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Pressing your head to the glass, you watch the bubbles rise off her eyelashes. You’ve been told not to over and fucking over, but you haven’t listened. Staring at the sleepers is all there is to do for now, and this one, the witch, should be up soon. She’s been stirring more and more through the heavier slumber stages. The probability that she will wake up in the next ten minutes is fifty percent. In an hour it will be eighty. So you watch her.
The ears had been a surprise. Not to you. You wouldn’t be surprised if she grew a tail and started talking out her ass, you don’t know much about humans. But the institute’s theory was she would just be a space blaster, damage incarnate. Ears are a deviation from The Plan. The Plan is a capital letter concoction; boring and never going to work of course. Miss Space Woof is part of a better one. Your own design.
Your husktop pings and you grapple for the top and pull it onto your lap, still focused on the witch. God knows what her name is, you were never told. Her eyelids flutter and you catch a glimpse of green. Probability she’ll wake up in ten: sixty-four percent. Brain activity is up too, you can feel her mind poking back when you shove it. Fuck. Yes.
At the other end of your husktop is your friend. He’s been working on this with you, only demi you’ve ever met who lived. He thinks it’s something to do with his powers, he’s full of crap. He’s full to the brim with luck, fuck knows why, but you’ve honoured that quirk in creation by not grabbing it for yourself.
TG: earth to spiderbitch
TG: does spiderbitch spider copy
TG: spiderbitch needs to get her spiderass spider down here spider yesterday
TG: spider
This would be where he took a breath to wait for an actual reply, so considerate. A whole twenty seconds.
TG: yo serket whats up with the witch
TG: still sleeping like a dog after a christmas dinner pumped full of grandmas leftover meatloaf never going to wake up because shit could kill an army
TG: that was fucking awful but point made
TG: when are you getting out of there my couch is mourning for your bony ass to torture it some more
TG: things a fucking masochist im telling you
TG: you said soon a month ago
You leave the conversation. He shouldn’t be surprised, or worried, your status was set to ‘busy’ and that’s what you are! Never met a knight who had a single ounce of patience.
You look back up to see those green eyes in full for the first time. Fuuuuuuuuck. Dog girl is intense.
Setting the husktop to the side again, you stand, her eyes follow you and you send some soothing pressure onto her mind. She mentally kicks it away; you snort, girl’s got bite. Most of the time sleepers start freaking right out, off the handle once they come to. Space girl seems more fun.
You punch the code into the side of the container and the top releases with a hiss. That code is the only thing you’ve bothered to remember from all the material the institute has given you this visit, everything else was a pile of pointless rigmarole. The seal breaks, sending a trickle of the blue tinged liquid – what was it called? Don’t remember – over the side. A moment later dog girl is kicking off the bottom and forcing the top up, the mechanism seizes but she punches it off, metal snapping, and she’s leaping over the top.
No way she’s just running away so you do the logical thing and catch her, chirping “Welcome back to the land of the living!” as she hisses – growls? – still struggling ineffectually. It’s getting tiresome. You wrestle her into a chokehold, and snicker the whole time; overpowered space witch or not she’s been in there a sweep and you’re so much stronger than her. She sags and goes limp, you’ve heard no oxygen will do that to a girl, even a dog one.
“I was dead?” you expected her voice to be lower, huskier – something resembling badass. Like you. She’s crucial to everything, and she sounds like, well, a kid. Could just be a human thing though, you haven’t spent enough time around them to know what the hell their voices do. She could sound like a human old enough to keel over and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
“Don’t worry about it, everyone dies, we just did earlier than some.” You let go of her and she wobbles until her knees fold. They hit floor with a wet slap and you cringe she’s going to have bruises tomorrow. You’d care more but you just noticed that she’s got slime on your face. With a hand you wipe it off and onto her, back where it belongs, then you continue, “Institute sorted it so we’re not. Handy, huh?” She shakes and you drag her up, the post sleep terror is hitting her and you need to get her moving before it’s too much to. This is the first time you’ve seen sleep terror but you remember what it felt like. It’s different for everyone of course but she’s showing all the signs of being exactly the same as you, her eyes sunken and wide. You can put off the worse shit like terror running through her veins as she remembers every single damn thing that’s happened to her and every single fucking thing she’s ever done. Life flashing before your eyes when you die is nothing compared to what happens when it flashes before them when you live.
Moving. Right. You loop your arm under her shoulder and lift up setting her on her feet and nudging her forward.
“I killed them.” Hallelujah, it’s a statement and not a question.
While you’ve been here with the full cooperation and gratitude of the institute, speed is of the essence. You can’t afford any questions like ‘What are you doing with our prize god?’ or, if they get a bit more in depth and have more than one cell in their thinkpan, ‘Wait a minute aren’t those husktops only meant to access the internal network?’.
You pick up your husktop keep walking, she’s staring at you still, oh right, her not question probably deserves an answer. “You did, you went totally off the fucking rails. It was a sight to see. Don’t think you’ll be able to get the lightning back but you’ll be able to do some rad shit with some practice anyway.” She picks her feet up and starts walking more than letting you drag her, for a couple of steps. Way more than you thought she’d manage, if you weren’t scraping for seconds you’d give her a round of applause.
Doors slide off in the distance, person opening them has a weak mind, not worth moving faster, it will barely take anything to take them out if they turn out to be a problem.
She coughs up a lump of slime, she could breathe through it fine but her body won’t realize that now she’s conscious. “How many were there?”
It was a whole stadium full, some sporting event meant to foster cooperation and safety, so you lie a little, her flipping out is the last thing you need, “Around a thousand all up; two hundred military; seven survivors - all gods.” The military stats are right at least. She growls and her ears press back, it’s pretty intimidating until she hacks up another lump of blue. “I was one of the gods, you’re fucking lucky I was too.” Without you there she would have been so much splatter on the field, since you were you were able to follow orders to do what you would have anyway and take her down without killing her.
Something’s not right. You freeze, slap a hand over her mouth, soothing over her mind which she still doesn’t like but she can fucking deal with it right now. On the outskirts of your senses there’s someone new. Fuck.
“Space girl, can you run?” She can tell you’re nervous but you don’t care. You especially don’t care when she nods under your hand. God damned space. You’re going to kiss her for that gift once you’re done.
You grab her hand and start sprinting, channeling luck from the people you can reach, it’s not going to be enough. They just don’t have any reserves of fortune.
The identity of the blot on the edge of your mind becomes apparent, you suck in a breath. Thief of light is nothing compared to a thief of life; you need to get the hell out of here and down planet side before she gets in range. No flying in here to speed things up either, corridor is too narrow and the girl’s human so no wings on her anyway.
When you slam into the side of the shuttle bay, witch girl is still running. You yank her back and catch her when she nearly falls. She’s grey in the face and that’s not good for humans. You slam your hand into the bio lock, they can’t have shut down your clearances. They can’t. Precious seconds you don’t have tick by as it runs through the motions. Finally. It clicks unlocked and you’re shoving her in before it’s cranked completely open. You’re going to get out. Adrenaline is sweet on your tongue and you’re so going to make it.
Only trouble is the shifting scratch of the witch in your head, she’s moving faster towards you. She can’t possibly reach you, she’s way too far away. It’s impossible.
You hit the button to shut the hatch. Wait what, why isn’t it closing? Oh hell no, Space girl has her hand shoved in there. Fuck fuck fuuuuuuuuck. “Get your ass strapped in before I cut those fingers off.” You say, your voice is all funny and tight like it’s wedged under your throat. If space girl could feel the crawling in your head she wouldn’t be holding you up.
There’s an aura around her, growing larger and warping like a black hole. This is so not good. She gathers air into her lungs and asks, “Why should I go with you?”
You groan, the witch is a steady pressure now and you don’t want to think about touching whatever space girl is doing around her. You try and keep calm, you were fine. You’ve still got some time. The life witch isn’t killing you yet. What can you even say to get her to trust you? “You should go with me because I’m not with these fuckers who want to repeat another thousand deaths. I’m not wanting them to win, you get me? My partner’s waiting and not here with us. We don’t have any fucking time to spare so move.” She’s not trying to get out so something must be getting through. But she’s not moving to get the both of you movingeither, so you snap, “Get your doggy ass in that seat before I put you back under, it’s not as pleasant waking up without the slime.”
That does it even though she’s kept a stubborn line down her back as she steps over, into the passenger seat. She doesn’t look so hot but in there and only slightly close to being dead beats existing only as corpse on the ship. You snick the door into place and strap yourself in, tossing your husktop over to her as you get the pod moving. No safety procedures, time is everything. Not that you ever bother.
Once you’re out of the dock you relax, you’re out and gone, and grinning your fucking face off. You turn to her, she’s opened your husktop and gotten through the protection, should really buff that up at some point. You turn the screen and she squeaks “Hey!” when she’s forced to stop typing. You laugh, she’s already been talking to the time boy. You get two messages through the conversation before she’s ssaying “eyes on the road!” and grabbing the controls to keep them steady.
“Oh fuck off!” you say and slap her off the wheel. She’s seriously paranoid to think it will crash if you spend two seconds inspecting her correspondence. These ships are hardly made of crystal.
“You shouldn’t read other people’s messages!”
“If you think that then you should write them on your oooooooown husktop.” You scan down the conversation. Hang on - holy shit, “You know Dave?” she yanks the keyboard back and starts typing again. Probably telling him they haven’t been killed, he jumps to conclusions like that.
“I’ve known him for ages.” She says, still typing. Dave probably isn’t coping well with the revelation that the key to your plan is someone he knows. And, damn, he’s on speaking terms with her too, he’s going to spin so far off the handle you’re going to need to spend a week looking for him.
“Right. What’s your name?”
Yikes, that’s one unimpressed face, though, she’s not growling again. Good sign. “Jade.”
Wow, cute. “Vriska, thief of light” you reply and stick out your hand. She shakes it, obviously not pleased but she can be not pleased all she likes, since you’re both out and flying free. “We’ve got a couple of hours, take a load off, relaaaaaaaax.” She’s not paying attention, just clacking at Dave. Totally rude.
Over the trip you try to make conversation a few times, she replies with single words, typing away to Dave the whole time, until she starts getting slower and slower, by the time you touch down she’s as close to sleeping as gods can get without assistance. You make it a bumpier landing than you have to so she jerks blearily conscious.
When you step out and walk around to haul Jade from her seat Dave’s waiting on the landing platform, mouth tight and arms crossed. He doesn’t do anything sensible like take her, instead he lets the chick who’s already done all the work keep doing even more all the work. You’ve always said he’s a rude fucker and he’s not doing anything to change that impression.
You stumble and he finally dashes forward to catch her, for long lost friends he seems reluctant to lay a finger on her. “Serket.” Jade is too heavy, constant fortune fiddling would make anyone tired. You release her onto him and he shifts into a proper hold as she looks blearily around. When he finally gets around to asking his question it’s, “Where the fuck are your clothes?”
Lame and predictable. You bounce on your heels and stretch. He, even more predictably, takes the opportunity to turn and start shuffling Jade towards the bunker. “Why would I have clothes? I was a god in orbit for a quarter sweep, clothes would be fucking pointless.” He’s still grouchy. A grouchy prude is utterly undesirable so you press against him and nuzzle his neck. You’d be grateful for him letting you lean on him, but he pushes you off and away from him.
Rudest fucker.
“You’re not a god, Serket. How close did you get to being killed?”
You slide the door closed behind you and shrug in response, “Pretty close.” The fridge is the most amazing thing in the room so take your trudging walk further (a gargantuan effort, everyone should be very proud of it) and pull the smaller door open. Dave has turned away again; you shoot him a look. He needs to get the fuck over looking at the mess on your back already but you know he won’t. The old sigils were less refined than the ones that Jade has and yours are one step below what Dave can handle. He’s never given you the chance to see his. They’re probably worse than yours. You pop the top off a can of beer, “Life witch was on board.”
He gapes. Well, the Dave equivalent of gapes. His eyebrows draw together and his mouth opens slightly which is absolutely a gape. On the scale of Dave’s expressions he looks about like a fish. He forces “she’s supposed to be way out.” Through his surprise.
It’s reassuring seeing him shocked by it too. “You need to get better sources; she wasn’t close to way out. She was right fucking there and breathing down my mind.” You chug half the can and slump over by where Jade is. She’s a hair away from unconscious and doesn’t move as you slide right up against her. “Get me a fucking blanket.”
He complies while muttering to himself. You tune it out until he gets back and you can tuck the cloth over Jade and yourself. Time to let your mind relax and all the more strained luck go.
***
It’s getting light by the time you’ve got enough energy to open your eyes and smell that Dave has made food. He’s not present though, must have made himself busy being somewhere that isn’t with you and Jade. It’s not like he’s missing work just now.
You yawn for the look of the thing. Jade’s watching you from her position squished against your side. You lean in close to her face, her pores are like craters from this distance. “Sweet dreams?”.
Her brow furrows while she contemplates the question. “No…” You work your hand into her hair by her scalp, it’s long and has dried horribly with residue from the slime caked through it. “I didn’t dream at all.” You drag your hand down through it to the tips, breaking the mess into finer chunks. She continues with a note of incredulousness rising in her voice, “I didn’t sleep at all.”
“Yeah, that won’t happen anymore. You’re either awake or unconscious. Sleep isn’t so much an option.” She adjusts and you shift to lie on her more. If she cares about her hair there’s going to have to be water involved to sort it out. You pat it into place around her ears. The fur on them seems to have kept cleaner than the rest of her hair. Guess they weren’t technically under as long.
She frowns into your chest. Intently focused on the leg of your spider sigil, she seems to chew around another question before shutting her mouth and leaving it unspoken.
The smell invading your nose had been appealing moments ago but with Jade half on you and radiating heat it’s you can’t be bothered investigating. You twist your fingers through her hair and rub it over her back. Her space mark turned out nice, dark and even across her spine. She probably doesn’t know it’s there yet, much less how cool it looks. The one on her hip isn’t familiar but it’s just as nice. If they’re turning out space like this now your plan is all the more critical.
***
Stretching out, you wiggle your toes and make your t-shirt ride up. Jade laughs, pounces on your escaping digits and attacks them with the nail-polish brush. She coats the last of them and screws the top of the bottle back on. Then with a breath she moves it steadily to the shelf. You clap enthusiastically; she sticks her tongue out but takes a small bow from where she’s sitting. She’s been getting better by leaps and bounds, while she doesn’t know you’re being serious when you clap every time she uses her powers she’s getting stronger.
Dave walks in with a pile of groceries and you watch Jade work her magic on them too, taking them from his arms and setting them on the bench. She holds her palms out as she says “Look! No hands,” to Dave.
Dave breathes a laugh, “Very nice, I should get your some juggling balls you can put on a proper show. Hat too, wouldn’t be complete without that.”
After your thrilling escape, things have been quiet. Between the time pocket Dave lay down and your luck web draining any chance of outsiders stumbling on you there hasn’t been a hope in hell of action and won’t be until the other two come around to realizing you’re ready.
The boredom is excruciating.
Jade needs training, of course she does, third day in your hideout she nearly burst your other eye. One is okay; none would be a fucking pain. Dave did point out that tugging on her ears was a bad idea once she was laid out on the floor after you body slammed her mind. She should get used to it and you’ve been working on getting her used to it in between space training. She hasn’t quite got the hand of ‘don’t fucking bite’ yet. But she will.
“I’m off,” Dave says, salutes and steps back as he phases into current time.
“Wait!” Jade calls at the blur. Like he would ever wait.
“Jaaaaaaaade, don’t you know? Time waits for no one.” She sticks her tongue out at you again, second time in an hour. You grin and bounce up.
She creaks and stands too, saying “I thought he was going to stay a while for once.”
You shake your head and mosey over to the door, sticking your nose out. He’s been keeping your pocket more stable lately, no sign where the timeless fog ends at all. Sweet. “He’s doing recon. A demigod - couple of cities over - blew.”
It takes her a moment but she remembers what that actually is and her eyes go wide, “A third class,” she breathes out. Dave is such a pain in the ass, it’s easier to remember what you actually are. She joins you at the door. “What aspect?”
You take two steps out, she takes one. “Heart. You have no idea of the mess.” You walk some more, still no sign of the end. Turning to look at Jade, you continue backwards. She’s still lingering by the entrance. You shoot her a withering look. “Are you actually going to be that much of a coward? Is that actually what you’re planning on doing?”
She grouches but walks to stand by you. “Are you actually planning on stepping out of here and actually getting lost in the time flow?” She links her arm with yours. Not too sure what to make of that. “Actually?” Oh, of course. She’s mocking you. Bitch.
You tug her along with you by her elbow. “Dave’s a paranoid fucker,” she stifles a laugh, “yeah, see you know that! And paranoid fuckers overstate the risks of us going and having some fun.” She doesn’t look so pleased. You have got to get her away from Dave more.
“Okay but how do you know we’re going to be okay, Miss Smarty Pants? You don’t know anything about timey-wimeyness.” She’s waving the edge of her shirt as she talks, you’d think it was wind but no wind without time. Her control is getting so fucking fine.
You drop her arm and jump-fly up to a tree that’s now part of the bubble. The intermediate stage between leaping and flying always makes you look like a fucking idiot but you’ve swiveled around to look back down at the considerably smaller figure Jade makes at this height and don’t really care. Jade isn’t the type to mock you for that anyway.
The bubble’s getting some scenery now, Dave showing off has so many perks once he works out you’ve been wandering around you’ll have to commend him on the tree.
Jade’s eyes light up and you grin down at her. You fucking knew she’d enjoy relieving some of that stir-crazy. She works her lip for a moment and then she’s up beside you. You lean against the trunk, one leg on the branch and the other dangling over the side, she shuffles into a more comfortable position too, bouncing so the branch creeks with the pressure of remaining time locked. A leaf gets dislodged but doesn’t fall, just sits, stagnant, in the air.
“You can teleport now?”
She shrugs, impish. “Thought I’d give it a shot.”
You lean over to pluck the leaf from the air and tuck it in the hair falling in front of Jade’s ear. She shakes her head - like a dog - and drags it out. Snatching it again you say, “Wow, lame, could have left it in for a moment I’m crushed by your regection!” and launch forward. She squeaks, but you’re having none of it and shove her down, wedging it firmly back in place.
“Vriska…” She says, a growl rising in her throat. You don’t move apart from making sure you’re not pressing on anything too squishy. And pushing the hair that was over her face off; it was getting in her mouth and that’s kind of gross.
“You have something to say, Harley?”
“No.” She grunts and squirms under you, you bounce and press down further, you are the queen and god of tree wrestiling, something you decided just now, and she squawks under the pressure. She pushes you like you’re way heavier than you are and then she’s gone, standing on the ground again.
Shit.
You drop the short distance onto the branch awkwardly. You’re going to fall. You know you’re going to fall and there’s not a fucking thing you can do about it. The branch is slick but you wrap your arms and legs around it in time to not fall completely. Jade’s laughter bubbles into your ears and she calls up with her hands cupped over her mouth, “I thought you were a flying spider, Vriska.” She’s right. Fuck. You thought that fly-jumping makes you look dumb.
You wriggle and release your legs - then arms - and flutter down to hover in front of her. The world gets heavier suddenly; your feet collide with the ground and your knee collapses into it. Great job being elegant, Serket! Congratulations on being a moron, the world is so proud of turning you out like this. Jade just seems to think it’s funny though, she’s doubled over laughing at you like she knew – oh fuck her. You grab her by the knees and pull her down onto the grass. If she thinks she’s got a chance to get free of your grip she’s got another thing coming. You’ve got her now, she is yours. “Gravity manipulation too?” you grunt pinning her shoulders to the grass.
She nods through her laughter, what the fuck could be so funny? ‘Your face’ no doubt. Or maybe some doubt, she’s not Dave after all. “Uh, huh, it’s really easy but I didn’t think it would be too useful until juuuuuuuust now.” And now it’s ‘mock the troll’s quirk’ time. Fab.
She hugs you around the shoulders as she rubs the back of your head. You’d mind more but she’s been giving you more contact since she’s been here than you’ve been graced with your entire life and the endless fountain’s got to dry up sooner or later so you’re taking what you can before she changes her mind. Then her nails nick over the base of your horns. You jerk – totally involuntarily – and realize that your head is between her boobs. She has to be pulling this shit on purpose. Maybe. She said she’s never been around trolls before but your head is between her boobs and who even does that? You push up and away, forcing her to let go of your head and horns.
Her puzzlement when you climb to your feet is puzzling. There’s only so long you can spend in the dirt, even if she seemed to be having fun. You hold out your hand and her confusion doesn’t stop her from taking it and letting you pull her up. “If the time boy catches us out of where we’re supposed to be he’s going to shrink this thing to a hair off the bunker.”
Nudging your shoulder she starts the walk back. Her hand - complete with grass stain - keeps yours laced with hers. It’s slightly damp, still kind of nice though. “Oh, I get it. The great spider troll is scared of the time boy’s wrath.” She’s biting her lip again, hard not to with those teeth, you’re just going to look back to the building. Ignore them. And shaking your hand isn’t getting Jade to let go, weird fucking chick. “He’s going to lock you up in the basement and you’ll never see daylight ever ever ever again!”
She’s never going to let your hand go. “Don’t care about daylight but if he thinks he can take away my freedom I’m going to punch him in the bulge.” Hm… “Or maybe rip it off. I don’t know! We’ll see when it happens.” Jade is laughing through her face that’s supposed to mean she thinks you’re gross but really means you’re being top notch hilarious.
You leave the door open and the both of you slip down onto the couch. “Gross! There are lots of better ways to get him to stop doing things.” She is poor and deluded; so little knowledge about the world. And she’s still clinging onto your hand.
“Nope, don’t believe you. What could possibly work better than tearing off his junk?” You must have been distracted for a second, or she’s using her teleporting skills, or something, because there’s no way she could have gotten her lips on yours that fast without extenuating circumstances.
She draws back and her teeth are over her lip again. Your heart pumps faster and her hand grows warmer in yours again. This is strange and your cheeks are practically glowing blue you can tell. “Uh.” Smooth, Serket. Witty repartee. Words are stupid, boring and dumb anyway, you’re done with them!
You’re not freakishly fast like her but there’s something to be said for the way her eyes widen as you close the gap between you again to cover her lips with your own. It feels like a shorter kiss than the first one, though it isn’t. Something about her smile when you draw back makes the time after the kiss carry more weight than the time in it.
Jade pushes her hair back over her shoulder and then looks worried for a moment “That wasn’t really about what you should do to make Dave not trap you in a dungeon. I’ve been thinking about doing it for a while!” This could have been so fucking nice.
“I worked that out, Jade!”
She’s sighs in relief and wiggles closer. Well, that’s good at least. “You’re okay with me kissing you?”
Shit, you’re blushing so hard, you’re turning into a blueberry. “Why the fuck wouldn’t I be? I guess I don’t know why you’d want to but I’m not going to fucking stop you, am I?” She - fuck you’re messing this up - she looks mad. Or hurt. When she’s mad she’s endearing, this expression makes your heart twinge.
You lean in and kiss her again. She responds more hesitantly this time and runs her tongue over her lips when you draw back. It’s sad to see the traces of your lipstick rubbed off. “Okay, but-“ she moves in for a more forceful kiss, you make a small sound into it that her ears pick up and they swivel forward, “-I’m serious!” She sounds it too, doesn’t make it any easier to believe what comes out of her mouth.
But you can work on that. There’s lots of time to practice.