Samus Aran is the best hunter in the galaxy (samus_aran) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-08-28 17:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, leon orcot, samus aran |
Trouble? You don’t say
Who: Leon and Samus
What: Drinks
When: Recently
Where: a bar
Status: complete
Rating: PG
Leon was always up for going for drinks with his coworkers. This was especially true once his coworkers started dreaming. There weren’t a lot of them. Logan had started dreaming long before Leon had, and Judy shortly after, but they were the only two other dreamers Leon knew about on the force, if he didn’t count Liv. And not everyone could be as lucky as Judy when it came to the dreams - she faced a few hardships obviously, but all in all, dreaming of being a police bunny didn’t seem so bad as far as Leon was concerned.
He hadn’t been coming to McNally’s, the resident police bar, as much since he discovered the Double Tap, but it was still nice to come back. Sharon had scolded him a little from staying away for so long, but she still seemed genuinely happy to have him back, and Leon slid into his favourite booth, one in the back where he’d slept off more than his fair share of drunken evenings, and waited for Samus.
Samus’s dreams had had ups and downs. Mostly downs, but the Chozo weren’t so bad. She felt...stronger, tougher. She’d always been tall, but she somehow felt… taller. It actually annoyed her, as she’d always preferred to be a little more feminine since she’d transitioned, but if anything the dreams helped with that too.
She ducked in, looking around until she spotted Leon, and made her way over to him, “Hope you haven’t started yet.”
“Just ordered,” Leon said, just moments before Sharron, a slightly middle-aged woman with reddish-brown, curly hair, who looked like the kind of person you’d want on your side of a fight, brought over his pint and slid it in front of him.
“And what can I get you, hun?” she asked Samus.
Samus looked her over, smiling, “I’m suddenly feeling really thirsty, why don’t you surprise me.”
Sharron nodded, and then turned to go back to the bar to prepare her drink.
“So,” Leon said, and took a sip of his beer. “You started dreaming, huh?” Maybe he could have started with some smalltalk before getting to it, but he didn’t really see the point. “How’ve you been doing?”
“I’ve been better.” Samus shrugged one shoulder, turning her attention away from Sharron, “It still feels kind of ridiculous. Like there’s a huge prank being played.”
Leon snorted. “If it is, it’s the worst prank of all time,” Leon grumbled. “I ended up in the hospital because of these damn things.” He still hadn’t fully recovered from his gunshot wounds. It was why he was on desk duty instead of out there doing actual police work. Not that there was anything wrong with desk work, but he couldn’t exactly solve murders while he was pushing paper all day.
“Oh, so that’s why?” Samus grinned at him, leaning her elbows on the table and teased, “I thought you’d just accidentally discharged your firearm.”
“Sometimes I wish,” Leon grumbled. Instead, they’d thought Alex had had something to do with it, as if it made any sense at all that Alex would shoot him three times in his sleep and then stick around keeping him alive for the paramedics to get there. He shook his head. “You said they… did something to you in your dreams?”
Samus nodded, but waited for her drink before explaining it, “I say it was injecting me with something, but that’s too simple. It was more than that. An infusion of their DNA with my own.”
Just the thought of someone messing with his DNA gave Leon the heebie jeebies. No thank you. “You have any idea why they did it?” he asked.
“I think it’s to make sure I can survive. Not just the conditions of their planet but also..” She frowned, then shrugged and continued, “Also getting revenge for the deaths of my parents and everyone else on my colony.”
Leon gave a low whistle. That was a lot, really. As annoying as his dreams were, at least there was nothing like revenge plots or getting his body changed. Aside from the whole getting shot thing and the occasional scene from a horror movie, his dreams really weren’t that bad.
“Sorry, that’s rough. I guess they’re reasons aren’t so bad though. Better than you just being an experiment, right?”
Samus could feel a cold anger building up inside of her. A need to destroy every last pirate in the galaxy. She couldn’t do that as a human, but as a Chozo? With their armor? She stood a chance, “Yeah, definitely. Helped me get into the intergalactic police force, too.”
“Intergalactic police?” Leon said, a little surprised. “That’s sounds pretty awesome. I’m still police in my dreams too. Still homicide, though with the LAPD instead. Doesn’t sound anywhere near as cool as space cops.”
“Seems to be mostly a job hunting down space pirates and killing them,” Samus admitted. “Federation doesn't really like them very much. Obviously.”
Leon frowned a little. He had killed exactly one person in his career, and that had been over Christmas, and it wasn’t something he’d ever forget. He hoped it would be an experience he didn’t have to relive. “That sounds rough. They-” he started, but cut off when Sharron came back with Samus’s drink. She only gave a knowing look, as if she knew that it was private police talk going on, and quickly made herself scarce. “They the ones killed your family?”
“Yes.” Samus nodded, taking her drink and tasting it. “Wiped out the entire colony. I don’t even remember how I survived, but there’s definitely some survivor’s guilt in my motivations.”
It wasn’t entirely true. She remembered her parents getting between her and Ridley. “Most of them aren’t human. Insectoids, and some kind of space dragon.”
“That must make it easier at least,” Leon said. Maybe it wasn’t great, but killing bug people and space dragons sounded like it would weigh on the conscience less than humans, or even humanoid aliens.
If a human got in the way, she had no doubt she would act. She just didn’t like the idea any more than Leon did. “I seem to be a lot more hardcore. But there have been some nicer physical side-effects. Stronger, faster...”
“Wish it was that easy for the rest of us,” Leon teased. Not that he thought the dreams were especially easy, or that he’d want his physical abilities supernaturally improved - he didn’t really trust magic at all.
“Pretty sure I’d trade being some kind of space badass for my parents,” Samus replied, though she didn’t sound like she was angry or upset at him.
Anger or not, Leon grimaced all the same, knowing he’d stuck his foot in it. “Yeah, that’s fair,” he said. “What about here? They around?” he asked, wondering if he was just cramming that foot deeper down his throat. His parents had died in the same way at the same age in his dreams as they had in real life, and from the people he talked to, it sounded like that was usually the case.
“Yes, thankfully. I even managed to wait until morning to call and see if they were actually okay. Wanted time to think up an excuse since… I don’t generally talk to them. Ever. It’s a kind of mutual hatred at this point. So I made up something about baby pictures.” Samus didn’t want to think about the possibility of such a thing crossing over, no matter how much she hated them most of the time.
And she’d burned a lot of her pictures a long time ago.
“That’s as good a reason as any,” Leon said, giving a crooked half-smile. “Glad they’re okay though. They ask why you wanted your photos?”
“I think they just assumed I’d burn any that were left, so they basically told me to fuck off.” Samus flashed a smile, knocking back half of her drink.
“Ugly baby, I take it?” Leon asked, with a bit of a crooked smile.
She regarded him a long moment, then shrugged, “That’s one way to put it.” The less she had to remind her of before her transition the better. As far as she was concerned, that person had never existed. She’d always been Samus.
Leon had the distinct impression that he’d somehow managed to step in it again, though he wasn’t entirely sure how he’d managed it this time. “Well, I’m glad your parents are okay. Even if they are assholes.”
“They really are, on both counts.” She flashed him a grin, wanting him to relax and wanting to get off the topic of her parents. “What about you? Ugly baby?”
Leon shrugged. “Babies all look the same to me,” he admitted, a little bashfully. “But Mom used to always complain about what a big baby I was. You know, ‘you’ve been trouble since the day you were born,’” he said, putting on a bit of a voice.
“You?” Samus asked, feigning shock. “Trouble? You don’t say.”
Leon took another swig of his beer and grinned. “Aw, shaddup,” he grumbled good-naturedly.