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Rated T for the frequent use of strong language, strong graphic violence and with a fair amount of romance, but no sexual content.

Pairings: Tavros/Vriska (main), Eridan/Feferi, Aradia/Equius, Feferi/Sollux, Tavros/Gamzee, Dave/Jade, Eridan/Karkat (some of these are no longer in the story, and more will be added as the story progresses)

Synopsis: Alternate Universe fic set in around 2090. There may be spoilers and some resemblance to plot in Homestuck, but most will deviate a fair amount.

Takes place on a somewhat dystopian earth in the near future. A nuclear war happened in the past, and though civilisation has since recovered, a number of children have been born with strange symptoms from the radiation released. Vriska is an ordinary human who finds herself turning into a grey skinned, horned mutant and is taken, along with other mutants, by the Condesce to what most of humanity believe to be a containment facility, though in reality they are being conditioned into soldiers.

First they must fight against other mutants for the right to enter her custody, before the story follows the lives of the twelve beta trolls as they either escape from, or accept her Imperious Condescension's will to capture and destroy the earth.

But not all is as it seems with these mutations.

The story is sci-fi and dystopian mostly, with a Battle Royale/Hunger Games feel to it and later on becomes post-apocalyptic/post-war, and again is accordingly gory, though the story is focused on the characters, so there is not an overabundance of violence! :)

Main characters are the beta trolls and the beta kids. Ancestors and later the dancestors feature as well, as well as a few OCs to bulk out the world, but they aren't by any means the main characters.

Homestuck belongs to Andrew Hussie

It was apparent from the first grey mole, that Vriska Serket was in for some deep, deep shit. At first, she had assumed that the innocent blob on her forearm was a speck of paint, and when it refused to budge, that it had dyed her skin. Another speck of this grey appeared, followed by another in the following month. Around the time of these, she had been painting a rather magnificent portrait of herself as the persona of Marquise Spinneret Mindfang, her character in RPGs. Although little grey had been used on such a painting, she was in complete denial about the situation, so convinced herself that those were the reasons.

When more of the pesky grey spots appeared, around ten or so, she took to painting over them in a more convincing brown, stopping her mum from being nosy, seeing the grey splotches, flipping out and getting her thrown away somewhere nasty with no internet.

Her first completely grey patch of skin formed on the inside of her left thigh, a little way above her knee, nearly four months after the first mole. This was easily hidden, as long as she did not get a sudden craving for short shorts (unlikely) or went swimming (her family was not one for swimming anyway). The patch, unlike the moles, spread outwards at a rate of about a millimetre a day, joined by a second patch near the small of her back. About a month after the patches, something far harder to conceal began. The whites of her eyes began to turn a vivid yellow hue. It was now that she figured it was time to tell her mum.

Mum, or Spidermum as Vriska liked to call her behind her back, was a domineering control freak of a woman. A trait that Vriska had inherited. Her mum disliked anything being out of her power, and when she found out that her daughter had a rapidly spreading 'problem', her option was not to weep from fear and worry, but to hole her up in the basement until further notice, concerned that it could potentially be contagious to her other offspring. Spidermum was so named due to her love of all things arachnid, with spiders running freely throughout the house, cobwebs hanging casually on doorways and windows alike. This love of arachnids had, too, been passed on to her first child. Spidermum was proud of this; she did not want Vriska to grow up being a simpering girl afraid of all but puppies and kittens, she would be strong, unafraid of all. This eventually led to the girl becoming a huge and renowned bitch to cope with all around her, easily bored with her 'weak' classmates and oddly enough, a strong believer in luck.

Vriska had suspected for a long time that the reason for the controlling attitude of her mother, was that when she was pregnant with Vriska, her boyfriend of the time, a young Spanish man, got one whiff of the fact that he had knocked up his eighteen year old girlfriend, and ran off. Leaving his daughter to be raised solely by the mother. Sure they got by, but ever since, her mother had not let a single thing escape her. From then on, Vriska always wondered why Spidermum had not just gotten an abortion and carried on with her life, but whatever.

But locking her daughter away from the sunlight, of course, did little to help, and by the end of the year Vriska's skin was ashy grey, with tan bands on her face and arms. The final fronts of a losing war with the grey. Her body could no longer fight it, but her mother would not give up, so she remained hidden in the basement, her only source of entertainment the computer. Being a massive fan of Fatal Online Role Play (FORP), she decided that there could be worse situations; at least the wi-fi signal was pretty good.

School friends enquired her whereabouts at first, wondering where she had been for so long, but she ignored them, setting on working her way up the levels. If she worked hard enough, she could finally overtake some of her trashy schoolmate's scores. Yes. She would try to gain all of the levels available to her 'Petticoat Seagrift' class. All of them. But as time went on, and her boredom increased, along with her frustration at being pent up, she took to killing fellow player's avatars. It was part of the game after all. She couldn't claim to enjoy it, but it stopped her from smashing her head on the walls for fun. Spidermum would probably have a fit if she saw her daughters pretty blue blood spilt all over the concrete floor. Three times a day, food was pushed through the door, and each morning, a change of clothes appeared next to her.

arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]

AG: Hey 8itch!

AG: We were meant to 8egin a raid twenty minutes ago.

AG: Don't think you can avoid me.

AG: Or are you scared may8e?

AG: ;;;;)

AG: Is the little pupa 8a8y scared she'll get hit?

Vriska set out the bait and waited for the reply, but half an hour later, with still no response she gave up.

AG: Fine. Your loss.

arachnidsGrip [AG] has ceased trolling gallowsCalibrator [GC]

If she had been inclined in such a direction, she would have hit the keyboard in frustration, but managed to resist the urge, no matter how delightfully satisfying it would be. Terezi, one of her few friends, was not online, and it was not as if she could magically make her switch her computer on or anything… although such powers would be fun.

Bluh, her head was killing her. For reasons she guessed were to do with the greying of the skin, she had been getting splitting headaches on either side of her temple. Some days it was bad enough that she would remain in bed all day feeling sorry for herself. When she was particularly lucky, her mother would leave her with some paracetamol, though it was not really strong enough to hold back the pain. But it was a nice thought. As nice as Spidermum got.

Another week passed before a visitor came into her basement. He was a portly, old gentleman by the name of Dr. Deaff. A specialist, as he informed her, in mutations. And the dread that had been slowly rising within Vriska began a sudden, steep rise until it reached the level of 'oh shiiiiiiiit'.

"You must be Vriska, I expect. Your mother has told me all about you." he said, shaking her hand. Spidermum's form was silhouetted in the doorway, a row of stairs currently her only obstacle, along with her mum, to freedom. But there would be no escaping past her mother. She was oddly strong given her looks. "Please, do come sit down Ms Serket."

Reluctant to enter the room where her daughter had been festering for months, she shook her head.

"You have no need to worry, madam. I can assure you that her condition is not contagious." Pulling up another chair from the corner, her mum sat a hesitant distance from Vriska, not fully believing the doctor's words. "Now then. Where is the switch in here? I can barely see you with this low light."

"That's kind of the point, dumbass." Vriska sighed, irritated at how thick the doctor was being. Yet either he did not hear her, or ignored her, as there was no visible reaction. The obnoxiously bright lights were flicked on, and the grey-skinned girl saw the extent of the problem. Her body was still holding the line on her arms, the horizontal stripes of soft, brown skin boldly showing.

Gently picking her arm up with his wizened hands, he prodded the differently coloured bands. Curiously, the grey areas were tougher, almost, in comparison to her normal skin. "Your arms are holding out longer than most. Very interesting. As for the whites of your eyes, they are completely yellow now, although there's a large amount of irritation. Have you been rubbing them?"

"Seriously? Of course I have. Do you know how much they ache?" He was unperturbed, perhaps used to such behaviour. "I can barely sleep at night through the pain."

"Have you tried ignoring it?" he suggested, leaning his face on a fist propped on the chair's armrest.

"Have you tried coming up with ideas that aren't completely shit?" Vriska spat back. Truth be told, she was enjoying it; she had not spoken face to face with someone for a long time. Sure, driving the man away was not the best idea for a long conversation, but she was annoyed. "I've been getting headache, toothache, eyeache, itching all over my skin. Puberty is shit enough already without all this bull. You're a doctor, right? Can you fix it?"

"I can see that the changes you are experiencing are making you irritable. Now, before we leave, are you having any issues with your head? In particular, these two areas just above your ears." he enquired. She gave a curt nod. As if this deemed permission, he ran his fingers over the area of skull he had specified, finding hair fell away willingly as he pulled his fingers away. By the time he cleared away the hair, she was left with two bald patches, looking as if someone had cut a ping pong ball in half and stuck it on either side of her head. The lumps were covered in a fine, fur-like coat, with something that was evidently going to be hard growing underneath.

"Wait, before we leave? We as in you and mum?"

"Oh, no. It appears that there is nothing amiss with your mother's genetic makeup."

Aiming for sarcasm, she said, "Is a straight answer too much to ask for?"

"Quite, Ms Serket. Now, what you must understand is that what we are doing is for the best. With the recent outbreaks, we simply cannot afford to have your kind running around willy-nilly."

"Are you senile? You just said that this lame ass shit wasn't contagious. Why would you need to move me if it isn't going to spread?" she demanded.

"Because your appearance causes some significant distress, and what with the current state of the country, we can't allow this to happen." The doctor pushed his glasses further up his face once more. "Surely you want to see us back to how we once were, before the war? If people think things are going back to normal once more, then things will settle. There are riots nearly every week in various parts of the country over political matters as it is. Imagine how much worse it would get with people like you causing alarm."

"You can't just deny that I exist! I'm stood right in front of you! This is making as much sense as the situation in the first place." she paused for breath. "You're a doctor aren't you? Isn't it your job to make people better? Or are you as bad at that as you are at remembering things from three seconds ago?"

The doctor's eyes narrowed before he stood, "Our base is located in New Mexico in the United States, which is where we're taking you. You are allowed to bring one item with you, not including prescription items. Choose wisely. You may have ten minutes with your family before I return to collect you. Of course, you may leave earlier than that if you wish." The door was then shut.

Looking up at her mother, Vriska was not sure what to say. After all, her mum had essentially just sold her off to this man, unwittingly or not. Not to mention the whole 'locked in a basement' thing. That was pretty bad as well. Deciding to then ignore her presence, the grey-skinned girl began rummaging around in the drawer of her current bedside table for a small box, in which was a set of eight eight-sided dice. Once found, she slipped it into her pocket and turned to face her mum.

Opening her mouth in preparation for a suitably sarcastic yet slightly heartfelt goodbye, she was interrupted by her sisters footsteps plodding down the stairs.

"So it really isn't contagious, right?" At twelve, only a year younger than Vriska, her sister was more similar to her personality wise than she liked to admit. With sandy blonde hair and grey eyes, she had inherited her mother's characteristics more than her sister had, and was the result of a rebound a year later. This time, her mother had ordered the poor man off, removing any chance of him walking out on her like with the previous boyfriend. "Because I really don't want to turn out like you."

"Thanks, brat." Vriska replied instinctively, barely taking in what she had actually said. "So… I guess this is the last time I'll be seeing you for a while."

"Huh?" The girl cast a confused look to both members of her family. "Where are you going? Isn't he going to heal you?"

Spidermum shook her head.

"But isn't that his job?"

Vriska spat, "That's what I thought too. Seems he's so shitty at it, that he's just going to ship me off to America instead. Doesn't want to scare the neighbours or something. So, I doubt we'll meet again soon."

"But that's stupid!"

"Yeah, well it's life." the girl replied, trying to keep her frustration to a minimum, but failing tremendously, resulting in snapping back. "I'll see you later, brat, mum."

In an odd display of affection, she hugged each member of the family curtly, then headed off to the doctor. Well. As her mum always joked, that's why she had two daughters. One for backup.

A large van awaited her in the front garden. Grey, ironically enough, with an area in the back where she would be placed in and removed. From what she could see, there were a large number of locks and bolts on the door, and on the inside a mixture of bedding materials for the trip across the Atlantic. She had seen such removals of her kind before. Most violent and horrid.

Deciding to exit in a dignified fashion, Vriska hopped up into the back of the van, and sat down in the pile of blankets and pillows, noting the dents on the inside of the vehicle. The doors were slammed and bolted shut. The engine started and the van began it's long journey across the pond to America.

Your name is VRISKA SERKET.

You are a master of EXTREME ROLE PLAYING. You can't get enough of it, or really any game of high stakes and chance.

You are somewhat of an APOCALYPSE NERD. You are fascinated by end of the world scenarios, and enjoy thinking up DOOMSDAY DEVICES for the hell of it. You often consult issues to your MAGIC EIGHT BALLS, but routinely destroy them in frustration over the PUZZLING GUARANTEED INACCURACY of their predictions. With each you destroy, you add to an insurmountable stockpile of TERRIBLE LUCK.

Your skin has been turning an ALARMING SHADE OF GREY recently. This is because the background radiation from a WORLDWIDE SEMI-NUCLEAR WAR corrupted your cells when you were still a bundle of stem cells. This makes you a MUTANT. This would be pretty freaking AWESOME if it was not happening in real life.

Lousy goddamn stupid radiation.

A/N: I fixed a few of the errors in this, mainly in Vriska's speech as I was making her sound waaaay too posh!

The title of this is from the Owl City song 'The Saltwater Room', from his album 'Maybe I'm Dreaming'. This is because it's what initially inspired me to write it... c;

Anyway, so I saw that Mr Hussie took rather a lot of amusement from fanfictions, which initially made me hesitant to post this, then I decided, stuff it, and did it anyway.

Thanks for reading! ^^