|
|
Post by Gabbi McGinn on Feb 9, 2008 23:48:53 GMT -5
Gabbi was running down the side of the river, and had been running for a long while. There were wooden boards that constituted a walkway, but she was maneuvering far closer to the river. Her feet were still bare, running through the cold mud. The mud had seeped through the boards too, due to recent climate-related changes, and the boards gave her bare feet splinters.
A large, grotesque toad jumped out in front of her and she slipped around it, but consequently also slipped part of the way down onto the river bank. The mud trailed up her leg, mid-thigh, and she groaned. Great. That was probably going to be highly uncomfortable. Fortunately her skirt was brown, not some white or creme color, and she could use it later to wipe it off.
She grumbled something and went to push herself off the bank, but ended up getting somewhat stuck. Her left foot was under a layer of sticky mud, and she couldn't bend enough to use her hand to free it. The bodice she was wearing was resticting, unfortunately, and she groaned. The curse of being a woman.
This left her straddling the bank, shivering as the cold mud and slight entrails of water began to seep over her foot and ankle. It was rather uncomfortable, and she really didn't want to stay here for long.
|
|
|
|
Post by Houdini on Feb 12, 2008 5:41:14 GMT -5
Houdini snarled at a passing stray dog. She hadn't done so well in the poker game in Brooklyn's Lodging house. She aimed a kick at the poor dog. He seemed to be the perfect candidate to blow her anger out on. The dog scrambled away whimpering. So much for that. Houdini dragged her feet against the mud caked boards, causing a scraping sound that was highly irritating. She could feel stray pieces of wood sticking up through the thin soles of her worn leather shoes. She groaned aloud, thinking there wouldn’t be anyone around her to hear. She could have sworn she heard someone grumbling something to the side of her down in the bank….
She heard it again. There was definitely someone down there. Who in there right mind would be down in the muddy bank…? She asked herself, and then proceeded to look over the side. There was someone down there. She seemed to be stuck if Houdini ever did see it, and she also seemed to be familiar. Houdini recognized her from somewhere…One of Spot’s Newsies, maybe? Well, she had nothing to lose and nowhere to be, so she decided she may as well help the girl out.
“Ya alright?” she called down to the girl. Timidly, she put one of her feet into the mud to see how deep it went. It seemed to suck her right in up to her ankle. She pulled it out and kicked off her shoes as she rolled up her pants. She could sense that she was about to get rather dirty. It wasn’t the smartest of things for Houdini to be sticking bare feet into cold watery mud while she had influenza – but since when did Houdini say no to risks?
She slowly made her way down to the girl, sticking her hands in the mud to keep her from tumbling down. Her feet seemed to glide right through the mud, and she was having trouble keeping her balance. She finally reached the girl.
|
|
|
|
Post by Gabbi McGinn on Feb 12, 2008 18:11:46 GMT -5
((Wow, I fail >.< My entire post got deleted. Sorry if this one sucks xP))
Gabbi groaned as she looked up to see a girl peering down at her, and then talking to her later on. She gave a vicious upward pull but only got further stuck in the fetid mud, the odor of it alone causing her to heave in a gag. She coughed and spat, once, into the brackish mud.
"Yeah, jest havin meself a little f---n party down here," she called back up, fractitiously. She had no sense of who the girl was, seeing as her eyesight was actually rather poor when it came to distances, but she couldn't afford glasses. She'd also never had her eyesight checked, not since she was a wee bairn, but she couldn't well tell the difference anyway.
Gabbi watched as the girl came down for her and she shook her head. It was a foolish thing to do-- she should have given her something to unstick herself with, not get the other girl stuck too. "Youse don't gotta come down, jest throw down a stick or somethin." She paused, "Or a log, rock, something big."
|
|
|
|
Post by Houdini on Feb 13, 2008 2:00:04 GMT -5
"Yeah, jest havin meself a little f---n party down here,"
Houdini grimaced, "I see that...Looks like your having fun..." she said sarcastically.
"Youse don't gotta come down, jest throw down a stick or somethin." She paused, "Or a log, rock, something big."
Oh well, gee thanks, Tell me earlier next time..Houdini thought frowning. So far, she wasn't as stuck as the girl in the mud, but she was getting there. She noted the muckish color of the mud that the girl was in, and noted that the mud she was in was more of a watery clay. She could work with that... She made it a point not to get into the muck colored mud.
"Hey, I think if we mix this watery crap with that mucky stuff your in, it'll loosen it up enough for you to slide your foot out like it was in water." Houdini said, staying where she was until the girl responded. "What do you think?" she asked, prompting her.
((I know how that is - the one in the graveyard i did got deleted and it was about 4 word pages long...And then I had to write up some crappy new one..))
|
|
|
|
Post by Gabbi McGinn on Feb 13, 2008 23:16:24 GMT -5
"Loads," she mumbled unhappily, looking rather discontent with her present situation, and the one she was potentially getting Houdini--whose name she did not know yet-- into the same trouble simultaneously. She looked around for anything that would assist her in getting out, again, so that she could at least make an effort to solve her own problem.
Of course, there was nothing in her immediate sight. So much for that.
Gabbi nodded at Houdini's next suggestion, although she knew little of the chemical makeup and tendancies of different types of mud. She hadn't even noticed that there was much of a difference between the muds, and even if she had that wouldn't have been the solution that she would have come up with. However it seemd plausible to her, so she decided that it was at least worth half a shot. The worst that could happen was that she would remain stuck, so there wasn't really much for her to lose.
"Sounds fine to me," she said, although Houdini might have to start the whole thing off, seeing as she was out of reach of the clay herself. Ah, well.
((gah dude that sucks xP))
|
|
|
|
Post by Houdini on Feb 14, 2008 0:51:48 GMT -5
"Sounds fine to me,"
Houdini nodded. This was going to be messy. She began her strenuous shoveling of watery mud and who knows what else, over into the girls "Spot". "Ok, now your gonna hafta mix it around a bit. Squish it up, ya know?" she said over to the girl. She winced as her hand came into contact with something sharp. It felt like a broken bottle.
As she continued shoveling the mud with her now very cold hands, she said, "I'm Houdini by the way." then she added, "I take it your one of Spot's newsies?" she asked. She hated to call people "Spots" or "Jacks" or "Stars", because she felt as though she was stereotyping them into that category. She knew that she hated, so why should anyone else like it.
((sorry - crappy post))
|
|
|
|
Post by Gabbi McGinn on Feb 16, 2008 23:25:21 GMT -5
Gabbi nodded, feeling utterly ridiculous all the while. She tried to pull up her left leg but this only resulted in her right leg getting more stuck in. Instead of just shoving her hands into the mud, and thereby allowing her skirts to fall into the mud, she tucked her skirts into the hem of her petticoat, not minding if that got further muddied. While it would be unimaginibly indecent not to wear one, she could more easily cover that then not wearing any other article of clothing and thus had decided that it would not be spared.
"Brooklyn, aye," she said, looking up at the girl as she rolled her sleeves up past the elbows, snapping the buttons into place as far up as they would continue to cuff. The rigidity of the material was inflexible, but it rolled considerably well over her malnourished, undersized arms. "Name's Gabbi," she added, biting on her lower lips a she stuck her hands into the brackish, uncomfortable and revolting brown mud.
She managed to get her left leg considerably more free than her right. This was one of those times that she delighted in her choice--well, rather, her general categorization as below the poverty line-- not to wear shoes or socks-. It was one less thing to clean. In winter, though, hypothermia ran rampant and she went through socks quickly. Oftentimes old newspapers became her makeshift shoes, but twine was also diffiuclt to come by in wintertime, not to mention she looked positively ridiculous with yesterday's papers blackening her feet. It made it more difficult to tell whether or not she was frostbitten-- the black residue from the paper oftentimes looked a lot like the symptoms that were the byproducts of the frostbite.
She considered herself lucky, though. She hadn't lost any toes yet.
Finally she was able to get her left leg onto a slightly less foul, sinky part of the mud. Her foot only went in to her ankle, even despite significant force. With this she was able to free her right leg as well, and wade over to Houdini. She made a move to shake the other girl's hand but then withdrew, "Ah, we can save dat for once I get meself clean. Well, cleaner."
|
|
|
|
Post by Houdini on Feb 17, 2008 15:44:10 GMT -5
Gabbi...
The name sounded familiar, but then again there could be tons of Gabbi's in New York. She was a Brooklyn Newsie, so Houdini would have to watch what she said around her. She really didn't want to get on Spot's bad side again.
Houdini moved as close as she dared without getting herself stuck in the coarse mud as well. Her clothes were completely covered in mud, which meant that she would have to break out her only other set of pants, and then steal someone's shirt. Or maybe she would ask for it? No...She would just take it. She inwardly groaned and sighed at the same time. Groaning for her clothes, and sighing because her only pair of shoes (which were thin and tattered but still served their purpose) were safely up on the wooden planks, not a mite of mud within them.
"Ah, we can save dat for once I get meself clean. Well, cleaner."
Houdini laughed, looking down at her own mud streaked hand. "Guess we should get on outta here, and maybe wash up somewhere close." she said to Gabbi. She really didn't want to walk all the way back to Queens covered in mud, as it would be quite irritating and would more than likely rub her skin raw if they didn't fall off of her small frame from the weight of the mud first.
"You know of anywhere close by that we could wash?" she asked, hoping that Gabbi would know since she knew the area better than Houdini.
|
|
|
|
Post by Gabbi McGinn on Feb 20, 2008 17:31:44 GMT -5
Gabbi nodded, grinning a bit herself. She was feeling surprisingly chipper despite the circumstances, although she admittantly felt a bit guilty about getting the other girl, who'd identified herself as Houdini, and it dawned on her that Houdini was seen as the "leader" of Queens. Gabbi had never been keen on the tag 'leader,' however. It made it seem like the rest were just helpless and lost, but oftentimes members of the borough were just as adept, if not moreso, than the appointed leaders. But leaders were respected and respectable, so she usually gave them that.
If they deserved it, that is.
It didn't take Gabbi long to decide that Houdini deserved it though. Perhaps not if she was Brooklyn's leader--she wasn't sure, actually, where Houdini was from-- but she seemed intelligent, from what she could readily assume, and also capable. It wasn't exactly a prize to be accepted in Gabbi's book--for still, she wasn't anybody of importance in the exponentially growing city-- but she acted as if one should think of it as such, sometimes inadvertantly.
She shrugged a bit, thinking it over. "We'se got a washroom in da lodgin' house, we'se could go there. I...dont really got an extra pair of clothes for you," she said, her cheeks coloring slightly, "But I'se sure someone would have something for you if you wanna try to wash yer clothes in da wash basin...." It was the best offer that she could give, particularly because she didn't want to continue to feel guilty for the mucky state of her clothing.
|
|
|
|
Post by Houdini on Feb 24, 2008 11:16:18 GMT -5
((De Ja Vu...Skittery (me) has a thread with Jack and Star in Manhattan House for the same reason...))
"We'se got a washroom in da lodgin' house, we'se could go there. I...dont really got an extra pair of clothes for you," she said, her cheeks coloring slightly, "But I'se sure someone would have something for you if you wanna try to wash yer clothes in da wash basin...."
Houdini grimaced. She wanted to avoid Spot Conlon if at all possible, but she was no coward. She would go. She nodded and replied, "Yeah, sure." then as a second thought, "Don't worry about it - I only got one pair of clothes, and even then - they ain't mine.." she smirked. She knew some people were touchy about the fact that they could only afford one pair of clothes, and she completely understood.
"So, Spot won't mind havin' someone like me in the Brooklyn House?" she asked raising her eyebrows. She knew there would be tension, especially if Spot happened to strut in while they were washing.
|
|
