[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]

"I don't think our titles work the same way human titles do, then. They replace our names entirely; they don't just get tacked on at the beginning." Or else things would be a lot more confusing, with two trolls named 'Kankri Vantas' running around the Capitol.

"And Karkat isn't entirely old enough to take a title yet." Though considering as long as he was in arenas he wouldn't age, he might never be.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"It's a sign you're an adult," Karkat informs Joly. "I'm preparing ahead of time so I'll have a good one." It was going to definitely be Thresher something. He wanted a cool secondary title if he could get one.

[medecin]

"Ah that makes much more sense." Joly was not entirely sure how it would work in their world, but the equivalents did help him to place what he was doing here. Slightly anyway

And that was the moment when things started to go a bit...blurry, as if he were a little faint. How entirely odd. He blinked a bit, not completely able to follow the line of thought there.

[69problems]

Signless didn't yet notice Joly's not being entirely with the conversation.

"The human way doesn't seem all that bad, either. It saves the trouble of re-learning everyone's names once they reach adulthood."

Not to mention that it sounded like you earned them through vocation or social position; less chance of other people slapping a title on you and it sticking, something Signless was familiar with.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Neither did Karkat. "But picking out your perfect title is an essential rite of passage for, like, all trolls," he argues. "Just like Conscription and your first drone visit."

[medecin]

"Like...Confirmation..." Joly managed and then, talking was not a thing that he was doing very much of anymore. There was a wave of more dizziness now, and it was forcing him to find a place on the floor to sit.

"I...if you would both excuse me please, I suspect I am somehow deathly ill."

And then he was curling on the ground, wrapping an arm around his head, and hoping this might stop.

[69problems]

... What. Did humans normally do that, just get sick out of nowhere? Somehow, Signless didn't think so.

"I'm... sorry? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Not that he was any good as a doctor beyond simple fixes for basic wounds, so the answer was probaby 'not much'.

[sleeplessinalternia]

"The fuck's Confirmation?" Karkat says, frowning. He peers down at the human. "It kind of looks like food poisoning," he says, glancing worriedly at Signless. "Only he just ate the exact same thing we did."

[medecin]

Joly would have answered the question, and he did hear it being asked, but, for the moment, about all that he was able to do was writhe around. It HURT, but more than that, everything had all gone very STRANGE.

"it...church thing.." he managed, before doubling over and starting to throw up the exact same thing the trolls had eaten. When he'd finished with that, things started going a little dark, and he tucked himself into a ball, rocking back and forth a little.

[69problems]

Okay. This was clearly bad. He reached out, hesitated, and then drew his hand back. With how much Joly was moving around, rubbing his back would probably not do much good.

Instead, he turned to Karkat with a panicked expression, as though Karkat would have any better hold on the situation.

"What do we do?"

[sleeplessinalternia]

"I don't know!" Karkat hisses back. "He's-- is this why humans don't eat land bugs? Is he allergic? Did we just poison him? Oh fuck, we just had to accidentally poison the fucking human mediliquidator, didn't we? Fuck!"