Gamzee went into detail about his new job in the hours that passed, Karkat spoke about his current job, ranting more on the stupidity of trolls that rush to his medical center. They looked like such an odd pair in the block. But time escaped them as it was slowly replaced with laughter and jokes between old friends, reminiscing on sweeps long past and behind them. Slowly Gamzee would come to learn about their friends and what had become of them, very few stayed in contact with Karkat, but the few that did were loyal and helped protect him and the operation. To which Gamzee was grateful. Even though it had been established that they were no longer Moirails, Gamzee still felt a strong connection to this troll, one he wanted to keep that way and never let go of. It had helped him through so much, to lose it now would be devastating. Karkat was hesitant but seemed open to at least a platonic friendship.
"Oh shit I didn't even watch the time." Karkat seemed to groan after glancing at his palmhusk a moment. His eyes rolled in dismay as he then gave a small once over to his friend before him. "Do you have to be anywhere tomorrow night? Because it is already late as hell. So it is a hurry back to your hive now or… stay the day here I guess. But you CAN NOT leave this block, do you understand me Makara? If anyone else sees you it will cause a panic." Karkat warned as he waved his finger in this massive troll's face. In that moment he did not see a highblood, just Gamzee, his Gamzee. They had been talking for so long and this still felt oddly like how he used to feel. Though there was way more back and forth here than there ever was back then. Karkat craved this, he had yearned for this for too many sweeps.
"I got it, I got it. Ain't gonna even know I'm here don't you worry. Remember when we used to have those motherfucking day-overs with video calls and shit? They weren't very planned out and I used to get distracted a lot of the time. But shit they were nice, don't ya think?" Gamzee said with a fond sort of smile. His eyes were a bit hazy as he dipped back into the past for a brief moment. A good past, before things got complicated. Karkat seemed to nod at that, slightly remembering some of the little things they would do. Stream movies, which Gamzee would always fall asleep at his hust top with. Karkat didn't have the heart to end the chat until the clown had woken up and he could properly say a good day. "We should do one of those!" Gamzee suddenly blurted out, pulling Karkat from his thoughts. He gave a bit of a scoff to the ridiculous new request. A sleepover? Something wrigglers did if their lusus even allowed them out of their hives.
"Aren't we a bit old for one?" Karkat finally joked back but Gamzee got all puppy-dog eyed as he said this. Those big purple eyes begging him, on that huge form it looked down right hilarious. So Karkat had no choice but to give in "fine, fine, we can watch movies and do all the wriggler bullshit" He waved the massive troll off. Gamzee practically jumped for joy. Then another little stop in his celebration as the clown dug around in his pockets. Then he pulled out… clown paint? How fucking deep were those pockets, goddamn.
"I know we ain't moirails anymore but I gotta do this shit at least once. I mean you already braided my motherfucking hair. So I can do this right?" Gamzee had spoken about this in the past, wanting to officially do his paint to show Karkat was all 'down with the clowns'. But it seemed almost disrespectful to do and not be in a quadrant with one. But Gamzee was technically the leader of the creepy fucked up clown cult… so it can't be bad right? So reluctantly he agreed. Worse comes to worse he washes it off. That shouldn't piss Gamzee off too badly. Hell most of the shit Karkat had said in the past should have pissed him off way more than washing off a little bit of paint.
Karkat assumed Gamzee carried it around encase his own got messed up in a fight. It made sense at least, he watched those large clawed hands as they opened the first white little thing of paint. He looked like such a wriggler in a candy store. This did seem to mean a lot to the clown for some reason or another. He always explained it as a way to show trust, that it can only be done by other clowns or it was considered blasphemy. None of this meant jack shit however, but it made the clown happy. Karkat closed his eyes as he leaned his face forward, the white was first, it caked his skin and made it feel strange. Not burning or any sort of allergic reaction, but heavy. The troll didn't use a brush as he started to apply the grey around Karkat's eyes. Then the pads of his fingers ran along his lips. It was careful and as if each stroke was calculated. Did he do this every time he applied this shit to himself? That seemed so time consuming and pointless. But these touches were so full of care, it almost made Karkat feel special in a way. Granted how many low bloods could say they wore clown paint?
What felt like hours couldn't be more than maybe thirty minutes before the troll was satisfied with his work. Gamzee took a step back to admire what he had done as Karkat opened his eyes. That bright red against the grey and the white only made it more stunning for the purple blood. He grabbed Karkat by his arm as he walked right to the ablutionblock connected to the restpitblock. Karkat blinked at himself in the mirror; he barely even recognized it. He had a painted frown in his eyes, with the paint slanted down in an almost glare, but the mouth held a large grin. The ends curled inward in an almost cheshire cat like way. Yet for an odd reason it worked well on his features.
"Holy shit…" Karkat muttered as he looked at himself, Gamzee standing next to him with a true fanged grin, hands on his shoulders as he waited for his reaction. "I look terrifying Gamzee."
"Hells yeah lil motherfucker, way scarier than the fuckers you've been trying to fight. You are motherfucking scary brother." He spoke with so much confidence in him. He hadn't even been there through any of that but he still thought so highly of the Vantas. The gesture was not simply to show they were friends, the paint was more a representation of how he saw Karkat. Meaning Gamzee's own face paint was how he saw himself… it had become so monstrous. Karkat was slowly starting to understand the clown more than he had when they were wrigglers.