a day in the life of Katherine Kirschenbaum

[diatomic_life]

8:00 AM While Katherine Kirschenbaum doesn't think she's necessarily the best at chess, she tends to win a lot. Tournament chess she'd be no good at, simply because her main chess strategy has absolutely nothing to do with the game itself. She's well above average at the actual game, able to read five or six moves ahead, but really, the way she

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[ocptmycpt]

Jim's ambling through Grant Park purposely before he comes upon the chess area. He didn't really have a destination in mind; he just wanted to go out for a damn walk now that he's got his wings more-or-less sorted. They're hidden away right now (an act that took a good ten minutes and left him jonesing for a cup of coffee), though the ache in his shoulder blades is getting a bit intense. He figures he's got one or two hours before he has to head back and let them loose. When he's got more practice, he might be able to keep them hidden away longer. But for now, an hour or two is all he has.

And he's going to enjoy the hour or two, damn it.

When he comes across the people playing chess, his interest is instantly piqued. He played 3-D chess back in the day (and was damn good at it, if he did say so himself) but it's been ages since he's played regular old, simplistic chess. He decides he could go for a game.

He makes his way to a woman sitting alone, setting up the pieces. He doesn't see the pitying looks they send his way or the mumbled "poor sod" as they watch him wander over. And if he did, well. He'd be more curious. That's his way.

He stands before the woman and grins charmingly. "Mind if I join ya? I haven't played in ages." Regular chess, at least.

[diatomic_life]

"That's the whole point of setting it up isn't it?" Kat asks, giving him a big grin. "I mean, if I wanted to play puzzles with myself all day long, I wouldn't have to play hooky and skip out on work. I could just do it in my lab. It's not like they ever watch me."

Whoops. Already saying too much. Oh well. It's not like if he doesn't become a real problem she can't take him out. That really needs to stop being her solution to slowly losing her filter.

That filter used to be so much better. Of course going from working on the black market to a much more legitimate terrorist organization has lessened her need for a filter. Whatever. It's all good. She's not worried. It's not like she's even seen her boss in months.

[ocptmycpt]

Jim raises his eyebrow at the sudden chatter but isn't deterred. After all, he is prone to oversharing himself on occasion. Especially when hyped up on too many cups of coffee. "S'pose so," he agrees as he takes a seat. "Lab? Are you some type of scientist?"

Taking Jim out might be a little harder than Kat expects. He has this annoying tendency of somehow managing to escape from every deadly scenario he's thrown into. No one really knows why. Drop him in a minefield laden with mines and you'll come back to find them all detonated and Jim cheerfully waving at you from across the way.

He'll probably also be missing one or two limbs but y'know. That's a bit better off than you'd expect for someone dropped in a minefield.

Jim's happy to see he got white (its his color of choice) and he slides a pawn forward. "My name's Jim, by the way. Jim Kirk."

[diatomic_life]

Kat's just generally of the assumption that she can take out just about whomever she wants. This is probably not true.

"Chemist," she says, more than happy to have black herself. Well, she's not really that picky about who gets what color; generally, when she's playing chess it has a lot less to do with the actual game and a lot more to do with the games she's playing. "Mostly neurochemistry, as of late, but I develop all sorts of different drugs and serums."

She tilts her head at the name; it's kind of hard to miss. "Dr. Kirschenbaum," she says, holding out a hand. "New to Chicago, are we?"

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Jim nods in acknowledgement. "I always liked physics more than chemistry myself, but it wasn't so bad. Better than biology, at least," he makes a face, remembering nights spent struggling over the science. It was one of the few subjects he'd actually had trouble with. Well. 'Having trouble with' for Jim Kirk was pulling B's for the average public. Genius IQ and all that. "Sounds interesting. But you're playing hooky?" He raises his eyebrows. But then again, even though he loved his job as a starship captain, there had been a hell of a lot of days where he'd rather curl back under the covers and ignore the world.

The lack of a first name throws him off slightly, but well. To each their own. He shakes her hand. "Nice to meet you, doc," he says affably, before frowning slightly when she asks if he's new. "Yeah. Just got here a couple of days ago. How could you tell?"

He leaves out falling through the Rift because, well. It isn't common knowledge outside of the Kashtta and since seeing that tape...Jim isn't very fond of the idea of broadcasting to the whole world that he's one of the Wanderers the CLF is targeting.

[diatomic_life]

Kat likes geniuses.

She likes them a lot.

In fact, Kat likes to collect them. Not in a creepy way. Well, maybe. It depends on your definition of creepy. She likes to keep them close, so she can have real people to talk to. Sometimes, feeling superior doesn't cut it.

"Playing hooky," she says again, nodding. "Get bored if they don't give me interesting projects, and I find nothing works quite as well as skipping out on them. That's the nice thing about being top of your field. Whenever you're on top, they need you. So if you disappear to play chess when you should be working, they'll give you prettier projects so that you'll stay up for two weeks straight in your office. Though, I haven't seen my boss in months, my closest thing to a lab partner was murdered, and I lost my last project in the bowels of a pigeon."

She presses a finger to the top of one of her pieces, thinking to herself. His question, though, brings a small smile to her face.

"Because you're Captain Kirk, of course," she says. "If you don't want people to recognize you, I'd skip out on the introduction."

[ocptmycpt]

Jim could never exactly 'play hook' at his own job in order to get a better mission tossed his way, but he can see the sense behind the chemist's actions. And it isn't as if he hasn't been stone cold bored before. His whole career in the public educational system before Starfleet was one long haze of escape attempts, causing fights because what else was there to do, and sleeping through class. And it wasn't as if his teachers could do much about it. Jim had been top of his class for as little effort he put into it.

"Makes sense," he agrees, leaning back in his chair and cocking his head curiously at the her last sentence. The woman doesn't seem to live an ordinary life--a lab partner murdered and the like. But then. Murder seems to be a motif around this version of Chicago so he decides not to comment. "Bowels of a pigeon, huh? More creative than the whole 'dog ate my homework' excuse." Jim had cooked up quite a few of those in his day, when he couldn't be bothered to even half-ass an assignment. Whatever. It wasn't as if he hadn't made up for it on tests.

He frowns at her answer. She's the second reason to recognize him based on his name--something that shouldn't be possible because he's from a good two hundred years in an alternate future. "You wouldn't think that'd mean anything in the twenty-first century," he points out. Maybe she'll give him answers to why someone else had freaked out when he'd mentioned his name, his first morning in Chicago.

[diatomic_life]

"You know, I did have a dog eat my homework once," Kat muses. "Of course, that's kind of what I got, considering it was a project on chicken liver. Apparently this one dog just couldn't get enough chicken livers. I never did like my neighbors, and especially not their dog. Although, to be entirely honest, that probably had more to do with being a sulky teenager, and my parents' habit of inviting them to every dinner party ever, and expecting me to be friends with their children. That really will make you hate someone super fast."

She nods as she talks, still waiting for him to move. If he wants to play white, he's gonna play white. She twirls the piece under her finger. Apparently, even this short moment where she's not speaking can't be filled with silence -- she hums a bit as she thinks.

"You're familiar with parallel universes, then," she says, nodding. "This universe, I guess because we pull from so many universes, with the Rift and all, has a habit of being pretty closely aligned with them. Although, they tend to show up as fiction here. Television shows. Books. Cartoons. Comic books. Whatnot. You happen to be rather famous here, Captain Kirk. In fact, it's kind of hard to know anything about pop culture, and not know that name."

Wanderers are, in Kat's opinion, often silly. Of course, she does also realize that she is often silly, so it's a question of how much this means to her.

[ocptmycpt]

"I could see how a dog eating chicken liver homework could happen," Jim says, pushing forward another pawn. The beginning of chess games are always sort of boring to him. It's not until the middle that he has to put much effort into it. "Never had a dog eat my homework but I did once drive my backpack off a cliff." He'd placed it in the Corvette when he was washing it and had forgotten to take it out of the backseat before he pulled his stunt. Ah well. At nine-years-old, it hadn't contained much homework anyway.

He snorts as she talks about her relationship with the neighbors. "Been there, done that." It wasn't as if he hadn't made a mockery of every Starfleet function his mother had made the mistake of dragging him and Sam too because he resented being forced to go after not seeing her for months. It had made him feel like a prized showdog to flaunt instead of a son and of course he'd lashed out about it.

"You could say that," Jim says when she inquires about parallel universes. Romulans from the future and all of that. He listens curiously to the chemist's explanation. So he's a fictional character here? Huh. That's a new one. "So, what exactly am I from? A comic book? Television show?" he inquires. He kind of hopes it's a comic book. It'd be like being a super hero. Rather awesome, in Jim's mind.

He could take it a lot worse but well. Anyone who's watched the television series knows this isn't one of the more surprising things he's had to deal with.

[diatomic_life]

"I learned at a very young age that dogs do not tend to discriminate between chicken liver that is not homework and chicken liver that is homework," Kat says, moving immediately after him. No need to think. Not yet at least. The game's still predictable at this point. "Although, I have to say I've never driven my backpack, or anything else, off a cliff. I did, however, once steal my high school principal's cat."

Oh, Mr. Fluffy. If only her father hadn't been allergic to cats. Then she might have gotten away with it. And besides, it seemed happier with her anyway. Not that she's the animal type. In fact, Kat probably shouldn't be allowed to have animals. Ever.

"And you happen to be one of the main characters of one of the most popular television shows in America, ever," she adds. "You have kind of a cult following. I really shouldn't be feeding your ego like this, but it'll help me beat you in chess, maybe."

[ocptmycpt]

"Sounds like a valuable life lesson," Jim says as he moves forward a knight. Nothing too crazy right now. "Driving off a cliff was kind of a one time thing." It'd also been rather fun up until the point where he'd almost died. All in all, it wasn't something Jim was very proud of or would recommend to kids bored and angry at the world.

At the mention of stealing the principal's cat, he laughs. "I was sent to my principal too often. By the end of those four years, we were kind of friends. Though I did egg his house every Halloween." The man hadn't been too bad, even though many had crumbled in the face of a teenage Jim Kirk. By the end of his senior year, the principal had just resigned himself to offering Jim a piece of hard candy and attempting a lecture that often dissolved into the two of them scrambling the ridiculous magnetic poetry one of the secretaries had given him into various rather curious haikus.

"That's kind of awesome," Jim says with a wide grin. So maybe he's fictional in this universe, but at least he kicks ass at being fictional. "Oh, now you've blown your grand scheme though," he replies with a smirk. "Though I don't know how good I'll be. It's been a while since I've played regular chess instead of the 3-D version."

3-D chess was more complicated but Jim wouldn't doubt his ability to overthink things and suck hardcore at regular chess. Guess he'll just have to wait and see.

[diatomic_life]

"By the time I was a junior, they were threatening to send me off to juvy," Kat says, moving her piece immediately again. "Apparently I wasn't a very good student. But I got good verrrry fast. I guess I ended up having to suppress the rest of my rebellious teenage stage for my adult life. Sometimes, I'm not sure if I'm an old man, or a fourteen-year-old girl. Although, I am playing chess in public at eight o'clock in the morning, so I think that definitely leans the scale towards the 'old man' bit. I mean, look at our company."

She raises her eyebrows, leaning back on her bench with a grin. "And to be honest, I don't think there's a single principal in the universe that couldn't use a good egging every once in a while. His house, too."

Grabbing her purse, she pulls out a package of Red Vines, offering him one. "Or maybe these are actually poisoned," she says, taking one for herself and chewing on it thoughtfully. "That would be an even better and grander scheme."

To be entirely honest, Kat really isn't all that worried about whether she wins or loses the game. Because the game she's playing isn't chess at all.

[ocptmycpt]

"They were always threatening to send me to juvy. They actually did once--wasn't all that bad," Jim says with a shrug, scooting another piece forward. The only reason he didn't end up in juvy was most likely because of his father's legacy. But eventually everybody gets a little too fed up with things to let somebody slide, no matter how many gifts their father brought to their garden party or how many lives he saved. He laughs at her comment. "Old man seems to be tipping the scales currently. I'll have to stop you if you start calling me 'whippernsapper' or complaining about your joints."

He snorts in appreciation, smirking. "I'm not going to argue with you there. A good egging keeps 'em humble, I've found."

Jim raises his eyebrows and takes the Red Vine. "It would be a better scheme, but poisoning me in public would bring up, y'know, questions. Even with their bad eyesight, I'm pretty sure the guys around here might get a bit suspicious if I just slumped over," he says, taking a bight out of the candy.

[diatomic_life]

"I'm pretty sure that putting me in juvy wouldn't have solved anything," Kat rambles, moving her piece with just as much speed as before. "Well, it might have made me more bitter, but like you said, I'm tipping the old man meter pretty hard. I'm not sure I could have taken any more bitter without dying of a broken hip."

She takes her red vines back, chewing on another one.

"Also, you'd be amazed at what you can get away with in Chicago." She grins at him, tucking her hair back. She leans forward slightly, giving him an uneven smile. "Didn't you wonder why I'm sitting here, all alone? Didn't you think there may be a reason so many people are avoiding me, Captain Kirk? Maybe, just maybe, I've claimed so many victims in this park, that no one trusts themselves to play against me anymore. Murder happens all the time in Chicago. And no one seems to think twice about it."

And then she bursts out laughing. "Just kidding, just kidding. I'm not a murderer. That'd just be silly."

[ocptmycpt]

"It didn't solve anything for me. I just tried to escape because it was fucking boring. Which just ended up in a longer stay, for some reason," he feigns confusion, smiling sarcastically. Jim shrugs when she says she'd be bitter. "I'm not too horribly broken up about it but you never know." But then again, by the time they'd sent him to juvy, he had enough bitterness to kill him ten times over so who knows.

This Jim Kirk didn't have a very happy upbringing, imagine that.

He finds himself a little unnerved by her speech, the hair rising up on the back of his neck but his expression never changes as he regards her cool. Three years as captain of a fucking flagship. If he hadn't been tortured or thrown into a life-threatening situation once, he'd feel like he wasn't doing his job right. So he just stares levelly at her until she bursts out laughing, then smiles slightly and moves a piece forward.

"I'm rather sure that nobody plays with you because, and I do quote from an elderly gentleman I passed by, 'she'll blow-out your fucking hearing aid with her jibber jabber.'" He snorts. Old men can be so kind. He throws his arm over the back of the chair he's sitting in, tapping his fingers against the wood and glancing up at the sky for a second. Despite her 'just kidding' act, something does seem a bit...off about the chemist. He'll keep a bit of wariness with him when she's around.