everyone_takes | NDPD (January 16th)

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NDPD (January 16th)

The snow was gone and with it all the crazy, puffy dresses in Kate's closet had disappeared as well, which wasn't something she was particularly sad about. The apartment that she and Marshall had been living in was pretty sweet, but if living in a hut was what she had to deal with to be able to wear a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, then Kate was totally okay with that. The hut wasn't so bad, after all, and she'd actually gotten used to the heat after all this time. (Although she'd been told about some German dude who made air conditioners and she was definitely going to track him down as soon as possible.)

Plus, with January came presents. Some people had already gotten theirs -- Kate had seen Jeff's puppy plenty of times now -- and she woke up nearly every morning and checked the hut for something that might be new and all hers. So far there had been nothing, not even that morning when she'd woken up, so, as usual, she'd walked to the Compound for a shower and breakfast.

What she hadn't expected at all was to find a brightly wrapped box waiting for her when she returned home. Just sitting there on their front step, a big bow on top and her name written on a tag. With a grin, Kate dropped down onto the step and began to rip into the box. There was a book, which she barely glanced at before dropping it on the step beside her, a weird leather looking thing and then a sleek, black box. A box with a gun inside.

"Uh..." Kate looked up and glanced around, half expecting someone to pop out of the jungle and tell her it was all just a joke. She didn't get guns as gifts. No one in their right mind would give Kate a firearm.

But there it was, lying in its box. The weird leather thing was a holster, she realized, and there was a box of ammunition. The book looked like it was mostly safety guidelines, but Kate couldn't quite get her brain to make sense of that yet. She was still too stunned by the fact that she was holding a gun in her lap. A real gun.

A real gun.

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"Whoa," Danny says when he sees what she's got. His eyes are about as wide as they get and he practically sprints to her side to make sure the safety was on, inspecting it once he had it in his hands. "Where the hell did you get this?" he demands heatedly.

"Chill out, five-o, it was just sitting here with my name on it," Kate answers, putting her hands up defensively. It's not like she asked for a gun or even wants one, but here it is anyway. "It was wrapped. It had a bow," she adds, like she has to explain herself, like the fact that it's here is somehow her fault.

"I think it's my present," she says a second later, even though she's sure of it. It's definitely her present. The island gave her a gun. How is that even fair?

"Yeah, well, sitting in your lap doesn't mean it's not about to go off in your lap," he says sharply, studying it cautiously before giving Kate a long look. "Okay, first of all, this is your present?" If it is, it means their lessons can definitely advance. "Does this mean you're really serious about becoming a cop or something?"

"Uh..."

Marshall stood in the doorway of their hut, eyes a little wide and on the gun in her hand. Two days ago, he'd found a digital camera and Macbook computer, wrapped up neatly with his name on it. It was the perfect gift for him. So much so that it had almost been a little anticlimactic, tearing open the paper to find what was inside.

A gun for Kate Gregson? How was that possibly going to end well?

While there was no special reason for Hermione to find herself any more frightened of a Muggle weapon than of all the spells that a wand was capable of conjuring, nonetheless she felt her heart leap as she walked by Kate's hut. She hadn't encountered guns very often in her life, although she was familiar enough with the mechanics, having taken the time to research them briefly as a child after reading a few too many crime series for someone to her age. In the end, what she associated it with was very much unlike magic, which felt so deliberate, and more often than not required a great deal of resolve from the person who held the wand. Guns were chaotic. Random. Capable of hurting others when they didn't even plan for it at all.

Naturally, there was a part of her that felt rather terrified.

"Oh my god," she exclaimed, a hand rising to her chest. "Kate, what are you doing with a gun? I don't remember—" She glanced over her shoulder, in case anyone was watching. "I don't remember you asking to be lent one through our weapons registry."

Jealousy was an emotion which was not especially easy to arouse in Effy Stonem in those days. There were countless days in the past, of course, when she'd found herself at the mercy of her inner demons, wrapping herself up in the existence of others. Claiming their attention, trying to anchor herself as the best, the only, the most important of them at all. But in recent weeks, and perhaps building up for years before that, Effy was starting to grow content with the idea that there was a specific place for her in the world, one which spun around in importance, like a moon orbiting someone else's earth. That intangible hand of fate had never been something Effy clamored much to reach in her life, but even had it been, she wasn't especially interested in comparing her life to anyone else's.

Even when it came to having the privilege, so to speak, of carrying a gun in one's hands.

"And all I got was make-up," she remarked, walking easily over to Kate's side. While the gun did set her lightly on edge, the glint and sight of it enough to serve as its own sharp reminder of the fragility of others, it wasn't nearly enough to turn her in the other direction. Not away from Kate. And, fortunately, not yet away from her sanity.

Jeff hated his damn dog.

Which was a given, but seriously, having to walk it around all the time was already a pain in the ass. And okay, there were moments in the last couple of days that he may have found he had a soft spot for him, but the dog always found ways to ruin that. Usually - and unsurprisingly - it involved ruining something of his.

He was wandering near Kate's hut anyway, so stopping in seemed a good enough idea. Except then he got there, and he found Kate outside, sitting with what looked like a pretty realistic gun. Chang immediately went to try to get Kate's attention, but he halted the dog's movement. No way was he going to let it jump on her and somehow accidentally make it go off. He wasn't going to start his new year in the clinic with a gunshot wound.

"What the hell, Kate?" he asked, raising a brow. Chang whimpered, looking a little put out at the fact he couldn't go greet her, completely ignorant to the situation at hand. "Is that real?"

"I..." I don't know. That's what she wants to say. But the truth is that she's tired of just floating along, pretending that she has all this shit figured out when she actually has nothing at all figured out. And she can't hop a plane to Japan from the island, so maybe doing this is the next best thing.

"I think so," she says. "It came with a safety manual."

"I know," Kate said, then gently picked the box up off her lap and set it down beside her. Then she nudged it away slightly, using just the tip of her finger to do so. The last thing she needed now was for it to go off accidentally and shoot someone.

"What the hell kind of gift is that?" she asked, twisting around to look up at Marshall. "Who thought it would be a good idea to give me a gun?"

"That's because I didn't," Kate answered, her voice rising in pitch. Was that something she'd had to do with this thing? Register it and make sure everyone on the island knew she had one in case she accidentally shot someone in the foot? This was just getting worse by the second. She'd never even held a gun, let alone fired one.

"It was just here," she said, then gestured at the wrapping she'd torn off the box. "It had my name on it and a big stupid bow."

And it probably made even less sense to Hermione that she'd been given this as a gift. The whole cop thing wasn't exactly something she'd told many people about.

"To be honest, I think I'd prefer makeup," Kate answered, still looking down at the gun, torn between awe and complete horror. This wasn't something she'd asked for, it wasn't something she'd even actively wanted. The idea of shooting a gun during her training had definitely come up and she thought it sounded cool, but she didn't want one of her own. There was a lot of really bad shit that could happen with a gun, she knew that.

"I have no idea what to do with this," she admitted, looking up at Effy then, her eyes still a little wide. "I mean, Danny talked about me learning how to shoot and I guess that's pretty much part of the deal if I want on the IPD at any point, but a gun of my own? That's totally fucked. Bad idea, island." She realized she was rambling, that she hadn't even told Effy about the training, but the whole thing sort of had her freaked out.

"Yes. I mean, I think so. I don't know," Kate answered, genuinely distressed as she looked up at Jeff. She still hadn't actually touched the gun, instead choosing to leave it in the box where it couldn't go off. Probably not, anyway. She doubted it was loaded, because whoever put a loaded gun in a box as a present would have to be a real prize idiot. (Then again, it was a gift from the island, so she thought maybe it could be loaded.)

"What the hell am I supposed to do with a gun?" she asked, as if Jeff had the answer. She knew exactly why the island had given it to her. It was supposed to guide her or give her some kind of direction or something, but mostly, right now, it was just freaking her out.

He shakes his head because he's actually surprised by this. The winter had been expected, the parties are par for the course, but giving Kate a gun? Well, he'll be damned. "Okay, well, before I hand this back to you, you have to vow to me that you're not going to lend it out, not to anyone. Got it?"

"Someone with a really morbid sense of humor?" Marshall guessed, because there was no way someone wasn't ending up with their face blown off. He really hoped that someone wasn't either one of them.

"Are you sure it's yours?"

"Oh, my god, I'm not twelve or totally stupid, I'm not going to lend anyone my gun," Kate answered obediently. At this point, Danny would be lucky if he got her to hold it for longer than five seconds without wanting to put it back.

"It's so weird," she admitted. "I was hoping for a super swanky bed or something."

Kate lifted the tag to show Marshall. "It had my name on it. I mean, it... kinda makes sense, too," she admitted, suddenly looking anywhere but at her brother. It was hard to believe she'd managed to hide this for so long, but even now she wasn't sure she wanted to say it.

"I'm sorta... training with Danny to maybe be on the IPD," she said, then shrugged, like it was no big deal. "And taking law classes and stuff."

"What the fuck are you doing?"

The words crack out of me before I've even really registered them, striding over to stand near Kate, eyes blazing. Instinct tells me to get the fuck out of here, something tearing sharp through my chest and pressure in my head like a cyclone, but I can't just leave her sitting there like that.

I can barely see her past Misty, standing on the front porch, hunting wild turkeys with the gun pointed right at me.

"Hey, this is serious," Danny says, all joking fading away as he gives Kate a look that implies that if she's not going to listen to him, he'll lock the damn thing up. "This isn't something you take out to play with when it's convenient. This comes with responsibility, a promise to devote yourself to training, and the promise of a real path to community service in the name of the law."

"It had your n—" Hermione glanced down at the box, feeling her voice trail into silence as soon as her gaze landed on the object. Of course, she thought ruefully, more than a touch irritated with herself for not having suspected this earlier; it was that time of year again, after all, when most citizens of the island seemed to receive something from whatever strange force or power it was keeping them there. Most gifts carried with them some level of significance, be it a tool necessary for a hobby they'd held back in their worlds, or if it was something new to experience, and well-suited to their personalities. Her worry lowered down a fraction, knowing Kate hadn't asked for the gun of her own will, but the remaining reasons as to its significance worried her still.

"Can you think of any reason the island would decide to give you firearms, of all things? I realize that not all presents are things that we've had much experience with. Last year, it gave me materials to produce chocolate, although the importance of cocoa in magic made me consider that one well-tailored— but a gun, I don't understand. Do you feel that you're not protected well enough on the island, Kate?"

Upon greater consideration, it probably wasn't surprising that Kate Gregson was the type of person who wanted to take fate into her own hands, be it actively or simply through the attempt to protect herself from harm and ensure the strength of her own two feet in carrying any burdens that came her way. But Effy lived in a small, reclusive world where adults very rarely stepped up to the scope of responsibilities they should have been held accountable for, and the pressure lessened on their children as a result, feeling free to party and to live large, paying for it all after the passage of a few more years.

The IPD never would have crossed Effy's mind.

"Or maybe the island wants you to prove yourself," she suggested, the words feeling lofty and foreign on her tongue, a special type of encouragement that she didn't often give, and didn't plan to make a habit out of. "Can't do that with a fake gun. Means more if it's yours. You don't hold back when it's the smart thing to do, 'cause you're the only one that really matters."

"Why are you asking me?" he asked, raising a confused brow. She seemed as surprised as he was about it, which didn't make him feel any more comfortable with her having one. "Did you just find it?"

The gift box made him assume it was one of those gift things, like the stupid dog that was now digging a hole nearby was. Though he's starting to think "gifts" would be more appropriate, because his sure as hell wasn't a gift and a gun for Kate wouldn't be, either.

"Holy shit, nothing," Kate answered, staring up at Harley in surprise. All their shit had gone back to normal, she figured he'd be feeling a hell of a lot better the next time she saw him, but this didn't seem like it was better. He sounded like he was mad at her.

About the gun.

"It was just sitting here when I got home," she said. "Wrapped up. It had my name on it." Which meant it was a present for her, that was just how this place worked, but she didn't get it. She didn't understand why it would give her a gun of all the things in the world she could have wanted.

"I know," Kate groaned, dragging the word out. "I haven't even touched it, okay? It's just been sitting in the box and I haven't taken it out and I won't take it out unless I'm with like, a trained professional who's helping me learn how to use it and I'll... tell the Council I have it or whatever I'm supposed to do."

She was feeling a little grumpy now, all things considered. It was a little bit like being back home, like having her dad hang over her. "Seriously, though, I'm not some stupid, fucked up kid, okay?"

"Um..." Kate pursed her lips and looked down at the gun. There was a scrap of wrapping paper in her lap and she fidgeted with it awkwardly. The appearance of the gun sort of made it hard to keep all this shit a secret from anyone who saw her with it or who would know she had it. She hadn't told anyone except Danny. Not even her teachers knew why she was taking the courses they offered.

"I'm sort of... training with Danny Williams," she admitted slowly, folding the little piece of paper in her hands. "He's a cop back home and he's training me to be on the IPD. Maybe. I mean, it was just a thought, like... something to do. I was sort of tired of doing nothing and I'd rather travel and get on a plane to go somewhere, but that's sort of impossible here."

"Maybe," Kate agreed, looking down at the gun again. There was so much shit she'd have to do with this. She'd have to learn how to use it, which meant telling Danny she had it before she even so much as took it out of the box and she'd have to register it or something. There had to be something like that on the island, someone who kept track of all the weapons. As much as this place was a blank slate -- or so everyone claimed -- she couldn't imagine letting people just walk around with whatever weapons they wanted.

"Maybe it's supposed to help teach me how to be more responsible," she said dryly, then set it aside and closed the lid carefully. Right now it was enough to just think about it. Looking at it now wasn't necessary. All it did was remind her of all the responsible shit she'd have to do and it was a little overwhelming if she considered it for too long. "I mean, teach me how to take care of something dangerous like that. It's still... weird."

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NDPD (January 16th)

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