The stakes are high, the water's rough

[klawful]

Who: Karkat & Kyle (Closed)
What: First date shenanigans + Now including November Sleeper Farm prompt
When: Early November - Mid November
Where: Cellar Door + Sleeper Farm

Content Warnings: Mentions of substance abuse, probably consensual violence, NSFW jokes/content, canon-typical humor/crudeness/insulting language of Homestuck/South Park, torture, character death, all content warnings from event, extreme feelings of worthlessness, oppression.


(Karkat hadn't exaggerated when he said he was panicking. He was excited, but also chronically terrified of fucking up every single relationship he's ever touched. He was a mastermind of fucking up. More than that, he really did have little experience with being around so many people all at once.

He winds up filing his horns to be more pointed than rounded, something he had neglected for a while, but it felt instinctual to want to impress his kismesis/more with some more impressive-looking horns. Though the moment he's done with it, he realizes Kyle probably wouldn't even care if they were sharp or not. He throws on something simple but concealing, adding gloves. He cuts two slits in the hood for his horns and he's out the door in seconds. It's colder than he's used to and he winds up turning right the fuck around to go and get a heavier cloak to put on the rest of his outfit. Then he's traveling back through his lamp and winds up at Cellar Door.

He sits himself down on the sidewalk, huddling his legs up against his chest, and waits, watching people walk by with some degree of wariness, but hey. He wasn't outright freaking out and once Kyle showed up, he'd feel way better.)

Comments

Nov Event - Few days after date?

[klawful]

(Karkat has no recollection of what happened. He had been working on smoothing out the floor in his kitchen when he blinked. For a second, there was nothing, and then the next, there was pain. Enormous, fierce pain clamped around his wrists, and the air was filled with the odor of burning. Both of his shoulders screamed, dislocated from whatever was pulling him across iron floors.

As Karkat started to properly wake up, he began to do what any troll would start to do: screech and thrash. His arms were useless, but he still had his teeth and legs. There was someone close enough that Karkat managed to lock his mouth around their ankle and get a good chunk out. That was about as far as he got before someone smashed a hammer down against his head. If it weren't for his horns, it might have killed him. It did knock him clean out, paleblood spilling down his face.

By the time he woke back up, someone had strung him up against a chugging metal wall. His uniquely-shaped shackles were still cooling, his hands numb from the pain, and the pain in his shoulders felt like a distant nagging. Cuts zigzagged across his body, more irritating than anything. Something like an arrow had been shot into his chest, narrowly avoiding anything vital.

The pain was terrible, but as Karkat hung there, it wasn't what bothered him. He could handle pain. His kind was meant to handle pain, expect pain, inflict pain.

What he couldn't handle was being strung up on display like his ancestor once was. That he was covered in his own blood for anyone to see - even if it wasn't his real blood, it was still his blood. A mutant's blood. And an execution fit for his kind, for his mutation, and maybe this was what was happening. Maybe he had finally been caught and this was the culling. His head droops low between his shoulders, the one side of his face covered in blood from his headwound, both horns partially cracked from the earlier impact.

He was an absolute fool to have thought life might have been going in the right direction for once.)

...Stupid...

Perfect

[kyley_b]

[Kyle had been brushing his teeth when he'd blinked and suddenly found himself in a red jumpsuit shackled to a wall. He'd hung there for some undetermined amount of time, shoulders protesting but not nearly as much as they could have been - due to his height, the balls of Kyle's feet still touched the floor. He was lucky in another way: oil dripped continuously from above, and although some of it ran into his face, stinging his eyes, far more of it dribbled onto his cuffed hands.

Skinny wrists lubed up, able to stand on his toes to get a little slack in the chain attached to his restraints, Kyle really only had to apply what he'd learned about getting out of handcuffs growing up in South Park and then he was free.

He'd wriggled his way out of the stall he'd been held in, picking his way through the steamy gloom. He picked up a hammer, feeling more secure with at least something resembling a weapon.

Kyle recognizes the smell that grows stronger as he sneaks toward the second floor. He grew up in a farming town, after all, and can't mistake this place for anything but a slaughterhouse.

His wide, horrified eyes flick over the bodies strung up along the walls. Most are flayed, several missing limbs. Kyle's only thought as he breathes in the fine mist of blood that permeates the air is escape.

But then.

There.

Oh.

Karkat, strung up, blood gleaming as it runs in rivulets down into a basin set beneath him.

Kyle's heart plunges into ice and comes out the other side beating so hard it seems to have merged with the mechanical thudding of the walls. He feels a scream welling up in his throat and peeling his lips back, and fights it down with great effort.

Kyle looks around, sees no-one, and hurries across the blood drenched floor to Karkat's horribly battered form. He drops his hammer with a careless thunk.]

Karkat! Dude, wake up, Karkat, it's Kyle. I'm going to get you out, Karkat please wake up.

[He studies Karkat's restraints even as he babbles. That's the first thing - to get him out of those. Although he is terrified, once Kyle sees that the other man is in fact still breathing another more useful emotion begins to pulse in his chest.

Fury.

All links in a chain are forged one by one, the whole thing depending on the weakest not to]

Break.

[Eyes full of glittering blood, he sees the chain break at the same time that he sees it formed. He moves to grab Karkat as the chain that had been hoisting him up snaps, stumbling as he suddenly takes his weight.

The shackles are still on. But he is now in Kyle's skinny arms.]

Karkat? [Eyes clearing, he gently touches Karkat's face.]

[klawful]

(Trolls weren't the type of creature to give up. They were too violent, too stubborn, too aggressive to bother with it most of the time. This wasn't losing in a fight though. This was just humiliation and Karkat didn't know what to do with that. It's such a drowning feeling that he doesn't recognize Kyle's voice at first. Red tears had started to mix into the blood on his face.

Please don't look at me like this. It was easy to forget that humans wouldn't care, that Kyle already knew, that Kyle cared for him for who he was and not the color of his blood, but he remained shackled more to his humiliation than the actual shackles that held him.

It isn't until Kyle breaks the chains and Karkat's body plummets that he's physically yanked out of his own self-pity. His eyes snap open, bright, vivid red, and his teeth grit naturally.

He half looks on the verge of murder, sweeps of ancestral fury and agony at being oppressed crushing through him in the span of three seconds, and he swore he could see the massive shape of the Grand Highblood behind Kyle. A low rising growl snarls out of him, fiercer than the play growls he's given Kyle before.

Then there's Kyle, his soft hand on his face, and the moment passes. The open hostility falls away and leaves in its wake plain and simple hurt. His lower lip trembles and he immediately tucks himself against Kyle's chest, the shame overriding everything else. His whole body begins to shake, his arms hanging limply, the shackles heavy, but distant now.)

I'm - Don't look- (It's stupid, and he realizes it's stupid, but he can't help it. Now that he was more with it, it wasn't just about the blood. He didn't want to appear so weak and hurt in front of his mate so soon in their relationship.)

Fuck. Fuck. I swear I'm not- I'm not inferior. I- I can keep you safe, I swear I'm...I'm not weak. I can - I'm capable of keeping you- I can..I can be strong enough for us- (It's a shaking, broken rambling of a troll who needs to prove his worth, but simply didn't have the ability to at the moment.)

[kyley_b]

It's okay. Shhh, it's okay. [Kyle hugs Karkat as tight as he dares, not wanting to injure him further, careful to avoid the stick jammed in his chest.] I know you're not weak. This place is fucked up, there's something really wrong here.

[Gently, he smooths Karkat's hair out of his face. His heart aches to see how badly he's been hurt. He doesn't dare remove the arrow, but he wonders if he can't get the shackles off. He examines them carefully, frowning. He can't see any way they latch - it's like they were formed around his wrists.]

Okay. Karkat, dude, we gotta get out of here. We're gonna be okay. I'm going to help you up, and we're gonna... we're gonna keep going. There's got to be a way out. [He puts his hands on either side of Karkat's face and looks him in the eye, smiling a little.]

Hey. Hey, we got this. Now c'mon.

[He stands, pulling Karkat up with him. He puts an arm under his on the uninjured side so he can help him along, which means he has to stoop over.

The only direction to go is up. Kyle moves slowly, feet squelching on the bloody floor, murmuring reassurances. The stink and noise of the place is overwhelming.

The third floor has corpses hanging from thick meathooks. Many of them have been hollowed out, leaving wet caverns beneath their ribcages. It's here that Kyke hears heavy footsteps. Eyes huge, he pulls Karkat as fast as he can toward a row of bodies. He gestures at the hook slammed through the base of the skull, then grabs Karkat and boosts him up so he can grab it.

He can only hope that Karkat has enough strength left to hang on long enough.

Hurrying, he grabs a hook himself and pulls, tucking his feet up, basically riding the corpse piggyback. He struggles with his gorge at the thought and wins... barely. He hangs there, sweat pouring off his body, arms shaking, listening to the sound of boots on metal approach... and fade.

As slowly as he can, Kyle lowers himself and turns to face Karkat.

The sound of bootheels fills the world, running towards them. Kyle half turns and sees a huge shirtless figure barreling at him, broad shoulders hitting the bodies on hooks and sending them swinging. Barbed wire has been pulled through its nipples and other incisions in its flesh, and it has its lips completely flayed away. Any eyes it might have are hidden by a leather blindfold so tight it digs cuts into the scant flesh of its face.

Kyle manages a step back and then he slips on wet flesh. The fall ironically saves him from being bodyslammed, but the horrific figure wastes no time in grabbing him by the hair. Not slowing, it keeps moving, dragging Kyle along as he screams and claws at the blood grimed hand.]

[klawful]

(Even stacked with self-hatred, Karkat was already starting to get his shit together. No troll could afford to have a long breakdown when they really needed one. And Kyle's hands, his words, helped calm Karkat back down. He's still crying, but he's not rambling anymore, his breathing evened out.

By the time Kyle's holding his face, Karkat's focused back in, and he gives a silent nod, his eyes wide. Get your shit together. Stop crying like a wiggler. He needs you, broken or mutated or not.

Karkat manages to help himself up, feeling a bit woozy from blood loss. The shackles had finally cooled, but the burns they left behind were worse than the arrow in him. The foul surroundings didn't bother him so much as make his hackles rise. Whatever humiliation he had felt was replaced now with a violent urge to get out of here with Kyle intact.

He ignores the pain shrieking in his arms and hands, getting with the motion of the corpse and hooking a foot inside a carved-out ribcage for support. He can feel one of the ribs crack under his weight, but he keeps himself upright. Just in time for the bondage-freak to come along.)

Kyle!

(Oh fuck no. Karkat swings himself back down from the hook and lands with a grunt. He snaps the arrow off his chest, not worrying about the arrowhead left inside his body, and instead rushes at the figure. Then he pushes off the ground in a sharp jump to the right, using a nearby corpse to rebound off of and come right down on top of the figure. He doesn't think twice, just jams the broken-off arrow piece right through the ugly fucker's head. There's a ripe crunch, like splitting a melon, and Karkat feels the brief satisfaction of a successful kill.

Only to realize he only succeeded in stopping the figure for a second. Everything's quiet, and then, abruptly, everything's loud and a flurry of motion. The figure throws Karkat off of it with relative ease and Karkat lands in a pile of mostly human heads. He scrambles through them, running on pure adrenaline and rage now, and charges back at the figure before it can make it much further with Kyle. This time he aims for the hand attached to Kyle's hair and clenches his fangs right into that wrist, crunching down hard and not letting go. Fuck this.)

[kyley_b]

[The hand in his hair loosens once, and then again. The second time Kyle realises Karkat is right there, his fangs buried in flesh. Kyle manages to get his feet under him and shove, tearing away from their attacker and leaving several clumps of red curls behind.

He scrambles, looking for anything to use as a weapon. He sees a hook dangling from the side of a torso and grabs it, pulling as hard as he can. It comes loose with a meaty tearing noise. Kyle turns and swings the hook as hard as he can into the side of the lumbering masochist's neck.

Karkat has gnawed open its wrist and impaled its skull, and Kyle has punched a hole in its throat. Blood is gouting everywhere, and still it won't die.

But it is slowing.

Kyle grabs for Karkat.]

Dude, come on come on we gotta go, we gotta run...

[He pulls at his arm, trying to move him forward, away from their attacker and hopefully towards an exit.

He hears a clanking sound and risks a look to the side as he runs. Skidding on the floor, he abruptly changes direction, hurrying to a small rectangular hole in the wall. He yanks the door open and sees a small platform covered with gore rising toward them.]

It's a dumbwaiter, Karkat, come on, get in, get IN!

[He looks behind them, hearing the sound of footsteps once more, but sees nothing yet. He practically shoves Karkat into the little elevator, then crams himself in with him, barely making it on in time.

This may well be the worst idea he's ever had, but as the two of them rise up into the dark and away from imminent death, he still feels some relief.

Kyle gropes for his partner and hugs him, breathing hard.]

There's probably someone there, waiting to load or unload this shit. We gotta just... play dead, or move fast. I don't know which.

We're gonna get out of here.

[klawful]

(The creature's blood tasted foul. Where Karkat might normally swallow it, he spits it out, paranoid now of what might be in it. He immediately runs after Kyle. If he had his sickles, if he was stronger - if he didn't have the damn shackles...

But he couldn't think about all that. Not with whatever was on their heels, hot, bloody, and angry as Karkat felt. He's about to ask what the fuck a dumbwaiter is, but there's no time for it, and he trusts Kyle to know whatever the hell he's talking about. He crawls into the dark hole, his eyes sharpening up in the dimness. He tries to scrunch his body up as tiny as possible so Kyle could fit. For the first time in his life, he's glad to be small.

Only when they're alone does Karkat give himself a moment to breathe. He can't hug Kyle back, but he does immediately curl against him, resting his face against his chest.)

This wasn't exactly the fantasy I had planned for our first epic showdown with some monstrous fuck.

(He squeezes tighter against Kyle, the pain in his body ebbing and flowing out of him. His paleblood gave off a soft light in the dark, and he's so glad to not be alone, but God, he wished more that he was if only so Kyle wasn't here to suffer with him.)

We are.

(He leans back from Kyle, sitting onto his calves, snarling down at the shackles around his wrists.)

These fucking things...Okay. Okay. Let me think. (He shuts his eyes. They're in a small space in some torture chamber straight from some crappy 1990s horror game. He rests back, opening his eyes to look at Kyle.)

Best defense is a good offense. If we play dead, they might drag us out like meat. They're probably expecting corpses coming up in this fucker, so if we burst out, we might be able to catch them by surprise...Granted, we could catch them by surprise the other way too, but then they might get closer to us than we want.

(He stares up, counting the seconds ticking by as the dumbwaiter chugged upward. He tried to strain and listen to what was going on around him, and he could hear screams, could smell the fear and gore of this place, the steam, and oil. Then a light clicks and he looks back at Kyle.)

We could do both. I'm bloodied the fuck up enough that I look dead. I could just - fall out. Let me go first. I can take it. Then I'll be on the floor. I'm good at low advantage anyway. I can get behind something's legs or between 'em and you can lunge out. Maybe we can just - use gravity. Knock them down. Might be our only real bet. Unless you got a better idea. (He also really, really did not want Kyle going first into whatever hell they were being carried up to.)

[kyley_b]

[Kyle chuckles breathlessly.] Of course you imagined an epic showdown...

[He falls silent, more than happy to hand over the task of planning to someone who actually has experience with life or death situations.

He nods, looking unhappy.]

Okay. You fall out, I lunge. Then we run like hell.

[He looks up, pale and frightened, trying to figure out how far they've gone.]

We must be a few floors up by now. Maybe there will be an actual exit.

[He looks back and leans forward to press his lips gently to Karkat's.]

We're gonna get out.

[The dumbwaiter shudders to a halt and Kyle presses back, waiting for the door to open.]

[klawful]

'Course I did. Only in it I was chopping something's head off and you were swooning at my feet.

(He's glad to hear even a moment of lightness from Kyle, no matter how breathless. It was a good sign. He could do this. He'd get them out. He might have stumbled at first, but he could do this.

He had to.)

Yeah, we definitely are.

(Then Kyle kisses him, and it's so light, so gentle in such a horrifying moment that Karkat melts within seconds. Even though he was covered in gore, torn up, burnt to hell, he could feel himself starting to blush. And all he could really think about was how Ideally Romantic that just was and I Am So Fucking Lucky.

Of course, a dumbass troll would swoon at a time like this.

He gets his shit together when the dumbwaiter comes to a halt. He slides forward at once, tucking a knee against his chest to plant a foot on the floor. He slumps against the doors, ready. It isn't until the doors open that he accounts for the fact that there might not be someone on the other side, and that he might just be causing a ruckus.

But the plan was agreed on and he had to follow through. There was no time for doubt, so as the doors slid open, he let himself fall out onto the ground and let himself roll forward, trying to gauge the situation with his eyes only partially shut.)

[kyley_b]

[The only impression of the room that Kyle gets is that it is full of even more bodies. They're piled on top of one another, and he wishes that they were unrecognizable.

Then his view is entirely taken up by another nightmare.

This one is skeletal, flesh pulled so taut it looks like its bones might burst forth. Its genitals are enclosed in some sort of metal chastity device, and in one hand it holds a short, hooked blade. It reaches into the dumbwaiter past Karkat and the other chunks of flesh that tumble out.

When its lips part Kyle smells spoiled meat.]

Flesh for sacrifice.

[Kyle lunges, clumsy, hands finding the butcher's shoulders. It falls backwards and Kyle falls with it, forward momentum carrying him to land right on top of it.

It's such a surprise when that blade punches its way into his guts that Kyle can't quite grasp what's happened.]

[klawful]

(Karkat makes sure to slam into those legs, and he can hear the commotion.

He's still used to playing the game that things aren't synching up with how he's used to them. There is no sylladex to pull open. He can adapt. There is no pain now, only a rush of familiar, natural Alternian bloodlust and excitement for a good fight.

He's on his knees, looking up quickly to see what was going on with Kyle. His mind catches up with what the - Thing had said, and it takes him only a few seconds to realize how stupid it was that he had gone first. He doesn't think after that. He can smell Kyle's blood, the blood of his kismesis, blood only he was supposed to shed, blood of the person he -

A feral sound escapes Karkat and he's moving towards the head. He doesn't need his hands. He raises the heavy, locked shackles and slams them down with all of that defensive rage, letting the gold do its work in weight. He does it again, and again, and again, half-blinded by blood pollution, corruption sinking in to the point of extending his horns and growing out his fangs.

But he doesn't notice. He keeps hitting until it feels soft, until he feels something like slime sliding between his fingers and dimly realizes it must be brain and tissue. He stops, panting, the agony in his arms catching up to him.

Kyle. It draws him back, and he snaps his head up, eyes wide.)

Kyle, Kyle- are you okay? I can smell - (Blood. But maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe it was just a cut. He hadn't actually seen.)

[kyley_b]

[Kyle is curled up to one side. He'd watched with huge eyes when Karkat had risen up and beaten this new threat with a ferocity that was utterly terrifying. He can't bring himself to move, both because his abdomen is a molten lake of pain and because he's in total shock.

When Karkat stops, that's when Kyle tries to sit up.]

I'm okay.

[He tries to stand and feels a horrible sliding sensation. He claps his hands to where it hurts and feels something thick and ropelike and slimy.

Kyle swallows hard.]

Help me up. We gotta. The next room. We gotta be close to the end.

[He isn't sure why he thinks that, but he does. He keeps his hands clasped to his wound, keeping his guts inside, and leans heavily on Karkat as he regains his feet.

It feels like it takes forever for them to cross the room. The world begins to grey out and then rush back in technicolor in great pulses.

The door they reach does not open outside. It's another room, this one circular and beautiful. Kyle sees the Tower statue in the center, sees the hearts and livers and blood, and he thinks he understands.]

Karkat.

[They won't be alone for long. He can hear screams and moans behind every door, hear the soft thud of metal through meat, the clank of chains. It will only be a moment until more of those monsters burst through and pull them apart.]

I. I want you to get out. No. Fffuck. No matter what. You get out.

[Kyle's head drops to his chest, and suddenly smoke pours forth. Kyle's omen forms, huge and filled with teeth made for tearing flesh just as doors are thrown open.

Willzyx stays with Karkat as hooks sink into Kyle's back and pull him away. He falls to the ground and is dragged toward the statue in the center of the room, intestines slithering out behind him. A towering figure in black leather strides toward him, a long cruel blade at the ready to peel Kyle's flesh from his bones.

Kyle's eyes look to the statue.]

You can have me but let him go.

[Flesh for sacrifice, given freely. The only ticket out... and only for the one of them left breathing.]

lmk if u want this end to change!

[klawful]

Kyle...

(His voice waivers as it hits him just how injured Kyle actually was. He doesn't even have the strength left to pick up his hands, but even if he did, he's never learned a goddamn thing about healing humans except they got infections easily. He gapes at Kyle's stomach, his mouth working open and shut. Why are humans so soft...?)

Kyle...Kyle, you're not okay.

(He instantly moves to Kyle when he says the word 'help' and shoulders him up to their feet. His feet are cemented to the ground as Kyle leans on him, his eyes unblinking. Surely they could fix this? Just put them back inside and close it up? Shit, how did Rose knit? Back and forth and-.

Right, movement.)

Stay awake, asshole. (He can see Kyle's eyes sliding shut, and he jerks his shoulder up to jostle him. When they finally get into the next room, Karkat's automatically looking for some sort of door, anything, trying to ignore the organs, to ignore the increasing sound of steps and voices.)

Nope. Shut the fuck up. Do not Karkat me. We're not doing this sacrificial bullshit.

(He knew this kind of speech. He's heard it too many times to count now and he couldn't stand to hear it again.)

I'm not leaving you behind. We're a team and I'm not doing that. It's not up for discussion, Kyle. (When the whale comes out, Karkat gives an unintentional shriek of surprise. But that shriek dissolves into a scream when Kyle is dragged away. He sees the light catch the blade and he knows the intention, knows what's going to happen.)

NO! Kyle! (His screech cracks through the air and he's rushing forward only to be yanked to a halt by an unseen force. No, not unseen. Slimy, black appendages had appeared out of shadows to lock around his legs and torso. Standing up out of the shadows was a tall figure, pale, with a featureless face except a gaping mouth with a black slug protruding from between peeled lips. The figure's head was riddled with black holes, slugs sliding in and out between them, and it was from these holes many voices echoed one sentence:)

The debt has been paid. We honor the sacrifice.

(Karkat opens his mouth to scream, but one of those terrible black slugs slides in between his lips and he's effectively gagged. There's a moment of panic as he starts to suffocate around the creature, and then his vision goes pitch black. There's nothing but the sound of Kyle, of whatever they were doing to him, of his last moment- and then.

He was on the floor of his cave, staring up at his ceiling. Alone.

And regrettably alive.)