We All Have Got A Role To Play

[angrycrabnoises]

Who: Karkat and Nepeta ft. Nimona, Drive-by’s welcome
Where: Lounge, Topy, Library, Deck
What: Quadrant Dates
When: Early January

And Can’t You See The Writing On The Wall Is Drawing Us Together? (Spades)

Once Karkat has thoroughly apologized to Nepeta for vanishing for basically all of December, they decide to go through with their plan to try out a date in each quadrant.

The first is kismesis, also known as spades, blackrom, the caliginous quadrant. They must see whether or not they are compatible as rivals.

Nepeta isn’t particularly competitive as far as trolls go, but Karkat knows of one challenge she won’t be able to resist.

They will have a shipping contest.

In the lounge, Karkat rolls out two whiteboards, along with complementary post-its and dry erase markers.

“THE PLAN IS TO SUCCESSFULLY PLACE THE VARIOUS RELATIONSHIPS ON THE SERENA INTO SUITABLE QUADRANTS THAT IT WOULD REASONABLY MAKE SENSE FOR THEM TO BE IN,” he announces to Nepeta.


It’s Written There In Soot And Ash And Blood And That’s Furever. (Clubs)

Should caliginous not go terribly, they can move onto the next step. Testing out the ashen quadrant, auspistice, or clubs. This is the only quadrant that requires a third party.

So Karkat has invited the first person who came to mind when he thinks of passengers (around his age) whom he can trust.

“AGAIN, NIMONA. THIS IS - AND I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH - NOT A ROMANTIC THING,” Karkat explains while they wait at a booth at Topy. He is wearing a nice black suit with a red shirt. “WELL, IT IS FOR ME AND NEPETA, I GUESS? JUST THINK OF YOURSELF AS A COMPLETELY PLATONIC HELPER PART WHO IS HERE FOR FUN AND EXCITEMENT.”

Karkat is looking around nervously while he waits for Nepeta to attend their candle-lit hate date.


And So If You Are Terrified Of What You Hide, Remember. (Hearts)

Karkat is a romantic at heart and wishes he had something more unique to show Nepeta instead of basically all the parts of the ship that they’ve already explored to death. But when he’s thinking about something he and Nepeta could do in the flushed quadrant - that is, matespritship, hearts, redrom - well, he figures Nepeta is more about sharing experiences rather than grand gestures.

So within the library, he sets up a bunch of blankets and pillows by the window and creates a spot for them to sit close together and read some troll romance novels.


That I Am On Your Side And That’s Furever. (Diamonds)

Finally, once everything else is done, they try moirallegience, a.k.a. palerom or diamonds. This one doesn’t have much of a plan. It’s mostly just for them to debrief after the other three dates. But Karkat wanted it last because, if everything else goes wrong, he wants to know that he and Nepeta can still be friends. That’s the most important thing for him.

So they take a walk on the deck and just talk.

“THIS IS THE SPOT WHERE WE FIRST STARTED TALKING AGAIN. AFTER I GOT DRAGGED BY THE BULGE FROM MY REALITY AND ENDED UP IN THIS SHITHOLE,” he chuckles dryly. “WE WERE FIGHTING THAT FUCKING PIANO, THE ONE WITH THE TEETH.”

Comments

Drive-by during ♠

[takethatnature]

It's something of a relief to see the two remaining grey kids reunited. Not everyone came back from the last excursion, and Karkat was devastated when his other friend disintegrated. Wilson glances at what they're doing with the sticky-note-festooned whiteboards as he passes by. One of the little drawings they're using as playing pieces shows a figure with a familiar haircut.

"Hey, is that me and Maxwell?!"

[angrycrabnoises]

“YES, BUT YOU TWO ARE PROBABLY ONE OF THE EASIEST PAIRINGS ON THE SHIP TO PLACE. HONESTLY, I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHY WE INCLUDED YOU TWO. YOU’RE KIND OF JUST FREE POINTS,” Karkat waves a hand condescendingly.

[takethatnature]

"Free points?!"

Wilson himself doesn't even know how to properly describe or classify his relationship with Maxwell, but Karkat thinks he's got it all figured out?! He's not even old enough to shave! (Does his species need to shave?)

The boards are divided into four sections, labeled with playing card suits. He remembers reading something about trolls having a fourfold model for their relationships, some time before the Labyrinth. There had been a lot of baffling terminology involved. Maybe it'll be easier to figure out from context; among the other drawings that have already been placed are Helena and Security in the diamond section, and Valdis and Max Maximum in the heart section, which... clarifies nothing, actually, except that whatever the spade that's been assigned to himself and the insufferable magician signifies, it's different from those.

[nepetaleijon]

"Well yeah. I mean, obviously?"

It hasn't even occurred to Nepeta that Wilson and Maxwell aren't aware of the nature of their relationship. (This despite finding out that Maxwell completely mistook the nature of her shipping charts, when they first met.)

[angrycrabnoises]

“IT’S A TEXTBOOK KISMESIS,” Karkat explains like talking to a child.

“YOU’RE DRIVEN BOTH BY HATRED AND ATTRACTION, AND THAT CAUSES YOU TO COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER. THE RIVALRY THAT FORMS DRIVES YOU BOTH TO BETTER YOURSELVES.”

[takethatnature]

Wilson looks confused, intrigued, embarrassed, offended, a little bit relieved, and, most of all, overwhelmed. Emotions fight for territory across his face.

"You mean to say this happens all the time on your planet?!" Wilson blurts out, skeptical and indignant.

It sounds absurd. How could there be room for people to feel like this on a regular basis, outside of the excruciatingly specific conditions of having ruined/saved each other's lives, given the other up for lost, found each other again a whole universe away from anyone who knew what they'd been through? And still want to smash a carton of eggs over the bastard's head half the time, if that wasn't an insult to eggs. It's impossible. The planet would crack in half.

And yet Karkat's not wrong about most of that, and Nepeta didn't consider that it could be any other way, even though trolls can't read minds as far as Wilson's aware (he assumed the blueblood from that confusing novel had been subject to a fanciful embellishment) and they haven't spent very much time in each other's direct company.

[nepetaleijon]

"Purretty much!"

A glance at Karkat. "I wonder if it would help if we gave them some rawrmance novels to read? You know, just so they can get the general idea."

(Uh oh; in her interest in Wilson's situation, she's forgotten to stay in character.)

[angrycrabnoises]

“OF COURSE IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. TO US ALTERNIANS, HATRED IS A COMPLETELY NATURAL EMOTION. NOT SOMETHING TO TIPTOE AROUND OR TRY TO ACT POLITE ABOUT,” Karkat tells Wilson.

He scoffs at Nepeta in an attempt to steer things back into blackrom territory. “FINE, BUT I’LL DO IT ONLY BECAUSE I WANT TO DO IT AND NOT BECAUSE YOU TOLD ME.” He then unceremoniously dumps several troll romance novels into Wilson’s hands.

“NORMALLY I’D GIVE A HUGE EXPOSITORY MONOLOGUE ABOUT EACH OF THESE BOOKS, BUT I AM KIND OF TRYING TO HAVE A DATE RIGHT NOW.”

[takethatnature]

"Alright, alright!" Wilson's embarrassment about his love life (hate life? Never mind) being laid bare before his barely-teenage acquaintances re-routes itself to attach to the fact that he's getting in someone else's way. He takes the books and stuffs them into his inventory, grateful that they're similar enough in their application to stack on one slot instead of each requiring their own like Wickerbottom's books.

"Do you just carry these around all the time in case someone needs a romance novel?" How many inventory slots does Karkat put towards this kind of preparation? Does he have three more for the other quadrants?

[nepetaleijon]

Reminded of the scene they're playing, Nepeta laughs derisively. "Like he would efur pass up the oppurrtunity to lecture somebody about romance. Or anything else he thinks he's an expurrt on."

[angrycrabnoises]

“YOU SAY THAT LIKE IT’S AN INSULT, BUT IT IS JUST THE PLAIN FACTS,” Karkat says.
“SOMEONE HAS TO BRING SOME FUCKING CULTURE TO THE MASSES.”