Chapter Text
==> Be Jane Crocker
Crocker?
Oh heavens no!
She had discarded that name a very long time ago, taking up the name of her dearly deceased husband instead. No, no.
She was Jane Egbert.
Revived from the dead via the kernalsprite from a world-destroying, universe-creating game of SBURB.
A game that has yet to finish, merely put on hold for the moment as she and her children, yes her children, traveled across the strange space not-space between fenestrated windows. Jade had tried to explain exactly where they were but even she was quite doubtful over what exactly it was, and she was the Witch of Space! Hoohoo, an old woman like her had no idea what exactly she was talking about but that was alright.
It was not her job to understand those types of things, her job was to guide the children and keep them fed during the long, long trip.
It has been approximately two years since they started the trip. Two years since her revival and merging with a torn harlequin doll, forming a mischievous sprite that only enhanced her own prankster instincts.
Two years... since the death of her son. And the death of other guardians as well, one of which being the older brother but ectobiological father of two Knights of Time. Although Qrow liked to jape and joke about how he was the 'bootlegged' version of the Knight of Time.
It was quite the revelation, the fact that he could ascend even as a sprite- but then again, dear Jade had been the same, so it shouldn't have been such a shock to see Qrow newly ascended. Perhaps it was the fact he was originally a Doomed version of himself?
While Nanna was not a Time Player herself, the spritely knowledge that she held had insisted that any Doomed variation of a Player was destined to die.
Yet the crow child had went against all odds, surviving first as a sprite, and then thriving as a God Tiered Player.
Simply unprecedented, yet inspiringly so.
Nanna was proud of him, even if Qrow wasn't actually her grandchild- she couldn't help but mentally adopt him as so. It was hard not to, she was their main caretaker after all. Oh the Prospitians and Dersites helped from time to time, but the carapacians usually kept to themselves. And the consorts from all the lands were the same, plus they usually worshipped the children instead of seeing them in any paternal or maternal way.
So yes, she was their collective grandmother.
Nanna hummed happily but quietly as she started tidying up yesterday's festivities- John's fifteenth birthday had been quite successful. Although instead of indulging some obscure game about ghosts like last year, he had instead opted for a regular party and then a rather extensive movie night with both Qrow, Jade and anyone who wished to join them. Which were quite a lot carapacians and consorts. They had 'binge-watched' an animated show, Revolutionary Utena.
She hadn't watched much of it, mostly busying herself with providing snacks and other things for the various amounts of watchers in the Prospitian Battleship's largest room that was temporarily converted into a movie theatre. How exciting!
The show had lasted long, and many, including her children, had ended up asleep in their respective spots in the end. And now Nanna, who had gotten some shut eye herself, was cleaning up in the early hours of the morning. Adjusting blankets and pillows from those asleep whilst picking up some discarded buckets of popcorn and sweeping away said leftover popcorn to be disposed off.
Nanna Egbert quietly laughed to herself when she saw the splayed out forms of the three mostly human children in their comfy pile of blankets, pillows and other soft things. She did her best to be quiet when she started cleaning around them, slowly and carefully adjusting John's admittedly horrible sleeping position before tucking him snugly with a blanket. Jade and Qrow were fine, but she still made sure their blankets were covering them just fine as well.
She liked to think she was a sneaky woman, old as she was. Plus, being a sprite gave her several privileges like floating through solid objects and flying silently in the air.
Although perhaps she isn't as stealthy as she thought she was considering she found Qrow yawning and awake not too long afterwards, she was in a nearby kitchen and the half-asleep boy had wandered in, startling her as she was just about to prepare some pastries as dessert for after breakfast which she thought would happen later on. "Oh my, good morning Qrow." She greeted warmly, but frowned as she asked him. "Did I wake you up, my boy? Terribly sorry for that if I did."
"Hm? Oh nah, it's fine. I was always a light sleeper." Qrow waved off, barely holding back another yawn and shaking his head to try and clear his grogginess. "Morning Nanna. Or well- actually no, it is morning. Too bad there's no sun to really back it up. All we gotta rely on for time keeping shit are our computers and me, and even then, as the God of Time- a God of Time? God of Time lite? I declare it morning, which it is, but even if it wasn't, which it isn't, it's morning. It's morning whenever I wake up, period. Who needs the sun to tell people it's morning when you've got a literal deity of time telling you shit?"
Nanna laughed, finding his short ramble amusing as he went to sit down. "One can't argue with that I suppose. You are the resident Time God here. And as it is morning, declared by you, shall I make some breakfast for you?" The winged Time player's face scrunched in thought before he answered without even saying a word, his stomach answered for him and she laughed jovially at the slightly embarrassed look he got before he smoothed over his face.
"You heard the man." Qrow said, gesturing to his stomach. "Grrouwl."
"Yes, yes, breakfast it is! Any preference for this morning, dearie?" She asked him as she started rifling through cabinets for utensils and the like.
Qrow looked thoughtful before hesitantly answering her question, "Is there any breakfast that's apple related?"
Nanna blinked once before chuckling and nodding, "Oh, tons, though to narrow things down- how about apple pancakes? With apple cookies as dessert?"
She covered her mouth in amusement when it looked as if Qrow's mind had been opened to the secrets of the universe, "You can make pancakes and cookies with apples?" He breathed with such awe that a giggle escaped her.
"Oh dearie, you can make anything as pancakes and apples. You just need some ingenuity and creativity!" She cheered and Qrow cheered with her, looking ecstatic to the revelation of apple-made pancakes and cookies. She thought of making an apple crumb, but perhaps that could be saved for a later date.
They didn't have any apples on hand, but not for long! Alchemy was very useful, even if the taste of the apples were never exactly like actual apples, however beggars can't be choosers. The fact they can create food out of grist was already a great boon for their trip, otherwise they'd be in trouble. Although they did have actual other organic food thanks to Jade and her various vegetable seeds- she had tons of seeds, and her big project this year was fixing her greenhouse and being able to cultivate plantlife once again in her house.
She had only started a few months ago but was saying she was making fantastic progress. They'd have fresh produce this year's time.
Anyway, back to apple breakfast.
She had Qrow help him a bit with making breakfast, seeing how excited he was for the apples themselves anyway. Also, Nanna, sadly, only had one arm unfortunately. The cons of being prototyped with a one-armed jester. Hoohoo.
Although, she couldn't help but notice a new quirk she's learned of the winged Time Player underneath her care. "Are you eating the apple peels?" She asked, quite stunned to see Qrow eating the skin of the apple as he was peeling.
"Mgh?" Qrow bit off the peel, chewing and swallowing quickly. "Yeah, I love apples. Peel and all, always thought it was a waste when people peeled them and like- threw away the skins." He finished peeling the apple in his hand, scooping the leftover skin into his mouth. Quickly chewing and swallowing again. "They're pretty good, plus, Bro always did this thing where-" He faltered and Nanna withheld a wince as Qrow's smile turned into a tense frown.
"... Where?" She couldn't help but prompt, hoping she wasn't pushing it too much. It has been two years since Qrow's brother had died, and no doubt, it still felt like a fresh wound on his heart. It certainly felt so for her when her husband died.
Qrow fingers flexed over the knife he was holding before he relaxed and sighed, a small, wistful yet pained smile on his face. "Bro always said I was weird for munching on the skins of apples, but he like, never threw out the skins after he found out. He even made shapes and shit, or like, roll them into these tiny things and either deep-fry'em or like, use them to top ice cream or stuff like that. One time he even like, went all out and made apple-skin bow snacks for my birthday. That was cool. Him tossing my ass out in the snow afterwards was less cool though."
But sometimes, reminiscing about the past... No matter how painful the wound... It helps, sometimes.
Nanna smiled at the description, unable to resist ruffling Qrow's head. "Sounds like you had a rather lovely brother. Someone who raised you with love." Unlike her own upbringing, she grimaced as she remembered her quote, unquote 'Mother'. The lack of care, love and attention. The way she loomed over her constantly. The secrecy about the fact her mother wasn't even human-
"Yeah." Qrow smiled, snapping her out of her thoughts about her unfortunate past. Reminding her that she had a rather nice life after she left, after she abandoned the Crocker name and made a life of her own. "Well, he never really said love, 'cuz that's a bit uncool. But like, he never needed to, y'know?"
Nanna laughed softly, nodding in understanding. "I do... Now, let's make some breakfast and a nice little dessert, hm?"
It doesn't take long for them to finish with both the pancakes and the cookies, although, by the time they were finished with the pancakes and the cookies were put in the oven. Jade and John came stumbling into the kitchen, tired but lured in by the delicious smell of the apple pancakes. The fact that Qrow had helped make them had been a pleasant surprise to her ectobiological children/grandchildren, the two immediately teasing and japing with the humbled but slightly embarrassed Strider.
In the midst of breakfast though, while Nanna was cleaning up the cooking utensils she and Qrow had used, she, along with the boys were quite surprised when Jade piped in all of a sudden. "Do you think Nanna could become normal like us? Like Qrow and I?" Jade questioned aloud, her gaze pointed towards Nanna who blinked, holding a pan in her one hand and a sponge with her thankfully prehensile and strong tail. It had been a bit of a challenge quite honestly, even with spritely powers, to function with only one actual limb with fingers. Perhaps that's why Jade had asked and suddenly the old sprite woman was under the considering gaze of three god tiered children.
"I mean..." Qrow started hesitantly, looking very thoughtful, "There'd be a quest bed for her in the new session, for the player version of her, so hypothetically she could do it." He shrugged but seemed fairly sure about his words.
John, the optimistic dear boy, was beaming at the thought. "You hear that Nanna? You could probably god tier like Jade and Qrow! Be human again!"
Nanna hesitated, giving the children a worried and slightly doubtful look. "Oh, dears, I'm not entirely sure that would be possible." She said slowly, not wanting to dash their hopes entirely. Not to mention her own, no matter how complicated she felt about the matter.
"But it should work!" Qrow insisted, orange and white wings flapping slightly behind him, "You're the same person, you've lived different lives yeah but still. It worked for me."
"Doomed though you were, Qrow, you're still a player." She pointed out gently, smiling sadly at the way the three of them wilted like flowers without sunlight. She puts down the sponge and plate to float closer to them. "The new session's version of me will be a player, whilst I am not. There's no guarantee ascension would work for me. Thank you though, for thinking of me, you three are such darling children." She ruffled all three of their heads, touched overall.
"We won't know if we don't try." John weakly replied, frowning even as her hand made a further mess of his hair. "Nanna..."
Nanna hummed, poking John's nose playfully, trying to cheer him up, "Don't worry about it too much dearies. I'm doing alright and am quite happy being here, helping you as I am. I am a sprite after all, I should be helping you in the background anyhow." It's just how sprites were supposed to be, helpful guides that were more prominent in the beginning but faded more into the background as the players grew stronger.
By all means, her purpose was already fulfilled. But that was as a sprite.
She had a new purpose as a grandmother, their grandmother. Their guardian, their new caretaker for the rest of the trip.
Jane Egbert knew what her end was to be, she's known it both before and after she was a sprite.
She's already been dead once.
She just needs to ready her children for her second death, is all.
==> Be Jade Harley
"It's not fair though."
It's been a couple of hours since breakfast, but the subject of Nanna's possible ascension still hadn't left her mind. The god dog girl paced along the floor, "Qrow and I could got our bodies back, Nanna should as well." She complained to her brother and best friend.
"You heard her though, it might not work." John mentioned but even he was frowning heavily as he sat on a blue bean bag. Qrow was laying down on the plush blanket on the floor, wings spread and face blank.
They had reconvened in Jade's tower on LoFaF after breakfast and a shower, "But it might work. Chances seem to be fifty-fifty unless we like, learn more information about that and stuff." Qrow sighed, folding his arms on his chest.
Jade collapsed beside him on the blanket, mindful of his wings, she bit her lip before hesitantly bringing up her thought aloud to him. "I would've thought you and Rose would have thought of having your Mom and Bro god tier or something."
Thankfully, Qrow didn't seem to mind, shaking his head to her words. "We kind of did, but there wasn't much to look for in that regard. We knew players could god tier but only if they had either a Quest Bed or Slab of their corresponding Aspect. There wasn't any information whether or not non-players, or like, alternate non-player versions of those players, could ascend the same way like players could. Rose managed to figure out that it was kind of pointless though since the only Aspects we had in the session was, well-" He pointed to John, "Breath." To himself, "Time." Then to Jade. "Space." Then he pointed to a light bulb in the room, unfortunately they didn't have Rose with them to complete the set. "And Light."
"Rose didn't know what Aspects our Guardians were exactly, but she was plenty sure they weren't any of the four."
Both John and Jade sighed with him, feeling somber at the moment. "Like you said earlier though, there'd be a quest bed for Nanna there since her player version is in the session. But the only problem is that we have no idea if it works for non-players or not." John recited, if only to clarify and summarize their current problem. "It works with sprites and doomed players but..." He scratched his head irritably as he thought over it.
For a moment, the three of them were silent. Trying to think of what to do.
They didn't want Nanna to stay a sprite. They didn't want to lose her, they've lost enough guardians as it was.
Suddenly, Qrow sat up, an intense look on his face. "Eridan."
Jade's ears perked, "Eridan? What about him?" Qrow normally didn't mention Eridan when he could help it- he was still feeling all weird and complicated over Eridan, Jade doesn't think he blames Eridan about the deaths of his Bro and Rose's Mom anymore, not entirely at least, but he was still reluctant to talk about him at length.
"In Mom's note from like, two years ago. She mentioned something about a plan, Bro even said in the chat I was in with them about 'plan A not working out'- so the plan she mentions is plan B. What if-" He paused, forcing himself to take in a deep breath. "What if plan B was to resurrect or like, god tier our guardians? What if that's plan B?"
The impact of Qrow's words were hitting John and Qrow himself hard, Jade was affected as well but probably not as much as they were. She had made peace over the fact her Grandpa was dead after all, even if she sometimes pretended his stuffed corpse was still alive. Jade had mourned him and moved on. Kind of.
There were still some weird stuff from her grandpa that didn't make sense to her, and even sometimes gives her nightmares that she shouldn't have (her grandpa would never make her stuff her friends, sure he sometimes uses the wrong names for her like Joey and Jude (which makes her think hard about those names and their origins) but he was a kind grandfather figure to her from what she could remember) but she had accepted that he was dead.
Did she want her grandpa alive again? Sure! She'd love that! But having him stay dead wouldn't change a thing with her. She grew up alone on an island with only a First Guardian Dog, she's used to it. (also Bec kind of got rid of her stuffed grandpa anyway... bad dog.)
But for her friends? Her brother?
This was a chance for them to have their parents back. For their still fresh wounds to scab over in a different way. And honestly, she was a little jealous but mostly supportive.
"I mean- with how Eridan is? It could be possible." Jade hazarded after a silent moment. Eridan was kind of like her, only very different.
While he woke up early like Jade and also Kanaya, and also seemed to have future information from somewhere, that was about it in similarities. His knowledge seemed to be a bit deeper sometimes, references events that only made sense during the game or talked about things that were somewhat odd but also kind of familiar? It was hard trying to remember what he talked about sometimes when he spoke to her Dream Self, and even the past conversations with her waking self had been years ago.
John rubbed his chin thoughtfully before shrugging, "The only way we'd actually know is when we see him again in like, a year now?"
Qrow scowled but sighed, nodding to John's words. "Yeah... Hopefully we can get some answers then. Rose and Dave should be getting all the answers by now though, lucky them."
Jade smiled slightly at the thought of Rose and Dave, hopefully they were doing well alongside the other trolls. Jade wasn't entirely sure on who was left alive on the meteor, it sounded kind of dire, but she knew that Kanaya, Karkat and Eridan were alive. Sollux too maybe? At the very least, she was very much looking forward in seeing them again in a year's time.
"Hopefully both of them get the whole story of how Eridan was a human once."
Both black-haired, glasses-wearing, buck-toothed siblings goggled at Qrow.
"Huh?!"
==> Meanwhile...
Funky familiar music played as a certain someone climbed the table, spilling some liquid from their cup that they were using as a makeshift microphone.
Dave watched on, unimpressed as the tune of that one movie that John liked so much- Ghostbusting or something, played out while Eridan stumbled on top of the table with a drunken Terezi and Rose cheering him on. Karkat and Kanaya were watching them alongside him, both equally unimpressed but also more visibly worried. The Mayor, bless him, was just sitting down, clapping along but thankfully sober.
If you feel depressed!
And misunderstood!
What'cha gonna do?
Eridan sang out with surprising clarity despite being piss drunk like the two Seers before him.
Re-press it!
"The one time I finally hear Eridan sing, and he's drunk." Dave muttered, feeling inherently disappointed in... whatever the fuck Eridan was to him. He didn't know, he doubts Rose even knew but then again she was drunk too. Also Terezi, who he had been dating on and off throughout the trip- currently it was off though. Because she too, as was said, was drunk.
The second year in to their trip and it's been... less than good.
At some point, Rose had it in her head to actually get drunk aside from talking about it like the first time when they met Meenah. Eridan had tried to stop Rose at first but caved in pretty quickly for some reason (something about his and Rose's Mom?) and the both of them roped Terezi into their drunken party later on, then again she'd been slamming down faygo beforehand so he doesn't know if it was an upgrade or a downgrade in terms of drinks.
Karkat had once found her conked the fuck out in just her undies, scalemate cape-hoodie thing while hugging her white dragon plush while surrounded by empty faygo bottles. Given the fact that even though Terezi had been drunk, she never ended up like that, Dave was understandably still very confused whether it was a good or bad thing she was turning away from faygo to human liquor.
"He's at least, surprisingly understandable." Kanaya offered to him with a wane smile, something Dave just took with a silent sigh.
When you wanna confront!
Your childhood!
Are you ready for a breakthrough?
Three of, or at least Dave had used to think of, the most responsible people he'd known (bit iffy on Terezi but she knew to get shit done) were drunk off their asses and there was just a year left before their trip ends.
Karkat rubbed his face, giving the three drunks a conflicted yet aggravated look. "We should've stopped them from the beginning, or at least, fucking taken away all the liquor they made." Now it was too late, as far as the three of them knew, all three had tons of alcoholic drinks in their sylladexes that even if they tried to confiscate or prevent them from alchemizing more, they'd miss at least one drink.
But with the trip almost coming to a close in a year... they should probably start sobering them all up and making sure they stayed sober.
No, re-press it!
Good choice!
==> Be Eridan Ampora
He's there again.
Right fucking there.
All ghostly and translucent and visibly disappointed in him.
Fuck.
Ignore him, continue singing.
Thera-py does not ev-en ex-ist anymore!
Not ev-en the next ses-sion will actually have it!
I push all my problems down until they go away!
One day I'll ex-plode-
Repression makes me feel-
Whoops, slipped off the table there.
Crash!
There's a lot of people calling his name there but Eridan's senses are too muddled to hear them properly, not when they sounded so far away from him. But hey, the alcohol was numbing any pain he was feeling at the moment, be it physical, mental or even emotional. Alcohol was great like that. Roxy had the right idea.
No wait, Rose.
Rose had the right idea, but she got it from Roxy. Or well, she wanted to feel closer to Roxy by drinking and Eridan honestly understood it. And Eridan felt so much closer to Roxy, drunk as fucking hell.
He missed Roxy.
He might actually prefer having Roxy around instead of him because maybe, maybe, she'd at least talk to Eridan.
Not like him.
Dirk.
Or Ghost Dirk.
Brain Ghost Dirk?
Not the one with Jake, not him.
But his Dirk.
Eridan's Dirk.
...
"Err'dan? Are 'ueu ok'y?"
Eridan blinked rapidly, looking through blurry vision to see Rose not Roxy, slurring and poking at him in concern. He was standing. How was he standing? Oh, Dave had helped him up. What a gentleman, what a nice guy, nice kid. Dave was so nice.
So much nicer than Dirk.
"O-kay, I think it's time for all three of you to like, wind down and sleep or something." Might take the nice thing back.
Eridan tried to step away from Dave, feeling his legs wobble, "W-wha? No! I'm- 'm good! I'm aaall ocray!" He dropped his cup somewhere. Shit. That's a waste of booze, but he has more in his sylladex. "I can- kreep shin-in!" Honestly, not even he could understand how he had managed to sing so clearly despite being drunk as hell. Must be a talent of his. "Ah'll- I'll shin- somefin' betta!"
"No, no. I think you've all had enough. It's time to settle down." That is... Kanaya. Yep, Kanaya, she's helping Rose whose whining. Rightfully so.
They didn't have enough! They could go on for a bit more!
Fuck off Dirk! Don't just stand there! Staring at him like that!
"Ww'vve good! R-Right Togapi?" No wait. "Terrari?" So close.
Karkat comes out of fucking nowhere, he's got Terezi in his arms- short king being strong! Hehehehe. "Terezi's down Eridan, just- go the fuck to sleep."
"I-I dun' wwannnaaa...." Despite his words, and the fact he was trying to escape Dave's grasp, he was unceremoniously taken to his personal block.
Eridan doesn't remember the pathway there, mumbling things even he couldn't understand. Whenever he tried to take a drink from his sylladex, it got switched out with something vaguely non-alcoholic. He was too thirsty to complain, and getting more and more tired.
His vision blurred and he found himself in his bed, with no one around.
No one but him.
Dirk.
Just standing right there, by his bed. Looming almost menacingly if it weren't for the sad look on his face.
"... Shhhhtop thaht."
The look of disappointment cuts painfully through his drunken haze, enough to bring fresh tears to his eyes. They're going to hurt even more later when he has to take out those fucking contacts, but for now, he tears up and throws a pillow at Dirk. It goes through him harmlessly and that makes him sob. "Sshtop."
Dirk doesn't stop. He doesn't do anything actually.
He stands there and Eridan throws a bottle of magnetic wodka at him, it crashed into the floor, spilling everywhere. "Say shomfin gogdahmmim!"
The angels sing.
The wraiths scream.
And Dirk says nothing.
==> Eridan: Wake Up
...
==> Wake Up
...
SLAP
Eridan wheezed, coughing as he finally snapped out of it. 'Waking up' as it were.
He blinked rapidly, feeling pain in his eyes but not enough to obscure his vision, which was a bit blurry at the moment.
"There vwe fuckin' go."
Eridan blinked a bit more, rubbing at his eyes and trying to clear his vision.
"C'mon kid, time may not hawve a meanin' here anymore but vwe still don't hawve a lot of it. You don't, at least."
He squinted as he finally processed just who was in front of him, "... Cronus Ampora?"
Cronus Ampora grinned at him from where he crouched, "Yeah, not just me though." He motioned to all around the both of them.
Eridan stiffened as he finally registers what seemed like, thousands of white eyes that were staring solely at him.
All of them belonging to two people.
Two trolls.
Of one lineage.
The ghosts of Eridan and Cronus Ampora from doomed timelines stared at him and Cronus from a good distance. Surrounding them in the dark bubble.
"You're late to the party kid, but that's okay. You're not stayin' here vwith us." Cronus dragged him to his feet, "You'wve got somethin' more important to do."
==> Be Jane Crocker