vatheon | (no subject)

Who: Karkat Vantas and whoever!
Where: All across Vatheon.
When: Anytime during the week.
Style: Action please!
Status: Open.

[A curse that makes you say the truth no matter what you want is not exactly Karkat's idea of a fun time. He's not much a liar, no, and his worst secret isn't so secret around Vatheon anymore, but that's not the point. What's the point of being open if it's forced from you? And as outwardly prickly a guy as he is, he doesn't want his squishy inside exposed at will.]

[Unfortunately, as is true for every curse, life doesn't stop just because you're inconvenienced. There are groceries to get, his job at a video store to do, the coral to visit, and his usual sickle practice in the park. He tries to avoid people if he can, oh yes, but there's only so much he can do. Even if he evades them outside the hive, he can't exactly send mental waves to stop them from coming to visit him at home, if that's their prerogative. Ultimately, he's bound to run into more annoyance than he'd like. But what else is new?]

(OOC: This is pretty standard! Pick a place to meet him, and feel free to note a specific day if you have one in mind, though the second probably isn't too necessary. If there's any problem I'll let you know.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Annabeth is walking along the plaza with her arms full of architectural drawings when she spots someone she thinks is Karkat walking in the opposite direction. Normally she'd just walk on and let him go, but they've made eye contact now and it'd be rude not to say something. ]

Oh, you're Karkat aren't you. Hey.

[ Plus, this is the first time she's met one of the trolls in person and she can't deny that she's extremely interested to talk to him one on one. ]

[It's pretty hard to miss him. There are only two trolls in Vatheon with his nubby horns at the moment, and the other two is pretty easy to rule out by reasons of age, ridiculous pants, and a penchant for actually smiling. Karkat here likes his waistband at his waist, and his frown leaves only sparingly.]

[By contrast, it takes him a second to recognize Annabeth. He only spoke to her the once so far, and there's a lot more blonde humans in this place.]

Yes. You're that chick from the other day, right? The one from Leo and Percy's world?

[He peers at the bundle in her arms.]

What are those for?

[ It's the frown and short horns Annabeth remembers the most. She's about to prompt him - she figures it makes sense when he doesn't recognise her straight away - when he finally remembers who she is. ] That's right. I'm Annabeth.

Oh, these? [ The drawings rustle as she attempts to rearrange them in her arms. ]

Floorplans for houses around the bubble.

Annabeth, that's it.

[And this time he commits it to memory. She's the smart one out of that little group; she deserves it.]

But what do you have them for? Trying to decide where to live or something?

[ Annabeth would take that as a compliment if she knew, Karkat. With no small amount of pride. ]

Not exactly - we already live in the Coral Corral. But I'm also an architect so I want to design us some place cooler and I need these for reference.

Oh. Boring.

[The word kind of slips out before he can stop it, but he doesn't care much once it has.]

Good luck with that venture, I guess.

Yeah cheers. [ Annabeth says it a little sarcastically, but with no malice. At least you always knew where you stood with Karkat. ]

What do you do for fun then?

Why does everyone ask me that?

[Sigh. But at least she didn't ask it like she doubts he knows the concept.]

Movies, sickle practice, books, games, coding viruses, chatting with the assholes I deign to call my friends, looking after chocobos, going on walks. That enough?

Heh. That's plenty. I mainly asked because I consider architecture fun but I have no clue what else there is to do around here.

[ No Annabeth would never doubt that. Everyone's got a hobby. Even perpetually angry people. ]

...you code viruses?

[He tilts his head a bit.]

And still it fails to strike me why it would be, but knock yourself out if it's what you like.

Yeah, I code them. What about it?

[ smirk ] Don't you ever get pleasure from building something? Anything!

Oh, just, I've never met anyone who actually admitted to doing it. Can you code other stuff? [ Annabeth's not judging... much - Karkat must be pretty clever if he can code something like that. He just won't be allowed to touch her computer without her around. Ever. ]

Pillow forts, I guess? Architectural building isn't a big deal to trolls. We all get to do it when we're fresh out of the Brooding Caverns, and I went through even more of it when my team and I played Sgrub. Trust me, I am as utterly exhausted on the task of building as it is possible to get.

But yeah, I can code other stuff. Sort of. Viruses are the main thing, though.

[A very smart idea if you don't want your computer turned into a fancy paperweight, Annabeth.]

[ Annabeth can't code at all, although it's something she might like to try her hand at one day. ] Do what you're best at, I say.

That's pretty cool that you get to build your own living area though. What's Sgrub - is it like the Sims or something?

[He tilts his head.]

I don't even know what the Sims are. I am not going to explain the whole of Sgrub since, having done it before, I know it takes a long ass time - more than my patience will allow for here. The short version is that it's a game that destroys one world to create another. The slightly more involved version is that a team of players linked in a chain of connections help each other enter the game world proper, build onto each other's hives to help them progress up toward a series of gates above their new lands, fight various enemies for material to do said building, engage in quests of varying stupidity and pseudo-deep coming of age bullshit, defeat the Black King and Queen in some fashion, and shape the form of the new universe that is to be their reward, some more directly or indirectly depending on circumstance. Said universe is literally a giant fucking frog the Space player breeds, for instance, and it's the job of the team leader to clone their teammates and respective species' form of relatives, which, yes, means I did that. There are also more stable time loops than anyone can ever hope to understand, even when every team also requires a Time player to succeed.

Beyond Time and Space, every other player gets their own aspect for their title, the meanings of which are more obvious for some people than for others. I still don't know what a Knight of Blood is supposed to do, but oh fucking well!

[ Annabeth blinks, attempting to process all of this. Which she fails at so she attempts the first and most pressing part. ]

So, wait. You yourself actually had to do this? Not just playing a video game and controlling a two-d character?

[Karkat gives her a very flat look, as if she's just missed the point of his whole explanation.]

Yes, Annabeth, we ourselves did it. Are you just now getting that? Games like that aren't exactly new. The only thing about this one was the scale on which it completely changed everything.

(no subject)

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG

it's totally okay!

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