GIVE ME YOUR PANCAKES [closed]

[livingdeadgirl]

WHO: the Homestucks
WHERE: IHOP
WHEN: forward dated to Wednesday the 8th, afternoon
WHAT: comparing notes on memories. also pancakes.
WARNINGS: may contain gratuitous amounts of Homestuck

[Ami arrives at IHOP shortly after she gets out of school for the day. Her lusus follows dutifully behind her, wearing a smart red vest with the words "SERVICE DOG" on it. She's a little early, but she's got some kanji practice worksheets to kill time with, so she does that. Anyway, the repetitive motion soothes her nerves about this a bit. She's spent most of the week alternating between "this is exciting" and "this is the worst idea I've ever had," and overthinking what she should say, what information she should volunteer, and so on.

It's a corner booth, so there's plenty of room for all five of them if need be! Or at least there will be once Ami's lusus stops napping on the bench.]

Comments

[windeity]

[There are a lot of mixed feelings here but at the same time, ultimately, John knows this is for the best and can only hope to handle all of this as gracefully as possible. Sunday came and went and they all rescheduled so he cleared his time on Wednesday to be sure. He knew that Dave had a shift at one place or another but the timing worked for now. So Ami's not along for too long before John and Dave enter the restaurant. It's hard to miss the lusus sitting there and while John pauses briefly to stare at it, he doesn't stop for too long before he begins to lead Dave forward.

It'll be fine. So he grins at least.]

I did not think I'd have to be fighting for a seat, but fair enough. [Keep it light and simple. But he'll slide into whatever space he can and leave Dave to follow.]

[parodeity]

[ dave follows, but not that far. he perches on the edge of the booth seat, not sliding in that close to john or anyone else, and while he takes in the lusus he doesn't really comment on it. for the moment he's just fucking around on his phone, apparently not intending to say much or grab a menu; for all appearances he doesn't intend to actually eat anything at ihop.

he's in a sweater and jeans and his shades and is wearing his typical neutral expression without any hint as to what he's thinking beyond the obvious lack of casual chatter indicating he's either tired or not relaxed. ]

[livingdeadgirl]

[John she was expecting. Dave she was very much not expecting.]

Ah...! Y-yeah, sorry, let me just...

[She scrambles to put her homework away, although it's really not taking up that much room. Shit, what should she do?? She knows she should apologize to Dave. She knows she messed up. But she's still not 100% sure what she should be apologizing for, or what she needs to do to make things right. She's still trying to figure out what her definition of friendship is, much less why there's some fundamental difference between hers and his.

So in the meantime, she focuses on John, and kind of... avoids looking at Dave. Cause that'll help, definitely.]

Glad you, uh, glad you guys could make it!

[alienates]

[ well, before anything too awkward can happen, karkat is going to walk into the ihop. again, it really does not take too long for him to spot the group. someone on the outside would probably wonder why it took them all so long to do something like this, but on the other hand

eh.

he'll sit down closer to ami and he will... pause at the lusus though. ]

Service dog. Really. [ only in recolle could that ever fly. he'll grab a menu though. you guys can carry on being awkward? ]

[grimdeity]

[ rose will also appear, out of smoke, dressed in stars-- well, more like out of the bus and through the door and wearing a black cardigan peppered with stars, but. she has a notebook and pen in hand. at best she'll take notes of the meeting, at worst she'll work on an essay for class. win win. ]

Well, greetings. Are we all here? [ she'll slide in near dave and probably force him to sit closer to someone or risk having his sister in his lap.

she's also going to casually ignore any tension but also make a mental note to write it down later? sorry. ]

[parodeity]

[ haha fun fact he’s more willing to have rose half in his lap than he is to shift closer, so he’s just going to steady her with an arm around her waist ]

[windeity]

[He's just. Going to subtly shove his fingers under his glasses and rub at his left eye because this is already going well, but he otherwise keeps calm and also grabs a menu just under the guise of relaxing.]

Looks like it. Unless someone else showed up in the last batch of new people but I did not see anyone I might have recognized.

[alienates]

[ listen? it could definitely be worse?? he just quirks an eyebrow at rose and dave, but mostly since rose is the person he's spoken to the least here, though they've probably had classes together at high school?? anyway. ]

As far as I know we are the only assholes on this ride so we might as well start.

[ how the fuck are they going to start ]

Okay, so. We'll get the obvious out of the way, which is we all apparently played the same game and got sucked into a mess of an adventure. [ he gestures at himself and ami ] We're trolls, you're humans, and we harassed you guys through time because. Uh. The reason isn't important, [ lmao ] but that's how our connection started. Now everyone is free to add in facts that aren't that general if they want.

[parodeity]

[ he’ll stop playing with his phone, but it occurs to dave he doesn’t even have to share. he just has to listen to john or rose tell everyone the shit he told them one on one. maybe it would be better to offer up something to avoid that eventuality but he still doesn’t really want to.

so he picks the one thing in that he objects to in a way that isn’t quiet resignation: ]

The reason is stupidity, you mean.

[windeity]

[He props his chin up in his hand and glances at the rest of them as best as he can which means kind of turning at an angle.]

I remember some things that you told me, Karkat. Mostly about our session, which, by the way, thank you for being really helpful. [The tone's dry, but there's a small grin though because he's mostly teasing.] I think where we should probably start is with what Ami and Rose know? Rose and I are the ones who got here most recently, but the meeting was Ami's idea so I'd be interested in knowing what parts you guys know already? If everybody else is cool with that.

[grimdeity]

[ jfc dave. she will slide over his lap to his other side if he lets her this is weird.

rose maintains a blank look (not as blank as SOME STRIDERS but) because she's already pretty sure she knows the least of everyone here, but intends to Fix That. she sets out her notebook and pen. ]

Everything is stupidity, Dave, that's not news.

I think Ami should go first, since she is technically our host. And I'm not sure how much I can offer, myself.

[parodeity]

[ he lets her with some relief and now he has rose between him and john and he’s perched on the edge of the bench not touching rose, either, arms crossing over his chest so he has something to do with them. ]

Extra stupidity. [ murmured but he’s apparently not going to object to the game plan even if he’s not really contributing much at all. ]

[livingdeadgirl]

[Ami, meanwhile, gently pokes her lusus until it scoots over so they can have a little more room. Her lusus sits up just enough to rest its head on the table, where it watches the others through horizontal pupils.

As she's putting her homework away, she also wrestles something else out of a tote bag that I just remembered she has, and opens it up on the table. Who's this douchebag? It's the Crosbytop. It seems she is also going to take notes, and/or has already made some to look off of, which she is now taking a second to open up the file.]

Yeah! Yeah, I can do that. Just a sec...

[windeity]

[And now there's a lusus. Okay. Sure. Why not? He's patiently waiting an eyeballing the laptop because that's a weirdly-shaped computer but again, sure, why not?

The two girls are taking notes and he suddenly wonders if they're supposed to take notes, too.]

Sure. I think the three of us are also interested in hearing stuff from the troll side anyway.

[grimdeity]

[ rose eyes the lusus which she. doesn't know what a lusus probably is but sure, why not. ]

Interesting laptop.

[ notes are for the velmas of this scooby doo gang. or well. ami is technically shaggy with her lusus??? ]

[livingdeadgirl]

Thanks. I got it from the magic mailbox.

[Ah, here it is!]

Okay, so... I guess I will just start by introducing her! My past self's name was Aradia, and she was a troll, obviously. She lived on the trollplanet, way out in the countryside, with her lusus. That's this girl. [She pats her lusus's head, and it makes a little snuffling noise. Buuut oh yeah do all of them know what that means?] Oh, um, a lusus is what trolls have instead of parents. Karkat, you had one, too, right?

[That you... blew up...]

[alienates]

Yup. Good ol' crab monster lusus.

[ he says this while staring intently at the menu so his facial expression won't betray him here. he feels bad about blowing up his lusus??? ]

There were twelve of us total, but I don't remember talking to all of them yet. Which, you know, seems to be a good thing because apparently trolls are fucking crazy.

[livingdeadgirl]

Nepeta was nice.

[I mean she had the whole constant role-playing and the cat puns, but that was cute and harmless. Dear, sweet, precious Neepta.]

But yeah, let's see, uh... [She closes her eyes to think.] I remember... one who had clown paint and claw marks on his face. One was a girl with cool red sunglasses. There was a girl who glowed. Uh, there was Karkat... And a guy with four horns, with one white eye and one black eye.

[Adds quickly and quietly-] And horse porn guy I guess. But we don't talk about horse porn guy.

[parodeity]

[ gamzee, terezi, kanaya, sollux.

he remembers the handle of probable horse porn guy but doesn’t think he knows the name. dave slants his gaze over towards rose, for some reason. the reason being, mostly, that he remembers who kanaya was to her. ]

[windeity]

[Give him a second because he's counting that out on his fingers. Karkat, Aradia, a clown, Terezi, a glow-girl, four-horns...that's six. He doesn't recognize the name "Nepeta" so that's seven, but he's also subtly counting out an eighth finger.

Vriska. That leaves four more unnamed or unknown trolls.]

I have a lot of questions about why someone is called horse porn guy, but okay. A lot of those aren't familiar to me? [...but sure. He gives Dave and Rose a curious look himself.] They're all...really different from each other. A girl who glows isn't familiar to me either.

[At the same time, something dawns on him that he's not quite verbally saying. If Dave had Terezi, and he had Vriska, then does that mean the girls had their own trolls, too?]

[alienates]

Equius is horse porn guy. He's actually the one I was going to tell you about in private, Egbert. [ ... ] Nnnnot about the horse porn though. The clown is Gamzee, Terezi is the one with the red glasses, I have no idea which one of us apparently glows like a nightlife? When the fuck were we able to do that?

[ ????? ]

Feferi, Eridan, Sollux, Kanaya, Tavros, and Vriska are all of the others who played in our game. Some of them I remember speaking to in person, others I only spoke to in messages, and then there are other ones I never spoke to at all or I've seen them but didn't say anything to them.

[parodeity]

You weren't.

[ thanks dave. he means karkat couldn't glow. because he couldn't. ]

[grimdeity]

[ horse.... porn guy ok that's weird. rose is scribbling notes. ]

I've only seen Kanaya, I think. In person.

[ only troll she's seen anyway, otherwise she's also seen. dave and a cat, not in that order. ]

[livingdeadgirl]

[Ami types out the names, and notices a discrepancy.]

So including Karkat and me, and Nepeta, that's thirteen... I don't remember who the glowy girl was, but she must be one of the twelve, right? Her horns were like this.

[she puts her fingers to her head to mime the horns. one finger held straight up, the other slightly bent to the outside.]

One kind of straight, one with a little barb.

[windeity]

[...??? He's recounting everything he just heard.]

Where are you getting thirteen? You and Karkat are two. Then there's Nepeta and Equius. Four. Gamzee and Terezi is six, Feferi and Eridan is eight. Sollux and Kanaya is ten, and then Tavros and Vriska are the last two. Unless you guys know something we don't...? And if you don't remember the glowy girl how do you know what her horns looked like?

[Maybe John's just having a hard time following because Homestuck is stupid, but he's a little lost suddenly.]