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31_days2016-08-03 08:03 pm
insaneladybug.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2016-08-03 08:03 pm
[August 3rd] [The Wild Wild West] I'll Make You Happy as a Duck Someday
Title: I'll Make You Happy as a Duck Someday
Day/Theme: August 3rd - at sea on the gray waters just far enough from any shore to know the news of the land
Series: The Wild Wild West (specifically, The Poisonous Posey episode)
Character/Pairing: Snakes Tolliver/Chita McCarthy (she's an OC; he's in my icon)
Rating: K+/PG
Continuing from the prior piece. If anything Snakes says sounds anachronistic for the time period, it is completely intentional for more reasons than one. ;)
By Lucky_Ladybug
Gamblers love riverboats. That's always been a thing in the States, although I never really knew why. But I planned to be part of it as soon as I decided to take up gambling as an occupation. I also decided that a trip on a riverboat would be the perfect honeymoon experience for Chita and me.
She was completely agreeable. It probably sounded like just the ticket for a showgirl wannabe who wanted all the finest things that life had to offer. Really, she seemed more excited about that than about getting married. Well, on such sort notice and all, who could blame her?
We were both young, stupid kids, but Chita was older than me and she knew better. I wondered a lot through the years why she agreed to marry me when she didn't really want to and when she knew I was just naive and infatuated. I finally figured it out, but that's a part of the story that will come later . . . although I wouldn't be surprised if everybody reading this gets at least part of it right off the bat. They always say the person being wronged is always the last one to know.
Maybe more than just being infatuated with her, I was in love with the idea that she cared about me. I sure wasn't in love with her. I mean, we'd only known each other for twelve hours when I proposed. Love at first sight, or in the first day, is just idiotic romantic bunk that the media tries to sell people because they figure people are such mushy lunkheads that they'll believe anything that sounds squishy in a good way. Listen to me, now I sound like Coley Rodman.
I'll say this, though: Even though I never should've made such an outlandish proposal, and even though she really shouldn't have accepted, I took the whole thing pretty seriously. I thought I had somebody who cared about me and that wasn't something to be trivialized. I was gonna be the best, most faithful husband I could be.
I couldn't get diamonds yet, but I found the nicest ring I could afford. Chita had a white dress and got a bouquet. We had a simple service performed by a justice of the peace that I paid a lot of attention to and that Chita seemed to be spacing out on. But she smiled at me and took my arm as we headed out of the place as husband and wife.
A riverboat called the Enterprise was heading out of New Orleans that day after picking up a local cargo to take up the river. I paid for our tickets and we got aboard just before she set sail.
It was a new experience for both of us and we were equally fascinated. When we saw the grand salon and all the other passengers, Chita practically got stars in her eyes and I started thinking of all the poker games I could run with this crowd. The captain, Grey Holden, didn't take kindly to crooks riding his boat, but I'd never been caught at cheating and didn't intend to start now. As long as the games seemed to be legit, I was sure he'd be permissive. He had nothing against gambling; rumor had it that he'd won his boat in a poker game.
As the day went on, Chita entertained in true showgirl fashion with a set of songs in the salon and I played poker in the corner with anybody who was willing to give it a shot. I had a good view of Chita from my position and I watched her during the game. She knew how to bring in the crowds, that was for sure. She sang, she danced, she rolled across the bar and flirted with the spectators by teasing them with her boa.
I guess it should have been a red flag right there that she really wasn't interested in settling down or marriage, even though she'd out-and-out agreed. But I thought I knew how theatre people were and I figured there was no harm in her just doing her act. And maybe I also figured that everything had been so sudden and she just needed to get the innocent flirting out of her system. Of course, looking back on it now, all I can think is Some honeymoon! She was more interested in flirting with strangers than in being with me. Not that I was much more than another stranger to her.
When evening fell, we had dinner together and then went out to enjoy the view from the deck. "So how much did you make today?" she asked.
I took out my wallet. "A pretty big wad."
She stared at the amount of bills and her eyes gleamed. "Let's hope the Captain lets you play every day."
I laughed. "There might be some restrictions. He wouldn't want everybody onboard but us to leave broke."
She moved closer to me and ran her hand along my shoulder. "I don't know; that sounds pretty good to me."
I grinned. I couldn't deny that. It felt so good to finally be getting on top of things instead of always being beat down and abused. A person can only take so much of that before they just break.
"So how do you like riding on a riverboat?" I asked.
"I like it a lot," she said. "It's so mysterious out here and the water keeps the temperatures pretty cool. And the river's so big. It feels like we're the only ones out here for miles."
"And we probably are." Tomorrow we'd probably stop in at a port city and collect the news, but right then we were pretty much detached from the world as a whole. It really was kind of nice under those circumstances.
Chita sighed happily and rested her head on my shoulder. "It really is a beautiful night."
"I always liked night better than day anyway," I said. "Especially after I . . . got hurt. It was harder for people to see what I looked like in the dark." There I went, baring my soul again.
Chita responded by petting my hair under my hat. "Yeah, I guess that would make nighttime pretty attractive. Me, I always liked night better too. It seemed like so many more interesting things happened at night." She smiled seductively at me.
I smiled too. "You wanna go back to our stateroom?"
Now she started playing with my string tie. "Yeah."
"Okay then." I put my arm around her and we headed inside.
It was a good night overall. But the first day of our honeymoon had already been unconventional and that was a pretty good signal for what our lives would be like when it was time to come back down to Earth. I'd wish later that I'd paid attention.
Day/Theme: August 3rd - at sea on the gray waters just far enough from any shore to know the news of the land
Series: The Wild Wild West (specifically, The Poisonous Posey episode)
Character/Pairing: Snakes Tolliver/Chita McCarthy (she's an OC; he's in my icon)
Rating: K+/PG
Continuing from the prior piece. If anything Snakes says sounds anachronistic for the time period, it is completely intentional for more reasons than one. ;)
Gamblers love riverboats. That's always been a thing in the States, although I never really knew why. But I planned to be part of it as soon as I decided to take up gambling as an occupation. I also decided that a trip on a riverboat would be the perfect honeymoon experience for Chita and me.
She was completely agreeable. It probably sounded like just the ticket for a showgirl wannabe who wanted all the finest things that life had to offer. Really, she seemed more excited about that than about getting married. Well, on such sort notice and all, who could blame her?
We were both young, stupid kids, but Chita was older than me and she knew better. I wondered a lot through the years why she agreed to marry me when she didn't really want to and when she knew I was just naive and infatuated. I finally figured it out, but that's a part of the story that will come later . . . although I wouldn't be surprised if everybody reading this gets at least part of it right off the bat. They always say the person being wronged is always the last one to know.
Maybe more than just being infatuated with her, I was in love with the idea that she cared about me. I sure wasn't in love with her. I mean, we'd only known each other for twelve hours when I proposed. Love at first sight, or in the first day, is just idiotic romantic bunk that the media tries to sell people because they figure people are such mushy lunkheads that they'll believe anything that sounds squishy in a good way. Listen to me, now I sound like Coley Rodman.
I'll say this, though: Even though I never should've made such an outlandish proposal, and even though she really shouldn't have accepted, I took the whole thing pretty seriously. I thought I had somebody who cared about me and that wasn't something to be trivialized. I was gonna be the best, most faithful husband I could be.
I couldn't get diamonds yet, but I found the nicest ring I could afford. Chita had a white dress and got a bouquet. We had a simple service performed by a justice of the peace that I paid a lot of attention to and that Chita seemed to be spacing out on. But she smiled at me and took my arm as we headed out of the place as husband and wife.
A riverboat called the Enterprise was heading out of New Orleans that day after picking up a local cargo to take up the river. I paid for our tickets and we got aboard just before she set sail.
It was a new experience for both of us and we were equally fascinated. When we saw the grand salon and all the other passengers, Chita practically got stars in her eyes and I started thinking of all the poker games I could run with this crowd. The captain, Grey Holden, didn't take kindly to crooks riding his boat, but I'd never been caught at cheating and didn't intend to start now. As long as the games seemed to be legit, I was sure he'd be permissive. He had nothing against gambling; rumor had it that he'd won his boat in a poker game.
As the day went on, Chita entertained in true showgirl fashion with a set of songs in the salon and I played poker in the corner with anybody who was willing to give it a shot. I had a good view of Chita from my position and I watched her during the game. She knew how to bring in the crowds, that was for sure. She sang, she danced, she rolled across the bar and flirted with the spectators by teasing them with her boa.
I guess it should have been a red flag right there that she really wasn't interested in settling down or marriage, even though she'd out-and-out agreed. But I thought I knew how theatre people were and I figured there was no harm in her just doing her act. And maybe I also figured that everything had been so sudden and she just needed to get the innocent flirting out of her system. Of course, looking back on it now, all I can think is Some honeymoon! She was more interested in flirting with strangers than in being with me. Not that I was much more than another stranger to her.
When evening fell, we had dinner together and then went out to enjoy the view from the deck. "So how much did you make today?" she asked.
I took out my wallet. "A pretty big wad."
She stared at the amount of bills and her eyes gleamed. "Let's hope the Captain lets you play every day."
I laughed. "There might be some restrictions. He wouldn't want everybody onboard but us to leave broke."
She moved closer to me and ran her hand along my shoulder. "I don't know; that sounds pretty good to me."
I grinned. I couldn't deny that. It felt so good to finally be getting on top of things instead of always being beat down and abused. A person can only take so much of that before they just break.
"So how do you like riding on a riverboat?" I asked.
"I like it a lot," she said. "It's so mysterious out here and the water keeps the temperatures pretty cool. And the river's so big. It feels like we're the only ones out here for miles."
"And we probably are." Tomorrow we'd probably stop in at a port city and collect the news, but right then we were pretty much detached from the world as a whole. It really was kind of nice under those circumstances.
Chita sighed happily and rested her head on my shoulder. "It really is a beautiful night."
"I always liked night better than day anyway," I said. "Especially after I . . . got hurt. It was harder for people to see what I looked like in the dark." There I went, baring my soul again.
Chita responded by petting my hair under my hat. "Yeah, I guess that would make nighttime pretty attractive. Me, I always liked night better too. It seemed like so many more interesting things happened at night." She smiled seductively at me.
I smiled too. "You wanna go back to our stateroom?"
Now she started playing with my string tie. "Yeah."
"Okay then." I put my arm around her and we headed inside.
It was a good night overall. But the first day of our honeymoon had already been unconventional and that was a pretty good signal for what our lives would be like when it was time to come back down to Earth. I'd wish later that I'd paid attention.