Logs:Watercolours

Watercolours
Dramatis Personae Kitty, Sarah
In Absentia	2020-08-26 “Wanna see what I know for sure I can do?”
Location <NYC> Washington Square Park - Greenwich Village
'<NYC> Washington Square Park - Greenwich Village' Behind a majestic white marble arch, a smaller cousin of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, this beautiful green space is a popular destination for the young, the hip, and the artistic. A huge circular wading fountain is the centerpiece, ringed by benches, playgrounds, dog runs, gaming tables, and lush green lawns. In fair weather, the park is almost always crowded with tourists, students, chess enthusiasts, and local families come to tire out their children and dogs. The sweltering temperatures of the past few days have dropped to something far more comfortable, bringing tourists and locals both to the park in droves, both with and without dogs. This is good news indeed for the tent set up by Flour Power, a colorful sign advertising ‘Cupcakes & Pupcakes’ in hand-painted letters. The crowd around the tent has not been large but it has been constant. Customers and pets alike leave happy, while the stack of empty cake boxes at the back of the tent grows larger. Currently on her 15 minute break, Sarah sits on a large white ice chest placed behind the tent, a purple messenger bag at her feet. She’s in uniform of white slacks, a blue gingham button down with rolled short sleeves, and (not so uniform) sunshine yellow converse. Her watercolor hydrangea hair is mostly hidden by a matching blue gingham cap with ‘Flour Power’ across the front. Scrolling through her phone while sipping from a straw stuck in frosty jar of light colored coffee. Kitty for once doesn’t have her bag of bricks with her- it’s back at the lab. Now she is dressed simply in a NYU tshirt and grey leggings again, walking through the park with her earbuds in. She swings past the tent, glances at it, and moves on, unimpressed until she thinks she spied someone familiar. Slowing, she approaches cautiously- “Sarah?” Looking up with curious green eyes, they light up with recognition on spotting Kitty. “Oh, hi!” She exclaims, setting the jar down beside her. Picks it up again, just as quickly, to scootch toward the edge of the cooler and make another seat. If anyone wants it. “Hi, Kitty,” she repeats, her phone already dropped into her lap, stirring her drink around with her straw. “Fancy running into you here. Want a cupcake?" There's a soft look of relief that passes over Kitty's face - right person, right time, it seems. The invitation takes her a little by surprise, but she recovers, joining Sarah on the cooler, tucking one leg up under her. "I was just gonna say," she says, a little bit of a nervous giggle coming out at the end of the phrase. "I'd love one." She raises an eyebrow - "I thought you worked at Montagues, not," she glances up at the cap, "Flour Power." "I work at both! Two of my three jobs.” Sarah pauses, brows furrowing as she rethinks that. “Two and a half jobs? Anyway! One cupcake, coming right up.” Turning away just enough to move one of the tent flaps enough to reach inside, she emerges with a light colored cupcake, topped with a small swirl of frosting and caramelized bananas. Hands it over with a smile. “You like cinnamon, right? This is a brown sugar and cinnamon one. The frosting is vanilla bean.” Kitty’s eyes widen at the mention of whatever number of jobs Sarah holds. “You keep busy,” she says, a little dazed by the cheer. “Oh!” She takes the cupcake- “Who doesn’t like cinnamon?” She takes a bite, closing her eyes slightly to savor it. “Mm. That’s good.” She chuckles a little bit. “You probably shouldn’t be giving out merchandise for free,” she says, her tone teasing, but she’s pulling out her thin wallet anyway. “Well, the maybe-half, maybe-whole job is just a one day a week thing. I set up a little tent in Central Park and draw people. Oh!” Eyes widening, Sarah jerks in realization, coffee nearly sloshing over the side of the jar. She looks around for a place to put it, finally holding it with her knees. “Sorry, I just--” She bends over to grab her bag, shaking her head as she sits up, paws through it for something. “I remembered—oh, gosh, no, you don’t have to—Sorry, I am all over the place. Got it!” She pulls out a battered, heavily taped manila folder that simply says ‘For Others’ on the front. “Please, it’s on me,” she insists, flipping through pages of flowers, animals, birds, people. Eventually landing on one that Kitty may recognize as herself. The three-quarter profile has Kitty smiling softly, with bright eyes and a dusting of freckles that are perhaps a touch more prominent than real life. The portrait’s hair is the real showstopper; bangs, the high ponytail, and a few loose locks show true to life brown. The underside of her hair, however, is vivid swirls of purple-teal-navy-magenta, dotted with white and silver. “I promise I’m not weird.” A blush appears high on her cheeks as she shyly hands it over. “I just get ideas that are too big for my head.” Kitty tries, unsuccessfully, to stifle a laugh as Sarah scrambles for whatever she’s looking for. “Thanks, are you-“ she nearly asks but Sarah has already got whatever she’s going for. Kitty leans forward to get a better look at the art, gasps. “Holy shit.” She takes the image from Sarah, looking closely at the whole. “This is beautiful. You got this all from just,” her cheeks are flushing, “ last week?” “Well, you talked about stars for a while,” Sarah answers with an awkward little laugh, slipping the folder back in her bag and setting that to the side. She takes a sip of her coffee, looks down at her feet as they swing forward and back. “And I took a mental picture. Click.” She lightly presses her index finger against her temple, before her hand flutters back into her lap. “I got good at that a long time ago. When you practice drawing people by people-watching, I guess you have to. I’m glad you like it.” Kitty’s flush is in full force now, bright red bringing out the dusting of freckles that she is so aware of now. “ I guess I did,” she mumbles, tucking a stray lock of hair over the ear. “ I just- this is amazing.” She looks up at Sarah, eyes wide as saucers. “That’s incredible talent.” She pauses, then, in a lower voice- “ is it your mutation? Or are you just” she stumbles over the words in her mouth, “like, extra incredibly talented over the rest of us?” Sarah’s whips her head up, aghast. “Oh gosh, that sounded worse than I meant!” She hurriedly reassures Kitty. “I didn’t mind all the star talk, honest. It was nice.” Surprise blooms across her face at the question, her eyebrows raising. “Oh, huh.” A hand raises, one finger scratching at her cheek as she thoughtfully gazes off. “Maybe it is part of it. I’ve never really thought of it like that, but. Yeah, maybe.” Glancing around, she doesn’t spot anyone that seems to be anyone paying attention to the side of the tent not selling food. “Wanna see what I know for sure I can do?” she asks, her own voice lowering, parts nervous and excited. A little red fades from her face, but Kitty is still pink in the cheeks when she lets out an exaggerated sigh of relief. “I’m glad,” she says, letting a few muscles in her back relax into a comfortable slump. She watched Sarah’s face change, her brows furrowing a little, but then her eyes light up at the suggestion. “Absolutely.” She leans in closer, eyes wide. Patting at her pockets, Sarah seems to be looking around for something. Recoils a bit when her gaze lands on the drawing still in Kitty’s hands. “Oh no, not that,” she mumbles to herself, before leaning back over to her dropped bag. Coffee jar awkwardly held in the air to help her keep balance. She stays down a moment, rummaging, c a r e f u l l y and slowly comes back up with another piece of paper. This one doesn’t bear another portrait but instead an irridescent black and blue butterfly with orange spots, resting on an invisible flower. Giving the immediate area around them one last look, Sarah turns the page to give Kitty a better view. At first, nothing. Then, a small ripple across the page; maybe her grip changing, maybe the wind. Maybe not, as the butterfly’s wings suddenly flex, slowly flapping and rising up from the page. The rest of it follows, body and legs leaving the paper as well, until a seemingly normal butterfly seems to flutter around their heads. It’s only up close that one may notice the utter lack of pigment on it’s bottom side, the crosshatched nature of it’s colors on top. “Tada,” she lightly says, a small grin curling her lips. Kitty, still leaning over, almost falls off the cooler at the demonstration. “Oh my,” she sits back up, her eyes rising to follow the butterfly as it circles around Sarah’s head. She extends her hand, trying to see if it will land on her. “Oh my god,” she breaths. Her eyes are wide-wide. “That’s- that’s amazing.” She can’t tear her eyes from the butterfly. “Wow.” Her jaw hangs open. “It’s just light, I think,” Sarah says, as the butterfly attempts to land on Kitty’s outstretched fingers. It does nothing but break apart like smoke, curls back together underneath her hand to continue it’s course around and around. “It isn’t alive. At least, I hope it isn’t.” Her giggle is nervous before she lifts the piece of paper into the butterfly’s general vicinity; it lands on the paper with a bit more success, depending on how you define it. Its legs seem to stick before it melts back into the page, returning to its previous 2D state. “I can’t really do anything big either, but how neat would that be? Like, one of the Audubon murals that’s around upper Manhattan?” She’s still fascinated by the butterfly, her face falling a little as it dissipates, but brightening up again when it reforms. She doesn’t say anything until it has settled back in the paper, then- “ I think that was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” Her eyes are still wide as saucers as she turns her gaze back to Sarah. “I mean, yeah, but-“ she flails her arms vaguely at the direction of the paper, “that’s still. Just. So cool. Sorry,” she says, “I just. Wow. Makes mine look really dull. I’m envious.” Her face burning pink, Sarah awkwardly shrugs. “I’ve seen cooler powers, trust me,” she says with a shy, sheepish grin “Not that I’m really complaining. I just wish they had some kind of practical use. It’s not…” Her hands circle as she searches for words. “Well, ‘cool’ is kind of all it is,” she finishes with an awkward laugh before glancing over at Kitty. “I bet whatever you can do is at least useful.” Kitty snorts. "Practical is overrated." Her eyes follow the circling of Sarah's hands, her own fluttering a little in her lap. "The X-gene isn't known for taking requests." Her feet kick out a little at the duffle bag at her feet, eyes sliding over to meet Sarah's. "But. That's amazing." A pause, then a short laugh. "I'm repeating myself." “I don’t mind,” Sarah replies, voice soft. When her phone alarm starts to chime from her bag, she looks away with a tinge of regret. “My fifteen minutes are up. I need to get back to work.” She starts to pack her things away, looks back to Kitty after a moment. “It was nice seeing you.” Kitty scrambles off the cooler, throwing her duffel over her shoulder. "Right, of course." There is a little sadness in her voice, but she takes the portrait and holds awkwardly in one hand. A beat, and then she drops the duffel again, scrambling to pull out a piece of scrap paper and a pencil. She scribbles some numbers and pushes the piece of paper in Sarah's hand. "If you want to hang out properly, instead of just running into each other." She steps back, face flushed, and walks off, waving with an artificial nonchalance.