Anders (crazycatman) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-05-14 19:19:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, anders, katniss everdeen |
Who: Anders and Katniss
What: First meeting, talking about Dreams and relationships.
Where: Tink’s Garage
When: Early May
Rating: Low.
Status: Complete when posted
Katniss was incredibly pleased with her new car. She only wished she had more friends to show it off to, but alas she didn’t. In the meantime, she decided to take Tink up on her offer of repainting it. Pulling up outside the garage, she hopped out and made her way up to the office, locking the door with her key fob as she walked away. Looking around for Tink, she found a man in the office when she knocked on the door.
“Oh, hi, sorry. Uh...is Tink not in?” she asked, looking around the door way.
Anders had been disappointed when he had shown up to Tink’s Garage with lunch (which he had lovingly put into a brown paper bag that he had drawn a doodle of Lady Widget and Sir Pounce-A-Lot, their cats, cuddling on), and had been excited to have a long lunch with the woman. When he had shown up to the Garage, one of the mechanics had told him that Tink was out on errands, so Anders had decided to wait in Tink’s office and hope she came home before he had to go back to the clinic, and was reading some articles on her computer. He looked up when the girl walked in the door.
“Ah, no,” he said. “She’s out running errands, I guess,” he said, fairly obviously disappointed about the news. “I’d offer to help you myself, but I don’t really know anything about cars.”
“Oh that’s ok,” Katniss replied with a little smile. She looked over her shoulder as if considering options before looking back at the man at the desk. “Umm, would you mind if I waited in here with you?” she asked, gesturing to the seats in front of the desk. “It’s just where I’m staying isn’t exactly close, if you know what I mean,” she thumbed over her shoulder.
“Of course not,” Anders said. Having someone to wait with would probably be far more fun than just sitting in Tink’s office by himself. “Have a seat if you want. I’m Anders, by the way.”
“Thanks, I’m Katniss,” she introduced, reaching a hand over the desk to shake his. “Nice to meet you. Are you a friend of Tink’s?” she asked, slipping her bag over her head to put it on the floor next to the chair she chose to sit in.
“Nice to meet you,” Anders said, taking her hand. “I suppose you could say we’re friends. I’m her boyfriend.” The pride was practically dripping off his voice. “I can to surprise her with a nice, romantic lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches,” both he and Tink were useless in the kitchen, but sandwiches were something Anders actually could prepare. “But apparently she didn’t get my vague telepathic signals. What about you? Are you friends with Tink?”
“Friends? Uh, no, not really,” Katniss gave a little laugh. “I don’t think anyway. She took me to buy my first car the other day and we talked about repainting it. I was just swinging by to ask her about it really,” she told him, looking at the sandwich bag on the table. “I love the artwork by the way,” she grinned, referring to the sandwich bag. “Very sweet of you.”
“She picked out a good one, I’ll wager. Tink knows her cars." That probably should have been obvious, given that she owned the Garage now, but Anders never missed an opportunity to compliment her. "I really hope you're planning on painting flames on the hood."
He looked over at the bag, and grinned. "Thank you," he said. "I should be in a gallery, shouldn't I?" The artwork really wasn't that great, but he did enjoy doodling cats. "They're our cats, Sir Pounce-A-Lot and Lady Widget. Would you like to see photos of them?" he asked, already reaching for his phone.
Katniss laughed at Anders. He looked incredibly pleased with his artistry. She sat forward to look at the pictures of his and Tink’s cats. It was nice to meet someone who was just seemingly completely…happy. It was a breath of fresh air. “Gotta say, those are some interesting names, how’d they come by them?”
Anders cheerfully flipped through the photos of the cats. Sir Pounce-A-Lot was an adult, orange tabby, and Lady Widget was a grey-and-white older kitten. “Well, Sir Pounce-A-Lot does enjoy to pounce.” Pause. “A lot. Tink was just going to name Lady Widget ‘widget.’ You know, like, mechanics and stuff. But I’m a firm believe that a noble beast such as a cat should have a noble sounding title. To tell the truth, I wasn’t actually expecting Tink to add it to her name, but I’m glad she did.” It made him weirdly happy that their cats had matching names, especially since he and Tink really hadn’t been together for all that long.
Katniss laughed at his explanation of the origins of the cat’s names. “A noble beast, huh? I don’t know about that, the one in my Dreams is evil, through and through,” she told him, watching the pictures flick by. “How long have you guys been together then?”
“Oh, cats aren’t evil,” Anders said, chuckling a little. “Some of them are just a little… temperamental.” Some of them were very temperamental. “But oh yes, as far as Sir Pounce-A-Lot is concerned, he may as well be king.” Actually, the way Anders spoiled Sir Pounce-A-Lot, the cat might not be too wrong in that idea. “We started dating in March, though a lot has happened since then,” and before then, really, “so it feels like longer.”
“I think we’re going to agree to disagree, you haven’t met this cat,” Katniss grinned ruefully. “Technically neither have I...isn’t that weird,” she mused, more to herself than Anders. “Since March? And you have cats together already? That sounds fairly close to the ‘c’ word,” she teased.
Anders laughed. “Well, I suppose that an evil cat could exist in the Dreams,” he said. “I once dreamed of a demon that had disguised himself as a cat, so it’s possible.” He grinned at her. “The ‘c’ word? You mean, crazy cat people? I think that’s apt,” he teased. A little more seriously, he added, “But I’m in it for the long haul. We’ve been through a lot in the last couple of months.” And she had been very supportive when it came to dealing with his Dreams. “Actually, were you around when people couldn’t stop telling the truth?” She had mentioned the Dreams first, so talking about the OC weirdness probably wasn’t going to make him sound like a crazy man.
“A demon disguised as a cat? Sounds like a cat my friend Tessa knows,” Katniss gave a little laugh, folding her arms on the desk between them. “Good to know Tink’s got someone to watch her back. I was actually away when people were telling the truth, but I hear much hilarity ensued. Why do you ask?”
“Well, we started dating during that whole fiasco. We spent nearly a week in each other’s company, not able to tell a single lie, so I think that… made us closer than what we’d normally be at this stage in our relationship?” He suddenly seemed to realize that he had been talking about Tink a lot. He really could go on and on about things he was passionate about. “I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re not all that interested in our relationship. What about you? Are you seeing anyone?”
"That's nice," Katniss nodded. "Isn't that what they say the ultimate relationship is based on?" She said. "That's ok, I don't mind, it's nice to hear some good stories about this place and the Dreams," she shrugged. "Me? Oh no, I'm uh...I struggle to look out for myself most days, let alone someone else," she ducked her head, feeling her cheeks warm at the idea. Gale and Haymitch were probably the closest relationships she had, but since Haymitch was more like a father to her and she and Gale had only just been reunited, she didn't currently have many prospects. Although she had to admit that seeing Gale in person had stirred a lot of emotions up.
“Good stories seem to be pretty few and far between,” Anders agreed. His own dreams hadn’t been a walk in the park, though he supposed if he had anything to be grateful for for them, it would be meeting Tink.
“Well, sometimes relationships can be nice, in that you have someone else looking out for you. But they can be a lot of work, and these Dreams don’t make it much easier.” More than once he had felt bad about unloading his dreams onto Tink, and kept more from her about them than he probably should be. “Then again, I guess the Dreams don’t make anything easier.” Except his job, because being a doctor with healing magic really was extraordinarily handy.
“To be honest it’s not something that’s cropped up until recently,” Katniss admitted, thoughts still on Gale. “I’m uh...how do I say it? I’m not very personable. I think that’s the phrase,” she told him with a little shrug. “The Dreams make me afraid and that’s not a good thing for making friends,” she told him quietly.
“I understand that,” Anders said. He had a lot easier time making friends here than he did in his Dreams - it was hard to make friends when most of the populous was afraid you’d turn into a demon at any moment, but he had had nearly a year in the Orange County when he didn’t have friendly conversations with anyone but his cat. He also understood the whole ‘dreams making you afraid’ thing, without question. “I take it you’re part of the ‘my Dreams may as well be nightmares’ club, and not the ‘Well, my Dreams are nice and mild’ club,” he said. “Do you have anyone from your Dreams you can talk about them with?” he asked. Talking to Isabela, and to a lesser extent Alistair and Zevran had helped a bit. None of them knew what it was like being a mage in Thedas, but they all understood what it was like just living in that particular hellhole. “And hey, you seen personable enough to me, and I could always go for more friends. If you’re interested.”
"Yeah, they're not the most pleasant. Totalitarian state which requires a 'sacrifice' from each of the districts it dominates so they don't forget this massive war'," Katniss sighed. "And I'm the idiot who messes things up. Typical," she rolled her eyes and sighed. "Now I'm just scared the guy running it all is going to show up here and make my life a misery. I've got people, but each person I meet leads me one step closer to the maniac who runs it all. And I freak out with each new person I meet," she turned her head away, surprised at herself. "Well I think thats the most words I've ever said in one go," she joked. "You don't have magic to bewitch me to speak do you?" She joked, but with the OC anything was possible.
“Mess it up?” Anders asked. “As in, forcing things to change? I wouldn’t call you an idiot for that.” In fact, he did something similiar in his dreams, or so he’d been told. “Even if he does show up here though, it doesn’t mean that he’ll be the same as in the dreams. Or that he’ll even know you.” Of course, Katniss probably knew all that already. Just because you knew something wasn’t strictly logical didn’t mean that you could make yourself stop worrying about it. He couldn’t help but laugh at her magic comment. “I do in fact have magic,” Anders said, snapping his fingers and allowing a small flame to dance merrily on top of his index finger. “Nothing that can make you speak though, so don’t worry about that.”
“I didn’t mean to, I just wanted to keep my sister safe when she got called to be Tribute and it just kind of...escalated,” Katniss shrugged, fiddling with a paper clip on Tink’s desk. “I know logically that he probably wouldn’t be a egomaniac bent on killing me and subjegating the rest of the world but the Dreams...they seem so real and they stay with me sometimes when I’m awake. Do you get that?” she asked him, looking up at him. “I wish I had magic sometimes,“ she smiled, watching the flame dancing on his finger. “But then I wonder if it would only complicate things more, yknow?”
“I understand,” Anders said. “Sometimes it’s hard to separate the dreams from reality. I was recently told that I do some … things to cause a revolution of sorts in my dream world. Maybe it was for the better there, I don’t know, but I find myself worrying that maybe I might do something similiar here.” He sighed. “Magic is useful, but it does complicate things quite a bit.”
He hadn’t been paying much attention to the time, but he caught sight of the clock on Tink’s computer. “Oh knickerweasles,” he cursed. “I’m going to need to start heading back to work soon.” That was a disappointment. He had been wanting to eat with Tink. He fished his own sandwich out of the bag. “But if you ever want to get together to talk some more this is my number.” He handed her one of his business cards.