InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "purple bunny! whoa! with teeth"

Katherine Athena (oceantoocean) wrote in we_float,
@ 2010-05-21 22:37:00

Entry tags:

character: alistair icenhour, character: katherine athena, plot: sympathy for the devil

Who: Alistair Icenhour and Katherine Athena.
What: Conversations and further strategy.
When: Saturday, May 22, 2096
Where: Waiting for the Interurban, Fremont, Seattle
Status: Closed; in progress

"Well." Katherine said as she came to a full stop in front of the four statues. "That's something, isn't it?" Her arms, still clutching the notes from a brief meeting with the mayor, pressed her notebook up against her chest without even thinking about it. To protect her heart.

"Waiting for the Interurban" was what someone had titled the work of public art so many years ago that even Katherine, who studied her city's history carefully, knew little about it. It had become an institution--four stone figures standing, on which the public draped clothing and changed outfits at will. However the figures had changed. Someone had sewn on extra limbs into some of the outfits, added lumps of stone to the heads... in short, they were jokers.

"You don't have to stare," a teenage girl stopped and told them, plucking a headphone out of her ear for a moment. "It's been like that since Wednesday." She snapped a piece of gum and rolled her eyes. "I think they shoulda added something more dramatic. Like maybe the Troll." Before Katherine could get more words out of her mouth, the girl had stepped back on a board and let the air hover her down the street.

"Wednesday," Katherine repeated, stepping a little closer.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

	oceantoocean 2010-05-30 06:01 pm UTC (link)
	"You're enjoying this," she accused as she shoved the loaf of bread at him. The tiny smile on his face calmed her, however. Everything was going to be fine in the end. Or at least, Katherine reflected, memorable. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	theseainsideme 2010-05-30 11:43 pm UTC (link)
	"I'm enjoying it in theory only. Practice is never so enjoyable as the aspiration," Alistair admitted, the truth of it doing nothing to dissuade his feelings of excitement. He took out a slice and started buttering his own slice with peanut butter. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	oceantoocean 2010-05-31 02:15 am UTC (link)
	Katherine finished the sandwich, going for another almost immediately. "At least you'll make it into the history books?" She said lightly. "Or you could, if you wanted. Think of the stories you can tell after retirement." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

theseainsideme
2010-05-31 03:08 am UTC (link)

"Hopefully it'll only be you that makes it into the history books."

He set his half of a sandwich down for a moment as he chewed thoughtfully on his last bite. He might not have a choice in the matter depending how things went. Suddenly, Amelia's decision to try seeing other people seemed helpful and prescient rather than annoying and impractical. Maybe, just maybe, she'd stay out of this. Maybe.

He looked up at Katherine. It took him a moment before he could force the words out, but the fact he did it at all was an indication of how taken he was by the idea of it all.

"I should tell you something, before we get into all of this."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	oceantoocean 2010-05-31 03:11 am UTC (link)
	"Go ahead." She took a bite of the new sandwich, chewing and swallowing quickly. She wondered whether Alistair was about to tell her what she already knew and what, if anything, she should say to indicate that she had the information. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	theseainsideme 2010-05-31 03:20 am UTC (link)
	He thought about how to say it. "I had a similar thing happen to me when I was ten. Eleven. No, ten," he said, squinting a little as if examining the past from a distance. He took a bite of his peanut butter sandwich and tried not to look terribly uncomfortable with the admission. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	oceantoocean 2010-05-31 03:22 am UTC (link)
	Katherine said nothing. Instead, she simply walked over to the cabinet, took out a glass, and filled it with water. Her hands wrapped around it for a moment as she looked at him, then held out the glass. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	theseainsideme 2010-05-31 03:25 am UTC (link)
	He looked at the glass, then he looked at Katherine. The look on his face crumpled slightly. "Oh, son of a bitch." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	oceantoocean 2010-05-31 03:28 am UTC (link)
	"Go on," she whispered. "Please." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	theseainsideme 2010-05-31 03:40 am UTC (link)
	He gave Katherine a look as he took the glass and turned it over on the table. The water sat on what was the bottom of the glass and had now become an impromptu ceiling. "If you found this in my background search, you need to tell me how," he said carefully as he turned the glass back over and relinquished his hold over it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

oceantoocean
2010-05-31 03:45 am UTC (link)

"No," Katherine said quietly. "It wasn't that. I just... noticed. We spend time together, Alistair. I do pay attention." Her finger reached up to scratch her ear, nails raking against it. "I never had any intention of sharing the information but it would be dishonest to let you tell me that you were an ace when that was information I already had."

She inhaled. "I told you that... or tried to tell you that I knew before."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	theseainsideme 2010-05-31 03:52 am UTC (link)
	Alistair looked slightly warily at Katherine, then bit back a disbelieving smile. "An ace?" He picked up the water glass and took a sip out of it. "Well, I guess that makes me feel somewhat better." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	oceantoocean 2010-05-31 03:53 am UTC (link)
	"What do you mean, it makes you feel somewhat better?" Katherine gestured at the glass. "I wasn't wrong, was I?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	theseainsideme 2010-05-31 04:00 am UTC (link)
	"If it had been frivolously bequeathed, I could see how you would think that. But, I'm afraid it serves a very necessary purpose." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	oceantoocean 2010-05-31 04:02 am UTC (link)
	"Alistair, will you just tell me?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

theseainsideme
2010-05-31 04:31 am UTC (link)

He bit his bottom lip, then started unbuttoning the button at his left wrist.

"Gills," he said simply. "I don't necessarily need them to breathe, but if they aren't constantly hydrated, my lungs collapse. Which, as you can imagine, sucks."

He pushed up the sleeve, revealing the gauze that went up his forearm. He dug out the end and started unraveling it from his arm. "And then there's the webbing I have to have excised yearly, the rather obtrusive coloring I have to put makeup over and, because God is really hilarious -"

Alistair held up his arm and there it was: a blue green shimmer to the hairless skin that extended out to the nearly translucent sections hung between the fine bones of the fin jutting out of his arm. He could wiggle it slightly and he did so before collapsing it against his arm once again and starting to wrap it back up.

"So. On the whole I wouldn't call myself an ace."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	oceantoocean 2010-05-31 05:43 am UTC (link)
	Katherine tried not to look curious but failed, her body pitching forward to look at his arm before stopping halfway. She caught herself by neatly resting her hand on the counter next to him. "No, I suppose not," she smiled, then shook her head. "All this time and I had to discover the subtle ability. I can't believe..." How was it she'd never managed to notice? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

theseainsideme
2010-05-31 05:52 am UTC (link)

"Not getting beaten up in high school is an even better motivator for secrecy than politics." He stopped the act of wrapping his arm and took off what he'd done, since she was curious.

"I had a lot of practice. The water stuff is hard to... what did I do?" he asked, curious himself. He monitored himself pretty well, but there were some things that were unavoidable, he guessed. If he had to put his finger on it, he bet it was that absorption thing - that was never something that pricked at his consciousness when he did it. "I mean. What did you catch?"

He abandoned the wrapping and started at the opposite sleeve.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

oceantoocean
2010-05-31 05:57 am UTC (link)

Katherine noticed his unraveling of the wrapping and her mouth tightened, embarrassed at her faux pas. "I'm sorry." She scratched her ear again, glancing down. "I didn't mean to stare, if I was."

It was simply so odd, and in its way, relieving, to find that Alistair was in the same position that she was. Whatever was said about the wild card, Katherine didn't believe for a moment that aces and jokers would ever be treated the same, even in discrimination.

"You placed your hand down once when you'd spilled a glass of water and it seemed to..." She frowned, trying to provide the right word for what she'd seen. Absorption seemed too simple. "It just entered your skin, or it seemed to. I'm not sure that you noticed at the time. It was a couple of years ago, when we were preparing that argument on the immigration reform bill."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

theseainsideme
2010-05-31 06:14 am UTC (link)

"Damn. Damn,," he cursed as he pushed up his sleeve and started taking off the bandage there, shaking his head frustratedly. "I wish I had noticed. Most of the time it's all just whirring in the background."

Alistair gestured to the back of his head and finished taking off the other bandage. He leaned forward, forearms against the counter top, hands clasped.

"You were, but honestly, they are pretty stare-worthy. I've got a pretty wicked one of my back too, but you'll forgive me if I don't go stripping in your kitchen," Alistair said with a smirk in his eyes, but not on his lips. He shrugged.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

oceantoocean
2010-05-31 06:24 am UTC (link)

"Oh, I think I've had all I can handle," Katherine's eyes sparked in amusement. "This is the most excitement I've had in months." With a laugh, she got herself a glass of water, her eyes still watching him. There were nothing of repulsion in her look, just simple wonder.

"Why do you wish you'd noticed? Do you think someone besides me did?" She sipped her water slowly.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

theseainsideme
2010-05-31 06:34 am UTC (link)

He looked skeptical. "Possibly, but not necessarily. I have a feeling that if I was really derelict it would have been used against me at some point, and it hasn't. But of course I wish I had - I would have stopped myself from doing it. I try to drink a lot of water so I don't just do it automatically," Alistair mentioned, gesturing at the glass in front of him. "Obviously, that's not always sufficient."

He gestured at Katherine. "I mean, wouldn't you want to know if you'd just flashed someone your heart?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	oceantoocean 2010-05-31 06:37 am UTC (link)
	"It's a little harder for me." But she smiled. "Yes, I would. I wonder, sometimes, if there's ever been anyone..." Katherine's voice drifted. "There are so many little things one does to hide the joker, after all. It's interesting that no one ever asks." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	theseainsideme 2010-05-31 06:42 am UTC (link)
	"How many people knew you before and knew you after?" he asked casually. "As long as you aren't insanely overt, I find that people simply chalk habits up to just that. You've always dressed conservatively - why should anyone find that odd?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	oceantoocean 2010-05-31 05:19 pm UTC (link)
	"True," she agreed, laughing a little at that. "I'm so used to being the center of my own universe--I'm afraid that I forget I'm not the center of anyone else's!" (Reply to this) (Parent)

(Read comments) -