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

[glassaxolotl]

It feels like so much time has passed since Dimitri had placed that box of items on Dedue’s doorstep in an attempt to cut him out of his life. So many things happened between that time and now. Dedue’s time as a recluse, making up at Fishmaggedon, the many events of the resort expedition. In truth, it has been roughly a month.

In the box, Dimitri had placed a quilt that Dedue knew very well, frayed and worn with time though it may be. The centerpiece is a blue-eyed lion, roaring bravely, and bordering around it is a landscape of pines bleeding into the blue of the sky. This was Dimitri’s as a child, but it was his first gift to Dedue, back when Dedue had nothing but the clothes on his back. Dedue had kept it until the attack on the monastery. He thought he would never see it again, until, here, he did.

He takes the quilt with him to the workshop. He feels that now is as good a time as any to mend it. And perhaps he can make something new in addition. Something to give back.

He lays it out and grabs his materials without a word. It is clear that he already knows what he is doing.

[be_seeing_you]

Okie is in luck, he will be able to tell Number 6 himself because guess who has shown up to craft time? Okie may be surprised to learn that not only can Number 6 draw, he can also sew.

"I like your idea of doing this, Mr. Okie," he says, approaching with an approving smile. Quite the contrast to the last time he came upon the young man doing arts and crafts.

"This is a form of collaborating I think we can all appreciate at a time like this."

[decrypter]

She didn't find the sign, but Helena coming into the buffet is by chance, a happy accident, and things are different - that much she can tell by the change in sounds. And so, she comes up, curious as anything, tapping her way over and hoping that whoever's nearby can answer her questions.

"What's going on today?"

Whatever it is, she's decided she wants to be involved with it.

[mistertwister]

"Oh, uh, um, uh." Okie stutters and takes nearly two entire moments to find out how to form words again. Mister? A hooligan like him is only a mister in the case of 'listen here, mister'. "Thanks, sir."

He took a deep breath before awkwardly gesturing to one of the chairs set up at the sides. "Feel free to join. After a time like that, I was really just in the mood to do somethin' I had to be careful 'bout. An' the more the merrier, yeah?"

[mistertwister]

Okie can see that the quilt Dedue brought is definitely more than just a personal project, even if he has no insight into the specific history. He can also see that Dedue did not engage in small or large talk as he set up.

Okie sets himself up in a very calculated way. He occupies the space between Dedue and the material pile, stands as much as possible when not directly sewing, and all in all tries to be More Noticeable than the newcomer. He knows when someone needs to work quietly.

That said... "You learn all that to fix things, or do you sew to make, usually? Personally, I learned for fixin', but there's somethin' about the creative process that's a bit infectious." He won't talk about the elephant on the table, but he can't help but talk about something.

[mistertwister]

"Sewin' an' quiltin' lessons," comes an actually decently excited voice. "Cuttin' squares outta Bahama shirts an' then makin' some real ugly quilts."

He gestures to a chair with his hand, registers that she's walking with a cane, then silently strangles the gesturing hand as if it had been caught for treason. "Oh, uh, I've got a couple'a tables pushed together, so stuff's a bit off from where it usually is. Sewin' station's on yer left an' shirt disassembly's on yer right."

[glassaxolotl]

“It is the same for me,” he nods. “Sewing is a practical skill, but I also find it relaxing.”

He looks at Okie. “You are the one who set this event up? Thank you for doing so.”

[decrypter]

"That sounds like fun! What needs the most help right now?" The briefest of pauses. "Besides cutting. You need quite exact lines for that, and I'm afraid I've always found that a little tricky."

But there are ways to adapt, she's sure.

[be_seeing_you]

Number 6 mistakenly thinks he's intimidated the boy, after how he'd approached Okie last time. He doesn't suspect the real reason for that stuttering.

"Thank you, I will." In fact, he takes a seat right here beside Okie, and then reaches immediately for a hideously patterned shirt. This one won't be a pity to see destroyed.

"How are you doing? I was distressed to see you were one of the victims. Though, if you would rather not discuss it, I will respect that too."

[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."

[mistertwister]

"Well, you could do tracin'. We've got a set of square dinner plates and a marker for markin' squares outta the shirts. Or you could sew. I could help you through it if you don't know how. Not sure how well I'll be able to teach without visuals, but these quilts are gonna be shitty anyhow so why not mess up a little?"

He thinks for a second. "If you wanna be a little stupid about it, thought, we've got steak knives if you just wanna cut direct around the plate. But if not that's also cool. Want a cherry soda?" You know he's stocked Cheerwine for this day. So much of it.

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri has a dim enough view of his own creative capacity that he'd mostly ignored the posters. He eats in the buffet more often than not, though, and so it's inevitable that he winds up at Cowboy Crafts Corner anyway.

He didn't actually know what quilting entailed! So he's intrigued by something he might be able to help with, but uncertain where to start.

... maybe he'll just hover at the edge with a bread roll for a minute.

[mistertwister]

"I set it up, yeah. Felt like maybe some folks would appreciate a chance to think with their hands for a bit. Nothin' worth thankin' me over." He spares a glance back at Dedue.

"Yer the other guy from where Dimitri's from, yeah? Dedue? Yer name comes downwind to me a lot. I'm Okie, glad t'meetcha." He reaches out a hand.

[decrypter]

"Yes please, if it's no trouble."

It doesn't take her long to decide on what to do - cutting with a knife still sounds beyond her, but if she learns to sew...it's a skill she's never had before, and the idea is strongly appealing.

"...And I would like to try my hand at sewing, though I'm definitely starting at square one when it comes to that."

[glassaxolotl]

Dedue immediately perks up at the mention of Dimitri’s name, and he nods eagerly. “Yes. He and I have known each other for many years.”
He accepts the handshake. “It is nice to meet you.”

arrives fifteen minutes late with starbucks

[thefreak]

Quilting, as it turns out, is not much different than sewing patches onto a denim jacket. Although he let Steve keep his battle vest, the remnants of his life's work is still there, evidence that he at least knew what he was doing (even if he needed some help with the sewing at first -- now, he's a pro).

And Eddie has had practice cutting up a shirt before, so if anyone needs help, Eddie is quick to assist, if Okie is busy.

By the end of the session, he's actually switched gears from quilting to making a monstrosity of his own, always the rebel. Because, as it turns out, after the mayhem of the December excursion, Eddie really wants to make another battle vest. And okay, the Tommy Bahama doesn't exactly have a selection of attire that would make someone go, "how metal," it's still something to do to take his mind off of everything.

[neverleave]

[Natsuno doesn't care about quilting, but he does need some help with sewing. He's brought a reddish-brown cat plush toy with a pair of swimming goggles secured to its head, and he attempts to sew it an outfit. He was going to just staple the cloth around it, but... if he wants to give Rita a present, it should look its best. Besides, staples may chafe when she cuddles it.

There's another thing he's interested in, though, and that's Okie's appearance. Under the human face there's something like a thunderstorm - the living form of the white clouds he saw flickering through the corpse lying in the snow. Back then Natsuno had other things on mind to process it properly, but now...

He waits until Okie approaches the sewing station to help with a stitch.]

Thanks. [Looks like everyone is busy with other things, but he lowers his voice nonetheless.] Can I ask - what are you?

[obeyseventually]

Jack actually approaches Okie before the official craft time, when he's gathering shirts at the Tommy Bahama.

"Oh, for the craft corner, right?" Jack, a man who would keep up with the neighbourhood newsletter, asks on his approach. "Want a hand with any of this?"

It's an offer made absolutely out of a commitment to crafts and in no way a subtle way of placing himself as a deterrent or distraction in the event the resident werecougar decides to hunt this poor kid just after he came back.

[mistertwister]

"Any friend of Dimitri's is on track to be a friend of mine, so holler if you need anything anytime." Okie returns to pinning, but keeps up the casual conversational energy.

Well, mostly casual. "How's, uh... How's he farin', by the by? I know the resort was less than ideal for a lot of us, but I heard he had a particularly nasty customer service experience."

[glassaxolotl]

The corner of his mouth forms a slight smile at that. He can’t say he entirely feels the same way. (Sometimes Dimitri cares too much about people who do not deserve it). But people who are good to Dimitri instantly make Dedue a bit more willing to trust them.

At the question, he flinches a bit and looks down. “Yes. He was... harmed greatly in the attack.” Dedue tries to block the vivid memory that instantly flashes into his head, but it’s already too late. “He is healed now. But he is still somewhat on edge.”

[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.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Quilts. Pratt has never owned a quilt. Or used a quilt. In fact he's pretty sure he's only ever seen them in other peoples houses being used as decorative backsplashes on their couches and usually in various shades of dusky rose that probably smell as musty as they look.

But after being the violence first, alpha-male cop type for his entire life, and getting this whole second chance to not be a douchebag here... Yeah, you know what, he's going to make a fucking quilt. It's gonna be so ridiculously palm tree and jungle printed it's not even funny. At least cutting squares out is easy, it's the sewing part that will be a problem unless this works at all like stitching up wounds in which case he will be a quilting prodigy.

[mistertwister]

Okie, who is in help mode and thus doing his best to keep up with his surroundings, notices Dimitri approach, and gives him a minute to participate on his own terms. When that minute is spent picking at bread on the sidelines, however…

“Oy, Mitri, be a dear an’ bring me another couple’a squares from the sweatshirt pile, would ya?”

[mistertwister]

Okie pops the top off a bottle of cheerwine and sets it down in front of one of the sewing station chairs. "Here's yer station an' yer pop. Once yer all good an' settled I'll try to figure out how to explain this without visuals."

He opens another cheerwine in the meantime and takes a drink from it. "I'm Okie, by the by. Don't know that I know you yet."

[decrypter]

"Only in passing, but never officially. Mr. Okie, it's a pleasure. I'm Helena."

Her hand finds the bottle so she can lift it and take a sip, utterly oblivious to how a title might vaporize a man on the spot.

"This is pretty good..."