Strokes of Genius, Saturday (7/31)

[thismaskiwear]

The master class in drawing characters she'd taken in San Diego last week had turned out to be more useful than Katchoo had anticipated; she'd been thinking it would turn out to be something pretentious and annoying where she'd end up doing her own thing and ignoring the teacher

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[bitch_prince]

Arthur's appearances might not have been as predictable as they had been before for several reasons, but still: there the phone was, ringing.

[thismaskiwear]

Which was, on Katchoo's end, predictable in that she hid a grin when she saw the caller ID, but nevertheless, when she picked up the phone:

"I did not stab anybody in the eye, no matter what Francine says!"

[bitch_prince]

There was a short pause.

"...Were you attacked, then," Arthur said, sounding perhaps more serious than he really should.

[thismaskiwear]

"Nah," Katchoo said -- after a sinus-wrenching snort of laughter. "Trampled a few times, but no attack. Well."

She had to consider this one for a second.

"Okay, nah."

[bitch_prince]

"I can tell this is very funny to you." Arthur didn't sound as uptight, though, and accepted the whole thing with a hint of humor in his voice. "How have you been, maimings aside?"

[thismaskiwear]

"Eh, y'know. Fine, relaxed after a week in San Diego, a couple of paychecks lighter, back in Fandom." Katchoo twirled her pencil. "How's tricks in Camelot?"

[bitch_prince]

"Father held several days' worth of feasting and meetings in order to tighten diplomatic relations with the nearby nobility," Arthur said, and if he sounded a little annoyed, well... "They finally buggered off two days ago; I've finally been able to resume hunting. Properly."

And hadn't Merlin been thrilled.

[thismaskiwear]

"Well geez, don't sound so excited about it." Yes, Katchoo noticed the annoyance. She also pretty much understood it. "Did you slaughter a few dozen extra woodland creatures to make up for the missed time?"

Not that she'd contemplated doing something like it to a few dozen of the more annoying teenage anime fanboys herself. Why would you ever think that?

[bitch_prince]

"I would have, if Merlin didn't keep spooking half of it."

Merlin always spooked the wildlife. Possibly on purpose. Arthur took him along every time anyway.

"Still, it's not a bad catch," he finished, upbeat. "A few deer, a lot of rabbits... it'll make for a decent stew at the very least."

[thismaskiwear]

Katchoo's pencil scratched quick lines in the margin of her sketchbook, creating a stick-figure Arthur and Merlin with stick-figure animals fleeing in every direction. Stick-figure Arthur was glaring at an innocent-looking stick-figure Merlin as a bunny flew by overhead.

"Mmm. Any chance you can pop some of that in the freezer until we get a chance to drop in?"

[bitch_prince]

Sadly enough, that was a pretty accurate depiction of what happened whenever they went out hunting.

"When it's safe," Arthur started, sounding a little cautious, "I'll make sure to shoot you a deer myself. There are no freezers. As you know."

[thismaskiwear]

Yeah, see. Katchoo knew them.

"Oh, I know," she said sweetly (isn't that scary?). "I gotta make at least one unreasonable demand a week. Don't you love getting picked to help me make quota?"

At least she knew she was safe on several fronts from a repeat of the last bloody-deer-leg incident. Thank god.

[bitch_prince]

"Oh, Katchoo, is that your way of saying you miss me?"

No bloody deer legs delivered, just a good helping of ego.

[thismaskiwear]

And while the ego called for more of a 'cleanup on aisle four' situation, it was purely metaphorical.

Plus she missed it. Shut up.

"Oh, yeah. Like a blinding headache, Pendragon."

Were one versed in the linguistic similarities between Arthur-speak and Katchoo-ese, it might be easy enough to correctly translate that as a yes.

[bitch_prince]

"I knew it," Arthur smugged across the phone. Smugged, like a smug man smugs in a stiff smug wind on a smug boat in the ocean of smug. "I bet you cried yourself to sleep the past weeks when I couldn't call."

Don't push it, Pendragon.

[thismaskiwear]

"Bet yer ass. Rivers. In Egypt," Katchoo retorted, getting to work on another stick-figure sketch, this time of Arthur on a raft, paddling furiously to keep ahead of a tidal wave on a river (yeah, yeah, tidal waves on rivers, details) of tears shed by an inordinately mirthful-looking stick-figure Katchoo.

". . . 'cause y'know, I coulda sworn I heard you sighing longingly at your phone all those times you couldn't call. Ruffled the curtains and everything."