York (badlocksmith) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-09-09 19:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, agent york, leon orcot |
Who: Leon and York
What: Drinks, talking about Dreams
When: Early September
Where: A bar
Rating/Warning: Low/None
Status: Complete
It had been a long month, but things were finally starting to get back to normal. Or, at least, Leon was getting better at acting like things were getting back to normal. He still wasn’t entirely sure about his future with the Irvine Police Department, but for lack of any other ideas, he’d stick with it for now.
He was drinking a little more than normal lately, which was impressive because he’d always been something of a boozehound. But he wasn’t too worried about it. After all, what better way to get to know a new friend than by having a few pints with them. “How’ve you been enjoying California so far?” he asked. The first time Leon had met York, it had been when things were pouring out of those green tornado things, which he supposed was as good an introduction as anything.
At least York knew that Leon was in on the crazy shit. He’d showed up to the bar to meet with the policeman, toting his Dream gifts and ready to get his booze on. Actually, so far things had been pretty good. York had met a couple of really wonderful ladies (met being just the tip of the iceberg, actually) and reconnected with a couple of squadmates. He was in a pretty good place, most things considered. His Dreams were a little fucked up, but that seemed to be par for the course.
“I really like it,” York replied with a grin. He couldn’t exactly wear his sunglasses inside the bar, though he wanted to. He could tell that his glassy eye and the scars surrounding it made the other man uncomfortable. “Aside from the crazy shit that goes on around here… the weather’s fucking perfect, and I’ve made some great friends already.”
“The weather’s mostly perfect,” Leon corrected him. Of course, most of the less-than-perfect weather was because of the crazy shit that went on around there, so maybe York wasn’t completely off base. “But yeah, the people are friendly here. It’s pretty easy to make friends.” Even for someone like Leon, who hadn’t always come by friends easily. “It’s probably because we’ve got to stick together.”
It’d been perfect since York arrived. He was looking forward to some of the freak stuff that was sure to come up, just because it’d be interesting and possibly fun, but other than that, well, he’d enjoyed the weather. “Yeah.” York couldn’t help but think about how the crazy shit and the Dreams and everything bonded people together. Weird. “I can see how sticking together is pretty much the only option.”
It had bonded people together. Before Leon had joined the Network, he really hadn’t had any friends outside of Logan. Sharon and he had reconnected only once he’d joined the Network, and somehow throughout the last year he’d ended up with a wealth of new friends and had even ended up with a girl. “Yep. Otherwise we’d probably all just check ourselves into the loony bin.” At least, he probably would have if he thought he could suddenly understand animals. “So what brought you here in the first place?”
“They have free room and board, right?” York teased. He gave the other man a grin, then turned his eyes (good and bad alike) back to his beer. “My brother lives here. When I was discharged, I thought it might be easier to come and crash on his sofa than go home to my parents’ house.” He turned the pint glass around on the bar, then glanced back over at the other man. “Have you lived here long? You’re not a native, are you?”
“Free food, too,” Leon said with a bit of a smile. “Your brother, huh? My brother crashed on my couch for almost a year last year.” Of course, Leon’s brother was nine, so it was a slightly different situation. “But yeah, born and raised. I’ve been here my whole life.”
“It works out pretty well. I babysit my infant nephew and give my brother and sister-in-law some time off. They let me crash on the sofa and drink all their beer. It’s a win-win.” York said, grinning. It was actually good for everyone involved. Having the extra set of hands around was helping transition his sister-in-law back to work without them having to put a stranger in charge of the little one. It’d happen eventually, but while York was there, he could help, anyway. “Has it always been this interesting?”
“Can’t go wrong with all you can drink beer,” Leon agreed. He frowned to himself. “Things started getting a little strange a few years ago, but I didn’t notice just how strange until I joined the Network myself. There’s definitely something up with that fucking website, but I haven’t been able to track down who started it yet.” But he was sure that whoever was behind it was on the Network, watching them all as they dealt with their lives being turned upside down.
“Ah, that… Valarnet, right?” York commented idly. He’d read a bunch of it, but hadn’t believed it until his own Dreams went completely wonky. And now he was a little terrified of what was coming. Wash told him things about his future that he didn’t ever want to come to pass… but he couldn’t stop it. There was nothing he could do, and that made him feel …. Impotent.
“Yeah, I joined the network. Met some pretty amazing people there so far.” York shrugged, then gulped again from his glass.
“It’s good for that, at least,” Leon agreed, smiling a little. He really had made some great friends through the website, ones that he wouldn’t have traded for much of anything. “Have you started the dreams?”
“Yeah.” York’s expression, already marred by the scars on his face, and his white, glassy eye, darkened a little. He turned his eyes to his beer. “A buddy of mine is already here, and he’s Dreamed real far into our joint future. I think he waited for me to start before he told me everything. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well for me.” He lifted the glass for a gulp, then set it back down again.
“Shit,” Leon said, frowning deeply. “I’m sorry to hear that, man. You want to talk about it?”
York took a deep breath and considered it. “Maybe when it happens? There’s something else a little more pressing.” He gulped from his glass, steeling himself for the conversation at hand. This was something he was a little ashamed to admit--as if saying it out loud was going to make it come true.
“In our Dreams--my friends Wash, Carolina and mine--we’re part of a military project. It’s in the future, I guess, and we’ve got this really high tech armor. And… we’re in line for implants. AI implants.” York knew his was coming. He knew it was going to happen soon, and he was worried that it would bleed over from the Dreams to this world. “Mine’s called Delta.”
Leon frowned. “AI Implants? That sounds like something straight out of Star Trek,” he said. Not that Leon had watched much Star Trek since he was a child, but that seemed like the kind of plot they’d use.
“It is.” York said, nodding. He lifted the beer again, finding that he was drinking much faster now that he was talking about the AIs and Project Freelancer and all that shit. He set the glass down after gulping from it. “It’s all science-fiction, futuristic stuff. We wear these huge suits of armor and fly around in space ships. Don’t get me started on what happened to Georgia.” He lifted the beer for another gulp.
Leon had never really been a sci fi guy, and frankly, and space travel had never particularly appealed to him (all that hyperspace drive or whatever it was always seemed like it would make him queasy). While he was normally not a nosy person, a lead in like that wasn’t really something he could ignore. “What happened to Georgia?”
Now that it was off his chest about the AIs and all that, York felt a little better. He was finally getting it through his thick skull that this was all happening. There was no avoiding it. He was going to get Delta, and he was going to die. Hopefully it would only happen in the Dreams, but York was starting to get to know Orange County better than that. Delta would likely show up here, wouldn’t he? Just like Wash had Church.
“Nobody knows.” York sighed. “They never found him.”
Leon frowned. Well, that didn’t sound particularly good. “So you guys are given these AI things, and then just… disappear?” he asked, a little confused. Or maybe it was just this Georgia guy - who was apparently a man. Leon had been convinced it was going to be a woman.
“No, Georgia disappeared. But that was before the AIs. He didn’t have an AI.” York wondered for a moment if he would have gotten one. If he hadn’t disappeared, would he have gotten one? That didn’t really matter.
That all sounded sketchy as fuck, if he was honest about it. People disappearing, people with AI implants. “And this is some sort of Space Marines thing?” he asked. “They’re just experimenting on their soldiers?”
“That just about sums it up.” York lifted his beer and gulped from it again. “Not really looking forward to dreaming all this.” He couldn't delude himself into thinking that it was going to stay in the Dreams. Not with all the things he'd seem so far.
“The dreams are a trip,” Leon said. “I guess mine are on pause right now. I kind of miss them if I’m being honest, but mine didn’t end up being so bad in the end.”
“It’s hard for me to imagine missing them, but at the same time I know what’s going to happen. I realize not everyone does.” York finished off his beer and debated for a moment whether or not he was going to order another one. He pulled out his wallet to pay for his drinks, and gave a little sigh. It was time to head home for the night.
Leon frowned a little when he saw that York was getting ready to pay. He certainly wasn’t ready to turn in for the night yet, but he probably should. He did have to wake up pretty early in the morning. “Yeah. I just want to know what happens.” Specifically, if he ever found D and if he ever got to return Chris’ drawing to him. It had been ten years in his dreams, but if Leon had to search the world until he died, then that was exactly what he was prepared to do. “But hey. I’m here if you ever want to get shit off your chest.”
“Thanks, man.” York said. He pocketed his wallet again and gave the other man an appreciative look. He felt a little bad that he complained so much about the Dreams this time, and made a mental note to buy his friend’s drinks next time. “Keep me appraised of what happens in your insane Dreams, and I’ll do the same, all right?”
“You know it,” Leon said, a little darkly. That was, of course, assuming he had any other dreams. It had been long enough that he was beginning to wonder if they weren’t really over. “Have a good night, man.”
“You, too.” York clapped the other man on the shoulder on his way out.