237 lines
13 KiB
HTML
237 lines
13 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
|
||
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
|
||
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
|
||
|
||
<html xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
|
||
<head profile='http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/'>
|
||
<meta http-equiv='Content-Type' content='text/html;'/>
|
||
<title>The Homestuck Epilogues: Meat - Chapter 11</title>
|
||
<meta name='DCTERMS.title' content='The Homestuck Epilogues: Meat'/>
|
||
<meta name='DCTERMS.language' content='en' scheme='DCTERMS.RFC4646'/>
|
||
<meta name='DCTERMS.source' content='MFW'/>
|
||
<meta name='DCTERMS.issued' content='{$issued}' scheme='DCTERMS.W3CDTF'/>
|
||
<meta name='DCTERMS.creator' content='EpubPress'/>
|
||
<meta name='DCTERMS.contributor' content=''/>
|
||
<meta name='DCTERMS.modified' content='{$issued}' scheme='DCTERMS.W3CDTF'/>
|
||
<meta name='DCTERMS.provenance' content=''/>
|
||
<meta name='DCTERMS.subject' content='Unknown'/>
|
||
<link rel='schema.DC' href='http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/' hreflang='en'/>
|
||
<link rel='schema.DCTERMS' href='http://purl.org/dc/terms/' hreflang='en'/>
|
||
<link rel='schema.DCTYPE' href='http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/' hreflang='en'/>
|
||
<link rel='schema.DCAM' href='http://purl.org/dc/dcam/' hreflang='en'/>
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='../Styles/ebook.css'/>
|
||
</head>
|
||
<body>
|
||
<div id='s11'></div>
|
||
<div>
|
||
<h1>Chapter 11</h1>
|
||
<div class="o-story_text o_epilogue type-rg type-sm line-caption line-copy pad-x-0 pad-x-lg pad-b-lg">
|
||
<p class="no-indent"><span class="opener type-hs-opener-rg type-hs-opener-sm">T</span>hat’s
|
||
that, you think. Your glasses are broken forever, and you totally
|
||
fucked up and underestimated young Lord English. Rose should have
|
||
known better than to trust this to you alone.</p>
|
||
<p>Rose, <em>Rose</em>... your smart, amazing friend Rose, you can
|
||
almost hear her voice now.</p>
|
||
<p class="Command">> Listen closer, jackass.</p>
|
||
<p class="no-indent">Oh, wait. You do hear her voice. Vibrating low
|
||
and muted through the wall of your cell. You’ve only realized right
|
||
now that your cell has walls, because it’s awfully bright in here.
|
||
It’s so white that nothing in the cell is casting a shadow. Looking
|
||
around, you realize there is no apparent source to all this bright
|
||
light, making it hard to tell where the floor ends and the walls
|
||
begin.</p>
|
||
<div class="chat type-rg type-hs-small">
|
||
<p class="rose">ROSE: John? John? Are you there?</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p class="no-indent">Her voice is muffled, coming from what you
|
||
presume to be an adjacent room similar to yours on the other side
|
||
of the wall.</p>
|
||
<div class="chat type-rg type-hs-small">
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: yeah, i’m here.</p>
|
||
<p class="rose">ROSE: Oh, thank goodness. Everyone’s accounted for
|
||
then. Are you okay?</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: what?</p>
|
||
<p class="rose">ROSE: Are you OKAY?</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: i think so. i can barely hear you though.</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p class="no-indent">You can hear a thud from Rose’s corner, like
|
||
someone slumping against the wall in relief. Well, that’s what
|
||
you’re doing at least.</p>
|
||
<div class="chat type-rg type-hs-small">
|
||
<p class="jade">JADE: —ay?</p>
|
||
<p class="dave">DAVE: yeah im fine too but this is</p>
|
||
<p class="dave">DAVE: uh</p>
|
||
<p class="dave">DAVE: this is kinda dorky to say out loud but i
|
||
dont</p>
|
||
<p class="dave">DAVE: feel... time</p>
|
||
<p class="dave">DAVE: thats not just me right you guys feel it
|
||
too</p>
|
||
<p class="dave">DAVE: or dont</p>
|
||
<p class="jade">JADE: yeah</p>
|
||
<p class="jade">JADE: i mean theres obviously space inside this box
|
||
but i cant do ANYTHING</p>
|
||
<p class="jade">JADE: its like im blind</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p class="no-indent">The noise outside the juju grows. Something
|
||
sharp and metallic splinters above and rains down on the top of the
|
||
chest.</p>
|
||
<div class="chat type-rg type-hs-small">
|
||
<p class="rose">ROSE: What did my future self say it was we had to
|
||
do?</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: erm... she never rea—</p>
|
||
<p class="dave">DAVE: WHAT?</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: she—</p>
|
||
<p class="dave">DAVE: I CANT HEAR YOU</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: UM, SHE NEVER REALLY TOLD US WHAT WE HAD TO
|
||
DO, EXACTLY?</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: JUST WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, IN A REALLY
|
||
LOOSE SORT OF FASHION?</p>
|
||
<p class="rose">ROSE: DOES THAT MEAN WE’RE STU—</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p class="no-indent">The metallic noises rain down harder, drowning
|
||
out Rose’s attempt at being loud.</p>
|
||
<p class="no-indent">PLINK, PLINK, SMASH.</p>
|
||
<div class="chat type-rg type-hs-small">
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: NOW I CAN’T HEAR YOU!</p>
|
||
<p class="jade">JADE: TRY USING LESS WORDS</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p class="no-indent">The length of the silence coming from Rose’s
|
||
corner communicates just how difficult a task that is for her.</p>
|
||
<div class="chat type-rg type-hs-small">
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: SHE SAID THE JUJU WOULD GET LOADED AND
|
||
UNLOADED.</p>
|
||
<p class="rose">ROSE: WHAT?</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: SO, I MEAN, IT JUST GOT LOADED I THINK?</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: WITH US.</p>
|
||
<p class="dave">DAVE: SO???</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: SO I DON’T THINK WE’RE TRAPPED IN HERE
|
||
FOREVER.</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: WE’LL BE UNLOADED FROM IT... AT SOME
|
||
POINT?</p>
|
||
<p class="jade">JADE: WHAT?????</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: I KNOW IT’S ALL A BIT ABSTRACT, BUT...</p>
|
||
<p class="jade">JADE: NO, I JUST CAN’T HEAR YOU!</p>
|
||
<p class="dave">DAVE: JOHN YOU SUCK AT YELLING</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: UGH!</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p class="no-indent">You stop trying to loudly reassure the worried
|
||
teens for a moment, and just think. Now you understand defeating
|
||
young Lord English was never supposed to happen. Not the way Adult
|
||
Rose was implying it would. You surmise the other four teens
|
||
remaining outside the juju were the ones meant to be tasked with
|
||
his defeat. And judging from the cacophony still emanating from
|
||
beyond the walls of this house and its confining chest, they are
|
||
taking the task seriously.</p>
|
||
<p>But what does this mean for the four of you?</p>
|
||
<p>You try to picture what’s going on in the battle outside, but
|
||
it’s not easy.</p>
|
||
<p class="Command">> Use your imagination.</p>
|
||
<p class="no-indent">In your imagination, the battle is quite vivid
|
||
and exciting. The coolness of the action in your mind’s eye is
|
||
belied by the actual sound effects booming all around you, which
|
||
you can only describe as vaguely stupid. There’s a lot of
|
||
hysterical screaming, which, if you’re not mistaken, is coming
|
||
exclusively from the male combatants. There’s a sudden swelling of
|
||
energy that speaks to a vastness behind its power source. Almost as
|
||
if an outrageous bubble of pure Hope were enveloping the stage, is
|
||
how you would describe it if you didn’t mind sounding ridiculous.
|
||
Then you hear... it can’t be. Horses?? No, not simple horses of
|
||
flesh and bone. These horses are metal, if we’re to believe they’re
|
||
horses at all.</p>
|
||
<p class="Command">> Stop using your imagination.</p>
|
||
<p class="no-indent">This isn’t getting you anywhere, and clearly
|
||
your silly imaginative whims aren’t doing the slightest bit of
|
||
justice to the actual awesome things taking place out there in the
|
||
heat of battle. Frankly, your theorized skirmish lost the handle on
|
||
any legitimacy it might have had the moment you started thinking
|
||
about horses. You figure no one will ever truly know what’s
|
||
happening out there. You doubt anyone would even be able to handle
|
||
how incredible the raw, unfiltered account of this teen brawl
|
||
actually was, so it’s probably for the best.</p>
|
||
<p>As you slip out of your fanciful conjecture, which may or may
|
||
not have included a mechanical horse ambush, you overhear Dave from
|
||
one of the rooms below you, raising his voice to speak to either
|
||
you or someone else. You’re not sure. You place your ear to the
|
||
floor again.</p>
|
||
<p>He’s speaking to Jade. They’re attempting to reminisce again, to
|
||
the best of their ability to do so while shouting through a wall.
|
||
Once more you ruefully reflect on these teen versions of your
|
||
friends, and all the questions they must have for you. For each
|
||
other. What would you even say to them?</p>
|
||
<p>Would you want to tell them about the happy outcomes, knowing
|
||
they might never get the chance to experience those things for
|
||
themselves? Would you tell them the sad outcomes, thus reinforcing
|
||
their insecurities and suspicions that they may never truly be
|
||
capable of living happy lives? You’re not even sure you could
|
||
handle it, if you were Teen John. You’d have too many follow-up
|
||
questions, which Adult John is in no way prepared to answer. Would
|
||
you tell them what’s up with Roxy and Calliope, again having no
|
||
real grasp yourself over what’s up with them? Would you tell them
|
||
Dave and Karkat... uh... live in a hive together watching TV all
|
||
day, and Jade maybe kinda sorta lives there too, but nobody quite
|
||
knows what’s really going on with that? Would you tell them about
|
||
Terezi...</p>
|
||
<p>For some reason her name feels like nails in your heart. Makes
|
||
sense, you guess, cause there’s a lot of sharp letters in it. She
|
||
had sharp teeth too, and sharp elbows. Sharp words. Terezi Pyrope
|
||
was a sharp girl, and maybe what these sharp feelings are trying to
|
||
tell you is you miss her more than you realized.</p>
|
||
<p>She wouldn’t have let you neglect relationships with certain
|
||
friends for so long that you missed whole chapters of their lives.
|
||
She wouldn’t have put up with you moping around with the
|
||
salamanders for so long. She would have kicked your ass for being
|
||
such a loser about everything. She would have poked you in the
|
||
forehead and called you insufferably lame and told you to pick up
|
||
the damn phone. You would have called her a weirdo and pretended
|
||
you hated it, and maybe you would even have believed you hated it.
|
||
But now, sitting here in this little white cubicle, contemplating
|
||
your regrets, you don’t think you’d have hated it much at all.</p>
|
||
<p>Would you tell the teens that?</p>
|
||
<p>You’d probably never tell anyone that. Not even her.</p>
|
||
<p>Another arbitrary thought hits your brain, completely unrelated
|
||
to the subject of Terezi, or what you would or wouldn’t tell a
|
||
bunch of incarcerated teens, or so you think.</p>
|
||
<div class="chat type-rg type-hs-small">
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: am i... depressed??</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p class="no-indent">You ask aloud, quietly enough that your
|
||
friends cannot possibly hear it. All the question does is crawl
|
||
back down your throat and burrow into your gut like it lives there.
|
||
And it does live there, because as it turns out, you are really
|
||
fucking depressed. You’re just a giant, wet meat sack of
|
||
self-involved misery, and all that big, wet, meaty ooze drips out
|
||
your mouth every time you open it. All the time and space in the
|
||
world isn’t making it better. It’s something you should have been
|
||
doing for yourself, instead of waiting around for things to get
|
||
better.</p>
|
||
<p>Well, screw waiting! It’s boring as hell! You are JOHN EGBERT,
|
||
after all, immortal CREATOR OF WORLDS, the one and only man ever to
|
||
completely transcend the partitions of CANON ITSELF. You’ve got
|
||
these powers, remember?</p>
|
||
<p>You hold up your hands and form a rectangle with your fingers
|
||
and reach outside yourself, outside canon, to the place your retcon
|
||
powers come from. You focus. You strain. You contemplate with all
|
||
your might a place you can zap to, any place but here.</p>
|
||
<p>You wait. And wait. And wait and...</p>
|
||
<p>Nothing happens.</p>
|
||
<p>You slump back down against the wall, and your despondence
|
||
eagerly greets you again. Like an old friend ready to pat you on
|
||
the back and say, good try man. I’ll always be here for you, when
|
||
you fail. Thanks dude, you think.</p>
|
||
<div class="chat type-rg type-hs-small">
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: ROSE WAS RIGHT.</p>
|
||
<p class="dave">DAVE: WHAT?</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: THE JUJU HAS TO UNLOAD.</p>
|
||
<p class="jade">JADE: THE WHAT... HAS TO WHAT??</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: THE ONLY WAY OUT OF HERE...</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: IS FOR US TO WAIT FOR SOMEONE TO LET US
|
||
OUT.</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: SORRY GUYS.</p>
|
||
<p class="rose">ROSE: OH.</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: ALSO...</p>
|
||
<p class="john">JOHN: I THINK I MIGHT HAVE DEPRESSION?</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</body>
|
||
</html> |