sebastian leventis (hostingdeath) wrote in camulus, @ 2011-07-12 20:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! log, katalin kiss, sebastian leventis |
WHO: Katalin Kiss [FEKETE MÁGIA] & Sebastian Leventis [DEATH HOST].
WHAT: A phone call.
WHEN: July 12th, a few hours after sunrise. Too early for Sebastian.
WHERE: A phone booth in Savoy, MA and Camulus, respectively.
RATING/STATUS: G
KATALIN: The asphalt was hot against her feet. Someone else might have ran, maybe grimaced, but Katalin appeared not to notice. She almost didn’t -- she’d long been steeled against that sort of pain, and well, she’d lost her shoes two days ago, so she was pretty used to it by now. More than that though, Katalin had something on her mind. She headed towards the phone booth with single-minded urgency, shoving two quarters into the coin slot and placing the phone to her ear with one swift motion. But her fingers hesitated over the keypad -- Katalin had attempted to make this call several times over the past few days, and the process had always ended with her slamming the phone back into its cradle and stalking off. She didn’t know what she wanted to say to Sebastian, or if he’d even pick up the phone at all. 8 AM was typically far before his usual wake-up hour. At any rate, she needed to decide soon. She was rapidly running out of quarters. Exhaling deeply, Katalin dialed Sebastian’s cell phone number before she could rethink her decision, anxiously biting her bottom lip as the call went through and the phone rang. SEBASTIAN: It was far from his usual wake up time, and ever since Kat had left (or ‘flounced’, as he liked to call it), he had taken the opportunity to sleep as much as he liked. Sebastian heard the first muffled ring of his cellphone, hidden somewhere under the scattered notes and books on his bed. He groaned, sorely tempted to ignore the sound; who the hell would call him up early in the morning? His arms moved to find his phone as it kept on ringing, though his eyes were barely open in the dark room. A few books landed on the floor as he searched for his phone, which he found soon enough before the ringing could stop. He squinted at the unfamiliar number before pressing the phone to his ear, still lying face down. “What is it?” KATALIN: For a moment, Katalin just breathed into the receiver, unsure of what to say. She briefly contemplated hanging up and walking away, but mentally chastised herself as the thought passed through her head. She was being stupid. What did she have to be nervous about? It was just a phone call, and to Sebastian Leventis of all people. Everything would be fine. She cleared her throat, voice a little rough from disuse “It’s me,” she said finally. Katalin wondered if she should clarify who ‘me’ was. The service to payphones in Middle of Nowhere, Massachusetts was undoubtedly nothing to write home about, and who knew how distorted her voice was coming out on the other end. She stayed silent, though, perhaps subconsciously hoping that Sebastian would recognize her voice even while it was filtered through whatever was between them both. SEBASTIAN: Of course he knew who was speaking to him. There was a short pause as he mulled over what to say and whether he wanted to talk to her, remembering her accusations. He was admittedly relieved that she was alive, at least -- it had been more than a week and he was beginning to think a hunter could have caught her or she just didn’t feel like returning. "Who is 'me'?" Sebastian drawled, more petulantly than he had meant to, still a little stung by her accusation. KATALIN: Although sorely tempted to snarl that she could melt the skin off his bones if she wanted to (‘Does that give you a clue, Sebastian?’), Katalin restrained herself. She was suddenly irritated, convinced that Sebastian was being difficult on purpose, and though she knew, on some level, that her flaring temper was irrational -- hadn’t she just ruminated on the high probability of her voice being distorted beyond recognition? -- she couldn’t regain control of her shifting emotions completely. “Forget it,” she snapped, disconnecting the call and shoving the payphone back into its cradle with a good deal more force than was strictly necessary. Sparks flared as the plastic hit metal. Muttering a slew of Hungarian curses, Katalin quickly reached out to smother them before they could turn into flames, wincing a bit as the fire burned her skin. This close to the full moon, her magic was growing more powerful and more unpredictable even during the day, something that came with the unfortunate side-effect of accidentally setting things on fire when she was angry, among other things. Katalin glanced around to make sure no one was watching (they weren’t; in fact, she was apparently the only one out) before whispering a healing spell, the palm of her hand glowing with a pale golden light as new skin formed. As the light dissipated, she reached out for the phone again, hoping that she hadn’t managed to completely fry the connection -- and for the first time in what felt like days, something worked out in her favor. Breathing a sigh of relief as she heard the (slightly fainter) beeping, Katalin cradled the receiver between her ear and shoulder as she fed the payphone more change and dialed Sebastian’s number. “Vedd fel,” she muttered softly as the phone rang. Pick up. SEBASTIAN: What was the point of that? “Typical,” he muttered under his breath, throwing his phone aside when she hung up. Sebastian buried his head in the pillow, already deciding that he was going to sleep for the rest of the day regardless of the things that he still needed to do. But shortly before he could will himself to go back to sleep, his phone started ringing again. He sat up, looking over at it as if it had slighted him. Still feeling sulky and resentful, Sebastian let it ring for a few times, knowing that it would irritate her. A few seconds later, he finally reached out and pressed the button to accept the call. “Hello,” his voice was softer and less annoyed now. A short pause, and then he went on to ask, “Where are you?” KATALIN: Katalin had been contemplating hanging up herself (a less humiliating alternative than being directed to voicemail) when Sebastian finally picked up his phone. She was torn between being irritated that he apparently had known it was her the entire time, relieved that he’d picked up at all, or angry at herself for being relieved in the first place. Irritation won out, as it usually did with Katalin, and she the line of her mouth thinned as she glared around the empty phone booth. “Nowhere,” she replied petulantly, but it was obvious even to her that she sounded like an upset child, so after a beat Katalin sighed and added, “I mean, Massachusetts. I’m still in Massachusetts.” SEBASTIAN: Considering he had thought she was either lost in the middle of the woods or taken a flight home back to Hungary or thrown into a ditch somewhere, it was relieving to hear that she was still -- sort of -- near to Camulus. But the Greek demigod was feeling particularly sulky even with such news, and he replied with a non-committal “Okay.” Said sulkiness couldn’t last for more than a few seconds, because he continued, “Are you coming back?” It was only a matter of someone finding out her secret, and Sebastian didn’t think she should leave because of that. And okay, maybe he liked having something to do at nights and working on countering her curse. KATALIN: “Of course I’m coming back,” Katalin replied, a touch of amusement creeping its way into her voice. “Where else would I be going?” Loathe as she was to admit it, it was more than a little satisfying that her longer-than-usual absence had been noted, and if a ghost of a smile briefly graced her lips -- well, there was no one around no notice. “I’m just waiting out the full moon.” SEBASTIAN: “I don’t know, Hungary? You were the one who left without saying anything,” he grumbled, getting off from his bed, the phone still pressed to his ear as he went over to the window, lifting the blinds a little before shutting it again, his eyebrows furrowed. He hated the summer heat. “Why did you call?” KATALIN: Why did she call? ‘No reason,’ Katalin wanted to reply. Or ‘I don’t know, it felt like a satisfactory way to waste a few minutes of the morning,’ but that was a lie, and she didn’t possess the energy even to lie to herself anymore. She knew why she was nervous, why she’d wasted at least three dollars in quarters trying and failing to make this call. “I owe you an apology,” she said after a long pause. “It wasn’t -- I may have jumped to conclusions when I saw the note.” The words came slowly, almost as if they were being forcibly extracted from her mouth by pliers. Katalin hated apologizing. “I’ve been thinking, and...I guess it could have been anyone. Lord knows there’s enough hunters at this school. Someone’s bound to have put two and two together by now. It was -- it was probably just a lucky guess. I mean, the note never mentioned the curse, so I suppose whomever wrote it doesn’t know the specifics.” Another pause. “Just, you’re the only one I’ve told, all right? I don’t usually trust people with my secrets, and I was only just beginning to think that maybe trusting you wasn’t a mistake. The note caught me off-guard.” And that was that. Katalin fell silent. The apology had left her feeling inexplicably exhausted. SEBASTIAN: There was silence at his end of the line, mostly because Sebastian was trying to comprehend the fact that Kat just apologized. Something like this very rarely happened -- she hadn't even apologized when she tried setting him on fire. He looked around, wondering if someone had set up some sort of illusion. Just in case. "I wouldn't tell anyone," he felt like he needed to say that again. He wasn't entirely sure whether it was a mistake or not for her to tell him, since he wasn't making much of a progress with his research. If it really was going nowhere, then it was probably a mistake for her to tell him. Since it was Kat, of all people, apologizing, it was easier to believe her. "I might forgive you, if you come back in one piece and buy me lunch," he told her in a lighter tone. KATALIN: “OK,” Katalin replied simply, “I believe you.” And she did, mostly. Part of her was still hesitant, still thought telling Sebastian about the curse at all had been a horrendous idea and that she should have taken the chance to cut ties and ran with it, but Katalin ignored it. Even if trusting Sebastian with her secret did turn out to be a mistake -- and it if did, well, she would she would cross that bridge when she came to it -- she couldn’t deny that having someone else in on it had felt good, as if they were both sharing the load. Of course, that feeling was dangerous too. It wouldn’t do to forget that at the end of the day, Sebastian was simply curious about the curse. She was the equivalent of a fascinating science project to him, and even though she may have felt less burdened, the weight of the curse still rested firmly on her shoulders. “As for your conditions, I suppose I can try to come back safe. You better not expect anything fancy for that free lunch, though.” SEBASTIAN: It occurred to him then he and Isolde probably needed to sober up again by the time she came back, and the reminder almost made him groan, but he restrained himself just in time. For now, he was going to keep quiet about ditching training and drinking. They would just have to deal with that afterwards. "You know I'm not picky," he responded, brightened up by the idea of not having to spend his money on food for a few days. "By the way, just letting you know you pissed off Isolde when you carved that message on her door." Sebastian glanced over at the stack of books he hadn’t been reading for the past few days. It was time to pick them up again. “Looks like pillow fights really are abound.” KATALIN: “Oh, that,” Katalin said dismissively. “That was her fault. All I did was tell her she shouldn’t press my temper. And for heaven’s sake, I carved it into her door, not her skin. It even went away on its own.” Honestly, she thought. Isolde Sarkozy should have been grateful that Katalin had opted not to write her message in fire. Her affinity for flames tended to increase the closer she got to the full moon. “At any rate, she should be too exhausted to complain after I return. We have to catch up on the training that I’m sure you two have neglected in my absence.” SEBASTIAN: Damn, and he didn’t even have to mention anything about training. He let out a loud, dissatisfied sigh that Katalin could most likely hear through the phone. “And I thought I was free from waking up in the early mornings,” he said dryly. “Fine,” Sebastian wasn’t about to complain. Not yet, anyway. He would just save that for when she returned. KATALIN: “You need to learn to wake up earlier, anyway,” Katalin insisted, disregarding the fact that she probably sounded like someone’s mother (although certainly not her own, at any rate). “But I suppose you can continue to lounge about until the early afternoon until I get back. I’ll -- I guess I’ll see you soon.” SEBASTIAN: He made a face. “Yes, mom,” Sebastian teased, emphasizing on the last word. He wasn’t going to say something like ‘I’m glad you called’, but in all honesty, he was relieved that she did. “I’ll talk to you later.” KATALIN: "Right." Katalin paused again, unsure whether she should bother with a goodbye or just hang up. "Sleep well, drágám," she said finally before setting the phone back in its cradle and heading back down the road that would lead her toward the forest. She felt famished. Katalin stretched, and as soon as she was under the cover of trees, felt a hot spike of pain shoot through her bones. She fell forward and landed on large black paws. Time to eat. |