( open ) the all-purpose galen log 2: the reckoning

[gleans]

WHO: Galen Howard and YOU!
WHAT: Hanging around House 20 and hunting for books.
WHEN: Day 56!
WHERE: House 20, and the library.

Thankfully, after a long night of staying up with a drunk Kenzi, both Galen and Jesse manage to sleep in, the next morning. And it's a slow day, to boot -- he reads a bit, warms up his voice, spends a little time on the couch with his guitar when Jesse goes out.

And that's where he is now: Galen is stretched out on the couch with his feet propped up, his notebook wedged between his leg and the cushion, focused on working through a particularly frustrating chord progression. Between strums - which aren't bad at all, until he gets to the tricky bit -, he's muttering to himself.

"Christ, I need a fucking capo."

--

Later that day, Galen puts away the guitar and heads out to the library. Mainly, he's looking for books that might help in his attempts to learn Russian from Kenzi, but at this point, he'll take anything. In fact, once he's satisfied with a small armful of basic Russian lesson books (and a small book of Russian poems, because if there's one thing he can connect with, it's the rhythm of a language), he's nearly nested himself in the fiction section, looking for anything that might be of interest.

He's on the lookout - or listen-out, really - for anyone else who might be in here, glancing up at creaks in the floorboards and cutting off his own quiet humming. Ever since that gunshot earlier, he's a little nervous.

Comments

[gleans]

Galen nods slowly and looks down at the guitar for a moment, cracked fingers pushing idly at the warm strings. So... Ned killed a guy. But the guy was a murderer. And he saved an innocent life -- he was using his strange ability for good. Even though someone ended up dying, but that person was a murderer --

He stops himself before his mind just spins in circles, stomach twisting uncomfortably. He knows how Ned must feel, and part of him wants to just come out and tell him, but -- they barely know each other. Right now, opening up about his own burden to someone who is still mostly a stranger doesn't sound very appealing.

Chewing at his lip, he finally looks up. "It's cool, listening is one of the things I'm good at. And -- don't worry." He shrugs, but his tone gets a little more serious. "I'm not gonna like -- freakshow you. I've dealt with weird shit before. Like -- weird, tough shit. Sure, it's fucked up, but you saved someone's life, right?"

[nedofpies]

It is Ned's turn to laugh anxiously, this time. It's just that Galen's reassurance that he won't 'freakshow' Ned has his stomach is doing flips of terror at the mere mention.

"Right. And... thanks." He can't bring himself to meet Galen's gaze, stares somewhere over his shoulder instead, "Much as I might deserve it, I don't really think I'd do very well, uh. Freakshowed." Just so Galen knows how much he appreciates his discretion, and tolerance.

Ned rubs the back of his neck, thinking he shouldn't slip into a false sense of security, even now. Galen had been through - as he put it - 'tough weird shit' and didn't seem to wish him harm, but there were plenty of other people in this place he hadn't met. It isn't that unimaginable that one of them would get wind of what had happened and would take an interest in him, in a way that he wouldn't like.

He isn't going to get into the details or explain that it had been, in fact, an accident. Galen doesn't need to know that, and he's hardly keen to discuss the specifics of his power unless asked. This way, he sounds like he was far more proactive, and like he has control over his powers.

"So." Ned clears his throat, aiming for a light tone and partially succeeding, "This is what housemates do, right? Talk about how their days were. H-how was your day?" It's an extremely artificial attempt to change the topic of conversation, but hopefully it will do its job.

[gleans]

Galen laughs a little, happy to change the subject. Just as long as Ned knows that he won't go rounding up the lynch mob because of something he - apparently, anyway - can't really help, he's okay. Maybe he's hoping Ned will do the same, if he ever finds out about Galen's dreaming abilities.

"Quiet? Not bad. Hung out in the library for a while, you been over there yet?"

[nedofpies]

"Briefly, once or twice. Didn't much get a chance to look at the books." Both are kind of long stories. Still, it gives Ned something else - something much more neutral - to discuss with Galen. He's always been rather fond of books, has gotten by in part because he's found a million different kinds of escape in fiction. "What were you reading, anything good?"

[gleans]

That's another thing they have in common; despite all of Galen's extroversion, these days, books and their escapist nature shaped a big part of his adolescence. It's not hard to tell that his music reflects that, now.

He starts picking at the strings again. "I actually got kinda sidetracked after I picked up some, uh -- books on Russian." He grins sheepishly. "Kenzi's teaching me. Did you know she's fluent? It's fucking awesome."

[nedofpies]

Ned settles back into the chair a little more, listening to Galen pluck at the strings and beginning to relax by small increments. From the sound of it, Galen is spending his time in captivity a hell of a lot more usefully than Ned is. Then again, it isn't as if he's been here that long, and quite a great deal has happened in that relatively short amount of time...

"I didn't know that. Is she... Russian?"

[gleans]

"Uhh -- not sure, actually," he says idly, eyes on the strings. It's so much easier to talk about other people. "I figure her family must be, but she doesn't really talk about them, so I try not to pry. I do know that Kenzi is Canadian, though." Which is adorable, somehow.

"Where're you from, anyway?"

[nedofpies]

Ned is definitely on board with not prying about peoples' backgrounds if they don't talk about them. He knows all too well the awkwardness of being on the other side of that equation. If he were a better liar he would just invent a new history for himself and give that out to nosy strangers, but he's never been able to pull it off with anything close to convincing conviction.

"Coeur d'Coeurs, originally. You probably haven't heard of it, it's one of those microscopic, middle of nowhere kind of towns. Not a lot bigger than here, to be honest. It's in Papen County?" When there is no sign of recognition from Galen, Ned nods, unsurprised. "Didn't think so."

Ned thinks this is going well, considering how the conversation started off. This is what he'd had in mind - just a little chat, getting to know a few things about one another, so they aren't just strangers sleeping under the same roof.

"So, if you don't mind my saying so, Galen's kind of an odd name," he says, mentally crossing his fingers that it's not a bad topic to broach, "Is there a story there? Or, well, I guess it's possible that's a really common name where you're from, and no one is named Ned. I keep forgetting to factor in all the-" he waves a hand through the air, "-other worlds, and the crazy."

[gleans]

Galen opens his mouth to ask what state that's in, but lets it drop, figuring he can ask later. Hell, maybe it isn't even in the States. He keeps forgetting that, too -- maybe some places are so alternate that even geographically, they're unfamiliar.

He smiles at the question, chews at his lip a little. "Ned is one of those names that you think you'd hear all the time, but you don't." Mostly on TV. Weird, that. "And uh -- not really a story, I guess. Pretty sure they both used to watch Gunsmoke, and my mom was a pretty big fan of unusual names, so." He smirks a bit. "It means 'calm', so maybe they thought they weren't totally jinxing it, I dunno."

[nedofpies]

"I don't remember what Ned means. Something about being rich, maybe?" He's more than happy to do the biographical information give-and-take game but, like Kenzi, Ned's not going to be mentioning his family much. Or, you know, at all.

There is something else Ned has been meaning to ask, for a while, but it's a little more personal, so he hesitates briefly before saying: "So, uh. D'you mind if I ask... how'd you and Jesse meet?" There's been no official announcement or discussion of the fact that the two of them are an item, but it isn't exactly hard to deduce, living in the same house with them.

Ned is a romantic at heart, Galen. Let him live vicariously through your happiness for a little bit.

[gleans]

A little smile tugs at Galen's mouth when Ned asks, as it usually does whenever people ask how he and Jesse met. As a bit of a romantic, himself, it's something he likes to think about, and something he likes retelling. His reaction alone is a pretty clear indication of how Galen feels about Jesse.

"Oh, not at all," he says, stopping himself before he plucks too much nonsense on the guitar. "Um -- we were on tour, a little over a year ago - my band - and our crew, y'know, it isn't that big. But we had to fire one of our techs, in California, so there was a day of, shit, where are we gonna get a replacement on such short notice? Then, like, by some miracle, Jesse shows up, interviews, gets the job. Doesn't mind touring, knows his way around rigging, knows the business. The funny thing is -- at first, I thought he was gonna be kind of a shit. Pretty, but a shit."

Well, he wasn't wrong, and his shrug semi-communicates that. But hey, it's fond. "Anyway... it was a long, interesting, occasionally frustrating year. We didn't actually start dating until about four or five months ago, but... I think the crushing happened as soon as he called me 'songbird' for the first time, and I was like, 'wow, what the fuck are my feelings doing'." He bites at his lip, smiling somewhat shyly, and shrugs. "And I was right, he is a shit, but so am I, so it works."

[nedofpies]

It's all too clear to Ned that Galen is head over heels about Jesse - the way he smiles, the way he talks, the little shrugs. It makes him fiercely glad, for their sakes, that the two of them are here together. Being here at all isn't good, but at least they weren't separated.

That wasn't the kind of problem he'd had to worry about; he didn't have anyone to be separated from, save Digby, who he does miss, but in a different way.

Still, the story makes Ned happier than he would have thought possible, considering everything that happened earlier today. It's good to remember that the world isn't all psychopaths with guns and poor girls like Laura getting shot down. Good to remember there are couples like Galen and Jesse with stories about calling one another affectionate nicknames for the first time. Ned's never experienced that kind of love - at least, not in his adult life. Part of him is convinced that he never will, so it's nice to know that others can, in his place.

"That's so sweet," he says, and he means it. There is no cynicism there, no mockery. Perhaps the faintest note of wistfulness, but that comes with the territory. "I'm really... very happy for the both of you. Even though I barely know you, so it's probably a weird thing to say, but. I don't care. I'm saying it anyway."

[gleans]

If the story makes Ned smile, Galen finds no fault with it. He smiles, himself, because it is sweet, and it's always nice to hear that someone is happy for them. That month with the nightmares was emotionally exhausting, and now, Galen almost feels normal again. Like he isn't about to lose one of the most important people in his life.

"Nah, man -- that's not weird. Thank you. It means a lot." And it does. Back home, he's subjected to the opinions of people who think his personal life is their business, and not all of them are as sweet as Ned's, so it's nice to hear. He taps at the body of the guitar a little, thoughtfully.

"You should ask Jesse about his art. He doesn't bring it up much, but he's been doing a lot more ever since we got stuck, and -- it's pretty cool. Paint all over our room, but. Worth it." He grins.