(Untitled)

[goingtodorking]

Karen has no idea what to be for Halloween. She's sitting cross-legged in front of the clothes box, surrounded by piles of Disney Princess costumes and fairy-wings. But she doesn't want to be a Disney Princess or a fairy. Those things are fine when you're a little girl, but Karen's nine, now. She wants to feel more grown-up. Sometimes, she

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[jack_artful]

"Hullo, m'lady." Dodger said brightly, flicking his hat off into his hand and gracing her princess-ship with a deep bow before dropping down to sit next to her on the floor. He nudged his hat back on and picked up a gauzy pair of wings with amiable interest, only to stare with bemusement as something glittery transferred itself over to his hands. "What's the o-ccasion"

[goingtodorking]

"Oh, hello," says Karen, managing to brighten a little bit for her friend. She digs through the pile of dresses with both hands.

"It's Halloween soon," she says. "You should put those on. You could be a fairy."

[jack_artful]

Admittedly, he didn't know much about fairies, but he'd imagined them being a bit more woodlandish, and a lot less... full of sparkles. He pulled at the stretchy straps, and shrugged the pair in his hands on over his shoulders to sit there nonchalantly, poking at the voluminous skirts. From what he understood of the Island's incarnation of All Hallow's Eve, costumes were mandatory, so that explained that. "I s'pose you're being a princess? Or a fairy-princess?"

[goingtodorking]

He looks very sweet with the wings on and Karen looks at him for a moment before she goes back to her digging, looking for one particular dress.

"Just a princess," she clarifies. "Maybe a Narnian one."

[jack_artful]

Dodger picked up a discarded tiara, tilting his head to look at it absently. Shiny things often fetched a pretty penny in the right hands back in Spitalfields, but since he felt like he could probably snap the thing in two if he applied himself, doubted it was real. "They good ones, Narny ones?" He tossed the tiara easily between his quick hands, catching it on his finger and flicking it back up. "I saw a real princess, once. In a carriage. Standing on a fence-post, I was, to see over the crowd."

[goingtodorking]

"Narnian," she said, firmly. "Like Edmund. The dresses are beautiful. And his sister used to fire arrows." She leans her chin into her hand. "Tell me about seeing the princess?"

[jack_artful]

"Ah." He said, and he knew Edmund, even if he hadn't had much to do with him. He hadn't remembered the Narnian bit, although now put in context it did sound somewhat familiar. "Blimey, she didn't 'ave any arrows." He started to lean back against the clothing box, then remembered the wings and leant forward again, twitching his hat forward. "Prin-cess Vic-tor-ia," he said obligingly, dropping the tiara onto Karen's head and using his hands to gesture widely to match the day he drew out her name. "Beautiful, she was. Ev'rybody said so. Little, pale thing - she 'ad a blue bonnet." He added, eyeing the gaudy material spread around them and figuring that Karen would want to hear that.

[goingtodorking]

"Was it really exciting?" she asks, leaning into him while he's talking as she watches, rapt. "I've never seen a real Princess. I went to see the Spice Girls once. And Alexandra Burke."

[jack_artful]

Dodger always had enjoyed a captive audience. "Aye," he said, wishing for his pipe in moments like this. "People lined the streets, both sides, twen-ty thick, when they 'eard she was comin'. She's Queen now, she is, just new at it, and the 'ole kingdom loves her - 'ope she'll be like Good Queen Bess, they do."

He supposed that the Spice Girls were some sort of oriental royalty, and Alexandra some sort of fine lady.

[goingtodorking]

"It must be strange, being from when you're from," says Karen, reaching out to straighten his hat on his head. "Growing up without things like sliced bread and toilets and X-Box."

[jack_artful]

He gave her a smile when she fixed his hat, knowing it had been tilted before. It's usual tendency was to slide one way or another, and he'd long ago become accustomed to not bothering to fix it unless it was in danger of falling right off. Still, right up was more respectable, and he did try to be a gentleman, especially when her tiara was perfectly straight. "Toilets! Neat invention, that." He said agreeably, because they did have a distinct advantage over chamber pots or open privies. "Don't mind not stepping in shit ev'ryday, elseways. Less rats, too." He added the last bit as an afterthought, although he'd never minded them much.

[goingtodorking]

Karen gapes at him for a long moment, both eyebrows raised. She might be an odd child, definitely, but she's also got very strong morals. Often to the detriment of other people.

"You just said shit!"

[jack_artful]

He grinned, amused as anything. "Cor, so did you!" Not that he thought much of it, himself - no one had cared much if he'd used crude language in Spitalfields, like the drinking and the smoking. Wasn't very gentlemanly, he supposed, but he didn't think it was that out of line.