Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Dear KARKAT VANTAS,

We are pleased to offer you a place at Salem University for an undergraduate degree in a magical field. Should you accept your place with us you will first need to complete or test out of several foundation modules (please see attached course list) before choosing a school and eventual major.

Accomodation is provided on or near the campus in one of our many halls of residence, the cost for this as with your tuition is free as per the conditions of scholarships that we have been set. For more information on the accommodation assigned to you please refer to the enclosed letter from the accommodation department. Similarly if you have any special needs regarding your living situation, i.e. modified furniture, biological needs, diurnal/nocturnal schedule, UV sensitivity etc please contact the accommodation department who will be happy to assist you.

One way teleportation to campus from your nearest port is included with your acceptance of your place.

If you wish to accept your place at Salem University please mark this letter with your blood/equivalent biological life essence within the marked circle below no later than the 20th August. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,
Student Services,
Salem University

Your blood on the letter is old and dried by now, despite having not applied for a place at all you accepted immediately. It’s one of the most prestigious institutions in the country, if you were trying to be a lawyer or something this would be like getting into Harvard. Wait, is that a law place? You have literally no clue, you think it is though. Yeah. Whatever, the point is you accepted. Of course you did, what else were you going to do? Stay here?

You look around your basic, bland, cookie cutter apartment. Near enough a duplicate of every other one in your building the place is soulless and you’ve never really been happy here. Sure, it’s free as it is for everyone in the building but it’s not a home.

All of your things are packed away in your bag of holding which set you back a decent chunk of your savings from your government allowance. Now the place is bare and empty, just like it’s always felt. Today is your last day here because you really don’t intend on coming back.

You pick up your bag of holding and survey your empty apartment. You close your eyes and try to visualise what it’s going to be like when you get to Salem, you hope it’ll be better than here. Well, time to leave.

“Goodbye, apartment and GET FUCKED!” your voice pitches up massively in volume at the end of your sentence, the sound bouncing off of the walls and the incredibly thick glass in your windows ringing with the noise. Instinctively you clap your hand over your mouth. Fuck, you didn’t mean to go loud, it just happens sometimes. You’ve had to replace so much goddamn glass from breaking it with your voice.

The wall next to you bangs as one of your neighbours slams their fist into it, you hear their front door slam and then a banging on your front door. Great. With a sigh, you open the door and step outside before your neighbour can start berating you. You turn your back on her and close the door.

“-can’t just keep DOING that! You’re always waking my kid up, how many times do I have to report you?!” she demands.

“You won’t.” you say flatly and lift your hand. The gold ring around your finger gleams in the light, you think of your front door and the key melds out of the metal for you to take it in your other hand.

“Oh, you think I won’t? You think I’m scared of you, mr. nothing? Huh?” she hisses at you. God, you hate this woman so much. You never really got on with your neighbour before. He didn’t like that you were often loud unexpectedly and sometimes blew the windows out with your voice but you also weren’t a fan of how every lunar month he’d howl out of his windows and throw his furry body around at the walls. You were both shit neighbours, it was fine. But noooo now he met this chick she’s decided that you’re the worst person on the planet and complains endlessly about you.

“You won’t have to complain, because I’m leaving.” you snap and lock the door. You flick the key back into your ring and turn to face her. Your neighbour’s girlfriend’s eyes are wide with shock and the feathers in her hair sink down flat instead of flared with hostility like you usually see.

“You’re leaving? As in moving out?” she says in surprise.

“Yeah, got accepted to Salem University.” you tell her tartly and wish you had the paper in your hands still instead of in your bag so you could wave it in her stupid face. Said stupid face is currently displaying skepticism.

“Tch, yeah right.” she sneers.

“I did. Oh, I have something for you, picked it up and meant to give it to you.” you say and shove your hand in your pocket. You dig around for a second and pull your hand out again, with just your middle finger raised. Very appropriately flipping her the bird.

“I’m going to-” she starts angrily as you push past her.

“Report me? Go ahead, I won’t be here.” you say, throwing your hands up in the air.

“Fuck you!” your neighbour’s shit girlfriend squawks at you indignantly.

“No, FUCK YOU!” you yell at her and you can out yell ANYONE. She yelps and claps her hands over her ears. This is the time to make your hasty exit down the stairs before other people on your floor come out to express their displeasure about your volume.

God, you’re glad to be out of this place. Down the street you catch a bus to the port, there’s no seats so you’re left standing with your hand looped into a grimy plastic strap for poor suckers like you. You rest your head on your arm as the bus trundles on and vacantly watch the electronic adverts above the seats change.

‘Patented whitening rune enriched toothbrush! Nine out of ten saw a difference in just one use!’

You packed your toothbrush, right? You must have, you packed everything and you barely own jack shit. You’re not looking through your bag for it on the bus just in case, if you don’t have it you’ll buy a new one when you get there. On the screen a hairy man with yellow eyes is frowning as a human woman covers her mouth in a ‘whoops’ gesture.

‘Think you might be the victim of an accident that wasn’t your fault and you don’t remember? Call our specialist memory-mancers now on-’

You grit your teeth and look away. It outrages you that those scam artists are still going, what outrages you more is that you know they’re a scam because they scammed YOU before. Not your proudest moment that’s for sure.

For your own wellbeing you stop looking at the adverts and instead just stare out of the window until you arrive at the port. A fair few other people get off and just as many get on there too. The Southwest Georgia Regional Port is your closest, being that Albany is the city that has unfortunately been your place of residence as far back as you remember. The city has a population of 77 thousand and according to the local racists far too large a portion of that is not fully human. To be fair you have the dubious privilege of having no obvious outward signs of being nonhuman as long as you’re not yelling too loud and as long as the human that you’re talking to isn’t unusually sensitive to ‘otherness’. Unfortunately for you, although you look human, some regard you as not the right shade of human so you get shit from different racists which is fantastic.

Alright, you’re sure that there are nice things to say about Albany, Georgia, but currently you can’t think of any. Ugh, ok you like some of the food and it’s nice that it never really gets that cold but it’s way too hot in the summer. Wait, you’re complaining about it again. Look, it’s fine for other people, you’re sure. It’s just never been home to you and you’ve never belonged here. You could not be more relieved to be walking into the port building.

Once inside you head to the domestic port section, you’re not leaving the country so you get in the line for the US and wait your turn as the line slowly snakes along. You rummage in your wallet for your ID and take the time to get your offer letter out of your bag as well as the follow up travel permit that they sent you when you accepted the place. You’re all ready when it’s finally your turn to go to a booth. Mostly behind a thick perspex wall is a bored looking woman with wildly ugly glasses, without being asked you hand over your ID and your letter which she looks over, her eyes catch on your ID and she peers at you.

“Species unknown?” she asks and cranes her neck slightly to get a better look at you.

“Yes.” you say instead of ‘that’s literally the fucking thing you just read off of my government issued ID you dribbling moron’. You do still want to travel today because you’re getting out of here, remember?

The woman sighs like you’ve personally inconvenienced her and pulls a sheet of paper from a drawer as well as a badge on a cord.

“Did you pack your bag yourself?” she asks without looking up, too busy filling something in on the badge that you can’t see.

“Yes, just me.” you confirm.

“Do you have any living creatures within your bag large enough to see with the naked eye? Any cursed items? Are you carrying anything for anyone else?” the woman recites off monotonously.

“No.” you tell her.

The woman stamps the badge, slips it into a plastic wallet on the cord and slides it along with your ID and your letter back under the slit in the glass.

“Put your badge on, go to the specialist security, fill out this form.” she says and slides another sheet of paper out for you. You take everything and stare as the woman buzzes for the next person to come to the booth.

“But where-” you start.

“Go.” she tuts and waves you off.

Well, okay, fuck her. You’ll need to ask someone else where to go or find a signpost. You put your ID back in your wallet, put your letter in your pocket and slip the badge over your neck and- oh! Right before you a giant floating arrow appears. You take the badge off and it vanishes, put it back on and it appears. That’s actually really cool. You glance self consciously around but you don’t think anyone saw your childish amazement. You obediently follow the arrow through the port, stopping only once for coffee and sure enough it takes you to a specialist security waiting area.

Taking a seat you finally look through the form that woman gave you, which may as well be labelled ‘you don’t know what you are but we need to know if we can transport you safely’. A lot of the questions you’re able to just say no to and skip past all of the ‘if yes then’ sub questions.

No, you have never been possessed to your knowledge. No, you have never been cursed to your knowledge. You are not wanted for any magical or nonmagical major crimes (who would say yes to that?). As far as you are aware this has always been your body and you have not gained or lost any body parts in your life.

The section about magical ability makes you hesitate. Your voice is loud, glass shatteringly so at times and it goes that way without you meaning for it to, hence why you were so popular with your neighbours. But you don’t think that’s magical as such, more a physical thing. You can interact with and use magical items just fine but you’ve never shown any magical skill of your own. The letter in your pocket from one of the top magical institutions in the world suggests otherwise however. They don’t make mistakes and they chose you.

You write down what you think is best and wait until the floating wait sign in front of you beckons you to get up and pass through a gate into a room.

“Form please.” the woman there says, holding out a hand. She seems human and is maybe in her thirties, her clothes are the standard uniform of port employees except she gets a dark blue robe as well. Her eyes scan your form so you take the chance to look around the room.

The room is perfectly square maybe about ten foot wide, within the middle is a white painted circle with magical script written around. There are several very large blank spots within the circle and notably nearby there is a low table with a pot of paint and a brush. The floor is linoleum with grates around the edges along with a bucket, mop and jug of sanitizer next to it. The lights are somewhat dim and large candles burn in several points of the circle.

“Okay Mr Vantas, my name is Opal and I’ll be your transporter today.” she smiles and holds out a hand. You shake it awkwardly.

“You wrote ‘none’ for parents and their species. Do you have no memory of your parents or do you mean you never had any?” the woman asks.

“I don’t remember anything before the event.” you tell her and she nods.

“And about your magic…” she asks.

“I’ve never done any but I got sent this.” you say as you pull your acceptance letter out. Opal’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise and she gives a low whistle of admiration.

“Wow, congratulations. I didn’t even meet the standards to apply there.” she says and hands your letter back, not something super reassuring to hear from someone who’s going to magically send you across the country.

“You’re right though, there must be something about you they see. I’ll need to run some checks on you, first for curses and the like.” Opal explains and pulls a metal ball on a string from a pouch at her hip. She sways it near to you and there’s an odd prickle on your awareness but nothing happens.

“No curses! Just for curiosity’s sake try this, it measures raw magical power. Look.” she says and takes out another device. This one fits within the centre of her palm, it’s a solid disk of metal but as it settles in her hand parts of it flick out of the surface and slowly spin like a tiny carousel.

You’re pretty sure this isn’t a needed part of your travel checks but, whatever, you’ll humour her. Besides which knowing that you do have some magical power will ease your vague paranoia that they somehow sent a letter to you by mistake and when you get there the magical elite will take one look at you and laugh your ass back to Georgia. With some trepidation you hold out your hand as Opal plucks the metal device from her palm and settles it into yours.

In her hand parts moved and gently spun. The moment this device sits in your palm it explodes out into a hundred swirling parts, they glow white as they whizz through the air, trailing sparks behind them. In your hand what remains of the metal disk is getting hotter and hotter until you’re forced to drop it on the ground with a hiss of pain. The metal clinks on the linoleum and bubbles slightly, around the room the little chunks of previously airborne metal drop to the floor.

You make very sure that your volume is going to be acceptable before you force out a strangled “Holy shit.”

“Oh… wow. I can see why they sent you that offer. Wow.” Opal whispers. She crouches and picks up the device, or what remains of it at least.

“I broke it, didn’t I? I’m so sorry.” you whisper.

“No, no! It was worth it just to see that, I’ve never… whatever you are is really strong!” she insists as she jerks back up to her feet again. She looks on edge, that happens sometimes, you unsettle some people. You’re not sure if that’s a magical thing or whether your awful personality is just detectable at range even with you keeping your trap shut.

“In any case I should send you where you need to go, if you could stand in the circle there, the smaller one in the middle please.” Opal says, suddenly back to business. She indicates the centre of the circle and so you go there, careful to step through the cleared spaces and not over the lines. You might not be magically trained yet but even you know that some things are just dangerous.

Opal pulls a tablet out of her bag and taps a few things on the screen before setting it on the ground. She then takes the brush and with it closes the smaller circle that you’re standing in. You watch as she shuffles around the circle and carefully copies your name down from your form into one of the blank spaces in the otherwise mystic writing. With that done, she moves to another blank space and pulls her tablet over. She copies across a number of symbols and when she’s done she double checks them as well as your name.

“This is the correct spelling, yes?” she asks, pointing at your name.

“Yes.” you confirm, “What happens now?”

“I’ve put in your details as well as the location of where you’re going. Now that I’ve closed this last part of the circle I’m just waiting for confirmation from the receiving circle that no one else is trying to send to there, just booking a slot essentially. Ah, here we go.” she says as her tablet pings.

You want to ask what happens if you were to teleport into a circle at the same time as someone else but you have a feeling that you don’t want to know.

“Please stay inside the circle at all times and thank you for teleporting with us.” Opal recites in a tone that suggests she’s said it thousands of times before. She holds her hands out at her sides, palms up, and the room starts to hum. On the floor around your feet the lines glow and you feel something catch.

Colour smears across your vision, your ears pop and suddenly you’re in a different room. You’re facing a sign that says in large letters ‘PLEASE EXIT THE CIRCLE PROMPTLY’. Remembering your speculation about being in a circle when someone else tries to get in you hastily rush out through a clear path and step out of the nearest door. You realise all of a sudden that your port badge is gone, it must have been left behind when you teleported.

“Excuse me?” a voice calls. You turn and see an open area with desks and shelves just a few paces down the hallway that you’re seemingly in now.

“Please come here, you’re a new student, yes?” the man asks. You walk closer and see that the man is neatly dressed although his crisp white shirt doesn’t entirely hide the full body tattoos that cover his skin in strange patterns, sigils and arcane writing.

“Uh, yeah. I am.” you admit.

“I figured as much, that dazed look gives you away. First time teleporting?” the man asks with a smile as he nudges his glasses up his nose. You nod.

“Well then, if you give me your name I can register that you’ve arrived and give you your things.” he says cheerfully.

“Karkat Vantas.” you tell him.

“Excellent. KARKAT VANTAS.” the man says, his voice taking on a different quality as he says your name. He holds a hand up and a thick envelope whizzes through the air and drops into his waiting hand. He flicks the envelope open and pulls its contents out.

“Alright, some keys for you. Your dorm building key, your apartment key and finally the one to your individual room. You’re in a shared apartment with one other person, as you didn’t request otherwise it’s mixed sex. I see we did get your soundproofing request which is fine as your roommate requested the same it seems, so that’s not a problem.” the man says and hands you three keys in succession. You turn your hand so your keyring is accessible and meld each key with the metal one by one as you clearly think on their purpose.

“Here’s a map of the campus, your dorm is here and the details of your room are on this sheet. You’re on the fourth floor, room thirteen, lucky number! Your class schedule is here, some things are missing still but it will fill itself in when the last few professors finally get their act together and confirm things. Classes don’t start until Wednesday though so don’t worry.” he explains and circles a building on the map in pink highlighter.

“You have a small kitchen area in your apartment but food is provided to students between six am and eight pm in this building here. There’s shopping places all around Salem, I’m sure you know how to Google things. If you need anything you can call us on this number here but read everything in here first because the answer is usually in the pack we give you. Your student ID is inside, you’ll need to keep that on you and the instructions for getting a photo on it are included with it. So, here’s your map, I’ll put the rest in here. You get out down that hall and it’s the first door on your right, okay?” the man says brightly and puts the envelope and map in your hand.

You blink a little gormlessly at him, that was such a rush on information but you think you got the gist. Go out that way, read your map and the papers they’ve given you, stupid.

“Right, yeah, okay, thank you.” you nod and step away from the desk. The man smiles and then looks at his computer screen, starting to type, which is probably what he had been doing before you cluelessly blundered into the hallway.

You push through the double doors and reel slightly at the sudden shock in temperature, it’s not like it’s exactly cold here, it’s still September after all but it’s a lot cooler than you were on the other side on that whole teleportation deal. The air outside feels crisp and clean as you walk further out. The building you just left is clean and modern looking with pale bricks but around you are far older and grander buildings, their previously light stonework slightly discoloured with age into a greyish colour. A fountain bubbles away merrily in the shape of a tree with leaves of water. Other people your age are wandering about in groups talking to each other, other students no doubt.

Orienting yourself on the map you glance at the buildings around you to work out what they are. That over there seems to be the department of magi-medical studies, to your right in the very old and fancy building is the history department. You squint over the roof of it and see a tower in the distance that you’d bet from the dome on top is the astronomy building. Well, first things first, you need to get to your apartment.

You follow the map out onto the street and pass pretty houses with jewel toned wood siding and cutesy light catchers in the windows. There are bakeries, coffee places, small shops. Everything seems to be leaning heavily into the magical vibe and you’d bet the place gets a lot of tourists too. Within maybe five minutes though you find a large multistory building, which is one of three in a horseshoe shape to the road, outside of which is a large stone sign that reads ‘STUDENT ACCOMODATION - PROVIDED BY GENEROUS DONATION’. Donation from who you don’t know.

With your building spotted you head inside, today at least the front doors are open and a security guard chilling at the front lets you in with a flash of your student ID. Fourth floor, room thirteen. The door is unremarkable from the rest, distinguished only by the number screwed to it at eye height and below that a small whiteboard is half filled by the single word ‘Rose’. You hesitate for a moment and then get your key out, taking a moment to recall which one it was. You slide your key in the lock, turn it and open the door.

The room that greets you is mostly bare and when the door swings shut behind you on its own all sound from the hallway vanishes immediately. There is a living area with a square dining table that could perhaps fit four people around it, there is a small sofa that looks well worn and to your right a little kitchen area currently crowded with a clutter of items and boxes. At the far end of the room are three doors in different directions, one of which is half open. It then swings all the way open and a girl steps out, looking right at you.

“I thought I heard someone.” she says and walks over to the kitchen area, dumping the boxes in her arms on the surface there.

“Yeah, sorry it’s… it’s amazing how well that soundproofing works, wow.” you whistle and look back over your shoulder at the door. There’s a painted on circle over the door and the frame that presumably breaks and re-seals whenever the the door is opened or shut.

“It’s nice work. I assume that you are my new roommate and not just an especially nosy and inefficient burglar.” the girl says and looks sidelong at you. Her eyes are phenomenally purple, dark jewel tone that aren’t so much pretty as they are intimidating as if she can see more than she should. Her skin is dark and her black hair is held back by a purple headband that is the exact shade of her skirt and shoes, her whole appearance is very polished and put together in a way that makes you acutely aware of how yours is not.

“I- yeah, I am. Somehow. You’re Rose, I guess? From the door? I’m Karkat.” you say and hold out your hand. Rose smiles and takes it, her prim, purple manicured nails against your skin.

“Well, Karkat, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I hope that you don’t mind that I’ve already started setting things out in our shared areas.” Rose says, gesturing to her unpacked stuff.

“I didn’t really bring much so I don’t mind at all.” you say.

“Well, I don’t mind sharing any equipment that I bring and I don’t mind sharing anything simple like bread, tea, coffee, and the like if we can both be adults about replacing things evenly.” she offers.

“I can agree to that, I’m not going to be the asshole that uses up all of your stuff and doesn’t replace anything.” you laugh.

“You say that but my friends and brother often have no such consideration.” she sighs and leans on the edge of the kitchen counter.

Your eyes drift once more to the little magical circle over the door that keeps this place so silent. Hmm.

“I know why I need that, can I ask why you do?” you ask, pointing to it.

“I am- was, a seer. I’m trying to regain my powers of prediction now that my deity no longer speaks to me. A quiet environment always aided my meditations and visions before, I’m hoping it’ll do the same here.” Rose answers with a touch of sadness.

“Ah… I’m sorry. Who was your deity?” you ask and immediately regret doing so, but isn’t regretting your words the prime Karkat Vantas ™ experience?

“Cthulhu.” Rose answers lightly, her intense gaze boring into you.

Oh. Cthulhu, the god that wants to do terrible and unknowable things to humanity, the cosmos and everything living in it. That’s what’s been whispering visions to Rose before? That’s… great. Ok, cool.

“I needed the spells because I can’t control my voice sometimes, it gets really loud. My last neighbours hated me.” you blurt out instead of saying anything of what you just thought.

“Really? Why is that?” Rose asks curiously, her eyes flicker over you and you know she must be checking you out to see how human you do or don’t look. Fine, you have to live with her so you may as well be open with this.

“I think it’s a thing for whatever species I am. Not that I remember what that is.” you sigh and shrug.

“Ah.” Rose nods.

You look around the room again, that’s a nice TV set up there and you’d bet that it didn’t come with this apartment.

“Right, I already picked the room on the left there, so the one on the right is yours. Our bathroom is in the middle, feel free to unpack or what have you. I’ll try to sort this mess of stuff out.” Rose says with a wave towards the pile of things on the kitchen counter.

You nod, desperate to move away from this godawful conversation that you got yourself into. Rose pries open the lid of a box and so you head off to the room that she indicated earlier. The room itself has a large single bed in it, albeit currently bare of bedding. There’s drawers, empty bookshelves, an empty clothing rail and a basic desk and chair. Nothing super fancy but it also doesn’t look cheap either. When you investigate the window you find that it too has that silencing circle on the top of the frame and the glass is several inches thick to protect it from your voice.

You pass several hours unpacking, finding spaces for your things and despairing a little at how plain your room still looks. Needless to say you’re thankful when Rose eventually eases your door open.

“I did knock but then I realised that the sound wouldn’t transmit. We should probably get a system of hanging things on doors if we don’t want to be disturbed at all.” Rose says thoughtfully.

“We could make a flip sign of some kind. Like ‘don’t come in at all’ and ‘you can come in but I might be busy’ and then leave the door open the rest of the time.” you suggest.

“That’s a good idea.” she nods. You watch as she looks your room over.

“That’s a very organised collection of books.” Rose remarks and nods towards your overflowing shelf and subsequent pile on the floor by your desk. Books are the only thing you have in any abundance in your room.

“Oh, yeah. Well, I wish I had more but there’s only so much space. I only bought the ones I really wanted to re-read, other than that it was the library for me. I’m actually really excited to check out the library here.” you tell her. To your surprise Rose’s face sours slightly, if just for a moment.

“What, you don’t like libraries?” you say flatly.

“I definitely do, don’t you worry about that. My room is just as filled with books, you’re in good bibliophile company here. Listen, I don’t know if you have other plans or maybe you just want to relax but I think if I have to unpack one more thing any time soon I’m going to scream. I was going to go get some lunch and coffee at one of the local coffee shops that I passed on my way here. My brother and two of our friends are upstairs as well so if you want to join us you’re very welcome.” Rose offers.

The paranoid voice in your head says that she’s just being polite but you don’t think she is. You wanted to make friends here, start a new life. You shouldn’t shove away any chance for that.

“I’d really love that, if that’s okay with you.” you agree.

“I wouldn’t have offered otherwise. Come on, let’s go.” Rose tells you and walks back out into the main room. You follow her and stare in amazement at how different the place looks. The previously worn sofa is now covered with a finely knitted throw, delicate string lights ring the tops of the walls and the curtains have been changed out for a glittering purple gauze to screen the outside world away and thick black velvet to block out the light when you want to. The kitchen is no longer a mass of boxes but now filled with a fleet of new and expensive looking appliances as well as a stack of mugs and cups that teeters precariously without a single one of them matching another. Jars of tea and coffee stand in array, all labelled with neat handwriting. The place feels like it belongs now. Not exactly to you but it’s a hell of a lot nicer than your old place was and far more personalised than it was mere hours ago.

“Wow.” you whisper in awe.

“I was slightly worried I might have overstepped on the decorating but I’m happy to see you approve.” Rose beams and opens your front door. You jolt slightly at the noise from outside and Rose pauses.

“I wonder how we’ll know if anyone is knocking to get in here. Stay here, let me test it.” Rose says. She steps outside and shuts the door, a moment or two later the room suddenly gets brighter and the door flashes. You open it and see Rose’s hand still held up from knocking.

“There’s a light, I bet it does that in every room.” you tell her.

“Let’s… not tell my friends that or else we’ll be blinded in the middle of the night.” Rose says after a moment. You can agree to that with no problem, you’ve no desire to be woken up in the night to strobing lights because some chucklefuck thinks it’s funny to hammer on your door.

“That’s probably what they do for students who can’t hear that well, right?” you say as you step out after Rose and listen to the door lock after you. You jiggle the handle to be sure it did lock and then follow your roommate as she leads you down the hall.

“I would imagine so. Their accommodation department seemed very, well, accomodating to me.” she agrees and leads you up two floors. Their room is more or less in line with yours, the two of you being in the thirteenth room and the room she stops at is the twelfth. The whiteboard on this door reads ‘dave’ and then underneath that ‘2ollux’ and that second name is underlined twice, once in red and once in blue for no obvious reason.

Rose knocks sharply on the door twice and waits. A guy pulls the door open and you immediately conclude that this guy can’t be Rose’s brother. Her skin is darker than yours and this guy is possibly the palest person you’ve ever seen, the dark sunglasses on his face only add to the contrast.

“Lunch? I brought my roommate, don’t be a tool.” Rose says. The guy’s face turns in your direction and his lips quirk into the slightest smile.

“Hi Don’t-be-a-tool, my name is Dave.” the guy drawls in a deadpan voice.

“Oh no, my sides. They’re splitting. All my guts are spilling out now because of that fantastic joke you just told.” you say back, just as flatly.

“Ignore my brother. I often do, I find it’s the best course of action and I highly advocate for it.” Rose sighs and shakes her head.

Brother? Your eyes flick to Dave again. Aside from his totally different colouring you can maybe see some resemblances there, the hair, maybe the shape of their mouths. Or maybe not. Either way you hate people asking you what species you are and you’re pretty sure ‘why does your brother not look like you’ is an even ruder question than that. You’re filing it under ‘not your goddamn business’.

“I’ll remember that, thanks.” you say instead.

No, you should be nice. At the very least you should be polite. You offer your hand to him.

“I’m Karkat, it’s nice to meet you.” you say politely.

Dave stares at you for a second before reaching out to take your hand. He doesn’t do it like a normal person though, oh no. Instead he takes your fingers and folds them until your hand is a fist and only then does he bump it with his own.

“Sup.” he says.

What the fuck?

“Anyway, Dave, where’s your better half? Normally the mere mention of lunch would pique his interest.” Rose asks.

“Aw, Sol got here, ditched his stuff and prowled around the room for like ten minutes and then bounced. I guess he’s… I don’t know, scouting the area? He moves in mysterious ways.” Dave shrugs.

“That he does. Well, perhaps we should go and when we’ve chosen a place you could message him with our location and then if he wants to join he can.” Rose suggests.

“Hell yeah, I’m hungry as fuck too so I’m absolutely down to eat. Also Egderp’s just a few doors down so we may as well get the rest of our crew together.” Dave says and steps outside.

“Three people is not a crew, even with Karkat padding our numbers to four.” Rose counters. This bickering convinces you that they’re siblings more than their words ever could. Down the hall Rose and Dave stop at another door and knock on that one. When this one swings open you’re eye to eye with a girl who is unnaturally pretty. Her eyes are big and forest green, her hair almost floor length in wild black waves, her features are elfin fine and her ears are-

Oh. She’s fae. Something in that spectrum of species anyway. She looks at the three of you with polite confusion and adjusts her big round glasses.

“Hi, did you want something?” the girl asks.

“Sorry, we just wanted to-” Rose is cut off by a loud shout from within the apartment and suddenly she’s barrelled into by a blur of blue and black.

“ROSE THIS IS SO EXCITING!” the living cannonball yells in delight.

“You saw us like, yesterday dawg.” Dave remarks.

“Can’t breathe.” Rose chokes and the newcomer finally releases her.

“I know but I’m excited, this is exciting! We’re living somewhere totally new and actually really close to each other. You’re just down the hall instead of a bajillion miles away in the woods!” the girl says.

“We’re being rude, we should do introductions.” Rose insists and pats the girl’s arms. She spins around, giving you a better look at her. Her hair is black as well and maybe about shoulder length, it’s a little hard to tell because it looks like she’s been out in a hurricane recently and it’s sticking up at all angles. She’s beaming with joy, showing off slightly uneven teeth. Behind thick glasses her eyes are violently blue and they sparkle with delight as she waves a hand as the still puzzled girl in the doorway.

“Sorry, sorry, this is my roommate Jade. She’s so cool, she lived on an island in the middle of the ocean before this!” the girl explains.

“Aren’t all land masses technically islands in the ocean?” Dave wonders aloud although nobody acknowledges that he said anything.

“Hi!” Jade says cheerfully.

“Jade, this is Dave and Rose, they’re my friends from back home. The twins that I told you about, remember?” the girl explains.

“Sup.”

“It’s lovely to meet you.” say Dave and Rose respectively.

“So, uh, right. Jade, Dave, Rose, Karkat. We all know each other now!” the girl says brightly.

“Oh, you know him too?” Jade asks.

“How the fuck did you know my name?” you ask at the same time.

The girl freezes and looks at you with wide blue eyes behind her square glasses.

“I… Rose said it. Right?” she says.

“I didn’t, nor did Dave. Although given that a few minutes have passed since then Dave has probably forgotten Karkat’s name anyway.” Rose says primly.

“That happened one time with one girl you never even kept in contact with anyway!” Dave protests.

“So how did you know his name?” Jade asks curiously.

“I… who knows? This place is so weird and magic, it’s wild!” she laughs awkwardly.

“Well you know my name but I don’t know yours.” you say flatly.

“I’m June, sorry about that, hah!” she laughs and holds out her hand, you shake hands like normal goddamn people.

“Anyway, sudden magical knowledge aside we were heading to get some lunch. Would you like to join us?” Rose asks, politely moving the discussion along.

“I’d kill for something good to eat right now! Jade, you should come with us!” June says brightly.

“Psh, I think I’d kill to not unpack things for a bit. I’d love to come if it’s okay for me to tag along.” Jade grins.

“They’re letting me come along.” you point out, making her laugh.

“No Sollux?” June asks Dave curiously, though he doesn’t pout Dave manages to give as stoic an impression of pouting as possible.

“He’s not my actual shadow, you know.” Dave protests.

June just snickers and throws her arms around the twins. The five of you leave the building and wander semi aimlessly until you find a likely looking coffee place and step inside. You’ve explained where you had been living before, June, Dave and Rose all lived close to each other in rural New York which you didn’t know was a thing. As you go through the door Jade is explaining where she’s from.

“It’s this little island in the middle of the pacific you see, really remote.” she says and unwinds a thick scarf from her neck as you sit down around a table.

“What, like uninhabited?” June gasps in amazement.

“Well, no, we lived there. We habited it, you dork. Well, I say we, my grandpa died a long time ago so it’s just been me there for a good while. I suppose it’s uninhabited now if you don’t count all the animals there.” Jade says as she tucks her hair behind her pointed ears.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere like that, I certainly don’t remember it. It sounds so beautiful though, tropical islands, sand, waves, exotic plants.” you sigh just imagining it.

“It’s so pretty, all the plants are lovely. I managed to breed all kinds of hybrid species of my own, too! It was- it was great!” Jade smiles, although the expression doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

“What made you decide to come to Salem University, Jade?” Rose asks as she hands the menu to her brother and another to you across the table, June peers over your shoulder to read.

“Mmm, well I partly got the place because my grandpa used to do research work for the university. But given that I’m not human I’m already pretty magical so it’s not like I wouldn’t be capable of it. Plus, I wanted to see the world and meet people, you know?” Jade answers her.

“I think that’s great! I’m so psyched for all the people we’re going to meet and all the cool stuff we’re going to learn. I know Rose is desperate for anything in the divination field but what about you, Karkat?” June asks and plucks the menu from your hand, it’s fine you were done reading anyway.

“I don’t know. Truthfully I didn’t think I was human either, but I don’t know what I am, I didn’t think I had any magic until I got an invitation. I can’t deny that I’m worried they’re suddenly going to declare they made a mistake.” you admit. Even the magical test in the port doesn’t settle your nerves there, the paranoid voice in your mind worries that maybe there’s some other explanation for it all and this is all going to be over. You’ll have to go back to your stupid apartment with your awful neighbours and face the truth that you’re nothing.

“Nah, trust me that won’t happen. The systems they use on the rare times they do select people are flawless, if they asked you here there’s a reason.” Dave says. He’s leant back in his chair with his arms folded behind his head like he couldn’t possibly be more at ease. You hate him a little for that, you wish you felt half as relaxed as he looks.

“Not to call you a liar but how do you know that? How do I know that you’re not just saying something nice to make me feel better instead of saying something actually true? It’s looking pretty unsubstantiated from here.” you point out.

“I think you just described anything nice anyone could ever say about you. If I was bullshitting you I would insist that I wasn’t, right?” Dave points out.

“And if you were telling the truth you’d go on a rambling tangent about how truth is inherently unknowable or something.” Rose says with a smirk, you hear Dave kick her chair.

Your dialectic on truth and the nature of bullshit is interrupted by a waitress asking for your food and drink orders and there’s enough back and forth about it that by the time she goes the topic of conversation has moved on.

“I mean I’m like Dave, I think I want to study a bit of everything but I’m way more into the idea of creating actual physical things. Charmed items, making something from nothing, real physical magic, you know?” June beams.

“See, I’m totally the opposite. I’ve been doing magic and influencing physical stuff my whole life, I want to know how it all works. The theoretical and experimental side of it. Like all that research people did in the twenties about ‘blood of virgins’ and all that, it seems like such a stupid idea because there’s no ‘not a virgin’ marker in your blood that changes and people have different ideas about what makes someone a virgin or not. It didn’t perform the same culture to culture and even between genders. It took ages until they worked out that you have to have had an experience that YOU think changes your status, what you think counts. Your life essence, as it were, remembers that information even when you forget it, they did follow up tests on people with memory loss and even when they couldn’t remember their blood still did because they have the same soul that recalled that experience. That’s why hereditary magic works but sometimes hexes intent on following family lines do weird things with adopted family and people you accept in your soul as your family! That’s fascinating, I want to learn everything about how magic works!” Jade says in a rush of overexcited words.

You’d heard about your soul retaining information even when your mind forgets it, it’s half of what’s sold you on fake memory recovery things before. It’s at least a little reassuring to know that it is a real thing and not just a scam that you totally fell for.

Rose starts talking to Jade about the validity of that research and June elbows Dave, you hear her whisper about how she knew they’d get on. You have a strange moment, an almost out of body experience where you see yourself as you are right now. You’re in a coffee shop near a prestigious university with people who invited you to be there with them, you’re having a good time and awaiting nice food and drink. It’s a nice day, you’re enjoying this. Finally something you’ve felt was missing for so long actually seems to be happening to you. It’s crazy, it seems like things like this never happen for you. Your food arrives and the moment passes.

“Oooh, what did you get, Karkat?” Jade asks, leaning over to look at your food and drink.

“A chilli chicken wrap and a mocha.” you tell her.

“That’s coffee and hot chocolate, right? Grandpa had cocoa on the island but I can’t say I liked it much, then again it was all well past its use by date by the time I got to it. It wasn’t bad for me or anything but it wasn’t as good as it looked on the tub that’s for sure!” Jade chuckles. You glance at your mug and then offer it to her.

“Want to try?” you offer.

“You’re sure? Do you want a sip of mine? It’s just coffee but…” she says and looks at her own mug.

“I’m well versed in coffee by now, don’t worry about it. If you want to try some you can, or don’t, no skin off my balls either way.” you say and as the words pass your lips they then go through your brain, they really should do that the other way around but here you are. Dave chokes a little on his frappuccino and June snort laughs loudly.

“Those sure were words that I just said aloud in company.” you groan. Jade laughs and takes the mug from your hand.

“Well, if your balls are at stake I suppose I should try!” Jade says with a wink. She takes a sip and her face lights up.

“WOW that’s really good!” she gasps.

“What, his balls?” Dave snickers and Rose laughs quietly behind her hand.

“I don’t know about THAT but I’d definitely order that drink next time I come here.” Jade answers, saving you at least a little embarrassment.

“Cool, good, great. Happy for you.” you choke out.

“Fucking hell Karkat, that was amazing to see.” Dave snorts and naturally you flip him off.

There’s a noticeable ping and a red phone charm around Dave’s wrist flashes. Dave flicks his wrist and catches the phone in his hand.

“Who is-” Rose starts but then the phone charm at her wrist pings as well. Rose more elegantly pulls her phone from the pocket dimension of the phone charm and taps at the screen.

“Uh, Rose.” Dave says slowly, his face turned towards her. Rose’s eyes go wider as she reads and a muscle in her jaw twitches.

“I don’t think they meant it like that.” Dave says quickly.

“I got this place on my own goddamn merit! I had tests! They can’t just- oh I’m going to have WORDS!” Rose snarls and gets up.

“Rose, Rose, aw shit. Sorry, gotta go!” Dave yelps and rushes after her right out of the door of the coffee shop.

“What was that about?” you wonder aloud.

“Noooo idea, when Rose looks that mad I try to not be noticed by her. Good advice to you if you’re going to be her roomie.” June intones wisely over her coffee.

“I hope everything’s okay for her.” Jade says with a sad little downturn of her mouth that lingers after.

“I’d be more worried about whoever sent that message to her.” June laughs.

“Hey, I was thinking we could see if we can find some fresh herb plants to put on the window. I’m sure we’ll need them in classes eventually or else cooking.” Jade suggests.

The conversation between the two of them keeps veering into their shared apartment and you obviously can’t contribute to that discussion. Maybe you should leave them alone. You find a lull in the conversation to make your exit.

“I think I might go and look at the library, I’m sure it’s around here somewhere.” you say and rummage in your bag for your map.

“I saw it over that way before. I accidentally went too far past the dorms and caught a glimpse of it, it’s really big. I’m going to have a look through it sometime as well, I just want to get unpacked first.” Jade tells you and indicates a little further past where you came from.

“That sounds very responsible,” you say and get up, “I’m going to go procrastinate instead of doing that.”

Jade laughs and June grins, the expression only faltering when her phone buzzes. Clearly everyone else has more people in their life than you, although you can’t help but note that Jade doesn’t have a phone charm on her wrist. Given that she just got here from a deserted island she probably doesn’t have a phone or anyone to call her if she did. June clicks the phone with her finger and holds it to her ear.

“Hey man!” she chirps brightly.

“I’m gonna go.” you whisper to Jade.

“I’ll tell June you said bye.” Jade reassures you.

“No, no, they left. …No idea, Rose got some text and flipped out. Dave got it too but they’re not here any- yeah.” June says. You wave at her and she wiggles her fingers at you as she listens on the phone to whoever called her.

You excuse yourself and slip out of the coffee shop into the fresh air outside. Still feeling pretty good about things you tuck your hands into your pockets and walk in the direction Jade pointed before. There are a mix of people wandering the streets, a lot are clearly students but others just look like local residents. Maybe it’s just because you’re close to the university itself but there’s a higher portion of visibly nonhuman people around the place. You felt like you were in a pretty slim minority back in Georgia and though there’s still more humans here than not the ratio is a little more diverse.

You pass a pretty dryad girl talking to a boy, further on there’s a guy who seems human at first glance until you clock the slightly pointier ears and faint blue sheen to his skin. And over there, an actual demon. Holy shit you’ve never seen one before but there he is just leaning against a building. He seems to sense your eyes on him and his attention snaps to you. Quickly you avert your eyes, it’s rude to stare and you shouldn’t do it. Still, this is exciting, you’re excited!

Walking on a little further you get close your dorms and a prickle of awareness creeps up the back of your neck, making you glance around. Walking behind you on the street, his eyes locked on you, is that demon from before. His eyes are a featureless glow, one red and one blue and you feel as if he’s staring right into you. You avert your gaze, unsettled. He probably just lives in the dorms same as you, of course he’s coming this way. You shouldn’t keep staring, he probably wanted to come here and study and not be gawked at, same as you do.

You go on, heading towards where you think the library is but your back is tense and you swear you can feel a burning gaze right between your shoulderblades. You’re imagining it, you have to be… right? You swallow the lump in your throat and focus on the library, that’s where you’re going. There’s nothing and no one coming up close behind you. Fuck it, you chance a look and oh shit the demon is even closer than before. His mouth splits into a slight sinister grin when he sees you looking and it makes you whip your head around so fast. Shit, he’s following you. He is definitely following you!

Walking with a little more speed you look around urgently for the library. Just as Jade said it’s a huge building and you can see it when you pass the building to your left that was previously hiding it. You can make out the sign on it too ‘LALONDE LIBRARY’. Maybe if you can make it in there you’ll be okay, right? It’s across a decently sized square with a small market going on in the middle. You could lose the guy in there perhaps.

The speed that you’re going at now is decidedly not a run because that would imply that you’re afraid of this guy and you don’t want to let him think that, but you are going about as fast as you can go without actually running. One last time you look back and he’s right there, so close you could almost touch him. Oh God, you break into a run through the market, dodging around people as you run full pelt through it. Looking behind you as you rush past a spice stall you find that you’ve lost him, at least that’s what you think until you catch sight of him on the roof of that very stall.

You run, as fast as you possibly can, weaving through stalls and people and eventually sprinting towards the library. You’re exposed out in the open but there’s nothing you can do it. You explode through the doors and roll through the barriers there, you sharply skid over the floor and when you see the sign for the stairs you hurl yourself through the doorway there and into the stairwell.

Staring at the shut door to the stairwell you gasp for breath and shakily back up the stairs but the door doesn’t open again. Fuck, that demon was definitely following you. Can he not come into the library? Perhaps not if it’s university property, they probably have some wards or some shit that protects against evil intentions or something, right? Looking at your hands you see that they’re shaking, you take the time to calm down. You’re fine. God that was freaky.

Well, you’re in the library now, it’d probably be wise to stay in here for a while in case that demon is lurking outside somewhere for you. Besides, you wanted to check this place out, didn’t you? Somewhat recovered you ascend up to the next floor of the building, it helpfully has a list of what’s on this floor and the others. Skimming over the subjects you get your breath back and let your heart rate drop a little. Your eyes stick on one a few floors up, demonology, demon history, demon culture and magical traditions. That could be useful, you could find out what the hell kind of demon that guy was and just how scared you need to be of him.

It is a fair few floors up though so you may as well take the elevator instead of sprinting up the stairs like a crazy person. When you get out at the floor you want you find yourself in no hurry to get to the right section, instead you’re caught in admiring the library itself. The place is lavishly decorated, the shelves are heavy dark wood as are the ornate desks set around in clusters throughout the room. Thick carpets run the aisles between the shelves with polished white stone as the floor between the stacks themselves. Ambient magical lighting illuminates the area generally but you note that little motes of glimmering light gather around people as they walk about so that wherever they are is well lit. The smell of old paper fills your nose and the soundtrack of pages turning and soft pen scratchings reach your ears.

The place is, well, magical.

You follow the numbers towards the section that you want, passing several ornate oil paintings of historical magical figures. The last one you pass has a man with a long grey beard shooting lightning out of a staff, you’re not sure who it’s supposed to be though.

Alright, demonology books. You run your fingers over the titles until you come across a likely tome, ‘demon classification’. Sliding the book out you crack it open then and there.

‘Demons can be broadly categorised by several metrics and understanding them is easier when these are known. Firstly a demon’s purpose, every demon has at least a broad purpose although some seem to choose their purpose rather than strictly being made for it. For example a demon created purely to guard something will do that and function very differently from a demon whose purpose is to seduce people’s souls out of them. The same species can thus appear remarkably differently, as such ascertaining a demon’s purpose will allow a witch to better understand the likely capabilities of that demon.

Secondly demons are categorised in power. The full power level of a demon cannot exceed that of their creator but they can and often are created to be less powerful. The rough power level of many high level demons is already recorded, if you know who made a demon by way of them announcing it or sigils they may wear you can make an estimation of their power. Similarly demons rank themselves by power so if you have the opportunity to see how other demons react to that demon you can stand a better chance of estimating their power. Demons, as with all creatures, should be regarded with caution and an understanding of their capabilities.

The third category is physical appearance. The way a demon appears tells you what kind of demon they are. Broadly speaking demons possess horns, skin in shades of grey, black, red and blue are common, their eyes are also notably inhuman. Tails, sharp teeth, claws, scales and fur can appear but these can vary a lot. All demons have some control over their forms given that their true forms are not technically physical. Their physical form is an indicator to their purpose, the more humanoid they appear the more their purpose is likely to be interacting with other humanoids. Succubi and Incubi have extensive shapeshifting properties, to the extent that they can appear fully human for short periods of time, other demons seem to only be able to perform minor alterations on their habitual standard form. The reasons for this are not widely understood.

The first tips to identifying a demon-’

You’re stood there with your head down reading this book when a strong puff of air goes across the back of your neck. You can’t help it, you scream and jump away throwing the book up in the air as you do so. As you twist around, your voice still echoing with horrible volume off of the walls around you, you see him. The demon who was following you is leaning against the bookcase snickering to himself.

“I thought you were supposed to be quiet in libraries.” he chuckles. He flicks a grey finger and your dropped book flies into his hand. His glowing eyes flicker and you feel the weight of his gaze shift to you, pinning you in place.

“Aw, did you miss me?” he grins and turns the book around like you hadn’t seen the cover.

“You followed me!” you hiss at him. The demon cracks the book open and flicks through it, all he offers you by way of confirmation is a vague ‘mm-hmm’. That’s not the response you really needed from your accusation but at least you have a chance to look at him, maybe you can apply your new knowledge on this demon.

He’s certainly humanoid, you’ll say that much. He has grey skin, glowing eyes and four horns. They’re not especially impressive horns, the longer set are perhaps the length of your hand from fingertip to the heel of your palm, the smaller ones are maybe half that. He has a tail, you watch it swish to the side as he reads and correct that assumption to two. The demon is tall, or taller than you at least but still within normal human ranges and his physique is less ‘I’m going to rip out your bones and eat the marrow’ and more ‘hello I work in IT’. Nevertheless the guy gives off this unsettling aura that agitates you and he very clearly followed you here and is trying to intimidate you. You’ve no idea how powerful he really might be or what his ‘purpose’ is. That book was no help at all. Okay, you need to be brave.

“What do you want?” you demand, trying to keep your volume low.

“Right now I want to know if you just picked this up to piss me off because mission accomplished if so.” the demon snorts and shoves the book back in the shelf.

“Why did you follow me here? I’m- I’m sorry if I was staring earlier but you can’t just do that!” you snap at him.

The demon frowns slightly, he doesn’t really have eyebrows, or not much of them. What a stupid thing to notice.

“Wow, you’re in a shit mood. If you’re going to be a little bitch maybe I’ll come find you again later, what the hell?” he hisses at you.

“I wasn’t in a shit mood until you showed up!” you insist, jabbing your finger at him.

“Oh come on, I get that you’re probably pissed but it’s not like this was my doing. I didn’t know anything, KK!” he insists. He’s holding his arms out to the side a little like he’s daring you to take a swing at him and behind him his two tails are snapping sharply from side to side like a pissed off cat’s might.

“Wait,” you say slowly as his words sink in, “what did you call me? KK?”

“Seriously? That’s what you’re going to- fine. Sorry for not addressing you properly oh mighty Karkat Vantas, go fuck yourself, I’m leaving.” the demon hisses and turns.

In a blind panic you grab his tails and he yelps. The demon reels on you with fury written all over his face.

“How did you know my name?” you blurt out before he can murder you.

The demon freezes, his snarl falling off his face leaving his mouth just slightly open in surprise. His eyes go wide and to your alarm what you’d thought was stupid eyebrows turns out to be a second, smaller, set of bicoloured eyes. He stares at you with all four eyes as his expression shifts quickly through something to carefully blank.

“Forget I said anything.” he says hoarsely.

“No, you know my name. You know my name and you’re surprised that I’m surprised that you know it. You thought I knew you, didn’t you? But it’s not like you mistook me for someone else, you said my name.” you insist and keep your grip on his tails tight.

“Let me go.” he demands.

“Tell me the truth! Do you know me? Do you know who I am, what I am? I don’t remember anything from before the event but if you know me you have to tell me!” you beg him. Past your shelves you hear a few other students demand for you to be quiet but this is more important than them so they can take a hike.

“I can’t, let go.” the demon snarls at you.

“TELL ME THE TRUTH!” you yell, far FAR too loudly. He winces and you hear several more people shout back at you to be quiet.

“Is there a problem here?” a woman’s voice makes you look up and around the demon. She’s a tall and imposing with her skin radiating light, long fangs nestle against her bottom lip. She’s a vampire. Sharp claws dig into your inner wrist and out of sheer reflex you open your hand and try to pull your wrist back, unfortunately that means that you let go of the demon who promptly vanishes in a puff of blue and red smoke that smells faintly of… synthetic apple? It’s like a cloud of candy apple vape smoke from some stupid hipster fuck, that’s literally all that you’re left with.

“No, no, no.” you whisper in horror but it’s too late, he’s gone. That demon knew who you were and now he’s gone, along with him is any chance you have of finding out who you really are. You slump against the bookshelf, your hand over your mouth in muted horror.

“I think you should come with me.” the woman says. She delicately takes hold of your arm and guides you out of the stacks and into the elevator, you go down to the bottom floor and then into a glass walled office near the entrance. She pushes you into a chair very gently and putters over to a counter.

“Just stay there a moment. I was going to tell you that library regulations require that students be quiet in the library and you made quite some noise there but I get the feeling this was a rather exceptional circumstance.” she says as she pours hot water from a canister into a mug and brings it back to you. She sits in another chair and presses the mug into your hands.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened?” the vampire lady suggests.

You sniff a little pathetically and curl your hands around the warm mug, there’s a metal tea strainer submerged in the water that’s delicately tinting the liquid inside.

“I don’t have any memories before the event.” you croak.

“Ah, you’re one of those with total amnesia before five years ago then. There’s a few things I don’t recall but I can’t imagine how hard it must be to lose everything, I’m sorry about that.” she says sympathetically, you nod.

“That demon chased me in here.” you begin to explain.

“Yes, you did sprint past my office.” she points out, indicating the glass wall behind you. You turn to look and imagine that you must have looked exceptionally stupid running past like that.

“Sorry. He just chased me and I freaked out, then I got in here and I thought I’d lost him so I figured I’d stay low. Plus I’m in a library so maybe I should look up stuff on demons. Then he appeared out of nowhere and scared me! I- I have this problem with my voice, I’m too loud sometimes. It’s something to do with whatever species I am I guess but I don’t know what. But when he talked to me he knew my name.” you tell her. Your voice trails off as you get to the end

“Was he perhaps reading your mind?” the vampire suggests thoughtfully.

“No, he seemed shocked that I didn’t know who he was. When it became obvious that I didn’t know how he knew me or who he was he shut down and tried to get away. I was demanding to know what was going on when you showed up, then he clawed me and vanished.” you explain.

Your wrist still has fading scratches on it but he didn’t even break the skin.

“Now I’m never going to know who I am.” you sniff.

The vampire sighs and scoots her chair a little closer, she leans in and rests a hand on your shoulder.

“I’m really sorry about that, it sounds awful and you have my sympathies. But you may still find the answers that you’re looking for, and you could very well see this demon again, it doesn’t mean that everything is ruined forever even if it feels that way right now.” she tells you and squeezes your shoulder.

You don’t really believe that but she’s trying to be nice. You nod and wipe your face with the back of your hand.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t even ask your name.” you say.

“Kanaya Maryam, I’m one of the librarians here and a graduate student.” she explains and smiles at you again, it shows off her fangs. You won’t ask about that, you’re not that dumb.

“Karkat Vantas, I just moved in today to start my… uh, foundation courses I guess? I still feel like they must have made some mistake asking me here. I’m not sure I’m magical at all.” you admit unhappily.

“Despite being on first name terms with a demon in the past? Anyway, that is silly, I have a very good sense for magic and you are, in technical terms, real fucking magical.” Kanaya nods and gets up.

“That’s the technical term?” you laugh.

“Surely you wouldn’t question a graduate student and librarian, would you?” Kanaya asks you teasingly.

“Shit, if there’s one thing I’m afraid of it’s librarians.” you say with as serious a face as you can manage.

“As well you should be. Though we’re a little short staffed at the moment, perhaps when you’ve finished your tea you can help me with a few of these books here as punishment for screaming in the library.” Kanaya suggests.

“I’m pretty sure that I owe you for you not throwing me out for screaming the place down. I am definitely willing to help.” you agree.

“Good, then drink your tea, it’ll calm your nerves.” Kanaya tells you.

You take a sip, it’s floral but not something you can place off of the top of your head. Then again you’ve always been more of a coffee than a tea person. Rose seemed to be into tea, maybe she can educate you a little on the subject.

“By the way, you should really swipe your card to get into the library instead of combat rolling over the barriers. Have you registered your card yet?” she asks.

“I have no idea.” you admit and juggle the mug and your wallet in your hands until you’re able to give her your student card.

Kanaya takes your card and looks at it for a moment, then she turns it around to show it to you.

“You’ve still not done your picture yet, do you want me to show you how? I had to have mine painted in the end because, you know, vampire. I don’t show up in pictures or mirrors.” she says with a rueful little shake of her head.

“You don’t look like someone who can’t see herself in a mirror.” you blurt out, doing that talking before thinking thing again. You’re right though, Kanaya is incredibly put together. She’s got flawlessly applied eyeliner and green eyeshadow, perfect lipstick and her clothes look like she could run a fashion blog.

“I… am going to take that as a compliment. I think.” Kanaya says slowly.

“That’s how I meant it, I apparently just shouldn’t talk to people today.” you say and shove your face in your hands. Thankfully she seems to find this amusing and crouches on the ground in front of you with your card in her hands.

“Alright, look at me.” she says, holding your card up in front of you. You look at her and your eyes widen slightly as your card glows with green light.

“What’re you doing? It looks cool.” you whisper.

“Taking your picture, here.” Kanaya says and hands you your card. Looking at it you can see that there is indeed a picture of you on there now and it moves a little as you look at it. When you tilt the card it rotates the picture so you can see yourself from other angles, that’s a pretty good idea for an ID.

“Thanks.” you smile.

“No problem. I’m glad to see you feeling a little better. Feel up to helping me out since you’re almost done with that tea?” Kanaya asks. She points at your mug and you see that as you’ve been sipping at it throughout this conversation you’ve almost got through the whole thing. She was right, you do feel a little better now.

You’re firmly decided on the fact that Kanaya is really nice, you settle into helping her out and chat about where you lived before. Kanaya’s passed through your previous state but never lived there but she understands how people can be sometimes and you can only imagine that it’s harder for her being more obviously not human. You scan in returned books as you chat and find that the conversation flows easily, you don’t forget about your encounter with the demon but it feels a little less like the end of the world.

“So you’re a graduate student then, what’re you focused on?” you ask curiously as you scan another book and set it in place.

“Essentially on magic in textiles. There are large periods of history where magic was regarded with suspicion and hostility and magical texts as a means of passing on knowledge were hard to come by. Plenty of schools of magic used weaving as a tool of essentially encoding such information, but as magic became more accepted the knowledge of how to read these tapestries has been lost to us.” Kanaya explains. Her green eyes gleam with excitement and her skin starts to glow white again, previously it had settled back into a tone more reminiscent of your own but some things make her fluoresce. You wonder if perhaps it’s intensity of emotion that does it but, again, it would be tactless to ask.

“So it’s like computer code almost, stitches and stuff telling you information?” you ask her curiously.

“A little more complex than that, but basically yes.” Kanaya agrees as she arranges books on a wheeled trolley from your pile of scanned in returns.

“Wow, if we stopped being able to read those think how much magic we could have forgotten in there.” you say in awe as your mind runs wild with the possibilities.

“Oh, I like you. Listen, there’s going to be adverts for part time jobs here going up soon. If you bring your details in next time I can see what I can do about getting you hired if you’re interested, you’d just have to promise to try to keep it down in here!” Kanaya laughs a little at that last part.

“I could probably do with the money, yeah. That’d be really great actually, and I’m really sorry about earlier. I know I’ve already said but-” you try.

“Then you don’t need to say so again. Anyway, I need to put these away upstairs now and I’m sure you have things to do as well.” Kanaya says, which is polite code for ‘you should leave so I can lock this office and get on with my work’. You get to your feet and hold the door open for her, you note when you do that you can suddenly hear someone walk past. This room must be enchanted with silence just like your apartment is, that makes sense for a library.

“My room does that, the silence thing.” you say as you point at the door.

“It’s a good spell. We have charms that go off if there’s too much noise in any area of the library that isn’t sanctioned for it like a group study room. Your shouting set one off so I went to investigate.” Kanaya says, pointing to a series of weird crystals and chains hanging up by the window. A little bit of guilt bubbles under your skin again but you get the feeling that Kanaya won’t accept you apologising again.

Kanaya wheels the trolley of books out, you follow her and she locks the door to the office.

“Thanks again.” you say a little awkwardly.

“Don’t worry about it.” Kanaya smiles and walks off with her books.

You linger for a moment and then leave the library, the market outside is starting to wind down but thankfully no one in it recognises you as the maniac who hauled ass through it mere hours ago. At least no one is pointing at you and saying anything as you go past so you can assume they don’t remember you. You follow the path to your room and let yourself inside. You’re surprised to see Dave on your sofa but as you can hear Rose through her open bedroom door you suppose he’s here for her. He does look around when you come in but aside from nodding at you he doesn’t react to you coming in.

“-she must have called them or something!” Rose shouts angrily from the next room.

“I doubt that, Rose. Also Karkat’s back, so maybe you want to stop screeching about this.” Dave says wearily.

“Karkat.” Rose says, sticking her head out of her door to look at you.

“I… guess whatever you went off for earlier didn’t go well?” you say hesitantly because it’s not really your business.

“Sherlock Holmes over here.” Dave snorts.

“No, it did not but I suppose it will be fine. I just have to prove myself further it seems.” Rose says with a bit of a huff.

“Augh, almost like the thing I’ve been saying but noooo don’t listen to me.” Dave groans and flops back on the sofa cushions. You decide to ignore these theatrics of his, you get the feeling paying attention will only encourage him.

“If it makes you feel any better my afternoon went kind of sideways into crazy land too.” you tell her.

“Really, what happened?” Rose asks curiously.

“So I left June and Jade, right? I figured I’d check out the library or something because books and I should really try knowing where things are on campus. I’m on my way there and I feel someone staring at me, you know when you can just kind of feel it?” you ask.

“I know what you mean, like the hairs on the back of your neck stand up or something.” Dave says with a nod, seemingly having paused his theatrics to listen.

“Well I look and there’s this demon guy a little way behind me and at first I think oh that’s unusual, I’ve not really seen demons before but I’m not going to gawk at the guy so I go on my way. I go a little further and I swear I can feel it again, I turn around and he’s closer and TOTALLY staring me down. Long story short it ends up with me sprinting into the library with him chasing me. I figure I’ve lost him and I go looking for books and then out of nowhere this guy just appears again!” you shout, at a thankfully not earsplitting volume though.

“A demon, wait…” Rose says and glances at Dave.

“But here’s the weird thing, he knew my name and seemed shocked that I didn’t know who he was. Like he remembers me from before the event and when I tried to get him to tell me he how he just vanished in a puff of multicoloured synthetic apple scented smoke!” you shout, throwing your hands up in the air.

Rose and Dave stare at each other and then at you.

“Please tell me it wasn’t this guy.” Dave says, thumbing at his phone screen before turning it around to you and showing you THE EXACT GUY YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT.

“That’s him! That’s the fucker! How do you know him?!” you demand. Rose groans and puts her face in her hands and Dave sighs.

“He’s my best friend and roommate, that’s Sollux. I don’t know why he’d do any of that though.” Dave says unhappily.

“Sometimes Sollux’s idea of what’s fun is a little off Dave, you have to admit.” Rose points out.

“Not chasing some stranger into the library kind of off!” Dave protests.

“But I’m not a stranger, I’m telling you, he knew who I was!” you insist.

“Alright, let’s clear this up, Dave, get Sollux here and we’ll sort this out.” Rose tells him.

“Wait, what do you mean by ‘get him here’?” you ask warily.

“He can summon him, though he says he doesn’t like doing it.” Rose explains.

“Cause it’s rude as fuck but in this case I’ll do it, hold up.” Dave says though he doesn’t sound pleased about this whole thing at all. You’re expecting circles on the floor in chalk, muttered incantations, maybe drops of blood spilt, but no. All Dave does is sit up a little straighter and stay silent for a second or two, you only know he’s done anything when there’s a woosh of displaced air and that waft of synthetic apple scent. Turning around you see that very same startled demon by your small excuse for a kitchen.

“Oh fuck this.” he says as he lays eyes on you, all four of them that is.

“Don’t you go anywhere.” Dave tells him and the demon visibly wilts. How can some human tell a demon what to do like this? What does he have on him?

“Did you chase this guy into the library?” Dave asks, pointing at you.

“No.” he says petulantly.

“You lying sack of shit, you absolutely did!” you snap, you can hear your voice edging louder so you try harder to restrain your volume.

“Did he run into the library where you followed after him at a greater speed than what could be considered normal travel and indeed your travel speed minutes prior? Did you then make contact with him within the library?” Rose asks.

“I don’t have to tell you shit.” the demon sneers at her and sticks out what appears to be an actual forked tongue. It looks all the more childish and petulant when he’s squeezing two sets of eyes shut to do it.

“Sollux.” Dave says flatly.

“I may have done something like that.” the demon, Sollux, admits.

“You know me, don’t you? You knew my name!” you say, pointing your finger in his face.

“We’ve met.” he says with a shrug.

“Before today!” you snap.

The demon just blinks lazily at you and says nothing. You can feel your temper bubbling over even though you try to reign it in.

“What the FUCK is your problem?! I’ve been trying to work out who I am for years, I’ve had no one and suddenly you know my name, you obviously knew me and you can’t spare me even the slightest goddamn answer?!” you screech and your volume creeps upwards once more.

Dave sighs and gets up off of the sofa, he gets between you and his pet demon and tries to intervene.

“Dude, seriously, I know you don’t want to be here-” Dave starts but Sollux interrupts him, his face suddenly concerned.

“That’s not true, I never said that.” he protests.

“But this guy is Rose’s roommate, it’s not cool for you to be messing with that for her by terrorising some random dude.” Dave tells him.

“That’s not what I was doing.” Sollux mumbles.

“Then how about this,” Rose interrupts and walks into the middle of your group, “how about as a show of good faith you agree to honestly and truthfully answer questions that Karkat has for you, that seems fair.”

“Fuck no.” Sollux snaps.

“Sol.” Dave says reproachfully and the demon wavers a little. He seems to dig himself in a bit, drawing his shoulders up and looking away from all of you before something gives and he speaks again.

“Even if I did agree to that there’s stuff I’m already bound to not talk about, I can’t make an agreement that would make me say things that go against other things.” Sollux protests.

“Naturally, if previous engagements silence you we can’t go against that. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” Rose nods.

“Or helpfully say that he can’t answer, instead of saying nothing.” Dave corrects her.

“What if he got a number of questions, you had to provide truthful and honest answers as long as those answers did not break other contracts that you’re already under, sound fair? How many questions would be good, this obviously can’t be a forever thing.” Rose says and looks at you.

“Ten.” you say, that ought to give you enough to work with.

“No way. One.” Sollux counters your request with his own offer.

“Split the dif, five.” Dave interrupts.

“Fine, five questions.” you concede.

“I can’t believe I’m even considering this, I don’t want to do this.” Sollux grumbles folding his arms tightly and blatantly sulking.

“We’re only having to do this because you chased the guy into a building and freaked him out, he’s actually okay. We had lunch before that, you know. Which you could have come to if you weren’t off doing whatever you were doing wherever you were. So now you gotta play nice, go on.” Dave says and pokes him in the arm. The demon’s tails are flicking around irritably but he sighs and looks properly at you.

You stare as he opens all of his eyes and looks right through you.

“Karkat Vantas, I, Sollux Captor agree to truthfully answer five questions that you ask of me. Provided that I know the answer and am not expected to withhold that information because of previous agreements. Do we have a deal?” Sollux says. He offers his hand to you although you can see it faintly glowing in blue and red.

You run his words over in your head for a moment.

“Honestly and truthfully answer them. Also we’re defining a question that you have to answer as one that’s preceded ONLY by the words ‘this is a deal question’. I’m not having you answering some statement that I slightly upturned my tone at the end and claiming that was a question.” you tell him.

Sollux growls and Rose chuckles slightly, you suppose she approves of your amendments.

“Fine. Karkat Vantas, I, Sollux Captor agree to truthfully and honestly answer five questions that you ask of me. Questions preceded by the phrase ‘this is a deal question’ are the only ones which will count. I will answer provided that I know the answer and am not expected to withhold that information because of previous agreements. Do we have a deal?” Sollux says stiffly.

Thinking over his wording you can’t see anything else that might give him room to wiggle out. You take his hand and shake it. As you do bright red and blue light arc over your wrist, settling down to a faint mark that flares brighter only when you look at it. There’s tiny script under your skin that you can only assume is this deal itself. You just made a deal with a demon.

You look at Sollux who is back to a blank expression with just a hint of irritation as he waits for your questions. Now there’s a thought, what do you ask him? Closed questions would give you an answer that he’d be able to squirm out of less easily but potentially the answers wouldn’t be as helpful. Think, you only have five questions.

“Alright… how about this? This is a deal question, why were you surprised that I didn’t know who you were?” you ask. You’re assuming a lot here, you’re assuming that you did indeed know him before based on his reaction, it’s a gamble but if he answers you a certain way he’s confirming that too.

Sollux seems to consider his answer, still watching you intently with all of his eyes.

“Typically I expect people who know me to remember me.” he answers.

“So you did know me.” you whisper.

“Is that a question?” Sollux asks immediately.

“You know it isn’t.” Rose interrupts and Sollux glares at her.

“That’s helpful, sort of. Try this, this is a deal question, have we met since what is commonly known as ‘the event’ five years ago?” you ask.

“No.” Sollux answers quietly.

What were you doing with a demon when you were thirteen? Who were you before this?

“This is a deal question, what species am I?” you question him, this is your third question now.

“You don’t know what you are?” Sollux says, his eyes widening. He seems to look at you a little closer.

“Hey, you can’t answer a question with a question motherfucker!” you snap at him. You feel the band around your wrist tug and the one around his flares slightly.

“I am asking you a question so I know whether I can answer it or not. Also I don’t have a mother so you’re wrong, as usual. Do you know what species you are or not?” Sollux hisses at you.

“Would I be ASKING if I knew?!” you argue back.

“You might!” he says waspishly and folds his arms. Ugh, fine.

“No, I don’t know what species I am. I don’t remember, same as how I don’t remember you.” you tell him since he’s clearly not going to progress this if you don’t.

Sollux looks away, towards your kitchen and away from everyone else in the room. When he speaks his voice is quiet.

“I can’t answer your question if you- because of other obligations that I have I can’t tell you the answer to that.” Sollux says softly.

Does that mean he could have confirmed it if you knew? So whatever he’s already agreed to only applies if you remember things? What does that mean? Why would that be the case? You want to ask him why no one remembers anything but you’d bet that he can’t tell you that either. There has to be a smarter way to find out what you are but right now you don’t know enough to ask the right questions. Can you ask him who made that rule or is there likely to be some secrecy clause in whatever agreement he’s already got?

“Shit.” you mutter. Sollux looks back at you but now only his larger and you suppose ‘normal’ eyes are open, you don’t know if the smaller ones do anything specific or not but you guess he doesn’t need them now. He’s still waiting and his tails are moving around but not so angrily as before.

“Did I hurt you?” you ask before you think better of it, “Before I mean, when I grabbed you by the tails.”

“I- no. It’s not like something like that could hurt me.” Sollux insists with bravado but he looks thrown by your question, as if he didn’t expect you to say something like that at all.

“Really?” you say.

“Are you going to get to your other questions or not?” the demon demands, suddenly leaning more aggressive again. Overcompensating no doubt, yeah you’re starting to get his number you think.

“I don’t have any more that I want to ask right now, I don’t know enough about what to ask yet.” you tell him.

“I’m not telling you shit for free.” Sollux says and tilts his jaw as if to say ‘so there’ about it.

“Wasn’t asking you to. I’ll tell you when I have another question, I have two left after all.” you reason. Sollux looks like he just bit into a lemon, he actually recoils from you a little.

“Ohhh, you never said it was time limited. Karkat can absolutely hold onto those.” Rose says with an ominous smile.

“Fine.” Sollux says through gritted teeth.

“Dude, I…” Dave starts to say but Sollux just poofs out of the room in a cloud of bicoloured fruity smoke.

“Welp, that’s going to be fun. I feel kind of bad about asking him to do that now.” Dave sighs.

“Well if nothing else this provided a delicious distraction.” Rose says in a cheerful voice.

“Gee, I’m glad you’re happy. I’m going to go talk to him. Uh, Karkat, look Sollux really isn’t a bad guy. I don’t know what history you two have and I guess you don’t either but he’s legitimately a cool person. Sorry you two got off on the wrong foot, yeah?” Dave says and then leaves without waiting for another word from you.

“You’re quite the quick thinker. I do wonder how the two of you could have met though. Sollux is one to come and go as he pleases, much like a cat, but he’s typically always stuck around Dave. It seems odd for him to know you when we didn’t. An intriguing mystery for sure.” Rose muses.

“I’d love to know that too, I mean you didn’t live anywhere near me. And I don’t know what his problem with me is either.” you say.

“Fascinating indeed. I do agree with Dave’s statement though, Sollux is genuinely a decent person for all that he can be sulky and insulting at times.” Rose says.

That begs the question then, what happened five years ago?