milliways_bar | party post: hail the conquering heroes

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party post: hail the conquering heroes | outside, tree fort

Anyone in the main barroom or out by the lake today will be treated to an odd sight. Dozens of girls, shouting, squealing, running through the backdoor and across the lawn, arms laden with all manner of treats — and one boy, tied up, pulled along with them.

The gang makes their way to the forest, where a tree fort rises above the ground. It's quite a fancy fort, equipped with slingshots, water balloon launchers, and other weaponry and defenses. The interior paneling has some Cybertronian script on it. There's a tire swing outside fashioned from a tractor tire, a crow's nest, and the entrance may be had by ladder, drawbridge, or manual elevator. Inside there are comics, pudding snacks, and the sort of things you'd expect to see in a tree house. It was clearly designed by somebody who really loved their gadgets, and knew what they were doing.

Kate and Natasha have seized the property. Being outlaws in need of a hideout, and all.

"This way!"

Natasha is already inside, leaving all entrances open to the returning posse and offering cover from anyone who might be following. Once the snacks are secured and the prisoner is dealt with, everyone can breathe a huge sigh of relief.

And enjoy the fruits of their labor.

[ooc: ~~give us one minute to set up some thread headings before tagging~~ We're open for business! This post is wide, wide open to everyone — boy, girl, adult, child, animal, mineral, etc. The girls will be inside the tree fort, but it's completely visible from the ground for any who want to stop by and see what's going on, or sneak their way in. ^__^

tiny!tag: age spell plot]

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"Yeah, yeah," he mumbles.

It's not like he's going to admit that trying to interrupt their heist wasn't such a good idea in the first place. To be honest he didn't know what he was thinking.

He munches away at the last of his chocolate chip cookie and goes for the Oreos.

"Ever had one o' these before?"

Nothing like a good old fashioned change of subject.

She could bring up the fact that he was terribly rude, trying to wrest the carton of ice cream from her grasp, and make him apologize. She doesn't, but she could.

She shakes her head.

"What's the stuff in the middle?"

She did say she was sorry. And he does feel bad for being rude to her.

(Tommy and Kate: forever not telling each other how they really feel.)

"Vanilla creme."

He passes an Oreo to her and takes one for himself.

"You're s'posed to eat it like this. You sorta unscrew the halves apart, then you lick the creme off, then you dip 'em in milk and eat 'em-- well, melted ice cream's close enough to milk anyways."

She accepts the cookie gingerly, giving it a thorough looking-over.

"All right."

She watches how he does it, somewhat befuddled at the notion of a cookie that comes with express instructions on how to eat it. She does as he instructs, and twists—

It crumbles in her hands.

"Not too hard! Or else that happens. Here, try it again."

He gives her another one and sweeps the broken bits toward him. He won't let her first Oreo experience be ruined by a crumbled cookie.

"It's all awful complicated."

Gripe gripe gripe.

She handles this Oreo even more gingerly than the first, slowly, slowly, slowly twisting the halves. Just when she's afraid this one is going to break like the first, it comes apart with a pop.

Katherine grins triumphantly.

"Yeah!" he cheers. "So now this's the best part, when you can lick off the creme or scrape it off with your teeth."

Oreos were not designed to encourage decent table manners, as he demonstrates again with another cookie.

She wrinkles her nose, but she's laughing all the same.

Gracious, when her daddy finds out she slurped — to be honest, that'll be the least of his worries from her week of recklessness.

"Mmm! Oh, my, that's very sweet."

Tasty, though. She cleans the vanilla creme from the cookies, smushes the halves back together, and dips them in the melted ice cream. If this is the proper way to do it, she'll do it proper.

He's decided that he kinda likes making girls laugh. This girl in particular.

Just as she reaches in to dip her Oreo halves, he does too, at the same time, and their hands bump against one another, almost knocking over the container. With a startled oops, he grabs it before it can spill. Then, giving a low, sheepish giggle, his freckled cheeks grow a bit warm.

"Sorry. You go first."

He licks some ice cream off the side of his hand.

She makes a grab for the carton, too. Relieved laughter mixes with his sheepish giggle.

"Thank you."

She smiles sweetly, dipping her hand back in.

"I like this banana ice cream. We don't have anythin' like it back home."

He then takes his turn to dip.

"I don't usually pick banana ice cream, but it's good. Besides chocolate and vanilla, I really like pistachio. My uncle always brings it when he visits. You ever tried it? It's got nuts in it and it's green."

She shakes her head.

"I think we snatched some, but I haven't had any. This is the first time I've ever had ice cream."

"The first time--?"

Turning to her with wide, blinking eyes, he makes up his mind that she must have all the ice cream now.

Scrambling to his feet, he goes over to the haphazard stack of ice cream cartons, checking each one (and licking his fingers, as they're kind of leaky) for the pistachio flavor. Finally finding it, he brings it back to Kate and opens it. It's a shade of green Kate has probably never seen in nature.

"Try some!"

Blink blink blink.

Not one to say no to treats, Kate digs out a fresh chocolate chip cookie and breaks it in half, using one half as a spoon.

"It's so colorful. What's a pistachio?"

It must be beautiful.

Ladling up a bit of the melty ice cream, she quickly spoons it into her mouth.

"It's a little nut about this big--" (he holds his fingertip and thumb apart) "--with a really hard shell that you sometimes need a tool to crack. Hmm, I think all the pistachio chunks sank to the bottom."

Breaking his own chocolate chip cookie in half, he stirs up the contents of the container as best he can, and sure enough, he dredges up the bits of chopped pistachios. In doing so he gets some ice cream on his fingertips, but that's quickly licked off.

Seriously, he could eat like this every day.

It's terribly impolite, but Katherine failed to think about liberating the silverware and the cups and the bowls, too.

"Mmm! It's delicious."

She dips back in quickly after he does to scoop up a few nuts. Oddly enough, they're not nearly as colorful as the liquid they're swimming in.

"I like pecans, myself. We've got a few trees on our property back home, but these are wonderful."

Who needs utensils when you've got fingers and cookies?

"I never seen a pecan tree. I had pecan pie before, though. Sometimes we have it at Thanksgiving."

He continues eating, this time using an Oreo half to scoop up the ice cream. It then occurs to him that this right here is kind of a feast itself. And with no adults to tell them how much or how little they can have.

All because of Kate and the girls.

His chewing becomes a little more introspective (it can be done).

"Katherine?"

"My daddy says Thanksgiving is jus' the president's way of keepin' folk happy through the war, an' now we jus' carry on 'cuz we've forgot how not to."

This is all mumbled distractedly to the carton of ice cream. She would gawp at Tommy for never seeing a pecan tree before, or talk about the pies she can make, but his voice cuts her off.

She looks up.

"What is it?"

Some more introspective munching.

"Sorry for messin' up your heist."

This is also mumbled to the carton of ice cream as he goes for another dip.

"Oh."

She quickly looks down.

"S'all right."

She twists another Oreo open, only taking a bit of the corner off with her thumb. She pops it into her mouth absently, and slowly chews. Well, they've both said they're sorry now. No reason to let things get — all funny feeling.

"Actually, there's always a hostage in a good heist story. I read about it all the time. So I s'pose, well — that is, it was kinda — fun. M'still sorry! But — I really did feel like part'a the James gang for once."

She grins shyly.

There will come a time when Tommy would subject himself to almost anything just to make her smile or laugh.

So if it was fun for her, then maybe it wasn't so bad.

Plus he's getting free ice cream and cookies out of it. Plus this is a really cool tree fort.

"Maybe someday people'll remember this heist and tell stories about it."

She lights up.

"Y'really think so? Oh, wouldn't that be lovely?"

Nothing he could have said would have delighted her more. Even she needs to escape from time to time, pretend she's a fearless bandit or a Texas ranger, and ride the foothills on her trusty steed.

"I'd hope they get the story right, though. An' if they make a likeness of me, I'd want her to look strong an' bold — like the way they do the Lone Ranger."

As it turns out, she has lots of opinions on the matter.

Apparently he's saying the right things!

He gives some thought to how Kate might be drawn as a comic book heroine.

"Maybe like Wonder Woman, 'cept dressed like a cowgirl and wearing a mask and riding a horse."

He doesn't own any Wonder Woman comics but he has lingered in the shop to flip through them, like every other boy does. He's not sure why. But he'll figure it out when he gets older. And when the TV show debuts in a couple of years.

The quickest way to a girl's heart is through her ego. Or, at least, Kate's rather fond of the idea that she might live an extraordinary life. One that begs to be remembered.

"Who's Wonder Woman? Is she another of your colorful comic book characters?"

Careful, Tommy. Before you know it you'll be neck-deep in comic books with Kate again, imprinting all manner of ideas on her young mind.

He nods, wiping a dribble of ice cream off his chin with the back of his hand and then licking it off.

"Uh huh. She wears red, white, and blue like the American flag and she has these wrist cuffs that she can stop bullets with and she has a golden lasso, too."

He's probably just rattled off a checklist of Things That Would Interest Kate. Looks as if it's off to the comic book aisle in the library again when this all blows over.

party post: hail the conquering heroes | outside, tree fort

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