Chapter Text
Your name is Rose Lalonde and right this moment you are wishing you were anybody else besides her.
So for the sake of narrative clarity and Rose's sanity we are going to change things up a bit.
Shit.
Let's be the narrator.
On yet another one of the seemingly infinite and endless mornings on the massive rock hurtling through the void that the small group of humans and ex-Alternians presently called their home, several of them went through the familiar motions of beginning another day. Night. Whatever.
In the common room, Rose and Kanaya sat upon the plush burgundy couch. Kanaya pored over yet another new tome they'd unearthed from the library housed in the labyrinthine depths of the meteor. Rose sat there beside Kanaya, staring off into space. Or rather, wished that she was someplace where space that she could stare off into actually existed. So she did the metaphorical equivalent of that, as one does. Though she feigned a relaxed posture, every single fiber of muscle in her body ached. Were she to move, it would be forced and rigid, and so she remained statuesque. Dutifully perched by her matesprit's side, as one does.
Perhaps 'dutifully' is the wrong word here, but since we're the narrator and we have full authorial license, we'll just stick with that. Even though the more apt phrase would probably be 'obligatorily.' That's the sort of word Rose would choose, if we happened to be her instead of the narrator, and if she were actually being fully honest with herself about the scope of the precarious situation she’d landed herself in.
Never in her wildest, most tawdry-novel-fueled teenage dreams could Rose Lalonde have possibly ever imagined dealing with the sort of predicament she now faced. It's unreal. Shenanigans like this don't even happen (most of the time).
Motion at the edge of her field of vision brought Rose's consciousness down from whatever higher plane it was trying to slip off to in order to escape the trappings of her mortal flesh-vessel and its present persistent aches. Rose was pretty sure that all the things ached right now. All of them. But Vriska Serket stepping into the common room, sauntering with an air of nonchalance and ambivalence made it impossible for Rose not to notice her, impossible not to think and feel things about Vriska she'd rather not think or feel right now, so it’s probably good that Rose was already running completely on empty.
The object of her attention cast a glance in her direction. Their direction, rather. Rose tilted her head slightly and saw Kanaya look up from her book to watch Vriska approach the counter and start assembling her breakfast. Rose saw the two of them watching each other, waiting for something to happen, and she knew that it was coming. A century-long pindrop silence passed and then in the next instant, Kanaya shifted closer to Rose. The lithe troll pressed her shoulder and hip to Rose's own, lifted the book and pointed to some passage of interest, then dropped her gaze once more and spoke words that Rose couldn’t hear because a light finally went on. There.
The thing she’d been looking for.
Rose caught the most unsubtle of smirks as Vriska turned and busied herself with the cookware to carry on her meal-prep. She said nothing of course, because the conversation was already over before it could have started.
Some of the tension and ache melted away as the knowledge of what just she just saw filled Rose's spirit with a new purpose. A goal to move towards, as it always is when the powers of her aspect take the reins and nudge things along in the right direction. While Rose may not have had all the luck like somebody else she knew, she had no trouble finding her way to it. She walks the path, so to speak. Normally, at this juncture, Rose would have indulged in a bit of fist-shaking and silently cursing Skaia's name for inflicting this burden upon her, but this time she knew that she was solely to blame for this.
In her life, she is the problem. It's her.
Several weeks ago, when Vriska and Kanaya both began showering her with attention the likes of which she had never received, Rose was beyond elated. She’d reveled in it, indulged herself completely. There were no rules here on the meteor, no expectations of society to conform to or be shamed by, and most importantly: no figures of authority to impose any consequences. Every time her matesprit and kismesis sought her affection, she welcomed them. Encouraged them. Drank their love like the water of a newfound desert oasis. So parched were her mind and body that it seemed like Rose would never get her fill.
Until recently.
Lately, her partners had become so persistent that it was not only exhausting in the emotional sense... but also the physical. Having amazing sex multiple times a day with her two (2) girlfriends was more than Rose's gay little heart could have ever wished for, but she slowly came to the realization that the age-old saying about excessive quantities of good things also applied to the realm of lovemaking. Past-Rose could have died of joy from imagining these sorts of escapades, but present-Rose was now legitimately concerned about dying of actual fatigue. She wasn’t quite game for testing whether such a death would be heroic… or just.
Tragically ironic as that sort of fate may be, Rose knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was something else afoot here that had been left unaddressed. She opted to rise up, muttered a half-thought-out excuse to Kanaya, and floated wraithlike out of the room to avoid using any of her overworked leg and pelvic muscles. Vriska pretended not to notice Rose’s departure and Kanaya started to call after her, but bit her tongue and settled on looking forlorn.
Once she was out of the room, Rose smiled to herself, secure in the exact knowledge of what she needed to do next.