MAR-E Nostrum

“It’s nice to meet you, Miss Feferi.” They wouldn’t let memory of their head wound keep them from shooting the troll a lovely smile. “I’m glad that my partner for this mission was such a lovely lady. Sorry if I don’t live up to your expectations. However, I’m sure I can be helpful.”

They opened their mouth to say more, but realized they didn’t know what it was. How would they be able to help out again? They felt like they should be able to do something special, but they had forgotten what that thing was. It felt odd, like a part of them was missing, but they had no clue what that part could be, only if was as close to the core of their being as possible.

Their eyes turned to the sink hole they had always been unlucky enough to fall into. It not for their need of air or fear of being crushed by the pressure now there, they might have thought to ride it down. In their childish logic, if there was something causing the ground to fall, then it must be something under it. There was no reason something at the surface could do it.

“Now, if we’re going to deal with these things, we should probably try to find their source. And clearly because they’re getting sucked underground, it must be something down there. There’s a district under this part of town, right? Maybe its roof is collapsing and needs some repairs. We can be construction people.”

It was a childish thought, but not a stupid one. Frisk was smart for their age, and they were confident in their answer.

Their head throbbed with a foreign pain that they could almost remember, but not quite. They were quick to inspect it, feeling lightly around their head with their finger, but the source of the blazing pain could not be found.

Headache. They decided, but that seemed wrong. It felt like something that had already headed, leaving only the shadow of the pain behind to remind you were it was. They shook their head. Headaches were normal, they were frustrating, but at least they weren’t anything worse. They didn’t know what they’d do if they hurt themselves for real.

Lifting themself to their feet, the child quickly went to inspect the area around them. Sector 006, their home sector, now that they had a house around here. It wasn’t strange for them to be wandering around here at this time of night, except…

How did they get here again? Maybe it was sleep walking. No, too bright. The child quickly went to inspect their phone, confused by why they were out here so early. They rarely left home during the day, due to their fear of being trampled. The thought hit them in the stomach suddenly and they felt themselves sinking into fear.

…

Wait, that wasn’t why they were sinking. The child yelped in surprise and jumped up, popping out of the sink hole as soon as they realized they’d been standing in it. They couldn’t let their fear keep them down like this. the adrenaline of the fear sent memories rushing back to them. Not all, but enough. The child plopped onto their behind once they were out of the sink hole’s range. Well, this wasn’t good. Someone would have to do something about that. What if someone had left their baby there?!

They checked their phone, something they remembered having information they needed, but everything was foggy. Right, take care of the sink holes. the mere thought of what could happen if they failed caused their insides to freeze, making the human squirm. No, they won’t fail. They could fix this, they knew it. Now they just had to find their partner. But how… Oh, they knew.

“Is there a Miss, Mister, Mx. or other denotation I don’t know, Feferi around who can help me look at sink holes?”

Your last memory is with your DARLING ANCESTOR before you woke up a few moments ago, slumped against a wall. Like countless ancestors before you, you found yourself on the business end of a fork and blasted into oblivion. Or were you? Because everything seemed fine. That could be some STUPID DREAM.

Granted you had some dull pain in your chest. It felt like heartburn. Weird.

You knew you had to fix the SINKHOLES. You weren’t sure why. You also weren’t sure why you were thinking of some SMELLY HUMAN, or why your TIARA felt so different. There were a lot of unanswered questions and quite frankly, you were getting really FUCKING ANNOYED by all of them.

Wait. Why are you so UPSET? You don’t seem able to take it easy or be as BUBBLY and CAREFREE as you normally are. For some reason, everything is getting under your skin.

When the human came into view, you knew exactly who this was. How? You didn’t know. All you knew was that this was FRISK, and FRISK was going to help you with the SINKHOLES. For whatever fucking reason.

      “ T) (ere is a Feferi. I know t) (at because I am Feferi. Glub.

Trying to overthrow the government and the blood color oppression, and well, just being Rick— didn’t exactly help his case, and it was just one more name on the ‘places Rick was banned’ list. 

After a while, he couldn’t just stand being stared.

    Feferi was a fan, personally. Sure, she wasn’t much of a scientist, so she didn’t really care too much about the weird science mumbo-jumbo that made any of this even possible. The part that she enjoyed about this man was his willingness to CLEARLY see that their system of government was flawed. In a nihilistic way, she thought that he was willing to get some change going.     " Just t) (e planet? You’re wanted for crimes against troll-kind t) (roug) (out t) (e w) (ole galactic empire!        We got very ambitious after you left. We ) (ad to after all t) (at rebuilding, coug) ( coug) (.

I’m an admirer, t) (oug) (. I’d probably ) (ave to get a forced leucotomy on my t) (ink-pan if I said t) (at back ) (ome. “

   The seadweller extended a hand outward. The legend was true, he kinda reeked of soporific substance. And by ‘kinda’ it was more like a distillery than just one substance. 

) (IC: is dat supposed to hurt ma feelings ) (IC: dats cute in a NAIV-E sort a wave ) (IC: just like a wriggler would think ) (IC: well clean out dem delicate lil hearducts a yours and listen up ) (IC: imma be nice dis once and drop some royal knowledge on you

    You puff out your cheeks and let go of the golden prong, folding your arms over your chest. You’re well aware that she could basically rip you apart now that you’re much closer. Supposedly, death isn’t permanent around here.

Still, you’d have a few seconds to get some words out. You’ve been prepping yourself for this conversation for a while now.

        “ You nebber tried to c) (ange. You went wit) ( t) (e flow of t) (ings because you were afraid to be anyfin else.       You nebber tried to escape w) (at you are, nor did you try to make amends.

Because to you, you did everyfin fin. W) (ic) (, if you ) (ad any s) (red of common sense left, you’d see as a total farce.

T) (e reason t) (at ) (eiresses come to power after some point is because t) (e old gets to be more of a detriment t) (an a benefit. C) (ange is inevitable, and you kept trying to fig) (t t) (at.

       We all did just fin w) (en you were gillivanting around space for litereely no reason. You want t) (e power and t) (e glamour wit) (out any of t) (e desire to ) (elp your people. “

       A pause. You’re actually holding in tears. A deep part of you is actually FURIOUS that someone like her could come to power. Also SADDENED. That nobody could hold her hand and guide her. 

   “ You’re no -Empress.

             You’re just old.

      And sad.

I won’t be contesting you. I'm content to be second in line. 

    There’s no alarm clock in your home. As a NATURAL NOCTURNE, it’s difficult for you to be able to make the complete TWELVE (12) HOUR TRANSITION– even after half a sweep of being here, you still can’t help but get groggy in the mornings. You’ve done yourself the favor of not confining yourself to a STRICT SCHEDULE now that you run your own place. Last night was one of those nights where you granted yourself the liberty to stay up. 

    And now, at TEN (10) IN THE MORNING, you’re wondering why your desk is vibrating. Why is it vibrating. You don’t have an alarm clock, is another calamity going on…? Did one of the fly traps break into your home?!

    The prospect of an emergency? That’s enough to get you up and out of bed. (Un)fortunately for you, the only immediate matter you need to attend to is ANSWERING A TEXT.

    How fitting that it was a text from Feferi Peixes, your WITCH OF LIFE, that disapproved of your basking in self-permitted luxury and sought to make a change to it, transforming a SLUGGISHLY CONTENTED TAVROS into a… SLUGGISHLY SLIGHTLY LESS CONTENTED TAVROS. 

TO: cuttlefishCuller FROM: adiosToreador

[ From ] - [ cuttlefishCuller ]

CC - Gasp! Gasp! And anotter! Gasp upon glubbing gasp!

CC - I didn’t know you )(ad a MOTORCYCL---E! W)(o knew t)(is place would turn you into suc)( a badass, glub glub.

CC - W)(en I get mine, I’ll be s)(ore to make it look like a betta fis)(. And t)(en we can )(ave drag races.

CC - Maybe even a fun jousting matc)(! You like t)(at sort of carp, rig)(t? Anywaves, enoug)( aboat your silly pastimes.

CC - I’m apparently a good finstructor! If I can teac)( a giant robot )(ow to do a backstroke, I don’t t)(ink you’d be a lost cause.

CC - We’ve got a parking lot out back. Also, yes! You don’t need SP--E--EDOS t)(oug)(, ya creep. Any trunks w)(ale do.

CC - W)(en I get mine, I’ll be s)(ore to make it look like a betta fis)(. And t)(en we can )(ave drag races.

CC - Just come in t)(roug)( t)(e front door and follow t)(e signs to t)(e pool.

With a (click!) Feferi closes her phone, though this is done with the help of her mouth since she didn’t have a smartphone. She didn’t care much that she just woke Tavros up, nor did she really care that he’d probably look like a huge dork coming in. She recalls vaguely that he’s probably been around the water a couple points in his life. Maybe not IN it, but he was certainly on a beach when he was pushed off a ledge.

Better days, thought the princess.

She decided to do some warming up before she came out to see Tavros. Feferi was used to this procedure by now. She locked her phone away in a waterproof box, then dove carefree into the submerged portion of her room. Once she emerged from the other side, she placed her phone on a table on the other side of the room containing the pool, careful enough to keep the volume on the device as HIGH as possible, should Tavros get lost.

) (IC: bonding huh ) (IC: i got somefin you can bond wit

    “ T) (at toss was a bit too ) (ard. T) (at’s no wave to make fronds, y’know. “

   You reach down to pick the weapon up. It felt nice in your hands. Made you miss your real one. The resemblance between the two was uncanny.

   “ You’ve got a real fucked up bit of logic in t) (at pan of yours, y’know.      T) (ere’s no R--EASON for us to murder eac) ( otter if t) (ere’s no t) (rone to CONT---EST.

But no. As usueel, you’re going to just go for it anywaves.

) (IC: oh look ) (IC: an heiress

She really does remember you. How cute.

    “ I missed you also! Glub!

Send  ☄ to challenge my Muse to a fight!

[ TXT ] hIIIII, fEFERI, [ TXT ] dO YOU MIND EXPLAINING, tHIS MEME TO ME, [ TXT ] aS OF NOW i HAVE JUST DEEMED IT, pRETTY STUPID, }:/ [ TXT ] img attachment

She rolls her eyes and hands Sollux the BAG OF SHRIMP CHIPS. It was HALF EATEN.

    “ I ) (ad no idea you enjoyed dried seafood so muc) (, glub glub! 

  She rolls her eyes. Humans are dumb.

          “ I forgot t) (at ) (umans don’t ) (ave a black equivalent.

       W) (en we go out on a date, we’ll talk moray aboat it.