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(no subject)

Who: Karkat & Sollux
Where: Chez Trailblazers
When: Shortly after this
What: Various Issues
Warnings: Gross rude troll kids. Gross rude SAD troll kids

Karkat's been kind of quiet lately. He'd been holding off on telling any of the other Trailblazers about the guy who broke into their dorms just due to a bad feeling about all of it, but after finding out what happened to Starbreaker he's decided it might be best not to get them involved in it at all. He's told CONDOR, and security on the base has been increased, but apart from that he hasn't told anybody besides the Disciple, and Sollux, and Feferi. Alternian business, he figures.

He has to admit, he'd feel a bit less concerned about all of this if Feferi was still here. Partially because he's not sure how Sollux is going to deal with her being gone and the idea of the maybe-the-Sufferer on top of everything else, but also because he's fairly sure he could trust her to be able to fight this guy.

Gloomily, Karkat makes his way to Sollux's block, to knock on the door. He really hopes he's actually there. He tells himself it's because he's worried about Sollux but mostly he just doesn't want to be on his own right now, or to have to pretend that everything's okay.

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Sollux has been upset, as expected. There was never any doubt that he would be. He hardly spoke the morning after she actually left, and didn't eat or sleep either. He's buried himself in his computer and not come up for air, as if doing so might remind him that there is a world outside of annoying Earth coding.

There has been something different about him the last few days though, something that has nothing to do with mourning. The way he carries himself has been more confident than he's appeared since he was retrieved, and even if that confidence seemed mostly rooted in bitterness and anger, at least he was less afraid.

All the same, he's somehow managed to gravitate towards whatever section of the dorms Karkat is in. So it easily works out that he's in his own room when Karkat comes knocking.

"Hey," he says grimly, but looks up from his computer with some amount of actual respect. A rarity, when he's in a downswing. His collar still has garbage pieces of metal soldered to it from days ago.

"Hey bro," says Karkat, sidling into the room. He lingers just past the doorway for a moment, slightly uncertain; he spares a brief glance for the additions to Sollux's collar, which as far as he's concerned look like they can only make it less comfortable to wear – never mind how he got them on in the first place – but he figured the first time he saw them that that's probably the not the point. Kind of dumb in his opinion, but whatever. "You busy with shit?" he asks, sort of hopeful that he isn't.

"No, I am basically just trying to focus on how much human code sucks as opposed to how much life in general does," he says, leaning back from his computer. "That kind of shit. Sup with you."

Karkat snorts. "Basically fuck all short of abdicating my post as mayor of clone town," he says, sitting down across from Sollux with a distinct hunch. "Are you getting anywhere with that crap?" He sounds a little skeptical – "I can't get human code to do shit."

"Yeah, I've got a working knowledge, basically. I met this chick that showed me a lot of things about human computers. The interesting part is going to be trying to integrate the technologies." He pauses for a moment. Given the shit Karkat just said, this feels like an awkward detour to take.

"You told people about that guy, right?"

"I told CONDOR, yeah," he says with a shrug. "I figure the actual Trailblazers don't need to know or they'll get all dumb about it."

He blinks, and then raises an eyebrow, obviously pretty dubious about that.

"What? Like dumb about it when some dude who looks like you shows up in their hive with a gun? Because that's something they might like a heads up for."

"He didn't have a gun," Karkat points out, frowning. "Look, if he comes at me here again I'll lure him out of here, I don't want the other guys getting caught up in this beastshit or acting like they need to guard me from stuff."

"What, lure him out of here so that he can murder you in the fucking street?" Sollux says, ears coming to full alert. "KK, that's fucking stupid as hell."

Karkat sighs in frustration. "No it's not, CONDOR are increasing the security on this whole building, it'll be way easier for them to take care of him if he's not inside the god damn hive murdering everyone else."

Sollux narrows his eyes, obviously dubious of CONDOR's effectiveness in that regard. He knows there are limits. He also doubts that the other people in this house are less secure than Karkat - he now has the leisure of a small amount of arrogance again. It feels great.

He groans. "Look, does this guy need to go down or what? Are we going to murder him or something?"

"I don't fucking know," Karkat mutters. "If he does try to murder me, then yeah, I guess we're gonna have to, right." He frowns. "He seemed kind of confused though. Maybe he won't. Who fucking knows."

Sollux tilts an ear in confusion.

"Confused like how? Like he wasn't sure if he was going to?" he asks.

"No, it was like ... like he kept forgetting what he was actually doing here." He looks away. "I mean whoever this guy is he's obviously completely beetleshit frondnubs, so for all I know he's just trying to freak me out or something." He doesn't sound very convincing. He keeps imagining what must have happened to Starbreaker.

"Okay...so, you clone guy is hiveshit. This much we know. That doesn't really make him sound less likely to fuck you up. The fuck did someone even want to clone a crazy dude and send him after you anyway?"

He pauses.

"...We're sure he's like a clone, right?"

"Yeah, he's got to be a clone – TRIDENT stole a bunch of my flesh and then this jackass shows up, it's obviously not a coincidence." Karkat folds his arms. "And it's not like with the Disciple where the scriptures are kind of vague about what ended up happening to her and then wow, surprise, she was cryogenically frozen this entire time – like, they very much did kill Signless."

He frowns. Him being a confused lab experiment doesn't really make killing him feel very karmic.

"So like...they brainwashed him into thinking he's this guy?" He pauses. "...Like I mean, there's obviously a bunch of stuff that only the actual Signless could know, if it was that long ago."

Karkat makes a contemplative but annoyed huffing sound. "I didn't exactly get the chance to hand him an interrogation checklist, what with all the relentless menacing and the bloody handprint and all that shit."

Sollux rolls his eyes. At least that's probably what he's doing. It isn't super clear.

"I mean, for the future, jackass! We have the fucking Disciple who was like his matesprit or some bullshit, if she can find him then she'll know for sure whether or not there's more to it than him just being a clone."

"Yeah." Karkat looks a little uneasy. "But he obviously is one, there's no way he's the actual Sufferer. He probably never killed fucking anybody."

"Yeah, I guess..." he says. "Not that I actually know shit all about the guy. This whole thing is fucked."

He sighs. "Yeah, well if you want you can read it, I have the whole god damn book in my block... It's pretty fucking boring though."

"Probably," he replies, without really questioning it. He falls silent for a few moments, hesitating. He can't really decide whether to bring up his conversation with the Disciple. "Aren't you like...into it, though. Or something."

"Well... yeah, I sort of have to be." Karkat's ears fold back slightly, and he scratches the back of his head. "And like obviously I'm like against rampant pointless homicide and slavery and all that crap, that's why we left..."

"Yeah. Duh," he says, uneasily, frowning at his friend. "But if you were just some asshole reading this book and there wasn't this whole deal where you share blood and horn size with Alternia's spiritual savior...would you like...want to be a Sufferist or what?"