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?"

[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.

[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]

And she didn't even bitch about that today.

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

[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?"

[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.

[bitchprince]

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

[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]

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?"

[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]

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."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"'Hey you' always works," she deadpanned. "I thought about gettin' an obnoxious orange vest with a nametag just to look like a corporate art-store shill, but eh."

And she'd have put some incredibly stupid name on the tag, too.

"Katina," she added finally, leaving her last name out of it.

[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]

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?"

[bitchprince]

If pressured, Arthur would argue that she should be grateful, and thus neatly skim around the point of letting her thank him in the first place. All in all, it worked out better this way. "Recuperating," he said, after a moment. "He managed to keep his magic, but it's changed..." He trailed off.

Explaining the eyes to his father was going to be difficult.

[famous-gut.livejournal.com]

"Pleasure," he replied. "I'm Gibbs. Keep that woodworking section stocked and you'll see me around."

[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.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Well, of course she was grateful. It was just the principle of the saying-so thing, because saying so would be wrong, for given values of wrong that meant "functional."

"Ah. Yeah." Katchoo's jaw tightened slightly. "Francine mentioned that part. Claiming contact lenses won't go over too well at home, will it?"

[bitchprince]

"The plague was magical in nature," Arthur spoke, backing away from the counter in a move that was entirely subconscious. "Merlin's eyes are the product of evil magic. There's no shame in that."

Which was exactly how he was planning to spin it. He was... rehearsing it, now.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Boy, was that somehow not as reassuring as you'd think it would be. "Gibbs," she echoed, carefully neutral. "Will do."