TLV 9 - Video

[bodilesswarrior]

[There's something undeniably wistful about Barbara's smile.]

I was a knight for Halloween, once. Never thought I'd end up as the real thing.

[She shakes her head, casting it all aside. She won't dwell on how it felt to run again.]

Is everyone accounted for?

[Private to the Admiral]

I'd like a key to the engine room.

Comments

[ Private ]

[routemistress]

I'm waitin' to 'ear if we can keep the 'orses - if I get a yes on that we can do jousting an' all. 'Ow brilliant'd that be, eh?

Show me!

[ Private ]

[bodilesswarrior]

[Barbara's eyes light up.] That would be great. The more to do on this ship the better, I think. [And she misses Sybil already.]

Hold on a sec. [She's out of sight for a few minutes, and then she comes back with an old, leather bound photo album. It only takes her one try to flip to the right page, and she holds it up to show four pictures.

She's ten years old, in a homemade costume. In two, her helmet is on. In one, she's raising her sword; in another, her shield.]

Re: [ Private ]

[routemistress]

Eeeeeeeeeeee! Oh, you were an adorable nipper. Obviously. And fierce.

[She grins.]

Not changed a lot, really, 'ave you?

[ Private ]

[bodilesswarrior]

Fierce I'll take.

[Her smile is a little sad, though, as she turns the pictures round again.]

...A lot has, since then.

[private]

[routemistress]

[Iris knows at least one barge resident came here in a chair and now isn't, though it was before her time. She can think of a dozen ways to repair or replace a damaged spine herself, if it comes to that; but there's no way Barbara doesn't know all this already. There have to be reasons, and Iris watches Barbara's face, wondering what the hell they are. If they might change.

Finally, she says something that isn't - at least, not entirely - about that, because she's not going to be the one to bring it up.]

Change is the price of bein' alive. I know that's a platitude; it's one very close to me 'earts, though. 'Ave you been finding the price too 'igh?

[private]

[bodilesswarrior]

[Barbara's voice is a soft murmur.]

Depends on which change we're talking about.

[She's still for a long moment. Then she flips the page back, and holds the book up again, revealing a new picture.]

That's my dad. My first dad. [She's smiling, again, soft and sad.] I'd fallen - I was always running, as a kid. I was so fast - long legs, you know, I was tall for my age.

He always told me to get back up again.

[private]

[routemistress]

All of 'em. It's not the same for me, but you know that; no, scratch that, it is the same, you know. Timescale's just a detail. Or is it too easy to look at it that way from where I'm sitting?

[She gives the photograph her intent attention for several long moments.]

I'm amazed anyone ever needed to tell you that.

[private]

[bodilesswarrior]

I'd say the fundamentals are the same. We live and we lose and we move on.

[A soft laugh.] I learned a lot from him. How to be who I am now.

My mom - [She flips back a few pages more, to show a woman with soft red curls and the brightest blue eyes.] She never got a chance to teach me that much. But he always said I laughed like her.

The problem... [A deep breath.] The problem was - when she died, a part of him did, too.

Re: [private]

[routemistress]

Then a lot of people owe 'im a lot.

[She eyes the new picture, flicking her gaze between it and Barbara's own face, and her own breath catches briefly in sympathy.]

...Aye, that 'appens. I'm sorry, love.