Chapter Text
Jane Crocker stands at her window, hands splayed out across her desk. Across the room, her husktop pings, over and over and over again, with the special notification sound she set for Jake specifically. It’s a sound that begs to be ignored and paid attention to somehow simultaneously.
The light of the pink moon of Alternia falls across her room, and Jane looks up at it. It's almost blindingly bright. She remembers from learning about Earth that the star it orbited could blind a person if they looked at it too long.
Jane sighs heavily, allowing herself to kneel at her desk, looking up at the pink moon almost reverently. When she was much younger, and the Empire hadn’t quite perfected the lusii-translawaver, she would often talk to the moon as her friend. It's silly, in hindsight, of course, what does a big pink rock in the sky really have in common with her?
Though as a child, she drew those parallels. The pink moon was near-fuschia, an almost-royalty, and it was lonely, Jane thought, orbiting Alternia but never quite joining it. Seeing it, but being fundamentally separate.
It was nonsense, Jane thinks, and brushes it off. She has more important work to do if she is ever to be an effective empress.
Jane settles at her desk, ignoring, for now, the flashing Trollian icon in her taskbar and instead drawing out the detailed documentation on Alternia’s legal system, as well as the annotations she’d been making. Her entire life, save for maybe the first sweep, had been spent planning for her eventual reign, assuming her championship. She hasn't allowed herself the space to think about the other possibilities.
One sweep. That's all she had left.
As a child, Jane knew someone. She had a brother, a sweep older than herself, and the only reason she remembers him is the expression on his face and the wails as the drones took her away.
Knowing Alternia, he’s probably dead now.
And that's why she's going to fix it. It’ll be slow going, but Jane will fix everything.
Some of the files deep, deep in the Empire’s encrypted folders detail the legal systems of the old world. Jane’s read almost every document on there, with Roxy’s help, and she so dearly wishes she could have seen them in action. So much of the old world’s media is destroyed, of course, so she will never get the chance, not unless she reinstates it.
Jane works for a while and the moon escapes the bounds of her window. Ships sail by. Jane mutes Trollian to focus, before finally, after hours poring over her computer, she opens it.
tipsyGnostalgic [TG] began trolling gutsyGumshoe [GG]
TG: -> jaaaneeeyyyyyyyyy <-
TG: -> urgh <-
TG: -> jaaaaane r u yhere <-
TG: -> siggggnnnnnnn <-
TG: -> i guess yr in onew of yiur legal sprints again <-
TG: -> whenevrs youre back online <-
TG: -> osme troll told me to give you her trols tag <-
TG: -> cuttlefishCuller <-
TG: -> shes fushcia too!!! <-
TG: -> jane? <-
TG: -> rlly not there huh <-
TG: -> ok <-
TG: -> ill ttyl then ;3 <-
GG: Hey Roxy! Sorry, I just saw this.
GG: Yeah, I got caught up in some research.
GG: Are you sure its saffe to talk to her?
Roxy doesn’t respond immediately, so Jane tabs over to see what Jake’s been messaging her about. It’s a whole bunch of relationship baloney, and she’s really not jonesing for any sort of conciliatory quadrant with him, so she tabs out of it just as swiftly.
TG: -> JANE! <-
TG: -> umm it should be! <-
TG: -> according 2 nepeta shes reaching out for th ‘sake of displocmacy’ so i dont thiiink shed be all ready 2 kill you quite yet :p <-
GG: I suppose so!
GG: Still.
GG: What about HIC?
TG: -> mmmmmm… i thnk you should be ok there 2! <-
GG: Roxy?
TG: -> mmmmmhm? <-
GG: Would you mind making a memo with the two off us?
GG: I know it’s a lot to ask.
TG: -> oh umm <-
TG: -> see i dont like <-
TG: -> rlly know her? its more that nepeta does! <-
TG: -> but yea ok <-
GG: You can add Nepeta too.
TG: -> sounds good!!! <-
GG: Thanks, Rox.
TG: -> aw of course janey! <-
TG: -> anythin for the future empress ;3 <-
tipsyGnostalgic [TG] ceased trolling gutsyGumshoe [GG]
Jane sits back in her chair and waits for Roxy to make the memo, fiddling with the sleeve of her jacket. If CC isn’t genuinely benign, she has to have a contingency plan. Roxy’s helped her figure out how to manage a small fleet of drones, so there’s always that. From what she knows about the other heiress, she’s about half a sweep older, and humans, unfortunately, pale in comparison to trolls when it comes to physical ability.
You try not to think about that, and make sure you know the code for the drones, as well as checking to see that your transportaliser is intact.
tipsyGnostalgic [TG] started trolling gutsyGumshoe [GG]
TG: -> ok ok ok ok ok <-
TG: -> even got a hells of awesome banner <-
TG: -> check it <-
TG:
GG: Oh.
GG: Wow.
TG opened memo on board fish family reuninyon.
CURRENT gutsyGumshoe [CGG] responded to memo.
CURRENT arsenicCatnip [CAC] responded to memo.
CURRENT cuttlefishCuller [CCC] responded to memo.
CCC: )(—---------ELLO!!!!
CCC: OMG!!!!!!
CCC: Jane I’ve been SOOOOOOOOO —-----------EXCIT—------ED to meet you!!!! 38D
CGG: Ah. Hello?
CGG: I’m affraid to say I hardly know anything about you.
CCC: Oh that’s ok!!!
CCC: I’ve been looking for you!
CGG: Why, might I ask?
CCC: Because we’re fishters, DU)(!!!!
CGG: Ffishters?
CCC: Sisters!
CGG: I thought trolls didn’t have those.
CCC: Whale, NORMALLY we don’t. But you and I are kind of a special case, don’t you think? 38D
CCC: I mean, it’s knot very ofin that there’s ANOT)(-ER fuschia blood your age!
CCC: Or, almost your age.
CCC: I forget that you’re half a sweep younger than me!
CCC: ANYWAYS!!!!
CCC: How are you? How’s your time on Alternia been? Humans are soooo fascinating!!
CCC: I’m so glad I can fin-ally meet you!
CGG: I… It’s good to meet you too. It’s Ffefferi, right?
CCC: RIG)(T!
Feferi continues to talk at Jane for the next few hours or so. Far off, in a castle in a fishbowl, a princess finally feels just a little bit less alone. But here, in an endlessly large hive by the sea, a young woman fears for her life as she looks into the reflection of her designated caste.
Soon, she will start to see Feferi as an ally, and further off the two will bond over the pressures of imminent challenge, and further still will the two begin to formulate a plan to dethrone their shared ancestor. For now, Jane considers, not for the first time, changing her text colour, and the moon hangs high in the sky.