John hopped skipped and jumped off the bus. A cloud of dust from the dirt parking lot rose around his feet as he hit the ground. It was strange, he thought, it almost felt like over a year since the bus had pulled in. These thoughts faded quickly however as he spotted his friend Dave across the parking lot. "Oh my god! DAVE, DAVE OVER HERE!" He yelled. By the time Dave's head turned John was already barreling towards him arms open wide. They collided and Dave fell back hitting the ground with a loud thud.

"Oh my god I can''t believe this I'm so happy to finally meet you." John said seeming almost unaware that Dave's skull was just 2 inches away from a rock that would have almost certainly cracked it on impact.

"Y-you too buddy" Dave strained. "But you're... crushing... me..."

John was at his feet in a fraction of a second. "I'm so sorry, here come on, I'm so sorry, so so sorry." He reached out an arm, which Dave took and helped himself up with.

"All good." Dave said with pain still in his voice.

"I'm assuming this is the one you were talking about." Said a troll that John hadn't previously noticed.

"Oh, uh, yeah, Karkat, this is John. John, Karkat."

"Hiya!" John reached out his hand.

Karkat shook it hesitantly. "Don't assume this means we're friends."

John giggled. "That's okay, I've already made a few not-friends." He turned and waved at the group of trolls he met on the bus. "HEY GUYS, OVER HERE."

Of them, only Vriska walked over, Tavros pretended not to hear and Eridan just eyed Vriska... from a distance... creepily. "Just so you know, coming over here and making it look like you have friends counts as that favor I owe you. Anyways, Vriska Serket, at your service, see last chapter for details."

"Dave Strider, unsure what 'last chapter' is."

"Karkat, already hating it here."

"Ooooooooh, this one is a little ray of sunshine, I like him." Vriska said ruffling Karkat's hair.

"I will rip your guts out and feed them to you." Karkat growled

Dave slapped his hand over Karkat's mouth. "Alriiight no scaring John in under a minute okay?"

Karkat rolled his eyes.

John excitedly bounced on his heels, he racked his mind over what to say, this was quite possibly his best friend in the whole world and he was meeting him in person for the first time, he was getting to actually exist in the same space as him, look him in the eye... touch... him... OH GOD HE WAS REACHING OUT TO TOUCH HIS FACE VERY VERY OBVIOUSLY TRYING TO TOUCH HIS FACE. He reeled his hand back as fast as he could. Christ almighty what the fuck was that, John? Maybe if you had noticed like five seconds sooner you could have saved it but there was literally nothing else you could possibly have been doing. Oh don't just stand there you fucking idiot say something, you can't just do that and then not say anything.

"NOT TRYING TO TOUCH YOUR FACE!" Oh for fucks sake you moron, you know it's really hard to be a third person semi-omniscient narrator when you pull this shit. Ok ok just get back into the groove get back into the groove. Deep breaths deeep breaths.

"Wow, you're a little weirdo huh?" Said Vriska. "I kinda like that. But anyway I gotta get my cabin assignment, see ya 'round dorks!" She waved as she walked away, Eridan breaking into a light jog to follow at her heels

"I'm, uh, sorry, I wasn't- I mean, I didn't want to, or wasn't trying to-" John stammered but really there was no excuse for whatever the hell he just did.

"Hey don't sweat it, Egbert. It's hard not to get a bit overwhelmed in the presence of all this." Dave raised his arms like a statue of a Greek god, a pose which he did not have the body type for, but nonetheless it broke the ice. The 2 of them giggled and Karkat did his best to hold back a smirk

"So anyway, moving past THAT, it's really good to, meet you I guess. Feels kinda weird to say that given how long we've actually known each other haha." John said.

"Yeah it's pretty wild. Rose said she should be here in like an hour or so, wanna get our cabin assignments? There'll be plenty of catching up time after that."

"Sure let's go do that!" John agreed. They both began to walk of before-

"OH NO YOU DON'T." Karkat's shrill voice rang out. "I AM NOT GOING TO BE A THIRD WHEEL IN THIS RELATIONSHIP. YOU TWO HAVE KNOWN EACH OTHER FOR A LONG TIME, COOL I GET IT, BUT LISTEN HERE 'JOHN' IF THAT EVEN IS YOUR REAL NAME"

"Why would I lie about that?"

"I AM JUST AS MUCH DAVE'S FRIEND AS YOU ARE, AND I WILL NOT BE EXCLUDED FROM THE DECISION MAKING, I DEMAND TO NOT BE LEFT BEHIND."

"Ok, what do you want to do?" Dave asked.

Karkat stood there considering for a moment. "I suppose we should probably get our cabin assignments."

The 3 shuffled over to a line where a man in his early 20s with big triangular sunglasses and spiked hair was handing people cards.

"Name?" He asked when John had gotten to the front.

"John Egbert."

"Egbert... Egbert... EGBERT! Looks like you're in cabin 13."

In no time the 3 of them were on the move again. As luck would have it they all got cabin 13. Weird huh? Convenient huh? As they reached the cabin they thought they could hear someone or something moving around inside. Slightly concerning but the cabins did house 4 people, perhaps their final roommate had made it before them and was already getting settled. Karkat just so happened to be the one to open the door, and what he saw made his face drop. "No... OH NONONONONO NO. FUCK NO. FUCK FUCKING NO." He took a few steps back so that he was behind the others.

"What happened dude?" Dave asked.

"I AM NOT GOING IN THERE I AM FUCKING NOT"

"Look, I'm sure whatever it is, it can't be that bad." Dave opened the door. Laying on the bottom bunk of the left bunk beds was a troll wearing polka dot pajama pants and a dark purple sweater with some... unidentifiable stains.

He looked up from his phone and saw Dave in the doorway and cracked a slight smile "'sup?"