Chapter Text
You don’t know where you are.
Well that’s an overstatement. You know where you are.
You are on Alternia.
Your name is Karkat Vantas, and you don’t know how you got here. And you are also potentially about to freak out.
You are currently sitting in broad daylight on a dock that would normally be bustling with other trolls, of what you can only assume ranged from rust to cobalt. The kind you would see in your elaborate romance movies and shitty documentaries.
You also see one Sollux Captor passed the fuck out next to you, curled up on his side like a little pupa.
The burning sun is kinda distracting you from looking around anymore than you already have. Your skin feels uncomfortably warm, anymore time out here and you might start burning.
A whine from Sollux’s general area pulls you out of your thoughts, as usual his whining never stops.
You hoist yourself up on your feet and close the very small gap between you two. You start nudging him with your foot. Then you start kicking him because he refuses to wake up.
Sollux flops over and OH WAIT WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT BLOOD ON HIS SHIRT?
He coated in the shit, now that you look at it. All over his face and neck and other extremities.
Okay, you start freaking the fuck out. Your skin starts to burn after being in the sun too long.
You roughly shove your arms under Sollux’s arms and frantically look for a place with shade that wouldn’t require breaking and entering.
Part of the docks that protrude out to the ships have a small overhead.
Shade.
No wait, what if someone comes out of their ship and finds you two? You might get culled. Sollux might get culled. You could fight, but you would NOT win against an ADULT. Let alone a whole CREW of them.
Sollux starts whining again.
Shit, okay.
You look for the shittiest and most rundown piece of shit to camp next to. You drag Sollux under the overhead, and sit crisscross with him laying down on his back adjacent from you.
How did you even get here?
The last thing you remember was defeating The Black King and trying to claim your prize. But that doesn’t even explain how you and Sollux ended up here. This would have to be the past, because your whole universe got destroyed back at the beginning. And it's obvious that it can’t just be a different universe either, it feels too familiar.
Ports aren’t usually even on the homeplanet, so this has to be one of the conquered planets that now houses a colony.
Maybe one of the Aradiabots did some bullshit time reversal?
Oh god, does it even matter how you got here? You need to figure out a plan on what to do while you are here.
You could sneak on a cargo ship and stowaway, but that would just be temporary. Both of you are still growing and gold bloods get insanely tall. You don’t even know how you would look. Probably as shitty as you already do, just bigger.
And on top of ALL OF THAT. BOTH OF YOU CAN GET CULLED BECAUSE YOU BOTH ARE GONNA BE AROUND ADULTS. TROLLS YOUR AGE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE OFF WORLD.
You could hide on this planet, find a nice place to hunker down. Maybe a nice adult will lend a block in their hive to you two and live out the rest of your days here.
But no, you’re a mutant. They’d immediately hand you over to imperial drones as soon as they find out.
You want to scream, but that risks waking up said adults. Thinking of which, you carefully take a glance at the sky. The sun is sinking down, and the moon is rising. Look what happens when you actually think for once, time passes.
Thank the ever living fuck.
Wait no that’s bad.
A quick glance over to your side and you see Sollux squirming, maybe it’s because a normal troll would be waking up around this time. Except you know Sollux doesn’t sleep, neither do you really. One of the only things he does right most of the time.
Focus Karkat, you need to figure out what to do.
Okay, maybe you and him can still stowaway and eventually maybe you’ll find your way back to where you live. Maybe whenever you have your hive and lusus. Then you can wait until you have to play Sgrub, AGAIN. Sounds like a chore, but at least it’s a plan.
Time to find a cargo ship to sneak onto.
As you rise to your feet, you look around for something that hauls lots of shit. The bigger the better. You turn around to pick up Sollux so you can drag him around to carry out your plan. THEN YOU REALIZE THAT YOU ARE FACE TO FACE WITH AN AND HE’S PICKING UP SOLLUX OH MY GOD DO SOMETHING KARKAT.
You whip your sickle out and lunge at the assailant before you can think any harder and get stopped mid air.
Fucking. Pisonics.
Flashing red and blue eyes stare into your soul. His two pairs of ears are long as hell, and his other two pairs of horns make him look ginormous. How many ears and horns do you need, god.
He is tall as shit even without his horns, wearing a tactical suit with a complex design of his sign and blood color. Short hair streaked with white that is slicked back with a head band coverin his hairline, only leaving two long pieces hanging over it.
“HEY! PUT ME AND HIM DOWN! YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE UP AGAINST!” You growl out.
The gold blood’s eyes narrow as energy continues to crackle around him. It feels like he’s dissecting you with his eyes, you HATE IT.
“DON’T YOU HEAR ME?? I WILL CULL YOU SO HARD YOUR NONEXISTENT DESCENDANTS WILL FEEL THE PAIN!” You try to escape by forcing yourself to move in his grip, but you can’t.
You watch as he shifts his gaze to Sollux. After maybe a few seconds of this guy examining your friend, he steps back inside the ship with Sollux cradled in his arms and you in his fucking psionic mind grip in tow.
You continue to try thrashing as you spew all the expletives and insults your thinkpan contains the knowledge of.
He walks carefully around the ship that MUST be his, reaching a mealblock that can only be described as bleak. A single sink and burner, a few hunger trunks, and a tiny thermal hull. A round table sits a few steps away. The douchebag carefully lays Sollux down on said table before he circles back to the mealblock to do…Something.
The grip on you lessens as he opens the thermal hull. You suspect it because you long since ceased your yelling. From what you see it's mostly empty, but the adult manages to produce a single can of cold grub juice. Then, he turns to look for something else.
Your attention turns back to Sollux. Even though
he’s passed out, he still looks pissed off. At this point, you think it might just be his face. It probably doesn’t help that his blood covers 40% of his body. His glasses have miraculously managed to stay on his face and his undershirt remains mostly unstained, at least compared to the shirt with his sign.
“Your friend seemed to have suffered an overexertion of sort2,” he states in a very matter-of-fact tone, “Would you know anything about that?”
You startle like a cluckbeast and turn to face him, still being held a good distance off the ground. His voice is crazy similar to Sollux’s, though his lisp is less pronounced and he talks slower. Like he’s trying to think through every word before saying it. He’s even got the annoying stuffiness down to a science, that shit makes you want to punch him even more.
“WHY WOULD I KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIM FUCKING MANAGING TO FUCK HIMSELF UP SO BAD?” You can admit that you’re being harsh, but you don’t care. That’s a problem for future Karkat to deal with.
He ignores your rhetorical question, continuing to ask questions like you want to tell him anything, “May I have your name, wriggler?”
“MAY YOU?”
For a second, he stills, then continues to work. He’s pouring something into two cups. And unless one of them is for you, that means others are on this ship.
The silence is making you uncomfortable.
“… My title is The Psiioniic, wiggler.”
You are shocked for a second before you realize he called you a wriggler again. He turns to face you, looking at you with his blank eyes.
“STOP CALLING ME A WRIGGLER, I AM SIX SWEEPS OLD.”
His eyes narrow again and he lets out the airiest laugh you have ever heard, god can this guy get anymore annoying. He didn’t even smile when he did, the bastard.
“If I had your name, then you wouldn’t have to worry about such thing2.”
You huff, and prepare to argue some more before your thoughts are interrupted by a door creaking open behind you.