Chapter Text
Your name is JADE HARLEY
You just got done playing a RATHER INTENSE VIDEO GAME.
Understatement of the fucking year.
You have successfully created a BRAND NEW EARTH for you and your BEST FRIENDS to live on. Her Imperial Condescension is DEAD, Lord English is apparently banished into a BLACK HOLE and all your friends are ALIVE and standing here with you. You now stand on an island in the middle of the PACIFIC OCEAN where your Grandpa/Dad/Grandson’s home once stood apparently SEVENTY MILLION YEARS AGO.
What will you do?
Jade: Watch the sun rise for the first time in three years
Yellow light breaks over the top of the horizon and the reflection plays across the calm ocean waves. The dark shadows of scattered clouds break the streaks of red that bleed into the sky. The ocean breeze rushes against everyones ears and carries the familiar sound of crashing waves and the familiar smell of sea salt. You feel tears stream down your cheeks.
You’re finally home again.
Well, it’s not really your home per-say, but its close enough.
You wipe your eyes clean and let out a little sob/giggle. And you aren’t the only one. Despite the tears, John has a smile on his face wider than you have ever seen. Jake is bouncing on his feet with a very similar grin plastered to his face.
Karkat, the eternal grump, is of course the first to open his mouth.
OKAY FINE, I WILL CONCEDE YET ANOTHER POINT TO EARTH. ON TOP OF NOT BEING FINE-TUNED TO MAXIMIZE WIGGLER ABUSE ON A PLANETARY SCALE, YOU HAVE A DAMN GOOD SUNRISE.
Shhhhhhhh Karkat you’re ruining the mom8nt!
niice going, diip2hiit
You roll your eyes and chuckle at the crabby new God-Tier. His maroon cape and hood honestly look fantastic on him. All the trolls who didn't get God-Tier were given it upon passing that white door. Maybe as prize for winning without dying? Paradox Space sure is weird. The red-and-blue-eyed troll who you don't recognize is wearing his new green cloak with a yellowish hood. Terezi has a new neon green outfit which looks like Rose's but she seems to be happy to leave the hood covering her eyes. Kanaya's black Sylph of Space outfit is also really pretty!
Now that the silence has been sufficiently broken, excited conversation starts to rise in the gaggle of trans-dimensional teens. Rose and Kanaya are hugging and you think you saw Kanaya sneak a kiss. The ram-horned troll in red has a really wide, toothy smile on her face. Honestly it looks a little creepy, but it's not her fault. Maybe you just need some more time to get used to her. Mr. Crocker lifts John and Jane for a bear hug. While Jane hugs him back laughing, John chuckles a little awkwardly.
Oh that's unfortunate. Mr. Crocker might look like Mr. Egbert but they aren't the same, are they?
The Mayor and the stern looking Prospitian are holding hands. Are they... a thing? Do Carapacians even do romance? You never thought to ask during all your years on Prospit! Either way, they look very cute together. Terezi is inhaling deeply at the rising sun. You have no idea what a sunrise smells like, but it looks like she is enjoying it. The Stider brothers, Dave and ... (was it Dereck?), are sporting small grins, which you know means tears of joy to any normal person. Roxy hops over and wraps you and Calliope in a giggly hug. You hug back of course. After Calliope gets over her surprise at physical contact, she turns to return the hug too. All in all, it's a moment of celebration, joy, and the beginning of a new chapter. Hopefully this one will be less lonely than the journey on the battleship.
Once Roxy releases you, you take a moment to collect yourself and then reach out with your spatial awareness. Yep this is definitely your Island, or at least a very close copy. But what about the rest of Earth? You reach out more...
And more…
and more…
and more...
... this is stupid
You never appreciated just how fucking huge the Earth was! You could fit at least five whole mediums in the space between here and the core of the planet. And that’s including the empty space between the planets of the game! If you were a Seer of Space, you might be able to give a more accurate measurement, but needless to say, the sheer quantity of stuff around you is a little overwhelming. You feel like you can still teleport anywhere on the planet in a single jump, but you probably won't have the same pin-point accuracy unless you take time to specifically remember locations to jump to.
You deeply inhale with your canine snout and immediately regret it. It's like a punch to the nose packed with the smells of Life.
Billions of people and trolls, countless other animals, smoke from a wildfire somewhere, pollution from cities, crisp air from forests and millions of other nasty and pleasant smells.
There is so much out there! It's incredible! You can't wait to explore it all. But ... wait a moment. You inhale again carefully. That's odd. You only smell two Carapacians on this whole planet. And they are right here with you. What happened to all the ones you dropped here to get life on Earth started?
You shrug. That's probably a question for the Time players or the Seers. It was their job to plan out Earth's history and guide it down the right path. But you don't remember the specifics of what they did. You were busy resting. Growing the planet back to it's original size and helping Kanaya heal the the destroyed climate and landscape was a lot of work! Anyways, you know that Dave just wanted to make sure that he gets to live in a world with some version of Obama. Any timeline without an Obama is not a timeline worth living in (lol!)
You concentrate your senses on the denser pockets of human and troll scents. That must be... Hawaii to the north. Right where it should be. That means to the east, and a bit farther north...
Your concentration is broken by a certain friendly/leaderly shout.
SHUT IT!!! *ahem* rose has something to say everyone, so listen up! ... yes that means you too karkat ... terezi stop cackling like that ... alright, take it away rose!
Yes, thank you John. Remember everyone, this planet is a lot like the Earth John, Dave, Jade and myself left behind. While it may be leaps and bounds above the horrors of Alternia, it's not exactly a paradise out there either. Even though I sincerely doubt there is anything on this planet that could pose a threat to us, I would prefer it if we didn’t cause a massive mess and caught too much attention on our very first day. We seem to have escaped the confines of the single Alpha timeline but I can still see that our best fortune lies in concealing our status as Gods from the world for the time being. Sollux can you confirm this?
Sollux rolls his shoulders and cracks a grin.
yeah… ii thiink thii2 ii2 the fiir2t time we’ve ever not been 2urrounded by doom on all 2iide2. iit feel2... really niice actually. lalonde ii2 riight though, 2howiing our face2 and revealiing our2elve2 a2 god2 feel2 liike a doomy-thiing to do
Thank you Sollux, so –
L4LOND3, MR. 4PPL3 B3RRY, WH1L3 1 H4V3 NOTH1NG BUT R3SP3CT FOR YOUR, 4H3M, D1V1N3 V1S1ONS AND F33L1NGS, 1’M 4FR41D TO S4Y TH4T TH3S3 JOK3RS WON’T B3 4BL3 TO R3S1ST SHOW1NG OFF FOR LONG. 1 CAN S33 1T 1N MY M1NDS 3Y3. TH3Y'R3 GO1NG TO BLOW OUR COV3R PR3TTY F4ST. 3SP3C14LLY 3GG-DORK OV3R TH3RE >:)
hey!! i might seem like an idiot compared to a gogdamn god-tiered Seer of Mind, but i’m smarter than that! i would never go against rose’s advice unless there was a very good reason!
L1K3 1F YOU H4PP3N TO STUMBL3 4CROSS 4 CR1M1N4L 4BOUT TO COMM1T MURD3R? YOU WOULD L3T TH3M GO?
… gog you are the worst
I suppose I wouldn’t expect any less from you, but please try to at least keep your identities and godhood hidden for now.
so we aren't supposed to use our powers at all?? that's no fair : (
Of course not. Just while you are around civilians. If your life ... or if a civilian's life is in danger, I suppose I cannot ask you to not save them. Just do not get caught on camera and expose yourself to as few witnesses as possible.
thanks for the warning rose. i don't know about the rest of you, but i want to check this place out! what do you say we all meet back here by noon?
A murmur of general agreement comes from the small pantheon. The teenagers start chatting, grouping up, and getting ready to depart. Everyone is eager to get acquainted with their new home, even if they have to change out of their comfy God pajamas and into more normal-looking clothes.
Where to go first? You always heard so much about the USA, surely it would be a good place to visit first! Maybe you can tag along with Dave and Karkat? Or perha-
Jade?
hmm? yes Jane?
I was speaking to my Dad. He told me that before I go out, we should really think about building a new home for our group here. And while I really do want to get out there and see the world, I kind of have to agree! It would be a real shame if everyone got back here later and there was nowhere to sleep or eat! Any chance you could give me a hand?
Well… it’s not like this world is going to be destroyed by any reality-ending games any time soon. You guess you can wait a single day.
Jade: Use your Spacey powers to build a bomb-ass base
You recruit the help of a two friendly Carapacians, one fatherly gentleman, and one crabby troll with architecture experience (who knew?). Along with your Spacey powers and the tech-savvy Maid of Life, your new base is making rapid progress. It's a small miracle that the alchemiters from the meteor still work and that the game let you keep your grist in this new universe. While Jane alchemizes building materials, Karkat makes blueprints with the advice of the Mayor and Mr. Crocker. They are done by the time you finish clearing land and safely embedding the meteor in the side of the volcano. While you do the heavy lifting, the others get busy furnishing and putting in finer details. It isn't long before the foundations for the massive complex have been laid and the central living space has been completed. The next step will be to make a wing of bedrooms and bathrooms for everyone to live in until they can build or find their own homes.
You hope they won't be just temporary rooms though. You are planning to host lots and lots of parties here. You have nearly 16 years of lost social time to catch up on after all!
A few more hours pass and the bright, beaming, tropical sun nears the top of the sky. You are sitting on top of your brand new tower taking a breather and enjoying the view. It’s so familiar and comforting. The only difference you can see is the frog temple. While still old, it looks much newer than what you remember. It must have been rebuilt since you dropped the first humans, trolls, and Carapacians to seed the new Earth. That was nice of them! You wonder if they left behind anything for you and your friends.
Hmm… speaking of your friends, their scents are all getting steadily stronger as they presumably fly towards the island. You guess it is getting close to noon and people are going to be wanting lunch. Mr. Crocker and Jane seem to be breaking in their new kitchen in the tower below, preparing meals for the oncoming horde of hungry teenagers.
Now that you think of it, you don’t think you’ve ever eaten a proper, home-cooked meal before. Maybe your Grandpa cooked, but it was so long ago you don't really remember.
...