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 Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:44 am
"I'd love to come over," Cardi said with a smile. She wasn't a social person by nature, but this wasn't social--it was getting a tank for Benny and a convenient meal. Nothing social about that. Just because she would be with a friend didn't mean it was social.
"Oh, I study all sorts of insects. Arthropods in general, actually, but mostly the terrestrial ones. Most people think I like butterflies best, but really, it's all about che--" She stopped herself just in time. Katsuo probably wasn't scientifically-minded enough to know what that word meant. "Centipedes and their close relatives," she continued lamely. "They're my favorites. Not as fond of diplopods--those are millipedes and their relatives."
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Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:32 pm
"Wonderful! I'll be able to set up dinner while you can check out my place of rest for June bugs. I'll give you a little container to put a few in to take home." Katsuo said as his tail wagged as a smile. He felt happy to have someone come to his home for a meal. Even if it was just a meal and to study some insects.
"Centipedes like Benny, right? Only not as large as him." Chuckling as he watched her. "Butterflies are beautiful, but that's all they have. Other insects that are different make the better impact on those who admire them." He said as he felt like making a point. He never really found butterflies to be special, but just pretty to look at. "Well you never know if you'll find some centipedes around the base of the tree or in my sleeping area." He said with a smile as he waited for them to leave.
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Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:47 pm
Cardi put the lid back on Benny's tank and led the way out of her room, closing the door behind her. "Butterflies aren't just pretty," she objected. "They're pollinators, too. They're a vital part of the ecosystem. Their only problem is that they're flashy and people romanticize them. If they weren't so cliched, I'd be interested in them more. I don't dislike butterflies--I'm just not interested in them." She paused then, trying to figure out what he had said. Other insects that are different make the better impact on those who admire them? His words sounded like they made sense but they sounded out of order, too. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?" she snapped. "First of all, centipedes aren't insects. And I don't like any animals because they're different. That implies that I like them just because other people don't. While it's true that I get interested in animals because they're different, I usually like them because of something interesting about them." Ice cream koans. How useless! She briskly walked out of the house.
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Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 1:08 pm
Katsuo had really done it this time. He got Cardi annoyed from his words. STUPID, STUPID He thought to himself as he mental face palmed, hard. Stop upsetting her, you idiot. He thought as he followed after her. "Cardi.... I'm sorry!" He said as he reached the outside. He looked down to his paws then back to her. "I was just trying to impress you, but that was a failure all in it's own." He admitted as he looked away from her then towards the direction of his home. He knew that it wasn't a long walk from her home.
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Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:56 pm
Now what?! Cardi all but said. What am I doing wrong that's getting him upset?! She sighed. "No, no, I just...get frustrated when I don't understand what people are saying. Which is all the time," she added quickly, but she hated herself for saying that. I understand people most of the time! Well, half of the time. Okay, I usually don't understand people. You're nice, Katsuo, I just don't understand you like I understand my "bugs." "Why are you trying to impress me anyway? You don't need to. I'm not someone who needs impressing. Besides, you've impressed me enough for today. So, how far is it to your home?" she asked quickly to change the subject. Anything to change the subject!
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 11:46 pm
Katsuo blinked as she amitted that she was fustrated. "I was trying to impress you because I'm just afraid to disappoint others that I just meet." Admitting as he looked at her in the eyes then away towards his home. "The tree is a short walk from here. About twenty to thirty minutes. We'll probably find some insects along the way. The usual dragonflies start to swarm around the close by pond." Letting her know as he gave a calm smile. He loved watching them gather along the pond's edge. His tail flickered back and forth as his smile grew. "I've spent warm days by the pond, watching the dragonflies. Do you like dragonflies, Cardi?" Asking as he wanted to see what other creatures she would study.
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 9:47 pm
Try to impress me? Cardi shook her head. No, he just likes to impress everyone. Or, more to the point, not disappoint them. "Don't worry," she said firmly. "You don't disappoint me. I have no expectations for you that you must conform to. Feel free to be whoever you are naturally without worry that you will transgress some inner mental image I hold of you." That sounded long-winded, but it would have to do.
Cardi grinned at the description. "Of course I love dragonflies! I love the way they move, the way they zip around...They prefer waters a little calmer than the river, though, so we don't get as many of them around here as we could elsewhere. Maybe I should have brought a jar and an identification book...Oh well." Cardi shrugged and smiled at Katsuo. She liked the calm smile he gave her. "I guess I'll have to bring them next time, won't I?" She flicked her tail. "Lead on, good sir."
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 2:14 pm
Katsuo was caught off guard by her words about just being himself. "I appologize again, but I'll try my best to be just like I would usually be." He said with a smile and a sigh of relief. His tail flickered lightly as he watched her. "I have a few things at my place you can use. I, sometimes, catch fireflies when they are out. Sometimes I like to draw them to see if I can catch their beauty." He said with a slight chuckle. He nodded in agreement to her question. "You are welcome to come over anytime." He added as he walked on towards home.
As he had mentioned before about the dragonflies, one had flown pass them. "There's one now! Must be a new one since it's smaller that ones I usually spot." He pointed out as he directed a paw towards the pond coming into view. He smiled as his tree was in view now, "there it is, Cardi." He said with a proud expression. He loved his home, but wished to have company since his son had moved out of the house.
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 3:04 pm
"Oo, scientific art! I tried that once, but I'm not very good at it," she admitted. "My housemate Pwn tried to teach me. I suppose I prefer seeing an animal with my own eyes rather than my faulty memories. Besides, the specimen is either moving around too much to draw when I try or they're dead, and I don't really see the point in drawing a dead specimen. It needs life in it," she added, though she realized afterwards that that was probably a self-evident statement. "I don't think I've ever caught fireflies," she mused. "We don't see them as often at the House."
A dart of bright blue passed by Cardi's eye. Attracted by the sudden color, she whipped her head around. She trotted in the direction she took towards a pond. She was so intent on her target that she didn't notice the large tree nearby. The insect had landed on a reed by the pond. As carefully and quickly as she could, she closed her hands around it, leaving an aperture only barely small enough for the creature to not escape. She peeked into her cupped hands and grinned. "Katsuo!" she shouted. "It's a damselfly! Same order, different suborder. You can tell from the wings and the size!"
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Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 5:22 pm
Katsuo chuckled as he listened to her speak about scientific art. "I usually draw or sketch out landscapes, but I had lost that feeling for a while now." He admitted as he headed to his room. He came back out towards the pond. A few empty jars in his arms as he watched Cardi with something in between her paws.
"Did you want to put it into a jar to study?" Katsuo asked as he set them down onto the ground. "There's holes in the top so it can breathe. I can grab a few things for it to eat too." He offered with a smile as his tail wagged a little.
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Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:53 pm
"I'd like to look at it," Cardi said with a happy smile. He'd grabbed jars! That was very nice of him. "Get some other insects, damselflies are carnivores. Flies if you can catch 'em, and if the holes are small enough that they can't escape." Carefully, gingerly, Cardi scooped up the damselfly and plopped him--she assumed it was male--into the jar. The holes were a good size--hopefully, nothing would escape from it. She looked around. If only it were a tropical species...spiders were easier to catch than flies.
While looking for bugs to catch, she thought back to what he had been saying as she ran off. "So you're an artist?" she said conversationally. "I used to think artists were lazy, then I realized how hard it is. Modern artists, though..." She shook her head. "There's no skill in that. Give me an artist who tries to recreate the physical world, not someone who tries to imitate the intangible. How can you tell if you've succeeded then?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 5:53 pm
Katsuo smiled warmly as she noticed he had grabbed a few jars for her. He felt happy to be able to find some common ground with this lovely vixen of white and shades of orange. "Anything for you, Cardi." He said with a light chuckle as he looked for some bugs or beetles that were close to the pond's edge. He stopped a few gold beetles and some common flies about. He held onto one of the jars, scooping up the beetles. Setting it down, katsuo tried to catch a few flies in his paws without hurting them, of course. He had been able to catch at least two, but he had already smashed one in his paws.
Katsuo's ears perked up at her question. "I am, but mostly just draw landscapes and some of the wildlife in my free time. I'll have to show you this picture I had done of a moth on a tree close by here. I was surprised it had actually stayed there long enough for me to capture its beauty. Not all artists are lazy. It's more of that they have something blocking them from being able to capture beauty in it's most precious state." He said as if he speaking a passage from a book, but it was from his heart. He handed the jar with the beetles and flies for the damselfy. "Should these suffice?" He asked as he looked towards his home. It was more of a hollow if anything. "I'l go grab my book to show you what i mean." He said to her softly as he walked slowly towards the door.
After a few short minutes he pulled out what looked to be a worn out leather book in his paws. "These are my sketches and drawings, if you'd like to look at them." Katsuo said as he set the book beside Cardi.
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Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 12:11 pm
Cardi delicately scooped a spider into a jar, along with the leaves and branches it had been resting on. She thought it looked familiar, but she wanted to look up the species nonetheless. "Well, not so much lazy," she said quickly. Thinking back on what she said, it sounded very rude. That was an odd thought for Cardi, though--so what if what she said was rude? Other people just had to take what she said. She didn't have time to sit around all day analyzing her words to figure out her meaning. She knew what her meaning was--it was up to other people to interpret her words to ascertain their true meaning, and if they couldn't figure it out, then it wasn't her fault.
But what she had said might have given offense to Katsuo, and he was...well, he deserved better than that. He was doing all sorts of nice things for her, she might as well be nice. It was only...fair. And wasn't that an odd thought, too? Cardi shook it out of her head. "You said in your free time? You have a job, then?" She scooped up all the jars and followed him back to the hollow so that he didn't have to walk so far. She set all of the jars down carefully in a row, watching as the spider perched precariously on a branch. "These should do nicely," she murmured softly. Turning back to her friend, she peered over his shoulder at the sketches.
Cardi was no art critic--she didn't know nearly enough about art--but Katsuo's pictures were beautiful. She brushed one lightly and smiled. "I think I've seen that lake before, maybe..."
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Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 2:10 pm
Watching as Cardi scooped up the spider into the jar, leaves and all. "Lazy is a negative way of saying it. I call it a way to be creative, let your mind calm the storm of what maybe grasp it. My sketches help me calm the thought of Rina leaving me behind after having three bowls together. Even though she and two of my kits are gone, I'm grateful that I still have Kekoa and a loving family to go to in these hard times. But... I must sound silly tell you this. I feel calm and happy when around you, Cardi." He spoke from the heart as his green eyes looked towards his sketch book.
"I work as an illustrator for a few books, but it's tiresome. I would rather publish my works one day instead of what others would like to me draw for them." Katsuo said he looked into her eyes. They always seemed to catch his attention and keep him from feeling lost. "That's the lake close to where you live, Cardi. I stumbled upon it during my travels. I enjoy hiking and being able to capture beauty at it's fullest." He blushed lightly at the next question he was going to ask. "I would love to sketch a picture of you one of these days, that's if you don't mind..." He said as he moved his gaze away to hide the blush.
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Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:45 am
Cardi scooped up the spider's jar and sighed in frustration. Was he willfully misinterpreting her words? Or was she the one who wasn't speaking properly? "I didn't say all artists are lazy," she snapped. "Just the ones who don't make any effort. The ones who try to be postmodern by claiming that everything has meaning. You know, the ones who 'make art' by ripping a urinal off a wall and selling it to a gallery. You know, 'found art,' or 'modern art.' It's not art, it's pretentiousness. If you don't put any effort into it, if you just expect to be able to make any sort of, of...of mess, then it has no meaning, and you are lazy!" There she went again, losing her temper. She set the jar back down and rubbed her temples with a sigh. "I didn't mean you personally," she added. "You make art...well, you make art I like. I guess some people might not consider it art, but at least it doesn't look like a computer vomited on it."
She couldn't remember if Katsuo had mentioned his ex earlier. It sounded familiar enough that he might have. "You know, I think you're the only person who's ever said that to me," she murmured. "I mean, besides maybe Yoake or Ranger, but they mostly say that about me when I'm happy, and..." She sighed again. "It's not that I'm never happy, it's just that I feel like there's no reason to go telegraphing some sort of 'look at me, I'm happy,' expression all the time. Anyway." Now she felt awkward. When did she ever feel awkward? Why was Katsuo making her feel weird things?! Why was his presence making her do weird things?! And why the heck didn't she mind that this was happening?!
"I like to hike, too," she said. "And boat. I usually take a canoe or a kayak to the lake and sit out on it. Sometimes my housemates come with and fish or swim or something. It's very beautiful." Seeing Katsuo's expression and hearing his offer, Cardi felt her cheeks warm up. "I'm not a landscape," she grumbled. "I wouldn't fit with the rest of your portfolio." For some reason, that made her cheeks even warmer.
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