<> <> (What time of day is it, Cham?) * Threnody has changed into what he was wearing in New Mexico: denim shorts and a baggy white tank-top. He also went back and retrieved his bokken, of all things, and is waiting for Kat with a towel around his neck. (Lateish?) (Latish.) (... thren, I know what you're doing and all I can say is "don't roll".) (*snerk*) (It's just for practice. And to let Kat say she tried to shoot him.) (Wuth that, bed.) * Katherine comes into the shooting range. She's dressed in the same stuff she was dressed in before. Blue cutoff, black jeans, and black boots, and hasn't taken off the guns. She looks at Thren, and smirks. "The saying is, don't bring a knife to a gunfight, but I suppose that's not a knife. Why'd you want to meet me here anyway?" * Threnody stands up and puts down the towel, then stretches a little bit, answering as he does so. "I want you to fire at me." * Katherine frowns, pulls out the .357, and looks it over in her hands real quick, then back up at Thren. Why? * Threnody continues to stretch, talking as he does so. "It's good practice for the reflexes. Plus I haven't been accosted by random bounty hunters in a while... I need to keep in top form when it starts up again." Uh-huh. You sure you don't want me to try rubber bullets? * Katherine aims the gun at him. "I mean, son of the great one and all that, but bullets are bullets." * Threnody stands up, twirls the bokken in his hand a bit, then smiles at Katherine. "Don't underestimate the sword school that saved the universe." * Katherine shrugs. "Alright, fine." She brings the gun up, points, and narrows her eyes. "Ready?" * Threnody nods, closing his eyes for a second and then opening them again, dropping into the battoujutsu stance that Kat would probably find familiar. "Ready." * Katherine fires straight at Thren's chest with the loud 'bang' one would, indeed, associate with a gun going off. (Thren critfails, gets hit, and dies. The end.) * Threnody barely has time to let out the breath he was holding before he whips the bokken upward with surprising speed; the bullet impacts a wall somewhere a fraction of a second or two later. (The truth is, rollwise, you'd always assume Thren was on full defense doing this, and the only way he can fail a block defense full defending is to critfail.) (I think that's why Cham said don't roll. Dicey would do it to spite me. ^_^) * Katherine arches an eyebrow. "Sturdy piece of wood, that one." She smirks. "So what was with all the sarcasm today? You were definitely on it." * Threnody closes his eyes and brings his hands in front of him, letting out the rest of the breath meditatively before 'resetting' his stance. "Sarcasm?" Yeah. Sarcasm. Like the huamanitarian comment. Ready? * Threnody nods once, not responding just yet, focusing his eyes on Kat's hands. * Katherine pulls the gun right quickly and fires in the general area of Thren's shoulder. * Threnody shifts, in barely the time it takes to blink, his entire stance a half step in that direction, the bokken coming out lightning quick and held horizontally in front of him; the bullet impacts the wall behind him off to an angle. "I didn't think one offhand comment made for 'all' the sarcasm." * Katherine smiles thinly. "As far as I can tell, for you, that's quite a bit. One a day seems like your limit. Ready?" * Threnody nods, getting back into stance again after the meditative thing. "Yes." * Katherine fires again, this time shooting for the stomach. * Threnody again smoothly draws the bokken, and the sound of the shot pinging off of it is heard... and then Thren's kneeling, clutching his hand, which is bleeding. Not badly; just a nick. "Oh..." he pauses, searching for a word, then says, glumly, "...fuck." * Katherine smiles very faintly, then peers. "Not a bad hit, was it?" * Threnody doesn't look up. "No. I'm somehow a little irritated that you enjoyed it, too." He slips the bokken into his belt loops again with his good hand, then places it over his right, dabbing at the blood. * Katherine frowns. "You kicked my ass in the sword fight, Thren." * Threnody frowns back. "So, that's why you agreed to help me? To 'win'?" No. I did it 'cause you asked. * Threnody sighs and goes to sit down, grabbing his towel as he does so and wrapping it around his hand. "Then I'm at a loss." * Katherine shakes her head, and follows Thren to where he sat. "So I'm a little pleased that you're not invincible, big deal. Hell, two of those shots coulda killed you." * Threnody smirks. "Invincible?" He looks down at his hand. The bleeding's mostly stopped, though the towel has a bit of a red spot from it. "That... that's not even close to right." * Katherine glances at the hand, then sits down. "Well, of course it's not really right, but I sure as hell haven't been doing so hot." * Threnody continues to look at his hands. "Is it really a good thing, to be good at hurting people, though?" * Katherine reholsters her gun. "Helped out today, didn't it?" * Threnody glances at Kat out of the corner of his eye without sitting up, then sighs and seems to bite down whatever he was going to say. "I can't keep the sharpness out of my head. The more I'm around you, the more I hear her creeping into my voice." * Katherine nods slightly, and says softly. "I know the feeling. Half felt like I was in the Pastrami Cradle today." * Threnody raises an eyebrow, then blinks in recognition. "The Messenger." Yeah. Bitch hadn't been to many asteroids. Only one that stuck. * Threnody winces. "I don't remember much about what was said. Only that it was when things started going very awry..." * Threnody follows up, quietly, "It was when Illyana took the AllDrug... and my mother was very reticent to discuss that topic." * Katherine rubs her face. "Smart woman. I seem to think that a lot about her." * Threnody can't help but laugh. "It's funny. She said once that if any of the others had children, they'd raise them to hate her." * Katherine frowns. "Judging from us, Thren? I don't think any of the others would have had any fucking time." * Threnody raises an eyebrow at that. * Katherine leans back. "I've met Vernon's son. If he's still alive, he's probably a lunatic by now. He didn't look like he was sleeping well either." * Threnody blinks a few times. "That's..." He pauses. "...do I want to know?" * Katherine says softly. "I didn't stick around long. I could see it in his eyes, and I didn't ask any questions.' * Threnody mmms softly. "I see." * Threnody pauses a moment, then adds, "It's not as if Vernon was all that stable to begin with." * Katherine snickers faintly. "That's what happens when you try to drink and think at the same time." * Katherine then shakes her head, and says angrily, "God damn it, Thren. I didn't know these people." * Threnody shrugs his shoulders. "You do, though. You can accept it, or you can spend your life fighting it." * Katherine glares at Thren. * Threnody sighs and stands up, unwrapping the towel from his hand. "Be angry at me all you want, but it's the truth." * Katherine stands up too. "I'm angry because you can even consider I should fucking accept it." * Threnody tilts his head in genuine curiosity. "What other option is there supposed to be, exactly?" Well, I could just wear that pyramid-shaped artifact as a fucking hat. * Katherine 's ears twitch. * Threnody sighs a little tiredly. "And other than that?" * Katherine throws up her hands. "I don't know! If I knew, I'd have fucking done it by now." She looks to the side slightly. "You just don't know what it means." She pauses, and adds, "Fuck, I don't even know what it means." (I want cobbler.) (I want to CUT YOUR HEAD OFF AND DRINK YOUR BLOOD.) (Leo Cobbler.) (Eew?) (Er, I mean, yes, cobbler.) * Threnody shakes his head and flexes his fingers to make sure nothing serious happened, and is relieved to know it didn't. "I don't have anything useful to tell you, then..." That sounds dead on. Hand working again? * Threnody looks at the back of his palm. "It would appear so." * Threnody glances at Kat a moment, then sighs and slings the towel over his shoulder. "I think I need some rest. And time to think about what happened." * Katherine nods slightly, and says with no real emotion or force. "Yeah, sure, Thren." She licks her lips, and sighs slightly. "Good luck, I think." * Threnody nods and waves, then heads back to house arrest. * Katherine turns back to the targets, and empties the rest of her clip into a target. Then she shakes her head, and reloads the gun as she leaves also. (We're done here.) <>