(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

[scalemate]

[And Terezi has made a point of deliberately avoiding Karkat. Sure, he'd apologized, but she was still upset with him. She's wandering the spring room, not really paying attention until her cane hits something.

Oh. Hello Karkat. This is awkward.]

[caliginous]

[Karkat was just going to pretend that he didn't see her, but considering she just...well, nearly ran into him, he can't exactly ignore her anymore.

So he straightens himself and pointedly glances in another direction like a cagey idiot.]

Looking for fresh air or something?

[scalemate]

[She makes a face. There's no way to escape from this quickly.]

If I wanted fresh air I would be on the twentieth floor.

[She just barely resists the urge to call him stupid.]

[caliginous]

Air out there looks pretty grungy to me. Just saying.

[Its a flippant answer. He's not stupid -- he knows exactly what she was going to say. So he just pushes himself off the wall and puts some distance between the two of them.

Sure, he wanted to be friends again, but hell if he was going to beg for it like a pathetic wiggler.]

[scalemate]

[She crosses her arms.]

What are you doing here?

how does floor 14 sound

[gloomyapoplectic]

[Fuck the infirmary. Injured or not -- and seriously, she is pretty damn injured -- Kanaya is sick of being there. She actually appears to be limping, because she is a stubborn freak of nature, and she's even still wearing her hospital gown (and bandages, in the most futile effort to still hide her mutation).

But, limp or no, as soon as she sees Karkat, she hurries to him as fast as her battered legs can carry her.

Shitty friend or no, she'd been worried sick about him ever since the tower went haywire, and she doesn't bother to hide it as she approaches him.] Karkat. You're unharmed?

[caliginous]

Did you need something?

[Avoiding the question? He sure is.]

[scalemate]

I didn't know I had to need something to talk to you.

[She's being hypocritical and she knows it. Oops.]

works for meee

[caliginous]

[Karkat doesn't notice Kanaya right away. He's actually absorbed into staring at the TV because he's fucking certain he saw something.

That is, until Kanaya actually speaks, with snaps his attention a little quicker than he'd like to admit. But suddenly that doesn't matter, because not only is Kanaya hurt...

But she's bleeding. Or she was rather recently. When she's in range, he doesn't even think -- he just snaps his hands around her shoulders and bares his teeth at her.]

What the fuck do you even think you're doing right now?!

[caliginous]

I'm not the one who set that standard.

[scalemate]

[Ouch. She's doing a pretty good job of pokerfacing, though.]

Yes, you are.

[gloomyapoplectic]

[holy shit she was not expecting that, and the suddenness of his aggression has her recoiling and baring her own fangs as per her violent troll instinct. She even raises her hands and curls her fingers in reflex, but she doesn't actually attack him.

Kanaya mental state is clearly still in strife mode from all that combat.]

Checking to see if you are alright! I didn't see you at all when the Tower was under attack, how was I supposed to know what had happened to you?! [Anger. Healthiest cover-up for worry.]

[caliginous]

[His eyelids lower a little, but that's the only change in his demeanor. He is the pro of pokerface.]

Not at all, actually. But whatever. I was just walking around.

[caliginous]

You are a limping, bleeding mess of indecency dragging your way up a flight of stairs, you have got to be kidding me right now.

[Karkat doesn't even acknowledge the concern for him. Instead, he forces her to about face and attempts to steer her back down the stairs.]

Everyone is going to see you. What the fuck is going through your 'pan?

[scalemate]

[Maybe, but she still catches it. She pauses, then plops down and leans against the wall.]

Whatever.

[gloomyapoplectic]

Like people aren't going to see me in the infirmary? The others who are injured -- other trolls who are injured -- and the nurses as well? [She resists his pushing, though it's with no small amount of soreness.] Like people did not see what kind of hideous mutant swill was coming out of my wounds when I was fighting the monsters that were attacking us?

[She attempts to turn and face him again, but it's a bit of a futile effort with how weak she is right now.] How is sheltering me going to help anything?! The longer I am here, the more people will inevitably find out! Even if I were to stay in my respiteblock for however many sweeps I have left to live -- and I'm confident that with my horrifically malformed genes, it's not many -- this tower will manage something that will cause me harm!

[Pardon her, she's getting a little hysterical.] What can I do that's right, Karkat?! Cease my freakish existence altogether?

Floor 4 if that's okay /o/

[lethechained]

[Naminé's spent a lot of time in her room since she... started actually having a room again. Finally being able to go where she pleases (within the tower, of course) is something she relishes, since it was denied her during so much of her life, but after spending all that time surrounded by monsters and with nowhere to hide, she couldn't help craving a little bit of time in a space where nothing could sneak up on her. Today, however, she's finally had her fill of that, and, with the intention of taking a walk - and hopefully making herself feel a bit better about the safety of the tower in general - has found herself passing through the lounge.]

[She takes a long glance around as she steps onto the floor from the set of stairs, and it's because of that glance that she spots Karkat and slows to a temporary stop. She'd had a lot of people to worry about during that whole monster-infestated nightmare, and he was one of them. The relief she feels to find him in one piece is obvious in the surprised smile that spreads across her mouth and then quickly fades. He doesn't look like he's in such a good mood. She can't blame him; a lot of unpleasant things have been going on. She's worse for wear, herself, and it's not just the lingering bruises and healing scratches that came from spending all that time on the run from monsters - that incident, like many of the other things the tower liked to inflict upon its occupants, had unsettled her greatly. If nothing else, at least the tower had always managed to maintain some kind of integrity as far as the arrangement of the rooms before that. The girl begins to walk forward again without a word, only this time, she heads for Karkat.]

[caliginous]

[And Karkat will do the same, except he's going to go hide under the shade of a tree, because fuck sunlight.]

You let me know when you need me, then.

[caliginous]

[Ok, that snaps him out of his stupor. Pardon him while he gawks stupidly.

Anger, he can deal with. In fact, he can deal with every emotion in the book except this one. Near-tears-hysteria, he can't deal with. So he's going to deal with it the only way he knows how.

Try and put her straight to sleep. But he'll make sure to catch her before she hits the ground.]

yes :D

[caliginous]

[Karkat doesn't acknowledge Naminé's steps. Or perhaps he was just too lost in thought to hear her approach. He's staring pointedly out the glass window and up at the gloomy gray sky, as if he's expecting something. He had never quite been the same since the nightmare realm had dragged him inside of it.

It was hard knowing that you were destined to die and fulfill no greater purpose. Kanaya had told him when she had arrived, but it still hadn't prepared him for the horribly gruesome death he had encountered.]

[scalemate]

[GOD FINE maybe it's time to stop avoiding him.

So she meanders on over, swatting at the back of his head with her cane.]

[gloomyapoplectic]

[While she's normally in no place to resist his psychic advances, she's especially vulnerable to them in her current state. She's out like a light without even much effort required on Karkat's part, eyes (which are absolutely not filled with red-tinted tears at all) closing as her body slumps back.

She'll be indignant about this later.]

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]

[DOOF. Rubbing the back of his head silently...

Wait for it...]

What the fuck was that for?!

[caliginous]

[This will be Karkat, hoisting her on his back, and carrying her over to the couch. Fine. If she's going to be stubborn about this, then she's going to do it sitting down and under his eye.

Once she's nice and comfortable, he takes a seat opposite from her (careful to smooth out his robes and fix his hair in the process) and snaps his fingers to wake her up, arms folded.]