New Arrival

[thekidsare0kay]

Who: Sollux Captor and ANYONE!
Where: By the coral
When: Today
Format: Starting in prose but I'm happy to follow your lead
Status: Open as Sollux' gaping ocular sockets

He was killing himself. He could feel it in the intense pain that exploded across his think pan like someone was jabbing two culling forks through his eye sockets and then wiggling them around inside his brain.

He was sure he had killed himself. He sort of hoped he had killed himself, because living with that kind of damage was going to suck serious hoofbeast testicles.

And then he'd expected to hopefully find himself safe and sound in the bubbles, where he could spend eternity reliving the few good moments he'd had in his short life and leave the universe-saving and misery to someone else. What he hadn't expected was a whole lot of water, and confusion and a lot of voices, none of which were familiar. It sounded like he'd suddenly landed himself in the middle of a city.

Frightened and confused, he pushed himself up, coughing up a lungful of sea water and yellow blood, and felt around helplessly, searching for something, anything familiar. "Hello?" he called out, but not too loud. Karkat, Kanaya, Terezi and Gamzee had been right there. Why wasn't anyone saying anything to him?

"What happened?"

Comments

1/?

[withoutasign]

It's that time of month when new arrivals tend to show up in the bubble, meaning Signless has been spending more time than usual in the Plaza. Hey, there might be lost, lonely children around that need adopting!

He hears a solid splat off to one side, and turns his head...

2/?

[withoutasign]

Oh.

3/?

[withoutasign]

OH.

4/5

[withoutasign]

Oh god, it's Psii, it's young Psii, and he's hurt, what have the highbloods done to him, what happened, oh god oh god oh god...

Almost without his knowledge, Signless gets up and rushes over to the young troll, kneeling beside him, completely unmindful of the blood and seawater soaking through the knees of his pants.

5/5 okay I'm done

[withoutasign]

But it's not Psii, of course it isn't, Psii is back home, safe and sound and protected. Just as Karkat is his, this one must be Psii's, and Signless pulls his cloak off, draping it around the wounded child's shoulders.

"It's okay, little one. It's okay, I'll help you, you don't have to be afraid."

baby ;u;

[thekidsare0kay]

He starts as he senses someone coming close, sparking slightly with nervous energy - though the instant he even tries to use his powers the migraine rolls on over him like a thousand hoofbeasts tapdancing on his skull, and he groans and pitches forward against the stranger.

At least it seems like a nice stranger. With a blanket. He reaches out and grabs at Signless, clinging.

"Who the fuck are you?" he rasps, his heart pounding. This isn't any of his friends, which means something weird is going on.

[0_0]

[Newcomers, newcomers everywhere! Gosh, there have been a lot of newcomers. Aradia knew there was going to be quite a few, but she wasn't expecting some of them in particular.

Whoa, hey. There's another one right there! ... Oh man. This one's coughing up water and blood. That's not good at all. Aradia snatches one of the towels from the rack and steps in front of him.]

Need some help? [That was the dumbest thing to say, Aradia.]

[thekidsare0kay]

[Now, this voice he recognizes, of course. And he immediately relaxes]

Hey... I'm back. I think I'm properly dead this time, though. What's going on?

[Back in the bubble, he means. The last time he talked to Aradia, he was unconscious]

[0_0]

Do you really remember bei--- [She trails off, no... That isn't what he meant. Darn, but that's okay! That's really okay. She's just really glad to have him back!] Nevermind what I just said.

It's funny you'd say that, because you're probably not going to believe where we are right now. [She's going to have fun telling him this.]

incoming text message...

[ex_fintastic398]

H--------EY
)(ey Aradia guess w)(at I found today!

o hey qurlfran

[0_0]

hi feferi!
you found something too?
what did you find today?

[unconchonable]

[It's almost like a cruel joke to be honest. Having a slight tease of his kismesis a couple months back, but then not seeing him again since then. There was the span of time between then and when he first left too. His absence at first leaving the sea dweller alone and longing--but now he's just hurt and angry, blacklusting after those he hadn't any right to, like Gamzee, when his hate was nothing but platonic, but that want and need for something black, for something like he had before made him seek something that was otherwise ridiculous to pursue with the clown.]

[And now this. In the plaza, waterlogged, blind(Just like before he left), and helpless. It's near laughable, in a sad way. That this troll he held such ire for and now he's not even sure how to feel, there's some remnants of black feelings there, that nostalgic feel of his stomach churning with hate, but it's long since disappeared with time, leaving bitterness in its place. He keeps his distance, staring at Sollux with a mixed expression, not that the other can see of course.]

About fuckin' time you showed up. Took ya damn well long enough.

[thekidsare0kay]

[He stiffens at the sound of Eridan. Fuck. Fuck. He hadn't considered the possibility of seeing Eridan first damn thing, and he's blind and his head hurts so much that he's not sure he can stand to use his powers again for a while.

He lifts his lip in a snarl, showing the fact that most of his front teeth have been knocked out.]

Yeah, well sorry I didn't die fast enough for you. Maybe you should have done a better fucking job with that lame stick of yours if you wanted me dead sooner.

[unconchonable]

Who said I wanted you dead?

[Maybe at that time he did, back in the veil, but now? No, he doesn't want Sollux dead, as infuriating as he is, as wretched and worthless too. No, what they had before had no place for such lethal sentiments.]

[lowlands]

[Sufficient to say, the Netherlands has never seen anything remotely like a troll. And quite honestly, the sight of it is enough to halt him as he walks by and approach the creature with mild curiosity and mild skepticism.]

What are you?

[thekidsare0kay]

[Wow, really sensitive of you, asking a troll with yellow blood pouring from his eye sockets and mouth. But it's cool, it's cool. He lifts his head uncertainly]

Who are you?

[lowlands]

[Hence why he's not stepping too close. It might try to attack him or something.]

Hey, I asked you a question.

[a_violent_end]

Shizuo still tried his best to avoid being a greeter for newcomers, but sometimes he just happened to be around at the right time. This was one of those times. He had been walking by the coral when he heard a bunch of coughing and sputtering, which led him to circle it until he found - a troll. A wet troll splattered with yellow.

Shizuo had never really spoken with the trolls, except for that "dangerous" one Zelda had warned him about - the one who for some really weird reason Shizuo found stuck to the sidewalk one evening. He hadn't seemed threatening at the time, but Shizuo trusted Zelda's judgment. He did know that Sola had made friends with a couple of the trolls, though, and surely that meant they weren't all assholes like that one troll was supposed to be, right?

He'd just ignore the fact that Sola had a tendency to put his trust in the wrong people.

Shizuo grabbed one of the towels that were on hand for new comers and initially went to hand it over, but then realized that the troll was feeling around like he couldn't see. So Shizuo stepped forward and said, "Here," pushing the towel into his hand.

Then he asked, "You're not going to get stuck to the sidewalk too, are you?" It seemed like a perfectly logical question to Shizuo - for all he knew, that happened to all trolls.

[thekidsare0kay]

Sollux was not only bleeding from several orifices, but his eyes had been burned out. Though they were covered by a set of pink swimming goggles, the sockets were quite visible.

He jerked back in surprise when Shizuo thrust the towel into his hand, then began cautiously wiping away the worst of the water and blood.

He didn't know how to answer the question. "I don't think so. Who're you?"

[a_violent_end]

Unfortunately, Shizuo wasn't the best at observation, and he hadn't really assessed the situation until he tried to hand the towel over. Now that Shizuo had a better look at what was going on, he wondered if that yellow stuff was supposed to be blood. It kind of looked like it was flowing, but he wasn't sure what to think about it. And - oh. Those eye sockets explained why the troll was feeling around like he had been.

He probably should have approached the situation a little bit more delicately or something. This was why Shizuo usually left the greeting to other people.

"My name's Shizuo Heiwajima," Shizuo replied. "Do you need to go to the clinic or something?"

Or - should he give the whole this-is-Vatheon talk to him first? When Shizuo arrived, he had been shot and bleeding, but he had managed to carry on a conversation just fine - then again, his stamina wasn't exactly normal.

[bestestfurrend]

Nepeta was crossing the Plaza with her face buried in a bag of sweets, multicoloured sugary confections that were sure to leave her on a sugar high that would make her moirail and anyone else who tried dealing with her weep in exasperation.

Luckily for Sollux she was still so distracted by all the colours that she hadn’t picked so much as a first one to snack on yet, and that was when she heard his voice calling out, soft enough that at first it blended in with all the other noises of the city, but still loud enough for her sharp ears to pick up on it. She tore her gaze away from her candy, catching the faint scent of blood in the air and following it until she finally spotted him over by the coral.

“Sollux? Sollux! Oh my paws what happened to you?” Her paperbag was shoved unceremoniously into a pocket and she ran towards him, going so fast she only just managed to stop herself from tripping over him by mistake.

[thekidsare0kay]

Oh thank goodness, a familiar voice who doesn't suck. "Nepeta?" He rubs a hand over his face, dislodging Feferi's goggles for a moment before resetting them. "Fuck, it's a long story."

[bestestfurrend]

“Uh huh, it’s me.” She yanked a couple of towels out of her sylladex – always a good thing to have handy when your moirail was Equius – and draped one over his back, attempting to hand the other over as she stared at him in dismay. She did, however, manage to refrain from making any comments on just how awful he looked. “We need to get you help, you look really really hurt…”

[bethehugejerk]

[Going to the coral is not unusual for Karkat. Beyond any sort of compulsion to touch it that sometimes comes about, he does so willingly for practical benefits. Who wouldn't want to use something that takes away fatigue if it means the task of not sleeping is made that much easier? At least that's how he sees it, and thus why, once he hits the Plaza, he heads straight for the glowing portion to place his hand to it.]

[But it's as he turns away that something - a sight of bifurcated horns, the sound of a familiar voice - catches his attention, and fills with recognition of his... well, one of his best friends, the one who's been around least.]

Sollux?

[He heads over closer to wherever he is now.]

You're in Vatheon, if no one's bothered to say yet. What have you heard yet, or do I need to give you the full infodump on this place?

[thekidsare0kay]

[Oh thank god, a not-too-annoying person he knows.]

KK? Did we get to the green sun?