When Equius returned from the hardware store to procure some new tools, he spotted a human by the side of the road, just out of colony limits. He did not recognize this man, who was carrying a sign that Equius did not care to read. He had work to do.
As Equius did his work, the image of the man with the sign kept bubbling up in his mind. It was a little distracting and detrimental to the quality of Equius' work. Carefully, Equius left his workshop and snuck up north, towards the road. Sure enough, the man was still standing there. He looked rather plain, like so many other people Equius had seen in Beatty, except for the print on his trucker's cap and shirt. The shirt was partly obscured by the sign, but the cap clearly read "H.A.X." in bold black letters. The sign was clearer than that and simply read "xenos go home", roughly handwritten.
Equius stood a fair way from the strange man, out of reach. "How long have you been standing there, sir?"
The man just glared angrily.
"What does 'xeno' mean?" Equius asked, honestly not knowing for certain.
"Outsider", the man finally shouted. "Go back from where you came!"
"That woold be... problematic."
"Not my problem, ya alien bastard."
Equius turned around, shrugging ever so slightly. He thought about taking it up with the empress and considered how to formoolate his report.
-----
"And that is all I know, your highness."
Feferi shifted in her seat. "This is really bad, Equius! We don't have anywhere else to go!"
"I know, your highness. I had already told the man that it woold be a problem, but I dare to doubt he woold accept the complete reason..."
"Still, maybe you should take Karkat and some others with you and tell this man to kindly leave us alone? Doesn't hurt to try."
"I will, your highness."
----
Meanwhile, the man had finally left his place near the side of the road and slowly circled the colony grounds, staying just a short bit outside the perimeter. At one point, going counterclockwise, he reached Tavros' farm, an excellent spot to resume his post.
"Umm, what are you doing there, sir?"
"Telling you alien bastards to pack your crap and leave my goddamn planet, bull boy."
"Wait, uh, 'bull boy'? Are you referring to my, ah, horns?"
"What else, ya xeno asshole?"
"I uhh, don't think that's very nice, umm, sir."
"I don't have to be nice to some inhuman son of a bitch."
"Uhm, I don't know who my mother was, but I doubt she was, uhh, a bitch."
"Are you mocking me, asshole?"
"Just telling the, uhm, truth. I really don't know much about my mother."
Just then, Equius arrived, together with Karkat and Eridan. They sprinted towards the bumbling farmer to make sure he wouldn't do anything stupid. The xenophobe took it an entirely different way though, and drew a gun.
"Just one of you gray-skinned freaks takes a step, I'mma shoot you, you hear?"
"Kar, wwhat's this asshole's problem?" Eridan asked.
"I don't think he likes us, buttchin boy."
Karkat, in his confidence, shifted his footing a bit to properly look down on the human intruder. He promptly got a round fired at him, piercing the top of his hair.
"I TOLD YOU DON'T FUCKING MOVE, YOU XENO FREAK!"
"You shot me", Karkat shouted incredulously.
"You shot him", Eridan echoed, not so much incredulously as disappointed at the human's horrible aim.
Equius just sweated in confusion.
Tavros, on the other hand, still heard the shot ringing through his head. Karkat was a prick, he thought, but hardly even took that step he was warned about! And now that this jackass had missed, he probably knew how to compensate. Tavros tensed up at the thought of some xenophobic asshole shooting his friends, and felt the resolve bubble up inside him.
If he were still thirteen, he would've yelled something stupid as he charged at the target. But he was a respectable adult now, and those did not shout "RUFIOOO" at the top of their lungs.
With the relative silence, the other three trolls didn't notice in time that their charge had charged. Right at this human who had dared to shoot Karkat in the hair, dinky little weapon in hand.
Ofcourse, Tavros and drama never mixed well and he fell over, dropping his weapon. But he didn't let that stop him.
The next thing they heard was an inhuman scream as Tavros Fucking Nitram tore a gash through the xenophobe's leg with one of his horns.
"Uhmm... uhh... AND LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!" the farmer shouted as he scrambled back up, servos whirring. The xenophobe paled and painfully limped away, back to the car he had left by the side of the road.
"Holy shit, WWHAT?" Eridan exclaimed when he snapped out of his stupor and gazed upon the thin trail of human blood leading away from the farm, and the darkening blotches on Tavros' horn. The bits of trouser textile hanging from the tip really finished the image.
"Tavros did that?" Karkat chimed in. "Maybe he's not such a wimp after all?"
"Nitram just needs something he feels it is worth fighting for, it seems", Equius mused. In approval, he threw a towel at Tavros to wipe off his horn.
"But wwhat if this jackass returns, guys?"
"I, uhmm... I'll be ready for him!" Tavros stammered, the pride from defending his friends radiating from him.