Fifth Iteration (8/15)

[universe_c]

Fifth Iteration

A fic about a village at the beginning of a Universe

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7




8.

Everyone is surprised when Sollux only lays one egg. The surprise wanes somewhat when the Life, Heart and Time players confirm that the egg has two embryos inside it.

The song goes up in the middle of the day, waking you from a restless sleep. It takes you a long moment to recognize Feferi's voice echoing down from the clifftop above. Somewhere in the village, another voice answers.

Gamzee turns over, blinking sleepily, humming in his chest. You get up, get dressed, and detour to the kitchen for an offering of fish pie. You meet Jane and Karkat stumbling down the cliff path looking wrung out. Gamzee hugs them both but lets them go on their way.

Feferi only lets you in because Aradia wants to see you.

The lowest level of their tower smells like the ocean. Feferi's big stone pool is empty except for a trace of yellow-tinged water in the bottom. It is bigger than any ablution trap would ever need to be, though only about as deep as a recuperacoon. The jury-rigged plumbing draws and drains from the ocean below.

You climb the stairs past Aradia's room with her shelves of specimens. Sollux and Aradia are nestled together in a pile that seems to contain every soft item in the entire building, in arm's reach of Sollux's radio bench and the server stacks he cobbled together from the remains of the asteroid's computer lab. They both look half-asleep and they're both smiling. Their egg is a creamy fuchsia with nearly metallic gold splotches.

“Come sit,” Aradia says, holding her arms out for a hug.

Gamzee places your egg next to theirs as you perch on the edge of their pile. Sollux's egg is significantly larger and much more oblong. Its shell feels thinner and more flexible. You just sit a while, staring at the two eggs next to each other. Aradia holds your hand. You can hear Feferi talking to someone downstairs, probably shooing them away.

“I didn't expect to be so happy,” Sollux says.

“Guess you can't much help second-guessing shit, Solbro, but don't up and let that stop you from getting your wicked happiness on,” Gamzee says.

Sollux tries to make a sour face at him, but it's half-hearted. “Please tell me my abdomen will stop hurting some day. My fucking nook will never be the same, will it?”

“Be good as new before you know it,” Gamzee assures him. “Just gotta let your muscles up and repair their own selves before you give them more of a workout, dig?”

“Do not tell me how long it was before you started pailing again,” Sollux says. “I really, really don't want to know.”

“You can tell me later,” Aradia whispers to you.

You sit with them a while longer, sleepy in the mid-day hush. A small smile creeps back onto Sollux's face as soon as he stops paying attention. He pets his egg absently, prods at the open husktop next to him. Aradia dozes off with her head in your lap. The bags under her eyes worry you a little. Her telekinesis is less powerful than Sollux's but enormously precise, making her the first choice for any kind of project that needs stone, wood or metal cut. Her time powers let her see how things will age. She is kept very busy.

Gamzee is due at the kitchens by the time Feferi rousts you out. You wander down toward your house, intending to nap some more. Kanaya and Rose are sitting primly on your porch, waiting for you.

“I hope we're not intruding,” Kanaya says. “I brought the mountain-hoofbeast wool samples for you to examine.”

The wool is soft, dirty and a little greasy, with an animal smell. It's definitely thicker and more insulating than the fur on the valley hoofbeasts. You wonder whether it would be worth it to try to cross breed them. You're not sure that fur light enough to keep them comfortable in the lowlands would make good fiber.

Kanaya and Rose make small talk and inquire about your visit with Sollux. Rose explains post-partum depression to you, which makes you even more glad you didn't end up with the full-on crazy human reproductive system. You discuss possible placements for barns or other animal housing. Kanaya's powers seem to give her a knack for urban planning as well as landscaping. You tell them about some possible animals you might try to domesticate, various hoofbeasts, hornbeasts and birds. Jane keeps bugging you to find some steady supply of eggs. You're not totally sure how you feel about eating eggs anymore, which makes no sense considering you used to eat grubs all the time.

Eventually, inevitably, the conversation meanders around to Vriska.

“If our estimates are correct they will arrive either during or just after evening meal tonight,” Kanaya tells you.

“We're planning to move the weekly meeting up a day,” Rose tells you. “They really should attend at least one general meeting after being gone so long. And there will be plenty of neutral parties present to intervene should any issues come up. From past experience, we know that it takes a great deal of social pressure or a great deal of underhandedness to leverage Vriska's behavior.”

“Reasoning with her has certainly proved ineffective,” Kanaya says.

“Do you want us to arrange an auspistice for you?” Rose asks you.

“Like who?” you ask. If you rule out everyone who's had problems with her in the past, there really aren't that many people left.

“Kankri, possibly,” Rose says. “Though he may feel more inclined to deal with Meenah and the fall out surrounding her reappearance. We've already radioed up to the camp, to let Aranea and Damara know about her impending arrival. Both indicated that they were planning to stay where they are.”

You shrug. You hadn't really payed much attention to Meenah's situation. “I'm uh, trying to think of a, I guess, strategy for myself. It's kind of hard because I've kind of tried everything already.”

“I sympathize,” Kanaya says. “It was a great sorrow but also a great relief for me when Vriska died, and I could finally stop strategizing. But, like myself, you have a new base of support on which to build your plans, now.”

“The community as a whole must get involved when one of its members has such a pervasive ability to disrupt its function,” Rose says. “Since culling her is off the table and she is chronically unable to keep a moirail, we have little choice but to deal with the problem through more human methods.”

“Um, like what?” you ask.

“Peer pressure. Non-romantic mediation. Maintaining a rigorously neutral attitude when dealing with her. Using the buddy system, perhaps. I hope that you and Aradia are able to help each other through any emotional drama that might ensue.”

“Please try to keep Aradia from losing her temper,” Kanaya adds. “Vriska thrives on attention and doesn't seem to care if it's good or bad. Any acrobatic maneuvers involving any type of handle will only encourage her.”

“I hope that we can come up with a long-term strategy for managing her,” Rose says. “With children on the way, the integrity of our social fabric takes on a heightened importance. They will learn by watching her, but also by watching the way that we handle her and the way we resolve conflicts amongst ourselves. We are the seed of a civilization and our actions have consequences not even I can completely foresee.”

You try to picture yourself at the top of a pyramid of descendants, children and grandchildren living in the village, building, traveling. You can't even imagine what might emerge from your egg.

“I wish there were a way to fix her,” you say, “So she would notice that the things she does aren't actually always good.”

“If your lusus ate people, if you had to kill every day to keep your lusus fed, the part of you that feels pity would also have died,” Kanaya says.

“Feferi's didn't.”

“She had Eridan doing her dirty work. And her ability to keep Gl'bgolyb calm was the only thing forestalling certain death for our entire race.”

Rose says, “My suspicion is that Vriska does not ever think about the consequences of her actions until after she's taken them. She seems to have little to no forethought, which is incredibly puzzling to me as a fellow Light player. Her reliance on her luck to save her from any and all situations evinces a deeper reliance on her pathologically inflated self-image and a deliberate refusal to engage with reality. She is consumed by the character she has built herself up to play in life. Even though that character is now causing her more harm than good, she cannot let go of it, for fear that she will be unable to function without it. In short, she doesn't know who she is outside of her bad-girl facade, so she fights tooth and nail to protect it. The integrity of her ego will always take precedence over others, or even her own safety and survival.”

“There is no way to get through to her without playing her game,” Kanaya says. “But playing her game at all simply reinforces its central conceit. Unfortunately, opposing her functions as playing her game as well, because it gives her an excuse to play the victim.”

“So, what are you planning to do?” you ask. Your hours of lost sleep are starting to weigh on you.

“I'm hoping I can simply side-step her as much as possible,” Kanaya says, looking chagrined.

“Likewise, I hope to keep very busy with things she finds very boring,” Rose says. “Waiting until she gets bored and wanders off seems to be one of the very few proven effective strategies, though depending on her degree of interest, it can backfire easily.”

“I know,” you say.

“The very worst thing anyone could do is to give her a reason to hold a grudge,” Kanaya says. “So, please refrain from antagonizing her. Not that I feel I need to tell you of all people that, it's just that we're reminding everyone before she returns.”

“If I had a better idea, I'd tell you,” you say. “I wish I had a better idea.”

But you don't.


*

You hear her before you see her.

“This planet is soooooooo incredibly booooooooring!” she says, rising petulant note exactly the same as it was when you first met her through FLARP.

The pair of them saunter into the meeting block, casual as if they hadn't absconded for seasons with the village's best boat. Vriska's pale skin is blotchy with freckles and an uneven tan. Meenah's shirt and jeans have a lot more holes in them than they used to. They're laden with bags and belt-pouches, and Meenah has an enormous dead finbeast over her shoulder, its blood forming a little trail of drips across the floor.

“Oh, hey, I thought I sniffed a shoal of losers. Sup?” Meenah says. “We brought dinner!”

“Oh my gooooooood. You guys have a whole little village to play human house in and you're still all cramped up in this stupid block! It's like we haven't been gone at all!”

Cronus is the only one who rises to greet them, moving in to give Meenah a hug.

“Oh my cod, Crotimes, what the fuck happened to you?” she says. “You got worms or somefin? Or did you just get fat sitting on your lazy ass?”

She drops everything in her hands and puts them both on his stomach, getting a smear of blood on his kimono. Her face twists in confusion.

“I'm human pregnant,” Cronus says, smiling a weird, dreamy little smile.

“There's somefin alive in here!” Meenah says. “Wait, what?”

“I'm going to have a grub. Kankri's the father.”

“Not fucking funny, Crodog. Now, you need me to thief whatever parasite you got growing in your lower digestive tract or what? Since, apparently none of the other Life bitches up in this place can be bothered to fucking take care of you.”

“No!” Conus says, recoiling.

“Meenah.” Kankri inserts himself between the two, his placating stance well-practiced. “If you wouldn't mind just taking as seat and resting a little while, a reproductive update is on the meeting agenda, along with a report on your travels and some planning of major projects you two might want to get involved in. Now that you're back, I assume you're going to want to find some way to put your variety of talents to use and there are plenty of projects you could make a major positive impact on.”

Meenah eyes the way Cronus is clutching Kankri's hand and not-quite-subtly sniffing his hair.

“You two get together while we were gone?” she asks.

“We're practically Earth Human Married now,” Cronus says. Kankri rolls his eyes.

“You owe me a finrub,” Meenah says, smirking at Vriska. Vriska makes an outraged noise.

“Fiiiiiiiine,” she says. “Wait a minute. Did you guys seriously schedule us into your meeting before we even got here? You're all in cahoots against us already, aren't you? That is so typically underhanded, not to mention boring. If you're going to be in cahoots at least do something with it other than have more pointless goddamn meetings!”

“Vriska, we merely wished to be as efficient as possible in the delivery of explanations,” Kanaya says. “Think of it this way: we were all waiting for your return so we could begin our very boring yet important meeting with all the necessary parties present.”

“Missed you too, fussyfangs!” Vriska says. “NOT!!!!!!!! Why did we come back here, again? Someone remind me.”

Meenah smiles her shark's smile. “You were the one who kept complaining that you wanted a tropical paradise vacation.”

“Feel free to leave if our tropical paradise is not to your liking,” Rose says, voice like a blast of arctic wind.

Rose and Vriska eye each other. You swear the ambient temperature in the block drops a few degrees. Or possibly that's just because you're kind of sweating a little. Not enough to need a towel or anything. Gamzee curves his long body against your side as if he's trying to keep you out of sight.

“Come on, Serket,” Meenah says. “Don't go all cray-cray on me again and get our asses kicked out before we can thoroughly bust some of these chumps' globes. Looks like your Ampora is in a freaky swollen way himself.”

Vriska takes one look at Eridan and practically falls on her ass laughing. “Both of you!” she shrieks, pointing.

Equius bares his broken teeth at her. Jane has to practically sit on Roxy to keep her from getting out of their pile. Eridan turns his nose up and says, “At least I've got my quadrants filled. How many do you have, Vris? What's that? Still none? Thought so. Fuckin psychopath.”

“Uncalled for, Eridan,” Jane says.

“Looks like your quadrants filled you,” Vriska snipes, voice cruel with amusement.

“Also uncalled for,” Jane says. “Would you mind either leaving or sitting down and being quiet? We actually do have important things to discuss.”

“Fucking shell,” Meenah mutters. She leaves her bloody kill and bags scattered right where she dropped them and marches up to the front of the room. She leans against the wall behind Karkat and crosses her arms. “Let's get this over with, then. Bring out my other Serket and make with the exposition.”

“Aranea is up the river, still,” Rose tells her. Meenah's face falls.

Vriska makes a little 'hmpf' noise, flounces over and parks herself right next to your pile. “Hi Taaaaaaaavros,” she whispers, loudly. “Miss me?”

“Nope!” Aradia answers for you. Gamzee growls. You shoosh him.

“What the hell is that?” Vriska asks, leaning around Aradia to eye up your egg.

Gamzee's growl escalates.

“Oh, for fuck's sake!” Karkat says. “Serket, do you always have to do exactly the worst thing you could in any given social situation?”

He grabs her by the arm, hauls her away from you. Vriska shrugs him off, complaining, but goes to stand next to Meenah as if it were her own idea.

“GETTING BACK TO FUCKING BUSINESS,” Karkat says, “Unless you bulgelickers really like the taste of sweeps-unwashed genitalia, someone is going to have to figure out how to make fucking soap. We are almost out. So, that means strict rationing is now going to be observed. Jane, medical or kitchen use, what's your priority?”

“Medical,” Jane says, “We'll use boiling water to sterilize the dishes. But that will mean no slacking off on the dish crew!”

There is some groaning from dish-crew regulars. Rose says she'll search the library for books on soapmaking. Jade and Porrim volunteer for the project, and Nepeta is assigned to hunt some especially fatty animals. Meenah points out that her finbeast should have some fat they can use, and that sea animals might be a better choice. Rose thanks her for volunteering. Roxy declares yet again that she should be allowed to make a still, so there would be pure alcohol available for 'medicinal purposes.' This results in her arguing with Equius yet again over the amount of metal needed.

Vriska slides down the wall, buries her face in her arms, and pretends to go to sleep.

Jane and Feferi are called up next for the promised reproductive update. They have diagrams, too, but theirs were made after first-hand observation.

“The egg is just a cell at first,” Jane says. “I'm assuming it's something like a human egg cell, in that it has only half the number of chromosomes it needs. But, fertilization doesn't happen all at once the way it would if there were a sperm involved. My senses aren't really fine enough to detect the process in detail, so all I really know is that the egg feels more and more complete, until it gets to a tipping point and begins to divide. Roxy thinks maybe there are freefloating chromosomes in the genetic material, so it has to collect them one at a time.”

Feferi takes up the explanation, cheerfully pointing at their illustrations. “Once the cell begins to divide, the egg sac organizes all the rest of the slurry into a yolk and albumin, to feed the baby as it grows! The shell forms last and the mother keeps adding more genetic material right up until it seals itself. As soon as the shell is tough enough, the egg is ready to come out. The whole egg is still soft until it leaves the body. This one here is what Sollux's egg looks like. Two yolks, two babies. That's why it's so big.”

Gamzee kind of shivers, palming your egg in its sling.

“In Roxy's case, there was no egg released, so her body just expelled the genetic material. Her heat symptoms were much less pronounced than Equius's as well. I'm not totally sure why that is,” Jane says.

“I maybe have an idea,” you say. Everyone looks at you. “When I was, uh, near Equius, the other day, uh. The smell of my egg kind of counteracted the smell of, uh, him. And when it first happened the way Gamzee smelled made me all, um. You know. So. Maybe. That?”

You sound like a total idiot. Vriska is smirking at you like you've just given her all the blackmail material.

“You have been spending a lot of time around Eridan,” Jane muses, eying Roxy. “Maybe we can examine the people who spend the most time around eggs and pregnant people, see if there's anything changing. Thanks, Tavros.”

“We should examine everyone!” Feferi declares, “So we can start figuring out who might be coming into heat next. Would once a week be too often?”

“I think not,” Jane says before anyone can really protest. She gives everyone her gentle, steely 'don't give me any shit' smile. “This will only be temporary, until we get some more things figured out. We should have started doing it right away, actually. I suppose we were all a bit shocked. Meenah, you should sit in until you get a feel for the process.”

“Wouldn't want these Life bitches to out-preform you,” Feferi says sweetly.

“Hey!” John interjects. “I have a medical question!”

“Okay,” Jane prompts.

“Um. Oh, how will we tell if the babies are boys or girls?”

There is a beat where everyone looks a bit baffled.

“Whatever that actually means, anatomically or socially,” Rose says.

“I guess we'll just figure it out!” Feferi says.

“But how?” John asks, “Trolls had nooks and bulges the whole time right? So I don't really get how you ended up as boys or girls in the first place. How did you know which you were?”

“Well, you were the same as your lusus, obviously,” Feferi says.

“But was that because lusii picked correctly every time, or because gender was a learned concept in troll society?” Rose asks. “There's really no way to tell at this point. Whatever gender selection process we use, it won't reflect on troll or human society accurately.”

“I have a suggestion,” Terezi grins.

“No, we're not just going to flip a coin! Not even if you look really badass.” John tells her, rolling his eyes. “Gamzee, you keep calling yours a girl. How do you know?”

“Just something that feels right about it, like. Anyway, wouldn't be no big deal if she up and changes her mind later, would it?”

You don't see why not. The humans look variously thoughtful and uncomfortable. Porrim looks like she's going to start protesting the second she formulates an argument.

“I suppose it would not be a big deal if we didn't make it one,” Rose says. “Perhaps, even, a coming of age ceremony in which the child announces their chosen gender identity to the group and is applauded for it. We could even go so far as to select a gender-neutral pronoun for children. Or perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.”

“How is this even an important issue to consider?” Kankri asks. “I don't see how it has any bearing on our society as a whole.”

“Of course you don't,” Porrim snaps. “You are the patriarchy, it's you. And the more you deliberately resist acknowledging it, just out of childish contrariness, the more entrenched it becomes! You of all people know how difficult it is to change a power structure that's become entrenched in society! So, if you mishandle this just to spite me, you're only going to be perpetuating the same system of oppression that Beforus had.”

“And Earth,” Rose adds.

“If not creating an entirely new one! Is that what you want? To spawn new systems of oppression just so you can talk about them endlessly?”

“Porrim, you are deliberately triggering me-”

“CUT IT THE FUCK OUT,” Karkat yells.

It takes a while to defuse that argument and the following one that breaks out over assigning signs and colors. Vriska's eyes bore holes in you the whole time.

==>Next