Skaian Awakening

[shiftyPotentate]

Somewhere, in the middle of the null Incipisphere, in Skaia, near the unprototyped battlefield, a gray stone quest bed appeared.

On it, a girl dressed in purple pajamas appeared. She slept soundly. Her chest began to bleed slowly from eight small puncture wounds, but it stopped quickly.

The bed began to glow. Pink glowing energy began to surround it, and a spirographic symbol appeared around the bed. Her form was lost in the glow, becoming visible only as a silhouette to any who might have seen. As she lifted, blood trickled down her arms, dripping onto the bed.

The light seemed to begin to change her. A pink heart symbol glowed in the air above, visible to any who might have been observing Skaia from a distance.

As the transformation took place, the girl became garbed in a dark red coat, which split from the waist down. Pink leggings adorned her below the waist, with gray cloth tied to her lower legs and dark red soft shoes on her feet. The half heart symbol was emblazoned on her chest, and an even darker hood was over her head, with holes specially buttoned around her horns.

Olive green wings fluttered behind her, with a somewhat pawprint-shaped design on them.

The girl opened her eyes, which were orange with olive green irises. She looked at herself, and slowly became aware of what happened.

NEPETA LEIJON had ascended to become the god tiered ROGUE OF HEART.

----------

Rogue: Inspect your surroundings.

You look around. The first thing that comes to your senses, besides your current looks, is the smell. Or rather, the lack of it. The air is almost like a vacuum, except breathable. It's empty, devoid, new and untouched. Likewise, there's a distinctive silence in the air. The stone bed you had been laying on is now gone, and you simply float in the space, using your wings.

That is so cool by the way! Your wings are so pretty! And they're green like your blood, and you can fly!! This is pretty much the coolest thing ever. You were jealous of Vriska a bit when she got hers but now you have some too.

You experimentally fly around the empty space, though it's not very much fun without a frame of reference, some visual or felt cue that you are, in fact, moving. So you decide to look around again.

==>

The closest structure of any kind to you is what looks like a black and white checkered board, used to play a human strategy game. However, instead of the traditional 8x8 board, it is merely 3x3, and on it, two kings, black and white, move around, stuck in eternal stalemate.

The sky around you is blue, and the clouds are few and far between, but growing in number and proximity to you. Outside the blue sky is empty space, the null Incipisphere, and far, far off in the distance, is Dimensional Island.

Gee, there's so many possibilities! You could do so many things right now! There's almost no way you'll be suddenly interrupted--

>Be the other guy.

[sleepZombie]

==> BE THE OTHER GUY

Elsewhere in the same null session, in fact the very same Skaia another grey bed adorned with the wavy slash meant for those who were destined as the Heroes of Breath. A prone figure dressed all in gold lay atop it, eyes shut in what seemed to be either peaceful sleep or death... brown blood soaked through the fabric, making it sticky and heavy. Tiny yellow-brown lizards curled across the stone, nestling against the still Troll's body as though seeking heat, or perhaps trying to give it, trying to encourage life into his still form.

Along the four posts of the bed lights burst into existence, a faint zephyr stirring up a cloud of sand as slowly the body began to lift as though pulled by invisible strings. The lizards backed away, all craning their heads in reverent awe as a light seemed to touch the still figure and spread through it. Blood trailed down, splattering to the grey stone in a macabre arc of color.

The light flashed brightly, and when the brilliance faded Tavros hovered high above the ground amongst the clouds. Adorned in blue, a long hood pulled up and buttoned over his two steer-like horns. From his back fluttered two honestly gigantic brown, gossamer wings.

As though waking up for the first time his eyes fluttered open. Deep, rich brown coloring about black irises. He looked down at himself, breathing quickly as he admired the soft fabric of his blue pajama like shirt.

You are TAVROS NITRAM, and you have ascended, perhaps even transcended your echeladder to reach the God Teir rung and take your rightful place as PAGE OF BREATH.

==> MARVEL

Tavros lifted his hands to his face, running fingers down to his neck, feeling over his shoulders to his stomach where he anxiously yanked up his shirt to see the flat healed stretch of his abdomen. He let out a shaky breath, hands going limp to brush over his thighs and---

...wonderingly he rubbed his hands up and down over his thighs, curling slightly to let his hands explore lower... lower until he was palming over his kneecaps and...

And he could feel it.

He could feel it.

[shiftyPotentate]

A bright light caught Nepeta's attention. She had no idea what that could have been. And heck, as long as she could fly, she decided to head over that way to see what it was. With a flutter of her wings she began to move. The nature of becoming a hero in the game caused players to have instant comprehension of their powers as soon as they gained them, as if they were merely dormant and instinctual, always ready to burst forth.

She liked that. It let her learn her healing abilities and now she knew how to fly, just like that. If she hadn't reached the top rung of her echeladder she wouldn't be where she was now.

As it happened, that place was beside a boy dressed in a familiar blue get-up. At first she thought she was looking at John, what with the blue clothes and Breath symbol on the chest... but when she got a closer look, she smiled widely with a saccharine disposition!!

"Tavros!!!!" she shouted, using her wings to angle toward Tavros for her first ever divebombgreet. She impacted him, using her wings to slow herself at the last second so as not to hurt (though such a relatively slow impact wouldn't have hurt either of the God Tier players), and wrapping her arms around his midsection in a tight friendly hug. With a purr rumbling through her throat, she rubbed her cheek against his chest affectionately. She felt his arms come around her, neither strongly nor weakly, merely to hold her.

If he said anything, it was lost on her in her enthusiasm. She glanced up to get a good look at his face, and she saw that he was crying, or had been. At first she thought he had been sad, but her innate sense of emotions (as well as being able to read ships and feelings) told her he was just... stunned and overwhelmed and happy and relieved and so many emotions all at once just kind of triggered a catch-all crying response. Seeing Tavros so happy gave Nepeta an even wider smile in return.

[sleepZombie]

Without any real warning Tavros suddenly found himself with an armful of Nepeta. He gave a startled sound, but wrapped his arms around her to let her know he was there.

He didn't even realize he'd been crying himself.

When she turned to look up at him with her round face, her eyes beginning to fill in the shade of green that was the color of her blood. It was a pretty green. Not BRIGHT green like Jade, and not Jade green like Kanaya. It was a dirty, off-green. Not perfect. But at the same time perfect.

Perfect for her. This was probably why Equius was always with her.

The arms wrapped about the feisty, excited, vibrant troll tightened. And then he returned her smile, hugging her close and suddenly swirling around in the air with her. The wind buffeted them both and his truly enormous wings fluttered as delicately as her's. And he was alive.

So was she. Suddenly two and two came together and Tavros gave a small gasp of dismay.

"Nepeta! You... you died?"

[shiftyPotentate]

The returned hug felt so good, and that's not even mentioning the swirly air hug action. That made it even better, and Nepeta made a mental note to remember that in the future! She'd have to show John. He'd love it!

Then his distressed realization came to her ears. The fact kind of hit home to her too. It also meant Tavros did too!

"Yeah..." She briefly told Tavros about John and Wax, and the Heart Temple in the caves on the island... and how she'd asked John to kill her for him.

She remembered how sad John had been, too! She pulled out her tablet and got on Pesterchum real quick to give John the good news.

-- arsenicCatnip [AC] began pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at ??:?? --

AC: :33 < john! john are you there?
AC: :33 < please say something
EB: nepeta!!
EB: oh god you're okay.
AC: :33 < oh good! h33 h33, i felt like you might be worried about me
EB: holy shit i got so scared you don't even know.
AC: :33 < but dont be! im just fine!
AC: :33 < oh... im sorry to have made you f33l that way
EB: so, is this how it works? you leave this body behind?
AC: :33 < oh my body is still there?
AC: :33 < just kind of
AC: :33 < sl33ping i guess?
EB: yeah!
EB: uhhhhh.
AC: :33 < i guess so! im here floating in this bright blue place
AC: :33 < oh yeah!!! i have wings now! i furgot to mention that!
EB: oh, skaia, right?
EB: nice!!
AC: :33 < yeah its skaia, h33 h33! *ac flies around with her new wings showing them off*
AC: :33 < anyway
AC: :33 < i have some business to attend to
EB: lucky!!
AC: :33 < so i will s33 you in a little while!
EB: okay, so, does this mean we'll meet back at the communal hive?
AC: :33 < yeah, i will be back there, and i will have a surpurrise for you!
EB: another surprise??
EB: oh man, i'm excited!
AC: :33 < i am full of surpurrises john!
EB: your surprises are always the best!
EB: oops i mean,
EB: surpurrise!
AC: :33 < h33 h33! i think you will appurreciate this one the most!
AC: X33 < s33 you soon, meowrail!
EB: by33!!

-- arsenicCatnip [AC] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] --[/size][/b]

She paid attention to Tavros as she spoke to John, curious to find out how he'd made it here!

[sleepZombie]

He pressed his hand against his mouth as he listened to her retell her story of how she'd had to ask John to end her, slowly shaking his head in mute horror over it. "A-At least... it worked. And you're here." He took in a shaky breath and began to explain with... as little detail as he could... what had happened to himself.

He hugged his arms around himself as he waited for Nepeta to finish up on her tablet, then spoke up again. "How do we get back? I mean w-we CAN get, uh, back, right? I don't... really want to be here forever. Not, not without Gamzee. That is to say, not that I'm not completely happy to, uh, see you, too."

[shiftyPotentate]

Get back? Nepeta hadn't really thought of that. She'd already committed to finding Karkat. She looked around, trying to identify any planets floating around, but unlike the Incipisphere from before, with twelve lands, two planets, and a huge Skaia, this one had no lands, Derse and Prospit, and some meteor floating around by Derse.

Wait... That meteor looked like...

"Over there, Tavros!" she said, taking hold of Tavros's wrist and pointing at the distant island. "I think that's it!" she exclaimed. "Oh, and when you find Gamzee, say hi and hug him for me, will you? Hee hee." She giggled. Shame she couldn't be there to say it herself, but she had a job to do.