01 [video]

[windyheir]

[A young boy happens to be standing in the middle of Frogtown, with the bottom half of his pants wet from sloshing through the water in the streets. But he has stopped wandering for the moment, and he is looking into his mirror with a more-than-slightly alarmed look on his face.

As he is talking various Huglu can be seen behind him, going about their daily business. A couple stop to look at John curiously, but within seconds they continue on their way.]

Okay, I need to find someone. Her name's Jade, and she looks kinda like me but she's a girl and she's got dog ears. If you see her I really really REALLY need to talk to her as soon as I can, so yeah. If anyone knows where she is, I'd appreciate it if you told me.

And Jade? If you get this message, I swear I didn't do anything to the frogs this time. They were like that when I found them.

Comments

[whomheloved]

Well, sort of? Caste doesn't matter as much here, thankfully, but it's simply part of being a troll that gives us all different blood colours.

[windyheir]

Aaaah, I get it! So this Rosa person and the troll I talked to just have the same blood color, that's all.

...wait, so trolls type in the color of their blood?

[whomheloved]

That's right! But as I said, there aren't that many jadebloods. It's a rare colour to have.

Mmhmm, of course we do! Why?

[windyheir]

Well, I saw someone type with green, and two kinds of blue, and then grey. That's pretty varied!

[whomheloved]

I type in green! And then there's cerulean and blue, so it was probably those you saw, but gray...gray isn't actually on the hemospectrum. Trolls only use it to hide their actual colour.

...is that the colour Karkat types in?

[windyheir]

Yeah, actually it is. I don't know why he would want to hide his blood color, though. Maybe it's a leader thing? Like, he doesn't want to be 'above' or 'below' anyone, so he picked a color that's not even on the hemo-thingy?

[whomheloved]

[Disciple looks thoughtful - she's pretty sure she knows exactly why Karkat would hide his blood colour, but she doubts he'd appreciate her telling anyone about it who doesn't already know.]

Perhaps that's it. Trolls shouldn't consider themselves any better or worse than anyone else just because of the blood colour they're born with, after all.

[windyheir]

Yeah, I never really got that either. Then again, humans all have the same blood color, so it's never been a big deal to me anyway. I wouldn't care if Karkat bled rainbows, he's still a friend.

[whomheloved]

[That gets a smile out of her, a genuinely happy smile.]

I hope that one day most trolls will feel the same way about it.

[windyheir]

Well, you never know. Times are changing, right? Maybe by the time the trolls I know all grow up, things will be different.

[whomheloved]

They've mentioned that...Alternia is gone for them, though, isn't it? [She keeps forgetting since it's so hard to believe.]

[windyheir]

Yeah. I think it happens to everyone who plays sburb. My world is gone too.

[He never really thought about it much, but somehow it seems heavier now that he's really thinking about it.]

[whomheloved]

Oh...

Oh, I'm so sorry.

[windyheir]

Don't worry about it, it's not your fault. Plus me and my friends are gonna fix it, so it's okay.

[whomheloved]

[She smiles, hoping to look encouraging.]

I'm sure you will. You sound like a very determined young tro...human.

[windyheir]

Hehe you almost called me a troll.

[whomheloved]

I'm not used to being surrounded by so many aliens! I'm sorry.

[windyheir]

I could say the same too! I never met a non-human before I met the trolls.

[whomheloved]

Well, you'll certainly be meeting a lot of non-humans here! And not just us!