Katchoo and Francine's Dorm Room, St. Louis (Tuesday Fandom Time)

[thismaskiwear]

Yeah, you try living in the same not-that-big room as someone you'd had a nasty fight with not all that long ago; it wasn't all that fun, especially if you were like Katchoo and had a tendency to let these things simmer.

. . . if you were Katchoo, you also had a tendency to work these things out through painting. That explained the oil-based chaos strewn all around one side of the room (much to Clocky's indignation, but then again Clocky was always indignant in her view) and the sketchbooks and various paraphernalia scattered across her desk. Sure, painting people -- certain people, anyway -- was still a touchy subject, but she had a visual memory, and sketches, and was working from that.

With a cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth, naturally.

From the rough staccato whisk of her brushes against the canvas, it was pretty obvious that she wasn't in the best of moods, but hey -- welcome to her last couple of weeks that way.

[OOC: Open for phone calls and that girl what lives there with her. Also, I must share Terry Moore's latest toongirls-as-superheroes sketch because it amuses me.]

Comments

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Because she could tell it sounded like an admission that had been forcibly extracted, possibly with a pair of heated tongs, Katchoo didn't give him any crap about it, asking instead:

"Things in Camelot not going so well, then?"

[bitchprince]

"No, everything is fine." After a beat. "Now. Our first year at Fandom was... complicated."

He cleared his throat. "So if you need to... er. Talk, or whatever it is you women do..."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"The magic closet and everything. Right." Clocky could have just beeped for no particular reason at that point, but it sounded to Katchoo like it was a scolding, you should have known that sort of beep. "I'm not going to break down and cry on you, if you're worried about that."

She fumbled a cigarette from the pack and put it between her lips, which explained the slightly muffled sound of her next comment. "She agreed to let me paint her, and then she got nervous about it." Okay, be fair, Chewie. ". . . not the part that had to do with me seeing her. It was this whole --" She pitched her voice a little higher, affected a tiny bit of a Southern accent. "'What would my mom think?' Geez! It's in the room, not in the frikkin' Metropolitan Museum of Art."

[bitchprince]

The magic closet, many other things... really, Arthur was still a little confused on how they managed to get out of that year in such good form as they had. Which was why he chose not to think about it too often, if he could help it.

"...Why would her mother care if you paint her?" he asked, "Was Francine afraid she'd demand payment?" Were their finances in order, he didn't ask.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

See, that was Katchoo's question, although she framed it in a context that he didn't have. But that she was nice enough to provide. Aww.

"I paint nudes, remember?" she pointed out with a delicacy that absolutely belied her usual demeanor. (By contrast. Shh.)

And while she still spent more on tobacco than was strictly decent, she actually did know how to manage large amounts of money; not everything she'd learned from Darcy was impractical in the everyday world.

[bitchprince]

It was hard to remember such things, strangely enough, being back in Camelot -- which was not exactly known for its artists willing to paint nudes. "Well," he said, after a moment, "I imagine she would worry about her mother seeing it..."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Funny, that. Who knew?

"If it was on display, sure," Katchoo answered. "But I don't exactly have people knocking down my door asking for a gallery showing in the first place."

[bitchprince]

"Or bringing shame on the family n--"

He cut himself off.

"...But your lot don't really care about that."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo snorted so loudly it might have sounded like she'd shredded something in her sinus cavity in the process.

"'Our lot?' Don't make it sound like we actually agree on things that much in this day and age, Arthur."

Therein lay the potential for a lot more ranting, if she had the head of steam built up for it. At the moment, she didn't.

[bitchprince]

"You lot seemed to agree on everything well enough back when I was on the island," Arthur groused, "All that stuff about 'chauvenism' and 'democracy'..."

Thanks for that, Priestly.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"You were listening to Kilt-Boy, weren't you?" Katchoo asked dryly. "It's really not that simple. For one, there's plenty of people who still have to worry about being found out the way you do, and the sadistic frikkin' geniuses of humanity've learned a lot about how to make someone's life a living hell, a lot slower than public execution, since your time."

A beat, then:

"Francine's family isn't quite that bad, but . . ."

[bitchprince]

... Ah.

Expectations.

He got that end of it.

"But her mother still expects her to behave in a certain way," he said.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Mph." It was vague, but meant as an affirmative. "And she cares about what her mom thinks."

After a week-plus of awkward semi-cooldown, that made more sense than her initial angry I blow mine off, why can't you? perspective had.

[bitchprince]

There was silence on the other end of the line as Arthur thought about his own father. But he had trouble enough talking about any of that to Merlin, let alone Katchoo.

"Sometimes we have to compromise some of our own beliefs for the sake of our parents," he said, "And hope the people we care for understand."

He'd get back to flailing awkwardly about the concept of 'feelings' in a minute.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

It was almost a shame Katchoo wasn't in the sort of mood to enjoy making him flail as much as she usually did.

Besides -- the brief moment of silence on her end of the line meant he'd registered a hit with that comment, and she sighed quietly.

"I forget what that's like," she said, not so much a pointed statement as it was a conceding one. "I never gave a good goddamn about what my mom thought -- but then again most parents like to wade around in some delusions about how they see their kids. Her? She frikkin' cannonballed right in yelling YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

[bitchprince]

"Most of them just want what's best for us," Arthur said. "To mold our choices towards what's right."

A brief pause.

"Or... at least... as far as they think..."

It had taken him a fairly long time to get to the point where he could even say that.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Not sayin' there's anything wrong with their intentions," Katchoo clarified, almost gently. Almost. "Most of 'em, anyway."

Of course sometimes they were cynical manipulative bastards who were more interested in molding their kids into something they could use, but . . .

[bitchprince]

... Uther was a bit of both.

"Indeed," Arthur said, lamely, and cleared his throat. "It... may be something worth talking about..."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was the part she hadn't actually said.

"Yeah," Katchoo mumbled. "Guess we oughta get around to doing that."

[bitchprince]

"Yes," Arthur said. And praised the phone's capacity to let him twiddle with something without it being immediately clear to the other person. "I--" What, exactly? "Good luck."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Katchoo said, and honestly meant it.

". . . if it goes wrong you'll probably hear it all the way back there."

[bitchprince]

"Try not to shout too loudly," Arthur said, happy to find refuge in audacity humor. "It may startle the maids. And Merlin."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Damn waste of the effort if I can't witness the results anyway," drawled Katchoo.