caughtinanetwork | 043 ♋ [VIDEO]

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043 ♋ [VIDEO]

[Appearing on screen is a troll, grey-skinned and scowling, utterly unamused as he holds up a tan choker with a heart design. Guess who Sandy Claws visited?]

Thank you, Vatheon, for this pointless and utterly useless gift. This is definitely what I wanted, and you have outdone yourself in practice of earth holidays. I actually liked the stupid lobster until it went and left me this piece of crap.

But if other posts and personal discovery have told me anything, things have been lost and sent where they don't belong. So, I'll make the guess that this thing actually belongs to someone, which is the one saving grace to stop me from throwing it out with the trash. You're welcome.

... On that same subject, though.

[He shifts, coughs.]

If anyone has a--it should look like a crab monster, okay? This white crab thing, a completely badass one. If you have it, just contact me in private and I'll come get it, alright?

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You, too?

[What the hell, is Kid is a glutton for punishment, or what?]

It seems nearly everyone missing one of their belongings also received a gift from a mysterious benefactor. Furthermore... Maka, too, mentioned something that may imply that the two incidents are connected.

[That makes a few now who have come to an identical conclusion.]

You lost a... white crab?

Edited 2012-12-17 01:48 (UTC)

I wouldn't be surprised. That lobster had to get this ugly thing from somewhere.

[He must have set it down or put it in his sylladex, though, as it's not to be seen now.]

It wouldn't be the first time this place has messed up a holiday, either - though at least last Christmas we actually got worthwhile gifts.

And don't ask about the crab, alright? If you're not the one who has what I'm talking about, then the details patently do not matter in this conversation.

[Consider the matter of that crab-monster something to be promptly dropped, accompanying a gesture Kid makes, tapping his mouth with a finger. He won't ask further.]

Since last Christmas... how long have you been here, if you don't mind me asking?

[Good of him to do it. Karkat's shoulders ease, as does his expression.]

It'll be two years as of January first. Not continuously since there were about five days I was gone when they sent me back to the veil last year, but those hardly count since I kept my memory of this place when they brought me back.

Do you find it to be a relief to remember, or a burden?

[That is, after all, quite a long time to be captive, even in as lovely a water-bound cage as this one.

Kid's still not really sure how he feels, personally, about having a whole life here that he doesn't even remember. To hear someone else's take on the matter interests him.]

A relief.

[He hardly even hesitates to think on it.]

Not everything I remembered is happy, not by a long shot, but there were things that happened that were important and that I learned from. I'd be hurting people more if I didn't remember - not that I would personally be able to help it - and then literally, because I know I would have wanted someone dead despite being his moirail here at the time.

And I like this place. This is pretty much my home now, and it was then too. Not perfect, not without huge pains in the ass on a regular basis, but better than what I came from.

[Learning.

That's key, but he's the son of the god who headmasters a prestigious academy. Life without those valuable experiences that teach you something, that's just passing time, accomplishing nothing.]

Not to deviate too much from the subject, but your... "moirail"? Is someone you would otherwise have hated?

The moirail I had at the time, who for the record is different from the one now, but I'm not going into the details. And yes, if I only knew what I did from the veil, that's all I would have felt. I wanted him dead for it, not to help him. And that's without knowing all the things that happened here, what I had already taught him and so on.

That's a fine example of how different things would be, had you forgotten what had happened here previously.

[Although, he's still not so sure Kid's better off not remembering.]

But something changed anyway, didn't it? You speak of him in the past tense.

No shit it is. I'm the one who went through it.

[He frowns a little at the latter part.]

Like I said, I'm not his moirail now. The rest isn't really important.

[Kid, he does not want to tell you about spiked punch and quadrant flipping.]

I don't understand.

From what you told me earlier about moirallegiance, I would have thought losing a moirail would be a very significant occurrence. Do you really mean it's not important?

[Kid. Kid, please. You're doing that 'doggedly asking questions with no brain to mouth filter' thing again. CALM YOUR CURIOSITY.]

[Karkat rubs a hand across his face.]

Yes, losing a moirail is a "very significant occurrence". But I didn't lose him, I--

[...]

[ . . . ]

If I tell you "it's none of your goddamn business", will you back off, or keep prying like your sniff node is magnetized to my personal life? Be honest.

I'm always honest with you.

[Just not always especially forthcoming, and when he is, he's blunt.]

It would be rude to persist at that point, but it would do nothing to satisfy my curiosity. I have absolutely no plans to use such information for any purpose, except to understand you and your kind better.

Seeing as I'm not a reaper of your world, it really is 'none of my business'.

[Well, honesty is good. Bluntness is another thing, but at least Kid won't mess around with him. That makes it easier in a way to measure what he's said - to take it and weigh the courses of action against each other. What does he get from not telling him? Would he lose anything to at least state the basics? What might Eridan think, too?]

[Ultimately he exhales, giving in with the breath.]

We flipped quadrants to matespritship, and I wound up moirails with Gamzee not long after. But I'm not sharing the details of why, so make do with that much.

[From Kid, there is little at first but a surprised blink.]

Oh. Your feelings for him changed.

[That's significant, too, but he'd thought it had been something like 'he got sent out of the bubble' or 'he never woke up', like a certain blue-haired martial artist/loudmouth.]

That clears that up, thank you.

[Karkat blinks back. While the other option might occur to him normally, right now he doesn't think of it.]

What kind of thing were you thinking, if not that?

In hindsight, it sounds a little melodramatic, but I had at first thought something had separated you both.

Such as being sent out of here, or entering a supine state that none can wake him from. I'm glad nothing so tragic happened, of course.

The thing about sleep comas here is that people wake up from them eventually. Sure, it can take time, even ridiculous lengths of it, but it happens. Those are comparatively safe.

[But now he frowns a bit, looking down from the screen.]

But I'm not going to just pretend people leaving and forgetting can't be a problem, because it does happen, and I've had it happen to me in other cases. Cases that I'm not talking about because the details aren't important. Sometimes things work out, and sometimes they don't, but somewhere along the way they are guaranteed to find giant hoofbeast bulge and suck like a black hole.

Do they?

[They eventually wake up? Do you see this hopefulness, Karkat? Because it sure is a thing!

Right, let's get back to the subject.]

...If you don't mind another question, what's the longest you've heard of one remaining asleep before waking again?

Yes, they do. I've seen people in them, heard about others, and been through one myself. They're harmless, just annoying and unpredictable.

The longest I know of is two months.

Two months at the longest, and then they wake?

I said it's the longest I know of. It's not like it's a time limit where you get to say, "Hey shithead, wake up!" and they do. They wake up when they wake up, and the best you can do is wait and look after the body until then.

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043 ♋ [VIDEO]

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