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inthecoldlight (inthecoldlight) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-05-14 19:53:00

Who: Alecto & Gourry
What: Some talking shenanigans
When: Recent
Where: The Hanged Man
Rating/Warnings: Some talk about torturing, but otherwise nothing really
Status: Complete


Alecto knew that dwelling on the dreams didn’t help. She’d gotten over the torturing and killing stuff mostly. She didn’t know those people and she didn’t exactly care. Torturing students just...felt different. They were kids. She didn’t exactly like kids that much outside of her nieces, but that didn’t mean she wanted to run around torturing them. Schooling her face was the easy part. The fact that all her jokes seemed to be falling flat lately...was not helping matters. It also didn’t help that she didn’t really know how to know the dream and move past it. Emotions were weird things for her. She didn’t deal with them well, but they were usually easier to push to the side and ignore.

A good portion of the emotions wasn’t what she had done, but knowing that there were bad things coming for her brother. Things she couldn’t protect him from forever. Not that he believed she tried. She had tried, though. Maybe she didn’t do it very well, but she had tried.

She carefully pushed aside the emotions surrounding her brother as she made her way downstairs. Today’s outfit consisted of bright yellow skinny jeans and a black tanktop with a Batman logo on it that rested just below the ribs and had fabric hanging down from where the shirt was knotted in the front. She was compensating for her lack of good mood by being extra loud in her clothing choices. She had her wand strapped to her leg with a holster that she’d re-worked to hold her wand. It was easier than trying to keep it in her pocket and most people just thought she was carrying a stick. She could deal with weird looks.

She felt the familiar touch of a wet nose to her hand and glanced down at Dog. “It’s nice to see you, too,” she said quietly, squatting down to scratch behind his ears and give him a solid bit of attention before shooing him off to his place. She’d bother him later when no one else was around except maybe Isabela and Hawke. They didn’t judge her too much for just lying on the ground with their dog. Eventually she was getting her own...but that probably had to wait until she was in a more permanent place. Somewhere that wasn’t supposed to be temporary.

She didn’t look around before she took a seat at a table in the back corner. “Not every problem can be solved by alcohol” was something she was trying to remember, but she was only really not drinking because she wasn’t sure how to come back to this level of shitty with a hangover. Also Isabela had been proud of her, which was weird...so if she started drinking now, it would just be weirder...but in a different way where no one was particularly proud. It didn’t mean she couldn’t sit and people watch at the tavern.

Gourry was finishing up putting clean glasses up for the bartenders, turning to take the trash out. He paused, glancing Alecto’s way for a moment. He continued out, dropping it off into the bin and then returned, patting his hands down on his pants. He walked over to her and tapped lightly on the table with his knuckles. “Usually I’d expect you to be giving everyone stares and waving your wand around.”

Alecto looked over at the sound of knuckles on the table. She’d been staring blankly at people across the room for a few minutes and couldn’t really remember who it was or where her mind had been at the time. She just knew it happened. Seeing Gourry, she flashed him one of her signature smiles, hoping to distract from any weirdness. “Sometimes I like to do the opposite of what I’d usually do to surprise people.” Which was a lie...unless it was something particularly surprising. Sitting and idly watching people was not actually surprising. Apparently neither was using her wand to mess with people. She did that a lot, though, so she guessed she couldn’t expect people to be surprised, honestly.

“I didn’t know you were working today.” Which may have been a lie, but then she also hadn’t memorized everyone’s schedule. “How’s your foot?”

“Great since Lina healed it,” Gourry stood on it with all his weight before he looked back to her. “Want me to get you something? I’d be paying,” he gestured to her. “You look like you kinda want something. Or need it.”

“That’s good, then. Healing magic. I haven’t figured that out yet.” Alecto did want something, but she figured it wasn’t the time for a lot of alcohol or anything. “Just get me whatever soda you have. Or surprise me. And some of the poutine. For good measure.” So unusual. “And I look awesome and like I always look, so I don’t know what you mean by all this looking shenanigans. I swear I’m surrounded by Hufflepuffs.” And Gourry was a bit of a Hufflepuff. It was possible that Presto was a Ravenclaw that had weird morals. Or a very smart Hufflepuff. She was still deciding. “Do you also save kittens from trees?”

Gourry frowned. “I don’t think you should be doing any kind of Hufflepuffing, Alecto. I mean, I guess that’s kind of dumb to say in a bar…” He shrugged, stepping away to the bar. He ordered two poutine and two sodas, coming back over with the items. He sat down across from her, smiling big ol’ smile He slid her both her soda and her serving, and then began to dig into his own. “So goof,” he said between bites.

Alecto rolled her eyes. “That’s a Hogwarts House. I don’t even want to know what you think Hufflepuffling is.” But she waited patiently while he went and got the food before coming back. She wanted to roll her eyes at his smile. It was a stupid smile. Even if she did weirdly like his company. But she didn’t have to say that. “You’re such a strange person,” she said before starting to eat. “You’re not supposed to talk and eat at the same time.”

“I was going to ask if it was a new type of pickle, to be honest,” he added. “I am? Well, sometimes you wanna talk but also wanna eat… I mean if you want I can easily just eat and listen if you wanna talk.” Gourry gave her a happy smile. “I’ve got two good ears on me.”

“Pickle?” She sighed. “What sort of ridiculous idea is that? No. They are just honest and hardworking and smile too much.” That last part wasn’t actually the truth, but she was teasing. “I’m not sure I’m used to this idea of eating and talking at the same time.” There had been polite dinner discussion with her parents, but nothing really talkative. “It’s just dream stuff,” she said after a long pause. “It doesn’t matter. It wasn’t real. At least not here.” But it mattered a little. She just wasn’t good at admitting when things got to her. Especially not these kind of things.

“It might help to talk about it though,” Gourry shrugged. “Real in the dreams, even if not here.” He returned to eating, pausing after a moment. “Of course, we can just eat too.”

Alecto slid down in her chair, pulling her plate closer. She ate some of the poutine, chewing it before speaking again. “I was torturing the students at the school,” she said quietly. “I think my dream self is probably insane.” She took her soda and drank a few sips. “The students are eleven to seventeen. Sometimes eighteen if they had late birthdays. Anyone that spoke out against us got tortured. Except the purebloods.” She paused. “Well, no. Longbottom got tortured.” She shrugged. “Guess it’s not so surprising. I mean, I killed and murdered people before. And I hate a lot of people. I’d hate you if I were my dream self. I’d want you dead.” She put her glass back on the table. “I mean, obviously I don’t want that here, but…”

Gourry nodded, listening to her quietly. He finished eating, took a swig of his soda, and looked at her with a smile. “Well, I can say I like the Alecto here. Maybe you had reasons for doing it, but just because the dream you isn’t a good person doesn’t mean you have to be like that. You don’t do that to kids here, yeah? So don’t let it get to you. The dream you is just that, the dream. You’re this Alecto. You can make the decisions to not repeat the things in your dreams now.”

“Yeah. That’s what they tell me.” She looked at her food for a moment. “I’m not the dream me. I like motorbikes and other muggle things. I don’t mind werewolves and vampires and people that don’t have magic. I’d probably be disowned from my dream family as this me. I mean...I don’t know if they do the disowning thing, but I feel like if they did, then I would.” Not that she was on super excellent terms with some of them anyway. “But I mean...obviously you’d like me. I’m awesome. Like...you should see my ass in these pants. I mean, that’s not the only reason I’m awesome...but…”

“It’s okay, Alecto,” Gourry smiled at her, warm and gentle. “It’s okay.”

“Ugh. You’re so...nice. It’s weird. I don’t understand nice people. I don’t understand being nice.” But that was just how she was. “I don’t get why you’re nice to me.” She paused a moment. “But then I guess I don’t get why anyone is.” She peered at him. “I guess that means I’ll have to be the Slytherin I am and make sure you Hufflepuffs don’t get yourselves into trouble. You’re all hopeless nice people. Someone’s liable to take advantage of you.” Which she knew meant she was also being nice...in her own way. She just tried not to think about that too much.

Gourry laughed, nodding. “I’d like that. I tend to get into big trouble often… especially if Lina’s there,” he grinned. “So, what magic can you do? Blow up towns like her?”

“Lina’s trouble, but that’s why we get along. We’re both trouble.” Which was true enough. They also had magic in common and Lina got her drunk at Disney. Drunk enough to throw up on someone, which was sort of the worst that Alecto got up to when she was here. Yeah, okay, so she’d stolen unimportant evidence from crime scenes a couple times, but no one knew or missed it. She didn’t mention that, though. Maybe she shouldn’t do that either. “I don’t think I can blow up towns. I can turn things into other things and I can do hexes and defencive magic. It’s hard to explain sometimes, but if you really want to see some spells, I can show you. I practise a lot. Food first, though.”

Gourry nodded. “Sure, whatever you’d like. I just know how to use swords and beat up people that way. Magic confuses me. Lina confuses me. You confuse me a little,” he winked.

Alecto felt an actual smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “It’s because I’m so badass, I know. It’s hard to make sense of me.” A hint of interest showed itself in her eyes. “But you have to teach me how to use swords. I can beat people up without swords, but sword sound awesome. Like flying motorbikes.” She ate some more of her food, the smile finally managing to make its way across her face. “I guess you’re pretty okay, too.”

“Flying motorbikes? Seriously?” Gourry stared in surprise. “Now that is awesome. And sure, I don’t mind teaching you. I grabbed a few extra of different sizes and weights back at the Ren Faire. I splurged a bit there,” he scratched his chin with a chuckle.

“Yeah. I knew a guy once.” But not anymore. She grinned, though. “Good. Then I will take advantage of your poor impulse control in order to learn.” She reached over to pat his hand lightly with her own. “You do understand that you’re a completely ridiculous human being, right? Because you are. I say that out of the kindness of my heart, however. Because I’m super nice. Except for when I’m not.” She eyed him. “Are you going to get in trouble for me showing you magic? I’m not supposed to distract you too much. Which I know is difficult because I’m me.”

Gourry looked around. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s causing trouble, dishes are clean, and I just took trash out. Not sure what else to do except stand around and look scary, so I’ll sit here and look scary while you show off magic.” He gave a firm nod, smiling. “Plus, I doubt the boss would care that much. Pretty sure Hawke and I are becoming dog-parent friends.” He gave another wink, but this time to Dog. He loves this dog.

Alecto snorted softly. “Dogs are pretty great for getting people to get together. As friends or whatever.” She missed having a dog, but she wasn’t sure if it was fair to get one she’d have to move eventually. Though, she could technically turn him into a cup and then turn him back if she had to. They did it with rats, so it should be the same idea. “Probably won’t be my flashiest magic since people might find super flashy magic weird and I haven’t quite figured out warding shit yet.” So she placed a napkin onto the table and focused, she found a transfiguration spell in her mind and used it, turning the napkin into a glass bottle. “Not fancy, but…” She waved her wand again, this time using Wingardium Leviosa. Very first year, but you couldn’t beat a levitating glass bottle. She was prepared to grab hold of it if anyone looked over, but no one seemed that bothered by them at the moment. A brief pause before she turned the bottle into a rabbit. Lapifors. She reached over and grabbed hold of the rabbit before looking at Gourry. “Not blowing up towns, but...it’s something. There’s also spells to use when fighting. That’s more difficult to show here...unless someone gets unwieldy or something.”

Gourry watched in surprise, grinning and reaching over to touch the napkin-bottle-rabbit. “So it’s a real live rabbit now?”

“Yeah. For now, but...you know...if anything happens to him, it’ll turn back into a napkin.” She studied the rabbit for a moment, deciding to leave the napkin-bottle-rabbit as a rabbit for a little bit. Maybe she’d just keep it. For a little while. Did she have to feed a fake bunny? She could just buy some carrots or something. “You want to hold it?”

Gourry nodded, reaching to pick it up. “Hey there, bunny thing. I bet you’re really confused,” he smiled sweetly at it. “Me too.”

Eyes narrowed slightly, Alecto watched Gourry. She didn’t understand him any more than she had before. He was still a weird, nice person...and she still couldn’t bring herself to not talk to him. “I’m not sure if rabbits are really all that confused,” she said quietly. “But I think you’re perpetually confused.” A more genuine smile worked its way across her lips. “Also don’t tell anyone we actually talked about my issues because I’ve been fighting people about this for months and I have a reputation to uphold. Also don’t tell them about me holding a rabbit. For similar reasons.”

Gourry looked at her. “I won’t say anything. But I can’t be held responsible if someone happens to know Alecto likes tiny rabbits that get scared over everything.”

She rolled her eyes. “They’re only tiny because you’re a fucking giant. Otherwise, they’re not that tiny.” She debated taking the rabbit back. “I mean...fuck...even I look short next to you...and I’m not that short. Your giant stature doesn’t mean we’re all tiny.” But she was teasing mostly. “This might be a badass fighting rabbit for all you know. Don’t assume shit.”

Gourry stroked the rabbit’s fur, laughing. “I’d hope so. Beat up them predators.” He paused. “What is a napkin-bottle-bunny’s natural predator?”

Alecto paused at that, considering his question. “Um. I’m not really sure. There’s got to be something. Probably the usual rabbit ones. Only they’d be really disappointed once they bit in. You’d just get a lot of napkin in the mouth.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. So long as it fights and wins. But when you’re actually a napkin, that makes things difficult.”

“You’re a wonderful napkin, bunny,” Gourry nodded. He rubbed its head a little. “Wonder if it understands its not a real bunny.”

“Does anything really comprehend its existence? I mean outside of humans.” They might not have entirely understood their existence, though. They missed a lot. “I’m trying to decide whether to leave it as a rabbit or not.”

“Gonna take care of it?” Gourry nosed the bunny, humming.

Alecto had to stare for a long moment, carefully ignoring the fact (or not ignoring, but pretending to ignore) the fact that attractive people should not be allowed to handle animals in such a manner. “I am going to tell you something, but if you tell people, I may have to kill you.” She gave him a pointed look. “I used to save animals when my dad went hunting and I took care of all of them. So...I know how to take care of animals, okay?”

Gourry smiled at her, flashing that handsome grin of his. “You’re a good person, Alecto. Whether or not your dream you wasn’t, this you is good. And it’s this you that matters.” He handed the rabbit over to her.

“Okay, okay. But don’t tell anyone. I can’t get people getting funny ideas about me.” She took the rabbit back. “I can’t deal with the expectations”

“Your secret is safe with me,” He rested his chin on his palm, elbow on the table. “You got my number? You can text or call any time.”

She fought back the urge to smile at that. Mostly because she’d smiled too much already and he was a ridiculous human, so she had to make sure he didn’t make her smile too often. Or at least she didn’t want to show it too much. “Um. I don’t think I do, no.”

Gourry nodded, handing his phone over to her. “Here, put it in your phone or whatever. I have trouble remembering the number.”

“You have trouble remembering...nevermind. I don’t want to know. That hurts me to think about.” She took the phone, shaking her head and putting her number in before giving it back. “I guess you can call or text me if you need to or whatever. I usually answer.”

Gourry nodded. “Will do. The same goes for me.”