capitalh | SUPER BARBECUE SUPER BARBECUE SUPER BARBECUE [open as heck]

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SUPER BARBECUE SUPER BARBECUE SUPER BARBECUE [open as heck]

Who: SUPER HEROES!!!!!
Where: Ernest E. Debs Regional Park!
When: Sunday!
What: SUPER BARBECUE
Warnings: Superheroes...

It's a pleasant evening at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park, just a couple miles from downtown LA, which can be seen through the haze. Late March means spring is just arriving in LA and the trees are just starting to bud. Unfortunately, the grass is still kind of dead and dry.

The barbecue and picnic area isn't too busy, though the park does have the usual assortment of joggers, dog walkers, and cyclists. There are some balloons tied to picnic tables, and strung between two trees is a very homemade "SUPER BBQ" banner, courtesy of Hulkling and Starbreaker. There's still glitter glue on Milly's apartment floor. There's another posterboard with the rules written on it in big bold sharpie letters nearby, just in case anyone forgets:

Don't be a jerk!!!
Keep your weapons holstered please.
Do not trash the park!
ABSOLUTELY NO FIGHTING
Anyone caught fighting will be asked to leave!
Really don't be a jerk!

[OKAY GUYS!!! mingle! have fun! maybe some THINGS WILL HAPPEN, whoooo knows!]

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RANDOM ENCOUNTER: A WILD WIZARD APPEARS.

No, just kidding, it's Sollux. He approaches Karkat leisurely, his grin concealed beneath his black face mask. He leans in real close and then says:

"Sup." Or whatever the Alternian equivalent is.

Karkat jumps, immediately defensive, before he realises he just got spoken to in Alternian. Then he realises who's speaking to him in Alternian, and it's a moment before he fully relaxes.

He's still not fully relaxed, for that matter.

"Sollux?" he hisses. "What the bleeding assfuck are you doing here?"

"I'm undercover, man," he says. This whole trip has been pretty hilarious thus far and he's in a good mood. "No one suspects a wizard. Motherfuckers aren't even real."

Karkat looks him up and down, unconvinced, a little confused, and slightly wistful.

"... Dude, they totally are real," he says. "I've fought wizards. You're probably gonna offend some actual wizards by mocking their ancient traditions or whatever."

"Yeah, whatever, pretty much everything is real on this stupid planet," Sollux says, not sounding especially concerned about it. "And they can't even talk shit, this outfit is classic and completely respectable."

But enough of that. He's still obviously in one of his upwards swings, but he switches to a subject of a little more import. He's not sure how long he'll be able to stick around this place.

"Seriously though, dude, what's up? It's been like weeks or something. Has that guy come at you again? I've been keeping my eye out, but...you know."

In a totally not creepy manner. Not at all.

Karkat pulls a face.

"... Kind of," he says. "I mean, not really. I found him in an alley covered in blood? I think this dude is legitimately messed up. But then he got up in my face about how I needed to die again..." He pauses, and pulls a different face, shooting Sollux a sort of suspicious look: "Keeping your eye out like keeping an eye out for clone guy or keeping your eye on me."

"Uh," Sollux says. "Well you're the only lead I actually have on him here. What else am I supposed to be watching?"

Okay so maybe that doesn't sound like he'd hoped. Oh well, his point stands.

He sighs. "Okay, dude, but I'm just saying, if you're tailing me around you'd better be watching out for CONDOR guys, okay." Frowning a little, with a sort of uncertain concern he adds, "I told them you took off and you're less likely to cause a brain laser fuckstorm if they try to take you back in but I'm pretty sure they're still looking for you."

"Yeah, I know," he says with a frown, looking more upset than angry. "They probably want to catch me just so they can lock me up again." He kicks at the ground. "Fuck those guys."

Karkat huffs – not exactly in agreement, but not really in disagreement either. He knows CONDOR just want to protect Earth – he's irritated that they won't just take his word for the fact that Sollux is less dangerous if they'll leave him alone, but at the same time he's not really sure that Sollux isn't dangerous at all.

He really doesn't want to get into that right now, though, so he peers past Sollux at the people milling around, a curious look on his face: "So did you come here on your own or what?"

He shrugs his shoulders, brightening a little at the chance of topic, but ultimately a little preoccupied with thoughts of CONDOR.

"Not exactly," he says. "Some of the guys I've been hanging with are here too."

"Really?" Karkat squints at the crowd a little harder, as if he'll be able to tell which guys they are just by looking. "So what, are they heroes?"

"...No," he says, after a moment of hesitation. "Not really."

Sollux doesn't fully grasp the evil inherent in Megatron, but he knows enough to gather that they probably aren't "heroes" exactly.

"They're aliens. Like, they're not from here. They don't look like that right now though."

Karkat leans back a little – obviously he's not going to be able to tell who they are if that's the case.

"Oh – like Skrulls or whatever?"

Sollux takes a moment before he affirms that.

"Yeah, basically. They get some of this shit." He swallows uncomfortably. "TRIDENT had one of them, too."

Karkat frowns. "What, like, in their labs?" His ears twitch back. "Did they get her out?"

"I dunno how it happened we never really talk about it," Sollux says, shrugging rigidly. "Some shit just went down and he escaped I guess. Kind of...like what happened with me." He swallows. "I never really knew what actually...let me get out. I...I..."

He finds himself practically shivering just thinking about it in those terms, thinking about how he'd been kept and how he had to escape. And wow, suddenly, that's all he can think about.

It's been a little while since he felt like this so strongly, and it catches him by surprise. Some part of him was convinced, maybe, that he was okay again after having gotten his powers back. Like that had fixed things somehow. But it hits him hard, and leaves him staggering.

He suddenly really doesn't like the feeling of having that mask over face, but he can't just pull it off or everyone will see him. Karkat is standing right there, but-

"I-I need to go...do...uh..." The words never quite happen, but he starts trying to skitter away regardless.

Nope too bad Karkat grabs him by the sleeve. "Dude," he exclaims, in surprise and concern – it sort of helps with both of those things that he can't see Sollux's face, even though it's pretty obvious what's freaking him out. "Chill out, man –"

Unsurprisingly, having someone grab him doesn't help at all. He can barely even comprehend who's doing it before he starts shrieking:

"Let me fucking go!" He jerks himself away, and shoves back at Karkat telekinetically - it's not especially gentle. A flash of purple later, he's back to scrambling away, the threshold toward panic officially crossed.

Karkat stumbles, but he's back on his feet quickly, growling in frustration – with himself more than anything else. He should have seen that coming.

He opens his mouth to yell after him, but cuts himself off, realising he doesn't want to draw attention to who it is running. He swears under his breath and then scrambles after his friend, yelling, "Hey, shitty fucking wizard!"

Sollux has ducked under a picnic table as Karkat comes running after him, and is already ripping off his hat and mask. The relief of having the mask off his head and not coming his eyes or ears anymore isn't as great as he'd hoped, mostly because the feeling refuses to go away.

His arms and legs are folded against him as he tries desperately to calm down, his breath short and strained far more than it should have been from that brief sprint. God, this is the worst.

It's a minute or so before Karkat finds him, lifting up the tablecloth to peer under.

"... Bro?" he says, kneeling by the picnic table. "Shit, man, sorry, I didn't think..."

It's still kind of weird having Karkat be in costume when he's not, and so for a moment it catches him off guard. The panic is gradually beginning to pass, however, and he keeps himself from lashing out again.

Instead he just looks humiliated.

"You didn't even do anything, it's fucking stupid," he says. He hurls his mask at the ground, angrily.

Karkat frowns. He isn't really surprised by that response; although it doesn't really cross his mind consciously, he probably wouldn't have apologised so readily prior to his year on Earth, where his human friends, he has found, generally expect him to be significantly nicer than trolls did, even when occupying the social space of 'the rude one'.

"Yeah, it kind of is, but it was still kind of my fault."

He doesn't really feel like arguing about who's fault it was, even if he mostly feels like it must be a personal failure. When he didn't have his powers at least he had an excuse.

"Why does this still keep happening?" he mumbles miserably. "I thought it was going to stop but it didn't."

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