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video; UN: TripleJ
[The hair. Oh dear god, the hair. Kyle's recognizable mass of curls has been gelled within an inch of its life and sculpted into a wavy helmet. And where are his sleeves?!]
Yo Trench, what up what up, it's ya boy Kyley-B!
So's I need a little help here - anybody know a place in town where you can get some dope-ass ink? Because, you know, if you look up 'too much swag' in the dictionary, there'll be a great big picture of my face, and attitude like that deserves the best, you know what I'm sayin'?
Help a guy out here.
PEACE!
Yo Trench, what up what up, it's ya boy Kyley-B!
So's I need a little help here - anybody know a place in town where you can get some dope-ass ink? Because, you know, if you look up 'too much swag' in the dictionary, there'll be a great big picture of my face, and attitude like that deserves the best, you know what I'm sayin'?
Help a guy out here.
PEACE!
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Willzyx shrinks to a more manageable size and does a slow roll in the air. He's pretty clearly happy to see another orca.]
Oh, Karkat? Yeah. Heh. You can call me Kyley-B.
[If only he were currently clever enough to notice.] What do I call you? Besides Robert Smith.
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OK.
[He replies, because he doesn't actually want to say "Kyley-B" out loud even if the other young man is serious.
He knows before even saying it that the likelihood of Kyle making fun of the name he chose upon arrival is approximately 97%. He considers, for more than a moment, the benefits of just saying that Robert Smith is fine.]
Lazarus Sauveterre. And this is Lycka. What tattoo are you considering?
[A lightning-fast subject change, hopefully fast enough to keep this one from asking which Edgar Allen Poe story that incredibly fake-sounding name was stolen from.]
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And, for a wonder, the mockery does not come.]
Isn't that a dead guy? 'Sup, Lycka. Can you talk? Willzyx can talk.
I'm thinking of getting like, something for my Mom maybe. Or I dunno, something badass.
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I'm sure there are lots of dead people named Lazarus.
[Dryly. He doesn't mention the obvious Biblical example, or that he himself is in fact one of those dead Lazaruses.
Lycka whistles kittenishly, followed by two short barking chirrups.]
She talks.
[L confirms, even if it's only to him.]
Reading between the lines [it was actually fairly blatant] Karkat seemed to think that your desire for a tattoo has something to do with a recent shedding. You could give it some more thought if you're unsure about the specifics, and be less likely to regret the outcome. Or... you could have a story, I suppose. For some people, that's innate, and enough.
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I hope she sounds less stupid than this one.
[Willzyx whistles. It's true, though, he sounds really dumb.]
Oh, yeah, totally. Shedded and shredded, that's me. Hey, you think if I shed again the tattoo would come off too?
oh my god I completely forgot that episode; *beautiful*
[He tries to phrase it without any kind of bias, making it intentionally unclear how he feels about the association. One exists, of course; every part of his fake name has some significance.]
"Stupid" is an arbitrary construct meant to diminish the contributions of those seen as lesser. It wouldn't occur to me to make that judgment about your omen.
[L only hears whale sounds akin to Lycka's; he might think differently if he heard that big dumb voice. He suspects that every Sleeper perceives their omen's communication differently.]
It's possible that you'd lose the tattoo... but I was injured while in a shedded state, and after I returned to normal, the scars remained.
[He tugs up his sleeve, revealing a bone-white and extremely thin forearm, absolutely covered in marks left by an orca whale's teeth.]
:)
That's real nice of you. I'm sure Willzyx appreciates you being a bro.
[Kyle has to think about that for a moment. Then he's peering at the scars on L's arm.]
Whooooooooaaaaaa what the fuck did you DO?
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[The way he says it is almost cheerful, in a wan way. It doesn't ebb when Kyle asks about the tooth marks.]
I was dreaming in Cassandra and Lycka pulled me away from danger. I thought it would be interesting to have a scar. It's possible that's why it stayed after I shed, so... internalize your choice, and it stays, I'd think.
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Oh, fuck, yeah. Good job, Lycka. [Kyle considers this, frowning a little. Maybe he should be more careful.]
Why'd you think it would be interesting?
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I wanted to see if it felt different to see a physical manifestation of survival on my flesh, and I assessed that I appreciated the way the experience changed my outlook. Besides... I understand that scars look tough.
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You ain't wrong there. Hotties LOVE em.
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Did you? If you want to get a tattoo for your mother, I'd think that she was a fairly constant and formative presence in your life.
[Deflection, it's great.]
...you know this from experience? How many scars do you have?
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Aside from the bite marks my boo keeps givin me, I got a wicked surgery scar. I think I'd have more, but I died. [Like it's no big deal.]
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[He's heard it before in that context. If she was a fighter in some other way, he's still interested. Talk of mothers interests L, the way talk of the jungle or volcanos might interest someone who has spent their whole life in Cleveland.]
For a time I wondered if everyone here was dead. So you're one of them?
[Us, he does not say, as the man whose perfectly scarless body dropped dead at 25.]
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I never died til I got here. I got pretty messed up, turned into a squid again, woke up on the beach. It sucked. [This is an abbreviated and glib version of the events.]
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[What else does one say to hearing about the remembered death of another?]
There are implications to spiritual immortality that some philosophies and creeds must grapple with terribly. I never thought that death was anything besides a one-way trip that deconstructed everything about a person beyond any possible reassembly.
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I dunno what it's like in other places, but here... yeah. You come back. I dunno how many times. I don't really wanna find out.
You study philosophy? [There is a brain hidden under all that hair gel.]
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[Absently, he reaches back to pet Lycka's tongue as she stretches her mouth wide and sticks it out.]
Philosophy interests me... many things do, to an extent. Do you study it?
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[Jealous, Willzyx nudges Kyle, who shoves at him.]
Get offa me.
I took some back in school. That's lots of shit in the Archive, if you didn't already know. Socrates and shit.
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Aren't they the better parts of us?
[What can be salvaged, if anything can? L, who struggles to connect suffering with his own mind and body, and even frames it at times as a deserving sort of balance, can see how it affects his protective orca matriarch.
She glides away from L, chirping as she side-swipes Willzyx in passing. It's gentle, maybe even motherly, an invitation to take a lap apart from the Sleepers to explore the tattoo parlor. Is that what he would have been like if he'd grown up differently? Social, playful and curious, and not lonely and prone to hyper-fixation?
Lycka's a puzzle to him that is both comforting and quietly devastating. Maybe it's the same for Kyle.]
I spend a lot of time in the Archives. I haven't come across Socrates, but it's probably because I'm always looking for something I haven't read before.
[A pause, before he adds]
I like Socrates, and appreciate him. You could tattoo "Know Thyself" just about anywhere on your body, with delicate enough work, or go for broke with the fear of death and the greatest of all evils wherever it fits.
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[Willzyx makes a sad
pandawhale noise, and then drifts off after Lycka.]Wasn't that also etched above the Oracle of Delphi? That's some mystic-ass shit. Which I'm into these days.
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Willzyx can't be that dumb; he knows for a fact that Lycka isn't. Are you self-destructive? He thinks it loudly, does not actually ask.]
In fact, it is. We're from similar worlds, I think. If you wanted to be funny... oh!
[He brushes aside his bangs, pressing a finger where an eyebrow should be. He doesn't actually seem to have any.]
If you put it above your eye, you could say it was the "Orbital of Delphi."
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What happened to your eyebrows? You shave em off?
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It's too bad there's no true way to answer the eyebrow question that keeps the mood light. He likes the mood, so he gives it a try, anyway, brave like a chick leaping from its nest high in the trees with the bad luck of being born a penguin.]
I thought it happened to all boys when they reached a certain age? That's what I was told, anyway... your voice gets deeper, you experience new and strange urges, and your eyebrows migrate south. I guess you're still waiting?
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Holy shit, you're funny. We need to hang out more, bruh.
Hey, you like it here?
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/wrap?
Totally