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."

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.

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.

[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."

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.

[privilegecheck]

Kankri realizes what's on the screen and flushes, embarrassed. It's much easier to look at Karkat, even if he's scowling forbiddingly. "Well, it did take them a few days. But that man was even less kind to my body than he was to yours, so."

He shrugs and sips his latte. Not a morbid conversation at all. "You look- different."

[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."

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?"

[sleeplessinalternia]

"They waited a fucking week before they even bothered," Karkat says, "but I guess not all of us can be everyone's darling little grub just because they're too pathetic to play the Games as they're supposed to be played." The scorn in his voice is practically palpable.

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.

[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."

[tis_allgood]

His face falls immediately, and not at the insults so much as the compliment. Bert isn't ready to face that just yet.

"Are you sure you're not Kankri? I think I'd rather deal with him right now."

He pats Karkat on the head though. "Are you sure they brought you back properly, you seem a bit... more than you were."

[privilegecheck]

Kankri stiffens, then his eyes narrow in anger. "It's not as if I asked to be infantilized for their entertainment. And I'll thank you not to mistake a refusal to play the game for being too stupid and helpless to do so. I would think you of all people would understand that after-"

He pauses, realizing where this conversation is already starting to stray into. "No. We're not doing this again. You know you shouldn't be picking fights with me, Karkat, particularly not for things beyond my control." The warning of what happened the last time they argued hangs unsaid in the air. "I'm glad to see you well, you antagonistic ruffian."

Re: D1 Suite

[sleeplessinalternia]

It's more that he can't be bothered yet to get up and look for his stupid ball. He hasn't realized Rat's the one who knocked it off course. Karkat's eyes narrow a little as he sees how the other tribute is addressing the squeakvermin with more respect than he did with Karkat. "Why would someone want to make a squeakvermin without a tail?"

He assumes it's a genetic experiment, mostly because he also assumes that if it had been a natural defect that the other squeakvermin would have killed it at (ugh mammals) birth.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat bristles. "Of fucking course you would, everyone just loves that petulant shitprince. I think I actually heard his escort call him her 'woobie,' whatever the fuck that is, when she was talking to mine. And don't fucking talk to me about being brought back properly, they waited a fucking week to do me."

He crosses his arms in front of his torso. "If I'm 'more,' it's because I wasn't here for about half a sweep, don't ask me why or how the fuck it worked, and I had a moult."

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat rolls his eyes. "You don't have to rise to my bait either, dipshit."

He settles back against the couch, looking at Kankri so he doesn't have to watch them kiss on the screen. "I look different because-- because I was away for nearly half a sweep. Or something. I don't fucking know how it works. But when I woke up again I'd lived through another human year of my timeline."

In other words, he's had a moult.

[tis_allgood]

Bert shakes his head. "I don't mean it like that. You are still my friend while he is... more an acquaintance. I just don't know how much I have in me to deal with your adolescent shit right now."

He does actually smile at Karkat having a moult. There's something weirdly adorable about both the phrasing an idea of it and it makes Bert feel less angry with him. "But mayhap I'm wrong, and my little grasshopper is growing up. Aye?"

[sleeplessinalternia]

"I'm not a grasshopper," Karkat grumbles, "and you don't have to be patronizing."

But after a moment his expression softens. "I can't believe you carried my fucking head around like that. That's the kind of shit I'd expect out of Gamzee for fuck's sake." And then he winces, because Gamzee isn't here and a good fucking thing too, he'd probably go right back into Murderclown mode and Karkat wasn't sure if he could deal with that here.

[privilegecheck]

"I'm argumentative by nature," Kankri replies petulantly, but he settles back against the cushions too. He lets out a soft sigh, closing his eyes so he doesn't even catch a glimpse of that awful awkward moment. "I didn't know they could do that. It's troubling, but what isn't in this place?"

Re: D1 Suite

[saveswithsong]

He continued to barely pay attention to Karkat. Since it was clear he wasn't going to get any reading done, he leaned forward, releasing the rat onto the coffee table between himself and Karkat. He whistled one short, high pitched tone, with a pellet in his fingers as high as he could reach above the rodent. The rat hesitated only a moment before it jumped to retrieve the pellet from Rat's fingers. "Does he look like he needs it?" he asked. Was a lack of a tail really a big deal?

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.

[tis_allgood]

"Of course I do, 'tis in my nature." He thumps Karkat on the arm in a friendly way.

"I've no idea what a Gamzee is, but I don't remember you needing it at the time I took it. And I felt responsible, anyroad. I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on you. And instead you ended up in pieces. The least I could do was protect a piece of you."

He's pretty upset about that, still. Even having Karkat back, he hates the way he found him in the Arena. He doesn't even want to come across his best friend in pieces again.

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?"

[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.