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

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]

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"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."

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."

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?"

"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.

"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."

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.

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!"

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.

"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?"

Katherine

is

giggling up a storm.

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

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!"

"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!

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!"

"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!"

Noriko is so happy to have someone who wants to race with her; in school all the girls know it's just for grades and they never try, and they're already too interested in the boys and in fashion and in their little gangs. Kate is refreshingly like herself. "Nuh-uh! I'm faster!"

That is, until she trips over her own feet and the hems of her jeans, and tumbles butt-over-head before she can scramble to her feet to make up the time, laughing all the way. "In the whole West?" she asks, once they've both reached the wall--Kate first, of course. Curse long jeans hems.

To her credit, Kate does take a few backwards steps to be sure Nori is okay. The race is important, though; so as Nori scrambles back to her feet, Kate regains her speed, sliding shoulder-first into the wall.

"Yep! The whole West!"

She's giggling and breathless.

She giggles as she catches up with Kate and tries to catch her breath, made harder by the laughter. Such a vicious circle.

"I don't feel so bad about losing to you, then. Kate-chan, fastest runner ever!"

"Aww, shucks. My legs are longer, is all."

She sticks out her feet like she's giving them an exam, keeping her skirts hiked.

"I betcha you can slide longer'n I can. Wanna try?"

She could do this all day.

Noriko laughs, and rolls up her jeans until they're at her knees so they won't fall down over her toes and trip her up anymore, and readies herself, tossing her pigtails back.

"You betcha! I can slide forever, and do it in baseball too. Like on your hip, you know? I get dirty but that's okay." She's totally gearing up for a slide, though. She loves this part, and she's betting pants will prove so much easier to slide in than Kate's long skirts.

Clearly Kate's got a lot to learn. Luckily, due to the nature of this strange new place, she's got all the time in the universe to do so.

"Baseball? On your hip? Show me!"

She goes chasing after Nori, laughter ringing in the library. She doesn't even worry about them getting in trouble. This is the most fun she's ever had, and she'll play so long as her new friend is willing.

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

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