<> <> (I set Kat on fire and leave!) (BEST MINI EVER) (Kat is sad. All her stuff is gone. ;_;) (What's our day, Mr. Day Man? <> (Wednesday! Whenever Thren wants to show up.) * Threnody shows up at 12:15, exactly. Buzz! * Katherine is in her apartment, slumped over the table. She says tiredly, "Who is it?" (Am multiplaying, BTW, so.) * Threnody clears his throat. "Just me. I brought some lunch." * Katherine grins faintly, and lifts her face off the table. "Saved me the trouble of trying to decide if I wanted to cook. Come on up." * Threnody arrives a passable amount of time later with whatever the modern equivalent of the brown paper bag is. "If you're like any other artist I've ever known, you haven't been eating regularly, and I was in the neighborhood." <> * Katherine ughs, and sits full up. She's wearing sports bra and badly damaged jeans. At least today she's got different paint spots all over her, although the hair's still unbraided. "I'm a bit better than most. My figure sorta demands it. Especially nowadays." She eyes the bag and licks her lips. "Won't stop me from taking advantage of the offer." * Threnody shrugs and sets the bag down on the counter and rummages inside, producing a covered bowl of spaghetti and meatballs complete with DunnoSporks and what appears to be two old-style Chinese takeout boxes for himself, complete with chopsticks. "Hope you like Italian." * Katherine grabs the sporks. "Hey, edible's a step up from nothing. Arigato." She uncovers the bowl, and attacks! Poor food didn't have a chance. * Threnody opens one of the cartons, pours some rice into a DunnoBowl, then opens the other one and breathes in. It smells spicy. It LOOKS spicy. It FEELS spicy and it's four feet away. <> * Katherine whistles through a mouth of food, then swallows it. "Wow. What's that?" * Threnody blinks and spoons some onto the rice. It almost glows. "1 billion x blow you to smithereens curry chicken. I've always had a thing for spicy food." ("I just can't COOK at all." *EXPLOSION*) * Katherine goes back to her boring old spaghetti, having been suitably humbled. "Huh. Spicy never bothered me, but that's something else entirely." * Threnody shrugs and has a bite. A small bite. "I've actually never GAH!" He closes his eyes tight a moment, then lets out the breath he was holding and gets another bite in his chopsticks. "...never had this particular strength of curry. I thought the chef was exaggerating." * Katherine smiles faintly. "Guess not." * Katherine mms. "Uhf. Well, that helps settle the stomach." She runs her hand through her hair slowly. (Ugh, this is hard. @_@) * Threnody ehes and tries another bite, which again takes a long time to process. "It's... really quite tasty. I'm sure once my taste buds themselves are cauterized it won't even matter." * Katherine continues smiling. "Yeah, that's sorta the problem with killer spicy food." <> * Threnody takes a bottle of Dunnosani out of the bag and takes a nice long drink of it. "I'm surprised. You usually don't smile." * Katherine rolls her eyes. "I smile plenty. Just... " she shakes her head, and adds, "Not lately." * Threnody shrugs and has another bite, with less lag time this time. "I've only known you lately." Guess that's true. It's been a rough week. * Katherine sighs and stands, going over to the sink and filling a glass with water. She says in a mocking tone. "Not usually depressed and barely holding together, really!" She comes back to the table and sits down. "Pitiful." * Threnody shrugs again, having now gotten the rhythm down. Apparently meditation techniques help in eating curry. "That's sort of the flow of life. There's ups and there's downs. There's no reason to feel bad about reacting to them." * Katherine takes a drink, and then goes back to eating. "No, I think there's very good reasons to feel bad. Just gotta get over it, is all." * Threnody sighs and chugs another mouthful of bottled water. "Why did you ask me to come over here when we were in Box City, anyway?" * Katherine frowns slightly, and does another hand-run-through-the-hair. "I was..." she takes a breath. "It's not so easy to call up what I want to see, sometimes." She smirks. "Usually, I don't want to see it, so that doesn't bother me, but recently, it's been a different story." * Threnody blinks, then takes an especially large bite of food and chews it with a sullen expression, saying nothing. * Katherine shovels more food. "I need to see all this junk. I couldn't deal with it in combat, I couldn't deal with it when I tried to write it... maybe I can deal with it in art. But it wasn't coming quickly yesterday, although I got a real nasty shock late yesterday afternoon." * Threnody says, quietly, chopsticks full of curry halfway to his mouth as he does so, "So... you want me to be here so you can see the things you're otherwise angry at me for causing you to see." * Katherine winces. "I'm not angry at you for them. They're not helpful, and annoying, and all sorts of other stuff I'd rather not deal with, but it it's not like you can turn them off any more than I can." * Threnody takes another bite slowly, but is sort of looking ahead at a window, distractedly. "...I see." * Katherine says with a tinge of exasperation. "I know you're so sick of me using you, so it's not like you have to stick around if you don't want." She rubs her eyes, and takes a bite. "And I'm only saying that because I'm thinking it too, which means you already saw it." * Threnody finishes the last bite of the curry, then sets his chopsticks down and claps his hands lightly twice, before turning to look at you, seeming a little tired. "All I have to do is sit there, yes? It's not very logical to disagree. I don't have anything to fill my time with anyway." * Katherine finishes up the last of her food, and quirks a faint smile. "Well, I could think of more interesting things to do than sit around, but I won't object." She shakes her head, and stands, taking the glass of water with her. "Come on, I'll show you the... er, studio. " * Threnody grabs his unfinished bottle of water and follows. "I spoke to Roy. Invited him to dinner, actually." * Katherine strides across the room. The curtain is actually moved a little farther out than it was yesterday. "Huh, Roy?" She smirks faintly, then ducks in. "Have a good time?" * Threnody shakes his head. "I was mostly asking him about why he knew about the Game." * Katherine is standing between a chair and a medium sized canvas with a picture of a woman on it, lying on her side, covered in sheets. It is not a well defined picture, certaintly a work in progress. A bottle of some alcohol's in there, only 1/3 empty, and there's a number of brushes and paints lying about. Oh? Good idea. I remember him saying that, but... * Katherine chuckles. "Been distracted." There's a painting facing against the wall that you can't see, as well a chaotic red, black, and grey painting, a picture of Luanne in her car, and Roch on the couch. As well as a male torso drawn with what looks like a charcoal pencil. The head isn't defined. * Threnody sits cross-legged on the chair and sips his water again. "He said it was an urban legend in his very small circle of hacker friends," he says, closing his eyes. "Which... I might be prepared to believe, knowing Vernon's lack of discretion. I asked him to look into the source of the rumor for me." * Katherine snickers, and picks up the unfinished female picture, putting it aside, and picking up a blank canvas. "Yeah, I can buy that too. One thing hackers always hate is a coverup." She frowns at it, takes a drink of her water, and then picks up a palatte and a pair of brushes, closing her eyes for a second. * Katherine suddenly laughs loudly. "Oh, that's absolutely perfect. Thanks a lot, brain." She seems genuinely amused. * Threnody doesn't open his eyes, but he sips the last of his water, sets the bottle down on the ground, and then adjusts himself into something approximating a half lotus, saying nothing. * Katherine picks up one of her brushes, and starts moving. Swift, steady-handed strokes. Time passes quickly, with Kat intermittently stopping to mix paints, take sips of water or alcohol, and in one case, she wanders outside of the curtains for about five minutes. <> (Somewhere, the GM is punched in the face.) (;_;) * Threnody does not say a word the entire time, although his breathing pattern is regular enough to show he's not asleep, just deep in thought. * Katherine nods with satisfaction at the painting, and starts taking less careful strokes around the outside of the main focus of the painting, which is a mid-twenties oriental woman with a long black ponytail wearing a white tank-top, black-leather pants and a shirt tied around her waist. A knife is at her belt, which her hand is resting on, and there seems to be a fire in her eyes. * Katherine takes a deep breath, and puts down her brush, wiping a towel that is on the ground across her face. "Well, there's the easy one..." * Threnody opens one eye at that, as if he'd been paying attention the whole time, and then just stares at the painting with his head tilted to one side. * Katherine turns to Thren with a slight grin. "So, does she look anything like she does now?" * Threnody pauses a moment, then moves his head back and shakes it in disagreement. "No. If she saw that painting, she would be..." He pauses. "She would be sad, I think." * Katherine mms, and says softly, "Everything else that stuck was in her suit, that one dress, or in the alley." She looks down slightly, and says, picking it up and moving it off to a barely open piece of wall. "Sorry ya don't like it." * Threnody shakes his head again. "I never said I didn't like it... well, that's wrong. It's not something I would choose to look at often, if only because it..." He pauses. "I don't know how to describe it, exactly." * Katherine turns around and looks at Thren. "I don't know either. I... it was sorta funny, and strong. Not quite her essence, but the only thing that really captured her essence... I could never hope to draw." She sighs. * Threnody looks at the painting again. "My mother said I should strive to be samurai, because her whole life she was ninja. I think that's what that painting means." * Katherine smiles faintly. "Only makes me wish I could draw..." she frowns... "That last technique of hers. Dumb bitch missed the name, but if there was anything..." she trails off again, and walks over to the painting that's flipped around slowly. "She called it her Adoption." * Threnody tilts his head, then blinks and nods once to himself. "It's called 'Shiden'. It's named after one of the family's honor swords." * Katherine says after Thren, "Shiden. It was something else. A lot like that damn painful burst, but a lot more skillful." * Threnody looks confused for a moment, then shrugs it off and nods faintly, looking at the painting again. "The funny thing is, that's the sword Kataki took with him when he ran away. The other one, Guren, is home with my mother." * Katherine stares down at the picture that has not been flipped around. "Huh. Kataki, your brother, right?" * Threnody nods and uncurls from the meditation pose he was in, letting his legs fall over the side of the chair. "My elder by 10 minutes. He..." He pauses, and closes his eyes. "Kataki is a complicated topic." * Katherine winces slightly, and turns back around, saying slowly, "You wanna talk about it, or... maybe not?" * Threnody leans back and shuts his eyes again. "I don't know what there is to tell. You know the outcome, which is the worst part..." * Katherine sighs, and walks back over to Thren, sitting down on the floor. "It's not like there's much you can get offa me. I could only wish for the kinda control you have. But... hell. If you think it'll help. Your story." She exhales. * Threnody doesn't open his eyes, but takes a deep breath. "Kataki is my mother's son. He looks more Japanese than I do. Black hair, black eyes. Was passionate about learning the sword." * Katherine leans back, using her hands to support herself as she looks up at Thren. * Threnody opens his eyes and looks at the ceiling. "He has a mind controlling power. Whatever it is that's affecting us... children of the Europans, anyway... is much more subtle in him than in me, but it won out. He started using his powers to get what he wanted." * Katherine frowns a little. * Threnody tilts his head down with a bizarrely impassive expression. "I confronted him. He tried to use it on me... and it didn't work. I lost control to the voice in my head that only wanted to kill people. Father was dead before 30 seconds were up." * Katherine nods very faintly, saying softly. "You sorta mentioned that before..." * Threnody nods. "That's it. The rest is history. Kataki disappeared. He's in... Twilight City, now. I don't know what he's doing, but he wants my mother and I dead. There's an underworld bounty for both of us, and it's enormous." * Katherine laughs very weakly. "You got a bounty? I had to get them trying to kill me the old fashioned way." She pauses, and then adds, "Bad joke." * Threnody says, flatly but in a neutral tone that implies it's the truth, "Yes." * Katherine says faintly, looking away at the picture she hadn't finished. "I don't... I guess I'm lucky. I don't think I could live if I'd killed mom. When... when I snapped, it was just some guy." * Threnody closes his eyes again. "What has happened, has happened. Trying to change the past doesn't work." You're right. * Threnody gets up, stretching and looking at the ceiling again. "So I don't let it shackle me. My mother's not the same. That's why she would look at your painting and be sad, even if it's an excellent painting." * Katherine stands up too, using Thren as assistance. He's sturdy, he can take it. "It'd be nice if that were easy. Thanks for the compliment, though. Even though nobody's getting to see much of it, it's nice to know it's good." * Threnody walks over toward the door, then turns around. "You don't sound like you would have cared one way or the other." * Katherine sighs, stepping out of the curtained area to follow Thren. "I do care, though." She looks back towards the curtained area and continues in a softer, weaker tone of voice, "It really does matter, Thren. All of it. That's why it's so hard." * Threnody pauses a moment at the door, then smiles a little. "Have you ever been to Avalon?" * Katherine says, still looking away. "No." * Threnody mmms faintly. "It's actually very pretty, if you're in the right frame of mind. I've only been once and couldn't stay very long. Someone hungry for the reward was there." * Katherine mms too. "Maybe it'll be interesting, then. Certaintly gotta be different than Mars." * Threnody shrugs and then nods, opening the door. "I'll see you later. I hope you got whatever it is you wanted." * Katherine turns around and says a little less softly, "I don't think I did, but thank you for staying around anyway. I'll have to find a way to make this up to you someday." * Threnody turns from being halfway out, then comes halfway around the door and smiles. "Maybe find a way to get in touch with your memories on your own? That's thanks enough for me." And then, ninja Ouka vanish. * Katherine turms around, and says with a sad smile. "He didn't even see the other picture." She slowly walks back across the room. <>