2018-06-06: Do Me A Loner
- Log: Do Me A Loner
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Molly Mason
- Where: Pendrago - Port District
- Date: June 6th 2018
- Summary: Josie and Molly cross paths in the harbor, one woman a little lost, one woman a little cross. Josie discovers how to improve her mood. Molly gets paid for her time. Penelope triumphs.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
If bars could legally and openly sell alcohol on the moon, it's a safe bet that Josephine Lovelace would be downing a hard drink about right now.
Instead, because of the law -- and more importantly, because of her desire to not get arrested on the moon, this is in fact a thing she is NOT doing.
(Sure, there are probably some illegal hideyholes that a woman like Josie could probably find her way to without much trouble. But Pendrago is not precisely her stomping grounds, and without a good idea about who's willing to tattle on who, well... Some risks aren't worth the admission.)
A few days ago, she'd been in a better mood. A few days ago, she still had most of her belongings and the spoils from a ruin in the heart of a toxic swamp.
And then the city she had snuck into to do a little recon work (and earn some cash) had been attacked, and a belltower had fallen, and...
All this runup is perhaps part of the reason why the archaeologist is leaning against a warehouse near the docks and watching the waterfront, waiting for the next ship to come in. Job or no, she's heading back to Vane for a little bit, at least to collect the gear she left that DIDN'T get lost under rubble.
Also, to get a damn drink.
Even someone as laidback as she is has their limits, and that one was crossed days ago. As may be suggested by the somewhat aggressive way she's smoking her handrolled cigarette.
Penelope mills about nearby, eyeing some of the local gulls with what may be an avian sort of suspicion.
<Pose Tracker> Molly Mason has posed.
Unlike many people, Molly didn't even bother with the damn swamp. She knows a bad idea when she sees one.
In fact, after nearly getting arrested and very possibly being the first woman to fire a gunsmoke weapon on the moon of all places, Molly decided to lay low for a short while. She's not going back to jail if she can help it! That's Morgan's job.
However, since she's not nearly as avid an adventurer as most Diggers are... she's had to fall back on other means of making a living.
Finding most of the tools she needed was hard enough, but finding the customers...
Well, if you know where to look, they're everywhere these days.
"Hey there," comes a familiar(?) voice from a little ways to Josie's right. Aside from the heavy-looking satchel slung over her shoulder, Molly looks much the same as she did the last time they ran into each other - a little cleaner, maybe. No deserts to roam around in does wonders for a girl's morale and hygeine standards. "Good to see you've still got your sidekick."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
If there's one thing about the moon that Josie's learned, it's this:
Well, they don't have alcohol, generally.
And it's pretty generally no singing, no dancing.
And there are a lot of trees and flowers and fields, and not a grain of sand to be had anywhere.
But OTHER THAN ANY OF THAT, what she's learned is that ARMs are unknown up here, outside them that brought them.
Luckily, when it comes to this, she has her old skillset to fall back onto, though truth be told: she'd kill for her proper toolkit back. It's lost, along with a certain lost airship.
And maybe a full workshop, or at least someone who sells the properly-sized parts so she can save some time. And as long as she's dreaming, a real ammo salesperson, and maybe a discount ARM parts grab bag since she's been itching to really redo the work on the Gawain, and...
But we digress.
Someone calls out to her as she has her sulky smoke, and it's here that Josie straightens and turns towards the sound. "Hey?" A pause trails out, before Josie threads the proverbial needle: "Mary!"
A beat. "Molly! Right, that's the one. How's it hanging? Heh, hopefully better'n me and mine."
The seagulls, meanwhile, just look back at the bird with a particular sort of birdy wariness. This isn't helped when Penelope slowly, slowly, starts to advance on the flock.
Who may be collectively wondering if they might find a better buffet meal on the other side of the docks.
<Pose Tracker> Molly Mason has posed.
The moment Molly learned there was no booze allowed on the moon, she was done with the entire place. How do people live like this?!
Mary? The brunette barely lifts an eyebrow. "Here and I was worried that I'd misremembered your name," she smirks. "Yeah, Molly. How've you been, Josie?" It better not have been Julie or something all this time...!
"That good, huh?" Yeah, the moon can go suck eggs. "Mostly been trying to lay low and stay out've trouble. Not a whole lot've work for gunsmiths here, but I'm getting by."
Strolling up the rest of the way to stand next to Josie, Molly takes out her own tobacco pouch and thoughtfully rolls a cigarette. "Let me know if you've got any repairs to make, by the way." And that's the closest thing Molly's ever made to a salesman's spiel. She lights her cigarette with a worn-out metal lighter and sucks in a lungful, eyes lidding as she watches Penelope advance.
Man, why can't all pigeons be like this one?
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The real answer is that some of them do, some of them don't. There's nothing quite like prohibition to bring about the real criminal enterpise hiding in the heart of humanity* (*and beastfolk and elves and...)
"Eh, close enough," is Josie's response, waving her free hand stiffly through the air. Her dark-eyed gaze slides towards Molly. "Honestly? Right now? ...Could be better." She doesn't see fit to elaborate much at the moment, though, instead rolling her shoulders in a lazy shrug as she peels away from the wall entirely and drops the dog end of a cigarette to grind it underfoot with a heel. "Tell me about it. Probably just from people like us, huh? ...Though, I did hear a rumor about Lastonbell. Didn't see it myself, of course, but if I've got it right... guess the people around here might want a little help from people like you."
She tilts her head to one side, as if to suggest: 'get it?'
"My own repairs, huh... What do you have in there, a full kit?"
She has a thoughtful look on her face.
Penelope, meanwhile, continues her advance on the luckless seagulls.
The seagulls share a glance.
Then one after the other, take to the skies.
Penelope proceeds along as only a pigeon with a purposeful strut can do.
Though any menace is probably undercut by the head bobbing. Well, we can't have it all.
<Pose Tracker> Molly Mason has posed.
Josie doesn't elaborate, and Molly doesn't pry.
"Yeah, folks like us." There are more than she'd guessed here, though less than she'd hoped. "Lastonbell? Haven't been out there much yet. Might have to make a point to see the place." She leans back against the wall as Josie comes away from it, crossing one ankle over the other to take some strain off of the joint. It's nice to take a break, even if she'd rather be settled someplace a little more horizontal.
A gentle swing of her hip scuffs the canvas satchel against the bricks. "Everything I can hope to carry on me, anyway. If you've bent the barrel, trueing it won't be quite as fast as normal but I can still put it right." She misses her workshop and its vice and clamp and all the little tins and jars and her tools, not the ones she bought or jury-rigged here. The handles don't fit her hands right, and that makes everything feel a little off. It, among so very many other things, makes Molly feel a bit grumpy.
"Get 'em, girl," she chuckles at the retreating seagulls, cigarette pinched between thumb and forefinger and arms loosely crossed beneath her chest.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Down to the southeast, though I'd stay clear." Her smile is a lopsided one when she continues: "Had a bit of a... what do you call it, a siege? Then a broken siege. So it's not exactly a place I'd go to hang around in, unless you think you might be able to make a coin or two in the process." The smile broadens. "If that's the case, then knock yourself out, right?"
'Making a coin or two in the process' may in fact be Josie's loose plan of action, once she sorts out her equipment issue and the necessary fine-tuning that Gawain needs. A complete rehaul would be better, of course, but without the spares, she's not doing anything except maintenance.
Which is where Molly's kit comes into play.
"Nah, nothing bent."
She does not immediately elaborate here, either.
"Don't suppose you'd be willing to do a loaner for a few coin? That is, if you've got the tools I'm looking for."
The kinds of things she definitely had lost with the Fereshte, that is, which are definitely NOT back in Vane.
Penelope, meanwhile, attains the surface area previously held by seagulls. She is victorious this day, possibly? Maybe that's one way to read it.
Penelope then coos, followed by some careful grooming of a wing.
<Pose Tracker> Molly Mason has posed.
"You wanna fix your own weapon?" She doesn't sound terribly put out by the idea - after all, Josie did just offer to pay for the use of her tools. "I might have it in here. Wanna go somewhere a little less busy," preferably inside, "an' take a look at what I managed to put together?"
Most of the way through her cigarette by now, Molly switches which ankle she's resting with a quiet sigh. "I have the room to myself for a bit before I'm expecting company."
Everybody should be as successful in life as Penelope. Sometimes, it really makes a body wonder what a pigeon did to get ahead like that... and if it's applicable to humans, too.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Feeling significantly more saucy than she has in days, Josie can only grin over at the other woman. "I'd know it best, right?"
This is followed by yet another shrug. "Anyway, it's not so much a fix as a... tuneup? Unless you've got parts to spare, too." Judging by the look in her eyes, Josie doesn't quite think that's so. "It shouldn't take long. Just gotta do some grunt work, see what's wearing down, the works."
It really needs a better sight, but beggers can't be choosers. Maybe if they ever set foot back on Filgaia, she can see about getting what she wants for her next modifications.
"Your place then, eh? Been a while since I made a date of it." Josie laughs, then, with a glitter in those dark eyes of hers, takes a step towards Molly. "Well, I'm all yours. Or maybe that should be the other way around? Hmm, 'your toolkit is all mine'? Well, enough with the innuendo. Anyway~"
She whistles, apparently for her bird.
Penelope, predictably, does not arrive.
Will not, in fact, until they're about halfway to Molly's room for rent.