Work Text:
It is 6:12 AM in Trappist, West Virginia. Jade Harley is asleep, her faithful dog Becquerel curled up at her feet. Jade has had Bec ever since she was little, and he has remained sprightly and healthy all the while. His breed is indeterminate; he might be a husky, might be a German shepherd, might be a Samoyed mixed with some other things. Either way, it’s rather unusual how he’s white from toe to tip, with bright green eyes to rival Jade’s. But nobody really thinks about it too hard. At the end of the day, a dog is a dog.
Jade sleeps. Just a few hours ago, her brother and his best friend were given the unpleasant revelation that the supernatural happenings in their hometown run much, much deeper than even they had ever been meant to know. Just a few hours from now, her own best friend will become part of these happenings herself. But right now, the world is quiet, peaceful.
Jade sleeps.
And she dreams.
In her dreams, she sees a city of golden cathedrals under a perfectly blue sky. She sees a snowy landscape dotted with cold-defying red flowers and hopping with frogs. She sees two winged wolves, locked in a duel across the universe.
And then she sees Bec.
BEC: JADE HARLEY.
JADE: oh, cool! it looks like…
Jade counts her fingers, a trick she learned when she first got into lucid dreaming. Sure enough, her hand glitches in and out of existence as her subconscious wanders.
JADE: it looks like im lucid dreaming again! hi bec!
BEC: YOU ARE DREAMING, YES. BUT I HAVE ENTERED YOUR DREAM FOR A PURPOSE.
BEC: THE NARRATIVE IN WHICH YOU RESIDE HAS BEGUN TO CHANGE, AND YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF THESE CHANGES IN ORDER TO PREPARE FOR THEM.
JADE: what are you even talking about right now?
Bec makes a gesture with his head, and the backdrop of Jade’s dream changes. Now, they stand in a strange white room, a greenhouse of sorts. Assorted plants, ranging in variety from colorful flowers to miniature pumpkins, are neatly arranged on large planters throughout. A young girl, about thirteen years old, stands at the center.
It’s Jade.
This younger version of Jade looks different, Jade realizes. She can’t put a finger on how, exactly. This girl is Jade: she’s got the same long black hair, same oversized round glasses, same dorky buck-toothed grin. But...there’s nothing else. Anytime Jade tries to pin down the color of this girl’s skin, the shape of her body, the arrangement of her features...she just can’t. This Jade is a blank slate for any Jade.
BEC: WATCH CLOSELY.
The world around the young Jade turns fuzzy. All the light in the room seems to seep away from her surroundings and pinpoint itself on her. For a split second, Jade suddenly can see what the young Jade looks like. This is the version of herself that she knows, or at least knew when she herself was thirteen. Just as Jade realizes this, a brilliant light flashes over her vision, one in the shape of a strange Tetris-like house.
The light fades, and the generic Jade is back.
BEC: YOU HAVE BEEN CUT-AND-PASTED FROM A DIFFERENT NARRATIVE INTO THIS ONE.
More scenes flash by: generic Jade on the planet of frost and frogs; generic Jade dying, becoming a ghost, and being reborn as a goddess of space; generic Jade perched on the bow of a golden starship, surrounded by miniature planets.
BEC: ANOTHER JADE WAS QUICK TO REPLACE YOU.
BEC: AND ANOTHER, AND ANOTHER, FOR THE UNIVERSE WHENCE YOU CAME IS LINEAR IN NEITHER SPACE NOR TIME.
Now Jade sees countless versions of herself, no two looking the same. A stooped-over grandmother, an attractive young woman in club gear, a robot, a werewolf, a hero. Slowly, these other selves fade back down to one: the Jade in the mirror.
JADE: okay, so im from another universe. with ya so far.
JADE: i still dont get what this has to do with all these changes youre talking about. :/
BEC: YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE CUT-AND-PASTED FROM A DIFFERENT NARRATIVE.
BEC: JOHN. ROSE. DAVE. KANAYA. KARKAT.
BEC: EVEN I.
BEC: WE ARE NOT LIVING IN AN ORIGINAL UNIVERSE. WE ARE LIVING IN AN ALTERNATE ONE.
BEC: THIS NARRATIVE’S STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY RELIES ON ITS INHABITANTS LIVING IN THE SAME RELATIONSHIPS AS THEY DO IN THE ONE THEY BELONG.
BEC: SO DESPITE THEIR DIFFERENCES FROM YOU, JOHN, ROSE, AND DAVE ARE STILL YOUR FRIENDS.
BEC: AND DESPITE MY NATURE, I AM STILL YOUR DOG.
BEC: NOT THAT I DISLIKE BEING A DOG. IT’S QUITE NICE.
JADE: ...and? i feel like theres an “and” in there somewhere.
BEC: AND THERE ARE THOSE WHO WOULD EXPLOIT THE ALTERNATE NATURE OF THIS UNIVERSE.
BEC: THOSE WHO WOULD LEARN WAYS AROUND THE LACK OF POWER THIS UNIVERSE HAS GIVEN THEM, AND FIND THE ALTERNATE SELVES OF CHARACTERS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE IRRELEVANT.
JADE: like what characters?
A new scene appears: in deep space, an armada of blood-red ships advances as far as the eye can see. At the forefront stands an alien woman at least three times as tall as Jade, with towering horns that make it about four times. This alien’s body looks more like a woman-shaped void, as though it’s made of shadows. She’s wielding a frightening double-ended trident, and she stands with the confidence of someone who’s got an entire universe to conquer.
BEC: VILLAINS.
JADE: wow, this is the most complicated dream ive ever had.
JADE: so how do i stop these villains?
BEC: FIRSTLY, YOU CANNOT STOP THEM ALONE.
BEC: YOU MUST WORK TOGETHER WITH YOUR FRIENDS, BOTH CRYPTID AND MUNDANE.
BEC: SECONDLY, YOU MUST EXPLOIT THIS NARRATIVE YOURSELF.
The scene changes back to Jade as a werewolf. Her skin has turned a strange dark grey, and she bears white dog ears and a fluffy tail not unlike Bec’s. She has the sharp teeth of a dog, bared in a frightening grimace.
BEC: IN THE UNIVERSE WHERE YOU BELONG, ONE TIMELINE HAD YOU UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THIS SAME VILLAIN. YOU GAINED IMMENSE FEROCITY, BUT HAD NO CONTROL OVER YOUR STATE.
BEC: HERE, HOWEVER, WE CAN CHANGE THIS.
BEC: BY THE RULES OF THIS UNIVERSE, THIS STATE WOULD MAKE YOU THE EQUIVALENT OF A WEREWOLF.
JADE: so...what im getting is that i have to turn into a werewolf, so that i can get more power, so that i can help beat the alien lady.
BEC: CORRECT.
BEC: TAKE A LOCK OF MY FUR.
Gently, Jade pulls a little fur from Bec’s tail.
BEC: WHEN THE TIME COMES, THIS FUR CAN MAKE YOU A WEREWOLF.
BEC: YOU WILL KNOW WHAT TO DO.
JADE: but...i dont know what to do??? at all???
BEC: THEN THE TIME HASN’T COME.
BEC: SLEEP WELL, JADE. YOU MUST REST BEFORE THE CONDUCTOR RAISES HIS BATON.