> Karkat: Have a close call.
(I wrote a fic. In the third person this time. GOOD LORD WHAT IS HAPPEN HERE?)
-- gallowsCantare [GC] began pestering carcinoGrace [CG] at 8:08 --
GC: H3Y K4RKL3S GC: I W4NN4 SHOW YOU SOM3TH1NG CG: WHAT? GC: 1 K1ND4 M1GHT H4V3 4 D4T3
-- Incoming video call from gallowsCantare [GC] [ANSWER/IGNORE] --
Karkat stares flatly at the screen for a few moments before making a noise like a lawnmower failing to start, looking frantically around his room for something, anything, he could find to disguise his current status- glowing, and slopping around his hive in a pair of sweatpants and little else.
He shoves the curtains open, filling the room with early-morning sunlight, grabbing a pile of blankets off the floor and wrapping himself in them, only his eyes and hair visible. Not great, but it'll have to do.
He runs back to his computer, nearly knocking a pot of thick grey paste he'd been experimenting with earlier and a packet of makeup wipes off his desk, and answers the call, huddling back into his blanket cocoon.
Terezi's face, impatient, comes up on screen. "About time!" her voice crackles out of the speakers, her lips drawing back in a toothy grin. His lips twitch in a rough approximation of a smile, and she cackles.
"Hey, sorry." Karkat murmurs, wincing immediately at the sound of his voice, rasping from overuse. "Took me a while to notice the notification, I was in the ablution block." he lies. Terezi shakes her head, smiling.
"As always, Karkles, you have an impeccable sense of timing." she laughs, tilting her head to squint at the screen. "Is there something wrong with your webcam? You are rather washed out."
"It's daytime, and I've got the blinds open. I'm feeling pretty fucking sick, so I thought a bit of warmth and fresh air would do me some good." Karkat replies. It's not a lie, exactly, but it's close enough to one to feel uncomfortable.
Terezi tsks. "I thought you looked a bit peaky. Anyway, Vriska sent me this." She holds up a slightly crumbled piece of paper with a date- three days from now- and a time, plus a crude map of the coastline marked with a clumsy X. His heart sinks a little.
"Looks like you have a date." Karkat jokes, emerging slightly from his cocoon of blankets to give her a weak grin. Terezi shrugs, putting the piece of paper down and squinting at the camera again.
"Are you alright, Karkat?" she queried, her mouth scrunching sideways in that odd expression she always makes when she's confused. "You look practically white, have you developed some kind of virulent land skin infection?"
Karkat opens his mouth, then shuts it, frantically searching for some kind of excuse. His eyes find the makeup remover and grey paint and an idea snaps into his head. "I got ahold of some of the stuff they use in movies to make Rainbow Drinkers. They white out their faces and then apply the glow in aftereffects. Cool, huh?"
Mouth dry, he reaches for the remover wipes, smudging one against the open pot of grey paint and then wiping it against his skin, leaving a wide stripe of grey. Terezi blinks, startled.
"You will have to show me how to do that sometime. It looks very convincing." she replies, and Karkat swallows back a sigh of relief, telling her that he has some sewing he needs to finish, and going offline on Trollian, slumping back in his chair and throwing the blankets onto the floor, running his fingers through his hair.
"That was close." he murmurs, sitting up and pulling up a search engine.
He was going to have to try harder. He might have two weeks before the next market, but if any of his friends got suspicious, he might have a matter of days.
There had to be a solution. Had to be.