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)
thecapitol2015-07-23 02:08 pm
crabmunicator) wrote in thecapitol2015-07-23 02:08 pm
Entry tags:
[closed] resurrected
Who| Karkat and Shepard
What| Shep's back! Time to talk to her.
Where| District 5
When| A few days after Shepard's death.
Warnings/Notes| Talk of death and violence, maybe? Will update as needed.
It's here some weeks out from the beginning of the arena that Shepard finally meets her end. Karkat's not surprised, not really; she has good survival skills, and she's solid at combat, with powers on top. Judicious use and regular old sense should see her well, and so it has. It's only the trouble of the sword that got him worried, but here in the ending chaos even that seems to have done more to spur than slow her. It's brutal and impressive, and when finally she gets taken down, he settles in for a wait.
He doesn't come down immediately. He knows it takes a day or so for people to come back, sometimes longer, so he waits about three before shuffling on down to D5. Every other he's kept up his schedule of training, even during the weeks from his death until now; the only change has been to fit it around getting ready for school, or the occasional early morning sponsor shit.
Now, though, is afternoon. He's got a book with him, figuring that if he doesn't spot her first or get an answer to knocking on her door that he'll sit in the common area and read. If she doesn't come around today, he'll try again tomorrow.
What| Shep's back! Time to talk to her.
Where| District 5
When| A few days after Shepard's death.
Warnings/Notes| Talk of death and violence, maybe? Will update as needed.
It's here some weeks out from the beginning of the arena that Shepard finally meets her end. Karkat's not surprised, not really; she has good survival skills, and she's solid at combat, with powers on top. Judicious use and regular old sense should see her well, and so it has. It's only the trouble of the sword that got him worried, but here in the ending chaos even that seems to have done more to spur than slow her. It's brutal and impressive, and when finally she gets taken down, he settles in for a wait.
He doesn't come down immediately. He knows it takes a day or so for people to come back, sometimes longer, so he waits about three before shuffling on down to D5. Every other he's kept up his schedule of training, even during the weeks from his death until now; the only change has been to fit it around getting ready for school, or the occasional early morning sponsor shit.
Now, though, is afternoon. He's got a book with him, figuring that if he doesn't spot her first or get an answer to knocking on her door that he'll sit in the common area and read. If she doesn't come around today, he'll try again tomorrow.
no subject
And now Karkat Vantas, and his stupid softcover novel, whatever it was. Well, Vantas the second, if they were being technical about these things-- or was it the third? Shepard didn't care. Karkat was Karkat was Karkat, and she had staked her claim on this little shit. Gratitude was not what was important.
She wouldn't half like some, though.
"Hey, kid," She took her hand out of the pocket of her soft, ugly, perfect sheepskin vest, and dangled her newest jewelry in front of his face, without even giving him time to turn and face her. Maybe he recognizes it? "You dropped this."
no subject
He heard the approaching steps, but didn't think anything of them before he heard the voice, and suddenly his token was hanging before him.
"Shepard!" He tipped his head back to look at her from where he sat, closed his book with a hand, then reached to take the necklace back. "Hell yes, I knew you could get it back to me. Pick a color, because I'm going to get it fixed and I want the spot marked where you broke it."
He didn't even care that much until people kept launching in about how replaceable it was. Before then it was only a symbol he wore it for, the object itself meaningless, but spite for them and respect for Shepard awarded it a more sentimental worth.
no subject
As if there were any other choice. Shepard's armor had been the same color for almost as long as she'd had it. Some people went for updated models, Alliance blue, or Pheonix pink, and regs accounted for all manner of replacement parts, not that it mattered to a Spectre's crew. Shepard, now she was a traditionalist; you didn't get any more traditional than charcoal grey, sealed but unpainted.
But that had been before Torfan. Before the N7 designation. There really was only one choice.
"I'm a big fan of red. Used to wear a stripe down my armor, like this," She outlined the place, from one shoulder down to her wrist, "Nice, bright blood-red. Yeah?"
no subject
"Red?" He looked at her, at the gesture, and then to her face. He already associated it with her, between her hair and the glowing cracks in her skin, but the way she stated it made it stand out more. Mentions of blood in this color always did.
The dangling sign on his necklace was steel grey, the same sign he'd always worn, but the reasons he wore it fell beyond simple habit. He knew now where that sign had come from. Adding in something as bright as that cullbait color...
"Yeah--yeah, red it is." He nodded to seal it. "I'll come show you when it's fixed." Then he pocketed the necklace.
"But it's good to see you back and acting like normal. That sword fucked up a lot of people just for getting near it," he explained, gesturing at his head. "I thought you might win until you finally went down there. You're as brutal as a troll, you know that?"
no subject
She spread her arms and stepped back, as if to say, look. Look at me! Look at her, Karkat. She's no taller than you, thick with muscle and scar, glowing from within. Look at that shit-eating grin. Fuck you. Fuck you.
"I'm as brutal as a human. Don't forget it."
no subject
He pushed a hand through his hair and sighed. "You monkeys are always bitching about something," he huffed out, but his shoulders dropped after and his look turned more solid.
It was a human who almost killed him when she first saved his life. It was humans who built this Capitol, set this game up, brought them all here. It had been her, a human, who taught him so much in the first place.
"Yeah, alright. You're a badass, okay? I humbly offer my acceptance and supplication, oh great God-Queen Shepard of the gored wastes." A roll of the eyes topped it off, stubborn despite everything. "I'm just glad you're on my side. Even if you couldn't save me this time... I owe you, alright?"
no subject
She's heard him, at least, screeching and squirming his way through any given relationship, casual or otherwise. Hell, everyone's heard him, Karkat isn't exactly a subtle orator, and anyways subtlety isn't rewarded here.
"Look, don't take this wrong, but you don't owe me shit. I don't need people going around, doing shit for me out of gratitude," She stopped, trying to think. What would Anderson have done with this kid? "I like you, kid. One day, you're going to be great. And I wanna see that day. So you gotta focus, don't get sidetracked by petty stupid shit, like the arena."
no subject
Instead it's her serious answer that has him thinking, frowning at first, then blinking into a wide-eyed look.
"I'll do shit for you if I want," he insists, but his tone is distracted. He swallows and curls his hands up, forming fists if only by loose association. "You really think I've got it? That I'll do that?"
no subject
That's the conviction that'll take down a nation, Karkat. Don't waste it. And with that, Shepard gives him a little chuck upside the head, somewhere between affectionate and rough, "If you stay focused. Read me?"
no subject
As he straightens, though, face taking on conviction. "I didn't lead my team for nothing. And even then, I know I've made enough mistakes in my life that I can't let my guard down. I have to do it better, every time, if I want to be the kind of person I can be."