[closed]

[ka_sera_sera]

Who|  Karkat Vantas, Cuthbert Allgood, Roland Deschain
What|  luring Cuthbert into a card game so they can tell embarrassing stories about him
Where|  the Commons bar
When|  some time before the Thicker than Blood plot
Warnings/Notes| none expected - I'll update this if anything comes up

There's a wall at his back and the table in front of him sits at the middle of the room, not too close nor too far from the doorway. The glass and gloss of the place keeps catching the light and flashing in his eyes, but mostly the view's good. Roland doesn't truly expect to need a quick escape - from what he's seen, these people seem good at keeping the violence only where and when they want it. But he doesn't trust the people, trusts the place even less, and with that comes old habits. There are a couple decks of cards in front of him, one sitting to either side of his drink, and he flips them every now and then to study the unfamiliar pictures before glancing again at the doorway. There are two people he's waiting for, and this can't start without them. Maybe one of them will know what to do with these damned strange cards.

Comments

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat doesn't immediately get up from being knocked to the floor. "It wasn't out of nowhere," he grumbles. "That asspail kept flirting with me. And okay, I know now he didn't know that was what he was doing, but I didn't know then." He touches his sniffer, gingerly. There's blood, fuck, fuck, now he's going to have to cull Roland for seeing him bleed--

No. Wait. He doesn't have to do that shit anymore, nobody cares in Panem and humans all share his dirty blood anyway, Roland doesn't even understand why it's a sign of shame.

"He can act like a whiny babygrub as long as he likes," Karkat says, "I don't give a fuck. If he wants to apologize he can come to me."

He pushes himself slowly up to his feet. "Maybe you should talk to him, though. Before he does something really stupid."

[ka_sera_sera]

"This is Cuthbert, it's probably too late for that." Roland stops himself, runs a hand over his face. Shakes his head. The words were automatic, and not really what this situation needs right now.

"Truthfully, I don't think I'm the person to do that. Seems I can rein him in even less now than I ever could." He doesn't stand up when Karkat does, just narrows his eyes at the far wall a moment, thinking about it. "Maybe you could, if circumstances were different. Perhaps Susannah." Roland hesitates, then continues quietly. "...Or maybe you couldn't. It was always Alain, before."

Roland shakes his head again, more sharply this time, and stands. "No matter. He'll have to do on his own, for now. I don't know if you and I will have any reason to see each other before the arena, but if you need anything, call on me. I'm sure I'll be available."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Your other friend," Karkat says. "Yeah. He's mentioned him too." He shrugs. "Thanks, though. You're... you're not a bad guy, Roland. At all. Actually, you're pretty okay for a human." He hesitates for a second, because he really does hate to apologize, but on the other hand, he kind of feels like a giant bulgesack right now. "Sorry. About all that hoofbeastshit. And for fucking up the plan. I guess I be seeing you around. I kind of have some stuff I should probably be doing now."

(By which he means sitting on a pile of cushions and talking about his feelings while Signless goes shoosh at him. It's a troll thing.)

[ka_sera_sera]

"Plans tend to go to shit. This one more spectacularly than the others, but..." He shrugs. "Long as you're loyal to Cuthbert - and I think you are, still - you can count on me when you need to. He may try to forget his responsibilities to his friends, but I won't." With that, Roland nods - wasting words on goodbye is something that happens to other people - and goes, leaving Karkat to his evening of troll shooshing.