Liam Flynn (me_lucky_charms) wrote in nevermore_logs, @ 2011-01-08 04:04:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | liam flynn, natalie godfrey |
Who: Liam the Leprechaun and Natalie
What: Damn lore.
When: Friday evening
Where: A New York City street
Liam didn't often Alastair's home any more. He hired another person to watch his shop, and he sat with Alastair while the man rested in bed, pining for Absinthe. He took care of Alastair's son, Will, and he behaved like he had a family.
But he didn't have a family. He was a goddamn leprechaun. And sometimes, leprechauns just needed to steal something.
He had wandered the streets, taking shiny things here and there. A diamond bracelet here, a ruby ring there. After Christmas was always a good time for stealing. Everyone was proudly displaying their new presents for Liam to admire. And take.
As Liam planned to cross the street, he judged the distance between the cars. Liam was fast. He could cross to the other side in the blink of an eye and people wouldn't notice. Leprechaun magic. They might notice that it looked as if he was about to step out into traffic however. Liam didn't even get a chance to speed up, he simply took one step towards the street and then someone was grabbing him.
Natalie was on her way back from one of her many trips to Conrad's house in which she yet again failed to drag her friend back to the world of the living. She was really worried about him but had no way to fix it. (There was also the worry that he was going to have trouble flying again. Who was going to hire a pilot with two accidents under their belt in as many years? Airlines weren't exactly the most easy going of employers at the best of times.)
The only thing that managed to distract Natalie from her own worries was looking up and seeing clearly that the man in front of her was about to nonchalantly step into traffic. Didn't he see the cars? Was he suicidal?
Either way Natalie acted without thinking, darting the few steps towards him, grabbing him by the back of the shirt, and yanking him back to the safety of the sidewalk.
Liam let out a squawk as he was dragged back away from the road.
This had happened to him so many times in his past. People who knew the lore would grab him. Leprechauns would give anyone who trapped them three wishes for their release. And generally leprechauns were hard to trap. One had to be sneaky. And grabby. And thus, Liam simply assumed whomever was grabbing him was looking for wishes.
It also meant that once someone had ahold of him, Liam couldn't get out of their grasp, they had to let him go. That was just how it worked.
"Ack, let go! I'll give you your wishes, just let me go!" Liam yelped.
So the man was now freaking out a bit and saying something about wishes? Natalie released his shirt, glad she hadn't ripped it or anything, and then made a face at him. "What?"
He was free!
FREE!
Liam spun around and he gave Natalie a Look. "Wishes. Three of them. You released me so you get three wishes."
Natalie blinked at him as she found herself incapable of any other action. Then she said (suave as ever), "Huh? You're- Mate, I was just stopping you from splatting across the street and now you're talking about wishes?"
She looked around them carefully before turning her gaze back to him and lowering her voice. "If you tell me you're some kind of leprechaun or something I'm gonna flip my shit."
Liam's lips thinned as the woman suggested she would freak out if he was a leprechaun.
"A leprechaun, yes. Keep your voice down. And decide what the hell you want because I don't have all day."
Holy. Shit.
"Fuuuuck," Natalie breathed. She'd think he was some sort of crazy guy but the last person she'd met on the street like this had tried to strangle her because she couldn't answer a riddle. Crazy they might be, but still immortal they were.
Although, how could anyone be sure about these things? "I want a cheeseburger," Natalie tried. "And fries."
"Well I can't do it here on the street!" Liam hissed. He had to grant wishes in his true form and while the passersby wouldn't have seen him speed across the street, they would notice him turning into a three-foot-tall redhead. "Come here, come here!" Liam glanced around a corner and then he pulled her into an alley. Promptly he assumed his normal form (luckily he could make his clothes still fit him, or he would be in trouble) and, as a three foot tall leprechaun, he snapped his fingers and then he was holding exactly what Natalie had asked for, from her favourite fast food place in the UK.
"Oh my god," Natalie said, slapping a hand over her mouth as he transformed. And then he had a burger in hand from the fish and chips place around the corner from her parent's house and Natalie cried, "oh my god!" though her hand.
He was ACTUALLY a leprechaun. She took the burger and opened it up to look inside. "You're really- whoa, you grant wishes!"
"That is what I KEEP SAYING!" Liam hissed, making himself tall and brunette again. "And now you have two left. And I'm busy so make it snappy."
She had to make the wishes right now?? "Uh," she said, panicking because how could she decide right then what she wanted with a magical wish. "A SPAD S.XIII - it's a first World War fighter plane - and in the colors of Eddie Rickenbacker's which, uh, I guess specifics..." Shit, this wishing stuff was hard.
Liam didn't know what that even was, but he could do it anyway. He didn't have to know.
"Just tell me where you want it, since I can't exactly materialise that right here."
Oh god, oh god. "Uh, there's an airfield..." Natalie told him about the place where quite a few owners of old planes kept theirs in storage, and that she'd need some magiced up thing there to say that the plane belonged to her. She hoped he could do that.
Was this really happening?
Liam could do that. There was a lot of lore about leprechauns, and even more Americans who proudly wore leprechaun shirts and ate Lucky Charms and told everyone they were Irish. All of it gave Liam power. Liam made himself small again, clicked his fingers and then he looked up at Natalie.
"Done. Look, if you can't think of another one now, you can save it for later. Now that I am indebted to you, you can call me from anywhere at any time for your last wish. And if you tell anyone about this, I will steal your nostrils from you and watch you try to breathe without them."
"Uh," Natalie said, "I won't tell anyone. I'm good at secrets." Disturbingly good by now, in fact. She was glad he was letting her keep the third wish. She'd use it for something important and amazing and, Jesus Christ, she was getting wishes from leprechauns.
"I wasn't trying to catch you though," Natalie felt the need to explain. "I didn't know you were an immortal and I thought you were going to get hit by a car. I just didn't want you to get murdered."
Liam returned to human size and then he scowled at her. "I am very fast," he informed her. "I don't need to be saved. Once you had ahold of me I couldn't make you let go. I panicked and offered. Can't take it back now." Liam backed up a step then. "And it only works once, so no trying for more!"
"Promise no wishing for more wishes," Natalie said solemnly, hoping she hadn't offended him too badly with the whole 'saving' thing. "I'm guessing there are other rules? Like... no bringing people back from the dead and no making people fall in love? Wait, that's genies." Holy crap, were there genies too?
"It still applies. And no 'world peace' or some bullshit like that. I can give you things, but I can't change reality for other people like that. So think about it and get back to me."