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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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Karkat hesitates, like he wasn't quite expecting that question.

"... well... He's supposed to be like the most powerful psionic ever but they were probably exaggerating about that to make him sound cool. He joins the Sufferer after he frees him from slavery..."

"Oh, cool," he says, looking at his claws in his lap, and at the scarring all around his fingers. He means it, in a way. But some part of him wishes that his ancestor could have not had anything to do with his own problems.

Karkat's kind of pointedly avoiding bringing up what ended up actually happening to the Psiioniic for exactly that reason.

"... I've read through this shit a few times," he admits; "if you want I can bookmark all the bits where he actually does stuff."

When Sollux looks up to him, his expression is genuinely grateful.

"Cool. Thanks." He tries to give him a smirk but it's a frail one, and more than anything he seems distracted.

It's pretty obvious that he's not going to like how that story ends at all.

Karkat nods, a little surprised at that reaction – but that's why he offered; if it was him, he'd want to know.

There's another pause, and then he adds, guiltily, "Just as a heads up, though, they basically all end up getting horribly punished for their sedition, it's pretty fucking awful..."

He exhales shakily. He'd kind of felt like that must be the case, even if for some reason he was hoping that maybe the Psiioniic's role could be different somehow. He looks down again, feeling kind of ill.

"I can't believe this actually happened to real people," he says. More astutely, he doesn't know how this does keep happening. It just doesn't seem fair at all.

"Yeah, well, pretty much everything that happened to these guys is still relentlessly happening to everybody warmer than green, so –" He lets out a growling sigh, and looks away. For a moment it looks like he's going to say something else, but he doesn't. He just looks at the floor.

"Yeah," he says, staring down at his knees as well. He knows that. He really does.

"...You're probably doing the right thing," he says after a moment of silence. "Just like...to weight in on that, officially. Even if you feel like you have to."

Karkat's ears twitch up, surprised.

"... Well – yeah," he says. "Yeah, obviously. Saving the world and everything, like, no shit it's the right thing."

He looks grateful, though.

His almost smiles. Then he pulls his laptop back onto his legs.

"Just gotta deal with whoever this asshole is," he says.

"... Yeah." He'd almost forgotten for a moment there. He rests his face on his hand. "Fuck. Fuck – I thought I'd be able to take him if he's just me but sort of taller but it turns out he razed the shit out of Starbreaker – do you know Starbreaker? She can fly and she has super strength, and I don't have jack shit."

His ear flicks uncertainly. He doesn't know that superhero name, presuming it is one. This raises obvious questions.

"How'd he do that?" he asks.

"Psionics," he says with a weary sigh. "I don't know how he even has them if he's my clone."

Sollux thinks for a moment.

"If he's a clone, they could have altered him genetically. I mean, it's all biology man." He taps his own head in way of example.

"... Then he's definitely a clone," he says. "If the real Sufferer had anything except for weird visions, it would have come up in the huge fucking stacks of scriptures and apocrypha, everyone's obsessed with him, they wouldn't have just left shit like that out..." He frowns. "I mean, even the weird visions are up for debate, like, a whole sect of these guys think that's just a metaphor."

"I guess it would be pretty dumb to send him down here to challenge you to a fight to the death if he was just some asshole," Sollux says. "Empire doesn't really bid on games it isn't guaranteed to win. At least not so far as they're concerned."

"Dude, hang on," says Karkat, frowning and holding up a hand, "nobody said anything about the fucking Empire, they've got nothing to do with this shit, it was obviously TRIDENT..."

Sollux pauses, then turns to stare at Karkat blankly. Like this lack of connection never even occurred to him.

"...Why would they care, though? That is a motiveless fucking crime, dude."

"Okay, sure, but they're the ones who actually fucking kidnapped me, I mean –" He stares at the carpet. "Fuck, maybe you're right, if any humans were going to actually cooperate with the god damn Empire it would probably be fucking shitpissing TRIDENT..."

"You're just a dude on Earth," Sollux mumbles, shrinking down a little at the very mention of TRIDENT. "They probably sold it off to the Empire for fucking biscuits."

"Fuck," he says dismally, "they're not even supposed to know I'm here, I – they shouldn't even care, they shouldn't know who I am. Shit..."

"They must have got it out of somebody," Sollux says, not much more cheerful. "That was probably bound to happen eventually."

Worst case scenarios fill Karkat's imagination – the entire movement getting wiped out, whole groups of Sufferists slaughtered after whoever betrayed his own existence betrayed theirs too.

His ears fold down. He doesn't look at Sollux.

"They could've sent literally any jackass to kill me," he mumbles. "Why would they make a fucking clone."

"No fucking clue," he says, pitying Karkat's obvious fear but unsure of what to do with it. "I guess cloning dudes is its own reason."

He's quiet for a moment.

"...But it does mean that they are wasting their time on stupid bullshit so maybe we can swing that."

"Swing that?" Karkat repeats in baffled misery, clearly distracted by his own distress. "Swing that how, take the opportunity to launch our gargantuan fleet of death ships at the heart of the fucking Empire while they're looking the other way??"

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nitrodamus - 2014-04-24 07:31 (UTC) - Expand

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