Waxing Pale
Twin Kats
Long ago before the banishment of Adults on Alternia...
He sat out on the cliffside, overlooking the edge of a long drop towards the sea. They were far from any seadweller's region here, it was one of the few safe cave networks that existed. Abandoned Trial Grounds generally were safe to hide in and to make home in for those that did not have a hive. His knees where bent up, his hood was down, and his gaze was skyward at the stars.
"You had another one of your dreams, didn't you Kankri."
Kankri let his lips curl, silently amused about how she had taken to calling him by the name that wasn't his. Not anymore, not really. Once, in a world of peace that didn't exist, that had been his name. Here though, on Alternia, he was just an abandoned signless grub. A mutant, fit only for culling, with dreams that made no sense. Dreams of a world that was impossible.
"Yes," Kankri said after a minute. Behind him the Dolorosa shifted and then sat down, folding herself until she looked as regal as she always had. Even in his dreams the Dolorosa had been his mother figure, the alien term sliding easily on his tongue as if it had always belonged there. As if it had always belonged to her.
"What did you dream of this time?" she asked and stared up at the stars with him.
Kankri was quiet. In his dreams the Kankri-he-wasn't talked a lot, spoke of justice, of equality, of how one should not mistreat another for disability. The Kankri of his dreams was a judgmental fuck and Kankri-here-and-now could see that plainly. He'd been a right ass, but he'd been epic in ways that nobody could understand. Not then, and not even now.
"Death," Kankri said after a moment, bringing his head down to bury his face in his knees.
"Death is not a stranger," the Dolorosa replied calmly. "What specifically has shaken you?"
Kankri smiled despondently. That, there, was why mother had always been the right term for her. So alien, so foreign, but so correct for her. She knew every nuance of his-self, past and present. Kankri-that-wasn't and Kankri-that-was.
"The death of everything," Kankri said softly. "The death of us all."
September 1st rolled around without much fanfair. Karkat didn't really leave the respiteblock that Albus had brought him to, he didn't find much need to. Instead he stayed inside, eating the meals that the elder human brought him and reading through the books that Albus had purchased as part of his supplies. They were confusing, and stupid, and Karkat found all of this rather rediculous.
On September 1st he followed Albus' directions to the letter, packing everything away into the trunk and dragging it down the stairs and out the room. It took two hands, and all of his strength, and Karkat refused any help offered to him with a snarl and a glare.
One of the women huddled away in the corner giggled about how cute he was, dragging his trunk out of the building on his own. Karkat just scowled and dragged the trunk harder out the door. Once he was on the curb he scrambled his think pan for Albus' instructions.
"Right. That stick thing," Karkat said under his breath and rooted the stick that the creepy old human sold him from his trunk. The cage for the hawkbeast rattled lightly as the young snowy creature shifted in her sleep. Karkat didn't spare her much of a glance as he hunted down the wand thing. Once that was in hand, and his trunk once more clasped shut, he held it up as per Albus instructions.
The Knight Bus arrived with a bang. Karkat jumped, the hawkbeast screeched and barked in her cage angrily. It took a second to banish the pure terror from his mind.
"Welcome t' th' Knight Bus, public transport for ye stranded witch 'n wizard. M'names Stanely 'n I'll b' ye conductor this mornin'. Ey boy, ye goin' somewhere?"
Karkat dragged his trunk towards the bus and grumbled out, "Kings Cross."
"Hogwarts, are ye? Well come on, come on. Can't miss ye train then," Stanely cheered, waved his wand, and stored the trunk onto the bus without even a by-your-leave. Karkat worked his jaw soundlessly, little clawed hands curling into infuriated fists.
Then the hawkbeast screeched again and the young troll scrambled to retrieve her and her cage before scrambling back onto the bus.
"Rides free for Hogwarts students t'day only, ye lucky," Stanely said lightly and the bus took off with a bang as Karkat seated on one of the beds. He promptly went flying off it a second later, spewing curses all the while.
Karkat was haggard as he stepped off the Knight Bus. His think pan swam in that dizzying manner that made his protein chute want to projectile vomit bodily colored fluids all over the place. Quite easily the young troll would, at this stage in his life, admit to tottering around in half-hazard squiggles nearby his trunk as he attempted to regain his balance.
It took far longer than Karkat would have liked, and eventually he just fell flat on his ass against his trunk to wait out the dizziness and swimming of his sponge, his thoughts, and the food that was settled inside his body turning to mush.
When he did get up, finally, it was to drag his trunk over to platforms nine and ten and then wait. Karkat wasn't sure what he was waiting for, just that Albus didn't specify anything else after this point like some idiotic fool whose had too much mind honey and sopor slime to screw around with.
The young troll sat on top of his trunk, one hand lazily tracing the Alternian alphabet while he stared out at the crowd bored. He had sat there for what felt like hours when the red haired people walked by. Karkat's gaze had immediately snapped to them and the bright color of their hair in wide eyed shock.
"Packed with Muggles as always," the elderly woman of the group said quite loudly. Karkat watched them bustle past. "Come, dears, don't want you all late for the Hogwarts Express."
Hogwarts...wasn't that the name of the place where he was supposed to be schoolfed? Karkat leaned over at the waist to peer down at the side of his trunk, taking in the upside down letters of the strange alphabet that Petunia had him memorize a few years back.
s
Karkat was pretty sure that most likely spelled Hogwarts, the schoolfed place he needed to get to. He straightened up and hopped off the trunk and stalked over to the portly woman.
"Hey."
The woman turned, blinked, and smiled kindly.
"Hogwarts, dear?" she asked.
"Yeah," Karkat replied, a little wary about her. Would she cull him for his question? Granted she had bright red hair. Red was a mutation. Red was cull-worthy. Red was unwanted.
Red was safe.
"You just have to walk through the wall," the woman said kindly. "Here, let Fred and George show you." She motioned toward the two boys who looked exactly identical—where they clones of some sort? The two bowed with wide grins.
"Don't listen to her," Fred said cheerfully.
"Our names are Gred," George continued.
"And Forge!" Fred finished.
Karkat just scowled at the twins, who glanced between each other and the grumpy, childish face.
"Yikes, tough crowd," George said under his breath, and Fred nodded in reply. Their mother herded them towards the barrier and with great, put upon sighs, they waved goodbye and raced through. Karkat watched as they seemed to meld into the wall and vanish.
"Do you need another demonstration, dear?" the woman asked sweetly, peering down at Karkat who shook his head. "If you're afraid best go at it with a bit of a run. It's my Ronnie's first year too." She patted the youngest looking red headed male and Karkat glanced at him, before stalking back to his trunk and owl.
By the time he dragged his trunk through the barrier the red heads were long gone.
The train ride was long and for the most part boring. Karkat settled himself into an empty compartment and curled up on the seat where he could watch the country side whirl by in flashes of color. He kept one hand on the cool glass, admiring the bright green of this world. The only time there was ever green that bright was the forests, or lawn rings around a hive, and only in the daytime.
Daytime was death, Karkat knew that, but here Daytime was life. It was frightening to behold, sometimes, how the sun didn't burn. It should burn, it should blind and blister and destroy, that was what the sun was supposed to do after all. This sun did neither, and it was beautiful to behold—to see the colors bright and shining in daylight instead of muted in night.
At some point during the trip, after the train began to roll down the tracks, one of the red heads from the station entered the compartment.
"Mind if I take a seat?" he asked and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "All else is full."
Karkat shrugged and kept one grey eye on the newcomer warily, shifting away from the window. Fear was an ingrained trait, perhaps even genetic. Mutantbloods had right to fear, but this one didn't seem to fear as Karkat did.
"My names Ron, Ron Weasley," Ron introduced. "What's yours?"
Karkat wanted to say Karkat, but he remembered what Albus had said about safety and protection. His name here wasn't his own, and neither was his face. They saw one of their own kind from him, and expected their names.
"Harry," Karkat said after a second, tasting the foreign name on his own lips for the first time. It felt strange. "Harry Potter."
If there was one thing that Karkat would never understand, it would be why he was given a famous persona as a form of protection. Ron openly gaped at him and began gabbering about scars and whatnot and Karkat, well, he just scowled. And scowled. And then yelled.
"Will you shut up already you ignoramus shithead? I don't fucking care about any of your nooksucking heroworship! I'd rather have a gogdamned load gaper shoved up my waste chute than deal with any of that bullshit! I'm just a fucking wriggler whose going to get schoolfed like anyone else on this fucking wheeled device just over a sweep and a half old! So fuck off with your flushed intentions already!" Karkat breathed out heavily, his clawed hands clenched into fists.
"Oh," Ron said after a minute. "Uh. Sorry."
With a huff and a cross of his arms Karkat returned to staring out the window. He didn't apologize because there was no need to, but he did lose a bit of the pissed off look to his face that he had a second ago. A minute later Ron seemed to bounce back and was describing all sorts of random nonsense to Karkat, who just remained silent for the most part aside from an occasional curse filled reply. There was a slight smile to his face, though.
It was a budding friendship.
About halfway through the trip the budding friendship was interrupted only by the presence of a bleached blond haired young boy. The bright yellow color of his hair left Karkat blindsided for a moment. It wasn't the mustardy color he would expect from a psionic, but it certainly landed itself in the same hemospectrum as a psionic would. Although the kid spoke like he was a higher blueblood, or even a royal purpleblood and left Karkat with sharp pain in his teeth.
"They say Potter is on this train somewhere," the boy said in a drawl. "I assume that's you?" He looked to Karkat, who for once was thankful that his disguise gave away no clue that he was a mutant blood. "Why are you hanging out with riffraff like a Weasel here? The hand me down clothes of their kind tells it all. You could do so much better. The names Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
Karkat eyed the hand that was thrust in his face, the insulting boy who acted like he was higher on the hemospectrum than he was. He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh, or rage exactly. After a second rage won out.
"What the fuck is wrong with you all? How many flushed fucking intentions am I going to get? What part of we're too fucking young for this type of shit do you guys understand? Seriously go play your douchenozzle seadweller royal act elsewhere you fuckass before you make me vomit up sick with your ugly face."
The slapped and horrified look on the brats face was worth it, at first, but then following enranged look made Karkat blink and feel a bit queasy. Was this guy seriously looking for quadrants this young? He was not remotely interested in filling anything at this time. Couldn't the idiot understand that?
"Do you know who I am?" Malfoy demanded sharply.
"No, fuckass, and I don't care," Karkat reiterated slowly. "Now get the fuck out of my face before I decide to shit rage snake and make it. Fucking moron."
With that Karkat slammed the door shut, sat down, and buried his face into his knees. He ignored how Ron crowed about the entire exchange. Karkat was more concerned about this school, and how he now might have a guy with a hatecrush on him.
This school was going to fucking suck. For a minute, Karkat wanted to sleep and forget all this existed. After a second the young troll drifted off without warning.
And promptly woke up in his recuperacoon, to the screeing of his lusus who peered over the edge in mild concern. Karkat blinked, sleepily, as his lusus pulled him up and out of his recuperacoon and over towards the thermal hull. It fished out a juice box for him while his brain was still, sleepily, trying to piece together what the fuck just happened.
That was one weird as fuck dream.
Summary: Nobody is displeased to have more help against Lord English or Jack, but everybody is confused as to how this new group of humans showed up on the meteor hurtling through the Furthest Ring. Everybody except Karkat who is just cursing up a storm and facepalming. Repeatedly. Of course they'd crash the party. They can never leave well enough alone, can't they. / Potterstuck
Okay, so Karkat decided to give me a grand old fuck you and there you go. We're drifting off to Alternia now for a while. Not for long, just a little tiddlebit, really. So yeah, have fun figuring this one out.
I'm not sure if this whole shitfest was Karkat's influence, or Luna's actually. At either rate, enjoy. Also the brief bit with the Signless/Sufferer up there? Yeah, that's...they're knocking at my head going 'Hey! Hey! Give me attention!' so they're getting attention.
Enjoy.