ACT 1

Meenah Peixes held the thin wrapping that covered the Sgrub disc in her magenta-dyed fingernails. Finally, after months of waiting, it had finally arrived on her lonely hive on the moon. The Resigned Empress was eager to inform her only friend of the game's arrival, but first she surveyed the lonely planet she was living on. It was pretty much always night here, but the heat of the Beforan sun still scorched her in the daytime. The rocky, barren landscape that matched the color of her own royal blood was harsh and unforgiving. Meenah had been lucky to get the assistance of some relocation drones to get her hive from the depths of the Ocean to this dead, but thankfully isolated place. )-(ad she been some other lowblood, she probably wouldn't have had the money (or the inflowance) to arrange this.

Peixes alone remembered to take a good final look at the landseascape surrounding her hive; she was the only one who knew where they would be going. The HorrorTerrors had whispered to her in the night of the riches of Sgrub: power, wealth, the chance to start this race over, and rule the finished product as not only an Empress, but a Goddess. The only thing that stood in her wave (that she knew of at the moment) where the other 11 chum(p)s that would go with her.

She looked down briefly at her home world, Beforus, scowling when she thought of the people living down there. It was a happy world that knew no subjugation, very little fear, and very little pain. To put it in perspective of Alternia, Beforus still had the same hemospectrum and the same quadrants, but they were dealt with very differently. Flushed feelings were based on (ideally) genuine love, and moirallegiance based on friendship; the term "pity" used as it was on Alternia would bewilder the average Beforan troll (except for one particular individual). The hemospectrum still existed, but it only meant something to the few trolls that still clung to the way things had been before the passing of the Blood Purity Act by the mostly blue and purple blooded Parliament, which stated that all discrimination for trolls based on blood color was prohibited. It also banned trolls from being subject to assigned occupations based on blood color. Of course, Meenah didn't care about something silly like this; she was the Empress, after all, and no one else was willing to have her job! Beforans had sent a number of diplomatic missions to the neighboring planets to engage in trade agreements. Most alien races were willing to deal with them, as they had no organized military to speak of whatsoever. Because the planet had not been focused on military conquest, television and the Internet had developed much faster on Beforus than on Alternia. In this universe, it had already been around long enough for good titles for shows to be invented. So there weren't any "film in which a dashing young upstart has an affair with a princess of the neighboring kingdoms" to speak of. As for quadrants, filling them was not mandatory, but instead recommended to improve one's life and health. Recent studies had shown that even kissmeses had some psychological justification. Nonetheless, most were auspicticized. If the auspicticise failed to mediate between the two properly and one of the trolls in kissmesis killed the other, then the auspicticise would be charged with trollslaughter, and the murdering troll with...murder. Speaking of crimes, any troll was free to pursue law as an occupation because of the Blood Purity Act, and this and many other professional jobs were opened up to trolls who had previously been marked as "lowbloods", who were now on equal footing with most other trolls. Freedom of speech and criticism of the Empress and the Highbloods (called the Royal Administration after the Blood Purity Act allowed lowbloods to go into politics) were also allowed. Meenah, of course, didn't care what others thought of her and would rather be eviscerated than answer criticisms from fudgebloods. Ever since she had moved up here, petitions had been sent to her almost monthly from trolls wishing for her to return to her home world. They loved her, they said, and they wanted her back to rule with benevolence and peace. Meenah tried not to gag thinking about the words. Love?! Peace?! Benivalve-no, wait, Benellveol-she couldn't even think of a suitable fish pun for that disgusting word. What she longed more than anything was a world of violence, of death and destruction and threats...or at least excitement. She'd come to regret that wish.

Just before logging onto Trollian, she glanced briefly at the green moon known only as Angloss(Meenah liked the name becuase it sounded like "anglers"). She liked it better because of its lack of inhabitants.

Cetaceous Catastrophe (CC) began trolling Arachne's Gift (AG):

CC: )-(ey girl get your everything on we're starting this thing! 38)

AG: Why, hello there, Meenah! ::::) I take it you received your Sburb disc? 8oth the server and client ones?

CC: yeah let's just get going already! i'm insailing the game bight now!

AG: I see-or should I say sea-that you're continuing the overusage of fish puns.

CC: fish puns are the depth charge you know that Serket

AG: Depth charge? I'm afr8d I don't-

CC: Bomb ya plop in the water. jegus aranea i don't want you gettin your expo on about how you don't know some carp. portsides you pretty smart on other things i don't care about

AG: So, the wave-see, I deli8er8tely used a fish pun!-you mock my ignorance a8out a nautical weapon used for war constitutes ignorance to you, and even as I live in a peaceful place that has seen no war for centuries? Also, now that we have shed some light on this topic, I must say I really hope what you said regarding the game's rewards for the players that 8eat it, including the thing you mentioned a8out limitless knowledge, turn out to 8e true. In recent sweeps I've had strange dreams, Meenah-almost as strange as the ones that you told me a8out-although they have 8een less dark and grim in regards to content. A whispering voice-she calls herself Mindfang-keeps telling me that I am to 8ecome a har8ringer of knowledge that will 8e mine to spread 8y word of mouth. Perhaps then my 8a88ling-or 8u88ling, as you call it-will finally 8e put to good use. And may8e the same can 8e said of the destructive nature that you've 8een har8oring for so long. 8efore you type in protest, let me remind that I make no judgement upon these feelings, unlike certain others who type in a text color that mirrors my own.

CC: O)-( GLUB SERKET S)-(UT THE GLUB UP! do i look like i give a carp about any of your boring ass expo flotsam?

AG: Flotsam?

CC: Junk serket! junk! now whale you were bubblin i got the discs installed! how's the order goin?

AG: You are to 8e my server, and I shall 8e your client. As the server, your job is to assist me while controlling a large cursor that-

CC: aranea i told you all this and got you to pass the facts on to the others member?

AG: Oh, sorry Meenah! It's just that I've gotten adjusted to explaining this to every new player, and now that you're the last one it's just 8ecome a reflex action for me! I suppose you don't me giving you any help?

CC: gog no now just let me drag the stuff to your hive

. . . . .

It wasn't long before the Cruxtrader, Kernalsprite, and the Alchemiter were deployed in Aranea's hive. Before getting ready to enter the Medium, she messaged Meenah:

Arachne's Gift (AG) began trolling Cetaceous Catastrophe (CC)

AG: I shall 8e the first to enter. Next will 8e Meulin, of who I am the server player, and then she will send Kurloz into the game. He will 8e the server of Mituna, who will send in Cronus after he enters the game, followed 8y Kankri, who will send in Latula, who will help Porrim, who will assist Horuss-

CC: Gee that's gonna suck for her

AG: Oh, I don't think it'll 8e that 8ad! Horuss, for some reason, insisted that I make Rufioh his client player. Finally, he will send in Damara, who will send in you. I have a-premonition that it would 8e 8etter for most of us to 8egin assisting our client players just after we enter our session. With the exception of me, of course.

CC: Megido? can't say i know her reel whale 38|

AG: It will work. Trust me. ;;;;)

CC: okay but only cause your my frond 38)

AG: Thank you. ::::)

Aranea logged out of Trollian and searched around her hive. She picked up an old plastic 8 ball her lusus had got her as wiggler, knowing exactly what this would be used for. She placed onto the kernel sprite, and it came to life as a floating blue 8 ball. Along with it came several punchcards. As she went to the cruxite dowel to get them to make totem lathes, she could almost hear Mindfang whispering to her. She couldn't hear the exact words she was saying, but she felt that her ancestor was giving her instructions, the same ones she was following right now. As Arenea took the totem lathes to the Alchemiter, she briefly wondered how she knew what to do with only Meenah's terse explanations given months ago before any of their Sgrub games arrived. Mindfang. Surely it was Mindfang. But who was she, really? Was she even trustworthy, or some sort of game construct meant to prepare players before they play? Some sort of computer program? No. Aranea had a vague intuition (or perhaps it was Mindfang herself?) that told her that Mindfang was none of these things. She was speaking to her alone.

As Aranea activated the Alchemiter, she suddenly saw a pair of dice appear.

"Make 8," Mindfang whispered, this time clearly enough for Aranea to hear. She picked up the dice, throwing them several times, not getting a six and a two. She groaned in frustration.

"Ugggghhhh! What does this have to do with knowledge?"

"You also domin8 over luck," Mindfang replied. "Focus and see."

Aranea took a deep 8reath, rolled the dice, and got an 8. 8efore she could react, her hive, her sprite, and her lusus lurking 8eneath her disappeared into the Medium.

This is my first Homestuck fanfic, and boy is it going to be a bit off a long one! Let me know if you have trouble discerning troll dialogue, not necessarily their typing quirks but just the chats in general. When I first typed this thing out for my own entertainment, all the text was appropriately colored, but I don't think this site allows colored text :(

Please give reviews, so long as they're substantial! Also, how well did I do on Meenah? Isn't she the coolest?