Chapter Text
“-and then I heard that the Pyropes are actually looking into moving back! Someone saw the two sisters walking around town and looking into some of the apartments and their amenities.”
“Are you sure? I don’t think Tula would do that without letting Tuna know. You better double check your sources on this one.”
“Oh I’m sure! Maybe it’s a surprise?”
Aradia was probably the chattiest, most cheerful, Assistant Funeral Director that Karkat had ever met. The idea of organizing funerals and being around people who were all in mourning seemed infinitely depressing to Karkat, but Aradia had taken to the profession with vibrancy. She took care to learn about the lives of the dead people she set the funerals up for and stayed through all processions and all aspects of the funeral itself. It was how she always seemed to know the latest gossip - supposedly while families set up and especially at the luncheons after the end of the entire production people were surprisingly eager conversationalists. Sometimes gossip, but about just as often with unreal tales of their own lives that Aradia was always eager to share.
Sollux, Karkat’s coworker, was leaning over the counter and holding onto Aradia’s every word. He had this sparkling light in his eyes that was always present whenever Aradia visited the small coffeeshop.
“A surprise like that does sound like Latula.” Karkat contributed while he busied himself wiping down some of the equipment. It would be nice if it was true - Mituna’s girlfriend had been moved away for as long as Karkat had been staying with the Captors, and whenever Mituna came back from a weekend spent with Latula uptown he’d go into a funk for a week, freshly missing his other half.
“You don’t think she’s going to break up with him, do you?” Sollux worried at his lip with his teeth. His lips were always chapped, and it didn’t take much for his lip to start bleeding. Aradia reached her hand out and wiped it away before patting his cheek lovingly.
“It doesn’t make much sense for them to both come back if she’s going to call things off with Mituna - why move closer to your ex? I’m sure she just wants to make sure things are certain before getting his hopes up.” Aradia nodded with certainty until Sollux at last followed suit, nodding along with her.
“Right, right.” Sollux brought his own hand up to his face and wiped at his mouth as well, the blood still lazily dripping off his lip. “Fuck, stupid fucking-” He muttered.
“You already needed to wash your hands after brushing Aradia’s hair out of her face, but now you double need to wash your hands. That’s like, twelve different safety issues.” Karkat lightly shoved Sollux towards the sink.
“Oh, and that’s not all I heard!” Aradia raised her voice as Sollux grudingly increased the distance between them, dabbing at his face with a towel before at last cleaning his hands.
“Mmmm?” Sollux wiped his hands and returned instantly to the counter, like him and Aradia were the two halves of a single scallop.
“Have you seen the new guy in town yet?”
“New?” Karkat butted in, wrinkling up his nose at the thought. He felt like he had only just began to understand the dynamics of the people who currently lived here, the idea of a stranger in the sleepy town - besides the occasional tourist - disturbed something in him.
“Oh hell, is this gossip about the albino poet or whatever the fuck?”
“So you have seen him!” Aradia exclaimed in delight. Sollux let out a not-as-delighted sigh.
“Yeah, prick has come in a couple times while I’m on shift. Barely fucking talks. Sometimes he sits in the corner for hours writing things down in a book. Always ends up going outside to walk up and down the coastline. He’s giving… California.” The curl of the word was in clear distaste.
“Well, that’s not what I heard.” Aradia replied in a sing song voice. Karkat glanced around the shop. He had a feeling this was going in a dumbass-gossip direction and was hoping for a distraction. Much to his chagrin, the sleepy store remained empty.
Silence reigned.
“...what did you hear?” Sollux finally gave in to Aradia, who had been quietly wiggling her eyebrows.
“Well I’ve also heard he’s always up and down the coast - writing things down and singing to himself, reportedly with ‘a voice that could charm the sea’. And what does every single person who talks about him bring up? How strangely beautiful he is! He has this curly thick white hair like the seafoam on the shore, and skin as pale as a pearl.” Karkat already didn’t like where this was going - did the drivethrough window need to be cleaned?
“Are you trying to make me jealous, AA?” Karkat, now stubbornly turned away, could not make out the expression on Sollux’s face, but even he could catch the undercurrent of real insecurity under the sarcasm.
“Oh, no no no.” Aradia cooed. “I’m just telling you all the evidence.”
“Evidence for what? That he’s not just from California but he’s an ex-choir boy? An unsuccessful member of a boy band?”
“People say… They think he might be… a selkie!” Aradia almost whispered the word, giddy with excitement. A sharp spike went up Karkat’s spine, like someone had poked him with a sea urchin, and his lips began to curl back into a snarl, unbidden.
“You… you don’t think he really is. …Do you?” Sollux had similarly lowered his voice, a glimmer of awe in his tone. Karkat always forgot this part of Sollux - the Captors were all extremely sharp, clever folks, known especially for their engineering and coding work. But all of them - without fail - believed in supernatural bullshit. Mostly ghosts - each of the family members had some kind of story of hearing the voice of a person who had died soon after. And apparently, if you believed in ghosts you were equally open for plenty of other types of supernatural nonsense.
“Selkies aren’t real, dipshits.” Karkat spat, resisting the urge to fully turn to face them and therefore fully engage in the conversation.
“That’s not what I heard.” Aradia replied in a sing song tone. “I heard from Kanaya that the Serkets Aunt swears up and down that she had an affair with a selkie before.” Sollux hummed.
“...Is having an affair with a selkie bestiality?”
Alright, Karkat was done with this. He slammed the drivethough window shut, wishing he could growl the way he wanted to but a human chest cavity is not made to make such a sound. Pulling back his lips into a snarl and glaring at Aradia and Sollux would have to do for now.
“I’m taking my fucking break.” He grumbled, untying his apron and slamming it down onto the hooks, leaving the through the side door to outside. The last snatch of conversation from Aradia and Sollux followed him.
“Is he okay?”
“Oh damn, I forgot he has this thing about-”
The door, heavy and sturdy, slammed shut on its own. Without breaking stride Karkat continued onto the small walkway that led behind the shop down to the rocky, Pacific Northwest shore. Giant pieces of driftwood littered the sand, Karkat choosing one to slump down on. He maybe should have taken a jacket - the fall was approaching and bringing a chill that paired a little too well with the seabreeze.
Dead eyes stared out at the waves, on and on forever into the horizon. Farther than eyes could see.