Post by Zahara Matisse on May 22, 2016 20:28:57 GMT -6
Deep, Dark Blue
Saturday, May 14th, 2016
5:36pm
The dungeons. Zoey had been here a time or two in the past, always with Katalina, but this time she ventured into the den alone. It was just as she remembered it, with the dimly lit main hall and the disturbing fountain statue in the middle. Just looking at it gave her the shivers. But she was here for business, same as she’d been when she took a ride into the woods and then to Los Angeles, both trips having proven fruitless. Was this, then, to be her last hope? She knew that deep down she’d find a way persevere, with or without these people, but hope was hard to come by after so many denials.
The situation with Kelsey had not improved either, and had in fact gotten worse if such were even possible. It was if they’d gone back to their original adversarial relationship, back when Rebecca Saint still pulled Blue Thunder’s strings. Couple that with the looming threat of Constance Chapin and Zoey was just a ball of nerves. But she strode on, ever forward, ever hopeful, both aspects dwindling bit by bit. Would she even have the wherewithal to put one foot in front of the other to make it to the ring by the time Fate of the Gods II was upon her?
She couldn’t think about such things right now. She was here to find Catherine, the last of the three options offered by Katalina for Zoey’s purposes. The magician couldn’t bring herself to think about what she’d have to do if Catherine proved as unsuitable as Lana and Roxie had. Striding past the statue with only the slightest of shivers, Zoey made her way to the elevator at the back of the hall and briefly checked the directory. Recalling what Katalina told her about Catherine and her hobbies, Zoey pressed the Down button and waited. The car was swift in arriving. Going down to the fifth level of the dungeon, Zoey’s breath caught a bit as the doors opened. She walked into a large room that reminded her of the computer labs back in high school. Somewhere in here, Catherine was waiting…
...unless Miss Star hadn’t deemed it necessary to warn her.
Of course the blue haired vixen was there, stationed by a workbench with an overhead lamp lighting her work. The woman, aside from the blue and black latex catsuit she wears, also has on a spiked choker and equally spiked goggles resting down over her eyes as she spot welds the tips of a metal rake head. To her left she has a coat hanger with a latex trench coat waiting as on the table her personal pride and joy; a naked barbie doll pressed against a crowbar with barbwire wrapped around it and then bunched together at the top. For the time being she hasn’t noticed Zoey’s arrival as she focuses primarily on her work. Knowing better than to interrupt someone wielding a tool like that, Zoey waits until Catherine has put the torch down before approaching.
“Catherine, is it? Katalina sent me. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”
Recalling that this woman was a close friend of Holly made Zoey feel a little more at ease. When Catherine turns, the young magician offers a calm smile in her direction. Zoey’s reflection is cast off the goggles as Catherine stares at her a moment. She looks back at her work with the welded points of the rake starting to settle already, but not quite to where Catherine can begin her next phase with the instrument. Therefore, she turns back to the magician and offers out a little shrug and pulls the goggles up over her forehead.
"I don’t normally conduct business with that woman so you’ll have to remind me what it is you want.”
”She suggested you as someone I might train with in terms of physical combat.”
The smile remains but Zoey gets that firmness behind her expression, the fire in her eyes. She can’t let this last chance slip away.
"So you suck, is that it?”
Catherine asks rather bluntly as she reaches over to grasp her crowbar. Not to threaten, more like she has a feeling of completion within herself whenever she holds it. Zoey, however, isn’t as concerned with the crowbar as she is Catherine’s blunt question. The barb stung, whether it was meant to or not, and the smile went with it.
”More like I want to expand my knowledge.”
"Because you suck.”
Once more Catherine refuses to sugarcoat her feelings.
"No shame in that. I suck, I bet you didn’t even know that about me. Yet here you are, talking to me like I’m supposed to give some rat’s ass on your plight. Why?”
”Tell you what…”
She comes this close to cutting Catherine off but doesn’t, thinking better of offending a woman wielding several potentially-dangerous weapons not ten feet away from her. Even that, however, doesn’t mitigate the boiling-over frustration and anger that Zoey is dealing with right now.
”...I can see when I’ve made a mistake, so...sorry to have disturbed.”
It didn’t sound like the magician at all. Could she not handle the truth, as the famous quote went? Was she simply out of patience after so many aborted attempts to find a means of training beyond what she knew? Was it that tired old joke so many would have made at this point coupled with a good horse laugh on the end? Maybe it was one or more of those. Maybe it was something entirely different. But Zoey had already had enough. She turned calmly on her heel and started walking toward the door.
"I never said I wouldn’t train you. If you’re still interested, I’ll do it.”
”No, you didn’t say that. Yet you still said plenty. I’m all for blunt honesty...it’s part of who I am as a person. But there’s telling someone the truth and then there’s stampeding all over their confidence, what little of it they had to begin with.”
She stops, but she doesn’t turn back to Catherine. Her posture is almost rigid.
"Yeah, but you’re the only person here who doesn’t have her nose shoved so far up that bitch’s ass you’re smelling what she’s tasting. I need to be around that more often otherwise I’m burning this fucking place to the ground. Besides...”
Catherine begins but then stops momentarily as she bites her lip some. Some conflicting emotions on the woman's face as she gives in with a sigh.
"You seem nice. You’re not all screamy when someone says something negative about you. The place I came from, people would bring up a fist if you so much as said “hi” to them. So you’re a...n...ni...nice...change of pace.”
Catherine smiles, but for a very, very, very brief moment before it quickly fades back to her little scowl.
”With all due respect, that ‘bitch’ is my partner. You may have issues with her but she’s important to me. I’d kindly ask that, at least around me, you wouldn’t speak of her in such a way. As to the rest…”
Turning around, Zoey is careful to keep her expression neutral. She’s walking a razor’s edge and the slightest nudge will send her in one direction or the other.
”...you’re right. In terms of what I want to learn, I do suck. You came well recommended by Kat, so here I am. I don’t shy away from doing what it takes to achieve my goals, even if that means dealing with pain, denigration, or worse.”
Catherine tightens her grip of her crowbar. Now it seems like she’s ready to threaten as she furrows her brow some completely ignoring the warning already given.
"Worse than pain? Exactly what would you classify as being that?”
”There’s a lot of things worse than pain. If you’ve never experienced the like, then I’m happy for you. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else.”
"I’ve experienced it. Not just first hand but around me. Lives of friends being changed by their own efforts or others in a not so peaceful manner, death, abuse, a lack of acceptance for being true to one’s own self, the hypocrites of the world. Yeah, I’ve experienced things. So I just hope when you say that kind of shit you aren’t just trying to be cute.”
”Not even a little.”
"Then we start tomorrow.”
Catherine turns and lowers her goggles back down readying up the blowtorch once more.
"Oh.”
She looks back over her shoulder.
"And don’t think you can call me “Cathy”. It’s Catherine. You make the effort to learn, you make the effort to give my fucking name it’s full attention.”
She sparks up the torch and quickly goes back to work. Zoey watches her for a few more moments, then takes her leave in silence. Where there should have been elation at finally having found someone to teach her how to fight there was only cold determination.
