Chapter Text
You are Karkat Vantas, and you are very cold.
If it was just that, the cold, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. But it's the monotony of it, waking up each day to not a sharp, blistering wind, but a dull chill that has settled in your bones and refuses to budge. You don't remember it being this cold before, not when there was twelve of you here. You wonder if that has something to do with it - you've halved your number now, and without Nepeta's constant purring, or Sollux's lisped insults, or even Eridan's wallowing (so bathed in self pity it almost matched you own) the place doesn't just seem colder, it's also quieter. Sure, you can still hear Terezi's cackle from three floors up, but otherwise the lab is big enough that you rarely hear anyone.
Part of the blame for this is probably on you. You're holed up in the ectobiology lab now, broken glass crunching under your strut pods if you get too careless with where you're walking. You come to a stop, dead in the center of the room. You tip your head back, and listen. Nothing, but the dull rhythmic clunking of pipes.
You suddenly feel very alone.
You guess it's not their fault. Terezi and Vriska have been keeping to themselves lately, heads bowed together as they 'C4HOOT', whatever hellish nonsense that implies. Kanaya, rarely loud unless she is heading towards someone with a chainsaw, has all but disappeared into the library with Rose. Rose...seems nice to Kanaya at least, and talks in a soft but clear voice, as if she has thoroughly considered every word before it leaves her lips. She would probably be good to talk to, if you cared even the smallest of smidgens about the game, which you don't. Still, she is pleasantly unlike her ectobrother.
As for Dave you don't know what to think of him. Smug, Stoic, infuriating - you can see why Terezi likes him. His only imput into any situation is to stand about, hands in ridiculous godtier pajama pockets, wryly commenting at anything he deems 'wacky troll shenanigans', as if his entire race wasn't made up stunningly idiotic beings such as himself. For this alone you'd be prepared to write him off as someone devoid of any potential for meaningful interaction, but you can't deny there is something vaguely entertaining about his tragic ramblings. Even if you won't ever say this to his face. His ability to calculate the exact thing that will make your blood boil the most and then toss is into the ring with that slow, drawling, enraging accent is on some level exciting. Sure, he plays it off like he doesn't care at all but every so often you think you see a flash in his eyes under those tacky god-awful shades, a quirk of his lips. It should piss you off he's looking for a reaction, and sure it does, but it pisses you off in a way that makes you want to put your hands all over him, to tug at his hair and rip his stupid hood to tatters. Sometimes, in moments like this, where you can't remember the last time you had even the barest physical contact with anyone (Last week? Kanaya put a hand on your shoulder maybe? Or Terezi shouldering you in the corridor? Does that count? How sad are you if that counts?) you find yourself picturing you and Strider on the floor, shades ripped off, scrapping with each other.
Fuck, look at yourself. You should be over this fucking tragic circus parade of desperation for these humans. John didn't want anything to do with you in that quadrant, and Jade sure as hell wasn't interested in you. You aren't 5 sweeps anymore, you need to grow the fuck up. You're going to end up worse than Eridan. And the last time you saw him he was in two pieces.
You are well into completing your cycle of self pity for that day, earning yourself another self pity trophy for your cabinet, when your computer pings. You blink in confusion. No one ever bothers to contact you anymore. You hope it's one of your dead friends harassing you from the past. Or maybe Gamzee with another shitload of terrifyingly crazed blabberings. Or even a future self you can have another soul destroying argument with. Whoopee!
To your surprise it's none of these people.
turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG]
TG: sup
TG: wanna hang
CG: WHAT THE FUCK.
CG: FIRST OF ALL, DO NOT ‘SUP’ ME, YOU KNOW GODDAMN WELL LIKE EVERYONE ELSE ON THIS FORSAKEN PILE OF SHIT OF A METEOR WHAT’S UP. FUCKING NOTHING, THAT’S WHAT. WE ARE CURRENTLY HURTLING THROUGH THE COLD CONFINES OF PARADOX SPACE, WAITING TO ARRIVE AT SOME BULLSHIT MYSTERIOUS DESTINATION AND TRYING TO IGNORE THE FACT THAT DEATH IS SO CLOSE TO US IT MIGHT AS WELL BE STANDING ON OUR STRUT PODS.
CG: SECOND OF ALL WHY, OUT OF NOT ONLY ALL OF US HERE BUT THE MILLIONS OF ALTERNATE TIMELINE AND DEAD SELVES WE HAVE RUNNING AROUND, DID YOU CHOOSE TO SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ME OF ALL PEOPLE? IS YOUR THINKPAN COMPLETELY FRIED?
CG: AND NO, I DO NOT WANT TO ‘HANG’ WITH YOU, UNLESS BY ‘HANG’ YOU MEAN TYING A ROPE AROUND MY NECK AND DYING VIA THE SWEET RELIEF OF ASPHYXIATION, IN WHICH CASE I WILL AGREE TO ON THE BASIS THAT IT WOULD BE MORE BEARABLE THAN ONE MORE SECOND BREATHING THE SAME AIR AS YOU.
TG: cool
TG: see you at cantown central in ten
CG: WHAT
turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG]
CG: AGSHJDKFGMGSGHDJFKG
CG: FUCK YOU STRIDER
You slam your hands on the keys, then on your face. Then, you wait exactly 13 minutes just to be an asshole and stomp off towards the nearest transportalizer.