Bloodswap (Indabayou & Cephalo)

[Indabayou]

overview

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  |Bloodswap|
  This is not the Alternia you know. Under the smothering rule of Her Imperial Mediatrix, any threat to her people are swiftly and mercilessly wiped out by the Alternian Fleet. Only a few alien races surrendered to Her and were allowed to live peacefully (aka barely tolerated by the populace) in Her empire. The trolls, grownups and children alike, are all expected to behave in harmony under her rule, but the castes constantly clash when she is out of sight.
  
  What is it like to live in this world where adults and aliens roam free, and not keeping the peace can get you culled just as soon as coddled? It's a fine line to tread, and these twelve kids will soon learn that growing up is hard. It's hard and no one understands.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  Act 1- Just Another Night
  It is the 4th Bilunar Perigee of the 5th Dark Season. The last 7 sweeps of your life have been the norm - fighting between the castes, hungry lusii to feed, and other young trolls to form grudging bonds with. The adults are either conscripted in far off space or stuck "playing nice" with the youths and other alien refugees on Alternia. You steer clear of them as much as possible since you are presumably at least a little smart and don't want to die.
  
  You were enjoying a night of strifing or troll Netflix when suddenly all the power in town goes out! You can't pester your friends to find out what's happened, but it's best to group up before someone decides to stir up trouble. What will you do?
  
  ==>​
  
  

 

[Indabayou]

You are now Vriska Serket. Your piece of shit hive is out of power, so you are on your way to Karkat's place. Between the two of you, there's gotta be some sort of solution. If not, it'll still be a good move because Karkat's blood status will provide you some protection while the outage leaves everyone vulnerable. You've captchalogued some gear and supplies just in case, including:

• one sun-protection hood
• your husktop
• a half-eaten grubloaf (as a peace offering)
• one mildly rusty toolkit

And

• a towel

You read this really great novel once and they said that anyone who's anyone has to have a towel on their person or they're basically an unprepared dumbfuck. It could have used more pirates but you basically agree otherwise.

Sticking to the shadows on your route is pretty easy since that's all there is around right now. You have to avoid some of the major streets and use your vision 8fold to see which paths will let you pass unseen by others; it takes a long time, but you make it to Karkat's unscathed. For all the trouble you just went through, he better be here. You bang on his door as loudly as you dare.

"Hey Karkat open up! If I get eaten or eviscerated out here I'm sticking around to haunt the shitout of you!"

 

[anonymph]

You are now Karkat Vantas and your hive just went out of power, but that wasn't in today's schedule at all. This is messing with your color coded timetable in a way that makes you uncomfortable. Alright so you guess you'll have to move anything that has to do with power to an indefinite time later (or when you can get Vriska over here) and doesn't that just makes you more crabby than usual. Hives for - you'd hate to be politically incorrect but ease of titling trumps over kindness - high bloods aren't supposed to do something as plebeian as lose power, so this event is even odder than it already was. Really, you're going to get to the bottom of this as soon as you can. Maybe after reordering your schedule, though.

You just get done moving any communications via non-handheld devices to a later date when someone bangs at your door. Of course, it's Vriska so there's no need to whip out any weapons but it does mean you can probably move those activities involving power to an earlier date with a psiionic here. You stroll through the house, resolutely ignoring Crabdad puttering around the place, and fix your suit and hair before swinging the front door open. Feeling very put upon, you grab her wrist to drag her in before any unwanted attention could come along.

"You're not getting eaten, Vriska. Evisceration, that I can understand because that's high on the list of possible shit things that can happen to us, but getting eaten? How the fuck is that even a possible outcome for you all the way out here?" You snark because your friend is a melodramatic bitch sometimes.

 

[Indabayou]

"You're not getting eaten, Vriska. Evisceration, that I can understand because that's high on the list of possible shit things that can happen to us, but getting eaten? How the fuck is that even a possible outcome for you all the way out here?"

You are Vriska again, and seriously, fuck this guy.

"Excuuuse me?" You hiss right back at him, "How should I know what you crazy highbloods get up to in your free time? Y'all have all those weird customs and weird lame words for things and everything. How do I know you're not secret troll cannibals, huh? Especially coming from a kid with nutritionblock utensils as their strife specibus of choice. Fixin' ta get a bite or two in before they abscond?" By this time you're just messing with him, and your devious smirk is threatening to crack up into a smile. But you hold in your snorts and giggles long enough to give him a wicked accusatory stink-eye, if you do say so yourself.

It's good to get some banter going before you both get cracking on this power thing. Even your husktop is fried, but you brought it along anyway just in case. Still snickering (both at Karkat's expense and your superb drama skills) you give your blue friend a bracing sock on the arm and plop down on his fibrous walking surface adornment - or as he would call it, a "carpet". What a dumb word, honestly.

 

[anonymph]

You go back to being Karkat because being someone capable of rational thought is such a better option compared to being someone who doesn't call a kitchen a kitchen when it is clearly a fucking kitchen, screw you low blood miseducation of correct labeling.

"Just call it a kitchen already," you say. Sometimes you wonder how this, a yellow blood not-enemy with issues the size of her troll-eating lusus, has become a part of your life. But you last longer than her in holding back your laughter, so HAH. And then she punches you in the arm and, OK, you didn't sign up for any violence in your lovely home full of breakable things. Strifing with her, even if it's not actual strifing, will still end with someone's things toppling over in a swift demise. That someone will, of course, be you because Vriska's hive is a flaming piece of shit.

She sits down on your carpet and you take up pacing back and forth in front of her, pondering on what to do next.

"Great, now there's two of us to fix this giant fuck up of the high bloods. Our brains, or think pans as you like to say," you snort at that ridiculous term, "are better working together anyway. I've got my powers and you've got yours; in this situation, only one person's power is helpful."

Leaning in closer to her, with a large smirk, you inform her, "That person's not me. Now help us get the power back up in your husktop. We have to know what happened and why the fuck it did before doing any decision making."

 

[Indabayou]

[Reserved]