❄ sixth reminder

[echidna]

[ morning ; 1338 benny road ]

[ Jade can't help but feel something is wrong this morning when she wakes up. She feels like she's missed something, almost like she's been asleep for a long time. She stumbles out of bed, feeling a little fuzzy, noticing the changes to her room. The window's been repaired, there's a backpack that she didn't have before with half finished homework on the desk. She doesn't really start to feel concerned until she looks at the calendar on her wall, which has been flipped over to October.

That can't be right.

She grabs it from the wall, bursts out into the hallway still in her nightgown and clutching it to her chest. ]

Karkat? Gamzee?

[ phone ]

Hi Mayfield! Long time no talk! Or maybe we did talk, but it wasn't me me, it was creepy drone me. I'm not really sure what happened, I can't remember anything since, hmmm, a couple weeks ago, I think, after the zombies. I don't remember going home, or being here, nothing! It's kind of scary, but I'm glad that I was a normal creepy drone and not a murderous creepy drone. I really hope that doesn't happen to me again. Have you ever had something like that happen to you? Not even just droning but, I don't know, something reeeeally creepy where you almost... don't exist. It's kind of scary.

Oh, and apparently I'm a girl scout now, hehe.

[ afternoon ; your front door ]

[ There is some pretty persistent knocking at your front door right now. If and when you get around to answering it, you will find Jade on your doorstep, wagon stacked high with boxes of cookies behind her. She is looking particularly adorable right now, all dressed up in a girl scout's uniform. ]

Hi!! Do you like cookies?

[ phone; fail filter to eridan ]

Eridan? Hi, um... how are you?

Comments

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

I went to the post office.

[echidna]

Why?

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

Sopor slime.

It's something we sleep in, it helps with dreams. Gamzee eats it. He's not supposed to, but it...it helps him, I think.

[echidna]

Oh, you mean... [ It feels like forever that they had that conversation. Jade nods, gives him a tight squeeze around the shoulders. ] How much of that stuff do you have? Can I help?

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

Plenty for now. I can get more if I need to.

As long as he has it, he'll eat it on his own and I hope it'll be enough. You don't have to do anything unless I get panscrubbed or something.

[echidna]

Alright, but you don't have to do it all alone, okay?

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

I know. I think I can handle him, but I'm glad you, Kanaya, and Terezi know about him, too.

Just be careful, don't tell anyone else. I'm not even telling people about the sopor, I really don't need him to find out that's why I'm human again.

[echidna]

I won't tell anyone. [ She finally releases him from the hug, smiling. ] Hey, did I miss anything important while I was, uh, panscrubbed?

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

Not really. Everyone was an asshole as usual.

...I did overhear some juicy gossip that some human is going around forming ill-advised relationships with the universe's most loathsome fish shitbag.

[echidna]

[ ruh roh. ]

Hehe, well, gossip is just gossip, right? [ oh this isn't fair she hasn't even gotten a chance to talk to Eridan yet. ] I wouldn't know anything about that.

[ She's not even really trying to lie. ]

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

Okay, let me rephrase that.

Eridan, for some reason assuming I care, told me that you agreed to be his moirail. Is he making up shit like he usually does, or did you actually fucking go along with that when I fucking explained to you what moirallegience is about?

[echidna]

[ Jade separates herself from him completely now, looking a little uneasy. She doesn't really want to make eye contact, but she can't stop looking at him, trying to figure out if he's angry with her. ]

I didn't agree exactly, I said I'd think about it, but then I got scrubbed so I didn't really get a chance to!

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

[He's not angry at her per se, but he's angry at Eridan, and he's concerned for her, which makes him unhappy that she got this involved with someone with Eridan's track record.]

Okay, well, if it helps you decide?

For a long time, I was the one who brought his problems to. He's the most needy and insecure asshole you will ever meet, but I must have started on the hating myself train early or something, because I liked talking to him.

I don't think a night went by when he wasn't crying me a fucking ocean about his moirail, Feferi. He loved her, he'd do anything for her, he belonged with her, everything needed to make my stupid younger self think this was actually romantic. Instead of seeing what I should have seen, a pathetic, desperate piece of shit clinging to her gills on the flimsy pretense of a fake moirallegience just to get into her red quadrant.

And when that didn't work out for him, he killed her. He fucking murdered her without hesitating a second. He killed Kanaya, too, even though she never did anything but try to help him with his stupid problems, and he would've killed me if I had bothered to do anything to seem like a threat. He is a selfish, insecure, parasitic, murderous shitwad who has never had a thought for anyone besides himself a night in his life and who will say anything if he thinks it's what you want to hear.

And that is why I am treating this proposition with the deepest possible skepticism and malaise. Do you understand me?

[echidna]

I-

[ Oh wow that's...sort of a lot to take at once. Jade chews nervously at her lower lip, twists her nightgown between her hands. She really doesn't know what to say, or what to think, just tries to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. ]

Yeah, I understand.

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

[sighing]

Believe it or not, I'm not here to tell you who you can't get involved with.

He says he's sorry for the things that happened, but that doesn't change them and it doesn't mean I trust him. Moirallegience is complicated and a huge commitment, and I don't want to see you getting hurt over someone who doesn't deserve your time.

[echidna]

[ She looks up at him, still biting at her lip but trying to smile, or at least not an expression that is totally awkward and conflicted. ]

I think... I don't really know what I think. I don't know everything there is to know about moirails, or if humans and trolls can even do that; but if it's something that's really important and something I can do, I want to try.

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

What if he killed someone really important to you? Like...Dave or something. How would you feel about him then?

[echidna]

I don't know. [ It's not something she really wants to think about. She looks away, rubs her arm uneasily. ] I killed Gamzee, how do you feel about me?

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

That's different. That wasn't really you.

He killed you and Terezi and he meant to do it. And I don't care. No, I mean, of course I care, but it doesn't change anything for me. And that's kind of majorly fucked up of me but I think that's maybe also how things have to be for it to work.

[echidna]

Then maybe it's the same for Eridan.

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

Is it? That's what I'm asking.

[echidna]

[ It takes her a minute to answer, but when she does it sound confident, a lot more confident than she actually feels. ]

Yes, it is.

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

Fine.

If that's how it is, I won't stop you even though I think you're making a fucking huge mistake.

[echidna]

Are you mad at me?

[crusthatecean.livejournal.com]

No.

I just wish you weren't doing this. I hate him.