InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Time to make the donuts!"

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.

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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."

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	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.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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?"

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	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)

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