[Open - Irish Coffee]

[bobdaskull]

There was something to be said for our current residence. Most of that something was wrapped up in the young woman currently in the kitchen baking something or other. While she had yet to give in to my preference to be set on the floor under her counter, I was nothing if not optimistic about a change of heart.

Unlike Harry, she found me charming. It was a nice change. She also looked better in a skirt, which was a plus in any situation.

The young druid and I had spent the morning talking and sharing magic knowledge and now she was doing whatever she did to make the place smell good enough to make me wish I could still eat and I was propped on her counter, watching the varieties of humans and what she called preters both on the street and in the cafe itself.

All of which was better than a dank basement in a cold Chicago boarding house.

Comments

[kevlarcorset]

Valkyrie didn't like Maggie. She didn't trust anyone that had a lot of secrets or was the gatekeeper of sorts. She'd been that person before and she knew that people shouldn't have trusted her during that part of her life. So, under the thin pretense of donuts (okay, the donuts were delicious and a legit reason to come) she stopped by.

She even came as Valkyrie, all done up in leathers, just for the visit. What she saw on the counter though made her eyes go a bit wide and her heart beat a bit faster.

"Is that a skull?"

[irishcoffee]

"Sure is," I call out from the kitchen. "Not too early to get a jump on Samhain decorating to my mind and he seemed to fit in nicely there."

I decide it's the perfect time to mix scones on the board. I'm dying to see what these two will think of each other.

[kevlarcorset]

Valkyrie just stared at the skull for a moment. It hurt in ways she hadn't expected, seeing one. It reminded her of her mentor whom she hadn't seen in such a long time. With that came the worry that he wouldn't be proud of her.

"You're not him," she finally said with a nod. "He's a much more handsome skull."

[bobdaskull]

"Well, hello leather," I responded and moved closer to the eyeholes that were my windows on the human world.

[kevlarcorset]

"It's not leather," she explained, not startled at all by the fact that the skull started talking. It definitely wasn't Skulduggery, that was easy to tell.

"Leather doesn't breathe properly or stop bullets. It's a combination of synthetic fibers and magic."

[bobdaskull]

"Please. I have so few little pleasures in my dreary skull-dwelling existence, don't ruin the fantasy for me."

[kevlarcorset]

"What, my ass doesn't look as good if these trousers aren't leather?" she asked, arching an eyebrow at his comment. She supposed a skull without a body would be pretty boring.

"Or is that the fantasy, leather and no other material gets you going?"

[bobdaskull]

"My dear young woman, I've been without a corporeal form and tied to a wizard with the inability to get laid in a room full of prostitutes. You'd be amazed at how little it takes to get me going," I sighed in my best put-upon voice.

[kevlarcorset]

"Poor thing," Valkyrie said, sounding genuinely sorry for the skull. That did sound kind of like a crappy situation.

"Doesn't it just drive you even more crazy to be exposed to stuff but unable to do anything about it? Can you even get off if someone strokes your jaw bone just right or something?"

[bobdaskull]

"That would take a tactile sense, I'm afraid, of which I have none. I'm spirit and knowledge, nothing more. Voyeurism is the extent of my 'getting off' as you put it. As it's better than the alternative, I'm content enough with my lot. Tell me about you, and why a sentient skull didn't so much as make you stutter? Even the druid in the kitchen had a second's pause."

[kevlarcorset]

"Because I've seen more than she has," Valkyrie said, giving the skull a bit of a wicked grin. She had to admit, she liked hearing that Maggie was phased while she wasn't.

"So are you here for Halloween ambiance? Because I gotta say, you'd look pretty awesome on my tub with a candle on top of you to help me read while I take a bubblebath."

[bobdaskull]

I groaned. "If I had a heart, it would have stopped at the mere mention. No, I'm here at the apparently unbidden behest of the wizard I'm attached to. The one I mentioned earlier. In our dimension, I'm bound to him, acting as guide and knowledge. But enough about my boring, dreary life. Tell me about these things you've seen."

[kevlarcorset]

Valkyrie thought that the skull had a pretty raw deal being stuck as he was. Just sitting around being able to do nothing but think sounded pretty awful to her.

"Let's see. Have you ever read any Lovecraft?"

[bobdaskull]

"Not unless he writes erotic romances." I paused and let that sink in a moment. "Something tells me he doesn't, however."

[kevlarcorset]

"I've got some stories like that I could tell too," she said, winking at the skull. "But no, these are more like evil, scary elder gods come to destroy the world time stories."

[bobdaskull]

"So the sorts of things the wizard I'm attached to finds himself facing," I replied with my usual flippancy. "But I've known a wizard or two that followed that path. Not gods in their own right but aspiring to claim that title. Nasty lot they were. Are you saying you enjoy reading stories of that sort, or that you encounter that sort?"

[kevlarcorset]

"I used to enjoy stories of that sort until I encountered that sort," Valkyrie said. That was more than a lifetime ago, when she had been a stupid girl wanting an adventure. She hadn't even realized what she had gotten into until she was in the thick of it.

[bobdaskull]

"That's usually the way of it. What's fascinating in books isn't nearly as much so when the actual teeth show up, and bite. What sort have come after you? Demons? Warlocks? The fae?"

[kevlarcorset]

"Warlocks, gods, sorcerors, zombies, witches, demons, vampires, werewolves, fae... pretty much everything you could think of. I'm very exciting to attack," she said with a nod. It was the truth, although sometimes she wondered if she should have done something more with her life.

[bobdaskull]

"And who could blame them for thinking that?" I said, tongue in cheek. Or would be, if I had one. "As you're still standing here, am I to assume you hold your own against the ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties?"

[kevlarcorset]

"Generally," she said with a nod. Sometimes she had to call in reinforcements or backup, but that was more just to cover herself than anything else. She took risks, but she wasn't completely stupid.

"But I usually know when I might be in over my head."