I slipped my fingers in my pockets, not caring how cold it was in the tent. The audience of trolls and humans alike was awaiting the next act in the Dark Carnival. It consisted of mostly trolls, although there was the occasional human. We had just finished watching two sea dweller trolls fight to the death. The female, Feferi, won, and the male, Eridan, was nearly killed. I sighed into my hand and looked at John, who was looking at me with a look of equal disgust. Fuckass. Terezi and Vriska were staring at the ring, although Terezi was blind, so it didn't really matter. Vriska was describing everything to her. Kanaya was sitting in a seat a few rows away, looking bored. A sad-looking clown walked out, a lazy smile on his face. There was a muzzle on his face and two deuce clubs. He started juggling them and adding more, and every time a deuce club hit his hands, an electric rod hit him. He flinched and bared his teeth before catching all of the deuce clubs and bowing. Everyone applauded. I just scowled. How they can treat trolls like that is beyond me. Especially since- Wait a damn second, is that troll a highblood subjugglator? What's wrong with this carnival! The clown just kept his head down. He looked like he had been trained to do so and not to move. Two trolls came out with chains and threw them around the troll. When they dragged him off, I caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were red and indigo.
That troll was dangerous.
"Karkat, that was incredible! Did you count the number of deuce clubs?"
"No. That was disgusting. How they can treat a troll like that is far above my vast intellect. It's ridiculous."
"Karkat, it's just a carnival. They're used to it. Honestly."
I rolled my eyes and pulled out my phone. I was texting Sollux because he knew how much I hated these stupid carnivals. What I hated even more was that they pressured John and I into going to them.
2ollux: Hey Karkat, how's the carniival?
Karkles: I HATE IT. THEY WERE ELECTROCUTING A HIGH SUBJUGGLATOR WHILE HE WAS JUGGLING EARLIER.
2ollux: Why don't you just a2k to go to the bathroom and Ii'll piick you up?
Karkles: SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN. WOULD IT BE A PROBLEM FOR YOU TO PICK JOHN UP TOO?
2ollux: Not at all. Ii'll be there 2oon.
Karkles: SEE YOU THEN, FUCKASS.
I tapped John on the shoulder and leaned in to whisper in his ear.
"Sollux says he can pick us up now."
"Thank jegus. Let's go."
We both stood up and ran out. Terezi called my cell and I ignored her. I heard someone groaning behind me and turned around to see the subjugglator on the ground, his hands chained behind his back and indigo blood coming out of his stomach. He had that 'thrown out like yesterday's trash' look on his face and I could tell that they were done with him.
"Motherfucking hell, man… I all up and got my shot on… Wait that doesn't make any motherfucking sense…" He was mumbling to himself.
"John, man, wait up a second. I think he's hurt." I'm sure he's fucking hurt.
John turned around and looked at the troll. He nodded and walked over. The troll's eyes were back to normal. In fact, they were closing. I rolled him onto his back and he winced. He had two deuce clubs in his sylladex. If he wasn't so injured I was sure he would have taken them out and tried to kill us both. I put pressure on his nutrition sack and winced when his face tightened with pain. Come on, Sollux. Hurry up and get here. I heard someone come running up behind us.
"Isth everything okay?"
"Sollux! Give me a hand. We have to get him to a hospital. Now."
Together, Sollux and I lifted the injured clown up. We snuck out the back with him because the carnival security probably wouldn't be too happy if they saw us helping him. Sollux hid him in the back seat and covered him with a blanket. The clown's face was cooling fast and I had a bad feeling about it. The blanket was stained indigo and his chest was barely moving. After a while I periodically bent down to listen for a heartbeat because I couldn't see his chest move. He had a collar around his neck. John wiped the indigo off of it and read it aloud.
"Gamzee Makara."
The clown didn't move. He still had a lazy smile on his face, even though he was unconscious and probably almost dead. The second we got to the hospital, he was taken into the ER. We waited twenty minutes before they realized that Gamzee was probably bleeding out and stuck him on a gurney destined for the OR. I waited outside the room. Doctors were asking me stupid questions.
"What happened?"
"We were at a carnival-John and I- and Gamzee was a clown there. He was juggling and he was really good at it. When we were leaving to get picked up, I heard him groaning on the ground. He was mumbling something about getting shot." The damn fuckass.
"You didn't see what happened?"
"No, I didn't. I saw someone bleeding on the ground and got his ass here. Jegus."
They exchanged looks. Fuckass human doctors.
"There may not be much we can do for him, he's a troll and-"
"Listen to me, fuckasses. Get your head out of your ass and help Gamzee, or you're going to have a lot of highblood subjugglators painting walls with your blood. Because that's what they do. They'll paint all of the walls with your damn blood and there isn't anything you fuckasses can do about it. So fucking fix the problem or you're dead!" I snapped.
John put a hand on my shoulder. He shook his head and pointed in the operating room. Gamzee's heart rate was slowing down. His nutrition sack was still bleeding and no one was helping him. I wheeled around and looked at the doctors.
"Get your asses in there and save his life or I swear to gog I will kill you with my own two hands." I pulled my sickles out of my strife specibus to show how serious I was.
They ran inside and started working. I watched them sew Gamzee's nutrition sack shut with satisfaction. They bandaged him up and put him in a hospital bed. I nodded at them and they did everything they physically could to make sure Gamzee didn't die. He was hooked up to several human machines, not that I really cared, because they were measuring things like heart rate and all that important shit. After a few days, Gamzee's eyes flickered open. They were back to being indigo and yellow. He stared at me.
"Thanks, man. You all up and saved my life."
"It's nothing, fuckass."
He laughed and I noticed he had three scars on his face. Probably from that damn carnival… Gamzee sat up and stared out the window absentmindedly. I noticed that he was out of it a lot. He had more scars on his neck.
"Mind if I ask you a question?"
"Nah, bro, as long as you all up and get your telling on about your name."
"It's Karkat. Anyway, what are the scars on your neck from?"
His hand went up to cover them. "They… It wasn't a fun carnival, bro. It wasn't a motherfucking miracle, like they told me it was. It was a motherfucking hell." His eyes brightened to an orange-yellow color. He was getting pissed off.
I shoosh papped his arm and his eyes faded again. A little moirailing couldn't hurt.
"What happened?"
"Man, Karbro, they like, beat us when we didn't get people. When people didn't clap, they beat us. They all up and got their angry on." He looked… sad. "And when I came out with my motherfucking sad face on, the motherfucking humans that run the carnival decided that they'd had motherfucking enough of me. They pulled a gun and that was motherfucking that."
I felt bad about asking him about it. His eyes had gone to a pretty intense orange and he closed them. I had a feeling he was struggling for control and papped his arm again. The lazy smile never left his face. Even when he was describing how they treated him, he was still smiling like a fuckass. It was almost… endearing. I realized with a jolt that the doctors had taken the clown makeup off of his face. He looked scarily normal without it. He had another faint scar under his eye, but he didn't want to talk about them and I didn't want to push. Pissing off a subjugglator and being culled was not on my to-do list. Gamzee clenched his fists and opened his eyes. They were a more faded orange and his face was pale. He coughed and little rivulets of purple slid down the sides of his face. He wiped them away hurriedly and the lazy smile crept back onto his face. Fuckass juggalo. John walked into the room cautiously and I waved him over. Gamzee blinked a couple times, trying to calm himself down enough to not scare John. His eyes were still a mix between orange and yellow but I didn't really think it was a problem.
"Are you feeling any better?"
"Yeah, man, thanks. If it weren't for you and Karbro, I'd probably be dead. You guys all up and got your motherfucking save on."
"I'm John, by the way. Karkat, Sollux said he was going to head home but to call him if we need to."
"Kay, fuckass."
John rolled his eyes and laughed a little. Gamzee smiled bigger and his eyes went back to being yellow. John didn't seem at all fazed by Gamzee's lack of face makeup, or the scars that marred his skin. There was a little bit of purple on the corner of Gamzee's mouth, but he didn't notice. I just sat there and texted Sollux about Gamzee's condition. Gamzee was staring at one of his deuce clubs absently. He captchalogged it again and frowned slightly. Well, as much of a frown as you can get while still managing to smile in a lazy fashion. John stood up and said he was going to get something to eat. He came back about twenty minutes later with a bottle of Faygo and a bottle of water.
"I wasn't sure which one you liked, so I grabbed both." He smiled.
I grimaced and took the water.
"Hey, John, would it all up and be a problem if I drank the Faygo?"
John shook his head, smiled, and handed Gamzee the bottle. Gamzee drank it so fast I barely noticed that he had it. John laughed and Gamzee just kind of spaced out. He wasn't thrilled to be in the hospital, but he was okay with it, since it was keeping him alive. John left because Dave called him. I was left alone with the juggalo.
"So you're feeling better?" No shit, fuckass.
"Yeah, man, my nutrition sack's all up and feeling fine, Karbro."
We sat in silence for a little bit, Gamzee with his eyes closed, and me texting Sollux. Gamzee coughed again and purple fell onto the sheets in front of him. I papped his back and found that he was shaking. I kept papping and he kept shaking. Gamzee wrapped his arms around himself and was mumbling.
"Shut up!" He muttered to himself.
"Gamzee, what's-" He looked at me.
His eyes were red and he wasn't really seeing me. I pulled him into my arms and shoosh papped him until he fell asleep. When he woke up, his eyes were a really intense orange. John and Dave walked in quietly and I gestured for them to get out. Dave nodded and dragged John out. My phone vibrated.
Dave: What was that all about, bro?
Karkles: THE FUCKASS JUGGALO WENT BATSHIT CRAZY. IT HAPPENS. NOT A GOOD TIME. RED/ORANGE EYES=FUCK RUN. OKAY, FUCKASS?
Dave: Yeah, man, it's totally chill. It just didn't look like you were calming him down, man.
Karkles: YOU FUCKASS.
John: Is Gamzee okay?
Karkles: THE FUCKASS JUGGALO IS LIKE BATSHIT CRAZY. BUT THAT'S OKAY. IT HAPPENS.
John: Okay. :D
I closed my phone and Gamzee's eyes were slowly turning redder and redder. I shooshed him and papped his head. I kept moirailing until he fell asleep. When he woke up again, his eyes were a faded orange color. It wasn't perfect, but I didn't think that he needed moirailing. He kept his head in my lap and fell asleep again. Fuckass juggalo. I fell asleep anyway.