Your name is Karkat Vantas and you have a sneaking suspicion that you're being haunted by something. Whatever it is seems to have an attitude, and loves to move shit on you to random places. Fuck your life.
Karkat Vantas was a normal human, but he'd noticed the past several years that something odd had been going on with him. Whenever he'd find himself in a compromising situation where he'd possibly wind up with serious injuries, or even hurt, he'd somehow get out of it alive, with a few bruises or nothing at all. This of course stopped for a good year or two, and he wound up injured worse than ever before, but sure enough, the past year he'd found out that it was happening again. Only this time, it was different. He'd still get injured, but in minor situations, say something was about to fall and possibly cut him, it'd magically miss, or if he was about to fall out of his chair, he'd feel a slight pressure on his back and wind up as if he hadn't even tipped back at all.
Now he wasn't one to believe in superstitions, or even care about things such as ghosts, or bad luck. Heck he'd walk under a ladder, or open an umbrella indoors, even broke a mirror once. (By mistake! He threw it across the room... Okay not so much a mistake, but he was angry, okay?) Not to mention over the last year or so, his things would start to randomly go missing, a book misplaced, his laptop moved across the room, a table off-centered, his mouse randomly on top of the fridge once. It was so fucked up, and it always pissed him off. He was tidy, never misplaced anything, (except maybe a paper or two, but those were usually somewhere in his folder.) or put it somewhere such as on top of a fridge. Who the fuck put a computer mouse on the refrigerator? At first he thought it was his parents, but didn't dare question them, especially since it happened when they weren't even home.
He had told his friend Gamzee about this, and of course that was a huge fucking mistake on his part, because then he had to listen about all this mumbo jumbo about how he had a little wicked ghost friend all up and spying on him, protecting his wicked ass. Yay, now his friend was about as annoying as this 'ghost.' Since the first day he told him about the odd happenings, he actually started to call whatever, or whoever was doing this, his little ghost friend. Of course he said it in spite of Gamzee, a little jab because of how ridiculous it seemed.
That is, it seemed ridiculous until one point when he was walking along the edge of a bridge, watching the waves crash below him. He often thought about jumping off this particular spot, ending his miserable excuse for a life, but the second his foot slipped, he had regretted the thought instantly and closed his eyes in sheer horror. He didn't want to die, even if he wished to end his life a few seconds before the incident, he soon realized how stupid that was. Then a warm sensation pushing against his side, and he had found himself sitting down on the edge of the concrete bridge, when he should have been plummeting face first into the water, drowning or possibly dead on impact.
This was when he first noticed the red and blue shimmer, almost like dust or snow... It was so strange, and he had reached out to touch them, only to have it disappear the moment his fingertips would reach them. This was what tipped him off the most, and he soon found himself doing dangerous stunts, ones that wouldn't kill him, but enough that he'd get injured. Each time he was saved, he'd see the same fluorescent blue and red sparks. Every time he'd try to touch them, and they'd always vanish. Eventually he realized how stupid he was, chasing after an invisible force that may have just been his imagination, and getting into possible life or death situations over it? He was smarter than that, and after a few weeks of trying to expose the possible ectoplasmic being, he stopped. It wasn't worth his life, and he'd go about it normally, trying to find the trails of red and blue whenever he could.
That's when he started to notice on occasion when he'd leave his room, there would be an odd aura around his computer. He assumed it was an aura, and it only ever showed when his laptop was on, generally around the keys... This had only happened a few times though, and once he even found an odd code he'd never done before. Sure he always tried to code, but he failed each time and eventually gave up doing it.
That is to say he'd still dabble, but he'd never try them out, it was too frustrating and last time he practically blew up his computer... Oops! But hey, that was because the codes never cooperated with him, not that he sucked. Or so he'd always tell himself.
Tonight was no different, not long after almost tipping over in his chair (somehow not even falling.) he noticed the strange sparks, and just shrugged it off. If it was there, he didn't want to arouse any suspicion that he knew of it. So he decided to get a sandwich, finding himself hungry after hours of homework, and meaningless surfing of the net. When he came back, he had a turkey and lettuce sandwich, then went to his computer once more. This time he could see the slight form of an outline, all of which was the same red and blue... Though it looked more solid, less like something evaporating, and more like lines of what was once there. This peaked his interest, and he of course resumed what he was once doing.
Well he made it seem like he was, since he actually went through all of his files and found a new (supposedly old) code that was started. He knew it wasn't one he made, he never could accomplish something this good... He wound up spending hours trying to figure it out, and eventually got tired. There was no way he could trace it, since it was made on his computer. No one in his house could code, and none he knew that quick.
So with a groan of frustration, he put his laptop on hibernate, and crawled into bed. If anything, he needed sleep, and soon found himself passed out within seconds. He was the type to often stay up late, and wake up early. Not because he wanted to, but because he had no choice. More often than not, he suffered from insomnia, and sometimes night terrors. Both had reduced the over the years, and he was thankful for this, especially since being seventeen and having insomnia was all but a pleasant thing to have.
The next day was like any other, and he found himself waking up to his alarm, and a none too happy fist slamming against the off button. It was a wonder it still worked at all since this was how he always shut it off. Let's just say he wasn't a morning person. Not one bit.
But with that accomplished, he dragged his tired body out of bed, and went to his bathroom to shower. Going through the usual cycle, he stripped down and washed his body with the wash he had, then worked on his hair, and got out to get dressed for school. Of course he dried himself off with a towel, working on his hair first, then body before wrapping it around his naked frame, and heading into the bedroom. There was no need for it really, but he still couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, and if this thing was watching him shower or undress, then fuck no he wasn't going to go into his room butt-naked for it to see. That'd just be weird.
Eventually he picked out a pair of clothes, a red T-shirt, dark gray hoodie, and a pair of gray jeans to wear, with boxers of course. Once this was done, he scurried off to the bathroom once more to change. It seemed stupid, but he always felt like that was his one safe room, as if the ghost haunted only his bedroom, and kitchen... that and everywhere else. He'd yet to see any sparkles in this room though, so it was deemed the safe room.
When he finished changing, he had eaten breakfast, gotten his bag, and put his contacts in, then soon found himself catching the bus to school. Of course the only person to sit next to on it, happened to be Terezi Pyrope. Just his luck, the one person he had a ridiculous crush on, and hated at the same time was always the one person who saved a spot for his sorry ass on the bus. They had a history together, on and off dating... Or that's what she called it, he always assumed they were together, and still sort of did? They never broke up... and he never questioned it.
"Hehehe, good morning Karkat! You look as pleasant as always this morning, try brushing your hair sometime, might help distract from that grumpy mug of yours!" She of course was joking, but Karkat simply scowled and sat down next to her, bag on his lap.
"And you're as happy as ever. It's like a fucking rainbow was shoved down your throat, and manifested into some sort of ulcer in the bits of that disease infected organ you call a stomach. It's probably morphed into a tumor actually, that excretes some sort of endorphin into your bloodstream making every living second of your life bright as the fucking sun in the middle of summer. Jesus fucking Christ just shove a knife into my brain so I don't have to deal with your bullshittery of words."
This caused her to frown a bit, but was soon replaced by a grin, even if for her it was almost forced, Karkat would never know. "Lovely aren't you? So graphic in the things you say and do, maybe I should go get a boat ride on the S.S. Karkat, where every day is full of gloom and doom, plus a few rays of sunshine whenever you deem it a decent day... Oh wait, that's never! Oooh, this ship is destined to crash and drown. Damn, and here I liked boat rides." Terezi gave a bit of a frown, her eyes cast off to the side, looking out the window behind her red shades.
"Fuck off why don't you? This ship has been sinking for awhile now, and it will go down in flames. It will look awesome, and no one will doubt that it was a fucking glorious death to it's otherwise shabby life. Speaking of shabby lives, or whatever, are you doing anything later?" Time for him to actually ask her out. Kind of, his sense of asking someone out was more like and outing, than a date. He never knew it came off that way, and was probably why whenever he did ask someone out, it always wound up as them hanging out.
"I'm busy, Dave invited me over to his place to help him out with his comic. It's going to be so kickass, you don't even know! Like a cherry on top of a sundae, all red and delicious."
"Ugh, why the fuck do you even hang out with that asshole anyway? I swear he's probably the worst excuse for a human being on this miserable planet. He's like the core of the world to you, which by the way is infested with hot lava, meaning he is not cool, he's probably the dorkiest, fucked up kid I know."
"That's a surprise considering you're the most hot-headed person I know, you should be the molten core to the earth... Oh wait, it'd blow up if that were to ever happen!" She grinned again, then the bus creaked to a stop. For this he was grateful, and he stood up with a scowl on his face as he left without a word. He wasn't so much mad right now as he was annoyed. It's just like her to deny him for someone else, even if it was Dave Strider... Which actually made him angrier, what was so great about him? He hid his eyes behind shades, hung out with a dorky kid named John Egbert, and drew a webcomic that was a piece of shit, and not even funny. If anything John was cooler than this idiot.
Okay he was one to talk since he hid his own eye color, but with good reason! Bright red eyes weren't exactly the normal thing to see around. Which was why he wore brown contacts, (Thanks to his mother who actually bought him things.) that and he actually needed them to see anything. Often he'd wear glasses around the house, as long as he was alone or just his mother was there... His dad didn't particularly like his eye color, and sure he had albinism, his hair wasn't affected. The thing most didn't know was that eyes could be the only thing affected, actually anyone with blue, purple, or red eyes could have albinism. It all dealt with the pigment, and the retina, poor eyesight was part of the disease. Actually the only way for someone to know they had it was to get their eyes checked, otherwise people would go around and think they just had poor eyesight.
But now was not the time to think of that, now was the time to think of Dave and how he was most likely stealing Terezi from you, the asshat needed to learn his place. Stealing other people's girlfriends is not something someone should be doing, and it was as far from cool as cool could get. Then again, that was Dave, an uncool asshole who Karkat just wanted to strangle most of the time... Plus as if it wasn't bad enough, moments before entering the school rain clouds started to come about, and small droplets of rain were already hitting the pavement. Awesome, he had to stay after that day too so he could finish editing a movie he was working on for a class. Though he had a week to do it, he was the type to get everything done as quick as possible.
Karkat sighed as he headed to his locker, almost running into someone on the way as he was lost in his thoughts, but ignored them and turned to unlock his locker instead. It didn't take long, three numbers was all, and he just shoved his bag inside, grabbing his binder for his first class before he shut it, and jumped. The reason for his jumping was because a tall male was towering over him, and to his relief he realized it was Gamzee.
"Stop fucking doing that! How many times do I have to tell your juggalo ass that sneaking up on me and scaring the living daylights out me is a thing you shouldn't be doing unless you want to find a foot shoved so far up your ass you'll be choking on shoelaces for a week!"
"Whoa, don't go doing no injury to those laces there, you need 'em to tie your shoes and shit. Besides I only up and was hovering because your little self almost ran the motherfuck into me. A nice greeting and all, but you seemed kinda out of it, you know?" He questioned, scratching at the back of his head. It was a wonder his fingers didn't get caught in that birdsnest he calls hair.
"Oh fuck off, it's sort of hard to tell your best friend is the one you're about to stampede over when they're missing their infamous greasepaint, and has a stupid lopsided grin on their face... Except the last part is always there, sadly."
"You know the school rules, can't be wearing my wicked paint. So what's all up and with this stampeding? Tell me what's going on in that think pan of yours?" Gamzee grinned, leaning against the lockers as if if he didn't, he'd suddenly fall over and onto the floor.
"Nothing, the usual. My supposed... Terezi is just hanging out with Dave today as usual, every time I go to ask her out, she's busy. Always busy, always with Dave." The Cancer huffed, hugging the binder to his chest and casting his eyes to the ground, before looking up at Gamzee. The Capricorn was a startling 6'5, and towered over almost everyone. If he wasn't so intimidating, he'd probably get insulted twenty-four seven by everyone in the school. Actually he was fairly loved by most because of his laid-back attitude, but otherwise was pretty weird what with the skeleton paint he wore all the time. Or clown pain, it looked like a mix of the two. Honestly Gamzee wasn't even intimidating, he was like a kitten, aside from his height there was nothing scary about him.
"You need to be all up in that shit, get to her like a day before, time it out or some shit. Like, fucking share her time between the two of ya? I don't really know, just all up and relax, get your chill on and it'll sort itself out. Stop being so wound up and just go with the flow."
"Easy for you to say, you get to spend every waking moment with the one you actually like. If you could call it that, it seems more like a pity party with your shit, heck the poor sap doesn't even seem to know you have feelings for him. Get your love in order before you go trying to give mine advice. You suck at it, about as much as I suck at coding."
"Yo, chill the motherfuck out!" He raised his hands in defense, his usual grin replaced with a small frown. "I was just saying it was worth a shot, and don't be dissing Tav, he's all sorts of wonderful. Like a motherfucking rainbow in the middle of a downpour, lights up the whole day, a fucking miracle."
At this Karkat threw his hands up dramatically, almost letting go of his binder and having it fly at someone, luckily that was not the case. "Aruuugh! Shut up, miracles this, miracles that, why don't you shove a fucking miracle up your ass and see how that feels? I'll tell you how, not so miraculous, and not so dandy either. Ugh I really hate you sometimes, why are we friends? Oh yeah, because I probably hate you and your bullshit happiness more than I hate myself and my lack of it." So Gamzee didn't go on about miracles all the time, but Karkat was fed up with everything be it Gamzee, Dave, Terezi, himself, or that talker ghost thing. He was just angry and taking it out on his friend. "I'll just talk to you later, okay?"
"Yeah, chill out though, I mean fuck... Sorry brother, hope shit gets better later."
With that said, they both parted ways and headed to class. Karkat's day went by as boring as ever, and he did actually contemplate what Gamzee said... and literally started to write out a chart for it. Maybe him and Dave could spend separate days with Terezi? Karkat would get her one weekend, Dave the other, every other weekday one would get her... Wow if he thought this through he'd feel like a pathetic mess, but he was desperate, and not thinking right.
Eventually when classes were over for the day, Karkat wound up heading to where he knew Dave's locker was. (After collecting his things that is.) It didn't take long for him to find him, and he held the paper with the chart on it, slamming it against the locker as he glared at the blond.
"I have a proposition for you Dave."
The blonde looked up at him with a brow raised, closing his locker door before staring at the paper pressed against one of the closed lockers.. "Dude, is that seriously a chart? That's weak. What for? We don't have any projects together."
"Fuck off, it's a chart about time, you know, sharing? As in splitting our time up with Terezi, because apparently she likes spending time with you, and I can never spend even a second with her, except on the fucking bus. Do you know how much that sucks?"
His response was Dave chuckling and pushing past him before turning around to look at him. "Seriously fucked up, if I had a scale of how messed up that is, you'd break it. You'd break every level because that is pathetic, it's not my fault if she falls for the Strider charm."
"Ugh, she's my girlfriend! You don't have the right to be taking her from-"
"Girlfriend? I don't remember you ever once asking me out Karkat." A voice sounded from behind him, causing a shiver down his spine as he slowly turned around, Dave merely laughed since he knew she was there from the start. "You do realize sharing someone isn't a thing. You're really a bigger asshole than I thought you were. Jeez, we might have been together once, but you blew it, right out the blowhole. If you think I'd want to be with you, think again because jealousy isn't something I want to deal with. Heck you always ask me out, then either leave me hanging, or it winds up us just hanging out." She hugged, a frown on her lips as she walked over to Dave and took his hand. "Plus him and I aren't dating either! I can't have a guy friend without you getting into my business? I'll see you later Karkles."
Karkat was left there speechless, the paper falling to the floor as he felt like his heart was just ripped from his chest and smashed onto the floor. What just happened? He only skipped out on a date a few times! It's not like he could help it either, it was either go with bruises littering his body, or avoid it and rest up... There was no choice for him but to miss it, especially since some days he found himself curled up on his floor unconscious, or in his bed after a severe beating from his father...
With teary eyes, Karkat gripped onto the strap of his bag, and booked it. As luck would have it, he not only most likely lost his friend, (ex girlfriend?) altogether, but it was pouring out. Such a cliche, right? But it helped, it meant he could cry and not look like a complete idiot for it. Plus soon enough he found himself sitting on a bench, hands in his conjoined hoodie pocket, with his head down as the let the rain soak his entire being.
Now if only it could cleanse him of his mistakes, he always was jealous of Dave. Sometimes he'd get into fights with him in front of Terezi, one time even assaulted him only to be flung off and onto the floor. Not his best approach, plus he'd even been hateful with Terezi a handful of times because of it, often swearing her out, and calling her rude names. Heck he'd even made fun of her once for her deteriorating eyesight... Low blow now that he thought of it, but he was consumed with jealousy, and would rather Terezi hate him than nothing at all... Now it seemed like she truly did, and he was an idiot for it.
He stayed like that for a good hour before he finally looked up at the sky, shivering and cold... Then he noticed something bizarre, it looked like a set of wings over him, shielding him despite the water dropping and falling onto him with them there. They extended back, and he looked up to see himself face to face with... A head? There were definitely eyes looking him, and hair? Needless to say he jumped from his seat, and backed away to see the whole being. It was strange, transparent and almost like a rainbow? Red, blue, purple, an outline of something with wings hunched up on the back of the bench, staring at him as he moved. The wings fluttered a few times before resting on the invisible beings back.
"What the fuck are you?! Am I hallucinating, I can fucking see you! What is... Who are you?" The deity looked astonished, brows knitted together, (from what he could tell of the rainbow-like effect the rain had on him.) and lips twitching downwards as he hopped off of his perch on the bench. A rippling effect happened to the celestial being, his form changing and solidifying into that of a human. Now he could see him better, brunette hair, one bright red eye, one blue, the wings were still clear, and as the rain hit him, they shone as if like a rainbow, the same effect it had on his entire body moments ago. But he looked dry, or had now until the rain started to soak him too. His clothes were normal though, a black t-shirt with a long sleeved one underneath, the left sleeve red, right blue. His hair was short, as were his bangs, but the sides were overgrown, and he looked almost bored and annoyed. "Am I dying? Are you here to kill me for my sins? I bet you are, I bet you're here to rip out my already dead heart just to spite me, then toss it into the river and carry me away to steal my soul, that's it, right? Right?"
"Well, lovely meeting you too. The name'th Thollux Captor."
A/N: Aaaaand cliffhanger. (: I probably won't be updating daily since I do have school, but I was sick today... So second chapter out already. Ahahaha, I'll try to get the next one out within a week or so, hope everyone is enjoying it so far! Sorry this was may seem a bit rushed and odd? I tried to make it flow, but it will play a pretty big role later on. Reviews would be wonderful, though not necessary, but good motivation for me. x3