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Your name is VRISKA SERKET, and you’ve found yourself face to face with a particularly angry howlbeast of a lusus. It’s at least three times your size, and the drool dripping from its snarling mouth would be enough to thoroughly soak your tangled hair. Like any sensible troll, you aren’t looking for a spit shower, and find yourself quickly sidestepping its line of slobber. It tries to send your head rolling with one of its forepaws, but you duck and your thinkpan remains intact. Frowning, you realize that in a battle such as this, your beloved dice are not going to be of much assistance.
Thankfully, your pale pal fashioned you a seriously snazzy 2x3dent for sticky situations like these. You arm yourself, narrowly dodging another swipe of the creature’s massive paws. The pearly white fur on the back of its neck bristles as it tries to snap at you with its deadly looking maw. You feel its hot breath on your face as its mouth grazes the area in front of you and a pointed fang scrapes your cheek.
“You son of a bitch,” you growl, ready to exact your revenge on the awful thing. Your newly acquired cut begins beading with blood, but you don’t move to wipe it away even as it spills over and begins trickling down your face. Steadying yourself, you grip your 2x3dent a little tighter and prepare to finish this.
But before you can attack, one of the howlbeast’s paws hits its mark and knocks you off your feet. Your 2x3dent goes flying into the forest surrounding you and your foe. It advances upon your fallen body, and you can feel the ice cold sensation of fear pooling in your veins. Defiantly, you lift your head up and stare into its eyes, daring it to try and kill you. It starts to make its move. You struggle to get on your feet, but you manage. Though with no weapon, there’s not much you can do besides stand and try not to shake too much. Just as you are prepared for the worst, it lets out a piercing howl and drops to the ground. As you stare at its convulsing body, you wonder what on Alternia caused this.
Your answer comes when you see an extremely proud Feferi standing on top of the creature’s still body. She pulls her 2x3dent into view to reveal that half of it is covered in olive blood. Grinning, she hops off and bounds over to you. “I bet you thought you were a goner there, huh?” she says proudly. You roll your eyes and self-consciously flip your bangs.
“I could have got him if I had a little more time. But of course, you had to interfere with my battle.” You cross your arms and walk pointedly over to the howlbeast to make sure that it was really dead.
“Shoosh,” she says. “Just accept the fact that I totally saved your life. It’s not like you haven’t saved mine before!” Still smiling, she walks a short way into the woods to retrieve your thrown 2x3dent and emerges with it intact. She heads over to you and you swipe it out of her hands. “Hey, grumpygills,” she coos, wiping the blood off your cheek with a flick of her thumb. “You did your duty! Now go home and rest. You look like you need it.”
You grumble a bit but begrudgingly obey her words and slink away to find the body of the troll who you had killed earlier. The death hadn’t been as swift as you usually prefer, mainly because you had gotten distracted by his monster of a lusus. There's a sickly trail of blood leading to the troll. It hadn’t crawled very far, but it's enough distance to be a hassle. When you find him, you heft him over your shoulder. He’s relatively small, only about four sweeps at the most – so he’s not hard to carry.
You cringe as his blood mingles with your own.
Before you leave, you return to the forest clearing and stare as your moirail deftly tosses nets over the expired lusus. She ties them all together, and, with a strength that never fails to surprise you, begins to drag the body to the shore that lies just beyond these trees. You watch her until she disappears, then start your trek back home with the dead olive blood in tow. Fef’s lusus isn’t the only one who needs to be fed.
The sun has almost risen when you return to your hive. You immediately make a beeline down the spiraling staircase to your lusus’ lair. As predicted, she’s agitated when you enter her den. Her deadly fangs are clicking at the air and she’s moving around as much as she can in her enclosed space. Upon your arrival, all eight eyes lock onto the meal you’re carrying. You have a feeling that if she could reach you, she wouldn’t stop at the dead troll.
“Calm down,” you growl, heaving the troll off your back and tossing him to your lusus. She lunges for it and begins wrapping it up in a cocoon of silk. Usually, you find this pretty cool, but right now you can’t stomach it for some reason. You quickly turn and head up the stairs to your respiteblock. Your recuperacoon had never looked more inviting than it does right now. Without stopping to do anything else, you strip off your bloodstained clothes and go to your nest of sopor slime to sink into a dreamless sleep.
After what feels like mere minutes, a repeated noise wakes you up. You lift your head out of your recuperacoon to see pesterchum flashing and making all sorts of sounds. Quickly, you vault out of the sopor and dash across the room to see what’s going on.
--cuttlefishCuller [CC] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]--
CC: VRISKA!!!
CC: I need your kelp as soon as POSSIBL—E!
CC: T)(e )(owlbeast we krilled wasn’t nearly enoug)( for my lusus, and s)(e’s getting V-ERY upset!
AG: Calm doooooooown, Peixes. What do you want me to do? I’m still sore from wrestling with that fucking thing. I don’t think it’s feasi8le for me to try hunting right now.
CC: T)(e fate of our entire PLAN-ET depends on if we can feed )(er quickly or not!!! If s)(e raises )(er voice, we bot)( know w)(at will )(appen.
AG: Yeah, yeah. All our heads will explode from the awful sound and Alternia as we know it will 8e destroyed.
CC: ---EXACTLY! I know you know )(ow important t)(is is! Can you do anyfin to kelp me out?? 38(
AG: I already said that I’m too sore to hunt!!!!!!!! And it’s not like I can go to a “feed your moirail’s cr8zy lusus!” supermart and 8uy her something.
AG: Well, w8……..
CC: You mean you CAN go to a supermart like t)(at???
AG: No. Hold on.
You lean back from your computer a little and consider the options that you have. There’s one glaring solution to this problem, and you know that it’s possible, but you don’t know if you could go through with it. Then again, if the fate of Alternia depends on your ability to suck it up and stop being a wiggler, maybe you could.
AG: Okay. I have a plan. Meet me at my hive in a8out half an hour, and 8ring help! Prefera8ly help that can lift heavy things.
CC: Got it! Do you need anyfin else?
AG: Nope. See you then.
CC: T)(ank you SO MUC)(!! I don’t care w)(at anyone else says aboat you! You’re R---E---ELY great!
CC: Gr8, even. 38)
--arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling cuttlefishCuller [CC]--
You close the lid of your laptop and slowly walk over to your closet to put on a clean outfit. As you pull your shirt over your head, you contemplate what you’re about to do. It won’t be easy, that’s for sure. But it’s the only choice you have at this point. Once you finish getting dressed, you again head down to your lusus’ den, making sure to grab your dice along the way.
A couple of hours passed while you slept, and during that time, your lusus had finished her meal and was now content. In moods like these, she almost seems normal. She clicks happily when she sees you and crawls across her web to the cliff where you stand. You place a hand on the space between her largest eyes and carefully pat her bristly head. “I’m sorry,” you murmur, pulling away. She looks at you and blinks once, not taking any notice to what’s about to transpire.
You fish into your jacket pocket and pull out your dice. After giving them a couple of good shakes, you toss them on the ground and let them roll. They land.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.
It’s just the combination you were looking for, and a Guillotine De La Marquise apparates above your lusus’ head. You throw your dice again to execute the attack, and the roll is clear. You close your eyes as the blade falls and makes contact with your lusus’ neck with a sickening slice. When you open them, it’s done. You hear a gentle voice behind you.
“Vriska…?” Feferi says, looking at the scene she walked in on. Equius, Eridan, and Nepeta trail behind her.
“I did what I had to do,” you say, turning away from your lusus for the last time. Your eyes start filling up with cerulean fluid. You hardly notice yourself falling into Fef’s arms as she coos and hums while tenderly rubbing your back.
“And I’m so glad that you did!” You can’t see through your tears now. She carefully dries your eyes and you look up at her. “Thank you,” she says. “I owe you one. And so does Alternia” She plants a soft kiss on your cheek and you let your grief echo throughout the den.