Alright, so this I'd my first homestuck fan fiction, so please be nice. Im sorry of you think its OOC for some of the characters not to curse, but, hey, I figured that's okay since I was definitely not going to write those particular words in any piece of writing. Now, um, Im going to kick this off by saying Im sorry in advance for subjecting you my introduction chapter, where nothing really happens. Except toward the end but that's beside the point. Please give me a chance and read the whole chapter! Thank you! :3
There's nothing like a taser to your back to wake you up in the morning.
"Ow, ow! I get it, I get it, I'm up!" Karkat shouted angrily at the handler. "Remember, if you put a scratch on me, the boss'll kill you."
He got no reply. He never did. No one cared to right now, and when it didn't suit them, no one talked to the experiments. To them, they were animals. Not people, not even prisoners. But Karkat didn't spare any thoughts for this, it was normal for him. The tazer barely hurt anyways. It was time for his morning routine.
He stood up carefully, rubbing the sleep out of his yellow eyes. His grey tinted skin looked dark in the dim lighting. He knew he didn't even have to start getting ready until the morning announcement rang through the cell rooms, but walked over to the rusted sink anyways and turned on the tap. It was cold, as always, but it felt good as he splashed it into his face, his rumpled black hair getting slightly wet. He could hear several of the others getting up as well in the nearby cells. A muttered curse, tired feet shuffling along the ground, the quiet sound of water running from the faucet.
Things were quiet around here in the mornings. No one felt the need to speak, since it would only be ignored. Karkat took a deep breath and stretched, his hard worked muscles complaining after sleeping on the same hard metal surface he had known all his life.
The overhead speakers crackled to life, "Attention all experiments. It is six-thirty and time for the day to begin. You will report to your first test in fifteen minutes or be flogged. Don't be late."
It was the same announcement every morning, and Karkat had become so accustomed to it, he barely noticed as it blared through the halls. After giving one last enormous stretch, he grabbed his oversized shirt and pulled it on over his stubby orange horns. It comes halfway down his thighs. Everyone here wears the same clothes, of the same size, even though they were all different. Karkat was on the smaller end of the scale, so both his shirt and sweatpants are baggy and long on him. He hates to admit it, but other than maybe one exception, He's probably the shortest one here.
He gave half an attempt to tame his unruly hair, but as usual, gave up and turned to the guard at the cell door.
Through the bars, he grumbled, "Hey, retard. I need out."
The gaurd unlocked the door and let him out, knowing he won't try anything. Karkat isn't a troublemaker. He might be rude and obnoxious as heck, but he's not stupid. He won't make a run for it, or attack anyone.
Before breakfast every morning, each experiment dragged themselves to their testing room to experience the joys of being a genetically altered human being, or troll, as they called it. Today, Karkat figured he would get either some sort of physical test like sprinting for an hour non-stop, or a chemical test. He hated those. They were always injecting things into him, seeing how his "advanced" body would react. Usually, it was pain. Occasionally something ridiculous would happen, like his grey skin would turn purple or something.
He walked the through the halls, saw a flash of claws and black hair, and suddenly he was on the ground, underneath a small troll with sparkling olive colored eyes.
"Hey Karkitty!" She beamed.
"Off! Get off Nepeta!"He shoved her away angrily. "We're gonna be late, and then we'll both be in trouble."
He got up and tried to leave her behind, only to realize she was still following him.
"Karkitty, wait up!" She giggled.
"Stop calling me that. My name is Karkat. Got it? Kar-Kat." He grumbled as he stalked forward.
"Okay, Karkitty!"
Karkat sighed.
He stopped by a door labeled "Room 33. Leijon, Nepeta. Leijon, Meulin."
"I believe this is your stop." He told her, gesturing to the door.
She giggled and waved bye as she pushed the door open and went in, leaving Karkat to his thoughts. He breathed a silent thanks and went on his merry way.
The halls were dark and humid, a stark contrast to the overly lit, white testing rooms. There were two subjects to a room, one older, one younger. Some pairings were good. Like Nepeta and Meulin or Kanaya, a friend of Karkat's, and Porrim. Others... Were less so. Kankri and Karkat for example. Karkat hated Kankri, but he never seemed to get a clue and shut up. Another was Aradia and Damara. One was cheerful and excited, and the other was... Well... Damara. Some were almost like siblings. Always fighting, but also looking out for one another. Aranea and Vriska was one example, another being Mituna and Sollux.
Karkat had long since memorized all the rooms that held trolls.
Room 69, Kankri and Karkat Vantas.
Room 00, Damara and Aradia Megido.
Room 1, Rufioh and Tavros Nitram.
Room 2, Mituna and Sollux Captor.
Room 33, Meulin and Nepeata Leijon.
Room 30, Porrim and Kanaya Maryam.
Room 413, Latula and Terezi Pyrope.
Room 8, Aranea and Vriska Serket.
Room 100, Horrus and Equius Zahhak.
Room 206, Kurloz and Gamzee Makara.
Room 7, Cronus and Eridan Ampora.
Room 6 , Meenah and Feferi Peixes.
Karkat approached his door with a sigh. 'Room 69. Vantas, Karkat. Vantas, Kankri.' He pushed it open to see Kankri already sitting on the metal table, waiting for Karkat and their nurse.
"Ah, Karkat, cutting it a bit close you think? Of course, there was probably something holding you up in the halls. I wouldn't want to scold you for something that wasn't your fault in the slightest, or maybe you were catching up with a friend. Socialization is always a healthy thing in out less then perfect living situation and environment. I mean, if one were to go through all of this without friends to talk to or even see then one would most likely fall into a state of depression, and that would only worsten the-"
He was interrupted as a woman with long black hair and brown eyes entered the room. She was wearing the standard white lab coat and a name tag. Karkat didn't have to look at it to know that her name was Dr. Angelina Winters, and that she was higher authority than the gaurds and caretakers, but lower than the scientists and the boss.
Karkat and Kankri were lucky to have her as their nurse, since she was one of the nicer ones. The Captors had an especially nasty one, as did the Nitrams. The Serkets' nurse would be pretty bad if Vriska didn't intimidate her. The Maryams had a pretty nice one, along with the Peixes. The Pyropes' nurse was bad at first, but I think he grew kind of fond of them, so it's not as bad anymore. The Makaras' nurses kept disappearing.
Dr. Winters looked over Kankri and Karkat quickly, sighing. "Karkat, how much sleep did you get last night?"
He grunted angrily. "It's not like I can even get much sleep with those hard metal benches we sleep on."
She gave him a look, knowing perfectly well that it wasn't the benches, it was Karkat's refusal to sleep until his body forced him to. He might have slept two hours last night at most. "Why do you do this?"
Kankri butted it. "I think it might be an act of rebellion. Perhaps Karkat feel like he need to compromise the testing with the only way he knows how, because-"
"Kankri." Dr. Winters interrupted, "I'm stopping you now because I know you'll go on forever, and then you'll both be late for breakfast."
She pushed Kankri lightly off the table, gesturing that Karkat was first today. She took out a few tools, and quickly, with ease of practice, took his blood, checked his heartbeat, ears, eyes, nose, throat, and reflexes, then moved on to Kankri. After she finished with that, she told them both to roll up their sleeves for an injection.
"Chemical test today, boys. Sorry, but this one might hurt a bit. Hopefully not much..." She started with Kankri, smoothly releasing a clear liquid into his veins through a needle. He waited a moment, then commented, "I don't feel anything different yet. Later today, maybe?"
Dr. winters nodded, "Probably take a couple hours. Time enough for you to enjoy your breakfast."
She injected the same substance into Karkat and put the needles away. "You know the drill. Free to roam for a few minutes untill the announcement comes on."
Karkat immediately stood up and left he room, not in a hurry to spend any longer than necessary with Kankri. He didn't get far before the speakers announced, "Breakfast is ready. Experiments have 45 minutes to eat and get to their next station."
Karkat headed off towards his destination, running into a friend on the way there.
"Hey KK."
"Hey."
And that's all they said on the way to the mess hall. There was no need for anything else. Sollux and Karkat knew each other better than anyone else here. If Karkat were to ask him how he was, he'd say, with that idiotic lisp of his, 'Awful. Expect anything else? You?' To which Karkat would say, 'Horrible. Let's move on.' And they would.
They arrived at the mess hall not two minutes later, weaving our way through the maze of halls without any difficulty. Their destination wasn't silent though. Everyone was always taking meals as an opportunity to socialize, so it was fairly loud. There was the usual meaningless chatter, along with a few loud laughs and a groan every now and then. But there were a few things that caught his attention. Whispers of something mysterious, though he only heard snippets of phrases.
"Some new kids"
"Fresh from the city"
"Not even experimented on"
"Won't last a day."
He shrugged it off. Probably just rumors.
Sollux and Karkat walked quietly up to the line and got their food. Cold eggs, soggy bread, stale water. That was always what they ate, and Karkat never known different, so it really wasn't all that bad. He sat down near the back of the room, at the same table he sat at every day. Sollux did the same. They ate in contented silence for all of ten seconds before a grinning, overly excited girl plopped down next to Karkat with a loud,
"Karkles, my gosh, your so quiet it's depressing!"
He sighed. "What do you want Terezi?"
"Can't a girl sit next to her friend without being questioned?" She asked innocently, her clouded red eyes showing a glint of mischief.
"Now you're just being dumb. You always want something." He pointed out, glaring at her even though she couldn't see it.
She leaned in, grinning. "Have you heard the rumors?"
"No."
"Yes you have."
"No, I really haven't."
Sollux rolled his mismatched eyes, watching the two of us with mild amusement. "You guys are such idiots."
"Well I don't see you trying to deal with Redglare here, Captor."
"I know better, thank you very much."
"Yeah, you just don't know how to shut your mouth."
"Look who's talking, Nubs McShouty."
"Four eyes."
"Loud mouth."
"Lizard tongue."
Terezi laughed, "Girls, please, you're both pretty."
Karkat grumbled, but Sollux just grinned smugly. He did shut up though. Terezi hadn't forgotten about her original task.
"The rumors, Karkles! You had to have heard."
"I haven't heard anything."
"Well, they say there are some new kids here. Four of them. Just arrived an hour ago."
"That's just stupid stuff Serket made up. You know how she is about-"
Just then, a loud noise sounded above the chatter. It was footsteps and someone yelling down the hall.
"LET ME GO, YOU IDIOT! I'LL CALL THE COPS! DONT YOU KNOW THE PUNISHMENT FOR KIDN-" The voice, obviously female, was cut off and replaced by a muffled, "mrphmmmphrph."
The footsteps got louder, and a girl with long black hair and big round glasses was shoved through the door, followed by three others. Another girl and two boys.
The speaker starlted Karkat as it came on. "Attention all experiments. The new arrivals are to be treated with caution. Any experiment that harms the newbies will be severely punished. That is all."
Everyone simply stared at the new kids in shock. The first thing to break the silence was the new kids. The boys.
"Oh my gosh."
"John."
"Oh."
"John."
"My gosh."
"John."
"OH MY GOSH, HOLY CRAP!"
"John."
"THESE KIDS ARE GREY, AND THEY HAVE HORNS AND-"
"JOOOOOHN!"
"What?!"
"Calm your over-caffeinated self down."
"Well, what do you expect from me? We were just kidnapped, and then thrown in here to find a whole bunch of kids our age with grey skin and horns and yellow eyes like some kind of demon from the movies and-"
"John."
The kid took a deep breath and quieted.
"That's better."
It was silent for a moment, then someone burst out laughing. Everyone turned to look at Vriska, who just laughed more and said, "That was hilarious! Like, you don't even know! I like you 'John'. You're funny."
She gave him a good long look. "And... Y'know, your kinda cute."
John balked, and the guy next to him started to chuckle, which led to the girl who was yelling earlier to start giggling. The laughter got louder, and John joined in, and by the time they calmed down, even the dark looking girl with blonde hair had begun to laugh quietly, one delicate hand raised to cover her mouth.
Terezi smirked, then leaned in to Karkat and whispered, "They have no idea what's in store for them."
So if you got this far, thank you and please, please review! Another note. All the room numbers have something behind them. Some of them are really obvious, but others just seem random, let me explain. So, the Megidos. I just thought 00 would be appropriate for Aradia in particular, because she uses zeros in her typing quirk. Um, for the Maryams, I used 30 because... Oh wait... I forgot. I might remember later. The Nitrams, I used 1 because Rufioh used 1 instead of i in his typing quirk. For the Makaras, and this one was difficult to figure one out, I used 206 because there are 206 bones in the human body and Kurloz has an association to bones. I was really stumped on the Amporas... So this is what I came up with: Eridan uses White science, which is actually magic, which makes him a wizard, and there are 7 books in the Harry Potter series, so therefore they had room number 7. Stupid, I know. And for the Peixes, the trident they carry has 6 prongs total. Ok, sorry for the long authors note. Again, please review!