Thanks for the advice, whether it was to help me get a move on and otherwise. I appreciate it. And to show my appreciation, here's the next chapter. I'll do my best to attempt update at least once every month. (Month, not 30 days. Okay?) I usually just give up on my stories after a month or two, but I really didn't want to do that with The Alternative, since I'm still gaining followers. You people are all persistent and I blame Hussie.
"I will be the leader of a revolution. Have no doubt that the lowbloods will have their revenge. Rebellion will sprout from the roots of your very own caste system unless you change the way you think!"
"Sounds like motherfuckin' BLASPHEMY to me. NOT ONE OF YOU CAN TAKE ME DOWN. Your army will falter under our might. Such is the way of LIFE. Highbloods SUCH AS ME last much longer than YOU PUNY LOWBLOODS."
"Believe what you like, Highblood. Maybe not one of us by our own hand, but through unity and cooperation we will gain might even more powerful than yours, and you will be taken down. There are more of us than there are of you. You're a fool, Highblood. A grand one at that."
"Fool? FOOL? Who the MOTHERFUCKING HELL do you think you're TALKING TO? MAYBE, just maybe, I SHOULD PUT THAT NAME OF YOURS TO GOOD USE, Sufferer…"
"Try it. I dare you."
The Sufferer picked up and slammed against the wall by the Highblood, the sound of impact echoing off the palace walls. The Sufferer was injured, painfully so, but he did not show it. Instead, he smirked.
"Losing our touch, are we?"
The hand pinning him to the wall slid up and caught his neck, pressurizing it to the point where he was forced to gasp.
"NOT ONE BIT."
The Highblood's arm used as leverage by the Sufferer to swing his lower body up and kick him with all the force in his body, letting go just in time to detach himself from the Capricorn.
"Manners, manners." The Sufferer dusting himself off. "Weren't you taught better? Highblood?"
A boot placed firmly on the Highblood's chest, the Sufferer's cloak casting a shadow over him, sickle pressed against his jugular.
"Better than you at least." Their positions switched, but the Sufferer pinned more securely by the Highblood's heavier weight. "YOU CAN COUNT ON THAT."The Highblood's spiked club appears in his hand. "Any last words?"
The Sufferer's spit hits the Highblood's face. The Highblood roars and brings his weapon down, only to be blocked by the Sufferer's sickle. The two locked in a power struggle, pure loathing for each other being exchanged with their eyes.
And suddenly…it was Gamzee.
Gamzee pinning him down, locked in battle with him. Karkat the one trapped beneath weight and weapon, struggling for his life now rather than for power, for control. The club pressed down harder and the sickle forced downward, impossible to raise up and force back, or even hold up any longer. Red orbs with indigo irises staring him down with maniacal gleam. His arm gives way. Gamzee pulls his club back to strike again. He is unable to defend.
"HAVE A NICE AFTERLIFE, MOTHERFUCKER!"
A crazed laughter. The club brought down. Death. He was going to-
"Karkat, wake up!"
Karkat gasped, his eyes flashing open wide to see Sollux holding him down so he wouldn't hurt himself, watching him with his eyebrows knit with worry. He stared up at his teacher, unseeing of what was in front of him. When he realized he was once again in the waking world, he shoved Sollux off and put a hand to his face, covering his eyes.
Sollux stepped away without any delay and allowed for him to relax from whatever shock he received from the dream. It seemed to him that it probably would have been a better idea for him to have slept in the recupercoon the day before.
"Are you okay?" Sollux asked.
"I'm fine, God, I'm fine," he growled. "Fuck… fuck, fuck, fuck… I'm fine."
The psionic sighed, ironically a bit relieved to hear his student cursing. He, himself, had woken up early that night, and the minute his head had surfaced out of the sopor, he heard Karkat thrashing about on the couch and he rushed over to restrain him. There was actually some residue on Karkat's wrists, which was slightly amusing, despite the severity of his episode.
"I think you need to clean up, Karkat," Sollux commented. "You're quite the sight to see."
"Yeah, yeah," Karkat replied, swinging his legs off the couch. "Whate-"
A sickening squelch was more than audible from below and all at once, Karkat froze with his expression horrified.
"Shit," cursed Sollux. He came in front of Karkat and held his hand under Karkat's chin. "Don't look down, okay? Just- don't look down. Whatever you do. Come on, let's move away. Slowly, just move away." He guided Karkat from the spot, step by step, away, hoping that Karkat wouldn't dare to look down. He doesn't need two episodes in one night…
But by the time he saw Karkat's eyes flick down to the floor, it was already too late. He could only watch Karkat give a strangled choke and fall to his knees, hunching over and clutching his abdomen as he started to cough in the midst of his choking, his expression a mix of pain and revulsion. Sollux could almost personally feel the grub gnawing on Karkat's insides, viciously protesting against the traumatizing image that Karkat had just invoked upon himself.
"No, no, Karkat. Karkat, look at me," Sollux urged, kneeling down in front of him. "Calm down, it's alright. It's just a gaming grub, not a real one. You didn't kill anybody. Nothing died because it never lived. Oh, shit, was that the right thing to say? Karkat? Karkat!"
But it was useless. Karkat had a glazed, far-away look in his eyes and he continued to make the choking noise, and it was growing wetter. Sollux knew it wasn't going to be long before liquid came gushing out of his student's protein chute.
He forcefully pulled Karkat up to his feet and dragged him to the bathroom in a hurry before Karkat could even twitch. Then right as Karkat absent-mindedly gripped the edge of the tub, Sollux pulled stray locks out of the way just in time for him to cleanly heave his guts out over its side, the contents of his stomach emptying on the bottom with a sickening splash while Sollux's other hand rested on his shoulder. The psionic really didn't mean to look, but he happened to see that the contents that he threw up were not a majority of sustenance; rather, they came out mixed with large amounts of blood. And the color caught his eye, holding it to the obscene shade that it should not have been.
Was that color even possible? Was that really blood?
It was. Sollux could smell it. No matter what color blood a troll had, it always had a lingering scent that mixed in with the flavors of the dye. And Karkat's was blood with a bright, mutated tang to it.
"Karkat, is that-" He stopped. Karkat's expression, though he was not facing towards Sollux, was one that was an accumulation of layers upon layers of pain, trauma, and shock of varying degrees. He obviously did not intend for any of this to happen, especially for Sollux to discover his blood color. When the student looked up at him, it was with more horror, as if waiting for him to call the culling drones or to beat him senselessly.
Sollux raised his free hand, to do what he himself was unsure of, but when he did, Karkat flinched and quickly raised an arm up in defense against him. It was then that the yellow blood sighted the gash on his arm, right when the sleeve slipped just the slightest bit, revealing the deep gouge that looked quite recent and quite painful. And Sollux froze, his eyes glued onto the injury, and his mind clicked in the most obvious way possible. That was what happened. That was why. Of course. Of course. And now he knew what he needed to do.
His hand moved around Karkat's shoulder as he dropped to his knees again and the other moved similarly, bringing him into the most gentle embrace that he could manage, careful not to shatter the student who had already reached the breaking point several times. He felt cringe at first, then he became completely rigid. It seemed like it was an eternity that neither of them moved, but then Karkat's arms shook slightly, twitching almost, but then shifted forward and clung around Sollux's neck.
After a few more long moments stillness made to ease the calamity, after Karkat's breathing had evened out between the occasional coughs, Sollux pulled away ever so slowly, both of their arms still lightly hanging on each other.
"I…" Sollux paused. "Let's get you cleaned up. I need to get you to school before it starts and you sure as hell aren't going looking like this." He smiled, doing his best to communicate to Karkat, to reassure him, that everything was alright. "Rinse your mouth and I'll find you a plain change of clothes."
Karkat stared at him, surprised, but no longer fearful of his mentor. He gave a wordless nod, slow, understanding, letting his arms drop to his sides slowly as he watched Sollux stand up, neither of their eyes breaking contact until Sollux finally turned out of the doorway to fetch him clothes. And he stood up shakily to rinse his mouth in the sink.
As Sollux, just one block over, sifted through loose clothing to find some that might fit Karkat, he had one thought repeating itself over and over in his mind.
He needs normalcy in his life again.