Strokes of Genius, Wednesday (October 21)

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Honestly, after a week off Katchoo could have happily blown off work today except for the empty wallet. Empty -- wow, she was actually going to need a new one, soon; the lining was falling out. Except there really wasn't much to put in there in the first place.

Still -- it was tempting. In the end, the emptiness of the wallet combined with Clocky's shrill persistence to send Katchoo grumbling out the door and into town to open the shop.

She considered putting up a "GO AWAY" sign on the door, but readily acknowledged that was pretty silly. Oh well. She'd just content herself with sketching today, and hope she could get away with pretending to be too engrossed in what she was doing to hear people. It could work.

[OOC: The OCD is staying home to run my CafeTown cafe for me while I'm at work. Oh, shut up -- I wish I could make it do that.]

Comments

[bitchprince]

It was probably a good idea she hadn't marked the store off as it stood, if simply because Arthur, in any of his generally contrary moods, would not only have ignored it, but taken the sign with him (or, depending on the mood, mutilated it) to fully communicate his lack of caring.

Arthur's apathy took a lot of work.

"Katchoo," he said, shutting the door behind him, and ignored whatever she was working on in favour of taking up his usual spot by the counter.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

With as much work as it took, his dedication to apathy was commendable . . . or would be if Katchoo was inclined to commend people for such things.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite Wednesday pain," she drawled, setting the sketchbook aside. "Have a good break, or were you climbing the cottage walls to get back here and practice killing things?"

[bitchprince]

Arthur rolled his eyes. "There is very little to kill here but rabbits," he said, "Although yes, the lack of a salle was an issue, but I seem to have managed to keep myself busy. How about you? Scandalize anyone lately?"

Seriously, Arthur, with the amount of time you had spent making fun of Merlin's flower before he lost it, you had absolutely no space to talk.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Not yet this week. I must be losing my touch." Katchoo shook her head and heaved a mock sigh. "So I hear you think I'm insane. What brings you to the loony bin?"

[bitchprince]

"Don't feel special," Arthur said, charitably, and leaned his back into the counter, "I'm still none too sure on the sanity of most of the island's inhabitants." He looked over at her. ...He could bring up the Francine thing, but that might lead to tears (...well, unlikely, with Katchoo) or at least awkward emotional conversation, and he wasn't yet convinced he cared enough to get in the middle of it. "But I suppose I'm here to kill some time in an attempt to nurture you back to mental health."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

God help everyone if these two had an awkward emotional conversation.

"Aw, gee." She feigned (badly) a sniffle, but with a tiny bit of a grin; she was getting better at deciphering Arthur's . . . unique command of language. "I'm so touched. In the head. How do you know it's not contagious, though, and you're not gonna end up crazy?"

He came by every week. That could be a symptom as far as she was concerned.

[bitchprince]

Considering how they handled everything else of any emotional significance while around one another, the conversation might not last more than two minutes.

And that was the conservative estimate.

"Because I am the only truly sane man I know on this very island," he said, "Your meager attempts at ruining that will get you nowhere at all." He stole a look at her sketches, as was his wont. "You're in a good mood."

If he had been speaking to anyone else, that observation might have covered an entirely different load.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo gave him a look as if to ask when she was ever in a "good" mood.

. . . actually this was one of her better ones, all things considered.

She put on a smile calculated to be just the tiniest bit irritating -- in a friendly way! Really. "Yeah, my mood just shot through the roof when you walked in, sunshine."

[bitchprince]

Which would have been what warranted the statement, really.

Arthur rolled his eyes at her. "Of course it did," he said, "Your sadly unrequited love for me is hardly a secret."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Sadly unrequited?" Katchoo didn't screech, but there was a bit of a rise in pitch when she sputtered the question. Through a laugh, granted, if a slightly scandalized one. "Oh, dream the hell on, Pendragon."

[bitchprince]

"Denial doesn't suit you," he informed her, unfettered. "Now what's that you're drawing?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Which is why I don't bother," she returned without missing a beat, although as she turned the sketchbook to show him, the figure on the page, faceless but with distinctly masculine lines, might have almost made that sound like a lie if you didn't know Katchoo tended to draw male portraits. "It's nothing major. Just working out ideas for a new painting."

[bitchprince]

"Well, I suppose the anatomy isn't that bad," he said, curiosity sated, and shrugged. "You just appear to spend an awful lot of time on that."

[scruffnfeathers]

It had occurred to Castiel that there were, in fact, still places on the island he'd yet to visit.

And so there he was, at Strokes of Genius, looking around with his usual expression of mild befuddlement. "What is the purpose of this establishment?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

That was always the expression that made Katchoo want to be extra smartass-y.

Expression completely serious, she looked up from her sketchbook and said, "It's actually a money laundering front for an international drug cartel."

[scruffnfeathers]

Despite continued exposure to Dean Winchester both in his own world and in this one, Castiel remained almost entirely impervious to smartassery.

He nodded back, just as seriously. "Interesting. Which drug?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Sorry, Chewie, you might've met your match here.

"PCP," she told him, delightfully unaware of any ironic humor in the thus-far-unspoken colloquialism.

[scruffnfeathers]

It was likely safe to assume that Castiel wasn't familiar with that particular colloquialism. "Phenylcyclohexylpiperidine," he said smoothly. "Known to cause rage and behavior patterns similar to those suffering from severe schizophrenia. How do you counteract the potentially psychotic behavior of your clientele?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Also fallaciously credited for vampire-induced violence according to a few other people in Fandom, but Katchoo didn't know that. "Aw, we don't actually hand it out here," she told him after the briefest eyebrow-twitching double-take of how the hell do you pronounce that without tripping over all those Ys? "You gotta ask the teal deer for the hookup there."

[scruffnfeathers]

And lo, did Katchoo reach the edge of Castiel's credulity.

". . . You claim that off-colored ruminant mammals are distributing dangerous pharmaceuticals?"

Had Castiel been more familiar with the teal deer, he might have admitted it made a certain amount of sense. The two things shared certain key side effects, after all.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Woo! Bold new frontiers or something!

"What?" Katchoo asked, the picture of innocence. (Ha.) "You don't believe me? See, that's what makes it work."

[scruffnfeathers]

. . .

Okay, so that actually made sense. Especially on this island.

"What need would they have for the money you launder?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo threw both hands up and shrugged broadly. "I haven't asked. The less I know the better. Actually I think I already know too much and they might have to kill me now."

. . . wow, Katchoo, it might still be too soon for that joke.

[scruffnfeathers]

Castiel glanced around. "I don't believe anyone is listening in on our conversation. Except, perhaps, for the radio squirrels. However, if you're truly afraid, I could possibly assist you." Since he might be kinda responsible for that, what with his questioning.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"The squirrels can go #$*! themselves," Katchoo said succinctly -- mostly because she was trying not to laugh. "What'd you have in mind? Because I'm not changing my name and moving to Idaho."