[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]

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?"