A/N: Haha, I ended up writing a whole ton, so I split it into two parts just for you guys! :D So a double dose this month, enjoy. ^^ Karkat, the main character, is finally introduced, and the play/story flaps its tiny wings and taxis down the runway.


The happy chattering continued. The flood had at last begun to divide into groups of humans and trolls talking together about the wonderful news. Some members of the large crowd had left, either to go celebrate with family and friends or to find some bauble that their hero, the Heir of Breath, could autograph for posterity. This was an occasion to remember.

John kept smiling his bucktoothed grin, waving, shaking hands, accepting bows from gentlemen, and doling out hugs to everybody. It was like they heard their idol was handing out hugs and they'd known nothing but years of bitter hug famine. But he didn't mind at all, John told himself. People needed to hug more often, and besides, there really hadn't been anything Good to celebrate in a while.

He even let a small group of kids play with Casey for a bit. They laughed at the sparkly bubbles that the salamander emitted. John smiled; he loved making people happy. Karkat would have teased him terribly, called him a suck-up and other harsh words…

The smile disappeared from the young man's face as sudden as a gust of wind. Peace had come, but at a great cost.

"Well, it's been fun to see you all," John giggled as Casey's cheeks were stretched until the consort began kicking out of distress. "But as I'm sure you can imagine there's still more work for me to do," he rescued his partner from the children's' grasp and began to wave goodbye. "What with the wizard's sudden departure. So unless there are any more questions-"

"John!" A female troll shouted from the sidelines. People turned at the sound of her loud and demanding voice. She pointed at the Heir of Breath with a gloved hand, part of a colorful uniform of teal and red. Crimson glasses angled up in sharp points to hide her eyes. Twin horns as straight and sharp as needles jutted from her black, medium-length hair. Her other gloved hand rested on top of a red and white cane.

From the looks of it, she was one of the many legislacerator trolls sent out to police the festivities. A rare scowl twisted her black lips as she looked at the blueberry-smelling human through blind eyes. She remembered him and the Knight from Skaia University and something was not adding up. Her sense of justice demanded some answers. Her words rang out clear and strong, like a human lawyer questioning a defendant. "Is it true you and him were friends?"

The effect was immediate. A chorus of voices erupted from the crowd. John's face couldn't decide whether to turn red or white as his mouth opened slightly in protest. The surrounding trolls and humans looked back and forth between the judicial enforcer and the Heir of Breath. It couldn't be true! Such a notion was absolutely preposterous. John the Good and the despicable Knight of Blood friends? They yelled, cried, hollered, bellowed, and screamed their denial in unison. But the legislacerator stood firm, folding her hands over the dragon-headed cane.

Something resembling sound managed to force its way out of John's mouth. "Well I…" He bit his lower lip with his large teeth. "Yes."

A shrill scream tore through the air above the gasping crowd.

"But it depends on what you mean by 'friend'!" John said quickly, nervously adjusting his glasses and attempting to do damage control. He looked out over the crowd and sighed. He dropped Casey and the salamander happily began blowing out a large bubble for him to sit on. This was going to be a long story.

"I did…know him once. That, that is, I mean-" John stammered at his now-rapt audience. A multitude of eyes shaded every color of the hemospectrum stared back at him. "It's all very complicated. You see," he began. "We went to the same school..."

John took a seat, the loyal consort salamander snuggling close to his side. His blue eyes focused on something far away, filled to the brim with a sudden well of sadness. Although the young man's voice softened, the total hush of the crowd allowed his story to be carried through the air.

Skaia University freshmen: Sing the school song. ===+

"But please, try to understand. It was a long time ago, and we were both…still young."

O dashing Derse and bright Prospit,
The grand-liest sight there is…

BAM! A robed figure burst into the common room, running fast like it couldn't wait to arrive at this new beginning.

Or like a lifetime of suffering was chasing at its heels.

The new student stopped once his feet reached the middle of the floor. The front of his chest expanded with big breaths underneath his shirt, which was marked with a strange gray symbol. Only a few humans might have been able to recognize it as the human zodiac sign for cancer. He moved his short black hair out of his eyes with one hand. His other was occupied with holding a school bag.

"Fucking finally." He growled. Despite his hostile voice the troll shot short, curious glances around the room that he had just raged into. A few other new students, troll and human alike, were milling about. "Damn hood, I can't see worth a hoofbeast's-" the crabby troll muttered a few more choice words and reached up to pull the offending object off.

Oh.

The student was indeed a troll, as evidenced by his symbol, hair, still-slightly-gray eyes, and horns. Nothing about that was unusual. Except for one thing...

He was red in the face. Literally. While all trolls' skin were normally gray, a blush showed as red as his temper through his. That was very dangerous, having your blood color (and a mutated hue at that) on full display for everyone to mock according to their own places on hemospectrum. But even the matter of his skin paled (though not to its normal color) in comparison to his horns.

The troll looked to be about 10 or 11 sweeps, if one was familiar with his kind. However his horns were strangely small for his age, barely reaching up to the top of his head. They were also strangely rounded at the tips where they should be pointed. Strangely short and stout. Strangely colored a striking bright, blood red instead of resembling candy corn.

Indeed, "strangely" seemed to describe many things pertaining to the troll.

When done and doomed our lives doth end,
We shall still remember our lessons and friends,

The young troll slowly began to trod around the unfamiliar space with a sort of practiced resentment. Okay, let's see how quickly this goes bad. His record was 15 seconds.

A human walked toward his general direction. The troll attempted a friendly smile, even a jaunty wave with one reddish hand. Judging by how the person jumped and then slowly backed away, silently staring at him with wide eyes, his smile looked more like an "I'm gonna eat you" grimace. The twist of his black lips disappeared, replaced by a frown. He hadn't even lasted 10 seconds. Fucking incredible. Behind him, the first few unfriendly whispers began to reach his ears.

Refusing to give up, he advanced towards a group of three trolls, two boys and a girl. Maybe he would have better luck with his own species. HAHAHA THAT WAS A GREAT JOKE HE REALLY SHOULD KNOW BETTER BY NOW. He cursed his past self for having such a shitty idea as he watched the two trolls catch the girl and carry her away, shooting scared glances back over their shoulders. She had fainted at the sight of him. If his cheeks could blush any more, they would. He hadn't made anyone faint like that in a long time.

The next group was a mix of both races. The mutant troll took a deep breath and decided to give one last try. He whipped around and took a single step towards them. Immediately their friendly conversations ceased and a few gasped. One of them cowered behind his school bag, holding it in front of his chest like a futile protective shield. The others soon followed suit, fleeing like animals faced with a furious forest fire.

In our days at dear Skaia,

Frustrated, the troll's eyes landed on two frightened bystanders that had been watching the whole thing. A growl rose in his throat. He had had enough! He dropped his bag and waved his arms wildly for effect as he charged at the duo of students. They ran, fearing his rage.

Our days at dear-

"Deeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr…" sang a voice, slightly too deep and grand, obviously trying to be funny. The red troll looked up from grumbling over his suitcase. Who was this douchebag?

A boy sat atop a mountain of luggage being pushed into the common room of Skaia University, singing the school song he had just learned with innocent glee. A snow-white lusus worked hard to wheel in both human and baggage on a cart. The boy's blue eyes sparkled with mischief behind his glasses. He had short black hair and a young, friendly face. Smiling with large upper teeth, he waved enthusiastically to everyone in the room. One certain troll stuck out his tongue and flipped him the bird in response.

"…Skaia." The boy finished. Hmph. He was still annoyingly happy.

Suddenly the troll became aware that the whole room was staring at him. Even Mr. Nookstain on his stupid cart. "What are you lumpmaggots looking at?" he snarled. This always happened, dammit. He was practically used to it by now.

"Oh, did I get some paint on me or something?" He said with mock surprise, gesturing at his body for emphasis. He waited. The crowd did not answer.

The troll set off in a gray and red blur toward the mass of students. "Okay now you retards," he yelled. "No I'm not diseased, yes I've always been a mutant, no you can't catch it from me it's not a fucking cold goddammit, and no I didn't eat special stardust as a wriggler-"

"Karkat!" A voice even sterner than his broke the silence. An adult troll who greatly resembled the yelling one had entered the room. Next to him was a young female troll with a mechanical arm and eyepatch. The adult did not look happy.

"Ah, and there's my younger sister Vriska." Karkat said pointing at the girl. Her needle-fanged smile disappeared.

The troll was wearing eye makeup on her lashes in the same shade of dull blue as her lipstick. Her hair was long, and cascaded down her symboled shirt and jacket in free black waves. Unlike her sibling her horns appeared normal. One of them hooked downward while the other forked into a two-pronged claw. She held her left arm with her normal right one in a pitiful fashion. The robotic limb was fully mechanical, and with troll technology likely worked just like a normal one, but that didn't make it any less strange to others. In addition, her left eye was also damaged. A black eye patch with eight red holes covered it, as if she were a pirate.

"As you can see she's perfectly normal compared to me." Karkat Vantas finished.

"Karkat, stop causing trouble everywhere you go," Jegus reprimanded his descendant. "Remember why I agreed to let you come here."

"I know." Karkat said, retrieving his neglected suitcase. "So I can look after Vriska while getting an education to make something of myself, yeah yeah."

The ancestor turned back to his daughter, his gaze softening. "My lovely little girl..."

Vriska giggled sweetly at her father's attention.

While Jegus said something about a good-luck present and rummaged around in his fetch modus, Karkat shot a look at Vriska over his shoulder. She wasn't fooling him. He knew his sister better than anyone.

At first the girl seemed robust and talkative, easily attracting friends and making connections. But deep down, his sister was sort of… a bitch. People felt sorry for her because of her arm and eye, and she knew it. Her favorite thing to do was manipulate people. With her disability she could pull the strings so that she was always the victim. She could get almost anything she wanted this way and make you do things you wouldn't normally do, even without using her mind-control powers (psychic abilities were restricted to a minimum by law due to their Wicked potential).

Karkat had seen her bring friends over time and time again when they were little. Everyone had to play what she wanted to play—usually FLARPing—and she was always the "Queen". She would claim to be helping you and doing things for the greater Good. Why don't you trust her, let her do something for once, just let her be happy! She would toss her hair and claim to have allllllll of the luck, but Karkat suspected that really it could just be credited to her having connections with the right people, saying the right words, and looking pitiable in all the right ways.

Vriska yelled excitedly, "Red pshooooooooes!" She had just unwrapped a pair of red rocket shoes with yellow flame decals. They were the newest model. Vriska grabbed the shoes and held them close to her chest lovingly.

"A gift for my daughter, and the future Mayor of Lowblood Hills," Jegus said with a smile.

And indeed she would be. Even though Vriska's blood color was blue, high on the hemospectrum, the position would likely go to either her or Karkat as Jegus's descendants. And nobody wanted a mutant in charge. Besides, the highbloods had given hints that they were very supportive of having Vriska inherit the position. Karkat gritted his sharp teeth. It was obvious that they just wanted one of their own to rule over the lowbloods. As if they didn't have enough power already. Whatever. He didn't care. No way in Hell. Why would he? She would probably love it anyway.

"Karkat, watch over your sister." said Jegus. He waved an affectionate goodbye to Vriska, who was still admiring her shoes. "And try not to be so fucking stupid." He shouted over his shoulder as he walked away, not looking at his cherry red freak of a son.

There was silence as the two siblings were left alone. "Well there wasn't anything that he could get me," Karkat finally laughed. "I clash with everything." He did his best to brush it off, turn away, and pretend that the gift didn't bother him.

But his mutinous voice gave his emotions away.