007 ♑ [seventh honk]

[hystericull]

Characters: [OU] Gamzee Makara and you.
Setting: Floor 11
Format: Starting with action, but I'll match.
Summary: After going fucking nuts and slaughtering a few things, Gamzee has been pretty good about keeping himself out of trouble. With an ankle almost back to normal, he's checking out the wicked eleventh floor and trying to forget that his life sucks while simultaneously freezing his ass off.
Warnings: If the summary wasn't clue enough, profanity. Also other things idk it's Gamzee, come on.



[It was in these kinds of moments that Gamzee had been particularly grateful for his new duds. Kanaya, before departing the Tower, had presented him with a very generous new wardrobe - one better suited for the rapidly falling temperatures.]

[For being in the Tower for a length of time fast approaching nine months, Gamzee hadn't a single change of clothes up until now. As horrifying and possibly disgusting as it was, he still hadn't the mind to change out of them. Rather, he threw the jacket, hat and scarf on right over his marred shirt and dirty hair. Hygiene really wasn't at the top of his list of priorities.]

[What was at the top of that list, however, was inspecting the spray of the water that spilled from the ceiling of this level, and the many rainbows that bent and danced around him as a result. With a limp that refused to abandon his right foot after weeks and weeks of healing its broken ankle, the boy watched with bright, droopy eyes the colorful bands that spanned before them. An awed grin was in its early stages at the corners of his lips, dimpling his now-purple cheeks and leaving him with a slightly slack-jawed look of amusement that made it possible for a few puffs of visible breath to escape.]

Comments

[thereisnopie]

[In an odd sort of coincidence, the tower's other Gamzee had also been fitted for an outfit by Kanaya (something that still baffled him, but he wasn't complaining given how he had basically nothing else but that straight jacket). It included a very comfortable hoodie, which was especially great for days when he wanted to cover his face as much as possible. (See: every day since the Halloween event had ended.)

And of course it happens that both iterations of this one being would choose the same day to stick their heads out. ...At least out of their rooms. The human Gamzee has the fabric of his hood pulled firmly down over his eyes, so it's a miracle he can even walk through the halls without running into anything.

He stops when he catches sight of the troll's shoes. They're very familiar shoes. Shoes he recognizes with a painful twist in his gut, because they'd once been his shoes. And if he's close enough to notice said footwear, he's far too close to not have been noticed himself.

This doesn't stop him from turning on one heel and immediately heading back in the other direction.]

[hystericull]

[Perhaps it was safe to assume that this human Gamzee had also been reluctant to agree to the fittings and consultations required to produce a custom wardrobe? Whatever the case, this Gamzee was having none of it, and had to be forced to stand still while the measuring tape had been wrapped all around him. That was all old news, though. A story for a different time - because he now had company!]

[Gamzee was feeling a lot more chipper today, for whatever reason. Maybe it was because he'd been holed up so long, stewing in his madness and anxiety, that all this fresh air was finally getting some sense and oxygen knocked back into the holes of his Swiss-cheese pan that hadn't already been filled with a little snack of sopor.]

[His head fell slowly, eyes fixing on the back of something hornless, all wrapped up in weather-appropriate clothing like himself. The thing was scurrying away pretty quickly - had he frightened it? That felt a little unlikely - whoever it was, they didn't seem so easily intimidated? Ah, well, what the fuck did he motherfuckin' know? Only one way to find out!]

Shit, motherfucker. This place be all as much what's fuckin' yours as all it's gettin' up to all be my fucking own, you feel me, dog?

Ain't no motherfucker got no need in all fuckin' that running away business, yo.

[thereisnopie]

[Oh god, that's his voice, isn't it? And he sounds kind of stoned, doesn't he? If his troll self is high, does that mean he's actually eating the slime?

Why do real versions of their program alter-egos have to exist?

Fuck, he's stopped walking, hasn't he? Why would he do that? Gamzee, you idiot, you don't have to stop whenever someone addresses you, it's not like you're a polite individual or anything. Just keep sticking one foot in front of the other and move it and maybe your other idiot self won't even remember this later.

Wow, feet. Way to betray him.]

Thought maybe it might be a somethin' of a warmer temperature, uh... elsewhere.

[Disguising his voice might have also been a good idea. Shame he thought of it too late.]

[hystericull]

[Right on the money, humanzee. This troll has, in fact, been indulging in a little slime to take the edge off of... well, himself. Embracing your true homicidal self was hard to do when you couldn't die, and when killing others never sated your unending thirst for carnage. It was too much, too fast. Building up and up with nowhere to go, much like the Tower itself. So, what did he do when he couldn't deal with something? He ate slime. It was much better than actually feeling, anyway.]

Oh.

[True, it was freezing on this floor - no walls in the middle of Winter and all. But Gamzee wasn't about to go and let some prime company get away from him, even if it happened to be this particular motherfucker who all was chancing to be in his most closest of proximities.]

[With a quick flash of steps, and the sound of unlocking metal teeth, Gamzee jilted behind the boy with whom he shared a voice. After a second of wiggling and embarrassing flailing, he finally managed to throw his newly-acquired jacket around the smaller Gamzee's shoulders, patting it in satisfaction.]

Ain't nothing what no brother ain't being able to all motherfuckin' get his help on with, if another brother was all only fuckin' up to askin' on it, yeah?

[Maybe if he just... leeeaned to the side a little, Gamzee would be able to see the kid's face. He offered a stupid, toothy smile - jagged and lopsided.]

[thereisnopie]

[What no stay away not cool, not -- whoa, that's some pink hair. He didn't even know it was possible to get his hair that pink. He's honestly not sure how to react to seeing that color on his own head, because the surrealness of this meeting has just gone up a whole 'nother notch.

Wait, no. Let's not get distracted. Especially not when he's being... attacked? No, definitely not. His other self is giving him his coat... which would be a nice gesture if the inside of it didn't really, well, stink to high heaven. The troll himself doesn't smell much better.

Holy shit, did he always smell this bad? No wonder some of the others made it a point to avoid sharing a close proximity with him.]

Man, fuck... Fuck no, I don't need your extra layers, bro. You should just go on and wrap yourself back on up in this mess, aight?

[He'll probably knock his hood back trying to remove it, though, so that's a bonus at least.]

[reddeadvirtuoso]

[The drop in temperature wasn't that bad yet, you baby at least not to Jade. She was loathe to admit that she was getting that cold anyway, seeing as the warmest thing in her trunk was those stupid red Time pajamas. Even Jade hated Time players.

So to deal with the dropped temperatures, all she'd done was wrap her scarf around her neck in a sufficient manner and thrown on the white button-up shirt from her Four Aces outfit over her Red Atom t-shirt and called it sufficient. Really it was an accomplishment that she had even pulled herself out of bed today! A decision she was already regretting given the rapidly dropping temperature. Come on, she was from Texas.

So really she had just been kind of slogging and slinking around the Tower, and stopped when she saw the pink-haired eyesore standing around staring at...some...thing.... Well the real point was it'd been a while since she'd seen him, she was pretty sure that he had ditched this place a while ago.]

...The fuck are you looking at?

[Give her a minute, she'll come up with a more creative insult later.]

[hystericull]

[It took a while for Gamzee to pry his face off of a rainbow long enough to turn it downwards. There was a little girl, addressing him quite aggressively! For sealing himself away this long, he began to not quite forget the people he'd known, but their existence slowly grew distant to him - like a far-off memory. It was a little bit shocking to actually realize they were still around - carrying on with their business just like he'd remembered them doing.]

[This one had helped him through some shit. They'd both had painfully obvious fronts up for one another that they'd refused to take down. It was about as much information his rotten brain had retained, and he gave her a lopsided smile.]

Short little fuckin' pink thing, now.

[reddeadvirtuoso]

Astounding.

[Well, she knew this guy was kind of off his rocker 24/7, but.... ehhhh you know what she doesn't really care to give much of a fuck at this point trying to decipher what the hell he's up to anymore. So she just kind of looked at him straight on with a straight and slightly sour look.]

You're still looking about as stupidly pink as I am, dude.

[hystericull]

[This got a laugh out of him - a honking, sharp, obnoxious noise that threatened to scrape the ear drums out of any living thing within a 10-foot radius - but a laugh nonetheless. He took the girl's face in both hands, smooshing her cheeks and swaying it back and forth as he continued to honk a few more times.]

We got fuckin' the pink all gettin' its motherfuckin' ill groove goin' in different places, brosis. Thinkin' maybe if you got all what's I'm to be motherfucking having, then you'd be just the pinkest most motherfuckin' bitchin' thing a brother all ever fuckin' was to be settin' them righteous stubs of his on!

[The giggles shook him again.]

The fuck you all say, man? Up to get down with the fuckin' pinkness?

[gloomyapoplectic]

[And enter one Kanaya that is not so fashionably-inclined, but who also happens to be on the messier side of things. She's not really bundled -- the only new addition is a ratty-ass maroon cape -- but freezing her horns off in the Land of Snow and Sanguine seems to have desensitized her a little.

Judging by the stains on her skirt (as well as on her chainsaw), she has been slaughtering.

She's a little harried as she situates herself in the shallows of the lake with a small splash and begins working at the nooks and crannies of the chain. It seems to be jammed. How unfortunate.

She is so distressed by this development that she doesn't seem to notice the presence of the murderclown in the room. Hopefully she can get that thing unstuck!]

[hystericull]

[Gamzee wasn't so stoned that the anxious clanging of frenzied chainsaw-cleaning didn't fall on deaf ears. The girl huddled at the shore of the lake seemed so familiar... but where had he seen her before? The one horn that was intact told him instantly that it was a Maryam. However, he was fairly certain that the one from his universe had been taken from the Tower.]

[Once he caught a glimpse of her weapon, however, the memories slammed back into his head like a fucking freight train. Ah. That Kanaya. That chainsaw.]

[Swiftly, soundlessly, he flitted behind her, bending at the waist almost 90 degrees to allow himself a better view of her work. The chainsaw was jammed. Seemed to do that a lot, he mused. Although, this time, he was pretty sure it wasn't skin and hair that prevented the blade from spinning as it should.]

[This thought caused him to honk out a laugh or two or twelve. They rang out across the open floor, and he put his hands on his stomach to quell their ferocity.]

[gloomyapoplectic]

[There was definitely some kind of flesh keeping it from working at maximum efficiency. It just was neither troll nor human.

The abrupt volume of the laughter startles Kanaya. Her hand jerks along the edge of the metal and earns a new cut for the movement, but she seems more fazed by the sound that caused her such alarm in the first place.

She hisses sharply and tries to turn in her awkward kneeling position. It doesn't work, especially with her damp skirt tangled about her legs. She turns just enough to catch a glance of her audience, her fangs bared and fear in her eyes.]

[hystericull]

Whoaaa, whoa, motherfuckin' whoa, little joke-veined wonderblood.

[The laughing continued, although it had lost a lot of gusto, trailing off until it finally died completely out.]

Ain't gotta get all get to havin' motherfuckin' them defenses all flyin' every all which fuckin' way at a motherfucker, shit. Fuckin' get your wake on up in the not-right side all of the motherfucking human rest platform this evening?

[He chuckled again, standing on his tiptoes and trying again to get a clearer glimpse of what she was doing.]

[pushedaround]

[ This happened to be one of Tavros' favorite floors; a calm refugee perhaps. He often spends his time here, whenever given the chance, and it would usually keep his mind off things. He's been visiting this place a lot less, due to recent circumstances, but today he decided that it's time to give it another visit. Now that he was, well, no longer in a race to save his life.

The brownblood paid little attention to the weather change, and he even went as far of getting rid of his jacket and settling for his shirt solely, making his way in before he realized that he's not entirely alone here. The hat- was the first thing that captured his attention, and there's a smile on his lips at the adorable display, but- man, it was always so unsettling whenever he laid his eyes on that troll.

He approached him, regardless. Hands tugged inside his pockets, head down but his smile is casual and easy. ]

Hey, Gamzee.

[ He announced his presence before moving to his side, not wanting to startle the highblood. ]

[hystericull]

[A lot of things happened in a short amount of time - all set off by the realization that Tavros was once again sharing the same air space as him. There was a quick pang of anxiety before it got smothered by the sopor in his veins and replaced with something a little closer to "diluted jubilation". Gamzee shifted slightly to focus on the boy standing next to him, presenting him with a severely relaxed grin.]

[Somewhere beneath the temporary good feelings of his high, a little ball of frustration clawed at the pit of his stomach. He stubbornly ignored any of the bullshit they'd been putting themselves through before this encounter.]

Heyyy, my most favorite of elusive motherfuckers. What all been getting its ill fuckin' get on at you as of the motherfucking lateness, huh?

[His eyes were sleepy and kind, wandering lazily over Tavros - underdressed for the weather up here.]

[pushedaround]

[ It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Gamzee is back on the sopor again, Tavros is not sure whether that was a good or a bad thing, but he learned to keep his mouth shut. He brings a hand up, awkwardly rubbing on the back of his head and chuckling slightly- actually considering Gamzee's question before shrugging his shoulders. ]

Heh. Nothing worth mentioning, my brother! The same things ... I guess.

[ He's not really bothered with the tower as he used to be. Sure, it sucked being a zombie and all, but he is just ... really tired of feeling sorry for himself. It was turning into such a drag, and he didn't want to think about it again. Not when he's around the highblood, anyway.

Moving to important topics! He gestures to Gamzee's hat and offers him a wide, toothy grin. ]

Pretty sweet winter clothes, Gamzee! It's, uh, really cute. Where did you get it?

[hystericull]

[Gamzee was pretty sure that he had a train of thought. He was pretty sure it either had to still do with the rainbows flitting across the floor, or maybe it had to do with the fuzziness that was crawling around inside his ears, or maybe he was actually concentrating on the conversation he was supposed to be having with Tavros. No one would ever know, though, because as soon as the word "cute" fell out of that little mouth, all of Gamzee's internal processes immediately shut down.]

[Aaand then they rebooted. Slightly. With a smile that was way too wide and toothy than the situation called for, and with cheeks even more purple than they were just a few seconds prior.]

I, uh... uhhh.

Hahaha, fuck, bro. Glad you be motherfuckin' diggin' these bitches.

[His smile was getting painfully large. Settle down, Makara. Any and all attempts to quell the bubbling frenzy of flutterbugs in his digestive sac were only met with a quirk of his lips and a brief, comical scowl before the grin flew across his mouth once more.]

Oh! Shit, Kanaya was all to do and fuckin' thank on this motherfucking magic, yo!

I mean, uh, my Kanaya. The jade one.

Er, uh--

[OH MY GOD HE'S FROM YOUR OWN FUCKING UNIVERSE YOU DIPSHIT HE KNOWS THE FUCKING JADE KANAYA.]

[Oh, but, God, he called him cute.]

I--

Sometimes I get cold.

[So smooth.]

[myblueskies]

[Romeo, also wearing a new hat; or rather old hat that he had been given as a consolation prize came to sit down next to Gamzee. He still hadn't given up on his roommate, trying to be a good friend to him even though he was angry and scary.

And after all Romeo had killed people now... He was a sort of bad person too...] Hello Gamzee!

[hystericull]

[For being out of contact with literally everyone for what was fast approaching a month, now, seeing such an old acquaintance was actually pretty comforting for Gamzee. Even though they'd had their altercations, he was too chilled out to pay such trivial things any mind. A grin spread across his face before he could even think otherwise.]

Long time no fuckin' gettin' at the motherfucking yapping, brother. The fuck all be bringing at you 'round the rainbow motherfuckin' magicland, huh?

[myblueskies]

[The look of relief on Romeo's face when Gamzee didn't shout at him. His whole face lit up and he bounced over to his friend.] I was just exploring! What are you doing? Did the bad people give you a hat as well?

[hystericull]

[It was really hard to keep a huge grin off of his face when confronted with Romeo's never-ending cheerfulness. If he were a little less high, he could probably take a page from the kid's book in keeping his spirits up in a way that didn't involve copious amounts of sedatives.]

[Unfortunately, he was not that emotionally strong.]

Explorin' be a fuckin' right wicked thing to all up and fuckin' do, my main motherfucker! 'Specially in a place what's all fuckin' shittin' out miracles and beauty like it ain't at being no motherfuckin' thing in the world!

[He paused for a moment, and it seemed like he was finished speaking, but Romeo might have known by now that it was just time Gamzee needed to process the second part.]

Huhhhhhh... fuck, I ain't be thinkin' on such things, bro. Pretty damn fuckin' straight and sure I got my receive on of these duds fucking by an old friend what's mine. Maybe she be fuckin' bad, now? Can't really be rightly getting your know on of that sorts of crazy motherfuckin' shit now what we're in this place all turned around, you fuckin' feel me, dog?

[He grins as if he hadn't said anything particularly depressing at all, throwing his arms open and inviting a hug from the younger boy. Yeah, he was baked as hell. No one will be offended if you decline this offer, Romeo run, run away!!!.]

[papshooshing]

[ GAMZEE WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS IS UNSANITARY YOU DISGUSTING FLESH SACK OF BONES!

KARKAT WILL NOT HAVE THIS!

no. really. because in just the few moments it takes for Karkat to catch sight of Gamzee, that's all nee needs to see before PURPOSEFULLY walking over and snatching up that moirail by the ear. ]

[hystericull]

[OH MY FUCKING GOD HE DOES NOT HAVE THE WITS FOR THIS RIGHT FUCKING NOW. He was deeply engrossed in the twinkly, glowy light emitted from the rainbows (whether or not it was actually there or a side effect of the slime was debatable) when there was a sharp tug at one of his ears (he didn't know which, yet, but it was certainly one of them.)]

Motherfuck!

[After that short outburst, a cacophony of honks followed, ringing around the empty floor, somewhat stifled by the rushing of the waterfalls, but loud and obnoxious all the same.]

HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK!!!

[papshooshing]

GAMZEE!

[ Karkat has to pull his hands back to cover his ears. and maybe shake a little. HONKS SCARE HIM. ARE YOU TRYING TO SCARE HIM SENSELESS NOW GAMZEE? IS THAT HOW YOUR PALE DIAMONDS ROLL? ]

[hystericull]

[HE DOESN'T KNOW THAT, OKAY? Honks are a perfectly acceptable reaction to any and all stimuli, thank you very motherfucking much, Mr. Vantas.]

[With a final, screeching honk as he was scared even further by Karkat yelling his name, Gamzee tumbled backwards, tripping over his own feet in an attempt to get away. He didn't get very far, however, and only ended up stumbling a few steps before catching his balance and staring wide-eyed back at his moirail.]

Fuuuuuuuuck, brother! The fuck be up and fucking all biting at them nookwalls yours this most chilly of fuckin' evenings that made a bro get his illest of motherfucking scares on at another motherfucker!?