towerofanimus | Is This Home?

Entry tags:

Is This Home?

Characters: anyone who got sent "home", anyone going to rescue them
Setting: your world?
Format: any
Summary: Post your nightmare world! Travel to other nightmare worlds! Save people from nightmare worlds!
Warnings: general angst/horror warnings for now

There's a bright flash of light and a screech of sound before you pop back into existence in familiar territory. Maybe something's off about it, though...

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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.

It takes her a moment to respond, but then she gives Kanaya a curt nod and lets Karkat slide to the floor. It takes her another long moment to get herself to move, and even then she procrastinates, taking the time to straighten his tie as much as she can before staggering to her feet again. Terezi wipes the tears from her eyes, getting a smear of bright cerulean on her cheek in the process, and nods again. She doesn't trust herself to speak.

Kanaya lets Terezi do what she needs to. There's no point in making her more upset by rushing her. The candyblood is silent as well, save the occasional stray sniffle. She wipes her eyes with her palms when Terezi stands up, trying to clear the tears from them. After that (and a moment of hesitation), she offers her arm to Terezi -- to take her hand, link with her arm, or even help her walk. Whatever the other girl wants, if she wants it.

Terezi links her arm with Kanaya's automatically. It's thoughtless and instinctive, and she might be holding a little tighter than necessary. Some help walking is probably needed, too.

It agitates the cuts, but Kanaya doesn't mind. She's probably holding a little more firmly than she needs to, as well.

She does her best to help support Terezi's weight as she starts for the staircase that will lead them to the infirmary.

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Is This Home?

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