bloodyvirgo | The Recent Past Is Recalled

Karkat opens the door, looking bleary, with a crab perched on his head.

"WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF TIME IS THIS, GLOWWORM?"

"A Perfectly Respectable Hour For A Troll, If You Actually Slept Decent Hours," she replies dryly. The crab perched on his head, however, draws a smile. "I Merely Thought You'd Like To Know That I Spoke With Rose And Managed To Procure What We Needed."

Karkat grimaces, and abstracts the crab away into his sylladex.

"GREAT, LET ME GO DIG UP THE STACK OF MEDALS I KEEP FOR PEOPLE WHO PERFORM THEIR DUTIES IN A MERELY COMPETENT WAY. NO, WAIT, SHUT UP, NONE OF THAT MATTERS."

His brain is still waking up.

"DID YOU KNOW TEREZI IS HERE?"

Edited 2012-05-12 12:06 (UTC)

She nods, handing him the slip of paper.

"I Do. I Spoke With Her Shortly After Her Arrival."

"RIGHT, OKAY." He shoves it in a pocket, then pauses to rub his forehead, and shove his hair back from his face.

"AND WAS THERE SOME KIND OF DIABOLICAL FEMALE CONSPIRACY NOT TO GIVE ME ANY WARNING ABOUT IT, OR WHAT?"

"No Conspiracy Or Cahoots Going On. I Was Going To Tell You Right Now, After Business Was Dealt With, But It Looks Like You Found Out For Yourself."

Karkat growls wearily, but he has already lost his shit and calmed back down on this subject twice; it's beginning to feel a little warmed over.

"OKAY, WELL, THIS IS A NEW GENERAL DIRECTIVE FROM YOUR LEADER, WHEN PEOPLE WITH THE CAPACITY TO SINGLE-HANDEDLY RUIN MY LIFE POP IN THIS PLACE I NEED A LITTLE FOREWARNING IN ORDER TO FACE IT WITH MY SHIT PROPERLY STRAPPED DOWN AND SECURED IN PLACE, SO I DON'T WIND UP HIDING IN THE WOODS FOR SIX HOURS PANICKING."

"That Seems Fair En-"

She blinks, looking down at him.

"You Hid In The Woods For Six Hours?"

He shushes her and waves her into his room, all the time vacillating between secretive shame and shameless anger. "LOOK, I DON'T THINK YOU UNDERSTAND HOW COMPLETELY TERRIFYING TEREZI IS, AND HOW COMPLETELY SHE COULD FUCK UP MY LIFE WITH A FEW CHOICE WORDS IF SHE DECIDED SHE DIDN'T LIKE THE DIRECTION THINGS HAVE GONE HERE. FROM HER PERSPECTIVE FORTY-FIVE MINUTES AGO WE WERE IN THROES OF A FULL-SCALE GORY QUADRANT FAILURE, AND NOW FOR ME IT HAS BEEN HALF A SWEEP AND I HAVE MOVED ON TO BE INVOLVED WITH HER BEST FRIEND. SHE IS AN EXPERT ON MANIPULATION AND KNOWS EXACTLY THE QUESTIONS I WOULD RATHER NOT HAVE ASKED."

"EVEN AS IT IS THERE IS ZERO DOUBT BUT THAT HER PRESENCE HERE MAKES THINGS A BILLION TIMES MORE COMPLICATED FOR ME, BUT AT LEAST I AM LUCKY SHE COULD CARE LESS ABOUT MY ROMANTIC ENTANGLEMENTS AT THIS POINT."

"I MEAN OBVIOUSLY IT IS ULTIMATELY TO HER GOOD AND THE GOOD OF ALL OF US ON THAT METEOR THAT SHE IS HERE AND CAN GET HER SPONGE WRUNG OUT AFTER ALL THE NIGHTMARISH SHIT THAT WENT DOWN, IT HAS BEEN GOOD FOR YOU AND FOR ME AND IT WILL BE GOOD FOR HER, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT ISN'T A HUGE PAIN IN MY PERSONAL NOOK AND THAT I AM NOT FREE TO GO HAVE WHATEVER KIND OF RETARDED PANIC ATTACK I PERSONALLY CHOOSE IN PRIVATE."

She steps inside smoothly as she's ushered in.

"You Think Terezi Would Try To Ruin Things Just Because Your Quadrant Didn't Work Out? Karkat, She May Give You Somewhat Of A Hard Time, But That Is Just Terezi Being Terezi, I Don't Think There Would Be Any Mean Spiritedness To It."

"From What I Understood, We Aren't On The Roof Yet, And She's Just Killed Vriska, So You Are Right About This Being An Ideal Place For Her To Get Her Head On Straight. For Anyone To Get Their Bearings, Really...Even If That Consists Of Hiding In The Woods."

"You Know, You Could Have Messaged Me, I Wouldn't Have Minded Coming And Killing Some Of Those Demon Rabbits With You."

"NO, DON'T BE DUMB, IF ANYONE YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN WITH HER, SHE WAS THE ONE DEALING WITH SERIOUS SHIT, I WAS JUST SUNK IN THE BOTTOMLESS DEPTHS OF MY USUAL RETARDATION. IT WAS INEVITABLE THAT I WOULD RESURFACE AND DEAL WITH IT, AND I DID, IN MY OWN WAY."

Edited 2012-05-14 18:56 (UTC)

She makes a soft noise in agreement.

"She

Was

A Little Off Kilter Until Nepeta And I Calmed Her Down Some, Then Got Her To Rest. She Was Exhausted, Really."

He drops into his stuffed desk-husk. "WE ALL WERE. I THINK THAT IS THE BIG IDEA, TO KEEP US ALL SO EXHAUSTED AND OFF-BALANCE AND PANICKED THAT WE JUST DO THINGS ACCORDING TO SOMEONE ELSE'S PLAN."

Kanaya makes a face at that, crossing her arms as she finds her own perch.

"It Makes Me All The More Thankful For This Place. Who Knows What Would Have Happened If We Hadn't Been Allowed A Moment Of Calm To Gather Ourselves And Think Without Danger Looming Over Us."

"I DON'T FEEL LIKE I'VE THOUGHT OF ANYTHING TOO GREAT," Karkat says sourly. "BUT IT CAN'T HURT TO GIVE OUR SEER A CHANCE TO GET SOME REST."

"She'd Just Killed Vriska When She Came In, So Obviously This Place Does Her

Some

Good. I Remember Her Being A Lot More Put Together On The Roof."

"Nonetheless, Nepeta And I Set Her Up With A Room Here, Once She Was Rested, I Haven't Seen Her Much Since, Really."

"YEAH, THAT IS HOW I RECALL IT, TOO."

In the part of him that is a leader and not a spurned quadrantmate, Karkat can be glad she's here. They need a Seer. A rested Seer, with time to think.

Seers are dangerous players. Their role gives them a disproportionate amount of control over the steering of the alpha timeline, for the aid of their party. But when a Seer is harried or impulsive, when she makes a decision on impulse without a full sifting of the potentialities involved, her choices can be disportionately disastrous.

An impetuous Seer--

>Stop narrating and fastforward to now already.

--courts oblivion.

Karkat opens the door, looking bleary, with a crab perched on his head.

"WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF..." The rest of the callback dies on his lips. She looks upset.

Edited 2012-05-15 11:59 (UTC)

She does look upset, and she is upset. Kanaya's hunched at his doorstep wearing Rose's gift, her arms wrapped about herself as she looks at him.

"hey."

Edited 2012-05-15 16:20 (UTC)

There are only a handful of things that could make Kanaya look like this, but he's not sure which one they are up against.

Man, he hopes it isn't Vriska being here.

"GET OUT OF THE HALLWAY," he growls, with an entirely different strain of bossy ferocity than the previous remark.

There's a thankful look in his direction as she moves silently past him, and into his respiteblock.

No, not Vriska. She wouldn't be in near-tears over her, not anymore.

Pap pap pap.

Karkat hovers along behind her, steering her towards the desk husk. He is, oh rarity of rarities, too tidy to keep piles of anything lying around. "TELL ME THE DEAL."

She allows herself to be guided, sinking gratefully into the chair at the desk husk. There's a shaky breath drawn next, and Kanaya leans towards the the contact Karkat provides to draw some comfort.

"she left to go face her blackout."

Oh, boy, temporal inevitability.

"OH BOY, TEMPORAL INEVITABILITY," Karat growls. The desk is low-slung, to go with the beanbag-like husk, and Kanaya is taller than him; when he perches on the corner of the desk like this he can put his arm around her shoulders and she can lean her head against his side.

Which is precisely what she does, curling her fingers into his shirt in the process.

"we knew it was going to happen eventually, but i- what if something happens and there's nothing i can do?"

Edited 2012-05-15 17:31 (UTC)

They both know what then; then it will happen, and there is nothing they can do it.

It's not an unfamiliar feeling. In some ways, they were profoundly unprepared for being players because so many of them spent their lives feeling this exact kind of helplessness. (And the ones who didn't, never learned to play nice with others.)

Karkat murmurs senseless noises and rubs her shoulder.

She's trying to hold herself together, she really is, but she can't help the hitching, stilted breaths that bubble up or the sharp burn behind her eyes.

For a good while, this is the only noise coming from her as she holds onto him, trying not to ruin Karkat's shirt too much.

It's hard...but maybe someone understands.

Karkat has lots of shirts; once you have alchemy, anything that costs only build grist is essentially disposable.

The most comforting thing Karkat can think of to say is ODDS ARE WE WILL ALL WIND UP KILLED BY JACK IN THE END, THIS IS JUST AN UNCOMFORTABLE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS.

...nah, he's just gonna stick with the whispered apologies and back-rubbing.

Eventually, Kanaya manages to pull herself together and she straightens, scrubbing at her eyes. Her hair's a little rumpled, but she can't bring herself to care at the moment.

"thank you, karkat."

"WHATEVER," he says, uncomfortably.

If they don't talk about it, he doesn't have to think about what it means.

(<>)

There's is faint awareness of what they're skirting around, but it really is a Thing They Shouldn't Talk About. But this is also the third time Karkat's helped her through distress.

<>

Kanaya leans back, taking a long breath as she rubs at her eyes once more.

"I'm Hungry," she says with an abrupt subject change, her voice steady once again. "Do You Want To Go Get Something To Eat?"

Edited 2012-05-15 18:04 (UTC)

Karkat grabs this lifeline like... a thing you grab desperately.

"STARVING. I ALWAYS WAKE UP AFTER TWO OR THREE HOURS AND EAT SOMETHING."

There's a soft laugh from Kanaya, and she takes his hand gently as he leads him from the room.

"Come On, Then."

The Recent Past Is Recalled

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