Just galkyries being palkyries

[scion_of_ancients]

 It'd been a while since Val had managed to find the time to actually hang out with Padme. In the time since their first meeting, they'd grown to be good friends, even if it had taken a bit of time to get used to the situation. But it turned out that when you're both born with an independent streak the size of a mountain, there are stories to bond over, and various late nights were had with knowing nods shared between them. 

Impatience eventually got the better of her, and she decided that, having not shown off enough lately, she'd give Padme a surprise. Not bothering with her coat this time, she took her keys, fixed her hair - thankfully a matter of a few moments - and got in the Bentley. Not long after, she was outside Padme's place, honking the horn. As soon as Valkyrie saw her face, she leaned out the window and yelled, "Get in, loser, we're going shopping!"

She hoped the reference wouldn't be too obscure, but in Darrow, you never knew. 

Comments

[nabooqueen]

Artoo wanted to come with her, but most cars in Darrow weren't exactly designed with droids in mind, and it didn't look like this one was any different, so he had to stay behind. Padmé felt badly enough about this that she had to spend quite some time apologizing before she could actually leave the apartment. Gary, at least, stayed when she told him to, though he threw such a mournful look in her direction that she felt guilty about that, too. All in all, it was several minutes before she finally made it outside and slid into the car.

"I hope that was a reference to something?" It had sounded like it was, but she'd never heard the line before.

[scion_of_ancients]

With a deliberately dramatic sigh, Valkyrie started up the engine again, feeling the gentle thrum as it got going. The car was just such a delight to drive, and she'd never tire of spending time in it. .

"It was. Not one you'd really have to know, but it's pretty popular. Where have you been hiding lately?" The question was innocent, but the curiosity was there as usual.

[nabooqueen]

"Interdimensional pop culture's not really my strong suit," Padmé said, looking around the interior of the car with interest. She'd been making a half-hearted effort to fill that gap in her knowledge, but there was just so much of it, and a lot of it was incredibly odd.

"Working, mostly. I'm trying to figure out ways to make the arrival process easier, because right now you're really at the mercy of whoever finds you first and that can be so arbitrary, but it's like City Hall is determined to make my life more difficult. This is your car?"

[scion_of_ancients]

"Hell, I don't even know if that film actually exists here, or if there's just some weird counterpart."

She followed Padmé's gaze for a bit, happily noting that the car was still as clean as when it arrived. It took some effort, but was very much worth it in the end.

"The last arrival that I met - actually, the one before that - tried to kill me and some guy called Shazam ended up stopping us in the middle of the fight. If you can make it easier, please do so. And the car, she's mine. At least over here. Back home, she belongs to my best friend."

[nabooqueen]

"I arrived half-dead on a park bench in the middle of the night," Padmé said, dry. "There has to be a better way, if I could only get people to agree on one."

"One of the city's little presents, I assume? I don't know much about cars—" a lie; she didn't know anything about cars, except that they were less effective at getting you places than ships, and usually much noisier "—but she's a beauty."

[scion_of_ancients]

"Wait, hang on. So you actually have a say in how people get here? Seriously? There's an actual system for it?" The question was as incredulous as her look, and she almost didn't spot the red light up ahead, having to brake rather harshly to avoid running through it.

"Definitely a present. I'd have liked to see its owner too, but I suppose he's probably had enough of alternate dimensions for the time being. I don't suppose there's a way to regulate these random gift appearances as well, is there?"

[nabooqueen]

"No, of course not. That would be logical," Padmé said, and if it was a little too blatantly sarcastic, well, she didn't think Valkyrie would fault her for it. "Nobody knows anything about how people get here; believe me, I've checked. I'm talking about what happens after we arrive. We need some way of locating new arrivals, people trained in how to explain the situation to them, help with languages and cultural norms for the ones who need it --" she cut herself off as the car braked sharply, looking over at Valkyrie with an expression that did not so much ask 'are you sure you know how to drive this thing' as politely imply it in an undertone.

"Not the most interesting topic of conversation, I know, but it's most of what I've been working on lately."

"If we could regulate the gift appearances, they would be very different. You got lucky with this one - the city's been known to be incredibly cruel with what it brings."

[scion_of_ancients]

"Logical? Well, clearly, we can't have that, or else we wouldn't get things like the little furred murder-eggs from the other week." She shook her head a little, rather amused by Padmé's rather apparent zeal when it came to organisation. It was a good thing there were people around who had a head for it.

"I know perfectly well how to drive her, by the way. I was just a little distracted by whether or not I was going to have to stop before I toss you out or not," she said, with a harshness to her tone that didn't usually crop up, "and I'm rather happy that tossing won't be required after all."

[nabooqueen]

Padmé hadn't taken any of the eggs herself, and she'd barely been surprised when they turned out to contain small, murderous animals, which should probably have concerned her more than it did.

"Because you thought I might have a say in how people get here?" she said, looking utterly unfazed by the change in tone. "I wouldn't blame you for tossing me out if I did, though I almost wish I did have a say. At least if there was a system, we might be able to fix it."

[scion_of_ancients]

"Pretty much. If you were involved in tearing people away from their lives, then a ride in this car would be so much more than you deserve." She pondered for a second, then added, "And getting tossed out, so much less."

The stubborn determination to find some order seemed a little amusing. Valkyrie was far more used to people who would go and just break the system, rather than trying patiently to fix it.

"Maybe we shouldn't be here talking about how to potentially hurt the people who are potentially responsible. If it's even people. Your turn - ask me something."

[nabooqueen]

"I'm quite sure people have talked about worse --" she'd heard people talking about worse "-- but that's fair enough. Alright. You said the car belonged to your best friend back home - tell me about him?"

Valkyrie's casual mention of him 'probably having had enough of alternate dimensions' had been enough to get her incredibly curious.

[scion_of_ancients]

Of course. Of course she had to ask about Skulduggery, because it's not like there were topics that didn't hit so close to the heart. But Valkyrie couldn't avoid the topic forever, and she couldn't just keep saying "my old partner" forever either. Not to a friend, at least.

"He was old, let's start with that. Born something like four-and-a-bit centuries before the present, at least back home. It's also probably important to mention that he's a skeleton, because he got killed at one point, but he didn't quite die." That whole piece of metaphysics still carried so many questions with it, but she was not an authority on the matter, and frankly, it didn't seem like there was anyone who really could explain it. Not anymore.

"Without him, I'd never have known about my powers. He guided me into the world of magic. Okay, maybe more shoved me headfirst and watched me flounder until it was time to throw me a lifeline. But he wasn't too bad about it."