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Some time ago for romantic purposes Karkat came into possession of a large holographic video display. He has been nursing an idea for a while, but the weather outside in mock-Scotland has been too grotesque to make it feasible.

Tonight, however, the grotty mist has finally stopped and when Karkat rises with the moon he discovers weather that is almost practically tolerable, especially once he deploys a firepit and spreads a tarp over the damp ground.

He fiddles with the projector a bit, finally managing to project the king-sized screen he wants over the lake. The first romcom he cues up is Pretty Woman, and he grunts with satisfaction as he plops himself into an stuffed husk he hauled down from his room and the familiar opening begins to unfold.

Welcome to the drive-in. The second film in the triple feature will be Grosse Pointe Blank, followed by My Best Friend's Wedding.

[OPEN THREAD! Feel free to use the setting with or without tagging Karkat, he will out here all night marathoning cheesy romantic comedies. Feel free to suggest movies that will follow Pretty Woman, and I will update this post with a list of the ones this cranky sumbitch has approved that people can reference playing.]

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She gestures at him to continue.

"It Sounds Interesting. Go Ahead And Cue It Up."

The projector is linked to Karkat's computer, and so as Pretty Woman ends and Grosse Pointe Blank is queued up everyone gets to see Karkat's Thresh Prince of Bel-Air desktop, studded with self-loathingly titled ~ath projects and six or seven different shortcuts to his browser, before the movie takes over the screen once more.

The desktop draws a smile from the Jadebood, bringing memories of a somewhat simpler time for them. Simpler, but not exactly better, though.

As the movie starts, she settles drinks and snacks between them, and from there, it's easy to fall into a pleasant silence and let the story play out.

Every time Karkat deletes one of those shortcuts, two more seem to pop up. He blames Sollux.

"THIS HIGH SCHOOL REUNION BUSINESS IS ONE OF THE MOST COMPLETELY ALIEN THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN IN A HUMAN MOVIE, EXCEPT FOR, YOU KNOW, 'PARENTS.'"

"LIKE, JOHN CUSACK AND HIS ENTIRE GENERATION OF HUMAN WRIGGLERS ARE BACK WHERE THEY GREW UP? AND TO PUT THE EXOTIC CHERRY ON TOP OF THE WEIRD ALIEN SUNDAE, HE IS THE ONLY ONE OF THEM WHO BECAME A TRAINED KILLER? THEY ARE ALL KINDS OF DIFFERENT THINGS, AND SOME OF THEM NEVER EVEN LEFT."

She regards the movie curiously, almost side-eying it.

"Right. I Had Forgotten That They Do Mass Schoolfeeding In Human Worlds, Or Some Iteration Of It, Rather."

But I Suppose One Also Has To Recall That Humans Hadn't Mastered Space Travel Like Us, So There's Billions, I Imagine, Trapped On Their Planet. It Would Make Sense For Some Not To Go Anywhere, With Everywhere Else Occupied As Well."

"YEAH. IT'S JUST... WEIRD."

"IT IS KIND OF CRAZY, ALL THE DIFFERENT KIND OF STUFF THERE IS TO BE BESIDES A SOLDIER. I MEAN... I GUESS IT IS JUST STUFF TROLLS DID ANYWAY, JUST, LIKE... ALONGSIDE THE SOLDIER STUFF?

IT'S WEIRD."

"It Is," she agrees. "A Whole Race Of Creatures Who Aren't All Trained In Hard Combat. There Are Some Who Haven't Even Held A Weapon."

"It's Weird."

He makes a quiet noise, and shifts himself in the husk; settling more solidly against her side.

"I WAS TALKING TO ALYX VANCE EARLIER," he tries out. "ABOUT... I DON'T KNOW, ABOUT ADULTS. I MEAN... WE WERE TALKING ABOUT..." He shakes his head.

"NEVER MIND."

Edited 2013-03-10 05:11 (UTC)

An arm settles about his shoulders in response, squeezing slightly as he settles.

"Go On," she coaxes gently. "The Only Ones Here Are Myself And Human John Cusack."

Beat.

"Who Looks Remarkably Like Shephard, Now That I Think About It."

Edited 2013-03-10 05:26 (UTC)

"I KNOW, RIGHT? I HAD THOUGHT THAT WITH REGULAR JOHN CUSACK, BEFORE, BUT WITH HUMAN JOHN CUSACK IT IS REALLY JUST BIZARRE."

"WE WERE TALKING ABOUT, I GUESS, TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE WORLD WAS LIKE, WHEN IT'S GONE, LIKE IT IS FOR THEM AND FOR US. LIKE... PORING OVER THE TRACES LEFT BEHIND AND TRYING TO FIGURE OUT A PICTURE."

"AND FOR US, OBVIOUSLY, IT IS... NONE OF US EVEN EVER MET AN ADULT TROLL BEFORE, AND NOW THEY ARE GONE. EXCEPT MAYBE THE CONDESCE I GUESS, HYPOTHETICALLY, BUT IT'S NOT LIKE WE WILL EVER RUN INTO HER."

She makes a soft noise in response, nodding in agreement.

"You're Right, We Probably Won't Meet Her, Which Means We're Pretty Much On Our Own In Regards To Putting Together Something Resembling A Working Society. We'll Make Do, I'm Sure, But It'll Take Some Doing."

"EVEN IF WE DID MEET HER, I DON'T KNOW IF SHE WOULD HAVE ANYTHING USEFUL TO TELL US. LIKE... IF YOU NEED A JUDGE, JUST GO FIND THE BIGGEST UGLIEST MONSTER YOU CAN?"

"We'd Be Better Off Managing Things On Our Own, Then. Just...Fuck That Bitch."

Karkat nods his assent to this emotion, then slowly breathes in and out for a short time. Which is weird enough to be notEworthy.

"IT'S.... YOU WILL DO A GREAT JOB. AND I GUESS... THE OTHER ME WILL... WELL, YOU WILL JUST HAVE TO KEEP HIM FROM COMPLETELY FUCKING EVERYTHING UP SOMEHOW."

Like... running off to fight Lord English with the teen Condesce, or something. That would be stupid.

Majorly so.

She says nothing about the pause he needs to keep his shit under control, watching the movie until he speaks again.

"I'll Do My Best, I Promise."

Karkat has seen the movie, and he lets himself curl away from it, burrowing his head against her shoulder and digging a fist into the husk. The stale rage that sparked with Alyx, and the guilt and self-loathing that lingered after, slowly burn off.

(It's embarrassing, he can't help thinking, how emotionally raw he's been lately. He should be able to bounce back from being remaindered out of the timeline better than this; people die all the time and you don't see them complaining.)

There's a wave of something that passes over Kanaya as she observes Karkat's distress, making her frown a little as she pulls him a bit more firmly against herself.

Quiet, shooshy noises come next, and her fingers card his hair as she does her best to use her sneaky sylph powers on him.

He is not going to go to sleep this time; he just woke up a couple hours ago. He just groans and growls quietly to himself as he shifts, trying to work out a posture that is comfortable without being just completely blatantly pale.

A voice in his head says, THIS IS A PROBLEM, but he's not really sure he can remember why anymore. His moirallegiance with Gamzee is another timeline, and frankly lasted all of twelve seconds, several months ago, and as far as he knows Kanaya doesn't have any other pale prospects.

Of course he's... whatever kind of weird ghost thing he is, now, and won't be able to be a part of her full life in, you know, reality. But that all seems kind of ridiculous far away and specious compared to the pale fire that is burning away the tight knots of rage and fear studded through his miserable torso as she smooths his hair.

Maybe they can just go on... not talking about it. Maybe that would be better. He slides his arms around her waist and breathes.

Edited 2013-03-10 07:00 (UTC)

While Karkat isn't going to go to sleep, Kanaya's the one who's diurnal. There's a better chance of her falling asleep first, but that won't be an issue for a good while yet.

Right now, she has her hands full with trying to soothe her nubby-horned troll as he weasels his way closer.

If he's not going to say anything about this, then she won't either, because she is aware, in a very distant sense, of how unbelievably pale this is. She doesn't really let herself address it, though, because last time she dealt with feeling like this...well...Vriska.

And she doesn't want to have to deal with a mess like that anytime soon.

"WHAT WERE YOU WORKING ON BEFORE I DRAGGED YOU OUT HERE TO SERVE AS A SUPPLEMENTARY EASE CUSHION, ANYWAY?"

"I Was Working On A Pattern For Myself, Actually. I Received Some Nice Fabric From Twilight Sparkle For Their Hoofbeast Holiday, And I Hadn't Had A Chance To Work With Any Of It Yet."

"OH, YEAH, SHIT." Karkat would smack himself in the face, if his arms weren't full.

"SHE GAVE ME SOMETHING TOO, AND I WAS GOING TO RECIPROCATE WITH THAT CONTRABAND I UNLOCKED THE OTHER DAY, BUT I MET THIS WEIRD LITTLE GIRL WHO WAS A GAME CONSTRUCT AND I COMPLETELY FUCKING FORGOT."

A blink.

"A Little Girl Who Was A Game Game Construct? I Thought We Only Had Amphibian Like Creatures?"

Edited 2013-03-11 04:37 (UTC)

"NOT ONE OF OURS, OR EVEN FROM SGRUB AT ALL. NOT EVEN A GENETIC CONSTRUCT, SHE IS LIKE SOME KIND OF INCARNATED CONCEPT FROM INSIDE A COMPUTER. LIKE REMEMBER, HOW AT FIRST WE THOUGHT THAT SGRUB WAS TAKING US LITERALLY INSIDE THE COMPUTER, EVEN THOUGH THAT WAS KIND OF RETARDED?"

"WELL IT TURNS OUT WHAT WAS RETARDED WAS EVER DOUBTING THAT THAT COULD BE A THING, I GUESS, BECAUSE SHE IS HERE AND SHE SAYS THERE ARE A BUNCH OF OTHERS. SHE IS FROM SOME WEIRDLY PRISSY RACING GAME WITH NO BLOOD AND A CANDY THEME, LIKE NEPETEA'S LAND."

"That's...Odd. I Mean, Who Even Makes A Game Without Gore Graphics? Sometimes, That's The Best Part."

"What Was She Like, Then?"