It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood, won't you be my multiversal friend?

[basic_powers]

Parents were off taking Toby out for dinner, and Cecil was covering the excuse for him. He had a spare of the knock-out capsules, body armor, and some opened cans of tuna out for his guest, just so she wouldn't attack food in the grocery store.

It was a late Saturday afternoon and just beginning to ease into the evening hours outside, the inside of the home was neatly furnished and well kept, not a mote of dust anywhere. And given that this was only a fascade house for coverstories that was some accomplishment of cleaning in itself for a living room that size.

Which is what the linen closet door opens up into.

Welcome to Earth.

Comments

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta is staring eagerly around as she steps through into the house.

"So this is your hive?"

[basic_powers]

"No, this is just an empty house I use. My home's a little ways a..."

...

"What's a hive?"

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta blinks.

"A hive is ... a building you live in? I guess you could call it a home."

[basic_powers]

"...yeah, this isn't my home. It's a house I use for when I want to bring people from Milliways over." Tyler answers. "Humans tend to live together in groups inside of homes, so if I used my door back home, I'd have to answer a bunch of questions about where you came from."

Which Tyler obviously wants to avoid, because no one likes getting grilled on a subject for two hours.

"This house belongs to a friend who goes to Milliways, and he's okay with me using it like this."

[nepetaleijon]

"Oh."

Human living arrangements sure are weird!

"Are we going to your house now?"

[basic_powers]

"I figured we'd test out your human disguise, and go shopping for ideas on what to do for your party here...you can explore inside this house if you'd like, since we'll host the party here to save trouble."

[nepetaleijon]

"Okay!" She brightens. "And you can show me what efurything is?"

[basic_powers]

"Sure." May as well cover the vital points, like the bathrooms, bedroom, living room and supply closets.

"Got two bathrooms, the fancy one has the bathtub in with the shower stall, over this way, and it's got a door joining it to the master bedroom."

[nepetaleijon]

She follows him, with the distinct air of whiskers twitching and ears perking.

(Bathroom, bathtub, shower stall, bedroom ... Tyler's using all the silly-sounding highblood terms for everything from the respiteblock to the ablution trap. It's funny; it's also making her miss Equius.)

[basic_powers]

...He'll have no idea what she's talking about. Again.

"And the kitchen, I figured a snack'd be a good idea before we went outside."

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta perks up hopefully.

"Is there ch33se?"

Yes, Tyler, you've created a muenster.

[basic_powers]

"Yes, there's cheese, and fish."

...there's going to be endless punnishment for this.

[nepetaleijon]

"Yay!"

Happy cat!troll is happy.

"... what kind of fish?"

[basic_powers]

"Tuna, cooked, sorry I couldn't get any raw."

Safety law again.

[nepetaleijon]

She gives a shrug, accompanied by a tail-flick. It's all good!

[basic_powers]

Yeah, it is, since toasted tuna salad cheese sammiches are delicious.

And devoured relatively quickly between the two of them.

"Mhmm."

[nepetaleijon]

By this time, Nepeta is pretty well prepared to eat anything Tyler offers her. He hasn't been wrong yet.

"So now we go shopping?" she asks, licking her fingers.

[basic_powers]

"Yeah, you wanna turn on your holodisguise?" Tyler asks, heading for the door out into the light.

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta equips the disguise, and ventures blinking out into the sunlight.

It's really about the same as the sun at Milliways; not all that much brighter than a double full moon.

[basic_powers]

It's kind of nice actually, things are warm and there're other humans strolling down the street, though on the otherside. There's the sounds of play coming from a couple of yards and some kids who zip by laughing on bikes on the street.

Tyler nods down the street jogging and pocket jingling a little.

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta trails behind him, looking wide-eyed at everything.

It's so ... weirdly normal, considering how alien it all is. She's got some experience with human culture through the four kids they've watched, but ...

A human kid zips past them on a two wheeled device, and she almost laughs. They're exactly like the two wheeled devices back home!

[basic_powers]

A couple more zip past on razor scooters further down the street, give thanks for the residential neighborhood. For there are plenty of kids within spitting distance of the house and no one's really going to question things.

It's a good long walk to the store, and somewhere in the distance, there's an ice cream truck playing it's siren tune.

Tyler's watching a few of the other kids in the neighborhood, thoughtfully...

"We might get some party crashers for the night time party..."

[nepetaleijon]

"Party crashers?" She blinks at him. "Are we going to n33d to put up defenses?"

[basic_powers]

"Maybe. Maybe not, all depends on if we have an adult present or not...Then again..." Then again he could get a chance to...no. no. Neighbors are not acceptable forms of guinea pigs.

"We could get an adult form Milliways to act as a chaperone, or we could just let Karkat be himself all around the party."

[nepetaleijon]

"... Oh."

She looks oddly hesitant at the mention of Karkat.