Chapter Text
"WHAT THE FUCK? Where the hell are we??!!" A black haired tan-skinned man shouted, panic in his voice as he looked around frantically with red eyes. He was in his late twenties but looked a bit younger than his age, he wore black jeans and a grey hoodie with a white Cancer symbol stitched on the front right above his heart. In his hands was a thin letter that he clutched tightly as he was filled with sudden anxiety.
"Karkat, please calm down! I am confused as well but please cease from shouting!" A dark-skinned woman shouted, short black hair frazzled a bit but had a few pins in her hair keeping it tiday. Her jade green eyes looked beseechingly at him to calm down thought it had little effort as the man hyperventilated, she also seemed to be young but was the same age as the others if a bit a few much older. She wore a flowy white blouse, a jade and black pencil skirt with the Virgo symbol stitched into the skirt and decorating her belt, on her face was a pair of thin rectangular glasses and around her shoulders a single line of measuring tape.
"Kanaya's right Karkat, you've gotta calm down! I don't know what's going on either, I was exercising at the gym and now I'm here too!" Urged another woman, though her skin was light than the other and her hair, a deep dark brown that stopped at chin-length. Olive green eyes glancing at the two and bouncing with nervous energy, her hair was wild and her skin was slick with sweat, she wore a black sports bra and her knuckles were wrapped with bandages, around her waist was an olive green jacket and she wore a pair of slim blue pants with a black Leo symbol at the waist hem.
"Um, I, I don't know what's going on. How did we get here, I was, I was just looking for Rufioh and then I'm here." Across them, two men stood together. One had dark brown hair in a growing mohawk that seemed to suit him, he wore a sleeveless brown shirt with the Taurus symbol stitched on the back in black, he wore knee-length cut shorts that didn't hide a particular attachment to the man; his prosthetic legs that were attached to his thighs. They were well-made, but though it was the most eye-catching on the man, the scars on his tanned olive skin that were visible also drew attention frequently though it didn't really bother the man with clear brown eyes that had seen so much.
"Woah, what. Shit, I-wait, Karkat? Tavros? The motherfuck?" The other man cursed in clear confusion, he was a tall man, easily the tallest out of the group of adults and his purple eyes. His black hair usually a wild mane that transcended definition was tied back into a tight and short pony-tail as paint smeared his pale skin and the messy smock he wore above his polka-dotted purple t-shirt, his grey yoga pants were also stained and in his hands was a thick paint brush and a can of red paint, a glob of bright red splashes on the ground from his paint brush.
"D! I don't, wait, Jaiden? Rosalin!" To the side, a tan-ish man in his early 50s exclaimed in confusion as he looked at the three before him. He ran an old and calloused hand through his greying hair, narrowed blue eyes behind square-framed glasses and mustache framing his frown, he wore a light blue button-up shirt with a nice black tie tied in a bow on him, his clean pink-tinted dress pants would have been amused in any other sitaution than right of the moment.
"Johnny? D, Rosie!" A bronze old woman also in her early 50s shouted in excitement but also confusion and wariness as her long grey hair tied back in a bun, circular glasses that did little to hide her confused green eyes as she shift uneasily in her elbow-lengthed-sleeved button up blouse and tan brown long skirt, a rifle tucked behind her back.
"Johnathon, brother, Jaiden?" She was in her late 20s, black lips on pale skin and lavender eyes observing in trepidation. Blonde hair neat and tidy, neck hidden and wrapped by a pink scarf, she wore a white grey blouse with long sleeves and a black pencil skirt. At her side, in her hands was her leather bag which held her laptop and other items.
"Old man Crockdork, Jade, Rose... So, does anyone know where we are?" The final man deadpanned with a hidden nervous tone, he was pale with observant red eyes hidden behind black aviators. He wore a casual long-sleeved red shirt with white printed text on it sloppily and shittily spelling 'where doing this man, where making this hapen' on his back and white pants.
"Don't look at me pretty boy, I have noooooooo idea where the fuck we are." The final woman in the room sneered with one cerulean eye, the other was covered and hidden by her glasses which had a black lens, she flipped her long hair over her shoulder and her arm held her other. Besides the hidden eye, the other interesting thing to note about her was the fact her other arm was a prosthetic. She wore a black vest with a cerulean undershirt, she wore blue jeans with a black Scorpio symbol stitched on top of her pockets. She shuffled uneasily, eyeing everyone with wary but seemed to relax a bit at the sight of the man with legs prosthetics.
The old man coughed, bringing attention to himself, "Alright now settle down, I believe we need to calm down and think this through. And I suppose introduce ourselves as well, my name is Johnathan Crocker, it is a pleasure to meet you all." Johnathan said with a cheerful smile.
The old woman chuckled, "Alway the peacekeeper huh Johnny? Hello there, I'm Jaiden English, Johnny's older sister." Jaiden said, sharing a grin with Johnathan. She looped a hand around his neck, pinching his cheek much to his mock dismay.
"I suppose I am next, salutations. I am Rosaline Lalonde." Nodded Rosaline, "I don't suppose anyone knows how they got here? I only recall leaving my favorite cafe to return home."
"David Strider, and nope, sorry big sis but all I remember was going out of the house to meet with my assistant." Deadpanned David, though his hands curled a bit. "And then the next thing I know I'm fucking here." He motions to their surroundings.
Karkat growled, "I was out getting my mail when fuck knows what happened." He takes a deep breath, "Karkat Vantas, fuckin' great to meet you all, or see you shits again whichever." He snarks, nodding to the others who nodded back.
"I am Kanaya Maryam, and similarly enough, I was fulfilling my latest comission dress and now I am here." Kanaya says, taking off her glasses and frowning, "It was a strange thing, I blinked and suddenly..." she trailed off.
"I know the feeling, Gamzee Makara everyone, though these guys," Gamzee motioned to the others except Johnathan, Rosaline, David and Jaiden, "know who I am. I was just painting a motherfucker and now I'm not." He motions towards his bucket of paint and paintbrush.
"Nepeta Leijon," Nepeta said briefly, pausing to use her jacket to wipe her forehead, "Yeah it was weird, I was taking a small break from my workout at the gym and then I'm hearing Karkat's screaming!" She said, aiming a smile at Karkat who huffed at her, giving her a glare.
"Um, Tavros, Nitram. Nice to meet you, uh, did you guys really just blink? Not black out or uh, anything?" Tavros questioned nervously, scratching his head sheepishly when the others shook their heads, "Oh..."
"Vriska Serket, well whatever the fuck happened I'm going to find out, one way or another." Vriska declared, walking out of the room. Tavros quickly went after her, the others following suit after a few moments of thinking.
"Vrisk wait! You shouldn't go off on your own like that!" Tavros told her, frown on his face, "This, um, this isn't a normal kidnapping." He says softly, looking back to the others.
The one eyed woman snorted, "No shit Sherlock." She snarked before giving him a frown, "Normal kidnappers don't just let us roam free. But whatever it is, I'm not just going to sit by. Terezi should have noticed our sudden disappearance and doubt contacted the old crew, she'll take care of Aranea and Rufioh but I'm not just going to sit here and do nothing."
Tavros gave her a soft look that she ignored. Behind them the others conversed among themselves. Soon enough they came upon another room, one that was decorated with colorful fabrics, potted plants and other things. The plants seemed a bit withered but not dead and somewhat healthy.
The adults looked around warily, observing the big room. "Where are we?" Nepeta asked with a frown, hands brushing against the slightly withered plants, "These plants haven't been watered in a while." She noted.
Johnathan wandered towards a desk which was covered in books, he skimmed through the titles and books only to pause as he catches something familiar. He squints and his eyes widened, "Rosaline!" He called out, everyone turning to him as he hunched over an open book, "Rosaline I think you should see this."
Rosaline's brow quirked but she quickly came to his side, the others going closer as well with the exception of Vriska and Tavros who spotted a terminal with multiple monitors.
"What is it Johnny?" Jaiden asked, looking over his shoulder as Rosaline suddenly seemed to tense.
"Rosie?" David poked at his sister who began muttering underneath her breath, "Yo, earth to Rosaline, what's the hold up?"
The blonde haired woman turned to look at him with serious eyes, "It's a handwritten diary it seems."
"So?"
"It's written in my handwriting, I have no recollection ever writing this."
Karkat snapped from behind them, "What the fuck do you mean Lalonde?"
Kanaya frowned and lightly scolded Karkat before turning to her, "What does it say?"
Rosaline hefted the big book, reading aloud.
4/13 : Year 1 on the Metoer
It has been approximately 365 days since Dave and I met up with Karkat and the others. An entire year after escaping our doomed session, a session that we scratched in hope we could win this game.
Today also signifies John's birthday, I hope he's enjoying his time with Jade on the Prospitian Battle Ship. It will take quite a while for us to see them again, when exactly, well it seems we will not be able to see them until we arrive in the new session with the Scratched Players. Navigating the Furthest Ring is no easy task, time and space as I said before does not exist in a linear fashion here.
The estimation for our arrival is 2 more years.
The past year has been filled with getting to know our fellow meteormates, I have been spending most of my time with Kanaya while Dave is ultimately spending half of his time with the dersite dubbed as 'The Mayor', they have taken to alchemizing many cans for their 'Can Town' which is impressively huge and well built.
Karkat, Terezi and Nepeta have been taken by this Mayor fellow as well, he is quite the gentleman isn't he? At any rate, Can Town might as well evolve into Can City at the rate the 5 are going at, though Karkat and Dave regularly argue on the street names, the locations for certain cans and the like. Kanaya thinks they will end in a quadrant soon enough and I am beginning to believe her as I listen to my brother's woes about Karkat.
Tavros and Vriska contine to avoid each other, as well as Gamzee continuing to avoid Nepeta and Kanaya, which is... good for the clown I suppose as Nepeta and Kanaya repeatedly go 'Clown Hunting' around the meteor and patrol to try and catch him. Karkat has finally promised both of them not to kill Gamzee or fatally injure him, much to their dismay but Karkat really does care for the murderous clown disbelievingly enough.
Before Rosaline could continue the odd entry, which had everyone very confused since they were sure nothing happened and both Kanaya and Nepeta were quite sure that they didn't want to kill Gamzee, who was far from murderous!
Not to mention a lot of the terms mentioned in the entry were strange, just what was this about a meteor? A 'Prospitian' Battle Ship? Qaudrants?
"Hey guys! Come, uh, come here! Vriska and I managed to get the monitors up and active!" Tavros called out, urging them to come over. They looked at each in wary but did as he said, Rosaline still carrying the journal tome in her hands and was frequently glancing at it.
They gathered around Tavros and Vriska, Tavros was sitting down and typing into the terminal, Vriska was helping as well, though not as much as she'd like it seems as her prosthetic arm could only go so fast.
The monitors flickered on but were showing only static, "Just a, a bit more." Tavros murmured, and one monitor blinked, no longer showing static.
It showed...
"EGBERT!"
John blinked from his spot on the couch, "Which one Karkat, there are two of us now." John teased, earning a laugh from Dave as they both continued to play the video game that they recently bought.
Karkat rolled his red eyes, growling, "The buck-toothed shithead that thought it was a good idea to use up all the fucking abulation block items for his pranking war shenanigans yesterday! We barely have any left idiot, go buy some more! Besides, Rose is nowhere near here right now, she stayed back in the library, so you're the only Egbert in the vicinity" Snapped the nubby horned troll, growling as looked at the two teen males playing on the couch.
Dave snickered, "Dude, it's bathroom, I thought you were over the troll vernacular?" while John complained.
"What, why do I have to go? Can't you go? Aren't you and the others getting better at that, transmorigify-ing thing? You know the thing where you turn to humans? Did you not say you were getting better at that Karkat?"
"Oh shut the fuck up Dave! I'm getting over it, but not completely, it's hard to break out of fucking habit alright?! And you," barked the troll while pointing at John, "You're responsible for the shortage so you should go and buy it shitstain! It's not like you and Dave have anything better to fucking do beside stay inside. Besides! I already used my time as a human to go to the fucking library this morning with Rose, you know, the place where knowledge is stored in thin ass pieces of paper pressed together?! I've been looking up more shit for out lives, and it's hard work to do it!"
Before John or Dave could say anything else, Jade popped her head from the kitchen, "He's kinda right, besides, we're low on food too! Can you guys go and buy the groceries? Hold on, I'll go make a list!"
John groaned, "But Jaaaaaaaade, the gaaaaaaaame." John whined, both Karkat and Dave snorted.
"You've been spending too much time with Vriska man, I could practically hear those 16 letter a's." Dave chuckled, pecking John on the cheek when the windy boy pouted.
"Weeeeeeeell he is my moirail Harley." Vriska retorted, sauntering into the room and sitting beside John, "So I heard you guys are going on a grocery run, I'm in." She smirked, ruffling John's hair.
"Vriska, you know I hate it when you do that!" John protested, leaning into Dave to get away from her grubby hands.
Karkat sighed as he sat beside Dave, "This is my life now, living with a bunch of fucking idiots in a world that's not ours and trying to blend in in an alien species." He bemoaned, grumbling as Dave papped his cheek, "I don't need to be papped Dave I'm just making my fucking point asshole."
"Yeah well, you love these idiots, especially this idiot here wearing these awesome pair of shades and somehow that juggalo clown who- is missing again, where the fuck is Gamzee by the way?" Dave asked, frowning as he looked around suspiciously, he could hear a hiss in the kitchen and the sound of honking, "Oh wait, nevermind, he's in the kitchen messin' with Nepeta again."
Karkat groaned before shouting out, "GAMZEE! GET YOUR MAKE-UP WEARING BONE BULGE IN HEAR YOU CHUCKLEFUCK!" There was a distinct crash in the kitchen, the sound of feral hiss and the dismayed honk that happened for a moment before Gamzee walked out, pouting with a small cut on his cheek, Nepeta popped her head out of the kitchen with an angry hiss.
"And stay out!" She yelled before popping back in, Jade's tired groan was heard.
She shouted from the kitchen, "We need new cups! Again!"
Karkat glared at the incoming juggalo troll who's pout transformed into a lazy smile, "'Sup Karbro, what'cha need my red heart?" He asked lazily, before sitting between Karkat's legs and laying his head on the mutant's thigh, looking up at the unamused mutant with 'innocent' eyes.
Karkat sighed, "Gamzee I told you to leave Nepeta alone whenever she's in the kitchen with Jade remember? You guys are forbidden to do your pitch shenanigans near breakable objects." Gamzee whined but nodded, mumbling nonsense into Karkat's thigh as the smaller troll began to pet at Gamzee's head.
Dave snorted, John and Vriska snickered and finally Jade came out, dog ears twitching and tail swaying as she handed John a list, "That should be everything we need for the next two months!" She declared before huffing at Gamzee, "Honestly Gamzee, don't start stuff with Nepeta in the kitchen! We can't keep replazing the dishes every time you two go at it with each other in the kitchen!"
With that, both John and Vriska began to laugh, Gamzee huffed from his place at Karkat's lap while Karkat rolled his eyes at the blue-ish duo. Dave took the list and looked at it, "Huh, we need a lot of shit. Do we even have enough to pay for all of this?"
Jade nodded resolutely, "We do! Things have been going well for everyone in the last week, we managed to get enough money to buy more food and we might be able to do some repairs here! We can't keep relying on alchemizing stuff, besides, alchemized food is just isn't the same as real food, and you know I get tired teleporting on to the planets!" She said, said planets were floating along the air in her room, the three planets ever rotating in the fake decorative sun both she and Nepeta created for aesthetics.
Dave nodded, accepting a wallet from Jade, "Cool, c'mon John, might as well go now and finish our game later." John sighed but agreed, hugging Vriska before following Dave out of the room and out of the house.
The blue-eyed Heir looked back to their house, it was an old house, big enough to fit the twelve of them. It was previously abandoned and hardly worked before they moved in and fixed it as they could.
They moved into their new home about 6 months ago.
And 6 months ago, they didn't even exist in this universe.
Kind of.
Their story was complicated, and the problem was; they don't even remember how they got here. They had just awoken in a forest, near the beach, and they couldn't remember what happened. They remembered their names, each other and somehow, the trolls had actually god tiered when they remembered they hadn't minus Vriska.
When they first started out, the trolls had to hide and stay indoors until Karkat accidentally discovered the ability to switch his species and turn human, something that the others had to finding out later, but it wasn't very comfortable they had said, it felt wrong and they could only hold it for so long. Before, they could hold it for a couple of hours, now though, their progress made it so they could stay human for a good 6 hours. After that, they needed to rest for at least another hour before they can try again.
Whatever happened to them, they were in a new universe where they essentially don't exist though. At least, John Egbert and Jade Harley didn't exist, Dave Strider and Rose Lalonde kind of exist, and the trolls...
Things were weird when they found out that the trolls turned to humans and were the adult custodians to the human dancestors. And even weirder when the kids found their adult counterparts, David Strider and Rosaline Lalonde, Johnathan Crocker and Jaiden English, it was strange!
They didn't know what to do, then they found out their counterparts had mysteriously disappeared 6 months before they had appeared. Rose thought there was a connection, but she couldn't really research on it properly without asking Dirk, Jake, Roxy and Jane, who had no recollection about the game and had no idea they existed.
It was decided that it was better to keep it that way, their existence couldn't be explained, but the trolls, Dave and Rose couldn't exactly keep their names since their names already existed. So John and Jade offered their names, the trolls declined, thinking of something else while Dave and Rose accepted, becoming Dave Harley and Rose Egbert and essentially adopted siblings in the eyes of the public.
Jade worked meticulously to set them up and make fake identities for them, or at least, register them into the internet so people wouldn't get too suspicious. She wasn't as good as Dirk, Roxy or Sollux but it would have to do. They all found the house early on in the 1st month, and the first few weeks were kind of hard on the house since they had to repair the household.
It went by faster when Jade revealed that for some reason, and somehow she had LOLAR and LOWAS with her. But teleporting them to the planet back and forth tired her out quickly, her connection to the green sun wasn't as strong as before.
As for their god tier status, well, their powers don't seem as potent or powerful here as it was in the game. They could still do pretty powerful stuff, but it tired them quickly, though training helps a bit, they've made a make-shift training area behind the house where they strifed each other.
"John, stop spacing out dork and help me find all of this shit."
John blinked before grinning at his boyfriend, "Right, right. Hey, think we can buy some more shaving cream too? I just thought of something sweet."
Dave groaned making him laugh.
"Hey Dad, is it alright if we bought this instead of that?"
James Crocker laughed, giving Jane a warm smile, "Of course honey, it's your list after all." James watched his daughter grin happily, putting a big bag of chocolates into the cart while taking out the smaller bag they previously had, she was so excited to have her school's bake sale!
He hummed as he followed along his daughter, pushing along the cart as he left the shopping to Jane. She had grown up so fast, her 18th birthday was coming so soon!
His smile faltered a bit as he remembered the fact that his own father's birthday was also coming, sharing it with his granddaughter...
It's been an entire year since his father, Johnathan Crocker, or Poppop, as he usually went by Jane, disappeared without a trace. He simply vanished into thin air one day while James and Jane were out of the house, when they returned, they found nothing out of the ordinary and his father was gone.
It wasn't very concerning until he didn't show up the next day, and the day after that, and the week after, a month, two. And it wasn't just him. Three other family friends had disappeared, David Strider, Rosaline Lalonde, and even James' aunt Jaiden English!
No one knows what happened, but the result devastated the families. Jasper had nearly gone around the bend with the disappearance of his wife but Roxy, Jasper and Rosaline's daughter and Jane's best friend, and the others as well as himself helped him back to his feet.
Jude hired many investigators to try and find them, trying to find his mother and Jake's grandmother, Joey moved back in with Jude after Jaiden's disappearance.
Young Dirk Strider were taken in by David's childhood friends and close companions, Damien and Kevin, they were a fine pair of gentlemen who worked as DJs, Sawtooth and Squarewave, just as famous as David was.
James shook his head, he couldn't get all mopey and sad, his father wouldn't want that for him especially with Jane's birthday coming in! He had to stay positive for his daughter and he couldn't let it bother him too much.
The fatherly gentleman hummed as he looked around before a certain aisle caught his attention, he called out to Jane, "Jane?"
Jane's head popped up from the aisle that held the baking powders, "Yes dad?"
"Honey I'm going to the shaving cream aisle alright? I'm running out of shaving cream."
Jane giggled, "Alright! Just leave the cart with me!" James nodded and gave Jane the cart filled with baking material and wandered towards the many cans of shaving cream.
He hummed a jaunty tune as he looked around, looking for a specific brand. It was a brand that he and his father have used for many years, both as shaving cream and pranking material! He chuckled as he remembered the times he tried to one-up his master prankster of a father, the pride and joy when he finally did and the warmth as his father congratulated him and told him he was proud. He smiled sadly at the memories before shaking his head and pushing them away.
He looked around before noticing the cans, he smiled and took a can in hand.
"Now, where was tha-ack!" Was what he heard before he felt someone collide to his back and heard a small crash of items fall to the floor. "Ow!"
He turns a bit and sees the grocery items on the floor and sputters, "Oh dear! My apologies, I didn't see you there." He kneels and began to pick them up, returning them to the bright green shopping basket with smaller hands doing the same, he hears a sheepish chuckle.
"Ah, no worries, it was my fault anyway! I wasn't paying attention!" James chuckled, before noticing that the hands were putting a few cans of shaving cream into the basket, the same cream he had been holding a few moments ago, a few cans must have fallen from the shelf as well.
He finally looks up to the young man who bumped into him and instantly he's staring into frighteningly familiar deep blue eyes, a familiar face staring back at him though much younger, the features were so familiar and recognizable from the pictures he's seen of his own father when he was young.
A young man, possibly the same age as his own daughter, stared back at him with wide eyes and a spitting image of his own father.
His own brain stuttered for a moment as he took in the impossibly familiar face, from the buckteeth to the square glasses and the hair.
"U-uh, sorry about that sir."
They both jolt as a voice comes from the corner.
"Yo John! Hurry up and get your shaving cream so we can get this to the counter and go home!"
'John' (John? Short for Johnathan?) quickly gets to his feet, lifting the shopping basket with him, "Right! Coming Dave, hold on! So uh, sorry again, bye!" He says in a hurry, quickly leaving.
James watches him leave, still in a stunned state, his mind frozen as he looked at the direction 'John' went to and to the shelf of shaving cream.
'... Dad...?'
"Dude, I saw my Dad! Or well, not really, it was Dad Crocker!" John whispered to Dave as they got in line for the check out counter, Dave pushing a shopping cart filled with food and John beside him carrying a shopping basket, "It was so weird! And I think, I think he recognized me?" He asks, a bit doubtful.
Dave paused and looked at John, mouth frowning, "That... That is probably not a good thing, you look exactly like old you Crocker, because he's an alternate you obviously but... I don't know, I think we should talk with Rose." He whispered back, pushing along the cart as the line moved.
Unkown to them, Rose was unknowingly encountering the same thing as she was also in line towards the counter and holding a certain book in her hands, smiling gently while a certain duo watched with gaped mouths from a distance.
The adults let out a surprised noise as the monitor flickered to life, showing a young Rose and Dave wearing strange clothing and sitting at a table that was somewhere in the room.
Rosaline and David stared at their 'younger selves', gasping as they hear them speak from the monitor. They were talking to each other about something they didn't really understand, something about a 'Scratched session'?
"Just what the fuck is going on here..." Karkat whispered as he looked at the screen before growling, "I don't have time for this! I need to get back to Kankri, he's gotta be worried sick by now!"
Johnathan murmurs, "My son and granddaughter, they should be home by now..."
David gripped the back of Tavros' chair, "My lil' bro's gonna be pissed if I missed his first gig."
Nepeta gasped, "Karkat look!" She pointed at the screen, as something, or someone entered the room.
He had familiar black hair but also had candy-corn styled nubby horns, his skin was grey and later the found his pupils a dark red that seemed to get lighter and lighter every time they saw him and those pupils were on a yellow sclera, he wore a black sweater with a grey Cancer symbol stitched at the front and his voice...
"'Sup Karkles, how's it going?"
"What the motherfuck?!" Karkat shrilled.
The 'Karkat' on the screen growled, "Nothing is up Strider, mind your own fucking business." He continued on off screen.
Just what was going on?