[open] ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

[alienates]

WHO: karkat and you!
WHERE: various locations, two prompts are at the high school though.
WHEN: forward dated to monday (4/10)
WHAT: guess who has two thumbs and just regained his troll horns? THIS GUY.
WARNINGS: none at the moment except for explicit language from karkat!



a; morning at recollé high

[ if you share a first period 12th grade english class with karkat, you will notice that at one point he gets up to go to the bathroom, leaving his backpack at his desk. you will also, eventually, notice that he just never comes back. it's almost like he just suddenly decided to skip altogether, which is a little weird considering all of his stuff is still at the classroom? he misses the rest of the class. if you have his phone number maybe you text him to see what's up?

likewise, if you enter one of the boys bathroom, you might spot karkat fussing over himself in front of the mirror. when he sees you come in, he will immediately stop what he's doing to rush into one of the bathroom stalls. you might catch what looks like two, small orange shapes on his head?? weird. anyway, karkat has made this bathroom stall his home and he is just camping out in here for whatever reason. ]

b; afternoon at recollé high

[ or it's his home until security kicks him out of the bathroom.

so now you might run into karkat frantically speed walking through the halls. he seems to have acquired a hat, which is fine, except for whenever a teacher makes him take it off in which case karkat goes back to covering his the top of his head with his hands.

whether you spot him while he's wearing the stylish hat or while he is trying to cover his new nubs on his head, he is not going to look very happy. ]

The "what the hell are you looking at?" line is really goddamn cliche, but I swear to god I will unironically use it if you don't stop staring.

c; late afternoon, all around the city

[ while karkat would love to just run home the second school ends, he unfortunately has shit to do today. you might spot him returning books to the library, or maybe at the freshens, buying pet food for his army of cats. maybe you run into him in the streets! no matter where you see him, though, he is going to be nervously tugging down his very fashionable hat and glaring at anyone who looks at him for longer than two seconds.

at one point you can even spot him inside the retrospec building! if you're on the outside, it'll just look like he's talking to himself. if you pop inside, you will discover that he is, in fact, talking to himself! well. he's yelling. at the nonexistent staff. ]

-- and hey, maybe next time you can turn my fucking dick into candy corn too, so that way when you're choking on it it'll be more pleasant, you shady, poor excuse of--

[ maybe you should just shut the door and walk away tbh. ]

d; evening, grub mart

[ finally, late at night, you can find karkat at his job at grub mart, a convenience store in tisse. unfortunately, due to dress code, karkat is not allowed to wear his hat, so his horns are just out there. he keeps trying to hide them like he had been earlier, but at this point he more or less has completely given up on life and is ready for death.

seriously just end him. ]

Comments

[alienates]

Okay, fine, it does not actually matter what the hat is as long as there is one on my head! Happy?

[ YES HE WILL GO HAT SHOPPING ]

[sharplydressed]

Yes.

[HE REALLY DOES LOOK SATISFIED... He's a simple soul.]

Besides, if you're gonna be stuck wearing one, it might as well be one that makes you feel a little better, right?

[That's mostly just guesstimation, but as a fully fledged member of the anime eyes club, he knows some people out there are having Struggles.

It could also just be a bad hair day - or even worse, a whole bad haircut - and those things are totally legitimate struggles, too.]

[alienates]

[ if karkat had a bad haircut on top of having orange shit stuck to his head, he would never leave his house ever again?

okay, that's dramatic, but he would definitely leave it very grudgingly. ]

At this point I'll settle for anything.

[ so not quite a confirmation that something is Wrong, but a strong implication that it is. ]

[sharplydressed]

[Kashuu would definitely not leave his house, but he's also King Dramatics...

You know, if that wasn't already obvious enough with how he's treating this uglyass hat like the end of the world and all.]

I'd say "that's the spirit", but I'm pretty sure that's just like, the spirit of resignation. [BUT HEY it works in his favor this time, at least!]

What else d'you need to grab? I can help.

[alienates]

[ he is probably going to have to invest in hoodies, but it's almost summertime and that's going to be murder. ]

I think just... hats... are good.

[ he isn't sure how to make that sound less weird ]

[sharplydressed]

[Yes please don't die so early, Karkat. There are so many more whacky shenanigans to live through first. Talking chairs, maybe, or everyone losing the ability to count past 20.]

I meant here, before we leave. But I'm super open to helping you out if you ever need fashion advice in general! I'm pretty much the best when it comes to outfit coordination.

[alienates]

Are you actually the best or is that your ego talking?

[ karkat is fully aware of letting your ego talk, because he does it all the time. he likes to say he can do things he has zero ability in. ]

[sharplydressed]

The answer to that question is obvious just by looking at me, isn't it?

[HE DOES HAVE A BIG FAT EGO and it'll be the death of him someday, but he also dresses constantly like he's stepped out of the pages of a magazine. Or like he's going to be murdered in that outfit. SO. At least marginally trustworthy!!]

[alienates]

[ karkat supposes he... looks... nice?

look karkat really knows nothing about fashion so kashuu is going to have to do so much hand holding here. or, more specifically, dragging karkat into having a better fashion sense. ]

That's what someone with a big ego would say.

[sharplydressed]

[Good thing that's his other #1 purpose in life!! He has plenty of experience when it comes to dragging the fashion un-savvy into shopping hell...]

There's a difference between having a big ego and being confident. I'm just super sure of myself! Next time I'll bring a list of credentials so you'll believe me, but for now you'll just have to trust that I won't guide you into something awful. S'that doable?

[alienates]

[ there's a pause before karkat eventually just shrugs. he probably would continue arguing about this point, if today hadn't been so draining overall. it's not often that something can kill his motivation to beat a dead horse, but the horns have managed to do it. ]

Fine. My life is in your hands or whatever.

[sharplydressed]

[Tragic for Karkat but excellent for him. He's always willing to dig his heels in when it comes to things like this, but it's nice when victories come easily, too...]

You definitely won't regret it!

[He might regret it a little.]

You'll probably want something cooler for summer, yeah? Any colors you lean toward?

[alienates]

Black.

[ he is... not offering any other colors.

please help him. ]

[sharplydressed]

[WAITING FOR A SECOND as if he expects Karkat to follow that up with another color...

...]

...Should I expect any accent colors to be mentioned here or are we just going black as the blackest night?

[alienates]

... Red?

[ it comes out sounding more like a question than an actual answer. it truly shows how little he typically thinks about this kind of thing. ]

[sharplydressed]

[It's a question-answer that seems a-okay in this fool's books, at least!]

Per-fect! Black and red's a combo you can't go wrong with. It'll be easy to find a hat in those colors, too.

[Because of fashion seasons something something fall colors blah blah. Fortunately, he spares Karkat a detailed explanation and just starts heading off down the aisle instead.]

I'm gonna buy this and I'll meet up with you at the exit, okay?

[alienates]

Yeah, okay.

[ he would offer to wait with him in line but he'd prefer to stay out of the way so more people won't come up to him and ask about the hat. waiting in a corner for kashuu to show up seems like the less possibly frustrating way to go.

in any case, karkat walks off. ]

[sharplydressed]

[AND OFF HE NYOOMS to buy his things in record time, because if it's between him and Fashion, he will bulldoze literally anything in his way. RIP the poor unfortunate souls slowly moseying to the checkout line, not expecting him to come blazing in out of nowhere...

Karkat won't have to wait too long, in any case, so hopefully no one pesters him about his hat while he's chilling in the corner. They'd just be bulldozed by this moron too as he flounces back over, either way.]

Done, done! Let's get going!

[alienates]

[ he did get a few stares, but thankfully karkat has perfected the sacred art of having a resting bitch face, so no one wandered too close in his general direction.

when kashuu returns, karkat immediately walks over to him. ]

So. Where are you taking me.

[ it just occurred to him to ask what store they are heading to... ]

[sharplydressed]

[Truly a good talent to have, especially when you don't want people questioning your ugly hat fashion choices or the secret horn nubs hiding beneath it...]

Y'know that boutique on the corner of Cherry and 7th? The one with the display window that's kinda got a pink tint to it?

[He's still walking as he explains, gesturing for Karkat to follow as he nyooms out the door and onto the sidewalk. Fortunately, said boutique is pretty close. He can point down the sidewalk and the street they're looking for is right there, with the store itself being just a few stores over to the left.]

That way, that's the one! I have an in with a guy so I can get some good discounts there, plus their stuff is really top of the line.

[alienates]

[ karkat has probably never even said the word boutique in his life, and he does not know where it is even though he has probably walked past it a dozen times. but he'll take kashuu's word for it that there is, indeed, a boutique there. ]

I'm guessing you're not the kind of guy who would buy your clothes at Freshens.

[ considering freshens is like... the recolle equivalent of walmart. ]

[sharplydressed]

[WAVING A HAND and laughing like the suggestion itself is just silly.]

Definitely not! I make my own or support people in my industry where I can. I do a lot of modeling for other students, too.

[Because surprisingly he's not rollin in the dough, so he can't actually afford a lot of the top name brands. Networking is what nets him the things that should be expensive...]

[alienates]

Being able to make clothes sounds useful.

[ he sounds distracted when it says it, like he's trying to do the mental math involved to see how much money you might save from making your own clothes versus buying it. it's kind of hard for him to make an actual estimate though, considering he has no fucking clue how much materials cost. ]

[sharplydressed]

Mm, it is. You don't have to worry about getting things that fit or suit you just right since you can just make whatever you can't find.

[There's a little curiosity in the way he eyes Karkat, but he has no idea where that distraction is coming from and gets distracted soon himself because the boutique is just up ahead. It looks like the kind of unassumingly quaint place where no one would expect to blow literally hundreds of dollars on just a few pieces of clothing! And the window is very cutely tinted pink, as he'd said. Clearly the most important feature.]

Here, here! This is it.

[Steppin on forward to get the door. The interior of the shop is just as cozy as the exterior implies, and it's packed full of eclectic designer clothing and one-of-a-kind items.]

[alienates]

[ karkat continue to do mental math here. he may not know much about fashion, but he is aware of how much it can cost, but he is going to follow kashuu's lead here because he, for some reason he still does not truly comprehend, trust him enough to do this.

(karkat you're seeing him as a friend. that's what that means, you imbecile.) ]

This all looks very....... stylish? [ it definitely comes out more than a question than anything. HE LOOKS AROUND. where are the hats. ]