Chapter Text
You are now Fefeta. It’s nice being back(?) in your(?) cave. You think you might love a nice, quiet cave. Everyone was kind of yelling last you remember. Even if Nepeta’s also here, that’s almost reassuring! You understand her pretty well, you like to think. You should also reach out to Feferi. But first things first, you’re getting a message.
centaurTechnologist [CT] began messaging arsenicCatnip [AC]!
CT: ⧗--> Nepeta
CT: ⧗--> I have a question
AC: <)(> S)(e’s a little busy at the moment, I t)(ink! She's showing our ancestor the shipping wall.
CT: ⧗--> Oh
CT: ⧗--> Apologies
CT: ⧗--> This would be Fefeta, then?
AC: <)(> Yep!
AC: <)(> We )(ad spare tablets fur both of us, but I )(aven’t made a new account yet.
AC: <)(> I cod get )(er fur you?
CT: ⧗--> No, no, that’s… quite alright
CT: ⧗--> You are from the other timeline, correct?
AC: <)(> I t)(ink Karkat called it ‘t)(e awful one?’ Yea)(.
CT: ⧗--> Hm. At the ri% of asking a redundant question, how was that
AC: <)(> U)(. Not as pawful as people are making it sound? But t)(en, I left early, so I guess I missed most of t)(e explosions and stuff.
CT: ⧗--> Yes
CT: ⧗--> Um
CT: ⧗--> I understand that I played a role in your spritesplosion
AC: <)(> That wasn’t your fault!
CT: ⧗--> Wasn’t it
AC: <)(> Well…
AC: <)(> Okay, you cod )(ave b33n nicer, and I didn’t like being talked ofur, yeah.
AC: <)(> But that wasn’t even you!
CT: ⧗--> Still
CT: ⧗--> With the benefit of this rad new perspective, I’m going to take at least 30% of the blame
CT: ⧗--> It won’t happen again. I’m sorry for how I treated you
AC: <)(> …thanks, Arquius. That means a lot.
CT: ⧗--> Now. Will I need to get this Erisol character to e%tend the same apology?
AC: <)(> No don’t do that!
CT: ⧗--> Um.
AC: <)(> I
AC: <)(> Ugh, it’s all too complickated at the moment, I think it’s best to just leave that whole thing for a while. Reconnect when things clam down.
CT: ⧗--> It’s up to you
CT: ⧗--> The only thing I’d say is that he remembers you, whereas I do not.
CT: ⧗--> I am looking forward to becoming fast f**king friends, of course
CT: ⧗--> But perhaps you should talk to someone who remembers what you went through.
AC: <)(> yea)(…
AC: <)(> )(ey
CT: ⧗--> Yes?
AC: <)(> )(ow did you do the different colours thing?
CT: ⧗--> Hah
CT: ⧗--> Do you want me to help you set up your own account?
AC: <)(> Yea)(. T)(at would be nice 3833
AC: <)(> But didn’t you want to talk to Nepeta furst?
CT: ⧗--> She appears to be busy
CT: ⧗--> Besides, I would like to talk to you some more
CT: ⧗--> Shoal we cat started?
AC: <)(> Yea)(! 383D
Hell yes.
Hell furreaking yes.
Even if he doesn’t know you, he’s still so much like the Arquius you remember. And you still love him just as much.
You think you’re gonna let yourself just be. Not an Heiress, not a huntress, just a girl who’s hanging out with her friends.
And there’s so many M-EW ones!
==> Fefeta Leixes: Be Tavros Nitram.
You are now Tavros Nitram. You are sitting in your wheelchair on the porch of your hive, jiggling your leg weakly (but still, you’re moving it!), and filling your ancestor in on… well, everything, in between screams from another room. But that’s fine because you can ignore them because Karkat will deal with it.
(You also have the thing with the… okay, um. Maybe you’re going to keep that to yourself for a while. You don’t know why you didn’t mention it to Karkat, since it’s probably pretty important, but. You didn’t. So. Yeah.)
“The Signless,” Rufioh breathes. “He is alive.”
Which is a surprise, in itself. Rufioh breathing. The fact that your ancestor is Rufioh, and that Rufioh is consequently, um, real? Those are also surprising. Actually, the fact that you are alive is also. Surprising.
“Yeah,” you say. You’re really not sure what else to say.
“It’s a miracle. I… I always wanted to meet him. He inspired me. Made me strive to be a better troll. To help people, to be better.”
“Yeah,” you repeat, because you’re not really sure what else to say.
He looks at you. “…How are your wings?”
Right. Yes. Wings. You have those, now. “Fine,” you say.
You’re finding it easier to stick with monosyllables for the time being. Rufioh being real has sort of given you what you can only assume is some sort of confidence overdose, and you’re sort of worried that you’ll try to fly and end up breaking your wings as well.
Although, hey. Your legs a little bit work, now, even if they aren’t metal. They don’t work a lot, but you can move them! And also that other thing, but you’re still not thinking about that.
(You sneeze.)
“Just a few more nights until you should be able to fly with them,” he reassures you. And then he grins, looking up to the sky. “Nights,” he chuckles. “Well, with this new sun, perhaps trollkind can begin to live in the light.”
“I think, mostly Kanaya would be happy about that.”
“A friend of yours?”
“Yeah.” Last time you saw her while you were alive, she cut your legs off, but you sort of… agreed to that. But she likes the sun!
There’s another scream from down the hall.
“…Are they going to be okay?” Rufioh asks.
You shrug. “When I was them, we exploded,” you say.
“…I don’t follow.”
Neither do you, honestly. The fact there were multiple timelines, near the end there? Is throwing you? The one where Vriska died seems…
Well, you didn’t really get to enjoy it, what with the whole ‘exploded’ thing, but you’d be lying if you don’t think it’s somewhat deserved. For what she did to you. And the fact that everything got fixed because she stayed alive is sort of…
Well, you know Terezi and her had a whole thing, haha! Can’t expect her to-
Okay, so you’re a little hurt. She said she’d keep an eye on Vriska, and you got hurt. And then she went rogue, again, and you were the only one who-
Well, anyway.
You shove all- that away and try to think of something to tell Rufioh. “…I don’t know. They might be fine? They haven’t exploded yet, which is. Good.”
Rufioh sighs. “Well… I think it could be a bad idea to leave them unaccompanied for too long, but…?” He curls off, looking at you. Oh. He wants you to make a decision.
“I, um. Don’t really know what to do.”
He smiles a little tiredly. “Child, you know far more than I do.”
“But-”
“I trust your judgement on this matter.”
Huh. That’s… new.
“I think if I go in there, it will make things worse.”
A scream punctuates your statement.
He purses his lips, turning his head gently to showcase scepticism. One horn scrapes the roof of your porch. Wow, you’re a little bit… apprehensive? If your horns are going to get that large, you’re going to have to go sideways through doorways. “And if I go in?”
“…I think half of them that’s me would, really love that, whereas the other half would probably…” You pause.
…No.
No, it couldn’t be.
You frown.
“Tavros?”
“Um,” you say, with anger building in your chest. It feels scratchy and uncomfortable.
That stupid journal. Did- was she so mean to you because she’d read about Rufioh in it? Did Rufioh kill her ancestor or something? What could he possibly have done to make her hate you so much? You realise he’s still waiting on an answer.
“Either of us may be. A bad idea. He said he’s busy at the moment, but I think we should call in an expert.” And you do feel a spark of satisfaction at the idea of making them talk to Karkat. He really hates when people are stupid, but he’s also really good at solving problems. But also, it will probably be really satisfying to know that, well, half of Vriska will be getting yelled at. You wonder if he’ll let you watch.
Rufioh accepts this with a nod. It’s… really nice to have somebody accept it when you tell them that you don’t actually think you’re the best person suited for a job. Or when they aren’t, also. That one is even rarer, you’re pretty sure. “Then by all means.” He smiles faintly. “How soon can the expert arrive once he has completed his current tasks?”
“Oh!” You say. “Um. This is another internet thing.”
His expression turns to disbelief. “…Really?” He’s slightly sceptical of how much you’re telling him the internet can do.
“Yeah. I should- I’ll set you up with a Trollian account. That way, you can talk to… well, the other ancestors that came back to life? Like Karkat asked.”
He ponders this. “…I’d like that. Who were they again?”
Oh, right!
“Um. Karkat’s ancestor, Terezi’s ancestor—”
He cuts you off with a wry amusement. “I think perhaps the surnames or titles would mean more to me.” But the way he says it, it’s not like he’s criticising you. Weird.
“Right. Karkat Vantas’s ancestor, the Signless. Or the Sufferer. Terezi Pyrope’s ancestor is Redglare. Sollux Captor’s is the Psionic. I think Aradia- Megido?” You pause expectantly, but he gives you a small shrug. Not ringing any bells, then. “Huh. Well, hers killed herself immediately. …We don’t really know why.”
You run down the list, and it’s interesting who he reacts to (the fact he’s surprised you know Feferi is not, um, surprising, but the fact he reacts to the name Zahhak? That’s something you didn’t expect. You wonder what happened there).
“And then there’s also Vriska, who is the other half of Tavris,” you say, gesturing vaguely down the hall. Rufioh nods, listening politely. You’re enjoying this, actually. He’s actually a very good listener, which you think is a good trait to have. “Her ancestor is Mindfang.”
His eyes go wide. “Mindfang?” He says.
Oh yeah. They probably have some history. “Yeah,” you say. “Do you- did you- do you know her?”
“She was- is my matesprit,” he says. Oh, those are tears.
Suddenly, you understand jack shit.
==> Tavros Nitram: Be Tavris Serram.
aHHHHHHHH.
aHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
fUCK.
…Alright then. We’ll, uh. We’ll come back later.
==> Tavris Serram: Be Fefeta Leixes Again.
TT: <)(> )(ey, Arquius?
CT: ⧗--> Yes?
TT: <)(> …)(ooow on board are you with this revolution stuff, anywave?
CT: ⧗--> 100% on board
CT: ⧗--> Well, okay, maybe only 90% because the other 10% is still unsure what Karkat or his ancestor’s plan even is, but I’m not going to rat to the Condesce or anything
CT: ⧗--> Anything would be better than her, for all of us. Believe me, I know that now
TT: <)(> You’re SHOR-E?
CT: ⧗--> I’m incredibly f*cking shore
CT: ⧗--> Call my convictions the tide washing over me, because this beach is 100% shore
TT: <)(> )(33)(33)(33!
TT: <)(> Whale, as prawn as you’re SHOR-E
CT: ⧗--> Of horse I am. Do you think I colt betray you? Stirrup trouble like that? That’s a g*dd*amn neighgative
TT: <)(> 38DD
TT: <)(> I would LOV---E to canterinue t)(is conversation, but I t)(ink I s)(ould c)(eck in wit)( Nepeta! And didn’t you have somet)(ing you wanted to ask )(er?
CT: ⧗--> I did. Mostly, I just wanted to make sure she was okay
TT: <)(> S)(e’s great!
CT: ⧗--> I know. Because she’s got you
TT: <)(> Awww )(33)(33. You got sw33ter!
CT: ⧗--> Lies and slander. I’m just as taciturn as I ever was
TT: <)(>CC: SUUUUR-----E
TT: <)(> Alright, cat to scram.
TT: <)(> TTYL?
CT: ⧗--> Of horse. I 100k forward to it. Give Nepeta my best, and tell her to sh00t me a message when she’s free
TT: <)(> Will do!
TT: <)(> Um. Do we…? <>?
CT: ⧗--> Hm.
CT: ⧗--> I think we might need to di%uss that further with Nepeta and Davepeta present? But I am certainly amenable to responding in kind. <>
TT: <)(> 38DD
TT: <)(> W)(o’s Davepeta?
TT: <)(> Wait. Is that the names I think it is?
CT: ⧗--> Oh d*mn.
CT: ⧗--> I cannot wait for you to meet them
TT: <)(> T)(em?
CT: ⧗--> Trust me. Harley better get a transportaliser working s00n, because you need to see the tacklepounce, PERFECTED
CT: ⧗--> And I don’t say that lightly
TT: <)(> )(a)(a)(a OKAY!
TT: <)(> BY------333333 <>
teapotTigershark [TT] ceased pestering centaurTechnologist [CT]!
You grin to yourself and stare at the messages, wringing a few more seconds of joy out of the conversation before you make yourself move on.
He might not be exactly the Arquius you remember, but you think that’s just because he’s more… settled! And honestly, you can’t blame him. You’re feeling more and more settled as time goes on. Something about not being a sprite anymore, maybe? About being… well, whatever you are?
You float deeper into the cave, towards where you’re pretty sure Nepeta and the Disciple are talking shop.
It’s so weird being in the cave again/for the first time.
(Furst time? Thirst time? Thirst’s a pretty big stretch.)
Half of you expects to feel the slowly-growing comfort of being deeper and deeper into your lair, and the other half is expecting to feel really claustrophobic, but what you mostly just feel is… sort of not much right now?
Whatever. You’re sure you’ll work out how you feel about it.
“Hey!” You say cheerily, as you come into the little carved-into-shape room. There’s a couple of them like this, and you can never remember if it was the builder drones or if someone just carved them before Pounce ever set eyes on the cave.
Nepeta gives you a grin and a wave, and the Disciple turns around to regard you, nodding with a small smile. “How goes it?” She asks.
“Pretty good!” You reply. “It’s weird being… like, a full troll, again!”
Nepeta snickers. “I remember having a lot of fun as a half-seadweller sprite and as a half-human sprite.”
You stick your tongue out at her. “Unfair!” You see the shipping wall Nepeta’s halfway through making. You’re still pretty into shipping, but maybe not quite as much as Nepeta is. But when you spot the expanded cast of friends that have been unlocked, you feel pretty excited about it. “We’re doing the new trolls?”
“And humans!” She points and, yeah, there’s a whole bunch of human faces and signs. “We’ll need some expurrtise on the ones I don’t remember very well.”
“Expurrseas,” you correct, and she snickers again.
“Nepeta has just finished explaining to me… what did you call it?” Janslu asks Nepeta politely.
“The deal with Jade and Karkat?”
She nods. Cod, you may be biased, but she looks so cool, even when she’s just nodding. “Yes. ‘The deal’.”
You frown. “They… know each other?”
“He’s crashing out about it in the memo.”
“About what?”
“Trollsonas.”
…What?
You open the memo to a random point.
CG: NEVER IN A BILLION SWEEPS ACROSS **SEVERAL** UNIVERSES
CG: HAVE I HEARD AN IDEA AS STUPID AS ‘TROLLSONAS’ IS.
CG: I MEAN COME FUCKING ON, THERE’S STUPID AND THEN THERE’S ASKING TO HAVE YOUR PLANET BLOWN UP.
TA: ehehehe 2tiill 2orta 2ound2 liike you’re piitch two me
CG: DON’T MAKE ME FUCKING GAG.
EB: hey, don’t be mean! that’s my sister you’re making fun of!
CG: SUCK MY BULGE.
TA: dear god he’2 got piitchcru2he2 on all the human2 doe2n’t he
CG: I INVITE YOU TO DO THE SAME, CAPTOR.
TA: no poiint, you’ve been doiing that 2iince we met, iit’2 got no 2en2e of urgency
CG: DON’T YOU HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO?
EB: don’t you????????
CG: OH GOD. IF YOU DO THE EIGHTS THING AGAIN, I’M GOING TO THROW UP.
GC: DONT L1ST3N TO H1M JOHN.
GC: H3S JUST GRUMPY B3C4US3 4LL OF H1S FR13NDS 4R3 4L1V3 >:]
CG: I
CG: FUCK.
CG: I MISSED YOU GUYS SO FUCKING MUCH, I
CG: I MEAN.
CG: I’M GLAD YOU’RE ALL ALIVE. EVEN THE ANNOYING ONES. WELCOME BACK, I GUESS. BUT THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT THERE’S MORE OF US TO KICK THE SHIT OUT OF THE CONDESCE.
You scroll down a little further. He’s back to yelling within a few minutes, but for a little while there he was being really sweet!
Trollian doesn’t have reply feature, and for some reason it doesn’t even have a proper @ feature, so you just reply with a simple:
TT: <)(>@carcinoGeneticist I’m glad weir alive too! Whatefur trollsonas are, they sound pretty great!
CG: @teapotTigershark 1) THE PUNS ARE ATROCIOUS. 2) DEAR GOD I FORGOT ABOUT YOUR TIMELINE FOR A MINUTE THERE, BUT WELCOME BACK. OR MAYBE WELCOME FOR REALLY THE FIRST TIME, I GUESS. 3) HOW THE FUCK IS YOUR TEXT DISPLAYING LIKE THAT. 4) THEY AREN’T, FUCK YOU.
CG: JADE’S IDEA HAS NO MERIT, IT’S LIKE SHE NEVER EVEN TRIES TO COME UP WITH ANYTHING WORTHWHILE.
GG: fuck you!!
CG: GO FUCK YOURSELF.
GG: only if you do it first!
You stifle a giggle and stow your phone. “Okay, yeah, I see what you mean.”
“Yeah!” Nepeta’s already sketched them into a spade, and you take a critical eye to the new arrivals.
“Hmm…” you say, thoughtfully. “Davepeta and me, auspisticed by you?”
She grins. “It would be furry funny.”
You can’t argue with that. Still, shipping is incredibly serious, and you nod in approval when she removes it from the wall.
(It would be really funny though.)
Your ancestor (the one you like, anyway) points at a face. “Who is that meant to be?”
“Um, that’s. Heh, uh. That’s Karkitty,” Nepeta says, awkwardly. Woo boy, this is about to be embarrassing, isn’t it?
“Karkitty,” she muses. “Kreshn’s descendent?”
“Yep,” you offer. “You knew the Signless?”
“We were lovers.”
…You’re pretty sure you go bright purple, and Nepeta does too. Lovers, huh! That’s. That’s certainly one of the ways you can put that sort of thing!
“Like, matesprits?” Nepeta eventually squeaks out.
“Not… quite like that. Like everything, he used to say. Pitch and flush and pale and ash.” She shrugs, not particularly concerned. “Others always seemed surprised, and some were vocal, but I never saw that it could matter to me what they thought about us.”
“Wow,” she mutters. “I’m… Not sure how to put that on the board, honestly.”
“Do the humans have some symbol they use for romance?” You ask.
“They just use the heart.” Nepeta frowns and stares at the wall. “I could just put a plus shape, like it’s the four quadrants?”
You roll this around for a moment before taking out your tablet and writing something quickly and turning it to her. “This look right?”
Kreshn+Janslu
Her mouth twists, unconvinced. “…We’ll whiskershop it.”
You shrug and put the device away. “Alright.”
Excellent job navigating incredibly awkward waters, honestly. You both deserve a medal.
Your ancestor then inadvertently dumps you back in it without a dinghy. “What about you? What is this Karkitty to you?”
“Karcrab. I mean, shit. Karkat. His name’s—Karkitty is a nickname. Our, my, her,” you say, cowardly throwing Nepeta under a bus that, frankly, isn’t even moving, “nickname for him. Um.”
Janslu lets the silence sit for a second. “Complicated,” she says, at last. “He’s complicated to you.”
God. You kind of think you’re pretty cool, but right now you don’t and honestly, you’d really love to just—
==> Fefeta Leixes: Be Anyone Else.
You are now Nepeta Leijon.
Oh god what do you even say?
“Yep,” Fefeta says, eventually, her voice cracking in the middle.
This is torture.
You also wish you could—
==> Nepeta Leijon: Be Anyone Else.
You are now, perhaps a tad predictably, Janslu Leijon.
“Well,” you say, into what you’re slowly realising is an awkward silence for them but for you is just… normal silence. “We can leave it there, then.”
“Oh sweet glub,” the half-saltblood version of your descendant says with relief.
You clear your throat politely. “And… who is this?” You ask, tapping your finger against a pictogram of a troll with an arrow-shaped horn, the other broken above the quick, who appears to be wearing something covering his eyes in an angular fashion. “A friend of yours?”
Nepeta grins, and then her grin falters when she sees the look on Fefeta’s face.
“Um,” Fefeta says. “We should probably talk about that, honestly.”
The unalloyed version of yourself’s face turns from hm? to wait, what? to ohhhh. “Uh. Yep. Purrobably.”
…You really do want to humour their ‘shipping wall’, because it seems like they both enjoy it and what Nepeta has told you so far has been intriguing, but with so many potential pitfalls they seem to be running into at pleasant questions, you must admit to yourself that you are going to take the opportunity to switch conversational topics.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a spare talking device, would you?” You ask them both. “I would quite like to get into contact with my friends, as well as talking to the other adults of our pack.”
Nepeta’s expression brightens. “Sure, you can have mine!” She hands you the rectangle that her and Fefeta keep tapping at. “I have the computer gloves.”
Excellent. You have acquired a way to talk to Kreshn. If only you knew how to use it. “Thank you,” you say, and tap the rectangle carefully, trying to replicate how you’ve seen the two of them narrate their queries to the magical device. “Hello. Please tell Kreshn I am alright.”
Nothing happens.
“Um.” Fefeta stares at you. “…It’s- you know what? I’ll show you how to use it.”
==> Janslu Leijon: Be Kreshn Vantas, Thirty Minutes From Now.
You glance at your 'palm husk' as it pings. Strange that it would do that. Briefly, you wonder wha—
“That means you have a message, you asshole,” your descendant snarls, not even paying full attention to you as his 'key board' is subjected to a rigorous stridulation of clawtips.
Ah.
Well then, you 'open' the 'palm husk', tapping the 'application' that lets you send written messages to others.
A notification informs you that you have a message from someone who is not on your 'trollslum', and you click into it with curiosity. For a moment, the name means little to you.
And then your expression breaks into a broad grin.
(Your descendant scoffs, but this isn’t about him. It’s about you and her, and the moment her words hit your eyes, you wonder why you ever wanted to delay.)
aphonicClarion [AC] began trolling cardinalGnomon [CG]
AC: love.
AC: it’s been far, far too long.