[ota]

[69problems]

WHO| Karkat, the Signless and YOU!
WHAT| Mutant camping, and food sharing if anyone's hungry
WHEN| All through week one
WHERE| Various less-shitty houses around the residential area
WARNINGS| Nothing as of yet; will be updated or marked in-thread

For the first week, Karkat and the Signless wander the rows of houses. Many of them are empty of anything useful, but occasionally they find a can or two to add to their small stock of rations. In a few of them they find bugs hiding somewhere dark like they found in the first one, and on those nights they have to worry at least a little less about running out of food. Once they even manage to trap and take down one of the dogs -- it isn't exactly appetizing, but cooking it as thoroughly as Signless insists on to make sure it's safe to eat masks at least some of the taste.

Mostly, they use the (less dilapidated) houses with fireplaces as overnight camps. The faint glow of their fire can be seen through the grimy windows, especially when it gets dark.

[As a note, the mods have said humans probably shouldn't eat bugs as they'll suffer pretty bad side-effects. If your non-troll character shows up and wants some of their food, it's probably best to have it happen on dog night.]

Comments

[ka_sera_sera]

[OOC: I know me going with this scenario means I'm assuming stuff about how they're trapping the dog - if any of this doesn't work, let me know and I can change it.]


Roland knows better than to investigate noises in this place - so far his arena strategy has been 'leave it alone unless it's actively trying to kill me' - so normally hearing deep, dangerous barking nearby would just be reason to move further away. But one of the voices he hears alongside it is a voice he recognizes, and one he'd intended to help during all this if he could. So Roland follows the noise and finds one of those huge dog-things backed into a corner, none too happy about it and looking inches away from lunging forward and biting someone's face off.

"Need another hand?" he calls, sure to do it close to the cover of a wall. He's under no illusions that he'll last to the end of the arena, but when he does die Roland doesn't intend it to be friendly fire that does it.

[69problems]

The only thing keeping the dog where it is is a snare around one of its hind paws. It's a lot bigger and toothier than the Signless pictured when Karkat told him there were roaming dogs that might be edible, so under the circumstances any help is welcome.

"If you wouldn't mind. I don't know how much longer that snare's going to hold it."

[sleeplessinalternia]

Hey, Karkat knows that voice. "Roland! Yeah, that would be really fucking good right now. Get your leathery butt over here." He adds for Signless' benefit, "This is that Roland guy I told you about. Remember? He and Cuthbert were friends when they were wigglers, but he's super fucking old now."

[ka_sera_sera]

If Roland needed a reminder as to why Karkat and Cuthbert are friends, here's another one. That tact. But it's only the truth and so Roland doesn't bother to respond, just circles around behind them and walks closer. As he goes he removes the rubber band holding a long orange extension cord to one of the beltloops in his pants. "Why did you trap it if you don't have any way to kill it?"

[privilegecheck]

It being his second arena doesn't make this any easier for Kankri. In fact, it's far worse. He's terrified of what he experienced the last time, going through that pain and fear and hunger and sorrow again. Knowing what he's anticipating is far worse than what his imagination could conjure before. Not only that, but now he's utterly alone. He didn't have a hope of finding Venus, not in that fog; and he hasn't had any luck finding those others he's befriended, either.

He's scared to approach the light when he sees it, the second night, but he's cold and hungry and it doesn't hurt to just check it out, right?

He's glad he did, when he sees Signless and Karkat silhouetted against the fire's light. Even with things how they are between him and Karkat - they still haven't talked since the disastrous incident at the Crowning - he still counts them as close. At least he's certain they wouldn't harm him. And they have food, he can see a dish near the heat and smell something cooking and it makes his starving belly growl.

Still, he doesn't barge in, but knocks on the rotting window frame as he leans through the long-broken glass. "May I join you?" he asks, his voice quiet so as not to attract outside attention.

[69problems]

The Signless turns at the voice to see Kankri peering in at them, looking unhappy and hungry and frankly kind of pathetic. The poor thing's probably been alone until now.

"Of course you can," he says, and then turns to give Karkat a Look. "Of course he can, right, Karkat?" He doesn't say it, but the aditional 'don't be an asshole' is pretty obvious.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat looks over Kankri. His eyes, they are judging you. "I guess," he says after a long moment. "If he actually thinks we're worth his precious time."

Why no, Karkat's not at all bitter at you, Kankri, what gave you that silly impression?

[privilegecheck]

Kankri doesn't bother going for the front door, climbing through the window instead. "Thank you," he says softly to Signless, and has a seat to huddle up in front of the fire. He presses his face to his knees so he won't look at the food. He doesn't want to be awful and take their meal without asking. They're probably hungry too.

Karkat he does not dignify with even a glance, let alone a reply. What a jerkbag.

[this8itch]

Vriska’s ‘Steal aaaaaaaall the Loot’ plan wasn't as fruitful as the young troll would have wanted. Go figure, another plan back fired. Mark her down as not fucking shocked. She really did have the shittiest luck. Vriska might have slightly underestimated how difficult this game really was. What made it more challenging was her not having use of her powers. If she had them, man, none of these losers would stand a chance. But at least she managed to swipe a few things from some poor hapless saps. Though what she mainly received was frustration and oh! A fucking missing left eye. Which........ she was still pretty pissed off about. She had dealt with it the best she could, fashioning an eye patch out of parts of her extra district jacket. Painstakingly she had removed the number ‘4’s and only using the top triangle bits, she put them together making a crude looking ‘8’ that come across more like a black widow’s warning mark. Either way, she thought it looked pretty sweet.

To make up for her lack luster haul she had to resort to rummaging around the broken down hives. It was kinda like treasure hunting but the spoils were few and far between. And she was getting bored. And it was starting to get dark. She pulled the over sized district eight jacket around her shoulders to fight off the chill in the air as she searched for a place to lay low for the night. Then, off in the distance she could make out a red flicker through the dense fog.

Keeping low she cautiously approached the source, stumbling upon a small less shitty hive. The windows were coated in grime but when she peeked through she could make out the two figures inside and her face dropped. No. Fucking. Way. She recognized the tall one from her broadcast but sitting next to him........ Karkat. Fucking Karkat. What was up with this place? Some fucking wayward home for castaway trolls? Seriously, first Terezi and then Nepeta, and Mr. Diplomassy over there. It was like a goddamn reunion special. Oh look, there’s even a fire! Maybe they could all hold hands and sing sappy friendship songs as dismay fluid poured from their eyes! Or eye in her case.

She ducked back down to think to herself. They did have food, that much she could make out. And they didn't know she was there yet........ It was possible for her bull rush in, swipe it and leave before they knew what hit them. But on the other hand, the other troll seems like such a push over that she could convince him just to give it to her. A poor sad, lonely, wounded Vriska. Or bring him a fucking sign-up sheet to donate to the hungry. Buuuuuuuut then Karkat. Food, or dealing with Karkat? Hmmmmmmmm. Though choices.

In the end her stomach won out. Go big or go home! She silently moved to the door opening it with an audible groan as the decayed wood creaked. By now they could hear someone coming down the hall heading for their room.

“Heeeeeeeey Kaaaaaaaarkaaaaaaaat~” Vriska’s voice carried throughout the hive as she stopped at the doorway, leaning up against it with a wide grin. “Did you miss me?”

[sleeplessinalternia]

... the answer he'd like to give is of fucking course no, bitch, I mean 8itch, but unfortunately that isn't exactly true. He was stupid and sentimental enough that he missed all of his dead friends, even the assholes.

So instead he rolls his eyes and replies, "The fuck do you want, Vriska?"

[69problems]

"How's the petition coming," Signless adds brightly, by way of greeting. Between what he knows about Vriska from Karkat and the impression he got from Terezi, he'd like to keep this in friendly not awful territory for as long as possible.

[this8itch]

"I missed us too." She said with a suspiciously fond tone.

Vriska pushed herself off th door jam and waltz right in like she owned the place. She took a seat on the floor near the fire making herself at home, unwinding the chain she had wrapped around her right arm before turning back to look at the two of them flexing her stiff hand.

"Can't an old friend drop in without having any ulterior motives, Vantas?" Her eyes flickered over to the other troll. "Seeing how we're in the middle of a death rumpus....... What do you think?"

She didn't realize it before but after getting a good look at them sitting side-by-side they looked so oddly similar. It was like she was looking at doubles. Something was up. She could smell it. A small grin curled at her lips as she leans forward.

"How ruuuuuuuude of me. I never caught your name."

[Joly's coming in on a bug night! yum yum yum!]

[medecin]

At some point, much as he'd been sticking close to Venus, and to his friends, Joly had decided he should be the one to slip out for food, seeing as sponsor gifts had not quite happened yet. This meant that he was poking his way into some of the houses, and, spotting a fire in one, but hoping that this did not mean anyone who would harm him, he poked his head in cautiously.

"Room for anyone else?" he asked, rather cautiously. "I might provide medical services in exchange for resources, if you have them." And his stomach chose this moment to loudly growl, as if making his point so much clearer.

[69problems]

"If you're not looking to fight, then -- oh!" This was actually someone the Signless recognized, someone he'd seen around the hallways of District Twelve but never really had an opportunity to talk to. And Twelves had to stick together, right?

"You're welcome to join us, yes. We don't have much but we do have food, if you're hungry."

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat has no fucking clue who this douchebag is supposed to be--except he might be one of those guys from the planet France he guesses, he's seen him around Enjolras a lot--but he's not going to stop Signless from giving a third of their meal away. Stopping Signless from being stupidly generous is a losing battle.

"Roast bug on cylindered grain," he specifies. "You're lucky that we found a nutrition cylinder again tonight."

[medecin]

"Ah!" Joly brightened a bit, recognizing the face as specifically belonging to a District mate himself. At first, he had wondered how the trolls distinguished each other, but had kept the horrible thought to himself, and though he could not have kept them straight, he HAD at least worked on learning to place them without being horrible speciest or racist about the whole thing.

"We are on the same floor, yes?" He asked, rather rhetorically. "And that would be rather appreciated." And then, he nodded toward the other, smiling his thanks.

"That sounds rather, well, creative here." The idea of eating bug does not appeal on most ordinary levels, but here he realizes that being picky is no way to win any friends or to extend his lives. "I am indeed, and thank you for sharing."

[whoseesbynight]

Nepeta isn't usually inclined to trust the sight of someone else's fire, after dark. It's true that there are fewer highbloods here than there would have been on Alternia, but that's no guarantee that turning up somewhere that someone else has staked out isn't going to be a bad idea at the best of times. On the other hand, the supplies she's picked up aren't going to last forever, and if it does come to a fight she's pretty sure she can manage herself well enough.

Habit has her approaching relatively silently all the same, as she makes her way around the house until she finds the door. Only then does she actually make her presence known, as the door creaks softly as she opens it despite her best efforts to keep it from doing so.

But she rolls with it well enough as she pokes her head inside the house itself.

"Hello?"

[69problems]

Luckily she's met by familiar faces -- two of the three Vantas trolls, to be exact.

"Hello, Nepeta. It's good to see you're still around." Signless pats a spot by the fire, inviting her over to where it's warm. "Close the door behind you, it will keep more of the heat in."

And hopefully keep the various wandering predators out.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"We have bug," Karkat says, indicating the roasting insect. "And pulped leafy vegetable." He indicates the can of creamed spinach. "Signless is like this weirdly expert insect hunter. He just stabs them in the eye and they die instantly, just like that. BAM." He hits his palm with his fist to enchance the sound effect. He sounds absurdly proud of his ancestor.

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

It's later that week when the Disciple finally ends up in the same house as them--well. She ends up wandering up the same path, only to stop dead when she sees the light in the window. At some point she lost a shoe, left somewhere in the foggy spaces of the amusement park as she had outrun one of those strange faceless creatures. To be honest, she's exhausted, constantly on the run or catching brief moments of sleep beneath bushes and the bug she managed to take down and eat is a distant memory.

So when she sees the light through the windows, she crawls backwards, reaching for the heavy wrench in her bag and watching the windows. Shapes in the windows are hard to make out and when she crawls onto the porch to peek through the windows, a board breaks beneath her foot.

Skittering off the porch, she barely has time to duck around the edge before she hears voices inside.

Familiar voices, she thinks, but she can't place the familiarity through the muffling of the walls.

[69problems]

One of Signless's ears flicks. He isn't quite sure, but that didn't sound like normal night noises, or just the creaking of an infirm hive. He looks at Karkat and jerks his head in that direction, as though to ask 'did you hear that?' as he stands, very quietly, very carefully.

He's going to go investigate and he'll want someone with him who'll actually use their knife if it comes down to that.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat gets to his feet just as quietly, his two mismatched carving knives out. He'll just creep along after Signless, ready to attack anyone who tries to fuck them up.

[acroodawakening]

The light was what caught his attention. He'd gotten a few sponsor gifts at the beginning of the week but Guy wasn't averse to stealing things that were left unattended, especially nonfood items. So he'd crept closer to take a look and to see if it was maybe someone he knew. He wanted to check in on all his friends and the acquaintances he tried to help when he could.

Sure enough he saw gray skin and a familiar set of horns through the grimy window. So he crept his way into the house, very quietly, spear in hand but lowered so the weapon wasn't the first thing they saw.

Just outside the door of the room they were in, he peeked just the top of his head around the door frame, so that all that was visible was his fluffy hair sticking up in all directions. (He hadn't bothered to find something to use as a hair tie yet.

"You really should be more careful about that light. Maybe cover the window or something."

[69problems]

"Guy," Signless said, visibly brightening (because who else had hair like that, honestly). It was good to see yet another one of the people he cared about still safe, even if it was still early in the arena and there was plenty of time for that to change.

"You think so? It hasn't given us much trouble yet. Just a lot of visitors."

Alright. Maybe Joly had been trouble. Maybe he was still grappling with Karkat's frighteningly logical suggestion of using their nightly camps and more resilient stomachs as traps. Somehow, he thought Guy might be on Karkat's side, so he resolved not to mention it for now.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat, however, is favoring Guy with an utterly disgusted look as he fishes out some of the strips of dried dog. "Here," he growls, shoving at the human. "You can have these. The roast bug and cylinder produce is ours."

Just because he'd given Signless his blessing to pile Guy too didn't mean he was happy about it.