(OPEN) at least he's not dead now

[crabmunicator]

Who| Karkat and whoever runs across him.
What| Now that he's out of the mini-arena, Karkat's exploring the place he has to live.
Where| All across the Training Center.
When| After his death in the mini-arena ~ a few days after. Anywhere around then.
Warnings/Notes| Karkat is pretty foulmouthed and irreverent, but nothing else. Feel free to use prose (whichever tense) or action; I'll adapt with you.

Of all the ways Karkat would wish to be welcomed someplace new, this was not one of them. Thanks to the arena, which they'd shoved him in with only minimal explanation, he'd suffered his second death in as many days. Wasn't it enough for Jane to fork him before he showed up? Did he really have to get...

He didn't want to think about it. Maybe it was better that it was something from the arena rather than a fellow tribute, but it didn't make being killed by an oversized, animatronic cartoon beast any better.

Even after, being alive was strange. Back during Sgrub and everything else before Panem, at least there were countless mechanics to explain why someone might revive. Here he didn't know what they did. Something technological? It wasn't unthinkable when they'd brought him here from another part of reality, and while he was glad to not be dead permanently, it was unsettling to think they had such technology at their disposal.

Now he was... not free, but at least somewhere safe. Not subject to the current edition of the Hunger Games, at any rate. He learned his district and what that meant. (District 6, transportation, here's your floor and your room.) He learned that the tower was host to tributes and the various mentors, escorts, stylists, and whoever else served part of this entertainment machine. Night would bring curfew, but days would be relatively open, giving him the chance to feel out his surroundings.

A.
One place he'd definitely find himself was the actual training center, the floor from which the building got its name. Being here would mean needing to be in shape and on his game, and while he had skills still left over from Sgrub, they would do no good if left unpracticed. If he could find a sickle amongst the weapons provided there, he'd be practicing with that. Otherwise he might check out the other stations. Learn knots? Sure. Learn edible plants? Worthwhile. And then there was regular old relief of frustration: he may not have been a fistkind user, but that didn't stop him from taking things out a punching bag.

B.
Night of course would leave him confined to the District 6 area. Unused to a bed, lacking sopor slime, and still rattled from the arena, he didn't sleep much. It didn't help that his species was naturally nocturnal, but even during the day he sought little rest. At least the common area had a TV and games to play, and the kitchen helped for hunger or thirst. It wouldn't be hard to spot the look on his face: tired and grumpy, with perpetual bags under his eyes.

C.
During the day again, he more than once found himself up on the roof. Here the atmosphere was less stifling, with fresh air and an actual sky to see, unlike the darkness or the void or luminescent shapes of dream bubbles back on the meteor. It wasn't his sky, not the one he knew from Alternia, but if it had been he wouldn't have been able to stand the sun. This was tolerable - relaxing, even - and it gave him a space from everything else.

D.
But beyond the rest, he wandered. The tower was big, and he knew well enough that people he knew had to be around. He'd heard mention, or seen a flash of horn in the arena he couldn't stop long enough to identify, and he had run into Eridan while he was still in there. It meant teammates or friends were here, and these above all else he sought out, carrying him through common rooms or the lobby or across hallways and elevators throughout the tower. Feasibly anyone could run into him; though short, most people weren't grey with horns, and it made him stand out.

Comments

[crabmunicator]

"Hmm."

Like the item itself, nicotine means nothing to him on its own. He doesn't even know it it would affect him the way way it would a human, though the idea of something calming is tempting. Anyone who looks knows he could use something to settle him down now and then.

He looks to her face again. "Is it worth it? The lessening effect and everything."

[reassures]

While she would have been more than happy to compare nicotine to something else, there isn't really a good way to go about doing so. She has no idea what an appropriate equivalent he might understand would be.

Her expression softens a little as she taps the ashes from the end.

not for everyone.
it is for me. I had lots of friends that smoked.
do you want to try it?

Surely just letting him try wouldn't hurt anything. He might not even like it if he tried one.

[crabmunicator]

Karkat's certainly lacking on the smoking friends front. Cronus was nothing of the sort, not when he avoided him as often as he could, and the smokers of other substances he didn't hold near to him either. There's nothing personal to it.

In all, it's the thought of something calming that pushes him when he nods to her. "Alright. Tell me how the hell it works because I don't want to burn myself or ruin the effect somehow by doing it wrong."

He sits up straighter and sets his attention to learning.

[reassures]

you just have to put the end with the filter in your mouth and inhale.
it might taste bad, or make you cough.
holding it by the filter is best.

It seems like giving him a full one of his own might not be the best idea at the moment, so instead after he's done reading she pulls the cigarette out from between her lips, taking a moment to point out the filter, before she holds it out towards Karkat for him to take. She can show him how to light one for himself if he decides he's ever interested in trying it again.

[crabmunicator]

He eyes her instructions with some amount of skepticism, and Nill herself when she offers the cigarette that's just been at her lips. Is that safe? Is it normal? So he wonders as she offers the teenager a carcinogenic tube of leaves. Still he takes it, careful to hold it by the filter as indicated. No singed fingers here.

But okay. He can do this. If he likes it well enough he'll ask for one of his own instead of sharing. He puts it to his lips, carefully inhales, and...

Horrible, acrid smoke is what he gets. He coughs just as she warned, and his free hand shoots up to cover his mouth as he holds the cigarette away from him.

"Fuck," he hisses as his eyes sting and well up with tears. "Jegus, that's awful. How do you stand it? Does it--" Another fit of coughing overtakes him. "Ugh. Does it get less horrible or what?"

[reassures]

Oh dear. Maybe cigarettes weren't really made for trolls to be able to handle terribly well. Still, Nill smiles, only very very slightly amused, and her wings flutter as she offers a small shrug.

you get used to it.
do you need water?

They're on the roof, but there's also a garden up here. Gotta be a place to find water around somewhere.

[crabmunicator]

Get used to it, she says, and she's smiling and offering water and shrugging like it can't be helped. Like it's fine to give up. And it probably is, no real harm done, but Karkat is nothing if not stupidly stubborn.

He straightens up, wipes at his eyes with the end of a sleeve, and regards her firmly. "No. If it's something you get used to, and it is that calming, then I can do this."

Again he lifts the cigarette, still stubbornly clutched in one hand... only to look at her again. "Is it really that calming?"

[reassures]

Nill was pretty okay the first time she tried it herself, but that's only because her lungs were exposed to so much shit at that point that depending on where she was, the cigarettes were honestly probably healthier. At least they had the filter.

Her expression becomes a little sheepish.

I think it's better for me than than other people.
it reminds me of home.
if you want something to help calm you down weed would probably be better.

[crabmunicator]

Indeed, Karkat has no proper exposure. Cronus didn't even smoke his, useless tool that he was. He eyes the cigarette some more, but with her answer he hands it back over without going for a second drag.

"What's weed?" he asks instead. "What makes it different than this?"

[reassures]

She takes it back and puts it between her lips again to write more easily, thinking nothing of any sort of importance that could be inferred from the action.

there are dry leaves in the paper.
weed is a different plant.
it's healthier than cigarettes are.
it lasts longer and it's stronger.
it's more expensive and harder to find.
it's easy to sleep after smoking it.

She holds the notepad up, and after a few seconds she realizes she forgot something, so she makes a gesture for him to wait just a second while she adds another line.

it makes people hungry.

[crabmunicator]

Karkat watches as she writes, breathing easier now, though not as well as he would were her cigarette not still lit. The eventual rundown gets a quite read through, and he lets her add to it without a fuss. It really isn't something he's familiar with, when the only addictive substances he's properly seen people deal with before are slime and drinks. Alternia probably wasn't a place for anti-drug PSAs, not like humans had.

The way she puts it really isn't helping. Healthier, long-lasting, stronger effect, helps with sleep... Price and finding it may be a deterrent, but it's not putting him off the prospect if he did find it.

The addition is a little weird though. "Hungry? Why that?"

[reassures]

She's not actually sure how to respond to that question, and it shows a little. Her wings flutter uncertainly, and it seems like she thinks about it for awhile, but. Nope. Nothing. No one ever really explains why pot makes you hungry, they just supply chips whenever you smoke with them.

I don't know.
some people say it makes food taste better.

Maybe they were just binge eaters? Nill was never in the habit of eating much to begin with, so she didn't usually eat much while high, either.

[crabmunicator]

"Hm." Not much of an answer, but if she doesn't know then there's no use pushing it. He shrugs. "Weird, but alright. Maybe I'll try it if I get the chance someday."

He's presuming she doesn't have any with her, with how freely she made the first offer. Where he'd find it, he still doesn't know, but it's not important enough to ask right now.

"Thanks for schoolfeeding me, I guess? I haven't really learned about it before so pardon me if I don't know the proper post-smoking lesson etiquette." Not that etiquette has ever been his concern, but he feels he should offer her some word in return.

[reassures]

Nill is a big fan of sharing, and if she had the means to do so she definitely would. Though then again, if she had any she probably wouldn't be smoking it on the roof. Who knew what Capitol conduct was supposed to be in regard to marijuana. She's not a fan of smoking indoors but exceptions can be made.

Her expression brightens a little, and she gives him a quick thumbs up before she actually goes to write anything.

you're welcome. I'm glad to help.
I have more cigarettes if you want to try another time.

She's gonna have to try and bring some water bottles with her next time she's up here.

[crabmunicator]

Maybe the future will provide the opportunity. It's hard to know what chances a place like the Capitol would provide to its death match celebrities. For now, he's content enough with the knowledge she's given him and her openness in general. The corner of his mouth picks up, not quite a smile, but closer than she's gotten yet.

"Maybe next time," he says, and not as a brush-off. "But hey, I think I'm going to head down to the training center for a while. I'll see you later?"

[reassures]

That's going to be counted as a small victory. While she doesn't exactly try to make sure that she gets along with people the second or third time meeting them, there's something reassuring about when she can. It feels a little less lonely.

She makes a little gesture towards her cigarette, not quite finished, as a means of saying that she'll stay up here for a little while. But she writes a quick message anyway.

until next time.

[crabmunicator]

Karkat's expression stays where it is for her positive answer. Has he made a friend? It feels like it. In any case this meeting went well, and leaves him in a good mood as with one quick, parting wave he turns to leave the roof.

Shitty as this place may be, at least there's people he can like.