Karkat Vantas ♋ carcinoGeneticist (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
crabmunicator) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thecapitol2015-05-26 01:51 am
crabmunicator) wrote in thecapitol2015-05-26 01:51 am
[open] and the stains coming from my blood tell me
Who| Karkat and anyone currently around the Capitol
What| Died like a loser at the Cornucopia, now back in the Capitol. At least his leg's fixed?
Where| Tribute Tower + out in the city
When| Evening the day after the start of the arena + the following days.
Warnings/Notes| Mild wound reference/description, but nothing big planned.
God damnit, really?
It's been about a day since Karkat's untimely death post-Cornucopia, and he wastes no time lingering about the cold room he wakes up in after every death. He's whole and hale again, his leg free of so much as a scar to hint where he'd been shot, and it feels good to be able to walk around without hurting. Doesn't hurt after his death, either; whatever that was, it sure wasn't a comfortable way to go. Speaking of, how did he go? His memories are jumbled and vague, and he mostly remembers a bang and then being carried somewhere by Shepard. Where, he doesn't know; he doesn't think he made it that far.
A. Tower Lobby
He makes a stop in the lobby, not planned, but because he catches the answer to his question. There on one of the various screens playing this arena's games is his own body, rushing on up to the pyre that served as the Cornucopia. There's others around him, some familiar and some not, and is that the douchebag he ran into at last Crowning? He looks different without all the glitter and LEDs, but he's positive, and--
Holy shit, that is lightning. A commentator rattles in the background, explaining how the charge radiated outward, hitting not just Gary but a number of nearby tributes. He sees himself laying there, and--wow, yes, this is about him, huh? Because the footage sticks on him as Shepard comes up, telling him to hold on and how they're gonna move, and how he better not puke on her. To his credit he didn't, but man, he really couldn't move, could he? And he couldn't hear a word. But she walks, carrying him somewhere, and...
"Are you kidding me? I died just like that?" He gestures at the screen, as if whoever is blathering about the moment can hear him. "That is the lamest, most watery nooked excuse for a death I've ever been through! Even worse than that time with the fork! Didn't I do anything? There were sickles that time, come on--"
The camera zooms in as Shepard, having realized his death, now fishes for the necklace he wore as token. She grips it and gives a hard yank.
"She broke my fucking necklace!"
B. District 6
It's after he's vented his anger at his arena performance (and gotten away from whoever might have found him there) that Karkat finally hauls up to his district. He's grumpy still and not real keen to be back, but he wants to change, and he figures he'll need to talk to some people. Which is to say, his mentor and escort.
It's after he's switched into something comfortable and familiar that he heads out. If any other tributes have the misfortune to be here already, they might spot him, but otherwise he makes his way to bang on Stephen and Linden's doors.
"Guess who's dead!" he shouts through the barrier by way of greeting. He hopes they're around. He is not in the mood for an untamed honkfowl pursuit.
C. Training Center
It's in the later days that Karkat gets back to training. With his body fully healed again, he's able to actually work at it like he wants to, and make up for what he missed after his return from jail. Well, maybe not 'make up' properly with the way bodies reset around here, but it feels like it anyway, and he's glad to be able to work out again.
In a way, he feels like he owes it to Shepard to keep up with the regiment she put him on. So for all she's still in the arena, each morning bright and early he brings himself down to train. Running, practicing forms, and generally keeping at old habits is part of it, but another is honestly a good chunk of angry sickle training.
He's really mad he didn't get to use one in the arena. He's going to stay mad. His training dummy, innocent and sweet, takes the brunt of this anger.
D. The Capitol
The best thing by far (apart from the healed body sweet mother grub hell yes) is that with his return from the arena, Karkat is finally free of the tower arrest that kept him cooped up after the mess with the Initiate. Better yet, that second point means he can go out and walk to his heart's content. He downright refuses to stay in, and he goes everywhere, from parks to that favorite pastry shop he hasn't visited in a month to just random paths down the streets. In a rare sight, he can even be spotted talking animatedly to fans, bitching to them too about how unfair it is that he died in such a lame way. They are sympathetic to his plight, and a good few are eager to hear him boast about the sickle skills he could have shown off.
But whether his path takes him to restaurants or bookshops, gardens or city streets, it's not hard to find him somewhere.
What| Died like a loser at the Cornucopia, now back in the Capitol. At least his leg's fixed?
Where| Tribute Tower + out in the city
When| Evening the day after the start of the arena + the following days.
Warnings/Notes| Mild wound reference/description, but nothing big planned.
God damnit, really?
It's been about a day since Karkat's untimely death post-Cornucopia, and he wastes no time lingering about the cold room he wakes up in after every death. He's whole and hale again, his leg free of so much as a scar to hint where he'd been shot, and it feels good to be able to walk around without hurting. Doesn't hurt after his death, either; whatever that was, it sure wasn't a comfortable way to go. Speaking of, how did he go? His memories are jumbled and vague, and he mostly remembers a bang and then being carried somewhere by Shepard. Where, he doesn't know; he doesn't think he made it that far.
A. Tower Lobby
He makes a stop in the lobby, not planned, but because he catches the answer to his question. There on one of the various screens playing this arena's games is his own body, rushing on up to the pyre that served as the Cornucopia. There's others around him, some familiar and some not, and is that the douchebag he ran into at last Crowning? He looks different without all the glitter and LEDs, but he's positive, and--
Holy shit, that is lightning. A commentator rattles in the background, explaining how the charge radiated outward, hitting not just Gary but a number of nearby tributes. He sees himself laying there, and--wow, yes, this is about him, huh? Because the footage sticks on him as Shepard comes up, telling him to hold on and how they're gonna move, and how he better not puke on her. To his credit he didn't, but man, he really couldn't move, could he? And he couldn't hear a word. But she walks, carrying him somewhere, and...
"Are you kidding me? I died just like that?" He gestures at the screen, as if whoever is blathering about the moment can hear him. "That is the lamest, most watery nooked excuse for a death I've ever been through! Even worse than that time with the fork! Didn't I do anything? There were sickles that time, come on--"
The camera zooms in as Shepard, having realized his death, now fishes for the necklace he wore as token. She grips it and gives a hard yank.
"She broke my fucking necklace!"
B. District 6
It's after he's vented his anger at his arena performance (and gotten away from whoever might have found him there) that Karkat finally hauls up to his district. He's grumpy still and not real keen to be back, but he wants to change, and he figures he'll need to talk to some people. Which is to say, his mentor and escort.
It's after he's switched into something comfortable and familiar that he heads out. If any other tributes have the misfortune to be here already, they might spot him, but otherwise he makes his way to bang on Stephen and Linden's doors.
"Guess who's dead!" he shouts through the barrier by way of greeting. He hopes they're around. He is not in the mood for an untamed honkfowl pursuit.
C. Training Center
It's in the later days that Karkat gets back to training. With his body fully healed again, he's able to actually work at it like he wants to, and make up for what he missed after his return from jail. Well, maybe not 'make up' properly with the way bodies reset around here, but it feels like it anyway, and he's glad to be able to work out again.
In a way, he feels like he owes it to Shepard to keep up with the regiment she put him on. So for all she's still in the arena, each morning bright and early he brings himself down to train. Running, practicing forms, and generally keeping at old habits is part of it, but another is honestly a good chunk of angry sickle training.
He's really mad he didn't get to use one in the arena. He's going to stay mad. His training dummy, innocent and sweet, takes the brunt of this anger.
D. The Capitol
The best thing by far (apart from the healed body sweet mother grub hell yes) is that with his return from the arena, Karkat is finally free of the tower arrest that kept him cooped up after the mess with the Initiate. Better yet, that second point means he can go out and walk to his heart's content. He downright refuses to stay in, and he goes everywhere, from parks to that favorite pastry shop he hasn't visited in a month to just random paths down the streets. In a rare sight, he can even be spotted talking animatedly to fans, bitching to them too about how unfair it is that he died in such a lame way. They are sympathetic to his plight, and a good few are eager to hear him boast about the sickle skills he could have shown off.
But whether his path takes him to restaurants or bookshops, gardens or city streets, it's not hard to find him somewhere.
A
In a moment, though, Karkat's outburst is much more interesting than what's playing out on the screen and she shifts in her seat to watch him. "Oh my. Was it that important? I suppose it is a lovely piece of jewelry."
[ooc: I apologize for how late this is; I completely missed seeing this on the feed! I can delete if you'd prefer.]
no problem with late stuff! I'm happy for more CR
"My outburst," he starts in a measured but still agitated tone, "concerns more than that singular piece of jewelry, and if I had not been interrupted then maybe I could have made that clear. Or, you know, if you listened to any of the stuff I said before it. Or maybe stopped to think that no one likes having their stuff needlessly damaged unless their mental faculties are particularly lacking."
His voice decidedly loses the measured part through the end, dropping off entirely as he moves on now.
"But no, you know what, the necklace was entirely that important. I am a broken wreck shattered on the rocks of fate. Not the finest craftsmen with the most diligent repairs can fix the broken chain to a state that would satisfy me, because my materialistic jealousy over a symbolic trinket exceeds the bounds of sense and logic with a fervor not yet witnessed by mortal gaze. The bubbling, frothing spew of my ire will shoot like a rocket toward the stars, drenching the singular moon of your weird-ass sky in my copious bile, thereby staining it an unmistakeable, furious red forever yet to come, immune to meteor or erosion by the grueling sands of time!"
At the end, he stands with arms splayed out wide after a series of grand gestures peppered throughout the speech. One of his lower eyelids is twitching.
He snaps, "You don't even know what that token was for, do you?"
Thanks so much!
All the same, it's strangely interesting to her.
When he finishes, she pauses for a moment, clapping her hands delicately together. "You should write poetry, dear, that was splendid."
She doesn't know many people--even those of her class--with the vocabulary or the stamina to spout something like that. ...Perhaps especially in her class.
She sits up straight, hands folded on her lap now. The picture of innocence and inquisitiveness. "I don't believe I do. Would you tell me, please?"
no subject
"I don't do poetry," he grumps back at her.
But her answer is calm and easy, and seems genuinely inquisitive enough that it doesn't put him off. Nor does it give him any kind of reaction that might push him to rant further, which even with the innocuous subject is probably for the better.
"It's a sign," he explains. "Every troll has their own sign they're given, and it's kind of a thing of personal identity. I can't always have it on my clothes with the costumes my stylist insists on sticking me in, so if I keep a metal pendant shaped like it on a necklace, then I can keep it on me wherever, since it feels like I'm missing something to go without it."
This is not remotely the main reason he wears it, but it's nonetheless all true. He would feel weird without his sign. He's not going to tell anyone about the symbolism packed behind it, though.
no subject
She presses her hand to her heart, as if she's truly feeling for his plight. "What a clever solution--I'm sure your Stylist must be grateful to you for making their job easier."
She furrows her brow. "Why would she take it? It doesn't seem as if its great value extends to anyone but you. It must jut be cruel to loot something so precious."
no subject
The crease stays with the next part.
"No, she wasn't being cruel. She just ran over and carried me away from the Cornucopia, didn't she? I could only half process what was going on and my limbs weren't working. She saved my life in a past arena, and she's been training me here ever since. It's probably some kind of sentimental thing, and if she comes out of there with it I am positive she'll give it back if she can." His tone is as certain as his word choice.
no subject
Ostensibly, she means taking someone soon to be a corpse from the Cornucopia. But, admittedly, a lot of this sharing and caring between Tributes is strange to her. Alliances in the old games tended to be brief, simply due to the permanence of the effects of the Arena.
"But you can just have another made. I'm sure she knows that, doesn't she?"
for all he doesn't like her/wants to leave here, I'd love if they can interact more in the future
Curious behavior his ass. Who the hell listens to a drawn-out praise of her like that and acts like it's weird? It's camaraderie, compassion, allegiance--whatever you want to call it, it's something strong and important and caring. He won't sit and just listen to her be weirded out by it.
And strangely enough, it's her easy dismissal of his damaged token that vaunts its importance in his mind. Before he wasn't remotely attached to that particular necklace, and would have been fine to replace it just like she said. But to have her treat it like nothing, just like his friendship with Shepard, prompts something spiteful and contrary.
"Don't care," he says, sharp and simple. "I'm going to have her bring back that one and have it repaired so I know where it broke, and I'm going to wear that one until it literally becomes unwearable." It's perhaps not the most mature way to react, but he doesn't care. He doesn't abandon sentimentality once he's assigned it to something.
"Have you got anything else to add? If not, I'm leaving."
Sure! I'll always be willing to try stuff and she'll always be willing to bother him
Despite her knowledge that these Tributes are so different in their values, she still feels some surprise at his reaction. But she doesn't show it with any change in her expression, maintaining that vaguely curious look on her face.
She waves her hand in dismissal. "No. Enjoy your necklace, dear. I hope it lasts you many more Arenas."
no subject
He doesn't know what her deal is, and he frankly doesn't care to. He's got other stuff to see to right now.