EP: Kate Barlow | Outside, Stables / Main Bar

[ikissdhimbck]

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.]

Comments

[ostro_goth]

"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.

[ikissdhimbck]

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."

[ostro_goth]

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

[ikissdhimbck]

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?"

[ostro_goth]

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

[ikissdhimbck]

"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 — ?"

[ostro_goth]

"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?"

[ikissdhimbck]

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."

[ostro_goth]

"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?"

[ikissdhimbck]

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."

[ostro_goth]

"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?"

[ikissdhimbck]

"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."

[ostro_goth]

"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."

[ikissdhimbck]

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."

[ostro_goth]

"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...

[ikissdhimbck]

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?"

[ostro_goth]

Teja nods, wordlessly looking at her.

[ikissdhimbck]

"Once upon a time, there was a young boy. His father was a marshal, an' he looked up t'him; wanted t'be jus' like 'im. One day, after savin' all of his pennies for years, he managed t'buy himself a fine mustang pony, an' a few of the other young men in town who'd never much took a likin' t'the marshal's son came sayin' they'd lost their herd, an' they were jus' hopin' they could borrow his pony for a li'l while t'go out lookin' for it. Well, the boy let 'em take his pony on the good faith they'd bring him back. But they never did.

"Later on, he asked his papa, 'Why, why does this keep happenin' t'me?' An' the marshal said, 'Son, I spend every day huntin' down bad folk. Some are real bad. An' it's easy t'start lookin' at everyone suspiciously, an' see badness in 'em. Y'could be the same way, an' have a whole corral full'a ponies. But y'won't find no lost herds, neither.' The boy took the hint, realizin' that there ain't nothin' wrong with seein' the best in folk. S'a good thing, even. Sometimes you're gonna lose a few ponies, but — y'never know how much 'long the way you're gonna end up savin' if y'keep that good faith."

She touches his face tenderly, in a sign of friendly affection.

"Maybe it'd help Carlotta t'know y'can't always be wary. There may be darkness an' shadow in those you are drawn to, but y'can't go a whole life lookin' for it. Say Lady Pyrrha does hurt you somewhere down the line, the way Charles Monroe did; say folk look at y'funny for whom y'choose t'love. It won't change the fact that she's made y'happy now, an' I'm happy that you're happy. I hope Carlotta can be, too. 'Cuz the way y'see goodness in people, Teja — I don't want you t'lose that faith."

[ostro_goth]

"I see goodness in people??" Teja says, completely astonished. "I, of all people??"

[ikissdhimbck]

She chuckles.

"Y'saw goodness in me, when t'most I'm not worth a second glance."

[ostro_goth]

"I cannot believe that," Teja says. "These people must wear blinkers, rough bottle-bottoms for eye-glasses, and have boards nailed to their foreheads, to think thus of you. You are both strong and lovely, true, principled, and fearless. I wish I had had one such as you -- a dozen such as you! -- among the people that stood with me on Mount Vesuvius, for things would have been easier, we would have stood longer, and killed more Byzantine mercenaries with such women behind us and beside us."

Pause.

"If there is one thing I regret," he adds, "because of what I learned in this place, it's that I did not arm those young women that might have wished to fight. My friend Hilde, for whom little Hilde in Gotland was named, had been dead for many years by then; she fell in battle, beside her husband, so I weas lacking the inspiration she would have been, or you. Unflinching strength such as yours or hers deserves nothing but the greatest respect, the highest regard."

[ikissdhimbck]

She laughs softly, whether out of surprise or honor or disbelief one can't be sure. Perhaps all, and much more, for his words do flatter her, and bring an ease to her heart that's been lacking since Christmas. She shakes her head, smiling, and brings her hand to his shoulder instead, squeezing tenderly.

"Y'honor me by sayin' so, Teja. Thank you for your regard, for in my world there aren't many places for women outside the home. Even in the wilds of the West, y'find women who hold business — ranch owners, drivers, rustlers, merchants. It's a whole new frontier. But we still wanna be like the East, an' an unwed woman such as myself, with my reputation an' the blood on my hands ... "

She shakes her head. Even in the West, there aren't many who will look beyond that, or call her anything but sullied. Soiled. Unfit.

"You were a good king, as you're a good man now. I got no doubt of that. An' you were loved. Y'may not have opportunity t'amend your mistakes, but I believe the women in your care then respected an' loved you despite it. An' you've learned now what a mighty army we can be."

She grins crookedly, a touch smug.

"Which only further proves my point."

[ostro_goth]

"It might only prove that I am worthy, not that you are unworthy," Teja says. "Which you are not. Never believe if any tries to tell you so."

[ikissdhimbck]

She warms, patting his arm once more before drawing back.

"I'll do my best. An' as for you, never stop lookin' for them lost herds. T'be loved by a king like Teja even this Lady Pyrrha must be honored, an' understand why those who loved you before are jealous of your heart. It's a precious gift."

[ostro_goth]

"I shall no stop, indeed," Teja says. "It is as if a catch was missing in that which makes me tick, that would make me stop at the places where any sane man would, when the battle is lost, or when one is standing up to an immortal over one he considers a gnat."