87 lines
4.7 KiB
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87 lines
4.7 KiB
HTML
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<title>The Homestuck Epilogues: Candy - Chapter 3</title>
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<div id='s3'></div>
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<div>
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<h1>Chapter 3</h1>
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<div class="o-story_text o_epilogue type-rg type-sm line-caption line-copy pad-x-0 pad-x-lg pad-b-lg">
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<p class="no-indent"><span class="opener type-hs-opener-rg type-hs-opener-sm">Y</span>es,
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something feels <em>very</em> different.</p>
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<p>Dirk’s hands begin to shake, so violently that he drops his
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screwdriver into the chassis of the battle bot he’s working on. It
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clangs around for a bit, landing somewhere that will doubtlessly be
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very inconvenient to retrieve. It doesn’t matter. There’s no more
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time for rap battles, or politics, or wacky hijinks of an
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adventurous nature. There’s no time left for anything.</p>
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<p>Moisture beading at his temples, Dirk staggers away from his
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workbench and braces himself against the wall. His knees are weak,
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head spinning, palms so sweaty that the concrete feels smooth under
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them. He nearly drops his phone while attempting to dramatically
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autodial Jane’s number through the haze of his trembling, sudorific
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stupor.</p>
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<div class="chat type-rg type-hs-small">
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: Hey, Jane. Bad news.</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: Cancel everything.</p>
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<p class="jane">JANE: Excuse me, what?</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: All plans.</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: Cancel them.</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: It’s over.</p>
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<p class="jane">JANE: What’s over, Dirk?</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: I just told you. Everything.</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: Because we’re canceling it.</p>
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<p class="jane">JANE: Dirk, are you quite okay?</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: Yeah, I’m cool.</p>
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<p class="jane">JANE: You sound terrible.</p>
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<p class="jane">JANE: It’s unlike you to call quits on a caper like
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this without offering a lengthy diatribe on it.</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention.</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: Lengthy diatribes are over too.</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: They’re canceled.</p>
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</div>
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<p class="no-indent">Jane gasps loudly, without a hint of
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irony.</p>
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<div class="chat type-rg type-hs-small">
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<p class="jane">JANE: I don’t understand.</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: Don’t worry about it.</p>
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<p class="dirk">DIRK: Just do what I say.</p>
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</div>
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<p class="no-indent">He hangs up on her and brings up his contacts
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so that he can text Jake and cancel all their televised fights for
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the foreseeable <em>forever</em>. He then blocks Jake’s number,
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because if it’s not worth explaining to Jane, it’s definitely not
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worth explaining to Jake. Then again, nothing is ever really worth
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explaining to Jake. Jake’s number is barely even worth storing in
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his phone, if Dirk is being perfectly honest.</p>
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<p>Through the workshop window, Dirk can see the sun touching the
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horizon. Ah, exquisite: he takes a moment to appreciate the sublime
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synthesis of the atmosphere and the existential crisis he is
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currently experiencing. The sun is setting both physically and
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metaphorically right now. <em>Not bad</em>, he thinks, then
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corrects himself, because while there is always time to delight in
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the volatility of causality, the whole situation is actually and
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for real <em>astonishingly</em> bad.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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