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

[parodeity]

[ dave refuses to clarify, simply shrugging. ]

You never understood it anyway. [ said to john although he’s watching the other patrons instead. ]

[grimdeity]

Twelve-- or twenty-four are multiples of four, if that means anything. Four times three, four times six.

[livingdeadgirl]

Well, I thought the trolls had two teams of six... unless it was actually four teams...?

[she's even more confused now sob]

[alienates]

[ karkat looks confused until he suddenly remembers dirk and jake. he has memories of jake at least, but he knows dirk also was a part of this all, and that they mentioned other girls? and jake mentioned other trolls, which karkat thought was odd but it didn't really hit him that they were different trolls until just now since he still hadn't gotten enough memories of his trolls yet at the time. ]

No, we only split up into two teams, Ami. Blue and red. I think it's... other people who were playing? Cause I know Jake and Dirk weren't playing with you guys, but they played the game. And Jake mentioned some troll girls and one of the descriptions just flat out does not match anyone I know. Right?

[ he's lookin' at dave ]

[parodeity]

[ meenah or aranea probably.

dave looks over at rose, and the past her at john. ]

[windeity]

[He also glances at Rose and then over the top of her head to Dave before there's a half-shrug since this part is definitely news to him.]

I don't think any of us had other contact with trolls besides you guys. I wasn't even sure Jake and Dirk were playing the game at all. [Which means Roxy must have been, too, and he glances at Dave and Rose again.]

...we all know that Jake, Roxy and Dirk used to be on the network and we can believe that they played the game. But who can tell me what the problem is with that?

[Who the fuck is the fourth person in that group?]

[parodeity]

There isn't one.

[ and dave looks away again, contemplating the table. ]

[livingdeadgirl]

It just means we don't know who the eighth human is. Or the other twelve trolls.

[Oh yeah, and exposition booth girl... out of 24, that could be friggin' anybody. HOMESTUCK PLS...

Ami squeezes the bridge of her nose. The complication pile doesn't stop from getting taller.]

Maybe... maybe we should come back to that later. What all do we remember about the game itself? Did it have a name?

[grimdeity]

Perhaps we'll learn if more people become aware of Retrospec and such-- that happens periodically, yes?

[ she's tapping her pen on her notebook, looking at dave because if anyone knows the name it's him since she knows he knows a lot and is just, being coyer than a victorian girl with her skirts. ]

[windeity]

It happens, yeah. [Skipping right over the name of the game because he actually doesn't know it yet.] Let's take into account how long everybody's been on this stupid thing. Rose, for example you used to have the app and then you didn't and now you do again. Ami, Karkat and Dave have been around for months and then I just learned about it in September. So I guess that means technically I'm the last "new" user from our universe.

Maybe there's a time limit or something? Like how long it takes for people from certain places to learn about the app. I've been wondering about that anyway. And a better question--[God where is he going with this.]--is why us specifically? Is there a reason or was it like "hey, these dumbasses seem convenient, let's just grab them"?

[parodeity]

[ it's not about their universe, so dave actually answers with his legitimate opinion, although it's flippant-sounding: ]

They probably grabbed whoever they could. With the spread of people across worlds, and what those people are or aren't like, it's more like reachin' into a bag of scrabble tiles and pulling out as big a handful as you can rather than anything more specific, I think.

[grimdeity]

And I don't remember having the app before. [ not sure it Matters but it bugs her? ] It would be nice to have, I don't know, a master chart of all Retrospec users with their "universes" and when they learned about the app. Or when Retrospec let them into the app.

Important question-- if we're scrabble tiles, how much are we each worth? [ trips and falls off topic ]

[parodeity]

You’re absolutely a ten-pointer. [ immediately and without hesitation ] Or at least an eight, with the extra two points earned from your association with me?

[windeity]

[It does matter excuse.]

That is a big project and I have no idea it is something I really want to do. I asked someone else about seeing if there have been people who come back to the app and remember everything but so far there hasn't been an answer.

[He grins lightly because Striders, but the sooner he supplies information the sooner he can understand what's going on here.]

Pretty sure it was called Sburb though.

[parodeity]

It happens sometimes. Aki’s back online now as of this month and she went off in August. That really aggressive cat person once said they forgot too, I think? Then Rose, obviously.

[ to answer that question more helpfully. ]

[grimdeity]

Wow, Dave, you're worth more than two points. Maybe even three.

It would be an effort. Someone should do it, maybe not us. [ someone who gives more of a shit ] Sburb? Like Suburb but missing a u? What a stupid name.

[ glancing at the poor former trolls who have to suffer the three of them. ]

[parodeity]

I’m sure as fuck not gonna. And not everyone would answer, anyway, and that’s their business. But Egbert isn’t wrong.

[ he glances over at rose. ]

So you think it sounds stupid? Not like somethin’ you wanna play.

[alienates]

Aki said that she just suddenly forgot anything weird was happening, and that when she got the app back, she was just... aware again? I didn't get to ask her more about that in detail since it would require us talking for longer than five minutes without getting into a slap fight, but I can bother her about it later.

[ he frowns. ]

Do any of you think the name's clever then?

[parodeity]

No. Everythin’ has stupid as fuck names that tried to be clever or as obscure as possible.

[grimdeity]

Hm.

[ just hm. ]

Depends on the premise of the game, I imagine. And I imagine I must have previously liked the premise if I decided to play it? The title does not instill much interest in me, however.

[parodeity]

What if I told you that you’d get to see a cat?

[ why is rose the way she is ]

[grimdeity]

Then my interest had been piqued.

[ WELL IF THERE'S CATS SHE'S IN ]

[windeity]

[He shoots Dave a look.]

Dude...[It's soft and mostly a way to warn him to stop making this harder than it needs to be.] I mean he's right, we didn't meet Mewpac--Mutini--until we started playing the game.

[He chews on his lip for a moment. He's not sure he wants to continue, but at the same time...]

I do not even really know what the premise was, I don't remember that part, but you tried to get Dave to play first and then you and I started playing. [He frowns though before he glances at the former-trolls, too.] But I don't remember talking to any of the trolls until after we started playing. I think maybe I talked to Karkat first? Not sure, but that is who I remembered first.

[parodeity]

[ - well, the look shuts dave up at least, although he’s pretty sure that was why rose played.

so he doesn’t point out he remembers them speaking to the trolls before the game, slouching in his seat instead, expression returning to neutral from the animation talking to rose has given it. after a second he tries to snag rose’s pen to doodle in her notebook. ]

[alienates]

I think I might have spoken to you a few times before you started playing? I am pretty sure I talked to Jade at least and the way she replied to me made it seemed like it was a usual occurrence.

[ the.... super well thought out trolling..... yes ]