Late-Night Snack

[Cy for Cypher]

Lefty\'s expression became wry as the skeletal horse continued its antics--there was a healthy bit of self-mockery going on there, but it was entertaining self-mockery--but Ami\'s outburst commanded his total attention, and the illusion vaporized in a twist of smoke. "Huh?"

He blinked, wide-eyed at her as that crazed spark leapt into her eye. "Hmm. It was back in... jeez, was it that long ago? \'76, I think. Early seventies I was out West, hung around the Mojave a lot. When the decade waned, I went north. It was in Canada."

He took a deep breath. "Wasn\'t a virus, and wasn\'t voodoo. It was some kind of magic, though. I could smell it on him--and that was a feat, \'cause he stank. Nice enough guy. He had these carvings on him, like... symbols, in his skin, and they glowed. It was weird. See, I ran into him in the middle of a city--was it... Calgary? And he was out standing, in broad daylight, just standing near some fountain, with these people walking around him. Nobody noticed him. I don\'t think they could see him.

"And I go up to him and I says, \'Mister, you can\'t be from \'round here,\' and he laughed and told me no. And we talked about the Wendigo and the top forty--" here he paused to snap his fingers. "No! It was seventy-two. Because the #1 song was Hot Blooded. And that was in \'78. He was... lookin\' rough. I think he was happy to have a normal conversation."

He shrugged. "But that\'s about all I learned from him. Hope he found a way to deal with the... uh, runny stuff."

[Harlequin]

As he spoke, Ami\'s green eyes were focused intently on his aqualine features. Her own expression transitioned from intense to slightly disappointed, to downright horrified as he went on.

Well, at least the zombie wasn\'t viral.

But he was, you know –

"So you\'re saying –" She took another long drag from her cigarette, "Is that there are invisible zombies out there?"

If there was one thing Ami knew, it was zombies, and the fact that there was a breed she\'d never even heard of gave her the creeping wiggins.

Shaking her head, she sat down on the edge of the bed, "So he didn\'t seem interested in eating human flesh or anything?"

It also struck her that he\'d have to be much older than he appeared to be around and talking to zombies in \'72. It figured; he was pretty far from human – but someday she\'d have to find out just how long he\'d been around.

[Cy for Cypher]

Lefty blinked. "Well, I... yes. I guess I am saying that. But don\'t worry." He grinned wickedly, and by subtle manipulation of his surrounding shadows, he ensured that the expression was very wicked indeed. "I\'ll protect you."

The aura of playful menace around him vanished as quickly as it had appeared and Lefty looked suddenly thoughtful. "Not as far as I could tell. He might have been a ghost, maybe? I didn\'t actually ask, \'Whoah, dude, are you a zombie?\' because I sort of figured he was. But it\'s possible he was something else. That was also rotting."

He yawned suddenly. "But yeah, no, I don\'t think he was interested in eating human flesh. It\'s not as appetizing as you think," he added, cocking a brow.

[Harlequin]

The sudden change about his facial features sent a shiver up Ami\'s spine; but, she realized, in the most delicious of ways. She hadn\'t had a shiver like that in months. She caught herself smiling with a deviousness to match his.

The rest of her relaxed visibly when he said that the...whatever he\'d talked to, hadn\'t displayed a prediliction for Human meat.

"That\'s alright then," she huffed.

That last part though she just couldn\'t let go. Looking up at him with one brow raised, her expression asked the question for her: How the hell did he he know how appetizing Human flesh was or was not?

[Cy for Cypher]

It look Lefty a few moments longer than it should have to properly decipher Ami\'s facial expression. He stared at her, blinking, his expression slowly fading to puzzlement at her cocked brow before it hit him. "Oh! Wait. Shit, that came out wrong."

He grinned and shook his head. "I have never eaten a human being, and never plan to. I\'ll snack in human form, but the only thing I really eat, like, y\'know, chow down on, is dreams. I guess what I mean to say is, uh..."

He tilted his head and scratched at his jawline, contemplating for a moment. "Human flesh doesn\'t strike must fey creatures as appetizing as humans seem to think it does. Or, at least, it doesn\'t for Nightmares. It doesn\'t for me. You\'re creatures of water and earth; I\'m a creature of fire and air. Can you say indigestion?" He paused, wrinkling his nose. "Hell, I dunno if I\'m explaining this right at all..."

[Harlequin]

The Nightmare\'s fluster had Ami stretched out on her back on the bed, laughing heartily, in moments.

"Relax, man," she said, propping herself up on her elbows again, still grinning, "I\'m just joshin\'."

She titled her head to one side, considering what he\'d just said. It was interesting; she\'d never thought of it that way, before. Fire and earth, water and air. Made sense, from what she knew of fae. Finally, she nodded, as if in approval.

"You wanna sit down?" she asked, belatedly, "Or something?"

Clearly, she\'d lost most of the hostessly skills she\'d learned while dating Archer. Or willfully forgotten them.

[Cy for Cypher]

It was probably for the best that she wasn’t playing hostess with him, because it probably would’ve just creeped Lefty out. By way of responding, he bent down to kick off his motorcycle boots and joined her, sitting cross-legged on the bed, facing Ami’s side and looking down at the half-sprawled woman.

Lefty was aware that he had probably just lost cool points with Ami for wigging out like that, but he didn\'t let it bother him. The evening was young, and there were plenty of ways to win them back. “So, you got plans? I’d understand if you do. I didn’t exactly give you any kind of normal notice. Hell, it almost looked like you were getting ready to fight something when I came in.” He paused. “In that tiny little robe thing.”

Another pause. “Ami,” he asked, his voice suddenly laden with gravitas, “You’re seeing another Nightmare, aren’t you?”

[Harlequin]

Ami snorted, "Didn\'t I teach you nothin\'? Punk rockers don\'t make plans. I was gettin\' ready to fight you in my tiny little robe thing. Rustlin\' around in my head." Be pissed it weren\'t so fun."

As to her seeing another nightmare? "Yeah," said Ami, looking up into those luminous eyes of his, "lives on Elm Street, you mighta met \'im." She smiled up at him with one side of her mouth, then reached up to pluck his sunglasses from where he\'d stashed them in his front jacket pocket and put them on her own face.

"You got somewhere to be, fly guy?"

[Cy for Cypher]

Lefty grinned. “Glad you liked it. I can give good dreams. Or, well, maybe not, y’know, good but at least interesting and not too terrifying.” He was more proud than he let on that Ami had enjoyed the dream. He’d worked hard on it, and he had wanted to impress her.

Lefty sighed. “Damn. Not another one. It’s the fedora, isn’t it? You don’t love me because I don’t have any bitching headwear.” He heaved a dramatic sigh. Her last question drove the nightmare to cock a brow. “Well, before I didn’t, but now obviously I need to go and buy a fedora.”

[Harlequin]

The punker snorted a laugh and smacked him on the knee as her half-smile turned full.

"Fedora store\'s closed," Ami told him with absolute certainty, looking at him from behind his sunglasses. She quickly took those off, though, and reached over to put them on the nightstand, with a muttered \'can\'t see shit, Captain.\'

"I dunno," she went on, "Wanna...go see a movie? Or order pizza or somethin\'?"

[Cy for Cypher]

Lefty actually jumped a little at the unexpected smack. He was grinning again as she laughed, though, so if he\'d been nervous about the sudden unexpected bodily contact, the moment had obviously passed. "Well, hell. I guess we\'ll hafta go tomorrow." He shifted to be a bit more comfortable on the bed. "Yeah, they can be dark at night. If I got \'em any shades lighter they wouldn\'t do any good hiding my eyes."

Apparently the dark didn\'t give Lefty difficulty as far as vision went. "Hey, either of those sounds fine t\'me. I just wanna hang out. I missed your face." For all the ever-present humor in his voice, there was no doubting the sincerity of his words. It was an odd sentiment, but one he felt all the same. He\'d missed Ami\'s face.

"If we go see a movie, though, we hafta hit a drive-in."

[Harlequin]

"You missed my face?" she asked, raising a brow at him, "What about the rest of me? I got good hands, too."

Truth be told, she\'d missed his face, too. Even when he did those things with the shadows to make himself look different.

"Drive in?" She tilted her head to one side, then frowned thoughtfully,"Might be a bitch without a, y\'know," She went to take a drag on her long-forgotten cigarette, and found only ash attached tenuously to the filter, which she flicked away, "car."

[Cy for Cypher]

"You got a lot of good rest of you," Lefty replied, cocking a brow cheekily. He might have further digressed on that point, but he refrained, because Ami was bringing up another.

"Hey, you can go on a motorcycle. Depending on where you go. I\'m sure." He paused. "Okay, well, the last time I went to a drive-in I wasn\'t exactly all here--" He gestured down to himself. "--but I bet we could sweet-talk them into letting us in. It\'d be a challenge!"

[Harlequin]

"It\'d be a challenge for our asses," said Ami, raising a brow right back, "You ever tried to sit bitch on a motorcycle for two hours?" She paused thoughtfully, then went on, "Speaking of, you ever see me try to sweet talk someone? Usually doesn\'t go too well."

If this were Mass Effect, Ami would max out Intimidate WAY before Charm.

She snorted, "Why, you got somethin\' against movie theaters?"

[Cy for Cypher]

Lefty narrowed his eyes. Hmm. She had a point. He couldn\'t be blamed if he failed to consider the long-term consequences of where he decided to park his bottom. Even after all these years, he wasn\'t quite used to playing by the rules.

"Good point," he finally conceded. "Uh, about our asses, not about your ability to charm people. I think you\'d be better at it than you\'d give yourself credit for." He grinned broadly.

The expression faded somewhat. "Well, it\'s just... I dunno, being crammed in a dark room with a lot of strangers is kind of weird for me." The truth was that the doors to each individual screen-room were often the sort that didn\'t lock. They were flat and largely featureless, save for their handles. That meant no keyholes, and though Lefty wasn\'t sure of the implications of being ordered to do something while trapped in a room without keyholes, it had always given him an unpleasant crawling feeling in his gut.

He didn\'t want to say that, of course. He shrugged. "I dunno, it\'s a personal thing."