[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

[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.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Oh sure, put all the blame on me," Karkat mutters. "Jerk. I bet everyone just loved you back on perfect fucking Beforus."

[69problems]

"Karkat, what did I say about talking?"

He sighs, takes a deep breath. He has to be the rational one here.

"And Kankri, with all due respect, you're just as bad as he is and you can always not respond. No one is forcing you to engage with him; if you do, that's your choice and yours alone. Neither of you are blameless. Both of you contribute to this problem. You both need to learn that if you're going to fight with each other, whether it's black or platonic, there are some things you can't bring into it. Some things are too personal and hurt too deep, and when you use them as weaponry against each other you make wounds that are going to take a long time to heal and will fester in the meantime. I don't understand where this truly hurtful vitriol between you comes from but it needs to stop."

[privilegecheck]

Kankri slumps further. He hates being scolded like a wiggler, like he needs a cullparent again, and it only makes it burn more shamefully to know that Signless isn't saying anything that isn't true.

"Okay," he mumbles, a touch resentful, a lot unhappy. "But he still shouldn't have said that about my friends. All I wanted was to rest without having to worry so much."

[69problems]

"No, he shouldn't have. That's exactly what I'm saying."

He turns to Karkat, and his expression is imploring. Work with me, here.

"Will you apologize for what you said?"

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat groans. Fine. He will. For your sake only, Signless.

(And maybe because he feels ever so slightly like an asshole now, but not that fucking much considering Kankri gave as good as he got.)

"Sorry," he says, looking anywhere but directly at Kankri, "I went too far."

[privilegecheck]

Kankri hesitates for a few long moments, then looks down at the floor. "I did, too," he tells his feet. "I apologize for my behavior."

(Carefully not addressing anything else Signless talked to them about, doop doop.)

[69problems]

That's probably as good as he's going to get, but it's progress and that's something.

"Good. I'm sorry that I had to be short with you, but nothing else was working."

[sleeplessinalternia]

As soon as Signless turns his back on him, Karkat is going to pull a face at Kankri.

[privilegecheck]

Kankri gives Karkat a mightily disapproving frown right back.

"...could we go rest?" he asks quietly. "I'm very tired from, from everything that's been going on. And perhaps we will all feel better after some sleep."

[69problems]

"That sounds like a good idea to me," Signless agrees. Hopefully some rest will put them all more at ease. It's too early in the arena for them to already be this on-edge, even with extenuating circumstances.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Fine," Karkat says, grumpily. "But you can't sleep in our pile."

That pile only had room for one Kankri.