ANOTHER OPEN LOG

[nitrodamus]

Who: Sollux and anyone who could be in the Trailblazer dorms.
Where: Trailblazer dorms.
When: January 31st and onward, whenever is convenient.
What: Sollux finally ventures out of Karkat's room for little bits at a time, and typically makes messes.
Warnings: Sollux, mostly.

[Either talk to me OOC and I'll set up a thread or just tag in and I'll reply with a description of what Sollux is going at the time! Threads below.]

Comments

METABEE

[nitrodamus]

It's probably just an average day in the dorms when Metabee comes back to find Sollux rifling through his dorm room like he's looking for something. The troll is messy an unkempt from head to foot, and his movements are a little shaky.

He's presently bent over one of the draws rifling through the contents.

Re: METABEE

[metabee]

[Metabee had been haunting the rest of the dorms for someone to bother, and having finally given up on luring anyone else out of their rooms had wandered back to his own.

Finding Sollux there was definitely not what he expected.]

DUDE! What do you think you're doing, man? Shouldn't you be in Karkat's room or something?

[nitrodamus]

[Sollux is holding Metabee's DS when he is alerted to the robot's presence. It's kind of alarming all around, really. He hunches over, clutching the device closer to himself without really thinking about it, and hisses threateningly.]

Not stop.

[His words buzz around the edges.]

[metabee]

You're not going to stop or...you want...me to stop? This is my room, dude.

[Geeze Karkat said the dude's english was bad but seriously. At that point he noticed the ope drawer, and that Sollux had stolen his DS.]

Careful with that, seriously dude. You know there is an xbox in the main room if you want to play video games right?

[Metabee walked further into the room, reaching up to take the DS from Sollux.]

[nitrodamus]

[He...seems seriously dubious about Metabee coming near him, but when it seems clear what he's reaching for. Well, thankfully he isn't in an amnesiac haze, and he acknowledges that the DS isn't his.]

[He doesn't exactly hold it out to him, but he doesn't try to keep the robot from taking it either.]

I was look...

[He pulls away, looking defensive.]

I need...edit.

[He doesn't seem really sure about what word.]

JON

[nitrodamus]

When Jon's Macbook and iPhone go missing, it's likely pretty startling to find that Sollux has apparently been dismantling them on the kitchen table. He's found and assembled a collection of tools for the task - some legitimate and some makeshift - and is peering around inside the interior of the Macbook, with pieces of the iPhone still exposed and organized off to the side.

He's focused enough that he won't notice himself being observed for a while, either. Apparently Karkat was right about computers potentially keeping the troll occupied.

[hellacold]

[jon likes to think he's been pretty understanding of sollux's issues so far. he considers himself a very tolerant person, in that he knows better than to speak up when he thinks something is weird. when his phone and laptop go missing, his first thought is that he left them in his dorm room, but that can't be right, since he used them this morning. when he exhausts every possibility in his own room, he moves on to the living room. before he can make much headway, though, a scuttling sound draws his attention to the kitchen--where sollux is apparently breaking down his devices for parts. jon gapes for a moment in shock.]

Hey!

[he instinctively swoops in to grab his devices, momentarily forgetting his strict policy of letting sollux do whatever, and also not making loud noises near traumatized persons. this is not something he can overlook; they are his sole means of communicating with his family, and also, expensive.]

These are mine! I need them for school.

[well, among other things.]

[nitrodamus]

[Sollux gives Jon the look of someone who really wasn't expecting to see this human around right now. So surprised, in fact, that he basically falls out of his chair. He snarls and hisses, clicking threateningly as he tries to untangle himself, pressing back his ears.]

[He's only just pried the back off of the Macbook, but the iPhone is still in pieces.]

[He spits something in Alternian with a harsh buzz.]

No! Stupid!

[hellacold]

[if jon is not concerned with sollux's trauma, hissing isn't going to do much to bother him. he leans in to examine his phone pieces.]

You have to put it back.

[he demonstrates this by setting the back piece of his laptop in its place.]

It's not yours. I need it.

CYNTHIA

[nitrodamus]

After refusing to eat for most of the day, it feels as if his hunger has come to him all at once. He doesn't want to go outside, really. The rest of the dormitory feels like a frightening place after the last time he left this room.

He dwells on this conundrum for a good long while, until the debate within his own head becomes more nauseating than the actual experience. It's around midnight when he finally makes his move.

He tip toes through the hall on shaking legs, like a hunter stalking prey. As soon as he finds the nutrition facility, he wastes no time going to peer inside.

Most of the human food smells disgusting, and he finds himself searching through the contents in faint bewilderment. He can't find any of the stuff that Karkat had been bringing for him, and the idea of something new is daunting.

There is a small pile of unwanted food items on the floor next to him in hardly any time at all.

[civilizedcombat]

While passing by the kitchen on the way back from a quick midnight bathroom trip, Cynthia hears some commotion. She peeks into the room and sees an unfamiliar silhouette rummaging through the fridge.

For a moment, she thinks this person might be a burglar, and her adrenaline begins to rise. Then, she realizes: why would a burglar have their head in the fridge? That doesn't make any sense.

The answer comes to her after a moment. "Hey!" she whispers, just loud enough to hear. "You're Sollux, right?" She waves at him excitedly; this is the first time she's actually seen him in the common areas.

[nitrodamus]

He's startled despite her efforts to be quiet, and staggers back, knocking over a jar of peaches. He stares back at her, eyes wide and glowing faintly in the darkness. He stays staring for longer than is normal, a soft buzzing sound in his throat, until it eventually fades.

He takes another step back.

"I'm Sollux," he repeats, sounding like he is ashamed or wary of being spotted. His own pronunciation of his name is different from hers. More alien and strange. "What are you?"

[civilizedcombat]

She watches him watch her, and then, careful not to make any erratic or threatening movements, she slowly comes out into the open. Karkat told them that Sollux had been through some nasty stuff and was all sorts of traumatized. She doesn't want to accidentally freak him out, especially not in the middle of the night.

"Oh! Well, I'm a human, but I'm also Cynthia." She's unsure whether he was asking for her name or her species. Hopefully he won't mind both.

[hangedmagician]

Junpei's just coming back into the dorms, here, after a normal, casual sort of day. He's sure not expecting anything weird to be going down... but then again? Weird is kind of relative by now.

So what might be happening around the place?

[nitrodamus]

Generally speaking, whenever Sollux is out and about it's under the hope that he will not be seen by any of his dorm mates. He doesn't like people talking to him with their long confusing sentences, and he doesn't like trying to jabber back in broken English.

But some things he just doesn't have space for in his room. Like completely disassembling his computer, for example.

However, even while those pieces are scattered all over the table, he mostly seems to be focused on routing through every single cupboard in the kitchen and leaving stuff he doesn't need in unexpected places. He mutters under his breath in Alternian as he hunts.

[hangedmagician]

Alright. Junpei knows how to deal with his own mess. He's not sure how to cope with mess that comes from dissected machinery and the ransacking of the kitchen, though... but as soon as he sees just who the culprit is? Well... he's willing to cut Sollux some slack.

So, he's going to be just giving a grin and a wave - "Busy, huh?" and watching for a bit, at least.

[nitrodamus]

Sollux looks up at him warily, hunkering down behind one of the cupboard doors. He folds back his ears, and then shoves some of the stuff inside around with a hand as if to prove a point.

"I can't google," he says.

NESSA

[nitrodamus]

Sollux is in the bathroom, messing around with the shower. To what end, it's not quite clear. He sits on the edge of the bathtub, and tries turning the water on, and when he does, he lets out a low sound of alien distress, trilling forlornly in his throat.

He stares at it for a moment, before looking away and very quickly running a cloth beneath the stream. He starts rubbing down his hair with it, trying to give the shower as little attention as possible.

[purrsuit]

Usually when someone is trying to shower the door is shut, so when Nessa walks past and hears running water, it causes her to hesitate. And then the trilling gets her entire attention. Karkat only does that when he's really frustrated, so she pokes her head around the corner expecting to see her friend but finds someone else. Or more aptly, the reason she hasn't spoken to Karkat since the sinkhole.

Nessa knocks on the door, hoping that'll give him enough warning, and cautiously waves her hand/ She has experience with Alternians who don't speak much English--heck, she practically helped teach Karkat some--but still, she knows vaguely that he's been a bit traumatised.

"Hello," she says, tilting her head at him before repeating the greeting in very broken and mispronounced Alternian.

[nitrodamus]

The (admittedly poorly pronounced) Alternian surprises him. It doesn't have any of the right vocalization, and it's hard for even a native speaker to process. At this point, though, anyone besides him and Karkat having even a passing knowledge of the language is impressive.

He jolts in surprise at someone else being there, looking up at her with startled, alien eyes. He pulls the washcloth away from his head like he's embarrassed.

"What?" he asks in Alternian, furrowing his brow. Then he speaks in English. "You speak troll?"

[purrsuit]

She puts her hands up in a way to show that she has no weapons and gives him a small smile. She recognises the word he uses--he probably wasn't expecting a human to be able to speak Alternian, much less with her beautiful pronunciation. Nessa glances at the washcloth with some curiosity. It's like having Karkat here for the first time all over again.

"Little," she butchers in Troll, before continuing in English. "Karkat taught me some."

[10thingsihateaboutme]

Although Karkat spent a day or so completely glued to Sollux's side after the sinkhole incident, he's starting to loosen up now, in fact even more than before. The knowledge that other people are going to be watching out for him as well is a relief, and he's starting to feel like it's probably better if his friend has more interaction with his other friends – like maybe that will give him a better handle on his new situation.

He even went outside yesterday, and stayed out for like a whole hour before he hurried back out of concern that something terrible had happened and the others had somehow just neglected to call him about it. (The above average volume of weird looks he was getting from people who had heard about – or seen – Sollux's amnesiac rampage the other day didn't help either, of course.)

Such lofty ambitions are not quite on the agenda today. Karkat usually doesn't get out on a regular basis anyway. Instead this evening he has been catching up on some missed time in the fancy ass superhero gym. When he finally hangs up the sickles he congratulates himself on some time usefully spent with barely any excessive fretting about how other people are doing, but once he's actually out of the training facility he finds himself compelled, rather than heading straight for the shower, to do a circuit of the dorms to make sure Sollux hasn't gotten himself in any fresh and unfortunate shit.

[nitrodamus]

Sollux, as it happens, is reading the newspaper. Except, in his case, reading the newspaper ending up looking a lot like he's tearing the newspaper into pieces.

Most of the pages are scattered out so he can better look at them, and there is a pile of 'articles' that have ostensibly been torn out of their original locations. It also looks like he's taken a big toothy bite out of more than one piece of the leftovers.

But now he's just sitting on the living room floor, starring at the ads page like its physically hurt him. His breath is quiet, but fast to anyone who can hear it - his ears folded tightly back against his head.

[10thingsihateaboutme]

Ah.

Karkat approaches carefully.

"Hey, man..." He sidles over, looking down past Sollux at the page that he's staring at and trying to work out what on it has offended him so badly.

[nitrodamus]

It isn't super obvious, looking at the page. At first glance it just looks like a bunch of ads, some for pizza delivery, advertising space, and for upcoming holiday events. His ear twitches as Karkat approaches but he doesn't look less downtrodden.

"Hey..." he mumbles in Alternian. It's always a relief to be talking to Karkat instead of anyone else. He can feel his heart beating quickly in his throat. He doesn't really know what to say.