[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

[69problems]

Karkat, you had one job, for fuck's sake. It's hard when your moirail and your younger self are both being idiots about each other. It's hard and no one understands.

"Here," he says, pushing a plate (plundered from this house's kitchen and chipped around the edges) toward Kankri. Pieces of bug meat, all cooked very thoroughly, sit on top of what's left of one can's worth of vegetables (green beans, tonight). While they have a steady source of food they can afford to eat passably.

It maybe isn't accidentally when his elbow bumps Karkat's on the way back. Behave.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Eat it," Karkat adds. "We aren't going to fucking let you sit with us and not share the food, what kind of shitbeasts do you think we are?"

[privilegecheck]

Now Kankri does lift his head to glare at Karkat, just for a brief moment, before he takes the plate. He can only hesitate a moment before he falls on the food, devouring it so fast he nearly chokes. He's that hungry, that desperate for something.

In a few short minutes he's licking his fingers clean with the occasional hiccup. He's already feeling more himself, though. "I very much appreciate it," he tells Signless. "I hadn't eaten this whole time. I'm hardly suited to, to this sort of environment. And I've been looking for Venus, as well as I can in any case. How have the two of you fared? Besides better than me, that's obvious."

He's still addressing Signless and pointedly refusing to engage Karkat. Hmph.

[69problems]

So that's how this is going to be. Signless is going to have to spend however long Kankri's here balancing both of their delicate egos and trying to prevent jabs from escalating into an actual fight.

"We've been moving around and hiding in houses at night, mostly. There's not a lot of food to find so we've been hunting where we can."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"You know," Karkat says, not even bothering to look at Kankri's face, "it's really stupid to brag about how much you suck at something. Not when you could, like, learn not to suck so much. I'd never learned how to hunt, so I'm letting him teach me. But whatever. If people want to be overgrown wigglers who can't survive without their lusi, it's their prerogative."

Sadly, Kankri's too far away for Karkat to kick his shins.

[privilegecheck]

Kankri straightens up and looks directly at Karkat, thin-lipped with displeasure, posture stiff with offended pride. "I'm hardly bragging, just stating fact! I have had more important things to attend to, like finding my moirail. And anyway, I haven't seen anything of a size I could hunt even if I knew how to!"

He huffs through his nose. "Anyway, you're telling me you're a violent little savage and you can't fend for yourself either? It seems to me like you're the one behind on things he should have already known."

[69problems]

"Boys, please," Signless says.

Really, their flirting is almost sweet. The issue is that he knows Karkat really very much does not want a blackrom with Kankri for his own Karkat-ish reasons, and he had the impression Kankri regretted a lot of the flirting on his side as well. He can't play ashmate, he knows being in more than one quadrant with him would make Karkat uncomfortable, so instead he's stuck trying to head off a fight without overstepping romantic boundaries himself. It's not comfortable.

"You have different skillsets and that means you approach the arenas differently. There's no harm in that."

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat visibly seethes at Kankri's comment.

Somehow, he manages to maintain enough self-control not to start screeching at Kankri. Instead, once the urge to strangle Kankri passes, he asks, "So where is she? Your moirail. I mean, I found mine."

[privilegecheck]

Kankri's seething, too. Low blow there, Karkat. "If I knew that, I assure you I wouldn't be here. I'd much rather have her company than yours."

He's glaring daggers at the other troll now, regardless of Signless's attempts to calm things down. "And just how many of your friends have you found to look out for, hm? If you have such a talent for it."

[69problems]

Signless just looks hopelessly back and forth between the two of them. This is the kind of black flirting the likes of which he is not equipped to deal with.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat shrugs. "Vriska shared some of our bug last night. That's my Serket, by the way." And despite every stupid asshole thing she'd done, Karkat couldn't help but think of her as a friend. "I guess now that they took our other friends back, you're the only Beforan around again."

[privilegecheck]

A flush rises into Kankri's cheeks, but clearly brought on by rage rather than anything else. He makes some kind of inarticulate, wounded sound and lunges across the floor to smack Karkat right across the face, as hard as he can.

"Don't ever. Don't ever speak of Porrim in that way again, you cretin," he hisses, his voice trembling. "You must not have ever had real friends, to say something like that about how mine were forcibly taken away. Well, you hardly deserve them anyway!"

[69problems]

For fuck's sake. Kankri's right to be angry, and Karkat really did deserve that smack -- that was a low blow, even for blackflirting -- but this is the exact opposite of 'not a fight'.

Why can't we just have a nice dinner as a family, huh?

"Please, Karkat, Kankri, calm down." Like they're even listening.

[sleeplessinalternia]

That would be a no. No, they are not. Or at least Karkat isn't. Instead he's grabbing Kankri by the lapels and slamming his back into the ground. "Don't you dare presume I don't care about my friends. You looked at my fucking life, you should know what they mean to me."

Gamzee. Fucking pulled off to whatever bullshit fate the Capitol had for him, after Karkat had barely time to be his moirail again. Creepy, sweaty Equius, probably dead again, and maybe it wasn't directly Karkat's fault this time but that didn't matter, not really.

No. Fuck. The only way to win this shit is to stay fucking cool, to let Kankri make the fool out of himself, not Karkat, no matter how tempting this is.

He lets go of Kankri's collar, pulls back. "Bert hit harder," he adds, and his voice hardly trembles.

[privilegecheck]

Kankri isn't really listening to Signless's pleas for calm, either. He shoves Karkat off him roughly as soon as he stops seeing stars from that impact against the floor. "I also saw that you do a marvelous job of driving them all away."

Then Karkat mentions Cuthbert and Kankri goes tense all over for a moment before he slumps, looking more despondent than when he came in starving. "Then go torment him," he mutters. "All I wanted was some food and to speak to Signless, I never asked for you to start laying into me. Why don't you get out and go find him if you care as much as you claim to!"

ink said i could take this tag because signless is still looking on in abject horror

[sleeplessinalternia]

"We broke up," Karkat says, glaring at Kankri like he wished his eyes would start firing lasers like a fucking Captor. "I'm sure you're overjoyed."

Re: ink said i could take this tag because signless is still looking on in abject horror

[privilegecheck]

"Well, it serves you right," Kankri mutters, sitting up and scooting back to the other side of the fire. "You ruin everything you touch anyway. I'm sure you did an incredible job driving that relationship to destruction. You do so very well at being too awful to bear to anyone unfortunate enough to try spending time in your company."

[69problems]

"You're both terrible," Signless interjected irritably. "Firmly tied right now, I'd say."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Hah," says Karkat under his breath. As long as he's not worse than Kankri, it counts as at least half a win.

[privilegecheck]

"Fine," Kankri snarls, rising abruptly and stomping down the hallway towards the ruined front door. "Then I just won't even bother attempting to carry on an acquaintance with either of you! Enjoy your food and warmth and moirallegiance and friends, I hope this hive burns down around you both while you sleep."

[69problems]

Oh, for --

Signless stands and follows him down the hallway. The last thing he wants is for his younger self to think he's against him, somehow.

"Kankri, wait."

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat gets up to follow him. "For fuck's sake," he mutters under his breath. Did Kankri always have to be such an overly dramatic shitbucket?

[privilegecheck]

"Fuck off," he tells them both, and his voice cracks. "I am done with both of you!"

[69problems]

Signless's eyes flash.

"You listen to me, both of you." He turns toward Karkat and holds out a hand to stop him getting any further down the hallway.

"Karkat, you don't talk, you have done more than enough. I specifically intimated that I wanted you to be civil and you didn't even try. Neither of you tried at all," he continues, turning back toward Kankri with a look Kankri ought to be intimately familiar with considering it's the one he gets whenever he's righteously furious.

"You both needle at each other and then act like mewling wrigglers when you get needled right back. Either own up to the consequences of your actions and attempt to avoid hurtful subjects so that you might potentially get along, or admit you're black for each other and have done with it. Or at the very least find an auspistice soon, because I can't do it, and the fact that you're both seemingly incapable of being mature about this is getting on my last nerve."

[privilegecheck]

Kankri gulps when Signless turns that furious look on him, and sort of shrinks where he's standing, flushing and looking very ashamed.

"H-he started it," he mumbles. "He always starts it. I try to be friendly or at least civil and he just starts in on me and then I can't not respond. I don't like doing this."

He doesn't even address Signless's claim that they're black for each other, because he doesn't want to even admit that's possible after what he and Karkat have been put through over that one kiss those months back. Besides, Karkat made it clear that he wasn't ever going to consider Kankri that way anyway.