[Open] Touch your feathers to the breeze

[cancercarcino]

Who: Karkat Vantas and YOU!
Where: The Forest
When: Anytime between the 22nd and 24th
What: Karkat is going out into the forest to practice his Raven abilities. Namely, trying to fly
Warnings: May contain strong language and lots of falling down
Status: Open to anyone passing by



After finally coming to terms with his situation of being stuck in some weird wiggler-tale world, Karkat had taken to exploring said new world for answers. As nice and helpful as the townsfolk had been, they got much too annoying for his tastes after a while. As soon as he'd finished with gaining all the knowledge he could from the town he set his sights on the forest. After making his way out into the forest, Karkat found an empty cottage not far from the town's outskirts and claimed it as his own. At least out here, he could get some peace and quiet from the bustling noise of the town.

Since learning about his role as Raven, Karkat had been curious as to his new abilities. The shape-shifting took several days to figure out, and many hours cooped up in his new home were dedicated to practicing. But while shape-shifting eventually became more familiar (if not still completely bizarre), his wings were another story. Several people had asked if he could fly with them before, and he was curious about them as well. He'd kept them more or less folded to his back and out of his mind, but eventually he wondered if they could indeed be used.

The only problem was the actual learning to fly bit.

It took a little while to find a wide enough space for him to practice, but soon Karkat found a suitable location; an out-of-the-way clearing with a little hill overlooking it, high enough for some practice yet not so high that he would end up falling to his death if things turned bad. It was here that Karkat decided he would try out his new appendages.

Bundled up in an old cloak he'd found in his cottage, Karkat stood atop the hill, wings unfurled. Okay, he could do this. Aradia and Vriska could do it after ascending to God-Tier, right? This wouldn't be so different, right?

It doesn't take very long for the air to be filled with shouted curses and expletives, and for the clearing itself to be marred with disturbed snow, kicked up grass, and scattered black feathers.

Comments

[white_fairy]

Ever since experiencing the first full moon after being kidnapped into the strange fairytale world, Elraine began to slowly test the water with her newly found shapeshifting ability. Karkat wasn't the only one to try to find solitude in the woods. Whenever she tried practicing her transformation, at night and behind closed doors, Elle continued to feel exposed and paranoid in the darkness. The only explanation she could come up with was that it was beinga shapeshifter, her role, that caused the townspeople to attempt to avoid her now and then. It would explain her new anxiety. However, no one was avoiding Kiri, with his role giving him shapeshifting powers, and she was used to being avoided back home as well...

Oh well. At least she made it a daily routine to head out towards the forest to stretch her legs and see how fast she could run in her fox form.
The only problem is that her day-to-day exercise was interrupted by some clamor in the distance. Upon hearing the clamor, Elle's worry-wart tendency was set off as she immediately assumed that someone was hurt. So off she went, listening carefully with her new enhanced hearing, and making her way towards a particular training spot.

At least her fox form's fur was white, helping her blend in with the new snow and keeping out of trouble, but it also aided her effort to spy on Karkat from afar. She wasn't sure how to make out the scene at first, but Elle was slightly relieved that the scene wasn't too bad, although the mess on the ground was definitely concerning.

After watching a second failed attempt at flying, Elle came to the point that she was curious and worried enough that she wanted to approach this....strange boy. (She's not really sure what to make of that either, but she had already assumed that it was due to his role.) A tree was used to hide behind for her transformation, but it was over in a snap.

"What are you doing?" is yelled across the distance when Elraine emerged from cover, bundled up in her Sister uniform and already starting to approach.

[cancercarcino]

Whoever said that flying was easy should get their bulge kicked in, according to Karkat. He'd been out for some time, trying to make his wings work in the way he'd seen birds made theirs work, but he hadn't figured out exactly how to make the flapping motion translate to flight. It didn't make any sense; Aradia and Vriska both seemed so damn sure when they got their wings... was it a god-tier thing? He'd never know.

His third attempt to fly was no better than his first and second, and his cloak was quickly becoming drenched in snow and stained with the frozen dirt that was kicked up in his crashes. His bones were aching from landing so hard, and even the snow wasn't enough of a cushion. Needless to say, he was ready to be done with the day when he heard the voice from across the clearing. Karkat's attention snapped towards the source, eyes fixed in a sharp glare at the human that emerged from behind the tree.

"I'm sitting on my ass and fondling my shame globes, what the fuck does it look like I'm doing?!" he snapped at her. "I'm trying to use these goddamn growths on my torso pillar that whatever truculent god is watching over this sorry excuse of a planet thought would be a good idea to put there!"

[white_fairy]

"Um..." Wait, give her a second. She trying to translate...all of what he just said.

Okay, maybe she only got a little more than half of it, although she doesn't exactly approve of the foul language, but Elle's offering her hand to him to help get up once she gets close enough.

"Er, I'm sorry. Is there some way I could help?" Although she doubts how much assistance she can give. There's a big difference between having wings and transforming into a fox.

sorry for being so slow, holidays have overthrown my schedule :/

[cancercarcino]

While Karkat had picked up some human terms during his three year journey on the meteor (such as 'squirrel' being the human equivalent of 'nut creature'), but he can't help but use troll terms he's grown up with for six sweeps. Not his fault if people can't use their brains to understand him.

He frowns at her, but begrudgingly accepts her hand to haul himself upright. He may be frustrated and annoyed, but he's not so much of an asshole that he'd refuse help.

...Okay maybe he would if he was feeling particularly stubborn, but that's beside the point.

"Unless you know how to conjure up a pair of wings and glue them to your torso pillar, then I doubt it." he grumbles, rubbing at his back with his free hand. Ow, he was going to be sore later...

It's okay, I've been sucked in by Steam sales. xD

[white_fairy]

Oh goodness, don't mind her content smile. She's just so excited that she can do something so small as this without having to wear gloves or worry about Troy. But Elraine hesitates afterwards, losing her train of thought once again in concern for Karkat's back. "Well...I know how to transform into a fox. Does that count?" It probably doesn't, but at least she's trying to think of something.

"Do you know if your role includes shapeshifting? Although, I'm not sure it will help if your feathers begin to freeze," she points out, brushing off some snow from Karkat's wing. "It may be best to take a break for a little while."

Hehe nice owo That's what happened to some of my friends

[cancercarcino]

Karkat sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers as he squeezed his eyes shut. "No, that's not even remotely within the same fucking region as counting, but fine, let's go with that because changing into a barkfiend is completely the same thing as learning to fly."

He does look up and take a quick step back when she approaches, but stops when he realizes she's just brushing the snow from his wings. "Oh... Shit. I didn't think of that," he admitted. Snow wasn't incredibly common on Alternia, so it hadn't crossed his mind that his feathers might actually freeze together if he was out for too long. At her other question, he nodded. "Yeah, I can shapeshift too. Took me forever to figure out how to do it without accidentally becoming half-musclebeast by thinking too hard about it."