♎ S33R: R34D TH3 HOROSCOP3S

[foretaste]

( phone )

It's Terezi and my auricular sponge clots are still frothing teal from all of those alarms, and I guess everyone is still in a big panic about it but I just wanted to let everyone know that Dave Strider- hard cherry candy red Dave, not delicious orange creamsicle Dave- is gone. Back to... to our universe, I guess, and I mean, I just-...

[Terezi actually sounds pretty miserable about it. ]

I bet he will be back soon. I mean, that's just like a coolkid, to get himself panscrubbed ironically. He will be back in a few days, won't he, I just know it, he's going to swagger on in and be like 'Hey, TZ, hey, everything's totally cool and I was just seeing what it was like to be a drone for a while.' Yeah, that's what's going to happen. Blargh. I think I am going to give him a good hard drubbing the moment he snaps out of it. He's leaving me hanging and-

[Her voice shrinks.] ...Anyway, um. That's all.

Oh, except, by the way, can I ask if there are any people out there who were born between the human calendar dates of... September 24th to October 23rd? [She sounds a little bit hopeful, curious.] Let me know!

( filtered to castmates but easily broken )

I discovered this thing! [She seems to perk up a little bit, although she still sounds a bit tired. There's some rustling on her end of the line.] It's called 'the zodiac'! Humans have this wheel of 12 signs based on the stars in the sky and the way they're laid out and... There's a machine that dispenses something called a 'horoscope'. That's how I figured it out. I don't know how we didn't ever learn about this sooner!

[She gives a huff.] I'm going too fast, but it's pretty exciting! They're our signs, if you haven't figured that out yet. All 12- they're ours. And they're all based on real star patterns. We really did have an influence on this universe. Apparently all humans born on this planet fall under one of our signs. Amazing, isn't it!

The machine's at the comic shop. But I found a book on the zodiac, too! Here, for example, I'm going to read about my sign. It's called 'Libra'. [She pauses for a moment to lick the paper.] 'Diplomatic and urbane, romantic and charming'- hahaha- 'Easygoing and sociable, idealistic and peaceable'... They're all qualities that are supposed to represent our signs, I think! Naturally I am incredibly sociable and romantic and diplomatic and peaceable so this is all one hundred percent absolutely undeniably true.

But the coolest part is, [she takes a breath-] the coolest part is that my sign represents the scales. Equality and justice. And the rest of the signs, are, um, well, you'll see! I think it's all kind of amazing. You should go to the comic shop if you want to see! It's just... I guess even here, it's kind of encouraging to know that we had an impact on things. Somehow.

( action; the comic shop )

[Terezi, dressed in tribute to a certain coolkid, is standing before a rusty machine mounted to the wall. It has a number of different options on it, and after inserting $0.05, it dispenses small tubes of paper containing horoscope information. Terezi is basically choking the thing with nickels and stuffing a bunch in her pockets. She has a lot of Libras and Cancers. Once she amasses enough, she sits down on the curb of the sidewalk and begins sketching on the ground in chalk.]

Comments

[cawtier]

Promise.

[foretaste]

[she's quiet for a bit, as if thinking of something. the line goes so silent it's almost like she's hung up.

then,]

Can you fly over? I have something I want to talk about.

[cawtier]

[He has to blink and check that his iShades still say the call's in progress to make sure she didn't hang up, but he's ready when she talks again]

Alright, sure.

[NOT SURE WHAT THIS IS ABOUT but he's circling her house in a couple minutes]

[foretaste]

[Terezi feels like she is going to throw up oh god oh god what is she doing she's never done this before. and it's... well, it's Dave, and he's a human, and Karkat would never approve, and he'd say it was a terrible idea and it's just not the same when it's not a troll, she knows that, but... Tavros has a human moirail and if he can manage it, then maybe she can, too.

but that all hinges on Davesprite not cawing in her face and flying away, which is her main concern here. she is fairly certain that she is about to empty the contents of her stomach all over her nice red shoes, but she manages to quell the butterflies.

she's sitting outside- in her sunglasses and red t-shirt, as a tribute to one coolkid fallen- with her chin in her hands. when she smells a flying orange creamsicle, though, she looks up and lowers her sunglasses, which is an utterly pointless thing to do given that she can't see anything anyway.]

Hey.

[cawtier]

[And he circles lower, going ahead and landing on her knees, looking up with a quizzical birdy quirk of his head]

Yo. What's up?

[foretaste]

[she places her sunglasses up on her head, putting them behind her horns, and realizes that she has no idea how to explain this.]

I don't even know where to start. It is kind of confusing especially because I've never really had... experience in this area.

[she's got to back up a little-] How much do you know about, er... quadrants?

[cawtier]

[Huh huh oh is this more romantic whatever advice time? ALRIGHT, HE HAS NO IDEA WHAT HE'S DOING BUT HE'LL TRY TO HELP HER OUT SURE]

Unlike John, I know there's 4 of them. Matesprit's the normal romance quadrant and Kismesis is the hatesex quadrant. I can totally bullshit what the other two are but I'm pretty sure you'd be able to call me on that.

[foretaste]

[oh nooooooo Dave BUT THIS IS ABOUT YOU]

Yeah, you got those right. But those aren't the ones I want to talk about. The other, um, romance quadrant, that's the one I guess I wanted to explain. Do you know what a moirail is?

[cawtier]

Uhhhh something Bullhorns McPause speech says he got. [The irony of starting that sentence with "uhhh"...]

[foretaste]

It's someone who... helps you. Someone who keeps you from going crazy, someone that takes your feelings when they're all messed up and sorts them out again. The person who goes 'Hey, dumbass, don't do that' when you're being... well, a dumbass. And you do the same thing in return for them.

[oh god she's nervous. she's never felt so uncool before.] I've never had one before.

[cawtier]

So it's like... the bro-quadrant. Only romantic or something?

[Dave: Try to be sensitive]

So do they have like, bro-sex? Is that a thing?

[You do a 1080 off of "sensitive" and take a nose dive into complete failure to be it.]

[foretaste]

[Terezi: Wish that combination of words had never been spoke.

But it was spoke.

You wish it wasn't spoke.

You wonder what happened to proper Englishing. That is how horrified you are.]

Um.

[well. it's... it's a good guess...? maybe?




...no.]

It's not that kind of romance.

[cawtier]

[Wow that's a great expression she's giving him not gonna ask how hard she broke her brain]

Oh so not all up in the sloppy makeouts and shit. That makes this a lot easier to brain since bros usually don't get into sloppy makeouts on Earth.

[foretaste]

...Yeah. Um, unless they wanted to? Wow, I've never had a moirail, so I wouldn't know if they have sloppy makeouts or not but it is putting the most uncomfortable images in my head.

It's... something special. I guess!

[cawtier]

Alright, sure, we'll drop the Schrodinger's makeouts for now and get back on topic.

So moirrails basically help keep each other's shit in line like army generals schooling a whole platoon of unruly soldiers, gonna send these kids to university after the war, they earned it, damn. They're like your bro that you can lay all the heavy stuff on and you know they can take it and they don't even mind 'cause they know they can lay their heavy stuff on you too which pretty much sounds like a recipe for being crushed to death but nah, we got this shit, together we'll lift it, teamwork and all that junk.

Is that basically it or did I just jump off the metaphorical tracks with a runaway simile?

[foretaste]

[Terezi tries her best to keep up with his awesome human coolkid simile and... she thinks she gets it.

and, more relieving, Dave gets it, too.]

...Yeah. Actually, that is... really spot-on. Sharing the heavy stuff and keeping it together and...

[welp.]

That's what moirails do.

[sudden awkward silence. the train of Terezi's thoughts has come to screeching halt as she realizes she is not sure what to say now.]

[cawtier]

Huh, okay.

[And that sure is an awkward silence. GOOD THING THOSE DON'T BOTHER COOLKIDS.]

So... what was the point of this sudden education on trollmance? Not that I'm not super grateful that I totally know what to burn Tavros on instead of just throwing random shit and hoping it sticks, but I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that wasn't why you told me this.

1/2

[foretaste]

...No, it wasn't.

[how is she even going to bring this up?

it's not like this is just any old talk. Dave isn't even a troll, first off. hell, he's not even a human any more, really. he's completely different from the Dave who just went and got himself droned, and Terezi had been confused for a while. they were technically the same person, and yet... not. not at all. there were things she could say to Dave but not Davesprite, and vice versa, too.

it's the latter that's started to change for her, and that's a little bit terrifying. not just because she's unused to the concept of moiraillegiance, but because of what lies between them.]

...Sometimes when I'm around you, Dave, I don't really know what to do with myself. I don't even get why you hang around me sometimes! I know when we talked, when, you know, you came back, and you told me to leave John alone...

[she goes quiet.]

[foretaste]

...I didn't know back then. I was angry. I was really angry. We'd worked so hard and we were all so scared and mad at the four of you because we thought it was all your fault. So I thought, wow, it'd be easy to get this idiot to off himself!

And it was. I wasn't even thinking that it'd wind up complicit in maintaining the alpha timeline anyway. I didn't count on you heading back for him. Well... heading forward, I guess.

[she's talking in a low rush, not letting herself think over her words, becuse then she might hesitate.]

But you did, Dave. You spent so much time trying to fix things. I got John killed. Jade died as a consequence of that, so I guess I killed her too. And it's my fault you're...

[doomed is the word that belongs at the end of this sentence, but she can't bring herself to say it out loud. they both already know it, after all: it's the fate of all non-alpha selves.]

...

I feel like I want to make it up to you. But I also think I could spend three dozen sweeps trying to make it up to you and it wouldn't feel like enough, or right, or anything. And I know it's not about forgiveness 'cause that's not what I want. I know I did wrong. But I always think, 'Wow, it would be completely reasonable if Dave never talked to me again.'

But you talk to me anyway. And I'm trying to... I feel like- [she cuts herself off, not knowing how to phrase it.]

Ugh, this is hard.

[cawtier]

Hey, woah, I told you we're cool on that already, right? And besides, you're pretty awesome, why wouldn't I talk to you? I'd have to be some kind of douche and have no taste to stop hanging out with you.

[foretaste]

Eheh... that's exactly it. I guess I have a long way to go on figuring this coolkid out.

You've done a lot for me, you know? Made me think twice about doing stupid things and... when bad shit happens here, you always make me feel better! Like a real orange creamsicle would except much better because you talk and have no calories.

[cawtier]

Always good to know I am superior to something you can buy at the convenience store.

[foretaste]

...How do I do this?

[Terezi finds herself thinking out loud. she bites her lip. with Karkat, there had been no confessions or anything like that. they'd barely ever talked about their feelings, and they're still not any good at it now.

should she just... say it? wow, she is terrible at this.

oh, well. nothing ventured...]

So, uh.

Yeah.








...This sure is me admitting a palecrush on you.

Suuure is.

[cawtier]

[He blinks and does that birdy head tilt thing.]
So by... palecrush... [whoops no idea it's called the pale quadrants] ...you mean that moirail thing?

[foretaste]

Yeah.

I know this must be really weird! Believe me, it is weird for me too. You see, I always thought I was much too badass for a moirail.

[she's joking to cover up how nervous she is.]