Chapter 1

Author Rant: Ok so a little warning about my writing style, I don't like curse words. Even though I did read homestuck and I do watch homestuck videos filled with curse words and such. I still don't like cursing… I have a pure mind. :33 So instead I just blanked them out. I hope this doesn't bother anyone. If it does, you don't have to read this story, simple as that. (some OOC, but that's always there in fanfics)

== Be Karkat

Karkat stared at the screen, drumming his fingers on his desk as he waited for the game to load. How the hell did it takes this long for one game to load? He was tempted to smash his fist through the screen. He would've given up straight away any other day, but his friend had told him this game was the best there was.

Karkat had gotten Sburb from his friend at school. Given the type of friend he was, Karkat bet it was a terrible game. Although, he was giving it to everyone, whether he liked them or not, so it might be good.

After at least half an hour, the game dinged to say it was loaded. Karkat glared at the screen as it changed to a character selection screen. It had several different race options, all of them non-traditional except for human. They were carapacian, troll, leprechaun, and cherub. Karkat debated between the races, finally settling on troll.

He selected male, and saw a character with a basic design appear. Karkat switched the hair to match his style, shaggy and purposely messed up. He tried to change the color from black but it wouldn't budge. He frowned and moved on. The eye color was also stuck on black, with a weird yellow-orange in place of the whites of the eyes. The horns on his head were big, stretching up to touch the end of the screen. Karkat frowned and attempted to change them to the smallest ones he could, but those were still too big. Then he spotted a small button that had a red drop on it. He wasn't sure what made him click it, but he did. On his head appeared tiny rounded horns.

He clicked the next button and was told to decide clothing for his character. At the moment he was wearing a plain black t-shirt and grey shorts. Karkat frowned, and made the shirt a black turtleneck and the shorts, jeans. He clicked next yet again.

The game congratulated him on his new character, assigning him a red Cancer symbol on his shirt. He didn't like the color, so he changed it to a more subdued grey. He clicked next yet again to find a character name generator.

Sburb informed him that the name had to consist of two words, the second one with the first letter capitalized. What kind of screen name is that? He wondered.

He scowled at the screen. He knew this game was going to be terrible already. He rubbed his temples and stared at the cancer symbol on his shirt. He blinked slowly, sitting up and typed in his idea.

== carcinoGeneticist

The game paused for a second and then let out a small ding, telling him that his name was unique. Good.

Sburb dropped him off in the middle of a bustling town square. Everywhere he looked there were trolls. It seemed there were mainly trolls in this game. There were a small amount of humans huddling in the corner and cherubs were sparsely mixed in the crowd. They were leaving the square and not staying around like the other species. There weren't many leprechauns, but Karkat wasn't too surprised by that. He didn't see any carapacians at all. He assumed they had another drop off point specifically for them, or something. Maybe they just weren't that popular.

"Hey look! It's another troll!" someone in the crowd that surrounded him said in the public chat. They looked slightly angry, but some looked gleeful as they traded money. He realized they were taking bets on what species would come out next.

Karkat quickly moved out of the circle, not wanting to become involved. Suddenly a button started flashing on the left side of the screen. He clicked it.

First Objective:

Trolls come in sets of twelve. You must find the other twelve in your group, starting with the lowest color in your group. Your symbol is in the Zodiac Alphabet. Find the eleven other Zodiac trolls, and you will move on to the next stage. Good luck.

The window closed automatically, before another came up with twelve strange symbols on it, all dark grey against a black background except for his, which was light gray. He exited out of the window and noticed a something in the corner of his screen. He clicked on it.

ectoBiologist wants to pester you. Accept? Yes / No

Karkat notice a boy walk up to him and wave at his character. He growled and clicked yes.

CG: WHAT THE F*** DO YOU WANT?

EB: why are you typing in all caps? do you want people to think you're yelling at them?

CG: MAYBE THE CAPS LOCK BROKE, F***A**.

EB: no need to call names! I just wanted to know what your first objective is.

CG: IT'S SOMETHING ABOUT FINDING ELEVEN OTHER TROLLS. WHY?

EB: I only have to find three other humans. sounds like you got it rough.

CG: F*** YEAH I DO. IT'S PRETTY OBVIOUS THAT I SHOULD'VE JUST STUCK WITH BEING HUMAN. IT SEEMS THE PATHETIC HUMANS HAVE IT WAY EASIER THAN TROLLS.

CG: NO F***ING SURPRISE THERE.

EB: but… really I think we have it equally hard, because there are fewer humans than trolls. and trolls have set colors too. with humans it could be anything.

CG: WHAT THE F***? SET COLORS?

EB: yeah. the game selected a random color for your symbol, right? Even if you changed it, it's still going to be the same. I'm not quite sure what it means though.

CG: S***, THAT DOESN'T HELP ME AT ALL.

EB: yeah, well I guess you'll figure it out later.

CG: I THINK I SEE SOMEONE FROM MY GROUP. BYE.

Karkat exited the chat and followed after the person he'd seen. He couldn't quite tell if it was someone from his group but he recognized the symbol from somewhere. He didn't really get a good look at the person either.

While he was thinking, he lost sight of the troll. He facepalmed and grumbled to himself. There were a lot of people around, but it wasn't that hard to follow someone. He scanned the street he was in, looking for the troll.

arsenicCatnip wants to troll you. Accept? Yes / No

The screen popped out of nowhere, but he clicked yes, wondering who this new person was.

AC: :33 *ac stalks from above, her purrey unaware*

CG: WHAT THE F*** ARE YOU DOING?

AC: :33 *ac leaps mightily to the ground, landing on her purrey*

The troll he had been following earlier was suddenly on top of him, knocking him to the ground on his stomach.

CG: A**HOLE, GET THE F*** OFF OF ME!

AC: :33 *ac purrs* are you alright? are you one of the trolls I'm looking fur?

CG: I DON'T KNOW, ALRIGHT? GET OFF ME.

AC: :33 purrhaps if you show me your shirt?

CG: F*** WHATEVER.

The girl leaped off of him. He stood, crossing his arms defiantly so she couldn't see his symbol. He noticed that she moved in a cat-like way. She had an oversized olive green trench coat and shoulder length messy black hair. She had a blue beanie covering her hair and cat ear-like horns. Poking out of the back of her trench coat was a blue tail.

AC: :33 I'm Nepeta! who are you?

CG: IM NOT TELLING YOU MY F***ING NAME!

AC: :33 *ac folds back ears* pawease?

CG: F*** OFF.

AC: :33 *ac pouts* can I s33 your shirt meow?

CG: FINE.

Karkat finally uncrossed his characters arms from in front of his shirt, and was immediately tackled.

AC: :33 *ac purrs* Yay! You're in my group!

Nepeta's character was grinning gleefully, as a notification popped up on the first objective icon. Karkat clicked the button and saw that the sign for Leo was now lit up in olive green, the same as the symbol on her shirt.

AC: :33 what's your color? it's still gray on my objective scr33n.

CG: EVER THINK IT MIGHT BE GRAY FOR A REASON?

AC: :33 ok mister grumpy pants! Be that way.

ectoBiologist wants to pester you. Accept? Yes / No

CG: I HAVE ANOTHER CHAT REQUEST. I HAVE TO LEAVE.

AC: :33 just add them to this one.

CG: ALRIGHT, FINE.

Karkat clicked yes and dragged the human into the conversation.

CG: THERE.

EB: did you find the troll in your group yet?

AC: :33 yes! it was meow!

CG: DON'T INTERUPT ME!

AC: :33 I'm sorry… *ac pouts*

CG: AND STOP ROLEPLAYING. IT'S F***ING ANNOYING.

Karkat rubbed his temples. This stupid girl was giving him a headache.

EB: hey don't talk to people like that! She can role-play if she wants to.

AC: :33 thanks, but if it annoys people I'll stop.

CG: THANK GOG.

EB: gog?

CG: *GOD. I HATE MY F***ING COMPUTER.

AC: :33 you do? I'll have to add that to my shipping wall! :33

CG: SHIPPING WALL? WHAT THE F*** IS THAT?

AC: :33 romantic pairings! I k33p a sketchbook of them in my room, but I like to call it a wall.

CG: WHAT THE F*** DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ME HATING MY COMPUTER?

AC: :33 I read online that in this game, trolls can romantically hate someone. It's called a kismesis, and is refurred to as spades or black romance.

CG: WHERE THE HELL DID YOU FIND THAT?

AC: :33 I don't know. I know a lot of stuff when it comes to shipping :33

EB: not to interrupt or anything, but could you guys help me find the humans in my group? I'd be really grateful if you did :B

CG: F*** NO.

AC: :33 don't mind him. We'd be delighted to help you! what's your name?

EB: oh… John.

CG: HOW AM I NOT SURPRISED. SO ORDINARY.

AC: :33 hi John! I'm Nepeta! Mr. grumpy pants here doesn't want tell us his name.

EB: why not?

"Karkat! Dinner!"

Karkat was momentarily startled at the interruption and stared in the direction the voice had come from.

"Be there in a f***ing minute!" he called back.

CG: I HAVE TO GO.

EB: bye! nep and I'll find the humans while you're gone.

CG: BYE.

Karkat closed out of the screen and shut down his computer. Most likely he wouldn't be going back on tonight. He went downstairs before his dad started yelling again. His elder brother sat, eagerly waiting for food. As if he didn't know it was going to be seafood. It was all their dad knew how to cook.

Karkat slumped into the chair across from his brother and made an effort to eat the fish.

"You know Karkat, it can be considered very impolite to curse insome settings."he continued to talk for a couple of minutes about some random thing.

As usual, Karkat stared frowning at Kankri until he finished his lecture. He liked to pass on tons of "brotherly wisdom." He never let Karkat respond, ever. It wasn't like he was listening anyways, he just tuned him out.

"Kankri, leave your brother alone," Dad said. He didn't talk much, but when he did he was serious.

"Fine." Kankri's mouth twisted into a slight frown. He'd probably start up again right after Dad went back to his office. F***.

A/R: Edit2: Please continue reading, it does get better I promise!