Here comes the next chapter! Hope I haven't kept anyone waiting. This one wasn't hard to write, but some parts needed smoothing over. Hopefully you appreciate it all the same.
Without further ado, let's head right on in!
Karkat kept thinking every day that his life couldn't get any goddamn weirder. The accident should've been the height of weirdness, but then ghosts started popping up. Then he met Dualscar, show turned out to be a supervillain. Not to mention the weird shit with those biker ghosts and that human that released Fright Knight.
Now he kinda has a grandmother. And two aunts that are barely older than he was.
What the fuck was his life?
To say the least, the living room was pretty awkward after the introduction. Porrim and Kanaya decided to stay upstairs, but Rosa had to go downstairs to make sure that Spectra woman didn't do anything stupid. Spades looked like he wanted to talk more about it too, but he didn't want anyone he didn't trust in the lab alone too long.
Which left him alone with the Maryam's. Along with Sollux and Aradia, who had decided to eavesdrop on the conversation earlier.
He wasn't sure where to begin with all of this, something the two Maryam's seemingly had in common with him. The halfa was ninety percent sure nobody would say anything if somebody decided to interject.
He was thankful, but also completely embarrassed when his friends with horrible social skills decided to break the silence.
"Alright, I'll bite," Sollux steepled his fingers, holding them close to his mouth as he looked at all three of them. "What kind of a family situation is this? Is it going to turn out to be one of those weird marriage situations that'll end up with someone being their own grandpa?"
"No, I think this isn't a biological thing." Aradia joined in, if only to make the situation awkward enough to break the silence. "Besides, I'm pretty sure that only happened in a song. And in Futurama. Either way, probably not something that can actually happen."
"There were ten different ways you could've started this conversation," Karkat pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a deep sigh. "And yet you chose one of the worst ones to pick. Congratulations, this is even worse than that time we met some of dad's old bandmates."
"At least it broke the tension." Kanaya closed the textbook she'd been reading. She wasn't really reading it anyway; it was just to distract her. "Even if it was a bit crude. Or very strange."
"This whole situation has been strange. At least this is funny." Porrim rubbed at her own eyes, trying to think through all of this. "Are you really a Vantas? You know, that's your real last name and everything?"
"Pretty much. Dad never bothered to change it to his own because he wanted me to decide what to do with it." Karkat hadn't bothered because it seemed like a hassle to change it. Maybe there would've been an advantage to it, though. "I think I'm a little more concerned about how your mom is my grandmother. Just what the hell was she talking about?"
"Ah. That. Not a fun story there." Porrim didn't look interested in telling it, though not out of malice. More out of an obvious hesitance. "Really unhappy and generally not a great thing to tell people we just met about."
"Considering he's related to you two, I don't think that's as much of a problem." Aradia blinked before leaning back. "Then again, Sollux and I don't really count as family. Do you want us to leave the room or…?"
"No, that's fine. If we say anything it might be a good thing to have a support system around." Kanaya didn't want to air some dirty laundry in front of anyone, but she did truly believe this. "Unless either of you don't want to figure any of this out."
"Sorry, you're not exactly getting rid of us. We're hooked in now." Sollux wanted to make sure this wasn't some weird trick, so he was staying. "Besides, I don't get enough juicy gossip as is. It'll be nice to add this to what I know."
Kanaya figured that was a joke, but her eyebrow raised all the same. She just shook her head before looking at Karkat. "What do you know of your father, exactly? Or what did Mr. Spades tell you?"
And that was the million-dollar question, wasn't it?
Karkat admittedly knew only a few concrete things about his father; he was a man of the cloth, a good person, and he was dead. That wasn't due to Spades not telling him anything. Spades told him all kinds of stories about him, especially their time in college together. It was just that he couldn't really find much on his own, and for the most part, he was fine with that. At least he knew he wasn't abandoned.
He told him that much, though slightly edited. Kanaya didn't seem surprised or show any pity at that, which was actually appreciated. People got all sad about it when he talked about his dead dad, even when he was okay with it.
"Well, he actually grew up in the foster system too. As our mother told us, he apparently grew up as Kankri Vantas, the last name being given to him from a late mother." Kanaya sighed, thinking through the story as best she could. She didn't want to leave any details out. "My own mother lived in the foster home your father did. She was a few years older than he was, but they apparently became friends when it became clear they weren't going to be adopted.
"Not exactly a great start to a friendship, but since everyone else kept getting adopted out, they were the only ones that had each other." Kanaya shrugged. This wasn't a story she was fond of hearing or telling. "An overall sad state of affairs, especially when she aged out of the program. Other than having a job lined up, she didn't exactly have any plans. And she didn't want to just leave your father there."
"Instead of waiting for him to age out of the system, like a normal person would've, she decided that it'd be a lot more efficient just to adopt him." Porrim squinted her eyes, obviously doing her best to remember herself. "It was apparently a hell of a fiasco for a while, but they got it to work. They had this whole joke after the thing ended where he'd call her 'mom,' but she used to hate that. She used to joke about how he was technically my older brother and everything."
Okay, that explained some things. Kind of weird, but he guessed that meant the whole thing was a weird joke that was, by a legal standpoint, true. That didn't explain one tiny detail, though…
"That sounds like a cute story and all, but that doesn't explain why I haven't heard of any of you before." Karkat did notice the twitch from the other two. He backtracked, having felt like he stepped over an invisible line. "I'm guessing that's a long story too."
"…How did Spades your father? We never heard much about him." Kanaya was obviously stalling for time, but he figured that was fair. Technically, she'd already given him plenty of information. "We've only heard a few stories in comparison to Kankri."
Karkat thought about saying no, but that would've not only been rude, but pretty unfair. They'd been pretty good at giving him what he asked, so it wouldn't be a good idea for him to deny them.
"Dad didn't really know my bio- Kankri for too long. He said they met in college when he was starting to doubt about going into his line of research." Karkat knew that was the truth. When Spades finally owned up about adopting him, this was the story he told. "Hell, he was kind of seen as an 'at risk' kind of person, and Kankri decided to talk to him. Convinced him to keep going despite whatever it was."
That made him wonder. Did Spades almost want to stop researching ghosts because of the Oberon's accident? The timing would've worked out and it certainly would've been a wake-up call.
"They apparently got to know each other pretty well throughout the years. Became fast friends, even if dad had a few issues with organized religion." Karkat had been told that his biological father mostly did it to find the best way to help people in a large fashion. Churches were a good way to do that. "And he eventually got ordained, or something like that. It wasn't long after he started actually working that… well, you know the rest."
And judging from the morose expression that settled on Porrim's face, they did.
Spades had been light on details about how his biological father died, if only for his sake. Karkat actually had to look it up himself to figure out his father's death was a messy one. Kankri had been found dead in his vehicle, which had been in a horrible collision. The only reason it hadn't been called an accident was because of a few weird injuries near his head, implying there was more to it.
"Mom was devastated for a long time. The only thing she could do was grieve back when it happened." Porrim muttered, checking her nails. Karkat almost forgot that it probably happened when she was a kid, not to mention Kanaya. "She just shut down for the longest time, long enough for any debate on your custody to go to Spades. He tried talking to her, but there really wasn't anyway for them to."
"They lost contact after a while. Mother recovered eventually, but it was a bit too late." Kanaya shrugged. It was the facts, even if most of them were unpleasant. "And then, on a strange stroke of luck, we ended up finding you anyway. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about that."
"Probably pretty shitty as far as I'm concerned." Karkat really hadn't been ready for today, especially on his emotional wellbeing. He thought he had enough to deal with as is. "What happens now? Not that this hasn't been interesting, and I wouldn't mind getting to know you guys more, but this is seriously out of left field."
"That's up to our mother, actually." Kanaya really wasn't sure what they'd be doing after this, but she had a feeling that after the daycare situation had been sorted out, there'd be a lot to talk about. "You probably don't have to worry about anything involving custody or anything. Considering your age, that wouldn't be a productive endeavor."
"That's not comforting at all, Kanaya. Seriously, don't those psychology books tell you not to make comments like that." Porrim smiled as she watched her little sister become irritated. "I mean, bedside manner may be a medical thing, but I'm pretty sure that applies here."
Karkat welcomed the addition of the sibling banter to this conversation. It made things a hell of a lot less tense than they were a few minutes ago, especially with that story hanging over their heads.
He felt Sollux elbow him, causing him to snap out of watching whatever it was that kept him down. The spectacled boy pointed at Karkat's phone, which had been left on the side table. He hadn't checked it since the conversation started. The thing's been buzzing, apparently.
Looking briefly at the sisters, he grabbed his phone to check it out.
AG: Hey.
AG: Hey.
AG: Heeeeeeeey.
CG: WHAT?
AG: Finally! I was wondering when you'd pick up, I've 8een drowning over here!
GC: W3'V3 B33N TRY1NG TO 1GNOR3 H3R BUT SH3 JUST K33PS M3SS4G1NG US.
AC: :33 are you busy right meow or something? we were starting to get worried.
CG: FAMILY DRAMA. APPARENTLY I HAVE A LONG LOST GRANDMOTHER. YOU KNOW, LIKE ALL PEOPLE HAVE.
AG: As hilarious as that sounds, we don't got time for your pro8lems. Have you seen my sister?
CG: WHY THE HELL WOULD I KNOW WHERE YOUR SISTER IS? ISN'T SHE IN THE GHOST ZONE STILL?
AG: No! She just started 8a88ling a8out something and 8efore I could ask her where she was going, she just flew out the door!
AC: :33 maybe she n33ded to go get something. maybe it was food?
GC: D1D SH3 T3LL YOU 4NYTH1NG B3FOR3 SH3 W3NT OUT? :?
AG: No, which is weird. She usually doesn't shut up. The only reason I didn't go after her is 8ecause I still need an "escort."
GC: F1N3, F1N3. 1'LL COM3 4ND P1CK YOU UP. M4YB3 MU3L1N 4ND HORUSS H4V3 SOM3TH1NG.
CG: I'LL CALL THEM UP.
Karkat did, looking up briefly. Porrim and Kanaya were still ribbing at each other, which was good. He frowned as he sent a message to the pair of moirails.
CG: HORUSS, MUELIN. SORRY TO CALL YOU UP OUT OF THE BLUE LIKE THIS, BUT HAVE YOU SEEN ARANEA ANYWHERE?
HZ: 8=D Greetings Phantom! I'm sorry to say that I haven't seen her anywhere.
ML: I HAVEN'T HEARD FROM HER EITHER! THEN AGAIN, I DON'T HEAR ANYONE! :3
CG: OKAY, THAT'S CLEVER, BUT THIS KINDA SERIOUS. VRISKA ACTUALLY ASKED FOR HELP FINDING HER.
ML: OH. THAT ACTUALLY DOES SOUND PURTTY BAD. WAS SHE HURT?
CG: NO, BUT CAN YOU GUYS STICK CLOSE TO PORTAL? DAD HAS GUESTS AND I CAN'T HAVE ANYONE SLIPPING THROUGH THERE.
HZ: 8=D Will do. Oh, and Phantom?
CG: YEAH HORUSS?
HZ: 8=D At some point, can we take about modifications we can make to your suit? I think if you want to continue your forays into combat, it will need some upgrades.
Karkat almost felt the instinctual urge to say no, but he gave it some thought. He wasn't wrong. The hazmat suit maybe good for filtering out toxins, but it wasn't built for combat. He needed some kind of armor or maybe something similar to it for it to be viable combat gear.
CG: I'LL THINK ABOUT. ONCE I GET THIS SOLVED, WE CAN TALK MORE ABOUT IT.
HZ: 8=D That's all I ask.
Karkat signed out of Ghostian, debating on his next course of action. Aranea had been behaving well enough so far, but that didn't mean she wasn't at whim to her own obsession. And a ghost left alone to that could be extremely dangerous.
"Hey," Karkat was able to silence the room fairly easily, getting up. "I think I'm gonna decompress for a bit. I also probably should check on dad and make sure one of his inventions doesn't blow up in everyone's faces."
"Do thing commonly blow up around here?" Karkat could only shrug at Kanaya's question, which only led her to wondering more. "Well, hopefully nothing has gone wrong down there. Don't be too surprised if our mother acts a little bit weird around you."
"I'll keep that in mind." Karkat carefully walked out of the room, pointing, and giving a stern look towards Sollux and Aradia. "Don't traumatize them too much. Or tell them embarrassing stories about me."
"I promise nothing."
"How dare you guess what we were going to do while you were away!"
Karkat rolled his eyes, moving on. It wasn't like he could do anything to stop them.
"…Okay, I'll admit that the hover technology is nice. But I refuse to believe that it's run-on ectoplasm."
"Then what do you assume it's running on, fucking pixie dust?"
Spades was two seconds away from kicking the Spectra out of his house. Karkat was pretty impressed that he hadn't kicked her out already. Usually he didn't put up with this bullshit long enough for someone to stay here.
"I'm guessing this has been going on for a while?" Karkat had made it to the bottom of the stairs without incident. Rosa herself looked just as irritated, keeping an eye on the other woman with a twitching eyebrow. "Because if it has been, I think dad deserves a prize."
"I've debated on helping him get her out of here, but I haven't found the proper excuse." Rosa's irritation prevented her from acting awkward, a boon the halfa didn't know he wanted. "I'm surprised he's gotten his work off the ground, but I'm willing to congratulate him for it. She just loves picking at it wherever she goes."
Karkat hummed in response, looking around the lab quickly. He didn't see anything out of place and the portal was closed for the time being. If Aranea wanted out, then she'd have a hard time slipping through.
Why the hell would she want out, anyway? She wouldn't do anything this risky considering she was about to get a little more freedom soon. If anything, this was the time to be careful and pick her battles.
He mentioned a few things going on in their conversation. The cat, some of the stuff involved with Dualscar, and Spectra. Which one of those turned her head? Ghosts can suffer from their obsessions, so maybe it's something related to hers being activated.
A cough caught his attention. He gave a Rosa a raised eyebrow as she seemed to think about what she wanted to say.
"I have to apologize for my strange behavior upstairs. It was a bit of a surprise to see you, among other things that happened today." The older woman sighed. Today had been certainly trying and filled with more surprises than she would've liked. " I suppose I just wasn't exactly ready to be in your presence yet."
"Don't worry about it. I got filled in by Kanaya and Porrim upstairs." It was still weird to think that they were legally his aunts, but it was funny still. His life would make good material for a standup comedy routine. "It isn't the weirdest thing that's happened to me. Living with my dad makes for a few interesting stories at least."
"I guess I can't argue with you there." Rosa looked up at the hovering box that Spades had used as a demonstration for his tech. It had risen up too high by now and she doubted anyone would be able to get it until it ran out of power. "Did he tell you why Spectra was visiting, by chance? She's not exactly into his line of science."
"I was honestly just about to ask." Karkat figured enough was enough, tilting his head as he looked over the red head. "Hey lady?!"
Spectra didn't seem surprised by his intrusion, giving him a glare as he moved closer. "What is it, kid?"
"If you don't mind me asking, but what the hell kind of purpose do you have here?" Karkat would've cleaned up his vocabulary, but Spectra wasn't worth the effort. "Other than shitting on my dad's inventions and field of study, you haven't exactly explained why you're here. Is being a dick to people just how you get your rocks off?"
He could hear a snort from behind him, along with a comment about 'Kankri in customer service all over again.' He decided to ignore it as Penelope just narrowed her eyes at him.
"I'm here to make sure your father doesn't cause a mass panic again due to his inventions. He's got way too many people worried about the existence of ghosts." Spectra scoffed, fixing up her hair. "A truly inane thing to be afraid about, quite honestly. Not to mention these sightings of 'ghosts' in this town are obviously due to mass suggestion."
Karkat really wanted to point out those were real ghost attacks, but that would open up a can of worms he couldn't explain properly. Still very tempting though.
"And what, that requires you to act like you're still in high school and the alpha bitch of whatever prep school you went to?" Hopefully harassing her would get her out of here. Not only would it get her out of the way of Aranea, but out of his house for good. "And just what the hell do you plan on doing after this? If you want to get town hall or the rec center for an announcement, I don't think they'll let anything like that happen since dad's presentation."
"I don't have to do any of that. And I don't see why I need to justify what I need to do to a high schooler." Penelope pointed at Karkat, giving Spades the 'Karen' face. "Can you please get your child to behave? People his age shouldn't swear as much as he does."
Spades looked at his son with a deadpan look on his face, not saying anything for a few seconds. He eventually opened his mouth, voice remaining monotone as he 'admonished' him. "No. Please. Son, behave yourself."
Spectra face palmed, earning a cackled from Spades. Karkat almost laughed too, but his paranoia flared. Aranea hasn't made a move yet, which was all the more alarming than her having done something drastic.
Not to mention Spectra was definitely grating on his nerves. Seriously, she didn't seem like she would make a good psychologist. The whole point was to make people feel better about themselves, not drive everyone around you into absolute misery.
…Misery. The stuff that Aranea needs to feed on in order to survive in the human world. Something she has to get out of people when she can, using her psychology knowledge as a bugger.
Spectra was the factor here.
Karkat took out his phone, contacting Vriska immediately. He had to check if that theory was true.
CG: VRISKA! I NEED TO ASK YOU SOMETHING!
CG: AND TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THAT IT'S TIME FUCKING SENSITIVE THAT YOU ANSWER IT NOW!
AG: Okay, okay, Jesus Christ. What stick got shoved your ass?
CG: NONE. DID YOUR SISTER KNOW ANYONE BY THE NAME OF PENELOPE SPECTRA?
AG: What, the psychologist visiting your dad? What does she have to do with anything?
CG: ANSWER THE QUESTION.
AG: I mean, I don't know. There was kinda a gap 8etween when we died. I don't know if she met someone like that after my death.
AG: Actually, w8. Is it some 8itchy red head that seems to suck the life out of the room?
CG: THE EXACT FUCKING SAME. SHE'S IN THE LAB RIGHT NOW CLAIMING THAT SHE'S GOING TO DISPROVE MY DAD'S THEORIES OR SOMETHING.
AG: I think she may have 8een Aranea's therapist at some point. She mentioned once that she got some grief counseling that may have ruined her life.
AG: Yeah. It's coming 8ack to me now.
AG: She said that some lady, pro8a8ly Spectra, ran some kind of experiment seeing how certain coping mechanisms effected certain people. Taught her a 8unch of shit that made her 8ecome a total 8itch in school.
CG: AND BY THAT YOU MEAN...
AG: Shit like 8eing a8le to tear people apart with psychology. Hurting other people to make herself feel 8etter. Pretty messed up stuff that made her a little clone of herself.
AG: I think she 8urned every 8ridge she had, and Spectra wrote an entire paper on it. She didn't know until years l8r when it was too l8.
Karkat felt his blood chill as a horrible thought flitted through his mind.
CG: ...VRISKA, DID YOUR SISTER DIE BY SUICIDE?
AG: Hell no. 8ut she certainly wasn't happy a8out it. I think she tried to sue Spectra, 8ut other than causing some flak, it never went anywhere.
AG: ...Oh shit, she's heading your way, isn't she?
CG: YEAH, AND I'M PRETTY SURE IT ISN'T TO SAY HELLO EITHER. I DON'T KNOW WHEN SHE'S GETTING HERE, BUT I HOPE YOU'RE BETTER AT CALMING HER DOWN THAN SHE IS AT CALMING YOU DOWN.
AG: I'll get there as soon as I can. L8r.
Karkat clicked off of Ghostian, looking at the portal with a trepidation now. This officially went from wondering when she'd show up to planning out how to handle an attack. Especially with so many people here in the room.
And with that thought crossing his mind, that's when a red light started blaring near the portal.
"The hell- Something's near the portal!" Spades went over to a table stacked with weapons, grabbing the biggest one he could find. Karkat made a show of grabbing one of the guns too, even if he already had several knives on him. "Rosa, you still know how handle a gun?"
"Excuse me? I mean, yes I do, but what does that have to do with anything?" Rosa had a gun thrown at her, which she caught easily. Karkat was insanely curious to know why she seemed to know how to handle it. "Is there something wrong with the portal?"
"Something's heading towards it at top speed, and I haven't had that happen before. Something obviously wants to get through." Spades had some preparations made for defenses on the portal, but he hadn't made them yet. Installing them would've required heading inside the portal and he wasn't sure how he'd install them. "Spectra, I'd suggest heading upstairs. Maybe get everyone out of here just in case."
"For what, a blinking red light?" Spectra must've been dropped on her head because she obviously didn't see how dangerous this situation was. Karkat debated dragging her out before she became the poster board of Darwin Awards everywhere. "Maybe if you opened up that little portal there and show me how dangerous this all really is-"
A loud bang coming from the portal immediately shut her up. It silenced everyone else too, causing them to tense. Another bang occurred, louder than the first one, and successfully being intimidating.
"Dad, how much can damage can the portal take before something can break through?" Karkat realized he never thought about this before and kicked himself for not doing so. "If whatever it is breaks it down, a lot of ghosts can slip through."
"I don't know. I think we might have to open the damn thing just in case." Having a breach was bad already but having a gaping hole between them and Ghost Zone would be more troublesome. Spades knew it sounded insane, but that was the better solution long term. "Kid, maybe take a few steps back. Open up the portal and I'll start firing as soon as it's opened."
The halfa admittedly didn't like that plan, but he knew it was the only one they had preventing a permanent breach between the Ghost Zone and human realm. He had enough ghosts to fight thanks to Dualscar letting the floodgates open.
He made it over to a computer, keeping an ecto-gun aimed at the portal. With a few practiced keystrokes, he opened it up.
Aranea didn't waste any time slipping through, completely in her shadow form and looking feral as her eyes washed around the room. Spades immediately fired his ecto-gun, followed quickly by the panicked random shots from Rosa.
Karkat braced himself as she immediately flinched, quickly moving towards the ceiling. He fired himself, hitting her and causing her to yell out. She threw a shadowed hand his way, forcing him to dodge. The rain of fire ended up hitting her harder after that as two angry adults turned their attention back to her.
"What in the world?" Spectra was backing away from the ensuing fight, keeping an eye on the creature that was Aranea. "What in the hell is that?!"
Aranea's hears must've burned at the insult, as she turned her attention immediately onto Spectra. She smiled as she moved to the wall opposite of the woman, her head turning around on a swivel.
"Penelope."
"H-how do you my name?" Spectra watched another volley of shots was thrown at the shadow, Aranea snaking across the walls. "Who are you?!"
Aranea didn't bother answering, deciding to pounce on her prey before it could escape her. In a sudden moved, Aranea moved to the floor, shrinking, and turning her form intangible to avoid the shots from the three assailants. When she was close enough, she got big enough again to grab the woman in one hand.
Karkat turned around to aim a gun at Aranea, but hesitated when she put Spectra in front of her. The mix of Spectra's terrified face, Aranea's manic glee, and the swirling of obsession clear in the ghost's face. The lull in the fighting caused her to chuckle, a horrible sound that showed how far gone she was.
"I'm very sorry for the intrusion here, but I needed to come collect something." Aranea gloated, still using Spectra as a hostage. "But I think I'll be taking my leave. You all have a good day now, alright?"
The ghost went through the ceiling after that, Spectra shouting as they left. Karkat could hear the distant sound of shouting from other people in the house as this happened, but nothing else following it. The halfa should've sent a warning to Sollux and Aradia, but he'd been panicking.
"Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck." Spades went over to a control panel, closing the portal quickly. He was heading over to separate tables, looking for any trackers he could use. "What the fuck was that all about? How the hell did the ghost know she was even here?"
"That's what a ghost looked like?" Rosa was just as worried about Spectra, but this whole thing left her with more questions than before. "A lot different than what I was imagining. Do you know where it went?"
"I don't know, but I'll find the damn thing! Tear it apart molecule by molecule when I do!"
Karkat barely registered the conversation taking place behind him, cursing himself out internally. He couldn't believe how he let this happen.
If he hadn't said as much about Spectra earlier, maybe this could've been avoided. Aranea wouldn't have gone obsession-crazy and wouldn't have put not only Spectra in danger, but herself.
Karkat knew two things right now; this was the worst possible situation, and it was all completely his fault.
Admittedly, I don't have much to say here. I do think I'll come up with Aranea playlist at some point, but you'll have to wait for it until next chapter. Things are good for me right now, but good surprises are surprises all the same.
I'll see you all next chapter!