Room 508, Tuesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

"Ouch! Dammit!"

Kathy was busting out the serious cusses here, but she was pretty sure that she was perfectly within her rights to do so. Her thumb was bleeding again and it had left a bright streak of scarlet on the fabric she was working with. Stupid hand-sewing. Wasn't that something they were supposed to be learning in a proper high school? Home ec or something useful?

"God dammit!"

She'd just realized that she'd dropped the needle she'd been working with. The end of the yellow thread was lying on her comforter, but the needle it had taken her forever to properly thread was nowhere in sight. Which meant that she'd probably end up finding it with her feet or something. And even if she didn't, she still had to rethread the stupid thing. Ugh.

She was pretty sure that Arachnid-Guy had never had so much trouble putting together his superhero costume.

[The door, like the post, is open!]

Comments

[myownface]

It was... definitely a piece of...

"You know, Baltimore's Pride isn't for another, like, month." Though, in fairness, Sparkle could see how she might need that long to make whatever this was work. "You're not going to actually wear this thing, are you?"

Like, in public? Where other humans could see it?

[spin_kick_snap]

Turning bright red, Kathy shoved the gi and fabric under her pillow. "Go away," she mumbled, eyes on her bed. "No one asked you."

[myownface]

Pffft, like Sparkle could be so easily dissuaded.

"Aw, come on. It's probably not that bad. Here, try it on. Model it or whatever, and let's have a look at what you've done."

Yes, this would be good.

[spin_kick_snap]

"You're just going to laugh," Kathy said, folding her arms over her chest. "And call me by some silly new nickname. Don't you have somewhere else to be anyway?"

[myownface]

Sparkle shrugged his shoulders, rolling his cigarette across his lip to the other side of his mouth with his tongue.

"Yeah, smoking. But I promise. No new nicknames. Come on, I can sew. I'll give you some pointers."

[spin_kick_snap]

Giving him another dubious look, Kathy pulled the gi back out and shrugged into the upper part. The additional fabric was bright and colorful, yes, but not as garish on the gi as it had been on the bed. The obi had also been covered in the rainbow print, but it was stapled on.

Surprisingly enough, the gi fit her well. The sleeves extended slightly past her wrists, but not enough to impede her movements and the cut of the gi was slim, adhering to her figure. The material was thick and heavy, a nice durable cotton. Important if, say, one was expecting to run around fighting crime in it.

[myownface]

Which, given what Sparkle was going to assume was a mask she'd cut out of that other piece of fabric there, was more or less what he figured was going on here. Why else would there be that much secrecy? Unless she was aiming to be the world's most fabulous bank robber, but he didn't figure that was really her style.

"... Oh my."

Actually, he was having a difficult time pinpointing just what her style was.

"Are those staples?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm having a little trouble with the needle and thread," Kathy grumbled.

[myownface]

"No kidding." Sparkle had promised that he was going to be nice, but, well... "And you're really bent on wearing this thing outside, are you?"

Because if she was actually going to, he sort of wanted to be there to witness it. With a camera.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy folded her arms over her chest and looked stubborn. "It's comfortable, it lets me move around freely, and it covers all of me. Yes, I'm going to wear it outside."

So it looked a little...unkempt. That wasn't what was important right now, okay?

[myownface]

"It'll fall apart or fall off the first time a stiff breeze hits you," Sparkle countered, nodding to the stitching that she'd put there herself. "The staples are probably going to hold better than that."

A pause.

"Anyway, if you're planning on moving around a lot, you're going to have to either tape that thing to yourself, find a better way to fasten it shut, or take up praying as a hobby in your spare time."

[spin_kick_snap]

"It's an obi," Kathy sniffed, since she couldn't argue with how precarious the stitching looked. "They've been holding gis together for centuries."

[myownface]

"Yeah?" Sparkle looked critically at the whole deal, and then nodded down at the belt. "Arms flat by your sides, hold still for a moment."

See, there were some things that karate done right didn't have to deal with. Sparkle was all too happy to demonstrate, because she'd probably want to know, if she was planning on doing what he thought she was doing.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy still looked dubious, but obeyed him. "What are you doing?" she asked, eyeing him warily.

[myownface]

"Stress test," Sparkle reported, and then he grabbed the front of the gi in one hand and tugged down, quick and sharp and hard.

...

And now he was just raising an eyebrow and looking at her, deadpan. Sparkle, the fashion guru, was on the job, now. Among all of the other stuff at Demon Marcus, he sold these things, too.

"See, gi these days are mostly cut for aesthetic purposes. Sure, they work just fine for sparring practice, but it's not like people wear them out and about every day looking for fights, say. This 'obi worked for hundreds of years' thing doesn't apply. Hell, this one is called a European cut."

They were not made to be grabbed and pulled at.

Particularly not when all that was holding them together was a belt.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy yelped when the gi gaped open, grabbing at the edges to yank it shut again, even though she was fully dressed beneath it.

"Aww, come on," she wailed, but this time not at Sparkle. "The guy behind the counter said this one would stand up to pretty much anything!"

[myownface]

"Do you suppose the guy behind the counter was looking to make a sale?" Sparkle raised an eyebrow at her, and then shook his head, laughing. "And he probably figured you were going to be using it for, you know... karate."

So, the gi's intended purpose. Say it ain't so!

"Gimmie the uniform, Mouse."

[spin_kick_snap]

"What are you going to do with it?" Kathy asked while she shrugged it off.

"And maybe I am thinking of taking up karate," she added as an afterthought. "Why else would I have bought it?"

Smooth.

[myownface]

"I'm gonna sew dicks on it," Sparkle deadpanned. "Big ugly hairy saggy ones."

Just for you, Kathy.

"They wear masks to Karate often?"

He doubted that.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Ewww!" Kathy said, wrinkling her nose. Even if she didn't believe it, that was still and unpleasant mental picture. "And, umm..."

Yeah, guess who didn't have a plan for this.

"It's not what you think?"

[myownface]

"No? Because you already shot down Pride and karate, so I'm all out of 'throwing you a bone' options, here."

There came the deadpan again.

"You're going to try to tell me that you're not going to try becoming some kind of vigilante crazy, scouring the streets of Baltimore for injustice? It's... Not exactly a secret that you have powers, Mouse. You've been in classes about controlling them."

And Sparkle paid attention to things like class rosters for classes, because it was just common sense to know which students would be handy to hide behind in case of invasion.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Errr...."

Okay, so apparently it was exactly what he thought.

"I'd take issue with the 'vigilante crazy' part?"

Yeah, that was pretty much all she had, here.

[myownface]

"You operating under the watchful eye of the law, then?"

Because Sparkle was going to avoid her completely if she was, but seriously, he didn't think the cops had recently adopted rainbow gis and masks as their uniform, either.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well..."

Have some uncomfortable shifting while Kathy tried to think up an answer, Sparkle.

"No, but I'm not going to be like Ratman or anything. You know, breathing heavily and lurking in the darkness, waiting for bad guys to come by."

[myownface]

"Which makes this somehow less like vigilante justice?" Sparkle smirked a little. "Whatever. So, what's your whole deal, anyway?"

He was already picking at the loose threads along the cuffs, because... god, what was that?

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, less crazy vigilante justice?" Kathy tried. "And, umm...I'm fast. And, err, can...bounce."

Maybe Sparkle hadn't heard the last bit?

[myownface]

"... What was that last part?"

Sparkle had heard her just fine. But anything that was muttered like that really needed to be repeated. It was pretty much law.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I can bounce," Kathy muttered, just a little louder. "It's...cooler than it sounds?"

It would have to be, Kathy.

[myownface]

"Yeah, I can bounce, too," Sparkle pointed out. "I might have to ask for a demonstration in exchange for all of this tailor work I'm about to get myself into."

[spin_kick_snap]

She opened her mouth to point out that no one had asked him to do any of it, but didn't say so. After all, she could see that her skills as a seamstress needed work. If Sparkle thought he could do better...

And she really didn't want to go out looking foolish.

"It's hard to give you a good demonstration in here," she said. "Too many breakable things. Maybe I could show you something outside?"

[myownface]

"Yeah, sure," Sparkle replied, shrugging. "I was heading out there anyway."

He still had that cigarette hanging from his lip, in fact.

"Up to the roof, or down and out?"