Chapter Text
>Be the chick.
Are you talking about the angry one?
>Yup, that’s her!
Your name is JADE HARLEY, and you can’t remember the last time you met someone that impossibly rude. He was mean and uncalled for, and you regret that all you had done was walk away, because now he was still in line for the presentation you had wanted to see, and you were aimlessly trying to get lost in the crowd. Sometimes you wish you could stand up for yourself better. If you never see that guy again, it’ll be too soon. But hey, at least you’d get the chance to smack him in the jaw.
You still feel red in the face and your head still pounds as you dodge crowds of people. Worst of all, tears collect in the corner of your eyes. Dammit, this isn’t the time to be sad! You’re supposed to be meeting your peers and having fun, not crying about stupid pissheads who are trying to ruin your day.
You duck off of the carpeted path and stand by the wall, deciding to take a minute to collect yourself. You blink back tears and rub your hands against your skirt, trying to work out the hot buzzing feeling in your palms.
“Um, hi there! Are you alright?” You look up to see a man about your age standing before you. He’s got jet black hair and blue eyes guarded by a pair of rectangular glasses. He’s just slightly shorter than you, and has a concerned look on his face.
“Oh, hi. I’m fine. Just ran into a really rude guy. Not a big deal.” You stand up straighter and try to look as okay as your words made you sound.
“That sucks! He didn’t hurt you or anything, right?”
“No, no. It’s alright. Thanks for asking, though.”
He grinned again and stuck out your hand. “No problem! I’m John Egbert. You’re Jade, vlogging queen, right?”
You smile back, albeit a little weakly, and grasp his hand. “Well, I wouldn’t say the queen, but that’s me.”
“I’m so happy to meet you, your videos are so great. Squiddles forever!”
“Not everyone seems to think that.” You reply.
“Well, not everyone is as cool as you!”
“Thanks, but really, what’s with all the flattery? You don’t look like an enthusiastic fan. Why are you being so nice?”
“What, can’t a guy just be polite?” You give him a stern look, planting your hands on your hips. He smiles apologetically in response. “Okay, fine, you caught me. Truth is, I’ve been looking for a good business partner!”
“Business partner?”
“Yeah! Someone to make a couple videos with, just to open up my channel to new viewers, and hopefully help them out too!”
“Oh? And what kinds of videos do you make?”
“My friend and I co-host a gaming channel!”
“That’s funny, I just happened to be in the line for a gaming presentation before the meanie drove me away.”
“That’s perfect, then! You show up in a few gaming videos with us, maybe you let us guest star in one of your vlogs, and we’ll both get to experience something new.”
“Hmm… wait, how many subscribers do you have?”
He shrinks back, a look of embarrassment on his face. “Two hundred and fifty last I checked.”
“Oh…” that explains how he was so eager to make videos with you.
“But that’s okay! So maybe you won’t gain many subscribers from the deal, but we can still show you the ropes, give you a tour of the equipment required to make these videos, all that junk. Maybe show you a little bit of what you might’ve missed in the panel.”
“That could be fun…” you say hesitantly. “But wait, who’s your partner?”
“Oh, this guy named Karkat Vantas.”
“What’s he like?”
“Uh, I will warn you that he’s a bit of a grumpy pants. But he can be really cool once he warms up to you, and I’m sure you’d get along really great with him! He’s a good guy in general, if a little weird at times.”
“Sounds like a cool dude. It’s not like I don’t trust you or anything, it’s just that I’ve already dealt with my fair share of rude poops today already…”
“Oh, trust me, Karkat’s not like that. He’d like you, I think.”
“Alright,” you nod, a little bit more enthusiastically. “This sounds like it could be a lot of fun! I’ll do it.”
“Awesome!” He claps his hands excitedly. “So, how should we do this?”
“I think we should make the videos soon, preferably today, since I won’t be in LA for too much longer.”
“Okay, how about this. We meet up here later, at 4:30 or something so that I can be sure that partner will be back at the hotel, which is just down the street. I’ll take you there, and we can make the gaming videos and everything.”
“And then we could go out afterwards or something and make a vlog or two along the way?”
“Great! So, it’s a deal?”
“Yeah.” You shake his hand again, nodding. “So, I’ll see you later, then.” You move to walk away before he grabs your shirt sleeve.
“Wait, sorry. I just wanted to mention that, um, I’m not some creepy weirdo, and neither is my partner. We won’t do anything freaky, promise!”
You laugh a little bit. “I believe you, John. But just know that if you did do something unwelcome… I’m trained in seven different types of combat.” Your tone is light, but you say it firmly enough to let him know that you’re not joking about that.
“Woah, that’s really cool,” he says, looking starstuck. “Anyway, yeah, see you later!” He turns and waves before practically skipping away.
Well, looks like you’re just going to have to entertain yourself until you meet up with John again at 4:30.
>Be Jade’s newest business partner!
Hell yeah! You’ve already made a friend in the biz, and it’s only the afternoon of the first day here! What a great start. You’re sure Karkat will be overjoyed at the achievement. In fact, you think it might be a good idea to call him up right now and tell him. You pull your cell phone out of your backpack and type in his number. He doesn’t pick up, so you call him again. When he still doesn’t pick up, you decide just to leave a message on his voice mail. “Greetings, this is Karkat,” his message says. “Clearly I’m not here right now, so you can either call me back later or leave me a message, if you’re an impatient little shit. Here’s the beep.” Beep. You say, “hi Karkat! I guess you’re in a panel right now, so I just wanted to warn you that I’ve met someone who we can make videos with! I’m meeting her at 4:30, so you can go straight back to the hotel without me. Just make sure you’re looking okay when we arrive. See ya!” You end the message and turn off your phone. Perfect, everything is set for later.
It’s unlikely that Karkat will be happy with you setting up a meeting with another YouTuber without his prior consent or a proper warning, though. Hopefully he’ll act less shitty when she’s around than he normally does, you don’t want him to scare her off. After all, it looks like she could be a really fun friend to have, and you’ve always enjoyed her videos. Still, you know that Karkat is smart enough not to ruin the opportunity for the both of you. He may be grumpy, but he’s not that spiteful. This could be your big break, after all! Oh well, looks like you’re going to get the rest of the day to shit around until 4:30.
>Skip ahead to the good stuff!
It’s now 4:35, and you’re journeying back to the meet up place. You’ve been having fun all day, looking at booths and talking to people. But this is going to be the real exciting part!
When you arrive, Jade is already there. She smiles and nods in greeting when she sees you. “Hi, Jade!”
“Hi! You ready to go?”
“Born ready.” The two of you begin to walk towards the exit.
“You said you’re in the hotel down the street, right?”
“Yep!” You reply. “Is that the one you’re staying at, too?”
“Yeah. It’s really luxurious.”
You decide not to mention that you and Karkat had to save up for months to be able to afford the posh hotel. The price of a suite is probably pocket change to a YouTuber like her. She must get paid a ton. “So, are you ready to make gaming videos?”
“Sooo ready! I’m really pumped. What are we gonna play?”
“I think we should just do a couple versus matches of a few shooters, like Call of Duty or something. That way we can make something entertaining for a couple of episodes without having to get into a story.”
“Wow! But I’m warning you… I don’t play video games much. Like, ever, practically. I suck really bad.”
“Don’t worry, failure is entertaining. Besides, you can’t be too much worse than my partner.” You exit the convention center and enter the street. As you walk you pull out your cell phone. Whoops, looks like you’ve missed five calls, all from Karkat. Maybe you shouldn’t have set your phone to vibrate and left it in your backpack. Oh well, whatever he has to say, he’ll have to save it until he meets Jade. “Anyway, what’s it like being a famous vlogger, hmm?”
“Fun! It’s really cool that people have such an interest in what I do in my every day life.”
“Isn’t it sort of creepy, though?”
“A little bit, but you get over it.”
The two of you share polite and reserved conversation for the trip to the hotel all the way up until you’re in the elevator. You start to fidget a little, excitement and nervousness mingling. Your partnership with Jade could really jump start your career!
You finally reach your room with Jade in toe, and you hurriedly use your room key and open the door. Karkat is standing in front of the window as you walk in, tapping his foot and hugging himself. Even with his back to you, you can tell that he’s nervous. You take a few steps inside, and he turns around. “Hey-” he breaks off as he sees who is behind you.
He freezes, his eyes widen, his hands drop to his side and he tenses up. Confused, I glanced back at Jade. Her eyes narrowed, her face flushes instantly, her hands clench into fists. “It’s you.” Her voice is filled with venom. She doesn't take her eyes off him, but you can tell that she’s addressing you when she says, “your partner is the douche who harassed me earlier?!”
And suddenly, nothing makes sense.