Chapter Text
The sun is practically sinking below the horizon when you pull your thick grey coat over your black sweater. Contrary to popular belief entertained by most who knew you, you are not a lurking creature of the night. The fact that your wardrobe contains mostly black and grey or how you only go take night classes does not prove anything.
Night classes were (in your opinion) the best, but considering that the particular class you were about to depart for was not one of your own choosing but rather required for your particular dream profession, you were quite grumpy. The thought of leaving your apartment to do something you didn’t want to was repulsive.
Law. Why the hell did it have to be Law, of all classes? You hate Law.
Slipping your book bag over your shoulder as you exit the apartment, you shout a goodbye (‘later loser’) to your roommate and one of your best friends, Sollux, who gave a loud yell in reply (‘we’re out of milk and fuck off dickhole’). Then, you were off, walking swiftly in order to make it to the bus on time. You’d probably walk home though, to pick up some milk and anything else that you felt like getting. If you had the money.
The chilly autumn air stung your cheeks and the sunset was nearly blinding; that you hardly made it to the bus in time because of the sun in your eyes. Stepping tentatively onto the bus, you take a seat near the front, instantly regretting your decision as you are squished in a seat next to someone who smelled absolutely putrid but shit the bus is moving you can’t move.
Needless to say, you hold your breath.
When you finally step off the bus not five minutes later, you take several deep breaths. It was a quick walk to the classroom, though you had to trek through the lawn of the college and it was slick with rain from that morning. Luckily, you didn’t slip.
You slide quietly into the room upon reaching it. All the seats were already filled except for one in the back next a redheaded flippy-haired girl. You grumble and sink into the seat begrudgingly. Of course, it just had to be a full class. Fuck.
The girl acknowledges your presence with a slight turn of her head, though her gaze is nowhere near you but rather in your general direction. You notice her eyes are a pure, milky white and she sniffs a lot, as if relying on her sense of smell. There are remnants of her original eye color in her eyes; a bright teal.
You come to the realization that she’s blind only moments later.
“Hellooo,” she says, dragging out the ‘o’ sound. It reminds you of something out of a horror movie, and you aren’t sure if you should be irritated or frightened. She is kind of weirding you out a little, and you think she might be a little… bizarre.
You give her a quick once over curiously to try and assess her personality. She’s wearing this red dragon hoodie and a Hobbit shirt with black jeans and red sneakers, which is highly different from your black sweater, grey jeans, and grey converse. She seems to like the color red (obviously). You, on the other hand, have never been all that fond of it. You aren’t sure why.
“Hi,” you say shortly, planning to keep to yourself. Things never really go as you plan though. Ever. It is one of the most irritating things in the universe, coming close to long lines full of stupid people and bananas. God, do you hate bananas.
“I’m Terezi,” she says, extending a hand toward you. You stare at it for a second, disgruntled, before shaking it. You’re not just going to leave her hanging, after all. She seems persistent about talking to you even after you had planned on not paying attention to the teacher instead of talking to weird blind girls.
“Karkat.”
“Not much of a talker, are you?” She laughs, a sort of high pitched sound that pierces the air and although you cringe, you find it frightening only once. “I don’t bite. Often.”
You shrug, and upon realizing that she can’t see it when you do that, you say “I guess not.” Honestly, you kind of just wish she would leave you alone.
She audibly sniffs the air again and turns more towards you, leaning forward. It makes you uncomfortable considering you are now practically nose to nose with her and oh god what is she doing.
You lean away with a scowl firmly etched into your features. Her ever-present grin widens and she leans back again, deciding not to share whatever discovery it was that she made about you. This irritates you, though really everything irritates you, so it’s not much of a surprise.
She begins scribbling notes enthusiastically (and messily, jeez) with a (shocker) red pen. You take notes in your preferred grey, though you take considerably less than her and probably not as detailed. It makes you feel lazy that a blind girl takes better notes than you. But it’s Law, so who cares?
The class drags on painfully slow until the teacher finally dismisses you. You gather your things, pull on your coat, and head for the door quickly so you can avoid another conversation with Terezi.
You make it as far as the front lawn, which as you mentioned earlier, is not that far at all.
“Karkat!” Terezi calls you, and you can practically hear her grin in her voice. You freeze in place with your foot raised to take another step and look back over your shoulder. She’s walking towards you holding a cane, but she isn’t using it. Weird.
Wait. How did she even know it was you?
“Hi,” you say when she catches up to you. Smooth, Karkat.
“Hey,” she chirps, tilting her head and staring at you with her milky eyes. Her teeth look surprisingly sharp, and your mind jumps to your earlier conversation. Hopefully she doesn’t take a chunk out of your forearm while you’re spacing off in class. “I was wondering why you’re taking law. I meant to ask but I didn’t get the chance.”
“Oh, they put me in that class because the class I wanted was full and it’s required for my major. I was going to take a better alternative that’s only offered spring quarter, but I didn’t really have a choice.” You growl under your breath. God damn stupid motherfucking admission’s office.
She seems a bit surprised by your outburst, falling silent and tapping her cane on the ground thoughtfully.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“What about you?” You ask her, growing more irritated with the tapping by the second. Speaking up was mostly just to get her to stop. It’s not like you actually want to know, pft.
“Justice,” she answers simply. You are slightly completely confused by her answer, but you accept it nonetheless. You don’t really want to question her about it.
“Oh,” is your only response.
She grins again. “Do you have a Pesterchum, by chance?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s your Chumhandle?”
You pause. “It’s carcinoGeneticist. Why?”
She only winks and turns, pulling up the hood of her hoodie and bounding away. You watch her go, absolutely bewildered.
What the actual fuck?
Still flabbergasted out from that exchange, you turn and begin the trek home. It’s only seven blocks, but you wanted to pick up some milk on the way home, so you might as well just deal with it. It’s nearing midnight, but the corner store two blocks from your apartment is open 24/7, thank fucking Christ.
You tug your coat closer around you and hiss. It’s cold as balls outside and Nepeta stole your goddam scarf last time you saw her. You know that she’s all ass over tits for you or whatever, so you let her take it because you feel kind of bad for her that you don’t feel the same way and likely never will.
The door of the corner store is really shitty and sometimes you have to push it extra hard to get it to open, but thankfully this time you don’t have any issues. You duck in and out quickly, paying for the carton of milk, a six pack of cherry limeade, and a new scarf.
Donning the scarf, you walk the next two blocks to your apartment in a much better mood.
You push open the door to your apartment and shrug off your coat, flinging it on the black couch your tiny living room features. After putting the drinks in the fridge, you slouch and wander into your room, hearing only the sounds effects to Sollux’s game coming from his room.
Your laptop comes to life predictably when you push the on button. The first thing you do is check your pesterchum to see if Terezi has gotten back to you yet. She hasn’t, and your friend Kanaya is the only one alone online (aside from Sollux but fuck that guy). You decide to pester her, since it has been a long time since you last talked to her.
-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] began pestering grimAuxiliatrix [GA] --
CG: HEY
GA: Hello Karkat
GA: How Are You?
CG: FUCKING FANTASTIC.
CG: THE DUMB FUCKS AT THE ADMISSION’S OFFICE OF MY COLLEGE PUT ME IN LAW.
CG: OF ALL THE SHITHOLE CLASSES, LAW.
CG: AND I SIT NEXT TO SOME WEIRD BLIND GIRL.
GA: That Does Sound Quite Unfortunate
GA: May I Ask, Though, Who Is This Blind Girl?
GA: And How Did You Come To The Conclusion That She Is Weird?
CG: HER NAME IS TEREZI OR WHATEVER
CG: AND SHE LIKE
CG: LICKS THINGS AND SHIT. SHE LICKED THE SYLLABUS.
CG: SHE ALSO ASKED ME WHY I WAS IN LAW, AND I TOLD HER ABOUT THE INCIDINT.
CG: SHE SAID SHE WAS THERE FOR ‘JUSTICE’.
CG: WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?
CG: IS SHE TRYING TO BE BATMAN OR SOME SHIT?
GA: I Have Heard Of Her
GA: She Seems Nice
GA: There Is A Possibility That She Licks Things For A Reason, As Well
GA: As For The Justice Part, Perhaps You Should Ask Her What Her Major Is?
GA: It May Provide Some Insight About Her Answer
CG: I GUESS SO. I DIDN’T EXACTLY ASK ABOUT EITHER OF THOSE THINGS ANYWAY.
GA: You Should Make A Point To
GA: Regrettably, I Must Take My Leave Now
GA: I Have A Dress That Is Due In Textiles And Apparel Tomorrow
CG: ALRIGHT.
CG: TALK TO YOU LATER THEN.
GA: Goodbye Karkat
GA: And Good Luck With The Girl
-- grimAuxiliatrix [GA] ceased pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] --
Leaning back in your chair after closing the chat window, you look fondly up at the glow stars that are taped to your ceiling. They glow faintly in the darkness of your room, your laptop being the only other source of light at the time being. You have had them up for years. Kanaya gave them to you when you were fifteen, and you’ve had them ever since. Looking at them makes you nostalgic.
Your stomach rumbles angrily at you, trying to remind you that food is a thing and that you need it to function as a normal human being, though you ignore it. Instead, your attention is drawn to your computer. It appears someone is pestering you.
-- twinArmageddons [TA] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] --
TA: ii’m hungry
TA: order some piizza
CG: WHY THE FUCK CANT YOU DO IT?
CG: AND WHY THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN PESTERING ME?
CG: YOU’RE LITTERALLY IN THE NEXT ROOM.
CG: I CAN HEAR YOU GETTING THESE MESSAGES.
TA: dude ii’m bu2y
CG: WITH WHAT?
CG: YOU OBVIOUSLY AREN’T THAT BUSY IF YOU HAVE TIME TO PESTER ME.
TA: ii’m playing miinecraft with ed, duh
TA: ii thiink ii’m gonna date thi2 guy
TA: he’2 2uch a douche though
TA: then agaiin, 2o am ii
CG: I DON’T FUCKING CARE.
CG: I’LL ORDER THE DAMN PIZZA. JUST SHUT UP ABOUT ERIDAN.
CG: FOR GOD’S SAKE.
TA: okay cool. thank2
CG: YEAH WHATEVER.
-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased pestering twinArmageddons [TA] --
You roll your eyes at your dumbass roommate and order some pizza (Italian classic for you, pepperoni for him) with Domino’s online feature, which is the best thing to ever exist. While you wait for it to arrive, you decide to play some League Feuds 2. Your character is a warrior whose name is Knight of Blood, which is your username that you use for most things. A ‘gamertag’, if you will.
Sollux plays as a necromancer called Mage of Doom, his gamertag or username for various things or whatever, though you know it’s only one of many. Stupid hackers.
The two of you have created a small league consisting of only friends. You have managed to convince most of your friends to play, but so far the league only consists of you, Sollux, Aradia, Tavros, Nepeta, Kanaya (who doesn’t play that much regardless), Vriska, Gamzee and Eridan. Sollux has been attempting to convince Feferi and Nepeta is constantly bugging Equius. You hope they’ll join soon. After they do, you’ll only need one more player.
Twenty minutes later, Vriska is bugging you to help her with a mission when the doorbell rings (presumably the pizza). You ignore her messages and exit the game, standing and retrieving your glorious dinner from the delivery guy. You give the guy a small tip then take Sollux’s pizza to him. He hardly looks up, giving you a short ‘thankth’ before continuing to talk to Eridan.
You take the other box to your room, grabbing one of the cherry limeades from the fridge on the way. Settling in front of your computer, you eat while watching How I Met Your Mother on Netflix instant play. After eating, you return to League Feuds 2.
Vriska was waiting for you and she’s angry that you left before helping her with her quest, but you really don’t give a damn about that. Her character is a thief called Thief of Light. You continue to ignore her and instead help Gamzee, who plays a mesmer called Bard of Rage, with a few simple tasks he had to complete. In the end, you are rewarded with a level gain and some crafting tools.
The famous Seer of Mind, a female guardian, made short appearance, and you almost wish you could talk to them. You admire them a lot. They’re one of the best players there is. Well, your league is pretty famous too, known for being one of the best, but Seer of Mind is a solo player and still pretty fucking amazing.
You respect and think highly of them, considering that they fly solo and still climb the leaderboards and decimate the opponents.
You get bored quickly and annoyed by Vriska’s insistent pestering, so you quit and loiter on the internet a bit. Suddenly, you hear the ping of a new message and a chat box has popped up. Someone is pestering you.
-- gallowsCalibrator [GC] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] --
GC: H3Y K4RKL3S >:]
CG: TEREZI?
GC: DUUUH
GC: WHO 3LS3 WOULD 1T B3?
CG: I DON’T KNOW.
GC: 3X4CTLY
GC: 4NYW4Y, WH4TS UP?
CG: I WAS PLAYING SOME LEAGUE FUEDS 2 BUT IGOT KIND OF BORED.
CG: PLUS A TEAMMATE WAS ANNOYING THE FUCK OUT OF ME
GC: OOOOH YOU PL4Y L34UG3 FU3DS 2?
GC: WH4T L34GU3 DO YOU PL4Y FOR?
CG: I MADE MY OWN LEAGUE WITH MY ROOMMATE.
CG: ITS CALLED ALTERNIA.
GC: >:O
GC: YOU GUYS RUN 4LT3RN14?
GC: TH4T’S SO COOL!
CG: THANKS I GUESS
GC: YOU GUYS 4R3 R34LLY 4W3SOM3
GC: 1 H4V3N’T JO1N3D 4NY L34GU3S B3C4US3 1 H4V3 W4NT3D TO JO1N 4LT3RN14 FOR SO LONG
GC: TH4T 4ND TH3 R3ST ONLY W4NT M3 FOR MY POW3R >:/
CG: YOU CAN JOIN IF YOU WANT
CG: I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH DICKHOLE FRIENDS TO FILL A LEAUGE ANYWAY.
CG: WHAT’S YOUR NAME?
GC: S33R OF M1ND
GC: >:]
CG: WHOA WAIT
CG: WHAT?
CG: ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?
CG: PLEASE TELL ME YOU AREN’T SHITTING ME
GC: NOOOP3
GC: 1’M TH3 R34L!
CG: WOW
CG: THAT’S SO FUCKING AMAZING
CG: HELL YEAH YOU CAN PLAY WITH US. WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU ON OUR TEAM.
GC: Y4Y!
GC: 1T’S 4 B1T L4T3 TO PL4Y TON1GHT THOUGH. TOMORROW?
GC: W3 C4N 4LL PL4Y TOG3TH3R!
CG: YEAH, SURE.
GC: 1’M 4CTU4LLY G3TT1NG R34LLY T1R3D NOW TH4T 1 TH1NK 4BOUT 1T.
GC: 1’LL T4LK TO YOU TOMORROW
GC: GOODN1GHT >:]
CG: NIGHT
-- gallowsCalibrator [GC] ceased pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] --
You are still a bit in shock. Of course, part of you is also too busy wondering how she can even read if she’s blind. Does she have a special keyboard or something?
And, shit. It seems you forgot to ask her about the licking and her major. Talking to her left you with more questions than you had had beforehand.
In your state of shock, you accidently tip over the remains of your cherry limeade and it falls to the floor, spilling and probably staining the carpet red. You take action quickly, soaking it up with a few spare napkins, but it isn’t quick enough. You frown, mourning the once-cleanliness of your carpet.
You aren’t all that fond of the color red.