and we will have no mercy no more [closed]

[69problems]

Who | Signless, Karkat and (eventually) Shep, Signless and Marius
What | The new state of the arena and all those bugs he's been eating finally get to Signless.
Where | In the streets.
When | During Hell time.
Warning/Notes | Blood, violence. Will add if more pop up.

For Karkat and Shep:

It's hot. It's hot and it's night, which means the temperature is probably as cool as it's going to get until this sudden change to the town passes. If it passes. The Signless hopes it will, because ever since the town changed he's felt on-edge. He and Karkat are trying to find a place to stay for the night, but with so many of the houses in much worse condition than before it's proving harder than usual. He turns his knife nervously over and over in his hand and tries to stay calm, but every little sound makes him jump and it's harder than it should be to stay focused.

"Do you see any that aren't collapsed?"

For Marius:

There's still blood on Signless's face hours later; he never bothered to wipe it off, even though the split in his lip has finally stopped bleeding. Between that and the other marks of his scuffle with Shepherd, he looks like hell as he roves through the streets. He still hasn't found somewhere to hide and ride this out, and with how restless he feels he isn't sure he'd be able to stay still if he did.

Comments

[69problems]

Signless let himself be elbowed backward. Hopefully he'd got his point across, so there was no need to maintain close quarters.

"You're the one who ought to be careful," he said, not bothering to wipe his mouth. There was already blood on his face, a little more wasn't going to make much of a difference. "It's dangerous here for people like you."

[saisamour]

Marius stared at the blood dripping from Signless's face and mouth and for a moment it was not Signless but the face of a man from the barricades: Combeferre and then Courfeyrac then Joly then Bahorel then Bossuet—and he squeezed his eyes shut to chase away the images and pull himself back to the present.

When he opened them and glanced back and saw Signless again, his expression was one of relief quickly succeeded with a look of utmost confusion and hurt. "I do not understand..."

[69problems]

Signless rolled his eyes, gesturing aggressively with his hands as he spoke.

"I mean that the longer you spent around people, the more likely they are to realize that you're a useless fucking overgrown wiggler who couldn't survive his way out of a dried wood pulp disposable container."

Paper bag. He means paper bag. The Alternian lowblood dialect is some shit.

[saisamour]

Marius's forehead creased. Through vision slightly blurred with tears he tried to follow Signless's gestures, then surrendered mid-way. "I... What..."

And then he understood. He may not have comprehended what every word meant, but he gathered enough. His face fell and he cast his eyes to the ground, hurt because of the cruel delivery and guilty because what he said was the truth. "Oh."

Perhaps that was what everyone thought of him and were too polite to say aloud.

[69problems]

"Yes, oh." He clapped a hand on Marius's shoulder, maybe a little too hard, and shoved him backward.

"So go find somewhere to hide before someone who doesn't inexplicably want to keep your stupid ass safe decides to take advantage of that. Or before you annoy me enough that I don't care anymore."

[saisamour]

Marius winced, although he was not certain if it was because of the jolt of pain that shot up from his broken collarbone when he was shoved back or because of Signless's harsh but truthful words.

His gaze remained on the ground as he stumbled backwards. "I-I am sorry." He shifted on his feet, then took another step back, turning as if readying himself to run even if he knew his injuries would not allow him to go far. "I shall take my leave, then."

[69problems]

"Just fucking go."

And he was going to stand there, glaring, with his arms crossed, until Marius was out of sight.