(27) dawn of a new day

A young man stands in his bedroom. It just so happens that today, the 9th of August, 2016, is this young man's birthday. Though it was fourteen years ago he was given life, it is only today he will be given a name!

What will the name of this young man be?

== >PEPE DICKBUTT?

It seems you’ve mistaken this young man with a few popular internet memes. Try again.

== > STEVEN SAXON?

Bingo!

Your name is STEVE. As was previously mentioned it is your BIRTHDAY. A number of OPENED PRESENTS are scattered about your room. You have a variety of INTERESTS. You have a passion for SHITTY 80’S COMICS. You like to play video games but you are NOT VERY GOOD AT IT. You have a fondness for SHITTY FAKE SWORDS, and are an aspiring KHAKI COLLECTOR. You also like to travel sometimes.

What will you do?

> Steve: pack your school textbooks

Good thing you remembered those! That would have sucked. Not that it hasn’t absolutely happened before, of course.

You stow the HISTORY TEXTBOOKS and SCHOOL ACCESSORIES on one of your CAPTCHALOGUE CARDS in your SYLLADEX.

You still aren't totally sure what that means, but you are starting to get the hang of the vernacular at least. It definitely stores things.

You have two empty CAPTCHALOGUE CARDS remaining. The other one is already occupied by your LAPTOP.

> Steve: read note on drawer.

“Happy Birthday Bro! I’m so proud of you”

It’s written on FLORAL STATIONERY. Only one person in the house uses stationary like this!

Besides the note is a SMALL WRAPPED PRESENT. Better stash that away for later, you’re running late. After that, you have one empty CAPTCHALOGUE CARD remaining.

You decide to grab your PHONE and just hold it. There’s no time for CAPTCHALOGUE TOMFOOLERY.

> Steve: Squawk like an imbecile and shit on your desk.

This is the dumbest idea you've had in weeks!!!

STUPID STUPID STUPID.

And yet the polished surface of your desk...

It beckons.

> Steve: head downstairs.

You head into the hallway and nearly trip over another STRAY CAKE.

You’re gonna have to have a word with your PESKY BROTHERS when you get back.

You hear a notice from your PHONE. Someone is messaging you.

> Steve: examine incoming messages.

You pull out your PHONE. This is where you spend most of your time, besides your LAPTOP. You decorated your home screen with some rather handsome WALLPAPER which you made yourself. You are really proud of it.

(it’s a bunch of REALISTIC BIRDS WEARING THE SUITS FROM THE POPULAR VIDEO GAME DESTINY. Your finest work, honestly.)

Your home screen is also littered with various USELESS APPS. You should really clean those up some time.

Your PESTERCHUM application is flashing. Someone is trying to get in touch with you.

> Steve: Open pesterchum.

Only one of your CHUMS has logged on. She’s sent you a message.

> Steve: Open message.

-- plantFiesta [PF] began pestering straightSqwawker [SS] at 8:45 --

PF: DUDE what FUCKN SWEET LOOT did you rake in???

SS: Hi rui

PF: TELL ME THE DEETS

SS: It was good! Got some video games, posters, a t-shirt, all that good shit.

SS: Haven’t opened chrys’ present yet

SS: Dunno if i was supposed to open everything yet my mom might’ve wanted to take pics

PF: ooooh SWEET

PF: what video games???

SS: Until dawn, firewatch, good stuff

PF: dude i fucking LOVE until dawn

PF: but you didn’t get the beta yet?

SS: Um

SS: Nnnnooo i dont think so

PF: FUCK

SS: Maybe its downstairs?

SS: Dont we have school??

PF: FUCK

> Steve: Look out window.

You see the view of your yard from your window.

Hanging from the tree is your TIRE SWING. In a kid's yard, a tree without a tire swing is like a proper gentleman without a monocle. That is to say, HE CAN HARDLY BE CONSIDERED A TERRIBLY PROPER GENTLEMAN AT ALL.

You are your SIBLINGS used to have WILD SHENANIGANS on that swing.

And there beside your driveway is your OLDER BROTHER’S CAR.

> Steve: Examine car.

It appears you’re running late

Your BROTHER is looking impatiently up at the house, thrumming his fingers on the STEERING WHEEL.

You should really get going now.

You spend so much time in your room sometimes you feel like you are trapped in it. Stuck, if you will, in a sense which possibly borders on the titular.

And now your chum is pestering you again. The clockwork of friendship turns ceaselessly, operating the swing-lever dealies of harassment in perpetuity!

Whatever. The dude can just hold his damn horses.

> Steve: Go downstairs.

You enter the LIVING ROOM, having safely traversed the dangers of the hallway.

On one wall hangs a picture of a fella who sure knows how to have a laugh, your very own GRANDFATHER. You always thought YOUR OLDER BROTHER looked exactly like him. But your BROTHER swears on the many HALLOWED TOMBS of Egypt that he doesn’t. You're not sure about that though.

On the other wall is one of your DAD'S WASTES OF SPACE. Or WATER COLOR PAINTINGS, as he is quick to correct anyone who would venture such brazen assumption.

> Steve: Run into the kitchen and grab something to eat!

No need, you already had a fucking fantastic breakfast of EGGS and CHURRO DOUGHNUTS.

There is something on the FAMILY ROOM TABLE, though.

> Steve: Inspect package.

Oh SHIT is this what you think it is?

Hands shaking, you turn the package to read who it’s made out to.

Dammit.

It’s your mom’s vitamins.

She buys them in bulk for everyone, but you know for a FACT that exactly four people in this house ever use them.

With a family of EIGHT, that’s a bit of an issue.

> Steve: Quick! Someone’s behind you!

OH MY GOSH WHAT IS IT oh it’s just Chrys.

> [S] STRIFE!

What? No! What the fuck is wrong with you, that’s your little sister.

Besides, no one here has the budget for an honest to God flash animation. What do you think this is, MS Paint Adventures?

Yeah, didn’t think so.

> Exit the house with Chrys.

The streets are empty. Wind skims the voids keeping neighbors apart, as if grazing the hollow of a cut reed, or say, a plundered mailbox. A familiar note is produced. It's the one Desolation plays to keep its instrument in tune.

It is your fourteenth birthday, and as with all thirteen preceding it, something feels missing from your life. The game presently eluding you is only the latest sleight of hand in the repertoire of an unseen riddler, one to engender a sense not of mirth, but of lack. His coarse schemes are those less of a prankster than a common pickpocket. His riddle is Absence itself. It is a mystery dispersing altogether, like the moon's faint reflection, with even one pebble of inquiry dropped in its black well. It is the most diabolical riddle of all.

"Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire." -Walt Whitman

Yes, you are certain Walt Whitman said that. One hundred percent positive.

You have a feeling it's going to be a long day.

> Steve: Get in the car and go to school.

Yeah. You have a feeling it’s going to be a long day.

Chrys reminds you that the BETA will probably be waiting for you when you get home.

Well, still.

You could do without the school. You briefly wish that you never had to go to school ever again. That’ll probably never happen, though. Not for a very long while, at least.

---

this may have gotten a little out of hand

happy first day without homestuck day im in denial

(26) "wipe those tears, kid"

Steve woke on a straw bed in the corner of a strange hut.

It was mid-morning. Distantly, birds could be heard exercising light and airy sopranos. Inside the hut it was quiet. Steven stayed still for a minute or two, just trying to get his bearings. Turning his head offered him still images: a rickety table, a bag of seed. His sword was propped against the bed, his sneakers placed neatly beside it.

The laces were… cut?

The bed was soiled with his blood. There was a sizable wound on his torso, patched up by a large bandage.

Images creeped back, ever so slowly. He’d been fighting something in a wooded area, fell.

It took him awhile to struggle up, but finally he was able to shuffle awkwardly outside. There was just grasslands for miles and miles. Distantly a
forest sprouted out of the land, too gloomy for the sunny day. Just next to the house, laundry on a clothesline fluttered gently in the breeze next to a few neat rows of tilled land.

Steve didn’t see anyone, however. He was alone.

The situation was familiar. He’d woken up in a shack like this before. Back in the beginning, when he was just a kid. Before the Change.

Back then an old man had been waiting for him outside, next to a blacksmith’s forge that had steadily puffed smoke. Svott had taken care of him for a little bit after that, given him a place to sleep, told him to pull it together. That was back when Steven could only utilize rips in the universe to travel, before he learned what he was capable of.

Svott was the one who taught him how to fight with a sword. Helped him forge the one he used now.

The old man was gone now, though. Died two summers ago.

In this universe, however, no one was around to help Steven. He lingered for a little while, trying to stick it out, but his side hurt too much, and a straw bed wasn’t exactly helping his back.

By the time a dusty wagon finally rolled up to the front door, Steve was already long gone.

---

The linebreak won't copy and paste sorry im on my phone

Literally just came up with Svott’s name on the spot but you know what that’s a great name for an old man who lives alone in the middle of fucking nowhere

(pronounced suh-VAW-t)

(25) what was in the void that day

THIS IS THE LAST ONE!!!!!! I SCREAM

---

The Inos lingered in between.

The space between dimensions, the barrier space that prevented dimensions from knocking into one another. The endless space that was infinitely small and yet went on for eons and eons. There was an untold amount of them waiting there.

It was their fault that most everyone was dead or missing.

It was their fault that everyone had issues. There was a deep resentment associated with their existence, and yet every Cattlayan was immensely and inexplicably terrified of them.

The Inos were one of the only things that could immediately kill the Cattlayans, and the Cattlayans were helpless in what they could do against them. One touch and they would be consumed, their existence erased from the universe.

When they came, the Inos wanted to consume. Only when their goal was done would they leave.

They destroyed everything. Even though they only came for the inhabitants, they left remainders.

There were still physical reminders-- empty homes, vacated streets, forgotten civilizations.

The only true way to avoid them forever was to keep running. Run run run and never look back. If one hides, like the Cattlayans did, then that will only distract them for so long.

The Inos never forget.

---

idk who’s narrating here but man are they negative

OH FUCK I HAVE 3 MINUTES LEFT OK BYE I’LL PROBABLY REWRITE THIS LATER MAYBE I HOPE

(24) time crunch

It was snowing so hard she could barely see the houses, and her bike was beginning to slow. All the road obstruction was bad for the engine, that she knew. This wasn’t even her heavy terrain bike; she had to rush out with her racing bike.

In short; Marcy wasn’t prepared.

There was something chasing after her, big and running on foot. Marcy hadn’t gotten a good glance, but it probably had the power to do extreme damage, something she’d like to avoid.

With a jolt and a screech, the front wheel of the bike caught on something and jerked forward, sending Marcy flying through the air. She came to an unpleasant stop when she hit the ground and rolled in the snow.

Marcy’s ears rang, and she couldn’t get a sense of where she was. She’d landed on something too hard to just be snow, but there was no way in hell she could get it uncovered enough to determine what it was. It felt like there was a rock in her chest, and she coughed up blood.

Shit.

In the middle of unsteadily attempting to stand, whatever was behind her grabbed her by the back of her jacket and THREW HER into a distant snow bank.

Her ears were really ringing now. She couldn’t move. It hurt to breathe.

“Hey, over here!”

Was that Will? It sounded distant.

“Over here you great big ass!”

That was definitely Will.

The hulking mass of whatever it was that was following her shifted, presumably to look at the convenient distraction. It was big enough that Marcy could notice it’s movement in the ‘verse.

So, it was from the void, then.

“Yeah, over here you piece of shit!”

Wait, that was... Gloss? What was she doing here?

Her ears were still ringing. Her chest was starting to get numb, which may or may not have been good.

Will was next to her. He was talking, but the sound was starting to get really muffled. That’s… that’s not good.

She almost couldn’t feel the pain at all anymore.

He had a hand gripped in hers, another one supporting her head.

“We need to go.” He sounded like he was at the end of a super long tunnel.

Marcy shifted her head to look at the thing that was following her. Gloss was standing between it and them, legs spread wide in a fighting stance.

Was she gonna punch it?

Fuck, dude.

The last thing she saw before her and Will jumped was the fuzzy shape of the void creature diving at Gloss, and Gloss winding back her arm to clock the sucker into the next dimension.

---

LOADED THE BULLEEEETS

WITH MY BLOOD IN THE ROUNDS

YEAH SHE’S A SWEET SIX SHOOTER

SHE KNOWS HOW TO GET DOWN

I HAVE LESS THAN 20 MINUTES LEFT C’MON I CAN DO THIS

(23) CAT CAT CAT

Something white sped past the garage door at top speed.

“...The fuck was that?”

Marcy shrugged, not looking away from the game on the TV. She was winning.

Chrys watched the door for a little longer, but gave up after a few seconds.

Wait, there it was again!

Was that… Louie?

Yeah, that was definitely Marcy’s dog speeding past at top speed, chasing a small black cat. The two animals were making big loops in the grass, one slightly less enthusiastic than the other.

Chrys whacked Marcy lightly with the back of her hand, causing the older girl to start. “Check this out.”

“What? Louie! Come here, girl!”

The white dog paused for just a small enough moment for the black cat to change tactics and charge into the garage, coming to a sliding halt behind a storage unit.

The dog quickly followed suit, scampering in after…

...and promptly running straight into Marcy.

She screamed, tumbling down onto the ground. Louie refused to stop, instead choosing to run over her owner in an attempt to get the cat. Of course, when the dog slammed into the plastic storage units due to the momentum, the cat easily jumped over and ran into the wilds.

Marcy groaned.

---

I GOTTA POST THESE BEFORE MIDNIGHT OH MY GOD I CANT CARE ABOUT TYPOS

(22) nature's retaking

Their school was overgrown.

Windows broken, massive plants bursting out the doorways. It wasn’t possible for anyone to go to the upper floors anymore-- the stairs were too broken, too unpredictable. The classrooms still had old maps on their walls, documentation of previous countries and borders.

The lockers had all rusted, weathered away. Some of the locker doors had fallen off, allowing glimpses of the kids who had once gone there. There were still binders, old coffee cups, pictures of friends.

A few lockers still had coats in them. Some people had left before they could grab them.

The cities were massive, gaping wounds. Buildings crumbled, highway overpasses collapsed. Cars stopped to sit in the middle of the road for all eternity. Banks cracked open, useless money left to flutter away.

The air felt worse in the cities, as if it remembered the poison that bled the people who lived there.

Empty houses lingered for miles and miles, nothing more than hollow shells waiting to be scavenged. The roads were green with age, attempting to fade back into the landscape.

Marcy flat out refused to drive by her old house. She said the memories were too strong, even years later.

One of them might pass by a few dogs on their way through the streets, pets that reverted back to their older roots. Feral cats that would stare at you in indignation if you stepped too far into their territory.

Of course, there were other things that started to stare back, as well. Much wilder, less natural things that grew into being after the skies opened up and brought on the apocalypse.

The silence was the most deafening, at first. The lack of electricity and hubbub of life was shocking when they got back home and everything was different. Those things had been there for as long as they were alive.

Of course, there had also been people.

Now everything had a different kind of noise. The wind blew through trees and echoed through buildings before it reached them. Birds sang all morning long, wild animals made their way through the ruins of a civilization. The rain thrummed on rooftops, dripping into puddles.

Without light pollution the stars shone at full force at night, the milky way bright enough to reassure anyone that they were not alone.

But when it got down to it, the Cattlayans were still endangered, and there was only a few of them left. And when they die or disappear to become bedtime stories halfway across the galaxy, life will still continue without them.

---

WHO LIVES, WHO DIES, WHO TELLS YOUR STORY

this kind of ended on a... weird note

also i may or may not post 3 parts tomorrow. i don't know.

(21) vacation

reminder: this is a continuation of part 20!!

---

Rui jerked back to consciousness, and without prior warning there was water water water everywhere and panic and her arms began to kick and struggle and go towards the light and she broke the surface of the lake with a loud splash.

Guess Steve won that bet, then.

...Just like all the bets previous.

With a groan, the girl swam towards what looked like a shoreline. The moon, wherever she was, appeared to be bright and full. Thankfully it gave her enough to see by. There was a lake and rocks and a sandy shore she was now pulling herself onto, but after that it was just grasslands for miles and miles.

Her clothes were soaking wet, but Rui just sat there for a minute or two to catch her breath. Her heart was fucking pounding. Slowly, she peeled off her jacket, flinging it onto a rock to dry. Her feet were starting to get an uncomfortable wooly feel, so she took off both her boots and socks. Now, she was just sitting in her dress.

Her very, very wet dress.

...Maybe she should take that off too. There wasn’t anyone around, after all.

Not long after that, Rui was sitting on the beach in nothing but her underwear, which turned out to be a massive fucking mistake.

There was sand everywhere!

Well.. it was a beach.

When was the last time she had even been to a beach?

The island with the mountains and the dumbass monkeys did not fucking count.

After trying to manically shake as much sand off of herself as possible, Rui found herself migrating towards another dry rock and draping herself over it.

She neglected to check her phone’s state of affairs (did it even really matter anymore?). The sky was just so bright and starry. Her limbs were warmed by the heat retained by the rock from the previous day.

Rui let herself relax. Or, well, she tried to. She was still shaking with adrenaline from before, and couldn’t settle into a nice position.

Maybe she should just stay at the lodge for a while after this, when she gets back. Take it easy, right? That would be nice. No adventures, nothing trying to kill her for once.

Sometimes… sometimes she just gets so tired.

They all do, really.

It comes whenever she’s someplace that isn’t her home world, when she’s alone and the only one of her kind for lightyears. Those are the times that their endangered species status becomes even more apparent.

If everything was the same, if she’d never screwed up, she’d be in college right now. She’d major in biology or some shit, and go home to visit her mom during breaks, and date cute girls in coffee shops, and go shopping with friends and… and…

It wasn’t good to dwell on the past but she kept fucking doing it.

Fuck.

It felt like her head was buzzing.

When she got back to the lodge it was cold and dark and snowing like a bitch. When Rui got back into her room, she tried to change into something warm as quietly as she could, but ended up stumbling around obnoxiously for a bit.

“Rui.” Scarlet mumbled. Christ, she looked like a fucking burrito, all wrapped up in blankets.

Wincing, Rui whispered, “Sorry.” She slid under the covers with more care, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend. Mmm, her little hot water bottle of a girlfriend. Who needed a fireplace when you had a girlfriend.

That… sounded a little weird when you thought longer about it.

But there, warm under the covers, Rui could finally stop shaking.

---

rui blames herself for a lot of things that aren’t necessarily her fault