milliways_bar | EP: Kate Barlow | Outside, Stables / Main Bar

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EP: Kate Barlow | Outside, Stables / Main Bar

It's been a long time since Beaut's had the pleasure of startling the bar with her presence. The front door admits the five-foot cowgirl and her mount, obviously on their way someplace else, depositing them smack dab in the middle of the bar.

Beaut snorts.

"Oh, come now. S'good t'be back, ain't it?"

Kate wins an ear twitch for her trouble. With a chuckle, she sets about navigating the tables and chairs — and waitrats, we mustn't forget them. She'll get Beaut resettled out in the stables and check on the stock, and once she's done there she'll find a calendar. Once she knows the date and has stopped to look for messages in the stables, at the board, or with the Bar, she'll settle in for a while.

Then again, it's such a beautiful evening out. Maybe she'll take advantage of the lingering light and give Beaut a proper ride up the mountain path.

[ooc: I'm so sorry for inundating the bar! I did try to space everything out. ~sheepish~ Post open indefinitely; catch Kate anywhere you like, she'll be making her rounds and she's in a great humor.]

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"I'm so glad t'hear it."

It does her heart good to see the grimness break so often. To know that he has found happiness, despite his protests.

"I really must meet your fiance. I had t'trust that she wouldn't mind the gift, not knowin' her tastes. Of course, she is a unique mate."

God, Goddess, Trickster — of course Teja would reach for the stars, and snatch one.

"Indeed, she is," Teja says. "And yes, you must meet her soon, and see how truly unique she is."

"Certainly before the nuptials," she chuckles. "It wouldn't do t'wait until your happy day. Perhaps I'll leave some sort'a invitation for her with Miss Bar. To tea, or luncheon."

"I am sure she would like that, if I am not there to hover and worry," Teja says. "She talks much, as a rule, but may freeze up if any confuse her. And I can do so, if I am confused myself. It is a new situation to me."

Snickering quietly, she turns to give him a sympathetic look.

"No lady likes t'be constantly fussed over. Trust her. If y'trust her as much as y'love her, you'll both find your way."

"I try to spare her worry and embarrassment and confusion, but that only causes more of it," Teja confesses. "At least in that one case when we were at odds in that manner, when I took her to meet my people."

"Sometimes y'gotta bear a li'l worry an' embarrassment an' confusion. Them's natural feelin's t'have on the road t'learning somethin', an' oftentimes better than the alternative of feelin' censored or coddled."

She catches Teja's eyes.

"Embarrassment fades away. Knowin' your mate don't trust you t'take care'a yourself tends t'stick. An' I know that ain't your intent — I'm jus' warnin' you t'be careful it don't end up lookin' like it is. Those who truly love you will love her, too. I won't put her on the spot."

"Carlotta was trouble, and does not truly trust her," Teja says. "That was embarrassing, also. And painful for all of us."

"Carlotta?"

She looks surprised, but the shock quickly melts to understanding. Carlotta has always been impulsive for one, and for another she loves Teja like a father.

"Oh dear. I'm sorry t'hear that. What were her reasons?"

"She was confused, and seemed to think I'm a bit rash about it all," Teja says. "But she's tried to mend fences and invited us for dinner. I hope it won't be awkward."

He is rather sure it will be.

Kate winces.

It most certainly could be, but she won't dishearten him by voicing her agreement.

"That's a step in the right direction, at least. Perhaps in her world marriage customs are different. Your courtship's been appropriately long by my reckonin', but I've often been told I don't understand the way romance works in worlds from further in my future."

"It may be that," Teja says. "Also, she may find Pyrrha strange, and suspect that I might get hurt, again."

She can't honestly fault Carlotta if that's what she thinks; knowing who Pyrrha is now, and what she is capable of, is unsettling. But she reserves her judgement.

"Again?"

"After those I loved before, in this place; especially Charles Monroe," Teja says.

"Charles Monroe?"

That's a name she hasn't heard in an age. It takes her a moment, but she can hardly forget her brief relationship with the man.

"Then you — oh. You two were — ?"

"We did," Teja says. "At first, I did not like him -- but then, we spoke by the bonfire of Atton Rand's birthday feast, and then he was hurt on the battlefield world, and then we became lovers. But when the Scotsman murdered me, it was too much for him."

Pause.

"Have you known him, also?"

Edited 2013-04-05 21:27 (UTC)

She turns flame red, glancing at her boots while they continue on their way to the stables.

"Oh, I — I did, yes. Once, a long time ago. I'm afraid I haven't seen 'im in an age."

"I neither," he says, looking at her. "Not for a long time. The last time he came, he had forgotten all about this place."

He sighs.

"What is it? Are you shocked to know that I have loved a man?"

She glances up, and away again.

"I am."

She doesn't sound appalled so much as confused.

"But more'n that, I'm surprised at the circumstances."

"You have been in Milliways so long..." Teja muses, but doesn't pursue the thought.

"What circumstances, though, and why surprised? You knew the Scotsman had killed me over, some winters ago?"

"I have."

The words come out quickly, slightly affronted, in response to Teja's first remark. She purses her lips, and explains.

"An' I did know that, yes. But I know also that y'loved a woman dearly before y'died, an' who you're marryin' now y'likewise speak of as a woman. You've never spoken of men before, let alone of havin' your heart broken by one. Charles Monroe used t'tell me that it was fun playin' around with men, that I should use what I've got t'get what I want, an' I wouldn't have thought you t'get caught up with him."

"I am one of those that truly may love either men or women," Teja says. "I am more drawn by a certain spark in their soul, the strength of their mind and the tale of their lives, rather than that which lives beneath their clothes. Charles Monroe -- he was many things, and he would seem to be very callous at times, also. Understanding him was not always easy; it was part of what drew me to him."

She nods slowly, a deep line between her brows.

"I know you're a good soul. If there was somethin' good in him y'saw — I ain't gonna argue that. Though, I am sorry he hurt you, an' by the sound of it hurt Carlotta also."

She looks out at the horizon.

"There's much in this universe I can't reconcile, but recall I've been cursed by all those I've known my whole life for havin' a love they called an abomination. I didn't see a man of color when I looked at Sam. I jus' saw a good man, like anybody else. A good man who loved me, an' I loved him. If that was wrong, then I don't care t'be right. An' I don't look cross-eyed at anybody who's been put through the same thing."

"That was not wrong," Teja says. "It would have been deemed odd, in the world I came from; but had he been a free man, of course you would have been free to marry; and had he not been free, he could have been freed. And in this place -- how could any even consider that, in this place? All are free here."

He sighs, and shrugs.

"Many that had known me all my life, would have thought my love of Charles, or that of the others I have briefly dared to love here, an abomination, also. Here, I learned that they have no innate right to such a thing. But still, the way that Charles Monroe hurt Carlotta was not well, and truly undignified: she was but a young girl then, and he should not have reacted to her in kind. It has made her suspicious towards all that I would love. Admittedly, many of those are odd or strange, in some way. I am one of darkness and shadows, and would lean towards the same."

Kate was, in fact, the most 'normal' person he had fallen for, ever since Myrtia. And even Myrtia, being Greek, was very unusual among the women Teja's peers would love, even more so that she could see beyond the prejudice of 'enslaved barbarian artisan' and see Teja himself, his soul and mind, his love for her...

Her mouth screws up into a crooked smile. She reckons she truly is a creature of darkness and shadows when you look inside. Her calling, however noble she thinks it, dances through hate and embittered pain. She could never be accepted back into polite society.

"Carlotta keeps a lotta anger inside her. She can be impetuous an' impulsive, actin' before she thinks. She ain't scared t'exchange blows, verbal or otherwise, it don't matter if she's in the right or the wrong. But you could say the same for me, I reckon. We're people of action."

She stops, half-turning to face him. It grieves her that he's weathered such ills, as it grieves her she couldn't give him her heart when he'd requested it. But he's found love again, and it's not hard to see how deep it is when he smiles and speaks of happier things; she can't be as wary as Carlotta.

"Would y'let me share a story?"

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