[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]

Yeah. Now he feels even shittier.

"I know," he says guiltily, burying his face into Signless' shoulder so he doesn't have to look at him. "I know. I was being a douche. Sorry."

[69problems]

Signless runs a hand through Karkat's messy hair.

"I know. I just wish you could be a douche in other ways. This is what I was getting at earlier, about saying things that hurt deeper than other things. I understand lashing out because you feel frustrated and confused, but there are ways to do it that are less harmful. You don't always need to go for rubbing the most salt in the deepest wound."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"But it's something I'm actually good at," Karkat says. "It's not like I'm actually good at a lot of things." Especially not things that trolls should be good at, except for being an asshole.

[69problems]

"But you don't want to be good at hurting the people who care for you and pushing them away, I thought?"

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat makes a face into Signless' shoulder. "Stop being so logical," he grumbles.

[69problems]

"I don't think that's something I'm capable of. But I'm very serious. If pushing people away and making them so frustrated and hurt that they stop interact with you is something you want to avoid, don't go out of your way to do exactly that just because you can and think that means you should."

He can't believe Karkat hasn't come to this conclusion on his own, at least once. Maybe having it pointed out to him by someone else will help reinforce that it makes no sense.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Oh, he has. But are you really asking for Karkat's epiphanies to stick? Really?

He doesn't say anything at first, just sighs against Signless' shoulder. "Maybe I don't deserve to have people interact with me anyway," he mumbles, because he thinks about that sometimes. With all the ways he's fucked up, why should he get nice things?

[69problems]

Well, yes. There comes a point where it stops being understandable out of benign ignorance and starts being aggravating out of willful ignorance. At some point, he does expect Karkat to nub up and take responsibility for his actions.

"You know that you do. Everyone does, no matter how frustrating they can be."

As he sees it, Karkat has to make a choice. Either he can make a concentrated effort to not do things he knows drive away the people he cares about, or he can decide that he really does want to just be left alone, and stop whining about people not wanting to be around him. He can't have both.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Yeah. Okay. Fine. But he's not going to verbally acknowledge that. Instead, he's just going to cling tight to Signless, like he's trying to melt into him.

[69problems]

That's fine. He's had a long, tiring night. If he's done talking and just wants to be piled to sleep, Signless can provide that, complete with soft occasional shooshes.

[sleeplessinalternia]

He's almost done talking. A little later, he'll murmur sleepily, "I meant all that shit I said yesterday," and yawn.

[69problems]

He pauses, and even though Karkat can't see it, his expression softens.

"I know you did. And it meant a lot to me, to hear it."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Mmmm," says Karkat and after that he doesn't say anything more, because he's asleep.