* KAT DAWSON.

*INTRODUCTIONS !

“Figure skating! No - maybe skiing? Golf, if you consider that a sport. Maybe adding alcohol to everything should be an extra olympic category. The alcolympics.”

Leo leaned against the wall as he watched his sister, clearly she did not care about his opinion since she quickly lifted the vase to move it at the front desk.  Finally, when he was able to provide an answer he lightly shrugged.  “I think that looks fine.  Did you really invite me over to figure out where a vase should go?”  He inquired.  Not that he actually minded, he preferred when his siblings came to him when it came to decorating.  After all, in his not so humble opinion he thought he had the best taste in the Dawson clan.

“It is fine, I thought we were going out to lunch or something.  But you know me, I am easy going.”  Which was not true at all, everyone who knew Leo, knew he was high maintenance.  “It looks good upfront, plus it is always nice for you to display some of your own artwork and all to this establishment.  I still need you to make me something for my own place, but I shall wait like a good brother.”  He teased.

Pushing himself up from the wall, he walked over towards his sister.  “Anyway, what’s been going on?  I’ve been so wrapped up in myself lately, I feel like I have no clue what is taking place in our family.”

-

“...No, I didn’t invite you over just for that.” Truthfully Kat had forgotten that she’d invited her brother over at all. It was a common occurrence. Someone had told her once a diary would help her keep track, to which she had laughed in their face. “I’m working on something for your place, it’s just... taking a while. Has to be my best work yet, doesn’t it? Or how are you going to display it in your place?” She returned the jest, reaching out to adjust the vase by a few inches. He had a point about it being up front - it was good to display her work, and she was sure once it was glazed it would be one her favourite pieces. 

“We could still go out to lunch, I’m starving.” And there were no guests. If any arrived they would find a placard hung on the front door stating Kat’s absence, with her phone number at the bottom. 

–

It had only been a little over a month when her friends already called stating they were coming to town to visit in a week. Knowing they were very lax with their planning, Elina figured it was better safe than sorry to reserve rooms for them at the bed and breakfast. As much as she loved her friends, there was no way the four of them could comfortably stay in her loft. Rather, she wanted to keep her space free from their antics and whatever ploy they were always up to. Heading home from her pilates class, she decided to stop by to see if there was any vacancy for the coming weekend when she noticed an individual lugging around a vase to different side of the room. “Uh…” Elina was far too left brained to offer an artistic opinion. However, she figured if she somehow has been successful enough in arranging her living space to be presentable to the human eye offering some advice here would be entirely harmless. “Personally I like it on the desk. I think the first spot may make the space seem clutter,” she offered. 

Elina could understand that presentation was key and so perhaps the feng-shui of the corridor and lobby would bring in more patrons or make it more pleasing to the eye. “Anywho, I was trying to see if you had any vacancy for three people. Next Friday to Monday?” None of her friends had actually ever been to her hometown and so she was hoping they would find Wolford to be as charming as she did ever since she was a child. 

-

“Cluttered?” The thought of a space being cluttered rarely crossed Kat’s mind - to her, if there was still available surface space then it must be filled with something. She did, however, realise that her particular brand of interior decoration wasn’t to everyone’s taste. “I guess you raise a point.” She stepped back a little and tilted her head, considering the advice, and then nodded. “Desk it is. Once it’s painted and everything.” 

Kat turned to Elina as she made her request, and then quickly turned the other way to scurry behind the desk they’d both just been looking at. Truthfully her organisational system was a mess; there was a computer but she’d never quite gotten the hang of the software for bookings (which had also needed an update for about four months), so it was mostly used to play solitaire and occasionally dive down wikipedia rabbit holes. Instead she used an old fashioned visitor’s book, on which the binding was broken, causing pages to spill out if it wasn’t opened just right. The smart idea would have been to get a new one, but it was one of those things that just kept slipping Kat’s mind. 

.

            “No, I hate things at desks when you sign in to places,” Gwen said when her cousin looked to her, showing the new angle of the vase that would, eventually, have flowers in it. “You’re exhausted and you’re just trying to deal with your shit and something is in the way? I liked it better where it was before,” she offered to her reasoning. That didn’t really mean Kat was going to listen to her, of course, she could do whatever she wanted with the place but since she’d asked.

           “Oh I just came because I was bored, the town is boring when everyone is busy right now,” she offered as explanation, eyes shifting around the other decor. “So I am very content to play Dream Home Makeover if that is the goal for you today.”

-

“Duly noted. I guess it also wouldn’t be great if someone had allergies.” She picked up the vase for a moment and scanned the room, looking for another possibility, but found none. As a lover of knick knacks and creator of too many pieces the available surface area was slim, and so she returned the vase to its spot on the end table. “Yeah, you might be right about here. Must be the artistic eye - I think it runs in the family.”

mila stood over a big log with it’s roots all in the air, peeking inside for anything new to discover. she was so used to finding all sorts of foliage and things for different medicines and remedies. the boots on her feet were covered in mud and water from walking around in the creek earlier; small amounts of water had soaked in through the fabric and around the tongue of the boot. there was a certain smell she was tracing but she couldn’t exactly locate what it was. it wasn’t something she needed, but something definitely not on her usual hunt. 

slowly mila moved to crawl inside the trunk, using her flashlight to look inside. “what the hell is this stuff?” she questioned out loud to herself. “it seems like horrific,” then she wiggled her way back out. the sap all over her skin and clothes, the smell coming off in waves. finally she heard the sound of something walking close by and tried to wipe off some of the gunk on her with some wipes from her bag so she’d look.. somewhat decent. “jesus, this stuff is horrible.” 

Kat spent a lot of time outside. Walking helped to clear her head, and get rid of the pent up energy that always seemed to be bubbling below the surface, making her restless and irritable without a proper outlet. Sometime she brought a camera with her and took pictures of interesting trees or plants; sometimes it was a sketchbook and she tried to draw them instead. Today was the camera and she had started off on a colour walk, picking the colour orange to follow around the trees and dictate her path.

Mostly it was flowers that Kat found, but along the way there had been an orange peel discarded by a hungry hiker that had changed her route all the way to the right, and a half deflated basketball which she had picked up and tucked under her arm as she made her way left. She'd just lifted her camera to take a picture of her next orange thing (an American robin perched atop a branch) when she spotted another person rummaging around an old fallen tree.

Who: Open

Where: Secret Realm

Diana’s eyes were as wide as her grin as she rifled through some of the DVDs on the shelf. So many things were aging her considerably by now, but she’d slowly begun to embrace it. This extended to little habits, like her insistence to own beloved films on DVD if she could. There was a fondness for physical media that she knew she’d always have. 

She’d become so ensnared with the titles on the shelf that she didn’t realize she had gotten close to someone until their shoulders bumped. “Oh!” Diana chirped, jumping back a little, her doe eyes turning to the other, “I am so so sorry. I think I was just so lost in my browsing that I just kinda forgot my surroundings.”

-

“Hm? Oh, don't worry about it.” Kat had been paying just as little attention to her surroundings really, distracted by her search for a lost item. She had a bad habit of putting things down somewhere and losing track of them, and at some point in her thirty minutes of browsing she'd set down a key and forgotten it was there. Having already scanned over each stand and shelf twice she'd now resorted to checking every nook and cranny in the store - even places where a key couldn't logically fit.

“Have you seen a key anywhere?” Kat asked as she pulled two DVD's off the shelf, hoping that the lost item would magically materialise in the gap. “Or maybe you have a big magnet? That'd be really helpful. Actually, probably not.” Her eyes cast about the store before settling on her companion. “There's a fair amount of metal in here.”

* PLAYLIST !

Covered in partially dried clay and only vaguely aware of her surroundings, Kat crossed the room and placed her latest sculpture on and end table between an antique telephone and decorative plate. It was supposed to be a vase, fashioned in the shape of a ceramic milk jug and adorned with various mushrooms and plant life like one she'd seen online - but midway through the project had taken a decidedly surrealist turn, and now resembled a Dali painting with the fungi and flowers melting into odd shapes.

Whatever reason the other person was in her foyer was effectively ignored as Kat stared, brows furrowed, at the trio of items. “Do you think that fits there? It's not glazed yet. It'll have more colours when it's done.” Without waiting for a reply she picked up the vase and strode over to the front desk, placing it on the corner at an angle. “Maybe here instead? I've been meaning to put flowers up here. Brighten things up a little.” As if Nightshade needed brightening; although the colours were largely muted there was certainly no lack of them, nor patterns to compliment. 

As her eyes flickered over to the visitor, Kat's brain seemed to catch up with the present moment. “Sorry - you're probably not here to play ‘Dream Home Makeover.’ But, yknow... on the off chance you are I'd love a second opinion.”