==> KARKAT: LOG ON
This wasn't exactly the first time your life as you'd known it was completely upended.
It was cold comfort— what had been the point of Sgrub restoring your planet only for it to plunge into ruin again several sweeps later?
The destruction was far less obvious this time around. Instead of meteors raining down upon civilization, an insidious growth had pushed its way into every facet of life.
At first the drones began to look different, taking on an unnatural bulk. It was odd, but nothing you could particularly comment on. Then your friends started to behave differently, unnatural cheeriness oozing from their messages. Each of them mentioned some visit with the empress, spoken of as if he wasn't a close friend.
Or at least part of your close friend? The two dreamselves was a situation you struggled to wrap your pan around even now.
You knew the basics. The two didn't get along, one left while the other stayed to rule.
But it shouldn't have changed much. You shouldn't have been extended offers to meet with him like he'd grown beyond you.
When Nepeta showed up to your office, her tail having regrown, you were on edge.
When Tavros showed up to your hive, wheelchair abandoned, you knew it was only a matter of time before those invitations turned into demands.
Sure enough, drones began prowling the streets in larger number. Their larger mass made evading them rather straightforward, at least initially. Each time you outfoxed them they returned smarter, each time you cut one down they returned stronger.
When one managed to take an eye, you were forced to confront the truth. You were only delaying the inevitable, as much as you loathed to admit it. Weeks of hiding out, of avoiding anything and everything that could be used to locate you, and you were still no closer to a solution.
At the very least, you could attempt to contain the problem. It seemed your posts were going through, though you suspected that wouldn't last.
Better make it count.
