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.
no subject
...wait.
"And I wanna write a fic about you and him and maybe yelling at each other and then either being friends or you push him off a cliff or something cool and I need details!" There. She has been completely honest, and if it makes him get all shouty and mad then cool. She will have seen the true wonder of a Karkat tantrum with her own eyes.
no subject
"I'm not a subject for fanfic!" he snaps, arms splaying out grandly. "Do you know how much ignorant crap there is floating about in books and magazines and interviews and basically everything I've spoken to that twists my words and culture around to something it isn't? The last time I tried to bring up anything 'interesting' to an interviewer, they edited things around to make it look like I have an incest fetish when incest isn't a thing for trolls." This is totally unfair. Look at his face: it's the face of a troll thoroughly wronged.
"And now you're telling me you want to rip off my life experiences for some made up story about a guy I've met all of twice? He's the pit fashion crawls into to die a nauseous death; he's the ground beneath a long-since empty barrel of the intelligence they hand out when you monkeys squirm your way out of your disgusting mammalian mothers. The second meeting was me seeing him before he got struck by lightning, and yet he lived while I'm the one back here dead. Friendship isn't going to happen on those terms!" he yells, hands flung up high this time.
Just as rapidly he brings them down so one can point at her. "And don't you think shoving him from a cliff is the accurate alternative. My desire to win is not populated by a dense and sulky penchant for pushing assholes off the nearest sharp incline. If I cliffed every crusty slime stain who happens to piss me off then no one would be left to hassle me about my 'tantrums', let alone make them into a high-selling bingo game, thanks a fucking lot, Dave." His eyes roll out the finish.
"And before you start getting ideas, Dave is not the one to write about either. Our friendship and our conflicts alike are personal matters best relegated to our own lives, regardless of whatever that shade-blinded tool chest would say. And he's the one I've actually known three years of my life! Three! Years! Gary is a fucking blip, and while I will surely feed him a full course meal of steaming hot wrath lasagna when his ass skids out of the arena, there is nothing greater or worse happening than what I have already described."
His hands flutter about, somewhere between emphasizing his own desperation and indicating her, the heart of this problem.
"Have I made myself clear? Do I have to exhaust my shout blisters until naught but trickling rage pus weeps from their spent hulls? Or is this your cue to go and write it anyway because who cares what Karkat wants! His frothing anger is just an amusement to everyone anyway!"
He might have gotten a little shrill at the end there. Just a bit.
no subject
"....yeah, that's pretty clear!" The grimace-grin holds strong. "You have shown me the light as to why that particular pairing is garbage. And also the Dave one." The grimace-grin wavers a moment. "...never did like that one much..." And bam, it is back, her back straight and her shoulders squared. "I understand completely."
The one true pairing here is Karkat x His Undying Rage. She has figured it all out. Everything makes sense now. Everything is beautiful.
no subject
"Fine. Good." He's still frowning anyway. "Then if we're done here, I'm leaving. I've got shit to do and I haven't even been back to my own District yet."
no subject
no subject
"See you around, maybe. Just keep your fanfic away from me, alright?"
And with that he goes to leave. There's a lot on his mind, from how he'll confront Gary once he's back, to how he might go about earning sponsors for his friends. For now, though, he wants to go relax. If nothing else, this means he won't have to struggle around for weeks on end with the injured leg he had before.