Lulu: yo~ I have two new chapters for you~ one of them is a Christmas special (the next one, not this one) :3 it's a month late I know, but still happy Holidays~

NOTICE: IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH THIS FANFICTION, PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME; JUST TELL ME YOUR ISSUES WITH THE PARTICULAR FANFICTION, AND I WILL DO MY BEST TO FIX THEM. I REALLY DON'T LIKE LOSING THE PRECIOUS FANFICTIONS THAT I SPEND TIME WRITING. NO MISTAKE IS TOO SMALL FOR ME TO BE NOTIFIED OF. THANK YOU

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HOMESTUCK, FOR THAT IS OWNED BY ANDREW HUSSIE. I ALSO DON'T OWN THE TDI SERIES, THOUGH I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHO DOES.

WARNING: THE CHARACTERS IN THIS FANFICTION AND THEIR PERSONALITIES MAY NOT BE TRULY CORRECT; THIS IS BECAUSE THE AUTHOR (aka Me) MAY EITHER INTERPRET THEM DIFFERENTLY THAN THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE INTERPRETED, THEY MAY BE CHANGED IN ORDER TO FIT THE SPECIFIC AU, OR IN WORST CASE SCENARIO, THE AUTHOR (again, Me) MAY HAVE HAD THEIR PERCEPTION OF THESE SPECFIC CHARACTERS CHANGED DUE TO READING TOO MANY OTHER FANFICTIONS CENTERING AROUND THESE SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. PLEASE READ THIS FANFICTION WITH THESE THOUGHTS IN MIND. ALSO PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A KARKAT-CENTRIC CHAPTER, SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ A KARKAT-CENTRIC CHAPTER, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SKIP TO THE NEXT ONE.

POV used in this chapter: Karkat Slick (Midnight Crew)

Your name is Karkat Slick, and you're pretty sure something is very, very wrong with you. Maybe it was the fact that you were dizzy, or that your nose was all stuffy and uncomfortable to breathe with, or maybe it was the sneezing and coughing that would prevent you from falling back asleep. Either way, you were sure that you were "sick" or something like that. The most you knew about being sick was that it sucked because it really hurt, but it was also awesome because you got to miss school and stay home all day…at least, that was what the other kids said about it (then again, what do they know?). You weren't sure that you'd get the same treatment as they did, however, because your dad is an asshole, probably sleeping on the couch instead of checking on you like a responsible parent. How was it that you were the responsible one anyway? You were like, 5!

Luckily it was winter break, so you didn't need to call anyone from school (for some reason, your stupid dad would've been required for such a call) though that didn't excuse the fact that you still felt like shit. You had to admit that when you had first awoken and couldn't breathe very well through your stuffy nose, you panicked a bit and had called the first number you could think of. That number had apparently been Droog's (you were told to memorize his number in case of emergencies, like no food in the house), but he hadn't awoken yet and Aradia had answered. You explained to her your situation and she said that you had caught a cold and that she and Droog would come by later with some medicine and stuff. You didn't know when later was, so you had decided to wrap a blanket around yourself and huddled over to sit on the couch.

Lying on the couch, unconscious with the smell of beer and some other mysterious substance lingering on him, was of course your fuckass of a dad. You weren't in the mood to wake up the asshole (he was always loud and grumpy in the morning, and you had a headache that you didn't want to disturb) so you gently moved his legs so that you could sit at the edge of the couch before turning the TV on at low volume. You began to channel surf for something interesting to your young mind…sadly, the only things that seemed to just barely peak your interest were the news and some cartoons that weren't really centered around kids your age. The news bored you with its dull and lifelessness for a few minutes before you decided to fuck it and watch some show you didn't really understand about a bunch of teenagers doing challenges on some island in Canada (wherever that is). The show was apparently running a marathon, and you were lucky enough to wake up in time so that you could watch it from the beginning.

Hours later, you were still sitting on the couch, feeling sick and miserable, but now you were slightly entertained with the show. You felt confident in the fact that you were in fact smarter than Lindsey, you didn't like Courtney or Heather very much, and you had examined the fact that Owen was just plain fucking weird and would probably get along with that Gamzee kid from the Felt (you're occasionally paired up with him during class activities for no apparent reason, and you've come to learn that he seems more interested in baked goods and miracles than learning how to count past twelve). At the same time, you're having a one-sided argument with yourself about preferring TrentGwen over DuncanGwen or vice versa (you've come to realize this side of you from too many days watching bad rom-coms while your dad's passed out on the couch. Just like he is now, what a coincidence).

You realize that at any moment, something will probably interrupt your thoughts, and it unfortunately comes in the form of your father waking up. He eyes opened up, probably thankful that you'd kept the curtains closed (because seriously, when would you ever think of opening them? You hate the light! And even if you wanted to, you couldn't because at some point your dad had glued them together, probably during an act of drunken stupidity). He looked at you for a moment, then used his hand to keep the light from the television from blinding him.

"What the fuck are you watching?" He asked, though he probably wasn't the slightest bit interested.

"Total Drama Island" you replied, giving a small sniffle.

"Total Drama whatnow?"

"Total Drama Island, it's a show about a group of teenagers on a reality game show trying to win a lot of money." Slick stared at you for a few moments, confused.

"And why are you watching this shit?"

"It's not shit, and it's for research." Ok, so now you were making things up, but if you didn't Slick would change the channel, and you were at the finale of the first season (granted, the show was on commercial break, and you'd seen from the channel info that there was another episode after this known as a "special" or some bullshit like that, but there were only a few minutes left of the episode and you wanted to see them to the end, dammit!).

"Research? Research for what? What is a fucking brat your age supposed to get from this?" you pondered this for a moment and had ended up sputtering out something you remembered from one of your babysitter's stupid books.

"…The Psychology of Teenage Adolescents…" Slick was still looking at you with obvious confusion, but gradually he gave up.

"Bah, it's too early for this shit…" he mumbled

"Its 6:00 pm, dad; you slept the whole day" you replied

"That's still too early." Instead of going to sleep however, he somehow also began looking towards the screen despite the severe hangover he was probably enduring. You would've cared more about that if you weren't sick…or maybe you wouldn't. He probably knew that you were sick, what with the constant sniffling and sneezing and coughing, but he didn't seem to care, eventually sitting up and letting you sit on his lap. When Aradia and Droog found the two of you watching the second season two hours later with the cold medicine (they'd been late due to a lot of other errands they had to attend to, and a ton of snow that was clogging the roads with endless traffic), you both claimed that you were still doing "Research".

Lulu: End~ there, I have put my one sickfic chapter into this fanfic :3 I like the sickfic chapters. See you next chapter~