thecapitol | [closed and backdated]

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✘ cuthbert allgood

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Who| Cuthbert and Nepeta
What| Gossiping with the new troll
Where| The Roof
When| Not long before the lockdown, just after this
Warnings| None!

Bert heads up to the roof as soon as he ends his conversation with Nepeta. It's one of his favorite spots, and currently it's fairly quiet. He is ticked so far with the newest troll to show up in the Capitol, she's cute and fun and has a strange sense of humor. He is a little anxious about her showing up though, maybe he came on too strong?

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That's not much of an answer, but it's better than Nepeta had before. Besides, it's not like she knows much about cities in the first place. She's never really made a point of going to any more civilized areas and there hadn't been much chance after they'd managed to get into Sgrub.

"I've been higher," she answers with a shrug. Not much higher necessarily, and she knows that she'd die if she fell here, but that doesn't bother her. She's seen more than enough death for it to no longer hold any terror for her. If she's managed a game that seemed bent on destroying, surely she can manage this much.

It's still a better answer than just letting him make something up. He's still sort of impressed at how well she's taking things, he had been in wide eyed wonder for a week when he first arrived.

"Just don't fall off, I know they can end death itself here, but they may not be able to do anything with thee if you end up a splatter."

He needs to stop talking about throwing trolls off tall things, people are going to stop thinking he's joking.

There are a few things that will take some getting used to, there's no denying that. But that isn't so bad in the long run, and it isn't like she's been thrown in head over heels. So she'll simply take things in stride as best she can and leave the rest to sit for a time. There's not really any need to hurry.

"When have you efur seen a cat fall when they don't mean to?"

Sure, she's not really a cat, but that doesn't mean that her statement is any less accurate for it.

He really wants to pat her head, but he doesn't think she'll take that so well. But he has to ask, since as far as he knows, trolls aren't anything like cats. Even if he has no proof of that either.

"Are you a cat? I have met more than a couple of trolls and unless they've been teasing me all this time I thought they were insects."

She might take it better than some, but that's really no guarantee. Not in the long run. She herself might have some distinctly feline traits, but she's still a troll and trolls don't really do a lot of friendly contact.

"Of course not. I'm a troll! My lusus was a cat, though."

He looks her over more obviously.

”And the tail?”

He does actually reach out and poke her tail. That's by far the most interesting thing about her that he's seen.

"It's not a real tail," Nepeta answers. "I don't think any trolls have tails for real."

They don't even have tails when they're only grubs, so she figures it's pretty safe to say that tails simply aren't a thing with trolls. Sure, it would maybe be nice sometimes - she knows her lusus' tail was helpful for balance - but she's managed well enough without a real tail for long enough that shes used to it by now.

He breathes a sign of relief. "Glad to hear it, I would not want that sort of surprise-"

And then he realizes he shouldn't be talking about just when he might be surprised with something like that when it would be extra unfortunate.

"- at all. Cry pardon, I simply did not wish to assume. Your lot are still fairly new to me though I've learned a few things in my time here."

Fortunately, Nepeta takes no offense at the comment. She knows that not everyone is going to be terribly familiar with trolls, and so there probably will be questions. Besides, better to ask her than someone like Karkat, even if she's pretty sure he could be pressed into an honest answer with enough time and effort.

"You met us for the furst time here, didn't you?"

He's already had a fair share of answers from Karkat so far.

"Aye, so I did. I was brought in to the fight already in progress and Karkat and Sai Signless partnered with me. They had food and I had skills, it was a good match. They hadn't seen many like me either, so I've been both teacher and student."

He makes a face though, thinking about asking the Helmsman about troll things. "Not every one of your kind has been so helpful."

"Well, I don't think efurry one of your species is going to be supurr helpful either."

It was perhaps true that it was a bit more obvious when there was only a handful of trolls - and no one could really say that the Helmsman was the easiest to as about things, if her experience with him was anything to go on - but that didn't mean that they were really any different from humans. Not insofar as general temperaments went.

"But it's good you found someone to fight with."

"There are many more of us, and many more likely to be in the way than be helpful. But you will have to believe me when I say I'm here to help in any way I can."

He leans over a bit so he can see her face a little better. He loves the view, but it's more fun to get a view of the new girl in the Capitol.

"Fight with, yes, and I know how much that means to you. But I've yet to find someone to fill my-" he falters on the word and has to pull something out of thin air to recover. "non-aggressive love quadrant."

"Flushed romance is hard," Nepeta answers with a nod that's probably meant to be reassuring. "It's easy enough to find someone to hate the right way, but finding a good matesprit takes a lot of work."

After all, she's had experience with someone not returning her red affections, and even though she knows quite well that it's likely to never be returned it's hard to put the emotions aside just because of that. She doesn't begrudge Karkat for it, of course, but well. She can't really help her crush even if it never actually goes anywhere.

"But it's good to know you're willing to be helpful."

"You sound as if you speak from experience, or would that be expurriance?"

He leans out further over the edge of the building, looking out over the city. He had a few bad experiences with love as well, though they were more second hand than first. It's hard to see your best friend fall head over heals stupid in love and then lose her in the worst possible way.

"Any questions so far?"

"Maybe it's a little of both," she answers with a smile. She doesn't really feel much like sharing the details, but experience is something she can definitely admit to, both in her own case and in the fact that not a lot of her friends actually managed steady matespritships before they entered the Medium.

"I don't think so, no."

She'll still have some things to get used to, but that isn't really quite the same as actually having questions and she can deal with not having all the answers right away.

"Those puns are harder than you make them seem. I'm in paw of how easily you make them."

He's lost the train of thought, so obviously now is the time to make jokes. At least it seems like Nepeta is amenable to puns, she might be okay with jokes as well.

"If you ever change your mind, I will be on the third floor. I'm not a man of this place, but I can fake it, if you'll let me."

Puns are preferred, for rather obvious reasons, but Nepeta doesn't mind jokes too much. Not all of them might translate terribly well, but that's something that can be dealt with when it comes up.

"They take a pawful lot of purractice. Besides, not efurrybody can be supurr good at them."

Besides, she had something of an advantage in that she'd spent a lot of time around a cat, prior to the time they'd spent in SGrub. Or at least, she would like to think she had an advantage. Whether or not she actually did was another question entirely, and not one she was much inclined to think about.

"Mayhap I should just admit defeat now and save myself the embarrassment. You have me thoroughly licked and we've only just begun."

He smiles at the implications, even if (for once) he doesn't mean it that way.

"Would you like to go out into the city? Not now, I know you're just getting your bearings, but soon. In a few days?"

"I wouldn't stop you if you wanted to admit defeat," Nepeta answers, with a smile to mean that she doesn't mean any ill by the comment. She isn't about to stop, of course, but that doesn't mean that she's going to hold Cuthbert to the same standards of punnage that she keeps up on a regular basis.

She doesn't really seem to note the implications that have caught his amusement either, be it for better or for worse.

"And I'd like that, if you're offuring."

He really should be able to keep up, but it's not the sort of puns he's used to, so he will need more practice if he wants to compete.

But he brightens up at her acceptance of his offer, and he smiles broadly at her.

"I am indeed offering, it would be my pleasure to escort such a lovely young troll through the city."

And then in a move he really hopes isn't too bold he takes her hand and kisses it.

If he wants to practice with an actual opponent, she's quite willing to help with that. And if not, that's just fine too. She might be used to puns, but it's alright if he doesn't. Not even all of her acquaintances did.

Honestly, she's the only troll she knows of in the Capitol who does pun on a regular basis, but that only makes her more unique in the long run.

"Then I'd be glad to join you."

He lets go of her hand before that gets awkward and leans back, grinning.

"Then we have a date."

And he hopes she will take that with more meaning than just that they've made future plans together.

"We do," Nepeta answers with a nod, and if she's managed to miss the other meaning in it (which is honestly unlikely), she says nothing of it. For now, she is quite content to have planned something; anything else can come up later, or so she supposes.

He's very excited about the whole thing. After that he's content to watch the city though and be quiet.

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we can leave things here