monthly word count - november
TOTAL: 23 263
Meh. Passable. >_> there was some battlefield terra in the lot, so i'm forgiving myself.
POSTED:
-Girl Genius: Veli&Lazar (829 words)
-Girl Genius: Sorin&Lazar (1 661 words)
-Girl Genius: Sorin/Veli bondage porn (1 737 words)
-Troll John♦Troll Rose ficlet (454 words)
-Demon Patrol: Rose/Kankri kiss (1 273 words)
-Crash Standing AU: Gamzee comes on to Bro (398 words)
-BT AU: Dirk and Dave capture Karkat (1 234 words)
WIP
-Crash Standing chapter 18 (355 words)
-GW: Lone Wolf and Pilot (137 words, not sure i'll keep 'em)
-Naruto: Teamwork: Wedding (1 028 words) (yeah i know, whoa self o_o)
-Girl Genius: teenage!Barry, Bill, and various Jaegers (8 830 words)
-Battlefield Terra: chapter 9 (5 327 words)
--
Crash Standing
--
CG: HE WAKES. THREE CHEERS FOR THE MIRACLE MAN.
TG: missed me huh
CG: IT WAS LIKE A WOUND ON MY VERY SOUL.
CG: NO, I WAS JUST WONDERING IF YOU COULD REALLY BE SUCH A LAZY JACKASS, BUT I SET MYSELF UP FOR THIS ANSWER.
CG: I'M THE ONE SUPPOSED TO BE NOCTURNAL HERE, BACK YOUR ASS OUT OF MY TURF.
TG: its not my fault the parental units forgot to turn off the internet at two am for once
TG: entrapment i say
CG: IT CERTAINLY IS YOUR FAULT THAT I AM NOW WONDERING WHETHER I WANT TO ASK YOU AT WHAT TIME YOU DID FINALLY PASS OUT LAST NIGHT, BUT KNOWING WILL ONLY DROP ANOTHER BOMB ONTO THE RUINS OF MY OPINION OF YOUR SELF-RELIANCE AND THEY REALLY DON'T NEED IT.
CG: CHANGE OF TOPIC, BECAUSE YOU'RE THE ONLY SORRY BASTARD I SEE MYSELF ASKING THIS TO WHO WON'T TROLL THE UNHOLY INCESTIAL FUCK OUT OF ME, AND BY THE TIME THEY TURN THE INTERNET BACK ON I'LL HAVE FORGOTTEN I EVER GAVE IT A PASSING, WEAK-ASSED SHIT.
CG: THE TURD WAS NOT SO MUCH EXPELLED AS IT DRIFTED AWAY NONCHALANTLY ON WINGS OF GAUZE AND TOILET PAPER, LEAVING ONLY A LAZY, GREASY SMEAR.
--
Lone Wolf and Pilot (meeeeeeeeeehhh)
--
In the morning after Duo had slept (three hours, good 'nuff) Heero was still locked up like a fortress and Mary was still trailed by two thirds of the trainee's wolfsibs and a couple of wolves roaming the Preventers compound as their brothers dealt with boring paperwork indoors.
(Hells of weird seeing wolves voluntarily going so far away from their person, going about their own business. Was Mary that interesting?)
Duo extracted Heero as soon as possible via challenging him to a race.
"What, afraid you've rusted away in zero-grav?"
"... Not really."
Duo smirked. "What, not afraid you've rusted away in zero-grav? Overconfident much--"
Heero took off running down the track. Duo gave chase.
--
Teamwork: Wedding
--
"Hey, guys!" she said, smiling, as she walked up to them. Her hands twitched like she wanted to take theirs, and Naruto was halfway through reaching back when Sai peered in over his shoulder and gave a close-mouthed smile.
"You must be Sakura. I see no one else this big."
Sakura's smile took on a fixed quality. "You must be Sai! It's nice to finally meet you. After all this time you've been borrowing my teammates."
Naruto had a feeling that it would only go downhill from there.
"Anyway, Naruto, you need to get changed," Sakura told him brusquely, turning to him and totally ignoring Sai.
"Uh? What?" Naruto looked down at his clothes. It was civilian stuff, his mud-splattered mission outfit buried in a plastic bag, but it was clean...?
"We're not the only ones who'll have to be in fancy clothes, and Sasuke-kun already knows how to wear kimono properly, but I really don't think you're used to them, so shoo! I left everything on the bed."
Blinking, Naruto looked at Sasuke, who seemed just a little bit amused, the jerk. "Good point. I don't think he's ever worn tabi."
"Oh, screw you, I don't need to learn how to handle wearing toe socks."
"The feeling of having something between your toes can be mildly disturbing," Sai said almost philosophically. Naruto frowned. Urgh, they weren't talking to him.
It was kind of petty to ignore him, though, he guessed. "You're weird," he grumped. That counted as talking, right?
"Just go! You're holding back the rehearsal," Ino told him, and pushed him in the back. Naruto went with ill grace. He'd only just gotten dressed again at the baths, damn it.
There were like a bazillion pieces of clothing spread out on the bed. Luckily Sakura had planned ahead, and they were piled up in order. He got undressed down to his underwear and went about putting everything on.
White underkimono, kimono -- Sasuke got to wear black, as the groom; Sakura had apparently decided on a muted, fallen-leaves orange for him. He belted it on, more or less awkwardly. He'd probably have to have someone do the knot for him properly on the wedding day, but it worked okay for today. Wasn't gonna flash anyone, which was the main thing.
Hakama. Deep blue. He stepped into it, pulled it up. Socks and sandals...
Urgh, and he had a haori as well. At least it looked cool, he told himself as he swished it on. He tried to wear it without putting his arms in the sleeves, just draped over his shoulders like a cape; it fell off the second he took a step. Never mind. Another thing that wasn't going to stay on very long after the ceremony.
He trudged down the stairs, sandals rapping the floor and his heels in turn, fiddling with the haori tie. Stupid pompom. Traditional clothing was ridiculous.
"How do you walk with a hakama?" he called out as he walked back inside the dojo, watching his feet. It was the right length, so he didn't tangle his feet in it, but it kept feeling like he was about to. The cloth swished around his legs like a skirt.
"Niiice," Ino said, but Naruto distrusted her on principle.
He looked at Sakura and Sasuke, found them standing together near the supposed altar. They were both watching him. Suddenly feeling awkward, Naruto picked up a corner of the hakama and lifted it. "No, seriously, look at that!" He let the cloth go, twirled like a princess. The cloth belled out around his legs. "I feel like I'm wearing a dress! It's a dress. It's completely a dress."
"Two seconds in and he's already ruined it," Sakura muttered to Sasuke. Sasuke sighed, lips a little pinched.
"Hey, what's that mean?"
"Nothing, stupid. I'm going to change too, be right back."
Naruto blinked as Sasuke left, mouth hanging open. "Hey! Who's holding up the rehearsal now! You coulda changed with me!"
Sakura raised a hand to her forehead and groaned. "No, Naruto. He really couldn't have."
"Um?"
But she didn't explain, just threw her hands in the air and sighed heavily, and then her mother was coming like she wanted to laugh but knew it would be bad, and Naruto was left in his pleated man-skirt and swishy haori wondering what the hell.
--
Girl Genius: teenage!Barry, Bill, and various Jaegers
--
Bill thought they might find survivors. Barry wasn't deluding himself.
He followed his elder brother down the corridors, the two of them surrounded on all parts by an avalanche of grim-faced Jaegers. None of those spoke; some of them were grinding their teeth hard enough that Barry could hear over the tread of their booted heels on the floor. There was too much stone between them and the main fight (between Bill and Barry's father and his friend) to hear any explosions, but sometimes Barry would see one of the hanging chandeliers, trembling from the onslaught already, actually swing.
(The worst thing about the place was that the hidden parts were just as well-lit and clean and cheerily decorated as the rest.)
"Hoy," General Goomblast said, at Barry's right hand, quiet and firm, and everyone ground to a halt. "Hy schmell chemicals."
Bill turned, rocked on his heels, glanced at Barry and then, meaningfully, up at Goomblast's imposing body. Barry gave an imperceptible nod and Bill turned away, hopped his casual way up onto a jaeger's back to get a better view of the walls. "Getting close!" he said cheerfully.
"Get searchink, boys," the General ordered. Barry tried, and failed once again, to read his face.
They'd asked their father for Goomblast, because between him and Gargantua -- between him and all other Generals -- he was the most polite, most reasonable, most -- as their mother said -- civilized. That didn't necessarily mean he would show any pity, any give today.
"Hyu iz not helping?" Goomblast asked him sotto voce as they watched the squad go over the whole section of corridor, their noses almost touching the floor. A trap flung arrows at Zudok and Edi and they batted them away casually without looking up. Barry supposed that after Caste Heterodyne's morning greetings this was rather lacking.
Still, there had been no traps in the secret corridor up until now. Promising.
"Analyzing," he said, trying to sound serious and thoughtful; his voice predictably cracked in the middle, but Goomblast did not smile. "I think that--"
"Minsk! Grab me that chandelier!"
"Right avay, master Bill!"
A clang rang along the corridor as the jaeger's full weight came to hang from the chandelier. And then came a ratcheting chain noise, and a wall swung predictably open. Barry looked back up at Goomblast.
"...Yes, that."
"Mmh." Goomblast's goggles turned away from him; he frowned. "Master Villiam, hyu vill not step in dis first."
"A Heterodyne doesn't lead from the back!" Bill protested loudly, and entirely counter-factually -- there were several reason their ancestors had developed super-soldiers who could take a beating, and most of them amounted to 'I like a meat shield that hits back'.
Barry didn't wait for Goomblast to shut it down; the second the massive wall of a man turned away Barry was advancing onto the opening.
He wasn't stupid, either, so he pointed at four of the jaegers to come in around him.
"Hyu iz de heir! Hyu lead from de back, or not at all -- master Barry."
"I'm in, General," Barry said without really thinking about the words, eyes roaming the wide room, cataloguing everything. "I'm not coming back out now."
It wasn't Lord Liviu's labs they'd found; the labs must be next door.
These were the experimental subjects pens.
And the refuse.
Behind and around him jaegers filtered in, noses wrinkling; Barry's guard stayed in diamond formation around him as he moved slowly toward the center of the room.
"How's it looking?" his brother called out from the corridor, where Goomblast barred the way with a single huge paw. Bill sounded hopeful, but that was only a quick papering over tension, over what he could read of Barry's body language already.
Barry scanned the room once again.
It was really pretty hideous how cheerily the room was decorated. Any blood splashes would only add to the flowering trees and flying petals painted over the sky-blue walls. The gutter tiles had little motifs hand-painted on them.
"I don't --"
The piles of carrion that used to be people were familiar -- God knew his father had left enough of them for Bill and Barry to observe firsthand over the years -- but they managed to look even worse in there.
"...Very weird aesthetic," he managed.
The cages were full of unmoving people, most of them too warped to be possibly alive -- organs hanging on the outside, bone spurs grown through their own bodies, ribs curling open like obscene flowers.
At Barry's right hand Cosmin gave up being quiet, started muttering under his breath, voice thrumming like a growl. Mostly a lot of vile curse words, in more languages and dialects than Barry knew.
"How he effen dare--"
"Cosmin," Barry said, and just that. Cosmin's jaw snapped closed, but he didn't -- couldn't? -- stop the growl.
Barry understood, though. In a very detached way, very far away. Because right now he wasn't angry at all, or only a strangely calm sort of anger.
It was like the Madness Place -- might be the Madness Place still, but it wasn't about taking apart the universe to rebuild it better.
He thought if his father came down right now and asked him if he was sure, very sure he wouldn't give a hand against Lord Liviu after all, Barry might change his mind.
--
BT 9
--
"How are you doing, guys?" he asked, voice quieting a little, because he'd had reports and internet conversations but that didn't mean the same thing as a personal confirmation.
Also if Dirk lied there was an even chance that Rose would snitch on him.
Dirk and Rose both looked at John, mouths closed, and for a moment he really thought neither of them was going to want to tell him that. Because Karkat was here? Too much pride? Shame? What?
Then Rose lifted her hand, mouth twisted wryly, and let him see plainly the fine tremors in her hand.
"It's been getting a lot better, mind; if things keep progressing at this rate I should be fine in another day or two. Makes handling small, breakable things a bit of an issue, but I'm otherwise okay."
So she wasn't going to be able to pilot yet. Not at the level of control and finesse she needed, at least. And if things lingered...
"Dirk? How about you?"
"Same," he said, arms crossed. John totally believed him, and accordingly made a believing face.
"Shut up, Zhann," Karkat said.
John gasped. "Hey!"
Karkat was looking at him, arms loosely crossed, horns forward, kind of bossy. "Rhoz and Dirk is not go away in their head. Not --" he waved his hand like chasing away a fly. "They don't go wah! when hear a thing or..."
He fell silent, at a bit of a loss.
"You're saying," Rose said, "it could have been a lot worse."
A sober nod. "Yes."
"You're saying, you expected it to be worse."
"'Expected' is?"
"How you think something will be."
"Ah." A pause. Karkat looked down at his hands, fingers linked between his knees. "Yes. Gamzee is... his head thing is break. A someone like me, they break."
John thought about Dave, and felt a little sick.
"Like Dave?" Dirk said, almost neutral apart from the edge he couldn't hide, the banked anger.
Karkat stared at him for a long second, and then sighed. "Dave is not break. Not like how... Hrfn."
"Do you want to use the headsets?" Rose suggested. "It'll be easier."
John was fine with the idea, already reaching up to where his was hanging from his neck, but Karkat snorted. "No. My head and his head are too much close. All day in his head, give me a fucking break."
"Hey!"
Karkat quirked him a faint sideways smirk, little tooth tips showing, and then sobered up. A muscle in Dirk's cheek was slowly rolling back and forth as he tensed and relaxed his jaw.
"I expect if Dave is... like me, with horns," he told Dirk, "he is dead, or make big noise all the time and you can't touch him. But Dad says he's awake sometimes and no noise and he talks?"
Dirk nodded reluctantly. "So in your expert opinion, he's gonna be fine."
Karkat shrugged, hands held open. "In my expert opinion you're a fucking alien and I fucking don't know. But you get better. One like me, don't get better, or maybe for... what's a big, big time, Zhann?"
"A year? It's the time the planet takes to get around the sun."
Karkat nodded, looked back at Rose, eyebrows knit. "A year. Yes. A lot of year. But we don't know because we kill them before. Maybe your head things are different."
Meh. Passable. >_> there was some battlefield terra in the lot, so i'm forgiving myself.
POSTED:
-Girl Genius: Veli&Lazar (829 words)
-Girl Genius: Sorin&Lazar (1 661 words)
-Girl Genius: Sorin/Veli bondage porn (1 737 words)
-Troll John♦Troll Rose ficlet (454 words)
-Demon Patrol: Rose/Kankri kiss (1 273 words)
-Crash Standing AU: Gamzee comes on to Bro (398 words)
-BT AU: Dirk and Dave capture Karkat (1 234 words)
WIP
-Crash Standing chapter 18 (355 words)
-GW: Lone Wolf and Pilot (137 words, not sure i'll keep 'em)
-Naruto: Teamwork: Wedding (1 028 words) (yeah i know, whoa self o_o)
-Girl Genius: teenage!Barry, Bill, and various Jaegers (8 830 words)
-Battlefield Terra: chapter 9 (5 327 words)
--
Crash Standing
--
CG: HE WAKES. THREE CHEERS FOR THE MIRACLE MAN.
TG: missed me huh
CG: IT WAS LIKE A WOUND ON MY VERY SOUL.
CG: NO, I WAS JUST WONDERING IF YOU COULD REALLY BE SUCH A LAZY JACKASS, BUT I SET MYSELF UP FOR THIS ANSWER.
CG: I'M THE ONE SUPPOSED TO BE NOCTURNAL HERE, BACK YOUR ASS OUT OF MY TURF.
TG: its not my fault the parental units forgot to turn off the internet at two am for once
TG: entrapment i say
CG: IT CERTAINLY IS YOUR FAULT THAT I AM NOW WONDERING WHETHER I WANT TO ASK YOU AT WHAT TIME YOU DID FINALLY PASS OUT LAST NIGHT, BUT KNOWING WILL ONLY DROP ANOTHER BOMB ONTO THE RUINS OF MY OPINION OF YOUR SELF-RELIANCE AND THEY REALLY DON'T NEED IT.
CG: CHANGE OF TOPIC, BECAUSE YOU'RE THE ONLY SORRY BASTARD I SEE MYSELF ASKING THIS TO WHO WON'T TROLL THE UNHOLY INCESTIAL FUCK OUT OF ME, AND BY THE TIME THEY TURN THE INTERNET BACK ON I'LL HAVE FORGOTTEN I EVER GAVE IT A PASSING, WEAK-ASSED SHIT.
CG: THE TURD WAS NOT SO MUCH EXPELLED AS IT DRIFTED AWAY NONCHALANTLY ON WINGS OF GAUZE AND TOILET PAPER, LEAVING ONLY A LAZY, GREASY SMEAR.
--
Lone Wolf and Pilot (meeeeeeeeeehhh)
--
In the morning after Duo had slept (three hours, good 'nuff) Heero was still locked up like a fortress and Mary was still trailed by two thirds of the trainee's wolfsibs and a couple of wolves roaming the Preventers compound as their brothers dealt with boring paperwork indoors.
(Hells of weird seeing wolves voluntarily going so far away from their person, going about their own business. Was Mary that interesting?)
Duo extracted Heero as soon as possible via challenging him to a race.
"What, afraid you've rusted away in zero-grav?"
"... Not really."
Duo smirked. "What, not afraid you've rusted away in zero-grav? Overconfident much--"
Heero took off running down the track. Duo gave chase.
--
Teamwork: Wedding
--
"Hey, guys!" she said, smiling, as she walked up to them. Her hands twitched like she wanted to take theirs, and Naruto was halfway through reaching back when Sai peered in over his shoulder and gave a close-mouthed smile.
"You must be Sakura. I see no one else this big."
Sakura's smile took on a fixed quality. "You must be Sai! It's nice to finally meet you. After all this time you've been borrowing my teammates."
Naruto had a feeling that it would only go downhill from there.
"Anyway, Naruto, you need to get changed," Sakura told him brusquely, turning to him and totally ignoring Sai.
"Uh? What?" Naruto looked down at his clothes. It was civilian stuff, his mud-splattered mission outfit buried in a plastic bag, but it was clean...?
"We're not the only ones who'll have to be in fancy clothes, and Sasuke-kun already knows how to wear kimono properly, but I really don't think you're used to them, so shoo! I left everything on the bed."
Blinking, Naruto looked at Sasuke, who seemed just a little bit amused, the jerk. "Good point. I don't think he's ever worn tabi."
"Oh, screw you, I don't need to learn how to handle wearing toe socks."
"The feeling of having something between your toes can be mildly disturbing," Sai said almost philosophically. Naruto frowned. Urgh, they weren't talking to him.
It was kind of petty to ignore him, though, he guessed. "You're weird," he grumped. That counted as talking, right?
"Just go! You're holding back the rehearsal," Ino told him, and pushed him in the back. Naruto went with ill grace. He'd only just gotten dressed again at the baths, damn it.
There were like a bazillion pieces of clothing spread out on the bed. Luckily Sakura had planned ahead, and they were piled up in order. He got undressed down to his underwear and went about putting everything on.
White underkimono, kimono -- Sasuke got to wear black, as the groom; Sakura had apparently decided on a muted, fallen-leaves orange for him. He belted it on, more or less awkwardly. He'd probably have to have someone do the knot for him properly on the wedding day, but it worked okay for today. Wasn't gonna flash anyone, which was the main thing.
Hakama. Deep blue. He stepped into it, pulled it up. Socks and sandals...
Urgh, and he had a haori as well. At least it looked cool, he told himself as he swished it on. He tried to wear it without putting his arms in the sleeves, just draped over his shoulders like a cape; it fell off the second he took a step. Never mind. Another thing that wasn't going to stay on very long after the ceremony.
He trudged down the stairs, sandals rapping the floor and his heels in turn, fiddling with the haori tie. Stupid pompom. Traditional clothing was ridiculous.
"How do you walk with a hakama?" he called out as he walked back inside the dojo, watching his feet. It was the right length, so he didn't tangle his feet in it, but it kept feeling like he was about to. The cloth swished around his legs like a skirt.
"Niiice," Ino said, but Naruto distrusted her on principle.
He looked at Sakura and Sasuke, found them standing together near the supposed altar. They were both watching him. Suddenly feeling awkward, Naruto picked up a corner of the hakama and lifted it. "No, seriously, look at that!" He let the cloth go, twirled like a princess. The cloth belled out around his legs. "I feel like I'm wearing a dress! It's a dress. It's completely a dress."
"Two seconds in and he's already ruined it," Sakura muttered to Sasuke. Sasuke sighed, lips a little pinched.
"Hey, what's that mean?"
"Nothing, stupid. I'm going to change too, be right back."
Naruto blinked as Sasuke left, mouth hanging open. "Hey! Who's holding up the rehearsal now! You coulda changed with me!"
Sakura raised a hand to her forehead and groaned. "No, Naruto. He really couldn't have."
"Um?"
But she didn't explain, just threw her hands in the air and sighed heavily, and then her mother was coming like she wanted to laugh but knew it would be bad, and Naruto was left in his pleated man-skirt and swishy haori wondering what the hell.
--
Girl Genius: teenage!Barry, Bill, and various Jaegers
--
Bill thought they might find survivors. Barry wasn't deluding himself.
He followed his elder brother down the corridors, the two of them surrounded on all parts by an avalanche of grim-faced Jaegers. None of those spoke; some of them were grinding their teeth hard enough that Barry could hear over the tread of their booted heels on the floor. There was too much stone between them and the main fight (between Bill and Barry's father and his friend) to hear any explosions, but sometimes Barry would see one of the hanging chandeliers, trembling from the onslaught already, actually swing.
(The worst thing about the place was that the hidden parts were just as well-lit and clean and cheerily decorated as the rest.)
"Hoy," General Goomblast said, at Barry's right hand, quiet and firm, and everyone ground to a halt. "Hy schmell chemicals."
Bill turned, rocked on his heels, glanced at Barry and then, meaningfully, up at Goomblast's imposing body. Barry gave an imperceptible nod and Bill turned away, hopped his casual way up onto a jaeger's back to get a better view of the walls. "Getting close!" he said cheerfully.
"Get searchink, boys," the General ordered. Barry tried, and failed once again, to read his face.
They'd asked their father for Goomblast, because between him and Gargantua -- between him and all other Generals -- he was the most polite, most reasonable, most -- as their mother said -- civilized. That didn't necessarily mean he would show any pity, any give today.
"Hyu iz not helping?" Goomblast asked him sotto voce as they watched the squad go over the whole section of corridor, their noses almost touching the floor. A trap flung arrows at Zudok and Edi and they batted them away casually without looking up. Barry supposed that after Caste Heterodyne's morning greetings this was rather lacking.
Still, there had been no traps in the secret corridor up until now. Promising.
"Analyzing," he said, trying to sound serious and thoughtful; his voice predictably cracked in the middle, but Goomblast did not smile. "I think that--"
"Minsk! Grab me that chandelier!"
"Right avay, master Bill!"
A clang rang along the corridor as the jaeger's full weight came to hang from the chandelier. And then came a ratcheting chain noise, and a wall swung predictably open. Barry looked back up at Goomblast.
"...Yes, that."
"Mmh." Goomblast's goggles turned away from him; he frowned. "Master Villiam, hyu vill not step in dis first."
"A Heterodyne doesn't lead from the back!" Bill protested loudly, and entirely counter-factually -- there were several reason their ancestors had developed super-soldiers who could take a beating, and most of them amounted to 'I like a meat shield that hits back'.
Barry didn't wait for Goomblast to shut it down; the second the massive wall of a man turned away Barry was advancing onto the opening.
He wasn't stupid, either, so he pointed at four of the jaegers to come in around him.
"Hyu iz de heir! Hyu lead from de back, or not at all -- master Barry."
"I'm in, General," Barry said without really thinking about the words, eyes roaming the wide room, cataloguing everything. "I'm not coming back out now."
It wasn't Lord Liviu's labs they'd found; the labs must be next door.
These were the experimental subjects pens.
And the refuse.
Behind and around him jaegers filtered in, noses wrinkling; Barry's guard stayed in diamond formation around him as he moved slowly toward the center of the room.
"How's it looking?" his brother called out from the corridor, where Goomblast barred the way with a single huge paw. Bill sounded hopeful, but that was only a quick papering over tension, over what he could read of Barry's body language already.
Barry scanned the room once again.
It was really pretty hideous how cheerily the room was decorated. Any blood splashes would only add to the flowering trees and flying petals painted over the sky-blue walls. The gutter tiles had little motifs hand-painted on them.
"I don't --"
The piles of carrion that used to be people were familiar -- God knew his father had left enough of them for Bill and Barry to observe firsthand over the years -- but they managed to look even worse in there.
"...Very weird aesthetic," he managed.
The cages were full of unmoving people, most of them too warped to be possibly alive -- organs hanging on the outside, bone spurs grown through their own bodies, ribs curling open like obscene flowers.
At Barry's right hand Cosmin gave up being quiet, started muttering under his breath, voice thrumming like a growl. Mostly a lot of vile curse words, in more languages and dialects than Barry knew.
"How he effen dare--"
"Cosmin," Barry said, and just that. Cosmin's jaw snapped closed, but he didn't -- couldn't? -- stop the growl.
Barry understood, though. In a very detached way, very far away. Because right now he wasn't angry at all, or only a strangely calm sort of anger.
It was like the Madness Place -- might be the Madness Place still, but it wasn't about taking apart the universe to rebuild it better.
He thought if his father came down right now and asked him if he was sure, very sure he wouldn't give a hand against Lord Liviu after all, Barry might change his mind.
--
BT 9
--
"How are you doing, guys?" he asked, voice quieting a little, because he'd had reports and internet conversations but that didn't mean the same thing as a personal confirmation.
Also if Dirk lied there was an even chance that Rose would snitch on him.
Dirk and Rose both looked at John, mouths closed, and for a moment he really thought neither of them was going to want to tell him that. Because Karkat was here? Too much pride? Shame? What?
Then Rose lifted her hand, mouth twisted wryly, and let him see plainly the fine tremors in her hand.
"It's been getting a lot better, mind; if things keep progressing at this rate I should be fine in another day or two. Makes handling small, breakable things a bit of an issue, but I'm otherwise okay."
So she wasn't going to be able to pilot yet. Not at the level of control and finesse she needed, at least. And if things lingered...
"Dirk? How about you?"
"Same," he said, arms crossed. John totally believed him, and accordingly made a believing face.
"Shut up, Zhann," Karkat said.
John gasped. "Hey!"
Karkat was looking at him, arms loosely crossed, horns forward, kind of bossy. "Rhoz and Dirk is not go away in their head. Not --" he waved his hand like chasing away a fly. "They don't go wah! when hear a thing or..."
He fell silent, at a bit of a loss.
"You're saying," Rose said, "it could have been a lot worse."
A sober nod. "Yes."
"You're saying, you expected it to be worse."
"'Expected' is?"
"How you think something will be."
"Ah." A pause. Karkat looked down at his hands, fingers linked between his knees. "Yes. Gamzee is... his head thing is break. A someone like me, they break."
John thought about Dave, and felt a little sick.
"Like Dave?" Dirk said, almost neutral apart from the edge he couldn't hide, the banked anger.
Karkat stared at him for a long second, and then sighed. "Dave is not break. Not like how... Hrfn."
"Do you want to use the headsets?" Rose suggested. "It'll be easier."
John was fine with the idea, already reaching up to where his was hanging from his neck, but Karkat snorted. "No. My head and his head are too much close. All day in his head, give me a fucking break."
"Hey!"
Karkat quirked him a faint sideways smirk, little tooth tips showing, and then sobered up. A muscle in Dirk's cheek was slowly rolling back and forth as he tensed and relaxed his jaw.
"I expect if Dave is... like me, with horns," he told Dirk, "he is dead, or make big noise all the time and you can't touch him. But Dad says he's awake sometimes and no noise and he talks?"
Dirk nodded reluctantly. "So in your expert opinion, he's gonna be fine."
Karkat shrugged, hands held open. "In my expert opinion you're a fucking alien and I fucking don't know. But you get better. One like me, don't get better, or maybe for... what's a big, big time, Zhann?"
"A year? It's the time the planet takes to get around the sun."
Karkat nodded, looked back at Rose, eyebrows knit. "A year. Yes. A lot of year. But we don't know because we kill them before. Maybe your head things are different."