Re: Across Any Universe

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"We get along fine," Dave responded shortly. It as the truth. He and Dirk had always been close. It was just… "It's Bro. Ah, my other brother. Dunno if you remember me ever mentioning him." Probably not. Dave had a feeling in that world, he hadn't talked about his older brother much at all. The things he could remember about his feelings on Bro, and what had happened to him weren't pleasant. "He and Dirk are hell similar. Makes me feel like a third wheel sometimes. And… I get the feeling him and I had a pretty tense relationship back then."

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Karkat shook his head. "I don't remember ever hearing about him, but I'll take your word for it. That makes you the youngest though, right? Kankri says that in human 'families' the youngest wriggler can feel singled out from the rest of their..." Karkat paused trying to come up with the correct word. After coming up blank, he shrugged and continued like he never paused. "Well, group, I guess. I mean, similar things can happen with wrigglers being fostered too. If a spectrum group is fostering too many wrigglers at once, and of different sweeps or pedigrees, it can get pretty tense between all the wrigglers while the adults have to make sure none of the older wrigglers follow their instincts and cull the younger"

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"Shit," Dave said, feeling no other word was adequate in describing his thoughts on that particular matter just yet. "I mean, I guess it sucks but I don't have to worry about getting murdered in my sleep or anything like that. It's just a bit lonely sometimes." Saying it out loud made cringe, the sentiment worse now that his voice had backed it then when it had just been a minor thought tickling his mind, an idea of what his problem may be. "Trolls really have it rough, huh?"

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Karkat raised his hand long enough to give a 'so-so' gesture before returning it to the table. "In general it really just depends where on the spectrum the troll in question falls." he replied. "The warmer portion of the spectrum is a lot tamer and less cull-thirsty than the cooler portion, where as the end of the land dwelling spectrum is fucked up to the point a lot of them were self medicating on sopor before the transition to earth, which is not recommended because trolls actually ingesting sopor is similar enough to humans ingesting drugs like cocaine and meth. The water dwellers fall somewhere in the middle, depending on how polluted their water is, and how cold or dark it is for what majority of the day." he explained.

"So, for example, you'd have more issues fostering two indigo bloods, than you would fostering five rust bloods." Karkat paused for a moment "Unless one of the wrigglers have psychic abilities, they are fostered by themselves by other trolls with similar abilities if possible, preferably within the same portion of the hemospectrum.

"Not even because the hemospectrum is still followed, but for the safety of the wriggler. I'm sure even a complete shit-scarfing ignoramous has noticed that trolls are competitive creatures by now."

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"You know a lot about this stuff, huh?" Dave asked, only realizing a second later how stupid the question really was. He backpedaled. "Fuck that was dumb, course you would, you've been growing up with it. Guess the real question is why humans don't know more about this shit." There had been cases of humans raising troll children, stories that usually ended in heart-warming Lifetime movies or blood-curdling front page news articles. In the end though, biology was biology and the two species mostly remained separate.

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Karkat's face flushed slightly. "I liked to help out the Jade bloods fostering me when I was still with them. I felt useful, and most of them said I really had a knack for it. Especially calming down wrigglers." He cleared his throat before continuing. "On the subject of humans and biology though, a lot of it is that while the nurturing instinct is there most of the time, the needs of a wriggler are just an extreme difference from those of a human...Baby?"

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Dave chuckled a bit at the hesitance in Karkat's tone. "Nailed it. Yeah apart from the blood caste system, psychic powers, and larva form I guess the two aren't all that different. Takes a village." A thought struck him. "When do trolls get their weird powers? Are there little troll babies out there harnessing their mind powers for good to help mom and pop clean around the house? Or like setting the family cat on fire?"

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"It varies from wriggler to wriggler, but most get them, or at least hints of them before they pupate. They tend to get stronger after the pupation process, which is when most of them get refostered to a troll with similar powers so they can start learning control. Trolls that can't learn, or that are too dangerous..." Karkat trailed off. "They have to be put down."

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The thought sent a shudder down Dave's back, and he thanked whomever may have been listening that Karkat hadn't been blessed with weird troll powers. That on top of the mutant color of his blood may have made it even less likely that the two of them could be here to have this conversation. "Yikes. Kind of glad I was born a pink, defenseless skinny human. When I was younger I used to hope I'd wake up one day as a troll. I didn't know much then, but I thought it'd be the shit to have claws and fangs and horns and weird blood in all colors of the rainbow. Probably wouldn't have lasted long if I had been born a troll, I'm honestly surprised there are as many of you guys as there are, there's like an infinite number of reasons to get culled."

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Karkat snorted softly, a smile playing at the edges of his mouth. "Legally there actually aren't that many reasons a troll can or should be put down. Culturally, there are still many, but that's slowly changing, starting with the warmer bloods, which is good. The hemospectrum is set up sort of like a pyramid, with the warmer bloods far outnumbering the colder bloods. So if the culture changes in the warmer bloods in a place like this where the hemospectrum is attempting to be nulled, the colder bloods will have to follow through with the changes or experience severe repercussions. And because most trolls still loosely follow the hemospectrum regardless, they don't even realize the changes are actually happening."

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"Well that's good," Dave said stiffly, more than a little taken aback by the simple upward motion of Karkat's lips. He hadn't seen Karkat look like that yet, or couldn't recall if he had. He fought the rise of heat to his cheeks and continued on hurriedly, "especially for you I mean. I guess we really did make a difference."

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"Well, a greater authority power knows I'm not on the hemospectrum and I'm not legally allowed to be culled at this moment, so... Yeah, we made a difference." Karkat smiled at Dave. "And you should trade me drinks. Whatever you have has to be better than this rectangular grub's fruit blend"

Karkat lifted the offending juicebox from his lunchbox, which was decorated some sort of troll superhero. The juicebox itself had a picture of a smiling child and was labeled as 'cranapple'.

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Dave blinked twice behind his shades to help bring himself down back earth. He could feel that the tips of his ears had heated up, but he tried not to let it get to him. "What, ah, hell no, this is pure motherfucking aj and--" But Karkat's smile, wider now and not good for the continued beating of his heart, had Dave faltering again, giving a long, hard look at his drink. He wasn't exactly a fan of cranberry, but had sampled this particular brand before for shits and giggles and knew it wasn't too bad. "Ah fuck. How can I say no to that artistic masterpiece," he finished lamely, gesturing to the troll on the front who definitely won the award for largest damn horns Dave had ever seen, took up literally half of the box. It was a believable excuse.

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Karkat passed the box over to Dave. "Thank you. Kankri insists on getting those nasty things because they're healthy and won't listen when I tell him I hate them. What classes do you have after lunch? It would be nice if we could walk together between classes or something."

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"Only boring crap. Math, home ec, and chem. Got a free period too." He was terrible at both math and home ec, and chemistry was only interesting when the teacher dared to allow John to mix just abut anything. His friend had a knack for accidentally causing explosions. "What do you have? You're still probably getting lost around the school, right? I can show you around."

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"I have Physical Education, Home Economics, General Science, and Child and Wriggler Development." Karkat scowled slightly as he looked over the scrap of paper he was reading from, having pulled it from his pocket when asked what classes he had. "Honestly that last one sounds like something really only Jade Bloods should be attending, but I suppose now that grub fostering is important I suppose everyone should know the basics about grubs. It isn't a class offered at Troll exclusive schools, so they put me in it here" Karkat looked up at Dave. "Even though they said it is a class generally given to a sweep below me."

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"Guess today's my lucky day, I've always wondered how well a troll could sew with those wicked claws. 'course, sewing might be out of the picture but I bet they could still knit without much hassle. Make some horn cozies, do horns get cold at all, actually do they have much feeling at all or are they there for show? Always wondered about that." Dave grabbed a corner of the paper Karkat held as he rambled, giving it a once over himself. "What is Child and Wriggler Development, do we actually have a class like that? Like psychology but only if you're super psyched about kids and really who would be."

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Karkat gave a half-hearted shrug. "Sort of? I mean, I haven't really been anywhere to really test it, but if I go outside in the winter with wet hair it feels a little cold. Troll horns are generally covered by a soft lair of skin and nerves, more nerves at the base than the tips, but its considered inappropriate to touch them too much. A little touch here and there can be comforting, but it tends to make most trolls uncomfortable as they get older." He folded his paper back up and put it back in his pocket. "As for the class, I assume its about babies and wrigglers and how they grow?"

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"Duly noted," Dave remarked, eyeing the small nubby horns of his companion as he spoke. He couldn't say he hadn't ever been curious about how they would feel, but now he definitively knew not to just reach out and touch one. Maybe one day Karkat would let him. "Probably. Sounds boring as fuck. Probably goes hand in hand with home ec though, you can knit your hypothetical larva offspring a cozy."

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"I've never been particularly good at making things with my hands." Karkat admitted. "The claws aren't very conductive to crafting." He held his hands up to showcase his blunted claws. "I have to keep them dulled so I don't ruin my laptop."

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"Fuck that sounds like a pain in the ass. Never thought of the double those things must get you in, just how cool it would be to have them. You'd think with all of this superior troll technology they'd have made a better laptop by now," Dave scoffed. "Guess I'll have to make you the cozy. Maybe some claw covers too, can't be that hard. You'll have to let me take the larva thing when you get it though, y'know, for size measurements. Man you should ditch that class and hang out in the lunchroom with me."

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Karkat scoffed with a smile as Dave started to ramble. "Why don't you sign up for the class so you can hang out with me and maybe learn something." he teased. "Or, instead of a cozy, you can make me a hat. And its called a wriggler or grub, which is the larval stage of a troll."

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"Whoa. Whoa whoa, did you just insult my intelligence? Imply I'm not a slave to the books at school and even when I go home? Ya know Karks I just don't think I can take that, that is one hell of a slight to my honor. Might just have to prove you wrong," Dave said, complete with a series of convoluted hand gestures to better emphasize how utterly serious he was about this conversation. And perhaps how incapable he was of saying no to just about anything Karkat asked of him, so it seemed. "I could take care of a wriggler better than the jadiest of jadebloods out there, whoever teaches this class is gonna be begging me to take care of all the lost wrigglers by the time I'm through with it."

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Karkat snickered at Dave. "Sure you will. And you won't get distracted because I'm in your class?" he asked teasingly. "Gonna pay attention, or spend the whole period trying to pass notes to me?"

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"Ouch," Dave responded, trying his hardest not to crack a smile as he brought a hand to his head as if to shield himself. "You wound me, like I can't pass notes and learn at the same time. Shit can't be that hard, my Bro raised me and Dirk both to be the outstanding citizens we are now and I'm not sure he didn't just grow up on a mountain raised by bears."

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