Cowboy Crafts Corner

[mistertwister]

Who: Okie and you!
What: Quilting, sewing lessons, and being weirdly okay about dying
When: Early January
Where: The buffet

Come one, come all to the Cowboy Crafts Corner! Your host, Okie, has placed a quickly made poster or two around the ship, and has set up shop on a bunch of pushed together buffet tables one quiet evening. Among the supplies to be found are a huge pile of Tommy Bahama shirts, collected in armfulls over the course of several days, a set of square plates borrowed from the diner, a handful of markers, one pair of scissors, two steak knives, and every sewing kit he could find in the general store.

The theme of this day's project will be quilting! There will be stations for stenciling, where participants will use the plates and markers to mark squares in the shirts, cutting, where participants will use one sharp implement or another to cut said squares out of the shirts, and sewing, where the individual squares will be made into other, much bigger squares. Okie will be keeping tabs on the stock of shirts available for disassembly and offering assistance or teaching around the sewing stations.

The main rule is to have fun! Secondary rules include not using the cutting implements on any other participants and telling Number 6 if he asks that Okie really promises to clean up after and return the plates and knives.

Comments

[mistertwister]

Okie passes him a plate, the pair of scissors, and a marker quietly before going back to pinning fabric. There isn't exactly an on ship fabric store, so he's substituting dismembered sweatshirts for wadding.

"Truth be told, Mr. Smith, I went down so fast I barely realized what happened." His tone is almost worryingly okay for what it is he's talking about. "Could almost say I got off lucky." This is where the cracks show. His voice tightens for just that one sentence.

"Must've sucked more for you, havin' to see it all after."

[be_seeing_you]

"It was not enjoyable for us to find you that way, no. I wish such sights were rarer in my lifetime." He is, like Okie, rather calm when talking about it. There's a pinching between his eyes as he thinks back to how he'd found Ava, but what he says about having seen a lot of bodies in his lifetime is unfortunately true. He doesn't mean just here on the ship.

"But I don't think I'd say you were any luckier for how you perished. One's death being quick is not always the comfort people think it should be." Says the man who got flattened by a piano on Halloween. That was quick, but also deeply embarrassing for him.

[mistertwister]

"I just..." His voice shakes, and he puts down the needles he was working with. Something about Mr. Smith just makes him need to finally say what he's been sitting on.

"Why wasn't it worse for me? Every time I hear 'bout how the others went out, it's gnarly an' messed up an' overkill. Why would he go easy on me?"

[be_seeing_you]

Number 6 lays his work aside as well, giving his full attention to this poor young man.

"Oh, dear Mr. Okie, I truly wish I could give you an answer that would satisfy you. It could have been a matter of luck or circumstance, I fear we may never know. But, you mustn't try to find meaning in this. You must not take it to mean that you were somehow less because you were not attacked as ferociously. It does you no good to dwell on such things. It will only allow Vile to haunt you longer. You should not give him such power over you."

[mistertwister]

"It don't make sense..." Okie slumps forward and toward 6, deflating. "I know that sometimes bad things happen for no reason. That folks do bad things for no reason. But it don't make sense!"

He tried to take deep breaths, but they kept coming shallow. "I feel like I'm upset about all the wrong parts o' this." It's clear, if you're good at reading people, that any sense of calm he's grasping at is a front. All these emotions are being put on Okie's very extensive tab.

[be_seeing_you]

He makes a clipped noise of surprise when Okie slumps into him but recovers almost instantly from the shock of it in order to put an arm around the poor boy.

"Death is so often senseless. But, so too, can grief be strange and illogical. That's all right. On top of your pain, you should not be pressuring yourself to feel some specified way about it."

He doesn't need to be an expert in reading body language to see how hard Okie has been holding on, or to guess for how long. This breakdown has been a long time coming. Is it wrong to feel slightly honored that he's being entrusted to witness it?

"If you are waiting for someone's permission to release that composure you are clinging to, then consider it granted. You're safe here."

[mistertwister]

Okie takes a few more deep breaths, enough to stop it from shaking. He doesn't however, try to move out from under 6's arm. "I... I still gotta run a sewin' class for another hour an' a half. Can't ruin it until at least the third class." He gave a weak laugh.

"I'm, uh, sorry to put all this on ya. You ain't my therapist, you shouldn't have to hear me out through this."

[be_seeing_you]

"I understand." He won't withdraw his arm until Okie seems to want him to.

"But you don't have anything to apologize for. I would not have asked if I did not want to extend my support. You can trust in that. You know my room number still? Should you want to come by later, or at any time, you will be welcome."

[mistertwister]

Okie nods a little, and sniffles.

"I think I'll take ya up on that. You got time tomorrow?"

[be_seeing_you]

"Of course. Do you like tea?"

Wrap this one, go to next months, or no?

[mistertwister]

He smiles, just a little. "I s'pose you mean hot. I'd like to try it, I think."

yeah, let's do that :)

[be_seeing_you]

There's just a flicker of a frown. Cold tea? Horrible. But, this once, he will withhold his judgement.

"Yes. Hot. I'll have some ready when you arrive. Just send a message ahead, if you would be kind."