EP: Kate Barlow | Main Bar, Library (age spell plot)

[ikissdhimbck]

It had been a quiet day for Kate when the loud BWA-BOOOOOOOM shook the bar. She'd just settled down after her nightly chores in the stables, easing the tension out of her back in an armchair by the fire, sipping on a hot tea with bourbon in.

(It's getting close to All Hallows' Eve, and that's making her anxious.)

However, she didn't have all that long to think about the approaching holiday before she was seeing the room from an even lower vantage point, face scrunched in distaste at the liquor on her tongue. She blinked at the teacup and quickly set it down, jumped to her feet, and looked around the strange room.

" ... Daddy?"

Kate Barlow, aged twelve, was off in search of her father.

What she found instead were the libraries.


Now, far calmer, a young Kate sits amid a pile of books, occasionally sweeping cautious glances around the room. She's finding the words of Jules Verne to be a comfort at present. Clearly she slipped and bumped her head during chores, or stumbled onto a glorious vessel somewhere in deep space. She isn't quite sure what to make of it right now, but anywhere with an endless supply of science fiction can't be all that bad.


[ooc: open forever! you may find Kate in the library or the main bar. if your character wants to be in on a heist, they can take this opportunity to meet Kate. the actual heist will happen in a later post, so it's not required you tag this one (I'll update all interested parties once it's all in place). if you'd like me to send Kate round to one of your posts, just let me know!

tiny!tag: age spell plot]

Comments

[ikissdhimbck]

She covers her mouth.

What color! And denim britches, too!

"You don't get in trouble for that?"

[electro_kinetic]

She cocks her head. "No," Nori says, little brow furrowing. "Why would I get in trouble? I'm not hurting anyone."

[ikissdhimbck]

"It's not very ladylike."

Please excuse Kate while she marvels at your denim, Noriko. Her daddy prefers it when she wears her skirts, but she does love ripping around in britches. Her pink hands fist in her skirts.

"Oh, but I'd very much like t'try! D'you think you could teach me?"

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko stares blankly at Kate. "I ain't gotta be ladylike. It's just fun," she says, but she does perk up as Kate's hands fist in her skirt.

"Yeah! I can teach you, c'mon. We gotta get some speed up. Do you have socks?"

[ikissdhimbck]

"Under my boots."

Kate blushes, and glances down at her boots.

"They're just plain old white ones, though. I don't got any fancy colored ones like yours. I mean, I don't have any."

She trails along after the other girl.

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko offers her hands to Kate, obviously taking this in stride, and smiles brightly. "Well c'mon. This big kid said the bar can give you stuff. Maybe it'll give you socks like mine. I got a pair that're rainbow stripes too, but they're dirty. My baby brother got mom's lipstick on 'em."

[ikissdhimbck]

"Really?"

Her eyes are as wide as saucers.

"I can get any color I want?"

[electro_kinetic]

"Yup," she says, nodding. "They make all kinds."

[ikissdhimbck]

A little after the fact, her face scrunches up.

"How'd your baby brother get lipstick on a pair'a socks?"

She slips her hands into the other girl's, and follows along eagerly.

[electro_kinetic]

She rolls her eyes as she tugs Kate along to the bar, sliding like she's skating across the floorboards. "He's a stupidhead," she says. "He said they needed more red and I yelled at him that he couldn't use my markers. So he used lipstick."

[ikissdhimbck]

She watches the girl's feet, hand pressed to her lips to stifle her laughter.

"I don't have any brothers. I don't have any sisters, either."

She knows the Bar. It hands out food and drinks, but she had no idea it handed out socks, too!

[electro_kinetic]

"Ugh. You can have mine," she says, arriving at the bar and pressing her chin on the edge of the top as she asks for a pair of socks just like hers, but--, and stops, eyeing Kate sideways. "What color do you like?"

[ikissdhimbck]

Her eyes widen.

"Um. Blue, an' yella."

[electro_kinetic]

"Then just like mine!" she finishes, and takes the new pair of socks she receives, holding them out to Kate. Sure enough they're exactly like Noriko's, knee-high and bright blue and yellow and argyle patterned.

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate lights up like the Fourth of July, more because of Noriko's acceptance than the new pair of socks, but it's all very exciting all the same.

"Oh, Nelly! Golly, ain't these fine?"

She hugs the stockings and takes them to the first empty chair she sees, immediately setting to untying her shoes.

[electro_kinetic]

"Oh, wow," Noriko says, upon seeing Kate's boots. "Wow, those are awesome shoes!"

[ikissdhimbck]

"Y'really like them? Thank you. I should be getting a new pair, but my daddy says for how little I wear them they're still practically new."

Kate's hard to keep in fine clothes. She'd much rather be barefoot, or in a pair of britches out mucking stalls.

She slips her boots off and offers them to Nori for a closer look. They're soft black leather with a very slight heel, tall and a little scuffed around the toe.

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko nods rapidly, black hair bouncing and swaying past her shoulders. "They're awesome. Everybody wants tall boots like these and yours even have the laces all the way up! Do they have a zipper too, like in the back or something?"

Seriously, tall boots like that are all the rage and Nori has wanted a pair for forever. "I could only wear them after school, though. We have uniforms and you can't wear shoes that aren't in uniform."

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate's nose scrunches.

"What's a 'zipper'?"

She neatly rolls up her lace-trimmed socks, wiggling her toes before putting on the argyle ones. It's a bit indulgent, but she likes being barefoot.

"Y'must have a real fancy school, if you all have uniforms! There is no school back home, so I learn at home."

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko scrunches her nose in amusement at Kate's wiggly toes. She does the same thing when she takes off her socks, too. "A zipper, you know. It fastens things, like..." She spends a minute or two thinking before realizing her jeans have one, and pulling up her shirt a little bit to show the metal interlocking teeth holding them shut over her belly.

"Like that. Lots of jeans have them, and shoes too if they're tall. Mine don't, though, they lace up. Only not as high as yours." She shrugs, smoothing her shirttails back out. "It's not a really fancy school. All schools have uniforms where I'm from. Skirts and shirts and ties, and jackets sometimes. I wear a sweater over mine because I hate the jackets."

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate's barely had a moment to delight in her new foot apparel when Noriko shows her the fastener on her jeans. Her eyes widen.

"How does it work? My britches all have buttons an' eyelets."

She stands up, testing out the slidability of her feet.

Pause.

"They make you wear a necktie?"

[electro_kinetic]

"You just pull it up or down. Up is fastened, and down is open. And there's a button on top." She has no problem explaining this, rising up and down on her toes the whole time she's talking, and otherwise fidgeting.

"Uh-huh. It's a skinny one, but all the girls wear ties or bows. The boys too, only theirs are black and ours are navy. Like our skirts, too, and we have knee socks and classroom shoes for inside, and loafer shoes for outside."

[ikissdhimbck]

"How queer!"

Kate grins. She thinks she'd rather like to go to a school like that, where they have special clothes and the boys and girls all mix.

"Where do you live? Oh! I'm sorry, I've forgotten my manners again. I'm Katherine."

[electro_kinetic]

"I live in Tokyo!" she says, excited. "Big city, it's the capital of Japan. You know where Japan is?" she asks.

"My name's Noriko. Ashida Noriko."

[ikissdhimbck]

"Pleased to meet you, Nori–Ashida Noriko?"

She crosses one foot behind her ankle and curtsies.

"Japan! I've never heard of it, but it sounds wonderful. I live in America."