WHO: Ate & George WHEN: Evening, Thursday 14th WHERE: A restaurant in Manhattan WHAT: George has only just realised that Ate is a life-ruiner. She ruins people's lives. WARNINGS: language? This will all depend on how this goes. NOTES: Reposting this from over at FG for me and Chelsea to continue here. Now that I'm not all '!!!' about things I'll actually reply to it in a timely fashion.
Dinner with George! Dinner with George!
Ate had dressed nicely, feeling like playing up to the innocent virginal look tonight in all white, and she waited at the bar of the restaurant with a gin and tonic. She kept batting her eyelashes at the man down the end of the bar, amused at his attention. She liked all of their attentions.
But the most important one here would be George because he was her little Redcrosse delight. A look to the door again and a pout when her glance didn't make him magically appear. That should have been one of her godly powers. Ate hated having to have patience. Besides, it was a school night! She had to get up tomorrow and play the different game.
---
George was in a considerably less cheerful mood. If he had to put a name to his emotions, he'd probably land on 'sadness'. Not quite disappointment; Ate hadn't made any real promises of good behavior. Sadness was probably a good word for it.
She was Ruin. George had known she was Ruin from basically the moment he'd met her. The fact that they hadn't been at odds from day one was closer to a miracle than anything normal. (George wasn't quite counting what happened in the fairytales about them. There was a questionable definition of 'real' when it came to all of that.) But...
But she had hit all of his 'damsel in distress' senses hard that first time, and she somehow still did. He didn't want to be at odds with her, or fight with her.
He just wasn't sure if there was a way of avoiding that.
Still, though, he mustered a smile as he knocked on the door. "Hey! It's me!"
---
Ate turned to look over at his voice and beamed, reaching out to grab his hand and pull him onto the bar stood next to her. "My favourite you," the Greek crooned, her fingers dancing through his hair. "Hello, sugar. Miss me?"
---
George smiled at her, letting himself get pulled to the bar stool. It was hard to stay in a bad mood in the face of Ate being so happy to see him. Impulsively, he pulled her into a hug.
"You look good."
---
Ate flashed him one of her should-be-trademarked carefree smiles and accepted the embrace, hugging him back. Then she gave him a dramatic pout, although her smile hadn't completely disappeared. "Redcrosse," she chided, "are you suggesting I don't always?"
---
"Oh, I'd never suggest anything like that," George said, ducking his head. All right, this was going well. This felt normal. Maybe things really wouldn't have to end with Ate being violently pissed off at him and George feeling miserable.
"How's school going?" George asked, if only because now he was worried those promises about not killing anyone might not be very strictly kept.
---
Ate beamed at the mention of her newest endeavour. "It's so good, George!" she told him with excitement. "There are all these kids and some of them are so adorable and I want to encourage the bad ones into full on warfare because it would hilarious but I'm behaving for my Thea." No one else in the world could get a promise like that out of her. It wasn't that she felt guilty for what Pasithea had felt after all the murders they'd been at together but... well, she liked Thea and somehow when Thea was sad, Ate didn't really like that. It was strange. "So we sit in our classes and flirt with the little boys and sell Thea's drugs and if there wasn't the learning-bits then it would be perfect. Except," Ate said, leaning in to look at him with shock, "do you know that they teach them how to cut up animals, for science? Hybris threw frog bits all around the room!"
---
George blinked a few times, letting that all sink in.
"Okay, well, I'm glad that you aren't starting any high school wars," George said, taking a long swallow of the drink the bartender had set before him. "Very, very glad. And, um, drugs?"
---
"Wars can wait," Ate smirked. "Someone's always throwing golden apples in the ring anyway."
She took a sip of her drink and raised her eyebrows at his question as though confused. "Thea," she told him, as though that should explain everything. "She likes drugs. This whole school-thing was a moneymaker for her. I'm just along for the life experience."
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[info]thelancer 2010-10-27 09:37 pm (local) (link) Track This "Have you actually met any of the Drugs?" George asked. "They're total dicks. Well, okay, I occasionally get presents from Opium, but that's just so he can be smug at me."
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[info]recklessate 2010-10-27 10:42 pm (local) (link) Track This Ate didn't know if she'd met any of the Drugs with a capital D, and she'd only sort of vaguely thought of them existing. It wasn't like they were real gods. They were just... things. "Is there a meth god or a cocaine god?" she asked with genuine curiosity. "Those are the ones I'm selling. They're stupidly expensive!"
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[info]thelancer 2010-10-28 06:51 pm (local) (link) Track This "Oh, there's a Cocaine god," George said darkly. "I'm not a fan. He's kind of a terrible person. Maybe you should start dumping his product into the East River instead." He sighed and rubbed his head. "I'm pretty sure there's a god of meth. I haven't met him, though. Or her. It could be a her."
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[info]recklessate 2010-10-31 02:59 pm (local) (link) Track This "Silly little things," Ate said with an amused shake of her head. "I'm sure they're all terribly annoying. They seemed like they'd be annoying."
Ate shifted on her stool a little closer to George and then kissed him on the cheek with a beamingly sweet smile. "Why have you never bought me any presents, Redcrosse?" she asked him.
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[info]the_lancer 2010-11-01 07:45 pm (local) (link) Track This "Very, very annoying," George, taking another drink. He felt very much off-balance, not sure how he could even begin to start talking to Ate about the things he wanted to talk about. 'Hey, stop being kind of evil?' 'I know you're Ruin, but be less ruinous?' That would all go over very well, he was sure.
He smiled a little at the kiss on the cheek. "I'm bad with picking out presents. I never know what to get anyone, especially not you."
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[info]recklessate 2010-11-02 02:55 pm (local) (link) Track This "Shoes," Ate said seriously and with a nod, then bounced with glee. "Oh! And sharp things!" Ate was very fond of things that were pointing and painful.
(Reply to this)(Parent) (Thread) Sorry I've been so slow ;_; [info]the_lancer 2010-11-03 04:22 pm (local) (link) Track This George laughed despite himself. "I'm not sure you'd want any shoes that I picked out for you. I judge them mostly by how much they hurt if you kick someone in the face while wearing them. But I can do sharp things."
He took a final gulp of his drink, prepared himself for the worst, and said, "So hey, tell me more about what happened with the Muses? And Belial and Sonja."
(Reply to this)(Parent) (Thread) Not a problem! [info]recklessate 2010-11-03 05:37 pm (local) (link) Track This "Oh!" Ate said, suddenly remembering that had been the reason for their meeting in the first place. So she smiled and leaned over with her drink to tell a proper story.
"Okay, so Apollo was being a complete dickhead and beat my darling sweet Lyssa-sister into little pulpy bits, the poor broken thing. Her bones were all snapped up." Ate frowned when she thought about it. "So I took one of his Muses and gave her to Lyssa and Mania as punishment, and then I took another two for myself to punish him as well - one of them was living with Belial so Sonny helped - but then Apollo went and got all murdered by someone else before he could even react properly. It was so stupid." She sighed and took a drink from her glass.
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[info]the_lancer 2010-11-04 12:07 am (local) (link) Track This George rubbed his forehead, letting all of that sink in. Okay. So Ate had tortured more or less innocent people. Muses. Whatever. But she'd tortured them for a reason that made sense to her, which was sort of a positive. Better than random torture sprees, anyway.
He was going to need a lot more to drink.
"Wouldn't it have been more satisfying and less collateral damage-y to just torture Apollo?" George asked, shifting uncomfortably.
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[info]recklessate 2010-11-04 03:46 am (local) (link) Track This Ate frowned, confused. "No?" she finally suggested after a beat, trying to work out George's strange angle on this. Why would she have tortured Apollo when she could get the Muses? He really liked his little art-girls so of course that was the best way to go. "Had to break his toys since he tried to break mine." She said it as though this should have been quite obvious, her expression questioning if George was in some way simple.
(Reply to this)(Parent) (Thread) Oh God, I love Ate [info]the_lancer 2010-11-05 11:23 pm (local) (link) Track This George almost wanted to laugh at the tone of her voice, like he was a very slow child who just wasn't quite understanding math. It had never struck him quite so hard that they were very, very different people.
"People being tortured upsets me," George explained. "Like, any people. So you being tortured bothers me, and you torturing the Muses bothers me. It's a Saint thing?"
(Reply to this)(Parent) (Thread) She says she loves you too! [info]recklessate 2010-11-06 02:42 am (local) (link) Track This Ate watched him thoughtfully, expression clearly confused by this caring he had for things he'd never even met. Of course he didn't want her tortured. Ate was his lovely friend and she bought him a dragon, so he'd be sure to rush in all manly and adorable. But the Muses? He didn't even know them and some sort of concern... well, it confused her quite a lot.
"Saints are weird," she finally said after a lot of thought, eyebrows still furrowed. "But the Muses are really lame."
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[info]the_lancer 2010-11-06 05:32 pm (local) (link) Track This "We are," George agreed, sighing a little. "We are strange, strange animals. And even if the Muses are lame, the idea of them being tortured is still upsetting to me. I'm against torture in general, see."
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[info]recklessate 2010-11-06 11:08 pm (local) (link) Track This "Have you tried," Ate pondered out loud, concerned for her Redcrosse adn this torture concern he had, "not being a Saint?"
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[info]the_lancer 2010-11-06 11:31 pm (local) (link) Track This "No," George said firmly. "And I like being a Saint, anyway. It's what keeps me nice and alive, and it's who I am." He picked at the hem of his shirt. "Have you tried not torturing people?"
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[info]recklessate 2010-11-06 11:44 pm (local) (link) Track This Ate blinked, the very question confusing to her. "I'm Ruin," she told him with a furrowed brow. "What else would I do but bring pain?" When they'd first met she had been different, she had just reached the end of only punishing those who truly brought themselves to disaster. After that mob had tried killing her, why would she let any of these American children go? (But she didn't really remember that she'd been different. Ate's memory is selective and as far as she could see, she has always chosen her marks this way, without any more behind it than arrogance or payback.) "It's what I am."
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[info]the_lancer 2010-11-07 01:05 pm (local) (link) Track This "I know," George said, feeling very miserable. He was going to unravel his sleeve, at this rate. Honesty. Try for honesty, he told himself, before making himself look up at her.
"I like you. Really like you. I like talking to you, like spending time with you. I just...I'm afraid we're going to end up on different sides some day. And I really don't want that."
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[info]recklessate 2010-11-09 10:21 pm (local) (link) Track This Ate pouted dramatically at him. "Then don't make us be on different sides," Ate told him, as though it were the simplest solution in the world. Then, for emphasis, added: "duh."
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[info]the_lancer 2010-11-11 01:19 pm (local) (link) Track This George smiled at her. It wasn't much of a smile, but it was hard to stay pessimistic around Ate. It was weird. This thing between them was weird. George really didn't want it to go away.