(no subject)
Player Information ;
Your Nickname: Jaz
OOC Journal: sapling
Under 18? Nope!
Email/IM: poisonparfait@aol.com / poison parfait (AIM)
Characters Played at Singularity: NONE.
Character Information ;
Name: Karkat Vantas
Name of Canon: Homestuck (MS Paint Adventures)
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon!
Reference: The Troll Arc, on MSPA wiki.
Canon Point: THE VEIL, pre-meeting. Around Karkat's second conversation with John, some time before he decides he's A GROWN ASS ADULT.
Setting:
Karkat is from a large, savage, hostile and frankly rather terrifying planet called Alternia. Alternia has 3 known/shown major life-forms, which coexist and even mutually benefit survival.
There are trolls, which is the species that Karkat and the various castmates of his arc belong to. Trolls are born from a giant hive queen referred to as "the mothergrub", who takes genetic material taken from trolls and uses it to brood, later laying more troll eggs. Trolls can't actually reproduce sexually with other trolls of the opposite sex, which is puzzling since they have carnal attraction and mating urges, but that's never really expounded upon. A drone sent by the mothergrub arrives to matesprits and kismesis pairs and coerces the trolls into surrendering their genetic material into filial pails. ROMANTIC, RITE? If the trolls don't comply, the drone simply offs them. If the trolls comply, the genetic material is taken to he mothergrub, because she can only take in the genetic material when it's precombined. The various pail contents are mixed together, described as a messy "incestuous slurry", and then the mothergrub broods.
But the mothergrub isn't actually a troll herself, though there's the resemblance in the horns she has. Though basically, trolls are, in some manner, insectoid. Once the mothergrub lays, from the slimy egg-pods hatch troll larvae. They then wiggle up to a comfy stalactite from which they make themselves a cocoon, thus entering a dormant pupal stage. When they emerge from the cocoon, they're BABY TROLLS. From then, a "lusus" (which is basically a wild animal, that ranges anywhere from dual-jawed cats, bipedal crab monsters, little bull fairies, etc) SLAUGHTERS THE BABY TROLLS!!!
The survivors of the massacre are then taken in by the lusus, who becomes their guardian and custodial. Basically, they are a parent, and they bond with their troll child, who construct a complex hive complex for them to live in. Because troll children are (at some point) taught to build amazingly complex, extensive hives and are given drones to help them with the process. Usually, adult trolls don't remain on Alternia and go off to do work on other planets, often involving conquering and stuff of that nature. Such a brutal species. But basically, the planet of Alternia is ruled by children and wild animals.
Trolls sure are weird!
Another weird, complicated aspect, somewhat related to the above mentioned biology of trolls, is their complex romance. Humans are known to have one type of linear romance, usually denoted by a single symbol: a heart. Troll romance is so complex that they use four symbols: clubs, spades, diamonds and hearts. Just as humans are instinctively magnetized to potential mates and go through most of their life seeking out a romantic partner because of more carnal biological urgings, trolls seek out each of these four quadrants specifically. That's not to imply trolls want to mate with each of the quadrants--the paler quadrants (diamonds and clubs) don't have anything to do with the reproductive cycle of trolls. That would be red romance (hearts) and black romance (spades), but all quadrants are important and interrelated.
To keep this as brief as I can manage, I'll give a basic run-down of each romance quadrant. The red quadrant is basically the closest equivalent to human romance, or "love", and troll partners in the scarlet quadrant are called "matesprits". The black quadrant is basically hate soulmates. You fal into a passionate hate and become arch enemies and there is hatemating. Romantic partners of the black quadrant are called "kismesis".
Diamonds, categorized in the pale quadrant, stands for "moirallegiance". The proper title for trolls who have this kind of relationship are called moirails. This is basically a fated bond where one troll keeps another troll stable. The pale attraction works as follows: a dangerous troll might be more attracted to a troll that keeps them level, and the subordinate troll in kind might be attracted to a dangerous troll to whom they feel close. The relationship is beneficial in that both partners feel a sense of completion, as with filling any of the quadrants.
Then there is clubs, in the ashen quadrant. This is actually a three-way bond. Among kismesis and matespritship pairings, there usually calls dire need of mediation. The mediator, called an auspistice, is someone who usually keeps kismesi from totally killing each other. Additionally, as trolls are rife with violent nature and lots of hatred, it's not unusual for them to get a hair too hatey with other trolls. Auspisti prevent what's called "black infidelity". On top of all that, kismesis pairings can often flicker in and out of red and black romance respectively, or even out of any interest what-so-ever. Basically, especially in adolescence, trolls have NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON OH MY GOD with all of this quadrant mess. So auspisti are a precious necessity. Puberty for trolls is like what humans go through in puberty times four.
And that is the brief run-down. Believe it.
Because trolls don't reproduce through intercourse of their own species, it's implied that it's not uncommon for trolls to drift through gender preference. While romantic references are usually made in heterosexual persuasion, it doesn't seem at all unusual for trolls to fall in love or hate with trolls of the same sex. No one makes gay jokes, and words like "fag" aren't part of their vernacular. It's probably all very stupid and trivial to them, something incredibly minute and overall rather not worth fussing over. Because in light of all things so fucked up and complicated in troll romance, homosexuality is most likely incredibly simple to them. A mundane detail! Troll romance is a lot more about chemistry from bonds than anything else.
Despite the brutality of Alternia, the varying species are actually quite sophisticated, and they boast technology that far exceeds ours. It seems most computers are actually organic. For instance, games are ...grubs and worms. Which you plug wires into.
Don't even ask me how that works, because I have no idea.
I'm just going to reiterate and say that trolls are just really weird.
Moving on to one last aspect of Alternia: the hemocaste system. The hemocaste system dictates the social hierarchy of trolls. Vermilion and rust into green are low class bloodlines, blues are noble class bloodlines, and purples are royal class bloodlines (the closer to magenta, the more potent and pure the blood). If you're of a very high caste (indigo to magenta and the colors in between), you're considered a ruler of your species by inherent right. High castes (again, indigo to magenta) are a sub-species of trolls and the origin species, referred to as sea-dwellers. They appear to be able to live both on land and in the sea, boasting superior genetics. They also have gills and webbed fins on their face! Strictly land-dwelling trolls are a genetically inferior branch species and it boasts a range mid to low blooded castes.
Trolls, by social tradition, boast their caste color in several ways, regardless of their placement on the caste hierarchy. Usually, the prints on their shirts are printed in the color of the troll's blood and their text color used online in messenger programs and likely elsewhere also reflect their hemochroma.
Karkat has a hemochroma mutation, making his blood a vibrant, bright red. A sole freak of nature to his species!! Because of this, he hides behind gray text and gray print.
Personality:
The first, most visible facet of Karkat's personality is that he's extremely cranky. It takes next to nothing to have him flying off the handle and spewing insults that are lengthly enough to composite small rants. Basically, he's totally shitty at keeping a lid on his temper. He gets frustrated enough in IM conversations with his other troll friends that he screams and slams on his keyboard frenetically, generally when he's lost his patience, of which he has precious very little. Any helpful advice that Karkat imparts tends to be hidden under biting insults and generally degrading manners of speech, so it's understandable if people miss it, but he deliberately imparts the advice despite his cantankerous personality. In addition to being so short tempered, Karkat has also described himself as having enough hatred to rip a hole in the space-time continuum. Suffice to say, he's generally not a happy guy. In fact, his personality is basically a pun off his own astrological sign: he's just extremely crabby. Karkat is so many crab/cancer puns. I can't even tell you.
There's more to Karkat than his wicked abrasiveness, of course. Despite the empty logic in his fits of rage he tends to throw in the faces of people agitating him, he's rather intelligent and he absorbs information with general ease. Unfortunately, he lacks a lot of foresight because his temper tends to make him jump the gun and make hasty, bad decisions, often out of immature spite. He realizes his mistakes once the damage is done and becomes infuriated with himself for being a stupid tool, and it embarrasses him on a level to where he can't stand himself. Basically, he recognizes that he's a very flawed person. As a matter of fact, it kind of rules him, being as it's implied to be the root of his spiny defensiveness and spiny demeanor. Insecurity is a huge part of who Karkat is.
Karkat is driven and ambitious. He felt like he was born to lead something big, to boss around a bunch of people, and basically to be the big shit. But he isn't sure what that would pertain to explicitly, and thus feels aimless, teeming with power that he has no outlet for. Mostly, at the beginning of the arc Karkat's introduced, he seems to be looking for an opportunity to prove himself while simultaneously putting the rest at his feet in a display of inferiority. Again, likely because of his delicate, teenaged boy ego. Since he's tl;dr: 13, so you can't expect a fountain of maturity from this kid.
Peeling back yet more layers of Karkat's personality, as the comic goes on, you're shown softer sides of Karkat that are rather surprising, as he seemed rather determined to prove he was made only of hatred and anger (despite his love for terrible romantic comedy movies, which he doesn't bother denying, though he insists they're VERY INTERESTING FROM A SOCIOLOGICAL STANDPOINT). While he insults his friends tremendously and is very prone to butting heads, it's not always without remorse, though remorse is usually subtle and awkward in its presentation. After chewing out one of his best friends/rival (mutually), Karkat asks if they were still friends, implying that he values their friendship. And apparently, every time he fights with this friend, he has a habit of asking if they're still friends. Of course, the nature of Karkat's sincerity regarding friendship can get fuzzy, because in the troll language of Karkat's planet Alternia, friend and enemy are the same word. However, when Sollux dies shortly after Karkat chews him out and bans him in the face of some mortal plight Sollux is having (assuming that Sollux was just trolling him), he explodes with remorse, screaming and sobbing into his hands like a "blubbering goddamn pansy". He blames himself entirely for Sollux's death.
Karkat is also insecure by the color of his blood. It's the social norm in troll society to represent your blood color in a variety of ways, like through the color of their text or the print on their shirt. Karkat is a mutant of his race because he has bright red blood, which, unbeknownst to him, is just like a human's. As a result, he hides behind gray text and the cancer printed on his shirt is also in gray, keeping his caste-class anonymous. When badgered on the subject, Karkat becomes extremely irate and defensive. He's very sensitive about it. That and his nubby, rounded horns, but probably to a lesser extent. Karkat does intend to tell his peers about the color of his blood despite his shame and embarrassment, but he says only when he earns their respect as their leader through their game session.
Additionally, Karkat is something like the community therapist for the 11 other troll children. They each come to him with their romantic problems, and despite being agro and insulting by default, he ultimately shows concern in helping his friends. It's likely that his friends come to him because he tends to expound on the complex subject of troll romance (which is an essay in of itself) without heed, befuddled and aggravated that he seems to be the only one who finds it interesting-it's said his fondness for terrible troll romance flicks comes from his fascination with the psychological nuances in the romance of their species. Also, it seems that Karkat befriends the humans who interfered with Alternia's game session (future-Karkat tells the human protagonist they become friends, early on in the comic. As I mentioned much earlier, there are so many time paradoxes in this comic I'll save the headache of explaining this any further).
Closer to the end of the current arc, Karkat updates his memo he's been logging through the course of his adventure with his friends for the umpteenth time. While the memos start out with a lot of big talk and ego stroking, they dissolve into arguing with himself and generally ranting aimlessly, as well as counseling his friends as they tap into the memo on unrelated notes. Basically, the memo becomes a point of self examination, especially with his chat client's time-travel feature (wherein the user can talk to other people online from different points in time). Eventually, the tone of Karkat's memos, while still bitey and crude, begin to sound genuinely drained. Towards the end of this final memo, he shares a short story about when his guardian lusus had gone missing for days around a holiday. When his lusus returned, Karkat explains that he was relieved, and he celebrated together with his assigned parent. He says that that's all he has to say, because he's getting choked up, and before he closes the meme, one of his friends by the name of Kanaya contacts him through it to tell him what she did for her last (same) holiday.
Through their conversation, Karkat tells her that he'd almost come to suspect he was his own kismesis. In saying this, Karkat is acknowledging his self-obsession and self-loathing both, also opening himself up to Kanaya. He also confirms that he has "red romantic" (positive romantic) feelings for someone, but doesn't designate who, because it's private. Later (in the comic, but not ...chronologically "later". In fact, chronologically, it was much before this conversation), we find out he seems to be romantically engaged with his friend Terezi. Whether or not they're an item isn't explicitly clear, but they're clearly smitten.
While speaking to Kanaya, Karkat still has the occasional rude snap, but he's generally personable, friendly and polite, seeming exhausted with himself (as seen through his extensive rants with himself earlier in the memo). Karkat explains to another one of his peers much earlier in the comic that her hatred is dull and almost fake, whereas in other points of the comic, he's described his own hatred as very real and very potent. He tells his peer/sessionmate (who's not really much of a friend, really) that the reason why her hatred is so lukewarm is because she's burning out that emotional hemisphere because it's the only emotion she exudes; this implies that Karkat knows he has a lot more than just hatred, and he doesn't seem to have a problem with this. In having varying humors of pity (trolls only classify emotions into two quadrants: hate and varying degrees of pity), Karkat's hatred still burns strongly and sincerely. As a result, it's only natural he's not always a complete dick. He's actually a pretty good guy, but having this side called on him makes him irate.
Somewhat relevant to that, Karkat is revealed to have a prospective matesprit towards the end of the arc. He tells Kanaya that his "scarlet leanings" (red romance feelings) are strictly private and he won't disclose his red romantic interest, but shortly after that, it's revealed that it's his friend, Terezi. While it's never explicitly stated that they're matesprits, it's heavily implied more than once. Terezi, as someone who believes in upholding justice absolutely (albeit through brutal means, but such is the way of Alternians), probably wouldn't be interested in Karkat if he wasn't a good guy. Despite his coy, defensive and prickly personality, Karkat seems to shyly return Terezi's affection and also seems to enjoy her compliments. Overall, they seem rather well suited to each other.
Abilities and Weaknesses:
Abilities/good stuff:
Karkat doesn't actually have any special abilities besides spewing wordy, grotesque insults. But being a troll from hell-planet Alternia, he's made of tough stuff. It's been implied that trolls are chitinous, or at least have chitinous parts (there's an obvious lack of joints that would explain an exoskeleton, so it might be internal, especially considering the phrase "shut your trap" is "shut your chitinous wind-pipe" in troll-slang). Additionally, it's shown that young trolls often hunt for their lusii. And the game tends to be huge and beastly. It's a fight-or-die kind of world, but Karkat's all natural toughness that comes with his species DNA. Nothing special for his species.
Also, he's apparently a pretty good romance therapist. For trolls, anyway, who have a hideously complex range of romantic emotions compared to humans, and it's the complexity that intrigues him! A lot of his friends come to him with their romantic problems, and he can actually tone down his belligerent tone a little in favor of helping a brother (or sister) out.
Somewhat related, he's also pretty emotionally intelligent, as well as a good strategist and with decent leadership skills. Despite PRIMARILY FUNCTIONING IN THE MODE OF A COMPLETELY INDIGNANT AND PETULANT DOUCHEHAT,he's actually pretty emotionally well balanced and altogether generally well rounded. By troll standards, anyway.
Weaknesses/bad stuff:
Despite Karkat's generally sound strategizing and his born urge to lead (and bragging about being the best hatched leader and blah blah), he's actually not a great leader. He's better than a lot of his troll companions in that regard, but he's still really not the best leader. He thinks too impulsively and reacts the same way. He tends to make really terrible mistakes with the motivation of petty spite and he doesn't really make habit of thinking before he speaks, often embarrassing himself in retrospect. So despite his intelligence, acting on whim first basically turns him into a giant moron who sucks at everything. Basically, Karkat thinks he is a gigantic asshole.
And he's right!
Karkat is a giant asshole. It is one of his faults! In fact, he thinks aside from one of his troll companions, he is the biggest asshole on Alternia. In that same vein, Karkat's also pretty self-loathing, despite bragging about all of his superior qualities. But the rule of thumb is as follows: the bigger the ego-masturbating windbag, the bigger the insecurity. Karkat is no exception.
He also really sucks at hacking and writing code, despite it being one of his most indulged hobbies. In fact, his codes suck so much they tend to damage the computers he writes them on. He likes to think he specializes in viruses, but the harm he causes his computers is accidental and so he pretty much just sucks at programming viruses.
Inventory: The basics. His SUPER COOL SICKLE. A change of the exact same outfit or two, because trolls think fashion is stupid.
Appearance:
Karkat is both alien and humanoid in appearance. Baring similar visage to a 13 year old human, he's clearly a child or a young teenager at a glance. Like most characters in Homestuck, when illustrated in a manner besides their sprite-form, Karkat appears to be thin and long-limbed.
Like all trolls, his skin is a medium gray, his eyes are an orangey yellow with black irises, and he has a pair of horns that vaguely resemble candy-corn, but with the tips yellow instead of white. However, most trolls don't have the small, stupid round-tipped NUBBY HORNS that Karkat has. Trolls also have yellow nails to match. Additionally, Karkat has a mouth full of large, sharp teeth, a bit oversized when compared to the maws of his troll peers. Karkat's also got an overbite. His eyes are especially sunken in, and he has black hair that's basically just a gigantic mess. Like a shounen bedhead.
Age: 6 Alternian Solar Sweeps, which conveniently translates into 13 human years. SO LET'S SAY 13.
OC/AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across?
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test?
And What Did You Score? AHARDARDAR
Samples ;
Log Sample:
There wasn’t a lot left to do.
A lot of things had come and went, and a lot of fucking terrible of things had happened. People dying, for one. People bonding and then having those bonds viciously strangled until they were twitching sacks of wrung-out vomit. People fighting amongst each other because of those bonds. Stupid shit. God, so much stupid shit. Karkat had wished so many times that everyone could just calm the fuck down, think with their hands out of their fucking crotchward-confines, and focus on what they needed to do. He wasn’t guiltless, of course. He knew that, but that didn’t mean he forgave himself for it any more than the others.
And despite all those distractions and unnecessary drama, there hadn’t been a mis-step in what they’d all done. And now here they were, the dawn of their failure having brutally killed the joy buzz of their victory, floating on some fucking dead rocks in the middle of fucking nowhere space. The abandoned facilities on the space-rock didn’t have much to sustain them for too long, and everyone was on edge. It wasn’t unusual for Alternian trolls to move onto other planets, conquering or making lives for themselves otherwise, but that was usually so much later in life. Not like this, not this young. But there was no Alternia to return to.
More immediately pressing than the spectacular death of their hellish planet and impending wasting-to-death-on-a-meteor was the fact that there was fucking nothing to do. Trolling human children through Trollian’s time travel log feature was providing Karkat with more headaches than any sort of satisfaction, and there was no point in contacting the past or future selves of his companions.
Yeah, so on top of everything, there was The Great Undoing. The demon that had been pulled out of the dimension rifting that triggered The Great Undoing would probably be what spelled their death before starving or shriveling up or murdering each other from either heightened psychosis or boredom. Kanaya had already chainsawed Tavros’s legs off. Even if it was in his favor, she still got to saw someone’s fucking legs off. It wasn't just that they had no where else to go: they were hiding. Hiding from that terrible power that would eventually catch them and ruin them just as effeciently as it had ruined everything else. They'd be murdered without a trace left. Deleted. Game over. The end of their fucking null session.
Talking to anyone presently was just as useless as doing anything else. Karkat wasn’t the only one exhausted and drained and ready to die. Some of them still had hope, but Karkat knew that was probably just denial.
Karkat minimized Trollian and grit his teeth, emitting a rough sigh as he pressed his palm to his forehead. Fucking damn it, it hadn’t been so bad, but it hadn’t been enough. He never got to become a thresher, never found his kismesis (though he’d decided it probably could never happen, even putting aside the fact that there were no more trolls their age left in existence). He experienced redrom, which was the last fucking thing he’d ever fucking expected of himself, and it’d felt pretty good.
But in the face of The Great Undoing, it was as pointless as everything else was. Fuck. He hated thinking like that.
Karkat growled a rough sigh, scrubbing his palm against one of his tired eyes, gritting his oversized chomps. Sleeping was fucking terrible in the veil, too. Without the cozy embrace of the sopor slime, it was difficult to get any shut-eye. Those who did, it wasn’t unusual for them to wake their neighbors by waking to primal screams of terror, thrashing and sobbing. It seemed to just get worse as time went on. Karkat was generally a little sleepless as a rule, but it was making everyone a bit fucking crazy.
Or so Karkat thought.
Maybe he was the one losing it.
Fucking felt like it.
Pushing himself up from one of the many stationed monitors, Karkat took a moment to appreciate his blurred, spotty vision: his reward for sitting far too long at a computer. Nothing new. He’d even tried some coding before fucking around in Trollian, but it was really just kind of difficult to give a fuck. About anything. Especially coding. He fucking sucked at coding. There was no fucking point. It wasn’t even something he could get angry about.
Karkat began to wander aimlessly, leaving the common room that had all the joint monitors. There were plenty of abandoned rooms within the barren facilities, each of them taken up by the trolls who now inhabited the meteor. He was expecting to find nothing interesting and he was expecting to find himself dully infuriated by that discovery, but instead what Karkat discovered was an intense spell of sudden vertigo. He staggered sideways and held his head, sputtering fractured breath in his surprise. Colors shifted from dull to vibrant and his vision inconsistently blurred in smeary, ill-defined doubles. Unable to regain his focus, Karkat grit his teeth and clenched his eyes shut, pressing his palms against his ears. There was a sudden ringing. A terrible, terrible ringing, and then a horrible lurching of his stomach.
It was like when you were sleeping and you suddenly jumped, as if you'd tripped.
What the fuck, he was falling. And the fall was rough and hard. Teeth still grit, Karkat's mouth became a mess of bright candy-red blood, and so did his arms, torso and legs as he fell. He was rolling downhill, it felt like, and while he was just in the steel, sterile confines of a steel hall, the ground was rough and gritty. Like grit and shrapnel and shit to shred you. When the fall finally came to a halting roll, Karkat groaned, lifting one of his legs. He tried to stand, but he couldn't. His head hurt like he couldn't believe, but Karkat didn't dwell on the searing agony thrumming through his body for long.
He tried to stand up, but his body didn't obey him. That figured. He was probably too fresh into the shock of his injuries. He blinked his eyes open wide, staring at the sky above him. It wasn't the black void of space, but it wasn't like Alternia's sky, either. What the fuck just happened? Karkat's body jolted as he attempted to sit, but that wasn't working either. He tried to lift one of his arms. Also a useless effort, but a core of much of his pain.
Karkat's eyes found his useless arm, and he let out a horrified, startled scream. "What the fuck!!!" His arm was completely mangled and kinked, shards of chitinous plate splintering through the soft wrap of his skin, all washed wet and bright in the hideous red of his freakish blood. "God damn it, god damn it, what... what the fuck..."
There wasn't much hysteria after that, because a sudden blackness took his vision and his senses. As it claimed him, the bleariness of his fainting, fading into numbing nothing, Karkat was reminded of The Great Undoing.
He thought of his friends, a brief, fleeting and incoherent concern, and then he was out.
Your Nickname: Jaz
OOC Journal: sapling
Under 18? Nope!
Email/IM: poisonparfait@aol.com / poison parfait (AIM)
Characters Played at Singularity: NONE.
Character Information ;
Name: Karkat Vantas
Name of Canon: Homestuck (MS Paint Adventures)
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon!
Reference: The Troll Arc, on MSPA wiki.
Canon Point: THE VEIL, pre-meeting. Around Karkat's second conversation with John, some time before he decides he's A GROWN ASS ADULT.
Setting:
Karkat is from a large, savage, hostile and frankly rather terrifying planet called Alternia. Alternia has 3 known/shown major life-forms, which coexist and even mutually benefit survival.
There are trolls, which is the species that Karkat and the various castmates of his arc belong to. Trolls are born from a giant hive queen referred to as "the mothergrub", who takes genetic material taken from trolls and uses it to brood, later laying more troll eggs. Trolls can't actually reproduce sexually with other trolls of the opposite sex, which is puzzling since they have carnal attraction and mating urges, but that's never really expounded upon. A drone sent by the mothergrub arrives to matesprits and kismesis pairs and coerces the trolls into surrendering their genetic material into filial pails. ROMANTIC, RITE? If the trolls don't comply, the drone simply offs them. If the trolls comply, the genetic material is taken to he mothergrub, because she can only take in the genetic material when it's precombined. The various pail contents are mixed together, described as a messy "incestuous slurry", and then the mothergrub broods.
But the mothergrub isn't actually a troll herself, though there's the resemblance in the horns she has. Though basically, trolls are, in some manner, insectoid. Once the mothergrub lays, from the slimy egg-pods hatch troll larvae. They then wiggle up to a comfy stalactite from which they make themselves a cocoon, thus entering a dormant pupal stage. When they emerge from the cocoon, they're BABY TROLLS. From then, a "lusus" (which is basically a wild animal, that ranges anywhere from dual-jawed cats, bipedal crab monsters, little bull fairies, etc) SLAUGHTERS THE BABY TROLLS!!!
The survivors of the massacre are then taken in by the lusus, who becomes their guardian and custodial. Basically, they are a parent, and they bond with their troll child, who construct a complex hive complex for them to live in. Because troll children are (at some point) taught to build amazingly complex, extensive hives and are given drones to help them with the process. Usually, adult trolls don't remain on Alternia and go off to do work on other planets, often involving conquering and stuff of that nature. Such a brutal species. But basically, the planet of Alternia is ruled by children and wild animals.
Trolls sure are weird!
Another weird, complicated aspect, somewhat related to the above mentioned biology of trolls, is their complex romance. Humans are known to have one type of linear romance, usually denoted by a single symbol: a heart. Troll romance is so complex that they use four symbols: clubs, spades, diamonds and hearts. Just as humans are instinctively magnetized to potential mates and go through most of their life seeking out a romantic partner because of more carnal biological urgings, trolls seek out each of these four quadrants specifically. That's not to imply trolls want to mate with each of the quadrants--the paler quadrants (diamonds and clubs) don't have anything to do with the reproductive cycle of trolls. That would be red romance (hearts) and black romance (spades), but all quadrants are important and interrelated.
To keep this as brief as I can manage, I'll give a basic run-down of each romance quadrant. The red quadrant is basically the closest equivalent to human romance, or "love", and troll partners in the scarlet quadrant are called "matesprits". The black quadrant is basically hate soulmates. You fal into a passionate hate and become arch enemies and there is hatemating. Romantic partners of the black quadrant are called "kismesis".
Diamonds, categorized in the pale quadrant, stands for "moirallegiance". The proper title for trolls who have this kind of relationship are called moirails. This is basically a fated bond where one troll keeps another troll stable. The pale attraction works as follows: a dangerous troll might be more attracted to a troll that keeps them level, and the subordinate troll in kind might be attracted to a dangerous troll to whom they feel close. The relationship is beneficial in that both partners feel a sense of completion, as with filling any of the quadrants.
Then there is clubs, in the ashen quadrant. This is actually a three-way bond. Among kismesis and matespritship pairings, there usually calls dire need of mediation. The mediator, called an auspistice, is someone who usually keeps kismesi from totally killing each other. Additionally, as trolls are rife with violent nature and lots of hatred, it's not unusual for them to get a hair too hatey with other trolls. Auspisti prevent what's called "black infidelity". On top of all that, kismesis pairings can often flicker in and out of red and black romance respectively, or even out of any interest what-so-ever. Basically, especially in adolescence, trolls have NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON OH MY GOD with all of this quadrant mess. So auspisti are a precious necessity. Puberty for trolls is like what humans go through in puberty times four.
And that is the brief run-down. Believe it.
Because trolls don't reproduce through intercourse of their own species, it's implied that it's not uncommon for trolls to drift through gender preference. While romantic references are usually made in heterosexual persuasion, it doesn't seem at all unusual for trolls to fall in love or hate with trolls of the same sex. No one makes gay jokes, and words like "fag" aren't part of their vernacular. It's probably all very stupid and trivial to them, something incredibly minute and overall rather not worth fussing over. Because in light of all things so fucked up and complicated in troll romance, homosexuality is most likely incredibly simple to them. A mundane detail! Troll romance is a lot more about chemistry from bonds than anything else.
Despite the brutality of Alternia, the varying species are actually quite sophisticated, and they boast technology that far exceeds ours. It seems most computers are actually organic. For instance, games are ...grubs and worms. Which you plug wires into.
Don't even ask me how that works, because I have no idea.
I'm just going to reiterate and say that trolls are just really weird.
Moving on to one last aspect of Alternia: the hemocaste system. The hemocaste system dictates the social hierarchy of trolls. Vermilion and rust into green are low class bloodlines, blues are noble class bloodlines, and purples are royal class bloodlines (the closer to magenta, the more potent and pure the blood). If you're of a very high caste (indigo to magenta and the colors in between), you're considered a ruler of your species by inherent right. High castes (again, indigo to magenta) are a sub-species of trolls and the origin species, referred to as sea-dwellers. They appear to be able to live both on land and in the sea, boasting superior genetics. They also have gills and webbed fins on their face! Strictly land-dwelling trolls are a genetically inferior branch species and it boasts a range mid to low blooded castes.
Trolls, by social tradition, boast their caste color in several ways, regardless of their placement on the caste hierarchy. Usually, the prints on their shirts are printed in the color of the troll's blood and their text color used online in messenger programs and likely elsewhere also reflect their hemochroma.
Karkat has a hemochroma mutation, making his blood a vibrant, bright red. A sole freak of nature to his species!! Because of this, he hides behind gray text and gray print.
Personality:
The first, most visible facet of Karkat's personality is that he's extremely cranky. It takes next to nothing to have him flying off the handle and spewing insults that are lengthly enough to composite small rants. Basically, he's totally shitty at keeping a lid on his temper. He gets frustrated enough in IM conversations with his other troll friends that he screams and slams on his keyboard frenetically, generally when he's lost his patience, of which he has precious very little. Any helpful advice that Karkat imparts tends to be hidden under biting insults and generally degrading manners of speech, so it's understandable if people miss it, but he deliberately imparts the advice despite his cantankerous personality. In addition to being so short tempered, Karkat has also described himself as having enough hatred to rip a hole in the space-time continuum. Suffice to say, he's generally not a happy guy. In fact, his personality is basically a pun off his own astrological sign: he's just extremely crabby. Karkat is so many crab/cancer puns. I can't even tell you.
There's more to Karkat than his wicked abrasiveness, of course. Despite the empty logic in his fits of rage he tends to throw in the faces of people agitating him, he's rather intelligent and he absorbs information with general ease. Unfortunately, he lacks a lot of foresight because his temper tends to make him jump the gun and make hasty, bad decisions, often out of immature spite. He realizes his mistakes once the damage is done and becomes infuriated with himself for being a stupid tool, and it embarrasses him on a level to where he can't stand himself. Basically, he recognizes that he's a very flawed person. As a matter of fact, it kind of rules him, being as it's implied to be the root of his spiny defensiveness and spiny demeanor. Insecurity is a huge part of who Karkat is.
Karkat is driven and ambitious. He felt like he was born to lead something big, to boss around a bunch of people, and basically to be the big shit. But he isn't sure what that would pertain to explicitly, and thus feels aimless, teeming with power that he has no outlet for. Mostly, at the beginning of the arc Karkat's introduced, he seems to be looking for an opportunity to prove himself while simultaneously putting the rest at his feet in a display of inferiority. Again, likely because of his delicate, teenaged boy ego. Since he's tl;dr: 13, so you can't expect a fountain of maturity from this kid.
Peeling back yet more layers of Karkat's personality, as the comic goes on, you're shown softer sides of Karkat that are rather surprising, as he seemed rather determined to prove he was made only of hatred and anger (despite his love for terrible romantic comedy movies, which he doesn't bother denying, though he insists they're VERY INTERESTING FROM A SOCIOLOGICAL STANDPOINT). While he insults his friends tremendously and is very prone to butting heads, it's not always without remorse, though remorse is usually subtle and awkward in its presentation. After chewing out one of his best friends/rival (mutually), Karkat asks if they were still friends, implying that he values their friendship. And apparently, every time he fights with this friend, he has a habit of asking if they're still friends. Of course, the nature of Karkat's sincerity regarding friendship can get fuzzy, because in the troll language of Karkat's planet Alternia, friend and enemy are the same word. However, when Sollux dies shortly after Karkat chews him out and bans him in the face of some mortal plight Sollux is having (assuming that Sollux was just trolling him), he explodes with remorse, screaming and sobbing into his hands like a "blubbering goddamn pansy". He blames himself entirely for Sollux's death.
Karkat is also insecure by the color of his blood. It's the social norm in troll society to represent your blood color in a variety of ways, like through the color of their text or the print on their shirt. Karkat is a mutant of his race because he has bright red blood, which, unbeknownst to him, is just like a human's. As a result, he hides behind gray text and the cancer printed on his shirt is also in gray, keeping his caste-class anonymous. When badgered on the subject, Karkat becomes extremely irate and defensive. He's very sensitive about it. That and his nubby, rounded horns, but probably to a lesser extent. Karkat does intend to tell his peers about the color of his blood despite his shame and embarrassment, but he says only when he earns their respect as their leader through their game session.
Additionally, Karkat is something like the community therapist for the 11 other troll children. They each come to him with their romantic problems, and despite being agro and insulting by default, he ultimately shows concern in helping his friends. It's likely that his friends come to him because he tends to expound on the complex subject of troll romance (which is an essay in of itself) without heed, befuddled and aggravated that he seems to be the only one who finds it interesting-it's said his fondness for terrible troll romance flicks comes from his fascination with the psychological nuances in the romance of their species. Also, it seems that Karkat befriends the humans who interfered with Alternia's game session (future-Karkat tells the human protagonist they become friends, early on in the comic. As I mentioned much earlier, there are so many time paradoxes in this comic I'll save the headache of explaining this any further).
Closer to the end of the current arc, Karkat updates his memo he's been logging through the course of his adventure with his friends for the umpteenth time. While the memos start out with a lot of big talk and ego stroking, they dissolve into arguing with himself and generally ranting aimlessly, as well as counseling his friends as they tap into the memo on unrelated notes. Basically, the memo becomes a point of self examination, especially with his chat client's time-travel feature (wherein the user can talk to other people online from different points in time). Eventually, the tone of Karkat's memos, while still bitey and crude, begin to sound genuinely drained. Towards the end of this final memo, he shares a short story about when his guardian lusus had gone missing for days around a holiday. When his lusus returned, Karkat explains that he was relieved, and he celebrated together with his assigned parent. He says that that's all he has to say, because he's getting choked up, and before he closes the meme, one of his friends by the name of Kanaya contacts him through it to tell him what she did for her last (same) holiday.
Through their conversation, Karkat tells her that he'd almost come to suspect he was his own kismesis. In saying this, Karkat is acknowledging his self-obsession and self-loathing both, also opening himself up to Kanaya. He also confirms that he has "red romantic" (positive romantic) feelings for someone, but doesn't designate who, because it's private. Later (in the comic, but not ...chronologically "later". In fact, chronologically, it was much before this conversation), we find out he seems to be romantically engaged with his friend Terezi. Whether or not they're an item isn't explicitly clear, but they're clearly smitten.
While speaking to Kanaya, Karkat still has the occasional rude snap, but he's generally personable, friendly and polite, seeming exhausted with himself (as seen through his extensive rants with himself earlier in the memo). Karkat explains to another one of his peers much earlier in the comic that her hatred is dull and almost fake, whereas in other points of the comic, he's described his own hatred as very real and very potent. He tells his peer/sessionmate (who's not really much of a friend, really) that the reason why her hatred is so lukewarm is because she's burning out that emotional hemisphere because it's the only emotion she exudes; this implies that Karkat knows he has a lot more than just hatred, and he doesn't seem to have a problem with this. In having varying humors of pity (trolls only classify emotions into two quadrants: hate and varying degrees of pity), Karkat's hatred still burns strongly and sincerely. As a result, it's only natural he's not always a complete dick. He's actually a pretty good guy, but having this side called on him makes him irate.
Somewhat relevant to that, Karkat is revealed to have a prospective matesprit towards the end of the arc. He tells Kanaya that his "scarlet leanings" (red romance feelings) are strictly private and he won't disclose his red romantic interest, but shortly after that, it's revealed that it's his friend, Terezi. While it's never explicitly stated that they're matesprits, it's heavily implied more than once. Terezi, as someone who believes in upholding justice absolutely (albeit through brutal means, but such is the way of Alternians), probably wouldn't be interested in Karkat if he wasn't a good guy. Despite his coy, defensive and prickly personality, Karkat seems to shyly return Terezi's affection and also seems to enjoy her compliments. Overall, they seem rather well suited to each other.
Abilities and Weaknesses:
Abilities/good stuff:
Karkat doesn't actually have any special abilities besides spewing wordy, grotesque insults. But being a troll from hell-planet Alternia, he's made of tough stuff. It's been implied that trolls are chitinous, or at least have chitinous parts (there's an obvious lack of joints that would explain an exoskeleton, so it might be internal, especially considering the phrase "shut your trap" is "shut your chitinous wind-pipe" in troll-slang). Additionally, it's shown that young trolls often hunt for their lusii. And the game tends to be huge and beastly. It's a fight-or-die kind of world, but Karkat's all natural toughness that comes with his species DNA. Nothing special for his species.
Also, he's apparently a pretty good romance therapist. For trolls, anyway, who have a hideously complex range of romantic emotions compared to humans, and it's the complexity that intrigues him! A lot of his friends come to him with their romantic problems, and he can actually tone down his belligerent tone a little in favor of helping a brother (or sister) out.
Somewhat related, he's also pretty emotionally intelligent, as well as a good strategist and with decent leadership skills. Despite PRIMARILY FUNCTIONING IN THE MODE OF A COMPLETELY INDIGNANT AND PETULANT DOUCHEHAT,he's actually pretty emotionally well balanced and altogether generally well rounded. By troll standards, anyway.
Weaknesses/bad stuff:
Despite Karkat's generally sound strategizing and his born urge to lead (and bragging about being the best hatched leader and blah blah), he's actually not a great leader. He's better than a lot of his troll companions in that regard, but he's still really not the best leader. He thinks too impulsively and reacts the same way. He tends to make really terrible mistakes with the motivation of petty spite and he doesn't really make habit of thinking before he speaks, often embarrassing himself in retrospect. So despite his intelligence, acting on whim first basically turns him into a giant moron who sucks at everything. Basically, Karkat thinks he is a gigantic asshole.
And he's right!
Karkat is a giant asshole. It is one of his faults! In fact, he thinks aside from one of his troll companions, he is the biggest asshole on Alternia. In that same vein, Karkat's also pretty self-loathing, despite bragging about all of his superior qualities. But the rule of thumb is as follows: the bigger the ego-masturbating windbag, the bigger the insecurity. Karkat is no exception.
He also really sucks at hacking and writing code, despite it being one of his most indulged hobbies. In fact, his codes suck so much they tend to damage the computers he writes them on. He likes to think he specializes in viruses, but the harm he causes his computers is accidental and so he pretty much just sucks at programming viruses.
Inventory: The basics. His SUPER COOL SICKLE. A change of the exact same outfit or two, because trolls think fashion is stupid.
Appearance:
Karkat is both alien and humanoid in appearance. Baring similar visage to a 13 year old human, he's clearly a child or a young teenager at a glance. Like most characters in Homestuck, when illustrated in a manner besides their sprite-form, Karkat appears to be thin and long-limbed.
Like all trolls, his skin is a medium gray, his eyes are an orangey yellow with black irises, and he has a pair of horns that vaguely resemble candy-corn, but with the tips yellow instead of white. However, most trolls don't have the small, stupid round-tipped NUBBY HORNS that Karkat has. Trolls also have yellow nails to match. Additionally, Karkat has a mouth full of large, sharp teeth, a bit oversized when compared to the maws of his troll peers. Karkat's also got an overbite. His eyes are especially sunken in, and he has black hair that's basically just a gigantic mess. Like a shounen bedhead.
Age: 6 Alternian Solar Sweeps, which conveniently translates into 13 human years. SO LET'S SAY 13.
OC/AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across?
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test?
And What Did You Score? AHARDARDAR
Samples ;
Log Sample:
There wasn’t a lot left to do.
A lot of things had come and went, and a lot of fucking terrible of things had happened. People dying, for one. People bonding and then having those bonds viciously strangled until they were twitching sacks of wrung-out vomit. People fighting amongst each other because of those bonds. Stupid shit. God, so much stupid shit. Karkat had wished so many times that everyone could just calm the fuck down, think with their hands out of their fucking crotchward-confines, and focus on what they needed to do. He wasn’t guiltless, of course. He knew that, but that didn’t mean he forgave himself for it any more than the others.
And despite all those distractions and unnecessary drama, there hadn’t been a mis-step in what they’d all done. And now here they were, the dawn of their failure having brutally killed the joy buzz of their victory, floating on some fucking dead rocks in the middle of fucking nowhere space. The abandoned facilities on the space-rock didn’t have much to sustain them for too long, and everyone was on edge. It wasn’t unusual for Alternian trolls to move onto other planets, conquering or making lives for themselves otherwise, but that was usually so much later in life. Not like this, not this young. But there was no Alternia to return to.
More immediately pressing than the spectacular death of their hellish planet and impending wasting-to-death-on-a-meteor was the fact that there was fucking nothing to do. Trolling human children through Trollian’s time travel log feature was providing Karkat with more headaches than any sort of satisfaction, and there was no point in contacting the past or future selves of his companions.
Yeah, so on top of everything, there was The Great Undoing. The demon that had been pulled out of the dimension rifting that triggered The Great Undoing would probably be what spelled their death before starving or shriveling up or murdering each other from either heightened psychosis or boredom. Kanaya had already chainsawed Tavros’s legs off. Even if it was in his favor, she still got to saw someone’s fucking legs off. It wasn't just that they had no where else to go: they were hiding. Hiding from that terrible power that would eventually catch them and ruin them just as effeciently as it had ruined everything else. They'd be murdered without a trace left. Deleted. Game over. The end of their fucking null session.
Talking to anyone presently was just as useless as doing anything else. Karkat wasn’t the only one exhausted and drained and ready to die. Some of them still had hope, but Karkat knew that was probably just denial.
Karkat minimized Trollian and grit his teeth, emitting a rough sigh as he pressed his palm to his forehead. Fucking damn it, it hadn’t been so bad, but it hadn’t been enough. He never got to become a thresher, never found his kismesis (though he’d decided it probably could never happen, even putting aside the fact that there were no more trolls their age left in existence). He experienced redrom, which was the last fucking thing he’d ever fucking expected of himself, and it’d felt pretty good.
But in the face of The Great Undoing, it was as pointless as everything else was. Fuck. He hated thinking like that.
Karkat growled a rough sigh, scrubbing his palm against one of his tired eyes, gritting his oversized chomps. Sleeping was fucking terrible in the veil, too. Without the cozy embrace of the sopor slime, it was difficult to get any shut-eye. Those who did, it wasn’t unusual for them to wake their neighbors by waking to primal screams of terror, thrashing and sobbing. It seemed to just get worse as time went on. Karkat was generally a little sleepless as a rule, but it was making everyone a bit fucking crazy.
Or so Karkat thought.
Maybe he was the one losing it.
Fucking felt like it.
Pushing himself up from one of the many stationed monitors, Karkat took a moment to appreciate his blurred, spotty vision: his reward for sitting far too long at a computer. Nothing new. He’d even tried some coding before fucking around in Trollian, but it was really just kind of difficult to give a fuck. About anything. Especially coding. He fucking sucked at coding. There was no fucking point. It wasn’t even something he could get angry about.
Karkat began to wander aimlessly, leaving the common room that had all the joint monitors. There were plenty of abandoned rooms within the barren facilities, each of them taken up by the trolls who now inhabited the meteor. He was expecting to find nothing interesting and he was expecting to find himself dully infuriated by that discovery, but instead what Karkat discovered was an intense spell of sudden vertigo. He staggered sideways and held his head, sputtering fractured breath in his surprise. Colors shifted from dull to vibrant and his vision inconsistently blurred in smeary, ill-defined doubles. Unable to regain his focus, Karkat grit his teeth and clenched his eyes shut, pressing his palms against his ears. There was a sudden ringing. A terrible, terrible ringing, and then a horrible lurching of his stomach.
It was like when you were sleeping and you suddenly jumped, as if you'd tripped.
What the fuck, he was falling. And the fall was rough and hard. Teeth still grit, Karkat's mouth became a mess of bright candy-red blood, and so did his arms, torso and legs as he fell. He was rolling downhill, it felt like, and while he was just in the steel, sterile confines of a steel hall, the ground was rough and gritty. Like grit and shrapnel and shit to shred you. When the fall finally came to a halting roll, Karkat groaned, lifting one of his legs. He tried to stand, but he couldn't. His head hurt like he couldn't believe, but Karkat didn't dwell on the searing agony thrumming through his body for long.
He tried to stand up, but his body didn't obey him. That figured. He was probably too fresh into the shock of his injuries. He blinked his eyes open wide, staring at the sky above him. It wasn't the black void of space, but it wasn't like Alternia's sky, either. What the fuck just happened? Karkat's body jolted as he attempted to sit, but that wasn't working either. He tried to lift one of his arms. Also a useless effort, but a core of much of his pain.
Karkat's eyes found his useless arm, and he let out a horrified, startled scream. "What the fuck!!!" His arm was completely mangled and kinked, shards of chitinous plate splintering through the soft wrap of his skin, all washed wet and bright in the hideous red of his freakish blood. "God damn it, god damn it, what... what the fuck..."
There wasn't much hysteria after that, because a sudden blackness took his vision and his senses. As it claimed him, the bleariness of his fainting, fading into numbing nothing, Karkat was reminded of The Great Undoing.
He thought of his friends, a brief, fleeting and incoherent concern, and then he was out.