insertmeathere | Ickle Meatships!

"That's not a ship," Jamie says, sounding rather skeptical about the whole thing. "There's no sails, or oars or anything like that."

There's a pause - and then he asks, "What's a 'verse?"

"Of course it's a ship. It's a spaceship!" She looks up at him, confused. "What kinda ship are you talking about??"

Does this kid live one some forgotten Border planet? "A 'verse is everything. Space 'n the planets, and all of it."

"Why, a ship ye sail on the ocean, of course!" He looks at Kaylee with an utterly baffled expression on his face as she talks about 'spaceships' and 'planets'.

After a moment, he frowns and asks, "Are ye feeling ill? I could go see if there's some leeches if ye are." Maybe she's running a fever and that's why she's talking nonsense. Being bled should help with that.

"Ain't a body sails the ocean anymore." She's more curious than anything. Maybe he just reads too many story books.

Her nose scrunches up at the idea of leeches. "What're leeches s'posed to do? 'M feelin' shiny, 'sides."

Jamie frowns a little more as he tries to figure out if she's making fun of him or not. "People sail the ocean all the time. Old Hamish used to be a sailor before he lost his leg, and he tells us stories. And I've seen a ship, too. A big one!" He holds his arms out to demonstrate just how big, before puffing up importantly. He knows alllll about leeches, after all, and is more than happy to share with Kaylee.

"Why, ye use leeches for letting the bad humours out. Ye put them on your skin and let them sit there until they get all fat and bloated, and then they fall off. Old Hamish had a great fever when he was hurt, and when they cut the leg off they put leeches on, and he didna die."

He pauses in his description of leeches to peer at her confusedly. "How can ye feel shiny? Ye can look shiny, if ye have a lot of metal on and you're outside. But feel?"

"No, people live over the ocean, maybe, but that's only on the Central Planets."

Jamie sounds like he could possibly come from the Central Planets, though. Especially with the idea of leeches. That sounded like something the Alliance would try and pull on people. "You're 'Liance, ain't ya?"

She crosses her arms, and gives a little huff. "I can be shiny if I wanna be shiny. It means 'M feelin' good, or nice. You look like you'd be a shiny person, but you ain't covered in metal neither."

He folds his arms against his chest as well. "I'm not 'Liance." Whatever that is. "I'm Scottish." Jamie thinks this should explain everything.

Shiny means feeling good or nice? "I never heard it used that way before." He looks down at his liberally mud-splattered body, and his mouth twitches. There wouldn't be much shining going on now, even if he was covered in metal. He looks back up at Kaylee and grins mischievously. He plucks a rather large chunk of mud off his shirt - it's not completely dry. "We'll see about being shiny," he says - and promptly tries to stuff the mud down Kaylee's shirt.

"'Liance could be anybody, even Scottish." He doesn't seem to know what it is, though, so she'll drop it. For now.

Really, not many of the kids in the room look shiny in the clean sense of things, but Jamie's definitely the muddiest she's seen so far. Until he goes about trying to mud her, that is. "Aaaah!" She laughs, and wiggles in an attempt to get away from the mud. No such luck, and she can feel it squishing down her shirt. "No fair, I ain't got any to get back on you!"

Tickling's the next best approach. Oh, she'll show him, alright!

Jamie looks almost unbearably smug for a moment. "Not so shiny now, are ye?" And then Kaylee plays dirty, so to speak.

"H-hey! That's not going to work!" Still, he's squirming a little. Hard to say, though if it's because it's a girl, or if it's because he is ticklish and she's getting close to a sensitive spot.

Typical boy, always think they have the upper hand. "Still plenty shiny!" She's not the one covered in mud, after all.

But she's got him beat already when it comes to tickling, and (as carefully as a kid can) knocks him over to pin him while she's tickling. "I dunno, seems to be workin'!"

Well, if Kaylee keeps this up, she'll be covered in mud too. Especially since Jamie (even when little) is pretty darn agile and doing his level best to squirm free. The mud does help there.

She's got him pinned pretty good, though, and if she wasn't a girl, he wouldn't be above resorting to fists to try and help get him out of it. Fortunately for Kaylee, Jamie can't hit a girl. Instead, he tries to turn the tables on her by tickling back.

"We'll see about that!"

If Kaylee cares at all about the mud she isn't showing it. In fact, the dirtier she is, the happier she seems to be.

The tickling back, though. She can't really pin his hands and tickle him at the same time, now can she? "Nooo you're s'posed to hold still!" she blurts out, before falling sideways off of him in a fit of giggles.

"What, and let ye win?" Little Jamie hasn't actually figured out yet that sometimes that's a good thing. However, right now, he thinks he has actually won, so he doesn't follow up with more tickling. This may be a mistake.

He looks at the covered-in-mud-Kaylee, and grins unrepentantly.

There's an unspoken truce with the tickling, for the moment. After she's caught her breath, Kaylee shakes her head and sticks out her tongue.

"I could win without you lettin' me!"

Jamie gives her a skeptical look for a moment, then shakes his head and says completely seriously, "Ye wouldna win. You're just a girl."

Boys always win. That's just the way of things. And, in his mind, he just proved that, so obviously Kaylee will see that as well.

Well. Kaylee is all business now, standing with her hands on her hips. She glances over him before sticking her chin out, jaw set. "I could beat you."

There's a snort from Jamie. "Well, I'm sure ye think ye can, but ye'd be wrong." He's very matter of fact about the whole situation. It is what it is, after all.

"I know I can." And just to prove it, she jumps up at Jamie, knocks him over again, and sits on him triumphantly while she gives him a noogie. "Told you so."

There's an "Oof!" from Jamie as he is knocked over, and she does get away with the noogie for a moment. That is, until Jamie pulls his head away and tries to get Kaylee off him the simplest way he knows how - by attempting to sit up, very quickly.

The sitting up doesn't throw her off balance at all--she's rough-housed with plenty of boys at home, this one ain't any different--but she moves the wrong way and Jamie's forehead collides with her nose. Kaylee falls back off of him then, her hands up over her nose and tears welling up in her eyes.

Jamie - for all that he's being a bit of a snot - isn't really all that mean of a little kid. And when Kaylee gets hurt, he immediately forgets the whole argument and goes to take a look. "I'm sorry! I didna mean to...are ye okay?"
Please don't cry, Kaylee.

The tears don't go away, but they don't spill over, either. Kaylee just nods her head miserably, nose still sheltered behind her fingers. It hurts, but she doesn't want to make him feel bad... "It's okay. Barely hurts at all."

"Are ye sure?" Jamie looks worried. He didn't mean to hurt her, after all. "Can I see?"

At first she shakes her head--what if it's bleeding and he gets those leeches he was talking about?--but once she's sure she's not bleeding everywhere one of her hands moves away. The other stays, just barely blocking her nose from view. "See?"

Jamie peers at it for a moment, then says cautiously, "I don't think it's broken..." It doesn't look like it's turning colors to him, but her hand is in the way.

He figures repeating himself again couldn't hurt. "I'm verra sorry I hurt ye." He pauses, and adds, "Is there something I can do?"

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