Hey, because you talked about wanting sad prompts for a challenge a while back, what about something where Dirk moves in with Jane and co after being kicked out of his house for some reason?
Hmmmmm
So the scene is thus: Dirk gets evicted because of reasons and shows up on Jane’s doorstep in the rain with a duffel bag that holds all his worldly possessions. Being a kind soul, Jane convinces her papa to let Dirk stay with them while he tries to get back on his feet.
It’s a little difficult, because Dad sets rules and Dirk is not used to living by rules, so there’s headbutting and some space issues and at least one embarrassing shower incident, but the whole time Dirk refuses to specify why exactly he was kicked out, or where exactly his Bro is, or anything other than “stuff happened where’s your syrup?”
It gets to the point where Jane sits Dirk down after the third night in a row of him blowing off his own dishes or laundry or whatever and demands, point-blank, some answers, because Dad has been getting a little irritated and hinting that maybe it’s time Dirk found another place to stay. Dirk avoids her, but Jane literally sits on him as he tries to flee and asks again WTF Is Going On, Strider.
So Dirk breaks.
Bro’s been out in the wilderness filming some avant garde project for his film studio and he hasn’t actually been paying the utilities or the rent because his movies are tanking really badly. Bro doesn’t know Dirk isn’t still at home because wilderness. And Dirk does feel bad about not doing his share of the housework, but he’s trying to set up a spot where if his Bro calls or skypes unexpectedly he’ll be able to fool Bro into thinking he’s still at home.
Cue Jane being so very sad and Dirk being uncomfortable and neither one of them knowing how to fix his problems, but Jane vowing to try and there is a sweet moment of hugging and frandsheep. And snuggles.
prompt: karkat♦gamzee with some pale prostitution. like say in trollian society there are like prostitutes of all kinds, red, black, pale, and maybe even ashen. because if you can give it you can sell it. and kk is a pale prostitute.
Ooh. Ooh ooh ooh that sounds interesting.
So here’s our scene—Condy and her cohort has been gone for so long and is so deep in space, Alternia has basically started governing itself. The empire has more or less fallen apart as the Empress overextends herself, the supplemental population from the border planets and colonies can’t reproduce fast enough to meet her demands, and Alternia itself falls into squalor while a hellbent Condy just keeps trucking for the outer reaches of space. The drones were deactivated long ago and though it’s in the back of everyone’s minds that there’ll be shell to pay when the Empress returns, nobody is all that fussed about it right now. They’re a little busy figuring out how to survive without the steady income of empire goods.
In this den of debauchery and mercilessness, mutation has gone from a culling offense to a novelty and the slavery business is booming. One Karkat Vantas is sold off as a young wiggler to a brothel and is trained in all the quadrants, but he clearly excels at pale. One of his monikers is the Velvet Hand. He is good at what he does, though he does not particularly enjoy it, and eventually he falls into hard disillusionment of the quadrants meaning anything at all.
Enter Gamzee Makara, propped up as the New Grand Highblood while the old GHB is in deep space, then cast out and denounced, because, well, it tends to reflect badly when your leader up and slaughters a whole congregation in a bad fit of chucklevoodoo hiccups. Tortured of soul and mind, Gamzee goes to living in basically a hole in the wall and muttering to himself as his unchecked powers turn his mind strange. He knows this isn’t right and that he needs some help, but he’s at a loss for what to do when a former Mirthful slips him a catalog in one of Gamzee’s more lucid moments, full of all sorts of fancy-like whores. One stands out in particular. He scrapes together what funds he has left and makes a call.
So when Karkat goes to visit his new client, as a trial run before committing to an evening with the guy (it’s a fancy brothel they can do that shut up) (I guess this makes Karkat more of a companion than a prostitute but oh welllll when you got the magic touch you can go anywhere you want), and he’s kind of struck by how awful this obvious highblood is living. Gamzee has an episode during the initial visit and Karkat manages to pap and soothe and shoosh his way through it. Gamzee comes out on the other side without property damage or bodily harm and is pretty much struck diamonds for this kid on the spot.
Karkat backs out, because he has no idea what just happened, but he is more frightened of his own reaction than Gamzee’s psychic freakout. He refuses to take Gamzee’s money, takes the tongue-lashing for losing a client, and tries to go about his work as normal. But after that, his touches don’t soothe half as well and he is distractedly daydreaming about a messy mop of curls and wild sharp horns on the job. Which is bad for business. He refuses to admit that he’s got a little pale crush on one of his former clients, but when Gamzee has another bad chucklevoodoo attack and calls Karkat personally to request his services, Karkat doesn’t turn him down.
It turns into a really big aftercare adventure, with Karkat taking Gamzee back to his own hive and trying to help set him right without getting too pale, but Karkat watches Gamzee sleep off a week’s worth of poor nutrition and psychic buildup and goes to work with a funny twist in his gut. It’s not until he accidentally says Gamzee’s name mid-shoosh to some blueblood that Karkat realizes he’s fallen hard pale for the idiot sleeping in his ‘cupe back home.
Though…calling a blueblood by a different name when you’re trying to pacify him isn’t the smartest thing in the world to do. And a particularly ornery blueblood at that.
Karkat comes home bruised up and smelling very strongly of blueblood, which sets Gamzee off on a fret, and he tries to comfort Karkat, who brushes him off and yells at him and basically it’s a breakdown where Karkat can’t deny what he’s feeling about Gamzee is different than anything he’s ever felt about his clients and he’s hurt and he just lets Gamzee shoosh and pap. He’s not as good at it as Karkat is but it still feels fantastic and Karkat finally starts to relax.
Karkat quits his job and he and Gamzee start jobhunting as they live off Karkat’s savings. It’s gonna be hard as a broken psychic and a former whore, but they’re gonna make it work. Because pale serendipity and miracles.
So I need to kind of blow off some steam tonight after last weekend's Homework Weekend from Hell debacle and the future Homework Weekend From Hell this weekend is also shaping up to be, so instead of an actual request night, here's what I'mma do:
I'mma do what I did for this request and write SUMMARIES of the fics I would write if I had more time.
Since they're summaries, I may cover them one day, or anyone who feels compelled to may do it in the future, but rest assured you will know all the cute bits and the sad bits and how I would end it. But it's just a summary.
