Note: Short chapter is short. Next chapter will be longer, I promise, For now, just have this.

John turned around to see a person he hadn't heard enter standing right in front of the door. She was an odd sight, dressed in a cropped orange pleather jacket wit a lighter orange undershirt extending below it. Her jeans were also a darker orange and red shoes that ran halfway up her shins. She had a studded black belt with pockets around her waist, a bandana resting below her chin that had a yellow sun on it, and her hands were covered by fingerless black gloves.

None of that really drew John's attention, though. He was too focused on being stunned by her physical appearance. Her skin was grey, unlike anything he'd ever seen, and her eyes were yellow with cobalt irises. Her left eye seemed to have seven pupils, six small ones around one big one.. Additionally, she had horns sticking up out of her long black hair. Horns! The left one pointed upward with a barb extending down, while the other was topped with a crescent moon. They were colored like candy corn, and John could do nothing but stare at her.

"Whaaaaaaaat?" the girl said as she noticed the stunned look on his face.

John didn't reply. He didn't know whether to be interested in or afraid of her. She looked so alien, so different, so-

Instead of waiting for a response, she continued toward the counter and sat down on the stool next to him. "I'll take a grasshopper smoothie," she told Casey. She looked back to John. "You want anything?"

It took a few seconds for him to snap out of his daze and realize that she was talking to him. "I'm sorry, what?" he asked, spinning around to face the her.

She groaned. "Do you want something from the menu, doofus? It's not that hard of a question."

He turned an embarrassed shade of pink as he tried to grasp at words. "Um, uh, maybe some fries?"

"Is that a question or an answer?"

"Um... an answer, I guess." He felt so stupid. Get it together, Egbert!

"Okay, one basket of fries it is, then," the girl said, nodding at Casey. Casey nodded back as she wrote down the orders and slipped into the back to start preparing them.

"The name's Vriska, Vriska Serket," the girl stated. "You got one, human?"

"John Egbert," he replied, forcing himself to calm down. It wasn't until he looked at her again that he saw the toothy grin she was giving him.

"Soooooooo, Egdork," she began, casually flipping her hair over her shoulder. "What brings you to this place so late at night?"

He hung his head. "Like I told the waiter girl, I wish I knew."

"Let me guess, lost your memory, right?"

His expression strayed further into the direction of confusion as he looked up at her again. "Uh, yeah."

"Wake up in a back alley?" she asked, her tone indecipherable.

"Yes..."

"Psh, beeeeeeeen there, done that." She chuckled.

It was then that John reached a new rung on his Confusion Ladder: Bewildered Goldfish. "What do you mean? How do you know all that? Why do-"

"Calm doooooooown, John! I'm just saying that I've been where you are now. It's a real bitch, but you probably already know that," Vriska assured him as their orders arrived. She took a sip from her smoothie and grinned. "And I knew because I'm just that damn awesome."

"That didn't even slightly answer my question!" John exclaimed.

"I said calm down, Egdork! Gog, why do humans have to be so melodramatic? I have an eighth of a mind to knock you out right now, but I was instructed specifically not to unless... well, we won't get into that." She looked down at the basket of food in front of him. "Are you going to eat those or just let my hard-earned money go to waste?"

John sighed and picked up a fry. It didn't seem like this alien girl was going to give him any answers that would make him happy. He would complain further, but the way she casually mentioned knocking him out was more than a little foreboding. She did seem like the kind of person who would do it without a second thought.

Casey, once again behind the counter, blew and popped another bubble with her tongue and spoke to Vriska with interest. "What brings a member of the Street Tier gang to this part of the city?"

"Oh, so you've heard of us," Vriska smirked. "Well, not that it's consort business or anything, but one of our Seers predicted a new arrival in the most dangerous district in town, so they sent me here. I'm sort of a big deal, you know?"

Street Tier gang? Consort? Seers? John thought as he listened to them and ate his fries. I wish I knew what they were talking about.

"Oh!" Casey shouted, sticking a finger out at him. "Would he be the one you're talking about?"

"Definitely, by the symbol on his shirt I'd say he's my target." Vriska looked at the clock on the wall. "Oh, they also said an ogre would be crashing through the front of this joint in 3...2..."

The wall behind John exploded inward.