An electrical discharge in the atmosphere of the planet Alternia jolted one of its denizens from a fitful sleep. Ordinarily such a storm in the middle of the day would be soothing, but this one was too close and too loud for his already frayed nerves. Every flash of lightning threatened to break through the safety barriers that were his hive's curtains, although their light would have done no damage.
One Karkat Vantas, ten sweeps old and the troll in question, pulled himself up out of his recuperacoon and pulled on his clothes after drying off. Even though he was indoors, he pulled his hood over his head from force of habit. It helped hide his eyes, which by now were fully pigmented and constantly threatened to give him away.
He briefly contemplated going for a walk, but he didn't trust the anti-UV lotion he'd bought well enough to think it would keep the harsh Alternian sun from burning his flesh off. It was midday, after all, when the sun would be at its brightest. So he settled for sitting on the shitty couch in his hive's main block. It had been picked up on a street corner in a nearby lawnring. It had had to be - he couldn't possibly get the credit needed to buy furniture, not with his blood color.
The storm started to abate as Karkat grew drowsier. His tired eyes began to close of their own accord, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on the shitty sofa with a puddle of drool in his hood and someone was knocking on his front door. It took him a moment to realize it, because at first he was simply glad he'd been mercifully spared by the horrors that so often plague a soporless sleep.
"Open this door immediately!" came a voice from outside. "You are under arrest!"
Oh, shit.