(no subject)

[sleeplessinalternia]

Who| Karkat + Chibi Usa, Karkat + Signless, Karkat + YOU?
What| Karkat makes his first kill and meets his ancestor, among other things.
Where| Main Street USA, elsewhere?
When| Week Six
Warnings/Notes| murder, blood, kids killing kids

Karkat's been in the arena for an hour, maybe two. It's the crowning glory to an unbelievably shitty night, which began with him and his friends fighting the Black King and ended with a bunch of weird hornless aliens shoving him into a tube and sending him into a death match. The part in the middle where that demon-barkbeast-carapace-thing destroyed the door into their new universe just before Karkat slipped into unconsciousness hadn't helped either.

He's managed to pick up a few things via breaking into some of the little commerce hives that line the thoroughfare leading up to the big yellow horn-shaped cavity. Nothing that great, though. Certainly no weapons. The large spool of grey thread might come in handy once he can find a needle, but until then...

Well. When Karkat manages to score some more supplies, he'll figure more shit out. He's taken his cloak off, figuring that if nothing else he can use it as a makeshift garrotte for now, and waits in the dark spaces between buildings, hoping to get the jump on someone. Preferably someone with supplies.

Comments

CHIBI USA (CLOSED)

[sleeplessinalternia]

 

[pinklady]

Well, there came a time when she had to leave Fantasyland. She preferred to stay, of course, since that was where her powers worked. But she knew that moving was the best course of action when it came to the Arena. Especially this one. Besides, there were plenty of vendor stalls she could hide in elsewhere.

And that was why she was sneaking down Main Street. Perhaps she would be lucky enough to find some remaining supplies at the Cornucopia. Her food, especially, was really becoming perilously low, and she was getting sick of eating duck.

[sleeplessinalternia]

The first impression Karkat gets of the girl is pink. Pink hair, pink skin, wide pink eyes. Only her dress isn't pink--it kind of looks like a skirted version of the outfit they stuffed Karkat into, only dark green instead of Karkat's own white. Hornless. She's an alien, of course. Karkat wonders if any of his friends have been stuffed in a tube and sent here, if any other trolls are here at all. He hopes not.

She doesn't seem to see him. Good.

He waits until she passes by his hiding place, before he slips out to loop his cloak-garrotte around the girl's neck from behind--and pulls it tight.

[pinklady]

One minute, she is walking around a corner. The next--

Suddenly, she couldn't breathe. She tried to gasp, but something was around her neck, choking her. She immediately began to struggle, grabbing at the cloak with her hands in an attempt to alleviate the sudden pressure on her airways.

No. NO!!

[sleeplessinalternia]

The girl is struggling--but Karkat hadn't really expected her not to struggle. This was a death match, after all. He pulls the garrote tighter. The sooner she's dead the better.

He's gotten lucky, he thinks, that the first person he's found isn't any bigger than he is. He's not sure how he's going to take down proper adults like this if there are any in the arena.

I FAIL. I JUST FAIL OK

[pinklady]

It took a long time. Or perhaps it felt like it. But eventually, the struggling lessened, and the girl's face began to turn the slightest hint of blue. After a moment, it changed to gray, and her eyes began to roll up to the back of her head.

THE SIGNLESS (CLOSED)

[sleeplessinalternia]

 

[69problems]

The Signless is bleeding, and he wants nothing more than to run back to the Psiioniic, to Mituna, and hold him and be held by him and hear comforting words in a familiar voice, but he can't because his friend needs to be alone with the enormity of all that's happened to him.

His relative safety for the past week or so almost tricked him into forgetting what kind of place this is, what he's expected to do, how soon he might find himself dead, even if death isn't permanent here. Life, though, victory, means a way out. He could do it. Win, without ever having to shed anyone's blood out of desperation. He just has to keep smart and keep hidden.

He's keeping to the shadows, and passes barely feet away from Karkat's hiding spot.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat's eyes go wide. A troll! There's another troll here! He's not the only one! Not that it matters, he guesses, since they have to kill each other and whoever they are doesn't look like one of Karkat's friends--thank fuck--but it's weirdly reassuring that he's not the lone member of his species in the arena.

Well. Definitely not for the next minute anyway.

The troll is less than half a foot taller than Karkat, so he's probably about the same age, maybe a sweep older. Not optimal, like that pink alien girl, but definitely doable. Especially if Karkat manages to avoid being seen, which it looks like he has.

The other troll is carrying himself like he's already been wounded. Perfect.

Once he's just past the hiding spot, Karkat darts out and loops his cloak-garrote over the troll's head.

[69problems]

The Signless makes a choked-off shout and drops his cloak-bag with a thunk. Oranges go rolling in every direction, though luckily his water bottle stays capped. His injury gives a painful twinge at being suddenly jerked backward, and the shout melts off into a whimper. He lifts his hands to tug at the thing around his neck.

Tonight is clearly not his night.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Blood. Blood on the street. Bright candyred blood-- fuck--

Karkat tightens the garrote, because he sure as fuck wants this troll dead, now that he's seen Karkat bleed.

Karkat bleed?

Karkat isn't bleeding. Wasn't before. He'd feel it if he were. And then he sees the wound, the raw red flesh, and he knows who's bleeding and it isn't him.

"Holy fuck."

Karkat drops the garrote and begins to back away.

[69problems]

The Signless staggers forward when the pressure is suddenly lifted, a hand at his throat. He turns, trying to get a look at who attacked him, and sees horns -- little, nubby horns, one someone even shorter than him. This must be a young troll, then, like the one he met earlier.

Their eyes meet. Signless's are obviously too light, too bright, to be quite normal.

"I won't hurt you," he says, because it's all he can think of to say, and maybe if this troll knows he isn't in danger he won't attack?

OPEN THREADS

[sleeplessinalternia]

 

[tis_allgood]

Cuthbert hasn't been in the arena very long, and so far his best try at a weapon is a heafty stick. It won't last very long, but Bert has the same hope that he'll be come across someone with better supplies than he has. Which wouldn't be hard, he has a stick and clothes and nothing else.

He's walking around fairly casually, with his stick at his side and a surprising spring in his step. He is staring over his shoulder from time to time, seemingly an easy target. What better way to lure out someone than to use yourself as bait?

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat eyes Cuthbert suspiciously from his hiding place. Six sweeps of growing up on Alternia has taught him that nobody walks around with such casual carelessness unless they were fairly certain of their ability to cull anyone who got in their way. That went double in a deathmatch. Whoever this alien boy is, Karkat is sure that he's dangerous.

[tis_allgood]

This strategy isn't paying off the way Cuthbert had anticipated and now he's starting to grow impatient with waiting. He's also accutely aware of the silence all around him, and since he's trying to attract someone to him anyway he might as well go big or go home.

"I know you're out there," he yells in all directions. "Or they would come and crown me winner. Let's palaver, you and I, whoever you are. Sit a spell and speak, and no killing. You have my word."

[sleeplessinalternia]

Fuck. This alien kid is good. Also, loud and brash and definitely some kind of alien highblood. Fuck.

It would probably be better to make an alliance, Karkat reminds himself, if the kid really is as good at Karkat thinks he is. So Karkat waits until the kid is looking in another direction, then darts out from his hiding place.

"And how do I know you'll keep it?"

He still keeps a good distance between himself and the other kid, though, a few times the length of the boy's club. He might be negotiating a temporary truce, but he's not an idiot

Re: OPEN THREADS

[nunpunching]

Punchy's in increasingly bad shape the longer he's in the Arena. The good fortune that blessed his immune system earlier is finally starting to give out, and the socket around his missing eye is puffed up and red. He slouches a bit now, exhausted and dehydrated.

But that doesn't stop him from wanting to take this whole place down. He's repaired his megaphone and is now carting it and its many wires and pieces around in an old cooler that some poor foodseller probably once used for slushies.

He brings it to his mouth when he sees someone who, he deems, is positively skulking.

"Yo, homeboy, you don't gots to be fronting, I ain't gonna be busting a move on your punk ass!"

Re: OPEN THREADS

[sleeplessinalternia]

Who's this douchebag?

Fuck. That's twice in a row that Karkat's 'hide in the shadows and take people out before they have a chance to realize you're there' strategy has failed.

"Yeah right," Karkat says, stepping out from the shadows, ready to run the fuck away any moment. "This is a fucking death match, not a schoolhive social. We're not supposed to drink punch with our exterior grasping digits extended--we're supposed to kill each other until there's only one of us left."

Re: OPEN THREADS

[nunpunching]

"The fuck is an exterior grasping digit extended?" Punchy yells into the megaphone. It doesn't seem to occur to him that he's going to garner the attention of everyone in a mile radius doing this. He starts to walk over towards Karkat.

"Bitch, if you be playin' their bingo-pad, you're way spaced out in the membrane. The real enemy's those hos up with their cameras coordinating this after-school special, dawg."

Re: OPEN THREADS

[sleeplessinalternia]

"It's this, you cretinous fuckwad," Karkat bellows back, holding his pinkie out, while aggressively miming drinking tea. "What the fuck are you doing with that thing? Do you want to bring every single fucking gladiatortainer into this commerce district?" He backs away from Punchy. "And could you stop talking like a pretentious fuckwad? You're not the fucking Condescension."

(Seriously, a few more fish puns and this alien shitnugget would be speaking flawless Court Alternian.)

Ah! Sorry it's took so long - RL got the better of me.

[petitgamin]

Gavroche is just searching, trying to see if there's anything of value what he can use. Or, more likely, anything that he can eat. His food supply ran out a few days back, an' it aen't exactly a situation he likes being in. Places like this... you don't get a chance to earn yer way. It's not what he's used to.

Don't worry, dude!

[sleeplessinalternia]

Karkat, from his hiding place in the shadows, smiles. Tiny, weak-looking, and oblivious to Karkat's lurking. Perfect for garroting.

Which is exactly what Karkat proceeds to do.

RL is evil sometimes.

[petitgamin]

There's a tightness around his neck, and his fingers scramble up, trying to release the pain. But it only grows tighter, and his breath becomes harder to get and soon...

Soon there's none.

Yes. Yes it is. /pats

[sleeplessinalternia]

Once the alien child seems dead, Karkat lowers him to the ground and starts to loot the body, hoping that there's something he can bring back to share with Signless.

Unfortunately, the alien doesn't seem to have anything worth taking.

Karkat sighs, closes the alien's eyes, and slinks back to his hiding place, waiting for the next careless dumbass to cross his path.