capeandcowl | Day 11

[ the video is angled weirdly, not as performative as his previous ones. Behind him is the troll wall, though the notes aren’t as clear through the camera’s angle, the zodiac signs and colours are obvious – except the sign for Cancer has been ripped off.

Calendar Man hands are covered with a bright candy red blood, and he’s clutching the paper he’d ripped off the wall. His body language is very stiff, contained, as if his arms were locked to his sides. ]

It’s not right, it doesn’t fit. They all fit – the Aries, the Taurus, though the Gemini’s unknown – the Leo, the Virgo, the Libra, the Scorpio – the Sagittarius is the other that’s missing, the Capricorn, the Aquarius and the Pisces. They all fit the pattern. They created new patterns, new –

It doesn’t make sense, the blood colours – everything continued the pattern – [ he stops abruptly, and stares at something off camera. ]

The Ram, the Bull, the Heavenly Twins, and next the - next the... the Crab is dead.

[ He turns the camera quickly, showing Karkat Vantas’ cold, dead face. He hovers for a moment before turning it back to himself. ]

He has been murdered. Not by my hand, by an unknown killer.

Find them.

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[ The trees are still, but their leaves are waving slightly even though there's no wind. Calendar's using arbor day as an opportunity to protect his hideout, in case he attracts any unwanted attention.

Other than that, the warehouse door is open and Karkat is lying peacefully on a clean sheet on the floor, relatively untouched. Calendar is waiting by the wall, chewing on his fingernails.

The small place is filled with a bunch of weird holiday related junk. ]

[The instant he arrives he's rushing through to find his moirail's body and he's not really taking in the details, too caught up in his own nightmare to notice much of anything. He sees Calendar first and may be about to say something, but then he sees Karkat.

It doesn't even take a second for Gamzee to get to the corpse and hold it, to make a strange kind of guttural and pain wishing scream at it. He looks at Karkat trying to will him to breathe again to say something and be alright, but it's not Karkat.

It's Karkat's body, the empty thing that should house a friend and can't even work well enough to do that job because it decided to have a hole in it and bleed out everywhere instead.

When Gamzee speaks his voice sounds like a thin razor edge.]

Where the motherfuck was he?

[ Julian stands awkwardly to the side, watching - though he feels for a moment as if he'd forgotten to breathe. He was so disconnected sometimes that true, open grief is not something he knows how to deal with, even if he's only a witness to it.

His voice is calm and soft, a bit quieter than usual. ]

I was not the first to the body, but -- Central Park.

[ kanaya emerges from one of her portals toward the back of the room, drawing her coat in close to keep out the unexpected cold. she casts a sidelong glance at julian before coming to rest abut six feet behind gamzee, stopping dead in her tracks, hesitant to move closer.

her face is surprisingly cold, blank. she scrutinizes the whole scene under heavy lids with some pretense of emotional distance, but her glow blazes about her in a way that communicates quite the opposite.

she waits silently to see how gamzee will respond to her presence. she really doesn't want to deal with him right now, but at the same time almost wishes he'll give her an excuse. ]

[When Kanaya enters the room Gamzee doesn't even glance over. He's still too caught up in this to pay her any attention, but he knows she's there because that light is too bright.

It doesn't even sound like he's asking the following question as though he's really answering or wanting an answer in return from Julian. It just sounds like he's in pain.]

_{What was he doing there?}

[And he puts a hand on Karkat's face like he's going to get an answer. The second gently cups Karkat's head from behind and he leans in to just press his forehead against the corpse and look at his face.]

[ Julian starts staring at Kanaya the minute she appears, never having seen her in person before. The Virgo.

Three trolls all in one room. Admittedly, one was deceased. But he watches, fascinated, while in the back of his mind aware of the potential of the scene to devolve into argument - or worse, violence. That would not do.

He has no answer for Gamzee. He remains silent, detaching himself from the situation and just observing. ]

[ kanaya crosses around to gamzee's front and considers saying something deeply inadvisable...which she then does: ] It's likely the result of some action of yours.

[ she couldn't believe anyone would kill karkat on his own. sure, he could be loud and occasionally obnoxious, but he was ultimately harmless. this had to be something about gamzee, nothing else would make sense, and he only made things worse by his very nature. she was sure it had to be his fault. ]

What?!

[And without thinking about it he's up on his feet and not an inch away from Kanaya's face, his speed carrying him before someone can blink.]

_{He told me he was getting to see a friend} and you think he up and died because of shit I did?

_{You motherfuckin' bitch you don't even come at here to care about him dying} come here to blame myself for shit I didn't fuckin' do.

[Hissing.]

_{You can't even get your care on about him.}

[ This was not entirely unexpected, but Julian's unsure of what exactly he should do -

and decides that he should do nothing. Not unless it escalates.

He still has some leftover gadgets on a worktable from his failed April Fool's Day crime, as well as trees on call for Arbor Day.

He still hesitates. ]

[ her specibus ejects her lipstick into her hand instinctively, but she tightens her fist around it. this isn't the time.

she'd taken a step back when he approached, but couldn't be seen to shrink under his glare, so she squares her shoulders and moves right back in herself. ]

DO YOU EXPECT I'D EVEN CONSIDER SUFFERING YOUR PRESENCE IF NOT FOR HIS SAKE? I'm not here for you, you're just an unfortunate piece of the circumstances!

[ her fist clenches tighter at her side as she takes a deep breath. when she finally opens her hand, it's empty, her weapon having returned to the strifedeck, and she disengages from gamzee to turn her attention to the crumpled form in his arms.

a crack appears in her icy facade as she brings a hand in to karkat's hair. ]

He wouldn't--No one would have any reason to do this against him alone.

[And with that touch to Karkat's hair Gamzee feels a little calmer, a little more like maybe Kanaya isn't here to just be an asshole.

But he's not letting that comment go.]

Haven't got your attention on if you didn't fuckin' notice him getting to being threatened by motherfuckers when I wasn't around. _{And how he kept up at it even when I tried to get himself out of that shit.}

Don't blame myself just because you're stuck at hating me all the time you panless motherfucker.

[Won't admit it, but the fighting is nice. At least the arguing gives him something else to think about, lets him communicate without spiraling into grief and total rage.]

[ JUST ASSUME THAT CALENDAR MAN IS JUST SORT OF PASSIVELY WATCHING THIS AND CARRY ON YOUR THREAD UNTIL HE'S NEEDED

don't mind him

he's just there ]

[ she brushes the hair out of karkat's eyes, but his expression tells her nothing, it's just still and blank. perhaps the calmest she's seen him in too long, which only adds to the painful ball of sick feelings she's collecting in the pit of her stomach. ]

I'm not. The reverse is more likely. I have witnessed such events when you were involved, but given the players I felt my intervention would be unappreciated. It might've done without your own, as well.

[ it was how she was given the first hint about his hand in the nightmares, after all. and every time he only seemed to antagonize the recurring incensed party further.

but if it was him, would he really be stupid enough not to know what was coming next? if not from gamzee, then from her? ]

Gamzee, let me see the wound.

Day 11 - VIDEO

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