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[Yes]
First Guardian.
“Hey,” Dirk asks, and he stalks towards them, footsteps echoing in the vault. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Peace, Prince of Heart,” the First Guardian says, holding up hands that seem entirely human. I watch him. I’ve seen First Guardians before. GCat and Doc Scratch, both infinite and terrible in their way. This one seems different. “My name is Claret, and as you surmised, I am a First Guardian. This is my companion, Cesi. We mean you no harm. We’ve been observing your Session.”
“We’re not stalkers,” Cesi adds in cheerfully. “It’s literally our job to observe Sessions and make sure they’re going according to plan. Which is a very, very broad job description, given how the propagation of universes goes, and you’ve done well here. Better than we could have dreamed. You’ve survived the terrible trials you’ve faced and we’re both very proud of you.”
“We didn’t ask for you to be proud of us,” Rose says, her fingers curled tightly around a wand that pulses darkly. “We didn’t ask for you to be here at all. We’ve all had more than enough so-called First Guardian interference to last a lifetime. Several lifetimes, in fact.”
“Oh, Rose...” Cesi steps closer, and her expression is gentle, kind. “I know that you’ve been hurt before. You were used by someone who hurt you very badly. You weren’t alone, he hurt Terezi, Kanaya, Jane, and Jake. He even hurt Vriska, though I know that’s hard to see right now.”
Rose presses her dark-tinted lips together, and her eyes flash purple. “There’s no need to treat me like a child. I’m very much an adult now.”
“You are, of that there’s no doubt.” Cesi’s kind expression doesn’t waver. “But we treat adults kindly too, especially given what you’ve all been through. You’re worried about Calliope, and Scratch, and the Carapacians who have come into the power of the Green Sun.”
“Yeah, so it would be extremely helpful of you to explain yourselves,” Dirk says, his tone dangerous, but slightly less hostile. “Also, you don’t look like a First Guardian.”
“I’m not, but as a God Tier Seer of Space, my powers are adjacent to theirs,” Cesi says, cheerful. “And I’m the one addressing this because it sounds like you’re going to stab Claret, which we’d both prefer you didn’t do. It wouldn’t kill him, but it would be very annoying.”
“Jegus forbid you be annoyed,” Karkat mutters. “You’re a rustblood, but not one I recognize. How... which Session are you from?”
“The one that Dawn was from.” Cesi’s expression grows sad. “It was... complicated, and messy, but in the end we succeeded. We created our own, precious universe. With what happened to Dawn, and the others, I... well, it was easy to accept Claret’s offer to join him rather than take my place in the next universe.”
“...and because you’re sleeping together,” Rose notes, and I blink. Claret makes a soft, choked noise.
Cesi grins. “Also, because we’re sleeping together, yes. He’s also been known to obtain items for our house, and ask my opinion as to where they should be placed in the home.”
“In fairness,” Roxy drawls. “It’s a nice house. I’ve seen it, though not for very long.”
“We know,” Claret says, frowning. “Which will be addressed in good time.”
“Be that as it may,” Dirk says, trying to drag us back on topic. “We were getting an explanation.”
“You were, yes,” Claret says, speaking up. He looks curious and too-perfect, but only resembles Doc Scratch very basically. He’s mostly human, aside from his strange colouring, and he meets my gaze with a slight smile. He feels old, and weary, and sad, but not malevolent and ancient the way Scratch did. “Do not fear, Maid of Life, I have no intention of seeing you break your promise.”
“No one likes a mind reader, but I do appreciate that,” I say. “So... very well, let us have your explanation.”
“Should we maybe go back to the house?” Roxy asks. “Not that it ain’t fun to stand around on this eyesore of a vault, but it might be nice to like, sit or somethin’.”
“I can take us there,” Jade says, and her ears wiggle briefly. “Or I guess Claret can teleport us too, huh.”
“You do it,” Rose says, and glares at Claret. “I trust you.”
“Sure thing, Rose!” Jade makes shooing motions and we all stand together. John changes outfits rapidly, to something with no blood on it, and Dirk and Jake do the same. It’s a shame, I think they both look fantastic in their little outfits. At least they have colour. My outfit is taupe.
Jade teleports us back to our house, and our guests cram onto the couches we have, and some people need to share. Kris’ gaze goes dull for a moment, and he creates a few more couches, setting them down so we can all get comfortable.
Dirk, Jake, and I settle onto our usual couch, and I thread my fingers into the blanket. It feels knitted, though it’s a little too uniform and smooth to be truly made by hand. I can’t knit to save my life, but Dirk’s thinking about giving it a try. On the couch opposite ours, Jeff and Jade sit, and John sits between them, a barrier or a link, perhaps. Dave and Karkat get their own loveseat, a copy of the one Roxy and Kris used, and there’s another for Rose and Kanaya, and a final couch for Terezi, Sollux, and Gamzee.
Instead of couches, Cesi and Aradia receive high stools to avoid crushing their delicate, gauzy red butterfly wings, and they make themselves comfortable.
Claret isn’t given a seat at all, and he frowns slightly, but doesn’t comment. “I will begin at the beginning, with the Green Sun. You knew her once as Calliope, but she was always the Green Sun. As the Muse of Space, she is the ultimate passive class, contrasting her brother, the Lord of Time. Rather than destroying Space and Time, the way he was doing, she doesn’t just heal reality, she holds it together.”
“That sounds almost like Life, not Space,” I say. “Though I suppose you would know better than I would.”
“While Life certainly is about healing, it is primarily about struggle and endurance. You struggle, you strive, and you mend. In her case, she is the guardian of the very fabric of reality. Space, in the Aspect sense, isn’t just about outer space, but about distance, velocity, size, and location.”
“It is also about creating a universe,” Kanaya says. “Jade and I both completed the Genesis Frog. The one I created with Karkat led to the universe she was part of, and then she created a frog in turn. We do not yet know what that universe will be like.”
“Every universe is very different, unique and special,” Claret says, and his expression clouds briefly. “Each one lives and dies adjacent to the others, though not layered on top of one another like alternate and doomed timelines.”
“So there’s not, like, a Dave in every universe, just one in all the timelines for this universe?” Dave asks, slouched on the couch next to Karkat. “There’s no me in the universe Cesi’s from?”
“That’s correct!” Cesi says, fluttering her wings. She leans forward a little, towards his voice, and leers. “Trust me, I’d remember you.”
Dave, to my surprise, blushes.
“I am a First Guardian from a planet of that universe, though I was not the Guardian for Cesi’s world,” Claret says, calling our attention back to him. “That was someone else, though you would not know them. When the time came, the trolls participated in a Session with assistance from some humans, as well as some others. It was... complicated.”
“From what I understand, every Session is complicated,” Kris says. “One third of all Sessions fail, and if it was anything like ours, or the ones that led to ours, it was filled with teenage drama and poor life choices.”
“Like letting you talk to people,” Dirk mutters, though he doesn’t mean it. He leans into Jake a little, and I brush my fingers over his hand. “But... you said that Dawn was the Blue Star. What does that mean, exactly?”
“In the place that she was from, she had a psychic gift that was powerful and extremely rare,” Cesi says. “She was a Wishgranter. Hence the odd human poetry and the ability to create things from thin air. Though, her powers are limited too. She can only create things that are possible and someone’s greatest desire. Not exactly a combat-ready skill, but we managed.”
“She got Calliope her Quest Bed from a version of Prospit that probably didn’t exist in a Session that was utterly doomed to begin with,” Karkat says. “I feel like being about to get whatever the fuck you want is a pretty good combat skill.”
“True, but it’s not as easy to harness as just hitting someone with a sword, or with mind lasers,” Cesi says. “There was more to it than that. A great evil that used the opportunity to try to escape. Not entirely different from what happened to all of you, but smaller in scope. The important part, despite how it felt at that time, wasn’t what happened with Dusk, or the Maial, or blowing up Nale’s ghost-mom with a landmine--”
“I’m sorry what?”
“--but that Dawn was always meant to be the Blue Star. Her existence spans over multiple universes, multiple realities, and in a similar fashion to that, so is Calliope the Green Sun, and has always been the Green Sun. She is the mother of all First Guardians, endowing them with power and giving them their purpose.”
“I’m glad that means Callie won’t be alone,” Roxy wipes at her eyes. “I’m glad that after all she went through, she’s happy, yanno?”
“My experience with communing with the Green Sun is a positive one, normally speaking,” Claret says. “Though it is impossible for her to intervene directly in anything that happens once a First Guardian has been created.”
“Which is why she can’t take away power from the Jacks, or from Scratch,” Dave says. “So, like, what was the deal with that bomb?”
“It’s literally impossible to use a bomb to blow up a sun, even one created in a Session,” Cesi says. “A sun is a bomb, a huge, continuous one. The only thing that tends to kill suns is other suns, or black holes which used to be suns, and even then, those are just normal, every-day suns. Not gigantic magical suns at the centre of all existence.”
“I am aware that we were played for fools,” Rose says crisply. “You don’t need to rub it in.”
“We’re not rubbing it in,” Claret says, trying to keep his voice gentle. “Scratch manipulated you, used you. You had no reason to think that he was pushing you into a series of causal loops that would lead into the genesis of both the Green Sun and Grand Entropy. Your world understands gods very differently. Even those who live with them.”
John reaches up and rubs his fingers along Jade’s ears. I glance at Jeff, who looks like he wants to put an arm around Jade, but can’t. I seem to recall there was something of a failed relationship in that mix. Something to resolve, then, before we move on to the new universe.
“I’m sorry, the what?” Dirk asks. “Are you telling me we fucked up the very fabric of reality by not dying?”
“Oh, no, not at all,” Claret says, holding out his hands. “In a similar fashion to how Calliope was always meant to be the Green Sun, but she has a physical body she used to communicate with her friends, eat food, sleep, and ultimately be murdered in, so too did Caliborn do many, many different, often terrible things before he was able to achieve the state of being known as Grand Entropy.”
“I stole...” Jeff begins. “I mean, what we all saw is whatever Caliborn became. He died and stayed dead. Is that going to screw things up? I mean--”
“No, not at all,” Claret says, and glances at me. Honestly, you turn yourself into a lich one time... “Calliope was also dead, a ghost. She still had a purpose and a function. Aradia started her Session dead and is now alive.”
“And loving it!”
“Some of you have also experienced the dream bubbles that Feferi Peixes created whilst a ghost, which have now always existed and have spread throughout all Sessions, past and future. In them, you have met ghosts of people who at some point were linked to Sessions for this universe and its progeny, though not ghosts of the progeny of other universes.” Claret gestures. “Piercing the barrier between universes is complicated, and mostly well-suited to those like myself and Cesi, though First Guardians usually don’t venture outside their own universe.”
“So, being dead isn’t just nothing,” Dave says, and bounces his knee briefly. “Hey, do you know if--”
“He didn’t participate in the Session,” Claret says. “So, I’m afraid not. There also aren’t ghosts for Game pieces, like the Carapacians. The ghosts that linger are only for dead participants in the current Session or all participants in doomed timelines. With one notable exception.”
He nods to Jeff, who looks away. I clear my throat.
“While that’s all very fascinating, what does that have to do with Caliborn?” I ask. “You used a term earlier that I hope you will define for those of us not in the know.”
“It means that, dead or alive, he’s still doing what he’s supposed to be doing!” Cesi says cheerfully. “All universes die. All people cease to exist. Planets, suns, First Guardians, all of us will eventually be so much cosmic dust. Such is the concept of entropy.”
“Just as Calliope is the ultimate creator, so too is Caliborn the ultimate destroyer,” Claret says. “But entropy is not a murderer. It doesn’t charge through timelines shattering and destroying everything. It’s slow, it is the ultimate victor in any conflict, but deliberately stunting the growth of all existence is anathema. He will balance his sister, and she will balance him, twining around each other forever, just as Dawn is the dream and Dusk is the nightmare.”
“Don’t get too meta on them, love,” Cesi says warningly. “Otherwise, we’ll never get to the point of the discussion.”
“You’re right, we’ve veered off-topic,” Claret says, and takes a breath. “We’re here to talk about Scratch, and the Carapacians that have been tainted by the First Guardian’s powers.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, maybe we can start with talking about what a First Guardian actually is,” Kris says. “Since that would probably help us. We’ve only ever known GCat, Scratch, and...”
“Beq,” Jade says softly. “His name was Bequerel, and I didn’t know he was a First Guardian, just that he was my guardian, and my best friend.”
“Of course,” Claret says, and begins. “I and my kin watch over different worlds scattered throughout the universes, as created by the Green Sun for that purpose. Each of us possess near-omniscience and near-omnipresence, as you are acquainted with.”
“Scratch spoke of blind spots, blanks in his vision,” Kanaya says. “Was that a lie he told us, or was it true?”
“It’s true,” Claret says, and his expression shadows. “It’s all too true that we have blind spots. More than we care to admit, fewer than those who deal with us might like.”
“Scratch’s were those cue balls, like the one Rose had.” Jade looks over at her as she says it. “It wasn’t the best thing for us to get our hands on.”
“Different First Guardians have different weaknesses. In his case, he liked to take on the trappings of a fortune teller, a seer of the future and the past, though much of what he did was make guesses and psychoanalyze people who had far more limited understandings than he.”
“That’s not as comforting as you think it is,” Rose says sourly, and Kanaya pats her hand.
-- ectoBiologist [EB] begins pestering stolenSanctity [SS] at ??? --
EB: hey jeff uh
EB: maybe we should talk?
SS: yeah we should
SS: kinda wish we could do it privately but i guess we’re still being heroes so here we go.
SS: if you ever pull that shit again i’m going to kill you.
EB: i had to!
EB: it was the only thing that made sense
EB: everyone was getting hurt and i couldnt let anyone else die
SS: but it’s okay for *you* to die?
EB: no, not really but
EB: look, when my dad died i just didn’t understand at first
EB: it was different with nanna egbert because she had always been dead as far as i was concerned
EB: but when the session started i spent most of it either fighting monsters or looking for my dad
EB: or rose
EB: and you know what happened to rose
SS: i do yeah
EB: i kind of wandered around not sure what to do for a long time
EB: and i cant help but think that because of the mistakes that i made that i got people killed
EB: that-jade for sure and you-you and that-rose and maybe everyone in that universe?
EB: all because i didnt know what i was doing at all
SS: look i get it
EB: no i dont think you do
EB: i wasnt trained to fight like you and dave
EB: im not a fantastical sorcerer like rose
EB: im not even a good programmer
SS: john you don’t
EB: but what i *am* is a prankster
EB: and i pulled off the greatest prank of all time on caliborn
EB: my pranksters gambit is through the roof
EB: i *won*
EB: so don’t worry too much
EB: because i have *you* to help me when im in trouble
EB: just like always
SS: you’re a big dork, john
EB: :B
-- ectoBiologist [EB] ceases pestering stolenSanctity [SS] at ??? --