shitposting rave 3: Dawn of the third rave

What do trolls have to go through with your fake awful dating before the screwing counts for not getting killed?

[Venture isn't going to get involved, because overcrowding the scared kid probably won't go well, but his spark is absolutely a billion bitty broken pieces now. He holds Aralia (who has fallen asleep in his lap by this point) a little closer and tries not to be too obvious about eavesdropping. If he knew enough about universe-hopping shenanigans to get anywhere but his home thread...]

 

It gets easier.

 

What gets easier?

 

Freedom.

 

Fweedom? That's what this is?

I know what the word means, but... I don't feel fwee. Not really. Just lost. Really, really lost.

 

That's how it starts. You get lost. Then you don't get found.

 

[Venture badly smothers snickers in babbyjet's helm. Mission Failed.]
I'm sorry that's just-- that is literally how my trinemates and I freed ourselves, we bugged out during a riot and hid long enough to get ourselves declared "missing presumed dead".

 

Just drones and buckets, I think. Not whatever asshole bullshit he's spouting, though, I suppose, with this kinda pressure to procreate, it's hard for partners to be good to each other and hard for people to ever say no.

 

Yeah, but... what do I do now?

*gasps* You talk? What are you?

 

What do you want to do?

 

... I dunno. I dunno what I even can do. And nobody's told me what this place is yet.

 

...that makes sense but really only reinforces my point of "I never want to be a troll that sounds fraggin' awful".

[He smiles softly, shifting to face tiny!Norm better. At least Aralia's a heavy sleeper.]
I'm a transformer a-- have you seen machines yet? A big metal guy who can turn into a big metal flying thing. My name's Venture and this sleepy little dude [he taps a gentle finger against babyjet's back] is my kid Aralia do you have a name yet?

(And hey escapee's secret tip a fun thing to do is "find a safe place to chill for a while". This place probably counts if you don't mind everyone running in and out it's got some magic in place that keeps people from hurting each other too bad or controlling each other.)

 

Safe, mostly. A chaotic refuge. Empty and full. The Place Beyond the Wood.

 

Mackeens? What's a mackeen?

Yeah. It's Norm.

(Safe's good but I wasn't gonna leave, anyway, 'cause I don't know how I got here.)

So, it's not the afterlife? I've heard stories about that place. People go there when they stop moving and never come back.

 

Only for some. Not for us.

 

*sighs* Yeah. I'm really glad that Sunshine's not on Alternia.

 

A machine's a metal thing that can move on its own! Least in my world anyhow dunno what it's like where you're from.

Anyway it's nice to meet you Norm! Not knowing how you got here seems pretty par for the course we've got everything from dreaming to dead to world-hopping and a bunch of corner cases in between.

...I sure hope it's not if I can get to the afterlife by flying to it something's gone seriously screwy.

 

Dead world-hopping dreams.

 

But how do you know it's not that for us?

Metal things don't move on their own where I'm from.

... okay... not knowing is normal. But how I do start knowing? Can I start knowing?

Yeah. No one gets to the afterlife by flying to it. But that might just be 'cause humans can't fly, and I only know humans.

Dreams can die? And hop?

 

Because we're not dead. Not wholly.

A joke. But it is easy to kill a dream. They starve easy.