Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ikissdhimbck) wrote2012-06-20 10:39 pm
ikissdhimbck) wrote2012-06-20 10:39 pm
Entry tags:
OOM: Down in the East Texas Town of Galveston... -- 1888 -- for X-23
Kate's door opens out into her hotel room. It's nice — real nice, to be honest. Four poster bed, basin, writing desk, carved oak bureau and vanity. Empire draperies in rich reds and golds; pristine horsehair plaster walls.
"C'mon in."
Kate sets her things down on the bed, and turns to Miss X. Standing akimbo, she grins.
"Shall we see what the Miss picked out?"
"C'mon in."
Kate sets her things down on the bed, and turns to Miss X. Standing akimbo, she grins.
"Shall we see what the Miss picked out?"
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"We can try."
Beat.
"The children like it."
And X is often for many things that children like. Blame her Little League team.
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"If there's one thing I learned from teachin', it's t'follow the children's lead."
Maypoles, lake swimming, and hide-and-go-seek are just a few of the thrills one learns from being surrounded by the young.
"All right, let's go."
She slips among the onlookers, drinking down the last of her root beer while they wait for the ride to stop.
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Her root beer is already gone.
What?
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The music is lively, and most of the riders disembark, though some remain for a second turn. Kate offers X a hand up.
There's a wide variety of wooden steeds to choose from.
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"Hey, those're the women from the barroom!"
"Those li'l cotton pickers!"
"Sh-yit, you're right."
"I have half'a mind t'string 'em up by their pigs for the money they cost me."
"Someone oughta teach 'em a lesson, damn tootin'."
"You watch that duck fit of your'n, Henry, you'll get yourself in trouble."
"Then why don't y'run along home? This is a matter'a pride."
Three cowpokes, just brimming with pride, advance on the merry-go-round.
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She leans toward Kate, one hand holding on to the neck of her elephant.
"There are people. Men. From the bar."
Beat.
"They are looking for us."
This is Kate's world. She gets to decide how they handle things.
X does not want to get her in trouble.
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Men from the bar? She feels a quick stab of panic, thinking X means Milliways.
But, how—?
That's when she sees one of the cardsharps hauling himself up onto the carousel mid-rotation, the other two at his heels. She snaps her attention back to X.
"They don't look too happy 'bout what happened. How invested are you in finishin' our ride?"
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Maybe one that takes her nearest to the cardsharps.
Hush.
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"Before they reach any of the children."
Thankfully, there are none between the gentlemen and them. Just one couple, on the very inside, too invested in their cooing to notice what's going on. Kate won't lead a chase closer to any innocents, so clearly the most useful getaway route is straight through the cowpokes.
What?
With a single nod, she dismounts from her trusty steed.
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One circles around a zebra.
Another grabs the pole anchoring a palomino to the ride.
The first? He's headed toward the elephant.
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Hopefully he will not mind her boots being introduced to his face.
And once her hands hit the ground -- after the cowpoke, of course -- X slips up to her feet and moves past him.
Briskly.
She might start running once she is in the clear.
(Or maybe not. Someone has to play bait.)
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"Jesus, Henry!"
"Watch 'er, Wyatt!"
The man at the pole tries swinging his weight into X's path, hoping to knock her back.
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It reminds her of a story Carlotta told her recently.
"Listen 'ere, li'l lady — "
The cowpoke ducking towards her doesn't get much further before she introduces the heel of her palm to his face. He makes a grab at her, absorbing some of the blow, so she twists and elbows him in the groin.
He folds like a card house behind her, and she tips her hat to the startled couple, now right in her field of vision, before moving after X.
"Sir. Ma'am."
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Theirs is a warm welcome.
Once he's down, X flicks a look in Kate's direction.
There are instructions?
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She skips over the felled man just as the first is regaining his composure.
"Hey! Stop! I wanna word with yew two!"
Holding onto her hat, she nods toward the hall they just exited.
"Let's lose 'em in the crowd!"
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She is really good at fitting through tight spaces.
It helps.
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Judging from the gasps and hollering behind them, the gentlemen are in pursuit. She doesn't pause to look for herself, she merely follows after X back inside the building, heading for the thickest crowd.
Christ in a chicken basket, can't these fellas take a hint?
As they pass the root beer again, Kate throws a handful of coins down and makes a quick apology to the stentor, gathering up several bottles. Now she turns, getting a bead on the three men. She chucks the bottles in their general direction, watching them shatter and spread sticky soda across the floor. It doesn't take much; just one wrong step, and their would-be assailants start sliding and flailing, suds a-flying.
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A few seconds of lead will be enough to let them get --
Somewhere else.
But moving faster would be better.
Taking a moment to think back over where they have been --
X darts toward the last known location of the prototype velocipedes.
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Funny, she's rarely on this end of things.
Following briskly, glancing over her shoulder just once to see the gentlemen stumbling to their feet, she glances around X's shoulder and —
Wait.
Is she — ?
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X is really good with practical mechanics.
Which means pretty soon the velocipede is coughing to life.
The noise is unmistakeable.
She flicks another glance at Kate.
Is she ready? Their lead is shrinking every second.
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Kate's blue eyes go wide, and in the fraction of a second —
stentors yelling, cowpokes chasing, the crowd gasping and shouting, closing in
— she grabs X's waist and hops on.
"Let's git!"
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Though even flooring it -- figuratively -- it does not reach the speeds of X's own motorcycle.
But today, with tipsy and root-beer-covered cowpokes and a wide-eyed crowd surrounding them --
X will take it.
vroom
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Kate nearly chokes on her own tongue all the same, and wraps her arms a little tighter around X's middle. There are folk to dodge on their way out, now pursued by the motorcycle barker as well as the three cowpokes, but they're going to make it.
They're actually going to make it.
Kate watches their figures fade slowly into the distance, and hoots with laughter.
"I'll bring a wanted poster back t'the bar, if I should find one with your face on it!"
Call it a keepsake.
This will be hard to explain.