The Public Hive Division. They were what the drones referred to as a mercy in the walled slums of the revel city, a gift from the High Imperious Condescension herself.
Karkat didn't believe it for a second.
They were a last resort for those with no place to go, and a place to herd those they wanted to keep a close eye on. The latter was something they denied, but Karkat had been herded there many a time. Get arrested after curfew once and it's the only place they'll let you be. Karkat couldn't think of anything being more a drag.
"So who's my roommate this time?" He asked the drone blankly as he was escorted up the metal stairs.
The drone naturally didn't say anything, and stopped at one of the plain grey numbered doors, knocking on it heavily.
"I said I'm not going to take any more of that think-pan-numbing shit!" lisped a voice as the door was opened forcefully. Out stepped a confused troll with shaggy unkept black hair and an overly large black and yellow striped sweater. He looked around through his blue and red glasses and the drone roughly pushed Karkat in front of him.
"Hi." Said Karkat, his expression flat. "I'm your new roommate." He pushed passed the troll and into the messy hive, sighing deeply at the fact that he'd been put with a crazy, and a disorganized one at that.
"Oh." Said the disheveled troll, closing the door and following Karkat into the living room. "Well sorry about the mess, then. I only get roommates if the division is really crowded." He plopped down on a pile of dirty laundry. "I hate crowds." He looked up at Karkat. "My name is Sollux Captor by the way. What's yours?"
Sollux. Karkat thought the name almost rang a bell, but he wasn't sure. It could have just been false hope. He had once been told that most people retained subconscious memories of people they knew before their think-pans were scrubbed thoroughly of who they once were, and they, now empty excuses for people, were thrown into this awful place. Since then, Karkat was always kind of paying attention, but he'd only been able to confirm one, and only because she triggered all kinds of weird emotional responses from him. He wasn't going to dismiss this one just yet, but he wasn't about to give this kid any special treatment.
"I don't care what your name is." He answered flatly. "You don't need to know mine either. I'm just here to eat, sleep, and use the utilities. You wont even notice I'm here." He walked through the living room to the short hallway in the back. "Now which room is mine and which one do you keep the load gaper in?"
Sollux rolled his eyes. This wasn't the first roommate like this that he'd had. "Your room is to the. . .that way." He pointed to the right. "and the load gaper is the across from it. . .wait. . .no." He looked at his hands and then at the hall. "The opposite way. Yeah."
Karkat looked back at him, noting the look of immense concentration on his face as he stared at his fingers, before scoffing and kicking off his bright red high-tops, tossing his leopard print jacket onto the couch, and shutting himself in the bathroom. Immediately he was faced with himself in the dirty mirror, tired back-lined eyes, pale grey skin, small horns hiding in relentlessly bleached hair, black ribbed tank-top, red fingerless gloves. It was much different than how he looked right after his memory was erased, with messy black hair and a black turtle neck with his symbol printed on it in grey. Apparently his old self had been embarrassed about his mutant blood color, so he started wearing his blood color and changed his hair color, keeping only the hairstyle and the skinny jeans. He felt the need to be as different from his old self as possible. It's not like there was any chance of being him again anyway.
He wiped off his face, then walked into his room where he stripped down to his black boxers and scowled a the fact that there was only a bare human bed and no recuperacoon. He had slept in a recuperacoon only once, as far as he could remember, and he believed that's what trolls were supposed to sleep in, but they seemed terribly hard to come by. Sighing, he remembered how the public hive division would be the last to have that luxury and laid on the mattress.
He closed his eyes in an attempt to sleep when suddenly his phone buzzed in his pocket. Oh no. Not her again.
"Heard you were in the PHD again, loser." Read the words in bright turquoise across the screen.
"None of you business." Answered Karkat, his text naturally a bright red.
"Oh, so cold baby. What's wrong? Missing the abuse? If you wanna roughhouse, just call me and I'll punch in your sickeningly sweet smelling face."
"Whatever. I'm not a psycho-masochist like you, Terezi. I enjoy not being covered in bruises all the time."
"I prefer sadist. I play with you because you're so cute when you try to defend yourself instead of fighting back, and I know you like it, you little slut. Arguing with me just makes you look like an idiot, but then again, it also makes you fun."
"I don't fight back because I know that's what you want me to do. You'd just be oh so satisfied to make me break my calm and flip out. Not gonna happen, Pyrope. Never."
"Oh you're such a killjoy Vantas, baby. You'd blow off your dear kismesis just like that? You know it's inadvisable. You should really be keeping me pleased. I'm all you have."
Karkat paused, hating that she was right. "Why do you even care what happens to me? You already have that filthy rainbow drinker matesprit of yours."
"Oh, I don't care what happens to you, as long as you're there to keep me satisfied. Kanaya can't do everything after all. Now, I expect you at our hive at 500 hours tomorrow. Got it?
"That's clear across town!"
"Don't be late, or my matesprit will be having cherry syrup for dinner."
Karkat groaned. This was such a drag, Terezi pushing him around like this. "Yes, your highness." he messaged back. It's not like he was actually going to go. If she wanted him so badly, she was going to have to do all the hard work. He turned off his phone and kicked it to the corner of the room. He didn't feel like talking to anyone else.
He turned over on his side, burrowing under the standardized blankets, closing his eyes to sleep. There was some noise in the hall, Sollux walking around, but it seemed he would be a quiet roommate, even though he was a bit out there.
Suddenly the door opened, allowing obnoxious light to flood into the room and Karkat rethought that. He sat up, glaring at the troll in the doorway. "What do you want?"
Sollux took a deep breath. "Your name is Karkat Vantas. You're nine sweeps old. Your blood color is bright red, and I think we were friends once, before this.
Karkat's eyes widened. Oh no. He was one of those types, the ones who resisted the brainwashing, and were messed up from the multiple "touch ups" they had endured to re-wash their brains. They had a tendency to drag their roommates down with them.
"Okay. Advice from one piece of lowblood trash to the next," started Karkat, "I don't want to hear about anything from my life before. Whoever I was back then is gone. I don't want to know about him and I don't want touchups because of him. Got it?"
Sollux looked a little dejected. "Right. . .sorry. . .good-night." He mumbled, and then closed the door again.
Karkat laid down, feeling that sleep was going to be harder than he thought.