The Good, The Bad and The AU

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Old West AU

Welcome to Dry River. You're a long way from home partner. It’s the mid 1800s and this dusty little frontier town isn’t much of a landmark but the local color might make your stay interesting.

Cut some cards at the rowdy saloon. Stay at the inn and pay for a little company. Or take a job as a farmhand if you just need to make a quick buck and buy your ticket out of here.

Keep your nose clean though. Train robbers, card cheats and bandits have been known to pass through these parts. But you wouldn’t know nothin’ about that, would you?

It’s a Wild West AU. Establish yourself as a local or a stranger and rustle up some adventure or romance.

Top Level

with your western AU scene and see what kind of trouble darkens your door. Check out some old timey professions and their associated tropes if you need to.

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with your western AU characters and make yourself less of a stranger ‘round these parts.

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[holtzmann_ed]

"Heh, yeah, he was a bit of a gushy one."

She reached out, flicking a particularly large gob from the other woman.

"So yeah. Bathing is gonna be a priority now," she said. "I'm not smelling of ectoplasm for a week. Again."

She paused though, grinning as she caught her breath.

"But man oh man, did you do good."

[girlofclay]

Betty smirked briefly, just a tad. "Like I said: your show. I didn't do badly though, I guess. Point and shoot."

She glances around at the mine they were in, and wondered briefly what would happen to it now - maybe the townsfolk will move in, maybe a decent man would claim it. Whatever, it wasn't her problem, now.

What was her problem was the disgusting ectoplasm that apparently could stick around stinking for a week.

So she turned her grin back on Holtzmann.

"Bathing?"

[holtzmann_ed]

"Yeah, simple one. No demon bats or nothin'," she replied, in a voice that was very noncommittal on whether or not she was kidding.

But she nodded rather a lot at the latter.

"Yep. I mean, anything will work, for the record. We could head back to town, see if there's a tub for two - or," and she slipped into wild fancy again, "find ourselves a nice, quiet stream somewhere nearby, slip into the cold waters and wash all this out then spend a very, very nice night in an airship, warming each other up. Then cooling down. Then heating up again."

[girlofclay]

"I know a stream," Betty volunteers idly.

"Well, not a stream. A pool. Back in the peaks, not really somewhere you can walk..."

[holtzmann_ed]

"Yes, there, now."

It comes out abruptly, her cheeks a bit red, despite her own boldness.

"Umm, yes."

[girlofclay]

Betty grins slyly, and re-adjusts her hat, before jerking her head in the direction of the exit.

"Try not to drip goo on my baby," she says.

[holtzmann_ed]

"On it," she says, hopping a few times to dislodge the largest globs before following her out of the ersatz throne room.

On the way, voice echoing as it receded, she could be heard to ask: "I wonder where he ended up putting all his loot."

[girlofclay]

"I don't know..." Betty says, but her voice trails off into an annoyed silence.

"...but you're not the only person who's going to wonder that."

Ugh, more violence.

[holtzmann_ed]

"Good thing we'll tell everyone there wasn't anything here, all disappointed-like," she said with a nod.

Because she didn't want idiots making more ghosts. That wouldn't work out at all.

"Sad sad sad, no treasure for us girls."

[girlofclay]

Betty lifts her left shoulder in a shrug - it's actually more effective without an arm attached.

"Don't know what I'd do with it. We'll have to find some way of getting rid of it though, piece by piece."

[holtzmann_ed]

It is. And even covered in slime, it is a very nice sort of look.

"Well, there is an airship outside, the refitting of which will be a little pricey. And would be a public service..."

[girlofclay]

"How do you figure?"

Betty's airship is more of a personal project than a public service. Well, there's ways it could be used for the general good, but right now she wants to hear Holtzmann say it.

[holtzmann_ed]

"I mean, apropos of nothing, I could think of, like, sixteen elegant ghost-hunting solutions I could add on to her right now. In addition to, y'know..."

She pauses, realizing that she's already jumped to the idea of staying around, a spell, that's how interesting Betty is.

"Well, I'm sure you've got ideas. For restoring her and augmenting," she finished, thankful the darkness of the mine hid the beet red of her face. That was the thing, she was absolutely and completely confident in her approach. But she also knew she ran too fast and then scared people off.

And right now she really, very much, did not want to do that. This one was different. Confident, strong, intelligent - and they worked well together and ooooh no there were feelings growing.

Aaaand she was taking them to a secluded swim that made two types of butterflies go active at once.

[girlofclay]

"She wasn't mine," Betty says, looking distinctly ahead rather than at Holtzmann, where expressions might be observed and emotions might be felt.

"Her architect died in the war, I just keep her flight-worthy. But if you've got ideas, I can make them happen. Or tell you why they won't work, whichever one."

She's really just been sitting on the thing, looking after it out of habit. But if shee had something to do with it...

[holtzmann_ed]

"She is now, though. You keep her alive," she said, a bit more softly. "But I do, and they start with getting our hands on some sexy, sexy helium. You can't be getting anything other than hydrogen out here, and I can't imagine getting that is terribly safe..."

She's wandering, and she knows it. She reaches out in the dark for the other woman's hand.

"Hey, um, ok, things are...moving and they're interesting and, um, I am not going to stop or anything? And usually I just sort of wander, but there's all these possibilities here..."

She's asking for a partner, Betty. Help her out.

[girlofclay]

Keep her alive. If only Betty was as good at keeping humans alive.

She exhales audibly in the dark, lets her hand be taken and even presses her thumb into the back of Holtzmann's hand, before letting go.

Sorry, Jillian, she's only got the one and she needs that free.

"This was fun," she says. "When I wasn't shitting my pants, I mean. Could see myself doing it again. Reckon those possibilities are worth exploring."

[holtzmann_ed]

"Oh, ok, that's...that's good!" she replies brightening. "Because it's getting...busier out there and I'm not...I can't keep up by myself as well as I used to."

In truth, it's all building and she doesn't know why - hell, the measuring equipment she might be able to afford with a haul out of this mine might finally give her a clue.

"But I am too covered in goo to talk seriously. Maybe later." Under the stars, wrapped up togeth - no, stop, steady.

[girlofclay]

Betty's face falls thoughtfully, wondeirng what it might mean that things are getting busier. People dying at a faster rate?

As they come to the mouth of the mine, she wipes a large glob of goo from her hat and shakes it out into the dirt.

"Maybe later," she agrees, and turns a smile back towards Holtzmann. "After a bath."

[holtzmann_ed]

"Very yes," she says, shaking a hand to dislodge some more.

[girlofclay]

Betty leads the way back to the airship, therefore, jamming her hat firmly to her head again to protect it from the wind and to keep her hair in check, and sets about getting ready to take off.

"So," she says conversationally as she does so, "you know where we can get helium?"

[holtzmann_ed]

"I gotta guy in California," she replied, hands on her hips, inspecting the engines. Oh, yeah, she can do a lot with these. They were unsuited to start, really. After all, look at all the work Betty'd done just to make them adequate...

No, get some aluminum for them...yeah. Use some more to replace some of the structure on the gasbag...

She turns her attention back, tuning back into the moment.

"I know a lot of people with a lot of weird things, really. I could get you a live monkey or three assorted parrots like..." she went to snap her hand, but all that it did was dislodge some extra slime.

[girlofclay]

"I don't want parrots," Betty says firmly. "Or monkeys. Nothing I can't bolt down."

She glances over her shoulder at Holtzmann, reflecting that this blonde herself might turn out to be the hardest thing of the lot to pin down. But maybe that's okay.

She pulls a cord and they go up, climbing steeply up the curve of the peaks as she increases their elevation.

[holtzmann_ed]

She grins at that.

"Well, you can, but it's not exactly according to Hoyle," she replied, steadying herself as the elevation began - and trying not to drip.

[girlofclay]

She hums in amusement.

"But if he's as good at sourcing as you say I may have a few requests to put in."

It's really not that far to travel - she brings them up, and around one of the peaks, and there is that pool - small and clear and not much to look at at all, but it's wet, which is the important part.

[holtzmann_ed]

"I once got a naval cannon off of him," she replied, by way of explanation. "I mean, a small one, but still."

As if the water was the thing she was looking forward to seeing, heart beating just a little faster in anticipation. She doesn't get too close to Betty - nothing kills potential romance faster than dripping ectoplasm on one's neck - but she's clearly a bundle of energy, and some nerves.

Flirting with a local bartender, teaching her that her view of romance is more expansive than she thought? That's easy. A genuine connection with another person, one with feelings involving more than just the immediate? That's a whole other thing entirely.