Who: Leon and Liv When: After Liv starts dreaming What: Post-case solving drinks and dream talk. Where: McNally's, the unofficial cop bar. Rating/Warning: Low/none, mostly. Some passing remarks of murder and some introspection on eating brains. Status: Complete
Despite the fact that Leon had freaked her out a little bit with his talking corpse comment Liv did enjoy spending time with him. She liked that he kept her in the loop about the cases he worked that she was also assigned to. And celebratory drinks after were never a bad thing. Now Liv had started dreaming herself and the whole zombie comment had a whole new meaning for her. She was unsure whether or not to share that information with Leon but she would at least let him know she didn’t think he was completely insane.
They were at McNally’s again this time celebrating the solving of a stabbing victim’s murder. “So,” Liv said taking a gulp of her beer. “About these dreams…”
Leon glanced at Liv over the rim of his pint glass, for a moment a look of pity and relief in his eyes. On the one hand, he really did think it was too bad Liv had started to dream. Leon no longer disliked his dreams - in fact, he was a little irritated at how slowly they were coming now - but no one deserved the shit that the dreams put them through. On the other hand, if Liv was starting to dream, as he was sure she had since that seemed like a strange segue if she hadn’t, it meant that she probably didn’t think he was nuttier than squirrel shit. He’d thought about it nearly every time he had to see her.
He swallowed a mouthful of beer and then lowered his glass. “You’ve started getting them?”
Liv wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the look on Leon’s face. It was difficult to read especially when she was distracted by her dreams. “Actually I just wanted to see how much more insane I could make you sound,” she joked because it was too easy. But if Leon was insane than she was too, as well as everyone else on that network. Which she honestly wasn’t ruling out.
“I’ve had them,” she confirmed her tone more serious. She took another sip of her beer for liquid courage or whatever before asking her next question. “Is it true that you become what you dream?” Since Liv had started dreaming she had done plenty of research, which basically just meant combing over valarnet, and becoming what you dream or getting powers from them seemed to be a common theme.
Leon frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Most of the time, I think so. I’m not sure if I know anyone who had powers in the dreams who didn’t end up getting them in real life.” Robin could sprout arms from wherever. Stefan was a vampire. Lina could both heal people and blow up city parks. And sometimes he had conversations with Fido. “Why? You’re not going to tell me you’re some kind of werewolf or something, are you?”
Were werewolves really that common? She had talked to someone on the network who talked about becoming a werewolf. That was before she even started dreaming. There were no werewolves in her dreams though, just zombies. “Not a werewolf,” Liv replied with another sip of her beer. “Just a,” she paused not sure if she was ready to admit she was a zombie. Not if that was her fate in real life too. She survived on brains after all. A frown formed on her face at the thought. She had no idea how she would even handle that. “Psychic,” she finished her thought. It worked, it was partly true and it was what she told Clive she was in her dreams. “Why are you a werewolf?” because who the hell knew what Leon even dreamt of.
As far as Leon knew, he had never actually met a werewolf yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. He was glad that the time wasn’t now though. “A psychic, huh?” Leon asked, looking a little concerned. “The kind that tells the future, or the kind that reads people’s mind? Or maybe the kind that talks to dead people?” Now that he thought about it, ‘psychic’ was kind of a broad category. He really hoped she wasn’t one of the mind-reading ones though. The last thing he wanted was someone in his head, especially not a coworker.
“Is there a none of the above option? Because it’s that,” Liv replied with another sip of her drink. “It’s more like the past I guess. Visions of someone’s death. Usually,” she paused it wasn’t like she could say whosever brain she ate. “Of whatever victim comes into the morgue. I’m an ME there too,” she shrugged trying to brush it off. But she had noticed that he hadn’t answered her question. “So are you a werewolf?”
Leon’s eyebrows all but leapt into his hair. “Seriously? That sounds… really fucking useful, Moore. Think any of that will come through here?” While Leon enjoyed the whole solving cases the old fashioned way thing, he wasn’t one to turn down help to solve them quicker. Hell, he’d already questioned a couple of dogs and cats (when his colleagues hadn’t been anywhere near), some of which were able to lead Leon straight to evidence that would have taken days to find without the help. He’d accepted help from D in his dreams, and he’d been investigating D for a list of crimes as long as Leon’s arm.
“Oh god no,” Leon said. “Definitely not a werewolf. I was a detective in my dreams.”
She sure as hell hoped none of it came through here. She didn’t want to have to survive on brains, thanks. Not that Leon knew that part nor was Liv willing to share it just yet, or ever. “Seriously,” she confirmed because it was true. Or well as close to the truth as he was going to get for the moment. “I don’t know. Is there a way to prevent it from coming through?” Please let Leon know a way.
“Wait, was? Why the past tense?” And also being a detective didn’t sound much different than his real life. But then she was a ME in her dreams too, granted a zombie ME but still.
“You’ll be the first to know when I do,” Leon answered, then frowned. “Alright, there’s probably a bit of a line. But I’ll let you know.” Leon had been conducting his own private investigation into the Network and the Dreams for the past year now though, and had turned up exactly nothing.
Leon took a sip of his beer, and then looked into the amber liquid for a couple of seconds, considering how much to say. “In my dreams I was investigating this man for a couple of years. He ended up leaving the country, so I decided to go after him. And that’s where I’m at now. Last dream I had I just missed him in Venice.”
“As long as you get to me the day of,” Liv could live with that. But she really hoped he figured out a way to prevent her from becoming a zombie and soon. Preferably before she ever had to eat a brain. Yeah she already had to work at a morgue so she had that covered but still. The thought was horrible, not just disgusting but depressing as well.
“Let me get this straight, you left your job to go chase after some maybe criminal?” Because that’s what it sounded like to her. But then the dreams also seemed to be pretty confusing anyway.
“Not a maybe criminal, he was definitely a killer. He just managed to slip through our fingers before we were able to apprehend him.” Not that Leon minded anymore. He wasn’t chasing D to arrest him. Though, he thought leaving that little tidbit out might prevent awkward questions. “But yeah, that’s more or less it. Saved up some money, left my job, and went to travel the world.
“I’m not sure that’s the best retirement plan,” Liv commented. “What happens when you find him? It’s not like you’d have jurisdiction in another county.” She was making this too complicated. It was just his dreams. Not like Leon actually had what his dreamself had planned. “Sorry,” she gave an apologetic smile. “Just trying to figure out this whole dream thing still.”
Leon gave a small smile. It wasn’t particularly joyous or bitter. If anything, it was a little nostalgic. “I don’t think I’ll be arresting him when I find him,” Leon admitted. “He forgot something, and I want to give it back. Besides, I promised my little brother I’d find him.” There went his cover of ‘I’m totally just chasing him in order to arrest him,’ but he really didn’t have any intention to lie about his dreams to anyone. “I think we’re all still trying to figure out this dream thing though. No one really knows what’s going on with them, or how they work.”
Liv nodded at his explanation. “What’d he forget?” Because now she was curios. Another frown formed on her face as he talked more about the dreams. She wished there was a better explanation out there but it didn’t sound like it. Maybe she was doomed to become a zombie. “I guess all we can do is drink and try and forget about them,” she suggested bringing her glass up to her lips. At least that was her plan for the time being.
A tinge of pink touched Leon’s cheeks, though he tried to hide the heat rising to his face by scowling menacingly into his pint glass. “Heforgotapicture,” Leon mumbled quickly into his glass, hoping that he hadn’t been entirely coherent. “Getting to travel the world without ever needing to leave my apartment is pretty fucking nice though,” Leon said, far louder than he needed to be, drawing a couple of curious looks from some Garden Grove cops that Leon knew by sight but not by name.
“That’s my favourite strategy,” Leon said, looking up from his glass and offering a crooked smile.
She noticed the blush on Leon’s face as well as how he rushed his words together. “Must be some picture,” Liv commented. She briefly wondered if Leon was like in the picture or something. “You know I’m a little jealous. I wish I got to travel in my dreams. I like my job and all but working with corpses and then dreaming about them is a little much. It’s like I can’t escape.” Not to mention that she basically was a living corpse.
There was just no way to explain it without getting sentimental, and Leon rarely got sentimental with his friends, let alone his coworkers. There wasn’t a way to really explain the drawing his six-year old brother had drawn, in crayon on a sheet of paper torn out from a scrapbook, so that other people could understand. It wasn’t just a crude child’s drawing of Leon and D, with Chris smiling in between them, and what Leon now recognized as D’s badger and weird goat-tiger-dog-thing in their human forms. It was the only thing that D was going to take with him. Leon had thought D had been so cold when Chris had left, like he could never care someone that wasn’t one of his animals, but it proved that D had thought that they were like a family. That D had actually cared about the two of them. When it had come through in the dreams, Leon had framed it and hung it above his bed.
“Yeah, working all day and then dreaming of doing the same thing again could be exhausting sometimes. Like I couldn’t get away from it. But then, I practically live, breathe, and eat work anyway so it wasn’t much of a change.” He guffawed loudly at this to distract from how grateful he was at the topic change. “You dream of anything else, or is it just working and being a psychic?”
Oh there was a lot more that she dreamt about. Like the fact that she was a zombie. But she wasn’t going to say that especially if there was a chance she would turn into one here. “That’s basically it,” she said with a shrug. “I’ve only had a few dreams so far,” but she definitely wasn’t looking forward to more.
“Well, I guess it could be worse,” he said. If all she had to worry about was going to sleep and then heading to her job, then that wasn’t so bad. “Though, I can’t say I’d mind so much if your psychic powers came through here.” He frowned. “I mean, unless you don’t want them.”
That was tough to answer. She didn’t mind the visions. Explaining it as being psychic was really the best way to go. She didn’t think anyone would be as cool as Ravi was with the whole zombie thing. Even in this place. Sure she wouldn’t mind having visions but it was how she got them that she didn’t want to deal with. “Will do,” Liv said not bothering to respond to the last part of his statement. “As long as you promise to use them to you advantage on cases.”
Leon even used his own powers to help with his cases, even if he’d be mortified if one of his colleagues happened to walk in on him chatting with Mr. Snuggums the Cat. But, like the time he’d accepted D’s help in interrogating a bunch of fish, it hadn’t steered him wrong so far. Obviously he couldn’t take the word of a pet or of a psychic to court, but anything that could help point him in the direction of evidence was always welcome. “If it’s as good as you say, there’s no way I’m going to turn down the help. Here’s to possible future team ups,” he said. He held his glass towards her for a cheers to seal the deal.
“And present team ups,” Liv added raising her glass to hit against his. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad… who was she kidding?