Starting this literally seconds after finishing the last chapter cause well, I've done nothing all day except write cause I messed up my ankle at netball….when I WASN'T playing a game just to add to the embarrassment of THAT situation and can now only move around by either hopping or doing the zombie shuffle. So I thought I'd do something productive and finish off chapter 4! The chapter that has been in my head even before I started writing this story. In fact it's the REASON I started writing this pain in the ass that is now my baby. Anyway, Check author notes at the end if your still confused on what the hell even IS my current obsession that is this story.
CHAPTER 4: Where the shit goes down.
Gamzee tore himself away from Tavros, leaving the shocked Taurus still sitting on the counter, eyes wide and cringing slightly at Gamzee's sudden movement, hands flying up and covering his mouth and stopping his thru'm, leaving the bathroom in a cold silence that was only broken by Gamzee's panting. Tavros lowered his hands from his face and reached towards Gamzee, eyes imploring and pleading for Gamzee to tell him what was wrong or even just tell him what he'd done wrong to cause such a response.
"Gamzee?! w-whats wrong? Wh-what did I do?" Gamzee couldn't even utter an apology, leaving Tavros looking so scared and heartbroken, thinking that HE had done something wrong, made his blood pusher beat even quicker than before and made him hate himself to a new degree. But that was before another searing pain slammed into his midsection almost bowling him over. He was staying up sheerly by willpower that was slowly diminishing by the second.
Not meeting Tavros's eyes Gamzee turned and tore the door open, running down the hallway as fast as his shaking legs would carry him, desperately hoping that Tavros hadn't called out after him or ,god forbid, tried to come after him.
Almost tripping over his feet as he almost made it out the front door he regained his balance with a strangled yelp. For some reason he knew that if he fell down, he wouldn't be getting back up again.
No staying on his feet right now was his main priority.
Right after getting the fuck out of there.
Hurtling out the door before anyone could see or stop him he reached the end of the hallway and mindlessly pressed the elevator door, urging it to open as quickly as possible before anyone could come after him.
Barely oppressing a short scream as it tried to tear its way out of his throat, Gamzee all but fell into the elevator once the doors finally opened, closing behind him as he supported himself on the closed door and stared blankly at the buttons.
Shit, were could he go? There was no way in hell he could go back to his room. His hive was too near, people would hear him there and come and investigate. Besides, he wasn't fucking stupid enough to realise that he needed help.
Supporting himself with one arm against the elevator door his body lurched without his consent and he sent a hand flying to clutch his abdomen as he felt something twist- he couldn't hold in the next strangled screech. fuck Fuck FUCK-
KARKAT.
Lurching forward again he managed to hit the cancers sign.
He prayed that Karkat hadn't gone to bed yet.
Rushing off the transportaliser and waiting the agonising million years it took for the elevator door to open after stabilising, he stumbled out, clutching his head. Shit it felt like a fire had spread throughout his entire body and convulsions now shook him.
Coughing violently and retching up blood onto a wall, he staggered as fast as he could to Karkat's door, pounding on the door as soon as he reached it.
"KARKAT. FUCKING ANSWER THE DOOR *retch* FUCK, PLEASE! PLEASE BE AWAKE! KARKAT"
~!~
It was a very tired and very hung-over looking Karkat that went to answer the door when, come one am in the morning, he was awoken by his dumbass morail screeching at his front door and banging it like the building was on fire. Flinging his poorly abused door open he snarling at Gamzee through clenched teeth.
"FUCKS SAKE GAMZEE! IT'S ONE OCLOCK IN THE GODAMN MORNING WHAT DO YOU WA-"Karkat was cut off when Gamzee hurled himself past him and into his hive, this time falling down and staying down. Gamzee was curled up on himself, clutching his head as he let out ragged chocked back screams that pierced Karkat on the spot. Karkat's froze before his thinkpan caught up with him long enough to reach the conclusion that NO Gamzee was NOT just being retarded and he should stop standing there like a stupid fuck and HELP.
Karkat crouched next to Gamzee, hands hovering helplessly just above him, too afraid to touch the convulsing troll in case he made things worse.
Another throat tearing screech tore its way from Gamzee as he turned his head to Karkat opening his eyes and Karkat instinctually hurled himself away as Gamzee turned his now slitted pupils onto him.
RED, that fucking INSANE colour of red, filling up his eyes and only broken up by the black slit that was his pupil.
Gamzee flung his head up, screwing his eyes shut again and screamed openly now, claw tipped hands dragging down his wood floor while Karkat just sat there hands covering his mouth to stop himself from throwing up all over the floor and shook like a fucking cowa- holy shit were Gamzee's claws growing?
In that moment Karkat shook himself right the fuck out of it and leapt into action, the leader side of Karkat finally deciding to show up.
Through all his panic Karkat's brain was whirling with confused tomfuckery that demanded answers. This was nothing like when Gamzee had gone insane on the asteroid. Shooshes and Paps would do nothing to stop this. But whatever was happening with Gamzee could be thought on later, he needed to be moved somewhere safe NOW.
Darting back and crouching in front of Gamzee he held his face up towards him and tried to get his morail to look at him.
"GAMZEE. Gamzee I know you can hear me you stupid fucker, GAMZEE, GAMZEE FOCUS, Gamzee you can't stay here we need to move you somewhere so you won't hurt anyone."
Karkat could feel the tears that had welled up in his eyes streak down his face upon seeing Gamzee's slitted pupils trying to focus on him. His pupils kept focusing and losing focus on his face as if he was fighting, fighting to see straight and keep his gaze on his face or fighting to keep his sanity in check he didn't know. But before Karkat could say anything else a loud CRACK was heard and Gamzee froze completely, eyes wide and slit pupils quavering in agony, mouth open and bared in a silent scream before coughing violently and vomiting up an ungodly amount of blood.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no Karkat repeated like a mantra in his head as he gripped Gamzee's shoulders and hauling him up, refusing to look at the blood on the floor as it left a small trail behind them, dragging him along as he looked around for a place to put Gamzee. When Gamzee bent over almost double as another snap (this time from his leg) sounded through the room, his horns were also getting larger and sturdier; Karkat noticed with a growing amount of panic that he was also getting taller, heavier and much fucking harder to carry as well.
Gamzee face was close enough from him that when he screamed again Karkat got a front row view of his serrated teeth that were way to close for comfort, razor sharp canines extended and looking as if they wanted nothing else but to tear and rip into flesh. Karkat changed his course abruptly heading straight for the basement door and flinging it open with one hand, the other arm occupied with supporting a now violently convulsing Gamzee, who's ears were now brushing against his head even with the distance between them. Hazardously making his way down the stairs he opened the other door at the end of the staircase and stumbled in, panting from holding Gamzee up and not dropping him from how hard he was shaking. Karkat had no choice but to lower him onto the ground before he dropped him in a heap. He went to help Gamzee again, only to be swiped at by a set of large and rather deadly claws.
"GET AWAY FROM ME! GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!" Gamzee snarled, now on his hands and knees. Trying to pant out something else before his back arched over again and his eyes screwing shut, mouth open in ragged pants and cries, claws dragging along the ground leaving large scratches in the cement floor as though that would help vent the pain.
"WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU STILL HERE?! GET. OUT. MOTHERFUCKER." Gamzee yelled without looking up, sentence ending in another scream. Karkat refused to leave; tears flowing freely.
No troll could be in this much pain and survive or at least not black out. But Gamzee was awake and conscious to feel every single cell in his body change, tear apart and reform.
Gamzee's head snapped around when Karkat hadn't moved, his eyes training and pinpointing onto Karkat with enough intensity to make him to back away from Gamzee a couple of steps to get out of his glare. The leader finally exhausted out and being replaced by a rather small and scared morail.
"GET OUT KARKAT. GET OUT BEFORE I KILL YOU" Gamzee was openly snarling now as though he couldn't form the words right. But his eyes, slitted, and insane as they were, pleaded with him to run, just get away from him and make sure he couldn't get out.
Karkat turned tail and ran, locking the door behind him and now overly glad that they had decided to design all the doors, wherever they may be, out of the same materials they had made the doors to the asteroid station. Belting up the stairs, Gamzee's screams following him, he closed the outer door with a slam and began dragging the heaviest cabinet he had over to it and for good measure his couch to back that up. Sprinting for his room, which he calculated was roughly above the basement, Karkat pulled his sickles out as soon as he had slid to a stop in the centre of the room, tearing away at the carpet with his hands until he could see the wood floor beneath it.
When slashing at the ground with his sickles to make a hole failed, he curved his weapon above his head and buried it deep into the floor wrenching it out and taking some wood and ceiling plaster with it. Crouching down on all fours he peered into the hole, his eyes widening, pupils contracting in terror at the scene below him.
Gamzee was still on all fours and screaming, but his screaming had a new note to it. It was more feral and raw, being ripped from the very depths of his soul as it seemed. His shoulder blades were sharp and shaking from the strain of keeping him up. His entire body had… changed. Gamzee looked to be a good 30 centimetres taller than he had been before, not including the tips of his deadly horns that curved out of his feral hair which had grown out drastically and was falling around him like a black mane. His mouth…ripped open almost all the way to the back of his jaw like an extension of his mouth.
His chest had enlarged but his waist stayed just as skinny and bony, hips angular but sharper, as ever. It was his legs and arms that horrified him the most. His legs had the anatomy of a meow-beast or bark-beast, having an extra joint were his ankle used to be as though it had grown into an extension from his foot and ending in an almost paw like dexterous foot. his arms were exactly the same as before above the elbows but now, instead of Gamzee's bony wrists and long tapered hands, his lower arms swelled into huge hands that looked like they didn't have a wrist and simply melding into a hand with no in-between, new muscles bursting out of his once lanky body but retaining his spindly form.
New horror rose from Karkats stomach threatening to make him vomit when he saw spines start to push their way out along Gamzee's spine, more following and two fine spines pushing out of his jaw right below a long tapered ear. Almost as if…as if had skin been connected the spines to his ears it would make a fin. In fact all the spines were in positions that if Gamzee had been a sea-dweller he would have had fins. Another gut wrenching scream from Gamzee brought his attention back to the sick spectacle before him.
Karkat swore something was pushing its way out of the bottom of his pants.
His suspicions were short lived though when the bulge flicked up, over and out of his pants revealing a stunning new piece of anatomy. A long tail with a tuft of raven black fur and very small spines along its length was now convulsing and slamming against the floor in all directions, covered in indigo blood and skin new and tough unlike the new flesh on a pupated troll, seemingly uncontrolled by Gamzee as it smashed against the floor and wall.
As one last crack was heard Gamzee flung his entire torso up, claws tearing ten deep furrows in the floor with how fast he ripped them away from the floor, as Gamzee let out one last excruciating scream, sounding more like a roar than anything else before falling back onto his stomach again.
Gamzee finally stopped convulsing after that, harsh pants echoing through the room. Not moving for a couple of seconds before slowly hauling himself up onto all fours, his rapid pants quickly being replaced by a quiet rumbling growl that echoed through the room. Gamzee's…tail under control again as it swayed slowly back and forth in the air, brushing against his just intact pants as though curious, shirt having been shredded long ago.
'Gamzee' opened his eyes slowly, his eyes almost glowing in the dark of the basement as he looking around at his surroundings, teeth slightly bared and long ears flicking as small bursts of pain still reverberated throughout his body in the aftershock. The growling only increased in volume as he heard the ceiling above him creak when Karkat shifted his weight, drawing in a sharp gasp before clamping a hand over his mouth when Gamzee's gaze passed over him. Gamzee's head snapped up as he detecting Karkat's presence and trying to pinpoint his exact location. Picking himself up and standing upright he started sniffing the air, ears flexing left and right before a long indigo tongue flicked out and waved in the air as though to taste for Karkat (or more likely his fear).
Gamzee's face lit up in a feral grin that seemed to lift WITH the torn up edges of his mouth, indigo blood oozing out of the already sealing skin around the tear and trailing down his face, joining the rest of his destroyed makeup. Blood and tears that now masked his face instead of the soft facepaint that he donned each day.
Karkat's eyes almost
didn't detect Gamzee's movements when he twisted around and ran (on all fours) towards the basement door. Snarling savagely when barging into the door didn't even budge it, starting up on slashing and throwing himself at the door trying to weaken the Alternian wood. Karkat lurched up from his peeping hole and ran into the living room to reinforce the outer door with more objects just in case Gamzee was strong enough at this moment to break through double-Bec-Noir-proof-doors.
~!~
Before long he had a considerable pile of the heaviest objects piled in front of the outer door. Gamzee hadn't broken through the first door yet last time Karkat had checked on him through the peep hole. But it turned out he needn't have bothered since after another ten minutes of, FREAKING TERRIFYING, banging Gamzee had stopped throwing himself at the door when he realised it was futile. Dropping down on all fours and pacing along the walls of the basement snarling his anger at the walls and probably at Karkat as well, sometimes pausing in his pacing to rake his claws down the walls.
Karkat still hadn't taken his guard down and was sitting in front of the barricade of his furniture with sickles in hand and even bigger bags under his eyes from stress and lack of even MORE sleep.
He was thinking.
Of COURSE he was thinking! His fucking morail just transformed into a raging beast currently lurking in his basement and wanted nothing better than too pull his intestines out with his teeth! But that wasn't the only thing Karkat was thinking about. He couldn't shake the feeling that he'd seen something like this before…well not THIS before but something was nagging in the back of his head….. like he'd seen something similar in a book or maybe it was just instinct? It couldn't be beyond his instincts to warn him AWAY from the monster that was in his basement- Oh god. Was that what Gamzee was now? A monster? Shit what happened if he was stuck like this? God so many questions but no answers damnit!
'Think, Karkat' he snarled internally and banging his head sideways into the couch he was sitting next to, barricading the door JUST IN CASE he could beat the answers out of his thinkpan. Although, it wasn't like he was bothered to get up to beat his head against a wall, and all the other objects worthy of his head smashing where piled up in front of the door. Could never be too careful when you had a rampaging morail set to devour anything that mov- STOP THAT. Christ, couldn't life just stop fucking with him for more than two seconds? Maybe this was what his ancestor had to deal with to? Probably not. Huh so much for 'all suffering ancestors' bet they never had to deal with this shit-
Wait.
ANCESTORS.
Oh glorified fucknuts, why hadn't he thought of that before?!
Past Karkat was obviously an idiot for not thinking of this sooner. The answer had been right at the front of his thinkpan, on the tip of his tongue.
Stiffly standing up from his position guarding the door he ducked into his room quickly checking on what Gamzee was doing. . .sitting down on his…haunches and finger painting on the floor with his own blood, 'honk HONK's and smiley nosed faces scrawled around him. Ignoring his shuddering and looking harder at Gamzee for a good minute before his eyes flashed in recognition.
Gamzee….looked like a miniature replica of the Grand High Blood.
*Flashback back to Alternia where all the trolls of 4 sweeps were allowed into the empresses abandoned library caverns where they were given one chance to find their ancestors journals which had been hidden in the caverns, waiting for their offspring to find*
Karkat watched as Crabdad perched up onto the overgrown canopy of the libraries entrance, screeching at him to hurry up so they could return to their hive. Turning towards the entrance and staring at it with much distrust and excitement he entered. This was his first chance to meet the other trolls of the planet! He remembered Crabdad telling him to be nice and not yell to loud or snap at anyone because there weren't many trolls, and if he messed up on his first impression he probably wouldn't fill any quadrants and that he couldn't come crying to him when the drones came along.
Karkat turned into a dark corridor, shivering at the empty silence the cavern projected in cold waves. Seeing light at the end of the tunnel he quickened his pace to get out of the creepy corridor like cave(HE WASN'T SCARED! It was just chilly down there that's all!). When he finally reached the slightly ajar door he peaked around it and gasped at the sheer vastness of the place. Moonlight filtered through openings that had been carved into the solid stone in the ceiling giving off more than enough light to see and read by. The cavern was ENORMOUS. It had shelves as far as the eye could see and then some. There was no other library archive where you could just search up your ancestor's journal either; recent ancestors hid their journal in the library for their offspring to FIND. This made sure that only the intended troll was able to read their ancestors most sacred item. Blood was also needed to open these journals as well so not just anyone could open it and start reading though their memoirs, but Karkat already knew this! He was pretty much set to troll this whole dang library to find his ancestors journal! After all, he was the first troll here and therefor, the most awesome troll he-
Hearing creaking coming from his right he dropped down and rolled to the side silently, but the newcomer had already seen his yellow eyes glowing in the dark, unbeknownst to Karkat. Perking his ears around and checking to see if anyone really WAS there and it wasn't just a creaky chair, unaware of the troll silently stalking him from behind some rubble near the door, waiting for him to emerge and wriggling its bottom in the air in preparation for pounce-off!
Satisfied with his once over check that it was only his imagination he stepped over the broken door remains he had rolled behind Karkat started off into the library with head start to find his ancestor journal, smugness radiating off him at being the first one there yet again.
That smugness was short lived though when a heavy warm bundle slammed into him knocking both of them over before pinning him down with surprisingly strong arms for such a tiny thing. Startled and yelping as his struggles grew into flailing before all movement was cut off by a victorious "Mrrrreow!" his eyes finally focused on the small troll on top of him.
Wait, ANOTHER TROLL!
"AC the Fuuuuurocious hunter pounces and Catures her purrrrrrrey!" the troll on top of him announced triumphantly, "AC waits for her purrrrey to retailiate." Said troll on top of him (definitely a girl, he deliberated) looked down on him expectantly, pouting when he just stared at her first incredulously, well you would after meeting your first ever other troll and having that troll sit on you, before he scowled and growled softly when her butt began to crush him. Huffing and getting off him she crossed her arms over her chest with some difficulty over her muddy three-sizes-to-big trench coat. "No need to growl and get your tail in a knot! I just wanted to play, but I don't think you know how to role purlay I suppose" Holding out a sleeve covered hand she smiled "Im Nepeta! Nepeta Lejion! Whats your name?" Karkat hesitated before grasped her hand and shaking it, were trolls supposed to act like this?
"Karkat Vantas" he stated simply, still shocked that his first encounter with another of his species had literally bowled him off his feet.
~!~
After a couple of hours the other trolls of the planet arrived with their Lusus and cautiously entered the library. Nepeta who had found her ancestors journal, quite quickly after scaling a shelf looking for places she sensed that a 'Mighty Huntress!' would leave it for her to find as Karkat had just stood at the bottom of the shelf she had scaled with an exasperated look on his face that turned to an actual smile when he heard her squeal and leap down with a journal tucked into her trench coat pocket as she scurried to a sheltered heap of rubble and burrowing under as she settled down to read about her ancestor. Thinking hard and trying to think like an ancestor of his he tried various places that he would have placed it in the library.
After two hours of searching he still couldn't find the damn thing, other trolls had already come and proclaimed theirs with hardly any effort whatsoever. Nepeta had found a playmate with a troll called Equius Zahhak, his journal was for some reason made of metal and looked about as heavy as the sun but Equius managed to pick it up and sat near Nepeta as she continued to read through her journal. Eventually by the end of the night, Nepeta was laying on Equius's lap napping.
Another troll called Tavros….umm…Tavros NITRAM! That was it, was laying on his stomach and reading his ancestors journal with wide eyes after finding it on the highest shelf in the entire library; One troll called Vriska Serket had yelled at him to get down before he fell and another troll named Aradia yelled encouragement and screeches when it looked like he was about to fall, his response was a loud laugh and a shouted reply from WAAAAAAAY up there that he wasn't afraid of falling or heights! before triumphantly pulling out a brown leather covered journal with his symbol on it and climbing down as swiftly as he could to sit in a sheltered corner by himself to start reading.
Captor…Sollux! Had stood in front of the first isle for about 30 minutes with his eyes shut and his nose scrunched up and hands near his temples. Eridan Ampora had laughed and asked if he was expecting his journal to just fly into his hand, Sollux breaking his concentration for a moment turned and stuck his forked tongue out at Eridan. He was still at it now last time he looked over and didn't seem to have made any progress. Feferi and Eridan had found their journals in a deep pool in the middle of the cavern that housed the seadweller's ancestors.
After yet ANOTHER hour of searching he sat down on some rubble and sniffled, He couldn't find it anywhere! Even Sollux had gotten his! And he hadn't done anything! All he had done was scrunch his nose up and stand there and then his eyes had crackled blue and red and then WHOOSH, journal in hand (Sollux had made sure to parade around with his journal in front of Eridan) He had tried to think about where his ancestor would have put it but he didn't know what kind of ancestor he had! That was the reason he was down here to read the damn thing wasn't it!
Before he could continue his inner rant at himself there was a creak from the entrance door before a small troll with a frizzy mountain of hair came tumbling in, all the trolls stopped talking and peered curiously at the late newcomer. Clearing the chaos of his hair away from its face a small male troll with facepaint smudged by dirt, grass stains and foliage trapped in his hair was revealed. Smile being emphasized by the painted one that curved up his lips he stood and shook the leaves out of his hair before ducking behind a shelf to start searching without introducing himself.
As all the other trolls went back to reading Karkat crept behind a shelf and peaked through it at the little troll. Gosh he was really short! And he was really late? And why was he covered in mud and leaves? It looked like he had just gone and trekked here from his hive. Didn't he have a lusus to carry him?
"Where's your lusus? Did it carry you here?" Karkat couldn't help it, he wasn't normally this nosy or social but he was really, really, really curious! Plus he felt somehow connected to this troll. Like it was a good idea to talk and be around this troll, like it was MEANT TO BE.
The shorter troll jumped and turned around like he was in disbelief that someone was talking to him.
"Sorry, I didn't say my name, im Karkat!" he smiled *(yes Karkat smiled willingly once upon a time when he was but a wee troll) after a few moments thought when the little troll didn't answer he frowned *(Karkat's back)
"Can't you speak? Can you write your name? Do you have a name?" Karkat couldn't stop asking questions, this troll intrigued him somehow and he wanted to know!
"I can speak" the troll muttered. "What's your name then?" Karkat leaned forward from where he was leaning through the book case. "Gamzee Makara" Gamzee stood a little taller as though that would make a difference.
"So how come you're so dirty? Didn't your Lusus carry you?" Karkat went back to his first question
"I walked here by myself" Gamzee shrugged as though the caverns WEREN'T miles away from any hives on the planet. Unless Gamzee's hive was.
YOU WALKED?! By yourself?! Where's your hive?" Karkat asked incredulously
"Near the sea" Gamzee's back was turned to him as he tried to leap up and grab a journal that looked promising.
"What the fu- heck is a 'sea'?" He had no idea what a 'sea' was seeing as he lived in the planets inner jungles that were crabdad's natural habitat.
Gamzee looked back from where he had started to climb and smiled for the first time since talking to Karkat "It's like the most bitchtits big puddle you ever saw except it stretches across the horizon! But it don't taste very nice and if you get your hair wet and don't wash it your hair gets sticky" He scrunched up his nose. Karkat smiled, he liked this Gamzee!
"Why didn't your lusus come with you? Feferi's lusus is HUUUUUUUGE and it dropped her at the edge of that" He pointed at the giant hole of water that was in the middle of the cavern "Is it bigger than Feferi's Lusus?! That would be pretty hu-" Karkat stoped mid ramble when he noticed that Gamzee's smile was gone again
"Goatdad wasn't at the beach when it was time to go…even though he said he would be... so I waited another hour and when he still didn't turn up I went looking for the caverns myself" He gave a small smile "And I find them didn't I! All by myself! And I didn't think there would be this many trolls here, Goatdad always said there weren't many le-" He was cut off when he slipped from the two shelves up he had managed to scale and landed on his butt in front of Karkat.
Karkat laughed helping Gamzee up, it must suck to be the shortest, he wouldn't know of course being the tallest of the 4 sweep year old trolls here he thought with a certain amount of smugness.
"Im never going to find my journal in time" Gamzee said sniffing "I shouldn't have bothered coming" Karkat scowled good-heartedly "Well I haven't found my journal yet either but that doesn't make me an incompetent troll! Hey you help me find mine and I'll help you find yours, Deal?" Gamzee looked up slightly with a surprised expression on his face like he couldn't believe someone was helping him before his face lit up in a brighter-than-the-sun grin "Deal motherfucker!"
~!~
It had taken them all but thirty minutes to find Karkat's journal after finding his in a pile of books in an overturned shelf that Terezi had knocked over. Karkat almost screamed in frustration, that shelf was the first place he looked! He had just KNOWN it would have been in a really obvious place that no one would look in. The practical side of him had screamed that his ancestor would be just as paranoid as him. That shit HAD to be genetic.
Gamzee had led the way on where he thought his ancestor would hide his journal, stopping at random piles of books and rummaging almost to the bottom till coming back with a sad pout and a shake of his head.
"Hey Karkat could you boost me up to the top shelf here?"
"Pfft, Gamzee any ancestor of yours will only ever be three feet from the ground like your own grand self, don't think it's going to be hiding anywhere that's far from the floor"
"Karkat, one day I will tower over all you motherfuckers and when that day comes when you can't reach the top shelf because you're such a tiny squirt and you'll beg me to reach it for you." Gamzee put his hands up to his face in mock distress and squeaked out a poor imitated of Karkat's voice 'Oh help me Mr Makara! My stubby legs can't reach the second shelf!' mark my words!"
"When that day comes Gamzee I will cover myself in grub sauce and dance in front of…..That Eridan guy over there!"
"Well get ready for that day. They can call the dance "Dance of the many sex-butts" in your honour"
"Gamzee that is just gross"
"You started it, now help me up onto the top shelf! I've got a good feeling about this one!"
After lots more bickering for Gamzee to watch where he was sticking his feet and to "get your stinking shoes out of my mouth!' he was lifted high enough to browse on the top of the shelf.
"Karkat could you shuffle to the right till you hit that wall? There's a little crevice in the rock over there and there's something in it"
Karkat huffed and wobbled slightly to the right speaking around the precious journal securely lodged in his mouth "Yeah totally Gamzee, Anything else while I've got you *huff* up there? Want me to also carry you back to you hive by the big puddle? Don't know if you'd noticed but for a shortass you're pretty heavy!"
Shuffling awkwardly they reached the small incision in the stone wall. Gamzee stretched even further and stuck a hand inside, rummaging about. Karkat was concentrating on holding Gamzee and his own journal in his teeth when he heard a victorious cry come from Gamzee. Looking up was a bad idea because he lost balance and they landed in a heap with a loud "Honk!" from Gamzee as they landed.
Doing a little dance on Karkat where he'd landed on his legs, efficiently pinning Karkat to the ground on his stomach, and his journal raised in front of him, Gamzee opened his journal and started reading right then, journal a multitude of dark colours from all over the hectrospectrum with a bright indigo symbol on the front, ignoring Karkat's indignant screech at him to get his butt off him.
Karkat decided he might as well start reading his journal as well seeing as Gamzee was pretty content on staying right the fuck on his legs.
After about fifteen minutes of reading he felt Gamzee shift about on his legs and tore himself out of his ancestor's memoirs. Gamzee looked slightly horrified(?) at whatever he was reading. "Gamzee? What the hecks the matter? Stop moving about your butts bony!" Karkat was about to go back to reading 'The sufferers' journal when he heard Gamzee shut his.
"Are you done already? Either that or your ancestor was a really boring fuck" Karkat scoffed "Nah…just don't feel like… reading it all" Karkat twisted round almost knocking Gamzee from his perch on his legs. "You DON'T want to know what your ancestor was like?! Damn Gamzee, did you at least read far enough to know the guys name? Shits kinda required unless you WANT to be culled"
"Yeah,… The Grand Highblood, pretty fancy name think it'll raise a few eyebrows during dinner with Goatdad?" Gamzee's smile was back though it looked a little forced
"Although, I think you miiiiiight want to know that the bet is still up" Gamzee smirked as his face was overcome with mischief when he looked over Karkat.
"Huh? What bet?"
"The one about you covering yourself in grub sauce" Gamzee crowed as he flicked to a page and showed it to Karkat.
Well fuck. Gamzee's ancestor was HUGE.
And terrifying holy shit, nothing like Gamzee at all.
For one his hands were MASSIVE, his hair looked like it could devour a small child, facepaint was spiked, sharp and defined on his face and those spiked clubs he carried were covered in ever shade of colour in the rainbow. He didn't look quite like a land dwelling troll. But then again he didn't look like a seadwelling troll either, Kind of a weird mix between the two.
"You sure that's your ancestor? Doesn't look anything like you. The horns are kinda similar but after that, nope nada, that's not your ancestor, your still a short fuck" He joked trying to get Gamzee back into good spirits.
It worked, because the next second they were tumbling about in a mock fight after Gamzee had stated that "Still short but I could still kick your butt across Alternia with one hand behind my back and a horn bound!"
Gamzee and Karkat soon collapsed onto the ground (or rather they flopped further onto the ground seeing as they never left it) Laughing and trying to breathe through heavy pants.
Karkat hadn't laughed this hard in almost all his sweeps. He decided that he liked this Gamzee!
Even if he was weird as fuck.
~!~
Karkat leaning back from where he had been peering in on Gamzee who was pacing on all fours again; it was true that Gamzee looked like the Grand Highblood. But STILL something was nagging in the back of his thinkpan that this was still a totally different problem in the game field of fucked up problems that had been assigned to his ass.
Sighing in exasperation at the new problems that bloomed in his mind he got up stiffly and walked over to the edge of the couch and sat down, sickles back in hand as he stood guard of his basement door. He dragged a hand down his face; Gamzee wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, all these problems could wait till morning when he could see if the situation had gotten any better or any worse.
Unable to keep sleep at bay any longer, Karkat slipped into a restless sleep to the sound of his Morails snarls drifting up the stairs
~ O-O ~
Oh god, Im so sorry my Anon Canon just started firing all over the place there in the middle with that flashback and before I knew it, it was well over 2000 words. It was only supposed to be like 500 words! GODAMN IT BRAIN! Was it really necessary for you to include a shorty!Gamzee canon or an innocent-actually-happy!Karkat?! NO IT WASN'T! Just get in there, backstory and get out!
Ok for those who are wondering NO. Gamzee is NOT a werewolf but that was originally the inspiration for this story. Just add the fact that the Grand High Blood is just a freak among trolls with his strange anatomy, Sober!Gamzee is physically different from normal Gamzee, I refuse to believe it can just transition from Land troll to Sea troll without some weird freaky aquatic Gamzee swimming around the place with spines instead of fins and a tail cause Hussie doesn't will it but I do and Badda Bing, Badda Boom SHITTY FANGIRL HEADCANON ACTIVATED!
Ok, So explanations are in order I suppose 'cause I literally can't think of ANY other way to even remotely or possible introduce this theory into the story without just downright zapping Karkat with a lightning bolt and bestowing unto him 'THE WORDS OF THE SHITTY AUTHOR WHO HAS RUINED YOUR PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER BEYOND RECOGNITION! BOW TO YOU CHARACTERS DESTORYER!'
Ok so (in this AU) we've already pointed out that the varying phases of the moon (on Alternia the two moons would have countered the pressure and such) cause changes in pressure that the Trolls aren't accustomed to. Basically in Gamzee's bloodline there's a hormone (or other chemical reaction) that is produced by an organ in his body (like the trolls equivalent of an appendix but if Gamzee's was removed he would die) that increases whatever it secretes faster when he's mad or when the adrenaline kicks in. That's why the Grand Highblood looks like Gamzee when he flips the fuck out but isn't quite the same, you know the red eyes and all dat. Why? Because the GHB was on Alternia. And the pressure of the planet made sure that the hormone only released gradually and was burned off when he fought and killed shit, if he had a tail it would have been miniscule compared to Gamzee's. BUT because of the varying pressures of earth the gland in Gamzee's brain is blocked so the hormone is being produced but it's not going anywhere, therefore it is building up and the only other times where it's released is if he's having a major adrenalin rush or he was mad angry (HULK SMASH! - NO you've already ruined one characters image. Don't bring another franchise into it)
So there's been this massive build-up of this hormone, let's call it GHBS-grand highblood syndrome- throughout the month because the pressure isn't high enough on Earth for it to be released gradually into the body, eventually (about 3 days before highest pressure) it starts literally messing with Gamzee's thinkpan when the pressure builds enough for some to trickle VEEEEEERY slowly into the body, hence the migraines. So when the pressure finally builds up enough it all just bursts out. Now just imagine the results of a MONTHS worth of GHBS building up and then flooding through Gamzee's body in moments. And take into consideration that the grand high blood had a small amount produced every day that he burned off with activities and what not and look at the results to that! After the initial burst of GBHS it empties the gland entirely and with that much in his system it takes him about eight hours to burn off the hormone (Gamzee could get this out of his system much faster due to his bodies compatibility with Sopor slime that acted like a sort of treatment that prevented GHBS from being produced and eventually his body copied the bacteria in the sopor slime and copied it with its own imitation with white blood cells that cleaned out the system afterwards quicker) but not before his body responds and changes to the required size and shape so that the GHBS doesn't kill him straight up. Just imagine the change like ALL your growth spurts combined together and spanned out within two minutes while your body's internal organs and body structure stop momentarily to keep up with the change and in some cases snapping or shredding and reforming.
Shit would HURT.
And so with all this going on do all you wonderful readers know what that makes? A FUCKING COMPLICATED HEADCANON THAT'S WHAT! (Takes lab coat off and proceeds to tell the class of Fan fiction that there will be a pop-quiz tomorrow on the science and sciences of PBJ. And it counts for their ENTIRE grade.)
And with much, MUCH ado,
I TIP MY TINY TOPHAT TO YOU ALL!