She was afraid.

Standing at the precipice of the gaping chasm, she clutched her sword closer to her chest. Taking a deep, shuddering breath she closed her eyes and stepped out into empty air...

"Nepeta! We're going to be late!"

Slamming her notebook closed, the dark-haired girl leapt to her feet and nearly tripped over the legs of her chair as she scrambled to snag her messenger bag from where it lay on her bed. "Coming!" She called back, shoving the notebook deep into the main pocket.

"It's sad when a blind girl has a better sense of time than someone less visually impaired." Terezi joked, giving her new roommate a toothy smile. "What was so important that you'd risk missing orientation?"

"N-Nothing." Nepeta stuttered, automatically checking to make sure the flap of her bag was securely in place. "Aren't we late?"

"In the courtroom that would be known as avoiding the line of questioning." Terezi Pyrope was attending the college on a special scholarship; she had almost single-handedly taken her high school's Mock Trial team to nationals three years in a row. Several big budget law firms were already appealing to her to work for them while she completed her Juris Doctorate in a few years.

As she and Nepeta exited their small apartment another familiar voice echoed down the hallway.

"Leijon! Pyrope!"

"Oh, good, it's The Bitch." Terezi muttered under her breath as Nepeta turned to see a voluptuous girl approaching, her long mane of rich black hair tossed over one shoulder in a carelessly perfect fashion.

Wincing at Terezi's nickname for the other, Nepeta offered Vriska a tentative smile. Tall, slender and curvy in all the right places, she was also rich enough to afford her own place- which according to rumor was a good thing since she couldn't be trusted as a roommate. Personally, Nepeta suspected that Vriska acted arrogant because of her mother, a well-known socialite with a penchant for alcohol and violent acts while under the influence. Supposedly Vriska was almost blind in her left eye as a side-effect of one of her mother's episodes. Terezi's dislike of her stemmed from Vriska's tendency to think of herself as above the rules, to which Terezi adhered with an almost rabid tenacity.

While Terezi and Vriska exchanged scathing greetings of mutual irritation, Nepeta felt her mind drifting.

She stepped out into the empty air, leaving her stomach behind and her heart in her mouth as she plummeted. The sword rang out in its crystalline voice and all around her gathered winged beings, twining their long bodies around her arms and legs... Yet instead of slowing her decent they instead increased it, hurtling her along at impossible speeds...

"H-e-ll-o?"

She blinked a few times as Vriska's hand waved in front of her face.

"Stop spacing out. Weirdo." The blue blood frowned.

"Be nice to my roommate, Bitch."

With the argument brewing over her head, Nepeta couldn't help feeling some sense of trepidation that this was how her first day of "grown up" life was starting...


Authors Note: Hey! This is Ixaix, a long time fanfiction writer who is just now returning to the official, publishing my works for others to read stage of things. I appreciate all of you who have suffered through long enough to get to this part!

As you can tell, this is an AU version of Homestuck. Yeah, another one. It's going to mainly focus on the trolls; I haven't decided if the kids will show up or not. It's told from Nepeta's point of view, since she's an interesting character to me. They won't use their typing quirks when talking out loud, since real life people don't do that, but they may when it comes to texting or instant messaging; I haven't decided yet.

So, like it or hate it, please leave me a comment! Constructive criticism is always encouraged on my end of things!

~Ixaix