(no subject)

[caliginous]

Characters: Karkat Vantas (AU) and YOU
Setting: Across the tower! Mark in the subject line, please!
Format: Action to start, but I'll follow.
Summary: Karkat has been awfully quiet lately, and hasn't quiet been seeking out others. How unusual.
Warnings: TBA

[Karkat has just had too many things on his mind. Staying out of trouble, trying not to make more people furious with him, dodging mealtimes to instead feed Spidermom. The attack on the tower had sated her slightly, but it hadn't helped his psyche any. The visions of Imperial Drones on top of more copies of Spidermom were a little too much for him.

He was still sick to his nutrition sack over the whole thing. If those drones had been real, then he would have been leaving Kanaya to them. What kind of shitty friend was he?

Oh wait. That kind of answered the question. So wherever he happens to be, Karkat will be propped against a wall, staring down at his shoes with an everpresent frown of thought.]

Comments

level 3 - the library!

[guiltapalooza]

[Willow hangs out in the library a lot, doing aimless reading and/or typically fruitless research. It feels weird to have so much free time, and she wished she could be back at school. This had to do as a substitute.

But occasionally she does like interruptions, and gets up to take a walk through the stacks. Social person that she is, she stops when she sees Karkat, and gives him a look of faint, if open, concern.] Hey-- you okay?

[caliginous]

[Karkat's reading material was never something he openly advertised. It was easy enough to discern his interests if one was familiar with him, but seeing as he's never spoken to Willow before, the book he's reading is snapped shut rather sharply, the title covered.

If Willow is quick, she might notice that he's reading a romance novel. But only if she notices before he slides it under his arm defensively as he folds them.]

What--yeah, I'm fine.

[guiltapalooza]

[Too distracted by focusing on Karkat himself, Willow doesn't notice what he was reading, and instead merely raises her eyebrows at his defensiveness.]

Just asking. You seem kinda gloomy, and also, probably more interesting than a treatise on seventeenth century witch finding. [She holds up the book in her hand demonstratively. It's a slim, brown leather bound volume, the pages worn and weathered. She'd meant to put it back, but it makes a good prop here.]

[caliginous]

[Witch finding? That just makes him raise his eyebrow skeptically. What would be so special about finding a witch?

Whatever, she had tried to call him on his mood, and that was more important.]

There's nothing to be particularly cheerful or exciting about in this pitfall of a dimension.

[guiltapalooza]

I can't argue with you on that one, and hey, not really my place to pry. [An apologetic smile. Willow hopes interrupting his reading hadn't been too rude and intrusive of her.]

I guess all this failed research has been making me antsy.

[caliginous]

[Oh good, subject change, he'll take that.]

On what?

[guiltapalooza]

[She'd provided it intentionally, so she's not surprised that he takes it. Willow has to sigh just thinking about, though.]

On getting out of here, [she explains, a bit glumly.] I didn't really expect to find anything, but it's old habit for me. New enemy, do research, find weakness, hit them there.

Unfortunately I'm still not clear on who the enemy is, so that's making it tough.

[caliginous]

They do a nice job of hiding from us. Whenever they do come out, its in the form of some nightmarish creature that we can't combat.

[He tugs at the collar on his throat.]

I'm convinced it has something to do with these damn things.

[guiltapalooza]

[She'd meant it as an easy diversion from talking about things that were highly personal with someone she'd just met, but Willow is happy and eager when he seems legitimately interested in the topic. Talking slayage is so familiar, it's easy and reassuring.]

I think so, too. I've been wondering if I should make a survey on the network and get basic information from volunteers, and see if I can come up with a common denominator for why we get the color we have. Cause I really doubt we're color-coordinated just so we can line up and make rainbows.

[caliginous]

Doesn't seem to follow a pattern. I can tell you it doesn't go by blood color, anyway.

[He wrinkles his nose a little and drops his hand from his collar. Considering he had a green collar, it was almost an insult to him.]

[guiltapalooza]

As far as I'm concerned, that's a point in its favor, [she scoffs, having very strong and explicit feelings on the hemospectrum.]

But it couldn't be, anyway. We humans are all red; it'd be totally obvious.

[caliginous]

[Judging by Karkat's lack of change in expression, the feeling isn't exactly mutual.]

Point in your favor, at least. The Empress is lurking here somewhere. You'd all be dead before you could blink.

[guiltapalooza]

[Her expression firms.] I've said it before and I'll say it again. If she wants to start something, she can bring it on.

I already took out the Grand Highblood on my own. I know what I'm doing. [There's a bit of a bluff here, but just a bit. Willow, for all her power, isn't invincible; she has her weaknesses like everyone else. It's not a sure thing that she'd win any fight, but it is sure that she wouldn't back down when she's defending someone.]

[caliginous]

[Karkat's face warps into skeptical disbelief. He's never fought the Highblood himself, but he has seen how ridiculously large he is.]

I don't know the difference in Empresses between my timeline and their's, but
from what I've heard, the Highblood is nothing compared to this seawitch.

[guiltapalooza]

[She shakes her head.] I don't care. I've fought a goddess before-- she doesn't scare me. [She says it flatly, not boasting. Granted, she'd lost to the goddess in question, but Willow had gotten a lot more powerful since then.]

I don't want to fight anyone, but I'm not going to just stand around while people get hurt because of how they were born. I just... I can't do that, okay?

[caliginous]

[Karkat still seems skeptical, and he's not really sure how to answer that last part of her statement. Growing up in that kind of environment, that attitude is extremely foreign to him. Granted, he was pretty partial to certain brands of lowblooded women himself, so there wasn't much he could argue.

So he just looks at her with uncertain confusion.]

Uh. Ok, I guess.

[guiltapalooza]

[She gives him a look that approaches fond exasperation.]

One day I'm going to meet a troll that doesn't think basic human kindness is weird and shocking, and I won't know what to do with myself.

[caliginous]

I doubt it. Its a sign of weakness for a troll. Shit like that would get you killed.

[guiltapalooza]

Some of you are really nice! [she protests.] You don't have to be all prickly.

[Meaningful look.]

[caliginous]

[...yeah, not really following your line of logic there, and he's the fucking Thief of Heart, man.]

You don't really get how we operate, do you?

[guiltapalooza]

I do get it. I mean, I kinda get it, I'm not an expert or anything.

I'm just saying, oh sure, angry scary trolls. And then I have a sleepover with Aradia and we watch all the Indiana Jones movies together, and it's like, well, not really any angry or scary in there.

[caliginous]

You're looking at one.

And I'm going to assume you're talking about the lowblooded Aradia and not the one I'm familiar with. The higher on the spectrum you go, the more pissy we get.

[guiltapalooza]

But it's not absolute, [she presses,] it's a tendency. I know a seadweller that isn't like that at all.

I don't need to know everything to give everyone a fair chance.

[caliginous]

[He scoffs in disbelief. Though really, Nepeta wasn't horrible either...and the Feferi from Terezi's timeline didn't seem so bad.]

Yeah, ok, and I'm the god damn Emperor of Alternia.

[guiltapalooza]

[She decides to change tactic.]

I don't know, I've been annoying you pretty hard but you still seem like a reasonable guy to me, [she says, just a bit slyly.] But don't worry-- I won't ruin your rep and spread it around.