Foreshadowing. Foreshadowing as far as the eye can see.
Also I gave in and got a tumbler. You can go search for either tortoiseshellkelpie or parasitoidentomologist. You can ask questions to either of us.
He weaves easily through the crowds of people and you find yourself bumping abruptly into him as he stops in front of a skyscraping cooperate looking building. It appears shiny and silver and clean with no windows, despite being several stories tall. It was even stranger as you entered. The inside of the building was pearly white marble checkered with onyx stone on everything: the walls, the floor, the columns, the light fixtures... the only things that weren't checkered were pure white and articles of furniture. He walks up to the front desk and smiles at the elderly woman behind it. He takes a card out of his satchel and hands it to her.
"Hello Mr. Captor. Are things well with you today?" She asks him cheerily.
He shrugs but widens his smile.
"Ath well ath they can be."
She nods, handing him back what appears to be his I.D., and types something into her computer.
"He has been expecting you. You'll find him in his second main office."
"Thank you." He smiles a final goodbye at the woman and she nods warmly in reply.
You follow as he starts down the hallway towards some white yet metallic elevators. There are no buttons or floor markers, just the white doors.
"Dean Kankri'th office." He says aloud.
The doors ding and open. The elevator inside appears to be blue lit glass... but there is nothing but void around it in every direction. You look up as you step in and panic. There are also no wires or ropes holding it up. What the fuck is this? The doors close and open. Your escort steps back out into an almost identical hallway, save for the fact that the once white tiles are now as red as your shirt. He hurries you both through another door, and you find yourself in a room too large to be in the tiny office building you thought you were in.
In the middle of the room is a single white desk with a man and glass chairs. The man is in what looks like a hooded college robe. You cannot see his face or features beneath the hood, other than his mouth, but something about him seems familiar. He motions you both over as you enter.
"Welcome boys. Please, have a seat." His voice is smooth in an unsettlingly authoritative, yet friendly, way. You can see the corners of his lips turn up in a smile as he beckons the two of you closer. However, the grin is quickly replaced and his mouth becomes an unreadable line.
You both sit down and you feel the slip of panic in your already queasy gut.
"Now, Mr. Captor, it has come to my attention that you did not... complete... your last task in an appropriate manner that is required for... graduating... and I hope you realize the implications."
The necromancer nods solemnly with a grim face. The edges of his mouth are turned down and there is a slight hint of hurt on his face, but it's a flicker that quickly vanishes.
"Yeth. I will not be graduating."
The man nods in a managerial manner.
"That is correct and I must say it is rather... unfortunate... that you have again... unsuccessfully... completed another year. Now I do not mean to alarm you, but I cannot allow such... lack of success... to continue unchecked. It has... dangerous... implications. That is why the council has decided to... reduce... your standing with the university."
Red and blue eyes go wide with shock, his face draining of all color.
"You're... demoting me?" His voice cracks and he flinches, no longer able to keep his cool demeanor.
"Sadly, yes." The man sighs. "You are officially third class as of now and in addition, I have taken the liberty of assigning you a mentor who will... monitor... your progress weekly." The Dean turns his gaze on you. Though his eyes are still hidden by the shroud of the hood, you can feel them as he stares at you. Something about his demeanor seems scrutinizing and almost hostile, though his voice carries nothing more than a curious inflection. You get the feeling he isn't partial to humans. "Have you chosen a payment method for your debtor?"
"I want hith thervitude." His voice is quiet.
The dean tilts his head to the side, displacing the formant cloth of the hood, making the red lining take on a darker, bloody hue. It's rather unsettling. You imagine him as a bird of prey, an aged and waning vulture scoping out its final meal. The air in the room seems to stiffen, going rigid like the standing hairs of a rilled cat.
"Are you certain you want to be in... a position of responsibility... for allowing this debt to continue?"
Sollux draws a long breath and exhales before answering.
"Yeth." His voice is resigned.
The bird of carnage dean straightens, getting back to business. You can feel an angry wave roll off of him, as if he is not at all satisfied with the necromancer's choice.
"You realize you may not receive payment?"
Is the dean trying to convince him to choose another option? From what you've gathered about how debt works around here you assume the other option will result in your body turning up in a ditch somewhere.
"I do."
You can hear the conviction in his voice.
"Very well." He says casually, all previous hints of displeasure erased. With a prim sigh, he directs his attention at you, mannerly smile in place. "Do you accept, young man? The other payment method is still open to you, if you so choose."
"Yes." You nod. "I accept."
Being a servant was by far the prefered option to being dead.
The dean's shoulders tense visibly as if the fact that neither of you are going to choose the other option has managed to piss him off.
"Then you are free to walk among us until a time in which you can repay Mr. Captor. And as for you Mr. Captor," He turns to the forlorn looking guy beside you and stands, coming around to lay a fatherly, if not patronizing, hand on his shoulder. "I am deeply saddened by your recent... lack... of performance. As one of our more promising students, I expect more from you. You must maintain yourself if you ever hope to accomplish a leadership position in research. Am I being clear enough?"
"Yeth." His voice breaks again, and he takes in a deep breath for composure. "Yeth." He repeats with more voice.
The dean lets out a small sigh as he tries to bring back his friendly demeanor.
"Good." Giving a final nod he smiles and sits back at his desk. "Please hold onto your seats and have a wonderful day." You think he almost looks smugly vindictive... wait. Hold onto your seat?
Your brows go up in confusion. Did he just say hold onto your seat? As you contemplate that strange remark, you're suddenly falling. You curse and shout for the entire five minutes it seems to take you to suddenly appear on the azure street outside. What the fuck just happened?
"Fucking shit! How... what...? Just... fuck it. I don't even care anymore."
You shove your hands into your pockets and cast a glance at your rather upset looking captor, suddenly overcome with guilt. It was your fault he didn't accomplish whatever it was he had been doing. You hit the stupid zombie goul thing with your car cause you weren't looking at the damn road. Your current situation could be a whole lot worse. What if you had hit an actual person, you'd be in prison, which you assume to be a worse alternative... maybe? At least you're not dead. The dean seemed to be pushing for that option. After being demoted and flunked like that, you definitely would have wanted to kill whoever was responsible. The least you can do is apologise.
"I'm sorry... for running over your ghoul." You hope you sound sincere. You were, but your voice often betrays you with sounds of anger or apathy. It wasn't something you could help. "And thanks, for not killing me... master."
He looks at you with sadness behind his mixed eyes and opens his mouth to speak, but is cut off by a sudden cackle behind him. A long haired girl with an eye patch throws a metallic arm around his shoulder.
"Master? Oh holy hell. Don't feed his Doctor Who fantasy. It's soooooooo nerdy!" The pirate looking girl laughs and pecks his cheek playfully. "Where have you been sexy?" She sing-songs.
He shrugs, face carefully blank. She turns a deep blue eye on you and her cerulean lips part to reveal fanged teeth.
"Hey! Who's your friend?"
She lets go of him and invades your personal space, inspecting you with a wolfish grin.
Instinctively you go stiff as she pokes and prods. On a normal day you would have started swearing up a storm, insulting her mother and cursing her for her lack of basic courtesy. But, today has been anything but normal. So you sit there and take it. Plus you can practically see her salivating.
"Vrithka... get off him."
She turns, glaring at him, and huffs.
"Who's got your pants in a wad grandma?"
He returns her glare with a stern slit of the eyes and she throws her arms in the air.
"Fiiiiiiiine! You're such a fucking killjoy." She shakes her head groaning as if in the deepest throes of boredom. "Eridan wanted me to give you these." She hands him a black folder, at least an inch thick. "He says you owe him a drink and dinner."
That gets a smirk out of him. He takes the folder and tucks it into the satchel.
"We're going thopping. Wanna come?"
She snorts and thrusts her chin up as if offended.
"I wouldn't be caught dead in a store with you losers." She turns to you smiling and winks. "You're cute. Don't let Sollux get in your pants."
He glares at her with bright blushing cheeks and she laughs triumphantly, taking her leave.
Your brain struggles with the comment. Why the ever loving fuck would you let your captor into your pants? You weren't going to sleep with the guy who just fucking kidnapped you, even if he did just save your life in some backhand confusing-as-shit manner. It was just not a thing that was going to happen... Ever.
"Thpider bitch." He mutters under his breath. "Doctor Who ith amazing and the Mathter ith the cleveretht villain ever made."
"Does she even watch the show? There's no way she could smash it if she knew jackshit about it. The writers are brilliant." You agree.
Doctor Who was one of your favorite shows. Of course you were too poor to afford any sort of tv package that had BBC, so you were at a loss as of late. But the episodes with The Master were fucking amazing. Not the best but really good. As you watch the blue girl trot away, something she said makes you think.
"Master?" Your voice starts as a whisper but rises with the realization, "As in The Master. As in you have been making me refer to you as A FUCKING DOCTOR WHO CHARACTER! OH MY FUCKING GOD! I HAVE HALF A MIND TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU! This is crazy! You are crazy! This whole goddamned place is crazy! You know what? Maybe I'm the crazy one, and if I hit myself hard enough I can knock myself out and I'll wake up in a mental hospital! And you'll be the crazy bastard across the hall who has been stealing my meds and that's why the street is fucking blue! Why the FUCK is the street blue? I can't even begin to wrap my head around this bull shit! And for future reference-"
"KARKAT!" The douchebag formerly known as master takes you by the shoulders and jolts you. "Calm the fuck down. People are thtaring."
He lets out a deep breath and pulls at your sleeve, dragging you to a bright coral bench you hadn't seen before. You sit next to him and he runs a hand through his honey hair, looking a bit unnerved.
"I'm thorry for making you call me mathter. That wath thtupid. I jutht... I wath pithed at you and in the moment it wath funny and I felt like punithing you." He shrugs. "I really am thorry. Ethpecially for manhandling you in the world of the living. I..." He loses his words and shrugs again, leaning into the arm resting on his knee.
You clench and unclench your fist as was customary for you to calm yourself down, and take a deep breath.
"I understand." Another breath. "Had our positions been reversed, I think that I would have done a little more than throw you against a car. And you probably wouldn't be sitting here talking to me... or anyone... I apologise for exploding like that. I was seeing someone for my anger issues. I'll try not to make anymore scenes... in public. I can't promise anything otherwise."
"It'th fine. I'm bipolar tho it would be hypocritical of me to call you out on that..." He pauses, shifting uncomfortably. "You uh, wanna thtart over?"
He holds his hand out to you in the most ridiculous gesture you've ever had made at you.
"Thollux Captor."
Rolling your eyes, you accept the hand and shake it.
"Karkat Vantas." You grin a little half assed. "Pleasure to meet you Sollux."
He laughs.
"I kinda doubt that but thankth for thaying tho." A slight smirk returns to his face. "Ith there anything you... want to know? Now that the mathter thlave thing ith behind uth?"
"Oh you have no idea how many questions I have for you. Let me clue you in, a grand total of five-hundred and sixty-three question as of this moment... and the number keeps growing by the minute." You lean back against the bench and cross your arms. "But, for starters... Where the hell are we?"
"Infernae." He smiles.
"That doesn't tell me jack shit." You point up at the magenta sky. "Clearly we aren't on any part of Earth that I know. So in layman's terms, tell me where you've brought me."
"You're in the underworld. Land of the dead and the home of the reapers." He places his right hand over his heart in a mockery of the United States.
You eye him suspiciously and look out at the passing crowd.
"No shit huh? So if I were to ask 'where the hell are we?' It would be apropo to say just that. We're in hell? So to speak."
"What? No!" His laugh is full hearty as he completely switches moods again, all traces of the previous despair gone. "Hell ith way different. Trutht me. Thith ith jutht a place for dead people and other things that don't belong in the world of the living. You're still on earth. It'th jutht a thub-dimenthion." He explains.
"Ok... I guess that makes sense. Wait, does that mean that you're dead?"
He raises his brows in consideration.
"Maybe inthide." He chuckles. "But no. I'm living for now." He pauses and the smile vanishes as he realizes something. The same despair crosses over his face. "I gueth I have a few more yearth of life now."
And you're confused again.
"Aaand that's a bad thing? As someone from the 'overworld' or whatever you call it, I don't quite get why living longer is bad."
"It ithn't. I'd thtay alive if I could. But to be a firtht clath necromancer, I have to become a reaper. To be a reaper I have to be dead." He shrugs.
"Ok." Life and death don't seem to mean quite the same thing, or at least have the same importance, in this place. You decide to let it go. "Well... I guess the only other question I have at the moment is what the fuck is all this magic shit? Portals and doorways and falling chairs? I don't get how that is all happening?"
He shrugs.
"I honethtly have no idea. I only deal with animating magic tho, I don't know how that thtuff workth. It jutht doeth." He looks away from you like someone called his name. "Are you thure there'th nothing elthe? Thith ith it for open book thethionth. Latht call thaloon."
"Well, since that was a completely shit answer... What is it that I have to do to be able to go back home?"
He looks back at you, having slipped into the apt, laid back cool kid demeanor again.
"You jutht have to give me a goul of equal value to the one you killed. Unleth I die firtht. The dead aren't owed debt'th they were owed in life."
You contemplate the thought of being able to somehow get a goul of your own, but you don't even know where to begin with that endeavor. It's much more likely that you would have to wait for Sollux to die or be killed. This train of thought could have gotten considerably more complex if it hadn't been for the shrill ringing now being emitted from your pocket. Pulling the device out nervously you stare at the screen in bewilderment.
"My phone works down here?"
John's number flashed on the screen and you had a full signal. What. The. Fuck.
"Anthwer it." Sollux reminds you.
You sit there for a second before pressing answer.
"Hello?"
"Karkat? Where are you? I was expecting you hours ago. I've been worried sick! Did something happen?"
You look at Sollux who is giving you an amused smirk. He is clearly not going to be of any help to you.
"My. Car. I uh... got lost and my car broke down."
"Oh my god! Do you need me to come get you? Why the hell didn't you call when it happened?"
"No. I got a ride home with a guy. I didn't have a signal."
You really don't know what to tell him about you being gone for an indefinite amount of time. Maybe you should tell him you were kidnapped. No. That would raise more questions than it would answer. Besides, once they found your car abandoned and with an old corpse there would be some sort of man hunt for you. It was inevitable. Especially knowing John. That loveable derp would tear up the earth for you.
"A guy? Just some random guy on the street? Did you go back to your place? Oh my god! Is he there? Blink twice for yes... shit, that doesn't work over the phone..."
"No. I... sorta went home with him. Back to his place."
There is a tangible pause.
"Karkat that is so fucking stupid! You don't know who the hell that guy could be! He could be a psychopath or something! Tell me where you are. I'll come get you."
Your hand makes contact with your face. Fucking stupid. How are you going to get him to stop be so concerned? It isn't like you could just say, 'Hey I'm stuck in the land of the dead until I can raise a ghoul or this guy I owe a fucking zombie thing to dies. So, you know, don't fucking worry about me. I'm sure it will only take a few years.' God fucking dammit.
"John, you're going to have to trust me on this. I am fine. I will be fine. Tell Rose that I said Hi."
"But... Karkat."
"No. Fuck, John. I'll see you later. Enjoy your shitty marathon... and don't choke on your popcorn."
You hang up the phone on a still protesting John Egbert and shove the object back into your pocket, not before putting it on silent. Almost instantly the device starts vibrating again. Clearly John wasn't going to just leave you in piece. You suppose you'll just have to ignore him. It isn't his fault he's concerned. He is only your best friend. So you had the weekend till people started looking for you. Fantastic.
"Everything okay?" Sollux raises a brow at you.
"Not exactly. That was a... a friend... from work. We had plans to watch a movie tonight, I was on my way to his house when I hit your ghoul." You pause to look around at the colorful street. "He suspects that I went home with a psychopath who's going to hold me captive. Come monday morning, he'll find out that he was right... Well, to an extent anyways."
Sollux stands up and stretches.
"I really want my thirt back. We thould go buy you clotheth before Thtiff'th cloth'th." He smirks at you with the coy look from earlier. "And my pant'th."
Standing up you itch the side of your face, perhaps in an attempt to hide the blush you could feel wanting to show. You are having none of it though. You are not going to fall for this dickbag's charm.
"Then we should get going. I would like to get into something that actually fits properly."
You stand casually next to him and shove your hands back into your pockets. Trying to make yourself look like you couldn't care less. But, you're apparently not fooling anyone because Sollux just laughs at you.
"Fuck off." You growl under your breath.
Luckily for you Sollux turns and starts walking down the cerulean road. Picking up the pace you follow him from the bench and into the swarm of people.
