- I cannot do what you’re asking. It would destroy us all.”

“That can’t be real.” Her Imperial Benevolence shook her head disbelievingly at the troll she was addressing. Feferi’s fear was evident in her voice though; she was terrified of the answer because it meant dealing with the rebellion head on. War was not something that suited her, it seemed. “There’s no way that would happen--”

“The thing with Time travel is that you can’t overthink it. You can’t have a specific goal in mind. You need to roll with it and see what happens. Above all else, you have to try not to do anything stupid. Because time isn't linear, it’s circular. It moves oddly, and it’s damn-near impossible to control.” Dave pressed two fingers of each of his hands to his temples, trying to stave off the inevitable headache that came with trying to explain Time to anyone. Eridan had been the only one without the TIme Aspect to understand his explanation, but the troll was a dedicated scientist and historian. He listened before jumping to conclusions, most of the time. “What you’re asking for, removing the System? That’s not just stupid. It’s ludacris; impossible. The fabric of Time would be torn asunder and destroy everything we worked to build, as well as everything that your ancestors built -- “

“I don’t understand how that’s true!” The Empresses fins flared out in defiance. She stood up, fixing Dave with a harsh glower that would have made anyone but a Strider cower. Instead, Dave just stared back at her, refusing to step down from his position. “You’re telling me nothing can be changed --”

“Some things can’t be changed, Feferi. This is one of them. Anything we do could threaten destroying all of reality, not just Alternia.” He gestured toward the window and the world outside, trying to emphasize his point as he continued. “If you demand that any of us attempt this, you’ll destroy everything you’re trying so desperately to preserve. Time isn’t your Aspect, you should have enough respect for those of us that have tapped into its power to drop this. Player to player.”

Feferi looked ready to rip him a new one if her mouth opening and closing like a gaping fish was anything to go by. Instead, Karkat sat forward in Dave’s chair, speaking up for the first time since he’d entered. “...Dave’s right, Feferi. You don’t know anything about how Time works, and obviously the Megidos and this fucker here do. If they’re right, you could destroy the planet instead of saving it.”

The Empress looked so mad she was ready to spit, but there was a distinct vision of hopelessness in her eyes. She felt powerless as a leader, and probably no shortage of disappointment in herself. Dave would hate her job. Leadership had never suited him, and while he had no love for authority, being in charge was a frightening concept to him. “So there’s nothing we can do? We have to sit here and watch the entire planet get culled?” Feferi dropped herself back into her seat on the couch, tears already forming in her eyes.

“Well, we finished The Game together!” John’s voice left him for the first time since he’d entered the hive. Dave was struck a bit by surprise; it had been so many perigees since he’d last heard his voice that it was startling. He tried to shake it off as the other continued, though, because John’s voice held a specific Vriska-like lilt to it now after spending so much time with her. “We can stop these uprisings, no problem. We just need to work together to crush them!”

Dave briefly pondered why the Empress had chosen to bring John and Karkat when she’d come to visit. As far as her close circle went, Dave would have expected more highbloods. Instead, she was accompanied by a ‘mutant’ and a guy who was previously human. The only thing they had in common was that they were the Team Leaders in Sburb/Sgrub. And that was exactly why she’d chosen them. They were the friend-leaders. The original planning masterminds. Feferi had those two accompany her in particular because they were planning for war. While it was a terrible thing to think, that relieved Dave a bit. Clearly, at some deep level, Feferi knew that was the only option they had left to save Alternia.

“I will do anything else you ask of me, Benevolence. I’ll round up all the wrigglers myself and take them off planet to babysit, or fight in large-scale battles across the globe, if that’s what you want.” The once-human offered his hands to work without much thought. Feferi would most likely be calling on all the Players to help her win this battle. “But I can’t remove the System. Alternia would be ripped out of reality itself.”

Feferi pursed her lips like she wanted to try asking once more for Dave to tear the universe apart, but Karkat shaking his head stopped her. She let the request die on her tongue, and instead turned toward John on her left. “We’re going to need to have a meeting.” She muttered, slowly getting to her feet as she spoke. “Send out a message to our close fronds only, Players only, to have them meet at the palace, would you? Two nights from now? Make sure they know it’s not another party…” The other troll who was once human nodded quickly and pulled out his own phone to do just that, typing frantically at the screen. Dave was sure that would be a joy to read after they left -- John had never been the most eloquent writer.

The Empress glanced around the room at the three other trolls gathered there, a stern look crossing her face. When her eyes finally met Dave’s, he could tell any feelings she had about him, good or bad, they didn’t matter right now. All that mattered to Feferi were the next words out of her mouth; “Alternia is going to have a civil war.”

Dave saw the little group of trolls off a bit later, but he cursed that they’d shown up so late in the night. He wouldn’t have time to make it back to Eridan’s before the sun came up, and it was a bit irritating to have to be away so long to begin with. He’d hoped to get back over there to talk to Eridan about all of what was going on now, but it seemed that was impossible for now.

Instead, Dave grudgingly dragged himself back inside his hive and up to his room, throwing himself back into his desk chair to message the violet. Thankfully, he was online, and double-clicking on his name immediately brought up a text box, filled with their conversation from where it had been abandoned earlier that night.

–turntechGodhead [TG] began trolling caligulasAquarium [CA] at 03:02 am–

TG: hey danny

TG: im not gonna make it back tonight

CA: i figured wwith it bein’ so late

CA: is it true

CA: are wwe goin’ to wwar

TG: looks like it yeah

CA: wwell

CA: howw did it go

CA: the meetin’ wwith fef i mean

TG: shes scared

TG: not that i can blame her

TG: shes also more way more stubborn then you

TG: i didnt think that was possible

CA: yeah

CA: wwell she wwas my moirail for a wwhile

CA: she had to be stubborn to put up wwith me

TG: good point

CA: thanks for the vvote of confindence davve

TG: youre welcome babe

TG: ive been here all week

CA: youre comin’ back tomorroww though

CA: right

TG: yeah

TG: ill even get up early

TG: i promise ill take off as soon as its dark out okay?

CA: okay

CA: wwell

CA: sea you wwhen you get here davvy

TG: okay

TG: later danny

CA: bye

–caligulasAquarium [CA] ceased trolling turntechGodhead [TG] at 03:34 am–

–caligulasAquarium [CA] began trolling turntechGodhead [TG] at 03:34 am–

TG: back so soon

CA: i forgot somefin

TG: what

CA: <3

–caligulasAquarium [CA] ceased trolling turntechGodhead [TG] at 3:35 am–

Dave had to take his sunglasses off to make sure he read the screen correctly. A smile he couldn’t and didn’t want to contain spread across his face while his blood pusher seemed to hammer in his chest. He sent the same combination of symbols and numbers back to the violet before getting up to go to sleep.

Even if the conversations he’d had tonight with the Empress and her advisors had been draining mentally and emotionally, Dave felt like he was entirely recharged simply from seeing that little violet heart on his screen. The happiness that buzzed through him helped him relax, and eventually, drift off into the most comfortable sleep he’d had since he’d come back to his own hive.

He was up at exactly six o-clock PM the next night. There was still a bit of sunlight beating against the heavy curtains in Dave’s personal block, so he busied himself with packing up his things to go stay with Eridan again. Extra clothes, his grubtop, even a set of his turntables since Eridan had offered him a part of the music room to call his own. Dave put his belongings together by the door with no shortage of excitement, still flying high off the emoticon Eridan had sent him the night before.

It was about six-thirty when he sat down in front of the TV, intending to play a gamgrub until the sun finally sunk below the horizon and he was safe to leave without frying. Eridan had already messaged him once about his arrival time, and was waiting with bated breath from his messages. Dave was eager to leave, nearly jittery, so playing some mindless game while he kept an eye on the sunset seemed an appropriate way to pass the time.

Dave lost himself rather quickly in some levels of Mad Snacks Yo, attempting to keep his character from getting his skateboard stuck on any half-pipes. He’d succeeded far enough to get a new highscore before checking the time again. He started one more level, just to be sure there were no stray beams of sunlight that could possibly catch him up in the clouds and was about to succeed at a wicked nose grind when someone covered his mouth and nose with a cloth. From everything Dave remembered about how chloroforming worked from movies, he was about to be kidnapped.

While he tried not to breathe in the noxious substance, his struggling ended up being his downfall. He had to breathe to fight, and after only a few futile moments, Dave’s vision went black.

Chapter Text

Eridan was the most worried he’d ever been in his life. Dave had been set to arrive at his hive over ten hours before now, and there was still no sign of the once-human-now-troll on the horizon. He’d been watching the clouds for hours, hoping that Dave would come barreling over the mountain and say he’d just gotten too absorbed in one of those TV dramas he loved so much. But Eridan hadn’t even gotten a message from him since the early evening, and his heart always let him know when he was on his way. Now that dawn was fast approaching, the violet was doing his best not to freak out entirely.

He’d sent message after message to Dave’s offline Trollian handle, and none of them had gotten a reply thus far. Dave hadn’t even been online since he’d said he’d play one more level of Mad Snacks Yo before heading out.

In his worry, Eridan had even reached out to Karkat, who confirmed that Dave had been MIA for the night. Of course, ever the person to talk down a panic, Karkat had also convinced Eridan to wait another couple of nights. He’d said Dave might have just gotten caught up, or lost his communicator -- though Eridan couldn’t really see how the troll would lose his shades, it was possible on the planet full of hostile trolls.

Two nights later, Dave still hadn’t so much as contacted Eridan. No messages, no showing up at his door with a cocky grin. Eridan was so tired when he arrived late to the palace for Feferi’s latest meeting; he’d lost so much sleep over his missing friend. It certainly didn’t help that even though he was the last of the large group to arrive that evening, Dave still hadn’t shown up.

Karkat was worried too, probably partially because he and Eridan had already discussed Dave’s absence. As soon as Eridan was inside the double-doors of the palace, the shorter, fiery troll was in the seatroll’s face nearly shouting. “Ampora! Where’s your shit-for-brains, good-for-nothing Moirail?!” Like always, Karkat let his emotions get the better of him. He didn’t mean the insults he hurled, Eridan could tell because the troll was nearly frantic as he grabbed the taller’s forearms lightly. “He was supposed to be here hours ago--” His voice trailed off when he saw the dour look on Eridan’s face.

“...Please tell me he made it to your hive, Eridan.” Karkat spoke again, softer this time, and the surprisingly gentle treatment made Eridan burst into a small set of sobs.

“I don’t knoww wwhere he is, Kar!” He couldn’t even try to control his stutter. All his worry and fear caught up to Eridan, quickly overwhelming him. They were attracting attention on top of that -- the other trolls that had gathered for the meeting were starting to look at the pair. “I havven’t seen him in ovver a wweek! He wwas supposed to be at my hivve twwo days ago, like I told you…”

A soft growl went through Karkat, but he gave Eridan’s arms a slight squeeze before he let him go. “Where the fuck could he have possibly gone? His social circle extends to you, your fucking FLARP team, and me!”

“Karkat, language please!” Eridan jumped in surprise when Karkat’s Sgrub counterpart popped up beside them, clad in his usual ridiculous red sweater. Kankri pulled the smaller troll away from the violet, and back toward the gathering of people in the room. “You’ve been trying to find this Dave for a couple nights now, right? This could present a large problem --”

“I fucking know that, Kankri! Will you stuff it for a few minutes while we try to figure this shit out --”

All the shouting certainly wasn’t helping soothe Eridan’s mind of the panic building up in him. In fact, it was starting to form as a headache across his eyebrows. Trying to look through his glasses and the tears that had welled up in his eyes wasn’t easy either. He decided to leave the group behind, maybe even find Feferi to talk to about the current situation. While it might not end well, he had a chance at progress and taking his mind off Dave. 

He found her surrounded by a few other trolls, two of which he recognized immediately. John stood on her left, and somehow, Karkat had made it over to stand on her right. They were listening vigilantly as she spoke to a couple other female trolls, one wearing a plain black shirt, the other a cerulean dress. Judging by the other people in attendance, they were probably Feferi’s and Vriska’s Beforus counterparts. 

“I’m assuming you have a plan, right?” The girl in blue -- Aranea, if Eridan’s memory of conversations with Vriska were correct -- had her fingers laced with the taller, more punk-looking highblood beside her. 

“Yeah, beach, what’s the plan? Just whale on ‘em till they stop squiddle-ing? Krill ‘em off one-by-one?” Feferi’s dancestor was grinning like a shark, clearly intent on making sure the war would be a full blown blood bath. Normally, Eridan would join her in the sentiment, but he hadn’t been feeling so genocidal lately. Actually, he hadn’t thought about killing anyone since he’d almost murdered Dave.

“Whale, no! I don’t want to krill them all, Meenah! These are still my people!” Feferi looked downright astonished at the suggestion. That must have been why she’d decided not to force the Time users to change things. Dave’s explanation must have been enough to convince her.

“Hey, fishface, you can come over here.” Karkat looked directly at Eridan, jerking his head to indicate he could join the group. Of course, he said that loud enough to attract the attention of the others in Feferi’s small circle. He looked ready to say more, but Feferi cut him off, turning her back to the two Beforus trolls to focus on Eridan.

“There you are! Just the buoy I was looking for. Where’s Dave?” She tried to smile, but it was obvious that her heart wasn’t in it. The expression didn’t even reach her eyes.

Karkat seemed to wince, and stepped in to respond, leaning in closer to Feferi when he spoke, obviously trying to prevent another break down on Eridan’s behalf. “Dave’s been missing for two nights, Feferi -- “

Hearing it put so plainly set Eridan off again and he unfortunately had no control over the violet-tinted tears as they started to stream from his eyes. He shook his head frantically, trying to see if Dave had slipped in unnoticed, but he wasn’t there. The only thing Eridan managed to say before he was fully swept away by his emotions was “He’s still not here.”

It took far too long for Eridan to calm down. He’d been escorted into the throne room by Karkat, who’d sat him down on the closest chaise lounge he could and was gently rubbing his back. The efforts to soothe him only helped so much, and there were several waves of sobs Eridan had to be coached through until the sounds finally faded. Feferi and John had joined them at some point, but kept their distance while Karkat tried to placate Eridan.

The quiet of the throne room and Karkat’s soft attempts to pacify Eridan’s tears worked well enough after a while. When Eridan hadn’t sobbed for over a minute, Karkat finally spoke up, giving his shoulder a light squeeze. “Think you can talk yet? We need to know more about Dave--”

“Shh! Karkat! Don’t make him cry again!” John’s whisper was almost obnoxiously loud, like Eridan couldn’t hear him in the near-silent room. Thankfully, it seemed Eridan had cried himself out. He was busy wiping his face off with his scarf when Karkat responded to the other troll.

“Shut up. I’m being honest, and I know Eridan will appreciate that.”

“Eridan doesn’t have to talk aboat it if he can’t yet.” Feferi supplied helpfully, though she continued to maintain distance between her and her once-moirail. Still her empathy was surprising when her next words were “Take some deep breaths, Eridan --”

Eridan felt more than saw the eyeroll Karkat gave the other two in the room. “He’s not a fucking wriggler, Feferi. Eridan’s stronger than you’re giving him credit for.”

“I’m just trying to be nice, Karkat!” The Empress snapped back in a way that was truly unbefitting of her station. She even went so far as to flare her fins at the other troll, and despite the seriousness of the situation, the expression made Eridan laugh. He tried his best to contain the sound while his shoulders shook with mirth, which made Karkat puff up protectively beside him.

“Look at what you did! He’s sniveling even harder now!” Karkat surely had more to say, but it was John who came to Eridan’s rescue.

“Relax, Karkat. I think he’s laughing.” The tall once-human bent down in front of Eridan, managing to make eye-contact with the giggling troll. He stood back up and gave the other two a thumbs up. “Your bickering was kinda funny.”

Eridan slowly righted himself, tilting his chin up until he could clearly see all the other trolls in the room. He had to wipe his face again while Karkat huffed at him for not saying something sooner. Several more minutes of silence passed while Eridan made himself presentable enough to converse with them, but eventually Feferi jumped in to break up the quiet.

“So, Eridan…”

“Do you know where Dave is?” John jumped in, cutting off her more gentle approach. Clearly, someone had spent too much time with Vriska. On top of his already over-eager personality, he was like an excitable bark-beast with a fresh kill who decided to drop everything right on the carpet for everyone to see. 

Eridan couldn’t quite manage words yet, but he shook his head ‘no’ in his best effort to respond. At the action, Karkat started to mutter curses under his breath.

“Have you talked to him at all?” The once-human continued his line of questioning, ignoring Karkat’s choice and colorful language. He was probably used to it by now, like most of the other members of the Game.

“Not for a couple nights. He was supposed to come to my hive…” The words finally started to fall from Eridan’s mouth, though he choked on them about half way through and had to swallow down another bout of tears before continuing, “But he never showed up…” Karkat’s now excessive swearing beside him certainly didn’t help calm Eridan’s worries.

Feferi looked worried, and even stepped in closer to the seated pair. She glanced at both Karkat and John before pressing Eridan for more details. “Do you have any idea where he’d be?”

Eridan shook his head again, almost hard enough to throw his glasses off his face. He had to push them back up his nose, and couldn’t quite bring himself to look at the others when silence enveloped them again.

After several uncomfortable moments, Karkat snapped and broke the tension in the room. “I told you we should have just summoned him here instead of going to his hive!” The shorter troll hissed, rubbing at his forehead angrily. “Now he’s gone missing. What if he got captured?”

“Karkat!” John barked his name out in warning, tilting his head at the seatroll again. It was a rather pointed indicator to tell Karkat to keep his cool with Eridan there and what they all seemed to view as fragile.

That of course, just made Karkat draw in a deep breath, like he planned to really blow his top and lose it on the once-human. No one wanted to witness Karkat once he was set off, except maybe Eridan. He certainly wasn’t going to stop the angry red-blood from biting off Dave’s ex-best friend’s head over nothing. 

The door banging open stopped Karkat’s words before they could escape him. Sollux was standing in the doorway, an incredibly sour look on his face. His jaw was clenched tight, like he was under stress and he waited until all eyes in the room were on him before speaking.

“...You need to see what’s on the TV. Now.” He called out to them, jerking his head toward the room he was in, and even stood there to hold the door open for them. Since it was clearly an urgent matter, John and Feferi took off first. Karkat helped Eridan stand, then led him across the room through the door that Sollux had opened.

The TV was playing loudly in the little seating room where only a few other Players were clearly stationed to watch the news. Eridan’s knees went weak when he saw who was speaking on the screen, and Karkat had to help him keep his feet as they listened to the message being delivered by the troll on screen. A troll whose face was tough to recognize for everyone else, but Eridan identified immediately, even without his trademark sunglasses.

“My name is Dave Strider. I speak for the Uprising. I don’t have to tell you things are bad -- if you’ve lived on this planet your entire life, everyone knows things on Alternia have never been good. Everyone who walks the streets of one of our cities knows the oppression of the highbloods under the Hemocaste System. They know that nowhere on this planet is safe. The stores we shop in, the places we visit run by those who view themselves superior. They take our credits to keep us submissive, and are surprised when those they deem lower run rampant in the streets. We know our food is unfit to eat, our air is unfit to breathe to those on the cooler end of the spectrum. That we are looked down on and viewed as less because of the circumstances of our hatching.

“We know things are bad. Worse than bad. This system was insanity to begin with, created by the Tyrians to keep us in line. Instead of obeying our orders to stay home, we refuse. We will not sit idly by as we are tyrannized by a System our ‘benevolent leader’ claims to have removed. Every day, the Hemocaste System is still present in our lives while Her Imperial Benevolence parties with her highblood friends. Her laws aren’t there to protect us. They are there to give us the illusion of freedom, so long as we leave her alone.

“I won’t leave you alone, my warm-blooded brethren. I want you to get MAD. I want you to protest, to fight, to riot! I want you to loudly declare that you are a being with rights! With feelings! And you deserve to live just as well as those who have oppressed us for so long! I ask that you join me as we show those who view themselves as our betters that we will not be silent! We will not be docile! Once we have rid our world of those who seek to keep us quiet, we will be able to correct the problems they’ve created. To write the wrongs of our history for a new Alternia!”

There was a long pause and Eridan stared at Dave, who seemed like a complete stranger now. His face was stoic, even colder than usual as he started his manifesto once again. Something seemed off, though -- like he was reading from cue cards off screen. And Dave usually spoke with his hands; gesturing wildly about. Why was he being so idle for someone who was typically so passionate when he gave animated speeches?

“I speak directly to you now, Feferi Peixes. Step down and allow the Uprising to take the reigns. For every week that you refuse to let those who deserve power take your place, we will destroy a major Alternian metropolis, starting with Rust City. Your resistance will be met with force.”

Dave had been sitting alone in a cell for almost three nights with no food and very little water when he’d been dragged out of it, kicking and writhing as much as he could to try to get away. The trolls that had captured him spoke very little of their plans during his captivity, and it was even worse as they hauled him along the nearly-empty corridors of their compound. With his hands bound behind his back, Dave had no way to fight back when they sat him down in a chair stationed in front of an obviously stolen news camera. While his legs were lashed to the legs of the seat, a troll came over to fix his hair and clean his face up. Two others pressed their weapons against his temples to keep him from resisting.

Even if his arms were free enough to fight, Dave was too tired to do more than follow their directions. Lack of food and three two days without sleep in sopor had left him weaker than he’d like to admit. The horrorterrors had started halfway through the second day, and Dave was anxiously aware of his surroundings, taking in any small detail he could from his position. There was only one door in the room, no windows. There were six other trolls in the room, two manning the film equipment, the girl doing his makeup for some reason, a burly guard by the door, and the pair of thugs with their weapons on him. All the lights in the room were on, probably for the film equipment, since there was nothing else in the room. All in all, it was rather boring.

There was, however, a noticeable change in the room when the door opened wide, admitted entrance to a portly little troll. When he stepped in, the chatter of the film crew had ceased entirely, and the makeup artist stepped away from Dave entirely. The two large trolls on his sides seemed to stand at attention as well. So this was the boss.

“Hello, Mr. Strider.” The smug look on the troll’s face made Dave want to hit it off him. Because his hands were bound and he couldn’t just haul off and punch him, Dave took the time to size him up. Shorter than Karkat, and built a bit more stocky, there was a hint of doughiness to him; like he hadn’t actually worked a day in his life, he just looked like he could hurt someone. A sleazy businessman came to mind. “Welcome to the Uprising.”

Dave decided to keep up his trend of silence and fixed the other with a glare instead. He even bared his teeth a little for good measure -- like Eridan had taught him. Of course, he was still working on his snarl. It didn’t do anything to phase the other troll, in fact it made him laugh before he continued talking.

“Work nicely for us, Mr. Strider, and I promise no harm will come to you.” He droned on, even having the audacity to dismissively examine his nails in front of Dave’s face. 

After only a few moments of being subject to his grubby fingers, Dave’s irritation got the better of him. Lack of sleep, probably. “Fuck you. I’d rather die.” While it was probably not the wisest choice in words, his point was made. Dave wasn’t going to back down just because he was starving, sleep deprived, and spitting mad.

That clearly pissed off the other troll, because his stubby fingers quickly reached out to grab Dave’s chin, forcing him to look him in the eyes. Something felt off about his gaze, like the troll was wearing contacts or his eyes weren’t real. Before he could pinpoint the issue, however, he was forced to tilt his head toward the door. It craned his neck uncomfortably and made it so the unsettling troll in front of him was leaned in disgustingly close to his ear. “You’re going to work for me, Mr. Strider, whether you like it or not. Or else.”

“Or else what?” Dave spat, hoping he covered the man’s hand in red-tinted spit. Served the fucker right. As if he’d waited for Dave to say the words, like a line in a TV show, the burly troll opened the door. The door directly across the hall swung ajar, allowing Dave just enough space to see a pair of violet-grey eyes on a bound, struggling troll. As quickly as it was unlatched, the door clicked shut again. 

“Or Mr. Ampora is going to suffer.”

“Eridan!” With a shout, Dave started to struggle against his bonds again. He barely recognized the sounds coming from his mouth as he snarled and growled at every troll in the room trying fruitlessly to escape. It only lasted a few moments, and they seemed content to let him tire himself out. None of the trolls in the room made any moves to stop him, and the guards even resumed their position on either side of Dave when his fit was over.

He sat back in the chair, panting between the weapons each troll held and fixed the one behind it all with a glare. Dave would comply for long enough to get him and Eridan out of there. Of course, the bastard who’d kidnapped both took that compliance for obedience, and was grinning in that same smug way as he’d entered the room. “Do as I say, and you’ll both survive. Now, when that camera turns on, I want you to read your lines, word for word, no mistakes. Understood?”

“Yes.” Dave hissed at him through his still-bared teeth, hinting that if the other came close enough, Dave might bite him. He probably would, with how angry he was. He had to hold his tongue to keep from telling the short troll exactly what he thought of him. This troll was a coward , afraid to even read his own manifestos. He’d kidnapped Dave to take the fall for him, taken Eridan hostage to make sure that Dave complied. He didn’t have the bulge to do any of his dirty work himself either, it seemed. Dave would get both Eridan and himself out of there safely, so long as he bade his time and listened to the dastardly troll. He just needed the time to get his strength back.

“Good! If this works out, I may even let you see him.” The smug asshole had the pluck to pat Dave on the head condescendingly before moving to stand by the door. He adjusted his jacket, then nodded to the camera crew, who began their set up once more. The makeup artist stepped back over to finish Dave’s face as well.

“I’m Veliza Markor, by the way. Remember the name well, Mr. Strider. You’ll be hearing a lot more of it.”

Chapter Text

Eridan couldn’t believe his eyes, no matter how many times he watched the clip. It was Dave -- his Dave -- claiming to be the spokesperson of the Uprising. Churning the various warm-blooded trolls of Alternia into a frenzy, calling for violence in the streets. Anger flashed behind his eyes, burning hotter with every word that was uttered by the troll that had captivated his heart. For the third or fourth time that day, his rage blinded him and his whole body tensed up, ready to spit venom. But like each time before, the harsh words he had on his mind, be they a yell, scream, curse, or anything else that came to mind quickly died on his tongue.

Of course, the violently sparking Psionic troll sitting beside him might have had something to do with it. Every time Eridan had started to blow up, Sollux would give him a light zap with the crackling energy, reminding him to stay on task. They were supposed to be analyzing the tape, but they’d only made a few observations so far because of Eridan’s semi-frequent wish to have an outburst. Each touch of Sollux’s Psionics turned Eridan’s words into nothing more than a small squeak and made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

It didn’t really hurt, per say, but it was incredibly annoying. And distracting. So apparently, it was doing exactly what Sollux wanted it to do. “ED, you gotta stop.” The lanky yellow-blood looked over at Eridan with a firm look on his face. He was clearly fed up with the emotional explosions, because he pointed directly at the screen. “I need you to listen. Again.”

Mituna, Sollux’s Beforus counterpart, winced off to Eridan’s right, but he reset the video streaming from his husktop to let it play across the screen again. Eridan watched and listened carefully, swallowing down his fear and anger to try and do what he was supposed to be doing. Mentioning anything to Sollux and Mituna that looked odd about his missing matesprit.

Like a never-ending stream, Dave’s words flowed just a bit too well. They weren’t his beliefs; Eridan should have noticed that from the beginning. Much like the Empress, Dave seemed to value the life he had on Alternia, doing something to jeopardize that seemed out of character. Eridan told Sollux as much, and the other troll made a small note of it on his own husktop. 

Even though it made Eridan sick to his stomach, he kept watching. Each observation he made, Sollux added to the list.

“Dave talks with his hands, he might be bound.”

“Dave wouldn’t be caught dead without his shades on, but he shows up on TV without them?”

“He only has superficial knowledge of the Hemocaste System, he wasn’t raised on it.”

“He talks about the ‘circumstances of hatching’, but Dave doesn’t even know how mating works.”

“He’s been to Fef’s parties before, he knows there are more than just highbloods in attendance.”

When it was all written down like that, Sollux and Mituna seemed convinced that Dave was coerced into giving the speech on air. They told Feferi as much when she poked in to check on them later in the night. Eridan wasn’t fully convinced, though. He’s seen the once-human acting during their FLARP games, and he could be quite convincing when he wanted to be.

Sollux pointed out, however, that he could be acting under duress or even blackmail. Stressful situations were what Dave seemed to thrive in, able to keep his cool and meticulously plot his way out. Eridan tentatively agreed that the other troll could just be biding his time in captivity.

After a while, though, it was clear that Eridan wasn’t able to continue with their study of the video and Dave’s mannerisms. The next time he’d started to bubble up with anger, Sollux had enveloped him in his Psionics, and carried Eridan out of the room. He was floated down the hall in front of the yellow-blood until he could be deposited on the floor of his assigned guest block in the palace.

The taller troll shut the door behind them, then brought his arms up to defend himself in case Eridan felt like swinging. Luckily for Sollux, Eridan’s fight was gone. He could do little more than drag himself to the closest chair and drop into it.

A few moments of uncomfortable silence surrounded them, and Eridan was almost ready to tell Sollux to get out. Instead, Eridan bit his tongue when the other troll started to speak. “...You know we had to do that, ED. You understand, right?” The yellow-blood eyed the seatroll cautiously, clearly afraid Eridan might change his mind and strike at any time. “We needed to make sure that was really his speech.”

“Oh fuck off, Sol.” Eridan responded rather flatly, pulling his glasses off so he could rub at his eyes. They were dry from crying so much over the last few nights. “I’m not in the mood to hit you.” He tugged his scarf off and threw it aside, then carefully put his glasses back on, just in time to see Sollux moving in closer to him.

“You know, I think I’d rather have you hit me than see you sit there and mope.” The taller troll dryly remarked, grabbing the chair next to Eridan and pulling it closer to himself. Once it was positioned just out of Eridan’s reach in front of him, Sollux dropped into the seat. “...ED, are you okay?”

“Just fuckin’ wonderful. Thanks for askin’.” He bit the words out, but it was pretty obvious even to Sollux that Eridan didn’t really mean it. “How would you feel if that had been your matesprit on the TV, spoutin’ a buncha lies?”

Sollux sighed a little to himself, shaking his head before moving to take his own glasses off. He used his Psionics to put both sets, his and Eridan’s on the dresser nearby, then turned back toward the troll sitting across from him. “Alright, ED, quadrants aside. Talk to me.”

“You’re the last troll on my list to feelin’s jam with, Sol.” Eridan muttered, kicking his shoes off to tuck his legs up on the seat with him. Of course, telling Sollux ‘no’ seemed to be an incorrect answer. The rude words didn’t dissuade Sollux from scooting his chair in closer until Eridan’s sock-clad feet were touching his knees. As if to punctuate it, a blanket was placed around the seatroll’s shoulders to comfort him. Sollux even went so far as to reach over and put a hand on Eridan’s, giving his fingers a gentle squeeze.

“Spill.”

“You mangle the Alternian language, bulgebiter.” The seatroll huffed, using insults as his last defense to try and make Sollux go away and leave him to his misery. Or maybe he’d get lucky and the yellow-blood would finally return some of those decidedly black feelings that sometimes drifted between them.

“Stop pitch flirting and talk to me, nookwhiff.” Of course, Sollux just called him out on his crap, making Eridan purse his lips and glare at him for a long moment. He wanted to take his anger out on the other, but a pointed look at Sollux’s red and blue eyes made him decide against the idea.

He took a deep breath, then sighed it out before asking “Where do I start?” instead of insulting Sollux’s lusus. He needed to let himself relax, even if it was only for a moment, and Sollux was right. He needed to talk to someone about what was going on, even if they didn’t share any quadrants with him.

“The beginning.” Sollux replied casually, as though that actually told Eridan what to talk about and didn’t just give him more questions. It was already a struggle to talk about feelings, but now he had to navigate things Eridan hadn’t even admitted to himself, and offer them up as a conversation piece to a troll he held more contempt for than others.

“...Dave isn’t just my moirail.” Eridan figured that how he felt about the other troll in his life seemed to be the right place to start. Saying it out loud made it feel more real, as well; his emotional outbursts, the fear and worry that consumed him were all due to his feelings for Dave. Eridan was utterly flushed for the ridiculous, charming, funny, thoughtful troll he’d accidentally shot out of the sky.

“You know, I gathered that.” The yellow-blood smiled slightly, giving Eridan’s hand another soft squeeze. “You kind of shouted it at me. How come you guys didn’t tell us you were Red?”

Eridan gnawed on the inside of his cheek lightly, using the fidgety motion to help get his thoughts in order. “...We never really confirmed it? I was waiting for him to get back to my hive to talk to him about it…” When he paused, Sollux leaned in toward him, urging him to speak more on the subject by tapping his hand with a long, bony finger. “But he never made it back to my hive… I thought maybe he just didn’t want me, but then he didn’t show up here either.”

“You never suspected that he was an Upriser?” The yellow-blood prompted, forcing Eridan’s head up enough to look Sollux in the eyes. It suddenly occurred to him that Sollux was trying to phish for information, on both him and Dave. He wanted to make sure that there wasn’t going to be a leak anywhere. It was a smart ploy during a time of war, and honestly it made Eridan a little proud of Sollux.

“No. I never did. We didn’t pay any attention to the rebel actos or anthin’. We play video games, and watch movies, FLARP. We don’t devise plans to destroy Alternia.” 

“You weren’t involved?” Sollux asked again, phrasing the question only slightly differently. Eridan had to admire the resolve he was showing to get to the bottom of things, even if he’d used a slightly underhanded method to start the conversation.

“I may have been genocidal in the past, sure. But I’m not suicidal, and… bein’ honest, since I almost killed Dave, I haven’t really felt like killin’ anyone.” Eridan smiled a bit to himself, looking away from Sollux’s eyes to where the yellow-blood was holding his hand. “Besides, you know where I’d have started.”

“With me.” Sollux smirked at him, clearly amused with the answer before pressing on. “Okay, so, you didn’t know Dave was involved in the Uprising? For real?”

The violet shook his head vehemently. “No. I never thought it was a possibility for a second.” After a long moment, he continued, tears starting to fill his eyes again. “At least, not until I saw him on TV.”

“...So there’s a good chance that he’s not actually a rebel, and instead he’s just being used.” The yellow-blood gave Eridan’s hand another gentle brush with his fingers. He even reached out to push the violet’s hair back from his face. “You’re still with us, right? To figure this out?” Eridan thought about it for a moment before slowly nodding in response. Sollux took that answer, and slowly released Eridan’s hand. “Alright, ED. Moment over.”

“...Thanks, Sol.” Eridan smiled up at him after a moment, and he was surprised by the taller skinny troll once more when Sollux gave him a very brief hug.

“Don’t worry, I won’t make a habit of being nice to you.” Sollux teased the other lightly as he stood up. Before he could leave, there was a rather loud knock on Eridan’s door, and the yellow-blood moved to open it, finding Mituna on the other side of the portal.

“MT? What’s going on?”

Mituna’s smile was more nervous than anything, like he was clearly worried about whatever news he had to share. “I went to double check, make sure everyone was here? Uhm… I missed someone.”

“Missed someone? Who?”

The Beforus troll motioned to the room next door to Eridan’s, that as far as the violet blood knew was entirely empty. “...Cronus never made it either.”

After the broadcast, Dave had been taken back to his cell and given a meal. He’d been in there for a majority of the day, though his sleep was even more fitful now than before. His worry about Eridan and horrorterrors compounded so fiercely, Dave had barely gotten any rest. It was early the next evening when he was dragged out of his prison cell once more by the same beefy trolls who’d been hauling him around his entire stay.

This time, they dragged him down a different hallway than before. It was more well-lit, and actually made his eyes burn from how little exposure he’d had over the last few nights. The lights forced him to keep his head down as he was taken through the complex structure, and eventually shoved into a room near the end of the third hallway they’d turned down.

Of course, another set of guards was waiting for him inside the room. He was passed from one pair to the other easily, and then stripped of his clothing. Though he tried to protest, it seemed like all they planned to do was wash him of the grime that had accumulated on his skin from sleeping on the floor of a dingy cell. Just as he was starting to feel a bit violated by the treatment, they deemed him finished, and he was carefully redressed in a button-up shirt, slacks and a blazer. The clothing was certainly a nice change from the dirty t-shirt and jeans they’d taken him from his hive in, though part of him was concerned with the reasoning behind the change.

As if to affirm his thoughts, he’s led across the hall into another, more well-furnished room. He was thrown down into a chair and tied up there, the same way he had been before addressing the entire planet. His feet and arms were tied to the seat, once more, and as soon as he was secure, the door opened to admit Veliza Markor. And the brawny troll who’d guarded the recording room. Apparently, he was Veliza’s personal entourage.

“See, Chater? He cleans up rather well.” The shorter troll commented to his veritable mountain of a bodyguard. 

Chater didn’t seem very interested in talking, funnily enough. The brown-blooded troll simply responded to his ward with “Spose.” That wasn’t even a real word, let alone an acknowledgement of Dave’s dashing good looks. When he fixes his eyes on Dave, there’s actually something akin to jealousy sparkling in them -- someone was envious about sharing his charge’s attention.

“So, Dave was it? How did you get such a… short name? A bit odd for a troll, don’t you think?” Veliza sat himself down in the chair across from the red-blood, a smirk playing at his lips. When he leaned in close enough, Dave could see his reflection in the shades the smaller troll wore. Hold the phone -- he was wearing Dave’s shades. That couldn’t be good. With those, he had access to way more information than Dave wanted him to.

Against his better judgement, Dave tried to make a jump for the desk. The legs of his chair slammed back against the floor when Chater held him in place, keeping him from tipping over. It did, however, give Dave the perfect angle to fix Veliza with a glare. “That’s Strider to you, jackass.” He hissed out between his teeth, clearly threatening the other trolls in the room even though he was bound.

Veliza didn’t even seem to care, simply laughing Dave off as he sat back in his chair. One of his grubby fingers tapped at the rims of Dave’s sunglasses, switching through a couple of the different apps available on them. “Wonderful little contraptions these are. Trollian, an internet browser, even a music player, all on one stylish device. Wherever did you get these?”

“They’re one of a kind. I made them.” Dave growled lightly, watching the other scroll through his apps idly. He certainly didn’t trust the other troll with so much of his personal life that was available on the shades, even if important things like his credit account and where his transfers came from were stored on his husktop, not his shades. It could be worse, Dave supposed, if they had access to his money as well as his social media.

“I wonder who all these people are? Your troll list is full of so many colors… From red to tyrian.” Veliza stood up to come around and lean against the desk that stood between them. From where Dave was seated, he could see the screens on his shades showing his open Trollian account. There were several message notifications, and the grubby troll was busying himself by going through to read each and every one. “Just who are you, Dave Strider?”

Dave sat up slightly, setting his shoulders in a defiant square up as he resumed his usual stoic facade. “I’m nobody.”

“Let’s agree not to lie to one another, shall we Dave? After all, Mr. Ampora’s life is still in danger, here.” Veliza smiled at him benevolently, as if trying to make the statement seem more innocent than it actually was. Dave ignored him, though, choosing to go back to silence instead. Sure, it would probably just end up in another threat, but Dave had to try.

“I know you’re someone , Dave. You must even be important, since Her Imperial Benevolence makes house calls and she’s even sent you a few recent messages. So I ask again, and if you don’t respond this time, there will be consequences; who are you, Dave Strider?”

Dave took a deep breath, lowering his eyes to the floor as he considered the best way to phrase his job title without revealing any details about how they actually knew each other. “I’m a member of Her Imperial Benevolence’s high council. One of the new lawmakers of Alternia.”

Thankfully, that answer seemed to be enough to pacify Veliza, since he nodded his acceptance of the information. “And how many of you are there, Dave?”

“Twenty.” Dave watched the other troll flick through his contact list once again before finally nodding.

“Alright, Dave. Here’s the transaction that will be taking place tonight. We’re going for a little walk; you, me, and Chater here. We’re going to make an appearance at Rust City’s council meeting tonight. Do not speak a word, and I will allow you to see Mr. Ampora when we get back. Deal?”

The once-human thought about the offer for a long moment. Eventually, he swallowed his anger and the defiant words that wanted to escape him enough to give Veliza a stiff nod of agreement. “Deal.”

Chapter Text

As it turned out, the stroll with Veliza and his beefy bodyguard had been to destroy the Rust City council building. Honestly, Dave should have expected it, considering the address he’d been forced to give to the world. He also should have predicted that they wouldn’t actually let him see Eridan after the dust had settled either.

When he’d asked Chater about Veliza’s promise, he’d scoffed at Dave before throwing him back into his cell without another word. The act truly put him on Dave’s shit list -- if he got out of this alive, he’d be sure to take out Veliza and Chater personally.

Dave could have thrown a tantrum about the lie, but he was still a bit rattled from the massacre he’d been forced to witness. He ended up resigning himself to sitting on the floor of the dark room, staring at the wall opposite him. He tried his best to lose himself in the fantasy of when he would finally get to see Eridan again as sleep started to curl into Dave’s mind. He missed the other troll so much.

For the last three nights, Eridan and the rest of the members of Feferi’s twin councils had been setting up their battle plan to eliminate the Uprisers. They’d all been given different sections of the plot to work on in groups of two or three, which found Eridan working alongside Aranea and Vriska with the Imperial Navy. ‘Navy’ was a misnomer, of course -- most combat ships on Alternia were spaceships at this point, or flew to some capacity. Still, when the three of them put their heads together, they had so much combined tactical knowledge. It made their method of disposal come together quite nicely, if a previously genocidal troll was allowed to say so for himself.

They’d started by stopping a couple of small uprisings on what seemed to be the Upriser’s path. Since the Uprising had started in Rust City, they’d gone to the outlying areas, the smaller cities and towns dedicated to those of the rust spectrum. The team had curbed several riots already, and begun an investigation into any reports of abuse the trolls had come forward with. Eridan didn’t know much about that side of things, to be fair. That was Kankri, Meulin, and Nepeta’s job. According to Aranea, it was their way of listening to the people’s wants and needs, and correcting any behavioral issues in trolls who still believed in the Caste System.

Of course, everyone also had their own duties. Anything Aranea didn’t want to dirty her hands with, Eridan and Vriska took care of. This included any actual fighting or field work that needed to be done. With their weapons and personal sets of armor, they were the least likely to be injured on the ground. Although, Kanaya was annoyed to see her perfect FLARP costumes be used for combat.

In extreme cases, Gamzee, Kurloz, or John would take over an investigation. Or sometimes, even an execution. The two Subjuggulators seemed to accept that John was just as merciless as they were, even if the once-human kept his distance from them. In fact, they all seemed to stay away from one another; even if they were all in the same room and all being addressed they were never within six feet of each other.

Kankri gave speeches, oftentimes in place of Feferi who was typically busy approving plan changes. Unlike their Empress, Kankri was always ready to address the planet. He even prepared all of his speeches himself, with minor adjustments going through Aranea and Feferi.

Karkat, Rufioh, and Tavros led the standing army of Threshocutioners and Cavalreapers. After the attack on Rust City, they’d tracked down any Upriser compound within the city limits they could find to flush them out. They arrested who they could, killed who resisted arrest, and those who were captured were delivered into the hands of the Justice System.

The Justice System was where Terezi and Latula thrived . They were in charge of trying all of the Uprisers that were captured during attacks and raids. Since the Alternian justice system didn’t allow for the defense to have an attorney, the two girls were vicious when it came to questioning. Any new information they discovered was reported right back to Feferi to be disbursed to everyone else.

Meulin and Nepeta also did recruiting of new members for the Empire, and with the combined help of Porrim, Kanaya, and Rose, they fed, clothed, and housed those who needed it. It was less a military program and more a protection project. From what Rose had told Eridan, they were making headway on regaining trust with the people.

Sollux, Mituna, and Dirk were consistently hacking the Uprising’s networks to plant what Sollux had described as ‘worms’, while Dirk called them 'Trojan's’. They’d leave them dormant, and when a specific word or phrase would trigger them. Chances are, they were making the computers explode on the other side, but Eridan didn’t ask for the specifics.

Equius and Horuss did… something. With robotics. The violet tried his best to stay out of their way, and they seemed to prefer to keep to themselves anyway.

Meenah and Jake had been assigned as Feferi’s personal guards. If they needed back-up, John or one of the Subbjugglators would step in. On rare occasions, they’d all work together to ensure her safety.

Two of the other once-humans; Jane and Jade were busy keeping the rest of the team on schedule. If something started to fall apart within the palace’s inhabitants, they were there to curb it.

And Roxy? Well Roxy made alcohol . The group drank at sunrise every day, all together when they could be. If not, they’d toast to one another from where they were. The alcohol Roxy provided was essential.

Aradia and Damara were busy with restorations of some sort. They had a small team of personally trained psychic-equipped trolls to assist them, and the team were slowly piecing back together any ruined buildings or fixtures in the cities that had been harmed. Their time powers probably helped with the work, and part of Eridan wondered if Dave would have been assigned to work with them or if he’d be on the frontline.

He had to shake the thought from his head almost immediately though. Dwelling on Dave being lost was a sure-fire way to send Eridan into a depressive episode that only Sollux would be able to drag him out of.

The decision that nearly the entire Council had come to was to take Dave alive when they found him. From there, he’d have to be interrogated, and possibly even sent through the Justice System. If Dave was truly part of the Uprising, they’d find out.

And if necessary, Dave would be ‘taken care of’. Eridan had held his tongue during the meeting, then broken down in his room later that day. Just like since he’d first arrived in the palace, Sollux had been the one to talk Eridan down from that particular crash. The more time the yellow-blood spent around him, the more that Eridan actually started to like him.

Of course, having a friend didn’t make the possibility of losing his matesprit any easier.

The third night after the Rust City incident, Dave had been led out of his cell to make another address in the TV room. Much the same as his last scripted manifesto, there were only a few details changed. Too bad they never had their speeches proof-read by Dave, because even he knew that it was a bad tactic to announce where they were attacking next. He’d never been to Yellow City before, and if their pattern held, Dave would be making an appearance at some major event in the metropolitan area before the Uprising destroyed it.

After his broadcast was over, Veliza had stepped out of the shadows of the room, clapping his hands mockingly at Dave. Even Chater joined in from his position by the door. He continued his Citizen Kane-style clap as he made his way over to stand in front of the bound troll. “Bravo Dave. Another excellent performance--”

“You lied to me.” Dave spat out the words at the shorter troll. He fixed the grubby man wearing his shades with a glare, drawing his lips back in a snarl. “You told me I could see Eridan when we got back the other night.”

Veliza seemed to entertain the idea, another one of those horrid smirks crossing his lips. “Oh, I suppose I did, didn’t I? It escaped my mind entirely…” He shrugged Dave’s anger aside, still hardly fazed by the bravado the red-blood put on. “Perhaps today, if you behave.”

‘Behave? Great, I’m not only a prisoner, I’m this bulgelicker’s dog.’ Dave kept the thought to himself, however, choosing to focus on the cameraman standing behind Veliza. ‘Standing’ was a generous word, after all. The rust blood was practically quaking in his boots behind the shorter troll, obviously unnerved by Veliza. Dave really had to wonder what it was that made the other trolls in the Uprising so terrified by him.

Sure, Veliza Markor had an imposing aura to him, but he was anything but scary. He hid his eyes behind Dave’s shades or contacts all of the time. He was a little pudgy; a chubby belly handing over his belt with thick arms that weren’t incredibly muscular. He looked like he barely worked at all, or the last time he’d worked hard was during the Grub Trials.

That’s when a thought struck Dave -- the doughy physique, the easy smile, imposing stature; all of those were highblood traits. Incredibly common within the large spectrum of blue-blooded trolls that inhabited Alternia. 

He wished he’d figured out that information before the TV broadcast they’d just had him record. Maybe then he could have dropped a hint to his friends who were very likely to be watching. Well, all of them except Eridan, who would definitely have been hurt if Dave had said anything on air about the deceitful troll standing in front of him.

It was probably for the best that he learned that particular factoid after the cameras were off and there was little to no danger for him and Eridan at the present moment. So long as he continued to ‘behave’.

Behaving seemed to include being quietly dragged to another room for the same wash-down treatment he got every few days thus far. They were just as rough with him this time as they were the first couple of visits he’d had, but Dave minded himself well enough to keep from protesting. He didn’t even struggle when they took his cuffs off to dress him up in another set of clothes. Afterwards, he’d been re-bound, then led out into the hallway where Veliza was waiting for him with that trademark leer on his face. Had he been watching Dave get bathed? That was entirely creepy.

“Good job, Dave! So you can be obedient.” Veliza eyed him up and down rather obviously. Even with Dave’s sunglasses hiding his eyes, he could tell what the other was doing. “Chater, why don’t you take him to see… Eridan, was it?” The shorter troll tilted his chin up to make eye-contact with Dave again, though he still had a distinctly lecherous look on his face. “He can stay with him for the day, I suppose. They must be dying to see each other after all.” With a curt nod to his bodyguard, Veliza turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Dave alone with Chater.

“Yes, sir.” Chater’s reply to his boss was a little bit delayed, and also the only warning Dave had before the meat-heads huge hand wrapped tightly around his forearm. He easily pulled the skinnier troll along through the hallways in silence.

Since Dave was never really one to leave well enough alone, and the ‘boss’ wasn’t around right now, he decided to poke the buttons of his chaperone. After a quick stretch of his jaw muscles, he was ready to rant. “So, Chater, right? Man, they must have miss-named you. I’m fairly certain those were the first two words you’ve ever spoken. Must be tough having such a deceptive name. Ever had people try to strike up random conversations with you? I’ll bet you have.” The longer he continued, the more irritated the brown-blood became. Dave kept up his rambling, making wild assumptions about the other trolls in the compound as they passed each and every room.

“What are you to Markor anyway, Chater? Surely you’re not just his bodyguard. The way you look at him man -- sheesh! It kind of always makes me want to take a cold shower.” By the time Dave refocused his word downpour on the troll escorting him firmly through the maze-like halls, Chater had several visible veins pulsing in his neck. His grip on Dave’s arm had even tightened to an almost bruising hold. 

Chater, for his part, kept entirely silent until they were standing in front of another cell. Dave was passed from his hand to the guard standing by while the burly brown-blood fiddled with his keys. “You should learn when ta be quiet.” He grumbled as he unlocked the door and grabbed for Dave again.

“But it’s just so fascinatin’ . I just gotta know; what is he to you man? He’s your moirail at the very least right? Maybe even your matesprit?” Dave pressed the issue, and got a first-hand look at watching the large troll’s face flush a dark sepia tone.

Clearly, Dave had struck a nerve somewhere, because the last words Chater spoke to him were a firm ‘Shut up’ before Dave was pushed into the room he’d just unlocked. His cuffs were taken off, and then the door slammed shut behind him, leaving Dave to adjust to the darkness that surrounded him.

For good measure, Dave turned back in the direction of the shut door to shout, hopefully pushing at Chater’s buttons just one last time before he walked away. “Nice talking to you, Chater!” He even allowed himself a small grin as he turned back toward the cell to look around.

Now that his eyes were adjusting, he was relieved to see a recooprecoon in the corner of this cell. Maybe he’d actually get a halfway-decent days sleep for the first time since he was kidnapped. There was also a table that appeared to be fixed to the floor and wall, as well as a single chair chained to it where a slouched troll sat.

Dave’s eyes connected with a set of violet irises, and his heart skipped a beat. Before he knew it, he’d closed the distance between him and the other troll. As soon as they were close enough to see one another clearly, however, Dave noticed there were several things about the seadweller in the room with him that were entirely unfamiliar.

“Who the fuck are you?” The stranger’s question was weak, like he was just as exhausted as Dave himself was. But hearing his voice confirmed one thing to the once-human.

The troll sitting in front of him was decidedly not Eridan.

Chapter Text

Whoever was seated at the table in front of him looked very much like the troll who held Dave’s heart, but there were several distinct differences between them that he noticed right away. Firstly, Eridan was a fighter; a downright antagonistic bitch, which was something Dave found rather endearing about him. If it had been his violet-blooded quadrantmate locked in this room, there would have been far more destruction to his surroundings. Eridan would have been destroying anything and everything in his path for a chance to get out. The cell he stood in was almost too clean, actually. Secondly, Eridan would not be caught dead in the outfit this troll wore. Cuffed jeans, a white tee with the sleeves rolled up to show off barely-there muscles, and plain black shoes were not Eridan’s style at all. In fact, this troll looked like he’d been plucked from the background cast of the movie ‘Grease’. He also didn’t have the glasses, scarf, or cape that Eridan was so very proud of. But Dave had seen Eridan enough without those items to know that this troll was at the very least related to his heart -- looks wise, they were a nearly-identical match.

“Who the fuck are you?” The troll wearing Eridan’s face repeated his question from when Dave had walked into the room. This time, he’d even tacked a glare on for good measure. His startling resemblance to Eridan had been unnerving a moment before, but when he spoke, it was incredibly clear they were different people. He didn’t have the cute stutter Eridan got when he was nervous, and his voice sounded almost fake, like it was an air he put on. No one ever needed to put that much effort into sounding like a tool. Someone should warn him that he sounded like a poser.

“I’m Dave Strider.” He couldn’t help snapping back at the other troll, who had the gall to look offended when Dave mocked his tone. It bought him a moment of silence to finish his investigation of the room, but he found it to be fairly similar to the cell he’d been locked in for so long. One door. No windows. The only difference between the two spaces were the old, half-full recooprecoon and the greaser troll in this one.

“Why are you here?” The other troll bounced back to regain his speech rather quickly. Wonderful. At least he seemed to have toned down the insufferable lilt to his voice this time.

“You know, usually tellin’ the other person in your prison cell who you are is a good way to start a relationship. Just sayin’.” Determined to look at anything but the troll, Dave started to pace the room, checking the walls for any sign of a way out.

As he paced, the violet’s eyes followed him around the room. “What are you doing?” He inquired for more information from Dave once again like he hadn’t even heard the passive-aggressive remark the red-blood had made about introducing himself. When Dave refused to answer him right away, the troll took to his feet and tried to intimidate him, even giving off a low growl. “Answer me!”

Dave shot a glare his way, holding up his hand to make the other shut up. He seemed to take the hint, giving Dave the time to pause by the door and listen for the guard. When there was no movement from the other side of the locked panel for several seconds, Dave carefully stood and walked back over to stand in front of the other troll. If their conversation was quiet enough, he’d be able to establish this greaser’s identity, as well as warn him that he needed to act. If his clothing and attitude were anything to go by, he should have no trouble performing. “Keep your voice down before you get us in even more trouble with the hemo-racist nookwads willing to blow up entire cities.” The violet-blooded troll made a face, then opened his mouth, but was sufficiently quieted by Dave’s hand covering his mouth. After confirming with a very firm look that the slightly older troll wasn’t going to talk, Dave continued to speak. “Do you know why you’re here? Do you have any idea who they think you are?”

There was a hint of fear in the violet eyes at the other’s words, and Dave felt bad for a moment. Clearly, this guy was as clueless about his situation as he was about fashion. Dave slowly lowered his hand from the other’s mouth, heaving a small sigh. “They think you’re my… moirail. And they’ve been using that as leverage over me. That means you’re the other Ampora right?”

“Cronus.” Right, that’s what his name was; Dave had heard it before somewhere. The bubbles maybe? He didn’t have time to pin-point it, though, because Cronus started to speak again. “You’re telling me it’s your fault I’ve been in this damn room for who knows how long?”

“Yes. Please shut up, I’m not done.” Dave continued, glancing over his shoulder at the door to make sure no one on the other side had heard them. When he turned back to Cronus, the other had pressed his mouth into a tight, defiant line, but he was quiet. “From now on, your name is Eridan. You got that? If they realize that you’re not him, they might -- why which I mean definitely will -- kill us both.”

Instead of a verbal response this time, Cronus simply nodded his understanding. Dave took a step back, getting out of the other’s personal space. Instead of standing, though, he chose to lean against the table beside Cronus so they both were staring at the door. “Did you notice anything when they brought you in here? A way out?”

The violet-blood scoffed, shaking his head. “No. They knocked me out, otherwise I’d have a plan together already.” Dave cursed a bit to himself -- of course they couldn’t get that lucky. 

They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence for maybe thirty minutes, both of them watching the door. It seemed that Cronus liked to talk, though, because he struck up a conversation to break the quiet. “So… what’s he like? Your moirail, I mean.” He glanced up at Dave from his chair, leaning back in the seat slightly so they could see one another, as well as the door. Cronus looked about as bored as Dave felt, and he supposed he could humor him for a while.

“Eridan?” Dave yawned a little and shifted to sit fully on the table so he could lean his back against the wall. After a moment to consider it, he smiled slightly to himself. “He’s cocky and can be a little rude, but he’s also surprisingly sweet underneath the bravado he puts up. Shot me out of the sky, then rescued me from drowning within about the same ten-minute span. Looks almost exactly like you but he wears glasses. He gels his hair up instead of pushing it back like you. Always has some ridiculous outfit on, whether it’s his FLARP armor or his day-to-day clothes. He likes history, especially war history, and he’s an excellent cook.”

Cronus looked thoughtful at that, leaning back against his chair to cross his legs at the ankles in a way that reminded Dave all too much of Eridan. Meeting Eridan’s neat-twin was certainly an odd experience. He missed Eridan so much at that moment it was almost painful. If clawing at the walls to get out would have worked, he would have tried right at that moment. He’s so distracted that he almost misses Cronus’ next question.

“He cover his neck with those ‘ridiculous outfits’?” Cronus seemed to be musing more than directly asking, and Dave had to take a moment to think it over. Dave had only seen Eridan’s gills a handful of times, and almost all of them had been with the smaller troll was naked.

“Yeah, he’s always wearing a scarf, a turtleneck, and his cape, so I’ve only seen them a few times.” Dave mimed how Eridan wore his usual attire, and watched Cronus make a face. “What?”

The other troll shrugged a little, seeming to actually think his words out. He spoke carefully, like he was trying to be sure he wasn’t stepping on toes. Somehow, Dave hoped he’d actually pick the words right so he wouldn’t over react and hit Cronus for saying something stupid. “...Does he live on land? Or underwater?”

“On land. I stay at his ship-hive more than I stay at my own. Even getting him to go swimming is like pulling teeth, actually...”

“Maybe his gills are deformed. Or maybe he’s just weird. But usually, seatrolls don’t like to cover their gills.” Cronus motioned to his own neck, and even fluttered the filaments for Dave’s visual benefit. “...I’m surprised he didn’t tell you that himself, being your moirail and all.”

Dave distracted himself from that accusation, looking around the room again. He didn’t know what he was looking for. A trap door, a loose ceiling panel, anything that could help him escape this conversation as well as the Uprisers. But the walls and ceiling were still solid chitincrete and the only exit was the door with an armed guard outside. Guess there was no way out of talking more about Eridan with a troll who looked just like him. “Probably because I’m not a seadweller, and I wasn’t hatched like he was, so I wouldn’t be able to understand congenital specifics about his physiology.” That was a terrible excuse and Dave knew it, but he was glad that it seemed to work well enough to distract Cronus. Maybe spending so much time with Eridan had paid off.

“...Don’t use such big words, chief. They get confusing fast.” Cronus’ face was all scrunched up in confusion, and the once-human instantly recognized the look. Eridan made the same face, his nose crinkled up and lips pursing, when he was confused by something. Unfortunately for Cronus, it brought out the same reaction in Dave who couldn’t stifle his laughter. This made Cronus send him a rather dirty look that just made Dave’s giggles intensify.

“Why are you laughing like that?” The violet-blood rolled his eyes dramatically and looked toward the door again, avoiding looking directly at Dave. If the purple tint to his cheeks and fins was anything to go by, Cronus was embarrassed.

Eventually, Dave calmed down enough from his laughter fit to speak again. “You just looked a lot like Eridan. That’s all.” He shrugged it off, then leaned down to untie his shoes to throw them on the floor in a pile. After a moment, he tossed his socks in their general direction as well, and watched them roll away a little.

“So… What else? You said he shot you out of the sky?” Cronus broke their next moment of silence after maybe a minute. Man, he really liked to talk didn’t he? Or maybe, it was that he liked making other people talk to him.

Dave nodded to answer his question, and then when Cronus looked at him expectantly, he rolled his eyes before speaking more. “In his defence, I was going to check out his hive. Was out on a flight with my lusus, just happened to be in Eridan’s hunting ground for feeding Gl’bgolyb. He shot at us, I fell into the ocean. Then he dragged me out of it, and resuscitated me. We’ve basically been inseparable since.”

The other troll seemed much more interested in their conversation now. Cronus was leaning his hand into his palm, and had set his elbow up on the table near Dave’s hip. The once-human wasn’t really sure what had caught his attention, but he wasn’t going to question it. “And what do you two do together?”

“...He’s teaching me how to cook. We FLARP together and play video games a lot. Sometimes we just sit next to one another on the couch and read. Or he’ll play his violin and I’ll mix it into my music. He’s a little obnoxious and he can be a whiner, so when one of our other friends makes fun of him, he can be a bit of an ass. But he’s not letting it get to him as much as he used to.” The more Dave said, the wider Cronus’ smile got. Eventually, his shark-like teeth were peeking through his lips because of the grin. This time, it was Dave’s turn to look at the other troll. “What?”

Cronus shrugged, sitting back in his hair again with his hands raised into the air like Dave was going to hit him for saying something. Even worse, though, he still hadn’t wiped that stupid shit-eating grin off his face. When Dave repeated the question, the violet-blood finally spoke up. “So you spend all your time with him, yeah? You cook together, play games together, even read together. And on top of that, you’ve noticed changes in his behavior since you two started playing hive and getting cozy.” The greaser lowered his arms, and changed which leg he’d crossed before leaning against the table again. He looked Dave directly in the eyes, and smirked lightly. “And he’s just your ‘moirail’.”

Dave stared back at him for a long moment, then swallowed thickly around the lump that had formed in his throat. After a beat to compose himself, he shifted uncomfortably on the table. “...alright, before I got taken, we were more flushed than pale. Kissing, sleeping in the same coon…”

“You two ever get down and dirty?” While it was refreshing to talk to someone that was such a straight shooter with his words, Dave was still both caught off guard and mildly embarrassed by the question. He desperately wished for his shades right now -- they would have hid the way his cheeks were warming up from prying eyes. “Oh you two are red . I knew there was no way you could talk about him like that and not be.”

“What’s wrong with the way I talk about him?”

“Nothing wrong with it, chief. It’s actually really cute. You two are close enough to be playing hive; think you’re going to move in with him?” Cronus was smiling almost dreamily, his head still leaning on his palm. “Wish I could convince mine to even let me stay the day.” It was Dave’s turn to smirk at the other.

“Well if you’re as direct with your matesprit as you are with someone you barely know, I think I can see why.” Dave snorted a little, shaking his head while Cronus just looked offended. He even pouted, which was what finally forced Dave to look away from him again. Why did he have to look so much like Eridan?

Cronus seemed content to be the one to talk this time, because he shook off his offense quickly and sighed almost wistfully. “Have you ever met any of the other Beta trolls?” His question was almost hesitant, like he wasn’t sure if he wanted an answer. When Dave shook his head no, the violet-blood looked somewhat relieved. “I’m sure you will eventually.”

There was definitely more that could be had to that conversation, but there was a loud bang on the door, cutting off their conversation. After a moment, a guard entered carrying what appeared to be some food for them. He set it just inside the door, then stepped out immediately.

After the door was securely shut and they audibly heard the guard walking away, Dave got up to grab the food and bring it back over to the table. They ate in surprisingly blissful silence. Cronus seemed to be busy thinking about something else. If Dave had to hazard a guess, the violet-blood was probably thinking about his own matesprit. 

How long had both of them been missing now? From what Dave remembered, they’d probably been out of touch with the world for nearly two weeks. And once he’d finished eating, it occurred to him that he hadn’t had the luxury of a good day's sleep in sopor since the day before he was taken. That fact, combined with his now full stomach encouraged Dave to get up and strip as he headed toward the recooprecoon in the corner of the cell.

“Not that I mind the show, chief, but what’s the occasion?” Cronus’ voice called out to Dave just as he was leaning over the edge of the coon to check out the sopor slime inside. It was old and smelled a bit like sea water, but after how long he’d gone without it would have to do.

“I’m goin’ to sleep.” The once-human finally responded, pushing himself up onto the edge of the coon. He sat there for a moment, looking back over at Cronus. “I haven’t had sopor for almost two weeks.”

The face Cronus made at Dave’s admission was almost pained, and he didn’t protest when the other troll finally slipped into the respite provider. Instead, he got up and followed Dave’s example, stripping his clothes off before joining him in the smallish space. As soon as he was inside, they played some limb twister to get comfortable, which sent Cronus into a bit of a laughing fit. A pointed look from the other troll made him speak up and admit what was funny to him. “I can’t even get my matesprit to share a coon with me, and now I’m sharing one with some random troll.” 

“Well, you are supposed to be playing the part of my moirail. Isn’t it a normal thing?”

“Wouldn’t know. Never had a moirail. Closest friend I got is kinda hot and cold.” Cronus shrugged off Dave’s question, finally settling in the slime beside him. There was only a couple inches of space between them, and it seemed to make the violet-blood uncomfortable because he kept shifting in place, lie he was afraid of touching the other.

Eventually, Dave got fed up with it and he reached out to grab Cronus’ arm before he could move again. “Dude. Will you stop? I don’t have fucking cooties. This coon is small enough without you constantly rolling around.”

“I’ve never shared a coon with someone before!” Cronus hissed back at him, pulling his arm away from Dave’s grip. Almost immediately, he tried to move again and Dave finally snapped, grabbing Cronus in a hug to keep him still. This action ended up with them spooning, which might have been comical for anyone else to walk in and see. The violet-blood was the taller, brawnier one, but he was now Dave’s little spoon.

“Eridan and I share one a lot. Just fucking chill out.” The sopor was slowly starting to do its job, probably because the batch of slime was so old. Either way, sleep was clawing its way into Dave’s mind and he wasn’t going to take any more fidgeting or protesting from the other troll.

Of course, Cronus still didn’t know when to shut his mouth and he shifted again, trying to pull away from Dave as he spoke. “How? It’s impossible for me to sleep like this--”

“Dude, in a space this small, it’s impossible not to touch one another.” Dave let out a large yawn, fighting drowsiness in order to form words. They came out a little slurred, but it still got the point across because after he spoke, Cronus finally seemed to settle a little.

Just before Dave was starting to drift off again, the violet-blood spoke again, his voice heavy with sleep and sopor. “...But I don’t wanna be the little spoon…”

When he wakes up the next evening, Cronus is still out cold in Dave’s arms. For a moment, Dave almost thought it was Eridan in his arms and he had to resist the urge to hug Cronus closer.

He missed Eridan. He missed him like a drowning person missed breath; like a convict missed the freedom of the outside world. Every part of Dave’s being longed for one thing. To be back in Eridan’s arms. It had already been painful to be separated from Eridan for the few nights he’d been at his own hive. Coupling that with the nearing two weeks of forced isolation, there was nothing Dave wouldn’t do to get out of this place and rejoin with Eridan. It felt like Dave was missing a part of his very being. The part that he’d wanted kept hidden away and safe from harm. Instead, it had been ripped away from him, just as they were starting to settle into something that had made Dave the happiest he’d been in years.

On top of that, since it was his first time sleeping in sopor after so long, Dave really didn’t want to leave the recooprecoon. But based on Cronus’ reaction to sharing a coon for the day, it wouldn’t do him any good to linger in their somewhat forced cuddle. Dave drug himself out of the coon and shook off the old slime before getting dressed. He went to sit in the room’s one chair while he pulled his shoes and socks back on, then sat there silently staring at the door, waiting for something to happen to distract him from his own thoughts.

Every once in a while, his eyes would drift back to the recooprecoon that held the still-sleeping violet-blood. He looked so much like Eridan when he wasn’t talking. Dave briefly wondered if the other troll would be able to pull off acting like they were as close as he and Eridan were. He really just had to hope that Cronus was as good an actor as he was at talking. He didn’t get too long to contemplate their situation or how they were going to pull the wool over the eyes of these uprisers. The door to their cell swung open to admit Chater, who looked just as surly as usual.

“You’re up?” The brown-blood seemed surprised to see Dave seated at the other side of the room, even as he glanced over the still-occupied recooprecoon. Deciding he needed to act like he cared, Dave flashed over to stand between Chater and the coon, letting out a menacing growl. He’d had the same reaction when Vriska had walked into Eridan’s hive unannounced after a FLARP game; it seemed to be the right response. Thankfully, the brawny troll seemed to buy it, rolling his eyes at Dave. “You’re coming with me.” Chater motioned to the open door behind him, then produced a pair of cuffs from his pocket.

Dave took a moment to glance back at Cronus, seeing that the other troll had woken up and was peering cautiously over the edge of the recooprecoon. They made eye contact for a moment, then Dave turned back to Chater. “I can come back later, right?” He didn’t have to act much more, the brown-blood was as thick as a troll could get. He wouldn’t notice anything off about their relationship.

“If Veliza says you can.” Was the only response Dave got from Chater. He even shrugged, implying he had no say in the subject before holding out the cuffs again.

So Dave headed over to the door and turned around, offering his wrists to Chater behind his back. It took the brown-blood only a moment to secure him with the cuffs, then Dave was being led out of Cronus’ cell. Chater shut the door behind them and for a brief moment, Dave considered trying to run. Ultimately, he still didn’t know the way out, and that would leave Cronus where he was. Or worse. So Dave cast the idea aside and dutifully walked with Chater through the Uprising’s maze-like hideout.

The hallways never seemed to end. There were so many doors, Dave honestly wondered how Chater managed to get around with his think-pan as clearly limited as it was. Maybe his memory was better than his typical brain function. Somewhere around the sixth hallway, Dave was let into a room by Chater. He even paused to take the red-bloods cuffs off before pushing him into the block.

While the rest of the rooms Dave had been in within the compound were fairly plain and boring, this one oozed ‘highblood’ grandeur. Plush, comfortable chairs, a solid wood desk with a husktop on it, and even a TV with a state-of-the-art sound system could be found in the space. Sitting regally on a large sofa in the center of it all was Veliza, who threw his usual smirk on when Dave was let into the room.

“Ah, Mr. Strider. There you are.” He motioned the once-human to a chair seated across a low coffee table from him, then glanced at the brawny guard who was still standing in the doorway. “Thank you, Chater. You can go.” Veliza waved the brown-blood off rather dismissively before refocusing his attention on Dave.

Dave heard the door shut behind him, but he refused to sit in the chair he’d been pointed to. Instead, he continued his search of the room, looking for anything he could use to get out. Again, there were no windows in the space, and Dave was beginning to suspect that they were underground. It certainly made the design of their hiding space make more sense. No, the only other exit beside the door he’d come in through was another open panel allowing Dave to see there was nothing more than an ablution block connected to this room.

Several weapons were littered around the room, but none of them were within Dave’s power to wield. Almost all of the items looked decorative, and there were absolutely no swords. There wasn’t even a clock in the room, so Dave didn’t even have access to a beat to attempt using Time to get out. If he tried it without one, he’d end up splinched at best, or dead at worst. Veliza might be an arrogant, self-righteous, hypocritical douchebag with a slight god-complex, but he was smart enough to have nothing Dave could use against him in the room. He wouldn’t stand a chance if he attacked the blue-blood in here.

With the idea of escape dashed once again, Dave finally moved over to take a seat, though he elected a much more comfortable-looking armchair than the folding one he’d been pointed to. He even ignored the dirty look Veliza shot him.

It wasn’t until the blue-blood loudly cleared his throat that Dave even bothered to look at the other troll again. Dave noticed right away that Veliza was wearing his shades again and even had his Trollian app open on the screens. He was scrolling the list, like he’d find more information from the bare system, but even Dave could see there was nothing new for him to find.

“Quite a few friends you’ve got here, Dave. And yet none of them have tried to contact you since the second day you were here… Why is that?” Veliza closed out of the app, clearing the shade’s screen so he could look at Dave directly.

The once-human elected not to answer by giving only a shrug in response. Instead, he focused his attention on the TV screen that was silently playing the news in the background. On screen was a troll who looked a lot like Karkat dressed in Imperial colors, giving some sort of speech. The ticker-tape below his face read ‘The Empress and her Council remain strong in these volatile times’.

Veliza noticed what Dave was doing instead of speaking with him, and clearly didn’t want to take his silence as an answer. Instead, he changed his line of questioning. “A member of the council, perhaps? Do you know him?”

“No.” Dave finally gave the blue-blood a verbal reply, though he refused to take his eyes away from the screen. Maybe he could get a glimpse of someone he knew if he watched long enough. “Don’t know every troll on Alternia.” Of course, just as he said that, he noticed the two people standing guard on either side of the red-blood on screen. It was fairly easy to recognize Gamzee where he slouched on the troll’s right, one of his clubs slung over his shoulder. On the left was John with one of his warhammers in hand. Both were also dressed in Imperial colored-regalia, though it seemed more like a military uniform than anything.

Veliza was clearly not pleased with his answer, because he huffed indignantly and reached for the remote on the coffee table to shut off the interrupting technology. “Dave, I am talking to you--”

“I don’t really care.” The red-blood finally turned to face the other when the TV was shut off. “I was a little busy catching up on the news, since you’ve had me locked in a cell for almost two weeks. So turn the TV back on and can it.”

The blue-blood looked spitting mad for a moment and Dave smirked to himself. Veliza clearly had a short fuse, and Dave would exploit that weakness as much as he could. “Strider, I called you in here to talk to you, not to have you watch TV in my loungeblock.”

“Not really up for talking right now.” Dave shrugged him off again, looking around the room for something else to focus on. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Veliza puff up in anger. Man this guy was easy to irritate. It almost seemed like Veliza enjoyed someone talking back to him for once; Dave could see the creeping blue flush that was covering the other’s face even around his shades.

What was more unsettling to Dave, though, was that he was enjoying pushing Veliza’s buttons. A nagging voice in the back of his head implied that he could be feeling a little… pitch. Of all the quadrants, Dave had done the least amount of research on Black romance, since it wasn’t something that had really appealed to him at the time. But now he took a moment to consider those feelings, and decided that he was most likely just projecting his hatred for Veliza into something it wasn’t. The only other person he’d ever had that feeling of ire for was Gamzee, of course. Now that relationship he could see going into a full black romance, if he ever got out of here alive.

But he could fake it. Channeling all his anger into a mock of the feelings could be a way to get inside Veliza’s head.

“So you won’t have a conversation with me, but you have time to gawk?” The blue-blood took to his feet, fixing Dave with an easy smirk. He might have had more to say, but the once-human had already told the bastard he didn’t want to talk. Instead, when Veliza opened his mouth again, Dave let the resolve he was holding onto snap and focused his anger on the other troll in the room.

Like a switch was flipped, Dave’s anger took over. He launched himself from his chair over the coffee table, and tackled the rebel leader to the floor. At first Veliza was too stunned to fight back as Dave growled and bit at him. The blue-blood’s arms had come up to try and cover his face, but he was hardly struggling to get away. In fact, the blush he was trying to hide and the tell-tale feeling of a bulge squirming in his slacks told Dave that he didn’t necessarily want to fight Dave off.

“What’s wrong?” Dave couldn’t resist shoving his knee up against the other’s crotch and watched as Veliza turned blue from ear to ear. “Never had a black romance? Of course, being a ‘lowblood’ and all, you’ve been pushed around your whole life right? Don’t want to fight back?”

Veliza sputtered a little, trying to form words, but he couldn’t manage to find something coherent. Instead, he grabbed for Dave, forcing their lips together in a harsh kiss that he tried to use to gain back the upper hand.

Dave didn’t let him take over, though he did kiss him back. It felt a touch slimy, and a whole lot wrong, but he did his best to act it out. Even went as far as to bite the other’s lip. There was some heavy, hot anger flaring between them, but Veliza didn’t seem to be able to fight back hard enough to get Dave off him. Veliza was probably regretting being so soft right about now. 

Maybe it was just that Dave wasn’t doing the black-rom thing right? It didn’t seem like he was -- Veliza was definitely turned on beneath him. It seemed the blue-blood was just unsure of the waters he was navigating. Even when he did finally start to fight back, it definitely wasn’t to try and throw him off. At least not until Dave dragged his mouth away from Veliza’s to sink his teeth into the other’s neck. The scream that Veliza let out while Dave tasted coppery blood was loud, and the blue-blood’s nails dug into Dave’s back, even as he was being ripped off the other troll.

“Veliza! Are you okay?” Of course, the bastard’s scream had called in his meat-headed bodyguard, who had dragged Dave off his master by his ankles, then cast him aside like he weighed nothing more than a sack of potatoes.

“Take him back to his cell!” Veliza’s hand had come up to cover the wound on his neck, preventing anyone who was passing by from seeing the blue-colored blood leaking from it. It wasn’t like Dave had bit him hard enough to cause an issue, so chances were that the blue-blood was more embarrassed than anything. Maybe Dave had gone too far? But no, there was definitely still something squirming in Veliza’s pants that even Dave could see as he was dragged out of the room by his horns.

Dave was tossed back into his own cell, and he couldn’t even really complain. For a brief moment, he’d held Veliza Markor’s life in his hands. It had made all the time he’d spent in the underground complex worth it to finally see that irritating facade Veliza put up slip for a few minutes.

He doubted there would be repercussions for the bite he’d given Veliza, though. Chances were, the blue-blood would be too busy trying to cover up his wound and explaining how they’d started a pitch-tinted makeout session to his bodyguard. Even if Dave felt a little dirty for using the Quadrants to his advantage, he’d gotten a taste of black romance and given Veliza one, too. The blue-blood would undoubtedly be back for more.

Chapter Text

Once the war had officially started, Eridan had found himself with basically no free time. He was always busy with something -- helping Feferi, planning attacks with Vriska and Aranea. The usual goings-on of war. He’d barely slept the first two weeks because of how much work had to be done.

When he’d finally gotten a moment to spare for himself, he’d planned to spend it alone in his block tending to his violin. Eridan’s fingers itched to play as he rosined the bow; it was his favored way to work out stress and worry, after all. He’d just tucked the instrument under his chin and drawn the bow across the strings to test the sound when there was a loud knock on his door.

The disturbance caused him no small amount of irritation, and he took it out on the wooden panel when he flung the door open, slamming it into the wall with the force of the action. Eridan glowered at the troll on the other side, but Sollux didn’t even seem fazed.

“What?”

Sollux’s grin was mildly insufferable, but his laugh brought some levity to the situation. “Damn, ED. What did the door do?” The taller yellow-blood let himself into the other’s room, peering behind the door to make sure no damage was done to the wall. Eridan rolled his eyes, but let the other in without protest, returning to his violin to pick it up from where he’d set it. Clearly, he wasn’t going to get time to play, so Eridan set it back in its case as Sollux closed the door behind them.

“What’s up?” Eridan tried to speak up again after a long moment of silence to carefully secure his instrument. When he turned back to Sollux, the taller troll had perched himself on Eridan’s desk and was busy messing with one of the little cuttlefish statues Feferi had all over the palace.

“Just wanted to talk with you about something.” The yellow-blood stopped trying to distract himself with the figure and settled his mis-matched eyes on the violet, giving him a small, easy smile.

Eridan sighed to himself and sat down in the desk chair near Sollux, looking up at him after a drawn out moment. When they stared at each other in silence for a bit too long, he gave him a verbal indicator to speak. “Alright, Sol. Enough with the suspense. I’m listenin’.”

Sollux took a few deep breaths that Eridan found himself mirroring. Once Eridan was calm enough in Sollux’s mind for the conversation, he began speaking. “ED, do you think maybe you’re being a little… aggressive in your reactions to all this? You and DV bonded really fast, and even if most of us didn’t get it we could see you two had something good together. You jump into things -- and out of things -- really fast. It kind of seems like you’ve already made up your mind that Dave’s guilty of treason when you talk about destroying every Upriser compound we come across without even searching for him first. I think… that maybe you’re denying your feelings about him more adamantly than you should.” The yellow-blood held up a hand to keep Eridan from protesting when he opened his mouth, and the pointed look he gave the other made the violet shut his mouth so Sollux could finish his thought. “ED, it’s okay to be scared. You know that, right?”

“I’m not scared, Sol.” Eridan muttered, knowing full well that he was lying. Sollux knew, too, from the unamused expression he gave the other.

“Eridan.” Hearing Sollux say his full name made Eridan stop trying to prepare more excuses in his head. The yellow-blood never used full names unless he meant business. “What are you going to do when we find him? Because you and I both know that you’re not going to kill him. Deep down, you know he hasn’t been going behind your back to run a rebellion. From what you’ve told me, he didn’t even have the time. He basically lived with you, ate with you, slept with you. You’d have seen something was up long before he disappeared. You’re too smart to keep up this charade and denying how you feel is making you act irrationally.”

For a moment, Eridan was too stunned to say anything back. His mind raced through everything he’d been through with Dave since shooting the other out of the sky. They’d spent so much time together; playing games, FLARPing, cooking, reading. Their time had been occupied with just being together. Even when they were apart they talked constantly. There really was no way for Dave to have been involved in the rebellion. He simply wouldn’t have had the time with how much he’d devoted to being with Eridan. Everything began to sink in, now that it had been pointed out to him. After everything was said and done, whenever this war was over, Eridan could have Dave, his Dave, back with him.

For the first time in what felt like forever, hope flooded Eridan’s mind. It didn’t stop there, either. It surged through him until he could feel his heart beating faster in his chest. The force of his aspect flowing through him made Eridan choke on a sob, and then his head was in his hands to cover the tears that started to fall from his eyes.

“I don’t knoww, I don’t knoww…” Eridan’s stutter escaped him. He was unable to stop it, just like he was unable to halt the tears spilling down his face. His shoulders shook as he started to sob more uncontrollably, his vision blurring until he couldn’t see Sollux sitting across from him. He heard the other push off his desk and finally found the courage to look at the yellow-blood when Sollux gently took his glasses off his face.

“When we find him, ED, you’re going to be as red for him as you were when all this started.” The other troll cleaned Eridan’s glasses off with his own shirt, then grabbed the end of the violet-blood’s scarf to wipe his face. Once he was mostly tear-free, he set the other’s glasses back on his face. “And no one is going to say anything against it because we can all see what you have is good for you both.”

“Wwhen wwe find him?” Eridan sniffled a little, but managed to give Sollux a small smile.

“Yes, ED. When we find him, I expect you to hug him, to kiss him, to keep him as close to you as you possibly can. Because you’re so red for him, it’s actually kind of adorable.” Sollux graced the violet-blood with a lopsided grin when he reached up to ruffle Eridan’s perfectly coiffed hair. “And I swear if you don’t, I might because DV is hot--”

Eridan couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him, even as fresh tears started to roll down his cheeks. “You keep your grubby hands off my matesprit, Sol.” The yellow-blood’s grin softened to a smile, and he leaned in close to give Eridan a hug. It took him a moment to relax, but eventually, Eridan returned the embrace, burying his face against Sollux’s shoulder to hide his excessive sobbing.

Thankfully, Sollux didn’t seem to mind. Instead, he stayed with Eridan while he cried out his worries and stress. He didn’t even complain about Eridan snotting all over his shoulder. Eridan thought that the other would have ended the moment as soon as possible, but instead of shoving him off and going back to how they were before the game, Sollux stayed with him until he stopped crying.

Sollux sat with him during their free time and listened to Eridan talk about his missing matesprit. He wasn’t sure how much time actually passed, but it was nice to sit with someone else and talk to them about Dave. It was a bit odd, how his and Sollux’s relationship had changed so much since the Game in just a few weeks. Maybe Dave really did bring out the best in him.

Chapter Text

No food, contact, or sopor for the two days after his moment with Veliza had Dave a little hazy when he’s roused in his cell by two rust bloods. They both looked like they had the worst jobs in the world as they drug him to his feet and slapped cuffs on his wrists, a bit tighter than usual. Dave dutifully walked with them through the underground maze to another room that Dave hadn’t been since he’d gotten to the compound.

Veliza and Chater occupied this room, standing in the far corner of it so they could converse quietly. The brown-blood glared directly at Dave over Veliza’s shoulder as he was led into the room. Deciding to be an ass, Dave grinned easily at Chater, then made a show of looking Veliza up and down, his red eyes finally settling on the bandage-covered bite on the blue-blood’s neck. He even went the extra mile and drug his tongue over the pointed ends of his teeth slowly and watched Chater turn that same dark sepia as he had before. Clearly, someone had feelings for Veliza pushed down deep.

Of course, the blue-blood noticed the reaction and ended his conversation with Chater almost immediately after Dave entered the room. Veliza turned toward him, though he stayed quiet for several minutes, browsing something on Dave’s shades.

During that silence, Cronus was pulled into the room by another set of guards. Seeing the violet-blood made Dave far more concerned. They’d never taken them out of their cells at the same time. As soon as Cronus saw Dave was standing near him, he raised an eyebrow and silently asked ‘What’s going on?’.

‘No idea.’ Dave mouthed the words back, even giving a little shrug to illustrate his point. Surprisingly, Veliza and Chater remained passive. Neither said anything about the silent conversation going on in front of them.

‘They say anything?’ Cronus jerked his head toward the other two trolls in the room, then got distracted immediately by one of the rust-blooded guards that stepped into his view. The once-human didn’t even bother to reply to him; Cronus was too busy checking out their captors to wait for Dave’s response.

Deciding he’d had enough of the silence, Dave took a casual look upwards toward the sky, like he could actually see it through the thick chitincrete ceiling. “So what’s the weather like? I haven’t been outside in so long, I sometimes forget it exists.” He tilted his head back down, making eye contact with Veliza through the shades just in time to see the other close out of the internet browser.

“We’re moving to Yellow City today in preparation.” Veliza replied in a fairly flat voice, almost acting like Dave hadn’t spoken in the first place. Of course, his next words betrayed that he had been listening to the red-blood after all. “You’ll see plenty of the outdoors on your shuttle out there.” The blue-blood tore his eyes away from Daves to look over at Cronus, who was still busy making eyes at the rust-blooded guard. Veliza seemed confused by it for a moment before he cleared his throat to get the violet’s attention.

In the funniest display Dave had seen in a while, he watched as Cronus turned toward the blue-blood. The seatroll then eyed the rebel leader from his shoes to his horns, and gave him a very easy grin that was betrayed in its intent by the glare in his eyes. Dave had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. Veliza realized a bit too late that Cronus was checking him out.

“You know, I don’t think we’ve met yet. I’m --” Dave sucked in a deep breath, silently praying to every deity he could think of that Cronus wouldn’t screw up the next words out of his mouth. He mentally prepared himself for a fight he was sure to lose his life in, but all the tension released when Cronus continued. “--Eridan Ampora. What’s your name, nookwhiff? Wanna make sure I know what they call you when I end your existence.” The once-human should have been mad, really. Cronus had a worse habit of running his mouth than he expected. But the more Dave thought about it, the more he realized that Eridan would probably have said something close to that. It brought a light smirk to his face, and he gave Cronus a thumbs-up behind his back.

Veliza did not seem to like being pitch-flirted with by another troll. He turned his attention away from Cronus, fixing Dave with a frown that seemed almost pouty. “Mr. Strider, I believe you might need to have a talk with your moirail. He doesn’t seem to understand his current situation.” The blue-blood adjusted Dave’s shades on his face, giving the red-blood a brief glimpse of his eyes. Oh, so now Veliza was flirting with Dave in front of Cronus to make a display out of it.

“Oh, I understand my situation, chief. I’m just trying to make the most out of it.” Cronus shrugged nonchalantly, in almost the same way Dave did. Really, if they got out of here alive, Dave was going to have to talk to Feferi about getting Cronus a medal for his acting skills. He was better than Dave had expected at playing a part. “Besides, we share everything else, right Davy?”

The blue-blood’s nose twitched up in distaste as he looked back at Cronus. He opened his mouth to say something when Dave decided to join in on making the rebel leader uncomfortable. “We do share just about everything. I think we could make it work, Danny.”

Veliza looked ready to explode, sucking in a deep breath before he replied to Cronus directly, electing to ignore Dave. “I have no interest in a relationship with a highblood like you.”

Dave couldn’t resist adding on more, just to watch Veliza squirm. “You sure, Lizzy? Could sandwich you right between us.” He punctuated the words with a growl, and was incredibly pleased when Cronus joined him in the sound.

“Get them ready for transport.” Veliza didn’t even respond to them, but his irritation was evident by his tone of voice. “They’ll be on shuttle 413. We leave in twenty minutes.” He left the room as soon as he was done speaking. Chater followed him out, leaving Dave and Cronus in the hands of their guards.

For the past few weeks, Dave had been thinking that being kidnapped and forced to turn against his friends was the worst thing that ever could have happened to him. Apparently, he’d been wrong, because the worse fate was being handcuffed to Cronus Ampora on a shuttle ride to Yellow City.

Now that the boss wasn’t around and the two were seated at the very back of a mostly-empty shuttle, Cronus hadn’t stopped talking. Dave didn’t know if it was for his benefit, or if he was trying to bore their guards into letting him go, but Cronus had talked about damn near everything but the kitchen sink.

Well, except quadrants. He seemed to be a bit touchy about those and always redirected the conversation when they came up, like he’d been trained to avoid them as a topic. Mostly, Cronus talked about himself. He was a bit of a textbook narcissist, which made sitting next to him an ordeal. The only part of the entire deluge of words that Dave had remotely paid attention to was his talk about music.

Dave eventually got tired of it and had used the hand currently cuffed to the other’s to poke his leg. It made Cronus quiet down enough for Dave to get a word in, and he cast a quick glance at the guards to make sure they were off in their own world before looking directly at the violet-blood. “Why don’t you talk about the quadrants?” He asked, quiet enough that the guards wouldn’t overhear them.

“Because… they can be a triggering subject to some people.” Cronus’ response came after a moment of hesitation. He fixed his eyes on his knees and chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, while his face turned violet from fin to fin. Dave decided to look at the floor, because Cronus looked far too much like Eridan at that moment for his liking.

Still, Dave knew a whipped guy when he saw one, and Cronus definitely acted like he was in a relationship where someone else held all the control. It made Dave smirk a little to himself, not that the violet-blood could see it from how he was trying to hide in his seat. “So who is it?” Dave prompted Cronus to keep speaking, poking at his leg again to get his attention.

“Who’s what?” The reply came from the troll a little too fast. He seemed content to play dumb, even though he definitely knew what Dave was talking about.

“Your matesprit, of course.”

Dave truly thought that Cronus’ face couldn’t become any more violet, but it did. He looked like he was going to explode as he heaved a deep sigh. When Dave looked at him expectantly, Cronus pursed his lips for a moment before talking. “If you’d ever met him, you’d have known who he was as soon as I said ‘triggering’.” Cronus smiled a bit fondly at the window, remembering the person in question. “He talks a lot. Even more than me, if you can believe that. And he doesn’t have a whole lot of friends because of it. And, well, no one likes me much either. He has this chastity vow, so I was really surprised when he agreed to be my matesprit…” The violet-blood’s voice trailed off as his shoulders sunk a bit. 

Dave felt sorry for Cronus for the first time since he’d met him. He felt bad for getting the other troll mixed up in this mess and forcing him to be away from his matesprit, because they obviously needed each other. A lot like Dave needed Eridan. Being separated from their significant others certainly was taking its toll.

“Okay, but you didn’t answer my question.” He prodded Cronus again, bringing the other out of his funk for a moment. Cronus looked confused, so Dave asked more directly. “He’s one of the Beta trolls too, right? What’s his name?”

Cronus smiled at the clarification, shaking his head a little. “He’d be really mad we’re having this conversation, but I think considering the circumstances… Kankri. Kankri Vantas.”

Dave couldn’t stifle the laugh that escaped him at that. Of course it would be Karkat’s ancestor who talked people to death. It seemed to be a common trait amongst Vantas’.

Eridan and the rest of the tactical team had been stationed in Yellow City for almost two nights now. Working hand in hand with Karkat and Meenah; Aranea, Vriska, and himself had determined that the next attack would be at the Yellow City Center Complex. A huge building that was constantly full of trolls, whether it be for shopping, dining, gaming. Anything that could be held in a large building. They’d forced the Complex to shut down, and stationed themselves there, planning to ambush the Rebellion. They had basically nothing to do but wait for the attack.

The yellow-bloods who were in charge of the city had been surprisingly accommodating to the Imperial team. They’d watched the attacks on Orange City, and had been preparing themselves ever since. All they really had to do was wait for something to trip one of their alarms, and they’d inform Sollux so he could deploy a tactical group to pick them up. It was somewhat uncomfortable to have to wait for an attack. They’d never been on site for one before. But they knew one would come, and that eased the tension of being on standby.

To pass the time, the Imperial Tactical Team often held miniature war conferences of the fifth-floor balcony of the Yellow City Center Complex. The view from there was fantastic; they could almost see the entire city, which made it very easy to keep an eye on things. Oftentimes, however, they ended up talking about why the Uprisers would even bother to try to stage an attack on Yellow City. There were certainly better places to attack, and taking the city from the densest population of Psionics on Alternia would be nearly impossible. Yellow City even had its own police force since the abolishment of the Caste System, and they ran frequent rounds about the city. It would be incredibly hard to go unnoticed.

Of course, that didn’t stop Eridan and the others from getting together to talk about their plans once the Yellow Patrol found the Uprisers. Meenah had been the one to derail their conversation tonight as soon as she got bored with hearing their program again. “Are they stupid?” She scoffed aloud as she reached to grab Aranea’s hand and tangle their fingers together.

“They must be. Or their think-pans have somehow rusted through their thick fucking skulls.” Karkat shook his head, rolling his red and gray eyes dramatically. “That’s the only explanation for this grant fucking idea they have of just waltzing in and attacking the largest Psionic city on the whole fucking planet. They’re going to be blasted sky-fucking-high for it.”

“It’s hardly good planning, that’s for sure. We’ve had our troops here for a couple nights now, and the Yellow Patrol has been set up for even longer. They might be looking to get themselves killed.” Aranea squeezed Meenah’s hand as she replied, clearly thinking about it from every angle possible. Her tactician’s brain was truly impressive.

“Who caaaaaaaares! As long as we get to bash some skulls in, I’m calling it a win!” As usual, Vriska was grinning from ear to ear with her eyes alight at the possibility of bloodshed. For a moment, Eridan briefly wondered why he’d ever considered her his kismesis -- she threw herself into things too viciously. It was scary to think about how he could have been killed by her at any point.

Eridan spoke up to keep her from saying too much more about murder. Things got out of hand when Vriska was blood-lusty. “Vris, remember that we’re here in case the Patrol needs backup.” Of course, Aranea nodded her head in agreement with Eridan’s statement. It was odd to be on the other side -- usually Eridan would be calling for blood as well, but he’d found lately he didn’t have the same drive for murder with everything else on his mind. Like Sollux had pointed out, Dave had changed him. Probably for the better.

“We’re only here if they need us, and to transport the culprits into the hands of the justice system once the Patrol is done with them.” Aranea confirmed, looking between her matesprit and dancestor. “Please don’t engage in anything reckless.”

Meenah pursed her lips like she wanted to protest, but instead she just nodded and squeezed Aranea’s hand again.

“Vris, that goes for you, too.” The violet-blood reminded her, and watched as Vriska made a face at him.

“Shut up, fishface! I know!” She stuck her tongue out at him and leaned back in her chair, throwing her arms behind her head. “You’re no fun anymore. What happened to the genocidal douchebag Eridan?” Vriska was always loud at the worst of times, and the rest of the table tried to shush her as she finished her question.

The question was rhetorical and didn’t actually require an answer, but Eridan stood up to give one anyway, adjusting the lines of his jacket before he moved to grab himself a cup of coffee from the nearby refreshment bar. “He was killed by Kan in the Game. We aren’t wrigglers anymore, Vris. It’s time to defend the new world we were given. I’m determined to keep it.” He picked up a mug, and filled it with the dark, bitter brew before turning back to the team and drinking from the cup. Karkat seemed very pleased with that answer, and even gave him a small smile, while Aranea looked more thoughtful than anything. “I finally got somethin’ good, and I’m not goin’ to lose it.” He punctuated the end of his thought with another sip of coffee, incredibly grateful that having Dave around had given him a taste for the caffeinated beverage.

No one had the chance to respond to his words, though. What felt like an earthquake ran through the chitincrete complex below them, and the force of it threw Eridan to the ground. Karkat was the first one up, throwing his chair back out of his way while he screeched into his communicator.

Eridan got himself back up on his feet with Karkat’s help as the red-blood stomped off to make sure everyone was in their battle stations. Meenah followed behind him after he barked at her, though she looked reluctant to leave Aranea.

The three naval commanders ended up watching from the fifth-floor balcony as the standing army of Alternia poured out of the Yellow City Center Complex, arranging themselves neatly into little pods that could be sent out to retrieve new prisoners.

“There hasn’t been an army this large since the Condesce’s.” Aranea supplied from beside Eridan, looking rather sadly at the group formed below. “Only this time, they’re trying to save lives… not destroy them.”

Vriska was too busy grinning like a maniac to care what her ancestor had said. Instead, she shouted into the wind, “This war is ours!”

When Veliza had mentioned that they were headed to Yellow City, Dave had to stop himself from laughing at the other. Yellow City was one of the first cities to have a rebellion, before the Uprisers had even formed, and they’d quashed that before it could become an issue. It meant that the yellow-bloods would be well prepared to take out anything else that came along.

Dave felt a little bit of shame for the other troll. He managed to kidnap Dave, hold him as a captive, and cause him unending torture for almost three weeks, but he wasn’t smart enough to skip the highest concentration of Psionics on Alternia? Launching an all out attack on a city full of trolls who could fight each other at long range, from inside the comfort of their own hivestem was a bit of a horrible plan. Dave was starting to think Veliza didn’t actually know what he was doing.

From what Dave could hear of the hushed conversation the guards were having, Veliza’s plan to attack the Yellow City Center Complex hadn’t gone over well. They were still waiting for mobilization orders, but had heard nothing from their leader, leaving Cronus and Dave on the shuttle for far longer than they probably should have been. He sincerely hoped that the vehicle they’d been strapped into for several hours was in an easy enough place for one of the thousands of yellow-blooded Psionics to find. Maybe then he and Cronus would have a chance at getting back to their matesprits.

It was, however, glorious to watch Veliza’s plan go up in the bright colors of Psionic powers. From Dave’s spot by the window, he saw two of the Uprising’s shuttle brigade go down, utterly destroyed by the blast.

Then, it was their shuttle plummeting toward the ground at a rapid clip. Dave grabbed Cronus to pull him from his chair and toward the back of the ship, using the chairs that lined it for hand holds. Meanwhile, the guards that had been sent to watch them were all forced to the front of the shuttle and were busy puking or going through some form of panic.

That meant that none of them noticed what the other two trolls were doing, though. Cronus and Dave crouched at the back of the shuttle, both of them poking through the tech they found there. “Cronus, you know if any of this stuff can help us survive when we hit? You got like, thirty seconds to use it.”

Cronus rolled his eyes at Dave, but was definitely urgent as he looked through everything before grabbing a lever that was neatly nestled between them. “Take a deep breath.” The violet-bloods warning gave Dave just enough time to do as he was instructed before Cronus ripped the handle down.

All at once, the cabin started to fill with an expanding foam, surrounding both of them almost immediately. Dave’s vision went white as it covered him from head to foot, and he understood then why Cronus had told him to take a deep breath. With how fast the foam expanded, and then hardened, he could have died from the flood of safety material.

The foam did help their impact with the ground, but it still jarred Dave thoroughly. Sparks played behind his eyelids for a moment before someone pulling at his wrist got his attention. Cronus was fighting to get out of the foam beside him, and Dave joined him in the efforts as soon as he recovered from the initial shock.

When they finally breached the surface of the foam, Dave took a deep breath of foamy-tasting air while Cronus was busy kicking at the door of the shuttle. It came loose after a few hits, letting both trolls roll out onto the ground outside. As soon as they were out, Cronus started desperately clawing at the foam that still covered his neck and gills. Dave had to help him pull the substance off, trying his best to be careful of the other’s sensitive gills.

Once he could breathe fully, Cronus wrapped Dave up in a one-armed hug. The two sat on the demolished chitincrete for a moment to catch their breath, panting against one another’s shoulders. When Cronus’ breath wasn’t as wheezy, Dave finally stood up, pulling the seatroll along with him.

“Come on.” Dave managed to speak finally, his voice a bit hoarse from how long he’d been forced to hold his breath. It wasn’t easy, but the two of them leaned on one another to start moving toward the hivestems nearby. “We’re as good as dead if we stay here.”

Cronus led the charge into the city once he’d gotten his legs back under him. They walked for a long while, with the violet-blood seeming to have a destination in mind as they passed battles and bodies in the streets. Turn by turn, the pair got lost in the city until finally, they couldn’t hear the sounds of battle anymore.

When neither of them could go any further, they found their way into an empty warehouse to settle in for the day. Cronus and Dave sat in the corner of the quiet space and held each other close to sleep the day away. They’d move out again tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Searching the wreckage of Yellow City for survivors had turned out to be a much larger project than they’d expected. Even with the largest force available to them, the team had been looking around every corner for almost a full night now. So far, there was no indication that the leader of the Uprising had even come to the city, even though the Yellow Patrol swore they’d taken out all of their shuttles.

There were also no signs of Dave or Cronus, Eridan’s ancestor who’d been missing just as long as his matesprit. The logical conclusion was that they’d somehow escaped, which was more a worry than it was a relief. While Dave wasn’t among the dead reported so far, he also wasn’t among the rebels they’d captured. That meant he was still missing, out there in a world he wasn’t familiar with on his own.

Maybe they hadn’t brought him along to Yellow City? It was a possibility, but to confirm that, they’d have to wait for another announcement from the ‘leader’ of the rebellion. So far, there had been no attempts by any hackers to broadcast.

“He might have escaped.” Sollux supplied helpfully from his side, making Eridan jump in surprise. He hadn’t noticed the other arrive beside him at their most recent site to inspect. 

“I hope so.” Was all Eridan could manage to say in response. The yellow-blood left him alone to finish his inspection, rejoining Mituna to help him talk to one of the Yellow Patrol members about the area.

Eridan poked around each crashed shuttle with his rifle ready to fire at his hip. They hadn’t found many survivors of the crashes yet, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t be on guard. The hull of the ship he’d just stepped into was still warm because of the hot sun of the day, and the shuttle smelled horrible. On top of a mess of safety foam, there was blood of at least three different colors in the cabin. 

The foam was a variable that differed from the other ships Eridan had inspected thus far. None of the other shuttles had dispatched the safety feature, and from how the foam was cracked, someone had to have been inside it when the shuttle crashed. He stepped out, ordering a couple of the team he had with him to clear out the four bodies of the Uprisers inside, as well as to recover the shuttle’s pilot from the front seat as he headed around the back.

There was another door at the back of the ship that had been kicked out instead of sliding open as it was intended to be used, and chunks of safety foam littering the ground around it. When Eridan peeked into the foam-covered end of the ship, there was enough space cleared out in the foam to indicate at least one person had made it out of the crash. Further inspection corrected the number of escapees from one to two when Eridan counted the holes their limbs would have occupied.

Just as Eridan was going to report his findings to the rest of his team, he heard someone call out for him. He stowed his weapon to go find the troll, seeing one of the ones he’d ordered to clear the ship pulling a rust-blood out by his bloody shirt. His legs were entirely crushed -- there was no way that troll would ever walk again, but he was making enough noise to indicate he could talk.

Eridan knelt down next to him, motioning the soldier back inside to finish his job. A quick glance told Eridan everything he had to know about this troll’s situation. Even if the medical team managed to get there in time, he was likely not to make it.

For a moment, Eridan thought about ending his misery. Even though he was one of the Uprisers, the troll was wounded horribly and it would be an excruciatingly painful existence until he finally died. Instead, he thought of the two troll-shaped holes in the safety foam. As the only survivor left on the shuttle, he was the one troll who could tell Eridan who else had been aboard at the time of the crash.

Making a snap decision, Eridan brought the Crosshairs back out, fiddling with the dial until the settings were low enough to burn and cauterize the wound he was going to make. Then, he leveled his gun, squared his shoulders, and pulled the trigger.

Eridan had managed to get the rust-blood to a healer, who’d made a fairly large fuss over the troll’s missing legs. While he’d kept his shot below the other’s thighs, and Crosshairs had instantly cauterized the wounds, the troll was still a gruesome sight. The violet-blood told the healers to do their best before he walked off to find Equius and Horuss to get a more permanent solution made for the troll.

He found the pair of odd navy-bloods with the two yellows and Dave’s sort-of-brother, Dirk. After a quick explanation of what he needed them to do, the two Zahhaks and Strider put their robotics geared minds together to create what Eridan asked for.

“You shot the guys legs off?” Mituna stared at Eridan in horror when he explained what he’d done to the two yellows. Sollux just looked proud.

When Eridan glanced at Sollux questioningly, the taller troll just gave him another one of the lopsided grins he’d grown accustomed to seeing. “I can’t believe you helped someone! And a landdweller at that.” He gently poked Eridan’s side, then reached over to give him a light, one-armed hug. “Dave really did wear off on you, didn’t he?”

Eridan laughed a little and pushed the other off him. “Have we found anything yet?” He motioned to the lines of code scrolling across the pair of husktops that belonged to the yellows, but wasn’t surprised when Mituna made a face.

“We ain’t found shit.” Mituna muttered, typing at a few keys to maintain whatever work he was doing. Eridan didn’t understand anything about code, so he didn’t ask any follow up questions, instead he just looked at Sollux who sighed heavily.

“Scans of the wreckage show there are a few more live ones out there.” He shrugged, pulling up the scans on his screen to point things out for Eridan. “KK’s already sent out a group to pick them up.” The violet couldn’t stop a small pout from crossing his lips as he sat down between Mituna and Sollux at their table. That earned him a glare from Mituna, but Sollux didn’t seem to mind at all. “Did you find anything besides the new amputee?”

“Some troll-shaped cutouts in safety foam on the same shuttle.” Eridan muttered. “That’s why I kept him alive. Once he’s awake, I plan on askin’ him a few questions, but who knows if he’ll even make it through the day.

Sollux nodded understandingly, and pulled Eridan in against his side for another, longer hug while he typed away at his computer. “Sorry, ED. I know you were hoping to find him out there…” He muttered quietly, leaning his head lightly against the seatrolls for another moment before letting him go.

“Yeah… me too.” Eridan sighed and slowly wormed his way out from between the Gemini’s to get back to work.

“We’ll find him, Eridan.” Sollux assured him as Eridan walked away to go check on the troll he’d maimed. With any luck, the rust-blood would be awake to give him some information.

Dave had horrorterrors visit him the whole day that he and Cronus had slept in the empty warehouse. He woke up irritated and sore from the way they’d been curled together on the uncomfortable floor. When Dave went to sit up, the chain that connected his wrist to Cronus’ pulled on the seatroll’s arm.

The violet-blood made a whine of protest that only got louder and more petulant when Dave poked his side. “Cronus. Get up, dude. We need to get these cuffs off and get somewhere safe.”

Cronus sighed dramatically and sat up next to the red-blood, yawning loudly after another beat of silence passed between them. Both of them took a moment to rub at their bound wrists, easing some of the soreness in their limbs.

Eventually, Dave took to his feet, helping Cronus with an arm to get him up as well. Though Cronus protested loudly, the two began a quick search of the warehouse they were in for something to break the chain between them. Their search turned up nothing -- the warehouse was seemingly cleared out of all the useful tools they’d need. 

While Dave had been looking for tools, Cronus tested the limits of their chain by looking out the windows. It had been annoying at first, but then Dave remembered that unlike himself, Cronus had lived on Alternia his whole life. He could have information on where they were and how to get out of their situation. Instead of getting annoyed with him for barely moving, Dave joined Cronus at the window to gaze out at the town. “So where are we?”

“Yellow City proper. The Alhena district, it looks like.” Cronus tilted his head to look out the window in a different direction. “We’re at least a thirty minute walk from the closest Patrol building. The hivestems are closer.”

Dave nodded, absorbing the information as he followed Cronus’ gaze. “So I take it you’ve been here before?” When he didn’t see anything of note, he went back to trying to fiddle with the electronic lock on his cuff, though he knew it wouldn’t do any good. His wrist just itched like hell and he wanted the metal custody bracelet off before it started to cut into his skin.

“A couple times, visiting Tuna.” He motioned to the row of hivestems visible from their window. “He lives over there, actually… We could go see if he has anything to get these open.” The violet-blood seemed to have made up his mind on that, because he immediately moved for the door, pulling Dave along with him.

Once the heavy door of the warehouse was shut behind them and they were in the warm night air of Yellow City, he prodded Cronus for more information. “Who’s ‘Tuna’?” As they walked, he stretched out his uncuffed arm, trying to relieve some of the tension that had built in his shoulders from their night on the chitincrete floor.

“Mituna. Your Captor’s ancestor.”

As they walked, Dave took the time to look around the city as best he could. Since he’d only really seen where his hivecluster was near the mountains, as well as Eridan and Feferi’s hives by the sea, Dave hadn’t really seen much of Alternia proper until he was kidnapped. The more city-like structures actually surprised him. Hivestems were an odd concept, and Dave really couldn’t imagine living in the same building as other somewhat murderous trolls. In his opinion, the ten feet of lawnring around his hive touching another ten foot ring was too close.

Their walk wasn’t long enough for Dave to take in the full city. In fact, he was surprised when maybe five minutes into their trip, Cronus pulled him off the street and into the lobby of one of the hivestems. The violet busied himself looking through the list of the names, trying to find the proper floor, then nodded toward the stairs. “Come on. Tenth floor.”

The walk up the stairs was almost longer than their walk to the hivestem. The semi-spiral staircase was rather treacherous, and they both fell a couple times on the oddly large steps. Once they’d found a good rhythm to walk up the stairs, Dave asked the question that was ringing through his mind the entire ascent. “...He won’t be here will he?”

“We all got a summons to the palace.” Cronus shook his head to answer Dave’s question. “He won’t be here.” It was hard to argue with that logic, so Dave resumed their semi-comfortable silence as they climbed the last few flights of stairs and came out onto the tenth floor. There were only two doors on either side of the very small hallway they’d stepped into, and Cronus immediately moved to the left one, poking at the lock pad next to it.

“PASSWORD.” The door chirped helpfully at Cronus while Dave was surprised by how familiar the voice recording sounded. Like Sollux, but older. And less toothy.

Cronus seemed irritated when he tried to key in a code and the door continued to chirp the word ‘password’ at him over and over. Eventually, he just barked at the door ‘It’s Cro!’

The door remained shut, and continued to ask for a password. Eventually, Cronus let out a sound closer to a growl than anything and slammed his fist into the lock pad while stringing together something that sounded more like gibberish than real words. “Kiss my chargin tunkel you snank ass chumbuckest!”

“CORRECT!” The door made a rather cute little chime as it slid open while Dave stared at Cronus in confusion.

“You knew the password?” Dave raised an eyebrow at the violet troll, who shrugged it off like it wasn’t really a big deal. Cronus led the pair into the apartment, waiting until the door was shut behind them before speaking up.

“I kinda guessed. It’s something he says when he’s frustrated.” The violet blood muttered as he pulled Dave over toward where there were a bunch of electronics and tools to work on them. Dave helped him pick through the various items, eventually picking a pair of them that could be used as lockpicks.

The pair sat down on the couch in the lounge-block and Dave was busy picking at the electronics when he spoke up again, trying to pry more information from Cronus. “You know him well enough to guess. You guys were close friends?”

“...I guess Tuna’s the closest thing I got to a friend.” The seatroll shrugged a little. He was busy looking around Mituna’s messy hive, avoiding eye contact with Dave as best he could.

Dave dropped the line of questioning and kicked aside a broken piece of skateboard from under his feet to get a better plant for his foot to lean his arm on it. The lock took an almost excessive amount of work, but eventually, the handcuff popped open. Both trolls gave a little cheer, and Dave pulled Cronus’ arm over to take his cuff off for him instead of pressing for information on his friendship.

Once they were free of the cuffs, Dave started to look around the room, rubbing the soreness from his wrist as he worked his way through the trash that was strewn about. There were pieces of broken skateboard, takeout boxes, and tons of electronic components littering the floor space of the lounge block. One of the husktops even had a hole punched through the screen, and while Dave was bent over checking it out, Cronus stepped up behind him to see what he was looking at.

“That was me.” He admitted softly, looking the most upset Dave had seen him since they’d talked about his matesprit. “We got into a fight just before I was kidnapped. Was on my way back to my hive when I got caught.” After a moment, Cronus sighed to himself and started to clean up the room. Dave decided to let the other work through his guilt and wandered toward the back rooms in the apartment.

He was relieved to find a recooprecoon in the corner of one of Mituna’s respite block, though it was completely drained of sopor. That was a n easy fix -- Eridan had taught him how to change the slime in a coon when he realized Dave had no idea how to. And he’d called him a ‘spoilt little wriggler’ the entire time. Still, the memory brought a smile to his face as he opened the valve on the slime tap and he sighed with relief when he saw the recooprecoon start to fill up. At least they’d get a good day's sleep.

When Dave re-entered the lounge block, Cronus had sorted most of the garbage into piles that were easy to get around and was sitting on the couch with an open husktop in his lap. The red-blood went to sit next to him, watching Cronus scroll through Mituna’s Trollian for a few moments before he changed his mind and opened the internet browser. Then they were sitting together, reading the headlines for all of the major news outlets on Alternia.

After several incredibly depressing minutes of reading about death and chaos, Dave decided a better use of his time would be to shower. The bathroom, he found, was kept tidy unlike the rest of the apartment. Soft towels were hung up on the rack beside the shower large enough to fit two grown trolls. It looked amazing, honestly. Dave was so excited to finally get a real shower for the first time in a couple weeks.

The spray of hot water felt amazing on all of Dave’s sore muscles, easing out some of the tension that had stored up. He was able to work out the kink in his shoulder that had developed, wash his hair, brush his teeth for himself and Dave luxuriated in the experience. By the time he came out of the shower the bathroom was full of steam, making it nearly impossible to do his hair in the mirror. Eventually he gave up on trying and stepped out of the bathroom wrapped up in one of those soft grey towels.

Cronus seemed to have abandoned the idea of reading depressing headlines while Dave was in the shower. Instead he was searching the kitchen high and low for anything edible. There was a small pile of various junk food items laying on the counter, and Dave jumped at the chance to pick through it for something he could eat. He settled on a package of cheese blasted chips that were maybe a bit expired, but tasted better than the crap they’d been given in captivity. He really missed Eridan’s cooking.

“So should we stay for a couple nights? Get ourselves caught up on the world, get some sleep, eat some real food?” Dave asked the seatroll in the kitchen around a mouthful of chips. He continued to munch as Cronus finally looked up at him and made a face, wrinkling his nose.

“How can you eat those things?” The violet-blood shook his head, going back to his previous task of digging through the cupboards. Probably for the best, since Dave was once again thinking about how much Cronus looked like Eridan. “I figure we'll stay one day. Maybe two. But we need to get a move on and meet up with the others. Since Yellow City was a disaster, they’re gonna strike again. Sooner and harder than they would have before.”

Dave raised an eyebrow at Cronus and hummed thoughtfully as he swallowed down the last chip in the bag. That tactician-style breakdown of the outside situation was pretty astute for a troll who seemed too caught up in his own feelings to think about anything else. “You study wars, too?”

“Everyone needs a hobby.” The seatroll shrugged Dave’s question off, finally crawling out of the cabinets with what appeared to be a can of tuna. “Either way, we should head up toward the coast. We can stop at my hive for some supplies, then make the trek through Albali to Psc. Not many seatrolls live on land anymore, so it should be a real easy trek to the palace. Even easier if we can find a vehicle.”

The once-human watched Cronus struggle with the can of tuna for a moment before looking for something to open it. Thankfully, it gave Dave time to think about the plan before finally nodding in agreement. “How long will that take us?”

Cronus had opened his can and was about to stick a fork in the meat-looking substance inside it when Dave questioned their timeline. He looked incredibly tired for a moment while he thought over the distance, then took a healthy amount of tuna on his fork. Unlike Dave, he spoke before eating. “If we stay here one day, leaving early tomorrow, it would take us about five nights.”

“So I guess we eat and go to coon.” Dave sighed and grabbed for another bag of chips from the counter, tearing it open. “Think Mituna’s got clothes we can borrow?”

That made Cronus chuckle around a mouthful of fish substitute. “He’s about as tall as you. Might find something in his wardrobifier. I got a couple changes in his guest block.” He finished off his can and tossed it into the garbage nearby. “I can’t say anything about his taste though.”

Dave was a bit suspicious at that, and went back to Mituna’s block to find this mysterious clothing. He poked at the wardrobifier screen to flip through the pre-set items available, letting out a small groan as the items scrolled by. “Does he only wear jumpsuits?”

Cronus dissolved into chuckles in the kitchen, loud enough that Dave could hear him from Mituna’s room.

Chapter Text

They stayed at Mituna’s apartment for the day, but all too soon after slipping into the recooprecoon, Cronus was waking Dave up to get them moving. Cronus had already packed up any supplies he’d deemed worthy, and even a couple of changes of clothes for them both. Dave had solidly slept through his whole prep, but then again, Cronus had more constant access to sopor while they were captive. He kind of deserved to sleep in a bit.

The sun set, and they left the building behind them. Dave managed to snag a couple of news headlines through the windows of businesses as they were exiting Yellow City. He related the information to Cronus off and on, who did the same when he realized what Dave was talking about. At one point, they’d stopped in front of what looked like a cafe so Cronus could watch the TV through the window. On screen, Kankri was giving a speech.

Dave let the violet-blood stand there as long as he needed, even backing off to give him some space while he continued to look for headlines in the other establishments around. Since they were still within Yellow City limits, the reports were mostly about the recently ‘thwarted’ Uprising attack. The most disappointing news Dave heard was that they hadn’t found the body of a blue-blood among the wreckage. Veliza had somehow escaped the attack.

“Surprised you’re not a wanted man.” Cronus’ voice behind him pulled Dave away from reading headlines. He motioned toward the road they were walking down with a jerk of his head before starting to walk toward the outskirts of the city again. “We need to keep moving, though. You never know if someone will recognize you.”

Just when Dave had been starting to think that it was nice to be back in the real world, Cronus had pointed out the worst possibility. There was a chance that some trolls out there thought he was a traitor. That meant his life could be on the line if someone recognized him. Dave longed for his shades again, wishing he’d stolen them off Veliza’s face when he’d been hate-flirting with the bastard.

Thankfully, when Dave voiced that opinion, Cronus looked excited and started digging through the bag he’d packed. After a moment he pulled out a set of what appeared to be visor-style sunglasses. One side was teal, the other bright red, but they were large enough to cover most of Dave’s face. “Try these. Might make your eyes hurt for a few, but once we leave the city you can take them back off.”

Dave took the visor gratefully, covering up most of his face for the rest of their walk through Yellow City. Thankfully, the visor was similar in make to his shades -- Cronus had failed to mention that, but Dave could forgive him the omission. Instead of reading the passing headlines, Dave started to read off information from online, even a couple of articles out loud for both of their benefit. That passed the time through the suburbs, and finally into the untamed land that surrounded the metropolis.

Once they were out in the trees, Dave slipped the visor off his face, leaning it back against his horns so he’d have quick access to them. He rubbed at his tired eyes for a moment, and decided that he’d only use the visor if necessary. “Do you think we should go to the palace, or the next city on their list, Cronus? From what I’ve read it sounds like our team is on the move to stop them as they attack.”

“We should probably catch a shuttle to Green Metropolis.” The new information had clearly been on Cronus’ mind, because he spoke up immediately to answer Dave’s question. He pointed out a shuttle that passed by them overhead rather conveniently. “They run from the shore to the city, we could easily grab enough caegars for the rides from my hive.”

“So, we go to your hive for supplies and money, then hop on a shuttle. How long is that going to take? Less time than our original trip?” A hopeful tone settled over Dave, and he smiled slightly at Cronus to make him consider that timeline for himself. After a long moment of Cronus looking confused, it made a wide smile break out across his face.

“If we hop on an overday shuttle, sleep on the ride, we can be at Green City in three nights.” The violet-blood seemed to regain some of the pep in his step that had dwindled on their long trek. He was just as excited as Dave at the prospect of seeing their significant others and friends. After a moment, he spoke up again. “And we can message someone from that visor or my Trollian account to let them know we’re on our way.” 

Dave frowned at that. “Wait, Veliza has my shades. How do we know he wasn’t tracking us with Trollian?”

“Because he took the wrong Ampora.” Cronus shrugged lightly, like he’d already thought through all the intricacies of the idea. He was definitely smarter than Dave had given him credit for -- he almost felt bad. “We can send a message from my account, or Tuna’s. Just not yours.”

“Then we need to get to your place.” The red-blood increased his stride to match the violet’s. Cronus gave him a quick grin, and nodded eagerly in agreement. With renewed vigor, the pair continued their arduously long walk to the Albali shore.

It seemed like Eridan spent every moment of his spare time with Sollux now, not that he was complaining. The time certainly wasn’t unpleasant or anything; it just seemed odd sometimes when the violet considered their relationship before. When their relationship had consisted of Sollux beating the stuffing out of the seatroll, and then Eridan blinding the land dweller in return. They’d been volatile at best, but now were friendly -- sometimes it was still shocking.

At the moment, they were sitting on one of the couches in the main lounge block of their rented Green Metropolis hivestem. Their shoulders were pressed together as they both independently worked on their husktops. Sollux was coding something while Eridan messed around with the music program Dave had installed for him. Eridan had made himself a playlist of his favorite tracks that Dave had made, and would play them on a loop sometimes. If Sollux minded, he never said anything against it.

Eridan liked to relisten to the mixes Dave had made. It sort of made him feel like he was there beside the seatroll, and he took solace in the fact that he had copies of the songs in the first place. The clips of music were little fragments of Dave that he mostly kept to himself. Sometimes he even had fun tweaking bits and pieces of the music. The ones that got Sollux’s approval Eridan saved to show Dave later. Even though their tastes in music were entirely different, the violet-blood was sure that Dave would enjoy the subtle additions Eridan had made.

He’d just rewinded his recent mix back to play for Sollux, but as Eridan unplugged his headphones, a Trollian window opened on his screen. His attention was drawn to the message, and he expected to see Feferi or maybe Karkat’s handle on his screen -- it wasn’t unusual to communicate with each other through the platform while they were in their bases, on secure servers. It was certainly faster than having a messenger look all over the facilities for only one troll.

It was rather surprising to see not grey or tyrian on his screen. Instead, there was red text, bright and familiar, even if it had been a long time since he’d seen the color.

–turntechGodhead [TG] began trolling caligulasAquarium [CA] at 21:41PM—

TG: Hello Eridan

CA: davve?

TG: Who else would it be?

TG: Look, I don't have much time

TG: Would you meet me in Green Metro at the docks?

CA: wwhen

TG: Two nights

TG: Just be there

–turntechGodhead [TG] ceased trolling caligulasAquarium [CA] at 21:43PM—

CA: wwait davve

Eridan huffed at his husktop, a frown settling on his face. He stared at the words on his screen for a long moment, reading the words that had been sent to him over and over while he tried to piece together what seemed off about the messages. When he was still unsure, he tapped the yellow-blood troll next to him on the leg to get his attention. “Sol?”

“Yeah?” It took Sollux a moment, but his pulled his eyes away from his own screen with a look of irritation on his face. Eridan must have looked upset, though, because the yellow-blood changed his expression to one of concern fast. “What’s wrong?”

“Look at these messages and tell me if it sounds right to you.” The violet-blood didn’t realize his hands were shaking until he offered the husktop to Sollux, who held it up over his own to read the screen.

Sollux was quiet for a long moment as he read over the messages, his expression growing more concerned as he re-read the words as well. Eventually, he looked up at Eridan, raising an eyebrow at him. “That sounds nothing like DV from my experience.” He shook his head, offering Eridan back his husktop. “Let me do some looking on the back end of the server… Maybe I can find where the message was sent from.” The yellow-blood pulled his own husktop closer, minimizing the code he was working on to pull up something else.

Eridan lost track of what he was doing after that, instead turning back to the lines of red text on his screen. It was like he was spoken to in another language, the words were so unlike his usual formatting, entirely unfamiliar. These messages weren’t from his Dave -- the once-human never used ‘hello’, or capitalized his words. He rarely ever used question marks, and he hadn’t called Eridan by his full name since they’d started talking perigees ago. It was always ‘Danny’ (which was apparently a human diminutive that Eridan actually enjoyed being called) or ‘babe’. Sometimes if Dave was trying to calm him down from a depressive or angry mood, he’d call Eridan ‘bubbles’. He wished he could tell Dave now that he actually liked that nickname.

“What do I do?” When it had been too quiet in the room, neither of the trolls speaking for a moment, Eridan broke the silence. He glanced over at the yellow-blood again, not even trying to follow what Sollux was doing on his computer.

“We go see him.” Sollux shrugged, like that was the most logical explanation even though it was entirely insane. The message was obviously fake -- why would they bother to show up for a meeting that wasn’t actually with Dave? Before Eridan could ask the questions flying through his mind, the troll beside him started talking again. “We go and get him if he’s there. If he’s not, we capture whoever is to interrogate them until they give us his location.”

“We?” The violet-blood frowned at that idea as well. “It just says to meet him, and the message was only for me--”

“It didn’t say you had to go alone, fishface.” Sollux rolled his eyes, reaching over to poke Eridan’s nose lightly. “Of course, I’ll go with you and I’ll watch your back. But we can’t say anything to the others, ED, or they might try to talk us out of going at all.” The yellow-blood smiled over at his friend, reaching to take his hand and give it a gentle, reassuring squeeze as well.

“Just us then.” Eridan nodded in agreement, giving Sollux’s hand a squeeze in return. After a moment, he let the other go so he could return to his work. “That should be fun…” He rolled his eyes lightly. 

The yellow-blood sat back from his husktop after a few more minutes of silence had passed between them. He heaved a large sigh, then looked over at Eridan again. “So the message came from his shades on a secured network. Someone else easily could have taken them to message us. We need to be careful, and we may want to bring along a third person to make sure we can grab whoever it is.”

Eridan nodded once again, smiling over at Sollux as best he could. “I’ll work out the details and let you know by tomorrow. Thank you, Sol.”

Sollux shrugged, reaching one of his bony arms over to hug Eridan in close to his side. “What else is a moirail for, huh?”

They arrived at Cronus’ hive surprisingly intact, despite having to participate in several fights along the way. While Dave loathed to fight with his fists, he did what he had to do to get through. Aside from a few minor cuts and bruises, the two of them were in top shape by the time they entered Cronus’ fortress-like residence.

The seatroll lived on the northern shores of Alternia’s coast, halfway across the planet from Dave and Eridan. His hive was literally carved out of the cliff face it was built into, entirely defensible from the rest of the world with a weapon like say, Ahab’s Crosshairs at his disposal. The black stone was only discernible as a hive because of the windows and door, painted the vibrant violet of Cronus’ blood color. His hive looked impenetrable, and Dave almost wanted to see if there were any secret ways in, just for fun. He’d ask Cronus about it later -- if they survived this mess.

While the outside of his hive was impressive, the inside of Cronus’ hive was rather bare. Certainly not the opulent space he’d come to expect from a highblood. There were no paintings, statues, or tapestries. Or much of anything, really. Just solid black rock and electric lighting that must have been difficult for the builder drones to install. It was rather eerie and depressing to walk through the hive, which Dave mentioned to him as Cronus led him toward the eastern corner.

“I wasn’t living here much by the time they caught me. I have my own room at Kankri’s place.” Cronus shrugged lightly, glancing around at the sparse area that surrounded them. “Whatever was left must have been stolen, but I just hope they didn’t find the entrance to the basement.”

“What’s in the basement?” Dave’s curiosity got the better of him as he followed Cronus around a corner, then down some stairs. Once they were in the sub level, Dave had nearly run into the other troll, because he’d stopped dead in front of a bookcase. He looked it over carefully, then ran his hand along the side. Just as Dave was about to speak up again, he heard the soft ‘click’ of a lock open, and then they were walking down yet another set of stairs.

Dave was incredibly thankful for how sharp troll eyesight was as they wandered down the dark staircase. They were squeezed in close on either side by the wall, making Dave feel slightly claustrophobic as the further they descended into the inky darkness.

They hit the bottom of the stairs, and Dave squinted to watch Cronus as he felt around the wall to his right. He flipped on a light, giving the once-human a glimpse of his shark-like grin as the room illuminated, dazing Dave for a moment from the sudden change. 

“My collection is in the basement.” Cronus’ grin was still on his face as he gestured to the large room they’d stepped inside. Dave almost couldn’t believe his eyes when they finally adjusted -- either Cronus had several screws loose, or he was really well prepared. As if having a secret access to a cave system beneath his fortress-hive wasn’t enough, Cronus’ ‘collection’ was staggeringly impressive.

Each wall was lined with pegboards which housed more weapons than even Dave had ever seen. Guns, cannons and swords of all kinds were laid out on the tables, dotting the pegboard, or sitting around like they were waiting to be used. The entire room was like a museum of Alternian Naval history. Even Dave’s significant other-troll would have been impressed, and Eridan had quite a store of his own.

“Damn.” was the only thing Dave managed to say as his violet-blooded compatriot wandered about the room, eyeing all the weaponry he had stored up over the sweeps.

“None of these are going to live up to Ahab’s Crosshairs or anything…” Cronus muttered, seemingly to himself as he snatched up a rifle. He checked the sight, and disassembled the gun fairly quickly, grabbing some materials out to clean the pieces. “But they’re all still in working order at least. Take anything you want, as long as you know how to use it.”

That seemed to be Dave’s cue, or at least he took it as one. He meandered around the room as well, heading rather immediately toward the wall of swords he could see on the far side. None of them were his usual style of greatsword or katana, but there was certainly something amongst the blades he could use to defend himself.

The real issue Dave was finding though, was that most of these blades seemed to be ornamental and not actually meant for fighting. They possessed dulled edges, or were too thick to actually cut anything. “Are any of these actually suitable for action, Cronus?” He gestured to the wall of swords, and watched as the other troll came over to stand by him, a freshly cleaned and assembled gun in his hand.

“The cutlass there, and the short swords should be usable.” The violet-blood pointed toward the items he was talking about for Dave’s benefit. He seemed to consider them again, as though another might jump out to him and prove to be useful. He shrugged it off a moment later though. “There might be something else upstairs too, if they weren’t pilfered. We can check my block.”

After a moment to consider things for himself, Dave picked up the short swords to check them out more closely. They were a little dull and needed some polishing, but Dave would be able to use them. He gave the pair a couple test swings while Cronus watched him with bright eyes and another grin.

“Didn’t know you use swords.” He remarked, moving to set his gun down. Cronus reached under the bench the short swords had been set on, producing a whetstone and other sharpening supplies, which he lined up for Dave on top of the wooden surface.

Dave shrugged as he set one of the swords down to grab the materials Cronus had set out and get to work on restoring the blade. “I use a katana most of the time, but I’ve used traditional and broad and greatswords, too.” He located a stool to sit himself upon, and quickly settled into the familiar work of sharpening a sword.

“Then you’ll be able to make those work for now.” Cronus nodded, moving back over to his table full of guns to start inspecting another one. He picked up a pistol this time, checking the same things he had on the rifle earlier before disassembling it to clean it as well.

“Yeah, I can do that.” The once-human nodded as he worked. Both trolls lapsed into silence after a few minutes, Dave focusing on sharpening swords while Cronus cleaned guns.

After Dave had cleaned and sharpened both of the swords, as well as the cutlass, he and Cronus wandered the hive. Dave was surprised to find that the caves that harbored Cronus’ weapon hoard also held other supplies, like non-perishable foods, clothing, and other battle gear he’d collected over the years. There was even a small place for them to take a shower and get cleaned up again. 

While Cronus’ hive was mostly picked clean, they’d been pleased to see his recooprecoons were still intact. Dave had started both to fill up while Cronus showered, then started packing up some supplies to take with them when they left the next night. Then the pair turned in for a day’s sleep.

The docks in Green Metropolis were so deserted when Eridan and Sollux arrived, they almost appeared to be in a ghost town. It was just after sunset on the night Eridan was supposed to meet up with ‘Dave’. In the end, they’d brought Karkat into their plan to capture the troll impersonating Eridan’s matesprit.

Both Sollux and Karkat were hidden amongst the large shipping containers that littered the waterfront, and all three trolls were wired with communicators so they could keep in touch if things went south. Eridan held Ahab’s Crosshairs at his hip, ready to fire as he paced the large open space between containers, nervous for the meeting to begin. Somewhere close by, Sollux was ready to use his Psiioniics to capture whoever appeared, and Karkat had his sickle in hand to attack if necessary.

Just when Eridan was beginning to feel like the whole set up was a waste of time, he turned around to find there was a shorter troll approaching him. For a moment, he thought the troll coming toward him was Karkat, since they were similar in height. Then he noticed that this troll was wearing Dave’s shades and an unsettling grin.

“Hello there, Mr. Ampora.”

Chapter Text

Cronus yawned loudly as he and Dave walked toward the shuttle station near Cronus’ hive, betraying how tired he was. Dave was feeling just as tired and he resisted his own urge to echo the sound as he tugged the borrowed leather jacket he was wearing up around his face. The salty sea-wind whipped around them while they waited for their shuttle at the empty hub. No one else appeared to take the ride to Green Metropolis, so the pair were able to get a transportation vehicle almost entirely to themselves. It was certainly a more pleasant time than their last ride.

They talked very little in comparison to their last trip, however. Cronus had found the half-recooprecoon the shuttle provided to sleep in for their ride fairly quickly, and had curled himself up inside it to nap through a good portion of the night. Dave had stayed up a while, picking through more articles on the makeshift ‘shades’ he wore. Eventually, he got up to do the same as his companion, taking a nap of his own.

The pair ended up sleeping through most of the next day as well, catching up on all the sleep they’d lost during their captivity and time on the run. When they were both awake, and set to arrive in Green Metropolis in just a few hours, Cronus and Dave were sitting together, talking about who they were going to send a message to. Cronus wanted to send a note to his matesprit, which Dave could definitely understand -- he’d use Mituna’s visor to do that if he could, but Eridan wasn’t in the yellow’s Trollian list. Dave would have to add him as a friend, and he wasn’t sure the other violet-blood was even using his account currently.

In the end, they’d gone with Cronus’ plan to message Kankri. The message was brief; Dave had taken over writing it when Cronus had gotten a bit too emotional to do it himself. He’d explained where they were, where they were going, and when they’d be there. Before pressing send, Dave had asked Cronus for something to say that would prove who they were. The older violet-blood had taken the communicator back to sign off on the message himself. Dave didn’t ask questions.

A few hours later, when they stepped off the shuttle into the Green Metropolis station, there was a party of trolls waiting for them. Dave recognized only two of the group, spying Gamzee and John amongst them. Surprisingly, the indigo was the only one to advance on Dave, who struggled at first when Gamzee wrapped him up in a very stiff, incredibly tight hug. Through the mess of gangly limbs surrounding him, Dave caught a glimpse of Cronus, who looked just as amazed as the once-human felt. Of course, his welcome was much kinder than a massive murder-troll trying to crush him. Cronus was being rather forcefully kissed by a troll that was a good head shorter than him and dressed in an obnoxious red sweater.

When Dave was set back on his feet, he was quickly pulled toward another shuttle by the back of his neck. One of Gamzee’s massive hands led him through the small crowd toward another transport, away from the rest of the trolls gathered. Once they were out of earshot, the troll spoke and even though it was quiet, barely more than a whisper, it still made Dave nervous. “You went and fucking caused a whole bunch of trouble, mother fucker.” He should have realized the hug was all for show. There really was nothing but ire between him and the indigo-blooded troll.

“Whoa, Gamzee! Dave’s not under any suspicion here.” John appeared near them, frowning at the subjugglator. He refused to look at Dave again though, and that kind of stung. “We know he’s not the leader of the Uprising --”

“Then why did he all up and mother fucking SAY he was?” The indigo’s growl made the glass of the transport behind them vibrate for a moment. “He’s been fucking GONE for this whole time--”

John raised his arms up passively, as if he was shrugging off Gamzee’s ire. The other once-human was the only person Dave knew who could stand face-to-face with someone so menacing and be so carefree. It was once something that he admired about John. Now, it just seemed a little annoying; the only thing Dave wanted was to be where Eridan was. “Look, we confirmed that he was kidnapped, remember? Sollux and Eridan worked really hard on analyzing every recording --”

“FUCK THAT --” Gamzee started up again, rage flashing behind his eyes. He even pushed Dave back against the vehicle behind them when he started swinging his arms wildly. Dave used it to his advantage though, sliding away from the indigo-blood in favor of standing a safe distance away.

“Egbert, where’s Eridan?” The red-blood ignored the other raging troll, looking directly at John. If anyone was going to be helpful, it would be the other once-human. While Gamzee continued to rant, John turned his smile back on Dave, though the expression didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“...He, Sollux, and Karkat went out early tonight. We haven’t seen them, and they didn’t really say where they were going.” John motioned to the vehicle, moving to open the door for Dave even. “We’re supposed to take you to our hivestem--”

Dave rolled his eyes and pulled the visor he was wearing off, dropping the makeshift shades into Gamzee’s hands. The indigo-blood was distracted by them, ceasing his onslaught of horrible cursing while Dave fixed his gaze on John. “Give me your communicator. I’m not going anywhere until I find Eridan.” The blue-blood hesitated for a moment before pulling the device from his pocket and offering it to Dave.

“Hello there, Mr. Ampora.” The troll that spoke to Eridan was rather soft-looking and of an indiscernible blood color, since he was wearing Dave’s sunglasses. It took every ounce of patience the violet-blood had in him to not attack the other and rip his matesprit’s possession off the imposter.

Eridan leveled his gun toward the other, a glare crossing his face as he squared up with the troll. He held his chin high as he glanced around behind the mysterious troll, making sure that he had no back up with him. He appeared to be alone, and Eridan trusted that if he wasn’t his friends would take care of them. “Who the fuck are you?” He finally spoke when he determined that no one else was going to pop up out of nowhere on them.

“I should ask you the same question, Mr. Ampora. I was under the impression that you were someone else.” The stranger considered Eridan from where he was standing, a frown crossing what the violet-blood could see of his face. He seemed to consider the armed troll in front of him for a long moment, then shook his head. “I’ll keep this simple, Mr. Ampora. We are currently in possession of your moirail. Should you want to see him alive, you’ll surrender to the Uprising here, in Green Metropolis.”

The violet-blood had to hold back the laughter that wanted to escape him at the demand. ‘ He’s lying ’ A helpful chime-in from Sollux in his ear reminded them that the troll Eridan had saved from the wreckage in Yellow City had told them Dave and Cronus were on the transport when it had gone down. That they were the ones who deployed the safety foam, and that they were captives, not leaders. Eridan knew better than to believe the other troll, but he wanted to drag as much information out of him as he could. “Funny thing, Mr. Markor, is that I know you don’t have my moirail.” Eridan flexed his finger on the trigger of his gun, doing his best to keep from just blowing the other troll away. He settled his glare on the shorter troll, doing his best to crack a smile that was more charming than it was menacing. He was probably failing, but his matesprit had always been better at hiding his emotions. “And I also know you’re not in possession of my matesprit anymore, either. So, really, it looks like you have nothing.”

“Well, your sources are incorrect, Mr. Ampora.” The other troll was busy checking his nails, like they were more interesting to him then the conversation they were having. He was clearly good at playing a part, but Eridan’s patience was starting to wear thin. “We do have Mr. Strider in our ranks, just as you’ve seen on TV. If you wish for his safe return, you’ll listen to my demands.”

‘ ED-- ’ Sollux’s voice started to speak in the violet-blood’s ear, but he was quickly cut off by Karkat chiming in on the same channel; ‘ Keep him busy, Eridan. Reinforcements are on the way. Make him talk. ’

“Then spill your demands, and I’ll consider it.” Eridan pried his finger off the trigger of Ahab’s Crosshairs, trying not to betray his irritation with the pair of voices talking in his ear. Sollux and Karkat were busy firing off questions to ask, trying to help though it was really just pissing Eridan off more.

“Surrender here in Green Metropolis, and turn over the control of Alternia to the Uprising.” Markor shrugged lightly, as though his demands were simple. “While you may not be the Empress, you are certainly high enough in her court to make her consider it.” Eridan couldn’t hold back his laugh at that, even shaking his head at the other troll. Of course, the one wearing Dave’s shades did not find his demands as funny as Eridan did. “This is serious, Mr. Ampora --”

There were sounds of a struggle behind Markor, which made the troll turn toward the noise while a frown crossed his face. After a drawn out moment, there was the clear sound of a blade sinking into flesh, and another troll joined them in the clearing. This troll carried a pair of short swords, one in either hand, and was covered from horns to toes in sticky sepia-colored blood.

“I think he knows just how serious it is, Veliza.” The voice that came out of the blood-covered troll was undoubtedly Dave’s, and Eridan almost sobbed with relief as the once-human stepped into the light behind the shorter troll. “And you picked the wrong set of trolls to make demands of.”

Chapter Text

The sound of Dave’s voice in the clearing between shipping boxes echoed off the metal, creating a rather dramatic effect if Eridan could say so himself. It certainly seemed to unnerve Veliza Markor, who stood between them fairly awkwardly now. The shorter troll turned his back on Eridan, focusing instead on Dave, a rather sour frown crossing his lips that only the red-blood could see.

“Mr. Strider! What an unexpected surprise. I didn’t think you’d be along until after the televised message went out --” Veliza was trying to save face now, act like Dave was on his side somehow, but it was fairly obvious that the red-blooded troll had not taken out anyone in Eridan’s security detail by the color of blood he was covered in.

“Cut the shit, Veliza.” Dave made a show of shaking his blades off, flinging sepia blood all along the chitincrete that lined the ground between them. Let the arrogant bulgebiter realize that he was the one who dispatched Veliza’s personal bodyguard. Maybe he wouldn’t take Chater for granted next time, if they ever met again. “If anyone knows that I don’t work for you, it’s my matesprit.” He stepped in closer to the other two, forcing the shorter troll to maintain his distance by stepping back closer to Eridan.

Caging him in was a good idea tactically, and Eridan stepped in closer to make sure he felt the pressure of both of them enclosing him. Veliza realized what was happening a bit too late, eventually backed into a corner between two shipping boxes, with Dave and Eridan in front of his way out. “What was it you said to me? ‘Surrender here in Green Metropolis’.” The seatroll brought the business end of his rifle up to point it at the now cowering rebel leader. “Turn over to the Justice System of Alternia.”

“Now what do we mother fucking have here?” Gamzee’s voice sounding from above them makes Veliza visibly shudder. His eyes immediately are drawn to where the indigo is crouched on the top of a shipping container, his clubs hanging dangerously over the side near the Uprising leader’s head. The Subbjugglator had clear intent to kill in his eyes, but a bored, almost lazy expression on his face. It was clearly unnerving the blue-blood, who dropped to his knees to cower once he realized he was entirely surrounded. “Dave, my motherfucking, BRO — this the little BITCH you were all up and talking about?”

“Yeah, dude. See? I wasn’t leading you on a wild honkbeast chase.” Dave shrugged, pointing to Veliza with one of his shortswords. The smaller troll pinned to the shipping container had begun to shake in terror, like most would when faced with inevitable demise. This time, when Eridan tells him to surrender, the blue-bloods hands fly up in defeat. From there, it’s only a matter of minutes before John and Karkat jump in to bind him, dragging the rebel leader out of Gamzee’s terrifyingly intense gaze.

Unfortunately, Eridan and Dave hadn’t gotten time for a proper reunion for a few hours after that. Transporting the rebel leader to their base of operations became the priority. No sooner than they had walked into the hivestem, Dave was swept away by Gamzee who had a tight grip on his arm to lead him through the halls. He’s brought around a couple corners into a dark spot, and for a brief moment, the red-blood is terrified that he’s going to be unjustly murdered. That’s at least until he’s wrapped up in two surprisingly strong, long arms. Dave kind of feels like he’s being crushed, but doesn’t back down, throwing his arms around the taller troll’s middle.

They share a rather long embrace while Gamzee mutters all sorts of nonsense at the shorter troll that Dave barely comprehends. Some apologizing, some words of friendship, some of what definitely sounded like insults. He punctuates the deluge with a tighter hug and a murmur of “Don’t FUCKING DO THAT again.”

“I make no promises, Gam. Striders are in high enough demand to be kidnapped now.” Dave helped fix the other troll’s uniform from where he’d rumpled it with his grip. He’s about to say more when a voice comes from around the corner, sounding happy, but tentative.

“Dave? Is that you?” Her Imperial Benevolence rounds the corner of the wall, then rushes in to throw her arms around Dave’s neck. Just like how the indigo had almost crushed him, Feferi’s grip was tight and firm. Unlike the hug shared with Gamzee, though, the fishy princess starts to cry. Loud and blubbery, all over Dave’s borrowed white tee shirt. She’s apologizing profusely, like somehow Feferi was the one who’d knocked him out, kidnapped him, held him prisoner, and forced him to give speeches to an entire populace.

Still, he does his best to comfort her by giving her a hug in return. Dave appreciated the sentiment of her words at least. By the time he pries her off him, he’s heard the same apologies twice — apparently she’d thought of quite a few while he was missing.

When Feferi has composed herself enough to be a leader again, she takes Dave to what seems to be her office. He finds Cronus is already there, sitting idly in one of the chairs across from her Benevolence’s cuttlefish-motiffed desk. The violet gave him a small wave while Dave took a seat in the open chair beside him.

“I’m sorry we have to do this.” Feferi moved to sit down in the plush, tyrian purple, rotating chair behind the desk. She leaned her forearms on the wooden surface, hands clasped together tightly. Of course they had to talk about what happened; it made perfect sense to have their conversation while everything was still fresh. “But I need to ask you about everything that happened. From the beginning.”

For the next few hours, Dave and Cronus told the same story over and over, letting Feferi poke and prod at anything in them that she felt needed more detailed information. Only when she was satisfied were they finally released from her questioning; approximately two hours after they’d started. It was almost dinner time, according to Her Benevolence, and Kanaya showed up to get both of the trolls in Feferi’s office into clean clothes.

Dave felt better after a shower, but his trips across the planet had taken their toll now that his energy was waning. He was exhausted, barely able to keep his feet while getting dressed in a clean tee shirt. More than once Cronus and he had to help one another stand in the mirror to finish getting ready to see all their friends in one room again for the first time in perigees.

To Dave it felt like far more time had passed than the date he was told, however. That could have had something to do with being locked in a cell then on the lam. In his opinion time had passed far too slowly when he’d been unable to manipulate it do to constant nightmares causing fatigue. Even though he’s better rested than he has been the last several months thanks to his and Cronus’ extra long nap on the shuttle, Dave still felt like colapsing into a boneless pile on the floor. Thankfully, the other Ampora had been there to help, like so many times before.

They walked together to the designated dining room, arms slung around each other’s shoulders to keep upright. It was there that Dave regained the use of his Time powers, seemingly of their own volition. He’s shaking Cronus off slowly before flash-stepping through the room until he’s in front of Eridan. Uncaring that they were surrounded by friends and others, Dave wrapped the skinnier troll up in his arms. He leaned down just a bit to press their lips together desperately, and is pleased when the violet clings to him. Time slows around them as they kiss, giving Dave every second he’s wanted, needed, craved to be kissing Eridan rather than locked up. He takes it greedily, knowing that it won’t last long, his control is slipping away slowly thanks to his tiredness.

Even when they come back to the proper time, Dave refuses to let Eridan go. It seems that releasing the red is far from the seatroll’s mind; if anything his arms wrap around the other tighter. Behind them, the room is silent for a long moment before someone starts clapping — probably Karkat, ever the romantic as he was. Then more of their friends joined in. He doesn’t know how long it takes them to separate, admittedly Dave would prefer to never let go of Eridan again. When they do stop kissing finally, the once-human feels his blood pusher threaten to beat out of his chest as the seatroll smiles.

“I missed you so much, Danny.” Dave speaks first, but he keeps his voice low, barely above a whisper. From the way the other troll’s fins flutter, Eridan’s heard him loud and clear, though.

“I missed you too, Davy.” The somewhat shorter troll gave him another quick kiss before finally settling his face against the once-human’s shoulder. While everyone else takes their seats for dinner, Dave and Eridan hold each other until they’re good and ready to let go. They’re ushered over just as food is brought to the table, and find the two seats closest to where they’d been standing were graciously left open.

Dinner went fast once everyone got started eating. Conversations flowed freely around the table, and Dave tried to engage for a little while before he started to feel tired. Just as he’s starting to run out of steam again, he sees Cronus and Kankri leave the table, excusing themselves to their respite. The door has barely shut behind them before Eridan is standing up, pulling Dave to his feet with him.

The princely seatroll politely excuses them both, then walks Dave slowly out of the dining room and toward the respite blocks. They have to slowly climb a set of stairs, but then Eridan is letting them into a small, cozy room that has an already-full recooprecoon. He nearly cries at the sight of it, and the seatroll has to help Dave get undressed so he can climb into the slime filled pod. As soon as the once-human is settled in, Eridan is sliding into the coon beside him. The violet wrapped his arms tightly around his matesprit, refusing to let him go even as they slept the day away together.