[the curse is both said and aggressively thought, and Rin has just the right combination of good reflexes and good luck to kick right off the nearest groaning piece of metal, the shark missing a healthy bite of his midsection by narrow inches. his brain immediately tells him not to thrash and draw its attention further, but his brain is also telling him to get the fuck away from the fuckin sand shark. it doesn't help that the rabbit trays and air-bags are swimming all over the place now, making it hard to see how the shark's moving]
Karkat -- !
[the line of telepathy is grabbed with both hands and shaken, the swell of Rin's panic and adrenaline snapping into Karkat's head]
[ SEE THIS IS!!! THE TYPE OF BULLSHIT THAT HAPPENS WHEN NO ONE FUCKING LISTENS TO KARKAT!!!!!!!
karkat isn't the best fighter of his group, and he doesn't have the added bonus of god tier powers. the very first thing that crosses his mind when rin is attacked is oh fuck did i just get someone else killed which may or may not have been accidentally telepathically transmitted. take that as you will.
his second thought is, understandably, to make sure that does not happen. he pulls his sickles out of his sylladex, which would look as if they just appeared out of thin air (or thin water?) from rin's perspective if he saw it happen. he swims over to rin and practically yanks on his arm, pulling him away from where the shark primarily is. ]
Holy fuck, move away so you don't get eaten? I'll take care of --
[ whoops there's the shark
karkat slashes at it when it tries to go for them again, hitting it on the top of its head a little before it pulls back. yeah. he really needs to practice fighting underwater more what the fuck. ]
[yeah, that someone else killed comment was projected, but Rin's a little busy right now, trying not to die and watching his new friend attack a shark with sickles he pulled out of ??? his ass]
[Rin goes with the yank, moving/being pushed away. Karkat swings and -- gently baps it on the head, or something, for being a naughty boy. shit, and also fuck. commence a stream of telepathic curses that don't actually stop as a background to your strife, Karkat]
[for his part, Rin glances around frantically, looking for something to actually defend himself with because? he doesn't have a weapon? why would he? he's made mistakes]
[ attack the shark with the crab plushie that they have not found yet.
also don't criticize how karkat gently baps it?? he is doing more work than you are, rin, so shut up. karkat immediately attacks the sand shark again before it can go after its fellow shark person, aka rin. he manages to get a decent size cut in, on the fish's side. so there's probably a lot of blood mixed in with the water now, so that's a thing. ]
What the fuck did you do to piss it off? It keeps trying to get to you!
[ probably since it realized rin is the easier prey. ]
[yeah, that's all Karkat's getting in terms of telepathy for the moment; Rin absurdly continues barely avoiding the shark's snapping jaws, and the introduction of blood to the water does nothing to calm him. which is part of the problem, therefore he instructs himself to take a breath and]
Think, think!
[there's no weapon he can pick up in the area. most things here are too heavy to lift without proper leverage, that's why they brought the stupid drone -- ]
The drone --
[and Rin takes over the controls of the heavy-lifting little bot, sending it explicit directives to unload some of that metal in the near future. if the shark would just stay in one general place for a second -- ]
[ karkat is so used to being in battle situations with people who actually know how to fight that. rin not knowing what to do is such a ????? moment, like what the heck. ]
Oh sure, I love being bait! It's in my top ten of favorite things to be, right after stabbed to death and comatose! Thanks for letting me fulfill my dreams, Rin.
[ he still does it though, making trying to block the shark from moving towards rin again.
seriously he is so going to practice fighting underwater after this wtf ]
[Rin has a moment to madly think fucking hell he's a sarcastic shit even when he's about to get eaten which maybe gives away how confident he is feeling in his plan (an even 40% success rate). still, as Karkat blocks the shark from killing him (oh my god?), Rin guides the drone up, up, and over snarling teeth and certain death -- ]
[ -- and has it release the topmost sheets of scrap metal over the sand shark. one bounces off its fine, too small, one misses completely, too weird-shaped, and one -- ]
[ -- shunks graphically through the back of the shark like it's a magician's lovely assistant under the saw, splitting it into two. furls of blood and dying shark ensue. enjoy the shark guts right in your face, floating around. nature is a beautiful mystery]
Are you okay...?
[Rin wants to barf, yell, and run a mile. his heart is never going to slow down]
he is more or less used to terrible deaths so he isn't that bothered by the gruesome shark death, but he just is not a fan of blood, ugh. he makes a face at it before turning his attention back to rin.
gotta make sure the new best bro is okay. ]
Who the hell cares about me, are you okay? It almost got you!
It's fine. -- No, it's not fine, I'm totally freaked out. Fuck. You saved my ass, Karkat, holy shit.
[he swims forward, grabbing reflexively onto one of Karkat's arms. the drone putputs back down closer to them, as if its not a murderer now. prison will change it]
[still shaken and distracted, Rin's watching the corners intently now, far more than he had at the beginning of their scavenger hunt]
Sharks can smell blood in the water from miles away. We're a big red target.
[a kind of half-frantic tug on Karkat's arm, and Rin starts swimming back the way they came, only to realise he's not entirely sure which way is Out anymore. they'd gotten pretty deep into the structure, and with his pulse still hammering in his brain, everything is looking the same]
Wow, I didn't know you felt that strongly for EVE. I hope the two of you are happy together, RIN-E.
[ karkat... admittedly was not paying attention to where they were going; he had just been following rin the whole time. he also does not point out that there are other things they have to worry about besides sand sharks, mostly because he does not want rin to have a heart attack.
trying very hard to ignore the blood that's spreading, karkat points at a direction that? looks familiar?? or maybe it's familiar from when he was darting around with that shark, who even knows. ]
[he wants to punch Karkat in the arm for that comment, but figures this is a bad time to start rough-housing, in the shark-blood and nest of things that want to eat them]
[Rin hangs back, following Karkat this time -- his sense of direction is usually impeccable, but he's a little shaken. he brings up the map of the area in his helmet, trying to locate them. if all else fails, he knows they can tell the drone to go back to base and just follow it (though he has a feeling it may not take the path easiest for two substantially larger swimmers)]
[ he pauses at a steel case, taps on it, and tosses it into his sylladex without looking to see if anything is inside it. maybe they can use it to store shit at the base. ]
[this is not the room they came in, this a room full of circling fucking sandsharks and bloodsuckers]
SHARKSfuck, lots of sharks fuckshit!
[Rin swims backwards, probably bumping right into Karkat. the sharks haven't noticed yet, that the fish swimming in the other room are not more bloodsuckers]
It's not that way it's not that way, it's this way --
[adrenaline slams clarity into Rin's brain -- it's left, right, up up, left, up, down, right, left, right, up. just like an Nintendo 64 cheat code]
[ karkat takes a second to appreciate rin's vocabulary.... make him proud, best friend.... but oh right yeah.
sharks are bad, so. ]
Wait. Wait, wait, wait, hold on.
[ karkat takes a moment to slowly swim over to grab another thing he thinks looks interesting and deposits it in his sylladex. ]
Okay let's try not to get eaten again, I guess. I know I told someone I was expecting the base's first death to be something really stupid but this is not what I meant.
That someone would die from a new guy choking them would be pretty stupid, yeah. Move it, move it, we've got plenty on the drone.
[Rin's taking some deep breaths in his suit. he has to get used to this, he knows he does, but one life-or-death experience has frankly been enough for one day]
I remember how to get out now. Let's just... quietly... make our escape.
[the absconding begins, with Rin becoming incrementally more relaxed with each successive turn away from the sharks. he may look like one of them, but he's as warm blooded as any other human]
[sadly, when they get to the kelp forest, it's stalker feeding time. The beasts are hunting the smaller fish darting in and out of the kelp, making it difficult to count how many there are]
[ karkat looks over them all, also more relaxed. stalkers can be tricky to deal with, but they're also not giant fucking sharks? the only problem is how many there are; if they get swarmed then it'd get tricky.
karkat tosses one of his sickles to his other hand, grabs rin's arm again with his now free one and, this time, doesn't let go when he starts moving. he's not moving as fast as he was before as to not draw the stalkers attention.
he also wants to keep rin actually close this time. ]
[Rin has to admit, he feels -- a lot safer, swimming closer to Karkat, rather than leading. it's a strange, uncomfortable sensation, as Rin has considered himself a lone entity for many years, and only recently come back to the fold of actually having friends. relying on them is still something he's working on, and this kind of relying -- so much more serious than letting Sousuke direct practice while he tends to a family thing, or even counting on Haru to do his best at training to give Rin himself more purpose -- is a little raw]
[(he wonders if this is what his dad felt like, with his crew; he wonders who he stayed near, when water pressed in)]
[these thoughts are way too grim for the already anxiety-inducing swarm of sharks around them; Rin shifts close, and swims just as slow, even though his legs want to kick off the nearest shark and swim back towards the base at top speeds]
[ karkat is just relieved that rin is actually following along with this; he had been a little worried that he might swim off again in his haste to get away from the danger. ]
It'll probably help. I know we have a lot of spare weapons at the base.
[Rin's pretty individualistic and self-driven, but he knows how to work in a team, too. it's probably one the things in life he looks most forward to, honestly]
I'd probably cut off my own hand, but just this once, alright. Thanks.
[swimswim, swimswim. the stalkers haven't noticed anything yet. or at least, they don't until the force from their legs knocks into a kelp clump, sending shivers up along it. what's that over there...? there's no rush, just stalkers slowly circling a ring or two closer, even as Rin and Karkat keep moving]
I can't believe I thought nationals were stressful.
[ honestly, karkat would prefer not to kill any stalkers because dave likes them and karkat is very #whipped. but rin's life is more important than dave's weird habit of adopting alien fish so. what he doesn't know won't hurt him, probably.
he just keeps staring straight ahead, not wanting to get too distracted by the approaching threat. if he thinks too much about it he might end up freaking himself out, which is a bad habit of his. ]
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Yeah that's fucking cool. Just do the exact opposite of what I just said, that's completely fine.
[ ugh maybe he just imagined it? he slowly goes after rin, wondering if maybe his paranoia is just acting up.
and that's when the fuckin sand shark lunges at rin. ]
no subject
[the curse is both said and aggressively thought, and Rin has just the right combination of good reflexes and good luck to kick right off the nearest groaning piece of metal, the shark missing a healthy bite of his midsection by narrow inches. his brain immediately tells him not to thrash and draw its attention further, but his brain is also telling him to get the fuck away from the fuckin sand shark. it doesn't help that the rabbit trays and air-bags are swimming all over the place now, making it hard to see how the shark's moving]
Karkat -- !
[the line of telepathy is grabbed with both hands and shaken, the swell of Rin's panic and adrenaline snapping into Karkat's head]
no subject
karkat isn't the best fighter of his group, and he doesn't have the added bonus of god tier powers. the very first thing that crosses his mind when rin is attacked is oh fuck did i just get someone else killed which may or may not have been accidentally telepathically transmitted. take that as you will.
his second thought is, understandably, to make sure that does not happen. he pulls his sickles out of his sylladex, which would look as if they just appeared out of thin air (or thin water?) from rin's perspective if he saw it happen. he swims over to rin and practically yanks on his arm, pulling him away from where the shark primarily is. ]
Holy fuck, move away so you don't get eaten? I'll take care of --
[ whoops there's the shark
karkat slashes at it when it tries to go for them again, hitting it on the top of its head a little before it pulls back. yeah. he really needs to practice fighting underwater more what the fuck. ]
no subject
[Rin goes with the yank, moving/being pushed away. Karkat swings and -- gently baps it on the head, or something, for being a naughty boy. shit, and also fuck. commence a stream of telepathic curses that don't actually stop as a background to your strife, Karkat]
[for his part, Rin glances around frantically, looking for something to actually defend himself with because? he doesn't have a weapon? why would he? he's made mistakes]
no subject
also don't criticize how karkat gently baps it?? he is doing more work than you are, rin, so shut up. karkat immediately attacks the sand shark again before it can go after its fellow shark person, aka rin. he manages to get a decent size cut in, on the fish's side. so there's probably a lot of blood mixed in with the water now, so that's a thing. ]
What the fuck did you do to piss it off? It keeps trying to get to you!
[ probably since it realized rin is the easier prey. ]
no subject
[yeah, that's all Karkat's getting in terms of telepathy for the moment; Rin absurdly continues barely avoiding the shark's snapping jaws, and the introduction of blood to the water does nothing to calm him. which is part of the problem, therefore he instructs himself to take a breath and]
Think, think!
[there's no weapon he can pick up in the area. most things here are too heavy to lift without proper leverage, that's why they brought the stupid drone -- ]
The drone --
[and Rin takes over the controls of the heavy-lifting little bot, sending it explicit directives to unload some of that metal in the near future. if the shark would just stay in one general place for a second -- ]
Try to keep it in that corner be careful fuck!
[three thoughts at once]
no subject
Oh sure, I love being bait! It's in my top ten of favorite things to be, right after stabbed to death and comatose! Thanks for letting me fulfill my dreams, Rin.
[ he still does it though, making trying to block the shark from moving towards rin again.
seriously he is so going to practice fighting underwater after this wtf ]
no subject
[ -- and has it release the topmost sheets of scrap metal over the sand shark. one bounces off its fine, too small, one misses completely, too weird-shaped, and one -- ]
[ -- shunks graphically through the back of the shark like it's a magician's lovely assistant under the saw, splitting it into two. furls of blood and dying shark ensue. enjoy the shark guts right in your face, floating around. nature is a beautiful mystery]
Are you okay...?
[Rin wants to barf, yell, and run a mile. his heart is never going to slow down]
no subject
he is more or less used to terrible deaths so he isn't that bothered by the gruesome shark death, but he just is not a fan of blood, ugh. he makes a face at it before turning his attention back to rin.
gotta make sure the new best bro is okay. ]
Who the hell cares about me, are you okay? It almost got you!
no subject
[he swims forward, grabbing reflexively onto one of Karkat's arms. the drone putputs back down closer to them, as if its not a murderer now. prison will change it]
We should get outta here.
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he figures he can come back with the drone later to pick up anything they might have missed out on. ]
I guess. Before any more come and try to pick a fight with EVE.
[ that is what karkat has decided to name the drone. after the wall-e character. ]
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[still shaken and distracted, Rin's watching the corners intently now, far more than he had at the beginning of their scavenger hunt]
Sharks can smell blood in the water from miles away. We're a big red target.
[a kind of half-frantic tug on Karkat's arm, and Rin starts swimming back the way they came, only to realise he's not entirely sure which way is Out anymore. they'd gotten pretty deep into the structure, and with his pulse still hammering in his brain, everything is looking the same]
[distractedly, it hits him]
You can't have an EVE without a WALL-E.
no subject
[ karkat... admittedly was not paying attention to where they were going; he had just been following rin the whole time. he also does not point out that there are other things they have to worry about besides sand sharks, mostly because he does not want rin to have a heart attack.
trying very hard to ignore the blood that's spreading, karkat points at a direction that? looks familiar?? or maybe it's familiar from when he was darting around with that shark, who even knows. ]
Let's go this way.
no subject
[Rin hangs back, following Karkat this time -- his sense of direction is usually impeccable, but he's a little shaken. he brings up the map of the area in his helmet, trying to locate them. if all else fails, he knows they can tell the drone to go back to base and just follow it (though he has a feeling it may not take the path easiest for two substantially larger swimmers)]
This doesn't seem right...
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[ he pauses at a steel case, taps on it, and tosses it into his sylladex without looking to see if anything is inside it. maybe they can use it to store shit at the base. ]
Which way then?
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[this is not the room they came in, this a room full of circling fucking sandsharks and bloodsuckers]
SHARKSfuck, lots of sharks fuckshit!
[Rin swims backwards, probably bumping right into Karkat. the sharks haven't noticed yet, that the fish swimming in the other room are not more bloodsuckers]
It's not that way it's not that way, it's this way --
[adrenaline slams clarity into Rin's brain -- it's left, right, up up, left, up, down, right, left, right, up. just like an Nintendo 64 cheat code]
no subject
sharks are bad, so. ]
Wait. Wait, wait, wait, hold on.
[ karkat takes a moment to slowly swim over to grab another thing he thinks looks interesting and deposits it in his sylladex. ]
Okay let's try not to get eaten again, I guess. I know I told someone I was expecting the base's first death to be something really stupid but this is not what I meant.
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[Rin's taking some deep breaths in his suit. he has to get used to this, he knows he does, but one life-or-death experience has frankly been enough for one day]
I remember how to get out now. Let's just... quietly... make our escape.
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[ because hey, if he gets eaten then the sharks will probably be too distracted to chase after rin? everyone wins in that scenario.
he'll start pushing rin back towards where they came though, letting him know that is is okay to start absconding. ]
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[sadly, when they get to the kelp forest, it's stalker feeding time. The beasts are hunting the smaller fish darting in and out of the kelp, making it difficult to count how many there are]
Any ideas?
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karkat tosses one of his sickles to his other hand, grabs rin's arm again with his now free one and, this time, doesn't let go when he starts moving. he's not moving as fast as he was before as to not draw the stalkers attention.
he also wants to keep rin actually close this time. ]
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[(he wonders if this is what his dad felt like, with his crew; he wonders who he stayed near, when water pressed in)]
[these thoughts are way too grim for the already anxiety-inducing swarm of sharks around them; Rin shifts close, and swims just as slow, even though his legs want to kick off the nearest shark and swim back towards the base at top speeds]
I should bring something sharp next time, huh...
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It'll probably help. I know we have a lot of spare weapons at the base.
[ oh, wait, he just got an idea. ]
Unless you want to borrow a sickle from me?
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I'd probably cut off my own hand, but just this once, alright. Thanks.
[swimswim, swimswim. the stalkers haven't noticed anything yet. or at least, they don't until the force from their legs knocks into a kelp clump, sending shivers up along it. what's that over there...? there's no rush, just stalkers slowly circling a ring or two closer, even as Rin and Karkat keep moving]
I can't believe I thought nationals were stressful.
[Rin takes the sickle]
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he just keeps staring straight ahead, not wanting to get too distracted by the approaching threat. if he thinks too much about it he might end up freaking himself out, which is a bad habit of his. ]
What the hell are nationals?
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