lord have mercy

[sleeplessinalternia]

Who| Karkat and OPEN
What| After nearly half a sweep a year away, Karkat's back in the tribute tower. He's not happy about it.
Where| D1 suite, elsewhere in tribute tower, in the capitol itself
When| Week 6 and beyond
Warnings/Notes| I'll be putting up some prompts in the comments for the three locations, but otherwise feel free to make your own wildcard prompt! JSYK, Karkat has been revived a week or so after he died (roughly concurrent to when Kankri got resurrected from his) and looks roughly a year older than he was last time anybody saw him. As for warnings... there will be language, probably references to Karkat's death and a little bit of Homestuck spoilers.



Familiar overhead block surface.

Karkat blinks his occular orbs in dismay. He-- he fucking knows this place. Memories come flooding back. Panem. He's in fucking Panem. Held captive by the fucking Capitol humans. Here he was, half-a-sweep older, and now, now, he knew what a fucking travesty that really was.

"We made you," he mutters under his breath. "You should be worshipping us, not fucking turning us into reality television."

There's a paper container of mixed goods next to him on the resting platform. Karkat shakes it out onto the thermal retention fabric. A bottle of what proved to be some kind of artificial scent. A hat in the shape of a gelatinous sea creature. Rubber bouncing spheres in the shapes of his, Signless, and Kankri's heads. A pendant with an enameled picture of a hamburger on it. Gummy candies in the shape of hamburgers. A black shirt with the word DEAD written in his own blood color. A toy figure of himself whose head came off when you squeezed it.

Karkat stares down at the assorted goods. "What the fucking fuck?"

Comments

D1 Suite

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat sits slumped in a chair, listlessly bouncing a rubber ball in the shape of his head off the wall so that it returns to his hand. There's a paperback book in his lap--the Panem equivalent of a bodice ripper by the cover--but the bookmark sticking out of it indicates he hasn't managed to make it very far into the book.

"A fucking week," he mutters to himself, not for the first time today. "They waited a fucking week."

Re: D1 Suite

[saveswithsong]

There was another individual in the suite, also trying to do some reading. He, however, had less patience. Especially when it came to the rhythmic sound of that damned ball bouncing off the wall.

He hadn't really moved much, and the only thing that could have attributed the deed to him was proximity. He flicked one of the pellets he'd been idly feeding to the small, tailless rat in his lap while he read. On impact, the ball was knocked off its course and tumbled off somewhere under the furniture. He never seemed to look up from his own book in the process.

Re: D1 Suite

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat scowls and waits for someone to make a joke about him losing his head, because that is the last fucking thing he needs, okay? When nobody does he relaxes marginally, enough to look around at anyone nearby. His occular orbs happen upon the tailless rat. "What the fuck happened to your squeakvermin?"

Re: D1 Suite

[saveswithsong]

He wasn't sure why stopping the ball was an invitation to conversation, but he'll bite. "Nothing. He was born without one," he replied flatly. The rat in question chittered and decided to do a lap up the buttons on Rat's shirt, around the collar, and back down again. "Oi, settle down," he told him, and there was a clear difference in how he addressed the rat versus Karkat. He addressed the rat almost like how most would a person.

sorry i am so late <3

[crabulous]

Zoidberg had just emerged from his assigned bedroom and was creeping toward the kitchen when he caught sight of Karkat. Panic began to swell up inside of him, as he was an easily frightened crab. He had it in his head that Karkat was hostile and likely hated him, and as such, he'd done his best to avoid confrontation for fear of being beaten.

Now, however, it was too late. There would be no avoiding contact this time. "Who waited a fucking week?"

no worries dude, so am i

[sleeplessinalternia]

"The fucking capitol," Karkat growls, still at his ball tossing game and not really looking at Zoidberg. "They didn't bother to revive me until they were already reviving fucking Kankri. That useless sack of shit."

[crabulous]

"Ah," Zoidberg said, nodding in agreement. His fear was suddenly and thankfully disappearing with each passing second. "Perhaps they prefer a useless sack of shit to you!" He was trying to be helpful and provide some comfort. Clearly, he had no idea what he was doing.

[baaarbie]

Barbie didn't miss a beat. Just as he was walking past, the little bouncy thing darted past him, thunked against the wall and then thunked into his hand as he caught it on it's way back.

He inspected the odd shape of the ball nd tossed it to the kid on the couch. He'd been watching the games as much as the next person, alien children tributes were worth noting but didn't need a pause from him. He was a roll-with-it kind of guy.

"You're going to break something at this rate." His tone said he didn't actually care if such a thing was managed, it was more an observation than anything. He rolled the ball in his hand again then tossed it back.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Does it look like I give a shit?" Karkat asks him. He squints at Barbie. "You're new." Stylist? Mentor? Tribute? Escort? Probably not a Peacekeeper, unless he was some sort of stealth plainclothes Peacekeeper.

He does stop bouncing the ball, just in case he is.

[baaarbie]

He didn't answer that first question, it was obvious the kid didn't and Barbie didn't really either. The capitol only cared about how he dressed and how he competed, not whether he broke a lamp or something, so it wasn't Barbie's concern.

"Barbie. I'm a new mentor for District 1. You're one of mine, if I'm not mistaken." He was fairly certain this was Karkat, but honestly he was an alien and Barbie wouldn't be surprised if it took him some time to sort out who was who for a little while.

[letthemburn]

After having yet again failed to claw her way to the top of the Arena's ranks, Iskierka is once again lurking around the suites. It's really been bad enough that she hasn't been able to manage even that much and the continued lack of her Granby only makes the matter worse.

(Not that she'd wish this fate on Granby, but a little bit of familiarity would be nice enough, if nothing else.)

"Who waited a week?"

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat catches the ball this time and doesn't throw it again. "The Capitol," he answers, turning around in his chair to look at Iskierka. He's rather liked her ever since she gave him the horn caps for Twelfth's Perigee. Yeah, she'd had to get him that, but she'd been really thoughtful about it. "They waited a whole fucking week before they revived me."

[letthemburn]

She'd been thoughtful, yes, but it had mostly only been enabled because Karkat had horns. If she'd been given someone who didn't she might have well ended up going for something else entirely. And in any case, while they haven't spoken much, she doesn't mind Karkat's presence nearly as much as she could have and that's perhaps a good enough start.

"Oh," she answers. "But whyever would they bother to do something like that?"

Tribute Tower

[sleeplessinalternia]

A few hours in the main lounge downstairs, watching recaps and arena updates with furious concentration. A few more hours in the training level, running through his sickle forms with an equal ferocity.

If you were to watch Karkat stomp around the Tribute Tower in the days that follow his resurrection, it would be very easy to imagine a little black raincloud following him around and occasionally subjecting him to a downpour. He's in an perpetually shitty mood and he isn't making too much of a fuss about hiding it.

Of course this raises the question of what's actually changed, but this Karkat is acting even more butthurt than usual and before he came back older he used to make a better effort to hide it around the Panem natives, having not reached the age of six sweeps without some survival instincts.

He's probably least hostile to his fellow tributes. In fact, he might venture a "Hey" if one of them gets near him.

[privilegecheck]

"Oh, you are back," Kankri says in tones of evident relief when he first sees Karkat, several days after his own resurrection. He's obviously just returned from a trip out into the cold, practically swimming in his sweater and the warm layers he's been put in. He sips his spiced latte as he sits down beside Karkat; his knee bobs, a mark of the little bit of tension still between them. He doesn't even notice what Karkat is watching.

"It's good to see you. I'd begun to worry."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Oh, I just bet you had," Karkat mutters darkly. He takes his eyes off the screen--which by terrible coincidence is replaying his and Kankri's stupid argument about the bouncy balls--to look up at his fellow mutant. "I see they resurrected you quickly."

[tis_allgood]

Bert hasn't been back very long now, but he's already restless and wandering the building. There's a lot of things he needs to say and people he needs to find and when he sees a nubby little pair of horns stalking along the corridor he speeds up immediately to intercept him.

"Kankri! Wait, we should talk."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Oh my fuck, Bert, can't you tell us apart?" The nubby horned figure turns around and if this is Karkat it's a Karkat who's an entire year older than he was. (Kankri still has another two years on him, but he's definitely catching up.)

He exhales tiredly. "So, I guess you're back already. They worked fast." He bites his lip for a moment, then adds, "I saw the final showdown. You're really fucking good with that gun. Just as good as you always said."

[69problems]

Signless first spots Karkat in the training center, running through his sickle forms like normal, like he hadn't just had a near brush with never coming back. Waiting for Karkat to finish gives him enough time to decide on a course of action, to beat down the urge to just run up and hug him, because with how things have been lately he doesn't even feel like he really can. He approaches as the younger troll is catching his breath afterward.

"It's good to see you back. It was such a long wait, I thought -- but it's good that you're back."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Yeah," Karkat says, looking up at Signless. "It is."

Part of him wants to fling himself at the Signless for a hug, never mind all the voyeurs who'd see him act so blatantly pale at the older troll, but-- but doesn't that mean he'd be two-timing? That he has been two-timing all this time, except he'd never known it.

"I think they forgot about me," he says, looking away, "until they realized that if they didn't bring me back there'd be no one for their favorite little moron to make unwelcome advances at. Fuck, maybe that's why they sent me back for half-a-sweep, so that our ages were closer." The thought is kind of gross, actually. "Look, do you mind if we go somewhere? I kind of want to talk to you alone."

[pythianjudgment]

Making it to the final week, Terezi doesn't get back until the arena is practically over. As such, there's not a whole lot to do but wander until everyone else gets swept up into the victory celebrations. She's just thankful that most of the highlights of her friends' deaths have been shunned in favor of celebrating the victor.

She hasn't gone out of her way to avoid Karkat, but she has been dreading running into him. It wasn't a very kind thing that she did in that arena: sneaking off to leave him, Cuthbert, and Susannah to defend themselves in the middle of her watch... With only a note left behind. She still feels a little bad about it. Not nearly as bad as she would have felt to let any of them die on her watch, but... Still bad.

Catching scent of him, Terezi hesitates in the hallway. She could turn around and take the elevator up to her room as planned... or she could say hi and find out what happens.

"Been waiting long?" she calls, deciding on the second option. She hasn't noticed the sweep-long difference in appearance just yet.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat turns around. Man, what the fuck does he even say now? If anyone else had said that, he'd have launched into some stupid rant about how they waited a week to bother reviving him. He doesn't do that, tempting as it is.

"Too long. You know, you could have told me when you got here you'd found yourself a matesprit--even if he is a pretentious human fuckwad."

It occurs to him that for the first time in practically forever, the two of them are on equal footing here.

The Capitol

[sleeplessinalternia]

All Karkat wants to do is to go to the fucking movie. That's all he wants to do. Maybe have a meal out, because they took his cuff away a few perigees ago for taking part in the xenomorph fight and he's a Good Tribute again, which means that there's a likely chance of Capitol restaurants giving him free food.

And they are willing to give him free food, but only hamburgers.

Fucking. Hamburgers.

The worst offender was something called a Vantaburger, with a jellyfish shaped bun and the word DEAD written in human letters with ketchup, but fuck it, they were all awful, just another stupid ploy by humans who thought they were so fucking clever just because the fucking intercom had described his remains as "delicious hamburger."

So if you see a nubby horned troll getting into a loud argument with his waiter--or hell, even a sidewalk vendor--that's going to be Karkat.

ah yes after all the arena stuff is over whatever

[deafscythe]

Justin could ignore the scene the troll is making. In fact, he probably should ignore the scene the troll is making. But when has Justin Law ever listened to reason?

"Ah, if you do not want that, I will eat it."

Obviously Karkat needed to have this guy leaning over his shoulder to observe the Vantaburger.

but of course

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat looks over to see who the fuck is getting up into his space--and it takes him all of five seconds to recognize this fucker as the fucker who's responsible to reducing him to the aforementioned 'delicious hamburger.'

"Eat this!" he snarls, before grabbing the Vantaburger by its jellyfish-shaped bun and slamming it into Justin's face, grinding it against the human's features.