As Signless goes into his answer, Karkat's look-away listening shifts to something more directly attentive. And it sounds right: he knows enough of romcoms and other films, and now Capitol romance novels, that human romance isn't quite as solidly defined as matespritship. It still fits closest there in the majority of things he's seen, but more than once there's been something to make him pause, or that he'd put in another quadrant were they trolls.

They were pale, they were totally pale! he's yelled at the screen more than once. Or other times, when a bickering pair swung around to loving each other, it felt like a loss of a potentially torrid blackrom dynamic. It's been an interesting tutelage, but one his interest never sways from.

But the Signless goes on from there, launching into something more personal in a way he didn't expect. Talking about Roland would have made sense, but this he never knew of. And moreover, it's something pale. He was already looking more at him, but this perks his head up to watch his face directly. Even the way it happened sounds so much like with Nill, with all her fussing and his, and she's human so of course he didn't realize until she literally papped him out of a nightmare. And she did listen, that time he explained moirallegiance to her, and seemed to understand...

It's not a guarantee, just as Signless says, but by the end his face is a bit pink and there's a hopeful turn to his lips.

"I think that's what I needed to hear."