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Jan. 9th, 2017 05:51 pm
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CHARACTER: CANON SECTION
NAME: Karkat Vantas
AGE:16 21, technically
CANON: Homestuck, unfortunately
NAME: Karkat Vantas
AGE:
CANON: Homestuck, unfortunately
CANON HISTORY: wiki link
CANON PERSONALITY:
Enjoy your long as hell, copy pasted personality section from another one of my apps!!! Karkat at first glance: The two words that immediately come to mind when describing Karkat are loud and angry. His zodiac sign is cancer, which is typically portrayed as one of the moodier signs and Karkat 100% represents that. Karkat seems to be stuck in a permanent bad mood; he rarely smiles, he's always yelling at people and insulting them, and he frequently throws what everyone calls a tantrum. He is very aggressive and stubborn to the point where sometimes it's like talking to a brick wall because he has a tendency to refuse to see other people's points because he is, obviously, right and everyone else is wrong the end. He claims to hate everything and everyone to the point were he frequently viciously insults his best friends, although no one really takes him seriously because why would you take an internet troll seriously. Whenever he argues, he has a tendency of using logic that does not actually make sense but he will not back down even when you call him out on it.
His hatred even applies to himself. Using trollian, the chat client the trolls prefer, the trolls can actually speak to everyone's past and future selves (if you are wondering if this is a terrible idea, spoilers, it is and using this feature majorly bites Karkat in the ass). Karkat repeatedly gets into arguments with his past and future selves using the client, to the point where he actually thinks that he might be his own kismesis. This is more or less played for laughs and all of the other characters think it's hilarious, even though the strong implication there is that he uh. Hates himself? So that's a thing, and the story does go more into that aspect of himself later on.
The thing is, it's not like Karkat is actually always angry. One of his problems is that he just literally has no inside voice, so he's is permanently stuck talking really goddamn loudly. Whenever he whispers, he's just talking at a normal speaking volume. Even more, just the way he talks comes out as aggressive even when he isn't trying to be. Karkat might be patiently explaining something to someone, but just from the way he talks he'd end up accidentally insulting whoever he's talking to without actually meaning to. It's like a weird reflex. He also talks a lot, to the point where if he's quiet for any prolonged period of time people start to get worried. He can be very long winded and will go on and on about topics that no one else particularly cares about until someone finds a way to shut him up or derail the topic into something else.
Despite this very gruff and asshole-y exterior, Karkat is actually pretty sensitive. Every time he has an argument with Sollux, for example, he immediately asks if they're still friends after. This seems to be played for laughs at first, except he then does the same thing with Dave when they're approaching the new session. Karkat asks him if Dave will still be his friend even after they reunite with John and the others. He frequently questions his position as a leader until he eventually just completely throws away the title, claiming that he was never any good at it and that he messed it all up. He basically has very little self-esteem and this is where the whole self-hatred thing ties in. He also tends to freak out heavily over things to the point where he seems to actually be having genuine panic attacks.
Some of his insecurities also lies with his fighting ability. Karkat can definitely hold his own, which is a necessity to live on a planet like Alternia and to win his game session. However, he is definitely not the strongest fighter of the group. He even admits to Terezi that he believes that the game give him an easy denizen (think of them as a personal boss fight for each player) to beat because it pitied him. Karkat is stronger than what he gives himself credit for, as he was able to bring down a character whose power is extreme luck (as in, it should have been impossible for anyone to even be able to touch that character because of how lucky he was).
Another thing he is extremely self-conscious about is his blood color. Trolls hierarchy is based off of the hemospectrum, which is based off of their blood color. Fuschia is the highest on the ladder, representing royalty, and the lowest is a burgundy red. Karkat, however, has very bright red blood, similar to humans. It's actually a mutation and Karkat has basically decided to take this secret with him to the grave (other people find out, of course). It's why he types in gray font, unlike all the other trolls who use their blood color as their font choice.
His whole relationship with blood is complicated, which is interesting because his official title is the Knight of Blood. Karkat never actually figures out what his aspect means, so we the audience don't know what the heck blood powers actually are. At first, Karkat believes that it signifies some sort of great warrior class, but he throws that theory away. He actually hates the sight of blood, which is unfortunate because the planet that Sgrub gave him is literally covered in oceans of blood. He assumes this was done to mock him. Another example of this dislike of blood is when Kanaya chainsaws Tavros' legs on (it was for a good cause) and Karkat is the only one who reacts negatively to it. As in, he faints while all the other trolls are just lol whatever over the ordeal.
In general though, Karkat is typically a very private person even outside of the whole blood color thing. In the dream bubbles, he keeps his room locked to make sure others can't snoop around his memories. Karkat also freaks out when John starts questioning whether or not he and Dave are dating, not wanting to discuss his personal business in front of others. Sometimes it's hard to tell that he's like this though, since he has zero problems trying to insert himself into other people's affairs and likes to give his opinion on everything.
He also cares very deeply about his friends. That may seem like how people would obviously feel towards their buddies, but honestly a lot of the trolls (both the beta and alpha versions) can be sort of not stellar towards each other. Other trolls have done very cruel and harsh things to their friends, ranging from making the souls of the dead haunt each other to straight up murder. And even though these actions are something that you'd normally never consider to do to a friend, in troll society it seems to be more or less normal. They might regret their actions afterwards, but it's still something they're used to. But then there's Karkat, who openly weeps over his friends and panic when they die. From what we've seen of the trolls, he seems to react more... well, humanly, to these types of situations, even though he is used to how trolls deal with things.
So, even though he believes that he did a bad job of being a leader, he's actually pretty good at it? Karkat managed to get all of the trolls to work together towards a common goal which is a lot harder than it sounds. He and Jade orchestrate the plan to get the humans and trolls to join up together, which would have gone smoothly if certain trolls didn't suddenly decide they want to start a murder spree. He blames himself for all of that happening, even though it was out of his control. However, he immediately attempted to alert the trolls' past selves to warn them of the problem, but no one pays his warnings any mind. This is partly because the characters who Karkat warns them about (Gamzee and Eridan) aren't ones that anyone has ever taken seriously, so no one believed that they would actually be a real threat.
Kanaya's denizen, Echidna, is basically in charge of giving players the instructions to create their new universe. In the trolls' case, she also gives them the ability to start their species up again because of their very specific way of breeding. However, one of the stipulations she sets out to give Kanaya the means to do so is to make sure Karkat survives the game. Why? Because Echidna believes that Karkat is the one who has to lead the trolls in their new universe in order for their race can thrive again. Karkat thinks this is bullshit since, again, he no longer has any belief that he is a good leader but. If the gigantic god monster thinks otherwise, then come on dude.
Karkat also tends to actually Take Things Seriously. Whenever there is some sort of crisis, no matter how much of a non-crisis it actually is, Karkat wants to be prepared for it. When the meteor is about to reach the session of the alpha humans, for example, Karkat is the only one concerned about the fact that their team isn't ready for their arrival and over the problem of none of them knowing how they are going to actually stop the meteor from colliding with the planet. He always tries to get things done in an organized fashion, which doesn't always work? Like sometimes his plans are just bad or everyone else just do not care enough to listen. But at least he tries, I guess?
Like stated earlier, Karkat is ridiculously stubborn. When the trolls' dream selves are killed off by Jack Noir, the trolls begin to experience really horrifying dreams and Karkat decides that they should just never sleep again! And he does actually stay awake for a really long time, even though literally no one else listens to him because they are all aware that forcing yourself to stay awake is not a good idea. In fact, he barely sleeps at all for an entire month. This stubbornness also makes it really difficult for him to apologize to others. Every time he tries, he ends up twisting it in a way where it ends up not being an apology because he assigns blame to others, including his past and future selves. This also contributes to him getting into fights over the stupidest things because he is incapable of backing down from a challenge even when no one has actually issued a challenge.
He's really awkward and has a terrible tendency of always sticking his foot in his mouth. For example, he gets a black crush on John after stalking him through trollian. The conversation he has with John consists of Karkat really terribly hitting on him, John telling Karkat that he is not a homosexual, and it's just so embarrassing that Karkat begins the whole "let's troll the humans backwards in time instead of forwards like normal people would do" just because he is so mortified about the whole encounter. It's also implied that he gets some type of crush on Jade; it's never confirmed, but he also does very embarrassing Freudian slips towards her that are similar to the ones he made with John. Basically he is a mess.
Karkat loves watching shitty romantic comedies, and he is really into romance. Like if you get him started on the topic of troll romance, he will never stop talking about it until you regret ever asking. His sort of obsession with this shows that he's kind of a romantic, even though he seems to prefer the analytical aspect of the whole deal over than emotional bits. It might explain why he gets crushes on people so easily though, as the idea of filling his quadrants is very important to him (obviously it's important to the other trolls too, as they are all teenagers, but seriously Karkat does not know how to shut up about this).
Anyway, so, his three years on the meteor has mellowed him out somewhat. He's still... everything that's been stated above, but he is less hostile now. He has calmed down enough that when he throws a tantrum it's referred to as a "vintage shitfit" by Dave. He doesn't really go out of his way to be a gigantic asshole like he did before so he won't purposely start trolling someone just for the sake of trolling them. If he's going to be extremely rude and aggressive at someone, it's most likely either going to be because he has a reason for not liking them or it's on... accident... again.
SKILLS/ABILITIES:
• His sylladex, which is basically like a video game inventory system except needlessly complicated because Homestuck.
• His strife specibus, sicklekind. It's literally just his preferred weapon to use.
• He can fight! He can't do any of the fancy magical stuff other characters can, but. He can stab things very well and hold his own.
• He has unspecified powers as a Knight of Blood, but he never figured that out so. Just letting you know that they are a thing that exist even if we have no idea what they specifically do. He may actually be able to remember his previous incarnations, because his ancestor was able to so and his ancestor is his alternate universe self, although it's uncertain if that's because of his mutant blood or his powers as a Knight of Blood. It's implied by Doc Scratch that it is an ability that Karkat would have though, even if he is not aware of it.
CANON PERSONALITY:
Enjoy your long as hell, copy pasted personality section from another one of my apps!!! Karkat at first glance: The two words that immediately come to mind when describing Karkat are loud and angry. His zodiac sign is cancer, which is typically portrayed as one of the moodier signs and Karkat 100% represents that. Karkat seems to be stuck in a permanent bad mood; he rarely smiles, he's always yelling at people and insulting them, and he frequently throws what everyone calls a tantrum. He is very aggressive and stubborn to the point where sometimes it's like talking to a brick wall because he has a tendency to refuse to see other people's points because he is, obviously, right and everyone else is wrong the end. He claims to hate everything and everyone to the point were he frequently viciously insults his best friends, although no one really takes him seriously because why would you take an internet troll seriously. Whenever he argues, he has a tendency of using logic that does not actually make sense but he will not back down even when you call him out on it.
His hatred even applies to himself. Using trollian, the chat client the trolls prefer, the trolls can actually speak to everyone's past and future selves (if you are wondering if this is a terrible idea, spoilers, it is and using this feature majorly bites Karkat in the ass). Karkat repeatedly gets into arguments with his past and future selves using the client, to the point where he actually thinks that he might be his own kismesis. This is more or less played for laughs and all of the other characters think it's hilarious, even though the strong implication there is that he uh. Hates himself? So that's a thing, and the story does go more into that aspect of himself later on.
The thing is, it's not like Karkat is actually always angry. One of his problems is that he just literally has no inside voice, so he's is permanently stuck talking really goddamn loudly. Whenever he whispers, he's just talking at a normal speaking volume. Even more, just the way he talks comes out as aggressive even when he isn't trying to be. Karkat might be patiently explaining something to someone, but just from the way he talks he'd end up accidentally insulting whoever he's talking to without actually meaning to. It's like a weird reflex. He also talks a lot, to the point where if he's quiet for any prolonged period of time people start to get worried. He can be very long winded and will go on and on about topics that no one else particularly cares about until someone finds a way to shut him up or derail the topic into something else.
Despite this very gruff and asshole-y exterior, Karkat is actually pretty sensitive. Every time he has an argument with Sollux, for example, he immediately asks if they're still friends after. This seems to be played for laughs at first, except he then does the same thing with Dave when they're approaching the new session. Karkat asks him if Dave will still be his friend even after they reunite with John and the others. He frequently questions his position as a leader until he eventually just completely throws away the title, claiming that he was never any good at it and that he messed it all up. He basically has very little self-esteem and this is where the whole self-hatred thing ties in. He also tends to freak out heavily over things to the point where he seems to actually be having genuine panic attacks.
Some of his insecurities also lies with his fighting ability. Karkat can definitely hold his own, which is a necessity to live on a planet like Alternia and to win his game session. However, he is definitely not the strongest fighter of the group. He even admits to Terezi that he believes that the game give him an easy denizen (think of them as a personal boss fight for each player) to beat because it pitied him. Karkat is stronger than what he gives himself credit for, as he was able to bring down a character whose power is extreme luck (as in, it should have been impossible for anyone to even be able to touch that character because of how lucky he was).
Another thing he is extremely self-conscious about is his blood color. Trolls hierarchy is based off of the hemospectrum, which is based off of their blood color. Fuschia is the highest on the ladder, representing royalty, and the lowest is a burgundy red. Karkat, however, has very bright red blood, similar to humans. It's actually a mutation and Karkat has basically decided to take this secret with him to the grave (other people find out, of course). It's why he types in gray font, unlike all the other trolls who use their blood color as their font choice.
His whole relationship with blood is complicated, which is interesting because his official title is the Knight of Blood. Karkat never actually figures out what his aspect means, so we the audience don't know what the heck blood powers actually are. At first, Karkat believes that it signifies some sort of great warrior class, but he throws that theory away. He actually hates the sight of blood, which is unfortunate because the planet that Sgrub gave him is literally covered in oceans of blood. He assumes this was done to mock him. Another example of this dislike of blood is when Kanaya chainsaws Tavros' legs on (it was for a good cause) and Karkat is the only one who reacts negatively to it. As in, he faints while all the other trolls are just lol whatever over the ordeal.
In general though, Karkat is typically a very private person even outside of the whole blood color thing. In the dream bubbles, he keeps his room locked to make sure others can't snoop around his memories. Karkat also freaks out when John starts questioning whether or not he and Dave are dating, not wanting to discuss his personal business in front of others. Sometimes it's hard to tell that he's like this though, since he has zero problems trying to insert himself into other people's affairs and likes to give his opinion on everything.
He also cares very deeply about his friends. That may seem like how people would obviously feel towards their buddies, but honestly a lot of the trolls (both the beta and alpha versions) can be sort of not stellar towards each other. Other trolls have done very cruel and harsh things to their friends, ranging from making the souls of the dead haunt each other to straight up murder. And even though these actions are something that you'd normally never consider to do to a friend, in troll society it seems to be more or less normal. They might regret their actions afterwards, but it's still something they're used to. But then there's Karkat, who openly weeps over his friends and panic when they die. From what we've seen of the trolls, he seems to react more... well, humanly, to these types of situations, even though he is used to how trolls deal with things.
So, even though he believes that he did a bad job of being a leader, he's actually pretty good at it? Karkat managed to get all of the trolls to work together towards a common goal which is a lot harder than it sounds. He and Jade orchestrate the plan to get the humans and trolls to join up together, which would have gone smoothly if certain trolls didn't suddenly decide they want to start a murder spree. He blames himself for all of that happening, even though it was out of his control. However, he immediately attempted to alert the trolls' past selves to warn them of the problem, but no one pays his warnings any mind. This is partly because the characters who Karkat warns them about (Gamzee and Eridan) aren't ones that anyone has ever taken seriously, so no one believed that they would actually be a real threat.
Kanaya's denizen, Echidna, is basically in charge of giving players the instructions to create their new universe. In the trolls' case, she also gives them the ability to start their species up again because of their very specific way of breeding. However, one of the stipulations she sets out to give Kanaya the means to do so is to make sure Karkat survives the game. Why? Because Echidna believes that Karkat is the one who has to lead the trolls in their new universe in order for their race can thrive again. Karkat thinks this is bullshit since, again, he no longer has any belief that he is a good leader but. If the gigantic god monster thinks otherwise, then come on dude.
Karkat also tends to actually Take Things Seriously. Whenever there is some sort of crisis, no matter how much of a non-crisis it actually is, Karkat wants to be prepared for it. When the meteor is about to reach the session of the alpha humans, for example, Karkat is the only one concerned about the fact that their team isn't ready for their arrival and over the problem of none of them knowing how they are going to actually stop the meteor from colliding with the planet. He always tries to get things done in an organized fashion, which doesn't always work? Like sometimes his plans are just bad or everyone else just do not care enough to listen. But at least he tries, I guess?
Like stated earlier, Karkat is ridiculously stubborn. When the trolls' dream selves are killed off by Jack Noir, the trolls begin to experience really horrifying dreams and Karkat decides that they should just never sleep again! And he does actually stay awake for a really long time, even though literally no one else listens to him because they are all aware that forcing yourself to stay awake is not a good idea. In fact, he barely sleeps at all for an entire month. This stubbornness also makes it really difficult for him to apologize to others. Every time he tries, he ends up twisting it in a way where it ends up not being an apology because he assigns blame to others, including his past and future selves. This also contributes to him getting into fights over the stupidest things because he is incapable of backing down from a challenge even when no one has actually issued a challenge.
He's really awkward and has a terrible tendency of always sticking his foot in his mouth. For example, he gets a black crush on John after stalking him through trollian. The conversation he has with John consists of Karkat really terribly hitting on him, John telling Karkat that he is not a homosexual, and it's just so embarrassing that Karkat begins the whole "let's troll the humans backwards in time instead of forwards like normal people would do" just because he is so mortified about the whole encounter. It's also implied that he gets some type of crush on Jade; it's never confirmed, but he also does very embarrassing Freudian slips towards her that are similar to the ones he made with John. Basically he is a mess.
Karkat loves watching shitty romantic comedies, and he is really into romance. Like if you get him started on the topic of troll romance, he will never stop talking about it until you regret ever asking. His sort of obsession with this shows that he's kind of a romantic, even though he seems to prefer the analytical aspect of the whole deal over than emotional bits. It might explain why he gets crushes on people so easily though, as the idea of filling his quadrants is very important to him (obviously it's important to the other trolls too, as they are all teenagers, but seriously Karkat does not know how to shut up about this).
Anyway, so, his three years on the meteor has mellowed him out somewhat. He's still... everything that's been stated above, but he is less hostile now. He has calmed down enough that when he throws a tantrum it's referred to as a "vintage shitfit" by Dave. He doesn't really go out of his way to be a gigantic asshole like he did before so he won't purposely start trolling someone just for the sake of trolling them. If he's going to be extremely rude and aggressive at someone, it's most likely either going to be because he has a reason for not liking them or it's on... accident... again.
SKILLS/ABILITIES:
• His sylladex, which is basically like a video game inventory system except needlessly complicated because Homestuck.
• His strife specibus, sicklekind. It's literally just his preferred weapon to use.
• He can fight! He can't do any of the fancy magical stuff other characters can, but. He can stab things very well and hold his own.
• He has unspecified powers as a Knight of Blood, but he never figured that out so. Just letting you know that they are a thing that exist even if we have no idea what they specifically do. He may actually be able to remember his previous incarnations, because his ancestor was able to so and his ancestor is his alternate universe self, although it's uncertain if that's because of his mutant blood or his powers as a Knight of Blood. It's implied by Doc Scratch that it is an ability that Karkat would have though, even if he is not aware of it.
CHARACTER: AU SECTION
AU NAME: Karkat Vantas
AU AGE:17 18 now
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: First of all! He's human and not an alien, so no horns, grey skin, yellow eyes, yellow fingernails, and like whatever other alien body part he had? He has brown skin and brown eyes. He also isn't as loud as he is in canon. As in, he actually knows how to use an indoor voice now, wow.
AU NAME: Karkat Vantas
AU AGE:
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: First of all! He's human and not an alien, so no horns, grey skin, yellow eyes, yellow fingernails, and like whatever other alien body part he had? He has brown skin and brown eyes. He also isn't as loud as he is in canon. As in, he actually knows how to use an indoor voice now, wow.
AU HISTORY:
Karkat was born in Recollé to two parents. They were middle-class, and lived somewhat comfortably until his mother was diagnosed with leukemia. Unfortunately, they didn't catch the disease until its later stages, so she died from the lack of treatment. Karkat's dad decided to pack up and move from the city and they moved to a small town in Arizona. Karkat was about to turn five when this all happened, so he doesn't remember Recollé that much from his time there, and he also doesn't really remember his mom. Usually when someone asks about her and give their condolences, he just shrugs since he assumes that since he didn't know her very well he can't get too sad about it.
The town he moved to was small enough that even if everyone didn't know each other, they have probably at least seen one another. He started hanging out a group of kids his age, and they remained friends as they all got older. The older he got, though, the more Karkat realized he didn't actually fit in with them since they had tendencies that were more reserved for, well, bullies, but he had no idea how to separate himself from them without getting any backlash. He stayed with them until he was 14, when Shit Hit the Fan™ as some pretty huge drama hit. His friends pull a practical joke on someone, except the joke almost gets the older student killed. Nothing links them to the act, so they don't get in trouble, but Karkat freaks the hell out since he isn't a terrible human being. The resulting fight makes them all turn on him, and Karkat promptly has a spectacular combination of an anxiety attack and temper tantrum so great that he manages to convince his dad to move out of the town before anything worse happens. So, they return to Recollé.
His relationship with his dad suffers after the move even though they do still care about each other. Even in the other two, Karkat was fairly independent, but that doubled after their return to the city. Their living situation resembles something more akin to roommates than an actual father and son relationship. His dad had a better paying job before and the cost of living was lower, so moving back to Recollé made things more difficult with expenses. Feeling bad about this, Karkat gets a job so that he won't have to spend his dad's money. His first one is at a fast food restaurant, and he lasts about a week there before quitting. He then gets a job at Freshens and lasts an impressive three weeks, before once again getting angry at everything and quitting. He finally gets a job at a small convenience store in Tisse for the overnight shift. He lies and says he's of legal age, and even though the owner definitely does not believe him, he still hires Karkat anyway because he can't find anyone else who wants the position. Karkat works Monday through Thursday from 10pm to 5am.
He's a member of staff of the high school newspaper because he is nosy and also enjoys telling people about shit. He almost didn't rejoin it when he started his senior year, but stayed because he figured it would look better on a college application. He hates the staff though and wants to be free. He also spends a lot of time... well, trolling people on the internet. He keeps up with people's blogs and YouTube channels and likes to argue with them in the comments because they all have bad opinions. At this point it's more of a stress relief than anything.
AU PERSONALITY:
Karkat is, and always will be, a sarcastic shitbag. He is pretty rude and the only times you will ever really see him being polite as it as his job, and even then that is debatable? He does get mad very easily and will go on rants, but he isn't as hostile about it as he is in canon. It is perfectly possible to have a conversation with him without Karkat insulting you or saying anything mean! But he has very little patience and he does not hide when he gets aggravated at all, and he will have no problems letting you know if he is Done. However, if he genuinely likes you then he is more willing to give you a break. For example, if someone he doesn't know very well does something that pisses him off, Karkat will not hesitate to yell at them. But if someone who he considers a friend does the same thing, he'll... still be annoyed, but he'll settle for being sarcastic or something along those lines instead of actually fighting. That's not to say that he won't start yelling if it comes to it, he is just willing to give those people more of a break.
Because of all the drama with his friends at his town, he kind of decides that he does not want to be around people. He doesn't become completely antisocial once he moves to the city, but he does his best to not get too close to others. So there are a bunch of people that he'll say hi to and have conversations with, but if they ask to hang out outside school he'll say no and he won't give out his contact info like his phone number very easily. It is possible to warm up to him enough that he'll hang out with you, but even then he still prefers to do stuff one-on-one instead of in a big group because he gets annoyed at everyone quickly. Also the people he does consider to be a good friend, he will get very attached to them? He'll immediately jump to their defense about stuff and will drop what he's doing to do stuff for them, although he'll still complain about it.
He's still a romantic but he isn't as blatant about it as he is in canon. As in, he won't tell people who they should date or start going on rants about romance and things like that. He's into more genres of films and literature than just romance, but romcoms are still his favorite. He does still get crushes very easily, but since he goes out of his way to not get to know people, they all tend to be extremely one-sided on his end and he never confesses ever. He does totally write their initials together in the margins of notebooks and stuff though.
Karkat is also kind of an overachiever. He's a really good student, but he's the kind who like does everything super early and gets really anal about due dates and when tests are scheduled and things like that, so his classmates might get annoyed. He's basically the guy who reminds the teacher that something was due that day after the teacher forgot to collect it, oops. He actually doesn't even really like studying or schoolwork though? Karkat just really likes being super on top of things and planning ahead to the point where he can get kind of controlling at times. God help anyone who gets put into a group project with him because he will micromanage the shit out of everything.
He is still in the process of trying to figure out how he wants to live his life versus doing what other people expect of him. He's in a better place now, but every now and then he'll still catch himself trying to adjust his interests or thoughts based on what other people think. This is one of the reasons why he even started being a huge nuisance online. He figured that acting like himself with the anonymity of the internet would help him and it did! And then he went overboard with it and actually just genuinely started to enjoy telling people about all the reasons why they are Wrong.
Karkat was born in Recollé to two parents. They were middle-class, and lived somewhat comfortably until his mother was diagnosed with leukemia. Unfortunately, they didn't catch the disease until its later stages, so she died from the lack of treatment. Karkat's dad decided to pack up and move from the city and they moved to a small town in Arizona. Karkat was about to turn five when this all happened, so he doesn't remember Recollé that much from his time there, and he also doesn't really remember his mom. Usually when someone asks about her and give their condolences, he just shrugs since he assumes that since he didn't know her very well he can't get too sad about it.
The town he moved to was small enough that even if everyone didn't know each other, they have probably at least seen one another. He started hanging out a group of kids his age, and they remained friends as they all got older. The older he got, though, the more Karkat realized he didn't actually fit in with them since they had tendencies that were more reserved for, well, bullies, but he had no idea how to separate himself from them without getting any backlash. He stayed with them until he was 14, when Shit Hit the Fan™ as some pretty huge drama hit. His friends pull a practical joke on someone, except the joke almost gets the older student killed. Nothing links them to the act, so they don't get in trouble, but Karkat freaks the hell out since he isn't a terrible human being. The resulting fight makes them all turn on him, and Karkat promptly has a spectacular combination of an anxiety attack and temper tantrum so great that he manages to convince his dad to move out of the town before anything worse happens. So, they return to Recollé.
His relationship with his dad suffers after the move even though they do still care about each other. Even in the other two, Karkat was fairly independent, but that doubled after their return to the city. Their living situation resembles something more akin to roommates than an actual father and son relationship. His dad had a better paying job before and the cost of living was lower, so moving back to Recollé made things more difficult with expenses. Feeling bad about this, Karkat gets a job so that he won't have to spend his dad's money. His first one is at a fast food restaurant, and he lasts about a week there before quitting. He then gets a job at Freshens and lasts an impressive three weeks, before once again getting angry at everything and quitting. He finally gets a job at a small convenience store in Tisse for the overnight shift. He lies and says he's of legal age, and even though the owner definitely does not believe him, he still hires Karkat anyway because he can't find anyone else who wants the position. Karkat works Monday through Thursday from 10pm to 5am.
He's a member of staff of the high school newspaper because he is nosy and also enjoys telling people about shit. He almost didn't rejoin it when he started his senior year, but stayed because he figured it would look better on a college application. He hates the staff though and wants to be free. He also spends a lot of time... well, trolling people on the internet. He keeps up with people's blogs and YouTube channels and likes to argue with them in the comments because they all have bad opinions. At this point it's more of a stress relief than anything.
AU PERSONALITY:
Karkat is, and always will be, a sarcastic shitbag. He is pretty rude and the only times you will ever really see him being polite as it as his job, and even then that is debatable? He does get mad very easily and will go on rants, but he isn't as hostile about it as he is in canon. It is perfectly possible to have a conversation with him without Karkat insulting you or saying anything mean! But he has very little patience and he does not hide when he gets aggravated at all, and he will have no problems letting you know if he is Done. However, if he genuinely likes you then he is more willing to give you a break. For example, if someone he doesn't know very well does something that pisses him off, Karkat will not hesitate to yell at them. But if someone who he considers a friend does the same thing, he'll... still be annoyed, but he'll settle for being sarcastic or something along those lines instead of actually fighting. That's not to say that he won't start yelling if it comes to it, he is just willing to give those people more of a break.
Because of all the drama with his friends at his town, he kind of decides that he does not want to be around people. He doesn't become completely antisocial once he moves to the city, but he does his best to not get too close to others. So there are a bunch of people that he'll say hi to and have conversations with, but if they ask to hang out outside school he'll say no and he won't give out his contact info like his phone number very easily. It is possible to warm up to him enough that he'll hang out with you, but even then he still prefers to do stuff one-on-one instead of in a big group because he gets annoyed at everyone quickly. Also the people he does consider to be a good friend, he will get very attached to them? He'll immediately jump to their defense about stuff and will drop what he's doing to do stuff for them, although he'll still complain about it.
He's still a romantic but he isn't as blatant about it as he is in canon. As in, he won't tell people who they should date or start going on rants about romance and things like that. He's into more genres of films and literature than just romance, but romcoms are still his favorite. He does still get crushes very easily, but since he goes out of his way to not get to know people, they all tend to be extremely one-sided on his end and he never confesses ever. He does totally write their initials together in the margins of notebooks and stuff though.
Karkat is also kind of an overachiever. He's a really good student, but he's the kind who like does everything super early and gets really anal about due dates and when tests are scheduled and things like that, so his classmates might get annoyed. He's basically the guy who reminds the teacher that something was due that day after the teacher forgot to collect it, oops. He actually doesn't even really like studying or schoolwork though? Karkat just really likes being super on top of things and planning ahead to the point where he can get kind of controlling at times. God help anyone who gets put into a group project with him because he will micromanage the shit out of everything.
He is still in the process of trying to figure out how he wants to live his life versus doing what other people expect of him. He's in a better place now, but every now and then he'll still catch himself trying to adjust his interests or thoughts based on what other people think. This is one of the reasons why he even started being a huge nuisance online. He figured that acting like himself with the anonymity of the internet would help him and it did! And then he went overboard with it and actually just genuinely started to enjoy telling people about all the reasons why they are Wrong.
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