[backdated]

[pythianjudgment]

Who| Terezi, Cuthbert, and Karkat
What| Meeting up with friends
Where| Fourth floor
When| Mid-Late Week 3, after the volcano eruption
Warnings/Notes| None?



By the third week, the masks were becoming more and more of a chore to wear. She found herself feeling restless and irritable at times, usually when swapping out mask after mask after mask. It wasn't a good feeling, but the advantage of knowing what was coming was priceless.

Such an advantage posed itself near the middle of week three, when Terezi suddenly grabbed Karkat's good arm and ushered him towards an elevator. "They're going to wipe out the third and second floors," she explained. "We need to get to higher ground."

Higher ground meant leaving behind the edible plants, the masks, and the gift shop. Higher ground also meant not burning to death. So, Terezi shoved as much as she could into her and Karkat's backpacks before high-tailing it out of there.

Next stop was the Fourth Floor.

It didn't take them long to find a place to make camp. There were more than enough large skeletons to hide in and around, and they had the fortune luck of knowing which ones would and wouldn't be disturbed in the near future. A few hours later, they could feel the rumble of the volcano going off a floor below them. So much for their old stomping ground...

Comments

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat winces when he hears the volcano go off. It's a good thing, he tells himself, it cuts down on the competition and those are all people they won't have to fight later, but, shit, lava's a pretty nasty way to die.

"I'm really fucking glad," he says, "that you've been Seering for us. I don't think I'd have lasted a night without you, not as a fucking cripple. You... you can have my share of the masks we've got left. You're more effective using them than I am."

[tis_allgood]

Cuthbert has been prowling for interesting prey for a bit now. He has enough food to last a couple of days, more if he and Susannah ration carefully, but he won't say no to any extra. Nor would he say no to extra supplies of any kind.

The sounds of quiet talking bring him closer and he's about to pounce on them with his knife out when he finally sees who it is.

"Karkat?! God and the man Jesus, I could have killed you!"

He hasn't noticed Terezi yet, he's too excited to see his favorite little bug.

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi jumps at the unexpected voice, her sectioned staff finding its way into her hand before she realizes who it is. Cuthbert. Not a threat, her mind registers.

"Not that I would have let you," Terezi responds to his exclamation, simultaneously asserting her presence. She would have Seen if stopping here would have gotten Karkat killed. He wouldn't have gotten anywhere near them if that were the case.

She relaxes a little, trying to curb her jumpiness. It's only Cuthbert, but she still has the urge to conspicuously place herself between the two. "Nice to know you're still fairing well."

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat raises his good hand in greeting. "Hey, asshole," he says, in what very nearly passes for a friendly tone with him. "Who the fuck's the Man Jesus? And what the fuck are you even wearing?"

Because seriously, what the fuck?

[tis_allgood]

Bert is just a little bit offended, because he's grown attached to his hiding pajamas. He's also offended that Terezi would get between them possessively. This is not the meeting he was expecting at all.

"I suppose I owe you my thanks, for keeping this fool safe." He'd rather address Terezi than Karkat right now.

"So far as he is safe. I've been doing well, myself. As odd as this place is, there seems to be a good amount of everything. I even got myself a handful of bullets. Anyone who has a problem with how I've done and what I'm wearing are welcome to kiss my easily accessed ass."

He shifts the bag on his back to indicate where he's keeping his bullets, as if it was in question.

[pythianjudgment]

"Aside from initially trying to attack an armed guy while wielding plush claw hands? Yeah. He's fine." Her tone voices the extent of how stupid she still thinks that idea was. She's not going to stop thinking it was phenomenally stupid any time soon, and he's probably not going to be living that down, either.

But she will deign to stop talking about him like he's not right there.

"A Jesus is something kind of like a Jegus, but less cool. Kind of like Cuthbert's easily accessible ass. The less cool part, I mean."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Shut up," Karkat hisses. "That was almost half a fucking perigee ago, okay? It was the thrill on the fucking battle!" He glares at her, before looking up at Bert. "Bullets? Holy shit, do you think they're going to hand out guns at some point?"

He hopes they do. He knows how much Bert misses his precious guns. Which reminds him...

"I finally got my hands on a sickle," he says proudly, holding it up. "If it weren't for the fucked arm I'd have two, but it's better than nothing. I mugged some weird human kid with it." He grabs one of Orc's planet-shaped bouncy balls and throws it at Bert. "See?"

[tis_allgood]

Bert narrows his eyes at Terezi. "Shouldn't you lick my ass before you make any judgement toward it?" Which isn't entirely an invitation, but Cuthbert happens to think he has a fine ass, thank you very much.

"And I see no reason for bullets to go out to anyone if guns aren't to follow. We may yet both be able to use our weapons of choice." He is entirely underwhelmed at the mugging Karkat did.

"Is that all you got? They don't seem edible. What use could they be?"

[pythianjudgment]

"I can smell it from here," she shoots back at Cuthbert's remark. There is no way that she's going to even joke about putting her tongue anywhere near someone's behind. That's just gross to think about.

She doesn't have any remark to make about Cuthbert having use of a gun, though. There's only been three other gun wielders that she's known in her life. Two were colossal douchebags, and the third was an annoying human girl. Not exactly impressive competition.

"Maybe you'll get lucky and someone will send you one. If your charming personality has managed to win you any fans."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"I dunno," Karkat says, "the Capitol girls seem to like him. He gets regular articles in Capitol Stripebeast Rhythm. They even had us pose together for a few. But she's right about the ass, Bert. Even I can smell it from here."

He's kind of annoyed that nobody cares about his colored rubber bouncing spheres except for Kankri, who cares for exactly the wrong reasons. And that just makes him think of what Kankri did and he has to look away from Bert, because how the shit is he supposed to explain that? But he'll have to, he doesn't want Bert to find out from stupid fucking reruns.

[tis_allgood]

"My ass smells like roses compared to you two." Bert snaps defensively. He's starting to regret meeting up with them like this. He feels like the third wheel, which isn't that far from the truth since he's the only human among them not to mention late to this party.

"Besides, I didn't think you were jealous of the ladies in my life, grasshopper. You have your own pointy woman to deal with and a good sickle for your good arm."

He turns back to Terezi to ask. "Do you know where any of the other trolls are? I ran into Kankri not too long ago, and the Helmsman nearly scared me shitless. But I've not seen my Nepeta yet, nor heard of her death. I should like to add her to our group as soon as we can."

tenderly sneaks in out of order

[sleeplessinalternia]

"She's not my woman!" Karkat interjects a little too loudly.

[pythianjudgment]

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear anything from either of you. For both your sakes." Nevermind the fact that she doesn't want to be associated with being Karkat's anything, but the way that Cuthbert says it sounds degrading to her ears. She's pretty sure that no one likes to be referred to as something to be 'dealt with'.

"I ran into the older Leijon a while back," she continues, crossing her arms over her chest. "She was doing well. I don't know where Nepeta is... Or any of the other trolls for that matter."

She could scry for them... maybe. It's a little harder to just randomly search timelines until you find one where you might bump into someone, and that still doesn't tell you where they are right now.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"I ran into Kankri a second time," Karkat says, "but that's about all." He doesn't volunteer the details of the encounter. Not with Terezi around. He's pretty sure she already thinks he's fickle as fuck and this isn't going to help things. "Nepeta's probably doing okay, though. There hasn't been an announcement about her yet and she knows how to take care of herself."

[tis_allgood]

Bert rolls his eyes at both of them (mostly Karkat) and his transparently desperate issues.

"I've been listening to the announcements the same as you, but just because she hasn't been called back yet doesn't mean she's okay. I'm worried, and I can't seem to find anyone in this godforsaken place. You know how long it took me to find the two of thee."

He pouts a little, nothing is going the way it was supposed to. He hadn't counted on Terezi being there, nor had he counted on Karkat being injured or any of the other things that have kept him busy the last couple of weeks.

[pythianjudgment]

"Have you really been looking for us all this time? I'm touched," Terezi drawls, a bit of sarcasm in her tone, but she means well. She knows how frustratingly lonely it is to wander these arenas and not know where anyone else is. Sill, she doesn't think that Cuthbert has actually been looking for them all this time--Karkat maybe, but not her.

"I can try to scry for her, if you want me to, but I can't promise any results."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Terezi gets her Seer powers back when she wears the masks," Karkat informs Bert. "It's kept us alive better than anything. We know when it's okay to rest--where it's okay to rest--and where to go to find food. And it kept us from dying when they wiped out those two floors, even though we were hiding on one of them, because she knew to take us up here."

[tis_allgood]

He really hadn't been looking for Terezi, but more because he thought she could and would take care of herself on her own. He didn't think the same of Karkat. He addresses Terezi about being a Seer.

"So you have the Touch, then? I should have expected, since you cannot see as most do. But you've no need to waste your skills for me. You clearly haven't so far or we would have met already."

Two can play at the biting sarcasm game. As well as the ignore Karkat while he's talking game.

[pythianjudgment]

"It doesn't work like that," Terezi responds to Cuthbert, dry and irritable. It's one thing to ask for any clues about Nepeta's whereabouts. It's another to dismiss her offer with a rebuke like that.

"I can't just pick an end result, find it in the writhing mass of timelines, and guide us temporally to that time point. That's like seeing a path in the distance and trying to get there by tracing roads back from it. You don't even know if it's connected to the road you're on, first of all; and second, if it does connect and it's somewhere behind you? Too bad. You can't go back in time and change the choice that brought you there to begin with.

"It's a complicated ability, so don't be a bulgesack over not getting to hang out with Karkat in a murder game. I'm sure you'll get to impress him later."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Oh my fucking god," Karkat says disgustedly, "I'm right in fucking front of you two." He snorts. "Look, as far as I've ever been able to tell, what she does is pick a thing for us to do and then Seers to find out what'll happen if we do it. We find a hiding spot to rest at, she checks to see how long we'll be safe there. Shit like that."

[tis_allgood]

He's going to try and ignore Karkat as long as possible. Especially when he knows how much it gets to him.

"I'm not upset for not getting to pall around with Little Lord Tiny-Horns. But the two of us have been successful hunters together before and I have a long standing promise to try and keep him safe. 'Tis not so easy to do when I cannot even meet up with him.

"If anyone is being a bulgesack 'tis this nook licker here." He points at Karkat. "He was content to moon after you and follow and didn't give a flea's shit over what happened to me!"

[pythianjudgment]

"He didn't moon after me," Terezi shoots back, giving Cuthbert what amounts to a very wary look. "He was almost stabbed to death in the initial fray. I grabbed him and ran. So you can get over your abandonment complex."

Not the nicest thing she's ever said to Cuthbert, but she's a little tired of the implications being thrown at her. First the remark about being his woman, and now this.

"If you're that unhappy with the idea that he has been traveling with me, then maybe I should leave you be."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Jegus fuck, Bert," Karkat says irritably. "I kept my eye out as best as I fucking could for you. In case you haven't noticed, one of my arms is pretty fucking useless right now! I can lift it about four inches right now before the pain gets unbearable and that's better than it is last week. So yeah, I fucking stayed close to Terezi as long as I could! I knew I'd be safe with her! Yes, it was fucking cowardly, no, I don't fucking care if it was. And you can stop being such a jealous little wiggler because in case you haven't fucking noticed, she's not interested in me now! We're friends now, that's fucking all."

That wasn't to say Karkat hadn't been mooning over her a little, but still, Bert didn't get to throw accusations like that.

[tis_allgood]

"You have eyes in your hands now? You trolls are odder and odder every time i meet up with you."

Sass achieved, he turns to Terezi again. "I think it best that you keep him. There's far too much killing and work to do on my part to have to babysit a broken wiggler on top of it."

And then as an afterthought. "I am glad to see you both alive and well, and my thanks to you, Terezi, for keeping my grasshopper in roughly one piece."