Strokes of Genius, Thursday (December 10)

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Her head was still full of thoughts of ladies, tigers, idiot kings, sexist archaic crap, and new boots by the time Katchoo arrived at work, and it was really the last of those thoughts that had her whistling occasional broken snippets of classic showtunes around the shelves as she restocked.

Mmm, clunky heels. She was a little sorry about the lack of cookies today, just because she could've crushed 'em under said clunky heels.

She'd have to settle for breaking out a new set of watercolors instead. Oddly, Katchoo was fine with that.

[OOC: Farmville did that thing again where it ate some of my gifts. It took the OCD with them.]

Comments

[intraspective]

"Fandom is cruel," Ino informed her from the doorway. "Cruel and unusual today."

A beat.

"And hi!"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"More than a usual day, less than the weekend?" Katchoo hazarded, and oh look, a tiny, tiny hint of a smile. "Oh, God, don't tell me -- if I open the windows I get sprayed in the face by something nauseatingly peppermint-scented."

[intraspective]

Ino considered that.

"Not 'less someone's trying to kill you or something," she decided impishly.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Not this week." Katchoo favored her with a dry chuckle. "At least, not that I know of. So, what's the evil island doing this time?"

Hang on -- there was something poking the inside of her left wrist. She fiddled with the wide leather band and pulled out a tiny wrapped candy cane where the razor blade usually was. "Huh."

[intraspective]

"Huuuh," Ino said, wandering over to perch on the counter. She shook her head and peeked out from behind her hair. "All blades 're candy today."

She'd have been sulking, but the candy cane Katina had pulled out was more interesting.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Crap.

"All of 'em? This island's gonna kill me with ho ho ho before the twentieth rolls around," Katchoo grumbled. If she ate it, was it going to be like a belated Halloween candy horror story tomorrow morning? "The cookies were better."

[intraspective]

Ino had been wondering that, herself. She had some lovely sized ones from her kunai, after all.

"I still have some of the cookies," she admitted. "But yeah, all of 'em from what I've spotted 'round town."

She raised her eyebrows at Katina inquiringly.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Oh, god, I didn't think to check the X-Actos . . . what?" Katchoo asked. "I'd lose a Swiss Army knife in a second."

She didn't think Ino would buy it.

[intraspective]

Not a chance of that, no.

"Keep that up," she said lightly, "and I'm going to starting believing you think I'm stupid."

[NFB zomg]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Well, no. She didn't believe that, and to tell the truth she respected Ino enough for this. Katchoo glanced around and called, "Clocky. Squirrel-sweeping run, will ya?"

The clock whistled and rolled off out the front door, trilling loudly.

"It's a contingency," she said bluntly. "Just in case. Got into the habit a couple years ago."

Re: [NFB zomg]

[intraspective]

Cutest clock ever.

"How much reason you got for just in case?" Ino asked, just as bluntly. Less the air-head giggler than normal. "'Cause that ain't sort of contingency ain't that of a straight out fighter."

More of a spy. Or a killer.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Someone who's got plants in several governments' worth of reason." Katchoo's tone had gone cold and flat. "The kind of shit most people think is crazy conspiracy theory."

[intraspective]

"Ooooh." And Ino put whole volumes worth of interest into that. "Well, I do like conspiracies, you know."

Ino was a ninja--it was sort of required.

[thatsamilkshake]

Not that Francine was getting paranoid about this by now, but if the first words out of her mouth when she came in with take-out fried chicken were, "Sanity check: you love who?" well, can you really blame her?

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo bounded (clunkily) out from behind the counter over to Francine, reaching for her hand. "You, obviously, dork, but sanity has nothing to do with it. Neither does the fried chicken, but I love you for that too."

[thatsamilkshake]

"Judges will accept that answer," Francine decided, going for a quick hello-kiss that was made oddly less awkward by the fact that her patience with the entire world was wearing thin this week and she just didn't have the energy to wibble internally for thirty seconds about whether she felt stupid and clumsy doing that, or not.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Oh, good. I didn't have a bribe ready for the judges today." Katchoo looked up at her, frowning, but ooo, she didn't have to look up at quite as sharply an angle in these boots. "What happened? This isn't Raven again, is it?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"Maybe, but I don't think so. Merlin's lost his mind. He and Karla think they're madly in love. Are those new boots?"

...She was a girl. She was really, really, really a girl. Plus the frustrated bitterness didn't remotely drain out of her voice; it just shoved over to share the space with fashion commentary.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I picked 'em up at the post office after cl -- Merlin and Karla?!?" It just went to show you what Katchoo would do for Francine that her expression turned into what could only be described as the building stormfront of CHEWIE SMASH. "Do I have to break 'em in for the kicking already?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"Maybe somebody; not them." It just went to show you how easy it was to make Francine feel validated, or possibly just how twisted their lives were, that the question made her smile without irony for a second. "Dinah's gone nuts too; she thinks she and Sam Winchester are gonna get married. From what she said, it sounds like Jack Priest is acting the same way. So it's all over." Again.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Well, their lives were twisted. There wasn't really a question about that.

"Oh, hell. Because the weekend wasn't $*@!ed up enough. Point me at someone to hurt for this, I'll do it. Not them, though." Katchoo smiled wryly. "Unless there's something I can break to stop this crap from happening, that's all I can do."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine shook her head and plopped the containers of chicken and biscuits on the counter. "We don't know what's doing it yet. I just wanted to make sure you were still...you."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Still me, honey," Katchoo confirmed. "You'd tie me up and lock me in the room if I ever went goofy over someone else again, right?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"...Maybe not the tying up part." Not while she was goofy over somebody else. Quack.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

. . . yeah, Katchoo could actually picture that really well. Artist, don't you know.

"Francine! Not that kind of tying up!"