Thank everything that's holy, Karkat understands. He understands how fundamentally different the two things were, how one was asked for and one was plain torture. He understands how unjust the whole thing was. The Signless nearly sobs with relief. Someone is on his side. That doesn't make it better, not really, and it doesn't change the fact that no matter what the context he still took two lives, but it's a small selfish victory to know that Karkat at least doesn't think he deserved what the Initiate did. Everyone else seems convinced that the indigo can do no goddamn wrong, and it makes him so furious.

"I hate this," he mumbles into Karkat's shoulder. "I hate that I was stupid enough to think that culling him would fix anything, when everything I do just winds up either not mattering or hurting people anyway, and I can never defend myself because no one listens to me."