[Homestuck] Scratch'd (chapter 1)
Title: Scratch'd
Rating: K+
Paring: General, future Karkat/John
Summary: A speculative AU on how the Scratch works, and what would happen if the kids were caught up in the universe reset.
Your name is John Egbert. Earlier, when you started playing a game with three of your friends, it was your thirteenth birthday. You are pretty sure you can still call it your birthday because you are sort of existing out of time right now. Scattered about you are the remains of your previous life. Your house has been ransacked by imps and ogres, and somewhat disordered by your server player. The salamanders have made an even bigger mess, alchemizing all sorts of useless things. The carpet and walls are splattered with oil, and all of your father's fanciful harlequins lay smashed on the ground. You sit on the floor in the middle of this destruction, just waiting.
Your name is John Egbert, and you are going to die. (If you knew much about William Shakespeare, you might find it funny that you, like Shakespeare, would die on your birthday. It was the kind of thing Dave might find suitably ironic. But you have never been that interested in plays and find them all to be pretty boring.) You are pretty sure that you are not going to die forever, because you are apparently going to have another session of SBURB, but you found Rose's explanation very difficult to follow. She made it sound like you all would be you but not you, the same people but different lives. Connected by fate, destined to play a game together, but not the same.
You start to count the things you are sure will always be certain about you. You are pretty sure that you will always have a passion for really terrible movies. If Nick Cage still exists after the world is reset, you are sure that a poster bearing his face will be nailed to your bedroom wall. It goes without saying that you will always be a prankster. You are simply the best there is. No reset can possibly change that. You are certain that you will always hate that witch with a spatula, Betty Crocker. Your hate for her can surely transcend time and space.
You think about your friends, and consider pestering them (and maybe even some of the trolls), but you decide that doing so is pointless. You'll see them again. You won't even miss them. You'll go to sleep and wake up as a new John Egbert and everything will be okay.
Your name is John Egbert, and you are afraid.
Your name is Karkat Vantas, and you are pissed off. You check the Trollian view screens for all of the four humans. Rose's seems to have blacked out a while before the others, but, in the end, all four screens are black at The Scratch. You wonder what this means, and if it will change. You consider starting a memo and hoping that future Karkat responds to it and explains this all to you, but then you remember that that guy is an asshole. He probably wouldn't even answer the question. It would be just like him to be obscure and aggravated. You are pretty sick of him yelling at you.
You look back the the view screen. You are watching John. Of course. That idiot is probably going to do something stupid at any moment now. You are fairly certain that you will always hate him, even if he can feel only friendship towards you. You notice that he is talking to someone on his computer, and suddenly realize that you must be watching him have your conversation with him. It is weird to think that you are watching this exact same point in John's timeline at the same moment as past Karkat is (or was-you are still not very good with this time shit. It is and always will be really confusing). You think back to what John had said to you all those hours ago in that very first conversation. This very latest conversation. Whatever.
EB: :D
EB: see you soon!
It had made no sense to you at the time. You remember thinking he was being stupid and talking about how he had talked to you in the past, and you were going to soon being a campaign of trolling him backwards. Now you are not so sure. You keep and eye on the screen, and see John stand up excitedly and fly off.
You are a little jealous of the windy thing, but it only reaffirms your hate for him.
Your name is John Egbert and you have an idea. It is a fragile little bit of hope, but you think you can keep yourself whole with it. You try to tell the others, but they don't answer on Pesterchum. You need to do this, and soon. You rush off to Lohac to find Dave first. He needs to know to hold off on the Scratch, to wait just long enough until you can tell everyone.
You are going to try to escape, to hide in the trolls' session.
Your name is John Egbert and you are frantic but excited. You are so sure this is going to work. You find Lohac to be pretty empty, but you are pretty sure that Dave is here somewhere, and Rose was, too, the last time you checked. But no one is answering you.
A quiet ding alerts you to the fact that someone is messaging you. You chant Dave Dave Dave inside your head, but it turns out to be Karkat. You proceed to have a very awkward conversation with him, one you promise never to mention again. It does not dull your excitement, however, and you tell him that you will see him soon. Because you will, you will see him soon, you will talk to your friends in time and all of you will escape your session before the reset takes place, you will keep yourselves safe and enter the new session created for you. Maybe you will have to play it all over again, but that will not matter. You will do anything as long as you can keep your self. You keep looking.
You see Rose flying off into the sky. The sight fills you with a dread you cannot explain. You call out to her, but she does not notice. You head a noise and see Dave, Dave who you have to stop, Dave who is wielding a giant needle. You yell his name with all the air in your lungs, you are so sure he must year you, but he does not react. Time freezes, but not for long.
Your name is John Egbert, and you are too late.