Karkat Vantas. Candy red blood. Lowblood. Mutant. The only mutant blooded troll around. Descendent of the famous Signless/Sufferer. Basic facts about the mutant troll with an anger and yelling problem and with a passion for romance and a love of romantic comedies. But Karkat wasn't always the short and angry troll with a habit of yelling out every single word he said and an insecurity of his blood. No, there was more to him than that. And his best friend, Gamzee Makara, knew as much.

Karkat and Gamzee had been friends for practically their whole lives. The two became best friends in their early childhood and have been near inseparable ever since. Gamzee knew everything about Karkat, and Karkat knew everything about Gamzee.

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Karkat remembered back when he was three sweeps old. Back then, Karkat was different. Much different. For starters, he didn't yell every word he said, infact he barely whispered every word he said. Back then, Karkat wasn't so talkative. He didn't put up the brave front he had now, he was actually a really shy troll. The anger and hatred he had inherited from his ancestor, The Signless, had not yet awaken.

Karkat spent his days reading romance novels, watching movies, and helping his lusus. He spoke to no one the first three sweeps of his life. He lived a quiet, peaceful life. Or, as peaceful as it is to be constantly running from drones or learning how to properly fight for his life.

Karkat always knew what he was meant to do, who he was meant to be. He knew his lusus was specially bred to be able to fight off Eridan's ancestor, Orphaner Dualscar, which made fighting drones a piece of cake. He knew his mutation was the only real cause as to why he was constantly in danger. He knew he could never have friends, and if he did, he'd have very few.

Karkat never expected much out of his life. He never expected to eventually become the leader to a team of his friends, fighting for his life in a game that destroyed their universe. He never expected to meet the teen version of his ancestor. He never expected to become best friends with a subjugglator.

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Karkat remembered the first time he ever talked to Gamzee. He had heard of this new chatting website that some young, smart yellow blood had made up. He downloaded it and immediately created an account. Now, he just had to wait for someone to message him.

He waited for days on end, and nothing happened. Maybe it was the weird, grey textcolor he had? That was probably it. Grey was the default color for text, once the account was created the respective troll had put in their blood color for all to see. Of course Karkat wasn't going to do that. He was a mutant for god's sakes. If he put candy red as his text color, he would have been culled within the week.

Nearly a perigee after creating his trollian account, Karkat received a message. He quickly scampered up to his room and quickly checked who it was. He read the screen and just sat there for a moment.

terminallyCapricious[TC] began trolling carcinoGeneticist[CG]

TC: hey there my grey texted brother or sister. Name's Gamzee Makara, yours? :o)

Karkat sat there. The text...it was purple. Highblood purple. The same purple that had sentenced his ancestor to execution. The cancer troll didn't know what to do. Was this some kind of sick joke the universe was playing on him? Was the universe giving him a fair warning? Was it saying 'This is the troll who will kill you in the future, have fun conversing with him.'

Finally after a good ten minutes of just sitting there, pondering every possible outcome, Karkat quickly typed up a response. He was lucky crabdad wasn't home. If his over protective lusus had seen the deep purple text, he would've destroyed the poor mutant's husktop.

CG: Hello there...my name is Karkat Vantas. And i'd be referred to as a brother...

TC: that's a most miraculous name an all karbro, but I gotta all up an wonder why ya type in such a dull color. Ain't we usually supposed to type in our pretty hues?

Of course he would ask this. Karkat would've been surprised if he didn't ask. He sighed, thinking of a good and polite way to respond this. Of course he couldn't think of anything. So, what else was there to do but sound agitated by the question?

CG: The color of my blood is no concern to anyone Gam.

And that was the end of that. Gamzee never asked about his blood color again, and Karkat was completely content with that. Karkat was wary, of course, of Gamzee. He knew his ancestor's history and he knew what he was capable of, so he stayed safe. But staying safe didn't stop Karkat from developing strong, pale feelings for the final subjugglator. He never acted upon his pale urges though.

Not for a while at least.

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Karkat remembered one day when he was three sweeps old. He had grown tired of everything. He was tired of constantly running from drones. Hiding his blood from his new group of friends. He was tired of the stupid caste system that automatically meant his death.

Karkat didn't know exactly what came over him. He didn't know what he was thinking, but he did it. Crabdad was out hunting. He was alone. The drones were doing their scheduled rounds. Everything was perfect. Perfect for doing something completely idiotic that is.

Karkat slowly walked down the steps of his hive. Was he really about to do this? He was only three sweeps old, he had his entire life ahead of him. Karkat reached the bottom of the steps and looked out the window. The night sky was clear, not a single cloud in the sky. He walked to his door and grabbed the cold knob and pushed the door open slowly.

It was cold out, but that didn't bother Karkat much. He was warm blooded and he had his oversized turtleneck on so the night's cold air didn't have much effect on the young troll. He took a few steps out onto his lawn ring, and waited.

A good ten minutes later, he heard it. The loud thumps coming from a distance. The drones knew he was there. Karkat closed his eyes, waiting for the giant metal giants to come and cull him.

Three sweeps old and Karkat Vantas was just about to off himself. The metal thumps got louder until they eventually stopped in front of him. 'Oh gog...' Karkat thought, squeezing his eyes shut even more. 'this is it...' He heard the whirring of the drone's arm raising. God, wouldn't this thing hurry along the culling?

Just as the drone was about to do its culling, Karkat heard a loud, shrill screech and a crushing noise. It sounded as if a can Alternia's latest and most popular soda had been crushed. After a few more screeches and a lot of metal tearing apart, Karkat slowly opened his eyes.

There stood his lusus, standing in it's fighting crouch, claws at the ready. Underneath its legs was a flattened piece of metal, what once was the drone that posed a threat to Karkat. For a long while the two just stood there, staring a each other. Karkat was the first to break the awkward silence.

"Why didn't you just let me die?" He whispered out, red tears quickly falling from his eyes and dripped off his chin. His lusus just stared at the crying troll, after a moment or two the giant crab gently scooped up the troll in his gigantic claw and with the other he gently patted his hair. This wasn't much of an effort to calm him, the crab was more bred for protection rather than affection, but this effort was enough to calm the sobbing troll down. Karkat was carried back into his hive by his lusus and set down along with some dead animals. Once he was set down, Karkat scrambled upstairs, opened his Husktop and began typing.

carcinoGeneticist[CG] began trolling terminallyCapricious [TC]

CG: I HATE THIS. I HATE FUCKING EVERYTHING.

TC: wOaH ThErE BeSt fRiEnD, WhAt'S GoT Ya aLl hAtInG EvErYtHinG :o?

God, Gamzee's new typing style made it somewhat difficult for Karkat to read what he was typing. That and the angry red tears forming in his eyes were blurring his vision.

Karkat just sat there. He wasn't sure what to type. 'I hate everything because every living thing in this gogforesaken planet wants to cull me because i'm a mutant.' That's not exactly something you tell the descendent of the troll that sentenced your ancestor to death. Karkat took a deep breath and just went with the normal thing to say in these kind of situations.

CG: I'M JUST HAVING A BAD NIGHT.

terminallyCapricious[TC] ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist[CG]

Karkat couldn't believe it, did Gamzee seriously just leave their conversation just like that? Anger bubbled up deep inside of the cancer troll. He was angry. Angry at Gamzee. Angry at the stupid caste system. Angry at crabdad, at the drones, the empress, his ancestor. He was angry at himself. Angry because he was a mutant. He hated this. He hated everyone. He hated himself.

The thousand sweep anger and hatred that laid dormant inside of Karkat, the same anger and hatred that The Signless had once harboure, were now awake inside of Karkat. Karkat cried. He cried out angry tears, he kicked and screamed and threw the biggest tantrum in all the world. Crabdad didn't know what else to do, he knew that the anger and hatred would eventually awaken but he hadn't prepared himself for it.

Karkat's tantrum came and went, he felt a lot calmer after it but he was still angry. He checked his trollian, seeing if Gamzee was online or not. When he saw that the purple blooded troll wasn't online, he felt the anger coming back up. Why had he left so suddenly? Was Gamzee just...tired of him already?

Suddenly, a loud and angry screech came from crabdad who was downstairs. Another drone? Karkat slowly walked to the top of the stairs. He slowly made his way down the steps and stood behind his lusus, pondering who it could've been.

"I-I'm here for Karkat......." No way. Karkat stood there in awe for a second, a slight sliver of happiness began to shine through the burning rage and seething hatred he now had.

"Gamzee...?" Karkat asked, moving to try to peek between his lusus' legs to try to take a peek at the mysterious troll. The second he had, Karkat was tackled by his purple blooded best friend. A mass of hair and cool arms enveloped him, and Karkat was overjoyed.

Just as soon as Gamzee had tackle-hugged the mutant troll, he was yanked off by an angry lusus. Gamzee merely slid out of his shirt, dropped to the ground, and hugged his friend once more. Karkat still didn't understand. Gamzee said he lived near the beach, and Karkat lived no where near the beach for certain reasons. Had Gamzee traveled all this way just for him?

"Hush up now brother, ain't got no time for sadness all up in this hive, shit ain't motherfuckin wicked, get what i'm saying?" Gamzee mumbled, bumping their horns together. Karkat knew this was a pale sign of affection, and he knew that Gamzee knew. He was in utter shock. He couldn't find any proper words, all he could manage was a small nod as he hugged his highblood best friend even tighter.

Gamzee left a few hours later, once he knew that Karkat was okay once again. The two spent a while just sitting around, talking. Crabdad stayed close to Karkat of course, still wary of his juggalo looking troll. Once Gamzee left, Karkat felt like his old self. Not angry, not hateful, just...happy. Happy that he had landed himself such a wonderful best friend like Gamzee.

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"Gamzee, what I'm about to tell you is a fucking secret, okay? I'm only telling you because you're my best friend. You can't tell anyone else, got it?" Karkat asked. He and Gamzee had grown closer throughout the sweeps. They were nearly moirails. They pale flirted like there was no tomorrow.

Gamzee nodded, looking genuinely curious at what Karkat was about to tell him. Karkat was less than excited for this. Gamzee was about to be the first to know about his horrible mutation. Karkat slowly lifted up his shirt, revealing a bandage on his side. He peeled off the bandage and a slow stream of candy red blood oozed out of the wound. Karkat glanced over at his friend, who had an awestruck look on his face.

"Shit brother, I all up an knew you were made a miracles. Now it just proves cause a the miracles flowing through those righteous veins a yours." Gamzee exclaimed to Karkat's bewilderment. He was baffled that Gamzee was so...accepting of this. His mouth twitched upward into a smile, but then it melted back to his usual frown. Karkat re-bandaged his wound and the two set off to finish exploring the rest of LOPAH.

From then on, Gamzee seemed a bit more protective. They seemed more like moirails. Gamzee didn't let any kind of monster come within ten feet of the cancer troll. He did everything he could to protect his friend. Even after the others found out he was a mutant, Gamzee protected Karkat.

In the battle with the black king, Gamzee had snapped for a split second. He decapitated the Black King with one swing of his club, and then helped Karkat, who was laying on the floor, to his feet. Karkat was shocked of course, as was everyone else. They didn't expect Gamzee to be that strong. Karkat was greatful for all of this, not many trolls can say that their unofficial moirail had just decapitated a monster about eighty times their size in order to protect them.

Karkat was glad, glad he had an amazing best friend. Glad he had Gamzee. He was glad he didn't have to worry about the subjugglator in him unexpectedly popping up and killing him.

Or did he?