>CHECKMATE -- A text adventure

[Hook]

> Congratulate Weary Spokesperson on their amazingly inspiring speech.

[calamityCons]

> Give WS a hug

[MP the OP OG]

>JC: Dab

[1011686]

Give your friend a moment in the spotlight, he's deserved it.

[rubs juice]

UPDATE 4
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Regards

Show

Happy new years! Sorry for the wait. Turns out writing Jake is harder than I thought!

> Congratulate Weary Spokesperson on their amazingly inspiring speech.
> Give WS a hug
> Give your friend a moment in the spotlight, he's deserved it.

You approach the backstage area and peek in, to see your little friend drinking from a bottle of water and checking their phone. They seem satisfied with themselves, you think, and you come forwards to embrace them in a tight and heartfelt hug, and then let your hands linger holding their leathery elbows, your fingers over the gaps between the carapace where their joints were located.

JAKE: WS! That was amazing! I for one couldve never imagined you had such a way with words!
JAKE: Then again you arent much of a talker are you chap otherwise i wouldve known sooner
JAKE: Its no matter! What do you reckon we should do next my little fella?

They politely shrug off your hug, and reiterate that they’d rather you not call them little, that feels like defeating the purpose of their whole point; they’re 37, Jake. You arch your eyebrows, in an apologetic look, and shrink yourself between your shoulders to appear smaller and non-threatening.

JAKE: Oh im so terribly sorry! Old habits die hard i suppose! I never really had stopped to consider the whole chess person deal before you told me.

The carapace nods, that’s why this message was so important. They don’t expect you to change overnight, obviously, but just knowing you’re visibly making the effort and trying to change your mindset is good enough for the white-shelled person. As for next steps, they figure, probably try to spread the word around. Do some rallies, gather voices to speak for them and with them, make some real change in the world. As they speak, your eyes glimmer -- not just in admiration of WS’s amazing public speaking skills, but for the possibilities filling up your brain as they spoke. The prospect of doing some difference, of having something actually meaningful attached to your name besides having a nice ass and being a fascist’s trophy wife, fills you with hope, a small flame at the core of your chest that had been fuming miserably for years, starting to pick up again.

As they finish and cross their arms, leaning against the dressing table behind them, you spend some precious seconds chewing over your ideas, a genuine, dreamy smile shying up your lips behind your spruce mustache. Before you could speak, however, a member of the theater’s crew ushered you two out of the backstage, and you decided to take your conversation to a nearby pub; with your God-like fame -- as is to be expected -- you asked one of the garçons to take you and your companion to a secluded table, away from all the people that ask you for a selfie, or to sign their pictures of you, or that push the boundaries of a social encounter by pretending they’re closer to you than they actually are, due to the constant broadcast of your personal life on mass media.

Oh you don’t have time to psychologically unpack all that, the waiter is already setting you and WS two glasses of wine in a private room away from the salon. You take a sip and make sure nothing got stuck in your upper labial bush before you glance up at them, holding your chin.

JAKE: If we want to make this big i think we have to have more names attached. Big names i mean. People like me.

WS sips their glass with a frown, asking you what you mean.

JAKE: I have to be honest with you old chap. They dont care about your kind
JAKE: They certainly dont care about me i feel sometimes. Im not stupid you see.
JAKE: What i say what i do.
JAKE: Means very little to the world out there.
JAKE: Well,
JAKE: If we want to be taken seriously we have to attach more names to it. Some of my friends oughta be able to help!

You pull up a pen and a sliver of paper, and start listing all the other gods. WS asks you where you were keeping those. You don’t respond, and start telling them your friends’ status, to the best of your knowledge.

JAKE: Right.
JAKE: John is epically divorced,
JAKE: Roxy is too but i think shes moving on from that.
JAKE: Havent seen her in a while actually.
JAKE: Karkat meenah rose and kanaya are busy with war efforts.
JAKE: So is dear janey...
JAKE: Dave is actually missing for some time can you believe that?

They say they can.

JAKE: Poor jade...
JAKE: All alone in that little cottage in the forest.
JAKE: I have to say i wouldnt mind the solitude and im sure she doesnt either but... Nobody deserves to be alone like that right after their spouse disappears you know.
JAKE: Anyway...
JAKE: I think thats all of us.
JAKE: Of all of these i think...
JAKE: Roxy and john would be the easiest to approach.
JAKE: Since theyre not tangled in uh,
JAKE: Their race thing lets say.

WS frowns again and mentions that they haven’t heard much of Roxy on the news lately, seems like she wanted to live a calm, casual life. Maybe you shouldn’t disturb that. That being said they did see in some tabloids the idea that John doesn’t go along with Jane anymore for quite a few years now, and frankly they don’t care much for godly gossip, but maybe that could be the chance to hook him into their cause. You dwell on it over your glass, and beam back at WS.

JAKE: Yes that is perfect old chap!
JAKE: Were living together now so its pretty easy to find him!

What, why?

JAKE: I am also getting epically divorced!
JAKE: Well as soon as janey acknowledges the divorce papers...
JAKE: Ive sent them thrice now.
JAKE: Still!
JAKE: We have to pay my dear old son-brother a visit now!

You give a start to stand up, but WS points to the drink between the both of you, asking if you two shouldn’t finish up the bottle first. You stop on your tracks, considering it, and sit back down. Why not, you have plenty of time. You pour yourself and your carapace friend another drink, and you two toast to the start of a new movement. Your mind sizzles with the wishful thought of dragging John into your newest endeavor. The look on his face when you tell him what WS told you, how you feel, how you connect to it...

What will you say then?

[calamityCons]

> Ask if John has ever interacted in-person with a Carapace before. (this might remind John of that time WV honked the horn of his dad's car on the battlefield)

[toxiCaustic]

Maybe you could call up The Mayor if he’s still around. Dollars to donuts he’d be on board with this.

[Generalrabogolfo]

>dont approach it directly. try to make him think of joining without you asking him.

[rubs juice]

UPDATE 5
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First regards

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Hey! I had this 90% done for a while, but then I finished some zine work and it gave me the moxie to finish up this update! Next one will also take a fairly long time to come, mostly because it's something big and delicate. Feel free to keep suggesting things though! Thanks for sticking with me even though I'm not the most active of writers ^^'
Also regarding some Earth C canonical developments that happened in between last update and this - this isn't canon complicit! The major difference is that the four kingdoms were founded after the 5000 year skip by the kids themselves, instead of being made by mister Mayor himself. This will be explored later as well!

You fumble with your keys pathetically as you try to find the one that opens up the front door. They swirl on your fingers and jingle on your ears and then you finally find the right key. All the while, you chat excitedly with WS, who follows you folding their hands politely behind their back. With key in hand, you were almost inserting it into the keyhole, when the door opens -- and there’s your roommate. He looked at you from the top of his full height, and you notice you were hunching down to fit the key into the keyhole. Just one of these things you do. John ogles you down, puzzled, with his head slightly crooked.

JAKE: John!
JAKE: Its great i caught you around the house old chap!

> Ask if John has ever interacted in-person with a Carapace before.

John helps you stand straight, very much aware of your altered state.

JOHN: yeah, i have, jake.
JOHN: i’m in this planet pretty much the same amount of time you do, hehe.
JAKE: Then i insist you meet my little friend!
JAKE: Their name is weary spokesperson!

He looks past your shoulder to WS, and they raise an awkward hand in greeting, and then start saying they’re not actually little, before Jake cuts them.

JAKE: You saw the talk right johnny boy?
JOHN: the talk?
JAKE: The ted talk!

You stumble forward into the house, and haphazardly turn on John’s computer so he can see your friend’s amazing speech. After putting on the recorded stream you stop leaning onto the computer desk and point at it to John. He sits down and watches it. WS closes the door behind themselves and listen to their own voice, a bit embarrassed, swinging nervously on their feet. Once it ends, John glances up to you, and then back, to the carapace.

JOHN: nice speech, man!
JOHN: i think you’re right. i think it’s good you spoke up instead of, y’know, planning up a terrorist act or something.
JAKE: I got them the venue for it!
JAKE: It feels good to do something important for once in my life!
JOHN: aw man, don’t say that. you’re important!
JAKE: Say one thing i did lately besides have my ass plastered in a couple hundred billboards!
JOHN: well--
JAKE: Thats not the point!
JAKE: What i have with it is a vision!
JAKE: I want this idea to spread around all over earth c!
JAKE: Just imagine what we could accomplish!
JOHN: oh i don’t know... sounds pretty dangerous, considering the political climate.
JAKE: No johnny boy its perfect!
JAKE: It can send a message of peace too!

You then suggest something, sitting down on a poof next to your ectobiological son, and John’s shoulders slump down.

> Maybe you could call up the mayor if hes still around. Dollars to donuts hed be on board with this.

JOHN: Jesus man, how much did you two drink before coming here?

WS shrugs and gestures vaguely. Maybe a bottle or two or three. John sighs next to you, and he looks devastated.

JOHN: jake...
JOHN: the mayor died like twenty years ago!
JOHN: he got sick after we founded the carapacian kingdom, remember?
JAKE: ...
JAKE: Oh thats right.
JAKE: Then perhaps thats a dead end.
JOHN: Perhaps?
JAKE: What i mean is...

> Don’t approach it directly. Try to make him think of joining without you asking him.

JAKE: This is important to me john.
JAKE: What i see with ws and all the carapaces that clapped in that packed studio is that...
JAKE: They feel what i feel,
JAKE: That what they say doesnt matter,
JAKE: What they do doesnt matter,
JAKE: And spare the kind words old chap i know youre gonna try to cheer me up but it feels hollower than the dead tree in the backyard
JAKE: I know that they wont listen to me.
JAKE: Theyll treat it all like tabloid gossiping!
JAKE: Put it right next to whoevers new nose job and so and so’s wedding at the church of saint jegus!
JAKE: They wont listen to me because im entertainment to everyone
JAKE: Just the same way they wont listen to ws by themself.
JAKE: The same way we...
JAKE: Didnt listen to the mayor.
JAKE: These people need someone important to put their foot down and say,
JAKE: No!
JAKE: Maybe treating seventy percent of the population of the world like little lap dogs isnt very nice at all!
JAKE: So what i mean to say i think,
JAKE: Is that a civil rights movement doesnt start with a nice ass and a single spokesperson.

John stays silent. You start to sober up, but your words hit you emotionally all the same, and you feel that if you kept speaking, maybe you’d act like a blubbering idiot. He runs his hand through his hair, and two fingers on his mustache, and then finally say.

JOHN: what the hell, i’m in.
JOHN: i have to stop moping around the house anyway.
JOHN: but you gotta stop that self defeatist way of thinking, man!
JOHN: it’s not good for you.

You shrug, a bit self-conscious, but you’re beaming nonetheless. You stand up and hug your ecto-son, and pull WS in as well, the carapace fidgeting awkwardly under your grasp.

After that, the three of you set to work; you divise communication mechanisms, trace recruitment plans, write up pamphlets to educate others on the issue -- it’s a full blown job, and you almost forget you have a company to run in the meantime! Not like Skaianet doesn’t run itself anyway nowadays.

Time passes, and WS becomes the forefront face of the movement. They attend interviews, meetings with government officials, meetings with resistance lieutenants, even, and it all seems to be going well. A few months pass -- and now the prospitian is getting ready to speak in the biggest carapace rights rally since they started. The open town center is packed with hopeful shelled people, eager to hear their ‘I have a dream’ speech.

>Be WS.

What will you say?

[calamityCons]

> Thank everyone for coming, and address the suffering of your friends and brothers.

[Generalrabogolfo]

> Thank everyone for coming, and address the suffering of your friends and brothers.

i second this.