Tasslehoff Burrfoot is not a thief (tas_wanderlust) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-05-21 12:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, anna of arendelle, tasslehoff burrfoot |
Who: Anna and Tas
When: Second week in May
Where: Recently
What: Anna takes Tas to his first (well, second) movie in a theatre.
Rating/Warnings: Low/None (Captain America: Civil War spoilers within!)
Status: Complete
Anna was in the theater, standing in line for ice cream. This was one of those places that had like, a billion screens, and there was a TON of concessions. Anna decided that the viewing of the hotness that were all the Marvel Avenger Males meant she’d need some chocolate ice cream. She stepped into the line to wait while Tas… where had he gone again? She wasn’t sure. Popcorn, maybe? Or Icees? Or something. They were going to have plenty of sugary goodness to nosh on while the film played.
She stepped to the front of the line to order two ice creams. They still had a few minutes before the previews started.
Tas had only been to the theatres a handful of times in his life. Caramon had tried to take him to a movie once, but had quickly realized what a bad idea that was when Tas had asked questions all throughout the movie, or had been unable to sit still in his seat for the full length of the movie.
That didn’t mean that Tas disliked going to the cinemas. For one, cinema snacks were always delicious. Greasy popcorn, and candies, and ice cream! Tas had managed to sneak behind the counter unnoticed, and was helping himself to a large bag of popcorn with extra butter when someone noticed him. They yelled, Tas giggled, and then disappeared into the crowd of people with his bag of delicious popcorn. He wished he’d had time to grab himself a drink too, but it was kind of hard to stay unnoticed in a place like that when everyone else was wearing uniforms. But he didn’t understand why people were so angry about it. If anything, he was making their jobs easier! That was one less bag of popcorn they had to make, after all.
Finding Anna was a bit of a chore afterward though. But Tas had sharp eyes, and he was able to pick Anna out eventually. Then, he headed over to her cheerfully. “I got popcorn!” he said, offering her the bag. “I tried to get drinks for us too, but I didn’t have time. Is that what you’re in line for? Because if you just want popcorn, you can share mine!”
“Yay popcorn!” Anna beamed brightly when Tas came back over. She paid for the ice cream, then held out his to him. “I hope you like chocolate. Because chocolate is the root of all things good and holy in the world.” Because a day without chocolate was a day without sunshine to Anna. She turned to lead the way to their theater.
“I can’t wait to see this movie. I. Can’t. Wait. I love the Marvel movies, don’t you? Wait, don’t tell me. Let me guess…. You like… the Hulk. Am I right? Are you a Hulk guy?” Anna only paused long enough to spoon some of the ice cream into her mouth, but then bounced excitedly. “So, this is a very important question and may change the shape of our friendship forever. Team Stark or Team Cap?”
“I love chocolate!” Tas said happily, taking a lick of the ice cream once it was handed over. Caramon had never bought Tas ice cream when they’d gone to the movies before, and now Tas was a little disappointed in the other man.
“Oh yes, I do love them!” Tas said cheerfully, though the truth was that Tas had never watched any Marvel movies and didn’t really have an idea who any of the characters were. Hulk, Tas remembered, was big and green and had purple pants. But who Stark and Cap were, Tas had no idea. “I am a Hulk guy!” Tas said cheerfully. “He’s kind of angry sometimes, but so are a lot of my friends! Like Raistlin, sometimes. Not that he’s big and green or anything but-” Tas gasped. “Do you think he could cast a magic spell to turn big and green? Maybe he could make me big and green! Wouldn’t that be amazing? You said your sister did magic too, didn’t you? Could she turn people big and green if she wanted to? What about you? Are you on Team Stark or Team Cap?” Acting like he already answered a question tended to make people assume he had.
Anna laughed, having no idea that Tas wasn’t a huge fan like she was. She pointed a finger at him. “I knew it! I knew you were a Hulk guy. I don’t want Raistlin to turn you big and green!” She added, almost in shock at the idea. “I like you just the way you are, Tas. You’re perfect.” She went a little pink at the admission. “Please don’t let him change you. Magically or otherwise.” Then she turned into the theater and it was suddenly quite a bit darker. “She does! But she just does stuff with ice and snow. Can’t turn people into anything, really. ‘Cept popsicles.”
Anna found seats in the middle of the theater, and plopped down. “Team Cap. Gosh, he’s so good-looking!” She sighed, playfully, though it was true--she thought Chris Evans was a hottie.
“Aw, thanks Anna!” Tas said cheerily at the compliment. “But don’t you think it’d be fun at least temporarily? It’s too bad your sister couldn’t turn me into the Hulk though. But I’ve never been an actual popsicle before! That sounds like it could be a little fun.”
Tas gave an excited gasp. “I’m on Team Cap too!” he said cheerfully. “I really like his shield! I have a friend in my dreams who fights with a shield a lot! Her name is Tika! She didn’t used to be a warrior, she used to be our barmaid in Solace, but then the dragonarmies attacked and she’s in love with Caramon so she came with us, and at first she only hit people with frying pans but she’s been getting really good at beating up draconians with a shield now!”
“Maybe temporarily.” Anna agreed, reaching over to steal a couple of pieces of popcorn from the bag, “but only if you can absolutely go back to normal. And so long as you stay you while you’re big and green, you now? Because Bruce Banner loses all sense of Bruce when he becomes the Hulk.” It would absolutely be a shame to Anna if Tas disappeared. Even temporarily.
“I like his shield, too! I like the history of the shield… like, that he used it when he was fighting in World War Two and everything.” Anna said. She finished the last of her ice cream and settled into her chair. “I don’t think anyone in my Dreams works with a shield. A sword, yes, but not a shield.” She didn’t want to think about Hans at the moment.
“Oh,” Tas said, sounding a little put off by the idea. “I didn’t know he wasn’t himself when he was the Hulk. That’s too bad. I like being me, so I don’t think I’d want to lose all sense of Tas when I transformed. I’m sure Raistlin could figure it out if he wanted to though.”
Tas took a few licks of his ice cream; it was already starting to melt a little bit onto his fingers. There were a lot of questions Tas wanted to ask about everything that Anna had just said, but he was supposed to be pretending to know what Anna was talking about, and he was torn for a moment about whether to give up the ghost to get answers or if he should keep on pretending. He didn’t want to make Anna feel awkward for taking him to a movie he didn’t know much about though, so he decided he’d keep his mouth shut. “Lots of people have swords in my dreams too! The shield’s better for Tika though, since she’s more likely to stab one of us or herself than she is to stab one of the bad guys. With the shield she doesn’t have to worry as much about hurting the rest of us!”
“See? I would rather you stay you, you know?” Anna popped some more popcorn into her mouth before she said something stupid. Then, thankfully, the lights dimmed in the theater. She didn’t have a chance to respond to Tas about the shields and swords, because the previews were starting.
The lights dimming were not a cue to Tasslehoff to be quiet. Instead, he continued to talk about his friends from his dreams into the previews. And while for a minute, Tas tried to keep up his charade of knowing what was going on, eventually his curiosity overwhelmed him and he couldn’t help asking questions throughout.
Some very nice people behind him tried throwing popcorn at him, but once he turned around and explained to them that while he appreciated them sharing with him, he had plenty of popcorn and they should save what they had, they stopped. Not long after that someone yelled down for someone to shut up, and Tas fell quiet trying to listen for the person who got so cruelly scolded. He didn’t hear anyone, but he kept his questions to Anna whispers from thereon out just in case he did get a chance to hear the other person. Toward the end of the movie, Tas started fidgetting. It wasn’t that he thought the movie was boring - in fact, it was rather exciting - but Tas did not like sitting still for so long. While Iron Man was fighting Bucky and Captain America for some reason, Tas got up to get more popcorn and some drinks, and he returned not long after the fight had finished, but he was able to sit still in his seat until the credits started rolling.
“Well! That was great!” Tas said cheerfully, leaping to his feet.
Anna was locked in on the movie. She talked with Tas a little, but ignored everything else. There was someone complaining? Or something? But Anna was too busy staring at the screen. Okay, Captain America was amazing, but ... Wow. That Winter Soldier guy? Anna was practically drooling. She barely noticed when Tas left toward the end, and then he was back again and the movie was over.
"Oh my God," Anna said, turning to look at him. "That was amazing! I'm sad it's over!" She laughed, leaning back in her chair, waiting through the credits for the Easter Egg scenes. “You can’t leave yet! There’s a scene after the credits!”
Tas gave a longing look toward the theatre door before he sat back down. The credits probably wouldn’t take very long, and then he’d be out of the theatre. “I really liked that big fight scene,” Tas said cheerfully. “It was really funny, wasn’t it?”
It wouldn’t take that long at all. “It was! I think Spider-Man is my new favorite!” She’d liked the other Spider-Mans just fine, but this one was even better. And younger! Anna felt a little more connected.
The Ending scene was cute. Anna sprung to her feet when it was finished, along with practically half the theater. (They’d known to stay to the very end for the Easter Egg, too!) Anna looped her arm through Tas’s elbow and let him lead the way out. “Now I’m torn! I mean, I’m team Cap, pretty much always. But I understand Iron Man’s side, too!”
Tas was very good at weaving his way through crowds, and he managed to navigate through the people, even with Anna on his arm, with ease, his pouches getting slightly thicker as he passed through the throng of people. “Spider-Man was really funny!” Tas said. “I think he was my favourite in the whole movie.”
He frowned a little as Anna talked about which side was better. In his own experience, most people did what they thought was right. What was important in being a good person wasn’t the end result, but was rather the things you did to get there. “But Cap won,” he said after a moment. “I mean, he beat up Iron Man really good! Did you see how he just put his shield through Iron Man’s armour like wham.” If Tas noticed the scowls from the people who were waiting in line to see the movie after them, he didn’t show it. “And Iron Man put all his friends in jail. I don’t think that was a very good decision.”
“Oh, no. Yes, no I’m totally team Cap. All the way. Hashtag Team Cap!” Anna said, bringing her free hand over so she could hold up two fingers on each hand and make a pound sign with them. “He’s definitely my type,” Anna admitted. And it was true--Steve Rogers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe was definitely her type. The sort of straight-shooter, boy scout type. Of course, he was different from her Dream!guy because he didn’t turn around and attempt to kill a girl he’d been wooing, but that was beside the point.
“I’m just saying, I can understand if Tony really thought he was protecting them? But then when it turned out he wasn’t protecting them, he changed his mind. Right? I mean, everyone makes mistakes. You know? He was doing what he thought was right. And I admire that.”
Hashtag? Tas frowned a little, wondering if it was some kind of secret code or handshake Anna was doing. “Yeah, but he locked up all his friends, and then when he decided he didn’t want to follow the rules anymore he just… ran off and did what he wanted. Doesn’t seem like a very good friend.” Of course, maybe Tas had missed something. There was a lot of things that he’d obviously missed from other movies, so maybe that explained everything.
“Oh come on,” one of the guys in the line for the movie yelled. “Can’t you guys go outside to talk about this?”
Anna jumped a little when the guy in the line yelled at them. She turned to look, and the dude was tall and lanky, with short red hair. His pointed nose held up his glasses, and though other people might have seen Percy Weasley in him, Anna saw someone completely different. She heard Oh, Anna. If only there was someone out there who loved you run through her mind. The smile faded completely from her face, and her demeanor changed. She lowered her head, quickened her pace, and practically dragged Tas out of the theater, staying silent the whole way back to the car.
Tas let himself be led away by Anna, a little confused about her sudden change of demeanor, and just before he left the theatre he turned once more to the red-head in the line. “Hey, what’s the matter?” Tas asked, eyebrows furrowing together. That guy hadn’t been rude, that was a certainty, but he didn’t think that he’d said anything enough to actually upset anyone. “Did that guy upset you? I’m going to go talk to him,” he said, turning once they reached the car to head back into the theatre to give that guy a piece of his mind. He would have sounded almost stern.
“No!” Anna reached out for Tas’s arm to stop him. The last thing in the world she wanted was for Tas to make a scene, or to have to see the guy who looked so much like the villain from her Dreams again. “No no, it’s okay, he just… he reminded me of someone. That’s all! Really. It’s okay. I’m okay. See?” And she forced a toothy smile that would fool no one. “We can just go. Let’s just go?”
Tas stopped when Anna reached for him, but he was still frowning and Anna’s forced smile didn’t really help matters. Even if Anna’s reaction was more because the man reminded her of someone else didn’t mean that he hadn’t still been really rude. But, it was pretty easy for him to slough off grudges. “If you’re sure, of course we can leave,” he said, turning his frown upside-down and smiling cheerily at her. “Remember when Antman got really big?”
Relief washed over Anna’s face. The forced smile faded into something a little more genuine. Then she stepped forward and wrapped both arms around Tas in a giant, bone-crushing (only not really since Anna wasn’t exactly super buff) hug. “Thank you,” she whispered, before releasing him and walking around her side of the car. “That was only my favorite battle scene ever!” She unlocked the doors using the button on her FOB, thankful they could get in and go home.
Tas practically beamed, seeing Anna become more like her usual self. “Mine too! Like when…”
He got into the care, yammering away about the movie, intent on keeping up the charade until Anna had all but forgotten the rude guy in line. That’s what friends did, after all.