[His thoughts roll. A month is a lot less for him. Is that how long she's been here? And 'her royal fish bitch' sounds familiar, so could it mean--? He's spent so long thinking that timeline ended then and there, but who's to say she didn't come from the same bad end?]
[He sees the way she's looking at him. His hands curl up at his sides, nails pressed to palms.]
Longer than that. The last I saw you was before Gamzee murdered me.
[And he has to look different. No older despite the time, but his eyes are so tired, and he doesn't have his old outfit anymore. It's still the grey jumpsuit from District 13. He's too new to have replaced it with anything more fitting. It's the kind of thing that says on its own that there's a lot left to be told.]
[But he thinks of Nill still - will be thinking of her for a long time - and how she had been so careful not to tell him about the other places she'd been until she could make sure no one else could observe her part of the conversation. And what about here? He got a wish, and he's been brought to save more people, but he's too jumpy after the Capitol to dump everything blindly.]
[After a too-long pause, he gathers his words and asks her plainly.]
Is it safe here?
[Even if she can't answer straight, he's spent too long learning to read and give signals to get past the cameras. If there were a hint, he wants to think he'd catch it.]
Karkat's such a jumbled up mess right now
[He sees the way she's looking at him. His hands curl up at his sides, nails pressed to palms.]
Longer than that. The last I saw you was before Gamzee murdered me.
[And he has to look different. No older despite the time, but his eyes are so tired, and he doesn't have his old outfit anymore. It's still the grey jumpsuit from District 13. He's too new to have replaced it with anything more fitting. It's the kind of thing that says on its own that there's a lot left to be told.]
[But he thinks of Nill still - will be thinking of her for a long time - and how she had been so careful not to tell him about the other places she'd been until she could make sure no one else could observe her part of the conversation. And what about here? He got a wish, and he's been brought to save more people, but he's too jumpy after the Capitol to dump everything blindly.]
[After a too-long pause, he gathers his words and asks her plainly.]
Is it safe here?
[Even if she can't answer straight, he's spent too long learning to read and give signals to get past the cameras. If there were a hint, he wants to think he'd catch it.]