Karkat's Journey

Their Journey

Four years.

Four years, that's how long the group of peacemakers spent spreading the wonderful teachings of peace around this broken world. During this time they gained quite a few followers. More and more trolls and humans alike would quickly drop everything and travel to the next village they were planning on spreading their peaceful teachings to. It was inspiring really. Many trolls and humans were risking their lives to follow them around and even spread the word of their preachings. So many of the empire's citizens longed for a free world, and so many more believed in their cause once they saw that the rainbow of trolls, from the mutant to the lowbloods to the next heiress, coming together to bring the world peace.Karkat's inspiring words and the knowledge of the fact that there's a possibility that there could be a new, more peaceful heiress as a leader gave many faith in this campaign for peace.

In the course of these four years, they all saw many things. They met many new people and created such strong bonds with one another. Karkat's moirallegiance with Gamzee was almost as strong as Nepeta and Equius'. Karkat's matespritship with Dave was amazing, more to the trolls really, it was like they were in all the quadrant's at once. Then again that was what a human relationship was like. Vriska and Terezi's was complicated, they seemed to be...quadrant flipping between kismesitude and moirallegiance. Rose and Kanaya's relationship just made sense honestly, they just fit with one another. The relationships that really caught everyone off guard was the surprise matespritship between Feferi and Nepeta, but this one just made sense as well. So many new relationships budded along with old ones being brought up and given another chance. Aradia and Tavros' moirallegiance, Dirk and Jake's relationship, and the budding romance between Gamzee and Tavros.

So many things changed. Nepeta went from wearing her muscle shirt and "pants" to wearing the skins of animals and some loose fitting shorts, the look suited her in all honesty. Gamzee and Tavros also wore the "I just killed an animal" look but they used bones instead, Tavros following the fashion statement of his Dancestor and Gamzee wearing the bones around his neck or sticking them in his hair. Eridan uncovered his old rings and bracelets from the depths of his sylladex and wore them proudly whilst Feferi stayed with her tiara and anklets.

Their fashion statements were all mixed, and that was for a reason. Kanaya hoped that maybe if some, Feferi and Eridan, were more well dressed than others, Karkat and Gamzee, that their cause would be more of a spectacle. And their clashing outfits did the trick.

Their mismatched outfits were one part of their journey, the other part was the actual travel they had no real route, they just went where the wind took them. Quite literally, Thanks to John's godtier aspect and Eridan's blood colour, they were able to get their hands on a goods ship. John was able to use his powers to make the ship float over the rooftops of the empire and onto their next destination wherever that may be. Whenever they did find their next stop they hid their ship fairly well and set out to find a decent living space for their temporary stay in that village. The kindness of strangers usually leads the group to staying in a vacant house or being given food and fabrics for more clothing. As a payment, Karkat would describe a world the world they longed for. He would describe how peaceful it would be, how even the waves of the crystal clear ocean would be relaxed. How trolls and humans would be able to live free of fear of being recruited for the Empress' army, how they wouldn't have to worry about their offspring's lusus being culled. How they didn't have to worry about drones.

It really was quite the wish, to be able to live in peace with humans or vice versa. Or to even be able to live freely with their alien partners. The Empress had shunned any and all inter-species relationships because then they couldn't reproduce, and if they can't reproduce than there would be less recruits for her armies. Because of this, all those longing to be with one another lost hope, but upon seeing Kanaya and Rose or Dave and Karkat, a small sliver of hope would appear. If they were together and happy, then maybe there was hope?

Karkat and Dave were in fact happy. Very happy. The three years of quadrant confusion and the questioning of human sexuality came to an end. Dave figured out all he needed to with the help of Kanaya and Rose. It was hard at first, realising that he was bisexual. Any sexuality that wasn't heteor was the taboo where he lived, but after some time he became more comfortable with the idea. Now, Dave was in a happy romantic and intimate relationship with the Saviour of the new world. The two often talked about raising a family together once this whole ordeal was over, of course they'd have to adopt. Karkat questioned why they couldn't just have have their own child and after a long (and awkward) conversation on how human reproduction worked, Karkat understood.

The two spent their free time like that. Fantasizing about the future possibility of raising children. A troll and a human. They thought about names, all of Karkat's ideas were the names of famous Alternian actors and all of Dave's were the names of his favourite rappers. Though the two did come up with two names that they both liked, Camber and Tate. The two would often cuddle at night, imagining their lives with little Camber or Tate or both. They would wish for that until they fell asleep in each other's arms. The next morning they would wake each other up with cute little greetings like "wake up asshole, the food's getting cold." or "if you don't wake up right the fuck now, we're leaving you here." That was their daily morning routine.

But it was different this time.

Dave stirred awake, pulling Karkat's cloak and his cape over himself more. He was cold, which was unusual. Karkat's unnatural body temperature kept the human warm throughout the night. Dave's hand groped the empty space in front of himself, a frown appearing when he didn't feel his boyfriend there beside him. His eyes fluttered open, confirming that the space beside him was infact empty. The Knight of Time let out a long sigh and shifted to his back, staring up at the cave above him. The other's were snoring, and it was still fairly dark outside. It was unusual...and worrying that Karkat wasn't there. Then again, maybe he had to use the makeshift load gaper? That was probably it. Dave shrugged and closed his eyes, falling back asleep.

The commotion the other's were making woke Dave up. He instantly glanced over to his side to see that the space was still empty. Karkat was probably with the others, right? The human stood up and stretched and scooped up the two garments he used as blankets. The cave wasn't huge, in fact this one was small than the others they had stayed in. Dave just had to float a few inches off the ground to peek over the heads of the crowd to see that Karkat wasn't there. Dave frowned once more, he was starting to get a bit worried. But no matter, Karkat was probably outside right? He often did that to determine which direction they'd be going in today. He poked his head out the open mouth cave entrance and looked around. No sign of Karkat.

Dave was starting to get really worried now. He floated out and above the cave, his eyes desperately scanning the ground underneath him, looking for any sign of his matesprit. Nothing. "Karkat!" Dave called out, desperation in his voice. Karkat couldn't have of disappeared like that. There was no way, where would he go? More importantly, why would he leave? A few more minutes of anxious flying and the calling of the troll's name passed and Dave flew back into the cave, the others took no note of either of knights absence.

Dirk was the first to notice Dave's distressed state. His hair was a mess and he was clutching the cloak Karkat usually wore. The Prince of Heart excused himself from his conversation with Sollux and Equius, turning his attention towards Dave and causing the other's to turn their attention towards the upset Knight. Dave's eyes scanned the crowd once more, hoping that he perhaps missed his shouty boyfriend. No luck. Karkat wasn't there, he wasn't anywhere to be found. This was bad, very bad. Dave whimpered, tears threatening to spill over the edges of his eyes as he croaked out:

"Where's Karkat?!"