OOM: don't let your daughters grow up to be cowgirls...

[ikissdhimbck]

[Sometime after this...]


Sure, so there's nothing suggesting foul play about this strange place. But Kate still don't like it, and after the scouting mission she went on with her new friend, they found it was far more horrible than they could have imagined. A kitchen, truly vast, filled with so much food — and sweets. An icebox full of fruit and jams and jellies, cakes, pies, and ice cream. More food than a thousand people could eat in a thousand days! Natasha and Katherine knew what they had to do.

"Listen up!"

(They had their tea, weighed their options, and drew their maps and plans in detail. X's marked the places where the food and drinks were kept, question marks swirled over the Magical Bar, and dashes detailed an escape route out the back door toward the forest. Nobody would ever catch them, and there were more than enough other children to pull it off. They just had to convince them their mission was just.)

"The plan is simple. While the adults ain't looking, we clear out the cupboards. Nobody knows who's in charge here; ain't none of us have seen our mamas an' papas. Ain't you tired of not knowin' what's goin' on? Of havin' to ask? Of adults tellin' us no sweets 'cuz they'll rot our teeth? We just want our fair share, an' we want it for every one of us! Why do they get t'keep it all locked up?"

She nods to Natasha.

Comments

[redintheledger]

One might be forgiven for thinking that in another life, Natasha was a sheepdog. She's running around everywhere; a helping hand here, some advice there, some sneaking about and peering around, and then the occasional jump of excitement.

The Liberation is off to a brilliant start, even if the rolling ice-cream cartoons get a double-take.

[queenofmay]

Three pies really is going hard enough to manage, balancing and running, so the fourth is out. Her arms are only so big, but once she figures that out she scouts around for what else is there, because she can set them down and get them when the posse is ready to make its retreat to safer grounds.

Marian picked up more of the cookies and chocolate bars behind Noriko and Dixie, before scavenging some of the fruit from a bowl on the counter. Oranges and apples, pears, and some grapes. Some people liked that kind of stuff, too, right?

[justdyedit]

Gummies taken care of, Jess steps back to look for the syrups and spots them on a shelf high above. Easy peasy to get to but how to do it without attracting attention?

She peaks over the top of the Bar to see if anyone's watching and, once the coast seems clear, she leaps up and grabs an arm full of bottles, landing lightly on her toes and hugging the bottles close so they don't chink.

Now to sort the flavors. Hazelnut stays...vanilla comes, as does cinnamon and creme de menthe. Yum, strawberry!

[gavin62truck]

Tommy has been exploring the other rooms in Milliways when he comes back into the main bar to find-- something going on.

There's quite a bit of activity behind the bar and in and around the kitchen. Is someone preparing for a party or something? Is there going to be food? Free food?

Well, he's not going to miss this if that's what's happening!

Funny, though. It looks as if there's only girls around.

Huh?

He heads toward the kitchen door.

[ikissdhimbck]

While he's heading into the kitchen, Kate's heading out. Or trying to, anyhow. There's an oof! on the other side of the kitchen door and a few loud thuds.

Ice cream. Ice cream everywhere.

Kate gets to her feet quickly, trying to pick everything back up.

"What's the matter with you?"

You see? This is why boys weren't invited.

[gavin62truck]

Containers of ice cream go rolling across the floor in all directions.

After gaping at her for a moment, he turns to gape at all the other girls-- girls everywhere-- before turning back to Kate.

"S'matter with me? S'matter with you? What th' hell're you doin'?"

[ikissdhimbck]

"None of your beeswax!"

Like heck she's going to let him in on their plan. Knowing him, he'll just snitch on them.

"You go on an' get outta here. Forget you saw anythin'!"

Kate picks up the last spilled tub and fixes him with a defiant look.

[gavin62truck]

He meets her defiant look with one of his own.

"Whaddya mean, it's none o' my beeswax!"

Tommy's bigger than Kate and she's got her hands full anyway.

So he grabs a couple of tubs from her grasp.



What was that about strength in numbers?

[ikissdhimbck]

"Hey!"

How rude. How utterly, frustratingly childish. Kate tries to wrestle the ice cream back without popping any of the lids off the containers, frowning at Tommy in a way that will be very, very familiar to him in a few decades.

"Cut that out! This is a stickup!"

Oh look, she got to say the words after all.

[filemyclaim]

All of the commotion' enough to make Dixie look up from the ridiculously huge chocolate bar she'd been nomming on.

She gasps, dropping it. Oh no! She's fallen down on the job!

"BOY!!!" She shouts, pointing an index finger at Tommy, trying to alert the rest of the girls!

[gavin62truck]

The ice cream containers are slippery and cold (duh) and they're kind of hard to keep a good grip on as he struggles for them with Kate. But at the alarm call, he whips around, startled at the cry from the tiny child.

"Jeez, what--?!"

With a tub of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey clutched against his chest, he realizes this might not have been a good idea. His expression? Think Scooby-Doo in a ruh-oh! situation.

If he gets out of here alive, he's so telling.

[queenofmay]

Marian doesn't have her pies in her hands right now. But she knows what a villain is, what a threat is, and about boys with hair that is too blonde, who are too problematic the moment they show up. Who will only get more in the way if they stay, as well as get everyone there in so much trouble the moment they start making a racket.

With one look around she spots a very long silver ladle and grabs it up, like one of her fathers too large wooden swords she should get away with playing with as often as she does, and strides toward him, coming from one side of Katherine and the boy struggling. The ladle out pointing somewhere between his chest and head, defiant about having anything jeopardize these new friends she's found.

"No one invited you!"

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko hears the commotion from her place at the bar and frowns--no boys were invited! She abandons her wrap of sodas and cookies and joins the other girls around the kitchen door, blocking off the intruder's escape route with Marian.

"What're you doing?"

[justdyedit]

Jess hears the commotion in the kitchen as well (just how did someone slip by her?) and knows this can be bad news. She stashes the syrup bottles in her sack, grabs a bottle of chocolate syrup, and is heading for the kitchen doors to help. Spotting a pile of bar towels, she grabs a few before bursting through the doors to assess the situation. Being a trained spy (shut up, she totally is), she quickly takes stock and blurts out, "We have to gag him before he brings down trouble on our heads."

She turns to the blond boy and announces, "You're our hostage now, we caught you fair and square!" while brandishing the bar towels.

[gavin62truck]

"Wait a minute, what the--"

First there's a girl pointing a ladle at him (his mother makes good use of a wooden spoon on him from time to time, so a metal one would definitely hurt more), then there's another girl demanding to know what he's doing, and now another claiming him as their hostage?

Incredulous-- and maaaaaybe just a little bit panicked-- he looks 'round and 'round at the growing number of angry girls surrounding him.

Especially at the one girl who brought the towels to gag him. O_o

"Hey, listen, I didn't know nothin' about this, I just came in here by accident! You don't gotta take me hostage, I swear I won't tell!"

He starts backing up as he tries to talk his way out, but it's obviously too late for that sort of thing.

"Here, uh-- you can have the ice cream back?"

And he holds out the Chunky Monkey toward anyone who'll take it.

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate blinks, surprised and delighted at how quickly everyone came together. And this is partly her gang, right? So she needs to make some decisions and give some orders.

Hmm.

"Oh, can I? Can I please have the ice cream that was mine t'begin with back?"

She glares at Tommy and snatches the ice cream from his hands, looking around for Natasha. Before they go so far as to gag him, she'd like to confer with her partner in crime. This is her very first stickup!

"They're right, you're our hostage now. We can't trust you t'keep your trap shut!"

[redintheledger]

And this is what happens when she goes to the tree-fort - A THIEF.

The small Russian girl gives Tommy a piercing look.

"You show willingness to undo your crimes," she says finally. "Buuuuut you've still committed a crime against this socialist liberation. And you can still tell on us. Spy," she adds.

"HOSTAGE, COMRADES!"

[gavin62truck]

He thought he and the Barlow girl were friends! Or something. Well, guess that changed when he tried to steal the ice cream back from her. Pff, technicalities, whatever.

And now here's this redheaded Russian girl who sounds like she's come straight out of a James Bond movie.

Socialist liberation? What the hell?

"Hey, now," he snaps at her, "I ain't no goddamn spy!"

[redintheledger]

We're sorry, Tommy, there is a little bit of Cult of Lenin going on. The joys of a Communist Education.

Natasha raises her eyebrows.

"That's just what a spy would say."

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate nods.

"Yeah, prove it."

[gavin62truck]

Stunned, he gapes at Kate (there's a lot of gaping going on right now). He looks from her to the Russian girl and back again.

"What-- how-- what d'you-- I--"

Words! How do they work?

"How the hell'm I s'posed to do that?!"


And thus, Thomas Michael Gavin has sealed his fate.

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate nods once, definitively.

"Just as we suspected. If y'can't prove it, then you're our hostage. The James-Younger band would never let a prisoner go. Get the gag ready, Jess!"

She nods to each of the girls, feeling just like the cock of the roost right now.

"Tie 'im up, ladies!"

[justdyedit]

The nice thing about all that mouth gaping? It makes it darn easy to pop a towel in; which Jess does as soon as Kate gives the word. Then she grabs an arm to hold him until someone else can get the other.

[numbered_doctor]

Remy is happy to assist with that, stepping out from seemingly nowhere (she was behind a few of the taller girls) to seize the other arm.

"Don't struggle and we won't string you up by your feet from our base."

Beat.

"Does anyone have a blindfold? He shouldn't be allowed to see how to get to headquarters."

[queenofmay]

Marian will leave the tying to those with free hands.

She totally noticed how the boy's eyes got bigger when he looked at her makeshift sword of a ladle.

She's totally willing to nudge at the air in front of him warningly, while waiting for the rest of the girls to do what they can with their free hands. Not that she has any real inclination about hitting him with it, but she doesn't mind holding herself all warningly like she could be someone who might consider it, might entirely be capable, some like one of her Father's Guards. Except better.

Because she's a girl. In a pack of girls where no one has once said she couldn't do something because she was.