maskormenacelogs | ba de ya, dancing in September (a catch-all)

Julian got the message to expect Kanaya Maryam that day, and if Julian was anything, he was punctual. He hid anything even vaguely incriminating and got himself ready. He didn't clean up all the calendars scattered around his almost otherwise empty place, and the walls were covered in his usual notes. One in particular was entirely devoted to port-in dates.

He wasn't sure if he was looking forward to this meeting or not, however. She was still the Virgo, and Virgo was in session. It was almost good that parole gave him a legitimate excuse to check in with her every single day.

But there had also been July 4th, and Calendar Man was also good at one other thing: holding a grudge. He needs to keep in contact with her, not just for parole reasons but his own. No, he's not happy about it. But he will accept it. He will stay calm.

Surely she can't make things worse, right?

Edited 2016-09-18 23:31 (UTC)

On some level, Kanaya knew that the way she was conducting her probation with Julian wasn't the best way to secure his cooperation. Of course, that was partly the point, more about forcing than coaxing. Teaching him that he can't just do anything he wants, especially if the things he wants are terrible. That actions have consequences.

But still, she has to let up at some point, try to enrich his life in some way, otherwise the inevitable occurs, and he just goes back to what he's always done once this ends. Julian Day needs a distraction from the calendar, a healthy hobby, and today she's going to find him one.

She checks her watch to make sure she's not early, then knocks twice on the door before walking in through a portal anyway. Julian is punctual, he won't be in a compromising situation at the appointed time. The decor is just as dreadful as it ever is, she really should do something about these calendars. But not today.

"Mr. Day. Are you ready to go?"

He's annoying that she uses a portal, but not as annoyed as a normal person probably would be. It's rare that anyone uses the door. For some reason his window always seems to be more popular. So the portal is new, but the barging in is not. He barely reacts at all except to stop pacing.

"Ms. Maryam. I am ready."

Ready is debatable, given his loose, cheap clothing (at least if they do any art activities it will be fine to get paint on), and his complete lack of shoes or socks. He definitely tries less when there isn't a holiday.

He walks over to her, keeping his distance. "May I ask what exactly you have planned?"

She gives his outfit a once-over, curling her lips and raising a brow. This is the best he can do? She can't help but wonder if this isn't some form of passive-aggressive jab at her, he knows what her profession is. If she were him, it's probably what she'd do.

"You can't really be ready when you haven't even put your shoes on, you know." And, hoping that he'll do that while she talks, she pulls out a green datebook and opens it up. "What we have planned today is to find you a better use of your time." She gestures at all the calendars. "The way you keep yourself is almost a guarantee that you'll turn right around and do this again as soon as you're able!"

She places a hand on her hip, tapping her foot when she notices that he hasn't moved to put on any shoes yet. "So, we'll be shopping you around until we find something that fits."

If it occurred to him this could be a passive-aggressive jab at her, he would probably do it anyway. Petty passive aggressiveness was a Gothamite's lifeblood. Still, shoes were not put on either way.

He approaches, curious about her datebook. He wonders what kind of schedule she keeps. He would love to get his hands on it.

But at her words, he recoils a little. "I don't need a better use for my time. I know exactly what I do with it. That's the point."

"That's not the point, Julian, it's the problem! What you want to do is criminal. What I want to do is make you stop committing crimes. Obviously we can't both get what we want, so you're going to have to compromise."

Which in any other situation would be a jerk strategy. But this is crimes, no one weeps for crimes getting bullied out of the running.

"So, we're going to find you something else to do. Have you ever tried badminton?" Julian guess what, today you're going to try badminton.

This is the part where Julian would protest and pretend he's reformed this time, honest, but Kanaya knows him too well. He doesn't confirm her assumption but he doesn't deny it either.

He doesn't want to do this. There's a part of him too that doesn't think it would work anyway, that knows he has an obsession. But he really, really needs her to sign off on his parole. And he needs her to trust him again. He's on thin ice with Kanaya, he realizes. She's the only troll left.

Julian realizes he needs to comply.

"I could try badminton."

She risks a smile. "Well, then. That's a start."

Before they know it, they're on a badminton court, and she's wearing a cute skirt that is entirely shorter than she cares for. She absolutely insisted that he wear a visor, so that he can suffer with her. Kanaya gets him a racquet, leaves an implicit threat in case of misuse, and shows him how to swing it. She explains the shuttlecock, and leaves him a moment to get any giggling out of the way, even if he's not likely to need it.

Once they've walked through all the basics and explored every tedious corner of the game's rules, she sets them up on opposite sides of the court and serves the first volley.

He absolutely does not giggle at shuttlecock. In fact, he takes the whole thing with seriousness, even if he is a little bit sulky.

Julian's more athletic than he looks, given his chosen career. But that doesn't always translate to sports. He approaches it the way that he approaches being a supervillain: overly dramatic. When he swings the racket he's either too broad and misses the shuttlecock entirely, or his aim is terrible and it continually hits the net.

He's trying way too hard to be cool to be able to play it well at all.

Kanaya watches the whole exercise while cringing. She tries to give him pointers, but it doesn't really come to much. It isn't like she's ever played badminton before today, and the only reason she manages to not make her own failure of it is because he never gets it to her side of the net.

"Okay, so. Maybe not badminton." Why did she think this was a good idea? Who knows. But that's fine, she has a list, they just have to keep moving down it. "What about painting?"

And before you know it, they're in an art class, each with their own canvases and palettes to play with. Kanaya, for herself, tries her hand at a colorful landscape. Maybe a little too colorful, it doesn't look much like a landscape on Earth.

Julian takes a break from his own work to peer at Kanaya's, curious. He wonders if that's her own world. "What is that?"

If she looks at his own work, she may notice that he is actually not that bad -- at least as far as technique goes. But his taste is questionable and it appears everything he has drawn are various September-themed outfits. How he managed to get Labor Day across in what is clearly supposed to be spandex is a mystery. And the Autumn Equinox costume looks like leaves exploded on the page.

Clearly he's having some difficulty distancing himself from his theme when working artistically.

Edited 2016-10-05 21:17 (UTC)

"It's a desert." And, if he looks closely, some of those vague brushstrokes do look like rainbow dunes, the sands reaching out across the horizon of the pink skies, walled in by mountains in the distance. She's not a very practiced painter, but at least it looks cohesive.

She glances over to see what he's working on, and immediately scowls. Looking up from it, she meets his eyes and just glares. She shouldn't have to tell him what he's doing wrong, he should just know.

"But not any desert on Earth." It's mostly a statement, but half question. It's interesting, nonetheless.

He catches her expression and raises an eyebrow. "These holidays have already passed. I would not wear these. It is merely for the exercise."

Also because whenever he draws, that always what he designs. That and schematics for weaponry, but he assumes that in particular would not go over well.

"You work with fashion. Can't you understand my drive for style?"

She shakes her head, whether in answer to his question, or in response to his answer. Probably both.

"The point of this exercise is to divert you from your existing interests, to give you a more productive and socially healthy hobby. To just use it as an expression of the same old habits isn't acceptable."

She pulls his canvas off of its easel and rests it against her own. There's no fixing that one. "Try it again, and this time I don't want to see anything reflecting the calendar."

He frowns as she takes the canvas away from him, insulted. Sniffing, he picks up brush again but ends up staring at the canvas, at a loss.

But everything reflects the calendar. She's asking for the impossible. He eyes her, aware that she may be unsatisfied by that assertion if he voices it aloud. Then an idea occurs to him.

The next time she looks over, she may see that he's covering his entire canvas in drawings of bats. And a singular blue scarab beetle in the corner. Technically not calendar related, especially given that Halloween isn't until October.

Well, October is't that far away. The stores are already starting to put up their decorations, she's already started thinking about her costume.

She stands behind him with her hand on her hip, scrutinizing the hell out of his second painting. She wouldn't have thought much of it, until he added the beetle. That color's pretty telling. He might as well put a green moth in there too, though he'd be more likely to go with a wheat grain or something.

"Are you thinking of adding a swatter?"

Julian looks over his shoulder back at Kanaya, then back at his painting.

"How boring. If you swatted them, there would be none left."

He smiles cooly.

"No bats in the belfry. Or beetles in the -- hm. Where does one keep beetles?"

It's not directly calendar related, so Julian hasn't cared to know very much about that kind of bug.

"Garden. You keep beetles in the garden."

She might not have even realized the belfry bit, why would bats be kept in a belfry? But she knows about gardens, and she knows about beetles. Those two things definitely go together.

"It's funny, I would have thought you might see them as pests. Most people want to get rid of pests."

Julian slowly paints another bat.

"Not pests, no. Think of a magic show. You need an audience, of course. But more than that, you need volunteers. And maybe a rabbit or two."

He paints a spider.

"Though some volunteers are better than others."

ba de ya, dancing in September (a catch-all)

KANAYA

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this is shamefully late

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