2019-08-03 - Murders and Unkindness

The diner is a post dinner-rush rut. That lull before the late night crew, when all the tables have been cleaned, the stations restocked and now it's just a lot of...waiting for the next thing to happen. It's during this down time that Bennie is filling it with reading, bent over the counter with a book spread out between her hands. There are two things that are easily discernible from the cover: it's from the library, and it's a cheesy romance novel. There is a shirtless man wearing a crooked crown on the cover and a busty lass clinging to his leg. Gina must not be around tonight, because the music is entirely mainstream current hits.

The weather outside is the sort where the sky threatens to open up at any moment. That's the reason that Gideon darts into the diner, just moments before a soundless flash followed by a rumble. The rain starts gently at first, then comes with a vengeance. He stands there for a minute, eyeing the weather and feeling grateful for his timing. He's in a short sleeved button-up, no raincoat to be found. His curly hair is a mass of frizz which is the true barometer of the weather. He hasn't turned around yet, so he's not aware of just who leans on the counter.

Bennie hears the door, but doesn't look up from the page she's currently enthralled with. Her bottom lip is pulled out of the tuck between her teeth and she calls out, "Sit anywhere, I'll be with you in a sec." Normally, Bennie is the most attentive waitress in the place, but tonight Fernando and Marcella are getting the fair amount of her focus at the moment. "We've got fresh peach cobbler, and tofu meatloaf tonight as the specials."

There's no answer for an awkward space of time, but that's because Gideon is looking at her rather like she's a spectre rather than a person. He who barely makes eye contact sort of stares for a moment. But then it breaks and he shuffles over to sit in a booth rather than at the counter. He looks at his folded hands and murmurs, "What's so special about tofu meatloaf?" It's a poor attempt at a joke.

Bennie fans the book at her face, finally glancing up from the printed words at the voice that greets her. A familiar one, at that, that makes her smile sprout like a little seedling. "Well, besides the fact that meat and tofu exist together in the name as some cosmic sort of oxymoron...hey doc!" She's folding up the book and sticking the paperback into the pocket of her sparkly apron, edging around the counter to not only approach his booth, but join him in it, sitting down across from him. "How are you." She says at a lower level.

"Uh...dry?" Gideon has gone back to the lack of eye contact, though there's a brief look up, then down at his folded hands. Outside, the rain beats a staccato rhythm against the window. He worries his thumb over his other thumb, shoulders rounded.

Bennie's eyes flick to the window, watching the heat droplets strike the glass and form together in fast little rivulets. "Um, yeah. Good! I mean. It's good to be...dry." There is a flicker across her features, a moment of doubt crossing her mind. It was possible he was just a manifestation of her mind in her dream and didn't actually share it with her. But then again, she's never been shy about most things, so she just forges forward. "So did you do that with the crows, or was that just, like, weird veil shit." At least there is really no one around who cares to try and listen in.

Gideon lifts his head suddenly and looks Bennie in the eye. It's unblinking and perhaps a little startling. But it seems to say 'that was real?' It lasts only a moment before his head shakes back and forth and he looks down again. "It's so hard to know what's actually happening sometimes." Then he's quiet a moment before murmuring on the exhale, "Me."

Bennie's head bobs, "I know, it gets confusing. And I just learned it's not...some like, trick of our minds? But it's a REAL place. Like. We go to this other..realm. Which is just as frightening if not more. No, definitely more. Oh! Damn. I should be...do you want something to drink while you look over the menu?" Her hands hook on the edge of the table, ready to yank herself out of the booth and go fetch.

"You actually go to another realm where anything is possible and monsters are real," says Gideon, his tone a little flat. "I should've stayed in France, but..." It's really a good question. Why do any of them stay? Why not move somewhere the veil isn't so thin? The answer probably has something to do with humanity's insatiable curiosity. Or maybe there's something else to it for those who can't help but slip between worlds. As for drinks? He twitches a little smile. Then he says, "Tea?" a bit timidly.

"Coming right up!" Bennie chirps pleasantly, as if able to absolutely disconnect from their unpleasant topic to something as normal and mundane as falling into the role of waitress and customer. "We've got all kinds of crazy types, I'll grab the box." She skitters behind the counter, but it's not like the have a fancy tea pot set up, she just puts a mug under the hot water spout on the coffee maker and sets it on a tray with a little wooden box filled with different labelled bags. All is brought back over as she scoots back in across from him. "Yeah, so I think we're all sort of drawn here, for whatever reason. Some more than others."

"Like tube worms on a vent in the bottom of the Marianas Trench," says Gideon in a way that is both darker and creepier than intended. He smiles apologetically. "Sorry. I've been thinking about it a lot. I could go back. I could go somewhere else. But now that I'm back here, it's hard to imagine leaving. No matter how scary and weird it gets." He skims over all the odd teas and just goes for good ole Earl Gray. He tears open the bag and drops it into the mug. "Are you..." he asks as the ribbons of dark tea start to spill out from the bag, "...okay? You were hurt."

"You've been thinking about ...tube worms?" She's confused for a moment before her brain catches up, "Oh. Right. About why we're drawn here. You know, I don't know? I mean, I've lived here all my life, but it's sort of been like an ostrich with my head in the sand. Do they really do that, or is it just in cartoons?" He's a vet, he should know, right? "The arm thing? Well, it's a long story, but I was actually hurt before I entered the Dream - not that you can't get hurt in Dreams - but yeah, I'm okay. A friend fixed me right up. I really gotta thank you, though. Those goons might have done a lot more damage had they caught up to us."

"No they're just...big birds with small heads. From a distance, when they're pecking, it can look like they've got their heads in the sand." Gideon smiles sheepishly, then, "I uh, kids...kids ask me some pretty obscure animal questions when they come in with their pets. I try to be prepared." He folds his hands around the mug of tea. "I'm not sure how much I helped. One of the birds turned into my garbage. Were they...?" he trails off, the rest of his question implied.

"Well, I'm sure if you stick around with me long enough, I'll have half a dozen more obscure animal questions that all your training will come in handy for. I mean, next you're going to tell me that coyotes can't actually defy gravity when they run off a cliff until they realize they've run off a cliff." Bennie's smile remains as she props her chin into her palm, elbow on the table as she regards him. "Were the birds real? I can't really say. Maybe they were just an extension of yourself, you know?"

"Maybe, if the coyote has telekinesis?" says Gideon. He raises the tea to his lips and takes a small sip. "I don't know if 'real' is a good descriptor for anything that happens in there. Maybe...otherworldly?" Despite the fact that they're alone, he speaks in quite a hushed tone. And then, "I do like birds."

"I think I would like crows more if a group of them wasn't called a murder. Oh! Sorry, did you want lemon or...milk or something for your tea? I usually just drink it plain, but I know there are some...uh. Etiquette things or something that Europeans do with their tea that you must have gotten used to while you were over there. Paris, I mean. Not the other realm thing." Bennie looks ready to spring up again at the word.

"They were ravens, actually. And a group of ravens is an unkindness, which is admittedly not much better." Gideon looks into his tea and shakes his head. "It's fine. When you work in a job like mine, you learn not to be too particular about your hot beverages. I'm usually just happy if it's lukewarm." A smile twitches.

Bennie's lips round out in a little 'oh' as she's corrected about the birds. "You're right...that's not...much better. What's the difference between a crow and a raven, besides one sounds much more poetic when Poe uses it?" There you go, there's another animal question for him, and he hasn't even gotten to the ordering any food stage, if he even intends to eat.

Gideon opens his mouth to answer that question, but then stops. "Do you...really want to know or are you just asking to be nice?" His eyebrows arch suspiciously and he takes a slow sip of his tea. He hasn't looked at the menu yet, so it's entirely possible that he just popped in to get out of the rain and ended up buying tea.

"Oh no, I actually really want to know. I like to know things more than I like to do things just to be nice. Well, I like to think I'm just nice in general and not that I do things just with the motivation of being perceived as nice, but yes! Tell me. Also, I mean. Did you know you could do that with the animals before you became a Vet or was it the other way around? Because talk about a calling. Ooh, you're like Doctor DoLittle. Who really does a lot, so that's sort of a weird name, right? Maybe that's the point." Bennie wonders. Asks. Rambles. Probably has a point some where in that.

Gideon is almost visibly trying to keep up with Bennie's three changes of subject. He's the opposite of a rambler. "I uh, I didn't know what it was? I just knew I could help animals calm down. Which is useful when working with them. But...I did most of my training abroad, where it doesn't..." he trails off, then doubles back. "Ravens are larger, and have some small but noticable differences in the way they fly and in their behavior."

"Like the horse whisperer, but for all animals. Oh hey, maybe all those shows on Animal Planet aren't just scripted bullshit! I wonder if the guy that works with the crazy cats can glimmer like us. Explains why he hasn't been ripped to shreds." Bennie ponders that with a pop of her bottom lip being drawn through her teeth.

"Maybe," says Gideon with the ghost of a smile. He looks out the window at the clearing raindrops, then down at his mostly empty tea. "I should...I should be going. Thanks for the tea. And I'm glad you're all right." He reaches into his wallet to pull out the cost of the tea plus the cost over again for a tip. He sets it on the counter, then unfolds from the booth.