thecapitol | (no subject)

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Who| Cuthbert and Open
What| Extremely mature pouting and moping
Where| District 3 Suites, mostly
When| After his death and return to the Capitol
Warnings/Notes| none so far

Cuthbert Allgood is not taking his latest death well. It doesn't help that his fight with Sherlock is making the rounds in the highlight reel, and he's taking it harder than he has in the past. He hasn't talked to anyone so far, not even the avoxes who he will carry on half conversations with most of the time.

For someone who spends a lot of his time training normally he hasn't been further out of the District 3 Suites than to ride the elevator down to District 1 and back up. He hasn't even been able to get off the elevator to see someone he really wants to see.

Most people will find him wrapped up under a blanket from his room in the main District 3 eating area watching and (surprisingly) not commenting on their activities. All of this is abnormal behavior for him, not that he would notice or care at this point.

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He meant the blanket, Cuthbert. Honestly.

Karkat sighs. "Look, did I do something to piss you off? I'd have come to see you right away if I could, but Signless was seriously fucked up by what happened and I didn't want him to-- I mean, for all we know if you die out here you stay dead."

He shakes his head at Karkat, he isn't upset at him, he just doesn't know what to do with himself. He shifts deeper into the blanket so it's up to his ears. That way if he does talk it will be too muffled to make sense, which feels better than actually talking at the moment.

"I could test that theory for you."

The TV is showing some of the murder party and Cuthbert just stares at it blankly.

Unfortunately for Cuthbert, trolls have pretty good hearing.

Karkat slaps Cuthbert.

"Oh my fuck, no. No, you dumbfuck, you are no going to 'test' anything. Not with yourself--and certainly not with anyone else, do you want a mandatory recreation period with that Penny psycho? Look, I'm sorry I didn't come to find you right away, but you're not the only person who's important to me and the world's shittiest harlequin didn't make it his personal mission to break you."

He grabs Bert by what he thinks is the arm. It's hard to tell under all that blanket.

"You're coming with me where I can keep an eye on you."

"Mayhap not everything is about you!" Cuthbert snaps at him.

But he doesn't resist being pulled up and out. It's just as well because there's more disturbing footage up on the TV, more things Cuthbert doesn't want to watch again.

He's quiet again in the elevator, not letting his eyes meet Karkat's as they make the short trip up. On the one hand, he's not happy to be treated like he's a danger to himself when he doesn't think he is, but on the other it's nice to have someone care enough about him to fuss over him like this.

"Then why," Karkat says through grit teeth, "are you trying to use the thermal retention fabric to give yourself the cocoon you can't actually spin if you aren't being petulant about me being late all the fucking time."

He doesn't let go of Cuthbert's arm. He doesn't plan to until they're both in Signless' block where he can keep an eye on the both of them together.

Edited 2013-11-26 23:09 (UTC)

Cuthbert doesn't have a good answer for that. So instead he tells Karkat: "If I can't spin a cocoon then what do you call this?"

He pulls the blanket tighter around himself and burrows deeper into it so his face is mostly hidden. Being horribly immature is a far better choice than telling Karkat how mortified he is about his death, among other things.

"Thermal retention fabric," Karkat replies, rolling his eyes. "A really shitty fake cocoon." He sighs and gives Cuthbert's arm a squeeze. "If it makes you feel any better, the only cull I got was when I was avenging you."

He's not entirely sure if Cuthbert is being petulant because he didn't live up to the last arena's record, but it seems as good a guess as any.

Cuthbert's eyes narrow in a glare and he tugs his arm free. Really he should last out at Karkat again, but he is trying to help. And he's afraid to let his actual concerns get out.

Cuthbert will walk himself to Signless's room rather than be escorted at this point. At least, that's where he's assuming they're going. And he gets as far as the door before he feels useless and weak again and just stands in front of it trying not to turn around and leave again. He knows if he does Karkat will come after him again and it will be a worse scene than it currently is.

Karkat sighs. "Fuck, you're balky today." He opens the door with his right hand, while using the other to shove Cuthbert forward. "Come on, in there. You can hang out with us until you stop needing that lame cocoon. We have food and this weird fuzzbeast that keeps purring."

His voice is still raspy when he responds to Karkat.

"I hate you."

But even saying that he's walking in and sitting on the floor in the corner of Karkat's room. He sits so he's facing one wall, but he can still see Karkat out of the corner of his eye. For the moment he isn't giving the troll a nice look.

It's Signless' room, not Karkat's, but they shared it so that's close enough. Karkat picks up one of the excess fuzzbeasts that are lying on the resting platform--they'd shown up after he'd fed the first one, it was really fucking weird--and hands it to Cuthbert.

It coos at him.

"Yeah, well, I hate you too, shithead."

He doesn't really sound like he hates Cuthbert, though.

Edited 2013-12-05 00:59 (UTC)

Cuthbert takes the little fuzzy thing and frowns at it. No tiny things have the right to be happy when Bert is trying to be this miserable. He pokes it with a finger, not really to hurt it, just because he doesn't know what else to do with it.

"That's why you killed Sherlock." He says, deadpan and quiet. "Because you hate me."

Trolls are confusing and Bert is starting to regret befriending them. This whole situation is out of his control. His new animal friend doesn't stop purring even when Cuthbert flips it over, trying to figure out which end of it is the top.

Karkat shrugs. He could tell Cuthbert that of course that's why, you don't actually want your kismesis dead, not if you don't want to have to find another really fucking quickly before the drones come. And that would sort of be the truth, but not really all of it.

"I killed him because you're my best friend," Karkat says.

He tips the tribble on its side and watches it flop over again. This is a weird but fun game.

"Better than Signless?"

He's hurt, because he had always thought there was something, well, MORE to his relationship with Karkat than Karkat had with other trolls. At least romantically speaking. Especially after how Karkat was acting in the last arena.

"Different," Karkat says. He frowns, because trying to figure out how he feels about Cuthbert is hard and confusing. "Sometimes I hate you so much I want to grab you by your hair and make you kiss me and sometimes I pity you so much I want to pap your face and pull you into a pile so we can talk about our problems and sometimes I don't know how I feel."

"You sound... human. When you put that way, I mean."

He smiles a little but it's weak. He's mostly just relieved to find out he's still wanted. That takes a little of the sting out of his complaints.

"You could always pull me into a pile and kiss me. Just not right now, I probably taste bad."

Karkat makes a face at the insult.

"It means I'm a flaky loser who has trouble keeping it in one quadrant," he says.

The smile vanishes from Cuthbert's face then as well.

"Cry pardon, I never meant it that way."

He pushes the fuzzbeast further away from himself so he can hide in his blanket again without risking squishing it while he can't see.

Oh shit. He didn't mean to make Bert try to fake cocoon himself again. He kneels down in front of him and slips a hand in to pap him. He ends up getting Bert's nose instead of his cheek because the blanket make it hard to find his face. "Yeah, I know. Look, it's fine. I think I get what you meant."

Or anyway it's easy to infer that because Cuthbert's human he thinks being like a human is a compliment.

He lets up a little and peeks his eyes out from over the top of his 'cocoon'.

"We're surrounded by humans who aren't my people either. Sometimes you have to fit in to survive." He pauses then to get a hold on his spinning thoughts.

"And anyroad, if we were home I would be punished for even suggesting you kiss me. Mayhap it's best if neither of us are humans for a while."

"Yeah," Karkat says. "Maybe. I still don't get why it would be such a big deal, though, except that I'm a mutant."

"It just isn't done. Which doesn't make it right, but there are many things about your world that aren't right but must be followed all the same."

He is a little defensive about his own home because he's the only piece of it here, Susannah doesn't really count. He won't tolerate trash talk about a place he loves, warts and all.

Karkat opens his mouth, wanting to argue the point, then closes it. "Yeah," he says finally. "I guess there are."

Like the fact that back home what Initiate did to him would have been totally fine according to imperial law and actually probably considered justified.

He wiggles a little in his blankets.

"There might be room for someone else in here."

That's the closest to comfort that Cuthbert is going to give at the moment. It seems like they could both use it.

Karkat will take it. "Then move over, so I can get some thermal retention fabric."

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i think this will date this thread as the last in the log

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