Pyrope's Place: Dave Strider (Short Story)

Chapter 7 - The Rockets and Redglare

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Author's Note: Yay! I finally have one reader! *claps for @a-wild-charizard*

Finally! A reason to update! The responsibility is real.

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Dave was walking down the road. The tall, six-story building that was Pyrope's Place got closer with each step. And his impending doom, too. Dave grimaced, thinking of how Jade would react to seeing this shit-hole.

His thoughts were very rudely interrupted by a hollering from Terezi. He looked to the front of the hotel, where Karkat, clad in his hideous sparkly bellhop get-up, was piggy-backing the blind troll across the busy city street.

"KARKAT! KARKAT! STOP! I SMELL A COOL KID!" She cried,  waving that damn cane of hers wildly in the air. Karkat said something, but Dave was too far away to hear it.

Karkat stopped, turned, and went back across the zebra-crossing. He walked up to Dave and nodded in recognition.

Terezi hopped off his back and felt her way towards Dave, sniffing and banging her cane on the ground. She stopped in front of him and a second of pure awkwardness passed. Karkat was utterly confused, standing behind them twiddling his thumbs nervously and looking over them warily.

Then Terezi cackled and thrust her hand out forward, knocking Dave over violently and yelling, "HEY COOL KID, IS THIS YOU?"

Karkat rushed to Dave's aid and pulled him up roughly. Dave twitched his eye at Terezi, who was still waiting for an answer. "Yeah..." Dave muttered, dusting himself off. Satisfied with this answer, Terezi took a piece of red chalk and started to suck it like a lolly, unaware of the rude stares people were casting in her direction.

Karkat broke the silence by saying, "Latula told us she needed more streamers and candy and shit, so we were going to get it." He pointed at the drugstore (which probably sold real drugs since it was owned by the Amporas).

"We were also going to go to the bookstore for more red chalk!" Terezi chirped, shoving the rest of her chalk stick into her mouth and crunching on it noisily. Karkat nodded, helping her back onto his back. "And that."

"Why do you need streamers?" Dave asked. "BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A PAR-TAY!" Terezi screamed excitedly. "AND YOU'RE GOING TO SING!"

Dave was quite taken aback. "What?"

Karkat offered an explanation. "Well, that little performance of yours yesterday pleased Redglare-" he lowered his voice ever so slightly when saying her name, " -very much and tonight you're going to sing again for a fuck ton of people."

"Me? What the hell, dude! I'll sing when I want to! You can tell Redglare to go fuck herself!" Dave said loudly. Karkat's eyes widened and his mouth hung open. Terezi put her hands to her mouth, losing her balance and falling off of Karkat's back. He immediately swung around to help her up, rubbing her head and hugging her tightly.

"You don't know my mom very well, do you?" Terezi said meekly, hugging Karkat back and glancing around the street worriedly.

"Well, as a matter of fact, I don't." Dave said quietly, sensing trouble now that even Terezi was hushed.

"Well, trust me - you don't want to." Terezi whispered. "She's got the law behind her every move and probably wouldn't hesitate to have you hung. Or at least reduce your height by half a metre with a fat law book to the head."

"Because of her, I can't swear." Karkat said angrily. "I also have to wear this atrocious outfit." He tugged at one of the tassels of his frilly shirt.

"I think it looks splendid on you!" Terezi said, playing with Karkat's sleeves.

"Believe me, if you could see you'd think again."

Karkat took out a pocket watch and glanced at it. "Fuck! We've got to be back in five minutes!" Terezi hopped onto his back. Before leaving, he turned to Dave. "You will sing tonight, won't you?"

Dave sighed. There didn't seem like there was anything else he could do. He nodded. Karkat turned and hurried down the street, across the zebra crossing and into the drugstore.

Dave walked into Pyrope's Place, treading more carefully now that he knew how dangerous the owner of this establishment was. He went up four flights of stairs and into room 413.

Rummaging around his suitcases, Dave found his red suit, complete with a symbol of a broken record and an extra pair of pants, in case he was going someplace fancy and had four legs. But it was very creased from being folded so long. He decided to ask Latula to press it.

She was cleaning out the room two doors left of him. "Hey, Latula? Can you help me with something?" Dave asked, poking his head into the room.

There was black ink. Everywhere. In the corner sat a small mountain of broken pieces of black plastic. This had to be Vriska's room. Latula was mopping the stained walls with a damp rag. "Yo, Mr. Strider! All ready for your big ol' performance tonight? I watched your gig on Sunday and you were totes rad!"

"Well, it's about that. Can you press my suit for me please?" Dave raised the wrinkled article up.

"Sure thing! I'll get the iron now!" (Irons. Vriska. YES.)

Dave followed Latula downstairs and into the closet under the stairs. "Hey... Where's the iron?" Latula muttered, searching the shelves. Outside, Dave saw Karkat and Terezi enter, hand in hand, and proceeded to stock the pantry. Latula emerged, covered in dust. "It isn't in here. I wonder where it could-" In a split second, she pushed past Dave and practically flew into the dining room, Dave following suit (suit lol).

Of course, there sat Vriska, in all her glory, squatting next to the fireplace and slowly feeding various items into the flames. Said items included Latula's iron, some metal cutlery, a stainless steel bowl and Terezi's cane.

Latula swooped down onto her, giving her a terrible shock. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Latula cried, snatching up her precious iron and giving Vriska a death glare.

"I was just getting all the irons in the fire..." Vriska stammered, still getting over the shock. Dave stifled a laugh and Terezi burst in, followed by Karkat. Terezi was talking so fast it was incomprehensible and bumping into all the furniture, tears of desperation streaming down her face.

Karkat spotted her cane near Latula, who was now grilling Vriska. He ran over to them, grabbed the cane and crashed into Terezi, who screamed in delight when she felt her cane being pressed into her hand and started a sloppy make-out session with Karkat. Dave made a disgusted face at them. Like, seriously, get a room. There's six floors of twenty rooms, only four of which are occupied.

Terezi pulled away from Karkat, who fell to the floor, a startled look on his face. She raced over to Vriska and kicked Latula away.

"YOU DUMBASS! THIS CANE IS MADE OF WOOD!" She yelled, swinging her long-lost stick around and knocking another expensive looking vase off the mantelpiece. It crashed onto the floor, but Dave realised it was made of plastic. Typical for Pyrope's Place. Karkat came to his senses and ran over to Terezi, shooshing and papping her. Finally she calmed down, walking away with him leaving Vriska nursing a large bump on her head.

Vriska hopped up and walked out of the room, probably on her way to redeem herself to her friend.

"Well, at least we have the iron." Latula sighed, taking Dave's suit which had been wrinkled up even more from him holding it. She walked away and Dave looked around the room, only now noticing the decorations. There was a small stage on one side of the room. A baby grand piano was on one side of it, taking up a third of the space. The walls were decorated with tinsel, birthday balloons, pictures of the Nativity, paper bats and a witch, which suddenly cackled much like the Pyropes, scaring Dave a bit. He guessed this performance was planned very hastily.

A voice rang through the silent room. "Dave?" It called. He froze. Oh, no! It was Jade! The lobby was bad enough, but her seeing this multi-festive room would probably send her running for the hills like her hair was on fire. He quickly stepped out and stood in front of the door, trying to cover up as much of the doorway as possible. Jade turned to him.