caughtinanetwork | ♎

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♎ | 001

[~~through the magic of time shenanigans~~ It has been several hours since Redglare's arrival. Hours she spent investigating, scourging the brochure from top to bottom for every fragment of information, and even checking up on as much of the network as she reasonably could. She's even created a folder of notes on her personal palmtop dedicated to this strange, underwater prison. She is, above all, a professional after all, and it wouldn't do for a member of Alternia's Cruellest Bar to simply run around like a beheaded cluckbeast.

For now, it is time to change the focus of her investigation. Certainly there is much more to be found from investigating the place itself, but it would be a mistake to ignore the people living in it. And Redglare does not make mistakes. She has questions to ask, answers to discovered, and a network to start up, regardless of how long or short her stay may end up being.

She opts for a friendly approach. Catch more flies with honey, after all.]

OH NO! >:[!!!
1 H4V3 F4LL3N 1NTO 4N UND3RW4T3R BUBBL3 4ND 1 C4N'T G3T OUT.
WH3R3 1S TH3 CL3V3R WH1T3 B4RKB34ST TO R3SCU3 M3?
4 BR4V3 KN1GHT TO WH1SK M3 TO S4F3TY SO 1 M4Y SWOON 4MOUNTS TH4T COULD ONLY B3 D3SCR1B3D 4S TRULY OUTR4G3OUS!

H4H4H4, HON3STLY, 1 KNOW 1 D3S3RV3 4 V4C4T1ON FOR MY S3RV1C3S TO TROLLK1ND FOR 4PPR3H3ND1NG TH4T SCOUNDR3L, BUT TH1S W4S NOT WH4T 1 W4S 3XP3CT1NG.
WOULD 4NYON3 B3 W1LL1NG TO H3LP 4 L4DY OUT 4ND 4NSW3R 4 F3W QU3ST1ONS?

Oh no! >:[!!!
I have fallen into an underwater bubble and i can't get out.
Where is the clever white barkbeast to rescue me?
A brave knight to whisk me to safety so i may swoon amounts that could only be described as truly outrageous!

Hahaha, honestly, i know i deserve a vacation for my services to trollkind for apprehending that scoundrel, but this was not what i was expecting.
Would anyone be willing to help a lady out and answer a few questions?

If you want to opt out of me using her text, just comment here.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

All right. Lets assume that everything you have told me about this game is true-- hush, quell your inevitable bitching, you already know about my loveable scepticism.

What in Alternia's name motivated you to start playing a game like this?

I can point you to humans from the universe we created that will corroborate my story. If the Handmaid ever shows up, she probably could too, along with the the Dolorosa due to whole story about finding grub Signless in a crater. Remember that she's the one who made me believe in ancestors at all.

As for motivation, none of us knew what the game was until it was too later. My friend Sollux helped put it together from symbols in these ruins, or something, and was all hey let's play this. So we got teams together and set up to start, and by the time he realized it would end the world, I was already in the medium--in my Land, that is. No backing out. And say if we had somehow stopped earlier enough, we all would have been doomed to die, because that would be an alternate timeline. All timelines save the main one are doomed, except for things here? This place is weird and I don't really get how it works in regards to the timeline, but it hasn't screwed us over yet. I wasn't the time player, anyway. Ask Aradia about that if she shows up again.

... time player?

I mentioned the space player, right? Everyone has a title in the game. Aradia is the Maid of Time. Kanaya is the Sylph of Space. That's why I said I was a knight: it's part of my title. The latter part is called your aspect, and it determines the powers you get, if you can unlock them. No, before you ask, I didn't get any.

I'll be frank with you, Karkat. I have no questions but that is only because I barely know what the fuck you were talking about! I'd like to listen to it again, let it digest further, and if possible contact you later if any more questions arise. That's probably more efficient than just having me ask questions for the sake of asking questions.

[He sighs, but he can't really argue it.]

Fair enough. But if you want any corroboration on the creating-everyone-by-ectobiology part, ask a human called John Egbert, and for the frog part, ask Jade Harley. They were the team from the universe we created. And again, there's more shenanigans surrounding that, but I'm not going to overload you now.

All right.

Now you said there was more stuff about after the game you wanted to go into. Go ahead. My ears are open.

[He eyes her.]

... Are you sure? It's just more complication on top of the rest, and not as immediately necessary to know. I mean, I'll tell you if you want, but you're just going to get confused again.

Hmm. It is your story. Do you believe it may benefit me to know in any way, especially when interacting with your group of trolls? I am will to put my fate in your hands, Mr Vantas!

It's mostly about some of the things we went through and why, and also about certain humans and how they relate to us. Also about that extra group of trolls that might show up eventually if my intuition is right.

For now, lets leave the explanation about another group of trolls showing up until they actually do. Fascinating as I'm sure it is, right now it is not relevant.

The humans, I will pass on for now as well. I barely even know what they are beyond very squishy and oddly hornless.

Then about the things you went through... Are there any events that happened that could have an effect on things that might happen here? Anything that might come back and bite you in the rump so to speak.

Fair enough. Only three people here have actually met them from the points in time they come from, and I'm not one of them.

[Things that could bite them in the ass, though... Hmm.]

Namely if Jack ever showed up - the demon, I mean. He tied up with the humans and so on, but basically he stole the Black Queen's ring in the human's session and gained the power of a First Guardian, meaning he's effectively invincible. He can and has literally exploded planets, and is motivated towards destruction for sheer destruction's sake. If he ever shows up, we're fucked.

I guess there's some side possibilities, but those are more post-game, and being kept in check as it is. But if anything else comes up, trust me that I'll be on it if I know about it and can do anything. I'm not the leader for nothing.

Well, I suppose if they are trying to run some kind of experiment here, bringing in a wild card like that probably won't be in their favour.

That's the hope. Like I said, I've been here almost a sweep, and he hasn't shown up yet. The other Jack has - the Jack from our session - but he's cool and the worst he did was set a clock shop on fire.

[He looks back at her directly now.]

But with that out of the way, I think we can move onto Alternia.

Go on. What is it that you would like to tell me about Alternia?

[His posture straightens.]

The Summoner came up before, right? He was inspired by the Signless and so led a rebellion. You'd have to ask him for the details yourself, but I think the basic result is that he united a bunch of lowbloods and got enough attention that, while the caste system didn't actually change, the Empress responded by exiling all adults from the planet. Since then - and it's been that way so long that I never even knew until I heard about it here - only young trolls lived on Alternia. We were actually taught that adults were pretty dangerous, so you can imagine how freaked out I was when one showed up suddenly. At least it was the Dolorosa first and not a worse option.

And that's basically how it was in my time. Hemospectrum still strong as ever - [He frowns there.] - no adults, living with our lusii and automated stuff to make sure the place actually ran right. And from what I learned later, the reason I didn't get culled before I could pupate was that the Signless's small lingering following managed to ensure there would be a lusus for me? I don't know the details, because like I said, I had no clue until I came here.

Then we started Sgrub, the Reckoning pulverized Alternia with meteors, and that triggered the Vast Glub. Thus basically everyone but my team and the Empress died off. From what I've been told, she somehow made it from our universe to a different version of the one we created and conquered that Earth. Don't even ask me, because I have no clue how she got there.

Oh, we are pretty dangerous.

[She flashes him a sharp-toothed, teasing grin.]

So Alternia has been destroyed. What a pity, I guess.

[Wow. Nope. Getting up now, edging away, and keeping his front to her, yep. Not that he trusts himself to be able to defeat a full blown legislacerator, but even teasing, his instincts aren't just going to ignore it.]

Don't even try it.

[But back on subject--]

I guess it's hard to be upset about when it's way after your time, and my team and I got caught up in so much else that mourning the planet seemed kind of a waste. I mean I miss it sometimes, of course I do, but I'm hardly pining to go back even if I could.

[she blinks for a moment then starts to laugh. She has exactly that same Gatling gun hyena laugh that Terezi has.]

Oh Karkat, relax. I'm not going to hurt you. What would I do a silly thing like that for!

[That is a sound he will definitely never forget, even as it makes his shoulders tense up.]

Terezi has been known to punch me for no reason, beat me about the head with her cane, and engage slapfights over every stupid thing under the stars you can imagine. You're like weird, older, more dangerous Terezi, right down to the awful cackle.

[He doesn't actually sound as negative as the wording would imply.]

Hehehe, sounds like she likes you, Mr Vantas.

[What that is how you treat friends, right?]

[Like that, his shoulders slump, and his mouth and eyebrows slip into a flat line.]

The question of whether or not Terezi likes me is a question more complicated than you know, and also one we are sternly, stubbornly, not going to talk about. It is a minefield. It is also old history. Both of us are missing two years of the other's history and have only had one conversation since she showed up again. I just want to get back to being her friend, and that is the bizarre human corpse box I will lay down in and die, satisfied forevermore at the state of emotional affairs.

[Human corpse box? Must be much like how her species enjoys collecting and showing things away in chests, that humans enjoy collecing and stowing away corpses in boxes.]

All right, all right.

[Heh. Young love. Romance sure is confusing and a pain in the rump.]

But can I say, Mr Vantas... you have excellent taste.

I said we're not talking about it!

[There is a bit of redness spreading over his face.]

Either ask about something else or I'm going back to my hive.

Yes, I have one final question.

What is the state of the highbloods currently residing in this place? Are they being restrained? You told me that the interest in our hemospectrum, as quantified in the universal measurement of 'fucks', is low. But I am not entirely certain that measures up.

[She gives him a frank look.]

To be honest, I am mostly surprised the Grand Highblood has not yet turned you into a very attractive red smear. He does those sorts of things, you know!

Edited 2012-11-26 14:29 (UTC)

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