Gamora is the most dangerous woman in the universe (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} the_assassin) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} valarlogs,@ 2014-09-19 15:25:00 |
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Who: Gabe and Gamora
When: During the Dream event
Where: Somewhere by a 7-Eleven and an alien spaceship that’s not really there
What: Gamora is hallucinating and Gabe has some pot
Rating/Warning: PG:13 for drug use and hallucinations
Status: complete
Gabe Torres saw the message while he was checking his phone in his car. He had just finished helping two other people suffering from the nightmares by delivering some of his choice strain of medical cannabis (he hated calling it ‘pot’). Now it seemed this other woman was hallucinating pretty badly. He would have to make another trip home first, then meet her. At… “An alien space ship?” He made a face at his glowing phone. “Yeah that’s pretty bad.”
He put the car in gear and headed home. Once there, he took enough time to find the right mix of cannabis that wouldn’t further the trippy visions this poor woman was having. He messaged back he would be there and made his way to the intersection. It took him a solid fifteen minutes of driving in slightly lost circles to finally spot the 7-Eleven and intersection. Parking, he got out, looking for her.
She’d given up trying to snipe at the people around her apartment building. She wasn’t sure they were actually there and they looked just like the men who’d...gotten really personal in her dreams. But when she’d punched them her fist hadn’t connected with anything. Gamora had decided to treat everything like it wasn’t real, so when she saw a ten foot tall tree get out of a car she wasn’t all that surprised when it turned out to be just a person. That was weird. “...Gabe?”
Gabe would have enjoyed the irony of being seen as a giant walking, talking tree. "That would be me. The guy with the bonsai trees." Gabe smiled a little but concern was written all over his face. "I never did catch your name on Valar." His eyes were studying her, trying to catch in the light of the 7 Eleven the status of the pupils of her eyes. He kept a few feet between them, in case she suddenly saw something and might decide to lash out.
“Gamora.” She rubbed at her face, knowing she probably looked horrible. She was so exhausted, and everywhere she looked there were aliens. “How much? And I really appreciate this. I’m kind of desperate.”
Gabe cocked his head to one side. She really did look a bit like a wreck, though despite that she was beautiful. “Don’t worry about it. On the house.” He stepped closer and held out a hand like a handshake - the same charade he had just performed in the park earlier. The baggie of marijuana was between his fingers against his palm. This time he’d remembered to provide some rolling paper. “Are you going to be okay? Do you need someone to just kinda, hang out with you and make sure you don’t hurt yourself?” Gabe could be strangely overprotective of people he hardly knew - it was half the reason he had gotten into his online business of providing medical cannabis to desperate families in the first place; he hated seeing people suffer. He could only imagine what Gamora was going through.
“You sure?” She took his hand, squeezing it and slipping the produce into her sleeve as she did so. “I think I’ll be okay. As long as I don’t start seeing toasters coming at me.”
“Yeah I’m sure. This is kinda...a special situation.” Gabe said, resisting a yawn. When their hands touched to pass the cannabis, he felt himself flush a little in the face and he was suddenly glad it was dark out.
“Flying toasters? What like the old school screensaver?” he joked. He was concerned though, all the same. “I can stay for a few minutes. I’m not going in to work tonight. I’ll probably just pass out at the door anyhow and get myself fired.”
“More like...I don’t know, I know I sound crazy, but I don’t really care. Anything is better than being alone right now.” She wanted to light up right now, but that probably wasn’t safe.
Gabe nodded. It was awkwardly quiet for a long moment. "You still seein' that big alien spaceship?" He then asked. "Anything else?"
“I think it took off about five minutes ago,” she lied, glancing back at the 7-11. It was still there, and it was creepy looking and god what if her father really was a genocidal maniac?
Gabe nodded but had a feeling she still saw something as Gamora glanced at the convenience store behind them. "Any of this stuff your regular dreams or more like messed up versions? Or just really scary stuff?" He'd seen all sorts of stories on Valar.
“Messed up versions of my dreams. There are aliens, and wars and all the worse kinds of things.” She squinted her eyes. “Some things I don’t want to talk about.”
Gabe nodded. It was understandable. “Well I don’t have any aliens in my nightmares. Just the classic kind of nightmares.” He frowned. “Everyone keeps talking about some sort of dreams on Valar. I mean, outside of whatever this crazy is. You had any of that kind of stuff?” He folded his arms and glanced at the 7-11. He could go for a snack right now, but he wasn’t sure Gamora was seeing the store the same way he was.
“No,” she lied, through her teeth. “Nothing stranger than your usual naked at work type dreams.” How could she tell anyone she was a green-skinned alien woman? She couldn’t, that’s what.
"Ah." Gabe said, and was now trying hard not to picture her naked. He cleared his throat and looked about. "You hungry? I was just gonna pop in." He thumb pointed to the store behind them. Gabe was a quiet guy and small talk wasn't his thing. Rocco could talk up a storm at the drop of a hat.
“I think I’ll pass.” She was hungry, but she wasn’t going any close to that store than she absolutely had to. “It’s...really nice meeting you.”
Gabe frowned a little. He knew when people were lying. Part of that had been a result of being friends with Rocco for so long. The rest was a result of his work as a bouncer keeping underage and uninvited people from chatting their way in.
"Listen, I know you're not telling me the whole truth about any of this. And whatever, that's your business. But you're gonna be hungry after you smoke that anyway. So at least tell me what that store looks like to you that's makin' you so afraid before I go in there to get us both something to eat."
She shook her head, and then held up her hands. "I just..... I can't. My skin starts crawling. My skin is crawling. I think it's green. Am I green?"
"No," Gabe said slowly. "You look perfectly fine to me. No green. Is that what you're seeing, Gamora?" He approached her slowly, deciding to take the risk. He took her hand in his and held it up, their palms pressed together. "See? Perfectly human." He smiled reassuringly.
Her hand was green. Very green. She blinked her eyes and it was gone. The roots of Gabe’s hand were gone too. That was fucked up. “Except you’re a tree.”
Gabe raised an eyebrow and couldn’t resist a small, excited smile. “Really?” But he made the smile vanish as he saw the frustration in her features. “Well if I’m going to be anything in a hallucination, I guess a tree would be it." He dropped their hands slowly. "Just remember no matter what, I am human beneath whatever you're seeing." He extended a hand. "Sure you don't want to come in? It'll only be a minute. Promise."
"I'm sure, I'm one hundred percent sure." She waggled her hand, still holding the pot tightly. "This'll help. Thank you."
Gabe knew when to leave things be. He nodded. "All right. Well you take care, and don't smoke too much and not too fast, okay?" He smiled and waved as he headed into the store.
She watched him go, then rubbed at her face. He couldn’t be a tree. She was just seeing things. But between the dreams and waking up bloody, she didn’t know what to trust. Or who.