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]

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."

[electro_kinetic]

"Mm-hmm. Ashida is my family name, that's how we introduce ourselves. Last name, then given name. You can call me Nori. I know people that have gone to America; the soldiers at Yokota go all the time."

[ikissdhimbck]

She pinches her chin, mimicking a gesture Jim does whenever he's in deep thought.

"So my name would be Barlow Katherine if I lived in Japan?"

She giggles, slipping slightly as her socked feet get away from her.

"Nori is a very pretty name."

[electro_kinetic]

She chuckles. "That's how you introduce yourself to other Japanese people. To westerners we say it normally." She grins brightly.

"Katherine is a pretty name too. What does it mean?"

[ikissdhimbck]

"It was my great grandmother's name. I think it means somethin' good."

She'll be sure to remember what Nori has told her. She finds it all very interesting. There must be a book about Japan in the big library somewhere.

"Oh! Um, will you show me?"

She points to their socked feet.

[electro_kinetic]

"It's pretty anyway," says Noriko, and looks down at their feet as she wiggles her yellow-capped toes.

"Yeah! Of course. Come with me, we have to be at the end of the hallway stack. Or else you crash into the wall."

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate smiles.

"Thank you!"

She wiggles her toes in kind, stifling a giggle behind her hand. And then she follows obediently — if not eagerly. She feels like she's doing something naughty, and it's terribly exciting.

[electro_kinetic]

With a giggle, Noriko shows Kate how to turn sideways really quick once she gets up a good sprint, and stick her arms out for balance. That done she demonstrates at full speed and takes off like a bottle rocket towards the other end of the library, skidding and giggling and laughing all the way until she glides to a halt.

"See!"

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate, entirely unable to act like a lady after such a show, hops up and down and claps.

"That was marvelous! My turn, my turn!"

She goes grave concentrating — this is a serious affair, after all — and hikes up her skirts. Taking a deep breath, she runs and mimics what Nori did.

Only she wobbles something terrible and falls in a heap not halfway to her.

[electro_kinetic]

"Eeeeeep!" Nori runs to check on Kate and make sure she's okay, helping untangle her legs from all those skirts. "Katherine! Are you okay?"

[ikissdhimbck]

Katherine

is





giggling up a storm.

"That was lovely! Can we do it again?"

[electro_kinetic]

After being worried for a second, Noriko joins the laughter and helps Kate back to her feet. "Of course! I'll race you to the end of the stack!"

[ikissdhimbck]

"You've got a deal!"

Breathless with giggles and pink in the face, Kate bunches her skirts in her hands and takes off running, slipping and stumbling until she masters the art of sliding.

This is the most fun she's ever had!

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko goes slipping and sliding and shrieking with laughter after Kate. It's a race, and she does try to win, but it's fun too and she's enjoying her new friend's play. "I'll beat you!"

[ikissdhimbck]

"Oh, no you won't!"

Kate never gets to play with girls her own age. Sure, she likes roughhousing with her daddy and all the boys who've been working for them so long they're practically family, but it's not the same as having a peer. Kate's never been so happy.

"I'm the fastest socks in the West!"