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riverboundao3ff · 5 years ago

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Riverbound, Chapter 6

Your name is TYZIAS ENTYKK and you have had a long fucking six perigees.

It’s not like it was all terrible, because it wasn’t; a lot of it was actually super thrilling and dangerous enough for your matesprit to ask you, on several occasions, if you’re suicidal. You’re not, thankfully. However, your life has been, for the lack of a better term, apeshit crazy.

You are currently sitting in a loose circle with your coworkers and the jades, the alien sandwiched protectively between Stelsa and Tagora. Daraya had told you that they had two broken ribs and were severely underweight, but you’re still stunned by how frail they look. Had they been like that before they went missing? They’re strangely tangible now, like you’re truly seeing them for the first time. It haunts you.

“What’s the last thing you remember before you were kidnapped?” you ask.

The alien and Lanque exchange glances.

“I was coming back from a party Lanque invited me to,” they begin. “I was just walking down the street and… boom, next thing I know I’m up in Scratch’s mansion-dimension-hell.”

That’s what the jadeblood told you six perigees ago, but you just wanted to make sure everybody’s timelines were in order. “Right. After you disappeared, we all did a massive search party, and I’m assuming your other friends did the same. That went on for like, what, two and a half perigees? After that, I… well, we came to the conclusion that you got culled.”

They nod.

Your throat feels tight, but you continue. “Of course, we were all devastated. Nobody wanted to believe you were really gone, but… there wasn’t a trace of you left. So we decided to do the next right thing.”

“Oh boy,” Tirona mutters.

You ignore her. “Daraya and I kept in touch after you introduced us that one time. We kept coming back to what you would always tell us about making the world a better place, even if we were just talking about random shit. So eventually I was like… hey, fuck it. Let’s start a rebellion. Tegiri thinks we’re all gonna die and wants nothing to do with it, but that’s his problem. What have we got to lose?”

“Your lives,” they point out helpfully.

“True. But yeah, that’s how this whole thing got started. It took a bit of convincing, but we finally got some other people to join.”

“More like dragged us kicking and screaming into it,” Tagora mutters under his breath.

“So far we blew up a hangar full of rockets, hacked the government a few times to delete cull-on-sight lists, beat up a purpleblood, vandalised some stuff with Trizza’s face on it, uh… what else did we do, guys?”

“We organized a rescue for Outglut after a drone raid basically burned the place to the ground,” Stelsa added. Yeah, that had been one hell of a wipe. You guys had helped out a lot of survivors, but sometimes even sopor couldn’t keep away daymares of burning flesh and lifeless eyes. Saving everybody wasn’t an option, but you tried your best. That’s what was important.

“I saved a grub who was gonna be culled because he wasn’t as big as the others,” Wanshi mumbles shyly, kicking her feet against the log she was sitting on.

“Honk!” Karako adds.

“And Karako helped!”

The alien’s eyes twinkle with utter delight. “That’s amazing, Wanshi. And holy moly, dude, who blew up the hangar?”

“I think his name is Azdaja? He and his partner Konyyl absolutely destroyed the place,” Tagora explains shrewdly, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

“Azdaja and Konyyl? They’re in this too?” they exclaim, getting even more excited. “Oh my God, I can’t wait to see them again. But who the frick hacked the government? That sounds pretty damn dangerous.”

Tirona clears her throat. “A mutual friend of ours is responsible for that. You knew Mallek Adalov, right?”

The goofy smile on their face falls away. “Mallek? Of course I know Mallek! How is he?”

“Hanging in there. He does his own thing, really,” Tirona says with a shrug.

“When’s the last time you saw him? Does he know I’m back?” they demand.

Lanque smirks. “Somebody’s eager, huh?”

Your friend splutters and shoots him a look like, I’ll kill you later, bitch.

“Well, I saw him a couple wipes ago, and… no. He doesn’t know anything. Should I call him?” Tirona asks helpfully, understanding dawning on her grub-round face as she and Lanque lock eyes. He nods eagerly, and the alien shrieks in protest and then clutches their side.

Tagora catches them as they faint, and together he and Stelsa carefully lay them out on the ground. Daraya’s eyes flicker between the alien and Lanque and Tirona, who are animatedly discussing whether or not they should call Mallek, like she doesn’t know whether or not to yell at them for making her beloved friend pass out from pain or join in on the fun.

You roll your eyes. Great, even more drama. “Jegus, just call Adalov and tell him his bag-of-bones flushcrush is half dead on the forest floor.”

“I thought this was supposed to be a business meeting?” Tagora snipes.

“Business can wait. I want to see where this goes,” Stelsa giggles. “Besides, they’re his friend, too. He deserves to see them again!”

In the dirt and dead leaves, the alien groans. “What…?”

“We’ll take care of everything, dear, just take deep breaths,” your matesprit promises sweetly. She pats the alien’s forehead and scooches over so Daraya can sit down with her and Tagora. Your bloodpusher warms at the sight.

Tirona’s palmhusk is cheerfully trilling, going through one, two, three cycles of that damn noise. You need to get that kid to change her ringtone, seriously.

Just when you think Adalov’s not going to answer, there’s a sharp click at the other end. “Yeah?”

“Mallek, hi!” Tirona sings. “What are you up to?”

“Re-wiring my PC so it stops overheating every time I try and play Mineclaw. Look, if you’re gonna ask me to hack anything again, it’s a hard no. I already risked my ass once so you guys could dick around in a major government server--”

“No, we don’t need you for that. Just get your blue butt down to the base of the jades’ mountain. There’s somebody I think you’d like to see,” she insists.

“I’m busy. Tell Tyzias to suck a fat one.”

“Okay, but seriously! Mallek, you need to come here, it’s important.”

“I already told you, I’m done doing stupid shit.”

“We both know that’s a lie, but okay. Please, dude, you won’t regret it--” Tirona pleads, but gets cut off by Lanque swiping the palmhusk from her hands, growling in exasperation.

“Adalov. It’s me, Lanque. Come here now. They’re back, they’re a little injured, but they’re alive and that’s what’s important. Don’t you want to see them?”

Dead silence.

Then, a low beeping as Mallek hangs up.

Lanque’s fangs glint as he grins in satisfaction. “He’s on his way.”

“You sound like you know him,” you state.

He shrugs. “Old hookup.”

“Ah.” That makes sense.

“Gimme my palmhusk back,” Tirona demands, grabbing for the device. Lanque obliges before bringing out his own and fiddling around with it. On the adjacent log, Wanshi and Karako start talking about some story they’re coming up with together.

Another groan reaches your ears, and you look down to see the alien pushing themselves up on their elbows. “Aw, crap. Did I pass out?”

“Yeah, you did. Also, Tirona and Lanque called your cerulean boyfriend. He’ll be here in a bit” Daraya explains dryly.

“You… oh, geez. He’s not my boyfriend!”

“I can help with that. Consider it your welcome-back present,” Lanque offers, smugness radiating off every pore.

“I thought you were on my side!”

“Darling, I’m on no side but my own.”

“I despise you.”

“Oh?” You almost burst out laughing when you see the bit of interest that sparks in his eyes. Good fuck, this alien had all of Thrashthrust wrapped around their little finger.

Their face burns bright red. “Not like that, you horny Onceler headass--”

Tagora tries and fails to cover both Wanshi’s, Tirona’s, and Karako’s ears at the same time. “Stop saying those things in front of the kids!”

“Gor-Gor, until somebody helps peel my injured self out of the literal dirt I’m not doing anything for anybody, okay?”

“So much for business,” Daraya huffs. You know her well enough by now to see that she’s amused by all of this. It’s in the slight narrow of her shadowed eyes, the tilt of her head.

“That’s what I just said-!”

Your fellow rebels’ bickering is abruptly cut off by the sound of a revving hoverboard engine somewhere above you. Karako yelps and slaps his hands over the sides of his head. The alien stops cussing out Lanque and looks up at the sky, pale face shining in the light of the moons. Despite Stelsa’s protests, they push themselves to their feet with a grimace. A fierce determination lights them up from within.

Could you convince them to use that strength for the rebellion?

“That was fast!” Wanshi notes cheerfully.

A lean figure blurs through the canopy and swoops down to land on the path outside of the clearing you guys are in. Any other time you’d start ragging on Adalov about him and his stupid pretentious rich-boy hoverboard, but you keep your mouth shut once you see the desperation in his wide blue eyes, and also because the little insect instinct that’s survived billions of years of evolution cringes away from the color. Only adult trolls have color in their eyes, and adults are bad news.

It’s a lot less dramatic than you thought it was going to be. Mallek steps off his hoverboard and kicks it up into his waiting left hand, opens his mouth to say something, and then his eyes fall on the alien.

Something incredibly sweet and vulnerable softens his face behind the obvious shock that makes him stiffen up like a corpse. He hardly looks like the tired, emotionless punk you had the misfortune of meeting once or twice since your mutual friend disappeared.

Mallek says their name, a perfect mixture of a question and an exclamation. The alien smiles, still holding their side, and limps over to him with their other hand reaching out to him. Something in your guts twist around when he hesitates, before slowly taking their pale, bony hand in his own, like he’s not believing what he’s seeing. You hear him inhale shakily when they finally touch.

“I was hoping we’d be able to do this a little more gracefully, but my friends are assholes,” the alien jokes feebly.

The cerulean shakes his head in disbelief. “How… how are you alive? I thought… we all thought--”

“I know. I’m so sorry.”

Out of the corner of your eye, Tirona sniffles and wipes her nose with a handkerchief. She looks like a proud lusus.

“I’ll explain everything, I promise,” the alien vows. “Wanna sit down with us? Tyzias is filling me in on everything I missed.”

Mallek opens his mouth like he’s trying to speak, but then he just nods and follows the alien back to your little friendship circle group. The poor bastard still looked like somebody had slapped the thinkpan cells from his skull.

He doesn’t get the chance to join you, though. A low hum of another engine reaches your ears, deeper than that of a hoverboard and more guttural. Lanque shoots to his feet, pointed ears sticking straight up.

“Drones!” Stelsa cries.

Your digestive tract drops down and out of your ass. No, no, no, not now! The government was getting an idea as to who you are, and once they see you and a bunch of other trolls meeting up in a fucking forest of all places-!

You’re on your feet and ready to bolt, but before you can go anywhere the alien reaches out and pulls your arm.

“Everybody hold hands!” they shout.

Tagora whips around to stare at them. “What?!”

“Just do it!”

They look deadly serious. You squeeze their wrist and wonder what your life has come to. Daraya and Lanque grab Wanshi and Karako, who grabs Tirona, who clings to Tagora, who holds on to Stelsa. Mallek grabs Stelsa, still hand-in-hand with the alien with his hoverboard tucked underneath his arm.

Three drones whiz by over your heads. Your blood turns to ice inside of you. Weirdly, the only thing you can think of is if you told Bearmom you loved her before you left.

“Okay, guys, this is gonna be weird. Brace yourselves!” The alien grits their teeth, looking like they were concentrating. Something in their strange hazel eyes flashes bright green.

One second you’re standing in a clearing in the woods, holding hands with your weird friend and some punk, and the next everything is pitch black.

Not black like a moonless night, but black like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It was the darkness of space, the endless void every living thing is subconsciously terrified of. You’d written a paper about the fear of the unknown when you were six sweeps old. It lasts for less than one beat of your bloodpusher, but it felt like an eternity in your panicked mind.

All at once the abyss goes away, and you and your group are in somebody’s messy apartment.

You and Tagora stare at each other for the time it felt like you were in the void. Tirona is holding his hand in a white-knuckled grip so intense you’re surprised somebody hasn’t broken a bone.

Wanshi is the first to speak. “Holy shit.”

“Wanshi,” Lanque hisses.

Slowly, Daraya lets go of his and Karako’s hands. “... Well. You weren’t lying about the whole space-time thing after all.”

Your alien friend snorts. “Nope.”

“We just teleported,” you realize.

“Yep.”

Mallek breaks away and sits down heavily on the loungeplank. It looks like you’re in the living room, except there’s computer parts littered everywhere.

The alien looks back at him, guilt evident in the way they hold themselves. “Um, sorry. This was the only place I could perfectly visualize for some reason.”

“... You need to be able to visualize something or somewhere to travel to it?” he asks.

“Yeah. Space-time travel is weird like that.”

He nods.

There’s another long break of silence.

This time, Lanque breaks it. “Adalov, why is there a crusty grubcake stuck to the ceiling of your kitchen?”

#hiveswap #Hiveswap Friendsim trolls #riverbound #pesterquest #c6 #jadebloods #teals #AND MALLEK #The Guardian #MSPA reader #homestuck #the guardian's friends are assholes

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