|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 3:00 pm
Guinevere was a nice girl.
She did all her work, enjoyed reading fantasy stories, dabbled in baking and fortunetelling with varying degrees of success, and worried a little too much about her friends. She smiled easily and though she had a tendency to be sort of bossy when she got to know people better, she generally meant things to be for the best.
It wasn't her fault that an entire part of her body and mind happened to be made of a pretty looking pair of scissors with a ribbon wrapped around that remembered the tormented screams of the damned that they had been thrust into until there were no witnesses left but the woman who had left her on a rock in the rain. This was not her fault at all. And it had never been a problem before, but ever since she had hit teenager, she had suddenly started having vivid, macabre nightmares that made sleep totally impossible and left chills running up her spine. Suddenly, her waking hours weren't for baking or fortunetelling or even reading, but for trying to keep awake until it was time to sleep again and hope it worked this time around. Thus, instead of finding herself exploring town, or curling up in her attic bedroom with a good book, Guinevere had recently been spending most of her time in various cafes, drinking the strongest coffee she could find.
She staggered into one now, stopping in front of the door to take a deep breath and compose herself. Calm. She was calm. She didn't know why she was having these horrible dreams, but she could at least look graceful when she was awake. And this place looked classy, so she might as well make an effort to look classy, too. She stared at her reflection in the window and winced at the dark shadows under her eyes. Classy. If her eyes betrayed her, she could at least make sure her posture wouldn't. Gathering her strength and standing up straight, she strode in and walked up to the counter.
"Coffee with cream and sugar, please."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 3:13 pm
Aodh had just been released from a book signing which he had not wanted to take part in, and soon he would be off again for a meeting with his publisher about his latest book idea. He didn't want to be out here. He wanted to be home, working on his laptop and caring for the angel who now had lived a week and a half on his couch. It was happier now, he thought. More healthy It seemed to glow. This was definitely not a time to be spelunking the wondrously awful caves of business.
He sighed into his herbal tea and nibbled a crumb of muffin, thinking that this was not at all a proper dinner, and he would have to make it up with an enormous high tea tonight. Marmalade, perhaps. The angel seemed to like orange marmalade.
The cafe was fairly full, as this was the bustling hour for everyone to come and publicly write their screenplays of future best sellers. Aodh did not believe in public writing. He simply had sat at the last empty table in the corner, half-shadowed and half lit by a window, reading yesterday's newspaper.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 4:55 pm
Wobbling a bit and sipping her coffee gratefully, Guinevere folded her wings as close to her body as she could. (Adolescence had brought big blade-wings along with it, and suddenly crowds really sucked.) She sat down next to a man engrossed in a newspaper and felt conspicuously out of place. Everyone here seemed to be reading or writing, and to fit in more, she looked around and seized upon a free newspaper reporting on rather dubious facts. Lifting it up in imitation of the man she was sitting next to, she tried to blend in more.
The effect was spoiled by her slumping over and falling asleep on the counter, coffee spilling rather inelegantly around her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 5:00 pm
Of course, Aodh watched the girl who approached his table and gave her a little smile as if to say it was alright if she joined him. He continued to eat his muffin until he saw murky brown liquid running toward him. That was coffee, coffee was hot, and he did not want hot coffee in his lap. It was a simple enough thought. He leaped to his feet and ran for the napkin dispenser on the counter, coming back with handfuls and using them to try and stop the flow. He righted the girl's cup too in the hopes she wouldn't mind he saved her fifteen-dollar machiatto espresso or whatever it was teen girls drank these days. And then, of course, he realized that she probably wouldn't want hot coffee in her lap either.
"Hey! Wake up, lass! Yer gonna drown!" he yelped, running off for more napkins.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 5:15 pm
"...drown!"
Gasping, the darkness dissipated, and Guinevere looked up, wings flaring out and quivering. "I'm fine!" she shouted, as that was the question that her mother had been asking more and more frequently these days. "I'm fine..." she trailed off, looking around as if wondering why she wasn't at home and where she was. Slowly, it all came flooding back to her, along with a lot of hot coffee which, as her brain remembered to remind her, burned. "Ah!"
Jumping off her stool, she grabbed a napkin and dabbed at her dress, going in to help the man who had woken her up with the counter, too. "Oh my God, I'm sorry, geez!" she stammered to anyone who would listen. Usually, Guinevere was in control of her surroundings, or at least not so out of control that she fell asleep in the middle of a crowded café. She wasn't quite sure how to react, but panic seemed like a good response for the moment. Turning to the man who was helping her, she asked, "Did I get you? I'm usually more, uh," Graceful? Elegant? Socially presentable? "Awake."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 5:24 pm
Aodh couldn't help but laugh at the teen's frantic shouting. He allowed her to react as violently as she wished to, and of course did not offer to help her clean her dress. He did, however, get some more napkins to try and sop up the mess she had made. The poor thing. Cramming for university, maybe? School these days was just so incredibly--
"Ah, I see," he replied to the girl's personalized almost-apology, laughing slightly again, "No, no, I'm fine. More fine than you seem." A worker who was likely around the girl's age brought a trash can and a wet cloth over, took the napkins and scrubbed the table clean. He said nothing before walking away, and Aodh couldn't help but look at the offending cup whose last scraps of beverage lay thick around the bottom rim and not in the center.
"I fear you may have wasted your money."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 5:41 pm
Guinevere glanced over at the mug and frowned. She had been feeling like she was wasting her money ever since she started drinking coffee to stay awake. "Yeah, well..." She shrugged and instead dabbed futilely at her dress a bit more. Did coffee stain? She had never had cause to wonder before, but she liked this dress.
"Anyway, thanks for helping me." she said, shooting a disapproving frown at the employee who she was fairly sure had muttered something about college kids. "I'm fine though!" she repeated again, as if repeating it would make it more true. "I'm just not getting much sleep." She gave a faint laugh, in a 'ha-ha, this is funny, not alarming or humiliating, so laugh with me, damn it' sort of way. "Just a few nightmares keeping me up. The mess and such, that's my fault. I guess I shouldn't try to solve my problems with coffee."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 5:45 pm
The eerie laugh actually caused Aodh to suddenly cease in his own mirth. This poor girl was clearly having some pretty serious sleep issues, and ones that clearly could not be healed with coffee.
"I know nightmares," he nodded, then gesturing for her cup, "Would you like another?" It was only polite to offer to buy the girl another drink.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:03 pm
His laughter stopping made her cut off too, and stopping seemed to deflate her a little. She leaned on the counted and ran a hand through her hair wearily, shaking her head. "No, thanks but I think I've had enough this week." Enough for a lifetime. She didn't even like coffee, but tea wasn't keeping her awake as of late, and she hadn't known what else to do. "But advice? That'd be nice. I've been looking up remedies and stuff, but nothing's really helping." What she didn't add was that she had even resorted to her old childhood standby, magic spells. All it had done was prove once more that one could be an angelic messenger reborn and still be about as magical as a small wooden spoon, and made her feel really embarrassed. If the spirits she was summoning had actually been summoned, she certainly hadn't seen them, and they had been downright lazy about doing what she had summoned them for.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:09 pm
Aodh nodded and sat down again, watching the girl with a critical gaze. She seemed very upset, and almost as if she were hiding something. He was inspired, certainly, but also worried for his fellow man.
Or, as it were, teenage girl.
It had been days since he'd seen another winged being, and that one had opened his eyes as to the angel on his couch. Perhaps this was one too? He was eager to ask, but held back. Certainly that would only upset her further.
"You can try the old remedies. Dream catchers, crystals, prayer. I'm not personally sure if any of them work. I simply try to go to sleep knowing it's fake, and it helps me detach...unless I don't wish to."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:39 pm
Guinevere bit her lip. "Fake. Okay." If only it wasn't so convincing. "It's just I have the same dream every single night, and it's really frightening, and it's getting a little boring, and when I wake up I feel like I haven't gotten any sleep at all." She bit her lip and gestured over at the boy behind the counter, ordering another cup of coffee after all. "It's getting really weird, and my mother is starting to think I'm a little bit unstable, and this coffee isn't helping." Her lower lip quivered a little like she was about to cry, talking about it made her situation that much realer. "I'm really tired." she admitted, resting her head in her hands on the counter. She jerked her head up again shortly, but not because she had caught herself in the middle of nodding off this time. "Wait, I'm sorry, I'm being rude. What's your name? I'm Guinevere."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:43 pm
Aodh put a gentle hand on the girl's arm, frowning deeply. He definitely felt for her.
"Well I--" he began, but he was cut off by her question, "I'm Aodh. Just Aodh. It's nice to meet you, Guinevere, and I'm sorry it had to be under such unfortunate circumstances. Now, as for your dreams, what if you ran over it in your mind before bed? What if you wrote it down? The idea is to become as familiar as possible so it does become boring and so familiar that it allows you to sleep. Until then, though, you might want to take power naps. Set your clock for a half hour and go down. Half an hour isn't nearly enough to reach REM sleep, or at least that's what I've heard."
He paused then and removed his hand, itching the back of his neck.
"Ach. I'm being a bit of a know-it-all. Sorry, lass."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:06 pm
"Nice to meet you, Aodh." Guinevere shook her head. "No, that's helpful. I really just want sleep," she added, laughing a little less eerily than before. "I like facts." she said matter-of-factly, "Know-it-alls are better than fumbling around in the dark."
Rubbing her head, she said "I hope it works. The other option was that her powers were finally manifesting, which she supposed weird s**t would generally herald, but considering the nature of the weird s**t, she would rather it just be something in the water or the onset of some embarrassing mental condition. Dreams about murder did not make for very pleasant powers. "But you helped me, so thanks. Can I help you with anything? I mean, I'm a bit of a know it all myself at times."
Aodh was different from most people she met insofar as he was not awkward, quiet, or shy. (His name, however, was completely normal to her. It would have been rarer for Guinevere to meet someone with a typically normal name than not around this crackpot town.) In fact, he was outgoing, which threw her for a loop. When she was with a shy person, she could dominate the conversation and be sure she was in the right. With someone who actually talked back, she felt as shy as the people she normally associated herself with.
She thought of Nikolai, who barely even spoke, and corrected herself. Not THAT shy. But still, she sure wasn't as chatty as normal.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:26 pm
Fairly enough, Aodh had yet to meet a teen as open and friendly as Guinevere. In fact, the last he'd met had shrieked at him for signing a book with his psuedonym rather than his "real name" which was said the same way and a secret entirely. God damn kids.
"I hope I've helped, at least," he offered with a little smile, "and...ah. Actually, yes. I hope it's not racist to ask, but do you know anything about fallen angels?" He sipped his tea and offered Guinevere the un-nibbled half of his muffin. So far he hadn't been called a racist, but one could never know. He was actually the minority in a place like this, being a human.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:11 pm
"Either that's the worst pickup line, oh my God, ever, or you're serious." Guinevere said wryly, sipping her coffee. She waved away the muffin half with a 'no thank you' and took another sip because she wanted to be awake to explain everything she had to if he was serious.
"Assuming you have better taste than a sweaty sixteen year old with a car and an ego, let me answer your question frankly." She smoothed out her stained skirt and regarded him matter-of-factly before saying "The first thing you have to keep in mind about fallen angels is that after they're reborn, they're people. There's hardly anything special about them besides the whole wings deal and the unique power each of them seems to possess, depending on how they were saved. They won't be traumatized forever because they fell, in fact, some don't even remember falling. If you take a fallen angel into your home, only you can mess with their head." She winced, thinking of her own past. "Especially if you sacrificed some kind of creepy, disturbing thing with a horrible, bloodstained past to save them. Or something like that." Shrugging, she added, "Even then, they can live a normal life if you raise them right. Teach them their manners and stuff, let them read books, make sure they don't wander into the road. But they're just like anyone else, really, except they don't come from inside some woman, so it's much less messy." Kicking her feet idly, she added "Now let me make a crazy, wild, guess about you, Aodh. Have you recently run into a naked, glowing so-and-so near some big rock? Do you miss being able to use your guest room? Or am I jumping to conclusions?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
