[For Druitt, Leah] I'm gonna rock this shit like fashion

[girlsolo]

The sun's hot and bright and Kate's eyes beg for the comforting black of shades. Apparently they don't have sunglasses in the Old West, which is obviously why all the pictures of the cowboy dudes and all the cowboy movie guys have crow's feet. 'Scuse her if she doesn't want them. The crow's feet. Shades, she'd pretty much kill for.

Tired of shading her eyes with her hand (her arm's tired, plus it's a lot harder to defend herself), Kate ducks into a men's store and convinces the ghost person to sell her a black cowboy hat. When she comes out again, she's not in the street again long when she decides this day blows. It might be fun, if she had someone to go hunt shit with. Rattlesnakes or maybe deer.

For now, she ducks into the nearest saloon. It's a little early to start drinking, so she orders sarsaparilla and bellies up to the bar. She hasn't been sitting there long when she gets bored and finds a set of darts. The ghost people aren't much fun to play with, and pretty soon she's playing by herself, sarsaparilla switched for beer, throwing dart after dart after dart at the board and trying not to think about people leaving.

Comments

[iliketodruitt]

John had never much cared for the American West. It was far too unlike London, with the bright sun and the vast stretches of little but arid desert. The only reason he had visited it all those years ago was because of how lawless it was, how much easier it was to kill without getting caught.

That and he could be back home before tea.

Now it was an inconvenience to be endured until the island saw fit to revert to its previous state. John Druitt had a great amount of patience when required and could merely wait it out.

Seeing Kate walk into the saloon though, he was reminded that this was hardly the worst thing that could happen to someone. John had lost the woman he loved and he knew how badly it could hurt.

"If it was possible, I would buy you a drink," he said, coming up behind her. He knew that she would sense him there, so he felt no need to announce himself.

[girlsolo]

"If it was possible, I'd stake you over an anthill slathered in honey," Kate returns, but there's no heat in it. He's been on his best behavior so long, not even really pissing Will off that she can tell, that being a bitch is reflex.

Today's probably less reflex than armor. The last thing she wants, possibly in all the world, is sympathy from Druitt.

"But I'll take a beer with a whiskey back, if you're pretending to buy."

[iliketodruitt]

"I'm quite sure that would be a terrible waste of honey," he said before turning toward the bar and placing her order. It didn't seem too self destructive of an order, which he took as a good sign.

"Do you play?" he asked, gesturing to the board with his chin.

[girlsolo]

"Probably but I'm a wasteful kind of chick. Excessive." Especially when it comes to force. He knows that.

The beer hits the counter and she scoops up the whiskey before it does, drains it, and stands up. She reaches behind her for the beer but she's already walking toward the dartboard.

"And those are projectiles. Of course I play."

[iliketodruitt]

"Kids these days," John said, clucking his tongue, as if wasting honey on torturing someone was a terrible crime against humanity.

He followed Kate over to the dartboard, although he really didn't have any interest in playing. He had much, much more time to practice at it. So much so, that it wouldn't be fair.

"At the turn of the 20th Century, in Leeds, there was a small legal debate on whether darts were considered a game of skill or chance. It seems the local magistrates were under the impression that it was all luck as to where the dart landed."

[girlsolo]

If he's going to pretend they're friendly today, that's okay, she decides. It's better than them getting into it, because in the mood she's been wearing, she can't say for sure she wouldn't just freaking shoot him if he pissed her off. Not to kill. Just to make him limp for awhile or something.

She's going to ignore the part where agreeing about anything, especially to tell themselves the lie they can be friendly means they might be getting anywhere near actually friendly. Because if she thinks about that (and she sucks down half her beer to make sure she doesn't) she could probably end up shooting him just for that.

What she does say, in the end, when she picks up the darts, is, "So in other words, the local magistrates were shitty darts players."

[iliketodruitt]

"Very," John said with a nod. That sort of thing was relegated to pubs, and magistrates certainly didn't spend their free time in pubs, learning darts. Still, the arrogance that came with the assumption that if they were poor at it, it must be chance, was almost alarming.

"To be honest, many at that time were not very good at being magistrates either."

[girlsolo]

Kate snorts at that, takes another long sip of her beer and then sets it at the high table by her elbow. She toes the line while saying, "So what's with the daytime drinking?" and then tosses the dart. It flies for the center ring without even a wobble. Not a bullseye, but under the circumstances, damned close.

"Obviously I'm here to give the local rattlesnake population time to refresh." Since she's been out shooting them for something to do with her aggression.

[iliketodruitt]

"I never understood what the hour of the day has to do with the suitability of a drink," John said. As long as you didn't need to be sober for whatever task you had planned the rest of the day, there was nothing wrong with imbibing.

"And I assume you're going to tackle the soon-to-be over populated rodents next?" he asked. Really, someone who worked for Helen should know better.

[girlsolo]

Kate rolls her eyes at him over her shoulder before she tosses the second dart and doesn't even watch it fly. "Like anything obeys the natural laws of predation on this island or desert or whatever it is," she scoffs. If it did, he'd still be a serial killer and she'd still be hunting him. "And if it is, we'll be changed back before it matters."

It's not a good justification, and she knows it. But there are kids running around the island and kids and rattlesnakes are a bad mix, no matter whether it's ecologically sound or right or not.

[iliketodruitt]

"I imagine things would start obeying those laws if it meant making things unpleasant for us," John said.

While he wasn't sure the island was some sort of malevolent entity, despite being cured of his madness he found it a sort of personal hell. As much as the freedom of his mind meant to him, it was a hollow gift without being able to share it with Helen as he wished to.

"Though you could certainly make a nice pair of boots with a few of the skins from the snakes."