[Reserved] (concernedApathy, MuseofBlood)

"the feline of war wanders the dark, labyrinthine caverns of a lonely meteor, searching for prey. it has been days since she has stumbled onto any purrchase, any source of nutrition for herself or her cubs..."

The oliveblood girl giggled at the thought of having wigglers, as every troll knew that was only a thing that happened in those weird TV shows that Karkat insisted on watching all the time. The pail was filled, it was sent off and that was that; excuse her crudeness discussing the sensitive topic of pailing. She was okay with that, though. She was okay with a lot of things, in contrast to the rather volatile air that had recently permeated the meteor since their failure to collect The Ultimate Reward. No two people seemed to really be alright with one another any more. Nepeta rarely saw any of her friends in person, or even through Trollian. She had seen Terezi recently, but nothing much had been said. Terezi was a weird one, but a fun roleplayer. Not recently though.

There was one man- or boy, to be perfectly honest- who Nepeta was capable of still seeing on a regular basis without some awkward tension developing. The feline of war walked easily, predatory in her movements, keeping to the shadows, the aura of menace around her rather shorted by the big and stupid grin she was wearing on her face that bared sharp fangs to the world. Her quarry was found, she pounced.

And by pounced, we mean she briskly strolled over and knocked on the door to the hideaway of her friend Equius.

"hey! it's me! let me in if you please!"

You are NEPETA LEIJON and you are fucking doomed.

> _

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"TH4T D4NG VR1SK4 1S 4 SL1PP3RY ON3, ROOK13. W34S3LS THROUGH MY THOUGHTS L1K3 4 SN4K3. SH3S UP TO SOM3TH1NG, SOM3TH1NG 1 T3LL YOU!"

The tealblood with a manic grin on her face stooped low over a shocking neon colored plush dragon, which blankly looked back at her from it's crudely sewn button eyes.

"... WH4T DO YOU M34N 1 H4V3 4 H4T3 TH1NG FOR H3R? DON'T G3T CH33KY W1TH M3. 1'V3 GOT R4NK, M1ST3R!"

The cheeky rookie continued to not actually respond in any way, apparently offending Terezi so much she punted the poor creature into the wall of the dark and labyrinthine corridor she had set up her base of operations in. It had been quite some time since Terezi had really been around the others, as her nose had sniffed out something fishy in the air. Tension, excitement, all in an array of tasty flavors that electrified everything. Terezi had to resist the urge to lick out at random in a creepy fashion, and she had failed to resist that urge when she had earlier run into Nepeta. Poor girl just wanted to roleplay. Nepeta was a weird one, but a fun roleplayer. But Terezi hadn't had the time for that recently.

In an attempt to figure out why the trolls as a whole were suddenly on edge besides the whole being hunted by an evil demon of doom thing, she had been searching the meteor, gathering clues and evidence that may have damned some troll or some other thing into being the culprit of the recent fallings out amongst the trolls. All the clues pointed to Vriska, but Terezi knew that was just an issue she was having with Vriska lately for some absurd reason, so the hunt continued.

Terezi smelled something on the other side of a door suddenly. Her tongue flitted out at the air... grape.

"G4MZ33? WH3R3 4R3 YOU? 1 N33D TO 1NT3RROG4T3 YOU!"

You are TEREZI PYROPE and you are fucking doomed.

> _

Delicately as possible fingers moved and tweaked with the insides of a robotic head. Sweat poured down the face of the blue blooded troll as he tried to keep his grip as gentle as possible. Oh God, he had already worked so hard on this… and having to adjust some of the little things was a nerve-wrecking; there was such a bit chance you could ruin this… and while nervous he was also quite well, thrilling.

The Aradiabot was his crowning achievement, it had been so perfect. She was beautiful, strong and most importantly blue blooded. Of course it was to be expected that she would come into some… problems with the programing; with both the hardware and the software, and he knew that he would have to make adjustments from time to time… but what if he were to screw this up. He wouldn’t be able to simply apologize to her and expect the best, no she would punish him.

He was seriously considering making an accidental slip up in a couple of the tweaks.

There was a knock on his door and his consideration was made a reality as his flinched, applying a bit too much pressure to one of the cords. Holding a red wire in his hand he reached for a towel on the other side of his desk. “Oh, oh my.” He muttered as he dabbed at his forehead with the white towel and carefully set the torn wire on his desk.

Nepeta was calling for him and he was he to leave his dear moirail waiting. Opening the door to your respiteblock you bowed your head slowly to the smaller troll. “My apologies, I did not mean to leave you waiting.” He had to admit, he was quite glad to see her. It had been a while since the last time they had talked, since he had locked himself away in his respiteblock to concentrate on the up keep of the Aradiabots main chasse.

Though it had always been true, Nepeta was the only one he could freely approach without having to worry about any sort of tension. It was even quite difficult to speak to Aradia anymore. Nepeta had been his moirail for quite some time now and he did not see that changing any time in the near future.

You are EQUIUS ZAHHAK and you would never let anything harm your dear moirail, as long as you are alive.


What was there to do here? Man, he just wanted to have some fun out here. But everyone was so… glum since they lost their big prize. Did it really matter anyway? What was their big prize anyway? Maybe this is what was supposed to happen all along. The merciful messiahs had led you this far for a reason, and it was up to their miraculous judgment to lead everyone down the right path. To true enlightenment.

Walking down the hallway he tapped his club against the wall periodically. He licked the spoor slime off of his fingers from his last pie. Willing it from his sylladex he uncapped a bottle of Faygo, and took a long swig of it with a content sigh. There was nothing wrong with being out here like this. They were all together and they could have awesome times as best friends. He knew he was going to have fun with his best friend. Man, he wondered where his best friend was at the moment. Maybe he should try to find the little guy, maybe he’d like to share a pie and chill in the horn pile.

Yeah that sounded like a blast. He chuckled to himself as he turned down one of the halls and continued to walk.

What was he doing? He stopped in the middle of the hallways and stared up at the ceiling. Right, he was going to his respiteblock to get another delicious pie. He turned around and started back down the hallway when he heard Terezi’s voice from seemingly nowhere.

“Whoa, Terezi bro, I can hear your voice… but I can’t see where you’re at. Your voice is all up and coming from the mother fucking walls.” He said pressing his face and hands up against the wall where he could have sworn he could hear Terezi’s voice. Then his eyes landed on the door, “Oh. Heh heh, you’re on the other side of this mother fucking door, that’s cool too.” He said as he took a step away from the wall and opened the door.

His eyes met Terezi who was standing on the other side of the door and he smiled at her. Hey there, Terezi. You wanted to get your questioning on? I’m down for a little back and forth.” He said walking into the room, ignoring the state that Terezi had left it in.

You’re GAMZEE MAKARA and this meteor party will be bitch tits bananas.

((Sorry their text is a little hard to read on this site. And I don't think my Gamzee was very good, it's my first time trying to play him))

((Nah it's totally solid interpretation of Gamzee.))

Nepeta was grinning almost from ear to ear when Equius opened his door. She giggled a bit when Equius nodded his head to her. He was always doing weird little things like that, deferring to almost everyone a modicum of respect in spite of- or pawssibly because of- his strictness regarding the hemospectrum. It kind of creeped most of the others out on top of everything else that was weird about him, and to be honest Nepeta didn't blame them. By it's nature moiraileagence ended with duos who were in theory completely incompatible in personality and interests. Opposite extremes that balanced. That was how Nepeta understood the quadrant, in so far as she had observed from her many years of shipping.

"you don't need to apawligize, but i'm sure you're going to anyways so i'll just say that it's okay. okay?" She said that cheerfully, honestly she was totally okay with whatever Equius did. It was her job, her relationship with him, after all. She could tease, insinuate, complain, and whatever she wanted to do concerning her other half's isms. But at the end of the day, she was inherently okay with them. Speaking of being 0kay with things...

"hi aradia!" Nepeta bent around Equius's hulking frame when her keen senses detected a specific type of robot in the room; the unique scent of circuits and metal combined with frogginess and sweat- though that was probably Equius's- that were the telltale signs of an Aradiabot being around. "so that's what you've been hiding away for? you should have invited me over anyways!" Nepeta returned her infinitely energetic gaze to Equius's eyes, or to his shades at any rate. The shades never really bothered her, Equius was always transparent enough to get even without being able to look into his eyes.

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"G4MZ33, TH3R3'S 4 DOOR B3T33N US." Though said in an exasperated tone, Terezi was wearing a grin in response to Gamzee's typical absent-mindedness, a genuine grin too, not one of her usual half-psychotic toothy grins. Though no matter what her emotion her grins were quite toothy. Terezi honestly liked Gamzee, because he was one of the two trolls on the meteor who she had a difficult time understanding even with her inherent ability to read others. The other troll was Karkat, but that was a less pleasant story. For Gamzee, it was just crazy fun, in the few instances where they would meet.

"YOU'V3 B33N 4BS3NT FOR 4 WH1L3. YOUR HORN P1L3'S B31NG 4PPROPR14T3D BY TH3 OTH3RS 1N YOUR 4BS3NC3." Not true, Terezi hadn't been in that area for a while and was sure everyone else gave that pile of shitty horns as wide a berth as possible even when they weren't being charged for it's use; but it would be interesting just to see how Gamzee would react to that fake news. Terezi even threw in a cruel snicker for effect. "BUT DON'T GO RUNN1NG OFF Y3T. 1'LL H3LP YOU 4PPR3H3ND TH3 FR33LO4D3RS 4FT3R W3'V3 T4LK3D."

Terezi's lair, for lack of a better word, was essentially just her old recuperacoon- an empty husk long drained of sopor- surrounded by piles of decidedly not shitty dragon plushes. The walls were chalked over, a lot of the drawings resembling a certain cool-kid human in an incredibly crude fashion. Terezi gestured at one of her plushy piles, which was Gamzee's cue to take a seat in it so that she might begin. When he sat she began to rattle off Alternian interrogation procedure by memory:

"YOU H4V3 TH3 R1GHT TO SHUT TH3 FUCK UP, 3V3RYTH1NG YOU S4Y OR L3T SL1P OR 4CC1D3NT4LLY MUMBL3 W1LL B3 H3LD 4G41NST YOU, YOU 4R3 GU1LTY UNT1L PROV3N 1NNOC3NT, 4ND 1F PROV3N 1NNCO3NT TH3 1NT3RROG4TOR R3T41NS TH3 R1GHT TO TH1NK YOU 4R3 GU1LTY 4NYW4YS." Terezi rankled a bit at that last one and leaned in, to whisper confidentially, "B3TW33N YOU 4ND M3 TH4T L4ST ON3 1S DUMB. 1F YOU'R3 1NNOC3NT YOU'R3 FR33 TO DO... WH4T3V3R 1T 1S YOU DO." Terezi amused herself for a moment with thoughts of the stupid things Gamzee got up to in his free time, then suddenly straightened up and whirled onto her charge so that she was towering over him with more than a hint of malice.

"H4V3 YOU SPOK3N TO TH3 OTH3RS S1NC3 TH3 D3MON TR13D TO OFF US?" Terezi's eyes uselessly darted over Gamzee's person, trying to determine if there was anything else unusual to go off of. Her nose sniffed out something on his fingers, she took a closer whiff. Sopor slime. "4R3 YOU ST1LL 34T1NG TH4T NONS3NS3?" That was said more out of genuine concern than hard-boiled interrogative purpose.

Equius cracked a small crooked smile as he watched Nepeta smile up at him. It only lasted for a moment, it was a rather foreign feeling, smiling. Nepeta had been one of the only people who had been able to pull such a friendly gesture from him. He was the last to complain. She kept him rather balanced and together, and he really did not know what would have happened to him had she not become him moirail. It went without saying that this moiraillegence was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

As she told him that he needn’t apologize he felt the urge to apologize yet again. He just barely managed to repress the urge and nod slowly with a simple, “okay.” It was so very much like her to pester him about the way he spoke and the way he treated others. He did not do such with her, he was more concerned with the others she acquainted herself with and how she acted around them. He would do anything to keep her from getting harmed; physically and mentally.

Then the Aradiabot caught her sight and he recalled the small mistakes he had made minutes before. Looking down he was still holding one of the wires from the inside of her head. “Ah, I’m sorry, Nepeta, but this Aradiabot is not capable of communication at the moment.” He said as he turned from his moirail and made his way back over to his desk. “I have been performing some maintenance on her for the past few days, and yes… I will admit she has taken up a significant amount of my time.” He bit back the apology forming at his lips and opted to instead dab at the sweat that was forming on his brow with the towel he had left on the desk earlier.

“I have meant to get in contact with you. But this has been a rather meticulous and time consuming endeavor.” He sat down at his desk and picked up his tools again, looking down at his work but still speaking to his small moirail. “I was nearing completion when you came around. If you don’t mind waiting a short while, you can stay here and observe.” He said. It wouldn’t be the first time Nepeta had sat around and ‘entertained’ him while he worked on one thing or another. Having her around right now was quite comfortable; it had been a long while since he had last interacted with another living soul.


Gamzee’s smile didn’t falter as Terezi told him that his horn pile had been hijacked by some of the others. Wow, he was pretty happy that others got to enjoy the wonderful feeling of lying down and hearing the honks, like angels descending from heaven around them. He nodded slowly, “No need to go on apprehending no one, everyone’s free to enjoy their chill time in the horn pile. Get their relax on surrounded by its miraculous music.”

He sat down where Terezi instructed him. An unceremonious flop down into the soft pile of plushes. Gamzee didn’t adjust himself to get comfortable he stayed where he fell. He pulled one of the plushies into his lap and patted it gently, letting it sit there.

Then Terezi was going on about her lawyer talk and Gamzee could just nod his head at moments he thought were appropriate. Which was the entire time she was speaking. Not that she could see it, but she probably knew.

And then she asked questions that were actually directed at Gamzee. It took him a moment to realize that though and he simply stared off at the colours on the wall for a long moment more. Snapping back to reality he spoke slowly, “Yeah man I’ve been chatting up my good bro Karkat and a couple of my other pals on this meteor ship through space. Been rentin out my horn pile to all those who need to chill the fuck out and jam about their feelings. Offering pie and the wonderful fizzy concoction of the messiahs…” He muttered on, almost missing the second question.

“Yeah I am, why would I stop eating them. They ain’t done nothing wrong to me. They just sit there waitin to be ate and who am I do deny them what they want most in the world.” He said shaking his head. “The others don’t see it that way, but they just need to come around to it.” He muttered his thoughts.

He leaned back, pretty much lying down in the pile of plush. “This is one comfy as shit pile you got here.”

Nepeta was rather touched when he managed to actually withhold the apology she knew was coming just because she had commented on it. She hadn't expected it, to be honest she would have been okay with it either way, but the obvious effort he had exerted to make it so made Nepeta feel all the happier with him. Nepeta mused to herself that she should probably be trying to make the same efforts that Equius did to compromise and meet her wishes for his behavior, rather than just brushing off all his suggestions as unnecessary at best and dumb at worst.

"awwww, that's too bad. it's been forever since i've seen any of the aradias around- i mean, we only really have one- but they're so nice when they're not all gloomy and depressing or randomly angry!" Nepeta considered it for a moment, then realized that Aradia was always one of those two descriptors at all times recently, but Nepeta remembered the old alive Aradia very well, and that was the image of her friend she'd always hold. Not that Aradia being a robot wasn't cool. It was actually pretty awesome, and Nepeta subconsciously patted Equius on the shoulder as she sauntered in past him, a mark of her appreciation for his skill.

"oh no, i understand. it's not like everyone here can cross wires and sculpt metal the way you do!" Nepeta followed Equius to his desk, acrobatically sat herself down on whatever free space was left on it so that she could face him while he worked. "in fact, nobody here can do that except pawssibly vriska, but she's crazy so forget her!" She swung her legs like a pendulum, already antsy even though she'd only been sitting for a second. Nepeta's mind was equally jumpy, and began to wander onto topics that she would blurt out at random: one of her favorite pastimes with her moirail.

"hm... oh! we should start a pile of stuff to lie down in, you know, like gamzee's horn pile."

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"SO 1N SHORT, TH3 USU4L FOR YOU." That was disappointing. Gamzee, being the least predictable of the trolls left on the meteor, was in Terezi's mind probably the most exposed to any possible weirdness that might have been going down or about to go down. There was something about the guy that just made him always present at the right place at the right time. Terezi wouldn't say that he was already there or anything, but he just had the strange ability to wander into where he needed to be by happenstance.

"HMM, TH4T'S D1S4PPO1NT1NG. 4R3 YOU SUR3 YOU H4V3N'T NOT1C3D 4NYTH1NG STR4NG3?" Terezi thought to herself for a second, then felt the need to add an addendum, "NOT 1NVOLV1NG K4RK4T THOUGH, 1 DON'T N33D TO KNOW." The recent friction between the pair of them had been awkward for Terezi to deal with. On the one hand she had to be cool and professional and all the things she typically was about. On the other hand, she simply couldn't be when it involved her nubby horned crazy little man. Even if it prevented her from gathering all the clues she possibly needed, she would rather have avoided knowing any more about Karkat that would further throw off her already confused sense of his wants.

Terezi leaned down, more out of instinct than anything else, and licked curiously at Gamzee's fingers. Pretty much all of her friends were used to the occasional random platonic lick when she was curious about some scent or another on their person. The taste of sopor, even just it's residue, was strong for Terezi, acrid, she gagged slightly and recoiled. Her thoughts became cloudy for a brief moment, but for a girl used to perfect mental clarity it was frighteningly noticable.

"D4MN G4MZ33 WH4T DO3S TH1S STUFF 3V3N DO TO YOU?!" Terezi shook her head to regain her bearings. If just the residue could affect her that badly she couldn't imagine how it affected Gamzee.

It explained a lot about him though.