thecapitol | closed

Unfortunately, Nepeta's not in the common area of D4 when Karkat gets there--and if she's in her respite block, she isn't responding to his knock. So instead he's left waiting for her to show up, flopped down on an armchair facing the elevator. "Fucking Cuthbert," he mutters loudly.

Once he finally catches sight of Nepeta, Karkat grabs her arm and attempts to drag her off into a corner. "Look," he says under his breath, "I need to know. Has Bert tried to pail you? Human pail you?"

Once his business on D4 is sorted out and all that bullshit's been taken care of, Karkat heads down to D2. "Hey!" he calls out once he steps off the elevator. "Is the human female around? The one whose males doesn't think she's a person?"

Unfortunately, he never did get Felicity's actual name.

Roland actually takes a few more steps toward the kitchen before he processes what he's heard. That there's a refrigerator here, and one shared only between so few of them, is just as ridiculous as the rest of this place, but he'd found a drink there earlier that had been almost like the one he'd been given on that beach all that time ago. If he can find another in that refrigerator now, he'll say no word against it.

It takes his mind a moment to change paths. "What's he done now?" The words come easy, said so often in youth. Roland shifts his steps toward the chair from which the voice had come, pace a little more cautious. The chance to learn more about what life his friend's made here isn't one he's going to ignore, even if he's about to meet one of Cuthbert's (likely many) enemies. Maybe especially then.

"Been a braybeast. Possibly Did It with one of my friends." Karkat sits up so he can better see the person--an old human male, evidently--talking to him and so that said human male can see him too. He's a short, solid, grey-skinned boy, with fangs and claw and nubby yellow-orange horns, who looks slightly younger than Bert is.

"You sound like you know him," Karkat says.

There's a chair that looks just distant enough to be out of arm's reach of the boy, and Roland leans on it. "I did," he says, crossing his arms. "I do. And you sound as if you've been in his company for more than five seconds. He did 'it'?" Of course Roland knows what 'it' usually means. At least among humans. Here, who knows. If Roland's lucky, it'll have nothing to do with whatever a braybeast is.

Edited 2014-04-03 11:53 (UTC)

"I've been in his company for nearly half-a-sweep," Karkat says grumpily. And then, for the old human's benefit, "About a human year. And yeah. It. Pailing." Yes, he said 'pailing.' "Fucking," he qualifies.

"I mean, I don't know for fucking certain, but we were arguing about human women and Bert was being a huge fucking moron as usual and claiming that human women were, like, super delicate compared to human men--which isn't true, I've met enough by now to see that they aren't--and then me telling him he was full of shit turned into him taunting me about how I haven't gotten any and so I told him he hadn't gotten any either and he implied that he had--and Nepeta's dating him, so it's just fucking logic that if he'd Done It he'd Done It with her--and then when I tried to ask him if he'd Done It with her he just started laughing his ass off at me, so I figured I should go check with her to make sure she was all right and he hadn't implanted her with his young."

He give the old human man a pained look. "He's my best friend here," he explains, "but he's a fucking shithead."

Roland's eyebrows rise slowly throughout the explanation, reaching what must surely be their greatest height at 'implanted'. But then that last takes his attention, and he ducks his head a moment to think it over. Hearing someone else - and a stranger on top of that - refer to themselves as Cuthbert's best friend takes a little time to process. His old friend having such close ties that he knows nothing about makes the whole situation feel even less real than it already does.

"That he is," Roland murmurs. "And he ever has been. If it helps, he'd never... 'implanted' someone in all the time I knew him."

"This girl," he adds, suddenly. "Does he care for her?"

"Yeah," Karkat says. "Yeah, he does." He looks at the old human man curiously. The way he's talking really makes it sound like he's known Bert for a long time. Is he someone from Bert's world? "She's one of my friends," he informs the old human. "Like, from before Panem. You know the grey girl with the horns on this floor? About my age? That's her. That's Nepeta. So--are you from where Bert comes from? Are you his human parent thing?"

Roland listens closely, matching the name with a face he's already seen and committing the match to memory. He's gotten much better with names than he had been in Cuthbert's day, and once noted he wouldn't have forgotten anyway. But this deserves the extra focus. She's important.

But, of course, then. "His father?" Roland's expression, for a moment, is a perfect picture of shock. The two fingers of his right hand pass slowly over the skin of his face. For the first time in a long time, his age has come as a surprise. "No. Bert remembers the face of his father, I'm sure. Remembers it well. And that face isn't mine. No matter that now I look it."

"Has he told you much about our world? About Gilead?" Perhaps he should answer the boy's question. But a best friend, and now a girl Cuthbert cares for. Deeply or not, Roland doesn't know, but there's a lot there. Quite a lot. Perhaps he should answer, but perhaps he'd rather learn more before he gives anything of himself away.

Karkat shrugs. "Some stuff. Like, basic stuff like paper and glass is really rare and people there have really stupid ideas about things like how only males can fight--which is totally stupid because everyone knows that females are scarier and meaner--and, like, only males can romance females and vice versa. And guns are way fucking important, which is why there's gunslingers like Bert and his friends Alain and Roland. Are you a gunslinger? Oh and there's things called tets and they're led by guys named dinhs and there's this thing called ka that I don't really understand which is way fucking important anyway. And the world moved on, but I'm not sure from what."

Another shrug. "It's probably just as well you're not his human parent. I don't know if Bert likes his very much."

Edited 2014-04-04 05:41 (UTC)

"Did he tell you so?" Roland slides back to sit on the arm of the chair he's leaning against, briefly grasping at the air above his left hip before shaking his head and extending the hand, instead. "Then I think we need to get to know one another, if he shared such a thing with you. I'm Roland Deschain, and a gunslinger still. I know well the pains of calling oneself the best friend of Cuthbert Allgood." His lips twitch into a brief smile. "I almost fear to ask what he's told you of his friend Roland. Bert's version of the truth can be... creative."

The comment's part banal pleasantry - the kind of thing diplomats used to tell each other, I hope you didn't believe anything you heard about me! and then laugh like it's some great joke, and the first time it's ever been told. But it's partly truth, and clearly this is someone he needs to meet. There're things still pressing at him, things about Cuthbert and this tower and this city and everything else and he'd still rather learn more before telling anything of himself, but if he let unease and stress decide his every action he could no longer call himself a gunslinger at all.

"But-- but you're old," Karkat says before he remembers himself. "I mean, okay, shit, they do grab people from anywhen, there's no reason you can't be old--I mean, fuck, there's like a thousand sweeps between me and Signless, but--"

And then he realizes he's making a braybeast of himself.

"Karkat Vantas," he says, sticking out his hand to shake Roland's. "And, uh, don't worry, it's not so bad. I think like the worst is that you don't have a sense of humor, but then he doesn't think I have one either."

Nepeta is coming back from what is either Important Cat Duties or seeing if there's any interesting new people to talk to when Karkat finally catches up to her. Still, she doesn't really protest being dragged off into a corner, for all that she's understandably confused by the state of affairs.

"No," she answers, with a blink. "Why?"

"That's probably a point in your favor." He shakes the grey, clawed hand, grip firm and brief, and then sits back, seeming bothered not at all by the earlier verbal fumbling. If Karkat had voiced the braybeast comment Roland would have waved it away with no thought at all. As tired as his tet had gotten of hearing it, he is old, and aware of that fact. "What Cuthbert called humor, the rest of us usually called 'nuisance'. At best."

"You say you've known him a year? Half a sweep?" His gaze goes distant, and he mutters to himself a moment. "Maybe from further back than I thought, then. Did he tell you where he'd been before he came here?"

Felicity heard him bellowing from her chosen spot in the main living area; a corner of the room in which she had draped blankets and pillows together in order to form a fort of sorts. She referred to it as her salon, and at present Some was the only one she had invited inside. She liked to sit inside and read in silence, though occasionally she would eat or simply lounge around. On this particular day she was sketching the view of the rest of the room from her vantage point in the corner.

"I'm the only female on this entire floor," she answered, not bothering to leave her hiding spot or even look up from her drawing. "Fate has conspired to surround me with men. Now, how may I help you?"

"Because he was claiming he'd pailed someone," Karkat says. "And I knew it hadn't been with me and that you two are sort of matesprits, so I wanted to make sure he hadn't implanted you with his parasitic young."

It's kind of sad how seriously Karkat can say those kinds of things.

"But, since he hasn't and he was just being an overwhelming fucktard as usual..." He shrugs. "How've you been lately?"

He feels pretty fucking awkward now, but at the same time he wants to hang out or something with Nepeta if he can, he's only too aware of how she's dead because of him in the normal timeline.

Karkat makes his way to said salon area. "Yeah, and some of them are giant fuckshits too," he says, thinking of Sherlock and the Helmsman in particular. "I, uh, just wanted to talk with you in person. We'd been talking before about how humans suck and how, like, it's a fucking crime they don't teach the females to fight and shit. Can I come in?"

"Uh, Gilead," Karkat says, "but I think he was somewhere else not too long before that. I dunno if it helps, but Bert was, like, fifteen in human years when they first grabbed us. They got us both at the same time--and it was during an arena, so we just got dumped in there. That's how we met, we made an alliance together--him and me and Signless, who's my ancestor--and dug a pit trap and stuff. I'm--"

He hesitates for a moment and then says, "I'm glad you're here. I know that's a fucking awful thing to say, but I guess I'm glad for Bert's sake. I've had other trolls around me since I got here but there was only one person even sort of from his world and she wasn't even from there originally."

Edited 2014-04-06 06:43 (UTC)

It's not as if there's no way 'fifteen' and 'somewhere other than Gilead' couldn't describe more than one thing. Roland moves one hand slowly along his jaw as he thinks it over, then wraps his arms around his chest. He doesn't want to assume the worst right away, and it's clear that's more or less all about it Karkat knows. But hadn't Cuthbert said last they'd met that he was a boy no longer?

Nevermind. Never mind all that now.

He focuses again on the yellow-eyed face in front of him. "Susannah." Which means she'd been here longer than a year. He hadn't thought to ask. It hadn't seemed to matter. "Believe it or not, I'm glad too. The place I was before..."

The endless field of red, that darkness stretching out above him. He closes his eyes, feeling the old pull toward it. That old yearning. And something new, nausea that twists his features before he opens his eyes again and pushes it back. "I'll go back there again, surely, but for now I'm glad to be where my friends need me. And glad to see Cuthbert's had someone he so trusts to watch his back. Sometimes it needs watching."

"Yeah," Karkat says. "Later on. She got here, uh, halfway between when me and Bert got here and now."

He's looking down at his lap, worrying his lips with his fangs. "I'm-- I'm actually really shitty at that. Not the last time but the time before, when we were on that stupid island, we split up for like an hour and when I went back to meet up with him, one of the Sherlocks--stupid fluffy hair Sherlock--was stabbing him. I-- I was too fucking late. I mean I got Sherlock for him, but--"

He's not entirely sure why he's telling all this to Roland, except he feels kind of shitty at the idea of Bert's old friend thinking he was any good at keeping people from getting killed because actually he was complete shit at it.

Edited 2014-04-06 11:55 (UTC)

He watches Karkat closely, taking in the guilt and the details of it, and once the explanation's done his gaze goes distant with thought. "Splitting up always carries that risk," he says, absently. It's not that hearing about Cuthbert's death had no impact - it's that it did. If Susannah, who's been here half as long as Cuthbert, spoke of death upon death... then what of Cuthbert? And the boy in front of him, come to that.

Roland knows death, knows it well, but death followed by life, only to die again, it's something he still can't quite fit his thoughts around. That endless circle, different but always the same. "Only one thing I know that can do that," he murmurs. "Only one. Not even the Great Old Ones had such machines." He squints at Karkat. "When we live again. How does it happen?"

It's not that hearing about Cuthbert's death had no impact. It's only that the crater from that impact has turned his thoughts in an entirely different direction than maybe it should have.

"We're-- not quite sure," Karkat says. "I mean, we can sort of make guesses about it? We used to think that they just fixed up our bodies somehow, because they try to collect the bodies as soon as we die. But-- but then one time they killed half of everyone right away with poison and didn't collect the bodies, but all of those tributes went somewhere else--so now we know they just don't fix our original bodies up. They do something else. And we don't know for certain what it is."

He bites his lip. "I can tell you my theory, though. I think they have a bunch of copies of our bodies that they make or get when they first kidnap us and they're all asleep, but our mind is still connected to them. Like with Dreamselves. Those were a thing from a thing me and my friends were doing." He doesn't want to exactly explain Sgrub to people, it's way too fucking complicated. "But with Dreamselves someone has to kiss your corpse to make sure you wake up in your dreaming body and it doesn't look like that has to happen here."

Maybe a little, but Nepeta isn't really terribly interested in experiencing a more mammalian way of reproducing. Besides, the whole situation is strange. Enough so that they've all had to adjust to things they might never have had to deal with elsewhere, even after a game that had all but destroyed their home planet and had been more than a little weird besides.

"Well enough," she answers with a shrug. "I wish we didn't have to keep dying, though."

Karkat winces. "Yeah," he says. "Me too." Say something, Karkat. Think, Karkat, think! "I mean, I think you can petition out of this shit--that Howard guy from my district is, he's the really scrawny guy with the crazy ex-girlfriend from the planet France, he likes to fill his block with garbage and stink up the whole floor--anyway, I think he's gonna try it, I saw him with the paperwork. But you probably have to swear a bunch of loyalty oaths and shit, I don't know."

closed

For Roland

For Nepeta

For Felicity

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

orz

no subject

Re: orz

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject