Username: Karkat Vantas ♋️
name: Shāpu Sumi
gender: male
element: Descry
their past?Rain poured down on the shadow stained gravel road of a seemingly forgotten town late at night. Frogs croaked sadly every so often, their tired voices becoming shroaded in the heavy downpour. A dimly visible yellowish light began to tear away at the darkness and rain as a young, dark goblin gator pedalled their way down the bumpy and slick path. They were breathing heavily, moving their legs up and down as fast as they could. The waters from the sky were flowing down the young child's face, causing them to squint their eyes fiercely, trying not to get anything in their eyes. The gravel shifted and swayed out from underneath the bike's wheels as the GG made their way through the night.
After biking a good couple of hours, the young lad pulled the breaks on the handles, and stopped in front of a ruggedy, small house with a completely battered fence. Letting out a nervous yet frustrated sigh, the child walked up to the chipping front door, clenching his fists just thinking about what his parents were going to do to him when he got inside.
Opening the door slowly, the small gator peered around the inside of the completely dark void of a home, making sure that the coast was clear of any parents. Seeing that nobody was awake, the boy carefully slipped off his rugged school shoes, and began to make his way towards his bedroom. Thunder shook the house violently out of seemingly nowhere, scaring the boy so much, that he nearly screamed. Luckily for him, though, he had slapped his hand over his mouth, stifling the scream, causing it to fade away into the thunder.
Rushing over to his room, the young GG quickly, and quietly, swung a room's door open and slipped in; closing it behind him. The door had a ripped sheet of paper taped to it, it read: "Shāpu only".
---
The loud, cursing sound of an alarm clock screaming awoke Shāpu in a boggy state. Reaching his arm over the bed and towards his bedside table, he began slapping the hard wood object, completely missing his intended one. Swearing under his breath, he completely sat up in his bed and slapped the ringing alarm right off of his nightstand. It landed with a loud 'kthonk' on the chipping hard wood floor, breaking it, but not killing it's noise; a faint buzzing could be heard from the shattered helper.
Angrily sighing, Shāpu got out of bed and picking up the clock, looking at the time: 5:30am. Was it really that time, or did it say that time because it was broken? Shāpu didn't seem to care. Sliding his room door open, Shāpu slipped on his slippers and trudged groggily over to his kitchen.
Opening a small, water damaged cabinet, the dark and beaten looking GG took out a slightly cracked bowl and then a lone, crushed box of cereal. Going over to, and then sitting at a floor mat in the middle of his kitchen, Shāpu placed the bowl down on the mat, and poured the cereal into the bowl; not even bothering to get milk or a spoon, the clearly aggravated GG began eating the dry flakes with his hands.
"Why had I had that dream?" He asked himself, referring to the first lines of text from the entry above. Looking down at his breakfast, if you'd call it that, Shāpu's face began to twist into one of pure anger. "They were never even worried if I just disappeared. They didn't even do anything the next morning. They didn't even notice that I was gone." The bowl of cereal was silent. The whole house was silent. Shāpu sighed.
Getting up from his mat, he took his bowl and threw the whole thing into the trash.
Looking outside the window, he saw how bright it was outside. The sun was burning his eyes, making him squint. Turning his head over towards his extremely old and out of date microwave, the rough goblin noticed the real time: 7:15am. Scrabbling to his feet, the startled GG dashed back to his room, tearing his closet to seemingly shreads looking for his coat and shades. He was late. Late for his gang meeting. He had always told his 'friends' to never be late or he'd whoop 'em, but now was his day to be whooped.
Slipping on his coat as he ran out the front door, not even bothering to close it behind himself, he hopped on his motorcycle and started it up, racing down his crowded, damp, and cramped neighborhood streets. Flipping his shades out, he put them on over his eyes, allowing him to see the disgusting world in front of him better.
Shāpu hated the city of Kōron, but he couldn't afford to live anywhere else, not to mention he could barely even afford to live in the battered and crumbling house he lives in now. Kōron was a rough, broken down, and crime burdened city, located just under the grand city of 'Yeollyeolhan', home to the famous M.J.'s studio, and Margarette's once lavish casino.
Shāpu hated the residents of Yeollyeolhan. Everyone that lives there must be so well off and living life in luxury. Shāpu began to become overwhelmed with envy, completely forgetting about his meeting with the gang. His breathes became heavy as he clenched his fists on his motorcycle's handles, revving his engines.
What was he going to do? The envious gator pulled his bike over to the side of the road, flipped up the kickstand, and leaned against the motorcycle; arms crossed in front of him, his eyes gazing furiously at the tall, and luxuriously styled hotels of Yeollyeolhan. Those buildings mocked him and everyone who lived in Kōron. The way they cast their shadows down upon the city disgusted Shāpu.
...But something felt wrong. Shāpu tried to shake the feeling away, but a foggy memory began to play in his head.
---
"Hey!" A young gator missing one of his front canines shouted eagerly as he ran towards the young Shāpu. Reaching the dark GG, the other said, "Hey, I heard about what happened to your, uhm, f-friend? Or, what ever you'd want to call them, but, I got you something." Pulling out a small pin from their pocket, the young kid handed it over to Shāpu. Shāpu didn't take it. He didn't want the kid's pity present. "Get lost. How many times do I have to tell you, that no matter what you do, you'll never be a part of my group?" The little kid looked to the ground, looking defeated and red-faced. Clenching onto the pin, the canine-less GG began to run back to his home in the grander city above.
'What a wimp.' Shāpu had thought to himself as he slipped his bandaid covered hands into his dirty pant pockets. "Yeah! That's right!" The young, dark gator shouted as he cuffed his hands against his mouth, "Go back to your rich mommy and daddy, and whine to them that you didn't get every little thing that your rich butt wanted!"
Shāpu put his hands down and stopped shouting insults at the helpless kid. A sharp feeling stung inside of his young chest. A feeling of guilt and sorrow. But, he wouldn't let that show. People in his city were supposed to be tough, and weren't supposed to care about the filthy rich penny-heads.
A group of roughed up and bandaid covered kids came out from behind an abandoned building nearby, and strutted their way over towards their 'friend'. "Nice job, pipsqueak," the oldest of the group had told him, "now hopefully that little rich, money-suckling baby never turns their wealthy little head around our terf again, or we'll have to bop him." The other kids hissed excitingly in agreement. Shāpu puffed out his chest, hiding his feelings of guilt, and putting on a face of pride, said, "Yeah, if that kid ever comes back again, we'll bop him."
---
Shāpu hadn't noticed the tears running down his face until now. Whipping them away, he pushed his sunglasses up his snout and made his way to the nearby icecream parlor.
'Why hadn't you of just made friends with that kid?' Shāpu asked himself as he walked. 'That kid was rich, so rich, you could have gone into his mother's casino for free if you had just have been friends with him for at least a couple of years.' Shāpu began clenching and unclenching his fists, his face reddening in anger and regret. 'That kid is famous now, living life so, so fabulously, while you're still stuck down here in this pit.' Sweat began rolling down his forehead, 'you idiot, you imbecile; you just had to let you're stupid pride and your stupid gang get in your way of actually living a descent life, with money!' Shāpu stopped walking. He was shaking with rage. Looking at the ground, all he could imagine was how that rich little kid looked towards the ground when he had told him to get lost for the last time. That little kid with no canine tooth had tried his absolute hardest to be friends with him and to be in their group. They gave Shāpu gifts, they did almost all of the stupid and irresponsible things that the other gang members had dared him to, he tried his absolute hardest at everything to- Shāpu looked up from the ground with sudden realization. The great M.J. had been trying to
impress him.
Him of all people. 'Why had I never asked him why he came down here of all places looking for friends?' Shāpu turned around and looked at the towering buildings of Yeollyeolhan, a feeling of confusion rising up within him.
Why does he hate that city?
Did he even have a reason other than jealousy and envy?
No. He didn't.
Shāpu crossed his arms and thought deeply about the gang member that he had lost the day before he had told the younger M.J. to get lost. For the longest time, Shāpu had been angry at the citizens of Yeollyeolhan for his 'friend's' death, but as he thought, those rich people had nothing to do with it. It was his idiot friend that gotten himself killed in an alley way by some shady person that also lived in Kōron.
For the first time in a long time, Shāpu let out a little chuckle. "Look at yourself, Shāpu," he said as he began walking towards the towering city, "you're walking your sorry butt over to that fancy city right now. But you feel good." It was true what Shāpu told himself. He felt, strangely good for talking things over with himself. He felt as though his jealousy had flown away, but, no matter what he did, his envy would never go away. But that's okay, because he had finally pushed it away, allowing himself to feel good.
Walking over to the gigantic, perfectly carved and clean city sign, reading: the city of Yeollyeolhan, he stopped and leaned up against it. A small smile crept up his face. He didn't care what time it was, and if he ever saw his gang again...
The small smile faded from his face. His gang needed him, though. He was their boss, their leader.
Thinking about things for a good amount of time, Shāpu had decided that he would go back to his gang. Besides, what would he even do in that rich city, anyway? He had no money, and he surely couldn't apologize to M.J.; that famous star would most likely have hundreds, even thousands of others swarmed around him, and Shāpu would just be another face in the crowd. M.J. probably wouldn't even recognize him.
Shāpu began walking back further into his nasty and vulgar city, his head hung low, feeling defeated. Wishing that he could change his past, wishing that he had never stuck himself in his gang, wishing that he could be one of the lucky gators that lives in Yeollyeolhan, wishing that he had taken his hundreds of chances to be M.J.'s friend. But now he was alone and longing for real friends, just like how he had left the young M.J..
Shāpu began to walk towards the designated building of his gang's meeting. His heart was hurting, but he didn't allow his face to show it. He didn't want to be with his gang anymore, but he couldn't just leave them. They'd harass him and force him to leave Kōron, but Shāpu would have nowhere else to go. And, besides, even though his gang members weren't the best people, they were always there for him. Yeah. Who needs that fancy rich city anyway?
Shāpu took in a deep breath and began to walk quicker, swifter. He didn't need money or real friends. What was he even thinking, wanting to go over to Yeollyeolhan to try and redeem himself? He needed no redemption. He's lived his life too long in the dark and self-destroying city of Kōron to be redeemed.
The dark GG kicked up the glossy and chipped gravel from the road as he began running.
It was getting dark.
He'd be with his gang, soon.
extras:Shāpu's music playlist
-
Chain Hang Low (Crizzly & AFK remix)-
-
Current life:Shāpu is currently working the nightshift as an icecream truck driver for his mostly nocturnal town.
He is still apart of his gang, and has a burning, envious desire to live in Yeollyeolhan. Not to gain money or friends, but to get away from the dark hole of a city that he is living in now.
Shāpu currently lives inside of the icecream truck that he works in, because he couldn't afford his old, broken down home anymore.