Story: "Up the Water Spout" Part 11
Sep. 22nd, 2014 12:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Hairpins," "Blended," "Am I Not," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys,""Saudades," "Querencia," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," "Green Eggs and Hulk,""kintsukuroi," and "Little and Broken, but Still Good."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Natasha Romanova, Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Betty Ross, Bucky Barnes.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Mention of human trafficking and nonconsensual drug use. Slightly offstage sexual violence. Dubcon/Noncon.
Summary: Sometimes the Black Widow needs to hunt, and sometimes she needs help settling her personality afterwards. Uncle Phil arranges an extra ageplay session.
Notes: Hurt/comfort. Family. Fluff and angst. BAMF!Black Widow. Black Widow is creepy. Spiders. Coping skills. Asking for help and getting it. Hope. Nonsexual ageplay. Caregiving. Competence. Girl stuff. Toys and games. Gentleness. Trust. #coulsonlives
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10. Skip to Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16.
"Up the Water Spout" Part 11
After the girls declared themselves done with hopscotch, Phil picked up the chalk and put it away. Then he went to the janitor's closet for a mop and bucket. It was safer to clean up the distinctive chalk lines himself than to leave them for the regular cleaning crew to see. With deft strokes, he swished the mop across the designs. Then he wrung it out and returned the cleaning equipment to the closet.
Betty and Natka were resting on a nearby mat. "Do you want to learn a sit-down game?" Betty asked. "I could teach you hand-clapping."
"I already know how to clap my hands," Natka said.
"Not like applause, a real game," Betty said.
"It's meant for cooperation and teamwork, as well as fun," Phil added.
"Okay, show me," Natka said.
"First you need to know the hand motions. There are a lot of them, but just a few will get you through most of the games," Betty said. "Clap your own hands." She demonstrated, and Natka followed suit. "Slap your thighs. Snap your fingers. Those are the most common things you do by yourself. Let's go through them again."
Natka followed along as Betty repeated the set. "This is simple."
"It gets a little more complicated when you do them together. Put both hands up," Betty said, and gently bounced her palms off Natka's. "Next, put your right hand to my right. Do the same thing on the left. Right hands again, but touch the backs. Now the left backs. Most of the other moves are variants of the basic ones."
Natka kept up with her, though she had to concentrate a little more to match Betty's motion. "It is harder to do this together," she said.
"That's part of the fun," Betty said. "With practice, you can go really fast. Next, there are songs that go with the hand-clapping. First, put your hands together. We're going brush them past each other." Natka did so, and Betty sang, "Down down, baby, down by the roses."
Betty paused for a moment, then continued, "Next part, keep the backs of our hands together, clap free hands up, then clap free hands down." Natka followed along with Betty singing, "Shimmy shimmy, baby, oh how I love you."
They kept going through the rest of the song. When Betty sang, "I like coffee, I like tea, I like the boys and they like me," Natka burst into giggles.
After that, they did "Boom Snap Clap" and "Chinese Restaurant." Natka had no trouble learning new motions, but found it more difficult to get the timing and aim exactly right to match her gestures against Betty's.
"Remember when you do partner massage with Clint," said Phil. "It doesn't matter whether you lead, or he leads. You watch each other's bodies for cues so that you do the same things at the same time. This is just a child's game for learning that kind of skill."
"Hmm," Natka said. "Let's go again."
"You're getting better at this," Betty said when they finished another round.
"These sound like the jump rope rhymes," Natka said.
"Yes, some of the songs can be played with different games," Betty said. "Here, I'll teach you one that's used for both." She went into "Hello, Operator."
After that, Natka turned to Phil. "Do you think Clint will play this with me?"
"Boys absolutely can play hand-clapping games if they want to," Phil assured her.
* * *
Notes:
Cleaning chalk depends on the variety. Some are easy to wipe up with a wet mop, others need liquid soap, and some you have scrub loose with a granular cleaner like Comet. Phil has sensibly bought the kind of sidewalk chalk that is easy to remove.
Cooperative games include hand-clapping. They are good for teaching cooperation and teamwork.
Hand-clapping games use a variety of gestures and rhymes. See videos for "Down Down Baby," "Boom Snap Clap," and "Chinese Restaurant."
[To be continued in Part 12 ...]
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Natasha Romanova, Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Betty Ross, Bucky Barnes.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Mention of human trafficking and nonconsensual drug use. Slightly offstage sexual violence. Dubcon/Noncon.
Summary: Sometimes the Black Widow needs to hunt, and sometimes she needs help settling her personality afterwards. Uncle Phil arranges an extra ageplay session.
Notes: Hurt/comfort. Family. Fluff and angst. BAMF!Black Widow. Black Widow is creepy. Spiders. Coping skills. Asking for help and getting it. Hope. Nonsexual ageplay. Caregiving. Competence. Girl stuff. Toys and games. Gentleness. Trust. #coulsonlives
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10. Skip to Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16.
"Up the Water Spout" Part 11
After the girls declared themselves done with hopscotch, Phil picked up the chalk and put it away. Then he went to the janitor's closet for a mop and bucket. It was safer to clean up the distinctive chalk lines himself than to leave them for the regular cleaning crew to see. With deft strokes, he swished the mop across the designs. Then he wrung it out and returned the cleaning equipment to the closet.
Betty and Natka were resting on a nearby mat. "Do you want to learn a sit-down game?" Betty asked. "I could teach you hand-clapping."
"I already know how to clap my hands," Natka said.
"Not like applause, a real game," Betty said.
"It's meant for cooperation and teamwork, as well as fun," Phil added.
"Okay, show me," Natka said.
"First you need to know the hand motions. There are a lot of them, but just a few will get you through most of the games," Betty said. "Clap your own hands." She demonstrated, and Natka followed suit. "Slap your thighs. Snap your fingers. Those are the most common things you do by yourself. Let's go through them again."
Natka followed along as Betty repeated the set. "This is simple."
"It gets a little more complicated when you do them together. Put both hands up," Betty said, and gently bounced her palms off Natka's. "Next, put your right hand to my right. Do the same thing on the left. Right hands again, but touch the backs. Now the left backs. Most of the other moves are variants of the basic ones."
Natka kept up with her, though she had to concentrate a little more to match Betty's motion. "It is harder to do this together," she said.
"That's part of the fun," Betty said. "With practice, you can go really fast. Next, there are songs that go with the hand-clapping. First, put your hands together. We're going brush them past each other." Natka did so, and Betty sang, "Down down, baby, down by the roses."
Betty paused for a moment, then continued, "Next part, keep the backs of our hands together, clap free hands up, then clap free hands down." Natka followed along with Betty singing, "Shimmy shimmy, baby, oh how I love you."
They kept going through the rest of the song. When Betty sang, "I like coffee, I like tea, I like the boys and they like me," Natka burst into giggles.
After that, they did "Boom Snap Clap" and "Chinese Restaurant." Natka had no trouble learning new motions, but found it more difficult to get the timing and aim exactly right to match her gestures against Betty's.
"Remember when you do partner massage with Clint," said Phil. "It doesn't matter whether you lead, or he leads. You watch each other's bodies for cues so that you do the same things at the same time. This is just a child's game for learning that kind of skill."
"Hmm," Natka said. "Let's go again."
"You're getting better at this," Betty said when they finished another round.
"These sound like the jump rope rhymes," Natka said.
"Yes, some of the songs can be played with different games," Betty said. "Here, I'll teach you one that's used for both." She went into "Hello, Operator."
After that, Natka turned to Phil. "Do you think Clint will play this with me?"
"Boys absolutely can play hand-clapping games if they want to," Phil assured her.
* * *
Notes:
Cleaning chalk depends on the variety. Some are easy to wipe up with a wet mop, others need liquid soap, and some you have scrub loose with a granular cleaner like Comet. Phil has sensibly bought the kind of sidewalk chalk that is easy to remove.
Cooperative games include hand-clapping. They are good for teaching cooperation and teamwork.
Hand-clapping games use a variety of gestures and rhymes. See videos for "Down Down Baby," "Boom Snap Clap," and "Chinese Restaurant."
[To be continued in Part 12 ...]
Betty
Date: 2014-09-22 01:22 pm (UTC)LOVED It.
Re: Betty
Date: 2014-09-22 10:43 pm (UTC)I'm happy to hear that.
>> Going through the 'basics' is often frustrating because the adult feels like they should "know this already"-- especially when they don't. <<
Sooth. It's more challenging when there's a divergence between chronological age, emotional age, and experience.
>> Getting them through the foundational parts without invoking that particular problem requires a delicate balance between adding sufficient details to keep the other person learning and keeping things at their /absorption/ pace. <<
You have to make an educated guess about what's easier to learn first, and what is most useful as building blocks for later skills. Instead of trying to teach all the standard moves at once, Betty picked a subset of the most useful ones, and then went into demonstrating how those could be combined into routines.
>> LOVED It. <<
Yay!
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-22 08:20 pm (UTC)There's one I vaguely remember, that you could do with a large number of people. We had twenty at once, one time. All I really remember is standing in a huge circle with a lot of other kids, I can't remember the rhyme or the hand motions.
I love that Natka wants to play with Clint.
Thank you!
Date: 2014-09-22 11:45 pm (UTC)That's good to hear.
>> My cousin/best friend and I used to do all sorts of hand-clapping games. We were very good at it. <<
Good for you! I mostly sucked at it. I don't have my memory for dance moves in this life, so it's very difficult for me to recall a specific pattern of motions.
>> There's one I vaguely remember, that you could do with a large number of people. We had twenty at once, one time. All I really remember is standing in a huge circle with a lot of other kids, I can't remember the rhyme or the hand motions. <<
Several hand-clapping games are circle games like that, and may well appear in this series later because they teach some skills useful in this line of work.
>> I love that Natka wants to play with Clint. <<
They often think of each other even when they're not together. It's kind of like Steve and Bucky: two halves of a whole.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2014-09-23 02:55 am (UTC)Well, I did have a good bit of crap that happened to me, but I also had good times.
>> Good for you! I mostly sucked at it. I don't have my memory for dance moves in this life, so it's very difficult for me to recall a specific pattern of motions. <<
I have this thing where I can't get my upper body and lower body to move in sync, but I can remember the moves. So what you get with me is either my hand/arms/torso doing all sorts of elaborate stuff, while my lower body is anchored somehow; or me doing all sorts of fancy steps, while I hold my hands out to the sides for balance.
Another clapping game
Date: 2014-09-23 02:00 am (UTC)Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker's man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can!
Pat it, and roll it, and
Mark it with a T, then
Put it in the oven for [XX] and me!
Older versions have "prick it" several times instead of the bread-making pat-and-roll; the letter is sometimes different as well. What's going on is the baker's apprentice is making tea cakes or possibly hot cross buns (fruit-laden sweet rolls marked with a + of frosting, which looks like a lower-case t) for tea with a lover or friend. You pierce the skin of the breadlike dough just before baking so it lets out a little steam and doesn't rise too much in the oven (causing hollow buns, or even deflation and super-dense buns if the oven is disturbed during baking).
The hand motions I learned for it were:
Slap thighs, clap hands, clap partner's hands (x2), slap thighs, snap fingers, clap partner's hands.
Slap thighs, clap hands, clap partner's hands, snap fingers (x2).
Pat hands together, make dough-rolling motion,
Draw letter on palm of hand with fingertip.
Open imaginary oven, put imaginary pan in; slap thighs, clap hands, clap partner's hands.
Re: Another clapping game
Date: 2014-09-25 05:35 am (UTC)Re: Another clapping game
Date: 2014-10-13 08:36 pm (UTC)"Prick it with B,
And put it in the oven for baby and me"
And no, what's happening is that it dates to before most houses had their own bread oven. The village/town would have a communal bread oven and villagers would make their own bread in their own house, then carry it to the communal oven for baking. As many people's loaves would go in one batch, you needed to mark your loaves with your initial or other mark.
Re: Another clapping game
Date: 2014-10-15 05:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-23 02:56 am (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2014-09-25 05:30 am (UTC)That's cool.
>> There was one we played at my school that I've never heard of anywhere else. From looking at your links, it may have evolved from Down Down Baby. I always liked Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky. <<
How fascinating.
>> That was a good group one. Maybe Natka can teach the rest of the group at their next game night? -ER <<
Hand-clapping games may appear on game night eventually.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-26 04:17 pm (UTC)• "Remember when you do partner massage Clint,"
-> with Clint [or other fix?]
One summer in my teens I learned a stick-tossing game like this with a chant supposedly in Maori. I made a set of 5 pairs of dowels and a box for them that I still have. I remember the chant, and I think remember the moves, which get progressively complex with each verse (= repetition of the chant).
Wow!
Date: 2014-09-26 08:00 pm (UTC)I'm happy to hear that.
>> • "Remember when you do partner massage Clint,"
-> with Clint [or other fix?] <<
Fixed.
>> One summer in my teens I learned a stick-tossing game like this with a chant supposedly in Maori. I made a set of 5 pairs of dowels and a box for them that I still have. I remember the chant, and I think remember the moves, which get progressively complex with each verse (= repetition of the chant). <<
That sounds like a great game.
It reminds me of one described in science fiction, shon'ai, which is a passing game variously played with knives, wands, or stones. I think Natka and Bucky would love the knife version.