Leon Orcot (motherofdragon) wrote in onewaythreads, @ 2017-11-07 19:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, leon orcot, veronica mars |
Who: Leon and Veronica
What: Catching up over drinks, bonding over police dads.
When: Recently
Where: Um... a bar somewhere.
Rating/warning: Low/none
Status: Complete
Leon had tried for almost a month to petition the government to let him go. It hadn’t taken him long to realize that D and his petshop were not within the borders of Preya, and with that knowledge, he’d been eager to leave and continue on his search.
He certainly hadn’t meant to make friends in the month or so that he’d been here. Making friends anywhere he went was a bad idea, since the chances of him staying there for long we're slim. There was no point in laying down roots if he was just going to have to tear them up again once he was able to afford a plane ticket to the next place he suspected that D had gone. And yet, somehow, he’d managed to find one. The first time he’d met Veronica had been when she introduced him to, supposedly, the best burgers in Preya. But he’d seen her a few times in the meantime. He knew he was one of the counsellors, so he thought she’d be able to help him expedite the process of leaving, but she hadn’t been much help. Still, it had been nice to have someone to have beers with, even if he did have to be careful to guard his tongue when talked about the government. She was, after all, a part of it.
“So, I finally moved out of that hotel room,” Leon said as he waited for their beers to be brought to the table. “I figured it might be time to admit that I might be here for a while.”
Leon was a suspicious one. Veronica could understand. She was a bit on the suspicious side herself. But avoiding all his questions was becoming difficult. Even though she was a Council member she had no answers. That wasn’t the sort of thing she dealt with, unfortunately. Because yes, loyal to Preya or not, Veronica would still like to know just what the hell was going on in this place.
Even with his questions, Veronica still enjoyed his company. At least today he wasn’t asking about the missing people. “Yeah?” Veronica replied with a raised brow. Really it was about time he accepted the fact that Preya was a place you didn’t leave. “Where you gonna be living?”
“Found an apartment downtown Ravenmoore,” Leon said. “It’s not very big, but it’s not like I need a lotta space. So long as it’s got a bed, bathroom and kitchen I’m happy.” Which was about all this apartment had. That, and a small living room, with a fire escape platform outside of his window where he could put a barbeque if I so chose. It wasn’t much different than the apartment he’d live in in LA, really, though thinking of LA made him think of D. “You should come by sometime. I’ll give you the grand tour. It’ll take about thirty seconds.”
“Should have moved to Summerbridge,” Veronica couldn’t help but comment. She was a bit biased though. “Oh yeah. I can’t wait for the grand tour,” obvious sarcasm there. “But I wouldn’t mind seeing where you live,” she added on a more serious note. “When you get the balls to invite me over.”
“No can do,” Leon said, shaking his head. “I was born and raised in LA, and the smallest place I’ve been in the last ten years was Venice.” Which, granted, was small. You could walk across the island no problem, which was a good thing since you couldn’t actually drive there. But though it was small, there were enough tourists that the streets were always bustling. “I think I’d go nuts if I was stuck in somewhere as small as Summerhaven. But consider this an invite.” He’d put some thought into the risks involved of inviting a Councilwoman into his home, but it wasn’t like he had anything incriminating in there, and the government already knew where he was living.
“Summerbridge,” Veronica corrected him. And yes she was taking a bit of offense to the comment. “We’re not that small.” Granted it was pretty small in size but it was more modern than Everdale, and had more population than Brightford.
“I suppose I can make a trip to the overcrowded Ravenmoore,” she made sure to throw an insult in there. “To see your humble abode.” By humble she meant tiny. He probably could have gotten a much nicer place in Summerbridge but she would just leave that to be implied.
Leon waved his hand, dismissing the correction though making a mental note not to do it again. He hadn’t meant to insult Summerbridge, but, well, Leon was just kind of insulting in general. “It’s pretty humble, but I have beer,” he said cheerily. “I’ll make sure to pick up a couch before you come though. I’ve been thinking of applying for the Ravenmoore PD.”
“Well… if there’s beer,” she smirked. “The PD, huh? Did I ever tell you my dad was a cop. Well a sheriff.” Before the town ostracized him and he became a PI. But that wasn’t the point. Keith was a damn good sheriff. Neptune didn’t deserve him. He was the only thing she missed about that place.
“You didn’t,” Leon said, though he was obviously interested. “My dad was an officer too back in LA. He was the reason I became a cop in the first place.” He smiled a little. It had been, well, a very very long time since he’d last thought of his father. Even before most of his thoughts were taken up with finding D. “And you decided to become a politician instead, huh?”
“Like father like son,” Veronica replied. Although it wasn’t quite the same for her and her own father. “Yeah, well some shit happened. He ended up as a PI,” she shrugged. It had been years since Veronica came to Preya. She didn’t like to think about Neptune, what happened to Lilly, what happened to her father, what happened to her. “The politician thing is new. I used to work at Common Grounds.”
“I can only hope so,” Leon said. Growing up with a police dad hadn't been easy for teenage Leon, but for as tough as his father was, he had been equally as fair. It wasn't until he'd been killed that Leon realized how great he'd been.
He wrinkled his nose at the idea if Veronica's dad becoming a PI. As far as Leon was concerned, they'd always been snoopy assholes who pretended to be in the same level as cops but in actuality just skulked in bushes and took pictures of people cheating on their wives. It was always a shame when a good cop turned in that direction. If he was a younger man, he might have said as much, but he'd learned to hold his tongue in his old age. That, and it occurred to him that if Veronica was here, her father was either dead or unreachable - which was more or less the same thing - and insulting the guy would just be in bad taste.
“So how's that work? The whole councillor thing? Back home it took a whole lot of cash to get elected. Not something a barista could pull off.”
“Manager,” Veronica corrected. She wasn’t just some barista. Maybe at first but she had been in high school when she first came to Pretya. That was to be expected. “Comes with being in Preya long enough,” she shrugged. Veronica hadn’t so much ran as she had been selected.
Leon still didn’t think that ‘manager’ was a position that would pay well enough for an election campaign, but he let that slide. In fact, the whole idea of election campaigns was wiped from Leon’s mind with her next statement. “Does it?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Just how long have you been here?”
“Almost nine year,” Veronica replied with a shrug. It wasn’t a big deal to her, although knowing Leon, he would probably flip out about it. Granted she didn’t know Leon all that well. Had only met him a matter of weeks ago. However, Veronica was pretty good at reading people, and she definitely knew Leon well enough to know he wanted the hell out of Preya.
Leon’s eyes widened a little. “Nine years, huh?” he asked. There was a lot he wanted to ask her, but the problem was, she obviously didn’t consider herself a prisoner. He liked her, but he didn’t exactly trust her. “You can’t have been very old when you first showed up.” Easily impressionable too, probably.
Well that was a compliment. At least he wasn’t saying she looked old or like she had been here nine years. That would be a little insulting considering she was only twenty-five. “Shocking, I know,” Veronica replied clearly sarcastic. “But yeah. Still in high school.”
“High school, huh,” Leon asked. Yep, definitely impressionable. High school kids were some of the dumbest creatures on the planet. “You ever miss home?”
Veronica wasn’t exactly impressionable. She had a mind of her own. It’s why she believed her dad when no one else had. Why she sided with him and let the whole town torment her. “Just my dad,” she answered honestly. Because really, what else was there to miss about Neptune?
Leon frowned a little, wondering exactly what had prompted Veronica to decide to move here. He’d been a cop long enough to know that not all teenager’s lives were easy, even if teens were dumbasses, but normally that came with having a rough home life, and if this conversation was anything to go by, Veronica and her dad had been close. But he wasn’t going to pry into her life. That wasn’t something he’d ever done, unless it was part of an investigation. “He probably misses you too,” was what he said instead.
Of course, none of this is what he’d come here for. He’d just come to chat with one of the few friends he’d managed to make in Preya - one of the few friends he’d made in the last decade, if he was honest. “Anyway, that’s enough about that. What’s new with you?”
Veronica’s life back in Neptune was so long ago. It seemed like another lifetime, but she also remembered it all like it was just yesterday. However, her choice to come to Preya wasn’t something the talked about, ever. She didn’t need pity from others. Everyone had a dark past. That’s why they chose Preya.
She was relieved for the subject change. She could tell that part of Leon wanted to press for more information. Information that Veronica wasn’t likely to give up anytime soon. “Well,” Veronica began before continuing to update Leon on her life.