[Action -> Written on the 18th]

[flickerflash]

[After a conversation with Buffy, Katie's on the hunt. This week, anywhere between the 14th to the 18th, she's looking for a man with red skin who may or may not be incredibly old (by her own thoughts on the matter) but she's reliably informed he might be able to help her.

That's not gonna work out so well, mind. But such is life. On the 18th, she hunts through town as a kitten, because by this time she's getting too much attention. That, and asking fellow cats for possible directions is less attention-getting when you're a cat yourself. 8|




In the end, though, she has no luck. So loathe as she is to use her journal, she tries asking outright on the journals; written and hopefully as anonymous as possible.]

[Written]

Dear John with the red skin,

Can I have my magic back, please?


[Seems legit.]

Comments

[Action? 18th and onward, if you fancy.]

[abidinglaw]

[So the girl had lost her magic. He would like to feel happy about that, but from the sound of things it had been taken from her forcefully. A violation. And he hadn't wished that on anyone. Far better that she make the choice to abstain herself.

But Norrington made no reply to the message that she broadcast. It was not his business, and he would never have read it all had he not seen the word 'magic' alongside her name when glancing by. By then there were so few words beside that one that he'd read it all before he knew to stop. As for the chances of them meeting, well, he was not to be found around town over those four days. Perhaps if Katie happened to be Cullenward at any point. The admiral was there at the shamble-house, banging on things and hauling other things around. Occasionally swearing. They might just as easily not cross paths.]

[Action on the 18th!]

[flickerflash]

[Katie does get home in the late afternoon on the 18th, not in the best of moods. Vash is an idiot and John didn't let her have what she wanted, and travelling all the way to the beach the long way through the hated teleporter has just ramped up her sense of everything being terribly unfair.

The sound of Norrington banging about the house gives her pause. She doesn't like him very much, but curiosity wins out. Perhaps he's trying to fix something.

He might catch her peering at him from behind a door shortly thereafter.]

I now realize that the written part of the post was anonymous. /doofus

[abidinglaw]

[He does catch sight of her, and he promptly ignores her. Just now he is hauling a beam of wood onto up onto a makeshift workbench. He labors with the one beam for a moment before turning his attention to another laid out on the ground. Without looking up, he says;]

You can make yourself useful by fetching me some rope. There should be a coil of it over by the wheelbarrow.

Haha, it hasn't stopped others from working it out! We could say he caught some of the comments.

[flickerflash]

Why on earth would I want to be useful?

[Petulant child. But she crosses to the wheelbarrow to fetch him the rope just the same.]

Convenient. I like it.

[abidinglaw]

Why on earth would you want to be idle?

[He returns, holding out his hand. The hand is held out from the moment she reaches the wheelbarrow. She will have to approach under the full force of his expectation.]

[flickerflash]

Being idle gives you much more time for thinking. [Katie doesn't hesitate with the rope, however, even if she sort of lugs it over one shoulder back to him. She holds it out.] What are you doing?

[abidinglaw]

You an are idle enough girl -- what do you think I am doing?

[He makes sure to take the rope before she can snatch it away. Somehow it seems to him that there is a high enough chance of that.]

[flickerflash]

Building a cage for a bear.

[Well, you asked. Once he takes the rope she hop-skips back a few steps.] I understand there's a lot of bears around.

[abidinglaw]

A bear?

[A bear!]

No, not -- I am not building a cage. I am measuring this piece of wood with this rope, you see?

[He holds on edge of the length of rope flush with one end of the plank, and runs the cord across its edge. Where the wood terminates, he ties a knot in the rope.]

So as to cut equal measurements. Precision. Thought and action married, you see?

[flickerflash]

[Precision and measuring and thought and action-- Norrington, you're just trying to undo her all on her own, aren't you. Katie takes another step back.] Bear traps are more fun. What will you do with all your precisely measured wood, then?

[abidinglaw]

To rebuild this ramshackle house requires us to gather known lengths of specific materials. Wood, of course, is chief among them.

[flickerflash]

You could just use stickytape. I bet if I used stickytape it would be faster. [Of course, she's already had the ixnay on the magicay speech on house repairs.]

[abidinglaw]

One does not build a house out of sticky tape.

[He has encountered the stuff since his time in Luceti began. Wonderful it may be - but not that wonderful. Oh, he knows that he is twisting her words. He has a singular sense of humor.]

[flickerflash]

Have you ever tried? It's very hard to lose furniture in one.