Relearning to Breath chapter 9
Ladies and gentletrolls it's a record! Nine chaps and another disclaimer!
You spin me right round baby…
000
Karkat gulped finding himself staring at the other trolls in the room. He could care less about the mixed looks from the humans. Well there was a small group to one side that confused him. They had party hats and big smiles. Hell, at least one troll from the day group joined them, well Kanaya was not wearing a party hat, but she was standing by them.
That, was actually hopeful. He knew the rainbow drinker had a lot of respect among the trolls. Mainly because few wanted to tick off a troll 'vampire' without a good portion of backup behind them. It was one of the few accepted mutations among the trolls. One was born now and then, who was pale compared to their blood and when they grew older began to drink the blood of other trolls. Oh, seldom detrimentally. Rainbow drinkers were not the 'vampire' stories he'd come a crossed of human beliefs. They had the ability to stand the sun of their world. Oh, still not a good idea to go standing about staring up at it.
Being able to move about during the daylight gave them an advantage. So they where a mutation that was tolerated.
He was surprised to see as well near, though not part of the group, a copper blooded. A good portion of the lower blooded population were killed on the ships when resources became low and quarters were too tight. So very few of them made it at all. This fellow with his large horns and very bronze skin (still touches of grey about the edges of his features) stood with his arms crossed and didn't seem to care for being here. Since Karkat didn't recognize the troll he was either new, or one of the late night shifts who left in the morning well before Karkat started his shifts. Seeing the copper made him miss old friends. This fellow's hair was dyed with red streaks. And he wore a long loose duster.
Karkat cleared his throat and before he glanced away from the stupid party hat people he caught that ass John giving him a thumb up.
Which… PISSED HIM THE HELL OFF!
"ALRIGHT FUCKASSES!" he shouted fists balled and standing the best he could to at least appear taller, even as he was pretty much the shortest guy in the office. Oh, there was a couple of the human females shorter than him, but everyone else was of a height or taller than him.
Loads of blinks and the dumbass he was replacing looked utterly shocked by Karkat's language.
The troll grinned toothily, let him. He was cut from a very different cloth than that ridiculous looser. "I'm Karkat Vantas. They aint' giving me shit choice on this promotion so you are all stuck with me. I don't tolerate stupidity. So if any of you moronic imbeciles expect to bring me all your problems and for me to be 'understanding', forget it! If it isn't in the fucking contract you signed to get this piss ass job or is not somehow connected to work in this company then I don't give a swollen bulge about it! Now, we got another week to deal with this asshat" he indicated the former Lead tech who was looking positively red, his eyes bulging from his face. Which was more than a little funny, he allowed the titter from his 'audience' before he continued "before you are stuck with me on a semi permanent basis until powers that be decides I ain't worth their effort to keep happy." Hell, if they didn't fire him over this speech he would be surprised! "Till then, I want things to stay fucking smooth and ran tight." And he flashed a smile at the group; this was not a nice smile. If anything, he had to thank Gamzee for the lessons. This smile made even the trolls who didn't like him take a step back and wonder just what they were dealing with. Good, maybe he could keep his blood a secret a bit longer.
He was so tempted to quit, but in the end decided he either get himself fired first. Well he'd quit if that was how he could stay alive anyway.
There was a pause of silence then it started with Kanaya who began a calm clapping, then the copper blood near her joined in, followed by the idiots in the hats from his section giving a cheer.
He blinked when he realized the whole office was clapping, smacking backs in comrade and he blinked stunned as John came up beside him and gave him a back pounding too "What the fuck is wrong with you people?"
John laughed "What? Can't believe you are actually popular in the office?" his smile was wide and infectious.
"EH? ARE YOU ALL OUT OF YOUR EVER PITYING MINDS?"
000
Hope was currently standing in front of a mirror Gamzee was holding up and trying to keep the bottoms of the tights from crawling up her ass. Which was too amusing to Gamzee who's long arms where folded over the top of the mirror while he watched.
"Will you stop that!" she snapped at him and he just laughed at her. So she glared back. She was wearing the outfit. "it's not even Halloween night!" she said.
"What? The party is a couple weeks early so what?" he commented. He was already dressed as well. Head to toe purple with his hair surprisingly combed and slicked back with green colored goop to keep it chunked into a dreadlocked style. "You said you didn't want to motherfucking trick or treat anyway."
She pulled on the hood and tucked her hair in under the ridiculous hat. Red and black, Harley Quin stared back. Only her eyes where silver and she didn't have the makeup on yet.
But then, the Joker with the mirror was waiting for her to finish dressing to fix that problem for her. She could see the little pile of cosmetics. Whites, greys, and a couple new colors, the tubes still not opened yet.
Hat on and that part looking at least to Gamzee's tastes she sat down as Gamzee set the mirror Hope had gotten aside and sat down before her. He picked up the cosmetics and began lining up the ones he was going to use for her face. Taking a small facial sponge in hand he set to work.
There was more to it than Hope would have done. She barely wore cosmetics of any sort. A little eye liner, maybe a bit of lipstick or gloss and she was done. And from the pictures she'd seen, she would have just painted her face white and added some black lipstick. Gamzee was far more thorough. He started with a powder that he made sure her skin was coated with. Then began adding the white paste over that. Once he was satisfied that he had her face was completely covered he started with her eyes. Adding dark eye pen until she felt she must resemble a raccoon. He did something with a blue pen as well and while she was confused he rumbled at her every time she so much as attempted to sneeze. So she kept her face as perfectly still as she could manage. A touch of mascara to her lashes and there was a bit more use of white, to fill in a few corners, and he moved onto the lipstick. Outlining her lips with a liner before he filled in with the black.
He added a little mark to her cheek and pronounced her done. She turned to blink at the mirror.
Blue eyed Harley Quin stared back.
"….WTF!"
He chuckled before his face went still and he began working once more on his own look, completing his Joker appearance. Well, Joker if he had huge goat horns on the top of his head. But the golden gaze seemed fitting for the clown prince of crime.
She leaned past Gamzee and stared close into the mirror. No, her eyes were still grey; it had to be that blue pen he used! The color was a thin line closest to her eyes, and thus the grey color was picking up the blue. Like water reflecting the sky. That was... Brilliant.
Even if the makeup was thick, and kind of itchy.
Bare toes wriggling he put the final touches on his own face far faster than her's, but then he was use to painting his own face. This wasn't the 'classic' joker that he was using, but one from an alternate show that aired. One of the various animations he found in her collection, though this one he pretty much stole from her. The Batman. One of the many reboots of the series that happened between the 90's and early 2000s.
As he finished there was a knock on the door and Hope got up to answer. Karkat was standing there and blinked at her multiple times. "What the fuck?" he said. Karkat had come to Gamzee's, found him not home so figured he had to be next door at Hope's watching movies. He did not expect to have Hope answer the door looking like some sort of phsyco clown in an outfit that hugged her form a little too well and her eyes surrounded by a painted on mask.
Hope nabbed his arm and pulled him in before he could decide to run. If she was putting up with the torture of the night, so was he damn it!
"What the-?" and he stopped and found himself faced with a whole lot of black latex.
"No.. NO FUCKING NO!" he shouted.
Gamzee rose from his cross-legged seat and dressed in blue pants with a weird purple swirled painted jacket , with buckles and sleeves falling nearly down to the floor and gave Karkat a wide sharp red lined smile.
The little troll had not felt suddenly so terrified since the ship…
000
Batman AKA Karkat got out of his car and stood there glaring and hating the world. The club was looking to be a full house.
Oh god, he could see the Geek Squad ahead led by John. Great.
Just, fucking, great.
Hope had to crawl out over Gamzee who was getting a little too into character. It was not Gamzee Makara tonight, nope. It was Joker. She had to admit the incarnation of the Crown Clown from The Batman series really suited the troll, she'd seen firsthand how he moved. Sometimes a little closer than she wanted to. The style suited the character.
She still couldn't believe though he wanted to bring REAL razor sharp playing cards to this thing too. That took a lot of convincing on both Hope's and Karkat's part. Which included death threats and not going at all.
So once they reached the door they got in. Hope wanted a drink. Karkat was already on his way there and if he wasn't smashed before the end of the night he wasn't trying hard enough. But before she could take more than a couple steps she found Gamzee's hand on her wrist "Common Harley! Let's dance!" he drug her out instead to the dance floor. She sighed. But at least she was able to look about the club and the other inmates.
There were more humans here tonight than normal. Although a lot of trolls were getting into the idea of costumes and shenanigans. There was a good size gaggle of trolls who seemed to take to the idea of doing costumes that seemed to be original; Hope figured they must be dressed as figures from their own culture.
The Dj was the decent one from her first night to this club (although she had come several times since, usually with Gamzee. Mostly when he decided to put in an appearance to 'look sane' for the Grand Highblood) he was looking like a cool kid version of the wolfman. The troll at the bar was dressed in an interesting outfit of black and yellow. Bicolored shades on his eyes.
Before they reached the floor Gamzee came to a stop and Hope ran into his back before she could stop herself. "What is it?" she asked.
Gamzee was looking towards the balcony "Well, that explains a few things" he said and her gaze followed. She recognized the horns of the Grand Highblood, but he was dressed in a hooded cloak and rather simple clothing leaning against the rail. She spotted the bartender/bouncer lady who wore an old 70's catsuit and was actually rocking the look with her incredibly built figure. The two of them where laughing over something as she was serving a few drinks to the 'specials' in the VIP.
"Why? What he dressed as?"
"The Sufferer."
Her eyes bugged "Seriously?" her face broke into a smile "Damn, that's kinda sweet."
Gamzee paused and then grinned at Hope and with a tug and a backwards hop he got her onto the dance floor.
000
John parted with most his group. Getting himself a dink at the bar. Suddenly a plastic sword was held to his throat, and for something fake it... kinda had an edge on it. He paused blinking a few times and followed the blade up to the arm holding it, then to the face.
Vriska gave him a wide toothy grin. Dressed like a pirate. She considered using her ancestor, but the human pirates where so much more fun and sexy. Which seemed to suit the night. John had to admit, the troll looked good with her tight pants, the top that was well... barely... laced to hold in her assets and the large coat that was cinched at the waist with a wide belt that was laced in black.
"Looks like I might have myself a captive for the night!" her grin was positively viscous "Should I make you walk the plank or take you to quarters?" she asked him.
John laughed "Good one Vriska, but you forgot to say 'arr'"
She pouted "Aw! And here I thought I had the threatening pirate thing down pat!" she dropped an eye patch over her multifaceted eye grinning widely at John. She tucked her sword in her sash and rested her hands on her hips.
He snickered "Oh, you got threatening alright" he said and then pointed to the bar "Look, I'm getting a drink. Like one?"
"You -buying me- a drink?" she said with amusement and flipped her hair out "I don't think so. I'll buy" and she drug John to the bar behind her.
"er.. ok?"
000
It was a couple dances when Hope had to bow out, the costume was hot and the makeup wasn't helping matters either. If she wanted to last at all she needed to pull out of the crush before she melted. Gamzee was having a ball. Pulling all sorts of gravity defying moves that was getting him quite a crowd, and for the moment it seemed safe enough so she managed to escape and found Batman, who was currently stuck with a couple more batmen of different types all comparing how well they did.
She snickered, Karkat looked miserable. He got stuck with a group of nerds on a series he knew next to nothing about. Karkat wasn't much for action films. He preferred romances. Which had to be the weirdest thing she'd ever seen. Gamzee would fall to sleep with his head back and drooling while she and Karkat would be wearing identical tearful expressions over what was essentially a chickflick.
Hope was either way on romantic anything. She wasn't one to go watching by herself, but with someone else it could be fun. Susan had hated the romantic films with a small passion of a burning sun or two. So while she was with Susan she didn't watch many of those sorts of chick flicks. And suddenly now she had someone to watch it with and it was rather fun again.
But then, getting Karkat to watch the action films usually involved duct tape so she could actually hear the soundtrack over his mouth. Gamzee loved them, but then she had to be careful because if it got too intense, he tended to follow suit, which usually ended with them having to stop the film and calm him down. She still had a few movies she never got to finish because she ended up just taking them down to the local pawnshop to get rid of rather than keeping them in the house were Gamzee might get his hands on them. Although she still had a couple old Pixar and Disney films she just hid under the mattress rather than get rid of.
Really was weird what could set him off some days.
But for the moment Hope closed in on Karkat/Batman and stole his drink. Tipping it back she could see the other batmen watching her with wide eyes. "Hey there sugar!" she did her best Harley impersonation which got the group grinning at her as she grabbed Karkat and twisted to wrap one of his arms around her "Bat looks good on me." She said "Let's Dance!" and she drug him off to the other side of the room skipping along. Once she got into character it was actually pretty fun!
Karkat was blushing like mad, but he was grateful for the rescue. He grumped and thought he could find a spot to play wallflower until he realized she was dragging him out to the dance floor.
"HEY! I don't fucking dance!"
"Well how long will you avoid the other batmen if you don't at least take one dance with me?" she asked him.
He raised a finger like he was going to contest that and since he couldn't immediately think of something she gave him a push onto the floor.
"Hey it's my best motherfucker." He was caught in a strong set of arms and blinked up at Gamzee in his ridiculous outfit. His makeup melting from all the activity and heat on the dance floor, which only served to make him actually kind of scarier.
But at the same time, he recognized the look of challenge there. His eyes narrowed. He got to his own feet and took a pose that was familiar to the other, who suddenly broke into a huge ridiculous smile and laughed, taking a counter pose.
They waited a few beats and then broke into movement. Hope ended up backing up and backing other people up with her. At the moment Joker and Batman had the floor. Seeing the almost mock battle of the dance the two preformed going on the DJ switched tracks and a tune almost reminiscent of the old video game series Mortal Combat started up and the increasing speed suited the steps.
"Damn! Go!" hands started to clap in time, and then a couple more trolls suddenly jumped into the fray. Hope blinked; it really did almost look like a real fight out there. Other than there was no blood and everyone seemed to know where the other was going to be at any time so the moves that could have been deadly instead was just graceful.
By the end of the dance there were at least a dozen trolls dancing and the humans were watching with the rest in amazement. Hope started to take note of the colors. It really was unconscious, everyone tended to incorporate their color into their wear. With the exception of Karkat who did his best to hide his color.
Most of the ones on the floor were all higher colors. Another indigo like Gamzee, a couple different blues and even a purple fellow dressed like a British spy spoof Austin Powers. Though one green was out there, dressed like a pirate. Glancing around Hope noticed this dance definitely got attention. The trolls where excited and the humans fascinated. She was going to have to ask what dance this was later.
The dance came to an end, the participants breathing hard but smiling huge. Gamzee and Karkat fist bumped and the others were taking bows about the room to the cheers. Then the music went to a new track and everyone either moved off the floor, or back onto it. That dance seemed to have brought out a bit of a competitive edge and people where showing off moves not normally brought out in a place like this. Hope had to grin when she saw a couple humans showing a few trolls a line dance. They somehow made the country dance fit to the hip hop beats playing.
Gamzee and Karkat were laughing as they came to the side Hope was and she led the pair to the bar for a deserved drink. Bumping glasses with them in happy cheers, even Karkat was still smiling big as he tipped his glass back. Soon the little grouping was swarmed by those either impressed by the performance or by the costumes.
And leaned against the bar talking with the bartender while Gamzee launched into the tale of his trail to get his and his friend's outfits, which he managed to make sound more impressive despite just going onto eBay and buying them, she had to smile and think.
Ok, tonight wasn't so bad after all. This Halloween, was actually pretty cool.
000
The three managed to get home, and not pulled over, at the end of the night. Karkat waved about the bag full of their loot from the costume contest (A very drunk Hope managed to get 'sexiest girl of the evening' prize with her rendition of a Harley routine on the balcony, and they had a 'best group' for the three of them. As well as Karkat and Gamzee got a 'most popular' prize. Very few people went home without at least something from the night.) and he and Gamzee were singing a song that Hope was fairly certain had to be in their native tongue, either that or they were so drunk off their asses that they had no clue what they were saying at all.
She was still leaning towards troll. Hope on the other hand was just trailing along her arms swinging and enjoying the utter high she was on. Oh come morning when she recalled details like using the Grand Highblood as a prop for her impromptu pole dance (he did not seem to mind one lick) Or the fact she kissed both Gamzee and Karkat and introduced them as her 'bitches' to a group of guys dressed as the Geek Squad, all that among a bunch of other details, yeah come morning she very likely would not want to show her face to the world ever again.
But for now, she was just high on life and dancing goofy little steps around cracks in the sidewalk to her front door. Gamzee laughed at her and patted her on the head while Karkat was cussing out his keys trying to open Gamzee's door.
Hope reached to put her key in the door and paused as the door swung open on its own.
"I.. thought I locked up…" she muttered poking in her head and reaching for the light.
Wincing under the glare of the bulb in her living room she starting to feel unwelcomingly sober. The bottom dropped from her stomach and she could only stand there her bottom lip starting to tremble.
Gamzee blinked "-the fuck?" he started and then leaned over her shoulder to see what had his best little sister in such a state.
Karkat stopped messing with the keys when he suddenly heard a thunderous rumble next to him. Turning he saw Hope slowly sink to her knees and Gamzee had gripped her doorway and was well, snarling.
"What?" Karkat looked under Gamzee's arm and paused.
Her place was utterly trashed. He could see her computer and electronics, they were not missing, just broken into a million pieces. Words were scratched into her wall and spray painted, the back sliding door had been broken and likely was point of entry.
Karkat wasn't feeling so drunk anymore either. Gamzee continued to growl and grabed her door pulling it closed with a loud slam that likely woke up neighbors.
But as Karkat had his phone to his ear and dialed the police he felt his mouth gone dry. Her door had horrible things painted on it. Words even he didn't use. Insults of her sexual orientation, calling her after body parts in crude human fashion and over it all had painted 'Troll Slut'.
But it was in troll blood.
"911 what's the nature of your emergency?"
000
Notes: I'm evil. ^^
I started this chapter a bit on the late side today and it's 1 am now that I'm loading it.. heh.. Blame it on Sunday.
Anyway, yes, did add a song to the playlist, but now I can't remember since I don't have my list playing while I'm editing at the moment (don't want to wake anyone up).
OK thanks a mega ton to my reviewers, and stalkers! You guys really keep me motivated.
Oh and I've decided after watching a 'mean boyfriend' song turned into an awesome ship song.. This is the BEST fanbase I've ever decided to jump into.
You guys just utterly rock.
*to take favorite quote of the day*
'Welcome to Homestuck, were the fans are raping every meme out there.'
