7859/Banana Boat Paper

Banana Boat Paper
Date of Scene:	17 September 2021
Location:	809 - Karita's Apartment
Synopsis:	With Andy's help, Karita begins to make reason from nonsense.
Cast of Characters:	Karita Landry, Andy Katsaros

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Karita Landry has posed:
It's been a few weeks since Karita tried to do a nice thing, and got beaten down because of it. It's really been a difficult lesson TO learn, all things considered; being nice only gets you humiliation and embarrassment. While Karita spent a few days completely stoned out of her mind, mostly smoking her weed in the comfort of her car - cause colleges tend to frown on marijuana being smoked inside buildings ... (New York state in July has legalized three ounces of marijuana for recreational use, and people can store up to five pounds of cannabis as long as it is safely stored.) It didn't take the ghost-girl long to just say fuck the world, fuck that jack-ass, and return to her regular scheduled programming.

At this particular moment, Karita is sitting on the sofa with a night mask over her eyes, gloves on her hands, waiting for Andy to hand her the first item of the evening. It's become a daily ritual of sort, Andy goes forth - collecting odds and ends of different people's items and brings them for Karita to try and NOT use her powers on. Precision. Perfection. Working her powers constantly so that the event that transpired with Constantine never. EVER. Happens again.

While Karita adjusts the mask, a wild orange kitten leaps through the air, ears laid back as he scrambles up the sofa, tail about six sizes too big, dashes across the back of the sofa, back down onto the ground, scrambles over in a giant hopping crab walk to a mirror, hisses at himself, then proceeds to dash under the sofa and hide, only an occasional paw sneaking out to bat at an imaginary piece of fuzz.

"Okay. I'm ready. Begin." Those words are spoken even while the wild cat tramples forth its path of destruction.

Andy Katsaros has posed:
For Andy's part, he's done his best to help Kari through reconciliation of 'the event', though it's been difficult when she hasn't been able to really describe it, and attempting to have her do so runs the risk of triggering a whole new cascade of Bad Mojo (tm) and other not-so-good emotions. Still, he's been there for her and when she hasn't needed him, the religious studies student has continuined his Teaching Assistant responsibilities, participated in a couple of new table-top games on campus and has spent probably more time than is healthy doting upon, playing with and being generally amused and empowered by the orange and fluffy arrival to their lives.

"Zippo," Andy chides with a grin on his face as the little fuzzy terror runs under the couch. "Don't get lost under there. Last time you got your paw snagged on one of the springs..." He shakes his head a bit and then turns his attention back to Kari, nodding in affirmation to her before realizing that she's not able to see the gesture with her mask on. "Right," he answers verbally then, moving to grab a small knapsack he had stashed away on the other side of the room. The first couple of times that he was recruited for this task, he managed to get some knick-knacks and other items from folks in his gaming group or fellow TAs, but lately he's taken to shopping at local thrift stores and pawn shops to get some cheap items that are sure to have some thick and varied history vibes to them, especially as Kari has been getting better at managing her abilities. "We'll start out with this one," he states then, before withdrawing what looks to be an antique tea cup, micro-fractures under the glazing of the cup stained with many, many afternoon teas and a small chip on the outside of the vessel's dainty handle. "Careful," he warns as he places the fine china in Kari's open hands. "It's fragile."

Karita Landry has posed:
Zippo, for his part, extends his paws outwards until he manages to snag the shoe laces on Andy's feet, there he excitedly grabs hold of the string and pulls, taking a bit of the shoe string with him under the sofa. Occasionally there is a little pull on Andy's feet, as the kitten yanks, kicks, and genuinely kills that shoe string many times over. Ever so often, wide green eyes peak out, then go back to murdering his prey.

Taking off her gloves, Karita accepts the tea cup, idly turning the device around and around in her fingers and palm. "Okay. So. So far, so good, nothing happening." She likes to keep Andy up to date on things; her failures, and her successes, while idly holding onto the tea-cup (or any item really).

"Did you steal this from a tea shop? It feels like it's about ready to fall apart." The tips of Karita's fingers idly brush against the side of the cup, feeling the cracking of the old, and obviously well loved device.

It's at this point that nothing but nonsense suddenly cracks through, and Karita lets out a low curse of sound. "Banana boat paper." She announces, her key words for 'fucking nonsense', taken from an old massively multi-player online role-playing game.

In her gaze, an old woman carefully lifts the cup upwards to her lips, while a dark, oozing liquid comes boiling past. The sound of dishes clinking all around hit Karita's ears, before she sets the cup down with a solid thump, (that doesn't break it, but damn near could have), and Karita's yanking the mask from her eyes, letting out a quiet sigh of frustration.

The noise of the cup startles the kitten, who leaps out with Andy's shoe string still in his mouth, and tries to run off with Andy's shoe (which is still on Andy's feet), and failing that, leaps up into Andy's lap, trying to hide inside Andy's shirt, burrowing himself under the fabric.

Andy Katsaros has posed:
After the cup is initially handed over, Andy glances down at the tugging that is going on around his shoe-laces, one of the shoes having becoming completely untied at this point under the assault of the orange ball of terror-fluff. "You're trying to trip me and kill me, aren't you?" he asks the kitten with another grin, shaking his head a bit. "I'll have you know that if you ruin these shoes, a new pair is coming out of your kitten chow fund. I'm not kidding," he totally kids, as the little guy is just far too cute and adorable to really hold responsible for anything. As was evidenced by the unfortunate clean-up that took place last week after the rescued kitten not only got into the kitchen garbage but ate some left-over roast beef that had been tossed out. Which, sadly, did not agree with his system. But regardless of the number of clorox wipes used that day, Andy only blamed himself for leaving the lid of the garbage open and couldn't really hold Zippo at fault at all. How could he?

So, with his shoe untied and at risk of being pulled of his feet, Andy takes a seat opposite Kari and watches as she handles the tea-cup, turning it over and attempting *not* to psionically read it. "I don't steal things, you know that," he answers. "I mean, especially from a tea shop. If I was going to commit an act of robbery it'd be from somewhere much cooler." He pauses, pondering that. "At least, I hope so. I guess you never know what might drive someone to commit acts of thievery..." And as he continues to ramble, Karita suddenly thumps the cup down and jerking off her mask. Which elicits a sympathetic sigh from Andy as he begins, "Hey, it's okay, you'll get it. Practice is h... .hey!!" he blurts out then, the tugging on his shoelace converted to a scramble of claws up his lap and into his chest. He instictively wraps his arm around the frightened kitten, shushing it comfortingly. "Calm down guy, it's just a tea cup. I've got you..." A minor wince passes over his face as the kitten's little pin-like claws dig into his skin, but he soldiers on as he turns his attention back to Kari. "Practice is hard. It took me forever to get a handle on my power, you've already made tons faster progress than I did when I had to figure things out. You're doing great."

Karita Landry has posed:
Sitting back on the sofa, Karita just grumbles, one hand idly pulling the night mask completely off her head to throw it onto the coffee table. It's only as her gaze falls onto Zippo attempting to burrow into Andy's body that a slow smile spreads itself across her features. "It just never - ..." There's a pause as Karita tilts her head backwards, hair spilling about her shoulders, eyes closing tight.

"I never really thought much about it. Some of the secrets that I've seen, some of the mysteries too." Karita tilts her head back down, opening her eyes to twist her lips into a scowl, then back to a half-grin.

"I suppose if I have to wear gloves outside my own place, for like the REST of my life, I'll do so." Karita slides over to tilt her head onto Andy's shoulder, then, eyes closing as she just takes in a deep breath, "Thanks for being here for me, Andy. I know I've said it before, but I really do mean it. You've been my life line, my rock.."

Meanwhile, Zippo has calmed down enough to not attempt to dig into Andy's intestines, and is instead purring loudly as he comes out of Andy's clothing, and begins kneading the sofa's cushion, biscuit making, loud purring, and nuzzling into Andy.

Andy Katsaros has posed:
With one hand still cradling the fluffy orange kitten in his lap, Andy's other arm reaches over to wrap around Karita as she leans in, pulling her close into his side. "Hey, you know I'll always be here for you," he answers her, his voice quiet and sincere. "No matter what. And don't doubt yourself - you'll be able to get a handle on your power. It's just like learning any other skill or ability. When you learn to ride a bike you might fall down a few times, skin your knees maybe, but you keep getting back up and eventually you're zipping along on two wheels with the best of them." His fingers curl around Kari's shoulder, his head tilted to look down at her as she leans into him. "It's going to be the same with this. A few bumps in the road maybe, but keep at it and you'll get it. I believe in you."

As Zippo reaches out to grab at the sofa cushion, still half laying on Andy as he starts to make biscuits, Andy can't help but smile at the kitten's motions. "So does Zippo. He wouldn't have come home with you otherwise." With the kitten out of his arm's protection, Andy uses that hand to scritch the little guy on the head before he reaches over to take Kari's hand, holding onto it. "I mean. As horrible as it was, maybe the whole thing happened for a reason, so that you could get a handle on things now, while you're still young and figuring things out. So you won't *have* to wear gloves everywhere your whole life, and you can actually live your life the way you want and not get blind-sided."