The first time she had met them was in the summer of 2012. At that particular time, she was in a local grocery store with Caliborn. She had learned to make trips to the outside world as rarely as possible, given that, even in her human cover, she still looked alien, and her brother even more so. However, she didn't quite expect a passer-by to make this remark:
"Nice cosplay there, dude!"
Nice what? Since the sentence was followed by "dude", it was most likely directed at Caliborn, but he didn't even care enough to respond to random people with "I HATE YOu.", and therefore continued on with the matter at hand. Though, Calliope's curiosity was piqued, and thus she backed away to meet the passer-by.
"NO. CALLIOPE. COME BACK HERE." He shouted, but Calliope was already with the stranger and asked him: "excUse me, what?"
"That guy's a fan of Homestuck, right?"
"a fan of what?" Calliope was the most confused since the time when she actually learned that having green skin is not normal for a human.
"Homestuck. Maybe you're out of the circles, I'll tell you: it's a web- a webcomic... a webcomic where these four children play this game... and there are these aliens called trolls... and it's basically awesome and you should read it. Hey, its creator lives here, too."
"CALLIOPE. I TOLD YOu TO COME THE FuCK BACK HERE. AND CONTINuE WITH OuR BRIEF INTERVENTION. INTO THE OuTSIDE WORLD."
"Calliope? You mean this guy is actually in-" The stranger continued, but Calliope interrupted him: "sorry! my brother can be sUch a nUissance sometimes!" and left him for her brother.
She thought about what happened that one time for the rest of the day.
Apparently, Caliborn, unknown to Calliope, had read something, a web comic, called Home... something, and was in cost... pay. Not to mention, it wasn't too unlikely that Calliope was also part of the Home thing. Was she one of the trolls? She didn't even know how the identity as a "cherub" came to her. Perhaps she was really a troll, an integral part of the web comic where these four children play this game. Who would even read such a comic? Not to mention, since it's on the web, where people's attention spans drop by ninety or so percent?
And its creator... lives right here. So perhaps the comic wasn't traveling through tubes to reach this guy, but instead was relayed to him by the man who wrote the comic himself. Or perhaps the author of the web comic was actually a woman, since it's not exactly like people's identities are clearly known on the Internet. Or perhaps the author was a part of something called non-binary people, which Calliope had heard of the other day.
Calliope wanted to know more about the Home thing and the concept of cost-pay, but didn't precisely remember what to search for on the Internet. Not only did she not remember the comic's name, but the guy never mentioned the author's name. Worse yet, the guy was probably one of many in the town, and since it was the first time when she met someone who mentioned the Home thing, it most likely didn't have too many fans.
Calliope wanted to know more. Perhaps, since Caliborn was recognized without disguise, she needed to take her disguise off and walk in the streets. Though, Caliborn wouldn't let her out without him, and she didn't want to take the disguise off, since it felt like a part of her by now. She truly wanted to be human, rather than partake in the cost-pay thing. No, it was probably cost-play. The entire scene had thrown Calliope to shock, and since it was so brief and came out of the blue, Calliope couldn't remember it particularly well.
Nevertheless, Calliope could pursue the concept of web comics. She found out that they seemed just like the comics that were printed in books that one could buy on the grocery store, like the one where Calliope just was in not too long ago, and yet they were published on the Internet and could be read by anyone. There were comics like xkcd, Penny Arcade, Sluggy Freelance, Cyanide and Happiness, Kevin and Kell, and the list went on, and on, and on. And yet, Calliope could not find the Home thing, no matter how hard she tried.
At times like this, she really wished that she was born a human. With human parents, who would very likely make Caliborn's life much harder until he started to behave. Without needing to look into ways to disguise herself, so her look brings less attention to herself. And most likely, if she and Caliborn were actually human, this encounter would have never happened.
But alas, the past is in the past, and Calliope's mind was full of web comics and how she and her brother were somehow in one. She turned the lights of her locked room off and went to her sarcophagus-styled bed, but she couldn't put herself to sleep with all the thoughts about the Home thing and the cost-pay... cost-play... whatever.
Home... stuck? That's how Calliope felt, in the very least. Not only her brother did not allow her out for most of the time, the fear of unwanted attention that she got kept her inside her and Caliborn's home, at all times. Perhaps the web comic - the one that the stranger told her of, not the ones she glanced at after the encounter - could reciprocate Calliope's feelings.
Though, Calliope didn't feel how her thoughts started to drift away, and she fell asleep. When she woke up, she didn't even have any memories of web comics or the Home thing; she only regarded the event as another occurrence when she and her brother were mocked for their appearance.
Little did Calliope know, though, that the one thing that would help her put the puzzle pieces together was coming on its way, quite literally.