Who: Katou & Rose What: Meeting in person When: Thursday Where: On the streets Rating: Low Status: Complete!
Katou was determined to have a nice, relaxing day. He'd been busting his ass these last few weeks, researching the Star of Wormwood and the Egg if Wormwood, and if anyone had ever mentioned a failsafe in case of an accidental apocalypse, but it sure wasn't easy. None of the tracking spells he had out had been able to find the Seventh Seal, and Katou was really starting to get worried.
But he was taking the day off. People couldn't work non-stop; it just wasn't healthy. Katou didn't much like working even when he could take things easy.
So today's agenda involved buying some dessert, then maybe lounging in a park somewhere eating said dessert, and then drinking all night. And not once thinking about the impending end of the world.
He'd left the house they day with his shoulder-length blonde hair tied back in a low pony tail, wearing torn jeans, Doc Martins, and his Leftover Crack hoodie. A lit cigarette hung out of his mouth as he lazily meandered down the sidewalk.
Rose had just gotten off work, headed back to her flat before heading out again to grab a pint with some friends. It had been a good day, fairly easy without too much of a rush or too many complaints. She was in a good mood as she walked down the street, but a familiar face made her stop in her tracks. She hadn’t actually met him face to face, but it was that...oh bloody hell, what was his name? KATOU! Yes! The snarky gent from online who had called her a not so nice name at the end.
Biting her bottom lip, she quickly crossed the street and hurried to catch up with him. That little bugger was going to deserve this...at least that was what she kept telling herself as she got closer and took a running start at him.
“AHHHHH!” She tackle hugged him from behind, trying to throw her wait around him to get him to the ground.
Katou hadn’t been particularly good at defending himself in his dreams. He was strong and fast, his general mode of attack was “they can’t defend themselves if their sword is already stuck in me.” That was a fighting style he hadn’t exactly wanted to emulate here. Over the last two years, he and Izzy had been training together. Thanks to her help, Katou was now fairly skilled at defending himself.
Which is exactly what he did when someone came running up behind him, screaming before they tackled him. With the cry he’d had time to brace himself, and once she attacked he curled his back and bent his knees, tossing her over his shoulder. He had already extended his claws, the five sharp blades extending out of his glamoured arm, when he caught sight of the girl who’d attacked him. She sure didn’t look like some menacing foe. In fact, she kind of looked familiar. He sheathed his claws again, hoping she hadn’t seen the blades.
Rose had never been flipped like that before and she just lay on the ground, looking up at him. “I wasn’t really going to do anything,” she said, squinting at him against the sun. “But let’s be honest, you totally deserved that kind of greeting!” She reached a hand out for him to help her up.
“What were those things on your arms?”
Katou stared at her for a long moment. She did look familiar, but Katou wasn’t really great with names. Or faces. At least, not until he got to know people. After staring at her reaching hand for a moment longer than necessary, he reached down, grabbed her by the forearm, and pulled her up. “Do I know you?” he asked after a moment. He wasn’t going to talk about his arm with just anyone.
Rose had already started to pull herself off when he finally gave her a hand and she sprang up, dusting off her pants. “Yeah mate, you called me a bitch on the network?” She raised an eyebrow as she watched him try and think about it. “Lemme guess, you still need to pinpoint it a bit more?” She grinned, shaking her head.
“You thought I called you an old man, remember? Which I wasn’t!” She sped through the last part so he couldn’t interrupt her. “I was just mentioning how you could of had a heart attack whichcouldhappentoanyone!” Again, another sped through moment for minimal interruption.
“My name is Rose.”
“Yeah, that could be anyone,” he responded when she said he called her a bitch. It didn’t take him long to clue in to exactly who she was when she kept talking though. Of course he remembered the girl who had definitely implied he was an old man who would drop dead of a heart attack at any moment. He stared at her blankly for moment, his facial expression not changing.
“Nope, don’t remember,” he said, and moved to walk around her.
“HEY!” She moved with him, determined not to let him have the upper hand on this one; he had already bested her online, but she’d have the last laugh now! “You know you’re just giving more proof that you’re like an old man! Can’t even remember conversations you’re having online?” She tsked, her strides matching his. “C’mon, really? My face doesn’t even look familiar?” She gave him a brilliant smile, not sure why she was competing for his memory so much.
Katou grinned. At least she was tenacious. “Wait, yeah, I think it’s coming back to me,” he said after a moment. “You’re that annoying chick on the network, ain’tcha? You always tackle people you meet on the internet? Or am I just special?”
“Oh you’re very special,” she said with a grin, not responding to the ‘annoying’ portion of it. She sensed he just liked to cause reactions in people, something she was usually very good at taking the bait with. But she enjoyed the banter between the two of them so she thought she’d just tag along, see how long she’d be able to keep up with him. She didn’t have too much to do at home anyway.
“I just thought it was the appropriate greeting to meeting you in person! You didn’t enjoy it?” He was certainly aware enough that it didn’t seem like it had caught him by surprise.
Katou wasn’t too interested in losing her. In fact, he even slowed his step a little so she could fall in beside him easier. She was clearly persistent and he was a little curious about why. “No, generally I don’t like being attacked in the middle of the street. You’re lucky I didn’t fuck you up,” he said, smiling a smile that might have been friendly if it wasn’t paired with his words.
Rose couldn’t help but laugh at his words, but stopped when she saw his expression. “Well, I guess with your blade arms you could have done some damage,” she said, eyeing his skin that seemed fairly smooth now. “So yeah, guess I could count myself lucky! And it wasn’t really an attack, more of a friendly hello! It’s me from the network!” She grinned again, meaning all of it in good fun. Half the time she didn’t know if he meant it that way as well or if he was just slightly annoyed.
“Where are you off to today?”
It was the second time she had brought up his finger blades, so apparently the whole ignoring it and it’ll go away portion of that conversation wasn’t happening. “Yeah,” Katou said. “Though it’s less than an arm thing and more of a finger thing,” he said, unsheathing his finger blades again. The wickedly curved blades sprung from his finger tips again. It looked a little strange with the glamour, as though they were sprouting from flesh instead of his mechanical arm, but in a way it almost looked cooler.
“No where really,” Katou said, shrugging. “Taking the day off. Was thinking of maybe catching a matinee or something, but if you’ve got a better offer, I’m all ears.”
“Arm thing sounds better,” Rose countered, but her eyes grew wide as she watched him demonstrate. “Now those are some fingernails. Ever painted them?” She grinned at him, sticking her tongue out at bit in jest.
“Did you get ‘em from your dreams?” It had to be right? How could someone just magically have finger knives?
“What movie then?” Rose kind of intercepted his day, but it seemed like he didn’t mind if she tagged along with him.
Katou snorted. “Oh yeah, I got one of them manicurists on call,” he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes good-naturedly. “But yeah, my dreams were good enough to replace my actual arm with this fancy fake one.” The glamour attached to his watch made it look like flesh, but he pulled up the sleeve of his hoodie halfway up his forearm and turned the glamour off, revealing the mechanical arm beneath. “Don’t even need a can opener anymore.” When he thought about it, the bio-mechanical arm he’d received from the dreams really was an upgrade. He reminded himself that every time he missed being able to touch things.
“I dunno. Thought I’d decide when I got there.” The cinema really was one of Katou’s favourite places to go when he needed to turn off his mind for a couple of hours. Of course, he always went alone. “Murder on the Orient Express looked kinda interesting.” He probably would have just watched Anna’s movie again, because it was kind of cool to see her on the big screen, but he’d already seen it a few times and he didn’t need Anna to know he’d gone to see it more than once.
“That’s so cool!” Rose couldn’t help but show a look of surprise when he showed her the mechanical arm that seemed to appear out of nowhere. “Bloody hell, how’d you do that?” She glanced at his wrist, wondering if he had some kind of device that made it appear that way. It was the most realistic fake arm she’d ever seen. She reached out and poked it once he turned the glamour back on. “Whoa, it totally feels real too!” She poked it again, before giving a bit of a shudder and laughing. “A bit freaky how real it is!”
Rose didn’t keep up with too much cinema, but the title sounded interesting enough. “I’m gonna guess it’s about a murder on something?” She glanced his way. “I dunno what else is out right now. Oh! My friend was in a movie!” She racked her brain for the name of it. “Ummm...it’s called…The Fundamentals!” She grinned, happy she could remember it. That would have been embarrassing. “Have you heard of it?”
“Magic,” Katou said, waving his fingers in a vaguely magical way. It wasn't a lie, Zatanna had charmed the watch for him. “But yeah, very real feeling,” at least for her.
“On the Orient Express,” Katou smirked. He blinked in surprise when Rose mentioned the Fundamentals. Well, if she brought it up, there was nothing he could do “No shit? You know Anna? I heard it's alright if you wanted to check it out.”
“Anna?” Rose gave him a funny face before realizing who he was talking about. “Oh! You mean the girl in the movie? No, I’m friends with Match!” She grinned. “Wait, you know someone in the movie too?” Small world...or small part of Southern California. “It’s a great movie! We should definitely see that one!” Rose wouldn’t mind settling in for two hours of seeing Match’s face on the big screen.
“I’ll even treat to popcorn for trying to attack you. But I think you should get the icee for almost killing me with your finger knives.”
“Match, huh? Never heard of him.” Well, at least, not until this movie. He’d obviously seen his name in the credits and on the poster. “But yeah, the girlie and I go way back. I guess I’d be down for checking it out.”
He snorted. The girl was ballsy, he’d give her that. “Deal.”