Chapter Text
"Alright, everyone. Line up in a straight orderly fashion! The ceremony is about to begin!" The headmaster had called out to the group of teenagers standing about in the wide field of the school. About a hundred or two children stood around, milling about as they slowly got arranged into proper lines.
"How do you feel about the whole thing?" Aradia comes up from behind you, scaring the absolute shit out of you. You practically jumped five feet in the air.
"Jesus fucking christ Aradia. Don't fucking sneak on me like that, holy shit!" You growled, whirling around on her and baring your sharpened teeth. The rust blood simply giggled.
"Whoops. Sorry. But you never answered the question!" She exclaimed, clasping both of her hands together.
You rolled your eyes. You understand the hidden meaning behind the question. And you'd really rather not dwell on the idea and stab your self-esteem for the fifth time when it's already dead and all bled out.
"I'm fine. It's just a summoning ritual. I've been drawing this shit since we were all fucking grubs in the elementary schoolfeed system. How hard can it be?" You said this with confidence, puffing your chest a little, but feeling absolutely foolish. Who were you kidding? Maybe you'd botch this up so much that it literally blows up in your face and kills you before the embarrassment of failing something so simple like a familiar ritual ceremony.
Aradia nodded slowly, the enthusiastic smile never leaving her face. "Of course, of course. I believe in you, Karkat." She grinned, patting you in the back just as the teachers began rounding up idling students still not lined up properly.
You give the curly haired girl a half-hearted smile and a nod before moving to join your respective class in line.
You stood at the very back of your class line, a curse and a blessing bestowed upon you by your last name. Right now, it's a blessing since you really don't want to be the first one up. Maybe once everyone goes through it, not many will be paying attention when it's finally your turn. And the less you'd actually have to humiliate yourself in front of everyone.
The sun was shining high above you, beating down on the students standing around, waiting for the ceremonies to finally begin. There were very few clouds to aid in blocking out the sun, much to your dismay. You were practically overheating, with your suffocating long-sleeved uniform with matching slacks, and mandatory clip-on cape that came with the uniform. God how you hate those things. They were only a blessing in the winter time.
You casually look around at your fellow mages, silently cursing your short stature. From where you stood, you can't see a thing happening at the front. All you have is your hearing in order to piece together what's happening up front.
It doesn't take long for the dean's voice to boom through the rest of the crowd. "I see fresh new faces and I am delighted to know that our legacy will continue on in the eyes of our youth!" She started cheesily, much like she did back on the first day of school assembly. You roll your eyes. "Today is a monumental event in every mage's life. Today is the day you will get to summon your familiars, lifelong partners to aid you in your studies and everyday life, starting today!"
That made you fidget at the cuffs of your white long sleeves and twirl the fuschia and gold and green (the school's colours, according to the colour of the moons) necktie. As if this outfit wasn't already stifling and suffocating you under the heat. You pull at your tie, trying to loosen it and only ending up getting it completely undone. You cursed a little loudly, causing a taller student beside you to hush you. You roll your eyes.
Familiar Ritual Ceremonies is one of the big steps one takes to become a fully fledged, properly functioning adult mage. Then getting your aspect and your title officially comes next, in the next year of your time in high school.
The whole system is fairly simple. Six years of the elementary schoolfeed, three years of middle school, and then three years of high school. The last three years being the most important because that's when you receive the last remaining things needed to become apart of your society. Yout aspect and title determine what you contribute to society.
Your parents and your older brother are counting on you to continue the Vantas family bloodline of blood mages. But you worry. You're already going into your second year in high school and you're turning eighteen soon but you still can't manage to conjure up the simplest of spells tied to your family's name and aspect. Sure, you can do the normal spells, but everyone can do that. You dont have anything going for you to differentiate yourself from the others other than the fact that you can't cast spells according to your aspect.
Kankri insists that you're just a late bloomer and that you'll get there eventually as long as 'you don't force it and simply persist, then your patience will be granted success'. Even your father and mother agree, but you're not so sure. Especially when you see your father getting nervous about it too.
But you've already faced the truth long ago. You're never going to be able to be a proper mage. You're a mutant. A freak of the family. Kankri will be the one to carry on the name while you bring shame to it.
These thoughts plague your mind constantly and listening to the headmaster speak about the hidden greatness and raw power and potential in each student, you can't help but curl in on yourself even more. You're the exception to those words. You're nothing but a pathetic normie. What are you even doing in this damn school?
Oh yeah, because your parents refuse to accept the fact that you're a normie, and that you'll access to your abilities sooner or later.
It just makes you even more miserable because you don't have the heart to tell them that you're a failure. That some fucked up part of you believe those false words of hope and that you're just a really really late bloomer like they all said.
But in your miserable state, you fail to notice that the line had begun to shift and move. You snap back to reality and listen to the words the headmaster was saying.
"-one of you will get to stand up on stage and begin the ritual ceremony to summon your familiar. Remember that no matter what you get, they will be your lifelong companion. Don't be disappointed in whatever you get! Stand tall and be proud of them!" She had been saying, and it only made your heart accelerate at unbelievable speeds. It was starting and you're not prepared.
The crowd was continuously shifting and murmuring now. But above the heads of taller students than you, you can see the gigantic white limbs of your head master's familiar. A humongous spider that's four times bigger than a normal adult troll.
Of course, you'd be proud of a familiar like that. You've heard so many stories about how the headmaster was at the top of her class in everything she took. It's no surprise she'd be the owner of such a majestic creature.
You listened as each student was called up by name and performed the ritual. With each name, the more and more you felt like you were gonna lose your lunch over to the poor unfortunate soul closest to you. Your head was swimming with so many thoughts, like how you'll fail, or trip on your cape on your way up to the stage, or how nothing will happen when you perform the ritual, the last nail on the coffin is that you don't have a single bone in your body that contains magic. You hate it, you hate it. You. Hate. It.
But there was no escaping your eventual school-wide humiliation. You should've voiced your concerns more to your parents so they didn't go ahead and sign the papers to continue your studies. But now, you're simply going to bring humiliation to your family by failing to conform and summon a familiar.
"Sollux Captor!" Oh god, they're already at the C's. It's not long before they reach V.
You pushed your way to the front, ignoring the curses and insults thrown your way as you weaved through the crowd. You had to see your friend's summoning ritual.
He did as everyone had done before him, drawing the summoning circle onto the wooden platform with chalk with his family's respective symbol, before standing right in the middle and uttering the words. "Nota verbis vocando!" He said it with such confidence and conviction you'd never hope to have.
A bright beam of light surrounds his form and as soon as it faded, he was surrounded by his new familiar- a pack of bees. You're sure they've got some sort of lethal poison in them to make them deadly. No familiar is ever completely harmless. They're tasked with a very important job; protecting their mage. If and when a mage dies, the summoning ritual has tied their life with their familiars, making it so that their familiars will soon join their masters in a short period of time. Most loyal familiars commit suicide as soon as their masters die before the magic even takes an effect and starts to put them through decay.
You watched as he descended the stairs and a new student was called up. More and more students passed and your heart beat faster and faster. More and more of your friends go up and get their own familiars, a checkpoint that tells you just how close it is getting to your turn.
Gamzee had gone up. And then Leijon went up and had gotten a tiger like familiar who looked as fierce as she does. You notice her notice you and give a sheepish smile your way before taking her leave. Kanaya, who surprisingly summons the most peculiar familiar of all.
A human.
A human girl with fair hair and sharp, sharp, eyes. A human girl that slowly sits up on the stage, violet eyes twinkling as she stilled, taking everything that surrounded her. But instead of letting out a shriek, like what most humans seem to do when summoned as a familiar in the past, she simply looked towards Kanaya with those bright eyes of her, expression questioning.
Kanaya was quick to recover as everyone stared, quiet, all wide-eyed. She helped the girl up onto her feet and whispered something in her ear that made the girl simply look on with interest at everyone around her. And it seems, everyone looked on at her with the same interest she held for them. You wonder momentarily how it must feel to be surrounded by beings who look far from your own. You know you'd be terrified. You wonder why she isn't.
It isn't particularly rare for humans to show up as familiars. But it's not common either. There usually would be a couple who summon humans with supernatural abilities hidden within them, about three to four people every year. They were strange in the fact that they had a working consciousness, making them almost equal to a normal mage, having an aspect and a title of their own.
Even more peculiar is that it takes some time for them to get the hang of their abilities since this 'earth' that they came from is usually without magic or something stupid like that. A select few had very powerful abilities, so they were quite a desirable familiar to have. The problem comes with the fact that they're unpredictable, and owners of such familiars tend to have a harder time getting them to be loyal to them. They actually have to 'befriend' the humans and have a mutual respect for one another in order to work together and make an effort to earn their devotion. This usually takes an arduously long time to do, depending on the human. They weren't built like how most familiars are. Sure, you had to befriend your familiar, but most had a master and pet relationship.
Human familiars had a more complex relationship with their masters.
Next to go up was Aradia, who summons a large white as milk ram, almost as tall as herself. Then Tavros who comes out with a bull like a fairy creature, most likely acting as a guide if no physical perk is given. Like Arenea Serket's small spider that whispers knowledge into her of varying importance.
And then Peixes and Pyrope go up next and you're growing more and more anxious as the names drew closer to your own.
When it was the youngest Serket's turn, nobody is surprised that she summons another human with seemingly the ability to control the wind and perhaps the weather when he inevitably freaked out by being surrounded by such creatures like yourself. But she easily got a handle on him and led him down to join the growing number of others with their familiar. You can just see her absolutely beaming to get such a powerful human which powers manifest right out the get-go.
A few more names are called, but you tune them all out, your mind diving into the deep recesses of your self-hating mind.
Until your name is finally called and everything in your being freezes up. You look up at the headmaster's smiling face that managed to look both friendly and frightening at the same time with her sharp teeth and the large spider that flanked her side.
When you didn't make a move, she urged you forward with a little flick of her wrist that tells you to move forward.
But you can't. Not with the way the crowd has gone silent once again, all eyes trained on you. And when you continued to be stuck in place, murmurs began to reverberate through the crowd, murmurs and whispers of your ineptitude and incompetence in things regarding magic. It wasn't a secret that you lack the ability to summon or cast spells of any kind, much less your own aspect. The chance of you actually summoning something was very slim.
"Mr. Vantas, we don't have all day." The headmaster both said encouragingly and threateningly, her silky voice sickly sweet. It makes you want to physically gag.
Your throat has closed off and your whole mouth was as dry as a dessert in the middle of summer. But with all of their judging, doubting eyes, you couldn't find it in yourself to take a step forward and humiliate yourself further.
But what was the other option? Stand around like an utter dumbass and humiliate yourself either way? Run away and refuse to perform the ritual and risk the inability to show yourself to anyone again with the shame and guilt weighing your shoulders down? That last one seems tempting, but when you get shoved forward roughly by some unknown student, it seems your choice was made for you.
Stumbling forward, you forced each foot to take a step forward. One step, two step, three. Up and up the stage, each step leaving a creaking noise on the short staircase up to the dais. You stand in front of everyone now, but you refuse to lift your eyes and see their sharp eyes boring holes into your skull.
You know your friends are also out there, probably trying to give you thumbs up and silent encouragements that you can do this, but you can't make yourself look up. Instead, you stared down at the dusty wooden floorboard and willed yourself to crouch down and pick up a piece of chalk.
A red one.
With it, you carefully redrew a new ritual circle, keeping a white-knuckle grip on the piece of chalk. Enough force that it actually snaps in half as you drew. But you proceeded, ignoring the blood rushing into your ears, filling the silence that surrounded you.
With a heavy heart, you drew your family symbol right in the middle. You stared at your masterpiece for a few moments, taking your time before finally standing up to enter the middle when you heard a strained cough from behind you. Coming from the headmaster herself.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths. You tried to remind yourself to breathe and not to hyperventilate and pass out stupidly. No one has ever heard of someone passing out because of nerves at a summoning ceremony, and you're not about to be the first one to elicit that piece of gossip.
You closed your eyes, uttering the words. Silently and to yourself. Nobody else can hear it.
Your heart was practically trying to beat it's way out of your chest when nothing happened. A flood of curses and negative thoughts came to your head before the circle began to glow an effervescent white light.
The light grew and grew, and a moment that must've only taken a second or two felt like an eternity to you. As if time had gone to a crawl and every beam of light flowed put at a snail's pace before completely enveloping you.
You closed your eyes, wishing against all odds that you're given a good familiar, if at all. Afterall, it's one you'll spend the rest of your life with.
--- ☆ ---
"Rose? Rose, hurry the fuck up, a man has his needs you know." You called out, tapping your foot impatiently on the floor of your shared apartment with your cousin.
After finally managing to get away from the toxic environment of your old apartment with your Bro, Rose had offered to let you stay in her own apartment. A flat she recently acquired after moving out of her own home when she turned eighteen.
Living with her has been... entertaining to say the least. The two of you always dance around each other around the apartment, trying to weave both of your vastly different way of living together. Something that's been an interesting process to go through.
You wouldn't necessarily pin Rose as a clean freak. Her way of living is more of an organized chaos. Things were being left everywhere, but they were done so in a neat fashion, especially comparing it to your naturally chaotic way of living.
You had a bad habit of stashing things in your bedroom, and around the apartment in general, and Rose would always complain about finding an apple in between the cushions of the couch. You also left things around the house, not bothering to clean up since that was usually a luxury you didn't get to participate in.
Your old life was always messy and cluttered, mostly from the strifes you were forced to participate in almost on a daily basis. Danger could be lurking anywhere, and your Bro's creepy puppet always had its eyes on you, watching your every movement. Things would always be knocked over and you'd be too tired to care about cleaning up the mess. Your Bro never thought it was necessary to clean up either, so you don't either.
"Rose?" You called out once more, growing ever more impatient. Still no answer from the other side of the bathroom door. You're out here, sweating without your t-shirt on and a towel over your shoulder and she decides to take her sweet damn time.
You decide to wait another five minutes.
And when that was up, you groaned and looked for the house keys. "I'm coming in! You better be decent in there, or I'm flipping this shit like motherfuckin pancakes on a slippery butter filled pan." You called out, twisting the key into the lock and opening it up.
You closed your eyes and even went to the extra effort of shielding your eyes already covered with your shades to avoid seeing your cousin in case she was indecent and has just gotten out of the shower.
You expected to be hurled a soap bar at, some snarky, bemused response, or even verbal lacerations, yet you received nothing. You stand there awkwardly with your arm over your eyes before slowly putting your limbs down to find...
Nothing.
Now that's just some witchcraft right there. You know your cousin was into some freaky weird voodoo shit, but you didn't think you were actually shacking up with a witch.
She's gone from the bathroom when you were right outside the damn door. She didn't come out and you had watched her enter right before you. She had taunted you for being slow and told you that first come first serve is the motto of the household when you whined about wanting to take a shower first.
But now, she was just gone.
You even checked behind the shower curtain and checked under the cabinet under the sink. Even checked the toilet bowl to see if she got sucked in by some alien type shit. Who the fuck knows? You certainly don't. You don't even know what's possible anymore, you're just guessing at this point. Aliens came to mind simply because she mentioned dreaming of strange grey creatures before. You imagined the greys, those weird beady-eyed aliens you always hear about in shoddy space 'documentaries'. Alien abduction via toilet didn't sound too far-fetched to you at the moment. But the more you think about it, the stupider you feel, so you'll stop that train of thought right there.
So, where the fuck did Rose Lalonde go?
How the fuck did she leave the bathroom with you closely guarding the door outside?
"Rose? Rose, where the fuck are you?" You had still called out helplessly, leaving the bathroom and strolling the small apartment, looking for your cousin.
But everywhere you looked, she was nowhere to be found. She wasn't in her room, under her bed, or under yours. She wasn't in the kitchen, hiding in one of the cabinets, or in the living room, cleverly hiding behind the television or behind the couch.
Where the fuck did Rose Lalonde go?
You're freaking out right now and with your phone in hand, you were about to dial down nine one one for this emergency, when something blindingly bright catches your attention from the corner of your eye.
There was a sliver of light standing vertically in the middle of your kitchen, pulsing and moving, casting shadows all around it.
You carefully approach the bright light with slow, deliberate movements. Thankfully, your shades allow you to look inside.
And inside was...
Well, nothing but more bright light. And like a stupid dumb protagonist, you reach out towards the light with a hand to try and touch the foreign thing, and as soon as you make contact with the white thing, you're sucked into the hole with no possible way to even retract your hand back because it happened so fast.
One moment, you were in your kitchen, shirtless with a towel draped over your shoulder. And then a second after it, you're in the middle of some sort of stage, with rolling hills of green grass surrounding you, along with a sea of faces you don't recognize at all. Not just you don't know them. They're literally alien looking to you, with grey skin, bright yellow sclera, sharp teeth and horns of varying shapes and sizes.
The fact that you're currently shirtless burns in the back of your mind.
When you turn around, you find yourself face to face with a short alien creature thing, glaring at you as if he tried hard enough, it would just outright kill you on the spot. It wasn't intimidating at all like he probably thinks it is.
"Where the fuck am I?" You blurted out because you have absolutely no filter on your stupid mouth.
A tall woman approached with lavish dark blue and black dress that glided behind her, creating a little train. She wore pearly white glasses and a friendly, yet shark-like in nature, grin. She offers her hand to you.
"Welcome to Alternia." She greets, dulcet tones ringing in your ears.