thecapitol | lord have mercy

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?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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.

Terezi's not sure what to feel at first. On one hand, she wants to groan. Karkat knowing about her love life is something that she really could do without. But on the other hand, that means he knows... Well. Everything. In some strange way, that's sort of relieving. She doesn't have to tip toe around spoiling future events for him.

"You could have bothered to ask," she responds, settling on frowning at him just a little. "Not that it went so well last time, but here's hoping that you don't start trying to make charts out of my quadrants again."

"Been there, done that." Twice, actually, once in Panem, the other time on the meteor, but he doesn't have to specify that. "I've got other shit to make charts of, anyway." Like ranking human romcom actors. Anyway, her having a human matesprit is double insurance against her and the fucking Initiate getting together in a flushed way. Even if her taste in humans is unbelievably shitty.

"So. Uh. Is despising my moirails gonna be a thing with you?"

Edited 2014-03-16 01:58 (UTC)

"Only so long as you continue to have shitty taste in moirails," Terezi shoots back as flippantly as she can manage. "If you're aware of all the shit he did, then it should come as no surprise to you why I hate him anymore. Should it?"

"No," Karkat admits. "But-- look, if I hadn't been a moron about things, maybe he wouldn't have done all of it, so maybe you should hate me a little too."

He's still the troll who sent Equius--and Nepeta, even if he hadn't meant to--to their deaths, after all.

"I'm not going to hate you." Terezi's response is immediate, but not defensive. Just matter-of-fact, like there's no other option that she could possibly consider. In truth, there isn't. It doesn't matter what happened back on the meteor. In her mind, there's only one thing that she cares about concerning Karkat.

"I have too many other things to worry about. Hating you would fuck that up."

"I didn't mean hating me that way," Karkat says, "but yeah. Okay. Good. I-- don't want to hate you either." He breathes out slowly the breath he didn't know he was holding in. "And-- look, if you ever want to talk about shit we couldn't before--I'm not saying like in a pale way, just like... I don't know, people who're the only people who know about shit way--well, most shit--" Because of course she told the fucking Initiate about that shit, he'd seen the clip where they talked about Vriska, she'd tell him anything and fucking forgive him anything and wow, okay, being away from this place from half-a-sweep might have dulled the pain there a little but not fucking enough.

Come on, Karkat. Concentrate on being a not-shitty friend to Terezi, not on how Terezi's really stupid about which people she trusts. He takes another deep breath. "Look. I know that shit now. I'm probably about even with when you're from. So. You can talk to me about that shit. If you ever need to."

"Yeah... Maybe." She's still not sure how much she wants to talk to Karkat about all that stuff. It isn't like she can just turn around and start confiding in him just like that. But at least she doesn't have to worry about fucking up the timeline anymore. Probably.

"I didn't really mean hating you in that way either, for the record." She bows her head for a moment, pressing her lips together in a line, and then lifts it up to face him again. "I want to get you home in one piece. That's all that I care about. That you're back on course for the rendezvous, and that you stay there. They're going to need you, when they get to the new universe."

"They're going to need you too," Karkat argues. Dense as he is, he's kind of picked up a little of what she's not saying. "Probably more than me, seeing as you've got useful shit you can do. I mean, what can I do? Fight with sickles. Pap Gamzee and keep him from murdering everyone again. I can't lead like I thought I could, or half of everybody wouldn't be dead."

He touches her shoulder, lightly. "I-- I've fucked up a lot. Both here and there. I don't like to admit it, but it's true. So-- even if you don't think they'll need you--and that asshole Strider will, he's your fucking matesprit, much as it pains me--I'll need you. I fuck up less when I've got you advising me. And-- and because you're my friend."

"Karkat... The only reason more of us aren't dead is because you got us there. You got everyone through the game in one piece. What happened after wasn't your fault. Not the demon, or Eridan's or Gamzee's actions--despite whatever you might think. They're still responsible for their own actions, not you."

She doesn't mention that he's wrong about them needing her for 'useful shit'. It doesn't need to be said, and she knows he's right about the other point, anyway. She still needs to go back for the sake of the people who miss her. For Dave, if nothing else.

She attempts a bit of a smile, shoving at his face in good humor. "If we find a way to get you home, there's no reason for me not to go, too. Don't be dumb about it."

"I ordered Equius to his death," Karkat says, bluntly. "Maybe the rest of the deaths aren't on my fronds, Terezi, but his is. Don't take that away from me, okay?"

He'd argue that Terezi's way fucking better at the small picture than Rose, but since she isn't arguing out loud neither is he.

And then he has to dodge out of the way, because she's shoving him and she's got a harder shove than he does.

Terezi shoves him back again, harder. He's so frustratingly insistent on blaming himself for things. She doesn't know why he has to add one more thing to it, whether it's true or not.

"Fine. Be responsible for whatever you want to be. It's not like it's a competition."

It is totally a competition.

"Fine. I will."

lord have mercy

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