crabmunicator: (018)
Karkat Vantas ♋ carcinoGeneticist ([personal profile] crabmunicator) wrote in [community profile] thearena2015-10-08 11:19 am

[open] do you know where you go

Who| Karkat and OPEN
What| Who wants to see that place those grey weirdos came from? Who wants to see it destroyed?
Where| The Alternian areas of the arena, namely the forest/city.
When| Week 1 up to the meteors in week 2.
Warnings/Notes| Probable description of canon-typical troll society awfulness.

(OOC: Instead of specific prompts, I'm just giving a general rundown of where Karkat may be and what he'd be doing there. Feel free to have your character run into or interrupt him at any point!)

Alternia was Karkat's first home and the one out of everything that he had longest: six sweeps, or the first thirteen years of his life. Seeing it here in the arena isn't something he ever expected, but it made a fine target since he first spotted the familiar blue trees with their pink foliage. Getting there was another issue, with the water that blocked direct passage, the desert he had to cross, and the trouble of finding Maglev in the mix, but he's tried to stay here as well as he can.

It is, at the least, familiar. In the searing days he retreats to the city and sleeps, not in the useless, fake sopor slime of the recuperacoons but on whatever furniture is comfortable enough. Anyone who would want to invade would have to risk the burns and blindness brought by the sun's heat, a risk high enough that for once he lets himself lower his guard to rest.

But at night, he slips out. He has his sickle, gained from Nitou who grabbed it from the Cornucopia. In the second week he gains a hunting knife from a sponsor. With these he hunts and defends himself. There are hulking, white monsters that stalk between the misshapen buildings, or out between the neon trees of the forest, bigger than those he knew from his friends. He tries when he can to find creatures from other worlds, but more than once his jagged sickle threshes one of the smaller, less dangerous lusii for its meat. After almost a year of Panem, it's strange to see so many colors of blood.

At all turns he avoids the pincer-clawed creatures. They might look like his lusus of old, but not a one shows him favor.

There are other things not even worth the risk here, though. Great, black shapes in spiked chitin stalk now and then, their shapes likely foreboding even to those not raised within the culture that told their purpose. These, if he hears them, if he sees them, he runs from without time to pause. They'd cull him as a mutant on his own planet, and they're sure to have no more mercy here.

Other times, it's strange nostalgia that sends him out. Alternia was dangerous, a planet where a troll like him should be dead just for quirk of genetics, but he's missed it still. He goes down streets staring at the blocky buildings, their twelve-pane windows; he wanders through trees that will always remind him of Terezi. (He finds her hive, once, and spends the night swearing as he scrambles up the tree it's built into, or as he sits inside remembering times past.) Sometimes he trails along the shore, gazing out at the gleaming towers of that purple and gold island set near. There are boats, he's seen, but he wonders at the risk--or flees from it, when the hungry screeching of the tentacled beast beneath starts up.

By contrast, he avoids the Carnival entirely. That place brings no good associations--if anything, draws up terror instilled by the Initiate's chucklevoodoos, and bad memories besides. Only once does he end up there on accident, and it's after a rescue and a long sideways trek that he ends up in another place he would have sooner avoided: the Alternian desert.

There at night the sands are colorful, the dangers calm, but it's dry and vast and a good trip back to the familiar city. The question is where to weather the day, what shelter to find--caves in rocky outcrops, perhaps--and how to avoid the shambling, trollish daywalkers that awaken with the sun.

Wherever he is, he keeps his eye open for people. Tributes he knows draw his attention immediately, either with a shouted greeting or a warning if danger is near. Those unfamiliar he does all he can to avoid, sinking back behind what cover there might be, breath held, gaze wary for hopes they pass without seeing him.

Often, though, it's the night sky that draws him. The stars aren't quite the same, but two familiar moons hang in the sky: acid green and bubblegum pink, stuck in their own mock-orbits, far different than the silvery white of Earth's satellite. It's by this that he spots the first shooting stars when they come--and with that, the danger as they streak nearer to eventually strike the ground itself. From there he turns to fleeing, and anyone he sees then gets the same shouted warning: "RUN! IT'S THE RECOKING!"

Where he'll go after, he doesn't yet know.
ka_sera_sera: (old general window background)

desert, week 1

[personal profile] ka_sera_sera 2015-10-09 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
This alien desert has, so far, not posed much of a problem for Roland. Another man would call this deeply suspicious, but Roland does not think of things that way. He only presses on, and doesn't let his guard down because the only reason it has been so relatively simple so far has been luck. The luck to be able to avoid the more dangerous creatures, the luck to see just what the sunlight in this place can do before stepping out into it. Luck has saved his life many a time, and may do again, but any man who starts depending on it is not long for this world.

So he doesn't let his attention wander, doesn't sightsee, tempting though it is. He does observe, though, has observed enough about these moons to guess that dawn is coming. Dawn, and sunlight. Even some shelter with some creature already living in it will do, if it has to, but he hasn't seen even that. At the least, this utter lack of shelter gives him a good view. He'll be able to see anything coming well before it gets to him. Probably.

In the meantime he keeps walking. This sunlight might not mean death, depending on what Roland can manage. Nothing for it but to see.
ka_sera_sera: (old general vest shadowed)

[personal profile] ka_sera_sera 2015-10-10 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
"Not even if this were a normal desert," Roland says blandly, lifting his chin a little to peer in the direction from which Karkat had come. "The stars I knew well enough to chart a path by are long gone. Come on," he jerks his chin in the direction neither of them have been. "Nothing behind me, I'm guessing nothing behind you. We'll try our luck that way."

"How've you been so far?" Roland starts walking in the new direction as he says it. It isn't idle conversation, as may be clear with the look he casts over the whole of Karkat's body. "Any injuries? Don't know if you've seen what this place's sun does but if we have to bury ourselves to avoid it we don't want that sand getting in you anywhere."
ka_sera_sera: (old general headturned)

[personal profile] ka_sera_sera 2015-10-10 11:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course Roland is not insulted by any of that. On the contrary, he looks interested. "Your undead horrors. Daywalkers. He's mentioned those, but only vaguely." Roland hadn't asked. Hadn't thought he'd need to know. Well.

"I should've recognized this place from that dream. Now that you mention it-" He looks around, seeing it all as if with new eyes because it's not just strange now, it's Alternian. "-it is a little familiar now. But not very. If anything, I should've remembered those moons."

He tilts his head back to look at them, frowning. "Those colors might be..." Roland shakes his head, refocuses on what's important. Memories can wait. "Nevermind. Tell me about your daywalkers, for a start. I'll need to know anything else you do about your deserts too, but we ought to focus on one thing at a time."
ka_sera_sera: (old drama behind bars)

[personal profile] ka_sera_sera 2015-10-11 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"Wouldn't be too happy with him if he did," Roland murmurs absently, because this isn't really the issue foremost on his mind. If Signless did risk so much for them now, especially for a cause so small as saving them from whatever painful (more importantly, temporary) fate this desert may have in store, Roland would be a little peeved. Luckily, he has faith in the Signless' good sense.

"How do your daywalkers kill? Can they be brought down or outrun? I'll need a little more than 'they'll kill us' if we meet some. And from how you were talking I'd assumed your sunlight kills outright. Do you have any clues at all about how your friend survived it?"
ka_sera_sera: (old general vest shadowed)

[personal profile] ka_sera_sera 2015-10-12 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Roland nods, thoughtful. "Might be able to burn that clean, but maybe not this." With 'this' he nods to his own weapon, the shillelagh currently stuck through a loop in his makeshift purse. He may not be interested in wearing the extra outfit his district had won from that ridiculous parade, but it's going to good use, regardless. "I'm guessing injuries, even grave ones, won't stop the dead anyway."

"You're my guide here, Karkat. If I miss signs of a shelter you'll need to point it out to me. But if we don't see one soon-" He looks up at the moons again, thinking about how fast they've been moving and making a guess as to how long they have. "We'll need to stop before true dawn anyway. If nothing presents itself, we're going to have to start digging. These daywalkers of yours. Will we know when they're coming? Will there be any sign?"
ka_sera_sera: (old action aiming)

i love that icon so much

[personal profile] ka_sera_sera 2015-10-15 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
Roland hits it. The weapon isn't made for shoving someone back, not by thwacking with the long side of it as Roland is, but he doesn't want to risk the end getting stuck inside whatever passes for that thing's ribcage. Even as he does it, though, he's moving, running toward Karkat and getting ready to grab the back of the boy's clothes and yank him up, if he doesn't rise quickly enough. "Up! Run! Run and keep your eyes open!"

Roland has seen neither zombie nor horror movies of any kind, but he does better than most in those movies purely by having a little bit of tactical sense. He does not look back. Has to in a second, but not until he gets up some speed, take full advantage of whatever time his hit to the thing might have gained them. If Karkat proves that he can keep up, Roland might even let go of him. "You said that fungus might be catching. How sure were you?"
ka_sera_sera: (old action watchful lean)

[personal profile] ka_sera_sera 2015-10-15 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Roland once again obeys the boy's orders without questioning. It makes sense, after all. He squints, makes in the direction Karkat points, and sets Karkat down in the required spot, managing to do it without tripping over anything even with human night vision. And now is the time to look back, evaluate, so he does. The thing may shamble but that doesn't gain them enough ground to be safe, and he turns his back on Karkat to watch it. "Be quick with whatever it is you're about to do. This thing isn't so fast as us but very soon it's going to catch up."
infinitemayonnaise: (furry hoodie)

Early Week 2, hello, I am super late but I brought pizza

[personal profile] infinitemayonnaise 2015-10-19 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
Nitou has been trying to explore the entire Arena. It's what he does. Sure, he'd stuck around the more familiar city area at first, hoping to find things he knew how to use, and once he'd found a motorcycle he liked, he was out of there. Onward to the next adventure!

So he's riding that motorcycle out to explore the Alternia area when he sees someone familiar. "Hey! HEY!" He doesn't want anything--he's not looking to collect on his debt just yet. Just saying hello.
ka_sera_sera: (old anger talking)

[personal profile] ka_sera_sera 2015-10-20 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Roland takes his eyes off the approach of the hurrying, shambling thing to lower himself down the little overhang, and unlike some people he does this without falling on his ass, without even the merest suggestion that he might be about to do so. It's harder for him to spot what Karkat did, because here a good part of the light from those strange moons is blocked. What's far easier to spot is sudden movement, and from that same spot Roland had dropped down from a couple moments ago. "In!" he says, feeling shillelagh in his hands before he's even thought about holding it, and backs up in the direction Karkat had been looking.

Can't see shit but he can hear it, the loose noise that rotting body makes as it drops down to follow them. Hears its dragging steps, smells it, and all that information is for him just as useful as being able to see. There's a squelching noise, and a sudden weight on the end of Roland's weapon. A sound from that weight that is almost, but not quite, speech, and the heft of the weapon shifts as that weight begins to drag itself forward. Roland's still, with his heels questing cautiously out behind him, looking for whatever it is that Karkat had found. He doesn't find it. His heels hit featureless wall, and his back soon follows.

"Pull me inside!" The shillelagh is much heavier now, has gained approximately the weight of one zombie and his fungus, but in this state it isn't at all difficult to swing the whole thing hard and, regardless of the ominous cracking that comes from the wall beside him when the body hits it, Roland repeats the process a couple more times, hears the same resulting crack.

Roland knows, of course, that if he has managed to be out of arm's reach of whatever Karkat's found, and if the boy's obeyed his call to go inside, Roland will very shortly get a better taste of just what it's like to be eaten. Instead of worrying about this he shakes the damn shillelagh, jiggles it wildly, lets out a single curse at the world in general that comes out stuttering, as even now the Capitol-made machine in his head translates it into something more English and palatable. "Karkat!"
infinitemayonnaise: (but wait there's more)

we have a microwave, infinitely warm pizza is possible

[personal profile] infinitemayonnaise 2015-10-28 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
"And you're still alive, too!" Nitou sounds quite pleased at this statement of the obvious. Arenas suck--it's always nice to see when people you like keep on surviving.

He pats the motorcycle. "I've got more experience with just bicycles, but I figure that if Haruto uses one, I've gotta be able to do it, too! I know what I'm doing."

But there's definite interest in that last bit of what Karkat's saying. "Scuttle buggies? Nah, I haven't seen those yet!" He frowns. "Could I have accidentally run over one with the bike? I think I hit a couple bumps."
ka_sera_sera: (old action gun raised)

yeah that works

[personal profile] ka_sera_sera 2015-10-28 01:17 am (UTC)(link)
Inelegant, yes, but Roland doesn't waste time arguing with Karkat's methods. He puts his trust in the boy and it takes a certain effort, tense and ready to kill as he is, to keep from reacting to what, without sight, read to a part of him as sudden small sneak attacks. Roland is as in control of himself as he ever has been, though, and so Karkat is safe. At least, from him. After one particular push he hears a snarl, coming from too far away to be Karkat, and a heavy thud as the thing's body hits what must be the outside of the wall. It's trying to get in. He swings the shillelagh and hits something which doesn't give - hasn't hit the thing as he'd meant to. He's hit the wall. There's another crack, and the wall gives. Roland reaches out, grabbing at whichever part of Karkat is closest, and backs up while trying to shove the boy behind him.

There wasn't enough light for his eyes before. There's none at all now. "Karkat," he says, and Roland is clearly not nervous, but just as clearly he is not at all relaxed. His gaze is focused on nothing, and he holds himself very still. Listens for anything nearby, anything at all. "What can you tell me? Where are we?"
Edited (wanted to make whether he actually did shove karkat behind him more vague in case karkat wouldn't have let him) 2015-10-28 01:20 (UTC)
ormolu: (r u srs)

Meteors!

[personal profile] ormolu 2015-10-28 03:43 am (UTC)(link)
Make a wish on a shooting star. That's what she'd been told, when she was young. She stopped doing that when she was older. She could get anything that she wanted, why would she waste her time with wishing on stars? What would she even wish for? But she'd remembered it as she stepped onto the cold sand, staring up at the stars. She had a lot of things to wish for.

Luckily, there was a lot of shooting stars. Wishes to spare! It takes a while for her to realize that this isn't normal. In fact, it's not until she sees a troll running past her screaming about the reckoning that she thinks, maybe, she should move.

Running, at least, is something she's gotten plenty of practice in lately. She can do that. She spins around on her heel, deciding not to question someone screaming and running in the opposite direction. However, even as she begins to race away from the scene, she realizes that she has two important questions. These are shouted at Karkat as she follows him, out of a lack of any other place to run to.

"What's the Reckoning? Where's safe?"

She figures it's okay to draw attention to herself. He bothered to warn her, didn't he? You wouldn't do that if you were trying to kill someone. He might ignore her, but it couldn't hurt to try.
ka_sera_sera: (old general blue profile shadowed)

[personal profile] ka_sera_sera 2015-10-28 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Roland grunts, listening to Karkat's steps and matching it with the way his shout had echoed. It's not enough to get a detailed idea of the place they're in, but it's a start. They're alive, healthy, and they found shelter from the sun - Roland is not happy but he is satisfied, and it might do Karkat good to acknowledge the same. But angry complaints are how the boy reacts to stress, Roland knows. It's a very different thing from whining, and so Roland doesn't mind it. "Might do us good to explore, if that thing out there is determined enough to move those rocks. Don't know if it would be."

He starts moving, too, but not in the direction Karkat had. The time for taking Karkat's orders has passed, and Roland has decided to explore. Nothing too deep or far away, but he does want to get an idea at least of the place they're in now. His steps are careful, and his voice gets a little more distant as he takes them. "Is there anything that might live underground in your world's caves? You don't sound too certain that this place is a safe one."

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