[Harriet/Mal] - Let's Watch a Movie!

[snailed_at_life]

Who: Harriet and Mal
When: tbd
Where: Harriet's house
Before/After: N/A
Warnings: Drinking?



Since losing her godbrain, Harriet had been doing her best to adjust to her new circumstances. At first she'd harbored a bit of cautious optimism that her time as Khshathra would have changed her somehow -- given her some sort of perspective or drive or discipline or thirst for greatness she could use to find out what Regular Harriet was good at (or good for) after all. But her first days without her brain were spent at an emotional low, a recovery phase from the experience of dying that melted quietly into directionless moping.

It could be a natural reaction. Maybe it was too soon to try to dive into some mission of self discovery?

Or maybe the last spark of the Khshathra had died out while she was stalling and was already too late...

In the absence of some mystical epiphany from her life-changing experiences of months prior, she was having trouble figuring out how to occupy herself. She wound up falling back on aimless online chatter, mostly. She wasn't up to much -- not even a particularly interesting conversation, really -- when a knock on the door caught her attention. It left her feeling rattled and interrupted, even though it hadn't really interrupted anything.

She considered ignoring it. She didn't feel up to human contact that day (or any other day ever again, possibly)!! But she was also the only one home and it fell to her to answer the door or else to officially blow off whoever was on the other side of it.

What if it was someone dangerous and horrible or who wanted something from her?!

It was probably just a regular person, though. What would anyone dangerous want with her now? Unless her alt had snapped again...

Probably she should at least find out who it was so she could gauge how worried she should be.

She made her way to the living room to check through the window, only to spy...

Mal.

Fuck, she'd forgotten to cancel on Mal!

He might have spied her making awkward faces at the window (she was considering ignoring his presence anyway, so rude, Harriet) before she slunk reluctantly to the door.

She could do this! She could be human for a bit! Watching movies was a super passive way to spend time with someone, right? You didn't even have to look at them, technically.

She opened the door.

Well, shit, she was looking at him now. Her eyes shied down to his shoes.

"Hi, Mal."

Comments

[andlivefreely]

Mal dressed plainclothed for the visit, his leather duster over warm jeans and a sweatshirt, not wanting to be too obvious about either his guild or his rank within it. It was partly because he wasn't sure anyone in the city would trust having druids wander about, partly because he was worried about assassins, but mostly... Mostly because he wanted to try and avoid reminding Harriet of what he was, worried that too strong a reminder might upset her.

She'd been Khshathra until not too long ago. He had no idea how that loss was affecting her.

He had his nose in the bag he carried, glancing at the movies it contained, when she answered the door. A grin spread across his lips as he caught sight of her, doing his best to ignore the reaction she gave.

"Hey! Thought I'd bring a variety an' let you pick," he said, shoving the bag at her. It held ten movies, everything from pure comedy to action-adventure. There was even a Magical Girl film and a really bad horror that was more entertaining if one watched it as a comedy.

Without waiting to be let in, he gently pushed past her to get a look at the place, another bag slung over his left shoulder. That one contained booze. Spiced rum, specifically, as well as some soda in case she preferred it mixed.

He didn't ask how she was. He hated it when everyone kept asking 'how are you doing?' after something terrible had happened, as if he knew how he was doing, and she'd died, which was far worse than anything he'd gone through. He probably wasn't the person she'd want to talk to about it, anyway.

"So, uh, do we gotta keep the volume down?" he asked instead, in an attempt to find out if her parents were home without asking outright.

[snailed_at_life]

Oh, a bag to look at! Just what she needed! Harriet focused on the bag gratefully, though instead of actually contemplating its contents, she first chased herself in mental circles for a bit, reminding herself of how weird and rude it must seem that she was avoiding eye contact, and how she couldn't possibly make eye contact with someone who probably found her weird and rude.

Her parents' house was cozy and small, crowded with little knickknacks on every available surface. Harriet drifted toward the living room and plunked down on the couch, hoping that Mal would follow suit.

"I don't think so," she said. "Nobody's around except William."

Which was good, because she'd probably never hear the end of her mom's commentary on Mal's appearance the minute he was gone.

William was her family dog, a papillion perched regally on the couch, eyeing Mal with the kind of disdain one would expect from a cat.

Harriet leafed through the movies, trying to figure out what she was in the mood for. She had always gravitated toward fantasy, since it was less likely to remind her of the dreaded mundane adult life that had loomed over her since she was young.

But fantasy wasn't so different from reality anymore. She lived in a fantasy world, now. And the good parts -- the magic and mystery -- reminded her of all the things that she could see, but probably never would, because she was her ordinary self now, a coward with no skills.

And the dangerous, cool, and dramatic parts she had loved...

You have something I want.

Well, they dredged up unpleasant thoughts, now, too.

It seemed like there was nothing she was going to feel in the mood for, these days. She plucked out the magical girl movie. At least it would probably have a happy ending.

"Maybe this one?"