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girlsoloKate hadn’t been planning on pranking today, but the puppy changed her course. Now she’s got to play the game the way she’s been playing it. Day Five is too late to change the rules. It’s a point of pride. A message to any other thief on the island about her style. An M.O. but not a motive. An LOL with big flourishes on the Ls.
Trouble is, she’s not feeling it. The last hit feels like completion. Anything else is just pro forma. A box she’s checking off.
It bugs her. A lot. Enough that she doesn’t head for the Compound for breakfast or the clinic for work. She walks the beach as the sun comes up, feet slow, and watches the waves leave their signatures on the shore.
Up ahead, two seabirds fight over some breakfast prize. An urchin, it looks like. She moves toward it, a little more purposefully, and finds a tide pool with a hermit crab and a starfish. There’s driftwood beside it and a conch shell further up the beach toward a hut that’s under construction.
Curious, she puts a little more purpose in her step. Maybe she’ll find a tool to put in the box and finish it that way. A curlicue dot, circled back around. Maybe she’ll take the shell--
Oh, maybe not. She crouches and looks. Clever. She brushes the sand very lightly away from the shell and grins. Uh-huh. Someone’s got some actual security around here. And now it’s a different point of pride. Now she has to get into that hut and take something out of it, because it’s what they do. It’s thumbing her nose at whoever it is. Playground play. Catch me if you can. And missed me, missed me.
The thing is, not all thieves and con artists are dicks. A lot of them are more knaves and queens of hearts. Yeah, they’re taking your shit, but they’re wearing a smile and you’re both having a good time doing it. Freelander? Well... she’s a tough bitch. Not one you want to cross. She’s got ins and outs all over the Abnormal underworld and if you need something done she’ll get it done. But she’s always done it with style. A flirt, a tease, a question mark curl of a kitty-cat tail--
Unless, of course, she’s coming in guns blazing and demanding you hit the ground and hand it over. But that’s a different side of her. More the one Magnus hired her to be. Straight up and getting it done.
Today, she’s smirking while she traces out the lines of traps. Nets, mostly. She misses one and gets caught in it. That sucks, but she’s patient. It takes a lot of work and about twenty minutes, but she gets herself out without cutting most of it. It takes another twenty minutes to reset it, but it’s worth it. Crafty bastard, whoever set these up. If they check them every day, they’ll know someone was in and out even before they see what she’s done. But they’ll see the skill running the other way too, so that’s all right.
Kate grins as she finally breaches the hut and defeats the last snare. This is the most fun she’s had in...well, the most fun she’s had out of bed...since she got here. Now. She rubs her hands together. What to swap for a Bilbo Baggins book end?
It doesn’t take her long to decide. There are little bamboo carvings all over the place. Decorations. For some reason, they remind her of Will’s baseballs. Not the one she took, but the ones everywhere else. They’re sort of a reminder of someplace else, she thinks. Something to do with his hands. Yeah, him. She’s pretty sure. Not positive because there isn’t anything much to read it by, but it feels mostly like a guy.
The note practically writes itself.
Sorry I ignored your ‘no admittance’ warnings, but I was on ‘party business’. This book-end belongs to a kid over in Green Arrow Estates. Hibiscus Cabin. Take care of it. It’s as much a part of him as carving is of you.
As much a part of them as this game is of her.
