Mallstuck OR New Kids in the City

[shiftyPotentate]

Nepeta liked the smell of whatever this place was making! It smelled energetic and comforting. She read the menu as well.

"I have no idea, Tafuros! I was hoping you might have known!" She tilted her head. All of the names of the drinks were baffling to her, but she did notice they had descriptions under them. Most of those were equally confusing, but she did see something she liked!

"Ooh, that one! The latt!" she said, mispronouncing it to rhyme with mat. "It has milk in it! But I pawnder if they have the kind of milk that isn't cat-ually milk..." She of course meant soy milk, but she didn't know! All she knew was that she couldn't drink regular milk. For some reason, it made her sick, but Vriska at one point had shared with her a kind of milk she could drink!

She got in line with Tavros again, waiting for their turn. "I don't know what the mocha cappuccino thing is but if you want to try it I can certainly pay fur it!" she offered gleefully.

[nintendonut1]

“Mmnpgh… sure!” John got out once he had gulped down the first bite of his sandwich. MAN, did it feel good to get some real food in his body. He leaned in to eagerly take his second glorious bite, but paused as Gamzee spoke.

“Huh?” He only lowered the chicken sandwich a bit, contemplating. “Mm, I know a little bit! Like, I know about matesprits, like you and Tavros, and kismesis, like what Karkat was proposing…” He trailed off. That was… just a little weird.

He shrugged and took the second bite, but when Gamzee spoke again, he sputtered, nearly choking on his sandwich.

“P-pail??” he got out, mishearing the word being used and mistaking it for a completely different invitation. “As in, like, she wants to fill a pail with me?”

[sleepZombie]

When it was their turn Tavros wheeled forward, looking up at the sign. He fidgeted nervously as the human behind the counter kind of... stared. It was probably worse because she probably wasn't even staring because of his seated condition, and more because of his wildly different appearance. It was hard being different. It was hard but he was sure Nepeta and Gamzee understood by this point.

"Uh, uh. Mo-ka. Cup. Cup-itch-cheeno? Please."

The lady just kind of looked a little bored and asked him in a flat voice if he wanted tall, grande, or venti.

"Uh." He looked nervously back at Nepeta. "Uh. Venti?" The lady seemed satisfied enough with this because she punched in some buttons and then turned to look at Nepeta expectantly.

[kisashika]

Not even realizing his last statement could have been taken out of context, Gamzee continued. "Well, like, sure if you guys want to fill pails as moirails, then have a ball- rails with pails and all that shit." He picked up a pickle off his burger and examined it before dropping back- if John was easting his fine, then his should be okay too. Gamzee picked the whole burger up before taking a large bite, some of the contents spilling out the other side.

"Fuck." He grabbed a stray napkin and wiped his hands of the mustard and ketchup, being slightly uncomfortable with having condiments of those colors on his hands, they made him think of Sollux and Karkat or Aradia. He silently thought to himself 'Why would you put that on food'. "Just, ya' know, just don't motherfucking go around boasting that your pailing with your moiral- not everyone wants to know that stuff."

[shiftyPotentate]

"Hee hee, I'll have the Latt," she said mispronouncing it once again. "Only instead of the milk, can I have the milk that isn't actually milk?" she asked. Nepeta frowned. "I'm sorry if that sounds weird but I can't drink real milk fur some reason!"

The lady was apparently satisfied with the order, and when told the price, Nepeta shelled out the appropriate amount of boondollars to cover the expense. She turned back to Tavros, smiling and taking a seat on one of the comfy chairs the place had. She bounced a little on the seat, giggling. "This place sure smells purrtty, doesn't it, Tafuros?" she asked.

[nintendonut1]

John flushed a bright red, hiding his face in his sandwich. He didn't know the specifics of pailing, nor did he want to, but based on how Vriska reacted, it was probably something inappropriate. Geez! Did all trolls move that quickly? A sense of dread washed over him; there was no way he was ready for that kind of thing, but he also really didn't want to hurt Nepeta's feelings.

His brain fried for a minute, and then Gamzee mentioned a word he hadn't heard before. "Okay, okay, slow down a second, Gamzee," he requested, rubbing his temple. "You're confusing me, here. What's a moirail? Is that another quadrent? I haven't heard of that one."

[sleepZombie]

Tavros took in a deep breath through his nose, managing a soft little smile towards the Leo. "Y-Yes... it does smell, really, uh, good." He watched her as she stood in line, a figure of constant motion. If she wasn't swinging from side to side her tail was flickering, or she was making some kind of motion, and he wasn't sure he'd ever seen Nepeta stand still.

He liked her. He remembered meeting her before they had all actually gotten together on the asteroid, it had been the day he'd found out he was allergic to cats and also the last time they'd met together. It had been sweeps ago, when they were pretty young. Before Tavros had really gotten into FLARP. He'd mentioned it to her, which was also probably why she'd mentioned it to Equius and had subsequently been forbidden to participate.

Nepeta had always been someone fun to talk to, though. Friendly green text, and someone also low on the hemospectrum who understood what it was like. He'd never felt pale about her, but he'd always felt close, just as close as he'd felt with Aradia. For a long time he'd fretted about having the disease called friendship until Gamzee had one day muttered something about it being MiRaClEs and then had just let it go.

"Uh. I'm, really glad. That you are here, I mean. I think, it might have been kind of, lonely without you. And, thanks, by the way. For earlier... in the pile." He flushed a bit in embarrassment at that. "It, it really helped. A lot." And he looked back towards the table where he saw Gamzee leaning forward, saying something to John. He couldn't help the warm little glow of a smile that crossed over his face at the sight of him.

[kisashika]

"Aw, shit man, you don't know what a moirail is, and yet you're asking a motherfucker about pails?" Gamzee was starting to get confused, but this was a normal occurrence for him. After taking another bite, being careful not to let another awkward mess happen again, he tried to chain his thoughts together in a somewhat coherent explanation.

"Okay, so like, Moirailegence is the motherfucking diamond or pale quadrant, right? Like, pale as in pinkish or greyish whatever fucking one you want." He swayed his hand around in the air, making some kind of gesture that was supposed to be relevant to the conversation. "And the two trolls involved in the pale quadrant are like, best motherfucking friends, and they tell each other feelings and shit and keep each other from going batshit insane."

He took another bite, this time almost half the burger into his mouth and swallowed before continuing. "It's pretty much a troll's most fucking important quadrant, I think, from experience at least."

[shiftyPotentate]

Nepeta didn't even notice her idle swishing around anymore, it was just force of habit for her. She could almost pass as a dancer the way she was always moving. She particularly liked moving her tail around, since Equius had been kind enough to graft it to her spine for her.

Her thoughts drifted back to Equius again. Their first meeting in person, Equius having refused to hug her for some reason. She thought he was just being sullen and depressive, but she found out he couldn't control his own strength! So she promised to hug strong enough for two for them. Equius had had anger problems without her, and she vowed to keep him calm and lucid. So her first moirallegiance so had been set.

A lot of her friends didn't get what they saw in each other. To them either he was that "creepy sweaty strong asshole" or she was the "autistic cave cat girl" or some variation of the two. But that never mattered to her or him. They watched each other's back until the end.

They even got to spend time together again in the dream bubbles, which Nepeta had been glad for. She made a mental note to thank Feferi for that first chance she got!

Tavros spoke again and Nepeta looked back to him.

"Oh, no purroblem, Tafuros! I'm glad I could be of hissistance!" she said. "Ooh, that one was kind of furced wasn't it? Hee hee, sorry about that!" At Tavros's gaze back to his matesprit, Nepeta found herself longing for one of her own.

Karkat had effectively turned her down by never letting her talk about it. That ship was pretty much sunk, much to Nepeta's sadness. So far Eridan was the only other available possibility, but she wasn't sure on that front yet! She decided she'd think about it later.

[nintendonut1]

"...oh oh ohhhh! PALE, okay." In spite of himself, John couldn't help the massive relief. He was getting freaked out for a second there!

He listened intently to Gamzee's explanation, nodding. "Ohhh, okay. So, the bestest of friends, right?" Idly, he shaped his fingers into a diamond shape thoughtfully. "Wow, you guys take your relationships very seriously! So... you're saying that's how Nepeta feels about me?"

His gaze wondered to the catgirl troll. The question here would've been whether he could return those feelings, but that really wasn't much of an inner debate. An endearing smile came to his face as he recalled the time they spent together so far. As little as it was, a connection between them was surely there, and all those things he said, in the caves, in the pile... he wouldn't have said them if he didn't mean them.

Nepeta had been alone, scared, and neither emotions fit her at all. He wanted to do everything he could to keep her happy, to keep that smile on her face. If that's what a moirail was for, then he had absolutely no qualms with becoming hers.

Gradually, he came back to the troll sitting across from him. "Thanks a lot, Gamzee, that really clears things up. I just wanted approach this the right way, you know?"

[sleepZombie]

He was about to say something more but their ordered drinks came up and he perked. "Those, are ours. Let's, get them and go back, to the table." He let Nepeta grab the drinks from the tender (not that he could reach up far enough to grab them) and started to wheel back towards where Gamzee and John were sitting.

[kisashika]

"Yeah, that's what me and Tav think, you might wanna' ask her though. 'Cus it ain't really fuckng right of us to assume things, ya' know?" Gamzee reached over to what he supposed was his drink and looked at the odd container- was he.... Was he supposed to suck on the long thing sticking out of the cup? Gamzee glanced around, to see what the other food court patrons were doing, and that seemed like the right thing to do. So he imitated everyone else and took a drink through the straw.

"'Cus the word assume- makes an ass out of you and me." He added afterwards. Maybe he didn't word the phrase right, but hopefully John would get the point.

[shiftyPotentate]

Nepeta kindly took the drinks, giving Tavros his (the one that didn't look like it had milk in it) and walking with him back to the table. She took her seat next to John once more, giving him a good one arm snug with cheek-press against his shoulder. "We're back! What did we miss?" she asked, making sure Tavros was getting back next to Gamzee all right. "Anything impurrtant?"

[nintendonut1]

John nodded to Gamzee. "Right, right. Best to make sure we're on the same page," he agreed, glancing up and smiling as they approached. His grin grew considerably at Nepeta's adorable snuggling, his feelings only solidified even more.

"Haha, kinda, yeah." He waited for Nepeta to get settled and begin on her food before going on. "Gamzee was just telling me about the quadrents, and well... um..."

John glanced up and allowed Nepeta to meet his eyes. "Is this... we're getting into a pale relationship, right? As moirails? Because if we are, then... I'm totally down with that," he ended with a sincere smile, hoping he was getting his point across okay.

[sleepZombie]

Tavros rolled back in beside Gamzee, smiling over at the other troll as he reached out to take his drink from Nepeta and open up the little card board container that held his food. He was delighted to see the little batter-covered portions of cluckbeast - Gamzee must have said something for him.

He took a bite of his food, smile brightening because it was delicious. The smile took a turn for the shy as John suddenly began to profuse his pale feelings for Nepeta in front of all of them. His heart felt a little heavy, and it felt kind of strange to see someone announcing pale intentions for the Leo when Tav would always strongly associate her with Equius but...

Well.

He was happy, though. Their little outing had almost turned into a double date! Tavros picked up his drink, noticing that it was a hot beverage, and carefully took a sip. The taste was... completely not what he'd been expecting. He startled, blinking at the cup. It was kind of bitter but the sweetening used in it covered that up decently. He wasn't sure how he felt about it, though, and took another tentative sip to test it out, giving a faint and thoughtful 'hmm' to himself. Not bad, he decided, once he got used to it.