[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]

"Exactly. Less chance of them fighting back, or calling in reinforcements."

One of those things he could deal with; a whole swarm, not so much.

"These ones aren't as good as proper Alternian fare, but they're much better than nothing. It's almost but not quite like being home."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"It's too bad none of the nutrition preparation equipment works," Karkat says. "I wouldn't mind trying to turn some of these into grubloaf. But roasting them isn't bad either, really."

[whoseesbynight]

"Purrcisely," Nepeta answers with a nod. She might not have expected that Signless would have been particularly well versed in the fine art of knowing how best to kill smaller prey, but she's not going to complain either. Not when it means that there's something they can talk about that's more than simply the inconvenience of the Arenas themselves.

"And I'm not surpurrised it doesn't work. They can't efur make it too easy for us."

[69problems]

He's just full of surprises, the Signless.

"Of course not. It wouldn't be entertaining if it weren't challenging -- though of course I never had the luxury of nutrition preparation equipment that one might find in a hive, so really, it isn't that much of an issue for me."

And okay, maybe he's honestly a little proud that there's something he's good at that he's finally getting to show off, and maybe it's showing through an awful lot. The last time this happened was all the way back in the desert arena and even then he didn't get to do too terribly much in the way of being helpful to anyone.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Which was useful," Karkat says, "because all the ways I know of preparing shit do need nutrition preparation equipment. I'd have probably burnt the bug inedible if I'd tried to roast it on my own the first night."

[whoseesbynight]

He is, and Nepeta doesn't honestly mind that he's showing off a little. There's not anything wrong with being proud of something you've done, especially when it's something like this that is more than a little useful besides.

"Entertaining for efurryone but us," Nepeta answers, but it's a good natured sort of complaining, in that she's well aware that there isn't anything much that she can do about it. The Arenas are going to keep happening, and although she is a little sad that Equius didn't stay, maybe it's just as well. She doesn't want to have to see him him die.

"And it's the same here, meowstly. With the equipment."

[69problems]

"Ah, that's right, you didn't grow up in a proper hive either." It's said completely without malice; it's one of the things he and Nepeta can bond over, living in the wild like they did.

"Though from what I've heard you hunted beasts a little bit more intimidating than bugs."

Yeah, that's right, Nepeta, Karkat's told him about pretty much every one of the beta trolls and that includes a lot of things about you.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Look, they're his friends and he missed them. It's no wonder he would babble about them in pile. "Yeah, she had this whole semi-feral cavetroll shit going on where she thought she was a giant purrbeast," Karkat confirms.

[whoseesbynight]

"It might not have been much, but it was home. And I got to at least see a purroper hive whenefur I went to visit Equius."

And usually ended up doing the things that he might not have been able to because of his sheer strength, but it had at least given her an idea of what she might have been able to expect out of something more normally.

"But I suppawse you could say that I did. It would have been terribly hard to make sure that Pounce and I were fed if it was only insects all the time."

[69problems]

Luckily, thanks to Karkat, Signless doesn't need to ask who Equius is.

"And Pounce was your lusus?" He's always fascinated by talk of lusii, considering he never had one in the traditional sense.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"The giant purrbeast in question," Karkat qualifies.

[whoseesbynight]

"Mmhmmm," Nepeta answers with a nod, and it's just as much for Karkat's comment as it is for Signless'. "The best and meowst purrfect kitty."

...It might also explain her habit of cat puns as well, although Pounce hadn't precisely taught her those. They'd just been something that had seemed the ost reasonable thing to pickup, and now she can hardly imagine stopping.

[69problems]

"You would have lived in the forests, then. We passed through forests, sometimes, I always liked them. Not that I wasn't very happy with my mother, but I always did wonder what it might be like to have a proper lusus."

It really does explain a lot about the cat puns -- not that he's surprised when the Disciple is the same way. He knows that even he didn't escape from picking up how he talks from his guardian; his speech would probably be a lot rougher if the Dolorosa hadn't impressed upon him Proper Pronunciation And Vocabulary.

[sleeplessinalternia]

You mean, like Karkat's?

Hah. Hah hah. Hah.

"You'd have probably strifed a lot more. I dunno about Nepeta's, but my Crabdad always would strife with me to help me get tougher."

[whoseesbynight]

"Purrobably, yeah," Nepeta answers with a nod. "Pounce and I didn't always strife, but she showed me how to hunt purroperly, and that helped."

She did still have to spend some time figuring things out, because the last thing cats are ever inclined to offer are all the answers for thing, but she'd learned in leaps and bounds, and only managed to occasionally come back empty-handed. Certainly less than she had at first, anyway.

[69problems]

"Well. My mother did teach me how to hunt, so perhaps it wasn't as different from having a lusus as I imagined it might be. Though we never fought; I don't think I would have stood much chance against her even if I had been inclined toward violence."

A chainsaw very hard to fight against, after all, especially when all the weapons he might have used would have been smaller and more breakable.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"They're supposed to hold back a little," Karkat says, "at least when you're a wiggler." He prods the cooking bug with his knife. "I still wonder where mine came from. There can't have been a bloodline for him."

[whoseesbynight]

"I nefur actually thought about that," Nepeta answers at the comment about Karkat's lusus. "Although I suppawse maybe there was one? I know you and Signless have the same color, so there might have been a few lusii with it too?"

It's the best she's got, really, but it makes the beginnings of sense and that's a start. Even if she might be getting things terribly wrong.

[69problems]

"I imagine there must have been. If the mutation could occur in trolls there's no reason it couldn't exist in lusii as well."

It's strange that one never found him, but then again the circumstances of his hatching were stranger than most.

"Perhaps you were just lucky that a lusus with your mutation happened to be alive at the time of your hatching."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Yeah," Karkat says. "Maybe. But isn't that a weird coincidence? And... when you guys scratched, wouldn't it have only swapped our ancestor-descendent pairs? I've never heard Kankri say anything about having a Crabdad of his own."

[whoseesbynight]

"I thought coincidence were always weird," Nepeta answers with a smile. Sure, sometimes they're the good kind of coincidence but that doesn't make them any less strange in the long run.

Karkat has a point though. Scratching would have swapped at least some of the things, even if she can't say anything about whether or not Kankri would have had a crabdad of his own. It's not the sort of thing she'd usually think of to ask, either.