(no subject)

[fearofpiggies]

 Dib hadn't been feeling himself as of late. Nothing really could have accounted for it, either. It had been weeks, almost a month since his last investigation into something even remotely malevolent, he couldn't  get ill - at least not for long - and if it wasn't for the distinct possibility of it being simple allergies, Dib would have been more suspicious of what was happening. 

He scratched an itch on his upper arm, blaming allergies or a rash on it as he took a shower, and tried to ignore the fact that lately, his moods had been in a negative slump. He'd tried really damn hard to keep it from others though. He wasn't the type to get short with people for any reason, but lately, he'd been feeling himself more quick to annoy, quick to straight up anger.

It was bizarre, but not read into it bizarre. He thought about Gaz, and how she was always this way, and attributed it to genetics, rather than something malevolent.

After drying himself off and getting dressed, he walked to Sollux's apartment next door and slipped in, settling down beside Sollux. 

"Hey look, I'm gonna probably be gone for a couple weeks coming up here."

Comments

[apocalypticduality]

Dib being snippy with much of anyone was something Sollux hadn't seen much of before, and after nearly a month of watching him get increasingly snippy, Sollux figured it was about time to start actually getting worried about his boyfriend's mental state. They both knew that he was the one that got touchy and grumpy, out of the two of them. That Dib was being anything but slightly nervous and mostly sarcastic felt like it should be cause for concern.

He was used to the other popping in, having handed him a spare key months ago with which to do just that, and only looked up after the door had closed and Dib had spoken up.

"Going out of thtate for thome rethearch thing?" he asked, knowing that wasn't going to be it. Keeping casual seemed to be the name of the game, just to keep Dib from getting snappish.

[fearofpiggies]

"Sure, we'll go with that. Good excuse. Listen, I'm not gonna lie, I'm thinkin' it might be best if I get out of society for a few, just y'know, in case something happens? So um. Yeah. That's kinda the point of all this. There's something I need to figure out, I need to backtrack, figure out what's been going on, you know..." He was certain he was making little sense, and he started itching his arm again. By now, it was raw and red with how much he'd been itching it.

"I mean, if there's anything I could do to stick around, I would, but I'm thinking maybe it's for the best. It's pretty possible I -- " and with that, he shook his head and looked down. "Nevermind. I'll try and give you a call or text every so often so you're not worried about me."

[apocalypticduality]

Sollux fought the urge to slap the back of Dib's hand to get him to stop scratching, instead taking that hand in his and holding it down away from his arm.

"Or you could actually tell me what you think ith going on and I can help you figure shit out before it getth to be a huge fucking problem," he suggested, giving Dib a Look. "Maybe hang out here tho you're not dealing with it alone."

[fearofpiggies]

"No." The way he said it was dire, dark and certainly not in the way Dib would have ever said anything. "If you're hurt in the crossfire of whatever's going on, you might wind up just as bad as me. I'm not going to let that happen. No, if... If I stay here, if I keep getting worse, more... more jacked up in the brain than I am? I won't have the choice to pull out. People will be in danger, Sollux. You'd be in danger. Ok? So like. I dunno, just keep a goddamn space between us until I get this shit figured out."

He pulled his arm away and winced a bit as he went back to scratch and found something there. It seemed sharp, pointed, like a rosebush thorn. He looked down at his arm and then glared at it. Shit. Great. This was exactly what he fucking needed right now.

"Shit, it's starting to show physical attributes as well as mental. I gotta go, Sollux. I'm serious."

[apocalypticduality]

Sollux did slap at the back of Dib's hand this time, grimacing as he shook his head and headed toward the kitchen to get something to drink. He had a feeling he'd need it just to get through this with some of his sanity still intact.

"Ok then let me rephrathe: you're thtaying here at leatht until we know what'th up, tho you don't end up rampaging off into the wilderneth or thomething and I lothe track of you entirely. I don't give a shit if you thtart ripping up my thtuff and you know I've already been jacked up plenty of timeth, mythelf. Nothing new."

[fearofpiggies]

"Yeah well, maybe I don't want to be one of the many fucking reasons you've been jacked up, ok? Just..." He paused to look at his arm, and his brow furrowed as he started to see more of the poking spikes come out of his arm. "Look, if I did know what was going on, don't you think I'd have taken care of it by now? It's not a disease, because the nanobots would have flushed it out, and I haven't been in contact with anything capable of infecting me with something malevolent like this. I'm really fucking pissed because I know that I should know what's going on but something is blocking that from me and I'm guessing that thing, whatever it is, is starting to take me over. I don't know if you're aware of this, but my least favorite thing is not having control of myself!"

[apocalypticduality]

"And you're not lithening to me," Sollux pointed out with a raised brow and crossed arms. "I thaid until we know what'th up. You're not thinking about shit rationally and that putth a bug up my ath, if I'm perfectly frank. Tho shut your head and jutht...I don't know, fetched the data from the latht few timeth you've been out and look for what'th gotten into you. Maybe it'th been there for a while jutht biding itth time or thomething." He was trying not to let himself get as irritable as Dib clearly was, but it was becoming a losing battle already.

[fearofpiggies]

"Don't you think I've already done that? There's nothing I've done in the past two months that would do this to me!" Dib hissed and took a seat on Sollux's couch, looking up at him with an expression that, at first, seemed worried and frustrated, but flashed briefly into something terrible, with glowing eyes and a darkly demented smile. Whatever it was might have only just been a trick of the light or an overactive imagination, because it was gone just as swiftly as it had shown up and Dib sighed, running his hands through his hair.

"I've gone through the past six months and there's nothing in my case files to suggest demonic possession, and even if it was demonic in nature, it wouldn't start developing physical symptoms like this," he said, holding up his arm. "So unless it's something I've never heard about in my life, some... weird Alternian demon shit, which I don't even know if it exists? It's officially something that's not ever been documented."

[apocalypticduality]

"Then look further back," Sollux replied as if talking to a particularly thick-headed child. His patience was waning, especially with as argumentative as Dib was being. His eyes narrowed briefly at the flicker in the other's expression, but chose not to bring it up until it happened again, just so that he was sure that it wasn't a product of his frustration and an overactive imagination.

At the mention of Alternian mythology though, he paused. Was there anything that would have followed their culture into a new plane of existence? Possibly, if they had a few troll scholars working on the makeup of the world just like a few of the humans he knew about. Who was to say that they hadn't ended up with the Alternian form of demons, cryptids, other supernatural entities? He'd never been interested in such things, and he still had a hard time really taking interest in it even with Dib giving him more information than he could possibly ever use about what he encountered.

"Look, even if it ith thomething Alternian that'th making pointy shit grow out of you, there'th alwayth prothedureth for getting rid of them, right? Thingth like thith abide by ruleth motht of the time. Tho we jutht...figure out the ruleth of thith thing and..." And what? Hope for the best? That wasn't exactly his strong suit.

[fearofpiggies]

"Frankly, if that's all we can go with, I'm really doubting this will turn out any way but bad." He grit his teeth as he felt something grip down in his spine, something powerful. It was most like a ghost had just grabbed hold of something within him, and momentarily, his mind was blanked save for the mental image of a writhing mass of black leeches which were more scolex than body. He shuddered a breath.

"And honestly, I don't know if I've got long before I actually can retain what's left of me, Sollux. I can't... I don't have enough time to go through. I've got Eddie pulling up things that it might have been, but..." He shook his head again and his brow furrowed deeper. He wasn't sure how long it would be before he was completely suffocated out of his own mind.

[apocalypticduality]

"Hey, aren't I thuppothed to be the pethimitht out of the two of uth? Thtealing my gig man, not cool," Sollux attempted to joke, obviously a flimsy cover for the intense worry making him fidget some and eventually start pacing slowly across his apartment. He started to scratch distractedly at his own arms as he imagined the spines starting to protrude from Dib's, eyes down on the scuffed linoleum as he rounded his kitchen and headed back across the living room.

"You know, that'th all the more reathon for you to thtay," he pointed out quietly, slowing to look down at Dib with a deep frown. "You need thomething to help you retain your humanity or whatever you want to call it, who better than your next-door neighbor and the guy boning you on a themi-regular bathith?"

[fearofpiggies]

"My boyfriend," Dib corrected weakly, moving to grab Sollux's hand. "Look, I just. I don't want to wind up... I don't want you to have to wind up being the guy to have to put me down if this is something I can't win, ok? I don't want that to be on your conscience. Because if the situation was reversed, I know it'd eat me up inside if I had to do it to you. Even if I do come back. Even if I do revive, it's still really shitty to have to ask that of you. Because I care about you, and I know you actually care about me as well, no matter how much you want to deny caring about anything. Sollux. I just think..." He grit his teeth again and squeezed the other's hand.

"I think if this spirals out of control, I'd rather not have you get fucked by this."

[apocalypticduality]

Sollux just sighed and laid the other hand against the side of Dib's head, bending just enough to be able to butt his forehead against the other's.

"I think I would rather be the one to do it regardleth, becauthe I do care," he said quietly, keeping an eye on Dib's eyes and expressions, just so he'd know when a more obvious shift was coming. "Yeah, it might fuck me up for a while, but it'd altho be to an ultimately good end. We'll jutht have to hope that it doethn't happen before I've built up a little mental fortitude, that'th all."

[fearofpiggies]

Dib frowned and put his good arm around Sollux's shoulders, pressing a kiss to Sollux's lips. "You're a damn idiot, but that's ok. We both are. Listen, there's two things this could possibly be. Parasitic, or demonic. It's highly likely it's both. There's a guy in town that has an encyclopedic knowledge of fucked up wacky stuff. If he doesn't know offhand, it's possible that his library has something related to it. If I can't go there on my own - he probably won't let me in like this, anyway - I need you to talk to him for me. His name is Bill, he runs the coffee shop that Dave and Karkat work. His number's in my phone." He was about to say more but he got cut off with a wince and then a dark, quiet chuckle. "But don't bet on getting anything out of it."

[apocalypticduality]

Sollux' eyes narrowed again at that laugh, but he simply stored the information away for later reference. He nodded though; he'd heard mention of Bill a couple of times from Dave and Karkat in those few occasions that he actually went out of his way to chat with them. They hadn't really changed much since they'd all been together in another reality, save to calm down and grow up a little. But all of them had, it was only to be expected. He wondered briefly what Dib had been like as a child, with the mortal stupidity he'd claimed to have dealt with throughout his life before the game.

He shook his head and focused back on the problem at hand, namely that of his boyfriend having become possessed by...something.

"I'd like you to come with me if I do end up going to thee him," Sollux stated pointedly, looking Dib in the face. He didn't know shit about this sort of thing outside of what he actually absorbed from listening to Dib talk almost nonstop when he got into an inquisitive mood. "Having thome backup might be a good idea, y'know?"

[fearofpiggies]

"Futile," was all the response that Sollux got from Dib, which was punctuated with another chuckle that was certainly nothing Dib had ever given. It was still his voice, certainly, but it sounded as though his vocal cords were being used in a way that they weren't used to being used, by somebody who had no idea how to work them. He slipped away from Sollux and the spikes on his arms grew longer and wider, more capable of damage.

"I'm not going to help you."

[apocalypticduality]

Sollux' lip curled up as he watched the skin splitting and the spikes growing out of his boyfriend's arms, making him look like some kind of comic book monster. Psionic sparks crawled down his arms as he prepared to pin Dib's body down until the thing piloting him calmed down.

"I have no intention of taking you anywhere," he muttered at the entity, then moved forward and put his hands on Dib's face, looking him in the eye. "I don't want to leave you alone if I go out, Dib. You better kick thith thing for a little while tho we can thee Bill."