Whoo! First day of work, finally KK, so lazy!
Also, some clarification from the last chapter, just based on a review or two. The whole Microsoft thing was just a joke. He has a PS3 because I don't like the Xbox, he directed that "They should stick with software" joke at Microsoft, not Sony. Anyway, who cares. Onto the next chapter, enjoy!
So, yeah. Meetings suck. If there's one thing Karkat wouldn't like to spend his morning doing is standing around in a stuffy room with a bunch of old suit-cladded douchebags talking about how they 'appreciate the choice to undertake this specific team,' and other bullshit about going over his resume again. All a bunch of ass-kissing fucktards hiding underhanded insults under those shit-eating grins of theirs. He swore one of those guys was checking him out, too. Old perverts. Disgusting.
It's was john's last meeting at Derse, and he was so happy to get it over with. His suite was clean and free of wrinkles before he walked out of that room. Now he could almost see the sweat-stains emanating from his pits as the windbag dressed from head to toe in blue cloth sat, relaxing in one of the chairs nearby, effectively wrinkling the fabric. Wouldn't have guessed he was the type to cave under stress quite like that. Maybe he needed a breath of fresh air or something.
Stretching, Karkat smoothed out his own suit and shrugged off the sense of peering eyes on him. He stuck with a very formal dark-gray modern-styled three button suit. His red tie accented the outfit just enough to not be influential. Fashion wasn't exactly his thing, he had someone else pick this stupid thing out. Honestly, he hated being prim and proper like this, the feeling of even having his undershirt tucked in just bugged the shit out of him. He made a mental note to correct this little problem later.
Although he resisted it, John made sure he looked absolutely perfect for his first meeting. Brushing his hair out very specifically, washing his face, even shaving. Karkat barely got facial hair, and yet John was ranting at him to shave this morning. What a nuisance, seriously. And now Egbert was the one who looked like an unmade bed.
"Well, what's next after this John. Going home to rinse the bodily fluids from your Damier Check wetsuit?" Yes, he was going to taunt him, he was going to enjoy it. "Seriously Egbert are you gonna fucking pass out now?" And naturally John just rolled his eyes, laughing lightly as he just shook off the insult. Why did he always fucking do that?
"No, shit Karkat, you're not stressed out or anything? Those guys were staring into your soul, like Vigo the damn Carpathian!" An eyebrow twitch. Karkat knew exactly why he mentioned that. To some it might have been taken as an intelligent reference to history. Nope. Stupid fucking Ghostbusters Two.
"John, your stupid movie references make you sound more like an idiot than you already are."
"Shut it, that movie's pure gold! Almost as much as the first one." He shrugged, moving the now messy hair out of his face. "It's almost lunch time. You wanna get something to eat before you meet the team?" He asked, checking his phone for the time like he really needed. "My girlfriend's probably on break too. She works at the zoo, can you believe it? Though she really doesn't like it." John's whole mood picked up at the mention of his little girlfriend. They must have made one hell of a couple or something.
Having to sit through lunch with the two of them being cute and sappy and shit? He really would prefer not to spend his time doing that. John didn't even ask him though, as soon as he was done catching his breath, he grabbed Karkat by his wrist and dragged him away to call a taxi. Yeah, what a friend.
John was on the phone all throughout the taxi ride, chatting it up with his little girlfriend while Karkat grumbled and dealt with it. At least John chose a nice place to eat, some seafood restaurant nearby the highly esteemed Franklin Park Zoo. It was a nice location actually, Karkat still didn't take the time to go sightseeing, as much as John kept suggesting to him.
Vriska was waiting at the entrance to the little restaurant. She was fairly tall and had way too long blonde hair. Peering at them through a single blue eye (her right eye was covered by an eyepatch. She lost it in an accident according to John.) "Hi Vriska! We're here!" John called, running over to her happily. Karkat followed after, not exactly wanting to be there anymore. She looked like a huge bitch, with her dark-green jacket and oh-so-revealing black tank top. She wore black booty-shorts, as if her thighs and long legs really needed to be shown off, just as much as her huge chest. (Karkat really didn't give a fuck about that.) Just to completely the look, she wore bright-red high-tops that looked a little more like rocket shoes with the weird padding shit on them. Weird.
"Yeah, well you're late." She called, her snarky voice pulled through unenthusiastically. With as much venom showing through her tone, she forgave him pretty easily. Instead she stared down Karkat, only to have bright red eyes staring her down equally. "And this shorty is…" Shorty? Seriously?
"This is Karkat! He's the one taking over for me at Derse. Remember, I told you about him when we visited Rose!" He held her hand, sweetly and the highly-esteemed 'shorty' growled up at them. Okay, they were kind of a cute couple. "Hey Karkat, this is my girlfriend, Vriska Serket." She shrugged in response, as Karkat just rolled his eyes. Lovely conversation so far. "Hungry Vris?"
"Yeah. I have to leave early though. Mom called again. She just hates when I ignoooooooore her in the morning." The way she drew out that hate was oh-so-intentional. Kind of annoying.
"Oh, well lets hurry up then. C'mon Karkat!" He hyperly grabbed his friend's sleeve, pulling him and Vriska into the restaurant without a care in the world. This was going to be awkward, as Karkat soon realized. The little restaurant was set up more like a fast-food place, with all of the servers behind a counter and tables set out and barely managed. Even so the lighting and darker color scheme distinguished it to be a little more professional. John and Karkat were still overdressed for the place though, enough to be widely noticeable. Great.
John pulled them over to a table near the back, taking off his suit blazer before pulling out a chair for Vriska, who oh-so-casually sat down like she already owned the place. Karkat rolled his eyes in response and took his own seat across from her. "So the food good here?" he asked, slouching into the chair.
"Oh yeah, trust me. What do you two want? I'll go place the order!"
"I don't care." They both answered, at nearly the same time. Vriska shot him an annoyed glance while John stared at them confusedly. John just chuckled and walked off though, muttering something under his breath. The crabby Cancer rolled his eyes and stared down his girlfriend, who in turn was doing the exact same thing. It was fucking weird. "What?"
"I could ask you the same thing, Vantas. Just how do you know John aside from work?" She asked, leaning back confidently in her chair. He shrugged it off though.
"Old friend." There was something snarky about her that Karkat just didn't like already. Not wanting to make trouble for John though, Karkat just dealt with it and was fairly stable throughout the little lunch date. From what John said (and he said a LOT) Vriska had a pretty tough life so far, so he's been helping her as much as he could. Honestly she seemed like the type to just be there to mooch off of him and his high-paying career, but… Well they could plainly love each other, even Karkat could see it.
It sucked, a certain buzzing ran through his head just watching them chat, holding hands and feeding each other like the cute couple they were. Why…
Their lunch lasted for good hour or so, only cut short by Vriska having to leave to go back to work. John, of course, had been talking everyone's ears off the entire time, little things about their relationship, and dates they've been on, and some things work-related, too. John spilled sauce on his suit jacket halfway through the meal, so one part of his three-piece suit was completely filthy. Karkat took up quite a large chunk of their time afterwards rambling about how he should be careful about that shit.
By the time They made it to the taxi John was exhausted, while Karkat had to go back and introduce himself to his team. He'd have to see Sollux again. Going to drop the Cancer back off at HQ, He mentioned that little issue to Egbert very briefly. About how there was some weird tension between the two of them. John isn't one to ask for romantic advice, but honestly Karkat wasn't asking. Why would he, an expert at human romantic relations, ask Lord Asshole for advice? He didn't even want that kind of advice!
"Well, when I told him about your transfer, he got really antsy all of a sudden, insisted that he be the one to help your move as soon as he heard that you were transferring here. I dunno about romantic stuff, but I can tell that he wanted to see you again."
Why did that, out of all of the pointless babble John spouted today, get through to him the most. Sollux was so excited to see him again after college, and he'd been ignoring him all week. Fuck, what an asshole he was being. Not even the obvious sexual tension should really be getting in the way of that, he was his best friend after all. Shit.
Giving out a sigh, he rolled his eyes as John gave him one of those infamous flying hugs and jumped back in the taxi to go back home. Karkat shook his head as he checked his phone for a few notes, listing his team's block. Third floor, second major computer hall as they called it. Just basically a wide section of the building filled with cubicles to fit the twenty or so workers under him, his office, and a single meeting room. Karkat had his own office in this case, but according to the photos that were sent to him earlier in the week, his office was tiny with a large window and computer monitors that showed all of the working computers in tiny cells, to manage their work time and still have some privacy to work on the big picture.
Karkat would lead his team, give advice whenever needed, and organize with the testing division in another sector of the company. All the while he was supposed to make sure everyone stayed on task, and healthy as they worked. It wasn't too difficult of a job if the right person was hired. Luckily, Karkat was that right person.
Stepping into the Computer hall, he wasn't exactly expecting this… Loud as FUCK music playing, from somewhere nearby, messy cubicle from what he could see, and some douchebag in his office, sitting in HIS chair, with his dirty shoes put up on his new desk! What the fuck. Seriously. What. The. Fuck? He knew where to start first. Approaching his new office, Karkat glared down at the douchebag in his chair as seemed to enjoy his fucking time, air drumming along to the music playing, only noticing Karkat after the song ended. Yeah, this guy better be a good programmer or he was so fired.
As far as he could recognize from his shirt-bound name tag, he was in the presence of Amarant Goldbawnt. (the Great, as some sticker on the tag specified.) Amarant was fucking tall, a common thing Karkat was noticing, and his work attire was horrendous. A shaggy sweatshirt underneath a dirty t-shit with the word Shit spelled out in bright blue. Shit, indeed, Amarant Goldbawnt the Great.
"Hey kid, something you lookin' fer? Intern or something?" He called finally. He must have spot the unbridled rage behind Karkat's eyes, he instantly sat up in the chair, gazing up at him. Intern. Intern. HA!
"Funny. Why don't you do me a little favor, and sort your shit out, Mr. Goldbawnt the Great." He smirked at that one, what a cocky bastard.
"Hey, don' mind me kid, th'new boss isn't expected until later." He said chuckling. "Though, might wanna watch that tongue'a'yer's. Who knows, this guy might be some tight-lipped guy, y'know?" He shrugged, "So, y'know my name already. What's yer's? Y'don't even have you stupid name tag thing on?" He reached an arm out, to be friendly for at least that moment.
"Karkat Vantas."
There's a very distinct and elusive moment that can only be described as an 'Oh fuck' moment. Subjects of 'oh fuck' moments seem very calm at first to said stimulus. Amarant in this case had no such tact, but the first reactions were always steady to appear. John had already told them the name of their new boss, but by Karkat's command was restricted from telling people about him, about what he looked like, acted like, pretty much anything aside from his name.
Some of the guys were smart enough to look up the name since it was told, told to them yesterday in fact, while some others, like this one apparently, either forgot to or didn't really care. But once Karkat spoke his name, he slipped into a minute 'oh crap' stage, widened eyes, realization running through his unshaved mug, and a brief flash of panic. Knowing what he's done already, he stumbled into an 'oh shit stage,' instantly getting his dirty shoes off the desk, sitting straight up, and the intended lip bite. Now it was finally time for him to slip into the obligatory 'oh fuck' stage, the final stage before the relapse and overstressed calming period. AKA the 'oh fuck, oh fuck, oh shit, oh damn, oh damn, FUCK!' period.
Maybe he should have been a stress counselor instead of a lead programmer. Actually, fuck that.
"I, uh, Mr. Vantas, sir, uh!" Ah, the stuttering, a byproduct of the transition between the 'oh shit' and 'oh fuck,' moments. As much as his reaction entertained him, Karkat needed to get ready for his first meeting with the team.
"Get the fuck out of my chair. Meeting in ten minutes." He stood up, nodding and trying to smooth out some un-seen wrinkles on the seat. "Go." He ordered, with the snap of his fingers. Amarant dashed out of the room after that, allowing Karkat to watch him scurry out of the block to the bathrooms, running kind of in a goofy way. He was entertaining at least. Maybe Karkat should keep him around.
Pulling out his iPhone, Karkat sent a quick text to Sollux. 'SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF GOLDBAWNT THE GREAT. IT WAS FUCKING BRILLIANT, YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT.' He waited only a few moments before he heard a familiar snicker he really hated, louder than before and almost buzzing in his ears. Giving a satisfied smirk, Karkat closed and locked his office door, pulled the blinds down, and sat down at his chair, still warm from Amarant's use.
Well, today was going better already.
I had way too much fun writing the psychology of the 'oh fuck.' Moment. Ehehe!
DawnAtSky