towerofanimus | Is This Home?

"Hey, stupid, don't close your eyes!" She tries to get her arm under his shoulders to lift him up. "We'll get you out of here, okay?"

Once Feferi is done with, Vriska hardly has the energy to stand with the adrenaline ebbing out of her limbs. She trudges over to Terezi and Karkat and collapses to her knees by them. She's hardly in a position to really help, but she'll try anyway. Maybe trying to show Terezi up, or something.

Kanaya takes a moment to vent her frustration about her world's fate on Feferi's corpse; the word "maiming" comes to mind, and she does that until her rage tapers off and she's not seeing red.

Well, figuratively speaking. She can actually see quite a bit of red, since she's bleeding and all. Well. That's troubling.

She shuts off her chainsaw, taking heavy breaths. It takes a few seconds to remember oh shit, Karkat, at which point she stumbles over to the assembled party. It seems like Terezi has Karkat, but...

"Vriska," rasps Kanaya. "Do you need help?" She's not in much of a position to help either, but at least she's still standing.

He opens them on command, though very slowly. Unfortunately, it appears Karkat's body is completely dead-weight and useless to him. He can only muster the energy to lift a hand to rest on her wrist, and turn his head to look at Vriska, offering the smallest half-smirk of gratitude before it collapsed into a violent wince of pain.

Karkat's lungs slowed, struggling to to quell the pain shooting through his body every time he was moved.

Terezi lets out a shaky sigh, because at least he's responding. She ignores Vriska, preferring not to deal with her right now, and turns her attention to Kanaya. "We need to get him out of here, but I don't think I can lift him."

"If you can't lift him then get out of the way and let me do it. You're useless as usual."

Vriska snorts, shouldering the arm opposite of Terezi to get a good hold on Karkat. She moves to try to lift him but her body protests the sudden extra weight. There's a frown as she remains squatted on the ground. She's not going to admit she can't lift him like this. She's going to need help but she sure as hell won't acknowledge it.

"I'll be fine, Fussyfangs! Don't worry about me."

Kanaya just watches as the two other bluebloods take a hold of Karkat. She's not really sure how to configure this.

After a moment of thought, she moves to try and take Karkat's arm from the other cerulean, crouching to be at her level. "You can't stand. Just put your arm on my shoulders and I will not mention it ever again," she instructs Vriska tiredly. She'll just support Vriska on one side and Karkat on the other.

She's throbbing with pain all over, but she's used to ignoring that, and they'll never get out of here if none of them can walk.

Karkat goes completely still and quiet, struggling to keep his eyes open, and only releasing the occasional grunt of pain. Were it not for all the tears in his suit and body, it almost appeared as if he were simply tired, waiting to fall asleep.

But he doesn't say anything -- he's not even sure he still can, or that he wants to. More than half of him had wished that Feferi had just gotten it over with, instead of leaving him to suffer alone.

Again.

It takes a hell of a lot of effort for Terezi to pull herself up, let alone Karkat. Her are screaming at her, but she bites her lip and sucks it up. "Lead the way, then!" She says to Kanaya, voice strained.

"I can walk on my own, thank you very much!"

Vriska takes a step away, refusing the help offered to her. She's not quite tired or weak enough to accept that kind of help without a fight. So she stands on her own, gritting teeth and starting to walk ahead of them since she's not helping Karkat and she's refusing to be helped along.

Wow this Vriska is not like hers at all. Kanaya ignores the vague weird ache in her chest at the realization (probably just another cut), and stands with Karkat's arm over her shoulders. She probably holds him a little tighter than is strictly necessary -- she won't say it out loud, but it's a reassurance.

"This way," she directs with a wince, starting off in the direction that they had come from. It's relatively easy; she just needs to follow the fresh blood.

Terezi follows, staying quiet to avoid letting out any embarrassing whimpers. She does glare at Vriska's back, though. Can't they just leave her there?

Vriska doesn't glance back at the trio, because that would mean she cares and she really couldn't give a shit about it. Really. She pushes herself on to the exit and swings the door open to step through. Unlike the others, however, she won't find the cafeteria beyond it.

It's unnerving that it's so dark. And she's kind of starting to feel dizzy. It's nothing like when she was getting curbstomped by the Vast Glub, but every now and then her vision starts to swim. The lights of the computers eventually come into view; hopefully the door is close, then. She foggily remembers coming in by the computers.

Terezi knows they're going the right way--she can still smell their scents from when they came in. When they reach the door, she pushes it open and stumbles out, back into the dining hall. That's when her legs give out and her knees buckle, and she sags to the floor. She notes vaguely that she can't smell Vriska nearby, and assumes she must have run off. Karkat is her primary concern, anyway.

Kanaya almost falls when Terezi does, with the sudden unbalancing of Karkat's weight, but she stays standing long enough to lower Karkat gently to try and make sure he doesn't agitate anything with the fall.

"We all should get to the infirmary," she remarks in a pained voice. Despite being rather comfortable now on the floor herself, she knows bleeding out is a very real concern, and they need to move.

Karkat only realizes that they've reached the outside when he's blinded by the light from the cafeteria. He struggles for a moment to adjust and finds a strange burst of adrenaline he hadn't had in the previous room. Almost frantically, he tries to sit up, only to find that all the blood he's lost is finally catching up to him.

He panics and launches into a coughing fit, muscles seizing up in pain as the cerulean struggles to breathe. Karkat's pupils dilate and his eyes widen in a desperate attempt to keep them open. He knows what will happen if he lets them shut, and he's so afraid -- so scared to die, even after flirting with the line so many times before now.

Karkat can't speak, can't even get his breathing under control. The wounds aren't healing -- in fact, they're still bleeding out from very vital veins. He struggles to grab onto anything he can, though his grip is insanely weak.

Terezi wraps her arms around Karkat, trying to steady him. That panic is threatening to overwhelm her again, and she tries to push herself into a kneeling position to better control that thrashing of his. "Karkat, stop! You're going to make it worse!"

"Karkat," Kanaya tries, trying to keep her voice calm and failing miserably. This isn't her role, she's not used to having to be the calm one. She offers her hands if he needs something to hold onto -- and there's a gut-wrenching flashback, holding his hand and waiting for the end -- but she doesn't want to suffocate him. "Please listen to Terezi. I know it hurts, but if you do not calm down, it won't help anything."

Karkat sucks in a sharp breath, but his thrashing only slows to weak quivering and his breathing subsides into slow, deep drags of air. His hand finds Kanaya's but its cold -- paled to chalk and soaked in cerulean swill. It quickly becomes clear that he didn't slow down because he wanted to.

He slowed down because his body had run out of time.

Karkat's eyelids begin to lower slowly, his grip on Terezi and Kanaya both slipping away gradually. Though his sponge was far too deprived of the fluid it needed to comprehend complicated matters, the thoughts moved through his head like a slug over concrete. He couldn't bare to think that all three of his friends had gone through so much to rescue him...and here he was, dying like a failure.

So typical. They didn't deserve that.

Despite that he knew it wouldn't help anything, he wouldn't cause them further distress. He wouldn't close his eyes until he had nothing left. Part of him selfishly hoped it wouldn't be long.

"Karkat," she says, voice embarrassingly high-pitched and desperate. She doesn't like the way he's trembling, or the way his eyes are sliding shut, and she shakes him gently because she doesn't know what else to do. Terezi loops his arm over her shoulders again and tries to force herself to her feet, but with his extra dead weight, she just can't manage it.

"Kanaya!" They have to get him to the infirmary right now, before it's too late. But then, deep down, Terezi knows they've already run out of time.

Terezi's tone of voice is heart-wrenching, a sickening background track to Karkat quickly losing his life force in front of her eyes. She gives Karkat's hand a squeeze. She knows it's too late, but she humors Terezi's request anyways, slowly pushing herself to a standing position with Karkat's arm across her shoulders.

Kanaya can't look at Terezi. The sting of tears is in her eyes and she doesn't want the other girl to have to see that too.

There's absolutely no assistance from Karkat this time around. His head lolls forward weakly and his eyes drift shut -- there's a sickening wrench in his gut that threatens to spill over after he hears Terezi's voice turn panicked. But there's nothing he can do anymore.

Nothing at all he can do, except to try to keep breathing.

He has to try to stay awake. Try not to...die.

But it all happens too little too late.

Karkat's breathing halts.

His muscles go limp.

Her breath catches in her throat and she has to fight to keep from collapsing again. She knows he's gone, but she shakes him anyway, ignoring the tears that are doubtlessly streaming down her cheeks. "Karkat!" She's practically shouting now, for all the good it will do.

It's too familiar. It's not exactly the same, but it's too familiar. She can't even see, she's crying so hard; she's trying not to devolve into noisy sobs -- keep some pretense of composure -- but the tears are too much to keep back.

"Terezi," she chokes out. "Terezi, we need to get to the infirmary. We can't carry him." Of course, by that she really means that there's no need to carry him, because he's dead, but she can't say it. It goes without saying. And if they wait around much longer, they're going to at least pass out, if not join Karkat altogether.

Is This Home?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)