[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

[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."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"His title," Karkat says, in a huffy voice, "is the Signless. He's from, like, a thousand sweeps before us and he's got a bunch of assholes who worship him like he's a god or a Messiah or some shit."

He knows what she's thinking. Fuck, he knows exactly what she's thinking. Which is why he didn't add the usual and he's my ancestor and they weren't some highblood delusion after all, evidently because he's trying to put off her gloating for as long as possible.

[69problems]

"Karkat," he says with a frown, because this is not something he likes discussing when he's not expecting to and there's a lot of bullshit wrapped up in it that's hard to talk about. He's accepted his status as weird god-prophet-idol-philosophical-leader to a bunch of trolls that want so badly to carry on his message but kind of got mixed signals on how best to do so, but that doesn't mean it's polite dinner conversation.

"It's more complicated than that. The point is, yes, you can call me the Signless."

[this8itch]

The grin on her face grew wider and there was a gleam in her eye. As she suspected, other troll was older. The puzzle pieces were coming together.

"Oh really now? Its nice to meet you Signless." She leans forward more staring down Karkat. "Has anyone ever mention that you two look awfully similar? Don't you think so, Karkat? Isn't it like looking in a mirror? As if you two are, oh I don't know........ relaaaaaaaated?"

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat buried his face in his hands. "Yes. Yes, fine, he's my ancestor, they aren't just stupid highblood hoofbeastshit, are you fucking happy?"

He tenses himself for the inevitable crowing.

[69problems]

"It took him a while to believe it, too," Signless says, bumping his shoulder against Karkat's. And it had, even after blood proof, until Signless had told Karkat about what he remembered about the game and it had started being too hard to make excuses about coincidence.

[this8itch]

The smuggest grin that have ever smugged curled at the corners of her lips. She was going to ride this high as much as she possibly could.

"You have no idea Karkat. No. Idea. In fact it makes me so flushed with joyous flutterings that I feel it should be forever memorialized in writing." She mimes pulling out an invisible journal, turing it open to a blank page. "On the 22nd bilunar perigee of the 5th dim season's equinox, something wonderful happened. After adamant and boorish denial of the truth, Karkat admitted he was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wroooooooong. And I, Vriska, was riiiiiiiight. There should be a holiday dedicated to this historical moment. It shall be called 'Karkat Don't Know Shit Day' and I shall receive gifts for how knowledgeable I am. Also I want a statue erected in my honor with a plaque written in his hand admitting how small and shriveled up his think-pan is. Maybe this will serve as a lesson to listen to someone smarter and wiser than oneself."

Then she closed the journal slipping it back into her invisible bag. She lifted her eyes filled with a pompous gleam to gaze at Karkat again. Oh yeah, she was not going to let him forget this anytime soon.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat glares at her. "That's a shitty holiday and the only statue that's getting erected is to your big fat ego as represented by your ass." He eyes her oversized jacket. "The fuck did you get that?" he asks. "Last I heard you were in District 4, where nobody cares about the actual tributes because they're too busy ogling Finnick."

[69problems]

It was very, very difficult not to laugh as Vriska spoke, but he held back for the sake of Karkat's pride (and anyway, he'd promised Terezi he wouldn't encourage her, and he was pretty sure laughing along with her counted as encouragement).

"I assume she took it from someone else," is what he said, keeping his expression carefully neutral.

[this8itch]

"You're just jealous of how awesome this holiday is. No one likes a sore loser." Her grin faded slightly turning her attention to her district eight jacket. "Oh this?" She tugged on it proudly. "You got it, Spineless. I swiped it off some human weakling that told me the numbers don't really mean anything. So I just walked up and cracked him over the head with a rock and bam! He was flat on his ass. I don't care what number they say I'm in. I'm in eight. I'm going to find all the eights. All of them. And take their numbers."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"You shut your bitch squawker, Serket," Karkat snaps. "He's got more spine than you. It takes a fucklot more courage to stand unflinchingly when an asshole gets in your face than cull them before they cull you, even if it's stupid. And you're stupid. Your entire plan is stupid and pathetic and you should just face facts: you're a Four and it doesn't matter whose jacket you jack."

[69problems]

Spineless. That was a new one. Pretty inventive, actually, if hurtful. What really surprised him, though, was Karkat defending him -- and his pancracked pacifism -- so emphatically. Wasn't that the exact opposite of being a Good Troll, the kind of thing Karkat worked so hard to distance himself from?

He bumped his shoulder lightly against Karkat's in wordless thanks. It was nice, feeling like his moirail had his back.

"That, and the jackets may not be worth being culled in an attempt to get them. Do you really want that to be your first televised death? Squabbling over a piece of fabric?"

[this8itch]

Oh it was so easy getting a rise out of Karkat. She just grinned back, rolling her eyes. "Thats not courage. That is stupid. If he lacks the sense of self preservation and doesn't fight back then he deserves everything he gets. The weak die. Thats how life is. Come on, you should know this. This is wiggler stuff." Then there was a small pause as she just shrugged her shoulders at the two of them. "Its a game, right? I have to make things more interesting. It would be so boring if I just went around killing people. But think what you want. I don't care. I'm still going to do it."

Then she fell silent, staring into the fire as it crackled. She didn't think her going around stealing all the eights would actually do much good. It was more than just her obsession with the number... It was her plan, something she decided for herself. Not the stupid assholes at the Capital forcing her into these stupid ass games. This was her way of rebelling, even if they thought it was a stupid plan. And yeah, it was most likely going to get her killed but it was hers. But they didn't need to know that.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat crosses his arms in front of his torso. "He's not weak," he says, "he's cracked in the pan, but he's not fucking weak. If he were really weak, he wouldn't have gone around all of fucking Alternia trying to make people stop being shitheads to everyone, he'd have hidden in the stupid fucking desert his entire short life or he'd have gone 'fuck it' and abandoned his stupid futile principles and become a real troll. But he didn't. He fucking stood by his idiocy and that takes fucking guts. But I guess someone like you wouldn't understand that, Serket."

He's practically vibrating with fury by now. "Get out," he growls. "Since you think we're being so fucking weak, we don't have to share our bug with you or our cylinder greens."

[69problems]

"Karkat," Signless says softly. "I appreciate it, I really do. But there's no need to be cruel."

Maybe he's just proving Vriska right, but it feels wrong, somehow, to refuse to help her just because she's repeating back beliefs drilled into her by a shitty society.

"You can take some food with you if you like," he adds, to Vriska. "But it might be best to go."

You know. Before Karkat starts punching, or biting. He's bitey.

[this8itch]

Whoops, looks like she had struck a nerve. It was almost amusing how upset Karkat got over defending his ancestor. Almost. If what he defending wasn't so stupid.

"Of course I don't understand. The whole idea is complete BS. You said he lived many sweeps before us right? Seeing how nothing has changed, it would seem his 'Stand There and Take It' method didn't work out so well. I don't know what wiggler fantasy land he filled your pan with Vantas but you must have gotten soft. You need trolls like me. Ones that aren't afraid to make the tough choices and get their hands dirty regardless of what others might think of them. I'll give you a week before you come crawling to me for help." She finished with a flip of her long black hair.

Vriska could take the hint, her presence was no longer welcomed. She pushed off the floor and wrapped the eight feet of chain back around her right forearm. Pausing by Signless she gazed down at their grubs.

"I don't need your pity." She spat as she turned on the balls of her heels and marched dramatically out of the room and back out into the fog.

When she knew she was out of sight she paused and placed a hand to her belly. Man... she was really hungry. She was going to regret this, she just knew it........ But no! Making a point here! She was strong. She didn't need anyone's help. Clinching her fist she kept walked until the light of their fire was swallowed up by the fog.