Studying
--SCIENCE SILLINESS--
Sollux Captor was bored. And not just the kind of boredom that you can get rid of by doodling or scribbling. No, the kind of boredom which plagued Sollux was kind where you're so bored you don't have the energy to do anything at all.
His problem was that he hated science. Jegus fuck it was so boring!! He had nothing against anyone who liked the subject, it just wasn't his cup of tea (or in Sollux's case, coffee or energy drinks).
Well...
There was ONE person who Sollux had something against, who also liked science. Although that wasn't why Sollux hated him. Details aside, it gave him an idea that would give him some amusement from this lesson after all.
On the bench in front of him, Eridan Ampora had his head down and copying the teacher's notes on the board at a speed which even Sollux had to admit was slightly impressive.
But this wasn't going to give Sollux his fun, so the yellowblood gathered the tiniest amounts of Psionic energy at his fingertips and then *flicked* the energy at Eridan's back.
As expected, this got almost no reaction. At most it made Eridan pause for all of of half a second before he went straight back to scribbling notes.
Sollux tried again, this time gathering slightly more energy before using it to tap the seatroll twice on his left shoulder. The yellowblood had to stifle his smirk when the purpleblood turned to Feferi in confusion, asking why she'd tapped him on the shoulder. Yes he felt a little bad for dragging Feferi into his entertainment, but not bad enough to stop.
In the next ten minutes, Sollux delivered a series of light Psionic pinches everywhere from his grubscars to his back to his earfins. Every time he delivered the pinch in a different place with varying intensity and also left different intervals of time between each pinch just to keep Eridan on edge. Eridan actually scowled over at Sollux a couple of times, but every time he did this, Sollux just pretended to be innocently jotting down notes.
After the fifth time of feigning innocence, a scrunched up ball of paper hit Sollux in the side of his head and landed on his desk. Confused, he opened the ball of paper up to see a note with an arrow pointing to the right. Sollux looked up in the direction of the arrow to see his moirail, Aradia Megido, looking at him.
'What are y0u d0ing?" she mouthed.
Sollux grinned and winked at her before replying 'Entertaining my2elf.'
"Captor. Megido. Eyes front." snapped the teacher, breaking their silent conversation.
Sollux behaved himself while the teacher explained something to the class- some shit about rates of reaction. *Yawn~*
Then she put a question to the class and Eridan put his hand up to answer. That's when an idea came to Sollux.
Could he pull it off?
Did he have the guts to do it?
Hah! Have you ever met Sollux Captor? This guy had the bulge to do a lot of not exactly low-key shit (sometimes the shit wasn't even legal!) AND he was smooth enough to get away with it.
As Eridan was explaining the answer to the teacher's question, Sollux began gathering Psionic energy one final time. Except this time, he focused it on one spot right away and slowly upped the concentration on that spot.
The more Eridan spoke, at first his tongue began to tingle, which made it more difficult to talk. Eventually his tongue went totally numb and he couldn't talk at all, only being able to make garbled 'glub' sounds.
The class was in hysterics, only Feferi wasn't finding the joke amusing. Sollux was wheezing with how hard he was laughing.
"Mr Ampora, I believe you should visit the nurse. Miss Peixes, would you go with him please?" asked the teacher.
Eridan and Feferi left, the teacher following behind them. When they were gone, Sollux stood up and took a bow, the rest of the class cheering and still laughing.
The yellowblood sat down again and his phone went off in his pocket. He took it out and read the text that was waiting.
'Sol I fuckin knoww it wwas you, you asshole. I'm goin to fuckin cull you after class.'
Sollux simply chuckled and replied.
'Eheheh, love you two, ED. Xx'
~~
--BLACKOUT--
Kanaya Maryam was sat in art class with her moirail, Karkat Vantas, sat on the desk with her.
Even though the only one who really took any interest in art these days was Gamzee Makara, given he wanted to study it at Skaia Tech, Kanaya and Karkat still needed decent grades in the subject to take their respective courses of choice in Skaia Tech.
The jadeblood was currently sketching out various dress designs in an A3 sketchpad. While she had both the resources and ability to actually make these designs at home, the lack of time she had at the moment, what with being in the middle of exams, meant that she would either have to wait until summer, or her fashion course at Skaia Tech.
It was still fun to put ideas to paper though. Karkat was doing a similar thing: designing costumes and sets for film ideas for when he became a master director (if his film studies course at Skaia Tech went to plan).
All of a sudden, the lights in the classroom flickered and went out. It was pitch black for all of half a second before Kanaya's bioluminescence kicked into action.
"Curse My Rainbow Drinker Genes..." she sighed in exasperation.
Karkat heard people muttering about Kanaya's 'bizarre' ability and he promptly snapped at them.
"SHUT YOUR FUCKING AIR CHUTES OR SO FUCKING HELP ME, YOU WILL FIND MY SICKLE LODGED IN CAVITIES THAT YOU WOULD RATHER FUCKING NOT HAVE A CURVED BLADE SHOVED IN. DO I FUCKING MAKE MY CLEAR?"
"Thank you, Mr Vantas. That will do." The teacher said calmly "Miss Maryam, as the only one in here who would be able to safely navigate the pitch black corridors, would you please go and speak to the caretaker?"
"Yes Miss." Kanaya gracefully stood up and made her way to the classroom door.
She heard clanking, scraping and cursing coming after her before Karkat's voice was at her side.
"I'M COMING WITH YOU. IF I HAVE TO HEAR ONE MORE BULGE MUNCHING, NOOK SNIFFING ASSHAT TALKING SHIT ABOUT YOU, I SWEAR MY OWN SHIT WILL HIT THE WHIRLING DEVICE." he mumbled.
Kanaya laughed quietly, taking hold of his hand.
"Alright. My Moirail's Company Would Be Most Pleasant Anyway."
They made their way through the corridors, finding the rest of the school to be in an identical state to their art classroom. Kanaya was able to illuminate the way for herself and Karkat and soon enough they reached the caretaker's office. Karkat kept a tight hold of Kanaya's hand the whole time.
The caretaker answered the jadeblood's knock and the two trolls were momentarily dazzled by his torch being shone in their faces. When they could see again, Kanaya explained the situation promptly and the caretaker's torch died out just as he sent them back to class.
"If It Would Be Of Assistance, I Could Light The Way For You." Kanaya offered.
"FOR FUCK'S SAKE CAN'T WE GO BACK TO CLASS, KANAYA?" asked Karkat through gritted teeth.
"I Thought You Said That Our Class Was Full Of, And I Quote, 'Bulge Munching, Nook Sniffing Asshats'. Or Have I Misheard You?" the rainbow drinker teased.
"...FUCK IT. FINE, HELP THE CARETAKER. I'M STILL COMING WITH YOU THOUGH." grumbled the candyblood.
"Very Well." smiled Kanaya.
The caretaker lead them down into the bowels of the school. It was cold down here, damp too if the water dripping onto the metal pipes was anything to go by. Also there were spider webs everywhere and at least five arachnids to every web. This didn't deter Kanaya, as she had a spider troll for a matesprite. She could've sworn Karkat's grip had tightened fractionally on her hand though.
Eventually, they reached a huge set of switches and buttons that expanded 5 metres along the wall. The caretaker moved down the wall to locate the switch which would switch the panel- and by extent, the school- back on.
"Are You Alright, Sweetie?" Kanaya turned to her moirail.
"MHM." Karkat's voice sounded strained and he looked pale in Kanaya's glow.
The lights finally came on and Karkat slid down a wall to sit on the floor.
"THANK FUCK..." he muttered. He still looked pale and Kanaya could see he was also shaking badly.
"Sweetie? What's Wrong?" asked Kanaya, concerned. She knelt down in front of Karkat to see red tear tracks on his cheeks.
"I JUST...FUCK. I WAS JUST...REMINDED OF THAT FUCKING TIME...TH-THE FUCKING HAUNTED HOUSE...DO YOU REMEMBER?" he mumbled.
Of course Kanaya remembered. It had been Halloween and she and Karkat had been young wrigglers when their ancestors had taken them to a fairground. Her, Karkat, Sollux, Aradia, Equius and Nepeta had found a haunted house and decided to go in for a laugh and it had been fine, nothing too scary. That is until Kanaya and Karkat got stuck in a pitched black chamber with a giant spider automaton. The doors had somehow gotten jammed, trapping Kanaya and Karkat with the spider and the other four in the exit chamber.
It had taken two hours to get them out and Kanaya would never ever forget discovering that her moirail had severe claustrophobia. And spiders had forever made him uncomfortable after that incident. The funny thing was he still got along fine with Vriska.
"Yes, I Remember." Kanaya said at last "Was This The Real Reason You Wanted To Come With Me During The Blackout?" she asked softly.
Karkat nodded shyly "I JUST...YOU'RE ONE OF THE PEOPLE I FEEL SAFEST WITH, OK?"
Kanaya pulled her moirail into a hug and shooshed papped him until he was feeling better.
"Pale For You." she whispered in his ear.
"PALE FOR YOU TOO..." he mumbled into her shoulder.