ataraxion | 003: [video]

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003: [video]

[ Instead of the usual stern look of challenge, the face Mattie presents to the network looks young, younger even than her fourteen years, wide-eyed and uncertain. She's had time to recover from the effects of the tear gas, and did so quietly and under the watchful eyes of friends, but it has become clear to her that simple stubborn determination will not send her home again, nor will it make her current surroundings any less foreign. ]

If I am to stay here, and despite my personal feelings about the situation it does seem that I must, then I would endeavor to find something useful with which to fill my time. Regrettably, I know nothing about ships, neither those that go on water or those that go in the air. But I am good at keeping books and have very neat penmanship, I know how to bargain for a good and fair trade, and I can handle horses and livestock, though I have not seen that there are any of either here. I can garden and farm, mend, wash dishes, and cook good plain things.

[ She bites her lip, hesitant and frowning. ] In return I hope someone might teach me better about how to use this communication machine correctly, and about how air-sailing ships work. I am not fond of ignorance, nor of idleness.

Additionally, I do not know how one addresses a message within a message, so I must apologize for making them public instead:

Mister Abernathy, I am sorry for shooting you.

Mister Snape, I would like to arrange for that meeting, if you please.

Bran...have you learned any new stories? I fear I am much in need of a good one.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Can you make a substitute? I mean, like, a fake bullet? Somethin' we could put in there that wouldn't waste nothin'.

I...know it can be done but I have never done it myself. I do not see why it should be difficult, though.

There you go, then. Between the two o' us, we can figure it out. Uh-- when ain't you busy?

I am hardly ever busy. If I teach you how to shoot a gun, you can tell me about New York.

It's a deal, darlin'. Here, you wanna start now? You can teach me to hold it, anyway.

All right, but where should we meet? I am doubtful that we would avoid interruption if it were somewhere too public. [ God, those annoying adults and their annoying ideas about what activities were appropriate for young girls to get up to. ]

How bout my room? It's big enough we could practice an' ain't nobody would bother us.

[ She takes a moment to balance the inappropriateness of visiting a young man's room against the fact that it would be the most practical solution. Practicality, as always, wins out. ]

Tell me your room number and I will come straight away. And don't say anything to anyone about it, all right? I have already been lectured by several people about being too young to possess a gun.

[He snorts.]

006, 048. An' don't worry about that. I'm too used to people tellin' me I'm too young to do shit to give you away.

You are only one floor away from me. [ She presses her lips together in a tight smile. ] It has been my experience that sometimes you have to just do what you want regardless, and hang the consequences.

[ It doesn't take her long at all to reach Jack's room, and she raps at the door, standing as straight and tall as possible considering she's a tiny girl in a man's very-much-too-large coat. ]

[He raises an eyebrow as he opens the door-- so tiny!-- before standing aside to let her in. It's a messy room: the bed is unmade, and there's bits of paper with drawings on them all over the place. (They're rather good drawings, though-- some of various crewmembers, others of the locations within the ship).]

You know, I think there's a girl on here who's real good at sewin'.

[ Mattie only wrinkles her nose a very little bit at the mess, but it's understandable. He's a boy on his own, after all, there's no one around to remind him how to be civilized. ]

Do you mean Alayne? I think she has offered to do mending for people. [ Oh, because of the jumpsuit, Mattie supposes, and how inappropriate it is, all fitted and pants-having and her not even out on the trail where it would be practical. She frowns, looking down at it. ] If I had the material I would sew myself a dress, but I have not seen a single bolt of it in any of the stores.

Yeah. I meant about the coat-- looks a little long for you. Er-- just move all that, sorry.

Oh. [ She looks up, solemn-faced. ] It is Papa's coat.

[ Doing as he says, she carefully picks up some of the pictures, tilting her head at them curiously. ] These are pretty. Do you draw a lot?

Ah.

[And that's the end of it. He wrinkles his nose a little as she notices the drawings, though.]

Yeah. It's, uh, it's kinda my job now. Or-- I mean, it was in New York. [A beat.] That one's my girlfriend.

I have never known anyone who was an artist for a living. I do not think we have any at all in Yell County, not that do not have some other profession and do it only for a hobby.

[ She looks at the one he indicates specifically, judging what the girl must be like based on her picture. ] You must miss her.

[He nods, smiling a little sheepishly.]

Yeah. Miss the hell outta her, actually. [And then, more confidently:] But, uh, yeah. They hire me to do the political cartoons and give illustrations for some o' the stories, if they couldn't get a real picture.

[ Mattie smiles sympathetically. If she were the sort to have time for silly romantic things, she's certain she would be sad to be in that situation. Being away from her mother and siblings is difficult enough. ]

Political cartoons, as in newspapers? [ That actually sounds like a real job, not like a street corner artist or something. ]

Yeah! I just got hired, and don't ask me how, cuz it's still a big mystery to me. All o' a sudden I got a real job drawin', and Christ knows how long I'm gonna keep it.

[It's nice to find someone who finds this as weird as he does.]

I hope you are not stuck here very long, then, or they may think to replace you. [ Mattie has absolutely no concept of time travel beyond the knowledge that apparently people from the past and the future can be put together under these specific circumstances. She has to assume that her mother is already wondering whether Mattie will ever return from her sojourn into Choctaw Territory, and that's a sobering thought.

Setting the papers down carefully so as not to rumple them, she sits down, and pulls the revolver from her pocket -- the reason she came here in the first place might be a good distraction to stop them both from worrying about things at home. ]

This is Papa's revolver. It is a Colt Dragoon, though I do not think it shoots accurately.

[He whistles softly, staring at the gun with interest.]

You don't think? What, you ain't sure?

[ She shrugs one shoulder, turning the gun over in her hands before holding it up for Jack to have a look. ] It misfired when I shot it at- when I shot it the one time. It did not fire true.

Do not pull back the hammer, it is already loaded.

See, this is stuff you gotta teach me. What the hell's the hammer?

[ Mattie refrains from rolling her eyes at him. He is a city kid, after all. There are probably a lot of things about life in the country he doesn't know about. She takes the gun back and points at each section as she names it. ]

This is the hammer, you cock it back before you pull the trigger. It is what sparks the powder to fire the bullet. This is the cylinder, where the bullets go. This is the barrel, and the grip, and the trigger.

Huh.

[He's actually paying attention as she goes through each one.]

And you just point and aim and-- do all that?

003: [video]

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