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

> Dave: Wake up.

You awake to the sound of soft breathing next to you.

Your eyes fly open and you sit up, before actually seeing what's in front of you with blurry eyes and remembering the events of yesterday. Karkat is sitting with his arms crossed over his chest, heavily slouched in the same corner as he was when you fell asleep. His eyes, which were previously unfocused and looking directly in front of him, snap over to you at your sudden movement, and you freeze in place, blinking.

"How long was I out?" You move slowly, still a bit drowsy, and cross your legs so you're in a more comfortable sitting position. Your eyes hurt. You think that being in a place where the lights are on all the time is more detrimental to your vision than you thought.

Karkat thinks for a second, before saying, "Around seven hours?" It's more of a question than a statement, and you annoy slightly at the uncertainty, but it's better than nothing. It feels like it's been seven hours, anyways. And you're usually right.

Nodding, you pull your arms up behind your head and stretch your back. It pops rather loudly, and you sigh, content, before pulling out your headset.

You catch a glimpse of Karkat from the corner of your eye, and then look directly at him immediately, because he's looking at you with his mouth agape like you just committed a crime that would end up with you getting a life sentence. You open your mouth to say something, but he beats you to it.

"Did you just break your fucking backbone?!" He exclaims and puts both hands in his hair. You slightly flinch back at his sudden outburst, but then realize what he means and snort. You can feel the stupid smile on your face as you hold back laughter, and he's still looking at you, worried but with hints of anger and confusion.

"No man," you say between muffled giggles, "that's, like, a normal thing that humans do when they stay in one position for too long."

He bares his teeth and his hands come down to gesture angrily, and the laughter you were holding in all comes out of you.

"Don't laugh at me, you shitsponge!" He yells, and you can't help but cackle even more.

"Well, fucking excuse me for being worried for your wellbeing! I had no idea that your weak human bodies had to literally pop back into place like a damn doll whose limbs got torn off by a wriggler with no lusus-supervision. That's great to know, and definitely makes me want to meet even more of you! Thanks for the information, my human friend, Dave, I'll be sure to store it in my thinkpan so whenever your buddies do it in front of me, I won't think they just broke their whole vessel!" Jesus, you think this guy talks in all caps. You give one last chuckle before looking at him, because there are some words that he just said that you're sure you've never heard before.

"Thinkpan? You mean brain? And what the fuck is a lusus."

Karkat does a double take and then seems to remind himself that you aren't in fact, his species.

"A lusus is like a guardian. Y'know, the giant animal type thing that helped raise you?" He rolls his eyes like it's common knowledge, but that just leaves you with more questions.

"Y'know, Karkat, at first I thought you were kind of strange, but honestly it makes sense now that I know you were raised by an animal. Who are you, Tarzan?" You snort at your own joke.

"No, not like Troll Tarzan." Troll Tarzan???? "It's like you don't know anything. What else would raise you? That's what lusii are there for, fucking duh."

"Um, I don't know about you, but I was raised by like. A whole dude. So I think I'm the one who should be saying 'duh' in this situation."

"What?! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Do you know how much of a disaster it would be if everyone was raised by another person?"

"Well yeah, no shit, but it's better than being raised by an animal?"

"I disagree. My lusus did a perfectly good job raising me."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," you grin and slip your headphones on before he can reply, his face reddened and eyebrows furrowed. Damn, he gets riled up easily.

"Hey, guys, I'm up," you say into the mic, and are greeted with John's voice, much to your surprise.

"Hi, Dave. How long's it been?"

"92 hours," you answer, doing some quick math in your head. That'd be... almost four days, god damn. You really need to get out of here. "Find anything new?"

You hear him sigh. "No. I'm running out of food. There are vending machines here, but since they're a part of the game, I don't really trust that it'll be real, or sustaining, I guess." Oh, right. Food is a thing that exists. You should probably eat something, it's been awhile since you have.

"Yeah, I get that. You should try some now, though, while you still have your own supplies. So you can rule it out early if it doesn't work." You look over to Karkat. He has his earbuds in.

"Good idea, I'll let you know how it goes. I'm gonna head to sleep for now, though, wake me up?"

"Of course. Later."

"Bye."

You wonder if you'll be able to find food here, in case you run out. Your supply shouldn't go dry anytime soon, especially with the rate you're hacking through it, but. It's better to be safe than sorry. You don't think you'll find anything here that'll be of very much use. You look back to Karkat and take your headphones off.

"How're you doing on the food front?"

He takes an earbud out. "I'm doing good. I should last for at least five more sleep cycles." You nod and loosely put a hand over your mouth, thinking.

"Do you think there's any way we could get out of here?"

He looks at you curiously. "I mean, maybe? What else would we do but walk around?"

"I'm not sure." Karkat sticks his hands out, as if to say 'why the hell would you ask, then?' and the corners of your mouth tick up into a small smile.

You sigh and start pushing yourself off the floor. You stretch again, with minimal cracks this time, much to Karkat's relief, and yawn.

"If all we can do now is walk, then we're losing valuable time." Hand outstretched towards his slouched figure, you smile. It's a peace offering. An olive branch, if you will, and though you don't think one is necessary at this point, it's always nice to have reassurance. Karkat looks up at you with pale, gray and red speckled eyes. They kind of sparkle in a way that you're not used to, and they remind you of those random pictures of the galaxy you saw when you scrolled too far down on Google Images. He doesn't have discernible pupils, not any that you can see, just clusters of color that get bigger in the center. The unpigmented part of his eye is a stark bright orange that fades and disappears quite nicely under the rest of his eye. He smirks, showing sharp and yellow teeth, and you realize you've been staring. Your ears get warm. You ignore it.

"Let's hope your short ass legs can keep up with me," he says, and grips your hand into his.