i wanna feel lethal on the inside, i wanna read american psycho again

==>

"Who're you playing with?"

Karkat looks at you for a second with an exaggerated expression that you will totally laugh your ass off about later. His eyebrows are up almost to his hairline, and it makes his yellow eyes look like they're bulging out of his head. You hold back a giggle and reach into your sylladex, pulling out your headphones. John's voice flows from them, so you guess he's back in his "base" and it's off to sleep for him. Damn, you missed your shift. You didn't realize it had been that long.

His gaze fills with realization as he lets out an "oh." He continues.

"Just a few friends. They're loud as shit so I never usually get any silence in here." Karkat notices your look and stops you before you can call him out for being a hypocrite. "I mean, they're not loud, they just don't shut the fuck up when its time to shut the fuck up. On my team, there's me Terezi, Vriska, Nepeta, Tavros, and Kanaya, going in the order of loudest to not." Your eyes widen a little. That's a lot of people. And what does he mean by teams?

"Teams?"

"Oh, right. We usually play in teams, since most games don't allow the amount of people that we have in one group," he rants on about something or other concerning 11 other people(11???!?!?) that usually plays with him. They're like his gaming buddies, he tells you, obviously not in those exact words. You might've just met this guy, but you can already tell that this guy won't call anyone his buddy unless it's laced heavily in sarcasm. Then he asks who you're playing with.

You pick at the foam on the headphones around your neck(when did they get there?) and start sheepishly explaining. "Okay, so my group of asshats is a lot smaller than yours, but it's quality over quantity, right?" he huffs softly, but doesn't disagree.

"I'm playing with my friends John, Jade, and Rose. They're all really cool, I've been friends with them for a while." He looks at you with curious, swirling eyes.

"Are they also humans?" You raise an eyebrow.

"Does a bear shit in the woods?"

"What the fuck is a bear."

You both stare at each other for a second, matching expressions that read "duh," until he can't hold it in anymore and lets out a small breath of laughter.

"A bear is like. A really fucking big furry thing in the woods that eats people sometimes." Karkat's eyebrows rotate down slightly, as if he's thinking. He emotes a lot with his eyebrows, you think.

"Sounds weird. Just some more human bullshit that I'll enjoy not worrying about when I get out of here, I guess." He looks away and down at the floor. He picks at his cuticles with his thumb nail(claw?) that looks kind of really sharp.

What does he mean "when he gets out"? You mean, obviously you know what he means, but to be so sure of himself...

You steel your expression and slowly draw your knees back into your chest, suddenly feeling embarrassingly exposed.

"Right. When we get out." You repeat, matching his gaze and not looking him in the eye. When you get out. You might have forgotten that was an element of the game.

Do you even want to get out?

You clear your throat and look back at him. His eyes meet yours, and thank god for reflective sunglasses, because then he won't be able to see you immediately avoid his eyes. You focus on the wall behind him.

"Do you..." you say softly, the buzzing lights suddenly seeming a million times louder to you. "Do you have any ideas? On how to get out, I mean."

Karkat looks away from you and chews on the inside of his lip. "I have a notebook." Something sparks in your chest. Maybe it's hope. Maybe it's false.

"A notebook?" you say skeptically, like an asshole, and then mentally curse yourself for doing that to someone who isn't used to your douchey-ness yet. He falters, but to your relief, continues.

"Yeah." Karkat's voice cuts through the white noise. "Of notes, and shit like that." A notebook appears from his hand, probably from his sylladex, and he holds it out to you. You take it hesitantly and with another eyebrow raise, and his ears flush a light red as he scowls and looks away. "It's my job, I'm the team leader. I have to keep notes or else my team might fail."

You snort and say "uh huh," before taking the notebook with two hands and flipping the cover open. You're greeted with a much messier handwriting than the one you saw on the walls, and a few doodles scattered throughout the page. Jesus, this guy's handwriting is big. It takes up, like, two lines per letter.

You flip through the pages, seeing some with names at the top and some drawings of what he thinks his co-players' levels look like. Despite him using the same thick black marker as the one he used on the wall, the drawings seem really well thought out and detailed.

"Damn, dude," you start to say but pause. On the page titled "TEREZI", he drew his usual sketch and scribbled notes, but something about the description and scenery seems familiar. It's a dark place with a watery floor, vague lights, and square pillars. You've... you've heard this before.

"Holy shit," you say out loud before you can stop yourself. Karkat swivels his head back to you. You turn the notebook so the page is facing him and point at it frantically like an idiot. "This is where Rose is!"

His eyes widen and he grabs the notebook, looking over it again. "No way," he says, meeting your eyes, and you're in disbelief just as much as he is. A sort of nervousness runs through your veins abruptly, and your hands shoot up to your headset.

"I gotta make a call," you tell him before standing and walking away to the furthest point in the room from him. You put your headphones on and are met with silence.

"Guys!" You definitely don't yell. You hear Rose startle from the other side.

"Good morning to you too, Dave." She says sarcastically. "Where have you been?"

"I found something."

"And is this something more important than keeping track of the time and your hourly check-ins?"

"If you're wondering, it's been 9 hours, and yes, it is more important."

"Explain."

"Okay, so about a day ago, I found another starting room. I knew it wasn't mine cause the wallpaper was way different, and on the wall I found a note. So I was kind of freaking out, right? So I took a picture of it and moved on, but then I found another note on the wall with the same pen and handwriting. This time it had a really long line next to it and I've been following it for the past nine hours and, guess what, Rose."

"I am choosing to ignore the fact that you found something that was a sign of life and didn't tell any of us. But go on."

"I found a guy! Well, not a human guy, but still a guy." You look back at Karkat. He's still in his corner and talking into the mic of his earbuds. You can tell he's trying to keep it down, but honestly he sucks ass at whispering. "His name is Karkat and he's a troll and he's awesome. He's not a troll from those shitty fairytales, though, he's mostly humanoid and he's got gray skin and some bright orange sort of nubby horns. Oh, and his eyes are different. They're pretty cool, actually. The only huge difference, though is that he's fucking ginormous. Seriously, guy's like seven feet tall. Shits crazy."

You wait for a response, but get none. You can hear Karkat talking behind you.

"Rose?"

"... That is certainly a story." You frown.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Your heartbeat picks up speed. You feel your shoulders coil and make an effort to put them back to where they were.

"Are you feeling alright, Dave?"

A part of your mind goes as blank as a sheet of paper. The color drains from your face.

Does she seriously not believe you?