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The carriage wobbled down an uneven forest road. A figure sat in the back clad head to toe in a massive black cloak that’s hood obscured the figures face, not that anyone was around to see it, save for the two men driving the carriage. The passengers’ personal servants had of course seen the figures face many times already and knew it was nothing to remark on. Or more, that remarking on it was not taken kindly. The passenger sat there, incessantly twisting a silver ring on their left thumb and tapping their foot. It had been a long day and since they had promised they would not stop until they got to the castle, it would probably be a longer night still.
⇐⇐⇐ Approximately 2 hours of Foot Tapping Later ⇒⇒⇒
The hooded figure was startled out of their thoughts by a bang on the front wall of the carriage.
“We're here!” One of the drivers shouted in a deep voice. The passenger clearly grew even more unsettled by this news, but quickly enough the carriage began to slow and the passenger was out before it could fully reach a halt.
“Excited to be here I see, kid,” The taller of the 2 drivers stated, once they were finally face to face. Raising an eyebrow at the passenger, though he could also be raising both eyebrows… It was hard to tell with the eyepatch that covered one of them.
They both surveyed their surroundings while the second driver, -a short stubby man who never seemed to really know what was going on but that didn’t seem to bother him- began unpacking their luggage. The sun had almost fallen from the sky leaving the great castle Kari cast in a reddish gold halo, it’s dwindling rays casting dancing reflections in the sea that crashed below the cliffs the castle stood on. Harsh winds from the sea blew in and ran past the castle to the valley below where the main city lay nestled. The traveler was grateful for their thick cloak because even with the warmer climate, the wind was still cold and harsh on an early June day like this one.
It appeared that someone had noticed the small carriage’s arrival, and an entourage of footmen came out to help them with their bags. A few other figures stood watching them by the castle gate.
“Slick, do you think we’re the last to get here?” the hooded figure asked, voice filled with poorly disguised anxiety. The driver, Slick apparently, gave out a low snort. “Everyone was supposed to get here 3 days ago, so yes, sire , I think we’re the last to arrive,” Slick said sarcastically, swinging another bag over his shoulder and beginning to walk towards the entrance.
The hooded figure walked closer to the gate. They drew a deep breath, trying to steady their nerves, before finally removing their hood, running a hand through the mess of dark curls that sat on their head, and closing the distance between them and the figures at the gate. A man whose face was mainly obscured by an odd looking hat and an intricate pipe stood by the door. A butler maybe? The newly not-hooded figure was not sure what to make of this man. But it didn’t matter much because the man nodded and spoke,
“Welcome Lord Vantas, I can show you to your rooms,” Karkat grimaced at the formality, but followed him nonetheless.
You can do this Kar, maybe everyone won’t hate you this time? PFT- who am I kidding. of course they will! Well… maybe Egbert won’t? Oh man, but what if-
Right on cue a shout echoed through the stone candle-lit corridor they had been walking down.
“Karkat! You’re here!!” A boy with dark brown hair, clad in blue, with a small silver circlet that didn’t quite fit his head bounded down the corridor.
“That’s gotta be you right? Wow you’re so much shorter than then I imagined from the sketches!”
“John?! You-“ Karkat gawked at the young prince and began to protest, but was enveloped in a hug that knocked all the air out of his lungs, not that he really minded. He’d been looking forward to meeting Prince Egbert since they’d started writing letters when they were 13.
“So this is the Northern guy you won't shut up about, John?“ Karkat's attention shifted from the enthusiastically crushing hug to the voice that just spoke, another boy who looked around their age -royalty, probably, given the crown and smirk- stood off to the side. He wore a red silk shirt and brown pants, an oddly shaped sword hung sheathed at his hip and a gold crown sat blending in with his golden hair. The weirdest pair of shaded spectacles Karkat had ever seen sat on the boys face... Strider .
Karkat remembered John telling him about the boy, since his and John's kingdoms were adjacent, apparently they had spent a lot of time together growing up and were “best friends” or some shit. Looks like he was one of the other freaks who had been invited to this shit-show.
Sure enough, as John let go and Karkat got to see around more there were quite a few other kids who had also just come down the hallway, all looking between about fourteen and nineteen, each more bizarrely dressed than the last. Standing about 10 feet behind Strider was a girl with short colorful hair and a round face with bright red face paint around her odd looking white pupiless eyes, a lizard perched on her shoulder. She poked the taller girl next to her with an intricately carved walking stick that shared a likeness with her lizard, grinning in the general direction of the encounter. The girl she had just poked was dressed in a finely embroidered blue dress and an eyepatch that had the 8 eyed symbol of the kingdom Araña stitched into it. She had an audaciously bedazzled prosthetic arm that rested coldly at her side. She sneered at the girl who’d just poked her and snapped something at her that was too quiet for Karkat to hear. The rest of the group was in similar states. A girl with a mess of black hair and sunken eyes, a boy with the dumbest looking bichromatic glasses and matching red-blue tunic, a boy in a wheelchair with an oddly horned crown. A girl stood behind the wheelchair, her fancy green dress brushing the floor as she turned to whisper something to the pale blonde girl next to her. The smile on her black painted lips fell at the pale girl's response and both of them began eyeing the group wearily… God, I probably look just as weird as them but DAMN. They’re a bunch of fucking freaks.
Karkat was startled out of his thoughts by movement to his right. The man Karkat assumed was a butler nodded to the door Strider just so happened to be leaning on and murmured to Karkat, making sure no one else heard, “That’s your room, I’ll leave you to get settled,” and promptly walked off. Karkat stared in shock as he was quickly abandonded some fucking help you were .
“Dave, don’t be mean! But yes this is Karkat!” John spoke out in protest,
“What the fuck kind of name is Dave?” Karkat said accidentally, not meaning to actually voice that thought.
“Like that means a lot coming from ‘Karkat’,” Dave laughed. Karkat glared at him, face going slightly red from embarrassment.
“It means bringer of distruction, you insufferable fucking prick,” Karkat spat back. Dave made a display of rolling his eyes even with his shades on.
“More like ‘bringer of bad moods’,” Dave snorted out.
He. Did. NOT.
If he, had ANY FUCKING IDEA WHAT HE JUST SAID.
With that, some very thin, tired, part of Karkat’s psyche snapped. In his defense it had been a really long day. Still, lurching forward and punching the blond prick prince square in the jaw might not have been the best idea. Karkat realized this immediately after of course and did the only thing his panicked brain could think to do, he pushed away the doubled-over-in-pain prince and pulled the door to his room open before quickly slamming it shut and locking the door behind him. Ignoring the fact that he just locked Slick, Deuce, and all of his stuff still in the hallway, he collapsed onto his bed as soon as he located it and was soon asleep.
He spent the night dreaming of snowy mountains running red with blood, white fire in a green room, and warm golden hair.