Neena Thurman pours drinks, kicks ass. (fallsinplace) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-07-28 19:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, canaan, neena thurman (domino) |
Who: Canaan and Neena Thurman
What: shooting, having drinks
When: recently
Where: a shooting range and Baxter Bakery
Rating: Pg-13 at least for language
Status: complete
Neena really liked to fire her guns. It was soothing, the repetitive motion of firing and reloading was meditative, and she needed something like that in her life right now. After the reaper ship’s explosion things had settled down. In theory that was a wonderful thing. In practice it made her grumpy and anxious. She needed to be doing things, and there were no things to do. Her bar couldn’t open soon enough.
She sighed as she reloaded and put up another paper target. Her grouping just wasn’t what she wanted it to be right now. She assumed it was because she had her mind on a lot of other things. Her focus was pretty much shot in a bunch of different ways, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. Focusing on paper targets wasn’t nearly the same as focusing on an enemy.
Similar motivations had lead Canaan to the same shooting range that day. She liked keeping her hands busy, but the latest ...issues... she'd been having made working with her jewelry or painting less than ideal. Guns, she was discovering, had no color. Just like in her dream world, they didn't seem to shift around or make her see things with her ears, or anything else.
She stood next to Neena, who was impossible to forget, and nodded her head at her before putting on her glasses and loading a clip into her gun.
Neena had a great memory for faces, and nodded cordially to the woman who was almost certainly a mercenary. She took her ear protectors off, and continued loading rounds into her clip. “I didn’t think you’d still be in town.”
Canaan laughed a bit, "I live here. Where else should I be?"
She glanced over at Neena, taking in the target paper with a bit of a raised brow. It seemed a little off to her. She remembered Neena as a crack shot, but they all had off days. It was probably better not to say anything about it, "My hands needed to be busy. I ran out of things to clean."
“I thought you weren’t telling the truth.” Neena admitted as she finished loading her clip. “I’m here often enough, it gives me time to think.”
"I don't think I'm actually a very good liar," Canaan responded. She attached a target paper and sent it back down the range, glancing over at Neena again, "The idea of coming down to a shooting range like this. I wish I’d discovered it sooner. The closest I've come before this is shooting balloons in shanghai."
Neena nodded and put her clip into her gun. “We’ll get coffee afterward, I want to hear about Shanghai.” She also wanted to know more about Canaan, who was obviously more than she tried to appear to be.
"Sounds good."
Canaan still wanted to know more about Neena. She was almost 100% certain that the woman was Milo's wife. Or ex-wife. Or however that worked. The situation surrounding that information was undoubtedly personal, and she wanted to be sure absolutely sure before deciding what to say, if anything.
She popped her ear protectors on and waited for Neena to put hers on, then started firing.
Neena followed suit, and this time her performance was better. She was competing now, after all, with some little hot shot. She wondered what the other woman’s story was, and what actually brought her to Orange County. It wasn’t a likely place for her, unless she knew about the weird shit that happened around town.
There was nothing wrong with a little bit of healthy competition, though Canaan rarely felt like she needed to prove anything. Everyone had the things they brought to a merc team, after all. She was a better shot than Siam and quicker on her feet, but he was a better brawler and far better at the tactics end of things.
To her, Neena was an equal. She wanted to do equally as good as this woman she respected. She emptied her clip into the paper, then quickly reloaded and started in on another one. Things were a little off. Something that no one else would notice, but the woman next to her probably would.
Neena was attempting to focus on her own paper, but after she emptied her new clip she shook her head and gave up. She just wasn’t at ease, and she couldn’t entirely put her finger on the problem. Maybe it was all the nervousness about the new changes in her life, maybe Canaan put her a little off her game, but in the end all that mattered was the shitty results.
Canaan wasn't too much happier with her own papers. She pulled off the second one and frowned, examining it and trying to figure out why her shots were pulling a bit to the right.
Maybe Neena's company was making her nervous, after all. It wasn't like there were enemies to force them to focus. She pulled off her ear protectors and hung them up, then set down her gun and rubbed at her head, "Not one of my best days."
Neena shrugged, pulling the clip out and checking to make sure the barrel was empty. “Mine either. Whatever. You want to grab coffee, still?” She tucked the gun into its case, placing the headset in there too.
The other woman cleared the chamber and clicked the safety back onto her weapon. She didn't bother unloading it before stashing it behind her, into the pocket of a bag hanging on her back.
"I think the coffee might go better than our shooting has gone. I definitely still want to grab some, yes."
“Good.” Neena would lecture the woman about gun safety, but she knew that Canaan could handle her guns. She held the door for her instead, then nodded to the guy behind the counter as they left the range. “There’s a place not too far from here.”
It was definitely safer to transport a gun you weren't intending on firing without a clip loaded into it. Canaan, however, was never certain if she'd have to fire her gun or not. She was glad that Neena didn't say anything about it, and nodded her head at the guy as they left.
"I heard there was a place around here that sold lattes that sparkle," She said, conversationally. She'd never heard of such a thing before.
Neena laughed at that. “Well, I’ll eat anything, so if you remember the name of the place we can give it a shot.”
"I think it was... Baxter something? Probably Baxter Bakery, that seems to make the most sense," Canaan replied, with a quick nod. She had no idea if it was actually anywhere nearby. Her sense of direction wasn't the best when it came to applying the internet to real life.
“Oh yeah, that place.” Neena nodded. “You drove, right? You can follow me, I know where it is.”
"Walked," Canaan replied, matter-of-factly. She looked around the places near them, "We can just as easily get coffee nearby. Or I can go with you in your car."
Neena shrugged. “If you were going to hurt me you’d have done it by now.” She led the way over to her truck, digging out the key to get Canaan’s door. She could always shoot the woman, anyway. Her revolver was still tucked under the light hoodie she was wearing.
"I didn't know I was that intimidating," Canaan responded, with a bit of a laugh. She slid into the seat and gently placed her pack down on the floor, then buckled her seat belt.
Neena just laughed and belted herself in. No need to mention her reasons for paranoia, or the dreams. She was just having coffee with a mercenary, no big deal. “Keeping busy now that there’s no zombies?”
"Here and there," Canaan replied, with a nod. She watched the road ahead of them as Neena drove, taking in the route so that she could remember it later, "I was injured and spent some time in recovery, which was very frustrating. Someone like you understands that, I'm sure. The peace has given me time to work on my jewelry. I've gotten some good things done with that."
“You make jewelry?” That was a surprise. The Baxter Bakery wasn’t far, so Neena was in no rush to get through the light mid-day traffic. “Sorry you got hurt, that sucks.” She was sincerely thankful for Faiza, she’d probably still be laid up with a sprained ankle if not for the doctor’s powers.
Canaan nodded her head, "I took classes and have certificates in it... after I got settled here in America. I wanted to do more with my hands and my life, and it keeps my manual dexterity up."
She blinked her eyes a few times and then shook her head, "And I like the colors."
Neena laughed a little. “Nothing wrong with that. You have to have something to do during your downtime.” She pulled into the parking lot and found a spot to park. “I was glad you were more than a jeweler when we ran into the husks at that apartment complex.”
"I'm sure there are few jewelers that are this proficient with guns," Canaan replied, with a bit of a smirk. She grabbed her pack in a fluid motion as she slipped out of the car, hooking it onto her back nearly immediately, "I was very glad to come across you, too. I like it when I come across another woman who can hold her own in combat. I respect your skills."
She laughed at herself, "I need to work on my conversation."
Neena snorted. “Nah, keep going, I can appreciate a verbal handjob.” She winked at Canaan and went to get the door for her. “So tell me about Shanghai, I’ve never been and I’d like to know a little bit before I travel to a different continent.”
"I'm not sure I have a lot to say from the tourist perspective. I was there tracking the leader of a terrorist organization, and had some other jobs to do."
The 'other jobs' involved various hits she'd picked up, of course, but that didn't need to be spoken. She slipped through the door, switching to more bakery-appropriate topics about the place in question, "It was a good chance to brush up on my mandarin. They speak another dialect there, but mandarin is universal enough in most settings. They have an Art Theatre and a Cultural square, as well as an oriental style concert hall. I didn't get to take in a concert, but they seem very focused on the arts there. I miss that. And they have dumplings with soup in them there. I spent a lot of money on food."
“The food is the biggest draw for me, as far as tourism goes.” Neena admitted as they stepped up to the counter. It occurred to her far too late that she couldn’t have a latte. She quickly looked for a beverage that contained milk but no caffeine: she wasn’t interested in having some stranger find out she was pregnant.
The menu had smoothies and all kinds of tea drinks and things on it, all of which caught Canaan's eye. But she'd been there for the sparkling Lattes, and that's what she decided to order, a very large one, hazelnut and soy milk. Iced.
"There's a delicacy there that they sell on street corners... it smells really awful. They call it 'stinky tofu'. But it's actually very good. Crispy, somewhat spicy, sweet on the inside. And in the spring they come around with strawberry kebabs that they coat in a kind of hot caramel."
Neena decided a smoothie would be her best bet, and she made sure to request the milk used to be the ‘sparkly kind’. It would be fun to look at, even if it tasted weird. “That sounds amazing. I’m not a big tofu fan in general, but at least it’s not pretending to be something else in that dish.”
"It should be tried at least once. I don't particularly like tofu myself, though I've been trained to eat anything edible if that's what's available. This stuff is surprisingly addicting once you acquire a taste for it."
Canaan stepped off to the side a bit to allow other people to order, while waiting for her latte, "I miss being there. America is nice, and surprisingly profitable, but it's different."
Surprisingly profitable. It might as well be the American motto. Neen laughed a little. “I guess it depends on what you’re used to. I grew up here, never left the country until about a month ago. Of course I went to Italy, which isn’t all that profitable or exciting.” She’d made her own excitement with Thomas. “I was about ready to start swiping things from the Vatican to keep myself amused.”
"I've never been to Italy. I stayed mostly in the eastern areas of that continent," Canaan glanced over at her, almost laughing at the thought of the woman sneaking around the Vatican and swiping things, "Knowing you and your skills, you'd probably have succeeded at that."
Neena laughed a little. “I knew a guy who stole the Pope’s car for a little bit.” She was surprised that she actually missed Wade a little bit.
"That sounds like fun."
It also sounded very risky and very crazy. Siam never would have approved of pulling those kinds of pranks, even if they could have pulled them off. He'd never had much of a sense of humor, "I have to admit I don't get to just have fun very often."
“I recommend it. What’s life without a little fun?” Neena asked, retrieving her drink when it was finished. “Can’t be serious all the time.”
The latte really did sparkle, just as advertised. Canaan held it up and twirled it in her hands, taking in the shimmering colors and their shift inside the coffee. Her expression seemed momentarily sad, "Yes. I agree, I do need to have more fun. What do you do for fun, besides the shooting range?"
“I have a fiance.” Neena said with a laugh. “I think I spend most of my time driving him crazy. I own a bar, and it’ll be opening again in August. Next week I’ll need to be there more to make sure everything goes okay with the interior.” She sipped her smoothie. If anyone firebombed her new bar she was going to do unspeakable things to them, not matter who ‘deserved’ to be the one to kill them.
"Congratulations," Canaan replied, though her eyebrows raised up a bit at the mention. She briefly wondered what Milo would think about that, and decided for him (since he wasn't available to ask) that he'd have been happy she'd moved on and gotten a good life for herself.
She scoped out a seat - the most defendable position in the bakery, of course, and took a long sip off her latte as she headed for it. When they were seated, she grinned, "A bar sounds like it should keep you very busy at least. Though I think I would have more fun with the part where it was taking shape than the part where I would have to run it."
“Nah, talking to old pissy cops is my hobby.” Neena said with a laugh, though she was a little annoyed when Canaan got to the best seat in the place. It would be too awkward to sit next to her. She made a face as she slid into the seat opposite the other woman. “I’ll probably get into a lot less trouble when I have the place up and running again. And Thomas won’t have to listen to me bitch about the Cubs as much.”
It would probably be similarly awkward for Canaan to get up and switch seats with Neena, though she briefly considered it when they sat down. Someone had to be the one to sit in the less defendable seat. She was the one with the loaded gun sitting on her back.
"The Cubs... that's..." Canaan wrinkled her brow, "Some kind of sports team?"
"Chicago's baseball team." Neena said with a laugh. "They're terrible, but I love them, anyway. it's a theme for me, actually, but that's a story for another time." She slurped her smoothie. "What kind of jewelry do you make?"
"Wire wrapped into various patterns, set with gems. I like exploring the textures wire wrapping can take on, depending on the type and color of wire you use. I also have professional training in things like gemology and traditional settings, I like those parts of it less."
Canaan motioned to the necklace she was currently wearing. It was a matte, gunmetal grey wire that had been wrapped into patterns resembling various circuit boards she'd found, adorned here and there with bright blue crystals, "I wanted to get LEDs working with this set, but they were too expensive and too bulky."
“Huh,” Neena noted, as she looked closer at it. “It’s interesting. Pretty intricate shit.”
"I decided to use the recent attacks as inspiration." Canaan sipped at her coffee for a few seconds, then rested it down on the table and nodded her head at herself, "I think I have you at a disadvantage, and I want to see if I can correct that. Let me start here: I can't remember if you said. Is your last name Thurman?"
Neena’s expression went from being relaxed to closed very quickly. She sat back, and even contemplated putting her hand on her gun, but she didn’t want to get into a firefight in the bakery. “What do you want?”
The other woman held up both of her hands, "I just used to know someone who talked about you a lot. I thought it might be you when we met the other day, and I was curious. That's all."
A firefight in the bakery was definitely a bad idea, and Canaan wasn't trying to start one. If she was wrong, then she was wrong. If she was right, then she was right, and she had little to lose at this point either way. Still, she kept both of her hands where Neena could see them.
There weren’t that many people that Canaan might know who would talk about Neena a lot. She narrowed her eyes. “Who did you know?” She hoped to God it was Wade. He was the most likely candidate, anyway.
"Someone named Milo." Canaan replied, her tone even. She glanced around and then towards the exit, "If you're going to shoot me, I'd prefer a shoulder or arm wound."
“If I’m going to shoot you I’m not going to give you the choice of where.” Neena noted. Fucking Milo. “Hard to believe he talked about me all that much.”
"Fair enough." Canaan figured it was safe to take a sip off her latte, and she did so, thinking through whatever her next step was. She'd been something like a friend to Milo - or as close to a friend as anyone got in this line of work. She wanted to do that justice if she could.
"He did. He never shut up about you, in fact. Maybe that was because we couldn't talk about much else, but I doubt it. I know all of this has to be extremely unsettling, but I still think it's amazing that I ever ended up in your company, all things considered."
“Yeah, lucky you.” Neena noted, making a face.
"Lucky me," the other woman replied, with a nod. Without Milo's help she'd probably have been stuck half-starved and without any leads. Women with her skills had few enough other ones to market.
"I like you, though you may not like me very much right now. I just thought it was only fair. He talked a lot about your life before everything. You're different now, but I hear Orange County does that to people."
“Yeah, it does.” She made a face. “So does being lied to, but sure we’ll blame it all on Orange County.” This conversation wasn’t going to get any better, as far as Neena could see.
Canaan shook her head, "Put the blame where it belongs. Being lied to is exactly what happened. You don't need to blame it all on Orange County. Not for my sake, and not for yours."
She figured, then, that Neena must have come across Milo later on. Possibly more recently than she herself had, though obviously this wasn't the time to ask about him, "I didn't know how much you knew."
“What, did you expect me to burst into tears and beg you to hear about my husband?” Neena’s nose wrinkled to express her distaste. “I don’t know what he was to you, and I don’t care. He lied to me, and that lie fucked me up for a long time. He chose his job over me, and then didn’t even come back until he thought I was dead. I’m getting rid of his last name as soon as I can, and I’m sorry I ever took it, at this point.”
"No, I didn't expect that at all. I try not to go into these things with expectations, it works out better that way for everyone. I was only doing what I thought was right. I had information about you that you didn't know I had, and I didn't feel right about that."
It was as simple as that for Canaan, and her tone was steady, "It doesn't matter what we were - though you should know it wasn't much more than a work relationship. I was brought up to believe that people have to lay in the beds they make for themselves, and I'm not really one to take sides... so I'm not going to defend him, either, in case you were worried about that."
Neena took a deep breath. It wasn’t normal for her to get so pissed off at a stranger, and even bringing up Milo didn’t normally produce this kind of response. She took a drink of her smoothie, but it didn’t taste good anymore and the sparkles weren’t as amusing. “Fine, great, thanks for that.” She muttered, eventually.
She was only about halfway through the big latte she'd ordered, but Canaan felt like it was probably a good time to go. After something like this, she could appreciate wanting to be left alone.
"I should go. Thank you for the drive here."
Neena nodded, and stood as well. At least the weather was nice so she wouldn’t feel obligated to offer Canaan a ride. She definitely wanted to be alone.