thearena | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who| Cuthbert and Open
What| Making poor decisions as he so often does
Where| Out and about in the arena
When| Now
Warnings/Notes| None now

Cuthbert and Karkat have been keeping each other safe and watching each other's backs. They're running lower on supplies now and Cuthbert has gotten more bold and venturing further and further away. He's carrying a knife and a somewhat unnerving smile and he's leaping out at anything he thinks he can scare or kill out of any good supplies.

To be fair, he's jumped out several times at things that weren't alive.

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They haven't been getting nearly as many sponsor packages this arena. Karkat suspects that might be his fault, since he's fairly certain that the Capitol human shippers are holding back in an effort to get them to make out for the camera and he's been feeling way too pale at Bert to be in the mood for sloppy make-outs.

And the crazed expression on Bert's face isn't helping either. He just wants to reach out at him and firmly shooshpap his cares away.

(Shit, he's such a quadrant-smearing flake. He really needs to stop that.)

"You could help, you know." He whispers, getting ready to attack where he thinks more people might be. He's been having a bit of trouble with his vision because of the weird, fake eye. He really needs Karkat's sharp vision to support them both.

Mostly, Cuthbert is upset because things aren't right between him and Karkat. He's starting to get cranky about it and may snap soon.

"I'm trying to," Karkat whispers back, scanning the area for people. "Look, maybe we just ended up in a part of this island where there aren't many assholes fucking about?"

He gives in, finally, to his impulse and lightly paps Bert's cheek.

That is strange, and not something Karkat has ever done to him before. Unfortunately, at the moment it has the opposite intended effect.

"What are you doing? If you wanted to be distracting you could wait until we're somewhere a little safer. And make it worth the sponsor's time."

He continues to lie low and look for more people they can pounce on, but he's annoyed now and it's tough to just sit and take it.

Fuck, that doesn't seem to have worked. "I was papping you," he says, awkwardly. "I thought... fuck, I don't know. That you needed it, maybe. You're so fucking tense all the time. Shooosh," he adds and he does it again, a little more firmly. Might as well see if it'll work better as a proper shooshpap.

"How would you like it if I papped you?"

He's irritable, and while it is nice to have people care about him, this isn't really the time. The worst part is, he knows if he wasn't hunting people down this would be a nice, tender moment. So for the sake of clearing things up with his sidekick he sighs and stops where he is.

"Let's just stay here and clear our heads for a bit. Neither of us are in the right mood for the task at hand."

Karkat sighs too. "I wouldn't mind," he admits. "Maybe it's cheating on Signless, but he's cheating with the Disciple, so it's fair. And maybe... shit, I don't know, I kind of think you need someone to take care of you more right now than you need someone to have hate makeouts with."

This is absolutely the worst time to have this conversation. Good job, Karkat.

Talking about cheating on your significant other, even if they're not intimate in the way Cuthbert thinks they could be, is not the best way to start a conversation.

"You don't have to hate me when we make out. I would not mind that. But if papping you will make you quiet, then I'll do it."

Congratulations, Karkat, Cuthbert is actively trying to flirt right now. Even if it ends with an arm around the smaller troll and a friendly lean.

Oh man, that's kind of nice. For a human, Cuthbert is doing pretty good with the whole showing pale affection thing. Karkat lets himself lean against him. "Yeah, I know. I just..."

Then he shrugs. He just feels really pale for you right now, Cuthbert. Sorry.

"Shoosh." And he smacks Karkat on the forehead, harder than he knows he's supposed to. But he wants his partner to be quiet, and more pap means more quiet, right?

"Just don't talk for a bit."

If Cuthbert is running low on supplies, then Nepeta is pretty much only managing thanks to what can largely be considered extreme luck, and also a general idea of what water happens to be okay to drink. Needless to say, then, her reaction to having Cuthbert jump out her happens to be to hiss back, showing off both claws and teeth.

(In all fairness, however, it's been a long couple of weeks, and she was raised by a cat, so it's a minor miracle she doesn't try to make herself look larger.)

He's surprised to see her, but happily so. He lost track of most of the people he wanted to keep track of so far and even though she seems upset he's glad to see her.

"Cry pardon for scaring thee. You know I mean you no harm."

He immediately puts his hands up, although he isn't going to put his knife down right now. That's just too big of a risk. But if she really wanted to attack him, now is the time.

It takes a moment for Nepeta to calm down sufficiently that she isn't essentially in flight or fight mode, but she doesn't attack. She can't even so much as think of attacking Cuthbert, and so after a moment she puts her hands down. Once she does, it's all the more obvious that she doesn't even have so much as a weapon to her name (although she at least managed to escape the cornucopia with nothing more than the injury she had brought into the Arena).

"I know," she answers. "But you can nefur know who's attacking you befur they do."

"They would be terrible attackers if they announced themselves, aye."

He looks concerned, she doesn't have anything with her and she's been out here a while. Still, she's still alive and that's an accomplishment.

"Have you been on your own all this time? Forgive me for losing track while we were fighting for supplies, I would have kept a better eye on you had I known you weren't with anyone else."

She's been too lucky by half, perhaps, but she is alive. Not necessarily happily so, but running into Cuthbert is at least a step up. He's someone she knows, and allies are incredibly useful thing to have, if the last arena was any sort of indication.

"I have been," she answers with a nod. "It hasn't been very though. There's a pawful lot of things to have to fight out here any you can't even eat them."

She'd tried, once, and that was an experiment she isn't going to try again.

"I have enough to share, at least with thee." He hands her some of the dried eggs he scored from the cornucopia, they're easy enough to give out. He isn't surprised to hear about her fighting, but he doesn't quite understand what she means about not being able to eat them.

"Generally one bleeds and cooks a meal before they eat it, but the creatures around here seem to be predators themselves and their meat is rarely good for eating unless you're starved. Stick with the rations where you can."

Generally, yes, but even if they are predators it's still something and besides, it's not she and her lusus have been terribly picky about what they managed to eat. Still, she looks almost affronted at his comments, as if she's taking them as a suggestion that she doesn't know how to hunt properly.

"I know how to survive in places like this. My lusus taught me."

That said, she does take the dried eggs when they're offered. They aren't as much as she might have hoped for, but it's better than nothing, and she'd have to be a fool indeed to turn the offer down.

Plenty of supplies in a forest, if you knew where to look. Luckily, Starfleet and a few dozen away missions he hadn't wanted to be on got the job done for him. He had a fair supply of edible plants in his pack, and was working on finding a few leaves dry enough to start a fire; got biting as hell out here by nightfall.

So when some kid jumped; seemingly out of the actual woodwork; into plain sight, knife in hand, wearing a smile like that? His heart skipped a beat, but his eyes functioned still on their same old schedule-- and rolled.

"Kid, you're gonna trip and break an ankle."

"I'm going to break more than that when I'm done with thee. Of course you could save us both the fight and simply give me what I want. The pack and everything in it."

As strange as he might seem, Cuthbert is entirely serious about this. There's spots of blood on his shirt that aren't his and an air about him that (for once) isn't joking.

With 'thee'? Great. A Shakespearean throwback; taste for violence and all.

Putting his hands up to show he wasn't armed, but seemingly no less impressed than a moment ago (if there was an edge of concern to his gaze, it wasn't all saved for himself), he replied evenly,

"Hold it, kid. I don't plan to put up a fight. All I have in the pack are berries; a few edible leaves. But rations are just that; rations. If you're hungry, they're yours. But they won't last you for long. Might be more useful to see where they grow, so you can supply yourself." He hoped the kid was in the habit of listening to good sense. "Name's Leonard, McCoy. I'm a doctor. In other words; I'd really rather not fight, if it's all the same to you."

Really, this was more of an annoyance to Cuthbert than anything else. He was hoping for more than just a few scraps. And other supplies would have been even better.

"That's it? I can pick my own berries. You really have nothing better? I would hate to go to all of this trouble for nothing."

He's not as interested in attacking anymore, it's not really in his nature to kill an innocent man, especially not a doctor.

"Mayhap you can show me what can be used to heal around here. That would at least be worth my time."

"'All this trouble'?" He repeated, brows raising at the younger man, as if in scolding. His tone stayed even, but his eyes were hard; if by 'all this trouble' he meant 'gutting you', then McCoy would rather he not go to the trouble of it, either.

"Fine." Agreed, curtly, shortly after, with a nod. "I can do that, if you're willing to learn. Any specific injuries you're focused on, or you're thinking more in terms of preventative, a catchall?"

Snotty kid or not, healing is something he can do. Better to have purpose and direction, even in the midst of chaos. Better to hang on to that humanity.

He meant the trouble of stalking someone down to try and kill them. That sort of thing took preparation, mental and physical. And if worse came to worse, Cuthbert could get his lessons and then kill this man after. There were always options!

"Healing cuts and bruises would be helpful, and anything to prevent poison."

He wasn't about to put his weapon away though, just because he didn't think this man was of any real danger to him didn't mean he was in the clear.

"Right." A nod at that, and he gestured for him to follow, with a hand... before promptly turning his back on him and beginning to walk.

Mistrust breeds mistrust, after all. So, he was gonna trust the kid.

"First things first; is it always like this? These 'Games'?" Because which plants would be useful depended entirely on location.

Cuthbert already felt he had the upper hand in this situation, which meant he didn't have to take advantage of a conveniently turned back this time. He wasn't surprised to hear that this stranger didn't know much about the games, he certainly wasn't acting like he'd been in the arena before.

"They are always a confusing and stressful fight to the death, aye. But I suppose one can get used to anything if exposed to it long enough."

He wasn't sure what else this man wanted to know. If it was about previous arenas, he might have to be more specific. Some memories Cuthbert wasn't eager to dredge up.

"Getting used to it... almost a more horrifying concept than participating in it, or being brutally killed." A gruff sigh, and a grudging nod. "With no end in sight, huh?"

Less of a question, more rhetorical.

Well, that just wasn't acceptable.

"How long've you been stuck here?"

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