tiny Gamzee is an utter terror

[bethehugejerk]

Who: Karkat and Gamzee
Where: The Makara-Zahhak hive.
When: Backdated to Monday (the 14th).
Style: Action.
Status: Closed.

[When curses come around, one of the matters of course is seeing how it's affected Gamzee. This is particularly true when issues of taking care of oneself are a potential hazard of the current affliction, and a bidirectional age curse certainly fits the description. That's how he wound up looking after a tiny, grub-aged Eridan long enough for him to be handed into more capable (and willing) hands. Namely his moirail's. But as a moirail himself, Karkat has not, and cannot, forget to do this.]

[The only trouble is, Gamzee hasn't answered any of his messages. Not even when he sent a couple extras trying to prompt him out of a possible daze, as happens often enough. Not even when he gave it a fair wait after.]

[This opens up the chance that he might not be in condition to answer at all. Eridan apparently had trouble posting a video. Who knows if Gamzee even has his SFC somewhere he can reach? That's why, rather than wait longer, Karkat has made his way over to the hive. He knocks. Even if his moirail should be indisposed, for all he knows Equius (or god forbid, Darkleer) might be around and in better condition to answer the door.]

Comments

sorry for this slowness. and the tl;dr

[420]

[Waking up had been weird to say the least. At first Gamzee had been none too aware, rising from the heap of blankets with a yawn and a fist rubbing his eye. Waking up in a pile of blankets wasn't too weird for him. Sometimes he liked to drag a whole bunch of them up to the littlest top block of his hive, the one with the window what for all spying out over the sea, trying to see if his goat was coming back yet. He yawned again, wide and not bothering to cover it up, his tongue automatically going into the gap between his teeth caused by a missing incisor. Between the gums, he could feel the faintest, sharpest start of a new tooth. It really was growing back, just like the ol' goat had said. A grin broke onto his face, and he fought free of the blankets, rising eagerly to check if his goat was back yet so he could show him, coming to a sudden, complete stop when he realized he was somewhere he had never been before. Instinctively he went quiet, even though it sure did feel like his pump was thundering loud enough in his chest for anyone round to hear. Part of him just wanted to dive back under the blankets as if that’d fix stuff, pull them right over his short horns and then maybe if he’d pull them off again, everything’d be back to normal. The other part of him knew what went down here.

Seadwellers.

Seadwellers, after all, were dangerous, real dangerous. His goat had warned him a whole bunch of times about them. They'd probably come during the day and taken him and now they were gonna eat him. And he did not wanna be eaten, no way, no.

Rising cautiously from the pile of blankets, Gamzee nearly tripped over the oddly huge shirt still around him, his mood brightening a little when he spotted the juggling clubs lying underneath the weird square he had been sleeping on before. They were just like his clubs back home. Except bigger. Way bigger.

Hopping down, he grabbed the handle of one of the clubs, starting to drag it along, even though it was far too big for him to wield effectively. Goat had said never leave the hive without some weapon on him or else. He didn’t stop to wonder why there were some weapons so easily available to him, far too young to think the situation through like that. Instead... Instead he was gonna find the seadwellers, and make them not eat him. And bring him back to his hive. He could do it. He could.

Or, you know, just run.

Navigating the stairs in his too big shirt and with the too big club proved to be difficult. Each loud clank had him jerk and spy around just to make sure there wasn’t a seadweller coming to catch him. But luckily, there seemed nobody near. He managed to make it all the way to the front door unscathed when the sudden knocking came. He yelped before he could keep his voice down, quickly grabbing his club and retreating away from the door, too panicky to care about keeping quiet. He managed to make it all the way across the hive, into the food preparation block, but there, the back door stumped him. Well, not the door itself so much as what laid beyond it.

Huge warking beasts, and some tiny honking flapbeast made him stumble back quickly, eventually retreating to the safest spot: underneath the kitchen table. The table cloth gave him a bit of cover as he sat there, heart pounding behind his ribs, gripping his club tight. If the seadweller came in here he was ready. Totally ready. So ready.

... he wished his goat were here.]

[bethehugejerk]

[Karkat had no such adventure when the curse set in. Mostly he was just taller all of a sudden and had to relocate the clothes he had from last time this curse happened. Clothes Eridan got for him, on that note, which mean maybe the style's less plain, even if he courteously kept to his usual taste in colors. (Why not get rid of them after the fact? Simple: they'd have use eventually, and there's no telling when a curse will make you taller.)]

[But all that is aside from current concerns. Of all responses he expected to his knock, a yelp and the thump of running feet and (and something else he can't identify) are not particularly on the list.]

Gamzee?

[More to call a name than any solid guess - he's never heard any of the hive's occupants young enough to tell their yelps apart. Regardless of who made it, why a yelp in the first place? Being startled would be one thing, but the retreating noise is unmistakeably that of someone fleeing, by why do that at only a knock?]

[In that light, something more than usual must be going on, but that doesn't mean he can't try to get his attention. He calls out, voice loud to carry past the door:]

Dude, it's Karkat. Gamzee, if that's you, I'm not going to hurt anything. Just come let me in and we'll sort this out.

[Of course, for all what he says, he's still an adult troll calling out to him. It may well be a long shot to hope for a good response after the reaction he first received. Still he waits, and he listens, and he hopes it's not Darkleer or Equius freaking out on the other side. Then again, he didn't hear anything break. Would they even run, with their strength?]

[Eventually it becomes clear that he's not getting any answer, and he'll have to try something else. So, why not go in through the front door?]




[It's locked.]

[Well, shit. If Equius lives here, he knows he has jack shit chance of busting in, and that option's not ideal to begin with. There's damage to piss off his kismesis, and then there's just making a mess for his moirail. Besides, sense hardly dictates that it would calm whoever's hiding out on the other side of the hive.]

[Speaking of which, there is a door over there! Even if the front door's locked, there's still hope for that one, and there's no point in not trying the option before resorting to something drastic. Besides, if possibly-Gamzee-possibly-not is closer to it, maybe he can try conversation from that angle.]

[The trip around is easy enough. A short walk, one hopped fence, some animals waved at - yeah, yeah, calm your feathery imagined rumblespheres - and Karkat is at the back door. There he pauses. Should he call out again? Would it make a difference? If the door's locked, though, it won't mean much. In that light, he decides to straight up try the handle--]

[--and it opens, revealing his towering height of 5'8", fearsome armor made from slacks and a button-down shirt, and stubby-nailed hands utterly devoid of weapon. What a terror.]

[420]

[Gamzee ducks into a tighter little ball when he hears the door open, his chubby fists gripping the handle of his club tighter. Not, mind you, that he can honestly wield that thing right. He can't even wield the tiny little clubs he got back home right, can't even juggle them yet. He tries to keep his breath still, though it is probably just coming out a skittery little puffs. It's like that time the big seadweller had come up on his sands, with the big sharp teeth and the shiny little flickblade, but his goat had been there that time to handle it and now...

He can hear the seadweller's steps come closer, and oh god, oh man, he's coming right here. He's gonna eat him. He doesn't wanna be eaten!

With his heart thundering and his eyes pricking with unshed tears of sheer fright, he finally reacts in a burst of instinct when he spies the seadweller's legs draw right up to the table. With a loud roar --he is trying to mimic the noise his goat makes when angry, but in reality it sounds more like a chittery, squeaked honk-- he swings the club he had been hold outwards, aiming the thick part right at the seadweller's knee.]

[bethehugejerk]

[Okay, where is he? With the door open and the kitchen laid out before him, Karkat can certainly see in the house, but not wherever whichever kid it is ran off to. Probably hiding, he figures. Maybe he found a different place while he was heading around back, or caught on when he yelled at the birds. It wouldn't be unthinkable. Still, he has to be here somewhere, and so he steps on inside. It works to Gamzee's advantage that Karkat isn't on full alert: he wants to find him, but why think of the situation as a threat? It's just a kid he's looking for, right?]

[It's at the table that he pauses. He has no intent to quit the search, but where to go from]

SLIMESQUIRTING LUMP OFF AN INFECTED TOAD, FUCK!

[Here. Here is where he's staying, or hopping, honk ringing in his ears as he clutches at his struck knee because ow, that is not a nice place to hit. Even if Gamzee can't wield it effectively, Karkat's eyes still squeeze shut at the burst of pain. He obviously can't see what he's doing.]

[Which is why, when they open, it's as he loses balance. WHUMP.]

[Gamzee: There is an adult crumpled on your floor, spitting swears, clutching still at his knee. What will you do?]

[420]

[Gamzee: > Level up. You have defeated the adult. You are the winner. It is you.

Winners always tremble after winning, right? That is just a winners' thing, probably.

Gamzee scrambles out from under the table, clutching his club tightly. His legs are set spread, but the confidence in the position is lost on account of the way he is still slightly trembling, and the way his voice has pitched. Sure the adult is down now, but that loud yell had actually been scary enough to get a few tears outta him, still stubbornly clinging to his freckly cheeks.]

N-now... gimme back my goat. Or I'm gonna hit you again. I will.

[bethehugejerk]

[Karkat peers at Gamzee through squinted eyes when he hears that scramble, and moreso when the kid goes to yell at him. Yeah, that is definitely him. He knows the freckles, the curve of the horns, the curly mess of hair. More definitely, the oversized shirt he's got on and the club held in his hand. The sound of his voice still rings off in his ears, but he supposes the youth in it will just take getting used to.]

[And frankly, it's hard not to feel bad for him. Sure, he's mad at the little shit for hitting him, but this kid is lost and confused and without his lusus, and waking up in a place like this is probably all the more confusing when you're young. Karkat doesn't know why or how, but it's obvious he doesn't remember him. His name would have surely rung bells when he called it earlier, otherwise.]

I don't have your goat.

[His knee still hurts - probably going to bruise - and he hisses to move it, but he goes to sit anyway. His movements are slow, one hand held out empty, down. No weapon, claws away. His gaze is steady beyond the occasional wince or two.]

Shh, okay? You keep your club to yourself, because I'm not going to hurt you. Shooosh. You already got my knee just fine.

[420]

[When Karkat sits up, Gamzee draws back a little warily. He doesn't need him telling him he can keep the club. He wasn't particularly thinking of giving it up. As Karkat sits up though, he's starting to realize this is something he has never seen before]

... You're not a seadweller.

[He hasn't really noted the significance of the red eyes yet. His knowledge of the hemospectrum was rather vague at best. He was better than anyone, he knew that. But the idea of something like a mutant troll occurring was nothing that could fit into his head just yet.]

[bethehugejerk]

[Not really what he meant, but so long as Gamzee's not swinging the thing around anymore, Karkat has no complaints. He keeps his struck leg out in the most comfortable position he can find for it, but bends the other in, sitting halfway to cross-legged.]

No, not hardly. Not by half.

[Normally? His eyes would be a big concern. But this is Gamzee, the troll who found out first, if only through that time he was crying over Sollux's death. It's hard to ponder him getting worked up over mutant blood. Besides, hurt knee or no, he's gone up against worse in his time.]

See the sides of my face? No fins. I am graceless as it gets in the water, and would sooner stay dry than go trying to soak salt into my bones.

I'm going to make the reasonable guess that you've got jack shit clue what's going on, so go ahead and ask questions. I'll answer what I can for you.

[He has no clue where to start explaining otherwise. This is a unique situation he's in, and he's figuring it out as he goes. Maybe this will help Gamzee trust him more, at least.]

[420]

[This is certainly a weird thing, standing here, talking to an adult, talking to the first ever non-seadwelling troll he had ever seen. (The goat had never seen to mentioning much about how to deal with non-seadwelling trolls) But all in all, there is one thing that immediately rises to his mind and lips.]


... your horns are tiny.

[Yeah, okay, the shitty mental filter apparently wasn't a new thing. Who knows. Did Karkat drop one of the grubs while ecto-biologically cloning them?]

[bethehugejerk]

[Rude, Gamzee. Karkat's expression goes flat.]

They aren't tiny, you brat, they're just different than yours. And didn't I tell you to ask questions? That wasn't even phrased like one.

[He might have. He had that many to look after, after all.]

[420]

[As always, it was all past Karkat's fault.

Gamzee draws up to his full, rather tiny height, balefully glaring at Karkat.]

M'not a brat, you're a brat!

[bethehugejerk]

[It is a nice feeling to be taller than Gamzee for once, without aid of borrowed bodies for the effect. It's not so nice to see him mad again, and Karkat sighs inwardly for causing it.]

Shoooshh, Gamzee. Shhhshh. I don't mean it badly, okay? I promise to you so true even your lusus would believe it, that if I want to actually cause harm with what I say, you will know it because it'll take me half a minute or so to say it all. What I want is to help you, alright?

[420]

[The shooshing is a little odd. That is nothing anyone has ever done for him, unless you want to count the way his lusus will comfortingly snuff his hair after returning from a trip out at sea. Gamzee looks a little uncertain for it, but the mention of his lusus does neatly bring the topic back to where it had originally strayed from.]

Where's my lusus! What did you done to him?

[bethehugejerk]

[It worked when he was rampaging on the meteor. If it doesn't work on Gamzee now, then he'll declare hope as dead as if Eridan had handled it himself. Its status nonetheless wavers as his lusus comes back to the forefront of the conversation, prompting Karkat to frown, because really, he can't say he has no fault in its fate. He is the one who was stupid enough to run Sollux's virus. If not for that curse...]

[How does he even word this? At the very least, he can have the decency to look him in the eye; the apologetic expression isn't even a ruse with how he feels.]

He's not here. I can't bring him back, and I can't bring you to anywhere he would be. If I could, I would have done it by now, because him being gone isn't anything I wanted for you.

[He rubs a hand at the side of his face.]

But I do know where to find a toy that looks like him. And yeah, I know, that's not even half as good as the real thing. Nothing ever is as good as actually having your lusus there. I know, because mine is gone too. But if you want that toy, I can get it for you--and if you don't trust me, then follow me, and you can judge what I do for yourself.

[420]

[While it is certainly true their moirallegience is of the serendipitous sort, really the kind that deserves being made into a movie, probably staring Troll Will Smith and maybe Troll Keanu Reeves too if they weren't both, you know, really dead and gone, it is not in fact as magical as Gamzee likes to think it is. It comes down to trust a lot. Understanding. Both things that Gamzee is currently utterly lacking on account of never having met Karkat before ever. He doesn't even know his name! Which puts a bit of a crimp in Karkat's abilities to shoosh him. Luckily for the world, Gamzee is not even three sweeps old, and even at his worst, he couldn't exactly kill anyone.

Probably.

Gamzee chews his lip a little, watching Karkat. He's still wary, but it is not like the lack of a lusus is something completely new on him.]

Did he go for a trip again?

[bethehugejerk]

[That's the thing of it. Karkat might feel bad for the kid this week, certainly so, he's not who his moirail is. Not in the details of it, in the knowing, or in any right circumstance. The best he can do is try to make things a bit better for him while the week goes. And it's in knowing that, the he knows too he can't hug him and pap him calm over the fate of his lusus. So it's hard, is what it is. He doesn't want to lie about it. He feels like he owes him better than dishonesty. But still, it's a kid, younger than he was when he lost his--or when Gamzee technically lost his own. Telling him would be greater upset than he deserves, and it wouldn't serve any purpose.]

You... can think of like that.

[He doesn't look at him that time.]

That's the best I can give you right now. And I promise, you'll understand everything in a week. Every messed up thing about this now will make sense then.

[He feels like such an ass.]

Do you want the toy or no?

[420]

Yeah. But I'm comin' with to.

[He still doesn't really trust this guy, though the fact that he is not a seadweller means he is probably okay enough. Right. his goat had always only warned him off seadwellers.

Hmm. Better make sure though.]

But if you're being like all untrue and stuff, when my goat comes back I'mma make him eat you. Like RAWhonk.

[He tries to imitate his lusus' angry honking again, snapping his teeth at Karkat.]

[bethehugejerk]

[Tiny Gamzee isn't that intimidating. Karkat only stops short of thinking "adorable" because that's both a stupid word, and the little shit still clubbed him in the knee earlier.]

Tell you what, you little terror. If your lusus shows up, I will step dutifully into his gaping, goaty maw myself, turn and give the most gracious and deferential bow your mop-haired lobe has ever seen and ever will, and accept my fate with dignity. Sonnets will be written to how this here douchelord got what was coming to him: salty, honking justice and uncomfortable trip down a protein chute.

[Now, with some wincing, he clambers back onto his feet. It is still weird to be this much taller than Gamzee.]

Come on, it's upstairs.

[Sore knee and all, he'll lead the way.]

[420]

You talk alot.

[Gamzee follows though, dragging his club behind him. He makes sure not to get too close to Karkat --or rather makes a rough-ish attempt at staying far enough from him, though in reality he could probably easily be caught-- slowing down a bit more when they start climbing the stairs, his club thudding into every step.]

You know this one time a seadweller did came and the goat done ate his butt.

[thud]

Alls his guts came out.

[thud]

It was cool.

[bethehugejerk]

You just noticed?

[Seriously, little Gamzee, get with the program. You don't even have the excuse of sopor this week for low processing speed.]

[But anyway, on up the stairs it is. Karkat doesn't go too quick, so as to allow his tiny moirail (and club) to keep pace, even if it puts him in close range of the clunks. Asking him to stow it wouldn't be met well, he's sure. No reason to make him feel unsafe for lack of defense.]

[It also means he hears the story quite clearly. He stares over the back of his shoulder.]

You are one weird little kid.

[Then he's moving forward again, eyes ahead.]

Not that my lusus was much different. He tried to eat any kid he came across, sooner or later. Just this big angry crab screeching at shit, clicking his claws like life was his own personal rage fiesta.

[A bit down the hall, he reaches a door. There he pauses with his hand on the handle.]

Be careful in here, alright? There's important stuff in there that you shouldn't break, and not for my sake. It's one of the things you'll understand once the week is over.

[He's sure Gamzee would be upset if his tiny self wrecked Wataru's old room. He'll wait for a confirmation before opening it.]