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Who: Karkat & YOU
Where: An ASSORTMENT OF PLACES (see below)
When: Backdated a few in-game days, I think, but pretty much any time between then anddd let's say Valentine's Day
What: getchur Karkat here, assorted
Warnings: almost definitely imaginative swearing

It takes a couple of days after CONDOR agrees that housing Feferi alongside Sollux and Karkat in the West Coast Trailblazers' HQ was the best option – someone with her political value against the Alternian Empire's current regime is definitely best kept where they could see her – for Karkat has finally accept in his heart that yes, he can leave both of them unsupervised for long stretches of time. Feferi might be extremely weird and in need of some ... gentle guidance, when it comes to Earth customs, but she isn't about to go on any kind of weird amnesiac rampage or get horribly lost or accidentally hurt civilians or something, and with her around neither is Sollux.

It is a massive weight off his thorax: Sollux's recovery is no longer his responsibility. While he's not enough of an asshole to just totally leave all of this in Feferi's hands now that she's here to take it, he knows she's way more comfortable taking that kind of role with Sollux than he is. That's not the kind of friendship he and Karkat have – and it's certainly not the kind of friendship he wants them to have. And he hopes with Sollux's matesprit around it won't be so long before they can go back to comfortable bickering and shit flinging, like they used to.

For now, though – and the 'now' here spans a couple of weeks, at least – he is just appreciating the fact that he's more free to do whatever without worrying about whether his best friend is OK without him than he has been for the last couple of months.

He ends up going outside a lot more than he usually would, just because he can, so if you are a member of the public you may spot him slouching down the street, or maybe a park, with as much of a spring in his step as he ever has, as if it's never occurred to him before to explore – or in a shop, perhaps your shop if you work in one (u kno who u r), probably looking kind of disdainful or disapproving about whatever it's selling, as a default, in spite of his mostly good mood.

(He's always in civvies, of course, because he is not allowed to fight crime on his own. He's usually wearing sunglasses when he's outside, though, which isn't wholly uncommon for Alternians in the daytime – Earth's sun is a lot less dangerous than Alternia's, but his species is nocturnal by habit and somewhere as sunny as LA can be a bit much. Honestly Karkat would be pretty OK with it by now, he's had a lot of time to adjust, but the arrival of his old friends has reminded him that he needs to keep his identity secret for a reason, and the sunshine serves as a convenient excuse.)

He certainly isn't spending all of his time outside, but he is in general spending more time out of his room. Fellow Trailblazers may find him sat on the floor by the TV, re-categorising his small but steadily growing collection of Earth movies (almost exclusively romance, of course), practising with his sickles in the gym, or, if they are unlucky, cooking something that smells completely and utterly awful. He seems in a good mood, if perhaps sort of thoughtful. He may even smile at you.

(IF your character would not actually approach Karkat under any circumstances suggested here but you would like a thread, feel free to just throw in a tag of them going about whatever they're goin about, and as long as it takes place either where Karkat lives or somewhere public I will find some reason for him to get up in your business, deliberately or not.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Milly's working a shift at the bakery/cafe, but really, she'd rather be anywhere else. Shifts without Teddy are just plain boring -- wouldn't it be way more fun for them to be patrolling together, anyway? But Milly is actually invested in keeping this job, so she's not about to blow off work.

She looks up when the bell on the door chimes, her standard customer greeting halfway out of her mouth when she realizes it's one of those aliens you see around L.A. from time to time -- and more than that, she's met this one before. Granted, it was while she was in costume, but still! What are the odds? She straightens up, recalling vaguely that his English wasn't too great the last time she ran into him. Not as bad as that other alien guy, but still...

"Hi! Can I get you anything?" Do trolls even eat human food? Well, she supposes they'd have to. What even is troll food??

Karkat looks at her as if he's offended and irritated to be addressed by someone as soon as he walks into a shop, despite the fact that he has more than gathered by now that this is normal.

Still, if she's asking...

"What food do you have," he demands.

What is it with aliens being SO rude?? Milly swears she has never met a polite alien before. Don't they know they're on Earth, and people on Earth use manners?! She purses her lips slightly, but she maintains her good customer service smile, leaning a little over the display case full of pastries right in front of him.

"Well, all of our pastries are right here... We have bagels and bread, fresh baked this morning, and these croissants are pretty good, especially the ones with chocolate in them... And over here we have cookies and cupcakes! Ooh, and we just started selling these quiches, they're really good..."

Karkat frowns curiously. He's personally not done much experimenting outside of the WCT dorm's kitchen when it comes to Earth food, but now that some of his friends have gotten here he feels like he ought to have a better idea – it feels kind of pathetic to just recommend mayonnaise and pickles and cheese...

Damnit, he realises, he's totally offended the store human – his Earth manners are usually a sight better but since Sollux arrived he's been slipping back into belligerent Alternian showing off. He deflates a little and has the decency to look apologetic.

"Wait, fuck, slow down, thanks – I don't have a fuckton about Earth food, I'm trying to get food for other Alternians who just got here, do you have anything that's..." His brow furrows as he tries to settle on the right words. "... Savoury, moist?"

"Savory and moist?" Milly echoes, glancing at the glass case full of pastries. She wishes this guy wouldn't swear so much, people are starting to glance over to the counter, but at least he's not making a scene or anything. It could definitely be worse. "Oh! We have these spinach pies, they're all baked fresh this morning... They're definitely savory and moist. Can you, um -- do you eat spinach?"

He's used enough to getting looks just generally for being a space alien that toning down the foul language doesn't really occur to him.

As for her suggestion – 'pie' he gets, but...

He leans forward a little to look. "What's spinach?"

"Uhh..." How do you describe spinach to a space alien who only sort of speaks English? Milly stares at the spinach pie for a long moment, wondering if she'd get in trouble if she cut one open just to show him. "It's a vegetable. You know, green, leafy, goes really well with garlic? ...Do you know garlic?"

"Garlic?" His brow furrows a little. "Yeah." He thinks so, anyway. He lives in a dormitory full of teenagers, so the wealth of earth culinary variety has yet to really be opened up to him. "The one that looks like onions..." He makes a frustrated noise and leans back. "Fuck, this is dumb, forget it."

"No -- wait!" Milly calls, a little desperately. She refuses to let him leave this bakery without something he can eat. How helpful would she be if he left here, still hungry?! And there are others depending on him for food, too. "You're right! They're kind of like onions. Um -- here -- let me just show you, okay?"

She hurriedly reaches into the case, grabbing a spinach pie with a piece of wax paper, and she breaks it open, holding it out to him. She'll pay for it if her boss makes a fuss. "See? Does...this look like something you could eat?"

Karkat stares at her in surprise, and then at the pie, also in surprise. With some wariness, as if even after a year on Earth he still expects something like this to somehow be a trap, he takes the pie, and sniffs it. To his surprise it smells pretty good.

"... Huh," he says. "Can I eat it? I mean, how much money."

Milly's still not sure how to react to Karkat's strange mannerisms, but she's still pleased she managed to find something that at least seems palatable to him. "Oh! They're two dollars each, but -- if you want to take a whole bunch for your friends, you can have them for a dollar fifty a piece!"

He looks a little surprised by that offer, but then again this human does seem unusually chipper even by Earth standards...

"Huh, really?" He picks a bit of the pie off and chews it thoughtfully. It apparently meets with his approval, because he nods and says, "Yeah, okay, I'll take like five of them, it'll make a change from the crap we have back home."

"Oh! Yeah, you got it!" Milly's sort of -- elated that she could help, really, and she's beaming as she wraps up several spinach pies and sticks them in a bag. "Okay, that'll be seven-fifty... Um -- " She hesitates, wondering if there's a not weird way to ask his name, since this is twice now she's met him and she still has no idea who he is. "...My name's Milly, by the way!"

Wow, she is really pleased about this. It's kind of weird, but he can't quite bring himself to find it offputting. He seems a little dubious about actually telling her his name, but... well, she sure as hell doesn't seem threatening.

"I'm Karkat," he tells her – he says it the way he usually does when he's talking to humans, without the Alternian consonants that humans can't pronounce.

"Karkat," Milly repeats, nodding. Okay, she's definitely not going to forget a name like that. She grins, extending her hand for a handshake. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Karkat! If you or your friends need any other snacks, you know where to find us! Right?"