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Your name is Karkat Vantas, and despite what other people may think, you love your job.
Admittedly, nobody actually knows what your job is – they all swallowed the lie that you fed them a year and a half ago about working in a call centre. They simply presume that you hate your job, despite never asking about it, and you most certainly would hate it if that was where you really worked.
It's not even working, really. You're not paid for what you do, even if the company is your own, complete with a website and logo to boot. You don’t even have a term for what you do – it's not volunteer work, it's far more than that. You give up your time to help those in need, no matter what their problem (or lack thereof) is.
Online and through the phone you are known as The Sufferer. You're not really sure where the name came from, but it stuck. It's a relief that they know you by this – it makes you an anonymous figure, your friends won't be able to find out about what you do, for surely you'd become the ridicule of the school - who gives up their free time to help people they don't even know?
So you buy a voice editor to hide yourself further, and to make yourself sound calmer, more professional. You change your website and posters to read The Sufferers in correspondance to your name, because really, it is quite fitting. The people that you talk to are exactly that – sufferers. You've spoken to some that have come to you as a last resort, feeling that there was no way for them to continue on with their lives. You've managed to persuade them otherwise.
You've been an open ear to everyone’s problems – you've gotten into the habit of writing down names, remembering their stories and revelling in delight when they call you again to thank you, to say that they're surviving because of you.
It makes you feel needed. You thank them in return for spilling their troubles to you, for trusting a small voice’s advice and using it to help themselves. You don’t mind how often they call you – you know firsthand that different people need different help, need different advice, need different amounts of support.
You don’t mind being woken in the middle of the night, or having to skip out on a lesson to speak to someone that needs you. You don’t mind if they just listen to you ramble on about your day, because they need some sanity in their lives. You don’t mind listening to people cry or rant, and occasionally put in the odd comment to reassure them that your listening. You enjoy giving advice, and when you get out of college, you're going to invest in The Sufferers to help people all over the world.
It's an alter ego that you can hide behind, you can immerse yourself into someone else’s troubles to escape your own, without having to move a muscle.
Your name is Karkat Vantas, and you run an abuse helpline from your mobile phone.