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

[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.

[electro_kinetic]

"We gotta tie up his hands too, or he'll try to run off," notes Noriko--because everyone who's ever seen TV knows you can't run with your hands behind your back. It's hard, she's tried.

[gavin62truck]

"Grphl frghh afglff mff!"

(That translates roughly to "Get the fuck offa me!" as said around a towel.)

The girls come at him from all sides, and even though he's bigger than most of them and tries to break through their ranks, they still have him outnumbered.

The girl with the spoon brandishes it at him and he momentarily pulls back, until that other girl mentions tying his hands.

"Mrphr frgh!"

("What the fuck!")

He struggles harder. He's not going down without a fight!



He just hopes nobody discovers his ticklish spots.

[ikissdhimbck]

It's odd, but Kate has this feeling like she knows just what he's saying around that towel. Almost as if she's already got him all figured out. And so, eyebrow arched, she leans in and repeats a conversation they had not that long ago.

"I toldja if you didn't watch that mouth'a yours you'd get a bar of soap for your trouble. A towel'll hafta do for now."

He's being awful fussy for some reason, and Kate doesn't want the girls holding onto him to get hurt. So she does the only sensible thing a leader can do. She leaps on him.

"Don't let 'im get away!"

Arms already covered, she goes for his middle, deft fingertips skittering over his ribs.

[filemyclaim]

Dixie's never seen a ticklefight before in her life. The idea of tickling a BOY fairly makes her leap back from them both.

"Kate, no! He might have cooties!"

[gavin62truck]

The instant Kate goes for his ribs, Tommy is done for. He doubles over with a yelp, trying to squirm away, but it's as if she's pressed his 'deactivate' button and he can hardly put up a resistance for much longer. The sputtering giggles he emits are far from amused.

Also, cooties? Only girls have cooties, not boys! Tommy would correct the tiny wee child except his mouth is full of towel. And he's too busy giggling. Unamusedly.

[redintheledger]

It's a harsh thing to do, take a captive. And one of their own! A boy, but still a kid. But his loyalty to the Cause will have to be dealt with later, possibly with the promise of chocolate.

(She is, as ever, pragmatic).

For now?

Natasha claps her hands.

"Alright, my sisters! Everyone not capturing the spy, BACK TO LIBERATION."

[electro_kinetic]

Noriko, spurred into motion by the clap, trots off to go retrieve some thin rope to tie the captive's hands with, marching back with the length of it taut between her hands to bind Tommy's snugly behind his back--she's tried this on her brother and he squirmed almost this much.

"Hold him still!"

[ikissdhimbck]

Dixie's warning scares Kate half to death, and she almost leaps away from the boy herself. Cooties are dangerous business. Once you catch them, you've got them for good.

However, she steels herself.

"S'all right! I help hogtie the piglets on our ranch, all y'hafta do is sit on him!"

[numbered_doctor]

"I got him!"

Well, at least, as much as she can, anyway. Risking cootie infection for the team and leaping onto the boy's back in an attempt to bring him down.

[gavin62truck]

He ain't no spy and he definitely ain't no hog!

Kate's merciless tickling has already weakened his defenses, and now the sudden weight of the girl jumping on his back throws off his balance completely. Breathless from the struggle and the unwanted laughter, he has no choice but to topple to his knees.

[filemyclaim]

Hey, if the girls want to get their hands all cootified tying Tommy up, that's their concern.

Dix herself is concerned with two things now: saving her stash and getting to the rendezvous point.

She dumps an entire carton of mint cookies into her hat, then darts through the bar toward the back door, struggling under her haul but still showing a surprising amount of agility for somebody so tiny.

[notinthebook]

She's twitchy enough already here before the door comes slamming open and the little girl goes pelting through the bar like someone lit her hair on fire. It's not that she hates being in a place where she doesn't recognize anyone -- that happens often enough -- and it's got nothing to do with feeling close to invisible, watching the room from behind a veil of long blonde hair and lowered eyelashes. That's fine, too, makes it easier, even, if someone's got something maybe worth lifting.

No, she's twitchy because there are fish in the fireplace, and because she's pretty sure the rat that just scurried over her foot did so because it was trying to take her order and just misgauged the correct level of personal space.

This place is beyond weird.



But sprinting, out-of-breath children with faces red and hair flying and the unmistakable flush of triumph mixed with guilt on their cheeks isn't, and, besides, her eyes are caught by the swinging door, tipping a clear line of sight back into the kitchen, where --

Holy jeez, it's a whole pack of them, and is that -- "Hey!"

She half-stands from her spot at the bar, half-drunk hot chocolate forgotten (along with the cute boy a few stools down, who she definitely hadn't been watching out of the corner of her eye) at the sight of yet another tiny blonde girl hog-tying a tiny blonde boy with what seems like really kind of excessive gusto, while another girl leaps on his back. "Knock it off!"

Spoken as she's sliding off her stool and heading towards the kitchen door. It's just like the system all over again; isn't she done with babysitting yet?

[thebesteverseen]

Steve's sure he didn't lose his way. Pretty sure. Relatively. Ninety percent.

There are still places in the academy he's never been to, that are for the youngest of the boys, and others, for upperclassman, that he's not privileged to yet, but none of them, he's very certain is a bar. Because, whatever else this place is beside that, it's very much a bar. There are rules and the one way ticket to expulsions is clear.

Even if that's not entirely the reason the place makes him feel on edge, curious but with a dose of wariness layered under it.



Plus, it's distracting all on its own. Crowds of people. A lot of them kids. Like a lot them. Younger than he's gotten used to being under foot at The Academy, and more than half of them girls. Including the one that just went sprinting by, and the girl who jumped up off to his side, with a yell. Sending him looking to her, and then toward where she is. Where there're indeed even more girls, a pile of them, on top of little boy.

That's at least a familiar scene, pack of girls instead of boys aside, picking on some kid half their size. "Hey, break it up!" He's pushing off his stool -- not the first or last time this week even he's rounded the corner on a smaller boy being pushed on the stairs or having their bag yanked or being pressured in a library -- and sidestepping the stools near him, headed for the kitchen doors. "What'd you guys think you're doing?"