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[alienates]

i will make this pretty later

open for telepathy | voice | text | action | etc

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Day 216(ish), post-argument

[terezias]

[That argument had been loud enough to hear even from the other group, so Terezi slips out after a moment and follows Karkat. She'll quickly search the upstairs floors for him.]

[alienates]

[ it won't take her too long to find him. terezi will spot him laying dramatically on the ground, staring up at the ceiling like an overdramatic asshole.

he does move slightly just to see who it is. he's still on guard, but when he sees it's only terezi he goes back to his original position. ]

[terezias]

[ . . .

She'll lie down on the floor next to him, then, and also stare up at the ceiling. She doesn't say anything for a few long beats.]

[alienates]

[ he doesn't talk either, but even when he's brooding, karkat can only stay quiet for so long. unsurprisingly, he breaks first. ]

I'm still such a raging asshole, aren't I? You'd think that even an iota of character development would have happened, but no, I'm still goddamn splashing in that sewer known as my personality.

[terezias]

You could have been less abrasive. So could they.

[She says this with equanimity, not accusatory towards one side or the other. It is what it is.]

I think most humans tend to be sensitive about things like torture. [Weird, right?]

[alienates]

[ karkat is pretty aware that he could have handled that better. unfortunately, usually when he gets really mad about something, it's either ride it out until he gets occupied by something else. there are a few people who can just talk him out of it, but. well, dirk isn't one of them. ]

It seems like it. [ ... ] Fuck, I wasn't trying to act like I was better than them or that I could come up with a better plan. I just-- ugghhhh.

[terezias]

You were just asking questions like the concerned wiggler you are. I think that once they are not so angry, they will see that.

[A pause. She considers this.]

Well, unless they are very stupid.

[alienates]

They could, in fact, be very stupid.

[ that is indeed still on the table?? he won't rule it out. ]

Did you hear what Strider said?

[terezias]

I did.

[She hesitates--she really, really does not want to talk about everything that went down during Game Over. But for Karkat, she will try.]

I think he was projecting his feelings onto you. [ . . . ] There were many things, and people, to blame for what happened. I should have . . . well, that is not the point. I think most of us could have stopped some part of it by being better versions of ourselves. Maybe that is what we had to learn, by failing the way we did.

[alienates]

That, or he just knew exactly what would hurt if he hit it.

[ the problem with all of them sharing the same guilt over the same event is that it makes for an easy target. ]

I don't want to fuck this up like we did there.

[terezias]

[Silence, for one long moment.]

. . . I can't say for sure that we will not fuck this up. But--this time there is a plan, and we are all working towards it, and trying our best. Not arguing with one another and becoming addicted to shitty soft drinks. [A brief, humorless smile.] After what happened to everyone on the meteor, I didn't think me or my stupid powers would do much good. But I still should have tried. We should try now.

[alienates]

[ he almost wants to argue that she shouldn't blame herself, but he stops. they can fight over whose fault it was or wasn't forever. because no matter how many times they assure each other that it was both a shared responsibility as well as a string of events none of them could have predicted, they're going to quietly claim to be the one most as fault.

but telling her she shouldn't blame herself won't do any good, because it won't stop her from doing it. ]

Getting this right won't make up for our past fuck ups, but... it'll be nice to know create future ones.

[terezias]

Yeah.

[There's not much to say other than that. She pauses.]

. . . it will be good to get Jade out of there and get back to that silly island.

[alienates]

It is really important that we make her a peanut butter and spaghetti dish when we rescue her.

[ he does not. explain why. it just is? ]

[terezias]

[She laughs a little. Okay, Karkat, sure.]

Is the peanut butter a sauce?

[alienates]

It is apparently a type of spread, but I was basically challenged by her to make the two compatible. So that's what we're going to do.

[ that's not quite what happened, but it's what it felt like. ]

[terezias]

That will be hard to do when we are running around in the woods! But we will try our best.

[alienates]

Our lack of resources or use of a fully functional kitchen should not get in the way of our plans, Terezi. You should know this.

[terezias]

How are you going to boil the noodles, Karkat?

[alienates]

Obviously I will go find someone who has noodling boiling powers, Terezi.

[ because certainly, there is someone around with that magical skill. ]

[terezias]

That would be a very specific and not very useful power.

[alienates]

Except it would be the most useful thing on the goddamn planet to me right now, so I disagree.

[terezias]

We still have to break Jade out before we can cook her noodles. Using a hypothetical power which you have just assumed someone here has.

[alienates]

Well, we are most definitely going to do that, and then the three of us are going to have the best fucking noodles to have ever been brought into non-paradox space.

[terezias]

With peanut butter, which is a spread, not a sauce.