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

[gavin62truck]

Tommy blinks.

He's very easily distracted.




"You know how to shoot with a rifle?"

[ikissdhimbck]

"'Course I do!"

Once again, her chin juts up into the air.

"An' I'm a real crack shot, too! A bona fide natural."

[gavin62truck]

Her accent and her clothes and the claim that she knows how to shoot brings to mind the prairie girls he's seen on reruns of The Lone Ranger. Somehow he doesn't think she's just playing dress-up.

This is suddenly very exciting. And she's suddenly gotten more interesting. (For a girl.)

He glances left and right.

Then lowers his voice:

"Are you from the Wild West?"

There's no sarcasm in his tone, but genuine curiosity.

[ikissdhimbck]

She blinks.

Well, now. Ain't this a turn? She can see he's whistling a new tune, so she grows far less severe of countenance. The line between her brow smooths, and the corner of her mouth tilts up.

She leans in, just as surreptitiously.

"Sure am. Jus' like Jesse James an' Wild Bill Hickok!"

[gavin62truck]

His blue eyes grow wide.

He's very torn right now. On the one hand: she's a girl. On the other hand: cowboys, outlaws, the Wild West. He's never met a girl who knew about cowboys and outlaws, much less actually came from that time.

"Can you ride a horse, too?"

[ikissdhimbck]

"You bet your bottom dollar I can!"

Honestly, who does he think she is?

Darned city slickers.

"My daddy raises horses. Breaks 'em, an' sells 'em as fine stage ponies an' workhorses. Shoot, I've been riding longer'n I've been walking."

[gavin62truck]

"Okay, just askin', jeez..."

If she really can handle a gun like she says she can, he's going to ease up on the attitude. He knows enough tough-as-nails Gavin females, young and old, to know when to behave.

"I'm from Brooklyn, in New York, so we don't have horses, we have cars. I only know about the Wild West and cowboys an' stuff from TV shows and comic books."

[ikissdhimbck]

Her eyes widen a little.

"You're from New York?"

The rest of what he says hasn't sunk in quite yet. She's just as awestruck at the idea of a real life New Yorker as he was about somebody from the Wild West.

[gavin62truck]

"Uh-huh. From the future, I guess. 1970 is a pretty long time from yours, I think."

He tilts his head a little. He didn't think being from New York was so interesting, but he supposes he could see the appeal if you lived way out in the country.

"What's your name?"

If only Tommy's parents could see him being civil right now!

[ikissdhimbck]

"Nineteen-seventy! Gracious me, that's a hundred years from now! But what do you mean? You must have some horses. Haven't you ever ridden before?"

And then, after a small pause:

"I'm Katherine Barlow. Pleased to meet you."

Those last four words are gritted out a bit, but he's just recently become infinitely more interesting.

[gavin62truck]

He can't tell if he's in her past or if she's in her future-- it almost feels like there's no time here at all. But it doesn't matter. A hundred years between them is still freaky either way.

Slouching a bit, he sticks his hands in his jeans pockets.

"Oh, horses still exist an' all, but there ain't no use for 'em in the city. We got cars and buses and subways to get around. There's ponies at the petting zoo, though. I never rode one, but my little sister did."

He awkwardly holds out a hand. (The jury's still out on whether or not this particular girl has cooties.)

"I'm Tommy-- um. Thomas Gavin."

...He has no idea why he just offered up his given name. Usually only the nuns at school require it.

[ikissdhimbck]

She blinks at his hand, a little startled.

He wants to kiss her hand?! She's torn between telling him 'no' and being polite, but eventually manners win out. She presents her hand to him, knuckles up.

"How do you do."

[gavin62truck]

And he gives her hand a firm shake once, twice, then lets go. There! That wasn't so bad. He quickly sticks his hand back into his pocket.

He chuckles.

"You even sound like the cowgirls I seen on on TV."

[ikissdhimbck]

Oh. Well, she wasn't expecting that.

She blinks once, twice, and withdraws her hand. She very subtly rubs her palm against the folds of her skirt.

"What are 'TV shows and comic books'?"

Humorous plays?

[gavin62truck]

"Oh, uh--"

He scratches the back of his head.

"TV shows are like short movies that you watch at home. On a-- TV. A television set. It's a-- a box with a screen-- uh. I could prob'ly show you better, I think I saw a TV out by the bar. But comic books are like-- stories with pictures, but they ain't like regular picture books 'cause the the characters talk with speech bubbles and-- well, hey, we're in a library, I bet we can find some comic books here so you can see what I mean. Wanna come look?"

It'd be a helluva crappy library at the end of the universe if it didn't have comic books.

[ikissdhimbck]

She scrunches up her nose at the first part of his explanation. He don't make no sense.

"What's a moo-vee?"

However, the second part of his explanation, though no less confusing, sounds interesting. Kate loves books with pretty pictures. Especially the ones here with all those fine colors.

"All right. Show me one'a these comic books, but then you've gotta ride a pony. It just ain't right, boy your age."

[gavin62truck]

"A movie's a--"

He huffs a sigh, scratching his head again.

"Don't worry 'bout it, I can explain it later when I show you the TV."

And they head off to explore the rest of the library, Tommy in search of the periodicals stacks.

"I'd rather you show me how to shoot, if it's all the same to you."

[ikissdhimbck]

"I didn't bring my gun."

It's her daddy's gun, to be fair. But it was a stupid assumption all the same.

Why is she following after him again?

"How do I know you wouldn't shoot your eye out?"

[gavin62truck]

He rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, that's what my folks told me when I asked 'em to buy me a lever-action Winchester like the one Chuck Connors had on The Rifleman-- not a real one, just an air rifle. But I bet we could borrow one from the bar..."

Suddenly stopping short, he breathes out a

"Whoa, cooool."

They've just found the comic books section, where every slim volume is kept in a plastic sleeve, arranged in alphabetical order by subject.

Craning his neck, Tommy's sure that the Batman comics are way up by the ceiling. But there's lots that are familiar to him and well within reach, so he immediately takes off for the section marked "L." And as he pulls out an issue and slips it out of its cover, a grin spreads across his face.

"The Lone Ranger's like a cowboy hero. I used to read these all the time!"

[ikissdhimbck]

"What do you mean an 'air rif—oof!'"

Kate bumps into his side when he stops, and were she not so embarrassed she might bicker at him about warning a lady about doing that, and what's the matter with you anyway, Thomas Gavin? Lucky for him, she's straightening out her dress and rubbing the color from her cheeks when he moves off down the aisle.

Following at a more respectable distance, she comes up beside him just as he's taking the comic out of its odd wrappings.

"Why, I've never heard of him before. How come he wears a mask? Is he a bandit?"

[gavin62truck]

He flips through the pages, showing her the illustrated panels full of Wild West action: men racing along on horseback, fistfights with outlaws, the Lone Ranger drawing his pistols.

"He's a Texas Ranger-- well, he was, until he and his group of Rangers were ambushed and left for dead by a gang they were tryin'a catch. He was the only surviving one, and an Indian named Tonto saved his life. They became friends and vowed to fight injustices together throughout the West, helping people an' stuff, and he wears a mask to hide his identity 'cause he's a-- a whatchamacallit-- a renegade. Outlaws fear him and lawmen wanna know who he is, but he prefers to work alone. Well, with Tonto, that is. And Silver, his horse. It was a great TV show and I used to buy the comics, but I started buyin' other kinds of comics instead. I still like the Lone Ranger, though. He's cool."

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate's eyes get bigger and bigger as she looks at each page.

"Shucks, that sounds awful excitin'. How does he go up against all them people all on his own?"

It's not unheard of, and so she's not really expecting an answer. Only the best and bravest men, be them lawmen or outlaws, can take on all the odds and come out on top. Kate's enamored already.

"It's so colorful, too! I ain't never seen so many bright pictures in one book before."

[gavin62truck]

"Welp, he's a hero, and that's what heroes do best."

He gives her the comic book. If this library works the same way as all libraries do, then she should be able to borrow it.

"All of these comic books have pictures like this." A notion strikes him. "D'you know what cartoons are? Like, imagine seeing all these little pictures moving, and hearing all the characters talking-- that's a cartoon. You can watch 'em on TV. TV shows and movies are like that, too-- moving pictures, except they usually got real people and actors in 'em 'stead of drawings."

Information overload?

[ikissdhimbck]

She's about to answer 'yes' to his question about cartoons when he goes on and on. For the nth time today, her eyes widen and her grip on the comic book gets a little tighter.

"I've seen cartoons before, but they're jus' in the newspaper. So a tee-vee is for movin' pictures? How–how do you get real people in them? Is it like photography?"

Which she knows a little about.

[gavin62truck]

Tommy scratches his head again.

"Um-- yeah, it's kinda like photography, 'cause they use cameras and film, but a different kind that records motion. And to get a show on TV, they broadcast it over the airwaves with antennas, and--"

He's got to be honest with himself: he really can't explain the whole of it.

"C'mon, how 'bout I show you?"

And he holds out a hand. He's not exactly sure why he did that, as he's certain that she can follow him just fine, but it was almost an instinctual gesture.