Hello everyone! Glad to see you're still reading this and I hope you're enjoying yourselves. It's been a good week for writing so far and I hope this chapter is up to par!
You've probably noticed by now that some of the episodes or plots from the show are being switched around or combined in some way, which is on purpose. While I'm keeping the narrative loose, I am manipulating it so certain beats I want to fulfill are there. If any of you like, I can upload the file of the current "schedule" for episodes I have. I might not just so you guys can be surprised, but you can give me your opinion first if you do want to know.
Either way, enjoy the chapter and I hope to hear from you all soon!
The ticking of the clock was starting to get annoying in Karkat's opinion. He could honestly say that he never visited the counselor's office before, but it was quickly becoming his least favorite place.
The smell of hand sanitizer, the old self-help magazines piled up on a side table, and the absolute chill in the air made things nigh unbearable. He'd never really been here before, but he wondered if it was always like this before new management came along.
He almost welcomed the sound of the door opening behind him if it wasn't for the fact that meant he'd have to start talking.
"Ah, it looks like you're already here." A pleasant-sounding female voice said. He felt a chill go down his spine as she passed, a surprising amount of blue entering his vision.
Karkat looked over the new counselor, surprised to see such a young face in the position. Blonde hair that hung down as far her shoulders, a blue, long-sleeved dress that resembled a librarian's ensemble, red heels, and black pointed glasses accentuated her looks. She looked pretty professional for someone that couldn't have been much older than Sollux's brother.
"I suppose introductions are in order." The woman made a move to seat herself in the chair behind the desk, a demure smile on her face. "I am Aranea Serket. I've been asked to counsel you and your fellow students. Do you have an idea why?"
"No idea. Can't be the fact that we had the school almost blow up and somebody nearly set fire to the zoo while on a field trip. I can't imagine that would make some people concerned at all." Karkat didn't exactly know why he was being sarcastic right now, but he couldn't help himself.
Aranea sighed, opening up a file that she put on her desk. "I suppose I set myself up for that one." She looked over some details on the file, reading some of them allowed. "Karkat Vantas, son of Spades Slick. About seventeen years-old, no criminal history, and generally a good student."
"They also count how many times I swear a day in that thing?" Karkat raised an eyebrow. Already looking through his personal records. That's not alarming at all.
"Other than saying 'a lot,' it doesn't say much on that." Aranea closed the file, folding her hands in front of herself. "However, I'd like to hear more about yourself first, primarily from your own mouth."
Karkat shrugged, looking away from her for the briefest second. "Not much to say, honestly. I'm not exactly the most interesting guy in town, if you're wondering."
"I suppose that title would go to your father, correct?" Karkat narrowed his eyes at that, watching as Aranea reopened the file. "It seems like he has quite the reputation around here. Most of it the infamous variety, considering how as a scientist, his experiments often go wrong."
Karkat sighed, rolling his eyes at this. "Of course." He whispered. He felt the urge to put his feet on the table but decided not to. "It's not my fault dad's experiments go wrong all the time."
"I wasn't implying it was." She leaned back in her chair, looking him over. "However, consider me curious. What exactly does he study?"
"Ghosts." He wasn't surprised to see her gain a weird look. Karkat preemptively decided to interrupt her before she could ask anything. "Yeah, I know, weird thing to study. I've heard it all before. He's not exactly considered the sanest guy in the world, but he's pretty smart despite that."
"I can't say that's the most traditional field of science I've ever heard of." The weird look on her face subsided. "I suppose the fact that he's involved such a strange field, along with some reported incidents has made you accustomed to strange happenings."
"You could say that." The crimson-eyed teen was already remembering some of Spades more dangerous experiments. "You kind of get used to explosions at an early age, to be honest. Dad usually has it handled, so it stops being a big deal."
"While I can't relate to that, I do suppose you're the one with experience here." She tapped her fingers on the desk. "Though, I can't imagine that his field of study is something that many people respect."
"No shit." Karkat rolled his eyes. "He's got some government grants and all, but it isn't exactly considered anything but fringe science. He's got plenty of things to work, though."
"Nothing public from what I here." A glance to her computer must've confirmed that, most likely showing several articles about him. "I can imagine that this didn't exactly bring many friends your way."
"I've got a couple. They're assholes, but they got my back and everything." He wasn't sure he liked where this conversation was going. "Shouldn't we be talking about those 'traumatic events' that brought me here?"
"It's important to determine how well of a support system you have. If you don't, events like this could have a much more negative effect when dealing with them alone." It sounded like a good argument on her part, he supposed. He still didn't like it though. "It's nice to hear that you have your own. Though, I've dealt with the children of scientists before, and their experiences can vary."
"And?" Karkat raised an eyebrow.
"Does he provide enough support in your case?" Aranea tilted her head to the side. "I looked and haven't heard of a second parent within your household. While there's nothing wrong with having a single parent household, there are some inconvenient truths that there are difficulties in the matter of balancing work and home."
"He's provided a good environment if that's what you're asking. Food, clothes, all that shit." It was a stigma he was familiar with, and also not particularly fond of. "If you looked into it well enough, you'd know that I'm adopted. He wouldn't adopt a kid he couldn't take care of."
Aranea shrugged, blue eyes crinkling. "That doesn't mean it doesn't come with its own problems. I can't assume that he's always cognizant when it comes to paying attention to your activities. He can't keep track of you all the time."
That… was hard to argue. His dad did his best to be supportive, but he also did have his blind spots. Staying up at night to work on inventions, being nonchalant about his stranger activities, and sometimes just being blind about certain things. He wasn't a bad parent or anything but did have the occasional blind spot. There was also the fact he just kept getting away with sneaking out since the accident.
Karkat realized he was taking too long to answer. He piped up before her face could go from curiosity to concern. "He'll forget the occasional thing. He sure as hell isn't negligent, though."
"I wasn't making any accusations." She raised her hands up defensively. She took a quick look at the clock and frowned. "Unfortunately, it appears we'll have to continue this conversation later. It appears we're out of time for today."
"Thank god." Karkat grabbed his backpack as he began to move out, grumbling to himself. "I actually can't wait to get back to Lancer's class." He grabbed the doorknob and started to pull it open.
"Wait."
Karkat stopped, giving the woman behind him a tired look. He didn't say anything, allowing her to continue.
"These sessions are meant to help you." Her tone would be almost mistaken for pleading in some way, as careful as it sounded. "I would like it if we could continue to talk in the future, with your cooperation."
Karkat stayed quiet a moment before opening the door. "I'll think about it."
He walked out and closed the door behind him without looking back.
"So," Sollux started, taking the walk to Karkat's home at a steady pace. "Anyone else meet the new counselor? Surprised they even hired one even after all the bullshit that's been happening these past couple of weeks."
"Yeah, got called in by her earlier. She's really got the 'young librarian' look down, you got to admit." Aradia hummed. "I can already hear all the things the guys in my classes are going to say about her."
"I don't really care. Had a talk with her earlier too and I'm not sure if we can trust her." Karkat grumbled, kicking at a pebble. "Asks way too many questions."
"Isn't that her entire job, KK?" Sollux shrugged, giving his friend a funny look. "She wouldn't be a good counselor if she didn't do that."
"It's dangerous as hell to talk to her, though." Karkat moved forward, turning and walking backwards to face them. "She starts asking too many and we can forget keeping the whole ghost thing a secret. I don't think I'll go to her again."
"I wouldn't throw her out that easy, Karkat. Maybe it'd be nice to talk to her occasionally since we're doing a lot lately. Especially since more ghosts seem to be appearing." Aradia didn't look him in the eyes as she said this. "You've been pretty stressed lately and I think it would be worth a shot."
She was right, at least in some ways. The number of ghosts after that Skulker incident took a noticeable uptick lately and it was taking them a little longer to capture them. Either that damn robot was good at corralling them or they somehow noticed that the portal was open at times. It was actually beginning to become a problem with how many animal ghosts seem to swarm in certain areas.
Not to mention the training they were trying to do.
Karkat may have loved the sickles, but they were surprisingly difficult to master. They weren't like knives, with the simple stab and twist motion, with more of a slashing motion needed. Though, he did need a close-range method and they were perfect for the role. YouTube tutorials were a blessing, no matter how few there were.
He was able to convince Aradia to pick out a weapon of her own, which was a whip. While the basic mechanism for it was simple, there was definitely some work to be done. She clearly picked up what she knew from her Indiana Jones movies, but it was still a boost compared to Karkat, who only had basic training with his weaponry.
Sollux didn't opt to use a melee weapon of any kind. He decided to go all in with ranged weaponry, especially with his handgun. However, he did pick up the pieces of a different kind of ray, one that would let out a concentrated burst resembling a water cannon. He could assemble it if he wanted to, though it only had a few charges.
There were some upgrades they were thinking of making, though they'd need some actual help to do that. Sollux could tinker, but he was no weapons expert.
"I'm not going to stop you guys if you want to visit her, but I think I'll pass." Karkat turned around, face set before noticing something. "What the hell's going on at my house?"
The outside of Karkat's house was livelier than usual, and for a brief moment, he thought that his dad started the press conference earlier than expected. They still hadn't made any progress closing it and the date was coming closer and closer.
To his relief, he noticed some tables with items placed on them. It was just a garage sale.
"Hey, dad?" Karkat walked up to his father, who was trying to negotiate a higher price with some random schmuck. "Something going on?"
"Not much." Spades begrudgingly ended the transaction, waving the customer off. "I'm still trying to get some money for the levitation tech. I think I got a good idea about how to get it off the ground, but I'm running low on government grants. I'd use the patent money, but that keeps the bills paid."
"Okay." It wasn't the strangest thing, honestly. His dad did garage sales before, and it usually went into the funds for his experiments. "Anything of mine you want me to sell?"
"Only what you want to get rid of." Spades shifted a box into his arms, moving it to another table. "I didn't take anything that was yours, so feel free to go through it. I'll probably do this again tomorrow, but I think I'll have plenty of money soon enough. Labs open if you need to study too."
"Thanks." Karkat moved on past, patting his dad on the back as he went. "Love ya' or whatever."
"You too, ya' little brat." Spades opened the box and started sifting through it.
The other two followed behind closely, saying their own greetings to the patriarch of the family. When they were out of sight, Spades rubbed the shoulder Karkat had patted him on.
"Jesus, is that kid working out or something?" He mumbled to himself. The thought instantly left his mind as another customer walked up to him, carrying another item.
"If I'd known you dad was doing famous garage sales, I would have begged my mom for some cash." Aradia plopped herself down into a chair. "Then again, he probably already sold all the cool stuff."
"Last I checked, he wasn't allowed to sell his weapons anymore after that one time with the cops." Sollux flipped open his small ecto-gun, getting the tools to fiddle with it. "Which can sum up a lot of things with Spades, honestly."
"Story of fucking life." Karkat moved to the portal. He had some ghosts to drop off, opening it quickly. "Now let's just have one day without some bullshit happening."
Of course, saying stuff like that always insured that something bad would happen.
As soon as the drop off was finished, the surface of the portal was disturbed, causing Karkat to jump. As smoke started to sift out of his mouth, he took a step back and pulled out his ecto-gun. He heard the whir of his friend's guns behind him, causing his anxiety to slow.
It started with a gloved hand tentatively moving outward, almost hesitant. An arm followed it slowly, followed by a boot and leg. Both materials were made of leather, joined by a gray colored shirt and pants. More of the body revealed a leather vest with gold buttons, making it appear like a blacksmiths outfit. It was completed as the head of the being made it out, wearing a pair of leather goggles with black glass painting it.
It was a quiet few moment as the four figures stood there in silence in their standoff, the being looked at the three of them, purple skin and black hair in a ponytail. He could almost be considered several years older than they are, at about college age. It almost looked like he was studying them clinically.
He then raised a hand and talked with a disarmingly friendly voice and broken toothed smile. "Hello."
The three couldn't help but feel awkward as they still held their guns up, if haltingly now. Karkat eventually put down his gun first and put up his own hand. "Hi?" He said, confusion etched onto his face.
"Good, you didn't decide to shoot me." The guy seemingly relaxed, floating closer to the floor. "I was hoping that would not be the case. I'm terribly sorry for the entrance, I wasn't sure when your portal would open."
"Fair." It really wasn't, but the teen didn't exactly know how to respond to any of this. "Mind explaining why you wanted out?"
"Oh, right. I actually heard about this from a friend. I believe you met Nepeta Leijon not that long ago." The ghost moved towards one of his father's inventions that were on display, studying it closely. "Something involving Skulker?"
Everyone in the room relaxed at the familiar name. If this guy knew her, then he most likely wasn't a threat to them at this time, though they did make sure to keep their wits about them. Though, this could be the best opportunity they had to have an actual ghostly ally.
While they did consider Nepeta as "friendly," they weren't entirely sure if they could count her as an ally just yet. Unless they got to know her better or she became more readily available, they could only consider her a tentative acquaintance at best. Hopefully they'd get to talk to her later if she was available to make things more official.
"How's she doing? She said that she was missing from home for a while and we haven't heard from here since." Aradia put her weapon away, eyeing the guy. She figured that he was harmless for the most part. "She wasn't reprimanded too badly, right?"
"Thankfully no. Especially since she had Skulker's body to prove what caused her delay." The ghost backed off when an invention began to beep at his presence, causing it to stop. "She relayed a very interesting story to me about you three and how she had to take him down. Oh, that reminds me!" He moved in to Karkat's personal space suddenly, extending a hand. "I've been terribly rude to you all. My name is Horus Zahhak. It's a pleasure to meet you all."
"It's nice to meet you too, Zahhak." The red-eyed teen grabbed and shook his hand too, almost regretting it as he felt a fuckton of sweat leak all over his fingers. Other than that, it was a pleasant handshake that only made him desperately want a towel afterwards. "You're honestly the first ghost we've met so far that wasn't under duress or trying to kill us, so I can't say that isn't welcome."
"It really is." Sollux moved over the Karkat side, receiving a wet handshake himself. "Though, uh, you mind actually explaining what you want, though? There are ghost hunters around and we'd like to make sure they didn't, you know, detect you or anything."
"That would be incite plenty of trouble if some found their way to me, I suppose." Horuss tapped his finger onto his chin before tilting his head. "I'd very much like to see what kind of technology your world has to offer. It's rare for the Infinite Realms to receive an upgrade unless a significant amount of people die at once. It still takes time to replicate even if we do."
Karkat took a look at Sollux, giving him a questioning look. Captor shrugged hesitantly, but he figured that it was good enough. It wasn't the weirdest request they could get, but it was certainly a different one. They couldn't really afford to screw this up, anyway.
"That can be arranged. We'll have to come up with some ground rules though." Karkat looked at the stairs suspiciously before sending a glance back towards. "Stay near us at all times, don't touch anything that we say isn't safe, and hide when we tell you to. Remember, ghost hunters are around." He was honestly surprised that he hadn't heard his dad try and come downstairs just yet.
"Deal." Horuss started floating upwards before hesitating. "Um, should I meet up with you three somewhere? If only to avoid the ghost hunter, that is."
"There's a place called the Nasty Burger that's not that far from here. You'll know it when you see it. Meet us there and we should be there in the next fifteen minutes." Sollux was already itching for this to be over, pulling out his phone. "Make sure you aren't seen."
"Alright then. I'll see you then!" The ghost slipped into invisibility, the three giving a few moments of silence to determine whether he left the room or not. After they figured that he must've left, they all sighed and felt their bodies release the tension that had seeped into them the entire time.
"Well," Aradia slapped the table with an amused, if slightly stressed, grin. "I can't say that I was expecting to do this today. I mean, I'm glad we aren't fighting the ghost this time, but damn."
"Yeah, me neither." Karkat ruffled his hair, eyes glassy. "I'm just glad I didn't shoot first and ask questions later or something. Jesus, he just had to come out like that."
"Is anyone else here thinking that this might not be the greatest idea?" Sollux still had a bit of tension within his frame, feeling uneasy. "The guy seemed friendly and all, but I don't know if we should just let him walk around the place."
"He said he knew Nepeta, though. She was cool, so maybe he is too." Aradia didn't seem that worried in comparison. "Besides, we've got weapons if he decides that he doesn't want to be friendly. We've had to fight Skulker before, and he was a walking armory."
"Well, yeah, Nepeta was nice and all, but we knew her for a day." Sollux had his gun by his side still, messing with the safety as he looked between his friends. "Besides, what if Spades finds out there's a big ecto-signature on his little radar? That kind of puts a lot of what we've been doing at risk."
"We have the thermos that we can suck him into if my dad starts coming a little too close." Karkat waved around said instrument carefully. He seemed to be cautious about all of this as well, but he pushed forward. "Look, this is the first time we can actually talk to a ghost that wasn't either causing trouble or in trouble. Plus, we can get some information about ghosts from the guy that might give us a major advantage." The teen put the thermos away into his backpack, putting it back on as he moved towards the stairs. "Besides, he might know some cool ghost tech you can copy or something. Better than just letting him wander around too."
Sollux hated that he couldn't find the fault in his logic. Of course, he couldn't help but want to protest further anyway for the sake of posterity. "And if he becomes a threat?"
"Use the thermos." Karkat started up the stairs, not even looking back. "Let's just go before the guy changes his mind. I don't want screw this up."
"Yeah, have a little faith!" Aradia grabbed Sollux's hand and absentmindedly stroked it with her thumb. "We're starting to get good at ghost fighting anyway, so quit it with the doom and gloom."
Sollux hesitated, but eventually put the gun away with a sigh. "Fine." He started, rolling his eyes. As he walked towards the stairs with her, he pointed at his two friends with a glare. "But if this goes wrong, I reserve the right to say I told you so."
"Deal." The other two teens promised, moving out of the lab. Aradia laughed while Karkat rolled his own eyes good naturedly.
Hopefully, this would turn out to be a very good move in the future.
The trip itself had started out fairly… interesting.
They were able to meet up at the Nasty Burger fairly fast and even grab a quick meal there. Considering how often they were going out; they did need to increase their calorie intake.
Horuss thankfully also knew how to be subtle, despite his grand entrance from earlier telling them otherwise. He had hung out at the back and contacted them after one of them ordered. It almost sent Karkat off into a panic at first after he almost started breathing smoke, but it was easy to calm him down.
After leaving, they actually made it to an electronics store nearby that would provide some privacy. They were checking out one of the more updated phones on the market.
"How interesting." Horuss studied it like it was a piece of alien technology, which they guessed it was to him. Sollux made sure to jailbreak it or something so that they could actually use some of the features and introduce him to some new tech. "We still only have primitive landlines in the Infinite Realms. Some old computers are there as well, but I never thought I'd see both of them combined."
"Tech's kind of exploded within the past 30 years. Believe me, there's plenty of other stuff you won't believe." Sollux had predictably taken charge of this, seeing as how he had the most experience dealing with technology out of the three of them. Despite being hesitant, he was honestly the most eager one to start. "I don't know what ghosts have for game systems, but humans have made a lot of them in the last couple of years."
"Do tell." Horuss floated subtly behind him, listening closely. Karkat and Aradia trailed behind the other two, keeping an eye out for unwanted witnesses. Safe part of the store or not, they weren't going to take their chances.
"Surprising lack of cameras in here." Aradia's eyes trailed over the place observantly. "The owners lucky we're just smuggling a ghost in here rather than shoplifting."
"Not like smuggling in ghosts is much better." Karkat was glad they were able to get Zahhak to not float so obviously. Turns out a lot of people are willing to write it off as cosplay if they don't look to closely. "At least Sollux is relaxing about this. I was really hoping he'd do something about to help, otherwise we'd be screwed."
"I think he's just happy that he has someone to talk tech with." Aradia bumped her elbow into Karkat's arm, gesturing to the excited smile on the Captor's face. "He doesn't really have any friends outside of us, so maybe this could be a good thing."
"We don't exactly have that many friends either." Karkat rolled his eyes but did agree with the sentiment in his own way. They stayed quiet for a few moments before he started talking, this time a little more serious. "You ever imagine that we'd be doing something like this? Taking a ghost to an electronics shop?
"I didn't expect you to get superpowers or to fight a robot ghost, but here we are." The girl shrugged. She honestly didn't appear to know what to make of any of this without having an aneurysm. "I think we've made the best of it, though. Considering this shouldn't have happened at all."
"Are you two still blaming yourself for the accident?" The red-eyed teen straightened up, feeling indignant. "I thought we were past all that. It happened and we're going to find a way to fix it after we get this whole portal thing under control. And I walked into the fucking thing."
"That doesn't really stop us from remembering your screaming." Karkat flinched at the harsh tone Aradia had. It was cold, but in a way that sounded like she was personally numbing it. "Sollux hasn't had a full night's sleep in a while, you know. I haven't been doing well either, especially since we didn't get you out of there in time."
He didn't exactly know what to say to that, so he kept bitterly silent. He knew something was going on with the two about it, especially since they volunteered most of their time trying to make sure he stayed alive, but they usually refused to talk about it at length. He honestly expected it, if he was being honest.
Sollux was a hardass with his emotions. Always had been, always will. It wasn't like he was cold and emotionless, but he certainly didn't talk about them enough in way that was healthy. Hell, it took about a month of needling to get him to admit that he missed his brother after he went off to college and even more to get him to talk about it at length. This was about ten times worse.
And Aradia… god, she dealt with enough shit back when they were thirteen. She lost her real mom about that time and a chunk of her died with her. It was actually why she started to hang out with the goth kids early on, trying to find something to fill the hole. They almost didn't recognize her for a while until they were finally able to get her to stop acting like she was a ghost herself and just fucking talk to them. When her dad remarried about two years later, it was the only time she showed improvement when she wasn't around them.
And then Karkat had to up and nearly die on them because of some stupid shit he pulled, causing them both to blame themselves over it.
He watched Sollux explain how a Playstation worked when he started talking again. "You're right. We're making the best of it. Let's just focus on that, okay? No blaming ourselves anymore, alright?"
Aradia let out a huff but didn't argue at all. She kept her eyes forward, not showing any emotion at all.
"…And we're pretty much not that far away from getting full on virtual reality set up. Most of it is simulators, really, but there's plenty of games out there that aren't bad." Sollux put down a headset, looking around himself. Horuss was still invested and no one was hanging around them to see the ghost. "Anything else you want to take a look at?"
"Hm," The ghost put a hand on his chin, rubbing it in thought. "I do believe that this is a good start. I'm not so sure how well this can be replicated back home, but- would you mind if I checked out one of these phones?"
"Go for it," Sollux raised an eyebrow, looking over the displays. "Just don't break any of them. None of us can afford one of these things."
Horuss only nodded and moved one of the more high-tech ones off the display, turning it on. He looked it over carefully, swiping carefully and pushing at certain apps. Eventually, his hand began to glow, slowly flowing into the phone. As it slowly began to float, he extended his fingers suddenly, causing the phone to suddenly split up into smaller parts neatly.
"Woah!" Karkat reached out his hand, almost startling Horuss. "I'm pretty sure we just said not to break it, dude."
"Sorry." He had the decency to be embarrassed but didn't put the phone back together just yet. "It's a part of my abilities. I have a certain form of technomancy that allows me to understand machines much better." He looked over each individual part, studying and almost quiet. "Nepeta was actually able to take one out of curiosity-which I apologize for since she most likely stole it- and only let me and my brother have a preliminary look."
He suddenly reconstructed it without any difficulty, snapping it together. "I actually developed an app that would allow some form of communication within the Infinite Realms, along with a battery that would sustain it. I can provide the app if you want to talk to her."
"That," Karkat blinked before deciding to move on with it. "That would be helpful, actually. You wouldn't mind, right?"
"Not at all." Horuss waved a hand, causing their phones in their pockets to glow. After a moment, the glowing stopped, with Aradia reaching hers first. She found a messaging app on her phone that had no icon, but she could only assume was the app in question. "Her handle is arsenicCatnip if you're wondering."
Clicking into it, it truly was just a message app. They were kind of surprised at the simplicity of it, but he didn't exactly say how old Ghost Zone tech was. But still, it would be amazingly useful.
Ghostian, though? Weird choice in name.
"Thanks." Karkat put it away for now. It wasn't like he needed to use it right now, but a thought did cross his mind. "You said your power works with tech, right? How far does that actually go?"
"It's hard to say, quiet honestly." Horuss rubbed the back of his neck. "I can manipulate all sorts of technology, as long as it's advanced enough. I can even shape it into something new if enough parts are supplied, maybe even meld with them. It's useful, but I haven't messed with anything outside of my world before."
"Maybe now's the time." Aradia moved her backpack up, taking another look around them. "Seems like the perfect time to test it out. Nobodies going to miss a floor model."
"Aradia, don't encourage ghosts to steal!" Karkat looked surprised by the notion. "We can't just take that shit."
"I don't see why not. That things got limited use as a floor model anyway." Sollux shifted his bag as well. "Besides, we don't have to steal it. Just use it and leave it here."
Karkat looked like he wanted to argue but figured it would be easier to bow out to the logic. "Fine. Just make sure to leave it here when you're done."
"That's an acceptable idea." Horuss looked at the floor model again, hand glowing. The phone separated his fingers again, taking it apart. This time, though, he began to manipulate the separate parts into something else, even bending the metal. As suddenly as it started, it ended when the metal suddenly strapped the ghost's wrist. Horuss paused, seemingly lost in thought as numbers started appearing in his goggles.
"Anything happening?" Karkat wasn't sure how to deal with the sudden stillness. He was just floating there, a stillness that matched his status as one of the dead. "Is everything okay?"
Silence was the only answer. Horuss floated there, numbers and images still flowing through his goggles. Other than a few small twitches, he didn't move in the slightest, with the only sound being a mumble.
"Horuss." Sollux looked like he wanted to reach out to touch him but didn't out of hesitance. "Dude, say something. You're creeping us out."
There was another stretch of silence before he started talking in a low voice. "So much… information."
Then he outright vanished from view, leaving no trace.
A few moments of silence later, Sollux sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I told you so." He said, though there was no satisfaction in his voice.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed that! Now, if you do want me to post the schedule up in another story, feel free to say so in the comments/reviews. I might save it depending on how fast I reach this one point in the story, but otherwise will post it if you want that. Make sure to say so!
Either way, I'll see you all next chapter.