OTA

[bloodycarrie]

She was doing so well.

There were some days when Carrie felt that Chamberlain, momma, and That Night, was all just a bad dream, that this was her real home: the Other place never existed.

Other nights, and it would all come back: the blood, their laughing, momma coming at her with a knife. It didn't help that Saturday's attack, with the shooting and

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[faramir_hurin]

"It's the middle of the night." I feel another poke. "Can you not wait just a few hours?"

Poke. I sigh.

"Well, if it will keep you off the walls in here, just for a short while."

I'm not terribly awake yet fully so... I've opened the door and Olore has whipped half way down the hallway before I realise that someone is out there. I look, carefully, and see a young lady.

Wonderful. I quickly put on my smallclothes and trousers, with a robe to cover and I'm in the hallway after my rather large cat. 40 pounds of odd-looking feline is more than most wish to see running at them in the middle of the night--at least he started in the other direction.

"Pardon my lady," I say, likely too quietly for her to hear right away. "He just wants to run sometimes."

When I'm asleep.

[bloodycarrie]

heheh, yeah, Carrie definitely doesn't need the sight of a naked guy

It was the large cat that caught her attention. Her town was too small for a zoo, and her momma didn't even own a car, so whatever experience she did have with large cats came from books.

In other words, she was in no way prepared to see a large cat bound down the corridor, and she was torn between gasping and staring, before a voice caught her attention.

She turned, her eyes becoming a little bigger when she saw the man behind her. Her experience with men, especially in such forms of 'dress' were less than her experience with large cats, and she quickly looked at the floor.

"You..you say something?" Truth be told, she may've just thought she heard something, or maybe he wasn't even speaking to her-but then to who?

[faramir_hurin]

Now that I'm in the hall, Olore stops where I am and looks at me. Then he looks at the mostly-empty hallway ahead, then behind, and runs back the way he came. At least he did not run at the lady. I am so embarrassed.

"Pardon, my lady," I say a bit louder. I'm mindful of the sleeping people, walking toward her while making sure my robe is pulled closed as much as possible on top. It wasn't meant to be put on over street clothing.

"My cat Olore just wishes to run. I did not know that anyone was out at this hour and thought that his size might be worrisome." I smile, hoping the red goes down. "He won't harm you, just run."

Quickly. As long as he doesn't stop and scratch for his much-larger friend in 142. Mughi can be a truly frightening sight.

"Please excuse us for disturbing you."

She's rather young to be out here in the middle of the night. Did we disturb her or did something else do that?

[bloodycarrie]

So he was speaking to her.

"You didn't. I was already up." She got that much of his explanation.

She shoved her hands into the pockets of her robe, being a little grateful that she hadn't woken him up.

[faramir_hurin]

"Already awake with no cat to have done it." It is not a good joke, especially since the young lady is not fully dressed. She too wears a robe, but over a much longer garment than most modern women generally wear.

"My name is Faramir. Olore is coming to greet you now." He's not running but walking ahead. He often finds a kind petting hand from women.

[bloodycarrie]

"Momma never let me have a cat." Not with their associations to the 'evil one': they were the lesser evil than dogs in her opinion, but it was enough that Carrie never had a pet.

"Carrie." She answered, mostly looked at the large cat with a wary eye, before slowly holding out her hand to it.

[faramir_hurin]

I smile as Olore sniffs the offered fingers and, finding the scent to his liking, rubbing against them.

"Where I come from, cats work in barns and kitchens keeping pests away. Then again, we don't have cats like Olore either. I was told that he's an African Serval." Which should explain his size, massive ears, and short tail. "I never considered a cat as a pet before and the village decided that I should have this one."

I shrug.

"The village has a sense of humour sometimes."

[bloodycarrie]

It was a messed up sense of homur, if it was rooming with her with a former queen of England. She new what her mother would say on such matters, especially a queen like Katherine Howard, but Carrie had (or at any rate was trying) to cut off the proverbial apron strings.

She carefully started stroking the large cat'-Olore's-head.

"I'd like a pet." She was hesitant though. She'd never had one really, and she wasn't sure if she could take care of them, but she'd seen people with pets before, and wanted to know what it would feel like to have that sort of affection for an animal.

[faramir_hurin]

"I never had one before here. The lady who helped me when I first arrived had a kitten. It was watching him grow that made me wish to have a cat." An ordinary cat.

"There is an animal shelter here where you can go and find a pet, if you like. If you room with someone it's polite to ask first." I smile, thinking. "When my brother was here, before he found his lady and wed, he'd not have been content to have a cat in his room, even if it was actually mine."

I can just imagine.

"He'd have liked it, but complained loudly just to make a point, knowing my brother."

Olore seems content and I think young Carrie would do well with a pet. If she'd been... cats know, dogs too, when someone is not pleasant.

"Have you been here long?" Perhaps she already knows about the shelter.

[bloodycarrie]

"About four weeks, don't know if that's long." She didn't know how long the village had been here, just how long she'd been in it.

"Katherine may like a pet, I don't know. She doesn't really talk much except about fashion and those things." Vanity and all of it's sources, but otherwise she was harnless: silly and harmless.

It was why she didn't want her to freak out about her power.

[faramir_hurin]

Not terribly long, but enough.

"Have you work? I did when I was here that long." I got work right away--I needed the distraction. "I don't know how the shelter decides who can adopt a pet, if they need work or not."

Or roommate approval.

"I know little of fashion and less of what that means in the modern world. I've no sisters and when I need special things here I ask for help." I'm a bit red. "The fashion for men where I'm from is to be soldiers. I'm not even sure what those other things are."

Perhaps I would if I had a sister.

"I've had several lady friends here close as sisters." We don't speak of fashion, really.

[bloodycarrie]

She nodded.

"I work at the altercations shop, helping with clothes and upholstry. Sewing was really all I did back home." Oh, they had underwear and things ordered through the mail, but most of their clothes were just made. Momma didn't trust the current fashions.

"It's the mid 70s where I'm from, so even clothing from there would be out of date here." She shrugged. "I don't mind the chatting really-it's harmless."

[faramir_hurin]

"That shop is new but I've not been there. Do you make new clothing too?" I ask. "I'm not from Earth at all though I've come to wear their modern clothing. I have some patterns of garments from home if you can make things."

My oldest shirt was cut apart when Garak was here and there are still other patterns of things he made for me and Boromir. The little clothing for Henry would not be particularly useful, unless someone else has a baby who wishes old-fashioned things.

"Chatting is generally harmless, I just wouldn't have a lot to contribute." Even a lady from a number of years before most here would know more of fashion than I do.

"Pardon. I do have a tendency to talk a lot." And Olore doesn't mind when he's getting attention. So much for 'needing' to run.

[bloodycarrie]

"So long as they're not complicated. Even then, I can but it'll take a little longer." She was already working on a dress for Katherine, but it was very elaborate and taking a bit of time.

Where are you from?" She'd met people who weren't human, but to her knowledge no one who wasn't from Earth.

"I don't mind people that talk a lot, so long as they don't talk over me." It saved her from talking herself.

[faramir_hurin]

"I don't know about complicated. They're everyday things, not court wear." I can only shrug. "I can sew enough to mend a seam or replace buttons, but I could never make anything

[bloodycarrie]

This was the first time she'd ever heard of a man sewing, even something like mending: she always saw it as something women did. Certainly if any of the boys she saw at school admitted to such practices they would've been laughed at.

She hadn't heard of Middle-Earth either, but the 'Middle' part was almost as interesting as the implication that he wasn't used to 'modern things' like electricity.

"No, I..I couldn't sleep. Nightmares." Short and not so sweet. "I was going for a walk."

"Why's it called 'Middle-Earth'? You can talk about it if you'd like, I come from a small town myself, so anything beyond that sounds interesting."

There may've been a small ghost of a grin on her face, but it could've easily been from the distraction he provided.