Mutated Ectoplasm

11. Info Dumping

TA: In simple terms, it's a huge repository of information where people could put anything on there. A pretty big place, honestly.

AC: :33 huge. great, that's not good at all.

AC: :33 from what my mom told me; ghosts can get pretty overwhelmed when dealing with their obsession. especially if they make it outside of the Infinite Realms.

AC: :33 his is learning all about technology, which tracks with the others. he connected to this "internet," he must've overloaded his obsession.

CG: Anyway, we can knock him out of it? Preferably without hurting him?

AC: :33 probably. he might listen to reason, but i you might have to take him down before he does anything too rash. he doesn't have his meowrail with him, so he could get violent without my sister to calm him down.

The trio looked at each other with apprehension, feeling themselves tense up. They weren't exactly happy to do that since Horuss, despite being a little bit weird, wasn't a bad guy. But they couldn't let him run free either if he could become a major problem.

AA: So, we can't do anything except fight him. Great. Really hoped that we wouldn't have to hurt anybody.

AC: :33 sorry about that. i'd have some better suggestions, but i'm grounded until further notice. having skulker's body as a trophy is cool and all, but that didn't get me out of trouble.

TA: Parents, right?

CG: For fuck's sake, everyone focus. Nepeta, you said your sister could calm him down, right? Something about being his "meowrail or something?"

AC: :33 moirail. sorry, i was doing a cat pun thing. you know, moiral, meowrail?

CG: I'm dying all over again. Please, you're killing me.

AC: :33 fair enough. It's related to a thing called "quadrants." it'd take forever to explain, but for now, a moiral is like, platonic soulmates. the person that can take you from the brink of insanity, specifically if a ghost's obsession gets out of control.

AC: :33 my sister is Horuss's moiral. if you distract him long enough, Muelin can eventually make it there. i don't know what else to tell you.

Karkat looked away from the screen and pinched the bridge of his nose. God, this wasn't really ideal, but at least they had a semblance of a plan. Worst comes to worse, they store Horuss in the thermos until Muelin comes in to save the day. They'd just have to avoid hurting him as much as they could until then. Hopefully.

He typed in another question.

CG: It's a good enough plan. Not like we have any other ideas.

CG: Just one more question, though.

CG: What powers does he have/?

AC: :33 he controls all types of technology.

...Fuck.

They'd spent the rest of the day patrolling, eternally glad for the fact that it was a Friday. They essentially combed over what they could of the town, checking online for anything weird posted on social media websites, and even breaking out an old police radio Spades had hidden away. There was no indication that Horuss had appeared anywhere, even after grabbing the ecto-detector from Karkat's home.

They made it a point to only split up when they thought it was needed, and never far away enough so they couldn't find each other again. The Skulker incident had set everyone on edge.

Since the search was had been fruitless so far, they'd been messaging Nepeta to occupy themselves. It mostly varied, drifting between inane nonsense to something informative from moment to moment.