2.7/ open & closed/ love my town & i love my city

[dedikated]

Who: Kate and Alphys, Kate and Ignis, Kate and... maybe you?
What: July catch all. Examining The Door, sparring, and running across every island because that's what you do when you're stuck in a city still ruined by war.
Where: Every island, more or less.
When: All through July
Warnings: Nothing right now!


there's too many sinners and not enough saints;
→ ota; the rooftops, any island.

( The rain is a near constant thing, familiar and irritating in equal measure. Hadriel's curved rooftops were already enough of a pain to navigate in the weatherlress caves or the baking suns. Add the rain to their rounded slopes and Kate takes the new paths of the city wth greater care than she normally would, looking for shorter jumps, for handholds and walls between.

Of course, what Kate considers careful still looks impossibly fast to human eyes, with leaps and reflexes that are greater, sharper than any human could manage. It isn't flight, nor teleportation, but her veins thrum with life and power, muscles singing with joy as the world around her blurs.

This sight can be seen on any of the islands, and those with a taste for heights might find that Kate is more than willing to stop and chat on her frequent runs across the rooftops. She uses these paths like most use the streets, heading from one destination to the next - whether that's Love's housing on the south island when she heads home, the clinic or Colosseum (where she's found far more often in the last couple of months) on the west, or any of the islands' shorelines, pink hair like a beacon to her location regardless of where she chooses to be. )

& where i'm from people don't wear capes;
→ closed to alphys.

( The lab isn't a place Kate visits as often as she could, considering how close to the clinic it resides. But she finds reason and time now, so long after her sight came back, after weeks of sitting in the Colosseum staring at the floor with bright white eyes.

She knocks before entering, hair tumbling loose over her shoulders, damp from the near-constant drizzle of the ocean planet. After months of having to wrap up enough to protect from the sun but not so much that the heat became impossible to bear, it's a blessing to dress in jeans and a hoodie again, a small bag pressing against her thigh.

Familiar, right. )

Ready?

no superhero is gonna save the day;
→ closed to ignis.

( For once, this isn't an intentional meeting. It's a chance thing that comes when Kate takes to the training grounds near the guard HQ with her bow in hand and muscles protesting at the first use of the impressively sized longbow in some weeks. Superhuman strength kicks in but damn she'd forgotten how much this thing weighed.

She's a few arrows deep into practising when the silence of lone training is broken and she looks over in the direction of footsteps, brown eyes sharp. Many of the guard are familiar to her, and many are friends.

And one of them makes her eyes brighten, makes Kate lower her bow and rest against it with a quirk of her lips. )

Fancy meeting you here.

( It's not actually surprising though, is it? )

Comments

A roof near the Clinic

[knifecollecting]

[Jo still checks in at the clinic pretty often. She may not have a medical degree or know a lot of first aid, but she can still be useful.

So she continues to visit, just in case.

There's a blur above as she approaches the building and she watches it long enough to catch sight of the pink.]

Kate?

yeeee

[dedikated]

( And Kate, at least, appreciates each hand which comes to help. Even if it sometimes means she finds herself lacking things she can actually do. A lot of people would be grateful for that, but it just makes Kate antsy.

Always has.

That's why the running helps.

But, as she comes to a halt at a building just across from the clinic, there's a familiar voice and Kate drops to the ground like it's a step and not a whole building that separates herself and Jo. )

Hey.

<3

[knifecollecting]

[Jo smiles at Kate, shifting her bag.]

Is it impossible for you to use the ground like a normal person?

[dedikated]

Using it right now.

( It sounds like a statement, and her lips don't curl, but her brows raise just enough that someone who's known Kate as long as Jo has would know it's meant to be a joke. )

Anything interestin' today?

[knifecollecting]

Don't be a smartass. [Jo laughs and shakes her head.]

I haven't heard or seen anything. You?

[dedikated]

( Kate, a smartass? Since when? She's only ever polite.

A shrug rolls over Kate's shoulders as she picks up walking as though she didn't just drop from the roof a moment ago. )

Nothing exciting. ( Which... Dammit, Hadriel. Even Kate gets bored of this. ) Haven't done anything fun?

( Or anyone? C'mon Jo, how long have you been here, unlaid and sad? )

wow, rude

[knifecollecting]

Had a dream I got to go to Vegas last night. [She laughs, falling into step with Kate.]

Your boy isn't giving any excitement?

dabs

[sciencelizard]

[She's still trying to not freak out about the prospect of this, of the Door just being known in a way she can have time to parse over. As usual, events derail things, delay even well kept plans, but she still wants to do this. When she needs motivation, she thinks about how Marian would push for these details, how much this would mean to her. To everyone, really. She has to.

Alphys has a backpack loaded up with gear, main sensor in hand as she nods.]

Yeah! I mean, I t-think. We're not far, so if I really have to, uhm, double back for something, I can.

yEEEEE

[dedikated]

( Finally. It was the obvious location, the only common denominator in every single arrival here, but it look so fucking long to find the right wavelength for it.

So, thanks, Fear. She guesses.

But with Alphys ready, Kate pushes open the door and holds it for her to walk through with all that stuff. )

So what're you using?

( She's been the creator and the power sensor itself, so, you know. Curiosity. )

/o/ \o\

[sciencelizard]

[She toddles through, seemingly unincumbered by the backpack.]

Well, uhm-- my first lab partner, after the lab became mine, was a really t-talented physicist, but knew nothing about magic. So while she handled the metaphysical, I decided to handle the magic.

[She tilts the handheld sensor up so Kate can see, though the screen is currently blank.]

When I turn this on, I can point it at an energy source and get a m-magical wavelength reading where I can identify types and, uhm, potentially sources of magic. I have stored readings of the Door when it opens every month, plus readings of each god's magic. So uhm... I can h-hopefully confirm what we found.

this never turned up in my inbox what the fuck

[dedikated]

( Kate hadn't really considered using technology to work with her powers, even before she advanced them. It seemed complicated. Messy. Even more work than enchanting had been. So she listens to Alphys' explanation attentively, looking over the small handheld device with critical eyes.

And then she hears something very interesting. )

You can detect the gods' magic? ( That's brilliant, not only for their confirmation but because Kate has been wanting that knowledge herself. )

rude af inbox

[sciencelizard]

[Alphys has magic, but it's not as... well, good, as a lot of others'. She certainly knows it's weaker than most monsters, and most of it just goes into keeping her alive vs fighting or communication. So technology has always been her in to these sorts of things, this other world that her friends would inhabit every day.

Really, it always makes her feel a little closer to humans. Just to have that solidarity.]

Yeah! Or well, I've narrowed down the signature that's absolutely theirs. It took a little bit to centralize it, and it all b-basically looks like the same wavelength between gods, but I was able to confirm when we jumped locations the last time. There's some differences, but it comes from the same, uhm, root source, like how different species of monsters all use monster magic but have different s-sources or forms that it takes.

the worst :|

[dedikated]

( Kate's eyes don't leave Alphys during the explanation, even as they wind their way down the road towards the Colosseum. That? Is some very interesting information, and if she can use it, Kate wonders what she could do to the gods.

It would probably kill her to try, if the level of power that the Door possesses is any indication, but they don't have to know that. )

... Makes sense. ( Same world, same species. ) Wonder how it stacks up.

( It being the Door, said with a nod towards the entrance to the Colosseum. )

[sciencelizard]

[She nods excitedly.]

I don't k-know! I'm excited to find out, if these are the same signature and intensity who knows what could be done. This is more exciting than when the Null came in-- I mean, m-mostly because the Door isn't trying to kill us, hehe.

[Y'know, yet, maybe. You never know.]

So you're going to find it again, right? And then I can run some t-tests?

here I aaaaaam

[claritatis]

Fancy that.

[He didn't know she was here, and it's a far more pleasant surprise than usual to find her. How could he possibly resist coming over to say hello? His steps take him to her, one arm reaching out to gently pull her close and into a brief but undeniably warm kiss.

He can think of worse surprises.

His attention goes to the target she's aiming at, and then down to the bow in her hand. Outside of shared dreams, he's tried the thing... and he has absolutely no chance with it. It only increased his appreciation of just how powerful Kate really is.]

Your aim is a little off. [He tells her, a slight, mischievous expression flickering across his face.]

muah

[dedikated]

( He gets a smile and a hand that snakes around his waist, fingers resting comfortably in the belt loops of his trousers, and a brush of her lips against his in return when the kiss breaks. Training's left a pleasant, accomplished ache in her arms far faster than normal thanks to her break in practising, the weight of effort from firing arrows a different kind of expenditure of energy to her usual bursts around the city's rooftops.

It's comfortable, calming, especially when he's here, and Kate's attention has almost slipped from the world around her when Ignis drags it back to her last shot.

Not her best one, admittedly, but with a bow this powerful, accuracy can take something of a backseat. It would still slam through the body of most oncoming monsters.

(Or Null.) )

You can do better?

( She's been at this for three years back home and months in Hadriel before and after that, and there's still a lot to learn. A lot of improvements to be made. )

[claritatis]

[Gods, when did he get so comfortable with her? He can't recall a time when he wasn't, when the light touches exchanged between them were unwelcome or unwanted. It's always been this way, always comfortable, but the ease with which they gravitated into one anothers space only increased.

She questions him, and he laughs.]

With that thing? You know I can't.

[He'd tear every muscle in his shoulders before he could draw that thing in the real world.]

But-- [And here, he squeezes her gently against his side.] That doesn't preclude me from pointing out errors in your technique.

[dedikated]

( Even the first touches shared between them - a hand on her shoulder when they were both exhausted from fighting the fire spreading through the city, a touch to reassure herself of his presence beside her in battle - were never... strange. Which is the strangest part of it all for someone who spent so much of her life claiming she didn't want to be touched.

Didn't want anything that implied closeness with others, caring about people outside of her brother. All those little things which seemed so weak then. )

Have to tell Henry. He taught me to shoot.

( Kate pls.

But, more importantly than her shooting technique - )

What're you doing here?

[claritatis]

And blame the teacher for the failings of the pupil? I would never.

[But he laughs, meaning nothing by it, and gives her a slightly odd look as if he believes for a moment that she might have forgotten just where she is.]

I was bringing something by for Nick to look at. [For a second opinion. Given his respect of the android, even with recent misdemeanours taken into account, he approaches him quite frequently for second opinions on matters relating to the guard and their various duties that he isn't entirely certain of.]

Though I might ask the same question of you.

[dedikated]

( She's not entirely crazy, Ignis. She was just wondering if this was work or training.

But it's her turn to fire the look back at him when he asks that question, shifting the bow in her hand slightly to draw his attention there. )

Best place to practice.

( It isn't exactly the kind of weapon she can just fire freely in the city, after all. )

[claritatis]

[If she's allowed to ask daft questions about where he happens to be, then he's allowed to do the same. The deliberateness of it is conveyed in the slightly raised eyebrows as he glances at the bow again.

It's a formidable weapon.]

If you have the taste for something more hand to hand, I have some free time.

[An offer, yes, despite knowing how her strength easily outmatches his. Let it never be said that Ignis Scientia will back down from a challenge.]

The Armory rooftop, North Island -- around 7/11

[so_dark_a_road]

[ Curufin is finished with the first boat and is now working on the pier project as well as Trafalgar Law's ship. But he does find time to check in at Guard HQ occasionally, and he's back to fitting in some Guard shifts as well, when he's not ferrying people around the islands.

He is just leaving the Guard office and heading for the shoreline, since he likes to walk back to his workshop via the coastline. He is just passing the Armory when he happens to look up and see, on the roof. . . somebody with pink hair? ]

Kate! [ He waves both arms. ]

yeeee

[dedikated]

( She's heard about the piers, of course she has, but helping out got lost somewhere in analysing powers underneath the Colosseum and - after Name's post - trying to figure out what to do with all this information.

She wants their hands on The Door, wants the leverage it would bring to have a fraction of that power in their grasp. Wants - most immaturely - to do it simply to prove that they're not as incompetent as it often seems the gods believe.

But for the moment, she's aiming for the building she's crouched on top of, and there's a familiar voice calling up to her.

So - as anyone would - she drops down, landing smoothly next to Curufin. )

Aye?

( Hey, dude. )

\o/

[so_dark_a_road]

[ Best to have Kate's energies directed wherever she feels she is most needed! Somebody has to do the brainwork to figure out all of this mystery about the Door, especially now that there actually is a chance of doing so. And of course, Curufin too wants some of that power in the hands of the Hadrielites, if that is at all possible. There are too many people here who need to be able to go home, or elsewhere. ]

Out getting your exercise for the day? [ He grins when she makes that neat landing. The very birds of the sky ought to be jealous of her for her skills. Not to mention her plumage. XD ]

[dedikated]

( Brainwork would be better left to other people, but unfortunately those people don't have her eyes. So she's taken up the mantle for the moment, with Alphys' help.

(Moments like this is when the loss of Marc stings, regardless of how long it's been. How much easier would it be to have access to his mind, to be able to discuss all of this without needing to open her mouth? Total secrecy and mind of someone far smarter than she.) )

Somethin' like that. ( She's also in need of a few knives, as is the way in Hadriel. ) Hard at work, or hardly workin'?

( K a t e. )