Curious Chicklet Campfire, Tuesday Evening

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

To say that Katchoo was less than thrilled about this whole cabin experience was like saying that Georgia O'Keefe had had a vague, passing interest in flower metaphors. (Katchoo could have told her a thing or two about dirty flower artwork, but anyway.)

Hoping nobody would bug her if she was surrounded by a cloud of smoke, she was set up beside the campfire with a pack of her usual cheap cigarettes and a sketchbook, staring absently at the blank page in front of her. Communal living was hell on her creativity.

[OOC: You know the drill -- open!]

Comments

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

There were people around his campfire but Ned decided to just take a look around at the other campfires.

He found...smoke.

And, because he was kind of not paying much attention to where the smoke was coming from, he stood a little bit of a distance away and said, "Do you need a fire extinguisher or a blanket?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

For that, he got the next lungful of smoke inhaled in his general direction, and an irritated glare when said smoke cleared. "Tuesday is comedy night, apparently," Katchoo rasped.

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Is it?" Ned looked around for some sort of sign. "At the bar? Or...did I miss a sign somewhere?"

He waved away the smoke with his hand.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Ha, ha," Katchoo said dryly, hoping he wasn't serious. "Did you come from a land where people don't have vices?"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"No." He shook his head. "That's just a lot of smoke. I thought maybe the fire got out of control over here."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo glanced at the nonexistent campfire, then at Ned, disbelievingly.

". . . I think it's pretty well under control."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Oh, well, now I see that," he said, wincing. "There was smoke! I didn't know. I...yeah, never mind. I look dumb either way."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

She shrugged, the closest she'd come to saying it was okay. "Less chance of getting bitched at than if I did it in the cabin, y'know? Frikkin' cabins."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

Ned decided to refrain from saying he liked the cabins.

"You never wanted to go to summer camp?" Ned asked. "Or even...um winter camp?"

Yeah, that made no sense.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Indeed it didn't, as the look she gave him would indicate.

"Wasn't exactly my choice," Katchoo allowed, and mentally kicked herself for not realizing there had been really good chance of the cabin thing when Emma had told her it was a camp. Being annoyed at herself, she channeled it by ramping up her apparent irritation at Ned just a notch.

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Did you get stuck with bad cabin mates?" Ned asked. "Or is your cabin leaking or something? There was a drip drip last night in mine but I figured out it was just a glass of water I'd knocked over in my sleep."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo tapped some ash into the campfire pit, then swore under her breath as she tried to brush a stray flake or two off her sketchbook only to leave a smudge behind. "The problem is I have cabinmates, period," she gritted out.

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"If I said, you get used to it, that wouldn't help, would it?" Ned asked, wincing. "There are places to escape things like that, you know."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Probably not," Katchoo said. Mostly because she was determined not to get used to it if she could help it. "But right now it's better than getting lost in the woods, right?"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"I've managed to avoid that," he said proudly. "Sneaking back to the dorms is always an option. I don't think anyone would kick you out."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo stubbed the cigarette against a rock, sparks flying for a second or two before she ground it out. "Yeah . . . thought about it, but didn't want to risk it. Figured I'd sleep on the roof if I had to."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"You are really not a people person," Ned observed, thinking himself quite...observant. "Do you live with people that look like lions?"

[I am raaaaandomly almost crashing. Ugh, stupid work.]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

That startled an almost-laugh out of her. "If you squint hard enough, yeah."

[OOC: Yeah, me plus painkillers equals not much more consciousness either. :/]

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Well, if you sleep on the roof," Ned started, "make sure to bring something to use as tent. Not just against rain and stuff. But like bears dropping out of the sky. That'd startle you if it fell on you while you were sleeping."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo did actually snicker this time, though it was much more of a snort. "Got experience with near ursine death from above while roughing it?"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Not...yet," he said, thinking it only a matter of time. "My roommate was a rock though and I had to bargain with a sphinx. I'm learning to be prepared when I can. God, I hope bears don't drop on me while I'm asleep."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"And my best friend turned into a pony," Katchoo put in with a sigh. So much for ruling out bears from the sky that easily. "Sleepin' indoors oughta help keep the possibility of death by falling bears down. I'm just glad I haven't heard anybody in my cabin getting up to anything kinky yet."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

Ned blushed but covered it up by looking at the sky and trying to find something interesting.

"Yeah, the lacks of walls can really be a pain," he said, nodding. "Do you have a plan if that happens?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Don't know yet," said Katchoo, who really hoped it didn't come to that, "but it might involve a hose."

If it did come to that she'd string the hose all the way from the dorms if she had to.

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

Ned was suddenly very glad they weren't in the same cabin. He didn't want to end up an innocent bystander in a hose related incident.

"You might get caught if you do something that dramatic."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo considered that for a moment, and . . . damn. She couldn't risk going and getting herself kicked out of here now, not with her promise to Emma, and she couldn't abandon Francine again either, and . . .

She sagged minutely. "Guess I'll have to just risk bear attack on the roof then. Could be worse."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Or," he said and shrugged, "make sure you don't get caught with the hose."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo picked apart the discarded butt of one of her cigarettes as she -- actually gave some thought to that suggestion.

"Stealth's not my strong point," she said. It was partly a blind and partly the truth: she hadn't spent as much time as a Parker Girl working on espionage techniques as she could have, and anyway, a situation like the hypothetical Wrath of the Hose was almost guaranteed to involve her bellowing in rage. "'sides, on a good night there's stars up there, y'know? Don't get to see that much in the city."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"They're kinda nice," Ned agreed. "For awhile, I didn't really get to see them myself except for a night or two every once in awhile. And hey, instead of a hose, maybe a glass of water?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Used to see 'em all the time while I was living in Hawaii," Katchoo remarked, and god, why was she just saying these things to people? Frikkin' Fandom. She kept letting her guard down, even just a little bit. "Too much light everywhere else I've lived, though."

She'd worried the cigarette butt down into a wad of gross-looking fluff by now, and she shrugged as she tossed it into the campfire pit. "Maybe a bucket."