Strokes of Genius, Thursday (9/3)

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Somewhere between the school building after first period and her arrival here, the inevitable if delayed 'How in the hell did it get to be September already?!?' question hit Katchoo. Geez, that was depressing, and Clocky got an extra glare or three as it tagged along after her.

She was mortified to realize she was humming that damn Cher song with the video that'd been a huge scandal, with the see-through outfit and the sailors, and immediately dug her earphones out of her pocket to fix that.

As soon as she could untangle the goddamned things. Argh. She might be stuck with the earworm a while.

[OOC: No OCD and no witty lyric about it today because all the songs stuck in my head are from Animaniacs and everything I came up with was scary. 'tis open, of course.]

Comments

[famous-gut.livejournal.com]

"Morning," Gibbs said in a distracted manner as he walked in the door and headed to the woodworking section.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo looked up, glad for the temporary distraction from untangling the hopeless mess that was her earphones. "Yeah," she said in response. "That chisel end up not being what you were lookin' for?"

[famous-gut.livejournal.com]

"It works," Gibbs replied as he picked through the display. "When I was last here I saw that wood carving set for more intricate work. Thought it might be good to have."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, should still be there. Boat's coming along then," she surmised, picking at a knot in the cord.

[famous-gut.livejournal.com]

"It's getting there," he said coming up to the counter. "Having problems with your walkman?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

How the hell had the cord managed to loop itself around the earbud twice like that so it got snagged up in the rubber earpiece thing? "Stupid earphones don't get along with my pocket, I think. Aw, screw it." She set the tangled mess aside for the moment to ring him up. "That'll be handwavey, la."

[famous-gut.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Gibbs replied as he pulled out his wallet. "You got a name? Or should I just address you as 'hey you' when I come in the store?"

[bitchprince]

"Katina," Arthur greeted, pushing open the door to the store. He was, apparently, not even going to try to come up with an excuse for showing up this time, as he made a beeline for her counter.

And, yes, leaned on it. Again.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

And she didn't even bitch about that today.

"Arthur," she returned with a quick appraising glance. "Back in relatively one piece, I see."

[bitchprince]

"Entirely one piece," Arthur corrected, but his voice had modulated somewhat. "I take it you've spoken to Francine?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

She jerked her chin down in a brief nod; it wasn't the details of the trip that stuck with her as much as the scar. "I owe you," Katchoo said grudgingly. "For taking care of her out there."

[bitchprince]

"You owe me nothing," Arthur returned, simply. "She's under my protection when she needs it. I wouldn't see it any other way."

In fact, the thought disturbed him, at that.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure, derail her grand plan of trying to thank him without actually saying that phrase.

So she veered off topic a little. "Fine, if you wanna be like that about it, long as Francine's safe. Merlin -- how's he doing?"

[intraspective]

Ino had time to kill before she went out with Triela (since Triela had that pesky thing called class) and so, it was sort of habit to wander this way.

Even if she'd been rather remiss the last few weeks.

"What did those poor headphones ever do to you?" she asked, amused.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Plot nefarious evil," Katchoo said without missing a beat. "They were going to take over my music collection and turn it all into the Jonas Brothers. Geez, Ino, it's like I almost forgot what you look like."

[intraspective]

"I've been busy," she said noncommittally, shrugging. Avoiding talking to people. "You'll forgive me, though, if I doubt that your memory is that bad."

A pause.

"And that is pretty evil of them."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

She held up the knotted earphone mess. "And for that they get to suffer the ultimate fate. Eh. Memorywise I'm closer to the elephant side of the scale than the goldfish one," Katchoo allowed. She could get behind avoiding talking to people . . . except when she was at work, apparently. Oh well. "How busy can you be? The semester just started."

[intraspective]

"Not with Fandom stuff," she said, smiling slightly at that. "My classes aren't bad that way."

She wandered over to perch on the counter, giving the earphones a dubious look. "Think it'd be easier to buy whole new ones."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Other stuff, then," Katchoo guessed, and she wouldn't push. The whole ninja thing still disturbed her a bit. She held up the tangled ball of earphone cord and announced, "For the crimes of conspiracy to commit teen pop and sheer bastardly inconvenience, you are hereby sentenced to banishment for life."

And dumped them unceremoniously into the trash can.

[thatsamilkshake]

Bagels. She'd bake, um. Tomorrow. Or maybe tonight after the play. But for now? Bagels. "Hiiii! I bring gifts of fine unleavened bread."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Hey, look at that, Katchoo was all smiles all of a sudden. "Your offering is acceptable, provided there's cream cheese."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine looked in the bag and came back out with a stricken face. "UM!"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"No cream cheese? No cream cheese?" Katchoo asked, and she did a really credible job of feigning horror. Except for the putting a hand to her forehead and pretending to faint behind the counter.

[thatsamilkshake]

"Wait, wait, I think I found some under this tub of cream cheese." Francine brought it out, tossing it across the counter in a manner that might actually bean someone on the head if they were currently pretending to faint.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

And verily, there was beaning, the kind that'd have the requisite *THUNK!* sound effect scrawled in boldface dashes across the top of the panel if this were an illustration.

"Run!" Katchoo yelled from the floor, waving one hand like there was a little white flag in it. "The cream cheese has been swapped out for killer cream cheese! Hide your lingerie and valuables!"