#oldwcst

[smxkeyjxe]

When he leans in, she recoils slightly, her brows slightly knitting together as she stares back at him with those light green eyes of hers. She had been minding her business, slowly nursing on her first drink, when Don approached.

She didn't know where her friends were at present. They were either somewhere in the bar as she was, or back at camp outside of town with the horses and cattle they had brought from North Carolina.

"From what I've heard, it has been for many," she says, her southern accent heavily coating her speech. Her fingers curling around the glass she had and bringing it up to her lips, her eyes still on him.

Call it a premonition, but something about this guy made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

"Now... Is there something I can help you with? Surely there is someone else in this bar who can do it better than I ever could if that's the case, Mister....?"

@oldwcst | Continued from x.

[mxrshaldillon]

Starter for @oldwcst’s Desmond!

Verse One- Main. Under the cut for length.

By the time the black stallion he was riding trudged into a new town, Matt was already dizzy and slightly disoriented. If whoever had shot him wanted him dead, they sure didn’t try very hard; his upper arm’s sleeve was soaked through with blood, even if Matt had wrapped a bandage Doc had given him before he left Dodge- just in case.

That had a bit of a fainter red stain on it, too.

Perhaps the shot was just a warning that a stranger wasn’t welcome around here. Or maybe some deranged mountain man who’d been alone for too many decades had just wanted the thrill of committing murder.

Finding whoever had done it wasn’t really on the top of Matt’s list of priorities right now; it was either find whoever it was after getting fixed up and serve justice, or leave to reach Andy Reckhart’s home before he passed.

A few people looked over at him as he passed by, most likely very surprised to see an unfamiliar lawman in their vicinity. One woman gasped when she saw his bloodied limb.

Matt paid the attention no mind.

Looking around with vision that was slowly growing blurrier, he spotted a building that looked like a doctor’s office- he hoped to God that it was- and made his way over. He tied the stallion up and walked unsteadily into the establishment, clutching his arm.

“Is there a doctor in here?” was the first thing he asked when he entered, though his tone was breathy- he was lightly panting from the pain- and sounded sort of strained.

[amidstwillows]

@oldwcst asked: "oh , so you're a gentleman all of a sudden?"

( from Abigail , unprompted ! )

Face to the sky a hand presses to the furrow of a brow, sheltering eyes against the glare of the oppressive rays of sunlight in their observation regarding its position amidst the dotting of white clouds. Summer heat in tandem making a brow as well as arms soak with perspiration, sweltering to the point that a toe taps itself in worn leather boots. Encapsulated as much as the fluttering of a heart set to beating enclosed in a rib cage. Frustration combined together with impatience tied him in knots, anxiety never something that had really kept him immobile as it did so presently.

It vexed him how long a woman could make him suffer without her presence. How her absence alone controlled how much he had thought about her and, to a degree, coated him in a measure of fear considering their life up until this point had been rife with danger or chaos to trouble them. Some his own poor choices, in which, he supposes its right for her to take as long as she does in this moment. A torment. A taste of his own medicine bitter sweet. Or perhaps simply, his current hysteria is brought on by a matter of bravery? Anticipation weighting quite literally in the shape of a small ring box in his pocket.

Blackwater's general store at least giving reprieve through a large glass window. Abigail's form, while somewhat blurred in the opaque divots still shown forms of colored splotches making up the length of her body. He imagined on one darkened hue the gentle slope of her neck that rested plainly on shoulders as if delicately balanced. The depth of her blues like pools of diamonds glinting either with the low blue flame that always guided her actions or the care she was won't to bestow only in the prodding of insults. Fire in something so lovingly encased in her form to the point its effortless that a gloved hand opens the door upon her exit.

oh , so you're a gentleman all of a sudden?

"I have my moments.", Hes quick to correct, the residual coughing meant to adjust his tone as he ushers her out holding the doors handle in place. A sort of pouting of lips press together, fighting with the urge to bite his lower lip merely in lieu of dealing with the pressure in his pocket bid him to act sooner than later. to be done with the feeling near close to a migraine borne on this need to ask the question withheld. Her answer the only thing that could undo him for better or worse.

"Did... you want to still continue our date?", hes determined, forcing the negative thought of her potential decline to the side, focusing now on her place facing him. His own dark hues a loving caress as they take in her softened features satisfied in whatever trade offer she'd made with the store clerk. A slow descend to tension shouldered brawn that seems to sigh with relief at her return alone.

[starlixir]

{Continuing from (x) for: @oldwcst}

❖

Nova took pack of cards fallen onto the dirt, alongside the hat fallen from the fled outlaw (or so he claims). Her fingertips running along the design on the hat, which told her everything she needed to know about the guy. Turning on her heels, she met the other's eyes. A flash of grin meeting that grin she saw.

❝Yes. It adds to the collection I have. Plus, it's a way to bribe him if he ever shows his face around these parts again.❞

[wildlcck]

" it's no wonder i've got problems . " ( from jack ! )

𖤓༻❁༺𖤓༻❁༺𖤓

❛ an' yer about to have yourself some more, if and when i knock your lanky little ass into next week! ❜ fingers closing 'round the whiskey bottle with a grip like a vice. but, she's soon simmering quick as she'd flamed with a sigh, heavy and heartfelt. taking one good, long swig, before holding out the liquor in offering. ❛ i ain't tellin' you all this 'cause i know better. though, i do more often than i don't... i'm tellin' you 'cause i know. this road you're headed down... it's one long, lonely, hard road. and there ain't nothin' or no-one worth findin' at the end of it ain't bringing them back... you're grown enough to do what you damn well want, kid. hell, who am i t' stop you? but, you reckon this is what your ma an' pa'd want for you? they wanted better for ya- 'cause you are. you got heart. a brain... you're a hell of a lot better than havin' a rope put 'round yer neck or bein' planted in the dirt by some pig with stars in their eyes... ❜

[mxrshaldillon]

Starter for @oldwcst’s Molly O’Shea!

Verse Two- AU. Under the cut for length.

It was rather late for anyone to be outside. The lights inside the Dodge House were all turned off, except for the lobby downstairs. But it was nearly closing time for the establishment, anyway.

Matt yawned behind his hand. He wished he were back at the office already, but it wasn’t far now.

He’d been out visiting a friend, and he’d stayed for longer than intended. It was about a half an hour’s ride from town; he’d arrived at around 6:00 that evening, and now it was nearly 12:30 in the morning.

Being tired didn’t help in the vigilance department for anyone, so Matt wasn’t prepared for someone to jump out of the shadows of the alley beside him, clasp both hands over his mouth, arms wrapped around his neck, and begin trying to pull him into the dark.

The Marshal fought against the other man and almost broke loose by kicking backwards into his shin, as well as twisting from side to side in an effort to shake his attacker off, but then someone else slipped in front of him from behind and slugged him in the gut hard enough to make Matt double over.

A third person’s boot collided with the back of his right knee.

That was what it took to make his legs buckle, and he was forced onto his stomach, face in the dust.

He wrenched his head to the left, gasping for air and spitting out dirt.

But when someone stomped on his head with the heel of a boot, he saw a split-second flash of white, and then he was out.

[smxkeyjxe]

Stevie dismounts Lüz, his reins in hand, as she approaches the cart and the man inspecting the situation. Her eyes scan over the broken-down cart. It was so strange... How it was overturned in such a way. It didn't seem natural. She could smell the blood, the scent of fresh iron making her shake her head.

If there was blood, where were the people it belonged to? People just... didn't vanish like that.

"Is... this like a normal occurrence in these parts?" Stevie looks to the man, reaching up to adjust the rim of her cowboy hat so it is out of her face. Her eyes scan over him before looking back down at the ground, at the blood.

"Don't think I like this..."

@oldwcst |From x.

[starlixir]

{Continuing from (x) for: @oldwcst}

❖

"I know" hung on the tip of Nova's tongue. She knows the fairness is the bullet ready to end it all. She knows that there is injustice and unfairness in this world and yet she chose to look at the world with loving eyes instead. It didn't stop her from being cautious when the situation calls for it.

The sharp click of the revolvers holstering away only made Nova tilt her head. A small smile forming on her lips. As if he is making a joke tied into nothing.

❝And that's why you play hard and quick. Just so you can continue to live the next day, even if a bullet or this coldness doesn't take ya down.❞ Words slipped past her lips without much effort. ❝It's why I don't mind playin'. How about yourself?❞