(a/n: Hello friends. Came up with this idea a couple days ago and hadn't written in a while so I thought I'd throw something together. I tried to strive for accurate characterisation, feedback would be nice. Hope you enjoy!)
"It's weird, right?" Nepeta quirked her eyebrows at Equius, her eyes darting to the corner of the room.
"You are overreacting, as usual. It's nothing we have any business concerning ourselves with. Although…" his posture shifted slightly and a guilty glaze came over his eyes. "She does seem to be acting less sophisticated than she normally—"
"Nope. Don't be creepy. Just stop at the purr-t where I'm right." Nepeta grinned at his peeved expression and almost absentminded clambered up onto his shoulders. "Let's go. I want to find some purr-ey."
As Equius trotted out of the room, he snuck back a glance at the far corner, his broken teeth worrying a corner of his mouth in a shamed fashion.
Nearby, Terezi, Sollux and Karkat sat huddled around a single husktop. Terezi had her hands over Karkat's mouth, reducing him to mute, raged typing, and she and Sollux conversed in hushed, conspiratory tones. The three seemed to be discussing a situation taking place in the corner. On the screen, bold words flashed in grey.
"WHY THE FUCK IS THIS EVEN A VIABLE CONVERSATION TOPIC FOR SHITS SAKE THIS COULD LITERALLY NOT BE ANY LESS RELEVANT OR IMPORTANT TO ANYTHING" Terezi's nostrils flared, as she took in the text. "Don't be daft, Karkat," she snickered. "To a troll like that even tiny changes can mean quite a bit, this is evidence!"
Sollux seemed to give lazy consideration to the idea. "I mean for one thing Kk is right this is dumb as fuck and we should probably be ashamed of ourselves for even caring but for the second thing Tz is probably a good judge of character and I'm bored as hell so yeah point to her." She let out a cackle and removed her hands from Karkat's face to high five Sollux.
"There never were any points you pan-cracked shitstains!" The other two exchanged glances and then turned identically sinister smiles on him. "The points work like this: we win." "Oh, fuck you."
Their banter escalated and drifted away from the previous topic, yet both Sollux and Karkat seemed to be trying to view the corner by the reflection on the screen, whilst Terezi turned her nose in that direction far more than was strictly necessary.
The couch behind the line of computer held a stoned juggalo on one end, playing fiduspawn with Tavros.
"Hey, motherfucker, what's the little dude here?" "Oh, uh, the one he is is the Clovenine. He's got lots of powers which he uses to be, well, powerful…"
Gamzee nodded intently, lidded eyes swimming to focus on the game laid out in front of him. Tavros shuffled excitedly, rolling an Oogonibomb between his palms. He fumbled and the sphere went flying, soaring over Gamzee's bent head and bouncing off the rim of a husktop, exploding on impact when it hit the floor feet away. Tavros let out a squeak of shock and Gamzee a rolling laugh, tilting his head back to watch upside down. His eyes floated over to the corner beyond the oozing slime.
"Hey, look the motherfuck over this way, my brother…" Tavros pushed his robotic legs to a standing position and peered at the corner where Gamzee was looking. "What are you seeing that you find so, uh, interesting?"
Long fingers reached over curly hair as he pointed towards the figure curled up in the chair shoved into the corner.
"What's got sis all up and miraculous?"
Tavros pulled his brows together in confusion. "I don't think I am really, uhm, of the understanding about what you mean?"
Gamzee's eyes pulled into a squint. "The miracles surround her, bro. I can tell…" Tavros bit at a fingernail bemusedly. "I would have to say I can't really agree because that almost sounds like a thing that is ridiculous but you seem to believe it so I don't, um, see why it couldn't be true."
As Gamzee dropped his head back down, becoming absorbed in a shiny engraving on one of the cards, Tavros shot another look at the corner, brows still betraying his confusion.
On the other end of the couch, Eridan and Vriska were alternating between heatedly arguing about their respective memories of the past, and passive aggressively ridiculing most everyone else in the room.
"There is no fucking way you were the one who won that. I still got the loot you psycho bitch!"
Vriska laughed derisively. "As if! That was a campaign that required actual cunning. The only reason you have the loot is because I used that totally lame bunch of shit as a decoy in the raid on Marrowpeak."
Eridan nodded exasperatedly. "Do you mean the one I completely slayed?"
Vriska's mouth dropped into a sneer. "I would respond except your pathetic desperation for quads would make you think I'm waxing pitch again. And honestly, I'd rather you just fed me to the seamonster."
His eyes squinted even more, as he shot back "Just because I know you already are, I'm letting that one slide. Besides, you'd be useless to gl'bgolyb, you don't have any mass!" Her lips twisted into a sickly sweet smile. "I'm so glad you admire my figure, Eridan. Your little crush is super cute. But really get over it; you are so obvious."
He snorted, casting his eyes about the room. "You don't know what you're fucking talking about." Her gaze raked over the room, settling in the corner. "Oh, would you look at that. You're not the only obvious one." His head whipped around to follow her line of sight, glasses glinting. "My fucking god I can't believe it, you know, I—" Vriska threw him a disgusted glance. "Save it for someone who cares, loser. "
Still, even as they somehow sailed back to the topic of old adventures, her peripherals locked onto the corner and her mouth turned hard ever so slightly.
Feferi fluttered excitedly about the cluster of broken technology and personal belongings, Aradiabot remaining fixed in a static position. "You're just so reel looking! It's fintastic!" Aradiabot responded immediately. "But I am not real. I am only a stand-in."
"Whale, that's all I'd reely need, because I can't sea myshellf finding any actual cuttlefish out here. So a robot one is my only hope! But Equius can get super weird when I talk to him…please can't you ask him?"
"As if my asking him for a service for you would make him act any less weird."
"Ok so yeah that's a fair point but please! I just miss them so much and honestly I need a little comfort that isn't a troll because that gets so messy."
"This will make things more messy." Feferi sent her a pleading look. "Cmon…please?"
Aradiabot swivelled. "Fine. Oh. That's weird."
Feferi et out a yelp of excitement. "Thank you! And what's weird?" "It's just a behavioural anomaly." Aradiabot stated. "But it's ok."
Feferi tilted her head, peering at the corner. "Oh wow…I guess that is an anenomaly."
In the far corner, curled up in an armchair tucked into the small space, Kanaya glowed, flickering erratically, a sharp contrast to her usual self-control. Her green lipstick seemed to have been rubbed through in areas, revealing the black below, except that lips weren't that shiny. And moreover, her effervescent cheeks had marks of black on them, standing out starkly. Her features had curved into a secretive smile, and somehow, the smell of roses clung to her.