paint-by-number morning sky [semi-open!]

[69problems]

Who| Signless and Tony, Signless and the D12 tributes, Signless and YOU!
What| Taking care of business, then taking care of pets.
Where| D12, then the lobby.
When| Now (after the arena, before the crowning).
Warnings/Notes| Nothing I can think of, will add if something comes up.

A. For Tony

Remembering the whirlwind of interviews and speculation and internal conflict he had to deal with after winning, the Signless has left Tony more or less alone since the end of the arena. There's only so long he can put off talking to Twelve's new victor, however, and he feels it's reasonable to want to be on the same page since they're going to be working together. It won't do their tributes any good if they're working hard but working at cross purposes.

With that in mind he stands outside of Tony's door and gives a brief, polite knock.

"Tony? I'd like to speak with you, if you don't mind."

B. For All D12 Tributes

Just as important as keeping on the same page as his co-mentor is keeping up to date with his tributes. In his opinion he'll be best-equipped to help them if he hears from them what it is that they most need. On top of that he wants to get to know all of them better. Twelve is many things and especially right now it's a mixed bag of very different people with very different skills who need very different marketing to make sure they get as much help in the arenas as it's possible for him to secure. Perhaps it's not the most efficient way of doing things but he wants to be sure everyone is being presented to sponsors in a way that they're, if not happy with, at least not vehemently opposed to.

Each of them will receive a brief, friendly note on their door asking to meet in the suite common room at an appointed time for a brief check-in. He parks himself on the couch with a notebook, a pen, and a decidedly non-alcoholic drink, and waits.

C. Open!

It hadn't been as much of a surprise as it might have been when after his crowning he was presented with the small crablike creature the Capitol had billed as a 'mutantblood lusus'. He remembers very well Maximus and his pet tiger. No, the problem with his new pet isn't so much that he hadn't been expecting it and more that it has absolutely no manners. He's discovered that with the exception of himself and Karkat it's distrustful of people at best and attempts to eat their ankles at worst. 'Worst' happens to be its default.

Naturally the solution is taking it down into the lobby of the tower (on a short leash, of course) and attempting to get it used to people. It skitters around his legs, clacking its claws and blinking its four white eyes suspiciously at anyone who gets too close. When it's not making agitated chirping sounds or screeching in alarm at a Capitolite's oh-so-scary shiny accessories it's emitting a low, constant and very uneasy hiss.

"Sorry," he says, nudging it with his foot away from the person it's most recently decided is its mortal enemy. "I'm trying to teach him to be a little more personable and it's not going well."

Comments

[crabmunicator]

Don't be so sure about that, Signless. Karkat's smile fades as soon as he asks those questions. Just talking about his ancestor's relationship was easy; but for all he's been thinking about his own romantic issues lately, it's another thing to admit them. Then again, maybe he owes him for so much fuss over his romance.

It takes him a moment, but he asks, "How do you make it work? Something not defined by quadrants, I mean. Obviously you two care and all that other stuff, but as a troll, how do you reconcile it?"

[69problems]

"Ah, well. As a troll I never put much stock in it to begin with." But that isn't what Karkat wants to hear, and it won't really help him, so Signless amends:

"I reconcile it in the same way that I tried to explain it to you. Quadrants are an excellent guideline by which we can more easily clarify the emotions we feel and the ways in which we express them. It gives us handy language to use when trying to sort through feelings that would otherwise be confusing and difficult to put name to. Sometimes we are bound to feel emotions that cross between quadrants, because emotions are not beholden to that grid. Instead of trying to force myself to abide by a strict interpretation of the quadrants, I use the quadrants to deepen my understanding of my own feelings. I see them as flexible and so I can understand the concept of mixing and combining them, where you see them as immutable and so are confused by it."

[crabmunicator]

Karkat considers as the Signless talks, his lips pressed together and his gaze turned outward to watch whatever their joint mini-lusus is up to. The difference this time is that he actually cares to try to see the sense in what he's saying, but it's not as easy as just hearing him describe it.

"But how do you make it that easy for yourself?" he asks at the end. "And how do you get the other person to agree? The only thing close I've seen in my movies and books is red-black vacillation, and even that tends to be unstable without a lot of work. Every other story about mixed feelings always resolves into something... well, normal by the end."

[69problems]

"That's because that's all they are, Karkat. Stories." His voice is gentle, because he knows how much stock Karkat places in those stories.

"They are an uncomplicated ideal version of social norms, not a mirror of reality. Trying to portray romance as the messy, individual thing that it is is considered too difficult and so the only stories ever told are the ones that fit one of a select few pre-approved narratives."

But perhaps they're getting off track. If they follow this tangent too far they may never get to the actual problem, and he can't have that.

"As for how I get my partners to agree... it really is as easy as talking to them and being honest. I tell all of my partners up front about the way I approach romance, and not one has ever broken off the relationship because of it. I'm sure I will eventually find one that will, and there's nothing wrong with that. The way I do quadrants isn't the only way, it's just the way that feels right to me."

[crabmunicator]

Karkat frowns up at him, stubborn and predictable, as Signless trashes the narratives of his beloved films and novels. He knows romance is complicated, and he knows they aren't perfect - serendipity never found them the way he hoped - so it feels a bit disparaging to have them spoken of this way. Arguing about fiction isn't really what he's here for, though, so with relief he lets things move onto his ancestor's next ancestor. He wouldn't want to get derailed with a fight like last time.

"But what if they don't feel the same way? Even setting aside the whole thing about social norms and what that imposes, probably most people aren't going to go for... both, or more, or whatever jumble of letters best describes the blurred quadrant mess of choice. I already know if you don't talk to them you're just going to make an ass of yourself trying to force it--" Not that he has experience or anything. "--but they're still part of the same societal expectation, and even then most people probably don't mix things like that, right?"

[69problems]

"Most people don't know that's even an option. Like you, they've only ever known one 'right' way to engage in romantic relationships. You're right that not everyone will be comfortable with approaching quadrants more loosely, but not everyone will find it an abhorrent idea either once it's introduced to them. Suddenly the feelings they thought were aberrant and to be ignored or 'corrected' are just as valid as anyone else's. Some people find that freeing, not frightening."

He shrugs with one shoulder.

"By the same token not everyone is going to be romantically compatible no matter how honest and open they are with each other. That isn't an indication of a failing on anyone's part."

[crabmunicator]

There's not much to say to that, ultimately. It's logical, and while it's not a promise of an outcome, there's no way of guaranteeing one. There's not even something current he could apply it to, anyway, and he already knows he fucked up with the particular attraction this conversation applied to. It doesn't mean he buys wholesale that it would be as easy to talk about as his ancestor is saying, but if there's at least hope...

He'll deal with it if it comes up again.

But now he's chewing at his lip. There is one other part of Signless's relationship that has him thinking, and is a bit more applicable in current times.

"What about humans?" he asks slowly, gaze slipped away again. "They're even narrower about romance."

Dave he knows had a matespritship with Terezi, but he winded up calling it quits just from her other quadrant.

[69problems]

"I believe it depends on the human, personally. The fact that they consider romance to be expressed by only one type of relationship doesn't necessarily mean that their definitions of it are even more limited; in my experience if anything it means the opposite, with each human romance incorporating a wide variety of different elements depending on the relationship and human involved. I've also found that the majority of them understand the basic idea of quadrants, even if they may not be comfortable working within that framework."

He thinks back to Guy and smiles softly. There's just a hint of sadness at the corners of that smile and behind his eyes. He misses Guy, though he knows it's far better for him to have not been brought back than to have continued to suffer in Panem.

"Long before you arrived, I fell pale for a human -- one who's gone now. All of our interactions were incredibly pale and of course he didn't realize, because for humans those interactions aren't ones they think of as flirting. When I eventually got up the nerve to tell him he took to the idea immediately. I realize it won't happen like that every time, but based on that alone I wouldn't say humans are unable to meet a troll's romantic needs -- even when they are strictly within one quadrant, as that was for us."

[crabmunicator]

As Signless goes into his answer, Karkat's look-away listening shifts to something more directly attentive. And it sounds right: he knows enough of romcoms and other films, and now Capitol romance novels, that human romance isn't quite as solidly defined as matespritship. It still fits closest there in the majority of things he's seen, but more than once there's been something to make him pause, or that he'd put in another quadrant were they trolls.

They were pale, they were totally pale! he's yelled at the screen more than once. Or other times, when a bickering pair swung around to loving each other, it felt like a loss of a potentially torrid blackrom dynamic. It's been an interesting tutelage, but one his interest never sways from.

But the Signless goes on from there, launching into something more personal in a way he didn't expect. Talking about Roland would have made sense, but this he never knew of. And moreover, it's something pale. He was already looking more at him, but this perks his head up to watch his face directly. Even the way it happened sounds so much like with Nill, with all her fussing and his, and she's human so of course he didn't realize until she literally papped him out of a nightmare. And she did listen, that time he explained moirallegiance to her, and seemed to understand...

It's not a guarantee, just as Signless says, but by the end his face is a bit pink and there's a hopeful turn to his lips.

"I think that's what I needed to hear."

[69problems]

The sadness flickers and then disappears, leaving just a small, warm smile. He doesn't bother asking why, or who -- it isn't his business and he knows Karkat wouldn't want him prying. He's content to have helped.

"Good."