[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

yo! i'm back!

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat comes back with some nutrition cylinders (creamed spinach, cling peaches, corn) and another carving knife, not quite the same size as his first, having only managed to hear the tail end of the conversation.

"I don't know about stupid," Karkat says, "but we're fucking stuck being this young as long as there's games. They keep bringing us back in bodies exactly like when they grabbed us from where we were, so Bert's still the same fucking age physically as he was when we got here."

[ka_sera_sera]

"Do you really think that makes a difference?" He frowns at the dog's back legs as he ties them to the chair. That's not something that would ever have occurred to him. "That we keep our memories, but not the ways we've been changed by them?" It's not the worst case scenario, certainly, but something about the idea's a little disquieting anyway.

"Tilt its head back," he says, going back into that other room for another chair. "Once the rest of what's in there finishes draining, we can probably start to cut it open. Either of you have anything that'll strike a spark?"

[69problems]

"I would imagine your memories and the lessons they teach you are infinitely more important than the relative age of your body," Signless says. He has extensive experience with that, after all: two sets of memories, one body, and without them he never would have come as far as he has.

"Speaking as someone with experience in such things. As for a fire, we have matches." He looks to Karkat (he's the one who's been carrying them, since he found them originally), tilting the dog's head back as instructed.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Yeah, but it's fucking awful to know that you'll never get any bigger or have an adult moult or have whatever happens to adult humans happen to you because you're stuck in an adolescent's body forever," Karkat says as he gets out the less-than-half-now filled match box out of his windbreaker pocket. "I mean dying all the time is shit anyway, but I know when I think too much about that shit it fucks me up a bit and I'm one of the ones that got to go back for a while before they grabbed me again." Or whatever had happened.

[ka_sera_sera]

As they talk Roland kicks at the extra chair, breaking it down into kindling that he sets in a simple pattern inside the fireplace. "Going back? Does that happen often?"

It's not that he doesn't care about the rest. It's only that - well, it happens. It's 'fucking awful' that it happens. In Roland's mind, that's all there is to say on the matter. As to Signless' experience with memory, Roland notes it, but... later. He'll ask later. His own memory problem isn't something he's going to think on too much in a setting where he needs to be as alert as possible. "After the last of this blood's finished draining, we can slit it open. See if whatever comes out looks edible."

[69problems]

"Karkat is the only one I've known who's done it. They took a week to bring him back from the arena and when he did come back it was with an older moult and more memories. I'd assume they could do it with anyone, if they wanted."

Probably only for the gain of the Capitol, though. They'd wanted Karkat older so his love life was a more acceptable thing to focus on, in the Signless's opinion, or possibly because it would give them more emotional blackmail material considering everything he'd been through when he'd gone back.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"I heard it's happened to at least one human," Karkat says with a shrug. "I'm fucked if I know which, though. It's just one more stupid way they show they own our globes. Like how this one time they told me I had to take this human girl--I think her name was Emilia? yeah, Emilia Michaela--I had to take her to lunch and then this aquatic recreation area. It was, like, back when all those capitol guys were really into trolls and not whatever it is now."

[ka_sera_sera]

Roland nods, files it away in his mind next to the other information Karkat's given him regarding their suspicions about how people are brought back. He does not, however, comment. It's interesting information, but as far as Roland's concerned there's nothing left to say about it. He just grasps the dog's head, tilts it back a little more, and watches the last dribbles of blood drain out of it. "Should be alright to set the fire now. Shouldn't be anything too big, just enough to cook this thing's organs with. And be careful when you slit it open; I'd eat something covered in dirt before anything that's spent too long on this carpet."

[69problems]

Signless steps back to allow Karkat a clearer area to set the fire. That's been his job, since Signless has been doing most of the hunting, and he's actually pretty good at it.

"Thank you for your help with this," he says to Roland. "It's not really either of our specialties; I imagine we could have done it but it would have been with a lot more trouble. You probably saved us some injuries that we can't afford this early."

[sleeplessinalternia]

Not gonna lie, Karkat's pretty proud of his current fire setting skills, even if a large part of it is just that he salvaged a bunch of matches early on.

"Yeah," Karkat says. "I mean, Crabdad would bring home bigger things sometimes, but never that fucking big. The biggest thing I've ever butchered before was like half the size of this at the most and then I had clean working surfaces and a thermal hull to keep the stuff I didn't eat in."

Once he's got the wood and the kindling arrange to his liking, he strikes the match. It makes him think of Bert, for some stupid reason. Maybe because Bert had always been the one to make the fires when they'd been teamed up.

"Have you seen Bert?" he asks suddenly. "I mean, since they dumped us in here."

He's still annoyed at Bert for punching him and for... well, for a lot of things, really, but he still thought of Cuthbert as his best friend here and their stupid dramatic breakup didn't really change that.

[ka_sera_sera]

Roland nods at Signless. He probably had, though they owe him nothing for it. "I'd stay and help more, if I could. But as it happens, I haven't seen Cuthbert. Susannah, either. I mean to. If I can, I'll find them both."

He eyes the dog, deciding on the best way to cut it without spilling all its guts out. None of the weapons he's got will do the job, it'll have to be one of them - but he looks, nonetheless. Good to have something else to think about.

"For some reason I'd expected it to be easier. But there's something about that Cornucopia... is it always like that? How did the two of you find one another?" Because he plans on being here the next time, too, and he knows he could use some pointers.

[69problems]

"Pure chance, I'm sorry to say. I was wandering, he spotted me and managed to get my attention without getting anyone else's. This Cornucopia I think was worse than the others. Usually it's all in a nice concise pile, not scattered everywhere."

He's more than a little annoyed about that, actually. He made a vow to himself to go for the Cornucopia even though the bloodbath is not a good place for him to be, and they had the audacity to switch it up on him and make it even harder.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"I used to try to run for it," Karkat says, "but then I ended up getting permanent injuries like every other arena. So I figured I was going to be fucked in either case if I didn't go but at least this way I'd be fucked with both eyes and usable limbs. But yeah, it's usually all piled up neatly. And there's usually better fucking visibility too, this fog hoofbeastshit is not standard."

He'll probably have to butcher the dog. He's got the sharp knives after all.

[ka_sera_sera]

"Hm. At least that's almost good news." Good news that they'll be able to kill each other more easily next time. Hence the 'almost'.

"Making jerky," he says, moving on to the next useful topic. "It's more about drying meat out than cooking it. The smoke of a fire can keep some insects away but mostly it's a matter of setting the meat in the right place and waiting. In a house like this it should be safer, but I wouldn't be surprised if the smell drew something. We should probably sleep in shifts, though you were probably planning on doing that already."

[69problems]

"I'd say that's the smartest strategy, yes. If we're going to be in one place for any length of time we should take as many precuations as possible."

Maybe the dog had been a bad idea. He hated staying still, even if the extra food jerky would provide would most likely prove invaluable and he hated to waste any of it after the trouble it was to bring it down.

"Especially if the smell brings more barkbeasts."

[sleeplessinalternia]

"Do you think they're cannibals?" Karkat asks. He looks off away from the two of them to address the air, "By the way, if anyone's watching this in the Capitol, actual fucking cannibals eat their own species. Not other sentient species. The Greater Degree of Information You Understand!"

[ka_sera_sera]

Roland raises his eyebrows at Karkat, watching him speak to nothing for a few seconds before glancing around. He sees no cameras, but he hasn't this whole time and doesn't really expect to. He'd never thought it possible to for a culture to have a greater grasp of machines than the Old Ones of his world, and it's particularly unfortunate that he seems to have fallen under the thumb of one. He'd have been able to see cameras of the Old Ones - no matter how well hidden - in seconds.

"I think they're hungry," he says once Karkat seems done, letting the rest pass because there is nothing he particularly wants to say to their loving and devoted audience. "Hungrier than us, probably. So we'd better get started." He nods toward Signless - or, more accurately, Signless' knife. "Care to start us off?"