caughtinanetwork

Entry tags:

[Video]

[Dirk is in front of what some might recognize as one of the Defense Force's tech division rooms when he turns on the SFC.]

Right. So a few of us have gotten together to make a database. We figured, since disappearances are so random, there's no point in relying on word of mouth to get information about this place around. We've got the basic facts, sure, but things like the hacked information, that's worth keeping around in its original form.

For those who haven't gotten the point yet, there's a database on the SFC now. Tech, Aizen, Denzel, Gale and I are maintaining it, but since we obviously haven't been here from the beginning, we can't be the only ones to list the info. If you have something relevant, send it in.

[At this point, he turns away from the camera, seemingly focusing his attention on another project.]

Unrelated- RL, if you think you are getting your wriggling day present a second before midnight, you are sadly mistaken. You are also similarly wrong if you think that I will accept booze as a present.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was there all along, you just didn't look deep enough to see it. Congratulations, you've learned more about me today. You get a gold star.

I take it you agree with me on the subject of annual celebrations of the passing of time, however.

Shove the star up your ass, Strider.

[His tone is not as harsh as it could be, though. It's actually nice to have a relatively amiable conversation.]

Depends on the subject of the anniversary. Romance? Worth it. But whatever else is basically depressing, annoying, or too pointless to waste the effort on. You didn't see me making a fuss about hitting the equivalent of earth 15, and you aren't going to see one when I actually hit seven sweeps, either.

kinky, Vantas.

[His tone is similarly relaxed. What's a little banter between acquaintances?]

There are already enough excuses to celebrate, there's no reason to celebrate a specific person on top of that.

Choke on your own tongue, jackass!

[Banter still has room for glowering and rude gestures, though. Middle finger says hello!]

Most people aren't worth celebrating. If anything, the day you born, hatched, cloned into existence, or whatever means of welcome-to-being-alive the various species have here, is a day for lamenting your flaws and fuck ups. What dickwagon up in the stars was stupid enough to make this shitsmear exist? In my case: me. Good job there, past Karkat, you really did us a favor.

Whoops, that would require a degree of ineptness that I'm afraid I simply can't reach. Better luck next time.

[.. As if Dirk isn't going to comment on that.]

So, essentially, you believe the world would be much better off if you were not a part of it. Is that what I'm hearing?

[Eyeroll! But as for the second part...]

Don't mistake me as someone that pathetic. If I hadn't done all I have we'd stuck in an alternate, doomed timeline where we all die. But in the same breath, I am well within my right to hate the massive screw ups I've made and all the incalculable mess that has come of them - and don't you think I'm exaggerating, either. You can't tell me you've never hated the mistakes you've made, can you?

Certainly. But I don't condemn myself to nonexistence for them. I just pull my shit together and improve. I'm rather invested in staying alive.

And I just said I'm not doing that, stupid. Are you selectively deaf? If I was the kind who was going to wipe myself out of existence for my mistakes, I think people would have noticed by now via actions instead of misinterpreted words. Trying to improve is the obvious path, and I haven't made mistakes as big as the ones I'm thinking of in a long time.

My sincere apologies for coming to a conclusion based on your expressed opinion. I will accede that you are prone to exaggeration and do not actually wish for the opportunity to stop yourself from coming into being. I'll do my best to avoid expressing concern if you ever repeat such statements in the future.

Stop trying to be such a smart ass. You suck at it and it's annoying. Besides, what do you even care about me hypothetically saying that when I'm an alien from another universe and, unless I am sorely mistaken, neither of us actually like each other?

I don't have to like you to not want you dead, do I?

[What an odd question to ask. Karkat's mouth quirks as he puzzles it over.]

So what then? Do you get that much enjoyment out of being an annoyance to me that you want to keep me around?

I'll admit that I get a small amount of entertainment from it, but no, I'm not that petty. There are very few people I wish death on.

[And just as quick, his expression slips back to unamused.]

Not caring if someone dies and actively wishing them dead are two different things, idiot. For someone who grew up post-conquest you're still awfully human in thinking.

Thanks for the compliment. It's not like there were trolls around to act as role models either, you realize.

... I'll give you that one.

[He can't argue it. There's no way for there to be any other trolls. But as he thinks over that, his expression softens, looking nigh gentle next to the usual look he gives.]

What was it like?

[The change is definitely observed, but Dirk doesn't comment on it, mostly because of the question.]

Boring as shit, mostly. Lucky I had the internet, or I would have gone insane at age four. I taught myself things, explored the underwater ruins of Houston. Talked with Roxy and Jane and Dirk once we got contact. Waited for the drones to show up, only the batterwitch had plans for those and never quite got around to trying to kill me until I was about to enter the game.

[He almost wants to ask if he meant human four or troll four, but figures it doesn't matter. The time it takes the planet to circle the sun doesn't change just because of your conqueror. Either option would be just as unappealing. So he sits back, and he listens, and he tries to take it in.]

... Well, shit.

I'm not going to to put on some douchy front that I know what to say, because I haven't got a fucking clue. It's not exactly in the empire's best interests to show the side of the conquered in any sympathetic light in our media, let alone when wiping them out is the goal, and I never got the chance to meet one personally--not like I'd get the chance or would be likely to care if I had.

[Threshecutioner, force of conquest. He'd be there instead of the drone. His gaze dips away from the screen.]

Shit sucks, I guess, which is woefully inadequate and I feel like an immense tool for saying it.

[Dirk shrugs.]

Yeah, shit sucked. From some of the things she tried to enforce, I'm betting being an average troll wasn't a piece of cake either. Either way, both worlds are destroyed.

I'm not sure who out of us even counts as "average." We already stand out for the whole Sgrub thing - not every troll arrives on meteor or helps end the world and the majority of the species.

I mean, in some ways it was pretty badass? We're supposed to be these fighters who can take on anything, and grow up to conquer whatever's in our way because it's just what we do. And if the empress unaided can take over your planet, that proves enough what I've said about humans before.

But it also sucked in a lot of ways, depending on what shit you got saddled with. I can guarantee you not all of us would have made it to adulthood.

But even with all that, I can't say I ever had the life you did or anything approaching it.

[He reaches up, rubs at a temple.]

I'm still not even sure where I'm going with all this.

I think the only place there is to go with this is a heartfelt 'Screw the Condesce with her own culling fork for screwing various races over, including significant portions of her own.' She tried to revive the trolls on Earth, you know. But every time she got somewhere, her horrorterror of a pet killed them all.

[Karkat snorts a laugh.]

Yeah, I can agree with that. Completely stellar leader, absolute terror to be ruled by.

Seriously, though? She tried that? How did she, even, if she was the only one of us around? But if she couldn't keep her lusus fed, that's her own damn fault.

It was decades before I existed, I'm not sure where she got the materials to try. The only reason I don't care about it is because it didn't kill off humans all at once while it was stomping on her dreams of reviving the trolls.

[Hm.]

If you ever do get to caring, ask Feferi. Obviously she wasn't around, but that thing was her lusus too, so she might know something.

[...]

Which brings up the question of how there was another one, since Feferi prototyped hers when it died, huge thing that it was. Much to our detriment but as you know, we beat the game anyway.

Might be an alternate universe thing. I've never been able to learn much of the catastrophe on her home world that led to her taking over ours. Might be different than what happened to you.

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]

[VIDEO]