Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ikissdhimbck) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
milliways_bar2013-10-13 03:28 pm
ikissdhimbck) wrote in milliways_bar2013-10-13 03:28 pm
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]
(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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And even then, sometimes they're still not allowed.
"You mean you want to play baseball for a living?"
Now, that's just odd.
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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."
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"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?"
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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.
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"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?"
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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.
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"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?"
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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.
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Harvey Baker isn't so bad for a thirty-two-year-old butcher with a decent business, who Katherine's barely spoken two words to herself. He's asked her daddy for her hand in marriage.
(She wants to go to university as a means to say 'no'. She could get married off real quick, but she wants to be independent and choose her own partner. That means having goals that will get her there.)
The mare blinks at the tentative hand, holding perfectly steady. She's an old hat at beginners, just as pleasant as you please.
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"I wonder what her name is."
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"I dunno, but she sure is a beauty. She reminds me of my horse."
Beaut whickers quietly, nosing into Tommy's palm to see if there are any treats. She seems to detect something, but children's hands are good for delicious food residue.
"To answer your question, no, I've never seen a baseball game. However, I–I'd like to."
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He grows a bit quiet at her statement, brow furrowed, thoughtful. It feels as if she'd told him that before-- while in the company of horses, no less. He quickly debates over whether he should tell her about these moments of déjà vu he's been having ever since he toppled her book fort.
"I wish I could take you to see a game. We could probably watch one on TV, but it ain't the same as watching it for real-- and plus the bar pretty much told us to stop watching TV. But we could go look up some books about it in the library later. If you want."
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"I'd like that."
She'd like to go for a ride on one of these fine horses, too. She noticed there's all sorts of tack, and the thought of stealing a horse—just for a little while!—is awful tempting. She looks down the rows of stalls.
And blinks.
"Ah, look!"
She points a few stalls down to a white stallion.
"He's jus' like Silver!"
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Tommy gives the mare a 'see you later' kind of pat to her cheek, and heads off down the aisle toward the stallion. He's huge, standing tall and proud, with an intelligent look in his dark eyes as he peers down at the approaching boy and girl, as if wondering what these little creatures are.
Tommy might have been okay with petting that mare, but he's not too sure about this one.
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"Hello, Handsome."
The stallion blinks at them, head held high and ears pricked forward. Even still, it's easy to see he has spirit. He seems to radiate defiance, a come and get me attitude that dares them to get closer. Kate, never one to back down from a dare, does just that.
"What's your name, huh?"
He grumbles lowly.
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Tommy stays where he is as Kate ventures closer to the stallion. He has to admit, the girl's got balls, but after a few moments, he gets up the nerve to at least stand just behind her shoulder.
"You sure he ain't-- gonna bite or anything?"
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She reaches out, and the stallion backs up. Kate — giggles.
"All right, Sourpuss. So you're not Silver, but you sure do look like him. You could stand t'be a little friendlier."
Snort.
"Alls I'm sayin' is you get more flies with honey than vinegar."
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"Maybe he wants to be left alone," Tommy suggests. Obviously an expert on horse behavior now.
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It isn't that she wasn't coming to the same conclusion, it's that he's entirely too easy to tease.
"Are you chicken?"
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"Pff, no, I ain't chicken!" he retorts with indignant petulance.
It's a tone (and an expression) that she'll become very familiar with. So is the unwitting tendency to make himself so easy to tease.
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"All right, then. I dare you to ride a horse."
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"But I--!"
Riding a horse should be easy, right? And it ought to be safe, right?
He folds his arms across his chest.
"I dunno how."
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Blanco, disinterested in their current conversation—it couldn't possibly concern him, they wouldn't dare—snorts and moves to the back of his stall. Katherine worries at her bottom lip.
"I mean, I — there must be a horse we could borrow."
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The words escape Tommy's mouth before he knows what he's saying, and a sudden thrill of excitement and mischief sweeps through him-- because really? A horse? Borrowing a horse? Somehow he doesn't think that borrowing is the word they want.
He quickly looks up and down the aisle to check if any adults are around.
"Maybe the one that you liked," he says, jerking his thumb back at the mare.
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All right, so she'd never imagine riding a stallion the height and temperament of the one in front of them, neither would she ever put Tommy on one, but — well. She's only twelve, and his nervousness is an easy target.
At the mention of the mare, her eyes widen. She does like her, and as she looks down the aisle the mare mildly looks back, ear twitching. Kate bites her lip, and smirks.
"Y'know what they do to horse thieves in Texas? They string 'em up and hang 'em."
Her eyes connect with Tommy's.
"C'mon."
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