scorpiobird: (November Somberness)
Puck Conolly ([personal profile] scorpiobird) wrote2016-07-06 11:20 pm

[Practice Thread]

It costs a lot of money to maintain a horse in Darrow, more than I expected. I thought it was hard on Thisby but at least no one was charging us on her lean-to. The money that comes each month isn't enough to pay for my apartment and Dove's stall at Villa Cordova. That's without her food, the costs of her veterinary care, or the new shoes the farrier put on her. No one cares here that she's the first normal horse to win the Scorpio Races. 

People talk of things arriving from home sometimes and in the back of my mind, I can think of any number of things that I'd like to see arrive but the Races' purse is most prominent in my thoughts.

Until then, I work. I've sold some painted plates and teapots at the cat cafe but not enough. Computers, mysterious as they are to me, seem a requirement to getting real paid work around here, so I'm bound for the library with mine in my bag. Hopefully someplace quiet will help. 
onefootinthesea: PB: aaron taylor-johnson (october chill)

[personal profile] onefootinthesea 2016-07-14 05:47 am (UTC)(link)
This place is a mystery, above all mysteries. Thisby, not all I've ever known but very near to, was no longer a mystery to me, I realize. It's the rest of the world--and whether this qualifies or not is up for debate--that is a curious thing. Darrow is more a mystery than the mainland, more a mystery than any far away place my mother read to me in storybooks as a child. I still don't know what to think of it. But Corr is here, and thriving well enough in these strange seas. And Kate Connolly--Puck Connolly.

To see her in Darrow is to wonder how I never noticed her on Thisby for all those years, with such fewer people, and with her hair, red in a different way than Corr is, but bright. Today, we're not particularly crossing paths, but I see her, and I've time enough to divert my path. After all, there's no Benjamin Malvern to stare down his bulbous nose at me here in Darrow. I'm owned by no man's time but my own.

I fall into stride with her, and say nothing at all.
onefootinthesea: PB: aaron taylor-johnson (october chill)

[personal profile] onefootinthesea 2016-07-14 03:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"I don't like it," I say finally, apropos of nothing else because there's been no other words between us, after we've walked for a while. To assure Puck knows I don't mean her fingers, I shift mine a little, taking her hand a bit more surely. I'm unfamiliar with this. We've only kissed twice, and I'm more sure of reins than hands.

"The weather. Doesn't it rain here?"

Which only reminds me of George Holly, standing in his white shoes in the capaill uisce round pen in the cliff, asking if Thisby was ever not raining.
onefootinthesea: PB: aaron taylor-johnson (sweater)

[personal profile] onefootinthesea 2016-07-15 12:40 am (UTC)(link)
"You're looking awful fit yourself," I say, which is maybe a strange thing, but she's not the waif on the back of a hay-bellied island pony any more. Even as strange as this place is, it has been good enough that neither of us seems to be eating as poorly as we were--beans for Puck, tinned meats for me.

But speaking of her like this is a strange thing. I think I must have told her, at some time or another, how remarkable she is. But perhaps I haven't. Perhaps I've only thought it.

Now, I say, "Where are we going?"
onefootinthesea: PB: aaron taylor-johnson (sweater)

[personal profile] onefootinthesea 2016-07-15 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
"You know there are postings at the City Hall and the colleges?" For myself, I've made myself valuable to the stables, as I always do, but they've a number of valuable grooms and trainers and what not, and there's no one to sell the horses to here. So, it's been every odd job I can find.

No one cares that I have won the Scorpio Races four of the last seven years, that Puck Connolly was the first woman, the first rider on horse back, to win a Scorpio Race. No one cares that Corr must be fed in blood and meet. To everyone here, we are just two new people, and one exceptionally odd horse.

"There's sure to be something you could do posted there."
onefootinthesea: PB: aaron taylor-johnson (ocean)

[personal profile] onefootinthesea 2016-07-17 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
I nod a bit. All the jobs I've found have been with my hands - roofing and helping people move about, which seems an odd job in a city you can't leave, and that sort of thing. You don't need to know how to use anything but your hands and a bit of your head for things like that.

"Old-fashioned," I say, because Thisby was a bit old fashioned maybe, in comparison to the mainland, and my father and I had loved it. And, of course, everything's old-fashioned to Darrow, with it's clean steel lines. I hate this place more than anything maybe. Maybe more than the Malvern Yards.
onefootinthesea: PB: aaron taylor-johnson (ocean)

[personal profile] onefootinthesea 2016-07-19 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
Cool and quiet is a thing that are found in short supply in Thisby, I've realized as we've both been here. The apartment that came with the city was so quiet, even, that I couldn't bare to stay there. I sleep more nights on the beach than in a bed, trying to find the rhythm of Thisby's ocean in these unfamiliar waves.

"I think I've only been in Saint Columba a few times," I confide. My confessional was the sea, had been since I was a child. I needed no priest for that.
onefootinthesea: PB: aaron taylor-johnson (yeah fine)

[personal profile] onefootinthesea 2016-07-21 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
"I know it's important to people." That seems a disingenuous thing to say, in the face of knowing that Puck has gone to confession. A part of me wants to ask if Puck attends a mass here in Darrow, but none of them would be the solemnity of Saint Columba. None of them will ever be Saint Columba. I've walked past those houses of worship, and they're - sterile. Even to me, with none of that faith.

We walk along in silence, a comfort to me and my inability to formulate my thoughts around Puck. When we reach the library, all I can do is shake my head a little bit.

"Do you think there are lions that come out of the woods or something?" I ask. Besides the library, there are statues with the beasts at City Hall as well. The sort of motifs that would have been horses on Thisby.
onefootinthesea: PB: aaron taylor-johnson (yeah fine)

[personal profile] onefootinthesea 2016-07-23 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
"But not you." It's a question without the intonation of it. She's said she's gone to confession--or missed it, purposefully or otherwise--which would imply a certain gravity, but the lack of her own mention in being grave about it says otherwise. A mystery on top of all the other Kate Connolly mysteries.

I have a feeling, ascending the steps toward the library, that George Holly might be having a laugh if he could see the two of us.

"Oh, doubtlessly," I agree. "But at least it would be something, wouldn't it? I suppose Darrow's strange enough, having brought us here."
onefootinthesea: PB: aaron taylor-johnson (yeah fine)

[personal profile] onefootinthesea 2016-07-27 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
"Is that what they're calling it these days?" I ask, because nothing about Puck seems horrible at all these days. There was a time, that first day on the beach when I dove into the surf to deal with the capall that was going for her and Dove, that I thought unkindly of her. But that was my own horridness, and not hers.

"It's a good thing I don't listen to half of Skarmouth for their opinions." If I did, I would probably care a lot more, or a lot less, about some people I cared a lot less, or a lot more, about. But I rather like how much I care about the few people I care about.

The library has an oppressive silence, but I'll take that, and the cool, to be with Puck. It is rather nice, after all.
onefootinthesea: PB: aaron taylor-johnson (yeah fine)

[personal profile] onefootinthesea 2016-07-28 04:36 am (UTC)(link)
When we settle at the table, I make a point of sitting beside her - but not too close - instead of across from her. I wasn't planning for this visit, so I haven't really got anything. And, besides, it will be a good learning experience for both of us. Probably.

Assuming we don't make complete arses of ourselves.

"Maybe one of the librarians can help? They seem to know a lot about these sorts of things, anyway."
onefootinthesea: PB: aaron taylor-johnson (yeah fine)

[personal profile] onefootinthesea 2016-07-30 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I smile, very small, at the way that Puck's eyebrows come together as she looks at the librarians. It seems just as much a challenge to approach them for guidance as it was for us to create our understanding on the cliff overlooking the beach. But, for her, it may be just as vital, unless she wants to eat beans for a month.

"That's about as far as I've gotten as well," I admit softly, and shake my head. Her computer takes a moment to come to life, and we're both left momentarily staring at it. I end up snorting a laugh at how helpless we both are about this.