[ And Kitty draws in breath to ask who, and then - Well, then she gets it. And she feels a sudden wash of shame. Because it's not hard to draw the line from they to the incident where they tried to take her away. Which Kitty was really, hideously nasty about. What if someone had said to her that - Well, no. When she'd been arrested, no one stuck their neck out to help her at all. But if there had been someone, and then someone had sneered at her about oh who can even fathom why anyone would have done that for you, and made fun, Kitty would hate them. Hate them forever. But Laura'd dialed her up to ask if she wanted a kitten, and God, Kitty feels so ashamed that all she can say is - ]
Oh.
[ And her voice is really small and really wobbly, and it wobbles even more when she says - ]
[She has explained this incorrectly; Kitty does not understand, and she sounds like she's getting further away from her crystal, or perhaps like she was punched, without the initial sound of it. The breath for no, not like that, they were not a gift won't budge from her chest, and she can't think of an explanation that will. It isn't something to talk about, even as it clearly isn't something that will stay buried, either.]
But they are mine now. [They weren't, but they are. Will that be enough? She can't know until Kitty answers. Her own voice has grown lower, the verbal equivalent of a defensive stance.] That is good.
[ She clears her throat, then, and takes a breath. More steadily: ]
I know. I know that they wouldn't have been...good. [ If they gave them, then they couldn't be. ] But it's good that you've got them know. That you can use them for yourself. That's what I meant.
I will show you. [Which is to say, Yes, I understand. She does not want to keep thinking of getting the claws right now, only having them.] But you must not be startled. I will not hurt you.
[So Laura goes to the library--among her own favourite haunts as well, she's seen Kitty in there often enough to have an idea where to look. (That it isn't overly large a space helps as well.) When she finds her at a table, she takes a seat across from her and waits to be addressed.
[ Kitty, sitting and reading a book, is initially too absorbed to notice Laura. So when she looks up and sees the girl sitting there, she jumps and gives a small squeak of surprise. She immediately tries to turn it into a cough, but the damage to her dignity is done. ]
[She's considered learning to be louder, so she doesn't startle people this way, but then she might lose the ability to sneak around in silence.
Having already asked her not to be afraid, Laura decides there's no need for more preamble. She moves a fist so that it isn't pointed towards Kitty, then lets the claws come out. They're more light than substance, glowing in the space between them. Every time they appear, it smells like lyrium to Laura, and Matthias had seemed to notice it, too.]
[ There is a tiny bit of fear there, despite Kitty's promises. Or if not fear, discomfort. Still, she doesn't shrink away; instead, hesitantly, she reaches out to touch it, like she would any new weapon -
And the substance dissolves under her finger. She pulls her hand back at once; the claw re-forms. Stupid - ]
[Laura freezes as Kitty's hand approaches, her gaze hard on it. This does not feel the way it did when he let Matthias touch them; he had asked, and she had guided his fingers. She's tempted to make them disappear again, but if that somehow caused them to slice into Kitty's flesh--
So she waits. It doesn't feel like anything to her, someone touching them, and it should not matter if they do. And yet, receiving an apology makes her shoulders grow less hunched.]
The other side is sharp. [Once Kitty's out of the way of them, once she's sure it's safe, Laura lets them vanish.] I do not wish to hurt you.
[ Had Laura not noticed? How Kitty's resilience had made the magic disappear for that tiny half-second? All the better; it's not something Kitty wants people knowing about. She wants to be thought of as normal, non-magical, so that if Riftwatch ever gets dissolved she can slip away more easily.
It's strange, being confronted with someone who seems to care not a bit. Who'll talk about her magic this easily. It's a strange sort of courage that Kitty cannot reach. ]
Mm.
[ There's no way they'd hurt me. But all the same, she pulls her hand back. ]
[Laura has seen all kinds of strange things in her life, many of them at least tangentially related to her claws. This is one more--strange, but not impossible--and it gets filed away for the moment. They don't normally behave as they just did, but they're never quite solid; that Kitty displaced them more than Matthias is something to worry about some other time, if at all.
(Some other time, perhaps, when there are more pieces to fit together in the puzzle of Kitty Jones. Neither of them quite play by the usual rules of Thedosian magic, do they?)
She puts a fingertip lightly on the back of her hand, atop a thin, pale line of scar tissue--one of five, running up into her sleeve. (All the other scars are up there, out of sight.)]
They only hurt to get.
[And that is all she wishes to say about that. The best way to avoid further discussion is to change the subject, so Laura does that with all the grace of a stampeding druffalo.]
[ Even Kitty can take a hint. That abrupt topic change doesn't allow for much resistance. Nor do the hints of old suffering and old misery. Kitty's rather more interested in Laura's story than she is in the cats, admittedly, but to try to stick to what she prefers would just start another fight. So. ]
[That's good enough for Laura. She stands, ready to walk away without another word--but after a step, it occurs to her that Kitty may want to know where it is they're off to.]
They live in the kitchens.
[It might be a silent trip, or they might talk on the way. That's mostly up to Kitty, honestly.]
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 12:56 am (UTC)Oh.
[ And her voice is really small and really wobbly, and it wobbles even more when she says - ]
Well, that's really good.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 01:08 am (UTC)[She has explained this incorrectly; Kitty does not understand, and she sounds like she's getting further away from her crystal, or perhaps like she was punched, without the initial sound of it. The breath for no, not like that, they were not a gift won't budge from her chest, and she can't think of an explanation that will. It isn't something to talk about, even as it clearly isn't something that will stay buried, either.]
But they are mine now. [They weren't, but they are. Will that be enough? She can't know until Kitty answers. Her own voice has grown lower, the verbal equivalent of a defensive stance.] That is good.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 01:30 am (UTC)[ She clears her throat, then, and takes a breath. More steadily: ]
I know. I know that they wouldn't have been...good. [ If they gave them, then they couldn't be. ] But it's good that you've got them know. That you can use them for yourself. That's what I meant.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 01:52 am (UTC)[ And that much is quite true. ]
Where should we meet, then?
no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 02:15 am (UTC)You know. Like normal people do.]
no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 02:19 am (UTC)Erm - hi - hullo. You walk - quietly.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 02:25 am (UTC)[She's considered learning to be louder, so she doesn't startle people this way, but then she might lose the ability to sneak around in silence.
Having already asked her not to be afraid, Laura decides there's no need for more preamble. She moves a fist so that it isn't pointed towards Kitty, then lets the claws come out. They're more light than substance, glowing in the space between them. Every time they appear, it smells like lyrium to Laura, and Matthias had seemed to notice it, too.]
no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 03:08 am (UTC)[ There is a tiny bit of fear there, despite Kitty's promises. Or if not fear, discomfort. Still, she doesn't shrink away; instead, hesitantly, she reaches out to touch it, like she would any new weapon -
And the substance dissolves under her finger. She pulls her hand back at once; the claw re-forms. Stupid - ]
Sorry - Sorry. I ought to have asked.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 02:23 pm (UTC)So she waits. It doesn't feel like anything to her, someone touching them, and it should not matter if they do. And yet, receiving an apology makes her shoulders grow less hunched.]
The other side is sharp. [Once Kitty's out of the way of them, once she's sure it's safe, Laura lets them vanish.] I do not wish to hurt you.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-16 02:39 pm (UTC)It's strange, being confronted with someone who seems to care not a bit. Who'll talk about her magic this easily. It's a strange sort of courage that Kitty cannot reach. ]
Mm.
[ There's no way they'd hurt me. But all the same, she pulls her hand back. ]
Does it hurt to make them?
no subject
Date: 2020-02-21 05:38 pm (UTC)[Laura has seen all kinds of strange things in her life, many of them at least tangentially related to her claws. This is one more--strange, but not impossible--and it gets filed away for the moment. They don't normally behave as they just did, but they're never quite solid; that Kitty displaced them more than Matthias is something to worry about some other time, if at all.
(Some other time, perhaps, when there are more pieces to fit together in the puzzle of Kitty Jones. Neither of them quite play by the usual rules of Thedosian magic, do they?)
She puts a fingertip lightly on the back of her hand, atop a thin, pale line of scar tissue--one of five, running up into her sleeve. (All the other scars are up there, out of sight.)]
They only hurt to get.
[And that is all she wishes to say about that. The best way to avoid further discussion is to change the subject, so Laura does that with all the grace of a stampeding druffalo.]
I can show you the kittens. One might like you.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-22 02:49 am (UTC)[ Even Kitty can take a hint. That abrupt topic change doesn't allow for much resistance. Nor do the hints of old suffering and old misery. Kitty's rather more interested in Laura's story than she is in the cats, admittedly, but to try to stick to what she prefers would just start another fight. So. ]
I doubt it. But sure, we can try.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-23 03:59 am (UTC)They live in the kitchens.
[It might be a silent trip, or they might talk on the way. That's mostly up to Kitty, honestly.]