Fifth Iteration (11/15)

[universe_c]

Fifth Iteration

A fic about a village at the beginning of a Universe

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Trigger warning on this chapter for mention of a miscarriage


11.

Aradia is livid when you tell her. You don't even tell her the part about how you were up on the cliffs at the time. She takes you by the horn, hauls you across the village and all the way up her tower. She kicks Sollux out of the pile and makes you tell her the whole conversation word for word. You apologize a lot, and point out that no one got hurt. She promises not to tell Karkat you disobeyed his stupid buddy system order, even though Dirk and Jake were technically kind of there.

“It occurred to me that I kind of keep doing stupid things every time I try to be brave,” you say. “Sorry.”

“Oh, Tavros. It's not being brave, or not, that's your problem. It's that you don't think about things before you do them, sometimes.”

You tell her about your feelings jam come philosophy lesson with Dirk, Jake and Karkat, and your conversation with Rose and Kanaya.

“I just want to fix things. Not just for me and her, but for everybody,” you explain.

“You and Karkat both. All you Pages and Knights with your fussy stabilizing and your poor impulse control,” she sighs. “Listen, you are sleeping over with me today. Gamzee can come up too, if he wants.”

“Won't Sollux mind?” you ask.

“We'll stay in my room. If Sollux doesn't like it, he can go crash at Karkat's.”

“You really don't mind about Sollux's whatever thing with Karkat? I still kind of don't get how that even happened.”

She smiles a little, settling closer against your shoulder. “When he was in heat and all horny and scared and uncomfortable, he really wanted Karkat there. Of course none of us were really thinking all that clearly. I kind of regret that I didn't go and get Karkat when Sollux asked for him. At least then they wouldn't be dragging this out the way they are. Fef and I knew that traditional quadrants wouldn't ever really work with Sollux, since he always feels two ways about everyone. We've already talked about it plenty, working things out for just the three of us, so it doesn't seem like a big deal to add one more. Back on Alternia, I'd have had to share him with a kismesis, a moirail and an ash trio anyway, right? You and Gamzee are the weird ones, here, with your Earth Human monogamy.”

“We're... Okay, so we basically are, I guess.”

“There's nothing wrong with that,” Aradia says. “I think you two are adorable. And it's not like you're the only ones. As long as everyone's happy, why should it matter?”

“Do you think Meenah and Vriska had, uh, something? They did manage to not kill each other that whole time they were away.”

“I think it's pale,” Aradia says. “I could have sworn they were waxing pitch around when they left, but seeing them together when they came back...”

“That would never work. They're way too much alike,” you say.

“No, think about it. Remember the way Meenah stopped her from going off on Eridan?”

“Can you actually auspistize between someone and the whole world?” you ask.

Aradia laughs. “Yeah, it's called moirallegience,” she says. “I'd be more concerned how Aranea will take it, except-”

You both jump as a whipcrack of static lashes from the radio bench just behind your head. It sorts itself into a voice, small but intelligible under the fuzz of interference.

“Helloooo?” the voice says, “Yo, is there anyone receiving? This is the Radical Rumpus Adventure Party calling home base.”

Sollux stumbles up the stairs, clutching his abdomen.

“Augh, fuck,” he groans. “Somebody grab the handset right now!”

You are the closest. You leap for it, fumbling with the buttons as Sollux tells you, “No, not that one, the next one. No, hold it down!”

“Was that the radio?” Feferi asks, her wide-eyed face appearing in the stairwell by Sollux's hip. “I'll go get Karkat!”

She pounds down the stairs and you hear the front door slam.

“Uh, Latula?” you say, clutching the handset. “This is Tavros, uh, I mean, home base. Can you hear us?”

“Reading you, barely! Damn, it's good to finally get hold of you suckaz. It has been a long fucking time, am I right? We made a big loop up around the plains, almost out to where it turns into desert. But there was an incident and we decided to turn around.”

“Is Mituna okay?” Sollux demands. You relay the question.

“Yeah, he's fine,” Latula says. “He was really sick for a little while. That's when everything kind of started to go mad off-kilterz. It's kind of a long story. But he's all better now. Been knocking his fine bifurcated ass out flying us back toward you.”

“We have kind of a, uh, long story to tell you too. Should we call you back when Karkat and the others get here?”

“Nah, we got plenty of battery left. How are you doing little Nitram? You still shacked up with mini-Makara?”

“Yeah.” You tell her, “We're gonna have a baby.”

“A what?” Latula asks.

“Gamzee kind of got pregnant, so uh, we're going to have a wiggler. And so is Sollux, and Cronus and, uh, a bunch of other people.”

“What?! Latula laughs. “Are you fucking with me? That would be a pretty radical prank, I guess, if I thought it were true. Which I totally don't. Hang on.”

She fails to switch the 'send' function off, and you hear some muffled talking, then Mituna's grating laughter.

“Oh, oops,” she says, then, closer. “Sorry, dudes. We're totally psyched for your fakeass grubs over here. Guess I should thank you. We really needed a little cheer-up. Our adventure grindz got totally harshed.”

Karkat and Kankri clatter up the steps. Feferi and Porrim follow in a slightly more dignified manner, half-supporting Cronus between them. You step away from the radio before Karkat can push you. Kankri attempts to elbow him out of the way, and it appears a slap-fight might break out. Feferi reaches over them both and casually presses the button.

“Hi, Latula! Are you all okay? We've been worried!”

“Latula!” Kankri says, pained.

“Report!” Karkat barks, “Where the fuck have you been?”

“Whoa!” Latula says, “Double threat! Hey, Blood players one and two! Mituna and I are all right, so settle your tits!”

“I can't help but notice a few individuals were left right the fuck out of that statement,” Karkat says, snatching the handset as Kankri kind of sags against the table. “Namely little miss greenness and light, and that flying piece of garbage.”

“Harsh, dude,” Latula sighs. There is a staticky pause. The lamplight flickers on the wooden beams of the ceiling, the still bodies of your friends. Aradia gathers you back onto the pile with her and Sollux.

“The thing is,” Latula says, “They're not with us anymore. Like I said, Mituna got real sick, like, back toward the beginning of last Bright season. So, we had to stop where we were and take care of him. His fever was pretty high and we kind of couldn't figure out what was wrong. And while we were dealing with that, Calliope just disappeared. So Rufioh took off looking for her and didn't come back. By the time Mituna got better there was basically no way we could track either of them. We waited there to see if they'd come back, did a bunch of scouting trips trying to figure out which way they went. Eventually we decided we should leave a message at the campsite and head back as fast as we could for help. I'm not sure anymore how far out we are from your location. We're probably another half-day's flight from the foothills.”

“Fuck,” Karkat says. “Someone go find John and Rose. No, wait. Travros, whisper them, now, and tell them to get over here.”

“Okay,” you say. You push down the heavy hollow feeling in your stomach. You're really getting good at throwing your whispers. You think you could even make it further than the waterwheel camp if you had to. You find Rose and John near the workshops and Breathe the message without even having to meditate.

“Porrim, is Latula close enough that you can sense her location?” Kankri asks.

“Faintly,” she says. “They are very far north along the mountains. Rufioh and Calliope are both too distant for me to detect.”

“Latula, Porrim has your location. Perhaps you should set up a camp and rest, while you wait for us to join you?” Kankri says.

“Yeah,” Latula says, after a pause, “That seems pretty sensible, if you're sure we're close enough for you to find us. Never thought I would say this, but I'm almost homesick for First House. It's been a long, long camping trip. The beginning part was pretty righteous, but now, not so much.”

“You'll hardly recognize the village, when you return,” Kankri says. “We've built a lot. We've missed you.”

“We missed everyone too. Damned if we'll come back without our whole team, though.”

“Latula, can you tell me more about Mituna's illness?” Feferi asks, brightly. “I think I'll be able to explain it to you. Did he have any unusual concupiscent urges?”

“Um, wow, okay. Well, he was running a high fever, like I said before. And he did want to pail with me but, well. It's kind of awkward when you're camping with two other people. We were traveling on the open plains following this herd of huge hornbeasts at that point, so there was basically no privacy at all. So. We kind of did it once, and ummmm. Like, how do I put this?”

“He retained the genetic material internally?” Feferi asks. You're really not sure how she can sound so cheerful and matter-of-fact when she talks about this stuff, like she's not even a little bit embarrassed.

“Yeah. Call it that. Okay, so that happened. And then Calliope disappeared and that whole business, so we were really upset, kind of ruined the mood and stuff. And after a few days he got better, and then after some more days all the genetic material kind of, came out all at once. It was really fucking weird, yo. But I was so messed up with my party members getting lost, I just didn't really think about it that hard.”

“Well, like I thought, it sounds like he went into heat. If you'd gotten enough genetic material into him, he'd have gotten pregnant and he'd have laid an egg by now. Sollux has one. It's twins. They'd have gone into heat at the same time.”

“Oh my gog,” Latula moans, “That is so totally gross. Shit, Mituna's kind of freaking out. Listen, we'll call you back.”

There is a click and the transmission goes to static.


*

“All right, people. Train your minuscule attention spans up here because we have some important, literally life-and-death shit to figure out,” Karkat says. He's pacing the front of the big dining block just before dawn meal. Everyone in the village is there, even the people usually asleep at this time of day.

“Like you've probably all heard by now, since this place is an unnavigable gossip maelstrom, Latula and her chucklehead party finally radioed in and told us that not one but two of their number are missing, whereabouts unknown and likely not together. They're a fucking multiday flight northwest past the mountains, and the missing are even further that that.

“The search party obviously is going to need Space players, fliers, as many long-distance sensors as possible and at least one Life player. But we know that a lot of people's quadrants are involved in this everyone's-mammalian-pregnant-together-hooray debacle. So, we thought we'd ask for volunteers. Every one of you who just opened your mouth, I'd strongly advise you to close it again because I am not fucking finished!

“We are looking at at least a ten day trip, and possibly much longer, so be prepared for a long time away from the lap of dubious village luxury. Also, if you are or have been pregnant don't even think about volunteering - you are automatically banned from this mission. Besides, someone needs to keep this place from falling to rubble.

“So take this gogdamned time to talk to your quadrants and human non-quadrant-whatevers. The official strategy meeting will begin after we eat. And if anyone derails said meeting into more romance fuckery or baby talk I will personally boot them off a fucking cliff.”

He gives you all a final look that's more worried than hard, then walks off toward the food table. The room erupts with voices.

“I won't stand for you flush-crushing on Pyrope. You're mine, now.” Cronus says, loudly, somewhere behind you.

At the next table over, Roxy is arguing with Eridan, snarling in his face as Equius tries to separate them. John and Dave talk quietly and intently while Terezi hangs all over them. You notice Vriska sneaking out the door.

Across from you, Gamzee picks at his breakfast, his feet tangled with yours under the table. At your elbow, Aradia and Feferi are cheerfully badgering Sollux into eating something.

Karkat drops onto the bench next to Gamzee.

“Don't just play with it, fuckass,” he says, and tucks into his own plate of fried fish, greens and honey-slathered bread.

Sollux and Gamzee both eye him, then sullenly start eating. It's cute, really.

The fish is mellow and flaky, and you actually quite like salad now. You're just not very hungry.

“Well,” Aradia says, “I'm obviously going. Who else are you hoping for Karkat? You must have people in mind.”

“Would you rather have Jane or me?” Feferi asks, giving Sollux an apologetic look.

“You. Jane's a better sensor but you're better with trauma and injuries,” Karkat says. “Sollux, it's up to you, but if you'll let them both go, I'll stay with you. If you want.”

“You're not going with?” Sollux asks, carefully neutral.

Karkat shrugs, “I can't fly and my range sucks. There are plenty of decent fighters who will be more useful than me. John's going to head up the search.”

Your table is quiet for a moment, the buzz of conversation swelling on all sides.

Sollux tugs Karkat's hand up to his mouth and plants a teeth-scraping bite on his wrist. Karkat yanks his hand back, blushing.

“If you both want to go, I'm all right with it,” Sollux says.

“Fucking degenerate,” Karkat says, but the snarl he gives Sollux is closer to a smile.

“I expect the service will be impeccable,” Sollux says. Fef and Aradia giggle.

Gamzee drapes an arm around Karkat and gives him a half-hug. “Miracles,” he says.

Karkat lets himself relax into the hug for about half a second before he sighs and nudges Gamzee off him.

“Tavros,” he says, “Look, I can't force you to go, but you're one of our widest-ranged sensors and we could really use as much coverage as possible. We also could use your windy thing.”

It hadn't really occurred to you that you should volunteer. “But, I, uh, can't really do the windy thing like John. Like, I can't fly anybody.”

“Rose thinks we should send people up the coast in boats.” Karkat says. “John's team will conduct the search inland, then rendezvous with you for a lift home. You'll also have extra supplies in case it takes longer than we thought. The only problem is that it might be dicey meeting up.”

“I'm going to be able to track them, Karkat,” Aradia assures him. “Unless, of course, there's some kind of Space shenanigans involved.”

“Considering offender number one is the fucking Muse of Space, I would guess there might possibly be some of that involved!” Karkat says.

“Wouldn't flying be faster than stupid boats?” Sollux asks.

“For a flight as long as that, with gear and supplies, I probably couldn't carry more than one or two other people,” Aradia says. “Not over that kind of distance. And we'll have to stop and rest.”

“That's about what John said,” Karkat says. “So, the two of you plus Mituna can take, say, six to nine people, including yourselves. That's three plus Latula, Calliope and Nitram. That leaves three more people max before you start getting too bogged down to make good time. And how long exactly do you think you could keep it up? What if Nitram is hurt somehow and can't fly himself?” he rakes his hand through his hair, angrily. “And if things go to shit once you all get out of radio range, we'd have to send out another search party anyway. That's actually the most important role for the boat team – communications.”

A little later, Karkat re-explains this plan to the whole group. He's interrupted when Vriska barges back into the block with as much of a dramatic flourish as she can muster, which is quite a lot. She's the best there is, after all.

“Don't say I never gave you anything,” she says, and starts unrolling her maps.

They cover the entire east and north coast of the continent, including a good distance up every major river. They're beautifully drawn, detailed, and covered in notes on resources, fishing spots, sheltered coves, obstacles and dangers.

Porrim takes one look at them and points at the exact location Latula's group is camped, not far from a deep river valley that cuts through the coastal mountain range. Vriska marks it with a flourish. She seems astonished when Porrim gives her a hug.

==>Next