recolle | [open] ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

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. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ there is a joke somewhere in "tough nuts to crack" but karkat manages not to make it because he is far above that level of humor (unless he's mad and then all bets are off). ]

Okay but if the person just flat out refuses no matter what, don't you feel like you just wasted all of your goddamn time?

[She reached up and tapped at her chin before shrugging.] Yes, but you have not refused no matter what, Karkat. And besides, if we are unwilling to risk failure, some of the best prizes cannot be won. So, if I were to fail with you, that would not be a waste of my time.

I simply would not succeed. Friendship is not about winning, you know... except in the video game contests. I am told this is very competitive.

[ "friendship is not about winning" ??????

?????????????????????? ]

I mean, it still sounds like a total waste of time to me.

[Eh, don't think too much about it Karkat. It was a bad way of making the point. He'd just likely end up disappointed in her anyway for having said it that way.]

You believe being your friend is a waste of time? Well, I will remember that you said that. It seems the sort of thing to fling back at you one day, does it not?

But, besides, I like to think of you as a work in progress to help out of your hard little shell. So the world can see your inner beauty... or cynicism.

[ well, he didn't really mean it that way. more that he thought trying to befriend someone and then it not working out to be a waste of time. ]

Trust me. When you crack my cold, hard shell, you will just see about twenty other layers of even colder and harder shells, except now all the shells are pissed off because you broke the first one for no real reason.

[She chuckled.] I'm not sure that I agree that it has no real reason, but I suspect that your twenty other layers won't agree on the matter. It will be quite the sight either way, no doubt.

[ ... she has no idea how right she is there, considering he got a memory of arguing with himself last month. he does not share this info, but he does make a noise that kind of sounds like a strangled laugh. ]

All of my layers are perfectly unified in every decision I have ever made.

[And in the end, the winner of that colossal argument was... probably nobody.]

Heh, Karkat, I think you only believe that. There is nobody in this world who is not insane that has never questioned a single choice that they made somewhere. Ah, but I am sure you will know this in time.

Still, I am keeping you from your work, yes? We can speak later.

[ he almost comments that it's completely dead and that she's been his first customer in an hour, but he realizes that would be implying that he wants her to stay. and doing that would mean she is winning this friendship contest, and karkat refuses to let that be a thing. ]

Yeah, yeah. Go home already.

Goodnight, Karkat. Don't work too hard.

[She waved to him at the door, winking one last time and heading out. No, no, she was refusing to give up on him as well, but this was just one of many volleys in the war of attrition to wear him down into the friend category so she could smother him with affection and meddling.

But the next volley would wait.]

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