Karkat's Neighbor

Explanations And Such

Karkat's eyes went wide; he dropped his sickle and covered his arm with his left hand. "Did you see?" 

"What, red? Yeah, so you're a lowblood. What's the big deal? I can help if you want. A snap of my fingers and it'll stop bleeding." He narrowed his eyes, and stared into mine. We sat in silence for a few moments. I started thinking maybe he thought I'd go crazy and attack him too. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I mean it'll hurt for a second but it won't be that bad." He tilted his head, looking a bit weary.

"What shade of red did you see?" He asked slowly.

I hesitated a second. "Well I didn't catch the shade, just red. Why? Are you a rustblood?" Rustbloods, or burgundy, rather, were the lowest on the hemospectrum. I didn't like using that slur, but since the bullying started I'd been trying my hardest to be more uncaring and unkind. If my earlier outburst was any indication, my efforts were definitely not in vain. It still wasn't in my nature to be cruel and ruthless like other trolls. But being kindhearted is sure to get you culled.

"Redbloods are the most common, why hide it? I don't get it. Why do you always wear gray?" I looked back at his wound and my jaw dropped. The brightest red I'd ever seen was dripping from between his gray fingers. Without thinking I started pushing him to his hive. Whatever the hell was going on, I'd bet he'd get culled on the spot if anyone else saw.

I'd never been inside his hive before. The whole thing was as dark as most trolls would have it, maybe even darker. He went immediately to his respite block, and I followed behind at his heels. I was surprised he let me in after him, and he slammed the door behind us.

In one corner was his purple recuperacoon, in another he had a desk with a purple husktop, if I didn't know any better I'd think it was his favorite color. But considering I didn't know better, maybe it was. He had a bunch of movie posters plastering his walls, most all of them were cheesy romcoms. It seemed he had a fondness for Troll Will Smith.

Karkat paced around his block, trying to figure out what to say, tightening his grip on his arm. I reached out for it. He grimaced and eventually, complied. I rolled up his sleeve to just over his elbow to expose the cut. He looked away in disgust. It was a decent sized gash, but luckily wasn't deep enough to worry about too much. I snapped my fingers next to it to singe the skin together. He hissed in pain and clenched his jaw, but didn't pull away. I pulled a cloth and bottle of water out of my sylladex, and started clearing away the remaining blood. We sat there in silence for a while as I tended to his wound. "Well now I get the gray sign on your shirt." I muttered.

"What is wrong with you?" he asked, shaking his head. "You almost kill four other trolls, and then you try to help the fucking mutant. Why even help me at all? Why not just get me culled like a normal, sensible troll?"

I laughed to myself. From my perspective, 'normal' and 'sensible' were complete opposites with most trolls. I debated voicing that observation, but that's most likely just the way my lusus raised me. She'd been very involved in my life and we were very fond of each other, which wasn't usually the case with most others.

Oh, look at that. A flying subject change. "Why were they after you, Karkat? What did you do to piss them off?" He shifted his weight, taking off his torn shirt to replace it. Wow, that boy had a nice body. But I digress. He pulled on a new shirt, the same as the black long sleeved one with the gray sign he'd been just wearing. He pulled his chair over and offered it to me, taking another out of his sylladex. He kept a freaking chair with him. What a weirdo. I sat down and waited for his answer.

"I just went out to get a new movie. They were beating up this kid, he's a bronze blood, Tavros. I was thinking about trying to stop them, but this girl, Vriska, came up and told them to fuck off, saying the only one allowed to beat him up was her. Of course they went to gang up on her next, but she used her creepy mind control on them and made them apologize to her. Then she left and since they didn't want to get humiliated like that again they left Tavros alone. Then they noticed me watching. I guess they usually just go after lowbloods, because they tried to figure out what color mine was. But I started walking away without answering. That just pissed them off and they followed me. So I came back here, didn't even get my goddamn movie. Then they grabbed me and said they'd find out what color my blood was, and then...Well you basically saw the rest."

"Sounds like them," I replied, nodding. He scratched the back of his head and looked down. "What did you do?" He asked.

I scoffed. "What you almost did. My lusus was really nice and basically taught me the kinder you are, the happier you'll be. So when I saw them picking on this girl, a little olive blood, I tried to step in and tell them to stop. They were teasing her for living in a cave instead of a hive. How stupid of a reason was that?" I sighed. "One of them pushed me down and sat on me and told the others to keep going. I was pretty weak then, still am I guess, so I couldn't get him off of me. But apparently her moirail was in town. Some sweaty guy, who came over and started beating the ever-living shit out of them, while she just stood there giggling. The funny thing is, I'm not sure she'd even needed help. While he was dealing with them, she came over and tackled the guy off of me and started threatening him with her claws almost like she thought it was a game. Then the two of them just left. And the four guys decided I would make an easy target. And you know the rest, mostly.

He took than in for a moment. "Nepeta and Equius, I think. Sounds like them. Maybe these guys are targeting my friends or something. Maybe I should warn Terezi. "

"Oh? Who's Terezi?" I wondered aloud.

"Oh, she's my...my uh...friend."