#ask-collegestuck

[abbylikestodraw]

I just started my college classes soooooo... here is collegestuck davekat I drew waiting.

(Psst: Karkitten's wearing the same clothes as I do.)

Dave attends classes in either pajamas or full costumes, no in between. Never ask Dave what's in his man-purse. (He doesn't know what's in the apple juice).

For @davekatweek free day.

[mallowstep]

🤯🤭❌

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

Romance that’s about getting together. I am too fucking aro for that.

🤭 Do you have a favorite tag to use when posting your works?

I dunno if I have a favorite tag to use but my favorite tag I’ve ever used is “past marriage fraud.” At least that I can remember.

Other than “alternate universe — human” which I won’t count, my most commonly used tag is “canon compliant” and that feels right. I really like working within the confines of canon to add more depth to stories.

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

I dunno?

There’s some kink stuff that’s a hard no from me, but I don’t think this is really what this is asking LOL.

Ummm I guess I’ll go with high school AU. I know I’ve technically written about characters in high school, but I don’t consider that a high school AU the same way I don’t consider collegestuck* a high school au. Like, having characters in high school IMO does not a high school AU make. High school AU means the high school choice came first, over having high school aged characters.

*“The Collegestuck ‘Verse,” a homestuck AU that both occupies a huge part of my heart and is the inspiration for how I executed my human AUs

But if you don’t want to count that, I really don’t know. I’m the guy who wrote a daddy kink fic for warriors (when they were cats) on half a dare and a can-do attitude. There’s very little I won’t do if I find an idea intriguing. Some of the most recent ideas in my notebook are

Gaucho (South American cowboy) AU

Call the midwife AU

Pacific Rim + soulmate AU (ESSENTIAL that you know I have not seen pacific rim and do not know what the fuck I’m talking about)

AU inspired by the song what do you do with a drunken sailor

Fic that exists purely because the title is a disguised pun for house on wheels

My point is I’ll try my hand at almost anything. Everything I can think of saying I wouldn’t write I’ve ended up writing, either because I like a challenge or because it was the logical conclusion of something that I was going to write anyway. I’m just like that.

[daedalusdavinci]

📓

Put “📓” or some other version of a book emoji into my inbox and I’ll explain the plot of a fanfiction that I haven’t written but daydream about.

ive spent a lot of time recently trying to remember the hs fics i always dreamed id write one day, but lost motivation for before i ever could. i feel like i used to have endless inspiration and i guess im hoping reflecting on that will help me reconnect with it now

i think i wanted to write a collegestuck fic, where dave and sollux were roommates and dave had a shitty job at a coffeeshop and that he swore was basically step one to becoming a dj because they had live music sometimes and thats *almost* a club (but he doesnt want to be a dj, bro was a dj, hes studying archaeology and hes never been happier and he spends too many hours bent over textbooks in the library with aradia just because he loves it, its everything he wanted when he was a kid and it feels like freedom in his hands, but jade asks him what he wants to be and he says the sickest dj there is, and college is just to tide him over until then, and john asks him what he wants to be and he says a director, so he can make movies even shittier than johns dumbass favorites, and rose asks him what he wants to be and he says solluxs sugar baby, because if you dont admit you want something its harder for people to take it from you)

i dont know what the ship wouldve been, im sure there were times where i was full on applebee2 to the end and times where it wouldve been dvekat and so on and so forth, but i know that dave moved across several states so he could go to school with his friends and i know that he and sollux were assigned to the same dorm and get along in the way that only two irritating nerdboys confined to one room can (which is to say that theyre besties and also they hate each other), because i feel very passionately about sollux and dave being friends just as much as dave and aradia being friends.

i think it would be funny if eridan was studying abroad and was one of those annoying europeans that cant go ten seconds without shitting on america (why are you here then, karkat asks him every ten seconds) and was generally just. literally so insufferable but also had no real idea what he wanted to do w his life so he was just majoring in business even tho he hated it (he switches to history, eventually, and is much happier for it), and i think he studies at daves coffeeshop and gets the kind of coffee that makes dave think hes a pretentious hipster (he is), only he doesnt actually do a lot of studying at all and spends most of his time checking out dave bc hes stupid, and instead of flirting with him he insults him constantly, bc hes stupid. dave literally hates him.

on the side i think id want to spend some time exploring dave reconnecting with rose as long lost siblings and john and jade navigating that weird space of "okay ive known you online forever but this is what knowing you in real life is like huh". i think id go jadrose for this au and emphasize jade having a very complicated relationship with romance bc who am i if i dont make someone aspec. john burns out bad towards the end of their first year and is in his depression era

but yeah. all that, i guess. i came up w a lot of ideas for college aus when i was finishing up community college bc i was so excited to get out and go to uni and so theres a lot of like, idea scraps floating around and maybe someday id like to do something with that, especially now that ive gone to uni and know what its actually like

[ask-collegestuck]

Tavva does NOT like strangers - Dads or Uncle Gamzee only

[oni-tengu]

hi! can l ask u to draw shoolstuck stuff, please? for example equius and nepeta in shool clothes, talking/doing homework together? l just realy like them and this au, and I really like your drawings too. I would be terribly happy 👉👈

thank you!

sorry i assumed you meant teenagers in school but i dont like drawing teens lol so theyre in college. nepeta probably wanted to go to veterinarian school but she found out u have to do the ugly shit n probably decided on art or undeclared. equius is in health fitness

[melonpapa-blog]

weird white dude who has no friends and runs the anime club

[hskinreadings]

Was one out of those timelines [ DC, DL or JL ] a highschool/college stuck au?

I got a yes for DC and JL!

- mod k

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

“#*looks at my 18k word homestuck arospec slowburn karkat fic*” :O?? Is this?? Published anywhere???

oh its not published anywhere im writing it on gooble docs but hoo boy now youve gone and done it. lemme introduce yall to the idea that is “dont look down”

-mod dave

so its a full-human collegestuck, and karkat is a grey(pan)romantic ace kid whos still trying to figure himself out. hes got some lingering self esteem issues because hes never felt love before Save One Fucking Time In Middle School For A Month, and now this asshole bane strider (i am definitely putting my partners ocs all over this bitch) is in love with him and asking him on a coffee date ?? what the fuck ?? 

turns out hes aro. well not aro. he cant be aro because a little later on he realizes that after he puts his stubbornness aside Holy Shit I Think I Actually Feel Something but he gets scared of it because he doesnt wanna seem like a freak. also he has vitiligo and theres also some lingering issues there cause he was bullied for it in middle / high school and is just now realizing that in college nobody fucking cares. but like He Still Cares and hes like absolutely amazed as to how the fuck someone has a physical crush on him

but like the gist of it is hes gonna realize he likes him but hes gonna push it down cause hes scared but hes also a little bitch so hes gonna say yes to dating him anyway and a month in hes gonna be like “oh god this was a mistake im not ready to do this yet” and then hes gonna distance himself but theres still gonna be buildup !! and banes gonna get upset and go “why the fuck are you avoiding me” and theyre gonna break up for a bit and karkats gonna go “guys i literally dont know what to do i thought i was aro but then i had a thing for him and then it went away and then i built it up again and now he broke up with me what the fuck.” 

and he makes up his mind that Yes he likes the guy and hell try again and he goes and confronts him and he sits him down and he finally fucking comes out to him that “hey im ace and im. like. i. i think aro but like not entirely i dont know why i like you but like this has never happened before and it came absolutely out of the blue and i dont know whats happening” and banes gonna be like Oh Shit Okay Bet and hes gonna go “yknow. my twin fucking brother is aroace do you want to talk to him”

ENTER DAVE (well not enter cause he got introduced in the beginning but.)

they bond (also theres a subplot where daves a visual arts major and hes piecing together his first sbahj film and karkat and john both decided to volunteer to help) and dave helps him figure everything out and hes like “so you like. rarely feel it” and karkats like “yeah i feel like im fake aro i dont know what to do” and dave goes “dude theres a whole spectrum. youre probably grey or demi” and karkat goes WHAT and daves like “yeah look it up check it out”

and karkat latches onto the greyro label like an absolute motherfucker and goes back to bane and hes like “i figured it the fuck out . i think. fingers crossed. fuck” and banes like “so i guess where we go is up to you” and karkats like “i wanna stay with you but. yknow. gently” and bane goes :D “BET” and they probably kiss and karkats like !! and kisses him back and then the rest of the year goes pretty well and karkat has a lot more green in his closet. 

i am gonna reach novel length. "dont look down” will be a fucking novel so help me god. yall are gonna underline that bitch

[ghostly-pallid]

The Scars Time Does Not Heal

@badthingshappenbingo

Prompt: Flashback

Fandom: Homestuck

Characters: Dave Strider and Karkat Vantas

Ships: Davekat

Word Count: 1,074

Dave had his days.

There were days where he could swear he was better, where he could come to a moderate acceptance of the fact that he was blind, where he could cry, where he could maybe even consider doing things like using a cane or reading braille, where his bro was just a distant memory and not even a consideration.

But then there were other days. Days where he ended up accidentally insulting other blind people, where he couldn’t even tell anyone that anything was wrong at all for fear of seeming uncool, days where he could almost hear him again.

Today was seeming to be one of those days, and it was only 3 in the morning.

He shot up in bed, gasping for breath. He could hear Karkat sleeping next to him, breathing softly with the occasional grumble that almost sounded like a growl. He chuckled to himself. Slowly he got up, careful to not wake Karkat up. He felt like he couldn’t breathe, like he was trapped. He made his way towards the door, with his hands out to make sure he didn’t bump into something. With his hands on the wall, he made his way into the living room and started pacing in front of the couch.

It had been 7 years since the cops had raided Bro’s house for coke and had found out about his situation. After that, he bounced around in foster care for 3 years before the Lalondes adopted him. By all counts, he should be happy, content, and adjusted. Rose had done her usual psychoanalyzing and had tried to get him to ‘talk about it’ and, heaven forbid, cry. Roxy had tried to get him to use a cane, read braille, feel faces, the usual blind things. But none of those would have been very effective after the first year out.

He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. Pacing wasn’t doing any good. He still felt trapped, and he still felt terrified. He had to find something, he had to do something… The roof. The roof might work. With his hands on the wall, he made his way out of the apartment, down the hallway, and up the stairs to the roof. He had to get out, he had to get fresh air at least.

A year after the raid, something else had come in the form of a news article. Bro had been supposedly been mugged, stabbed, and killed by someone named Jack Noir. Dirk, his only cousin he stayed in contact with, had read him the article, and everything stopped. He had asked to go see the body, or at least be there to tell. He had felt the knife, and felt the stab wounds, and everything had changed. He couldn’t abandon everything Bro taught him, couldn’t just forget it. He was dead. He was dead, and Dave couldn’t forget every lesson, every idea his Bro had ever taught him. Dirk had tried to tell him that it didn’t matter, that it was still toxic, and he could still move on and grow, but that wasn’t true. He couldn’t move on, it wasn’t toxic, and of course it mattered because he was dead. He was dead, and if he moved on and forgot everything he taught him, he would be gone.

He opened the door to the roof and felt the cool night air hit his face. The cool breeze was a nice change from the hot, humid air that suffocated him back in Texas like a tangible weight, but he felt his throat close anyway. Hot tears welled in his eyes as he tried desperately to blink them away.

“Striders don’t cry. Striders don’t cry. Striders don’t cry!” Dave choked out in a desperate attempt to save himself.

Despite his efforts, everything was way too much. He could hear the air conditioning unit’s whirring growl as the fan blades spun in an all too familiar cycle. He could feel the air, despite the temperature difference, blow through his hair and past his face. He struggled to remind himself that this wasn’t Texas, that he was 20 and in college, that Bro was dead, but nothing worked. Everything was too similar for anything too work.

Shameful fear rushed through his 10-year-old mind as he raised his fists. Bro had asked him to come up here, which meant that it was another lesson. He kept his fists near his chest and turned his head, listening for Bro to move, but the only thing he could hear was the AC unit. He couldn’t hear him, he didn’t know where he was. He could be right in front of him, ready to strike, and he was terrified. He ran for the only sound that he could hear, but two steps in and he was met with a painful impact to the left side of his face, knocking him to the ground.

“Can’t run away, bro,” called the deep, rasp voice of his Bro.

Hot blood rolled down hid face from his nose. He tried to wipe it away with his hand, but he doubted it did any good. He backed up against the unit, hot tears welling in his eyes. He muttered to himself that Striders didn’t cry, repeating himself several times. He raised his hands in a futile attempt to guard his face, expecting another blow to continue the lesson.

“Dave?” a higher pitched, slightly nasal-y voice called. Karkat.

Dave was shocked back to the present with a gasp. Karkat was awake.

“Dave, are you okay?” he continued.

“I’m fine,” Dave grumbled in response.

“Well, it’s 3 am, you’re on the roof instead of in bed, I found you shielding your face, and you’re shaking,” Karkat retorted.

“I’m fine,” Dave repeated.

“I can stay here if you want me to,” Karkat tried.

“No, you have class tomorrow, I’m fine,” Dave responded, standing up.

“It’s just another lecture, I can get the notes from Egbert,” Karkat provided.

“No, you need to be there, I’ll be fine,” Dave told him.

“Fine, but we could call Dirk or Roxy, they don’t have class,” Karkat said.

“I- Yeah. Yeah, okay,” Dave conceded.

Karkat put his hand on his arm, silently inviting him to a hug. Dave obliged.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. It’s okay,” Karkat whispered comfortingly into his ear.

Dave buried his face into Karkat’s shoulder, and for the first time in 15 years, he cried.

A/N: Definitely going to continue this collegestuck AU.

[mallowstep]

hi! sorry if this is a weird question, but are you alright with minors interacting w/ your mistynight fics?

my rambles and thoughts figuring this out are below the cut.

minors isn't a helpful label: the difference between a 12yo and a 17yo is the problem, not the difference between a 17yo and an 18yo.

i initially said blanket yes to everything but "nothing you do can slow the rising tides," but in writing this, i've changed my mind. do note my rambles will reflect that. i want to publish my thoughts, as messy as they are, because they are relevant.

i'm okay with older teens (16+) reading "as the water rushes in." i'm not okay with anyone younger than that reading it.

(if you've already read it, and you're younger than that, it's okay. i didn't say anything until now because frankly i hadn't thought about it until now. please, just don't read any further.)

now, to ramble for a bit:

so like...do i want all minors interacting w nothing you do? no. it's...it's not rated for a reason. i don't want a 12yo interacting with it! i don't want a 12yo reading it! i don't want! it's above t!

but do i have a problem with a 16yo, 17yo, reading it? not really, no. i'm ngl, i'd rather they read that then some of what i read growing up. i still don't want them interacting w it, in the sense that i don't want them to comment on it and kudos it, but i don't care if they're just reading it.

y'know this minors/no minors is very b&w thinking that i dislike. i don't have the emotional energy to think about this every time i write something, so i usually CHOOSE to draw a hard line, but like.

sometimes things are appropriate for older children, but not young children. other things are appropriate for young teens, but no children. other things are appropriate for older teens. and some things are probably only appropriate for adults. i don't...like this is not a subject i can speak to very well, so like, y'know everyone give me some grace.

i think nyd is somewhere between pg-13 and r. probably closer to an r. this is a hard one to rate which is why i gave up.

so anyway, like, if you haven't read it and are wondering what the fuss is about, the tl/dr is that nyd contains some scenes that are, to put it impolitely, horny as hell. i'll abstain from including examples so the target audience of this post (minors who may want to read it) are not excluded.

i don't know if i can give a conclusive answer? my answer is. i don't honestly know. my answer is if a 16yo or 17yo wants to read it, they can. just please don't kudos on it or comment on it. i don't want anyone younger than that reading nyd. i'm not sure what the rest of the fics will look like, because i haven't written them yet, but assuming the next fic stays at a t, you won't miss any major plot beats in nyd.

i'm...i'm going to end with a quote, and a few last comments. the quote is from the series notes of the collegestuck 'verse, one of my favourite homestuck aus.

Although most of the stories here are rated T, even the T rated stuff may contain themes, in retrospect, that might not be appropriate for people under the age of 16 or so. If you're under 16 and want to read collegestuck, I ask that you either wait until then, or tread very carefully. Everything in this series rated M or E contains overt sexual content. If you are under 18, or in an area where you have to be over 18 (i.e 19, or 21) to consume such content, please wait until you reach the age of majority pertinent to your location.

nyd does not contain overt sexual content, and it's not rated m. i don't mind if anyone over 16 reads it.

but anyone under? no, i don't want that.

and i mentioned...i got to this point and said, "hold on, i changed my mind." this is the point where i went from "blanket yes" to "actually no."

some of the main themes of atwri are 16+. while you might not notice them in something like "just gonna call you mine," they are there, and i actually like --- i don't think i want someone just reading part of the series. like i was going to say yes, but then i thought about it, and it's like...mistyfoot's emotions are really important. not only do i think you weaken the arc if you don't have them, but...

saying "just don't read nyd" doesn't remove the themes, and i think it almost makes them worse? because now it's like --- now it's like, you're getting the subtext but not the text, and then it's like...y'know you're --- it's.

urgh let me start over.

there's a massive gap in maturity between a 14yo and a 16yo. i feel okay about a 16yo reading nyd, because i think they are, in general, mature enough to read that. and okay, there's no way to explain this without saying it directly.

while the scenes in atwri are not metaphors (i.e., i don't write them imagining what is happening is a stand-in for sex), they are still sexual in nature.

(in other words, my intentions are not, "mistyfoot and nightshade are having sex, i'm just not saying it." however, mistyfoot and nightshade's relationship does have a sexual component, and if you can't feel it when you read atwri, i'm not doing my job very well.)

and i sat and thought about not just what i've published but also where i'm going, and i thought of some of the events that will happen, and how things are already being set up in earlier fics.

for a mundane example, in "i want your midnights," mistyfoot warns featherpaw about the dangers of cold water. in "nothing you do can slow the rising tides," mistyfoot is thrown into cold water.

and i just don't feel right about someone reading the set-up and not the payoff. this isn't about story integrity, to be clear, this is about...

it's hard not to be vague and still give a satisfying example. i know the earlier one wrt water doesn't make sense, and that's because it's small.

ig what i'll say is, i don't like what happens to the emotional lines of the story when you take out nyd, and when i think about other fics that you might have to do. it's not that they become different or weaker or anything (although they do), it's that they take on new meanings and tones and suggestions, and i don't like the ideas that promotes.

and it's one thing if someone 16+ decides to skip nyd. i think at that point, you probably have enough emotional maturity to pick out the lines i intend. i do not have that same confidence in a younger teen, and when night and misty are portrayed as being in a healthy relationship, but the story becomes ugly? i don't like that.

if you read through all of that rambling, give yourself a sticker, and let me try to do a summary, if only for my own sake.

in essence,

mistyfoot and nightshade are portrayed, in every instalment, as being a healthy relationship.

"nothing you do can slow the rising tides," along with potential other future scenes, provide very important context to certain themes and emotional lines of atwri, but i am not comfortable with someone under sixteen reading them.

when i stopped to think about what that did to the emotional lines, i started to feel like mistyfoot and nightshade's relationship isn't as healthy as it's portrayed as.

i think someone who's sixteen or older can PROBABLY pick out what i intended, that's subtler subtext or what have you, but i don't have a reasonable level of confidence in anyone younger than that.

so since i don't want anyone younger than sixteen reading what provides that context, i don't want them reading atwri at all.

[homeiswherethestuckis]

Cheap Ramen

I wrote this last fic for an anon who requested collegestuck davekat!  I want to thank this dear, sweet anon for providing me with an awesome prompt and also for being so patient.  I hope you like it!

Someone’s pounding on your door.  You look over to it groggily and rub your hand across your face.  You were busy studying when you fell asleep like an idiot.  That’s what you get for thinking studying in bed was a good idea.  Maybe next time you’ll stick with sitting at your desk, uncomfortably hunched over in your crappy old chair.  Fucker didn’t even swivel, so what was even the point of sitting in it and hurting your back?

Actually getting some fucking studying done, apparently.  That was the point.

There’s still pounding at your door.  You were so lost in thought you’d almost forgotten about it.

The incessant knocking is accompanied by shouting.  “Dave, open up!  I know you’re in there!”  

Shit, it’s Karkat.  Did you have plans with him today?  You don’t know, you honestly can’t remember.  Your mind is still muddled from sleep and stress.  You push papers and textbooks away from you as you get up.

“Don’t make me break down this door, you useless dunderfuck!”  He continues yelling as you drag your feet slowly over to your door.  “You get your lazy stick legs over here or so help me god I will scream blood curdling shit at this door until the wood starts to rot under the sheer force of my yelling and I can bust through the soft, malleable wood with nothing but my fist and I can drag you out by your disgusting grease hair myself.”

You unlock the door and open it up a crack so you can poke your head through.  “As amazing as that sounds, Karkat, I think I’ll have to give that a hard pass.  We both know you have better things to do than stand out here and scream at my door, or at least I hope you do.  But if you’re going to insist on wasting your time with me, then I’ll be honest I wouldn’t be opposed to you fingering my grease ball.”

Karkat wrinkles his nose in disgust.  “I don’t know whether to vomit or kick you in the face.”

“Puke on your shoe, you won’t have to decide, then.”

“That’s a great idea that I would definitely be willing to do.”  He looks down at the ground and kicks your doorframe.  “If only these weren’t so new and expensive.”

“Then you can’t risk kicking me, either.  What if my face scuffs your shoe up?”

“Shit, you’re right.  I never even thought of that.  I guess that means all I can do is puke on you.”

“Yes, but here’s the thing: do you really want to waste the measly amount of food you were able to squander with the remains of your paycheck by regurgitating it all over me?  Think about it, Karkat, is it really worth it?”

“No,”  he sighs, “it’s not.  You win this one, Dave.  No harm or excretions will befall your asinine visage today.  Or at least not while I have these shoes on.”

“Serves you right for spending all your dough on shoes.”  You reply smugly.

“I didn’t spend it all on shoes.”  Karkat says, shaking his head.  “I was planning on spending it on you.”

Whoa.  That came out of nowhere.  “Karkat, what?”

“I have a good chunk of my paycheck left, and I want to use the rest on you.”  Karkat restates, more firmly this time.  “Go out with me, Dave.”

You…don’t know how to respond to this.  

“Get in here.”

You drag Karkat into your room by the arm and close the door behind him.  You turn back around and face him, your arms crossed over your chest.  “Okay, two questions.  One, what the fuck?  And two, what the fuck?”

“Are you going to elaborate on those or do I have to answer based off that?”  Karkat asks, taking a seat on a bare part of your bed.

“Oh, you better believe I’m going to elaborate on this shit.  I’m going to elaborate the hell out of this shit.”  You run a hand through your hair, it’s gross and you could use a shower, but that’s not what you’re focusing on right now.  “What the fuck was with that delivery?  Karkat, we’ve been dating for two years now!  That’s not how things operate around here, and you know it!  That out there?  Where you asked me out on a date like a proper douchebag?  That was so last year! We are way past that point in our relationship where we just politely ask each other out while nervously shitting ourselves over the very possibility of being shot down.  No, we don’t do that now.  Our pants have been shit free for almost a whole year, we don’t ask about dates, we make plans together to go do stuff, or we hang out.  We don’t ask each other out on dates anymore, Karkat, because we’re dating.  We’re together.  Everything we do as a couple is a date and it’s awesome.  Then you had to go and have some massive diarrhea attack and wreck it all by asking me out like some loser who has no idea what the fuck he’s trying to do.  So, to repeat my question, what the fuck?”

“That’s the thing, Dave.  You haven’t wanted to make plans with me or hang out for awhile.  I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.”  He shuffles some of the papers on your bed around.  “I figured putting myself out there like a brainless idiot might get you to agree to hang out with me.”

“Karkat, that’s stupid. I see you practically every day!  We had a class together like five hours ago.”

“I meant outside of class, you dense shit!”  Karkat snaps at you.  “When’s the last time you left this room other than for a class?”

You open your mouth to answer, but you honestly don’t know.  You got pizza with John once, and you went back to his house to watch a movie.  When was that?  Last week?  Last month?  You can’t remember.

“When’s the last conversation you had that wasn’t about school?”  He continues to press.  Still, you don’t know.  You shake your head.  

“When’s the last time you took some time off for yourself and just relaxed?”

“I don’t know.”  You admit.  “It’s been awhile.”

He nods as if you just proved his point, which you guess you sort of did.  “That’s what I thought.  You need to get out more, Dave.”

“I know, and I want to.  It’s just that I’m-”

“-busy, I know.”  He interrupts.  “We’ve all been busy.  I just thought I’d remind you that it’s okay to take a break once in awhile.”

“Yeah.”  You shuffle back over to your bed and flop facedown on top of it.  “A break sounds good.”

“I didn’t mean that kind of break!”  Karkat starts shaking your shoulder.  “Come on, get up!  You have to get out of this stuffy room.”

“No.”  You groan into the mattress.

“You have to.  We both agreed that you not leaving this room is part of the problem!”  He insists.  “Now come on, get up!”

“No.”

“If you don’t get up, I’m going to leave and do a bunch of fun shit without you.  Is that what you want?  Me doing fun shit without you?”

You offer a noncommittal shrug.

“Who are you going to hang out with during this break of yours if I leave right now?”  Karkat asks, laying down next to you on the bed.  He clearly has no intention of actually leaving.  “You have to get back out there into the real world and socialize a little.  I know it’s stupid and it sucks and the only people who enjoy that kind of fucked up interaction are total masochists, but it’s a part of existing that you just can’t avoid doing.  It’s unhealthy to go this long without a single real conversation, Dave.”

“I’ve had a few real conversations.”  You mutter into your pillow.

“Really?”  He raises a disbelieving eyebrow.  “With who?”

“Karkactus.”  You gesture over to the little cactus on your desk.

“You named your cactus after me?”

“Yeah.”  You turn your head so you’re looking at him and nod.  “You’re a little prick, it seemed fitting.”

“Wow,”  he snorts right in your face, “you’re the worst.  I fucking hate you.”

“Well that’s too bad, because I love you.”  You reply.  “Enough to name my only source of comfort and friendship in this horrible time of stress after you.  You know, when spring comes that thing’s probably gonna sprout a little flower or some shit, and when that time comes I can literally say that our love has blossomed.  So take that, you son of a bitch, I love you.”

“Shit, I forgot how much of a dumb sap you could be sometimes.”  He laughs.  “I love you, too.”

You pull him closer to you on the bed and start kissing him.  It’s a lazy meeting of your lips pressed against his, and you regret not having brushed your teeth in awhile, but it’s still sweet and tender and fantastic.  

It’s embarrassing to admit, but kissing him is comforting.

“Karkat,” you mumbled against his mouth between kisses, “I know that you love me and you want to take care of me and all, which is really nice and I appreciate the fuck out of, but…”

He stops kissing you and presses his forehead against yours.  “But what?”

“But I don’t want you spending all your money on me.”  You admit.  “That’s your money, you worked hard at your shitty, thankless job for that, you should at least use some of it for yourself.”

“I did!  I bought these shoes, see?”  He points down at his foot.  “They were really expensive.”

“Karkat, those are clearly Wal-Mart shoes, they couldn’t have cost more than ten dollars.”

“Ten dollars more than keeping my old shoes.”  He replies.  “See?  Expensive.”

“You could see your toes through the old ones.”  You reply.  “You were in need of some new shoes.  That doesn’t count.”

“Yes, it does!  They could have held together another month, I could have kept wearing them.”  He prods your leg lightly with one of his new shoes.

“Okay, fine, I’ll let the shoes go.”  You roll your eyes.  “But I’ll be honest with you, dude, I really hate the thought of you putting my needs ahead of yours.  You need to take better care of yourself before you try to take care of anybody else.”

He scrunches his eyebrows at you.  “What do you mean?”

“Karkat, your mouth tastes like ramen.  Not even the good kind, it tastes like the twenty cent shit you buy at the gas station in those little plastic cups with the tasteless vegetables and stale noodles.”

“I can’t believe you just compared my mouth to dime store soup.”  He flicks you in the forehead.  “Thanks, dickwipe.”

You rub at the spot with one finger.  “Don’t mention it.  I’ll be honest with you, the fact that the inside of your mouth tastes like  it’s coated with Top Ramen is worrisome.  How much of that shit have you been eating?”

He squirms uncomfortably next to you, but doesn’t move.  “None of your business.”

“If my business is your business then you answering my question is only fair.”  You try to reason with him.  “Karkat, have you been eating anything besides ramen lately?”

He goes silent for a minute, searching his brain for any food at all that he might have eaten before finally admitting what you thought all along.  “No.”

“See, that’s what I mean!  You need to take care of yourself, first.  When’s the last time you ate a vegetable?”

“When’s the last time you ate a vegetable?”

“I had mushrooms on a pizza once.”

That must have been more than he’s had in awhile, because all he does is punch you softly in reply.  

“Hey, here’s an idea, how about we go out to eat someplace?  You can get a salad and I’ll get whatever the hell I want because out of all the things I’ve been neglecting, my nutritional health hasn’t been one of them.”

“Beg to differ.”

“Shut it, salt king.  You interrupt sodium much, dude, I swear.”

“Did I hear you correctly or did you not just do a fucking salt pun?”

“I don’t know, it might be all the noodles stuffed into your ears, man.  Did I make a pun or are you just hard of hearing now? Who’s to say?   It’s one of life’s greatest mysteries.  The world may never know.”  You get another punch and a soft “fuck you” for that.  You grin back at him, proud of yourself for making such a stupid joke, and kiss his nose.  “Like I was saying, we could go out, stuff ourselves with good food, split the bill because I refuse to let you pay for everything.  I know you mean well, but that’s not fair to you.  You worked really hard to get that cash, and it’s not like I’m flat broke.  I have money, I can pay for myself.  And after that, while our food is gestating in our bellies and converting itself to energy and shit, we could walk around town a little and talk until it gets dark out or we run out of things to say.  What do you think about that?”

Karkat pretends to mull the idea over, even though you both already know that he’s going to agree to it, since it’s pretty much what he’s been asking for since he knocked on your door.  “Well, if you insist.”

“Oh, I do insist.”

Karkat brushes your greasy hair away and kisses your forehead.  “Then let’s go.”

You both crawl off the bed.  Karkat heads straight for the door while you stop to put your shoes on.  “Where are we going, anyway?”

Karkat shrugs.  “We’ll figure it out when we get there.”

Because you’re both on a budget, your choices are pretty limited.  You end up at a pretty cheap local bar and grill that’s not too far off campus.  The foods okay and the booze is strong, or so you’ve heard.  They also don’t look very carefully when they do end up carding people, so usually even the flimsiest of fake ID’s can score some drinks.

You’re not here for that, though.  You’re here to eat, and eat you shall.

You and Karkat both end up ordering burgers.  He insists this is fine because there’s veggies on the burger, but you glare at him until he gives up and substitutes his fries with a salad.  When the food comes, you give him a few of your fries to compensate.  

You debate about dessert a little, but once you’ve both polished off all your food there’s no way either of you could eat another bite without exploding on the spot.  So no dessert.

You both pay separately (as you’d insisted) and stroll out of the restaurant.  The sky’s burnt orange by the setting sun.  Karkat stares up at it wistfully.

“The sunset’s really nice here.”

You take his hand in yours.  “Yeah, it is.”

You start walking around and talk about nothing and everything at the same time.  Karkat bitches endlessly about that guy at work he hates and how much his jaw hurts from having to clench it into a smile all the time whenever there’s a customer around.  You have trouble thinking about something to talk about aside from school, so you mostly stay quiet and comment as he rants.  

It’s getting darker, the sky is purpling and all the streetlights are coming on, bathing the sidewalks in circles of bright light.  You’ve been wandering aimlessly up until this point, but now it feels like you should turn around and head back to your dorm.  Before that, though…

You stop walking, which also forces Karkat to stop so he can keep holding your hand. “Hey, you wanna refuel and grab a slushie?”

“What?”  You point at the gas station not too far ahead.  “Oh.  I thought we were supposed to be making good, healthy choices today?”

“I think we did pretty good, we deserve a treat.”  You argue.  “Plus, it’s not like anyone’s actually expecting us to make great choices, we’re college students.  Come on, I’ll buy.”

He shakes his head.  “No, we went Dutch like you wanted on the meals, I’m not making you pay for these by yourself.  I’ll pay for me.”

“Okay, fine.  You can pay for your own damn self.  So we’re getting them?”

“Yeah, we’re getting them.”

The lights in the gas station are fluorescent and harsh.  You have to blink a few times to get used to them.  Once you do, you head right over to the slushie machine and grab the biggest cup available.

“Really, Dave?  Do you really need that much slushie?  It’ll be melted before you’re even halfway done with it.”

“But you get the most bang for your buck this way, Karkat.  It cost the same as a medium, but I get more for it.  You’re better off getting the large.  Bigger’s always better, dude.  Get the big one, I dare you.”

Karkat grumbles but gets the big one, anyway.  He’s basic and fills it all the way with only one flavor.  What a loser.  You waste no time filling yours with every flavor available.

The slushies add up to less than two dollars.  You consider this an excellent purchase.  You and Karkat go back to holding hands while you slurp at your slushie.  You are determined to prove Karkat wrong, but you also don’t want to run the risk of a brain freeze.  You walk slowly back the way you came, both of you fully aware of where you’re going but not wanting to acknowledge that the night’s already over.  It would be easy to continue, of course, but you both have responsibilities.  Jobs.  Classes.  All that bogus but necessary shit you need to do in order to succeed in “the real world”.  

It’s a mood killer, is what it is.

Karkat walks you all the way to your door, clutching your hand so hard your knuckles are almost white.  You want to laugh because it’s totally unnecessary.  You’ll be seeing each other tomorrow, after all, you have a class together then, too.  

The thing is, though, you get what Karkat meant earlier when he said that class didn’t count.  You don’t talk as much, you’re not as close as this.  You don’t hold hands in class.  You never realized how much you missed the feeling of his fingers interlocked with yours.  

You’re still holding hands right outside of your door.  If anyone saw the two of you together, they would think you’re a lovestruck idiot.

Which you are, but still.  No need to broadcast that.

“Your slushie melted.”  Karkat gestures at your cup with his own, which has also melted.  “I called it.”

“Yeah, well, I still think it’s better than getting a smaller one for the same price.”  You shrug and take another sip of what at this point is just cold artificially flavored water.  “So suck it, Karkat.”

“I’d rather not, this shit looks nasty when it’s dissolved like this.”  He sticks his tongue out for emphasis.  It’s blue now and looks ridiculous.  You wonder what color your own tongue is.  Would the dye stain Karkat’s tongue if you kissed him right now?

The only way to find out is if you do it.

You lean over and kiss him.  It’s a little awkward because you’re both still holding your slushies and each other’s hands, so you have to try really hard to keep your balance and avoid knocking Karkat over.  His mouth is soft and cold, and it still holds the after taste of ramen, but it’s still nice.  It’s still perfect and comforting and everything you’ve ever wanted in a kiss.    

Karkat pulls away first and laughs.  His teeth are also stained blue.

“What?”

“Your mouth is blue.”

“So’s yours.”

“I know.”  He nods, his grip on your hand loosens.  

You don’t want him to let go, and clearly he doesn’t want to, either.  But still, you have to.  You’re already at your door, prolonging this is just stupid.  

You let go completely and wrap your now free hand around your cup.  It’s cold and you don’t like it, your mind’s practically begging for your hand to return to Karkat’s, where it’s warm albeit a little sweaty.  Somehow, you resist the urge.  

“Today was fun.”  You finally say.  “Thanks, I needed this.”

He shakes his head.  “Don’t thank me, I needed this just as much as you did.”

“But still, you’re the one who kicked your own ass into high gear and took initiative to actually get this shit taken care of.  So yeah, I think you do deserve at least a little thanks for this.”

“Okay, fine.  If you’re going to be like that about it.”  He rolls his eyes.  “You’re welcome.  Do you want the rest of my slushie?”

“Hell yeah.”  You remove the lid from your cup and hold it out to him.  “Just dump that bad boy right in there.”

Karkat eyes the remains of your slush concoction but dumps his in, anyway.  It almost overflows, but it’s alright.  You pop the lid back on and slurp it.  

Karkat grimaces.  “That’s disgusting.”

“You’re one to talk.”  You scoff.  “You eat bugs.”

“Bugs at least have a nutritional value,”  he replies, “that’s just disgusting artificial sugar water.”

“Wow, I can’t believe the ramen king is lecturing me on nutrition.  I practically had to force feed you lettuce today, dude.”

“Nobody likes salad, Dave!  Nobody except your stupid fluffy hop beasts and you know it!”

“I know.  Just chill and leave me and my cup of corn syrup water alone.”  You take another sip.  Karkat sticks out his tongue but doesn’t say anything.  “Yum.”

“You’re gross.  I’m never kissing you again.”

“Yeah well, that goes double for your cricket crunching ass.”

That one makes him laugh, and you can’t help but crack a smile in response.  

“You were right,”  you say once he’s done laughing, “we really need to do this more often.  

“We do.”  Karkat agrees.

“I’ll try to make more time for this…for you from now on.”  You offer.

“Me, too.”  He nods.  “You’re really important to me, Dave.”

Dammit, why’d your boyfriend have to be such a genuine sap?  Fuck.  “You’re important to me, too, man.”

“Good night, Dave.”  Karkat gives you one final kiss.  “Don’t study too hard.”

“I won’t.”  You promise as he walks down the hall towards the stairwell.  “Good night.”

You go back into your room and close the door behind you.  You look over at your bed, at the mess of loose papers and textbooks left on top of it.  Homework.  Things you need to study for in case of a test later.  All that stuff you should probably be doing right now.

You run a hand through your hair again.  It’s still greasy and disgusting.  You should probably shower at some point.  You can’t even imagine how horrible you must have smelled today.  Yeah, showering would be a good idea.  You take another sip of your melted slushie.

Before you do that, you have some other things to attend to.  You walk over to your desk and open up your laptop.  You log on to pesterchum.

Studying can wait.  

[spidersgonnaspide-blog]

Well shit. Hey there. I'm Vriska. And instead of preparing for my upcoming freshman year of college I'm stalling on moving into my dorm and all that nonsense I'm making a blog and playing with dice. Because let's be real there's no point to moving in early or anything my roommates are gonna love me. And everyone wants to know about my life and ask me questions. I'm doing you all a favor I don't actually want to do this. Popularity is such a burden. Well? Don't be shy. You're pathetic but I'm charitable so I'll waste my time with you. Go ahead and ask some questions shitheads.

[the-rainy-daze]

I’ve started an ask blog!

Hey! if you guys are interested, I’ve started up an ask blog :) it’s ask-human-collegestuck.tumblr.com

Please check it out, and send some asks! Thanks :)

[ask-collegestuck]