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Dan Torrance (doctor_sleep) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-07-16 19:44:00

Who: Dan Torrance and Lina Inverse
When: Mid/Late June
Where: Pizza Joint, close to the beach.
What: Meeting and eating ALL THE THINGS.
Rating/Warning: Low/None
Status: Complete



Lina was running a wee bit late.

Because of her hair.

It wasn’t a matter of styling, no. Lina could really give two-shits about her hairstyle, as long as it was brushed and unknotted. But she completely forgot that her hair was recovering from the whole magic-draining-dream thing, and it was still mostly white. Brown and red was beginning to peak through and she just didn’t know why she didn’t take a damn bottle of dye to it.

She opted in whipping it into a messy bun and tucking it into a baseball cap, but it still spilled out regardless. Whatever, she thought, aggravated.

When she got there, she was the odd one in the little restaurant looking around and scratching her nose in thought. That’s when she suddenly realized she wasn’t even sure what he looked like to look for.

“Crap.”

They were of the same mind. Crap indeed. Maybe Dan should have asked for a picture or something, at least what she would be wearing. It didn’t matter when he got there, though, because there was a cute girl looking about like she was lost or looking for someone. She was the first one Dan approached. He didn’t much care about his appearance either. The only reason he’d showered first was so as not to get engine oil all over a perfect fine pizza...and maybe so it wouldn’t smear all over his new would-be friend and frighten her away.

“Hey,” he greeted the girl in the baseball cap. “Are you waiting for someone by any chance?” He was certain she was, but who knew if it was him? As he awaited her response, he looked at the logo on the baseball cap to see if they rooted for the same team.

It was a Yankees hat. A little tribute to her time spent in New York.

Lina blinked a few times at Dan’s presence and then cocked her head to the side, before her lips spread into an amused grin. “I’m guessing you were in the same boat as I was, huh? Had no idea who you were looking for either?”

She held her hand out for an actual introduction. He didn’t seem creepy - actually pretty cute - but she wasn’t exactly the shy one when it came to meeting people. Lina looked for any and every excuse to go eat somewhere, and sometimes having the company was better than going by yourself and being the one in the corner doing all the people watching.

“Dan? Right?” I hope.

“That’s me,” Dan confirmed. He gestured to the cap’s logo. “Yankees, huh?” He wasn’t a Yankees fan, but many New Yorkers were loyal to them. “You from New York?”

“Lived there for a little bit,” she said, her eyes blinking up towards her hat. “I miss it. Figured if there’s one thing that says I love New York is somethinkg Giants or Yankees related.”

Lina motioned over to an empty table outside, looking across from the beach. “Wanna get a table? I’m starving.”

Dan gave Lina a smile, then opened the door that led to the outside deck. He glanced at a hostess who was watching them, reaching for menus and nodded that they would be sitting outdoors. Lina seemed like a girl who liked to sit outdoors at cafes and bistros, the sort that would smile at you as you passed her table, not the sort to ignore you as if eating outside were something sacred and not to even be recognised by the passing crowds.

“It smells pretty good,” Dan said lightly. He would have ordered in tonight, but since she’d offered to join him, he wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity to at least have a familiar face in the town. As they sat, the hostess brought their menus and offered to get them a drink. Dan asked for a Mountain Dew. It was pizza and Mountain Dew always went well with pizza.

“I tend to like mom-and-pop joints better. If I’m desperate, I’ll call up Pizza Hut.” Lina ordered a domestic beer and then proceeded to order two appetizers. Breadsticks and some mozzarella sticks. She honestly didn’t look like the type to eat much - she was short and fairly petite, but she knew how to pack away some food. Where it all went, who knew. “Ah, sorry. Those are going on my bill, by the way. You can have some! I’m just really hungry.”

Already losing patience with the baseball cap, Lina ended up just removing it, letting her hair spill out. She did her best to flatten and smooth it out. “Also, you’re going to soon find out that his place has some strange people. I’d feel like a douche if I didn’t warn you.”

Oh, Christ, a beer. It would look so damn good when it arrived that Dan almost said something, but that wasn’t appropriate conversation for a first time meeting: Hey, do you mind not drinkin? I’m sort of an alcoholic. No, Dan would just have to deal with it quietly and that was okay. Instead of dwelling on it, Dan laughed, closing up his menu. “I guess I’ll let you order since you seem to know what’s good here,” he said.
Her next statement caught him a little off guard, most especially given what her hair looked like. Still, he smiled cordially and nodded. “I’ve been to some pretty weird places,” he assured, “I think I can handle it.” Famous last words, as they say. “How long have you lived here?”

“Just moved here, actually,” she answered, taking a quick sip from the bottle. Lina was naive to his problem with alcoholism, and even naive with her own dependency with it. “I...did a lot of traveling. Been on the road for a few years. Sightseeing, I guess.” Or running from the government, but that wasn’t the best impression to give to someone she’d just met. Having a casual dinner with a felon was generally frowned upon. But it’s not like she exactly lied either, so that made her feel a little better. “And I ended up liking the place enough to stay. What about you? Got any family here?”

Usually when people spent time on the road, they were running from something. That was what Dan did anyway, and the people he met there were running, too. Maybe he could settle here, though, or he hoped to at least. Now that he had the garage, it would be easier to stick to one place. He nodded as she spoke, not going into any rough questions about her life on the road as those were always best shared when unprompted. To her question, he shook his head. “Just my business,” he answered. “Fresh start and all that.”

“Amen to that.” Lina tilted her bottle as a sign of agreement before taking another gulp. “I think you’ll like it here. You’ll meet some, uh, interesting people. And the babble people post on that network is always a hoot.” No point into breaking him into the whole ‘you’re gonna dream about another life’ crap. He’d think she was insane, and if anything, he’d experience it for himself.

The waitress came by with the appetizers, and Lina put it in an order for another beer. “Do you want a beer too or?”

Interesting people. Well, there was Lina to start. Not too many women were so willing to meet some stranger off the internet, most especially not these days. If others were half as interesting, then Dan was sure he wouldn’t be bored.
Her offer earned a polite smile. “No thank you,” he answered. No use going into detail. For himself, he ordered a refill of Mountain Dew, even though pizza and beer sounded to die for. He picked up a chicken wing and dipped it into some bleu cheese. “So,” he started, conversational. “What do you do for a living besides move around a lot?”

“I did a lot of...odd jobs before I came here,” was the best way Lina could put it. She grabbed a wing, stuck it in her mouth, and after about five or six seconds, she pulled it out. All that was left was bone. “Then I lost a bet with some lady, and me losing the bet caused me to become an intern at her company.”

She cleaned her fingers with a napkin and then went for another wing, and then wagged it at him. “It sounds like a weird story, but when I say this is a weird place, I’m really not kidding. It keeps me out of trouble for the most part, anyway. I had some, uh...issues with the police authority before. And she helped.”

“That’s mighty generous of her.” Whatever other trouble there was was up to her to disclose and not up to Dan to ask. If there was one thing AA had taught him was not to delve too much into someone else’s personal history unless it was necessary. He glanced around the place, but it was more as if to show he was looking at the town as a whole. “Seems pretty solid to me,” he said. “Every place has its..charms.” Yes, that was the word.

Charm. That’s a good word for it, she guessed. For lack of any other way of describing it, anyway. “And the whole beach thing is a perk,” Lina said after stuffing another buffalo wing into her mouth and pulling it out. She was classy. Really. “Are you all settled in now? Or is the moving process still not complete? I can give a hand if you want.”

Well then. She certainly knew how to eat, didn’t she? What man didn’t want a beer chugging, chicken wing eating slice? Sans the beer chugging for Dan’s part, but he was sure she had her share of suitors. Dan had his own chicken wing and chased it with a few swallows of water. “I think I’m getting there,” he answered, smiling at her. “Thanks, I wouldn’t mind a little help. I think half the stuff I own is still in boxes.” Which wasn’t much. Like her, he’d spent a lot of his time skipping around towns (and bars); mostly, he’d lived out of suitcases until now.

When the waitress came around the second time, Lina placed their pizza orders and had their drinks refilled. “Oh, no big,” she said after wiping her mouth - too much hot sauce on her face - and shrugged her shoulders. “Unpacking is a pain in the ass.” Another beer bottle was brought and the emptied ones taken away, and she started gulping down the new one. About three beers in with quick drinking, and she was still managing to stay fairly sober. “And, it’s a new place. It can be weird and a little tough, especially when you don’t know a soul.”

Except in Lina’s case, walking into Orange County was stepping into a city with ghosts of the past. From childhood friends, to a buddy she thieved with, and even an old ex she got in trouble with the feds.

Thinking about it made her drink a little faster.

Dan wasn’t counting the beers, but it did make his mouth water every time a new, cold one was set in front of Lina. He watched her put more down the ole hatch and frowned. “You okay?” he asked. The last thing someone who drank this way needed was judgment.

“I’m fantastic,” she said after a large gulp of air from her last drink and wiped her mouth, grinning afterwards. “So, gimme your address and let me know when to show my face!”

Since Dan could remember, he’d sometimes get feelings about people. A good judge of character, that’s what his mother used to say he was, but he thought maybe it was a little more than that. Some people just felt...off to him. She didn’t. Troubled, sure, but not off. Maybe she’d even like some help, in her own time. “Sure,” Dan said at length. He took a napkin and a pen from the folded wallet of a bill their waiter had brought over and he wrote down his address and slid it over the table toward Lina before he slid a bank card into the clear window. It was on him, the meal, she could get it next time.