#this is beatiful

Like, it starts a few weeks after his arrival when he overhears ranboo ask a question to his narrator(s?). The answer comes to mind, but it’s nothing Karl should know, so he bites his tongue to keep from saying it. Then he blinks and he sees he’s written the answer in his notes instead. A little weird, but Karl’s secret is intact, so he moves on.

From there, it happens more and more often. Any time he hears someone ask a question or wonder about something he knows, he keeps himself from saying the answer, at the cost of a few seconds of awareness as he apparently writes it down instead. Then a few seconds becomes a minute becomes ten minutes, and Karl’s notes are slowly becoming more narration than schoolwork. Worse, his friends are starting to notice when he loses focus and starts frantically writing. He does his best to talk it off as just paying really close attention in class. Even so, they’re getting worried.

It’s not until Quackity and Sapnap find him in his room, half an hour late to their first class, still in pajamas and surrounded by bits of paper filled to the margins with what looks like their lives, that Karl is forced to admit this is becoming a serious problem.

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For a while, Quackity and Sapnap just try to support Karl. Quackity’s narrators try to fill him in on what’s going on. They sometimes even give Quackity knowledge he shouldn’t have yet so he can answer the questions Karl overhears, hoping that if the question is answered, Karl won’t be compelled to write it all down. It doesn’t work, but the effort is there.

Sapnap, for the most part, keeps Karl company while he’s writing, making sure he has spare paper so Karl doesn’t start writing on the walls and passing snacks to the hand Karl isn’t writing with so he eats. And so, it’s Sapnap who looks over Karl’s shoulder as he writes.

“You never write about yourself,” Sapnap realizes, watching Karl scrawl Quackity’s actions from across the campus.

–food from the cafeteria. The narrator has no place within the story, and so he does not appear. Quackity sits– appears on the next line. Sapnap’s brows raise. He hadn’t known Karl could hear him like this.

“Well, you’re in the story now,” Sapnap says. “You should write it. Then maybe you can stay here as a person and not a narrator, right?”

Karl’s pen falters, hesitates for a moment. But it’s only a moment, and then he’s writing even faster. The narrator doesn’t belong in the story. It was a mistake. It will be corrected.

“Bullshit,” Sapnap declares. He grabs a fresh sheet of paper and guides Karl’s pen to it. “You’re here now, and all of us are better for it. Write it down, man, you’re here.”

Karl’s pen hovers over the page. Drops of ink leave little splatters in the margin as Karl struggles, trying to guide his narration. Finally, hesitantly, he starts writing a new story. A narrator called Karl suddenly appears within the very school he was just describing: Ever After High.

Karl ends up going through his whole time at school, sparing no detail. Halfway through, Quackity comes back, and Sapnap fills him in. The two sit with Karl as he writes. They learn about the Inbetween, even, and everything Karl’s been researching, trying to figure out why and how he’s here and what he can do to help.

By the time Karl’s narration catches up to real life, the sun is shining late afternoon through the window. Karl’s pen drops from his hand. He blinks a few times as Quackity and Sapnap both call his name.

“Ow,” he says, holding his hand. “Major cramp.”

My mom found this timeline for my life from when I was 7 or 8.

Translation from my abysmal handwriting and spelling:

6.

7.

8. Get a new dog

9. get a n Get a horse (house?)

10. Travel into Europe

11. Get an ipod nano

12. Get braces

13. Move!

14. Ride wild rollercoaster 

15. Start nation soccer 

16. Get a drivers licens

17. Get a convertable

18. Get a small job

19. Win in the Olympics

20. be

21. Get pets!

25. Get married

30. Be a black belt