What was he doing here?
Karkat stared out the frost-coated window and breathed into his sleeves, trying to warm his hands.
Of all the places to run and hide, why Troll Canada?
Of course, he knew perfectly well why. It was one of the few planets not actively ruled over by Her Imperious Condescencion. The drones couldn't patrol this snowy semiwasteland. It was too cold for them- and most trolls- to function, making it uninhabitable for anyone blueblood and up. It was barely tolerable for teal to olive. Anything lower than that would be okay, as long as they didn't try to do something stupid like live outside in the snow.
In short, Troll Canada was the ideal place for the leader of a troll revolution to hide.
He was alone in a small stone hive. It was well insulated, and there was a small fire burning. He could see the snow-covered landscape through the one-way windows. Karkat sighed, lifting his head slightly, and his breath fogged up the glass.
What had he been thinking of? He clearly remembered the day he singledhandedly (literally, singlehandedly) managed to blow the social world to smithereens-
"No, no, no," his Karkat, clutching his hand and ducking behind a curtain in a building site. Red oozed between his fingers, and his eyes were wide with panic. His breath caught as he heard movement deeper in the site, but rather than the dormant drone he was expecting, it was just a pile of cloth that had caught the wind.
He was so dead. So, so very dead.
How he had managed to wound himself in the middle of a city on their market day when everyone was around, he had no idea. He just remembered a sharp pain, and the idea that pain usually led to blood and therefore he should get the fuck out while he still could.
He took his fingers away and watched the blood spill over his hands. Jesus christ. This was not good. He leaned against a steel-gray wall- it was actually made of steel- and looked up, catching a glimpse of dark sky through the cloth covering of the site.
He paused, then turned away from the wall, taking a step back to look at it. Hmm. An idea slowly surfaced in his mind, then crashed into reality like a finbeast breaching the water when he saw the smeary blotch of red that he had already left on the smooth gray surface.
Before he knew what he was doing, he stepped up and touched the blood sample, smearing the blotch into an elegant curve that looped up into a circle. He drew another and saw the Signless's symbol staring back at him, and had the sudden urge to splash water on it and act like it had never existed.
Too late now! Stupid ideas were the best.
He clawed off a section of the black fabric of his shirt and wrapped it around his hand (he had already ruined plenty of good shirts this way, it was no big deal), stopping the flow of blood, and backed away. He just needed to get away, now, and promptly did so, running through the site and away, away, forgetting what he had done and what it might do.
The sign was discovered later, and Karkat spent a day and a half in complete and utter panic, knowing that they could analyze it for DNA and maybe know it was him? He wasn't even sure if that was possible, but he didn't want to take any chances, and what had he been thinking he had nothing to fall back on if they came for him-
Then he had been contacted.
His husktop chimed gently. Next to it sat a wireless booster. There was wireless on pretty much any planet, even Troll Canada, which had also been called the Big Empty Planet Full Of Nothing And Snow.
Twofold2: hey kk
Signborn: DON'T CALL ME THAT, I TOLD YOU.
Twofold2: kk there ii2 nobody el2e here but u2
Signborn: ARE YOU IMPLYING SOMETHING?
Twofold2: ehehe, no.
Twofold2: anyway2 how2 iit goiing?
Signborn: I MADE IT SAFELY.
Twofold2: oh good
Signborn: SO WHAT NOW?
Twofold2: hang tiight untiil 2ome operatiive2 get two you. theyre haviing a liitle trouble becau2e of the 2now.
Signborn: OH, GREAT.
Signborn: HOW LONG DO YOU THINK I'LL BE STUCK HERE FOR?
Signborn: HEY!
Signborn: HELLO?
-Twofold2 has gone offline!-
-Correspondance ended. The log will self-destruct in thirty seconds.-
Karkat slammed his hand down and leaned back. Great. Twofold2 was pulling his cryptic shenanigans again. He still had yet to figure out if the 2 in Twofold2 was supposed to make it sound like Twofolds or if it really was just a 2.
Something outside roared. Karkat glanced at the window, wondering about the safety of the Big Empty, and decided it was probably some kind of random wild animal.
However, when the roaring continued, he frowned and stood, glancing out the window. Something was streaking through the atmosphere, trailing smoke. The object grew nearer, and Karkat could see that it was a ship- small, black and yellow, and on fire. Lightning- red and blue- crackled around it.
Whatever the lighting was doing, it failed to do anything except maybe make the ship fall faster, until Karkat realized that it had turned in direction away from a mountaintop. The ship fell further and slammed into the forest with a deafening explosion. Karkat nearly fell over with the shock wave that passed.
He bit his lip. If he went out there, and it was a hostile, then they might try to kill him. But if it was just some helpless troll, or maybe even a supporter…..
He made up his mind and grabbed a large coat. He nabbed his sickles on the way out the door, zipping the coat up, and trekked through the snowy forest for ten minutes. Most trolls had an impeccable sense of direction, and he used his to guide himself directly to the crash site.
He knew where it was, because there was steam from the hit rising off the ground where the ship had melted and evaporated the snow in a mere instant. He passed through the last few trees that were still standing and stared.
The craft's wings were broken off and scattered around the clearing, along with some of the hull, which was buckled and caved in. Various things were scattered around the clearing in the dryish ground. Karkat clambered over the downed tree branches and tramped over- he could feel heat emenating from the blackened husk of the ship. He peered inside and saw an odd array of things, including the remnants of a control board and what appeared to be some kind of thing that you would put either your head or a watermelon in, probably the former. He had no idea what it was, nor did he really care all that much.
He backed away from the ship and glanced around, and his heart jumped when he noticed figure, clad in what appeared to be a rather baggy yellow jumpsuit with black designs, lying motionlessly in the snow near a large rock. Karkat trudged over as quickly as possible and knelt by him. "Hey… Hello?" he growled.
To his relief, the figure stirred with a groan, frowning. Karkat poked his shoulder, and the troll- he had four horns? weird- opened his eyes blearily and glared at him. Karkat blinked- one eye was solid red, and the other solid blue. They weren't alert, though- even without pupils or irises, Karkat could tell he was injured just by the fact that the eyes were glassy, glazed over with a thin yellow tint. There was no way this guy was feeling anything but shock and maybe pain right now.
Then the mystery troll realized what was going on and tried to sit up. It worked, but a second later, he muttered "oh, god" and rolled to his hands and knees to vomit in the snow. Concussion, Karkat thought instantly. Shit.
He spat out a good quantity of thick yellow blood, and looked slightly alarmed. Karkat put his hand around the troll's shoulders. "Easy," he tried.
The yellowblood was shivering violently. He coughed a few times, spitting out a little more golden-yellow to stain the snow. Then he dragged a sleeve across his face and sat back, trying to breath normally, eyes half-closed.
Karkat took off his coat and offered it to the troll, who nodded his thanks, although the movement caused him to generate a bunch of small red and blue sparks which danced around his hair for a moment before going out. He winced.
"C'mon, there's a hive nearby," Karkat said, deciding that there was no way he could leave this guy here. "Can you make it that far?"
"How far away ith it?" responded the troll weakly, speaking in conversation for the first time.
"Ten minute's walk. Come on." Karkat stood and hauled the other troll- who was, annoyingly, taller than him, but who wasn't- to his feet and began to walk.
The yellowblood, clutching the jacket around him, didn't say anything else. He started out walking okay, but soon began to stumble over random objects, and when they were two minutes or so from the hive he made a strange noise and collapsed. Karkat shouted in surprise and jumped. Aw, hell.
He dragged the troll to his temporary hive, through the snow, and managed to load him into the vacant recuperacoon, after pulling his jacket, shit, and shoes off. He reclaimed his coat and left the troll to sleep, leaving some food heating up over the fire. Yes, over the motherfucking fire. How primitive could you get? Ugh.
He pulled the coat on and went back out to look through the wreck. There was plenty of important-looking electronic stuff, and he collected pretty much anything that looked like it still worked. He also took the pilot's clothes, ay food, and anything else that looked important, such as a small spiralbound notebook.
When he returned, the troll-who-crashed-his-ship-into-Canada-like-a-total-fucking-idiot was still asleep. Karkat tossed the stuff next to the fire and sat down on the couch-thing, staring at the flames.
Who was this guy? He had no idea. He had a faint inkling that somehow this guy was important, but he wasn't sure.
Instead, he dropped his train of thought and swamped his mind with a peaceful nothing.