[She has nastier responses all picked out, mean nettling things that will make Kate frown at her, at the very least. The look on Kate's face takes some of the venom out of her, but she's not obvious about it. The biggest tell is that she isn't nasty, just turns away with a huff of breath.
Whatever, Katie.]
Leave it in your pocket. I don't want people coming out here.
[She shoulders aside a low-hanging branch and lets it slap back into place, without holding it aside for Kate.
Under the treehouse, there is a small clearing, with all the recent signs of industry. This is mostly wood shavings and stumpy rounds of logs too knotted to use. Hewing raw wood into boards without the right tools is not easy, and anyone with an eye for craft would be able to spot the roughness of the boards. If anyone pointed this out to Johanna, she would probably bite out their throat with her teeth.
She grabs hold of the first ladder peg and swings herself up, easy.]
[ Kate taps fingertips along the edge of a board as she passes through Johanna's workshoppy area, shrugging at the request. ]
All right [ is easy acquiescence. She was expecting to be asked to not bring it at all, or something, and that's not happening. They may have begun to adapt to life on this planet but the mirror is a safety feature she's not about to give up even this near to camp, like the ever present bow across her back.
She waits for Johanna to get a couple rungs up before following. ]
I know what they are. I haven't ever built one, if that's what you're asking. You should definitely put one in to haul stuff up. Get this place stocked.
[If you can't build a pulley, what good are you, Kate. Johanna rolls her eyes, but she doesn't pause in her hand-over-hand climb up the side of the tree.]
Yeah, I'll put one in.
[Like it's so easy.]
They used to give them to us. You can make them, but you at least need a chisel. A drill. Stuff I don't have. [This isn't admitting a weakness, it's just true. It feels like admitting a weakness, and Johanna sets her teeth together, hard, as she hauls herself up the next spike. The treehouse is very close.] So until all that rains from the sky, you get to help me.
[ Kate is joking, obviously, and doesn't seem to mind getting dragooned into helping out. She's quick up the ladder after Johanna, hopping up onto the platform and heading for the edge so she can sit with the legs dangling over the side. ]
Instead of a pulley, you should just practice moving stuff with your mind. People here can do that now, along with all the mind reading feeling sharing making stuff appear things.
['They' = 'the Capitol' so, no. Not spoiled. Fortunately for Kate, Johanna is in a fairly indulgent mood, the kind of mood where she can laugh at just how spoiled she used to be. Or snort, anyways, which she does as she goes over to a pile of blankets in the corner of the platform.
Less amusing is this whole bullshit magic thing. Her mouth curls, wryly, as she shakes out one of the blankets.]
[ Kate starts and then stops, considering further before she turns to scootch across the floor and lean her back against the wall, pulling her legs inside to cross in front of her. She stays out of the way of Johanna's blanket-shaking but leans forward, forearms on her knees. ]
Do you need one just for a little while to pull things up or did you want a permanent one? Because I think I might be able to give you one for half an hour or so.
[Still engaged in the business of briskly shaking out her blanket, Johanna shoots Kate a look. There is a slight tinge of suspicion to it, disguised mostly by a mask of sarcasm. Pinched mouth, narrow eyes.]
You've been practicing?
[--Which she doesn't say with any wariness, or anything. But she's also not impressed.]
[ It's not exactly a challenge, the way Kate turns to look at Johanna as she responds. Not quite daring her to disapprove. But it's deliberate: she wants to see the reaction. Even as she's also shrugging. ]
I'm not going to ignore a tool this useful. We need all the help we can get around here.
[She doesn't look at Kate. But everything from the set of her jaw and the muscle working in her cheek and the narrow set of her eyes, to that deliberate way that she isn't looking: that's enough to suggest how she feels.
Savagely, she kicks at her own blankets, shoving them back toward the corner.]
[ Kate keeps looking. At the jaw working and the blanket kicking. Especially the kicking. She rolls her eyes.
And then closes them, her own hand opening before her. It's empty, and then it's not: an axe sits in her palm, visually identical to the one Johanna carried on the TQ.
She flips it once, catching the handle in her palm. ]
[There isn't a whole lot of light for the axe to gleam in. There's a little, and when it catches Johanna's eye, she looks, because that's what you do when there's a weapon gleaming in your periphery. Old habits die hard. She used to be on edge with Kate, thinking she was going to kill her, or could be convinced to, or something. There's a little of that old reaction in the hitch of her shoulders.
The blanch of her face is probably new, though. And short-lived. Might not have been there at all. Anger drops in swiftly anyways, obscuring whatever was there. Her mouth twisted, her eyes narrowed.]
Fuck you.
[And your pretty little axe, too. She points to the door.]
[ It's been a few months, long enough that Kate has stopped worrying about that time she tried to kill Johanna. She still thinks about it, sometimes, but she's stopped worrying. It doesn't spring to mind here either, not until Johanna blanches. And that's such a brief moment, she tries to ignore it and to play off the anger in that dismissal.
She lets her head tilt to the side, a flat look in response. The axe flips through the air again and she catches the head this time, handle held out toward Johanna. ]
After I just got you a present?
Edited (i really need to stop with the semicolons) 2015-11-22 06:31 (UTC)
[She stabs her finger toward the floor. The boards are rough-hewn in general, some more so than others. The early ones look roughest of all and are easy to pick out--rougher, more warped.]
I've been doing fine. So get rid of it, and go. You can switch the order if you want. I don't care. Just make it happen.
What? Come on, I'm not insulting your treehouse-building skills. Yes, you're awesome and impressively resourceful and you don't need anything or anyone, ever. I get it, already.
[ She does not leave, and does not make the axe disappear. She lets the head drop against the floor, hand remaining on the grip. ]
You're not scared. How is this different than a pulley? Or using stuff out of the lockers?
[She doesn't flinch at the thud of the axe. The sound is deeply familiar, a pitch she's tuned to hear. It sounds like her axe.
Hers. Yeah right. Her mouth winches into a scowl.]
Think about it. How is it different. Would you like it if I made you a stupid bow? A stupid little present? But then I could take it away again, if I wanted to. I'm such a bitch. Probably I'd do that. And probably I'd wait till you really needed it. Then I'd just take it, right out of your hand, and you'd be fucked. Would you still be happy about your present?
You might do that. But we both know I'm not that kind of bitch.
[ Still with the look, brows low and only shallowly angled. Annoyed, but no more. That it'll disappear in less than an hour anyway is a detail not worth mentioning at this stage, Kate decides. It's not a fail safe, it's just a handy bonus, but that's not the sort of distinction Johanna's likely to make. ]
Plus my whole point was that you should learn to do it yourself, so you can make your own when you want it. Make an axe or a pulley or whatever if you need one for a minute.
And what makes you think I want that kind of help at all?
[Want, not need. She obviously doesn't need help. Nor does she want help. And all of her reasons are tied up, convoluted, complicated. Accept what tools you're given and work with them and you'll end up screwed. Reject the tools and work without them and you end up screwing yourself. It doesn't matter either way.]
I can survive without help. I'm doing just fine. I got an axe, I went into the ship and got it out myself. I'm done taking help.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alsohawkeye) wrote2024-01-11 07:28 pm
no subject
Whatever, Katie.]
Leave it in your pocket. I don't want people coming out here.
[She shoulders aside a low-hanging branch and lets it slap back into place, without holding it aside for Kate.
Under the treehouse, there is a small clearing, with all the recent signs of industry. This is mostly wood shavings and stumpy rounds of logs too knotted to use. Hewing raw wood into boards without the right tools is not easy, and anyone with an eye for craft would be able to spot the roughness of the boards. If anyone pointed this out to Johanna, she would probably bite out their throat with her teeth.
She grabs hold of the first ladder peg and swings herself up, easy.]
Come on. Do you know anything about pulleys?
no subject
All right [ is easy acquiescence. She was expecting to be asked to not bring it at all, or something, and that's not happening. They may have begun to adapt to life on this planet but the mirror is a safety feature she's not about to give up even this near to camp, like the ever present bow across her back.
She waits for Johanna to get a couple rungs up before following. ]
I know what they are. I haven't ever built one, if that's what you're asking. You should definitely put one in to haul stuff up. Get this place stocked.
no subject
Yeah, I'll put one in.
[Like it's so easy.]
They used to give them to us. You can make them, but you at least need a chisel. A drill. Stuff I don't have. [This isn't admitting a weakness, it's just true. It feels like admitting a weakness, and Johanna sets her teeth together, hard, as she hauls herself up the next spike. The treehouse is very close.] So until all that rains from the sky, you get to help me.
[Manual labor. So exciting!]
no subject
[ Kate is joking, obviously, and doesn't seem to mind getting dragooned into helping out. She's quick up the ladder after Johanna, hopping up onto the platform and heading for the edge so she can sit with the legs dangling over the side. ]
Instead of a pulley, you should just practice moving stuff with your mind. People here can do that now, along with all the mind reading feeling sharing making stuff appear things.
no subject
Less amusing is this whole bullshit magic thing. Her mouth curls, wryly, as she shakes out one of the blankets.]
Yeah, awesome. I'll get right on that.
[Not.]
no subject
[ Kate starts and then stops, considering further before she turns to scootch across the floor and lean her back against the wall, pulling her legs inside to cross in front of her. She stays out of the way of Johanna's blanket-shaking but leans forward, forearms on her knees. ]
Do you need one just for a little while to pull things up or did you want a permanent one? Because I think I might be able to give you one for half an hour or so.
no subject
You've been practicing?
[--Which she doesn't say with any wariness, or anything. But she's also not impressed.]
no subject
[ It's not exactly a challenge, the way Kate turns to look at Johanna as she responds. Not quite daring her to disapprove. But it's deliberate: she wants to see the reaction. Even as she's also shrugging. ]
I'm not going to ignore a tool this useful. We need all the help we can get around here.
no subject
Savagely, she kicks at her own blankets, shoving them back toward the corner.]
Maybe you do.
no subject
And then closes them, her own hand opening before her. It's empty, and then it's not: an axe sits in her palm, visually identical to the one Johanna carried on the TQ.
She flips it once, catching the handle in her palm. ]
Yeah, this isn't useful at all.
no subject
The blanch of her face is probably new, though. And short-lived. Might not have been there at all. Anger drops in swiftly anyways, obscuring whatever was there. Her mouth twisted, her eyes narrowed.]
Fuck you.
[And your pretty little axe, too. She points to the door.]
You can leave.
no subject
She lets her head tilt to the side, a flat look in response. The axe flips through the air again and she catches the head this time, handle held out toward Johanna. ]
After I just got you a present?
no subject
[Through her teeth:]
I don't need it. Look around you, Katie--
[She stabs her finger toward the floor. The boards are rough-hewn in general, some more so than others. The early ones look roughest of all and are easy to pick out--rougher, more warped.]
I've been doing fine. So get rid of it, and go. You can switch the order if you want. I don't care. Just make it happen.
no subject
[ She does not leave, and does not make the axe disappear. She lets the head drop against the floor, hand remaining on the grip. ]
You're not scared. How is this different than a pulley? Or using stuff out of the lockers?
no subject
Hers. Yeah right. Her mouth winches into a scowl.]
Think about it. How is it different. Would you like it if I made you a stupid bow? A stupid little present? But then I could take it away again, if I wanted to. I'm such a bitch. Probably I'd do that. And probably I'd wait till you really needed it. Then I'd just take it, right out of your hand, and you'd be fucked. Would you still be happy about your present?
no subject
[ Still with the look, brows low and only shallowly angled. Annoyed, but no more. That it'll disappear in less than an hour anyway is a detail not worth mentioning at this stage, Kate decides. It's not a fail safe, it's just a handy bonus, but that's not the sort of distinction Johanna's likely to make. ]
Plus my whole point was that you should learn to do it yourself, so you can make your own when you want it. Make an axe or a pulley or whatever if you need one for a minute.
no subject
[Want, not need. She obviously doesn't need help. Nor does she want help. And all of her reasons are tied up, convoluted, complicated. Accept what tools you're given and work with them and you'll end up screwed. Reject the tools and work without them and you end up screwing yourself. It doesn't matter either way.]
I can survive without help. I'm doing just fine. I got an axe, I went into the ship and got it out myself. I'm done taking help.