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Tweak says, "Our last best hope for victory"

Andy Gallagher is not the droid you're looking for (brain_ninja) wrote in vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-04-13 03:18:00

Entry tags:

!complete, andy gallagher, day 04, location: church, luna lovegood

Day Four - Early Morning
Who: Andy Gallagher and Luna Lovegood
Where: The Church
What: Luna tries to make Andy feel better
When: Early morning
Rating: TBA but probably no more than PG or PG-13
Status: Complete

By the time the morning light roused Andy from his drug-induced slumber, he was so far gone, still, that he didn't even remember having fallen asleep at all. The second he realized that fact, his eyes shot open and he sat up quickly, looking around for Luna. Had he passed out on the job or had it been his turn to sleep?

The movement, however, made his stomach turn in protest. He needed more food in there, he thought, to keep the stupid Vicodin from making him feel awful. Go figure the very thought of food makes me wanna puke...why's it always work that way? he wondered idly.

Andy was lightheaded, groggy, and sick. ...but his leg felt pretty awesome, so that was a plus, and he'd all but forgotten the pain in his ear. If only the Vicodin could turn back time and keep Andy from saying and doing stupid things, that would've been ideal. No such luck, though, he was sad - but not surprised - to find.

Without giving himself a chance to really look around for Luna, Andy laid back again and rolled onto his side, moaning, mouth drawn down into a frown of discomfort. "Luna?" he called out pathetically, rather than look for her. She'd answer if she was there and if she wasn't...

Well, he'd cross that bridge when he got there. He just really hoped he never got there.

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luna_llena
2009-04-13 05:24 am UTC (link)

"Dudes?" When she tilted her head then, some of her hair fell over her face, the waist length mass a bit wild at the moment. With wispy blonde threads framing her shoulders, falling around her. "What are, dudes?" The way she spoke that final word was similar to the way one would attempt to speak while trying escargot for the first time. As if it were slippery, and about to fall out of your mouth if you breathed incorrectly upon its buttery surface.

Not that she had ever tried escargot.

"Leprechaun luck," her father had explained it to her when she had been very small, and had begun her curious questions the moment she had learned to talk. "It gives you hope, but reminds you that the easy way is not always the best way. That we find ourselves fulfilled to the brim with contentedness when we have earned the shiny bits we twirl between our fingers." There was nothing judging or attempting to be implied within the repetition of an old lesson passed on, simply sharing what she knew. Ravenclaws were taught that knowledge could indeed be power, but Luna had always believed that knowledge and power should always be shared.

Reaching up with her free hand, which she had set down onto the ground to anchor herself better, she fingered the ends of the pixie tube sticks. "At the Petrol Station with the Doctor yesterday, he suggested chocolate and we spoke of apples and shapeshifters." All in all, she had rather liked the Doctor, and found him an interesting individual. Besides the strange but very short interaction with a strange person in her journal the day before, Luna had liked nearly everyone that she had met as of yet. Although she did feel bad about her reaction to Merope, especially when she knew of the girl's true identity.

Completely unknowing of what lurked in Andy's occasionally sick little mind, Luna considered her dream strange. But not unusually so. It was the same as if she had relayed the dream where she turned into a newt and did a dance called the hula on a faraway beach shore. A place with coconut and pineapple drinks and fire dancers. That night, in contrast, she had been in the middle of a Norwegian winter's snowstorm. "Both times, it did come up. Do you suppose that being tied to Sam yesterday morning made me dream of bondage last night?" Curious, she wondered aloud, "Am I not supposed to talk to Sam about sex? He did turn rather red in the face after the second question."

Really, checking to see if they were staked out for virgin sacrifices had seemed quite prudent, and she still could not find a reason it was not.

Andy did not seem overly interested in the tea just yet, from what she could decipher from his mumbled statement, although he could be talking about something called a 'inamin.' She did not always fully understand the odd things he spoke of, but she accepted and rather liked the differences between them. With a beamingly wide smile, Luna continued stroking his hair, rather liking the odd compliment. "Why thank you."

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brain_ninja
2009-04-13 11:31 am UTC (link)

Case in point. Andy grinned. "Dudes are guys," he explained. Maybe that, though, was an American versus England sort of clash. He reached over with one hand and brushed her hair gently out of her face, then dropped his hand away again.

He listened as Luna went on about leprechaun luck, almost remniscent of a child listening to a parent or grandparent imparting a life lesson. "That's pretty deep," he commented softly. Andy found himself thinking that Luna always sounded so dreamy and content and he wondered if it was just who she was or if it was who she was because of where she came from. The latter thought made him a little jealous. Once upon a time, he'd been content with the things in his life and the way it was going, but that felt like a million years ago. Before Webber went nuts. Before Andy had killed someone. Before Cold Oak and, now, this place. He found himself looking back at Luna and wishing he could take a page out of her book.

"Apples and shapeshifters?" he asked, amused, as he raised his eyebrows. An interesting subject of conversation, Andy thought, especially since he wasn't entirely sure he knew what exactly a shapeshifter was. "I don't think that guy likes me," he added off-handedly, thinking of the way it had seemed like the other man had gotten short with him about the whole thing with Martha. Andy hadn't meant any harm, but he supposed he could understand how it would've come off as trying to be elusive with information. But, the point stood. Andy was pretty sure that guy didn't like him. Which, whatever, was fine. He was just saying.

Without realizing he'd started doing it, Andy was twirling some of Luna's hair around one of his fingers. It fell so long that he hadn't had to reach for it, so he'd just started doing it. "Maybe," he replied absently, staring up at the ceiling. He didn't want to mentally connect Sam with the thought of bondage...again. He'd finally cleared that and Luna made a much prettier replacement in his mind's eye, if he did say so himself. "I don't really know Sam that well," he finally admitted. "I only really met him twice before here and neither time by choice. So, I dunno, maybe he just gets embarrassed," he replied off-handedly, looking back at her again.

He returned her bright smile with a sleepy one of his own, letting his hand fall away from her hair once his fingers were untangled. "You really are beautiful when you smile," he muttered in the middle of a yawn, his eyes fluttering shut again when she continued to stroke his hair. "I'm glad we're cool," he added. "You know, from the other day and I really was and really am sorry I lied to you. I guess I just didn't want you to try to stop me or worry about me while I was gone, or anything. It took a lot longer than I'd thought it would've," he rambled.

"And I'm sorry about the other thing," he finished awkwardly in reference to having opened his big, fat mouth to ask if he could kiss her. That had been a bad move on his part, it seemed. That was not to say that he'd changed his mind or that he wished he hadn't asked, because while he still wanted to, at least he knew where he stood and wouldn't make a stupid mistake by being impulsive.

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luna_llena
2009-04-15 04:02 am UTC (link)

"Yes, Harry, Ron, George and Fred are all men." While they had both met that female George two days past, she had only ever met male Georges before. "Ron, George and Fred are all brothers, of seven children. Six boys and one girl, Ron, George, Fred, Percy, Charlie and Bill. Ginevra being the only girl in the number, now married to Harry."

Another excited jolt of words, most of the information would likely be missed. Both for her speed, slightly thickened accent and Andy's previous need for Vicodin to keep the pain in his leg at bay.

Luna was a product of herself, her parents, an odd 'hippie' childhood, as well as the years at Hogwarts and afterwards. Mostly of the former three and not so much of the latter two. But for all the evil and death she had seen and knew of in the world, there seemed to be far, far more magical and beautiful things. Deep down she firmly believed that every individual was born with the capacity for great wonder and goodness, and treated them as such.

With a series of nods that tapered off into a single final one, Luna affirmed his repetition of the Doctor and her's topics. "And Jellied Babies and Coconut and the year." When she tilted her head, blinking in surprise (which was how you really knew that she was surprised, as it was not usually a meaningless action for her), Luna asked, "Why does he not like you?" There did not seem to be any reason not to like Andy from what she had seen, and the Doctor had seemed both interesting and logical. Surely he would see that Andy was a good guy.

Despite her tactile nature, which simply was an extension of her inquisitive wish to see and know everything, and her lack of ideas about personal space, the blonde was patently unused to being treated with casual friendliness. Sometimes there had seemed to be standards to be met in order to even be in the presence of Harry and the others, as if you had to earn your right to stand at their side. Even in battle. Towards the very, very end of her years at Hogwarts (namely the last eighteen months) and afterwards, she had come to have light friendships with a few individuals here and there. But certainly nothing like acceptance within a few days, no one who had treated her like an equal without much thought like Andy.

It had been even more surprising to find that Martha, that Sam, the Doctor, they had treated her well without any hoops needing to be leapt through. Unusual, but far from uncomfortable.

"Strange," she mused, noticing but not commenting on Andy's casualness with her hair. "You knowing Sam but not well, the Doctor and Martha having traveled together for a long time, the two girls from the future being best friends...and then those like Merope and myself, where I have only read of her in our history books." There did not seem to be any pattern that she could see, which was more confusing but not something she worried about than if there had been a clear pattern to find. All different heights, locations, years, colorings...although the overwhelming majority seemed to be around the same decade in age.

Admittedly her mind was speeding just as quickly as the rest of her, even if it was as bouncey and frenetic as she was in person.

Still stroking his hair, Luna returned to the conversation at hand to catch his compliment. "You really are very complimentary when you have consumed Vie Coding, is it a common side effect?" Only to turn to momentary surprise again at his apology. A friend lying to her was not completely a surprising thought, but apologizing for it? Nearly unheard of, actually it was unheard of. "You are sorry?" She had to repeat the though, not absolutely sure she had heard him correctly. "It's fine," if she had been upset, she would have forgiven him, but it had never popped into her head that she should be in the first place. "You did not look me in the eye when you spoke," making it obvious to her that he had lied, but had not thought to stop him.

Her worry had come anyway, but it would do no good to tell him such. Making him feel worse about it would not serve any purpose that she could see. "It's all alright Andy," she smiled at him again, "You're my friend." In Luna's book, that last fact was the thing that mattered, and affected every other action and thought involved.

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brain_ninja
2009-04-16 10:18 pm UTC (link)

The excess of information on the men she'd mentioned made Andy blink and furrow his brow slightly as he tried to take it all in. She was talking fast and Andy's mind was sluggish. A moment after she'd said the words, Andy realized he couldn't remember a single thing she'd just said.

His brow furrowed again in confusion when she gave her addendum. "Jellied babies? What the fuck, Luna?" he laughed. Maybe he'd just heard it wrong. "I don't know, the whole thing with Martha and I in the woods," he replied. "I think he thought I was trying to be an ass on the journals, but it was a misunderstanding. Whatever, what's another person pissed at me?" he asked with a shrug.

He looked up at her when she made note of the oddness that some of the people here had already known one another in the real world. "Merope's in your history books? That girl that was with Sam?" he asked, confused yet again. "Why?"

The fact that Luna was still stroking his hair made Andy smile slightly. It was comforting, to say the very least, never mind the fact that it was her doing it. It was almost like she cared. "It's Vicodin," he corrected. "And I'd compliment you anyway if I had the balls otherwise," he pointed out lazily. "I mean it, though, for what it's worth."

Nodding, Andy moved his head onto her lap so that he could look up at her better. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lied. It was a shitty thing to do. Worse, actually, that I did it badly and you could tell," he said, sounding as ashamed as he felt and looking up at her with sincerity mixed in with his shame.

He smiled weakly, though, when she said it was all right and that he was her friend. With a little effort, Andy finally sat up. He hated to do it when he was so comfortable and she was still stroking his hair, but he did and he looked her in the eye. "Thanks for being cool about it even when I don't really deserve it," he said softly. There was a short moment of hesitation then, but he leaned forward and gave Luna a chaste kiss at the corner of her mouth. When he pulled away, he looked down and smiled sadly if only because he knew better than to do that, he thought, but he couldn't help it. Maybe it was projection because of all his thoughts of Tracy and all, but... "I wish I met you anywhere but here," he said with a bit of a shrug as he looked back up at her.

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luna_llena
2009-04-17 10:38 pm UTC (link)

Used to others simply letting her words wash over them without absorbing them, or purposefully ignoring them, the fact that Andy's drugged brain would not log most of what she said was not even thought. Then again, it was not as if she would quiz him upon it later. More often times than not, Luna was surprised if or when her words were remembered.

"I thought they were called Jellied Babies, a Muggle candy that he spoke fondly of." She smiled absently at the misunderstanding. Muggles surely had some oddly named foods, and still not have a single pudding in sight. "Perhaps if you found some 'Jelly Babies' peace could be brokered?" Relatively simple, an olive branch of candy. Even Luna knew the story of the olive branch, it was about a hat made of flowers and a bowlful of wine, wasn't it?

Behind and beneath her sugary haze of dextrose-loving goodness, real and momentary fear flashed in Luna's eyes. The laws put in place to govern interfereing in the past were quite strict, and rigidly enforced. In fact, they were some of the first and most powerful laws that the Wizarding world had. The paradoxes and complications entailed were vast, and the magical backlash if Merope were to discover who she gave birth to could be enormous. Voldemort could have been destroyed as a child, or even made even more powerful. It could change nothing, change everything, or destroy everything.

"She cannot know why," for the first time, perhaps, since they had met, Luna's soft voice was tinged with both fear and bit of desperation. Not many things stirred her beyond the basic levels of fear, but in this case, it was warranted. "Merope cannot know." She would tell Andy, if he would swear to never tell the girl, but the prospect of accidentally changing the course of the war...

Frankly Luna tended to be a bit confused by Andy, more than anyone else. Unused as she was to compliments, and what could be perceived as either flirting or perhaps just something she was unsure as to translate. "So Vicodin gives you testosterone you might otherwise lack?" At least she thought that was how that could be translated, considering she had spent a good deal of time around men her age, but not in this sort of capacity. "Because testosterone makes you...complimentary?" Really, she was pleased with the compliments, they were very nice to receive. That he meant them, well that just made them mean more to her.

It was a funny feeling in her belly when Andy set his head in her lap, and she was looking down at him. Not just a flowing feeling of forgiveness for his action, but something else entirely. The feeling was...almost...fuzzy?

While Andy moved to sit up, her hand falling away from his hair, as she simply watched him. Surprised, definitely when he leant forward to kiss her, but she did not move away. Deep down, if she had taken the thought to really consider it, Luna was disappointed when it was really only a kinda-sorta-maybe kiss. And then he was looking...sad?

Luna really did not understand Andy, at all.

Still, she felt the need to ask, to try to understand. "Why did you kiss me?" There was nothing but true curiosity in her tone, she was not condemning his action, just looking for why he did kiss her. Although it was as much for the way that he was sending her completely mixed signals and leaving her more and more confused.

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brain_ninja
2009-04-18 12:01 am UTC (link)

Andy gave Luna a facial shrug. "I've never heard of Jellied Babies or Jelly Babies," he told her. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He kind of wished he did, though...because they sounded like jellybeans and jellybeans were the shit.

Surprise registered on Andy's face at the change in tone in her voice as well as the flash of fear he'd just barely caught in her eye. He hadn't meant to freak her out; he was just curious. Well, that and trying to make conversation in his still-slightly muddled state. If he'd known the question would ruffle her like that, he never would've asked. But now he even more curious, so...he shook his head and looked her in the eye. "I promise. Our secret, I won't say anything to anyone." He paused. "But, you know, if you don't want to tell, I'm not gonna be mad or anything...don't feel like you have to just because I asked. Then I'd feel like a dick for asking."

Miscommunication seemed to be the name of the game for he and Luna. Right from the start when he'd thought she was a Psychic Kid like he was. He smiled and shook his head just slightly. "Not exactly. I just feel a little braver when I'm kinda only half with it," he explained. And no, testosterone doesn't make me complimentary, it makes me horny, he thought, but didn't say.

Ducking his head slightly, Andy allowed himself a second to feel like an idiot for having done it in the first place, but then he looked back up at her. "...because I wanted to," he answered honestly. "Shit, Luna, I've been wanting to." He paused and then gave her an apologetic smile. "I just...like you, you know? That was kind of a crappy kiss, though; I'm definitely better than that," he was quick to add to defend himself. "I just, you know, didn't want you getting all pissed off at me, because I like that we're cool." That said, Andy shifted a little uncomfortably. Would she be weird now? Would she treat him differently? Worse, would she decide now would be a good time to get up, walk off, and go find Sam?

"Uh, is it, like...okay that I did? Not that I can, like, take it back or anything but..."

Jesus Christ, just shut the fuck up and give her a chance to get in a word edgewise before you fuck it up worse, dude, he thought and promptly stopped talking.

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luna_llena
2009-04-18 02:04 am UTC (link)

"I am told they are quite delicious," she nodded once to affirm her own statement, as if it were in question. "And not kipper flavoured in the least." Which was good, she would have to try these Jelly Babies some time in the future, as she did not like the taste of kippers and therefore did not trust the Every Flavour Beans.

With a shake of her head, her chin dipped momentarily in thought, and then she met his eyes again. "Our laws on interfering in the past are strict and absolute." The seriousness in her tone faded away, truly covered by a sort of fluid dreaminess that made it easy to distance herself from her next words. "The child she gave birth to, he was the leader and inspiration of the Death Eaters." Her gaze did have an unusual steel to it, along with a flicker of fear, when she looked him dead in the eye for a second, "Merope cannot know that I once met her son."

The first part of his statement would have plenty acceptable, that he wanted to kiss her and that he liked her. But there was no room for her speak just yet, so she waited, thinking that she would have plenty of time to respond. To tell him that there was an inkling of belief that she liked him as something more than a friend. The core of her personality was surrounded by and based on belief, on trusting her instincts.

And yet, his last statement made her brow furrow, mostly in confusion but in the dawning rays of hurt. Likely it would be the exact wrong place in his mind for her to focus, but the fact was that she floundered as if the floor had been pulled out from beneath her and a Devil's Snare lay beneath. That he would want to take it back, take back kissing her, even as innocent as it had been.

Andy finally stopped talking, and her expression crumpling, Luna could only look at him for a moment. "You want to take back kissing me?" The words came out staggered, as if it took effort to get the words into verbal form. The question portion of it was tenuous, more of a statement that was coming together as a possibly firm truth in her mind.

Feeling hurt, the blonde pulled away from him, climbing to her feet sniffed as she headed for the door. First at a walk and then running, not skipping but running to the door. The door latch seemed difficult suddenly, for all of a second, before she was through the doorway and out under the cloudy sky.

Luna needed the sky right then.

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brain_ninja
2009-04-18 02:18 am UTC (link)

Luna's face dropped almost the same way it had when he'd asked to kiss her before and she'd thought he was teasing her. He felt like he'd been kicked in the stomach. What had he said or done wrong this time?!

But, then she said it and Andy's eyes widened. He was in the process of shaking his head even as she pulled away and stood, sniffling, to head for the door.

"No! No, Luna, that's not what I meant at all!" he replied, groping for the crutches as she broke into a run. "Luna, wait a second!" In his haste to get up in spite of the lightheaded feeling overcoming him, Andy nearly fell over entirely, but he managed to get to his feet and, with effort, started back toward the church door as fast as he could get the stupid crutches to go.

She was already trying the door and he thought maybe the Gods were going to smile upon him for a second when she couldn't get it open, but that thought was lost when she got the door open and disappeared outside. "Fuck," he said to himself, gritting his teeth. With that, Andy abandoned the crutches entirely and growled under his breath in pain as he limped as fast as his lame leg would carry him.

"Luna, will you wait?!" he shouted as he finally made it to the door just in time for it to close in his face. Angrily, he threw it open again and followed her out. "Can you just...let me explain what I meant? Please?" he called after her. She had the advantage of two good legs to carry her and he had only one; she had a head start and a speed advantage, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try and catch her, even if he knew it was a bad idea and he'd regret it for all the pain later on.

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luna_llena
2009-04-18 05:29 am UTC (link)

There seemed to be some wavelength between them that neither seemed to be on at the same time, with miscommunications lying between upon it lurking like asps in the grass. Waiting to bite. It was something that had to change, an adapt or fade scenario, a worrying concept.

It was practically a given that Luna Lovegood was a creature of her own world, not simply the Wizarding world, but a contained and dreamy place within her own mind. A retreat and a safe haven, at times when the actual physical world grew to be too much. Not a place she could stay completely within for any length of time, her attention could be pulled out of it. By people, both friendly and malicious, by the outside world intruding into her own little internal buffer zone.

A quick retreat into the temporary safety, although she did not quite realize that he really was trying to explain, but she was too wrapped up in the thin mental protection to hear.

Instinct had been carved and molded into a shape just a fraction differently than when she had been younger. The forest was what she sought, the sky and the trees. Luckily, for her needs, but not for Andy's, the forest surrounded the church, and it was easy to melt into the scrub bushes and tall trees. Forests were dangerous at night, and the deep forest was never safe, she knew well enough. During the day it was too easy to forget that she was far from the familiar Forbidden Forest or of the long safe forest that grew near her home.

Her mother had brought her there as a babe, and then a small child, and showed her the favorite clearing inside the embrace of the forest. Another that Luna had visited many times lay within the forest around Hogwarts. One close enough to bring back fond but fading memories of a beautiful blonde woman with eyes that Luna saw in the mirror when she looked in a reflective surface. Of the soft smell of blue bells and of the sound of a voice that grew dimmer and dimmer with each use of the fraying memory.

The blonde did not look back at the man following as she slipped into a place far more dangerous than it looked. Long hair streaming behind her in curls that caught the barest hints of sunlight that could fight their way through the thick clouds. Disappearing into the dark treeline.

Luna needed to think, to lick any wounds she might have, no matter how minor, needed to try to understand on her own. Solace, the sky, the trees, being on her own was what she knew.

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brain_ninja
2009-04-19 05:01 am UTC (link)

Andy was only able to make it as far as the tree line of the forest before the same sort of fear he'd felt seeing Tracy standing on the edge of the dam only managed to add to his already slightly crippled state. His own cowardice not only astounded, but infuriated him, because if there was one place he did not want Luna to be alone, it was the forest. Especially if the reason she was there was something he'd said.

Even if he wanted to - which only half of him didn't - he couldn't have navigated through the brush with his leg throbbing the way it was and his brain still muddled from the Vicodin. So, all he could do was stand outside the line of trees with a furrowed brow. "Luna, please come out," he called out pathetically. "I'll do anything, okay? I'll pack up my shit and leave the church, if you want, just please come back out of there."

Whether she could hear him or not, he didn't know, and even if she could, whether she'd listen or not was an even bigger question. But, if anything happened to her while she was off in the woods alone because he had said the wrong thing at the wrong time, Andy didn't think he could handle the fallout that would follow. "Look, you don't even have to talk to me if you don't want to, okay? And I'm sorry that you misunderstood what I said..." he went on, hoping she could hear him. "But I didn't mean what you thought I did. I really, really didn't, because I wouldn't take it back and I wouldn't want to." He paused and ran a hand through his hair in a nervous and frustrated gesture. "Just...come back out, please?"

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