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

Entry tags:

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]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sit with a girl? To read a comic book?

Now that's a thing he's never done before. But maybe it doesn't count because she's not from his time. Maybe cooties don't exist.

(They do.)

"Um-- sure."

He gives her the comic book and scoots over to her, and they sit side-by-side, facing the lake.

She'd never admit to how relieved she is. Her ankle is throbbing and her knees are sore and itchy, she bumped her elbow and it's doing that funny thing, and she needs to catch her breath.

But she would get up and run in an instant if he asked her to. A Barlow never stays down.

However, he isn't asking her to. So she smiles as she opens the comic to the first page, keeping a little distance between them while holding it to his side. She'll periodically remark on something she likes, or listen to him enthuse about something, chattering and giggling over the story.

It's a much needed respite.

And he would never admit that his elbows are beginning to really smart and he's probably going to find a knot on his knee in the morning. But it doesn't matter, because a Gavin can take his bumps and bruises.

As they grow more comfortable in each other's company, finding the same things funny or interesting or exciting, Tommy leans in closer as his enthusiasm grows, their shoulders brushing lightly against one another. Sometimes he answers her questions about the advertisements for model cars and airplanes, or the mail orders for creatures called sea monkeys. It's kind of fun explaining stuff. She makes him think and see everyday things-- everyday for him, at least-- in different ways.

Plus, she keeps him focused. For once he doesn't feel as if a million things need his attention. He isn't bored or anxious to get to the next topic, and is perfectly content to sit there.

(With a girl. His cousins and pals at school would never let this go if they ever found out.)

(Whatever, he doesn't care. She's a cowgirl.)

"I wonder if there's a horse like Silver in the stables."

Edited 2013-10-22 05:08 (UTC)

Katherine doesn't know much — she's only twelve, after all — but she knows one thing for absolute certain.

She desperately needs pet sea monkeys.

"I bet there is!"

There's rarely a moment she isn't acutely aware of how close she is to a boy, but it isn't always uncomfortable. He's an honest to goodness New York City boy, and he knows so many interesting things about the future. So what if his arm occasionally brushes hers, or their knees sometimes touch?

"They got all sorts of horses in the stables here, I already checked. C'mon, I'll show you."

His eyes widen a little. During that visit to the petting zoo, he'd been wary of the ponies despite his excitement of seeing real live ones for the first time, even though they were tethered and docile to the point of drowsiness. His little sister rode one (well, sat on one while a staff member led it around in a circle with a rope), but he insisted that he'd rather just watch.

He didn't expect he'd ever get close to anything resembling horses again after that.

Shaking off the residual skittishness (it was a long time ago when he was little, okay?), he grins and nods.

"'Kay!"

He gets to his feet, rubbing his knee when it reminds him that he'd bumped it, and offers Kate a hand to help her up.

She's so excited she doesn't even think about taking his hand again, or the burn of raw skin when she flexes her joints.

She just hopes she can get the stains out of her dress.

"This way!"

She skips off, setting a quick pace back up the embankment toward the stables. It's a huge building, but she already feels like she knows it like the back of her hand.

Tommy doesn't skip.

He lopes.

And somehow he feels as if he's been along this path before. That sense of déjà vu again, that all of this should be familiar to him already, which is odd, because he's totally a city boy.

In any case, it's not often that he just gets to run through an open, nearly endless field.

Kate, though, looks as if she belongs out here.

She's fearless with the stock, too. Even the unusual ones. She strolls right on up to random stalls as they walk, rubbing the nose of any curious beast that pokes its head out.

"Isn't this marvelous? My daddy has a wonderful barn, don't mistake me, but this is jus' — somethin' else!"

She turns a circle, looking from beam to bow, and continues down the aisle.

Tommy is less adventurous when it comes to petting the animals, preferring to keep his hands jammed down his jeans pockets as he walks a couple of steps behind Kate. He likes animals just fine, but the most experience he has with them are with the family dogs.

"It's huge," he marvels, following her gaze as she takes it all in.

"So, is your dad a cowboy?"

"Oh, no. He don't work with cattle."

It'll be some time before 'cowboy' takes on its more fanciful definition, and a few years yet before Kate's used to hearing it that way.

"He breeds horses, breaks 'em, too. He's got a fine eye for it. An' we've got pigs and goats to sell, some chickens, and a few crops. He grew up in Georgia, after spendin' his boyhood in New York, like you. But he was born in England."

"Oh," he muses thoughtfully. Recalling some characters from those old Westerns, Kate's father sounds more like a rancher type, although in Tommy's mind, anybody who rides a horse is a cowboy. (Being from Texas is optional, but ideal.)

"Huh. That's cool. Are you gonna be a-- well, are you gonna do what your dad does when you grow up?"

She stops and blinks at him.

Nobody ever asks her that. She's a lady, after all. The most folk wonder is whether she'll marry well, and how she'll handle a household. So Tommy gets a broad smile for his trouble.

"Perhaps! Oh, I do want to live on a ranch with horses and dogs and all sorts of animals. I want to have adventures, too. Like Billy the Kid and the Regulators, or the James-Younger boys."

She plays with her skirts, letting her eyes drift over the horses in search of one who looks like Silver.

"I'll likely be a schoolteacher, though. I wanna go to university, an' do it proper."

Tommy doesn't think much of his question -- every kid wants to be something when they grow up, don't they? His dad told him he could be anything he wanted if he worked hard enough. (Except the President of the United States. He laughed in his face when he asked if he could be the President.)

"Adventures?" He grins at that.

"I'd rather go on adventures than be a teacher. What d'you wanna be a teacher for? You like school so much you wanna work in one?"

"I like learnin' new things."

Once more she throws her shoulders back, all pride and stern expression.

"I'd rather teach than be somebody's missus, stuck at home all day mendin' clothes and cleaning up other people's messes. If I go off to university an' learn somethin', I can have my own school and my own home, an' choose my own husband."

It's not as exciting as going on adventures, but it's more practical. Her daddy says she can be anything she dreams, but he don't like her reading nickel books.

Some kids like actively learning new things, others take lessons as they come. Tommy is the latter.

Hands still in his pockets, he shrugs, not expecting her to give such a proud answer, but she sounds like she already has a pretty solid idea of what she wants.

To be honest, it makes him a little self-conscious. He is only ten, so being able to choose a wife is the furthest thing from his mind right now.

"I dunno what I wanna be yet."

"Well, lucky for you you've got some choice in the matter."

It's glib, but she's a very old twelve year old. You grow up fast on the frontier.

"What sorts of things d'you like?"

He gives her a questioning look.

"Don't everybody got a choice?"

He's heard of something called 'women's lib' from one of his older cousins. Tommy's dad would usually tell her to put a bra on and stop spouting her radical hippie ideas in his house.

Shrugging again, he plods on, eyeing every horse that sticks its head out of its stall to sniff at them.

"I like playin' baseball. I'm on the Little League team and my coach says I'm good. I think it'd be really cool if I could go pro, y'know, play for the New York Yankees some day."

"Not like boys do. Y'can do anything you like, go to any school you like, be a big fancy businessman or own your own land — anythin'. Not girls. We gotta marry t'do all those things."

And even then, sometimes they're still not allowed.

"You mean you want to play baseball for a living?"

Now, that's just odd.

That kinda sounds like what his cousin's been 'spouting.'

He scrunches his face up a bit. "Well, that ain't fair if you gotta get married to do what you want. What if you don't wanna get married? Then you're stuck. Unless you get married to a jerk or something. But then you're stuck married to a jerk. ...I think you should just go ahead and go on adventures."

Tommy Gavin, latent feminist.

"Baseball is a profession in the future," he confirms. "Sometimes baseball players become really famous, too. They get lots of money and fancy cars and get on TV and fans go crazy for 'em and collect their baseball cards with their pictures on 'em. And if they're really, really great, they go in the Baseball Hall of Fame."

She gives him an expression which, when roughly translated, says 'Now you're getting it, slowpoke.'

"I won't abide marryin' somebody I don't care for. I don't care how rich he is."

There's a lovely mare across the aisle that catches her eye. Dark bay, with a white star, just like her Beaut. But she's much older than her Beaut is, of course. Still, she leans into Katherine's hand when she walks up to stroke her, whuffling pleasantly.

"How come they get all those nice things jus' for swinging a stick about? An' how do you mean the 'Baseball Hall of Fame'? Is that like being invited to court?"

"My folks fight like cats and dogs, but I dunno-- I actually think that's how they get along."

Little does anyone realize, but Ma and Pa Gavin have already laid the blueprint for Tommy's future marriage.

He stops when the mare catches Kate's eye, and he stands about an arm's length from the animal's nose. Not that he's still skittish or anything. Of course not.

"There's skill involved in baseball, y'know, it ain't just swinging a stick around. Have you ever seen a real game? And the Baseball Hall of Fame is-- well, imagine like, the honor roll at school, 'cept more important. There's a big induction ceremony and everything. The Hall of Fame itself is like a museum where you can see all greatest baseball players in history, all their achievements, the uniforms they wore or the baseballs that won big games and stuff like that. I never been there but I read all about it and some day I'm gonna visit."

It should be noted that Tommy talks a lot (and fast) when it's about something he's really interested in.

Kate's noticed that about him, along with how half of the things that come out of his mouth don't make any sense. They could go on for days, him talking and her asking questions about what he said.

"I don't think my mama and daddy ever fought. They found each other durin' the war. I wouldn't mind that so much, meetin' somebody I had affection for. That's why I wanna go to university."

She glances over her shoulder.

"How come you're standing way over there?"

"So you wanna marry a teacher?"

Tommy's pretty sure his parents have some affection for each other. He just never manages to get lasting proof of it.

Self-conscious again, he casually takes a half-step closer.

"I-- what?"

He was so totally not standing way over there.

She blinks once, twice.

"No! I jus' don't wanna marry Harvey Baker from church."

Hasn't he been listening to a word she said?

"Why're you all the way over there for? Don't you wanna pet somma the horses?"

"Oh."

Harvey Baker must be a jerk, then. Maybe there are less jerks at college? He won't press the issue further because matters of the heart are way above his head.

His hands are still in his pockets, and he shrugs, shyly looking up at the huge beast. A full-grown horse is bigger than he expected.

"Uh-- I guess? I just never--"

He bites his lip and hesitantly slips a hand out of a pocket, daring himself to reach for the horse's long, broad muzzle.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject