Prologue
With the end of the game came a few changes. The biggest being an evolution to the worlds occupants, due to the trolls becoming part of the new world. Humans and trolls alike have become one, possessing both a human side and a troll side, and like many animals in the world, they are able to change their appearance. They may look all human, all troll or a bit of both. But unlike the animals who change to hide from a predator or to trick their prey, trumans simply change for aesthetic reasons.
Note: It has been discovered the Alternian sun that blinded Terezi, did not blind her because of it's heat (burning her eyes) but because of it's extreme brightness. The Alternian sun's brightness is equivalent to ten times that of phosphorus oxide. As a result of exposure the brightness and the natural chemicals in the Alternian atmosphere, her eyes were left in tact, but extremely were two things had happened to cause her blindness. 1) her corneas had been destroyed and 2) bumps and imperfections formed on her retinas causing a form of cataracts. To fix this she had to undergo corneal regrowth, and then after having her eyes mapped using wavefront scanning, she needed to have the imperfections on her retinas smoothed out using a femtosecond laser.
She can now see, happy days.
Beginning
The courtyard at the college was a great place to have lunch and hang out when the weather was nice. The grass was lush and green, trees dotted the area providing shade and stone benches, picnic tables and small alcoves were in abundance.
Eridan, Sollux, Feferi, Nepeta and Kanaya sat at a picnic table waiting on the others. No one had work or class Thursday afternoons and so this had been the designated time to meet up and just hang out. Nepeta was laying in the grass batting at the end of Eridans scarf, while Sollux and Eridan were sitting opposite each other eating very different lunches. In fact, everything about them was the opposite, and yet they were still friends.
Sollux had opted for the look of his human side, but kept his horns. He wore a dark blue hoodie that had two thin yellow stripes on the sleeves and across his chest, loose pants with yellow stitching and as always his 3-D glasses and mis-matched shoes. A wallet chain, black and yellow jelly band on one wrist, red and blue on the other, an ear cuff and snake bite piercing on his lower lip finish off his look. A slight breeze ruffled his dark brown hair, but didn't disturb Eridan's perfectly styled hair. Eridan in full troll, had on a dark purple shirt, a black short trench coat hanging open, a purple and black scarf, black slacks and dress shoes. To this he added his gold rings and a loosely worn belt with gold buckle and a gold piercing in either ear.
Feferi, in a pink summer dress and silver hoop earrings, was busy slowly poking a finger into Kanaya's shoulder, watching for a reaction with real concern on her face. Kanaya on the other hand, sat with her hands grasping a crumpled piece of paper, mouth agape, simply staring into space.
Dave walked up with John and Jade following a few feet behind, bickering in hushed tones. They looked as much alike in their troll form as they did in their human. Large eyes behind thick framed glasses, dark wispy hair and just the faintest hint of baby-fat and freckles. As they reached the table Dave noticed Kanaya and stepped over to her. "Helloooo?" he said as he leaned over and waved a hand in front of her face. "Anyone home?"
Sollux looked up at the sound of Dave's voice, taking note that while he was in his human form, he had opted for the horns of his troll half, much like he had. "I think the'th in thock." Sollux mumbled around a bite of peanut butter and honey sandwich and looking at a smear on his hand. Then, wiping some of the mess off his hand and onto his jeans continued, "The'th been like that for about half hour."
Eridan glared at Sollux with a look of disgust at his horrid manners. "God, Sol! Chew and swallow that shit before you open that hole a yours!" he scolded before turning a pitying eye to Kanaya. "And you would be in shock too, if you had found yourself in her place." Feferi nodded her head furiously in agreement, loose blond hair falling into her face, while Sollux simply gave Eridan the middle finger and continued to eat.
Dave stood there looking from one person to the next and then back again. "I'm not following. What happened? Must be big to have this kinda effect on Kan."
Sighing, Eridan snatched the end of his scarf away from Nepeta, causing her to jump up and scurry after some butterflies. Looking back at Dave he said, "She found out what the theme for her finale is. Everyone had to pick a random paper outa this bowl; and while others got things like renaissance or the ocean, she got… " and here he whispered "Adventure Time. You know, that cartoon with Finn and Jake?"
Dave looked back at Kanaya, and just shook his head, "Oh, man. I'm sorry Kan." Dave, like most of them, loved the show. But he couldn't imagine what kind of fashion show Kanaya was supposed to create with it as a theme. Not sure what else to do he shrugged, fixed his sunglasses and sat down next to John to eat his usual lunch of A.J., Doritos and some kind of sandwich.
A few minutes passed with no other sound than that of nature, John and Jade still arguing, (oblivious to what was going on around them) and some undignified noises from Eridan as he tried to fend off Sollux's hands from messing around with his California sushi rolls, veggie fried rice and chicken pot-stickers. There had been more, but Feferi had already eaten it leaving Eridan with only these three things. Out of no where, Kanaya shut her mouth and stood up, eyes going wide and pointing a finger into the distance, still not saying anything.
Curious, the others turned to see what she was pointing at. As it happened, it was just the rest of the group arriving. But something about them had snapped her out of her trance and she hurried to meet them. She stepped in front of Karkat causing him to stop short. As a result Gamzee bumped into him, because instead of watching where he was going, he was staring at Nepeta and the butterflies mumbling something about mother fuckin' miracles.
"Watch it, shi…rley." Karkat yelled, but finished his sentence lamely. Gamzee blinked at him, then scratched his head and smiled dopily, "Sorry, best friend. Couldn't help but look at that miracle." he said as he stepped around Karkat and Kanaya, walking the last few feet to join those gathered at the table.
Karkat leaned to the side and watched as Gamzee ran his fingers through his hair, only to jumped when the girl in cat-ears landed on his back, apparently because a butterfly had momentarily landed on his shoulder. "Idiot." he said under his breath as he saw his tall friend grin and start talking to Nepeta. Then, as if just remembering, he straightened up fixing his red overshirt, (open in the front and sleeves folded up) and looked at Kanaya. "Uh…" he said unsure of what was going on but unable to move past the intense look he was receiving. "Hi?"
Kanaya didn't say anything but began walking around him and looking at him critically, lifting an arm and turning his face this way and that. Finally she stopped and stated "You are in your troll form, yet you do not have your horns… "
"Y-yeah…" Karkat stuttered. He glanced back at the group and had a very strong urge to start a cuss filled rant until someone told him what was going on with Kanaya. Unfortunately for him, she was one of the two people he couldn't cuss in front of. It just never seemed right, though he couldn't say why. The other was Nepeta, who he loved like a little sister and wanted to protect from anything and everything.
"Outstanding." she smiled, then scanned the rest of the group. Looking at each in turn with a professional eye. "It is not the most original idea, but it has definite potential!" Walking quickly back to the table Kanaya stooped and and reaching into her bag, pulling out a sketchbook and some pencils.
Karkat made his way to the table mouthing 'What the fuck?' to Sollux, who in turn just shrugged and ate the last bite of his sandwich.