[May 18, 2091. It's morning! But that doesn't mean everyone's awake. Thankfully for the sleepers, the sun doesn't shine through Kat's windows, mostly, because the shades are on for everything but the window right against Kat's painting area's back. What does any of this mean? Who knows. Also, Eck is stalking at the top of the couch, looking down at Zak. Dun dun dun.] [Mini start.] * Zak is on the floor, somehow sprawled about while still managing to remain curled around one of the couch pillows. He rolls over in his sleep, which is apparently the cue for Eck to leap onto his newly exposed shoulder, with claws extended. Zak yelps, and rolls away from the biteypointy thing! * Zak blinks a few times, then glares frozen daggers at the cat. (Dodge, Eck! Those daggers are real!) (I learned a few things from Roch! ICY SHURIKEN BLAST) * Katherine is sitting in the chair in her painting area, sunlight at her back. She's looking at Zak and Eck with a slight smirk, mug in hand. She comments quietly, after Zak's glaring, "Nicely done." * Zak looks at Roch a second, then turns his head and glances at the clock on the TVNet's dim idle panel, then sighs softly. "Damn beast couldn't even wait until I'd had more than four hours. Do you feed your cat nails? To keep it mean?" He rolls over and stands up, stretching. * Katherine takes a sip and murmurs, "Some cats are born mean." * Zak smirks. "You ain't just harmonizing Dixie on the autoclave." He wanders into the kitchen corner. * Katherine says back, "Try not to wake people up." * Zak manages to dispense coffee-like substance from the nanofactor. "Yeah, I got it." He glances to Roch, then to Yue, as he wanders over to Kat's corner. * Katherine is sitting in front of a painting in her corner, still upright, looking at the painting itself. It doesn't look like she's done anything like sleeping. * Zak shakes his head. "You ought to download some Zs. Long, freaky couple of diurnals." * Katherine is currently staring at a wobbly picture of a sun-like thing. Although there's a bunch of other paintings around, leaning against the windows and laying on the ground. It's got some red speckling on it too, at the outside. Looks like someone tried to spray it with paint flecks. * Katherine replies, lowly, "What you think I did Lost Days, Zak? It wasn't stayin' out late havin' fun." She squints her eyes shut. "Enough sleep for a couple lifetimes." * Zak sips at his coffee. "What, you stock up on it like at a DunnoClub?" * Katherine smirks a little, then says, "Pretty much. Like I got somethin' better to do." * Katherine then gestures at the sun idly. "Roch drew that. Don't know if she'd remember it. Got her hammered that night." * Zak eyes it, warily. "Huh." * Katherine shrugs. "Not her best work, but I'm thinking back this week." She then rubs her face. "Fuckin' Thren." Tres trippy stuff. Back from the neverafter. * Katherine frowns and snaps, quietly, "No. Just an imprint." * Zak sips his coffee, and responds, guardedly. "What's the difference, yo?" * Katherine is silent a moment, then replies quietly, "Imprint can't change. Can't be. S'just... Thren pressed into some clay." People die, they're dead, Zak. That ain't changed. * Zak gestures with the mug. "When I talk to dead gangers of yore, they don't yak back. You got a special look into somethin'." * Katherine snorts, then says back, "He didn't have anything to say to me." She lets out a short, bitter laugh. "Enjoy life. Spent who knows how long tryin' to learn how not to be crazy, yells at me for drinkin', gets his ass killed and don't trust me with a second of it... then comes back, makes Roch cry over who the fuck knows what... oh, and I'm wasting my worthless goddamn life." * Zak looks out the open window. "You think he's wrong?" * Katherine chuckles and says, "Enjoy life's how I ended up sleepin' with you for a while. You tell me." Short snort, then, "Didn't work out so well for Thren, either." * Zak gets a puzzled look. "Man, I didn't sleep with Thren." * Katherine glances up at Zak with a 'what are you, stupid?' look, and then moves the painting off onto the stacks before leaning back in her chair. * Katherine murmurs, "Still funny to see you giving a fuck. Funny to see Roch leadin' you around. Guess some people can change." * Zak smiles a little and leans against the window. "Roch always knew what was goin' down, she just never much cared. Me, I always gave a fuck. Just... not about what's important, you know? Givin' a fuck about shit that's worth givin' a fuck about is fuckin' hard." (Parse THAT, I dare you) (I just did!) (I parsed it AND grocked it.) (No c.) * Katherine smirks. "Truth. Took me a week to pull myself back into it back when all that shit last year started." (no u) * Katherine then looks over at Zak. "It ain't givin' a fuck if it's not important, though." * Zak looks down at his tattoo. "Suppose. Worth it though. Fightin' the fight for Twilight... feels good. Never would have known that if we hadn't had to go up against the Purples last year." * Katherine looks over at him, then laughs weakly. "Yeah. Sure. Worth it." Always fucking worth it. Really. Honest. * Zak shrugs and sips his coffee. * Katherine is silent a long moment, then pulls up another painting. It's of Isis, younger, in combat gear. Kat then comments, "What's it get you, really, Zak. Isis got two dead sons. Not even sure of the kill count for the 'Flu'. And the universe keeps spinnin', so we can do it all again." My entire life's a fucking exercise in 'This is what you get when you fight the good fight.' It don't end well, Zak. But it sure as hell ends. What, the schlubs who lived cause of you don't count? That how this works? We just tally up the dead dudes and wish we were one? Pfft. * Zak shakes his head and sips his coffee. "I've taken bullets for TC. Don't tell Roch that, though she probably knows." Worth it, if people like Mom get to maybe see a tree in their own city in their lifetime. * Katherine rolls her eyes, but doesn't respond immediately. * Katherine finally says, quietly, "Maybe for you. There's nothing for me but figuring out whether to blow peoples' heads off, or just their legs. Thren... he had something." * Katherine looks away from the painting. "Guess that's why I liked TC. People there... knew they were born to kill, born to die. They knew the score I was born with." * Katherine closes her eyes. "Even that doesn't do it, Zak." * Zak looks flatly at Kat. "Right. You're killin' those canvases. No creative bones, you. Can't put a brick on top of another, can't plant a tree." He sips his coffee. "I felt you, back in Stargazer Plaza. What you were feelin' back then. You got more than anger en cabeza, you do more than kill. Kat the Wolf just don't like to admit it." * Katherine snarls up at him a moment as she starts to move as if to grab him, then stops still and shakes her head. "Dammit, Zak, you don't get it. That's not... enough." * Zak flinches back as Kat moves, almost spilling his coffee, which ices over protectively anyhow. * Katherine squints her eyes shut. "Fuck dammit. Sorry." * Katherine then murmurs, "You don't get it. You know I sleep like shit. You know I grasp at shadows, choke back screams. You were there." * MagicArd is now known as Ardle * Zak looks down at his mug. "Be sorry to the joe. I deserve it." He looks up. "Never did tell you I was sorry for real. For back then. I didn't grok it for a long time, but I feel it now. I'm sorry." (SORRY YOU'RE SUCH A BITCH) * Katherine laughs weakly then shakes her head before saying quietly, "Fuck, Zak... it wouldan't have worked. You just made it easy." Don't mean it wasn't wrong. * Katherine looks up at him a moment, then replies, "Thanks and all for growing the fuck up, then." She looks back to the Isis painting. "More than angry, huh? Do a pretty good maudlin." 's a good painting. I can't even do ice sculpture. Kinda dumb if you mental it. * Katherine smirks, then says, "Thank Thren. His brain. I just pulled it out of the noise." * Katherine then looks up at Zak. "You... even recognize her?" How the fuck could I not? I'm in the middle of editing their bible. * Katherine squints, then, "You're what?" Fuck, you're... a Europist? Not full percent. Hard not to be in TC that day and not grok a little of the religion, though, so we got a lot in Twilight now. I got an idea, see. * Zak goes to sip at his coffee, but realizes it's frozen and frowns. * Katherine snorts. "Europists always creeped me the fuck out. Just like that damn movie." Don't know what the hell Tim was thinking. 'Cept creds. Can grok that, it's tres deus ex vu. But there's some gold there. I gotta rewrite the book, nobody's gonna read that shit like it is. Once I get through it, we're gonna relaunch it with Twilight at the center. Check it, I even got a catchy slogan. * Katherine looks up at him with an expression of growing horror. * Zak holds out his hand, emphasizing the words. "Be excellent to each other." How schway is THAT? * Katherine groans slightly. "Geez, get more generic, Zak." Guess it ain't that bad, but Space Jesus, I didn't think anybody'd put Chako the fucking Warrior God at the middle of 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?' * Zak is actually kind of animated. .. he's also losing some of the slang."Generic, but feel-good. We downplay the Europa Team angle, leave it up to the reader. Focus on clear lyrics, epic-poem style recitation. Hook into all the people wanting more out of life, and get them to give it to each other.I guarantee you, it's gonna go like holoads in Red Stockholm." Annoying and omnipresent? * Zak blinks. "Need a new analogy. Not gonna fly when I pitch it to the rest of the posse." * Katherine manages a faint smile. "Yeah, sounds like it." * Katherine is silent a moment then, "Don't cut through to me, though, Zak." Rest of it sounds like a fucking improvement. * Zak grabs a datapad on the table next to him. "Yeah? So what'd tag your mind?" * Katherine peers at him a moment, then, "Something that doesn't have anything to do with the bitch." * Katherine shakes her head and looks at the window for a moment. "It's never gonna work for me, Zak. Just focus on the people you can reach. People who get behind this Clarity Day crap." Europa Team, Brain Flu... too fucking real for me to just smile and breeze the fuck by. * Zak pokes at the pad a bit more then tosses it to the side. "Well, you get a brain wave, you net me a message. I'm not so good at this writing shindig." He smiles a little. * Katherine groans. "Space jesus no, Zak. What part of 'Don't want anything to do with my mother' do you not get?" Hey, just an idea. You got more brains than I could dream of havin'. * Katherine looks over at him, then sighs and murmurs, "Zak, it ain't about brains. You're buildin' emotions for people. It's about emotions." * Zak looks down at his coffee, which is starting to turn into slush. He sips at it. "So I just gotta write happy emotions in the book?" No, you gotta... appeal to emotions. * Zak looks at Kat like she is talking like Zak usually talks. * Katherine groans a bit and mutters, "Give me a second." * Katherine stands up slowly and pads across to her bookcases, murmuring something about 'Zak' and 'Emotions.' (You know, out of all of this, it's not the most surprising that Zak would be creating a religion with at least one of the primary motives being to make people happy. It's the most surprising that he could ever SUCCEED.) (Yes.) * Katherine then runs her fingers across them a moment before pulling out a book and padding back. She then hands it to him. It's a book on writing and poetry by a K. Hunter. "Here. Poetry side didn't help me much, but it's pretty solid." * Zak eyes it. "You wrote a book too?" * Katherine peers at him. "I've written before, yeah." You know, when I'm not slavering for the blood of the innocent. * Katherine makes a growly noise, joking slightly, then sits down. * Katherine then says, "The writer, she's... got a way with emotions." * Zak casts a wary glance at Kat and then looks at the book again. "Straighten my brainline. You wrote a book, but not THIS book, true?" * Katherine nods. "Right." Fuck if I put my own name on it. * Zak nods. "Groovetrain." He looks out the window again. "When we leavin'?" Guessin' around one. * Katherine exhales out through her nose as she looks at the ceiling. When people wake up, Zak. Need someone besides me to be sharp. * Zak nods. "Gonna go try to catch some more z, then. If your hellbeast'll let me." * Katherine snorts and says, "Just don't look like a giant sucker." (omg tired now) (I imagine so.) (My eyes aren't really working well for some strange reason) (Well, I won't keep you.) (We're done anyhow.) (CLose?) [So Zak goes back to sleep! FOR NOW. Echidna, however, looms in the background. Watching. Waiting. Mini end.]