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Montly Word Count - October
TOTAL: 22 560 words.
This represents a pretty big loss compared to the couple of months before that (I was way over 30K), but considering i've started going to weekly stuff IRL that disturbs all my daily routines and eats two whole days a week, it's much better than I expected. Let's see if the numbers climb back up as I get used to it.
POSTED
-Back to the Garden sidefic, Rose & Eridan's kismesis (oc) pesterlog (1 572 words)
-Gotta Go Fast Beat'er 2000!! - John&Jade/Karkat, oneshot (10 548 words)
WORKS IN PROGRESS
-Sunlightverse: Dave/Karkat/Jade & OCs adventure tiems: 3 483 words.
-Battlefield Terra, chapter 6: 5 388 words.
-Gundam Wing: Lone Wolf and Pilot start of chapter 3? Umm, it's kind of a, uh, chatlog. idk if I'm going to keep it. But anyway it was fun to type. 1 569 words.
And since it's after midnight here, the second this is posted I get to start NaNo. ... crap, gotta code the pesterlogs. D:
--
Sunlightverse: Dave/Karkat/Jade & OCs adventure tiems. i posted a LOT of this as a preview on tumblr so as not to be unfair i am posting it all here, plus some more that wasn't over there. The fic is stalled tho, no clue when i'll unstall it. :(
--
It happens because you were touching Karkat at the time.
You were touching Karkat (your hand clenched on his wrist, his hand fisted in your collar), Jade touching you both (hands on each of your faces, trying to shove you back.)
You were touching him and then it happened, and then you heard, felt, knew.
Knights have mercy Knights lend me oh please please no.
You think, it's one of mine. You think, shit, how. You don't think at all.
Karkat's eyes are round like red-hot gears. (Oh.) Jade's hands twitch without thought, claw-tips scoring your face, across your upper lip. (Where?) They both move on your beat like it's a dance you've been practicing forever, half-step back, turn left. Whirl.
Heat slaps you in the face, steals moisture from your still-open mouth, your eyes. Jade stumbles. Her foot screeches skidding along steel grates. You catch her elbow. Karkat steps back, breaking contact. His wings fan out, translucent blood sheeting on incandescent lava light, raising a little twirl of breeze that dies before it's even done buffeting you.
Jade's wings are wide open, tiny as they are, spring green pinions spread wide like that might actually cool them down instead of just drying the sweat off them as fast as it beads through her skin.
"Holy shitballs!" she says, and grips your forearm right back to steady herself. Karkat's mouth hangs open like she stole his curses straight off his tongue and he hasn't found any at hand in that depthless mass of bullshit he calls a thinksponge to replace them. He stares around, quick twitchy glances, longer incredulous stares.
Yeah, okay, Heat and Clockwork is worth a second look, and a third. You've got the most badass land there ever existed.
You kind of assumed it'd stopped existing, tho.
"Where the fuck. What the fuck. Why the. What? How?"
"Forgot to ask the who," you drawl, and stretch your wings absently, and it's totes an accident when you forget which one is the mutilated one and which one isn't and that this one has enough length to rake glowy orange feathers all up his face. Yup.
"Phbbt! Ptoo. What the fuck, Strider!"
He pulls down off his tongue. You pretend not to want to smile, badly.
Jade still looks dazed. She tries to fan herself with her free hand, which does exactly jack shit. "It's so hot in here, was it ever this hot? I don't remember it like that. Huh."
You think about it, shrug. It's funny, you still feel the heat. Hard not to, it's suffocating.
Some part of you that's been sleeping more and more lightly recently kind of likes it, stretches like a cat in the good sunbeam and makes pleased little oh yeeeah, that hit the spot.
"Sorry babe, thermostat's stuck on bikini weather. You might want to lose a couple layers, I'm sure no one's gonna be complaining. You gonna be okay?"
It always makes Karkat twitch when you call her babe, he hates it when you flirt "flush". It makes Jade roll her eyes and laugh back and call you stud, which is the best thing she could call you bar all but sugarplum.
Okay, maybe Daveypoo.
You might even laugh out lout for that one.
"I... Yeah, I'll survive, but wow. What are we even doing here?" she asks, baffled.
"You were the one who took us here!" Karkat retorts, throwing a hand up in the air as he keeps staring around in disbelief.
"Yeah, but you were the ones who gave me the where!" She pauses, blinks. "Huh. Yeah, I kind of jumped blind. Ooh, space bends so funny here."
You and Karkat jump at the same time to snatch her elbows, keep her from sitting down. The metal isn't red-hot so far over the lava, but she'd still burn herself a second degree grid pattern on her ass.
"Harley?" Karkat leans in, eyebrows scrunching down frettingly. "Jade, listen to me. Can you stop thinking about where you are? Think about, I don't know, how stupid hot it is, or why the hell we even did that. Because seriously, why the fuck did we even do that?"
"Forgot to ask who," you reply, but your own voice sounds like it comes out on the other side of a wall. There's... you think there's... there's an itch, something wrong, something not quite in place (not yet in place), there's something --
needtogetthereintimeohplease.
You blink out.
You blink in.
You're hovering over another platform, so much lower, closer to molten rock, your hair wafts up in it, your pinions strain, your cape flares. There's two overlapping platforms, one above the other by maybe one and a half body lengths. There's people huddled up there.
There's a child down there and she's screaming, dancing and tripping and rolling blind to get away from burning metal, bare feet and bare hands, she still has bits of baby shell on her shoulders and her summer dress smolders around her legs, her grapefruit hair, like she'll catch fire.
You need to get to her. Need. Need to get there in time, she's hurt, she's blind with it. She's at the edge.
Not enough time, not enough, your body won't fly anymore, your bare feet land on the grid and you scream, it sears you to the bone, you need to keep moving, Leope, Leope --
You're the god of Time. You (discover) remember. You freeze her teetering at the edge.
Snatch. Throw yourself back. It burns. She's on your lap, safe -- no, not yet, she -- you -- you drag yourself up somehow, drag her up and back and the other platform's too high, oh no. It's not a matter of getting there on time anymore, it's a matter of she's too small to pull her own weight up even if you lift her high enough to grab -- you try anyway, it doesn't work even though it should because didn't you use to be taller?
Oh. Right.
You tear yourself out of (he who is yours) the kid; your feet ache with welts not yours for a second, and then the pain subsides. You land on the grid. The heat has gone back to feeling oddly pleasant.
"Kid? Hey, kid."
He doesn't turn around, neither of them does, they don't notice you. He just tries to raise the child higher so she can grab on but there's about an arm's length left, it's so not happening.
You go to grab them and it surprises absolutely no one when you just go right through.
Shit. You bet John will jizz himself when he learns you were at some point a ghost.
You sigh. Well, fuck. What's a goddamn mortal doing in your Land anyway? Maybe it's a favor that the kid's hair is curling and drying out in the heat, about to catch on fire. He's a fugly muddle of brown and indigo, the only thing rad about him is his horns, curling out and forward from his temples and then rising up into sharp daggerpoint, like he could headbutt a guy to death and fling him over himself in one toss of his head, maybe they'll look better once he's bald because at the moment they're buried in that unkempt, bruise-colored emo lumberjack mop. The look mocks itself.
"Seriously, kid, what am I supposed to rag on, shit's too easy, that's unsportsmanlike."
He doesn't hear you, of course. Fuck it. The child's eyes are scrunched closed and she's curled into a kitten ball of terror and exhaustion, she's about to pass out. You try to draw the heat away from her, but you don't have a clue if it's even possible, and so, amazingly enough, it doesn't work. You are the usefulest, it is you.
"Shit, where are Jade and Vantas, they could maybe figure things out, hell maybe there's one of those stupid whiny lumps over there they could ride..."
You don't think so. When you float up and squint at the three teenage dickbags, it's just all nope, nope and nope. Maybe if Ampora Minor were there he could do something with the tall chick, but you don't even want to start guessing at what it is exactly she'd even accomplish.
-- turntechGodhead [TG] started a memo on board where the fuck are you dude and dudette --
TG: yeah so here i am still in the land of rad and hellnasty and neither of my fated cinderbroseph are with me
TG: you guys absconded together didnt you i feel jilted
TG: yeah vantass totes worth getting cockblocked for
TG: i feel the eternal romansu there
GG: dave, where are you???!!!! you just disappeared!!
TG: still on lohac watching some poor stranded kid and his baby sister roast in slow mo
TG: mmm dinnerll be ready in forty minutes and twenty seven seconds go set the table and wash your hands
TG: fuck
GG: i cant feel you anywhere! i mean no actually i can but its like its telling me youre *everywhere* in lohac, i cant pinpoint you!!
TG: maybe cause im apparently playing casper the useless ghost right now
CG: GIVE US SOME LANDMARKS, DUMBASS.
TG: ok sure im on this big round gear and theres a little round gear underneath and theres scaffolding bridges and lava viaducts all around this is not at all like the rest of the whole planet
CG: RISE UP, SHIT FOR BRAIN, DO YOU SEE THE BEAT MESA ANYWHERE?
TG: ...
TG: huh nope
CG: SO YOU'RE ON THE OTHER HEMISPHERE OF THE PLANET FROM US. THAT NARROWS IT DOWN FROM FOREVER LOST TO SEVERELY MISPLACED. STAY WHERE YOU ARE, WE'RE COMING.
TG: not moving dude
TG: if nothing else ill be the one who has to shove their mummified corpses off my platforms before they get stuck in a gear and fuck up the whole planet
TG: i bet even a lil toddling wiggler can do a lot of damage man you should see her little corkscrew horns bet she could poke holes in a ton of shit whoops shes fainted how long till big bro cant hold her up anymore tick tock tick tock
GG: dave, *chill!* im jumping us closer well find you guys soon!
TG: might be too fucking late shit hes all swoony heats getting to him
TG: no fuck that no hes mine
TG: *m42k'f_-jljn juiyh
"Hey, you little turds! Stop being useless selfish assholes and come over and drag them up! I swear to fuck if you just keep staring like witless calves--"
Shit, shit, this sucks, you're powerless, you fucking hate that, it was supposed to stop when you became a god. You are a god, you need to lead that kid, but how? He doesn't sync up all nice and perfect anymore, his beat has gone off yours.
"I can't believe it, with such useless lumps in a party they're going to kill everyone from sheer fucking laziness--"
GG: dave??? are you okay?????? DDD:
CG: WHAT ARE YOU KEYSMASHING FOR?!
CG: DAVE DOUCHEBUCKET STRIDER, EXPLAIN YOUR OUT OF QUIRK BEHAVIOR RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.
TG: dude im not even typing with my hands what the fuck do i know
TG: im like this rad cyborg with the internet in his head oh no porn sites everywhere wait what am i complaining about again
TG: im just
TG: idk
TG: thinking pesterchum thoughts?? whoa ok totes weird
TG: what the fuck do i care no stay awake kid i dont even know your fucking name
"Leope," he says, but you have a feeling it's his baby sister's name, not his. She's a cute one. Lavender-tinted skin, grape hair, funny little corkscrew horns pointing at two and nine o'clock. Her breathing is growing more and more labored. Her lips are cracking.
He licks his own. They're bleeding some. You can't tell if he bit himself or if it's just the heat.
"... We're all going to die here," he mutters to himself, eyes vague and dazed. "All going to die here, even those assholes, they're going to die because they're too stupid to know what to do, they -- fuck!"
You fist your useless hands. It aches. He's going more and more offbeat, you won't catch him again anytime soon. "Whoa, hey, kid, I don't know if I can condone a preteen having such a filthy mouth, I'd be such a huge douchewaffle of a role model there."
He stumbles, falls on one knee, hisses in pain. Your hand has gone right through his arm. You lean over him, wing curled around their backs like you could cradle the little scrapper and his sis under there.
"Get up, champ. No kid of mine is ever going to die on his knees, you hear me?"
He doesn't, of course. He doesn't. You're going to burn all of John's Ghostbusters and Casper vids. Being a ghost is the most awful fucking thing.
"Knights," you hear him breathe, like a shock down your spine, like you're a church bell and he just rang you.
He doesn't hear you but he gets back up anyway. He gets back up and then --
GG: !!!!!!
"HEY, YOU LEAKY BAGS OF FESTERING SHITSAUCE, YEAH I'M TALKING TO YOU!"
GG: DAVE IS KARKAT WITH YOU???!!!????
GG: hes gone omg omfg he was just here and he went poof what the hell happened ???????????
The kid doesn't have vampire fangs, he has boar tusks, one of them broken. They're bared to the gums. One of the teenagers on the higher platform jerks, startled out of her heat stupor.
"Herae, you useless shitlicker, get the fuck here and pull her up!"
TG: yeah uh
TG: i think hes with me
TG: ...
TG: 8D
"What --" It's the tall girl, the one who's gray all over, no touch of color anywhere. She hesitates, eyes the platform's edge, it's clear on her face that she's thinking she doesn't want to fall.
"Get on your hands and knees -- if you're lower to the ground you can't be dragged over -- and then reach down and pull her up, or are you going to let a child die?!"
The Herae chick's eyes narrow; the blue and pink boy on the side flinches, uneasy, eyes the child like, like... you don't know. You don't like it.
"I were you I'd ask nice, you blighted single."
He hesitates, your Knight-souled kid, he hesitates and goes all dull and small and scared -- and then something inside him that isn't Karkat but matches his beat perfectly says fuck that noise.
"Oh, beg you pardon, your glistening resplendent Majesty, but I really think I heard you say you're going to kill a child through not wanting to move your ass? That what I heard?" Hissing, sibilant threat everywhere in that voice, righteous wrath all up that bitch, yesss, go go go. "So on top of being a bully you're also going to be petty and hateful and murderous in the Knight of Time's own hell?"
The three teenagers flinch. One of them whispers oh no we're all going to die. You grin a little bit. You wonder if... oh hey, flying over them doesn't do jack, you were hoping they'd react to your shadow somehow, but you lose a feather at some point and you can see the pudgy teen's eyes follow its twirling descent, jaw hanging. Haha. Hahaha yeeeess.
Your kid snorts, dismisses her with a disappointed but unsurprised look, turns to the other two teenagers. "Ridan. Pallu. Is that really the kind of lead you want to follow?"
They hesitate.
Little Leope twitches, moans quietly. Eyes scrunched in terror and possibly dryness because boy is it dry around the place, the pudgy one races forward, lands on his knees a couple steps away, yelps. "Ow, ow, hot," he whines, he's about to pull back.
Your kid -- Karkat's kid -- reaches a hand up.
The look on his face is so lost and begging and sheer heartrending pitiful, if you were troll-born you'd probably flip pale on his ass in a hot second.
"Please, at least her..."
Pudgy flops down on his front, hissing in pain, and reaches down.
He can't reach quite far enough, and when he tries he almost tumbles head first over the edge, but the second boy scurries forward and kneels on his calves to pin him. Pudgy's hand skims Leope's little wrist. You're here floating like a useless asshole and going come on come on yes do it already, one more inch, just a tiny inch.
TG: paging the witch of space for a space related emergency
TG: theres a surplus of the stuff here i blame you
GG: :DDDDDD! found you!!
The guy's hand closes on her wrist with room to spare.
GG: ow shit fuck why does lohac hate me, i only tweaked it a tiny little bit!!!
GG: i blame you right back, so there!!
TG: taking it gladly babe
TG: mmm good hard long blame
TG: im imagining it cock shaped if that wasnt clear enough
TG: i know its a bit out of nowhere but i feel its been way too long without a good sausagefest here the natives are getting hungry for stridersausage and also restless
GG! :X yes dave, of course dave! i was going to ask you what was even going on and where was karkat and who were those people youre talking about, but you know, now i can only wonder if youre taking my blame up your butthole or your troll vagina
GG: inquiring minds need to know!
TG: ......
TG: idk i think theyre lost mortals
TG: theres five of them but i dont care about three of those
TG: one of them is
TG: mine
TG: and also karkats whoa lovebaby from the future ??
TG: is that you sailor mini moon no stop hitting on your father i know im hot as fuck but theres already more than enough implied incest in this little pantheon of ours
GG: you mean hes yours like johns little grubbaby goddaughter???
TG: huh
TG: p much cant explain the mineminemine any other way
TG: shit im gonna have to stop ragging on johnnyboy about that
GG: oh noooooo ;B
TG: i think his lil sis is
TG: uhh okay shes young and also unconscious hard to say but she kinda maybe sort of fits a tiny bit
When you pay attention again, Leope is in the arms of Generic Vaguely Prettyboy. You're glad none of them were asshole or brainless enough to lay her down on the hot grid.
Your kid is swooning. Over him like a heat shimmer you can see blood red butterfly wings, the shadow of a dark hood. Karkat is separating.
Your fingers skim against something; you think it's more Karkat's shoulder than his but he still flinches like they're still synced up enough to feel it. "C'mon, don't let go now, that bitch will convince them to leave you behind and then they'll all get killed, and can you trust those bozos with your lil' sis anyway? What kind of bro would you be?"
"Not a very good one," he mumbles.
For a second he sees you, you think, but then he shakes his head and blinks the haze out of his eyes and steps forward right through you.
--
Battlefield Terra, chapter 6
--
"Karkat Karkat Karkat come out Karkat Karkaaat Kaaaaaarkat -- ah, finally."
He received a baleful red glare; Karkat shouldered him out of the way as he stepped out of his stall, claws grabbing tight on his towel and hair still dripping. John hurried to catch up and pass him, skidding on the tiles, threw himself at his locker. Karkat's clothes went flying over his shoulder for the guy to catch; John dropped his own towel on the spot as the alien was still swearing, and jumped in his underwear. Quick quick pants t-shirt tennis shoes glasses, but were they safe yet?! He turned around, ready to scold Karkat if he wasn't done already.
He wasn't, but almost, squirming his way in his own t-shirt. There were funny rough spots on his waist that John did not remember -- possibly other places too but the T-shirt finished falling into place and he couldn't really ask for a better look, that'd be way too weird. Maybe Karkat just felt itchy and had forgotten to mind the claws. Hm.
"... Zhann."
-- Darn. "Okay! Come on, we're going to the common room." He opened the way before any attempt at a discussion might happen. Seriously it was crazy the number of times Karkat managed to catch him looking at things for perfectly innocent alienpal-caretaking reasons in ways that made them look like not.
Due to his shorter legs Karkat had to walk really fast to keep up with John's pace, but he did, just so he could glower straight at him, brow furrowed deep, looking irritated all over. "Zhann what."
John gave him his brightest, most obtuse grin. "I don't get what you're asking about, buddy!"
Karkat obligingly rephrased. "Stupid dumb, what."
"... Did you just call me stupid dumb. Like, my name is now stupid dumb to you. Is that what you just did."
Red eyes slowly, deliberately narrowed. "Yes." The tilt of his chin was 'got a problem with that' all over.
It would be really not fair to use one of the insults Karkat didn't know yet. John did feel stuck at about a toddler's level of maturity...
Helped keep him in relatively not-too-bad mood though. It was just too silly not to. "No, you."
Karkat heaved out a loud sigh and rolled his eyes pointedly, started clicking away to himself. Blahblahblah John is a stupid dumb buttface, thousandth verse, same as the first. Well, at least he was distracted now.
Left John free to deliberately not think about all that shit he was trying not to think about. Like... oh... how his little hissyfit didn't get to keep being "just" a personal problem. He was affecting the morale of the group.
Their parents might let them muddle along for a while trying to sort it out themselves, but if they didn't manage it wouldn't be long now before John's dad dropped by for a long wise talk. John was already cringing.
And then if they didn't implement any actual solutions, the adults would.
What if they decided the root of the problem was Karkat, and removed him? Wouldn't that be good, John could go back to flying and fighting and doing what he'd been made for, what he loved, wouldn't it be, no, no, no it wouldn't, it really wouldn't.
This is exactly why they think you're compromised, he reminded himself, breathing through the spike of -- of, no damn it no. Surely now Skaialabs had proved they had the political upper hand, they could arrange some joint custody thing where Karkat's cell was big and nice and comfortable and he got to take walks outside and they didn't do any of the tests that hurt (no, no, no, you selfish asshole, no.)
"Zhann?"
"No -- ah. Sorry. What?" He blinked, turned. They were at the staircase, John down one step; Karkat had stopped still in the corridor. He was staring, irritated, horns forward like he planned to headbutt John in the chest.
"... Rhoz."
John breathed out loud and slow through clenched teeth. "God damn it, not you too."
Karkat flung his hands in the air. "Yes come with me Rhoz! Zhann n'rh 'weeeh, weeeh.'" He faked a childish whine, turned it back into a snarl. "Dev no, Rokchi no -- hrrghn!"
"Wow." John stared, breathless with rising rage. "Fuck you. You know what? Just fuck you."
He turned his back on him, because if he didn't he'd just do stuff that -- Karkat couldn't hit back, couldn't argue back, that made it not fair but he -- damn it, why him too, he'd been in John's head that day, why didn't he get it?!
And now he was growling behind John, low and animal and rising slow, a true threat. John stiffened his shoulders and started down the stairs, just fucking daring him to try.
"Zhann--"
"Just shut up and come on already."
Another low, vibrating growl, ending into a vicious snarl.
If this ended in a fight -- no, to hell with that, if this ended in a fight then good. "Damn it, Karkat--"
"Zhann!" Karkat yelped. Claws raked the floor, noisy. John jerked around, only to see a big white shape lunging for a Karkat already halfway to the ceiling.
"Whoa -- Bec, no, down!" He jumped up to the landing, tried to snatch the dog's collar, but the big mutt dodged, leapt for Karkat again who was... somehow not coming down.
John elbowed the dog aside as he jumped again; Bec landed easily, turned on him growling -- the alien's scent on him, but enough of his own seemed to be coming through that Bec didn't attack John as well. After a couple of tries John managed to gather a big fistful of fur at the dog's neck and hauled him farther down the corridor.
Only then did he allow himself to glance over his shoulder.
Karkat had ditched his flip-flops on his way up. It wasn't hard to figure out how he was defying gravity, even without the series of holes in the plaster of the wall, right through to the cement underneath. All twenty of his fingers and toes were still stuck in the ceiling knuckle-deep, and he stared over his shoulder at John and the dog, the red part of his eyes so blown John could barely see any gold.
"Bec, sit! Sit."
Bec, of course, paid him exactly zero attention. There was an alien boy to snarl at!
"Whoa! Bec, heel! John, let him go, it's okay."
Jade sounded so sure of herself, John did, despite himself. Bec snarled again and made to lunge, but Jade snapped a "Bec" that had the dog turn around and make his sullen way to her side. She caught a grip on his collar and hauled him close. John straightened up, nodded. "Uh. Thanks. Hi, sir."
He couldn't help but stare. Hass Harley had been away "on business" ever since John crashed Karkat's monster-mech and Warhammer, by which John was never sure if people meant he truly did have a ton to do at the other end of the globe, or if they meant they were just not going to allow a guy with his level of clearance to even step foot on the same island as a so-called telepathingly-grabby alien.
But he didn't even have any bodyguards with him. (If one didn't count Jade and Bec. John did, but he couldn't imagine anyone not one of them doing it.)
"John, my boy! Long time no see. You might want to tell your guest he can come down before he brings the ceiling down with him."
"--Oh! Right." When he turned around, he saw a fine trail of plaster dust and small chunks sprinkling gently from spreading cracks in the ceiling. "Karkat? It's okay, come down." He reached a hand up, crooked his fingers. Karkat threw a long suspicious look down the corridor, and a little wincing glance down under him, neck craned. The movement was enough for another crack to form and a hand-sized chunk of plaster to fall on John. He batted it away from his head before it touched him, but... "Buddy, hurry up."
With a wince, Karkat yanked his fingers free and fell, managing to twist somehow to land in a crouch. He was a little off-balance and stumbled to the side, almost falling on his ass. Graceful. John chuckled and held out a hand to help him up. Karkat growled and batted it away, and almost fell on his ass a second time when he stepped on an unexpected chunk of plaster. Snickering, John offered his hand again, which this time was grabbed with a huffy little mutter.
He hauled Karkat to his feet. His gray forearms and legs were white with dust; his t-shirt wasn't much better; John batted some off Karkat's shoulder and the green slime monster on his chest and then realized he might be alien-feeling him up again considering the weird side-look Karkat was giving him. Um. Dang it, aliens were just too weird!
"Okay. So. Er. Did you want an introduction...?"
Feet planted, General Harley stared at Karkat for a handful of seconds. He looked a little bit like a wall, thought John, trying to see what Karkat saw. In his sixties, hair steadily going white (somehow not falling all off, God and Doc Lalonde willing John would get the no-balding gene from him and not the balding one from Nanna's side that Dad was camouflaging under his hats) but shoulders still strong, back still straight; he was still in shape. The thing that aged him the most was the stupid fat, twirly-ended moustache, which hadn't been in fashion even when the General's grandparents still walked the Earth.
Of course, he was in uniform, even if the collar was undone and most medals absent.
"Be a right pleasure," the General said eventually, and took a jaunty step forward. Karkat's back went rigid, not that he showed it much on his face. John elbowed him lightly, winked to reassure him things were still cool, and snapped a salute.
"General Harley, sir!" he barked out, looking as humorless and dronelike as possible.
"Don't even, you little rascal, if we even tried to put you through Basic you would leave the place in shambles and with not a drop of good Army feeling in you."
"Pff." A grin. "Hi, Jade."
"Hi, John," she replied, and then made a grating, snap-clicking noise that had Bec's ear flip back doubtfully. Karkat's lip quirked minutely in what might perhaps in another dimension have become a smile; he replied in kind. John's back teeth vibrated a little.
"Anyway, Karkat, this is General Harley. Call him General. General."
"Dze-neral," Karkat repeated, enunciating cautiously, and bowed his head in salute, eyeing him warily from under his hair.
Jade nodded in approval, and said, "Grandpa, this is Kh'rkth." (Or something almost like that.)
Bec was still growling quietly. Karkat didn't inch back but John caught him throwing a glance like he was calculating how fast he could dodge behind John if need be. John shifted forward a little to make that easier. "Only we call him Karkat because no one but Jade can say it right and she'll walk away with scars on her vocal chords, mark my words."
The General's eyes brightened, his moustache flipping up. "You have been calling him... Car-cat."
Said Karkat was still standing straight like he wasn't quite sure whether to go for the full 'inspection' stance, eyebrows twitching minutely every time his name came up. John smiled. "Yup! Vroom vroom mrow. Only we camouflage that with Ks because it's just too silly otherwise."
The moustache flipped a little farther up.
"And Bec drove him up the wall into the ceiling..."
"... Yeees?"
"So... would you say that he was a ... ceiling kat?"
John blinked. Jade tilted her head. "Um. Grandpa?"
"Hehehe. Never you mind this old fogey, kids."
--
Gundam Wing: Lone Wolf and Pilot, Duo & Hilde. Not sure I'll keep it if it's too hard to read for GW people, but it's just so addictive. ;__;
--
SS: Du@!!! :DDD y@u're finally @nline where have you been?!
JR: le gasp, ambushed!! haha i totes forgot id even set up this message thing.
JR: whyre ur Os @s?
SS: ja du@ let us w@nder why the pers@n y@u haven't seen f@r ten days and HAVENT WRITTEN T@ has typ@ issues this is t@tally relevant. :X
SS: my keyb@ard br@ke stupid.
JR: cant u use zeros or smth, i keep reading them as *at*!!
SS: :X
SS: HI HILDE IT IS S@ NICE T@ HEAR FR@M Y@U H@W ARE Y@U W@W THAT IS ACTUALLY INTERESTING BY THE WAY Y@UR KILLERBABY HAS ADAPTED SUPER WELL AND IS ALREADY HITTING IT @FF WITH T@NS @F CLASSY BITCHES Y@U WILL BE A PUP AUNTY S@@N.
JR: i see how it is, u care more abt the fur pile than abt me. :|
JR: cold, schbeiker, cold.
JR: so how r u? i ask bcs i totally care & not bcs youll tell me anyway. yup. :D
SS: >:/
JR: jk. XD whassup, babe?
SS: well actually there have been a l@t @f...
SS: things that were exactly the same as when y@u were still here. :X
SS: except n@w i have n@ @ne t@ bitch ab@ut friedriks with anym@re.
JR: we could have a bitching session now, those r fun. :D
SS: @r y@u c@uld st@p delaying and tell me everything ab@ut h@w things are g@ing f@r y@u and the carpetm@nster!
SS: c@ugh it up. >:(
JR: aw cmon whyd u think anything is weird enough that im trying not to tell u.
SS: becaaaaause you pretty much just admitted it to my face right here. :X
JR: curses, foiled!!
SS: :X :X :X
JR: yes yes ok.
JR: killers doing ok i think, or as good as can be reasonably expected haha ... ha :/ almost tore off a few throats but whoa you would not believe what a difference it makes that theres a bitch queen here. just, whoa.
JR: she was all like *bad puppy* & he was all like *whine whine sorry plz lick my head* & then she licked his head & they sniffed butts & he was like *i got ur slipper*-dance happy.
SS: awwwwww!! X3333 <3<3<3
JR: yeah. :) so that was good.
SS: :33
SS: s@ what's n@t g@@d?
JR: ehh. idk. theyre all *oz* around here srsly fuck those guys. 9_9
SS: HEY. >:@
JR: hahaha just kidding. actually half of them are cops or firefighters or customs guys or search&rescue, didnt expect that.
JR: but the rest are oz but theyre oddly cool about that, i mean cool people in oz, soon theyll tell us gravity is like optional or smth.
SS: yeah like yesterday when L2 15846 st@pped spinning f@r a while man was that fun wish i'd been there.
JR: ...... what.
SS: they didn't menti@n it @n the news d@wn @n the @le dirtball? Well n@ @ne g@t really hurt s@ maybe that's why?
SS: just a l@t @f geezers fl@ating ar@und waiting t@ be pulled back d@wn bef@re they turned gravity back @n.
JR: man, killer woulda loved it. :(
JR: they have a gravity room here but we dont get to take joyrides in it. sob sob gotta wait for that part of the training. & theyre kinda tiny anyway so it wouldnt be super great fun.
JR: haha now hes looking at me all *flying? when? when when when want floating!!!!* poor disappointed pup.
SS: aww my baby give him ear skritchies f@r me.
SS: i miss y@u baby
JR: i miss u too tastiest strawberry shortcake, says he himself. no actually he says where where want whine. :(
JR: send him ur socks or smth
JR: not ur panties plz.
SS: you're s@ GR@SS! D:<
JR: ;D u know u love me hur hur yeeeeeah.
SS: i kn@w i l@ve y@ur br@ther. i'm just using y@u t@ get thr@ugh t@ him. >:X
JR: redneck party!
JR: but srsly no panties, gossip goes kinda fast around here & wufftser might hear abt it & do his *i am not going to say anything, i am just going to **stare it in letters of fire into the back of ur skull*** thing.
JR: the letters will be in ye olde nonsimplified chinese characters w/ like a bazillion squiggly bits that no one actually uses anymore & no u cant use a dictionary, do it frm memory!! i expect a twenty page paper on ur deep & srs reflections over it.
SS: pff. XD
JR: meanwhile my most esteemed brother & i shall be escorting ur poor beleaguered brother to the nearest car wash for funtime shower action.
SS: whaaaaaat??? XDD XD XD
JR: wuffster sez his glen likes to run thru car washes. i cracked up like my spine wasnt even a thing.
SS: @mg XDDDDDDDDDDDD
JR: wu was all like *no i r v. srs man* but he looked all *i am so not laughing i swear!!!!*
JR: i cracked up again. :X
SS: ahahahahahaha XDDD i w@uld have t@@ @mg.
JR: anyway looks like the peace has done him good. hes all ass unstick'd & stuff. at some points it was even like we were *buddies* or smth
SS: :@ n@@@@@ way.
JR: yes way! went drinking with the guys a couple times & he came by *both* times! kinda late & didnt stay too long but glen was all hi how r u gentlemen & he kinda trailed after & stuff.
JR: so weird, hildie. so weird. sooooooo weird.
SS: but kinda nice huh :D
JR: ... :X
SS: :DDD
JR: maybe a lil bit. >__>
SS: what ab@ut the h@t @ne? :D
JR: WAAUUUGH STOP RIGHT THERE.
SS: cm@n y@u kn@w which @ne i mean straight away this is pr@@f. h@w can y@u n@t?? :3
JR: v easy considering how can u think his ass is hot **HE DOESNT HAVE ONE.**
JR: its like. a void where an ass should be. negative ass space. concave buttflex area. hes a straight line *from shoulders to knees.*
SS: y@u lying liar wh@ lies. It's a very tight butt is all. mmm. best @f all pil@ts bar n@ne.
JR: fuck u mines best.
SS: y@urs is definitely m@re c@mf@rtable t@ the t@uch. :D
JR: u saying im fat???? D:< bitch i will cut u.
SS: :D
JR: ... off from seeing the carpetshark.
SS: D: n@t fat at all just m@re uhh springy???
JR: >__>
SS: :D;
JR: i dont get u. if u like them tight & small heeros is way more
SS: yes?
JR: oh look at that, curfew time.
SS: slink @ff @ffline n@w and i will c@me d@wn and shank y@u. :3
SS: it's nine pm where y@u are i kn@w i'm a girl but i can d@ math i swear.
SS: way m@re.......?
JR: ... :X
JR: ffff i dont even know. urgh. last i saw him he was barely sixteen, way to make me feel like a pedo.
SS: y@u're eighteen n@w y@u're S@ @ld w@w!
JR: nineteen! ... almost!! ... ... maybe!!!!
SS: :/
JR: why are we talking about who of my old GUY buddies has the best ass
JR: why does that list not include me. okay yes id win by default *but.*
SS: biiiiii curi@sityyyyyyyyy
JR: noooonononoonoo.
SS: hell curi@us n@thing. i bet y@u've made @ut with m@re guys than i have by n@w.
JR: why do i tell u anything.
SS: because if y@u didn't y@u'd have n@ @ne t@ brag t@.
JR: oh yeah.
JR: if its any help you kiss a lot better than most of those bozos. u__u
JR: I MEAN GUYS I HAVE ACTUALLY KISSED NONE OF WHICH BELONG TO BOTH THAT SUBGROUP *&* THE PILOTS ONE.
SS: ahahaha X'D <3
JR: im srs, its one venn diagram where one circle is like at one end of the room & the other circle is on mars.
SS: but y@u'd have s@ much in c@mm@n!
JR: hilde if u try to matchmake me w/ any of them i will end u.
JR: especially tro-man, where the hell would i put my hands when necking srsly, theyd slip off right to his thighs. :X
SS: @kay @kay fine. :( apart fr@m y@ur h@rrible lack @f acti@n h@w are things?
JR: i told u already ;p
SS: n@ y@u t@ld me three anecd@tes and distracted me with funny wufeis. I see right thr@ugh y@u.
JR: sheesh, nothing can escape u.
JR: lets say there havent been more fights but.
JR: im in the dorm now & all the wolves are piled in the middle or going round between bunks & stuff.
JR: killer is lying in wait by the end of our bunk & he doesnt even growl at the wolves who come close but considering hes bit three of them by now they wised up to the situation :/
JR: not v. srs bites or anything but
JR: he just goes straight to biting, no fuck u go away before that or even ear semaphore much, & he wont talk to most of them in the pack sense, so the other wolves rly dont like him. they dont try to chase him off cause theyre civilized wolves & their brothers asked them not to but they kinda want to.
JR: & the more they want to, the more their brothers want to.
This represents a pretty big loss compared to the couple of months before that (I was way over 30K), but considering i've started going to weekly stuff IRL that disturbs all my daily routines and eats two whole days a week, it's much better than I expected. Let's see if the numbers climb back up as I get used to it.
POSTED
-Back to the Garden sidefic, Rose & Eridan's kismesis (oc) pesterlog (1 572 words)
-Gotta Go Fast Beat'er 2000!! - John&Jade/Karkat, oneshot (10 548 words)
WORKS IN PROGRESS
-Sunlightverse: Dave/Karkat/Jade & OCs adventure tiems: 3 483 words.
-Battlefield Terra, chapter 6: 5 388 words.
-Gundam Wing: Lone Wolf and Pilot start of chapter 3? Umm, it's kind of a, uh, chatlog. idk if I'm going to keep it. But anyway it was fun to type. 1 569 words.
And since it's after midnight here, the second this is posted I get to start NaNo. ... crap, gotta code the pesterlogs. D:
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Sunlightverse: Dave/Karkat/Jade & OCs adventure tiems. i posted a LOT of this as a preview on tumblr so as not to be unfair i am posting it all here, plus some more that wasn't over there. The fic is stalled tho, no clue when i'll unstall it. :(
--
It happens because you were touching Karkat at the time.
You were touching Karkat (your hand clenched on his wrist, his hand fisted in your collar), Jade touching you both (hands on each of your faces, trying to shove you back.)
You were touching him and then it happened, and then you heard, felt, knew.
Knights have mercy Knights lend me oh please please no.
You think, it's one of mine. You think, shit, how. You don't think at all.
Karkat's eyes are round like red-hot gears. (Oh.) Jade's hands twitch without thought, claw-tips scoring your face, across your upper lip. (Where?) They both move on your beat like it's a dance you've been practicing forever, half-step back, turn left. Whirl.
Heat slaps you in the face, steals moisture from your still-open mouth, your eyes. Jade stumbles. Her foot screeches skidding along steel grates. You catch her elbow. Karkat steps back, breaking contact. His wings fan out, translucent blood sheeting on incandescent lava light, raising a little twirl of breeze that dies before it's even done buffeting you.
Jade's wings are wide open, tiny as they are, spring green pinions spread wide like that might actually cool them down instead of just drying the sweat off them as fast as it beads through her skin.
"Holy shitballs!" she says, and grips your forearm right back to steady herself. Karkat's mouth hangs open like she stole his curses straight off his tongue and he hasn't found any at hand in that depthless mass of bullshit he calls a thinksponge to replace them. He stares around, quick twitchy glances, longer incredulous stares.
Yeah, okay, Heat and Clockwork is worth a second look, and a third. You've got the most badass land there ever existed.
You kind of assumed it'd stopped existing, tho.
"Where the fuck. What the fuck. Why the. What? How?"
"Forgot to ask the who," you drawl, and stretch your wings absently, and it's totes an accident when you forget which one is the mutilated one and which one isn't and that this one has enough length to rake glowy orange feathers all up his face. Yup.
"Phbbt! Ptoo. What the fuck, Strider!"
He pulls down off his tongue. You pretend not to want to smile, badly.
Jade still looks dazed. She tries to fan herself with her free hand, which does exactly jack shit. "It's so hot in here, was it ever this hot? I don't remember it like that. Huh."
You think about it, shrug. It's funny, you still feel the heat. Hard not to, it's suffocating.
Some part of you that's been sleeping more and more lightly recently kind of likes it, stretches like a cat in the good sunbeam and makes pleased little oh yeeeah, that hit the spot.
"Sorry babe, thermostat's stuck on bikini weather. You might want to lose a couple layers, I'm sure no one's gonna be complaining. You gonna be okay?"
It always makes Karkat twitch when you call her babe, he hates it when you flirt "flush". It makes Jade roll her eyes and laugh back and call you stud, which is the best thing she could call you bar all but sugarplum.
Okay, maybe Daveypoo.
You might even laugh out lout for that one.
"I... Yeah, I'll survive, but wow. What are we even doing here?" she asks, baffled.
"You were the one who took us here!" Karkat retorts, throwing a hand up in the air as he keeps staring around in disbelief.
"Yeah, but you were the ones who gave me the where!" She pauses, blinks. "Huh. Yeah, I kind of jumped blind. Ooh, space bends so funny here."
You and Karkat jump at the same time to snatch her elbows, keep her from sitting down. The metal isn't red-hot so far over the lava, but she'd still burn herself a second degree grid pattern on her ass.
"Harley?" Karkat leans in, eyebrows scrunching down frettingly. "Jade, listen to me. Can you stop thinking about where you are? Think about, I don't know, how stupid hot it is, or why the hell we even did that. Because seriously, why the fuck did we even do that?"
"Forgot to ask who," you reply, but your own voice sounds like it comes out on the other side of a wall. There's... you think there's... there's an itch, something wrong, something not quite in place (not yet in place), there's something --
needtogetthereintimeohplease.
You blink out.
You blink in.
You're hovering over another platform, so much lower, closer to molten rock, your hair wafts up in it, your pinions strain, your cape flares. There's two overlapping platforms, one above the other by maybe one and a half body lengths. There's people huddled up there.
There's a child down there and she's screaming, dancing and tripping and rolling blind to get away from burning metal, bare feet and bare hands, she still has bits of baby shell on her shoulders and her summer dress smolders around her legs, her grapefruit hair, like she'll catch fire.
You need to get to her. Need. Need to get there in time, she's hurt, she's blind with it. She's at the edge.
Not enough time, not enough, your body won't fly anymore, your bare feet land on the grid and you scream, it sears you to the bone, you need to keep moving, Leope, Leope --
You're the god of Time. You (discover) remember. You freeze her teetering at the edge.
Snatch. Throw yourself back. It burns. She's on your lap, safe -- no, not yet, she -- you -- you drag yourself up somehow, drag her up and back and the other platform's too high, oh no. It's not a matter of getting there on time anymore, it's a matter of she's too small to pull her own weight up even if you lift her high enough to grab -- you try anyway, it doesn't work even though it should because didn't you use to be taller?
Oh. Right.
You tear yourself out of (he who is yours) the kid; your feet ache with welts not yours for a second, and then the pain subsides. You land on the grid. The heat has gone back to feeling oddly pleasant.
"Kid? Hey, kid."
He doesn't turn around, neither of them does, they don't notice you. He just tries to raise the child higher so she can grab on but there's about an arm's length left, it's so not happening.
You go to grab them and it surprises absolutely no one when you just go right through.
Shit. You bet John will jizz himself when he learns you were at some point a ghost.
You sigh. Well, fuck. What's a goddamn mortal doing in your Land anyway? Maybe it's a favor that the kid's hair is curling and drying out in the heat, about to catch on fire. He's a fugly muddle of brown and indigo, the only thing rad about him is his horns, curling out and forward from his temples and then rising up into sharp daggerpoint, like he could headbutt a guy to death and fling him over himself in one toss of his head, maybe they'll look better once he's bald because at the moment they're buried in that unkempt, bruise-colored emo lumberjack mop. The look mocks itself.
"Seriously, kid, what am I supposed to rag on, shit's too easy, that's unsportsmanlike."
He doesn't hear you, of course. Fuck it. The child's eyes are scrunched closed and she's curled into a kitten ball of terror and exhaustion, she's about to pass out. You try to draw the heat away from her, but you don't have a clue if it's even possible, and so, amazingly enough, it doesn't work. You are the usefulest, it is you.
"Shit, where are Jade and Vantas, they could maybe figure things out, hell maybe there's one of those stupid whiny lumps over there they could ride..."
You don't think so. When you float up and squint at the three teenage dickbags, it's just all nope, nope and nope. Maybe if Ampora Minor were there he could do something with the tall chick, but you don't even want to start guessing at what it is exactly she'd even accomplish.
-- turntechGodhead [TG] started a memo on board where the fuck are you dude and dudette --
TG: yeah so here i am still in the land of rad and hellnasty and neither of my fated cinderbroseph are with me
TG: you guys absconded together didnt you i feel jilted
TG: yeah vantass totes worth getting cockblocked for
TG: i feel the eternal romansu there
GG: dave, where are you???!!!! you just disappeared!!
TG: still on lohac watching some poor stranded kid and his baby sister roast in slow mo
TG: mmm dinnerll be ready in forty minutes and twenty seven seconds go set the table and wash your hands
TG: fuck
GG: i cant feel you anywhere! i mean no actually i can but its like its telling me youre *everywhere* in lohac, i cant pinpoint you!!
TG: maybe cause im apparently playing casper the useless ghost right now
CG: GIVE US SOME LANDMARKS, DUMBASS.
TG: ok sure im on this big round gear and theres a little round gear underneath and theres scaffolding bridges and lava viaducts all around this is not at all like the rest of the whole planet
CG: RISE UP, SHIT FOR BRAIN, DO YOU SEE THE BEAT MESA ANYWHERE?
TG: ...
TG: huh nope
CG: SO YOU'RE ON THE OTHER HEMISPHERE OF THE PLANET FROM US. THAT NARROWS IT DOWN FROM FOREVER LOST TO SEVERELY MISPLACED. STAY WHERE YOU ARE, WE'RE COMING.
TG: not moving dude
TG: if nothing else ill be the one who has to shove their mummified corpses off my platforms before they get stuck in a gear and fuck up the whole planet
TG: i bet even a lil toddling wiggler can do a lot of damage man you should see her little corkscrew horns bet she could poke holes in a ton of shit whoops shes fainted how long till big bro cant hold her up anymore tick tock tick tock
GG: dave, *chill!* im jumping us closer well find you guys soon!
TG: might be too fucking late shit hes all swoony heats getting to him
TG: no fuck that no hes mine
TG: *m42k'f_-jljn juiyh
"Hey, you little turds! Stop being useless selfish assholes and come over and drag them up! I swear to fuck if you just keep staring like witless calves--"
Shit, shit, this sucks, you're powerless, you fucking hate that, it was supposed to stop when you became a god. You are a god, you need to lead that kid, but how? He doesn't sync up all nice and perfect anymore, his beat has gone off yours.
"I can't believe it, with such useless lumps in a party they're going to kill everyone from sheer fucking laziness--"
GG: dave??? are you okay?????? DDD:
CG: WHAT ARE YOU KEYSMASHING FOR?!
CG: DAVE DOUCHEBUCKET STRIDER, EXPLAIN YOUR OUT OF QUIRK BEHAVIOR RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.
TG: dude im not even typing with my hands what the fuck do i know
TG: im like this rad cyborg with the internet in his head oh no porn sites everywhere wait what am i complaining about again
TG: im just
TG: idk
TG: thinking pesterchum thoughts?? whoa ok totes weird
TG: what the fuck do i care no stay awake kid i dont even know your fucking name
"Leope," he says, but you have a feeling it's his baby sister's name, not his. She's a cute one. Lavender-tinted skin, grape hair, funny little corkscrew horns pointing at two and nine o'clock. Her breathing is growing more and more labored. Her lips are cracking.
He licks his own. They're bleeding some. You can't tell if he bit himself or if it's just the heat.
"... We're all going to die here," he mutters to himself, eyes vague and dazed. "All going to die here, even those assholes, they're going to die because they're too stupid to know what to do, they -- fuck!"
You fist your useless hands. It aches. He's going more and more offbeat, you won't catch him again anytime soon. "Whoa, hey, kid, I don't know if I can condone a preteen having such a filthy mouth, I'd be such a huge douchewaffle of a role model there."
He stumbles, falls on one knee, hisses in pain. Your hand has gone right through his arm. You lean over him, wing curled around their backs like you could cradle the little scrapper and his sis under there.
"Get up, champ. No kid of mine is ever going to die on his knees, you hear me?"
He doesn't, of course. He doesn't. You're going to burn all of John's Ghostbusters and Casper vids. Being a ghost is the most awful fucking thing.
"Knights," you hear him breathe, like a shock down your spine, like you're a church bell and he just rang you.
He doesn't hear you but he gets back up anyway. He gets back up and then --
GG: !!!!!!
"HEY, YOU LEAKY BAGS OF FESTERING SHITSAUCE, YEAH I'M TALKING TO YOU!"
GG: DAVE IS KARKAT WITH YOU???!!!????
GG: hes gone omg omfg he was just here and he went poof what the hell happened ???????????
The kid doesn't have vampire fangs, he has boar tusks, one of them broken. They're bared to the gums. One of the teenagers on the higher platform jerks, startled out of her heat stupor.
"Herae, you useless shitlicker, get the fuck here and pull her up!"
TG: yeah uh
TG: i think hes with me
TG: ...
TG: 8D
"What --" It's the tall girl, the one who's gray all over, no touch of color anywhere. She hesitates, eyes the platform's edge, it's clear on her face that she's thinking she doesn't want to fall.
"Get on your hands and knees -- if you're lower to the ground you can't be dragged over -- and then reach down and pull her up, or are you going to let a child die?!"
The Herae chick's eyes narrow; the blue and pink boy on the side flinches, uneasy, eyes the child like, like... you don't know. You don't like it.
"I were you I'd ask nice, you blighted single."
He hesitates, your Knight-souled kid, he hesitates and goes all dull and small and scared -- and then something inside him that isn't Karkat but matches his beat perfectly says fuck that noise.
"Oh, beg you pardon, your glistening resplendent Majesty, but I really think I heard you say you're going to kill a child through not wanting to move your ass? That what I heard?" Hissing, sibilant threat everywhere in that voice, righteous wrath all up that bitch, yesss, go go go. "So on top of being a bully you're also going to be petty and hateful and murderous in the Knight of Time's own hell?"
The three teenagers flinch. One of them whispers oh no we're all going to die. You grin a little bit. You wonder if... oh hey, flying over them doesn't do jack, you were hoping they'd react to your shadow somehow, but you lose a feather at some point and you can see the pudgy teen's eyes follow its twirling descent, jaw hanging. Haha. Hahaha yeeeess.
Your kid snorts, dismisses her with a disappointed but unsurprised look, turns to the other two teenagers. "Ridan. Pallu. Is that really the kind of lead you want to follow?"
They hesitate.
Little Leope twitches, moans quietly. Eyes scrunched in terror and possibly dryness because boy is it dry around the place, the pudgy one races forward, lands on his knees a couple steps away, yelps. "Ow, ow, hot," he whines, he's about to pull back.
Your kid -- Karkat's kid -- reaches a hand up.
The look on his face is so lost and begging and sheer heartrending pitiful, if you were troll-born you'd probably flip pale on his ass in a hot second.
"Please, at least her..."
Pudgy flops down on his front, hissing in pain, and reaches down.
He can't reach quite far enough, and when he tries he almost tumbles head first over the edge, but the second boy scurries forward and kneels on his calves to pin him. Pudgy's hand skims Leope's little wrist. You're here floating like a useless asshole and going come on come on yes do it already, one more inch, just a tiny inch.
TG: paging the witch of space for a space related emergency
TG: theres a surplus of the stuff here i blame you
GG: :DDDDDD! found you!!
The guy's hand closes on her wrist with room to spare.
GG: ow shit fuck why does lohac hate me, i only tweaked it a tiny little bit!!!
GG: i blame you right back, so there!!
TG: taking it gladly babe
TG: mmm good hard long blame
TG: im imagining it cock shaped if that wasnt clear enough
TG: i know its a bit out of nowhere but i feel its been way too long without a good sausagefest here the natives are getting hungry for stridersausage and also restless
GG! :X yes dave, of course dave! i was going to ask you what was even going on and where was karkat and who were those people youre talking about, but you know, now i can only wonder if youre taking my blame up your butthole or your troll vagina
GG: inquiring minds need to know!
TG: ......
TG: idk i think theyre lost mortals
TG: theres five of them but i dont care about three of those
TG: one of them is
TG: mine
TG: and also karkats whoa lovebaby from the future ??
TG: is that you sailor mini moon no stop hitting on your father i know im hot as fuck but theres already more than enough implied incest in this little pantheon of ours
GG: you mean hes yours like johns little grubbaby goddaughter???
TG: huh
TG: p much cant explain the mineminemine any other way
TG: shit im gonna have to stop ragging on johnnyboy about that
GG: oh noooooo ;B
TG: i think his lil sis is
TG: uhh okay shes young and also unconscious hard to say but she kinda maybe sort of fits a tiny bit
When you pay attention again, Leope is in the arms of Generic Vaguely Prettyboy. You're glad none of them were asshole or brainless enough to lay her down on the hot grid.
Your kid is swooning. Over him like a heat shimmer you can see blood red butterfly wings, the shadow of a dark hood. Karkat is separating.
Your fingers skim against something; you think it's more Karkat's shoulder than his but he still flinches like they're still synced up enough to feel it. "C'mon, don't let go now, that bitch will convince them to leave you behind and then they'll all get killed, and can you trust those bozos with your lil' sis anyway? What kind of bro would you be?"
"Not a very good one," he mumbles.
For a second he sees you, you think, but then he shakes his head and blinks the haze out of his eyes and steps forward right through you.
--
Battlefield Terra, chapter 6
--
"Karkat Karkat Karkat come out Karkat Karkaaat Kaaaaaarkat -- ah, finally."
He received a baleful red glare; Karkat shouldered him out of the way as he stepped out of his stall, claws grabbing tight on his towel and hair still dripping. John hurried to catch up and pass him, skidding on the tiles, threw himself at his locker. Karkat's clothes went flying over his shoulder for the guy to catch; John dropped his own towel on the spot as the alien was still swearing, and jumped in his underwear. Quick quick pants t-shirt tennis shoes glasses, but were they safe yet?! He turned around, ready to scold Karkat if he wasn't done already.
He wasn't, but almost, squirming his way in his own t-shirt. There were funny rough spots on his waist that John did not remember -- possibly other places too but the T-shirt finished falling into place and he couldn't really ask for a better look, that'd be way too weird. Maybe Karkat just felt itchy and had forgotten to mind the claws. Hm.
"... Zhann."
-- Darn. "Okay! Come on, we're going to the common room." He opened the way before any attempt at a discussion might happen. Seriously it was crazy the number of times Karkat managed to catch him looking at things for perfectly innocent alienpal-caretaking reasons in ways that made them look like not.
Due to his shorter legs Karkat had to walk really fast to keep up with John's pace, but he did, just so he could glower straight at him, brow furrowed deep, looking irritated all over. "Zhann what."
John gave him his brightest, most obtuse grin. "I don't get what you're asking about, buddy!"
Karkat obligingly rephrased. "Stupid dumb, what."
"... Did you just call me stupid dumb. Like, my name is now stupid dumb to you. Is that what you just did."
Red eyes slowly, deliberately narrowed. "Yes." The tilt of his chin was 'got a problem with that' all over.
It would be really not fair to use one of the insults Karkat didn't know yet. John did feel stuck at about a toddler's level of maturity...
Helped keep him in relatively not-too-bad mood though. It was just too silly not to. "No, you."
Karkat heaved out a loud sigh and rolled his eyes pointedly, started clicking away to himself. Blahblahblah John is a stupid dumb buttface, thousandth verse, same as the first. Well, at least he was distracted now.
Left John free to deliberately not think about all that shit he was trying not to think about. Like... oh... how his little hissyfit didn't get to keep being "just" a personal problem. He was affecting the morale of the group.
Their parents might let them muddle along for a while trying to sort it out themselves, but if they didn't manage it wouldn't be long now before John's dad dropped by for a long wise talk. John was already cringing.
And then if they didn't implement any actual solutions, the adults would.
What if they decided the root of the problem was Karkat, and removed him? Wouldn't that be good, John could go back to flying and fighting and doing what he'd been made for, what he loved, wouldn't it be, no, no, no it wouldn't, it really wouldn't.
This is exactly why they think you're compromised, he reminded himself, breathing through the spike of -- of, no damn it no. Surely now Skaialabs had proved they had the political upper hand, they could arrange some joint custody thing where Karkat's cell was big and nice and comfortable and he got to take walks outside and they didn't do any of the tests that hurt (no, no, no, you selfish asshole, no.)
"Zhann?"
"No -- ah. Sorry. What?" He blinked, turned. They were at the staircase, John down one step; Karkat had stopped still in the corridor. He was staring, irritated, horns forward like he planned to headbutt John in the chest.
"... Rhoz."
John breathed out loud and slow through clenched teeth. "God damn it, not you too."
Karkat flung his hands in the air. "Yes come with me Rhoz! Zhann n'rh 'weeeh, weeeh.'" He faked a childish whine, turned it back into a snarl. "Dev no, Rokchi no -- hrrghn!"
"Wow." John stared, breathless with rising rage. "Fuck you. You know what? Just fuck you."
He turned his back on him, because if he didn't he'd just do stuff that -- Karkat couldn't hit back, couldn't argue back, that made it not fair but he -- damn it, why him too, he'd been in John's head that day, why didn't he get it?!
And now he was growling behind John, low and animal and rising slow, a true threat. John stiffened his shoulders and started down the stairs, just fucking daring him to try.
"Zhann--"
"Just shut up and come on already."
Another low, vibrating growl, ending into a vicious snarl.
If this ended in a fight -- no, to hell with that, if this ended in a fight then good. "Damn it, Karkat--"
"Zhann!" Karkat yelped. Claws raked the floor, noisy. John jerked around, only to see a big white shape lunging for a Karkat already halfway to the ceiling.
"Whoa -- Bec, no, down!" He jumped up to the landing, tried to snatch the dog's collar, but the big mutt dodged, leapt for Karkat again who was... somehow not coming down.
John elbowed the dog aside as he jumped again; Bec landed easily, turned on him growling -- the alien's scent on him, but enough of his own seemed to be coming through that Bec didn't attack John as well. After a couple of tries John managed to gather a big fistful of fur at the dog's neck and hauled him farther down the corridor.
Only then did he allow himself to glance over his shoulder.
Karkat had ditched his flip-flops on his way up. It wasn't hard to figure out how he was defying gravity, even without the series of holes in the plaster of the wall, right through to the cement underneath. All twenty of his fingers and toes were still stuck in the ceiling knuckle-deep, and he stared over his shoulder at John and the dog, the red part of his eyes so blown John could barely see any gold.
"Bec, sit! Sit."
Bec, of course, paid him exactly zero attention. There was an alien boy to snarl at!
"Whoa! Bec, heel! John, let him go, it's okay."
Jade sounded so sure of herself, John did, despite himself. Bec snarled again and made to lunge, but Jade snapped a "Bec" that had the dog turn around and make his sullen way to her side. She caught a grip on his collar and hauled him close. John straightened up, nodded. "Uh. Thanks. Hi, sir."
He couldn't help but stare. Hass Harley had been away "on business" ever since John crashed Karkat's monster-mech and Warhammer, by which John was never sure if people meant he truly did have a ton to do at the other end of the globe, or if they meant they were just not going to allow a guy with his level of clearance to even step foot on the same island as a so-called telepathingly-grabby alien.
But he didn't even have any bodyguards with him. (If one didn't count Jade and Bec. John did, but he couldn't imagine anyone not one of them doing it.)
"John, my boy! Long time no see. You might want to tell your guest he can come down before he brings the ceiling down with him."
"--Oh! Right." When he turned around, he saw a fine trail of plaster dust and small chunks sprinkling gently from spreading cracks in the ceiling. "Karkat? It's okay, come down." He reached a hand up, crooked his fingers. Karkat threw a long suspicious look down the corridor, and a little wincing glance down under him, neck craned. The movement was enough for another crack to form and a hand-sized chunk of plaster to fall on John. He batted it away from his head before it touched him, but... "Buddy, hurry up."
With a wince, Karkat yanked his fingers free and fell, managing to twist somehow to land in a crouch. He was a little off-balance and stumbled to the side, almost falling on his ass. Graceful. John chuckled and held out a hand to help him up. Karkat growled and batted it away, and almost fell on his ass a second time when he stepped on an unexpected chunk of plaster. Snickering, John offered his hand again, which this time was grabbed with a huffy little mutter.
He hauled Karkat to his feet. His gray forearms and legs were white with dust; his t-shirt wasn't much better; John batted some off Karkat's shoulder and the green slime monster on his chest and then realized he might be alien-feeling him up again considering the weird side-look Karkat was giving him. Um. Dang it, aliens were just too weird!
"Okay. So. Er. Did you want an introduction...?"
Feet planted, General Harley stared at Karkat for a handful of seconds. He looked a little bit like a wall, thought John, trying to see what Karkat saw. In his sixties, hair steadily going white (somehow not falling all off, God and Doc Lalonde willing John would get the no-balding gene from him and not the balding one from Nanna's side that Dad was camouflaging under his hats) but shoulders still strong, back still straight; he was still in shape. The thing that aged him the most was the stupid fat, twirly-ended moustache, which hadn't been in fashion even when the General's grandparents still walked the Earth.
Of course, he was in uniform, even if the collar was undone and most medals absent.
"Be a right pleasure," the General said eventually, and took a jaunty step forward. Karkat's back went rigid, not that he showed it much on his face. John elbowed him lightly, winked to reassure him things were still cool, and snapped a salute.
"General Harley, sir!" he barked out, looking as humorless and dronelike as possible.
"Don't even, you little rascal, if we even tried to put you through Basic you would leave the place in shambles and with not a drop of good Army feeling in you."
"Pff." A grin. "Hi, Jade."
"Hi, John," she replied, and then made a grating, snap-clicking noise that had Bec's ear flip back doubtfully. Karkat's lip quirked minutely in what might perhaps in another dimension have become a smile; he replied in kind. John's back teeth vibrated a little.
"Anyway, Karkat, this is General Harley. Call him General. General."
"Dze-neral," Karkat repeated, enunciating cautiously, and bowed his head in salute, eyeing him warily from under his hair.
Jade nodded in approval, and said, "Grandpa, this is Kh'rkth." (Or something almost like that.)
Bec was still growling quietly. Karkat didn't inch back but John caught him throwing a glance like he was calculating how fast he could dodge behind John if need be. John shifted forward a little to make that easier. "Only we call him Karkat because no one but Jade can say it right and she'll walk away with scars on her vocal chords, mark my words."
The General's eyes brightened, his moustache flipping up. "You have been calling him... Car-cat."
Said Karkat was still standing straight like he wasn't quite sure whether to go for the full 'inspection' stance, eyebrows twitching minutely every time his name came up. John smiled. "Yup! Vroom vroom mrow. Only we camouflage that with Ks because it's just too silly otherwise."
The moustache flipped a little farther up.
"And Bec drove him up the wall into the ceiling..."
"... Yeees?"
"So... would you say that he was a ... ceiling kat?"
John blinked. Jade tilted her head. "Um. Grandpa?"
"Hehehe. Never you mind this old fogey, kids."
--
Gundam Wing: Lone Wolf and Pilot, Duo & Hilde. Not sure I'll keep it if it's too hard to read for GW people, but it's just so addictive. ;__;
--
SS: Du@!!! :DDD y@u're finally @nline where have you been?!
JR: le gasp, ambushed!! haha i totes forgot id even set up this message thing.
JR: whyre ur Os @s?
SS: ja du@ let us w@nder why the pers@n y@u haven't seen f@r ten days and HAVENT WRITTEN T@ has typ@ issues this is t@tally relevant. :X
SS: my keyb@ard br@ke stupid.
JR: cant u use zeros or smth, i keep reading them as *at*!!
SS: :X
SS: HI HILDE IT IS S@ NICE T@ HEAR FR@M Y@U H@W ARE Y@U W@W THAT IS ACTUALLY INTERESTING BY THE WAY Y@UR KILLERBABY HAS ADAPTED SUPER WELL AND IS ALREADY HITTING IT @FF WITH T@NS @F CLASSY BITCHES Y@U WILL BE A PUP AUNTY S@@N.
JR: i see how it is, u care more abt the fur pile than abt me. :|
JR: cold, schbeiker, cold.
JR: so how r u? i ask bcs i totally care & not bcs youll tell me anyway. yup. :D
SS: >:/
JR: jk. XD whassup, babe?
SS: well actually there have been a l@t @f...
SS: things that were exactly the same as when y@u were still here. :X
SS: except n@w i have n@ @ne t@ bitch ab@ut friedriks with anym@re.
JR: we could have a bitching session now, those r fun. :D
SS: @r y@u c@uld st@p delaying and tell me everything ab@ut h@w things are g@ing f@r y@u and the carpetm@nster!
SS: c@ugh it up. >:(
JR: aw cmon whyd u think anything is weird enough that im trying not to tell u.
SS: becaaaaause you pretty much just admitted it to my face right here. :X
JR: curses, foiled!!
SS: :X :X :X
JR: yes yes ok.
JR: killers doing ok i think, or as good as can be reasonably expected haha ... ha :/ almost tore off a few throats but whoa you would not believe what a difference it makes that theres a bitch queen here. just, whoa.
JR: she was all like *bad puppy* & he was all like *whine whine sorry plz lick my head* & then she licked his head & they sniffed butts & he was like *i got ur slipper*-dance happy.
SS: awwwwww!! X3333 <3<3<3
JR: yeah. :) so that was good.
SS: :33
SS: s@ what's n@t g@@d?
JR: ehh. idk. theyre all *oz* around here srsly fuck those guys. 9_9
SS: HEY. >:@
JR: hahaha just kidding. actually half of them are cops or firefighters or customs guys or search&rescue, didnt expect that.
JR: but the rest are oz but theyre oddly cool about that, i mean cool people in oz, soon theyll tell us gravity is like optional or smth.
SS: yeah like yesterday when L2 15846 st@pped spinning f@r a while man was that fun wish i'd been there.
JR: ...... what.
SS: they didn't menti@n it @n the news d@wn @n the @le dirtball? Well n@ @ne g@t really hurt s@ maybe that's why?
SS: just a l@t @f geezers fl@ating ar@und waiting t@ be pulled back d@wn bef@re they turned gravity back @n.
JR: man, killer woulda loved it. :(
JR: they have a gravity room here but we dont get to take joyrides in it. sob sob gotta wait for that part of the training. & theyre kinda tiny anyway so it wouldnt be super great fun.
JR: haha now hes looking at me all *flying? when? when when when want floating!!!!* poor disappointed pup.
SS: aww my baby give him ear skritchies f@r me.
SS: i miss y@u baby
JR: i miss u too tastiest strawberry shortcake, says he himself. no actually he says where where want whine. :(
JR: send him ur socks or smth
JR: not ur panties plz.
SS: you're s@ GR@SS! D:<
JR: ;D u know u love me hur hur yeeeeeah.
SS: i kn@w i l@ve y@ur br@ther. i'm just using y@u t@ get thr@ugh t@ him. >:X
JR: redneck party!
JR: but srsly no panties, gossip goes kinda fast around here & wufftser might hear abt it & do his *i am not going to say anything, i am just going to **stare it in letters of fire into the back of ur skull*** thing.
JR: the letters will be in ye olde nonsimplified chinese characters w/ like a bazillion squiggly bits that no one actually uses anymore & no u cant use a dictionary, do it frm memory!! i expect a twenty page paper on ur deep & srs reflections over it.
SS: pff. XD
JR: meanwhile my most esteemed brother & i shall be escorting ur poor beleaguered brother to the nearest car wash for funtime shower action.
SS: whaaaaaat??? XDD XD XD
JR: wuffster sez his glen likes to run thru car washes. i cracked up like my spine wasnt even a thing.
SS: @mg XDDDDDDDDDDDD
JR: wu was all like *no i r v. srs man* but he looked all *i am so not laughing i swear!!!!*
JR: i cracked up again. :X
SS: ahahahahahaha XDDD i w@uld have t@@ @mg.
JR: anyway looks like the peace has done him good. hes all ass unstick'd & stuff. at some points it was even like we were *buddies* or smth
SS: :@ n@@@@@ way.
JR: yes way! went drinking with the guys a couple times & he came by *both* times! kinda late & didnt stay too long but glen was all hi how r u gentlemen & he kinda trailed after & stuff.
JR: so weird, hildie. so weird. sooooooo weird.
SS: but kinda nice huh :D
JR: ... :X
SS: :DDD
JR: maybe a lil bit. >__>
SS: what ab@ut the h@t @ne? :D
JR: WAAUUUGH STOP RIGHT THERE.
SS: cm@n y@u kn@w which @ne i mean straight away this is pr@@f. h@w can y@u n@t?? :3
JR: v easy considering how can u think his ass is hot **HE DOESNT HAVE ONE.**
JR: its like. a void where an ass should be. negative ass space. concave buttflex area. hes a straight line *from shoulders to knees.*
SS: y@u lying liar wh@ lies. It's a very tight butt is all. mmm. best @f all pil@ts bar n@ne.
JR: fuck u mines best.
SS: y@urs is definitely m@re c@mf@rtable t@ the t@uch. :D
JR: u saying im fat???? D:< bitch i will cut u.
SS: :D
JR: ... off from seeing the carpetshark.
SS: D: n@t fat at all just m@re uhh springy???
JR: >__>
SS: :D;
JR: i dont get u. if u like them tight & small heeros is way more
SS: yes?
JR: oh look at that, curfew time.
SS: slink @ff @ffline n@w and i will c@me d@wn and shank y@u. :3
SS: it's nine pm where y@u are i kn@w i'm a girl but i can d@ math i swear.
SS: way m@re.......?
JR: ... :X
JR: ffff i dont even know. urgh. last i saw him he was barely sixteen, way to make me feel like a pedo.
SS: y@u're eighteen n@w y@u're S@ @ld w@w!
JR: nineteen! ... almost!! ... ... maybe!!!!
SS: :/
JR: why are we talking about who of my old GUY buddies has the best ass
JR: why does that list not include me. okay yes id win by default *but.*
SS: biiiiii curi@sityyyyyyyyy
JR: noooonononoonoo.
SS: hell curi@us n@thing. i bet y@u've made @ut with m@re guys than i have by n@w.
JR: why do i tell u anything.
SS: because if y@u didn't y@u'd have n@ @ne t@ brag t@.
JR: oh yeah.
JR: if its any help you kiss a lot better than most of those bozos. u__u
JR: I MEAN GUYS I HAVE ACTUALLY KISSED NONE OF WHICH BELONG TO BOTH THAT SUBGROUP *&* THE PILOTS ONE.
SS: ahahaha X'D <3
JR: im srs, its one venn diagram where one circle is like at one end of the room & the other circle is on mars.
SS: but y@u'd have s@ much in c@mm@n!
JR: hilde if u try to matchmake me w/ any of them i will end u.
JR: especially tro-man, where the hell would i put my hands when necking srsly, theyd slip off right to his thighs. :X
SS: @kay @kay fine. :( apart fr@m y@ur h@rrible lack @f acti@n h@w are things?
JR: i told u already ;p
SS: n@ y@u t@ld me three anecd@tes and distracted me with funny wufeis. I see right thr@ugh y@u.
JR: sheesh, nothing can escape u.
JR: lets say there havent been more fights but.
JR: im in the dorm now & all the wolves are piled in the middle or going round between bunks & stuff.
JR: killer is lying in wait by the end of our bunk & he doesnt even growl at the wolves who come close but considering hes bit three of them by now they wised up to the situation :/
JR: not v. srs bites or anything but
JR: he just goes straight to biting, no fuck u go away before that or even ear semaphore much, & he wont talk to most of them in the pack sense, so the other wolves rly dont like him. they dont try to chase him off cause theyre civilized wolves & their brothers asked them not to but they kinda want to.
JR: & the more they want to, the more their brothers want to.
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OMG, I loved that Lone Wolf & Pilot chatlog!! The lols were great, but I felt so bad for Killer by the end, when Duo starts to seriously tell Hilde what's wrong and stuff. Still, a period of adjustment is expected. I mean, it definitely could be worse.
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It could indeed be worse! Bwahahahahahahaha. >:D glad you liked the chatlog!
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Oh my gooooooood, the Sunlightverse snippet! I just, wow. Admittedly, I was listening to the Lavender Town theme so it was a bit more intense, but still! I especially liked that bit about LoHaC being the Knight of Time's own personal hell. How did they (mortals) get there anyway?
And then the BT! ceiling kat. Pfffffft! I literally lol'd at that.
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:D ooh theme music for added DUN DUN DUNNNN, not a bad idea. XD the how and why of their getting there should ideally be explained later. yay mythological things.
introducing Hass was all for the sake of that joke, I swear. (only now he's here and i have to deal with that XD damn.)
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cant wait to see it
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By the way. I blame you for introducing me to Homestuck. Battlefield Terra is so well written I had to read the comic to figure out who was who. You do characterizations so well! Spot on, as far as I can tell. I'm looking forward to more of it.
And the Kismesis Rose/Eridan thing? Golden. Just Golden. I laughed and shivered the whole way through it.
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XD That's... quite possible, yes.
I gave up on nano for this year, it refused to gel. same reason as you, i didn't have the scenes planned out in advance so they refuses to link up right or anything. Bleargh. XD;;;
I never know if I should say YAY or SORRY??? when people tell me i've gotten them into homestuck. Whoops. But anyway thank you, i'm glad you're enjoying it. ^_____________^
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yeah, the most fascinating is NOT the art, though it's funny and cracks me up pretty regularly. Some panels are very pretty but it's not my fave style even so, but it's very evocative, perhaps because as you said there's a huge part of imagination to add on. XD