Kat Johnston

Tag: story

  • Death Wears a Dress.

    Kat Johnston - yes, Death is a woman, and she likes to accessorize.

    Posting a little early today, because I am going to be rather busy throughout the day. This is Patsy, one of the various ‘Death’s that performs the wonderful duties of reaping souls. What, you thought that just one ‘Death’ could be at work at a time? I think not!

    Patsy was one of the ones employed for her cheerful and approachable nature. Peppy, outgoing, not adverse to putting a few extra sequins on a scythe to make it that touch more personalized… More than that, its safe to say that she enjoys her job. Ok, so she does get a touch ewwie around the excess of blood for some deaths, but surely that could make most anyone a little squeamish here and there. She’s not often called in for those cases, anyway. She’s more of the ‘ease the way for the peacefully departed with a smile and steaming mug of cocoa’ type Death, doling out a welcome package complete with ‘I <3 the Afterlife’ t-shirt and pamphlet on ’10 things you should know about life after the first one’.

    Ok, I think that is about it for now – time to get working on the uni stuff again… le sigh!

  • Vanessa Elizabeth Snizzlewig.

    Kat Johnston - Vanessa Snizzlewig. Black sheep, big sister, proud of it.

    To understand this post, you might want to consider reading the one before it.

    The rules are simple: He won’t tell the parents if she won’t. On one of Das’s escapades, he wasn’t exactly expecting to see his own sister skipping out in the middle of the night and hanging out too. Unfortunately, they spotted each other at the same time. Truce time.

    Vanessa is what people would politely term the ‘black sheep’ of the family. Unlike Das, she doesn’t take off the make-up to come home to Mother and Father. Although she is still their ‘little Nessy’, Mother does despair that she is ‘not like the other children’. Das is the golden child. Whilst shattering that illusion might seem appealing to her, she’s more interested in what ‘the brat’ can do for her to keep her quiet. Golden-boy is good for some things, at least. That, and if she revealed his secret, there’s nothing stopping him from telling how she knows it in the first place…

    Although she puts on a tough ‘nothing can scathe me’ front, she’s not quite as secure as she makes out. Constantly being reminded of how she isn’t living up to her parent’s expectations by not being like everyone else does tend to wear her out a bit, and question herself. The fact that everyone else seems to think the same thing and compare her to goody-two-shoes Das all the time doesn’t exactly help. That said, she’d rather be true to herself than try to put up a front for everyone else’s benefit. Her two best friends, Chance and Holly certainly help too. They keep her grounded.

    She’s pretty sure that Das looks down on her a bit, but that isn’t exactly true. He’s impressed that she has the courage to stand up to their parents; they can be intimidating at times. And where he goes out of his way to please them, Vanessa seems to him to be secure enough to tell them that she is who she is and to tell them to accept it. He also seems to think that she looks down on him, but that isn’t entirely true either… whilst she does tend to resent the fact that she keeps getting put up against him and constantly compared, she’s proud of the brat and how smart he is… how talented he is. Neither would tell the other though, naturally… well, unless it came down to torture, anyway!

    On a side note and entirely unrelated to the above blurb… Let me share with you a word to the wise, imparted to me by a friend this weekend. Never tear open a stink bomb with your teeth: the smell (and taste for that matter), tends to linger and you’re the one that gets hit with it first.

  • Dennis Abercrombie Snizzlewig.

    Kat Johnston - Dennis Abercrombie Snizzlewig. Is there a better name than that anywhere? Ever? I think not...

    This is Dennis Abercrombie Snizzlewig. Catholic schoolboy at one of the most exclusive boarding houses by day, he likes to put on thick eye-liner, spike his hair and write angsty poetry by night; maybe even sneak out and stay up to the wee hours of the morn at some extreme rave, if he’s feeling up to it.

    You’d think these things wouldn’t exactly work all that well together, but for Das, he’s a master at this double life-style. Mother and Father wanted him well trained in all the gentlemanly sports, so he uses these skills to pole-vault over the campus wall, dodge bouncers asking for ID and to sneak in his window when the night is through like some secret spy assassin agent type guy. Being able to smooth talk his way out of practically any situation doesn’t hurt either, though that isn’t to say that is hasn’t come close now and then – especially when his two lives, the ‘class president, honors student, goody-two-shoes’ side and his ‘sneak out to raves, social nuisance’ sides start to collide. No-one’s caught him out yet, but perhaps it is only a matter of time… Megan’s onto him. She’s going to find out what he’s up to no matter what, even if she doesn’t know quite exactly what’s going on. Nobody can be that perfect and not have something to hide!

  • Physics: Its More of a Guideline than a Law…

    Kat Johnston - No matter how big the sub, I can consume it.

    Just a quick sketch today, drawn because I felt like relating a little story about last night. Yes, very rough sketch, with even rougher colouring, but it is the way I feel like drawing today *laughs*.

    Last night, my partner and I went and got Subway for dinner. His sub is usually consistant of a meat of some variety, onions, jalapenos, olives and perhaps capsicum (bell peppers, for the unintiated) or pickles. I tend to get a meat of some variety, then everything but the carrot (can’t be greedy now, can we?).

    We were watching as the guy was making our sandwiches – James’s as usual, was rather slim… mine needed a crane to get the top part of the breadroll shut. What can I say? I like to get my money’s worth, and I adore lots of salad on my sub.

    When we got home, James tucked into his as I struggled to work out how to get the darn thing into my mouth. He went for his usual banter along the lines of ‘That is huge… I’m surprised the guy could even get the thing closed. It goes against all the rules of physics. I’m surprised the world didn’t implode when he was finally able to lever everything inside there enough to get that top bit of bread down.’

    My response? ‘Well… Physics isn’t all that much of a rule really, is it? More of a guideline than a law, when you think about it…’ *grin*

    Thought that was the end of it, but I got home today to find that he had changed his msn messenger by-line to say “Physics: Its more like a guideline than a law!”

    FYI: I am aware that physics is really not all that guideline-ish. I just like pressing James’s buttons because he is an old science geek.

  • Another day, another sketch…

    Amy is just a gem… she can see through someone trying to talk around in circles and isn’t shy about confronting them about it… and making them present things more realistically. She doesn’t mind cutting someone down if they’ve start exhibiting a superiority complex bigger than the Empire State Building either. She’s not cynical, exactly… just takes everything with a pinch of salt. So if you do happen to come across her just tell it to her straight – you’ll certainly find yourself in a better position if you do!

    Sorry for the lateness of today’s post… its been a long day, so I didn’t get around to doing any sketching until this afternoon. I’ll try to show the one tomorrow (technically today, now) earlier.