Things Not Meant To Be (Karkat X Reader)

The Code of Athens

Karkat's POV

   The day was moving by slowly, you felt a rush of frustration wash over you over the smallest little things. Like, the people in the hallways walking just a little too slow, or the guy sitting behind you smacking his gum just a little too loud. As the bell for second period bell rang, you saw a small note drop on your desk. You looked up to see who it was, but alas they had already filed out of the room along with most of the class. You opened it up and found exactly what you'd expected. A book code.
    This wasn't the first time you'd received one of these from this 'mysterious' stranger. They were really good at covering their tracks. Aside from handwriting, you had no leads. But the hand writing changes which likely means that they get multiple people to write it for them.
   The first one you received, was for a gift. It took you two days to figure it out. It was instructions to go to an unassigned locker, when you opened it, you found a disc version of Twelfth Night, a Shakespeare play, which was the play the code came from.
   They change the plays occasionally, but he only uses Shakespeare. Likely because the schools' library has 8 copies of the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Either that or they just happen to be a total fucking nerd. Potentially both. You've come to find the stranger to be friendly. You've contacted them a few times, using the abandon locker and book code, or should you say "play" code. Just wanting to know who they were, and how they knew about you.  They left you cryptic or vague answers.
  One thing you've noticed is that they have repeated plays, even used his poetry in the back, but they have yet to use Romeo and Juliet, or Measure for Measure. Both are in this book, just unused. You think it's a clue, because both plays contain a girl names Juliet. That has to be a clue, right? Unfortunately you've never heard of anyone actually having that name, so maybe it's not a strong lead.
   Well for now you have to decipher the code at hand. They are all from act one, so it's not a poem, none of the last numbers go past ten, so it's likely none of the characters speak in prose, meaning this follows unrhymed, unversed iambic pentameter. Wow, who's the nerd now? There is an "..." At the end, signaling it's an incomplete work... So this is either Twelfth Night of Timon of Athens.
  Stuffing the rest of your stuff into your bag, you head the library, you already know where the Shakespeare is so you dash over there and grab a copy and begin to decode. It takes you all of 5 minutes, you've gotten good.
   You try Twelfth Night first.
  "Proof and was of seek was and." Well that is incredibly fucking wrong.
  "Come to the base on the hill" that seems more accurate. But you don't know exactly what that means. You decide that after third period you will check the locker. Before you leave you notice that aside from the book you have in your hand there are only 6 books left. You decide to ignore this as it couldn't possibly be important in any way.

  *Time Skip Brought to you by my obvious affliction with Shakespeare.*

  You leave your classroom and make sure you aren't being followed. You drag down a narrow hallway, reach the locker and type in the combo. Inside you see a rolled up piece of paper, tied together with a bright red bow and labeled with your name. You quietly close the locker and enter a nearby ablution block to open the paper. You find its a map, it's crudely drawn, uses weird things as landmarks and shows a direct path from the school to an X. Maybe today is the day you finally meet this friendly stranger. Normal people wouldn't dare go, as it seems pretty risky, but you enjoy danger and were totally ready to take on this stupid map. You are assuming that your should leave after school. So you prepare for the journey, you text your Dancestor Kankri to let him know that you will be late tonight. He replies almost immediately that he will be out later as well. You also make a mental note to buy extra food at lunch to take with you. You don't know how long it will take since this poorly drawn map has no sense of scale. It looks as though a blind person doodled it. But despite the rushed look about it, and the fact that it appears to be marked out in crayon, you trust your stranger-friend. They have yet to steer you wrong.

READERS POV:

   After 30 solid minutes at lunch trying to crack the code you FINALLY figured it out, the one thing that tripped you up was the word number, it wasn't actually a word number, it was a syllable number, which annoyed you greatly. So the message is as follows "come to the base on the hill" you know immediately what that means. A few years ago you and John found an old house on a hill. No one lived there so you made it your hang out. You spruced it up a bit. You repainted the outside 2 summers ago, rigged it to a generator so you would have limited power while there, and did a thorough cleaning. There were 5 rooms in the quaint home, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and two bedrooms. Unfortunately you haven't found a way to add running water, so the bathroom is mostly useless. However the other rooms are nice. The kitchen is stocked now with non-perishable items, since you only turn the generator on when you are there. But you also keep packs of water bottles stocked in the fridge. You loved visiting there, it's been over a month since your last visit, John must want to meet up. But why was he being so cryptic? You would have come if he had just asked. Whatever the confession he has for you is, it must be big.

A/N WHAT? Two updates in one day? UNREAL. I can't believe it either. In fact I'm about to start working on chapter 10. I'm suddenly inspired. I hope you guys like it, and the fact that John is being his clever, prankster self in this. Please give me feedback it is really appreciated and thank you for reading!