Who: Nikolai Luzhin vor & Dracula the_impaler What: A walk in the park for a dog and a Vor. Same thing really. When: Monday, August 24, night Where: Public Park in the OC Rating: Audience Discretion is Advised Warnings: Language maybe, I think the characters deserve a warning, and generic scene setting since I am particularly lazy right now. Status: Closed/Completed GDoc
~*~
Exercise was for men who lacked the capacity to work jobs which required the use of their limbs. Vor men did not exercise. They prepared for the arisal of potentially negative situations. This was why Nikolai Luzhin chose to walk at night after seeing to his charge being tucked away safely. He rarely charted a course. There were not places which were considered off-limits to him. He was unafraid of any danger which could exist in the darkness. Little bothered him or worried him after all he had experienced to earn his stars.
Parks were open to the public even at night in the OC.
Nikolai found it interesting people would jog with their sweatbands and music-players strapped to them even in the earliest hours of the morning through some parks while others? He was the only one walking the paths. There didn't seem to be any particular rationale behind which parks would be populated and which not; he had yet to mark out a pattern of places deemed suitable for after-dark fitness activities. It wasn't something he was studying on so much as making note of as he did every other detail which could prove useful to him sometime later.
He didn't run so it did not matter to him which parks were good for it.
Few lamps lit the pathways of the park he'd made his way to that night. Nikolai enjoyed the reprieve from the bright California sunlight. His home was colder with a sun weaker by many degrees. Days came on occasion where he wanted to feel the austerulous reality of Russia rather than the amiable facade of California. This day made him happier to have found a place with lower lighting than one where he could not even tell the time of day it was so bright. Nikolai was willing to be appreciative of small favors.
Lighting a cigarette, he leaned against a sign on the pathway, amused when a person appeared to be strolling along with their dog also with no regard for the darkness.
"Nice night for a walk."
It was a casual remark, the kind anyone could make to anyone else without arousing suspicion. Nikolai smiled as he wondered who was enjoying the walk more: the dog or the man.
"I apologize if my smoking disturbs. Not so crowded here as other places at night. Did not think I had company, to be honest. If it bothers you, let me know, yes? I do not wish to impose. I am only---as they say, passing through."
~*~
Those in the position of one Vladimir Dracul had few options when it came to walks. Night time was a given. His nocturnal schedule decreed as much, but the irritating effect of the sunlight made it a necessity. Not that he minded, not really. Not being a people person, he found walks at night to be calming. Besides. He couldn’t stay indoors all the time, and Felix the chubby rottweiler puppy needed his own exercise, so out to the park he went. One of the less occupied ones - the parks with joggers and other nightly strollers were feeding grounds.
There were the usual sounds of the cars in the distance, the noise of a metropolis around, but the park held a delightful silence. The leaves rustled, the dog snuffled, and ahead on the path footsteps came to Vlad’s ears. An eyebrow arched as the dog heard something, too, pulling forward until a hushed command in Romanian calmed him. Vlad’s own steps slowed, too. A curious thing, for someone to be casually walking at this time. Not jogging, not walking a dog, not hurrying to or from somewhere. There were strange sorts all over the county. The flicker of fire glinted in dark green eyes.
“It is not so bad, yes.” A tight grip on the leash kept Felix from nosing at the stranger’s shoes while Vlad gave him a look of unblinking scrutiny. It was the accent that piqued his curiosity the most. “Please, do not be concerned. It does not bother me, and I am also merely passing through.”
~*~
"Two ships in the night, yes?"
Nikolai smirked, his own version of a smile as he took a draw on his cigarette. The acrid smoke warmed him from the inside, reminding him of his life, his true life, a dragon who walked among men. It was always good to remember before he was forced to do so by circumstances. He could not afford casual anything the way some men could. His duties put him outside the realm of stranger into stranger; the choice had already been made which left him with no option save to carry on with his chosen walk through life.
He was amused at the pup nosing about. The fellow clearly had no fear in him. One day he'd be the sort of dog who'd frighten others. For now, he was only a little thing, a cute curiosity. Nikolai had wondered when he'd been growing up if that was how his mother saw him: something dangerous hiding behind the guise of youth. It would have been true in his case. For the pup, it was unlikely to be anything he could help. Dogs didn't choose their breed any more than people chose their race or even their nationality.
Russia lingered in Nikolai's blood far deeper than he could ever drag in the nicotine which kept him calm.
"Cute dog. One day, not so cute. Interesting choice for California. Your pick or a gift?"
Either way said something of the man while a refusal to answer or a misdirection of the question would say something else. He held himself as if he had the air of Old Country nobility. There was no fear in him wandering in the dark. Nikolai found him interesting, a change from how similar everyone else felt in the Golden State.
~*~
Vlad’s eyes stayed settled on the man. For being undead, they were remarkably bright, even in the dimness of the light being cast from the park lights. He decided, in that moment, that the man was worth at least a short conversation. There was something to be admired about the way he held himself, and Vlad always had a curiosity in those that didn’t flinch under his careful scrutiny.
“A stray,” was the reply. His own eastern accent was smoother, tinted with that same fluidity that accompanied all romance languages. His words were even edged with something that could be mistaken as amusement. “My … Companion could not be rid of him.” Vlad had to pause, to search for a word to best describe one Jonathan Harker. Most English labels seemed too juvenile, but, truthfully, he wasn’t sure if there was a Romanian phrase to fit the bill, either. The pup in question seemed to have an inkling that he was the topic of discussion. Tongue lolling out, he sat on his haunches, looking up at the two men as though he could understand what they were saying. A far cry from the wolves of Transylvania that Dracula kept in his company. “I do not mind that he will grow. Nor have I much ever thought of myself as Californian.”
That was most definitely amusement. Dark lips even curled up into a smirk, pristine white teeth dazzling in the dark. “You are not so Californian either.”
~*~
'A stray', Nikolai thought it over as he considered the man before him. He hardly seemed the type to be encouraged to keep a stray around only because it was a stray. There were too many strays in the world to go about playing the hero to rescue them all. His mention of a companion let him know it was complicated in his life with not only himself to be taken into account. It was easier for Nikolai to intuit the man meant another man only because they did seem to share some of the same heritage from their accents alone.
His own was pronounced enough to be unmistakable.
This man could have passed for merely European which was a kindness granted only with the distance of time.
"No," Nikolai admitted, smiling back, "Not so Californian. I am no stray however as I come to this country of my own will for my own purposes. Lucky me, hhm?"
The Old Country did not allow many to make their own choices. Mother Russia was a hard woman to be brought up under. Her punishments were meted out with more violence than attempt to teach a lesson for one to grow up better. Nikolai had chosen to become a part of the Vory V Zakone, but that choice had led to many others which would not be his own. He could choose his own master so long as he chose not to be any Vor's man. His stars gave him the right to kneel before no one.
Nikolai could take away that right with a single wrong choice.
"Your companion is the tender-hearted kind? You make interesting choices of company to be keeping all around you. Long time away from home, I am thinking."
~*~
That got a snort. A long time from home indeed. Always surrounded by Romania but never there, too much time in London, and Vienna, but so little in his beloved Bucharest. And then the fondness of old Transylvania that had steeped into his blood, a longing for mountain passes and forests and solitude unheard of in the metropolises of California.
“I think in some cases I have no choice in my company. Fate works in strange ways here in Orange County.” The Russian - the accent seemed hard to miss, so he naturally assumed - would come to learn that in time, Vlad was certain. “But I am okay with it. The coincidence has turned out to be a happy one. If it is not too much to ask, what has brought you so far from home?”
~*~
Courtesy went a long way in the culture of the Old Country. Americans didn't understand respect the same way as those who had been born in a land where respect was always earned. It was a pleasant feeling to be offered it by a man who clearly had no limit of those who bowed to him. His carriage alone let Nikolai know he was no man's servant even if he clearly was no Vor.
"Not so much to ask, no, though not so interesting either. Work. Obligations. These things, they go hand-in-hand in my life, no matter how much this new world wants to try to steer me away from my true path."
Nikolai could fully relate to being tossed around willy-nilly in Orange County. The place was beyond passing strange in some ways. He couldn't ever count on the weather in spite of it being California; people were never what they seemed even when they seemed fully harmless. Trust was something he'd gotten to have for no one save the ones he pledged his loyalty to and that was a dangerous game to play.
Men who walked alone with no trusted companions to follow them often walked straight into their own graves.
"If only business were more fun, I am thinking I would be much less likely to walk only at night. Worries come for those who carry the weight of others on their shoulders. I am pleased in the weight I carry. My back is plenty strong. Fate can toss whatever she likes at me here. I'll bear her up all the same."
~*~
A laugh, a real one, was hard to come by from Vlad Dracul. There were only a few select people that could elicit it from him, but this man had achieved it. There was something so quaintly east about him that Vlad enjoyed, and something else, lingering on the edges, that intrigued him. When he laughed his teeth dazzled in the lamplight.
“Work seems to bring many of us. It is fate that seems to keep us. I think it will be up to the challenge you have presented it.”
He extended a hand, skin pale as marble and just as cold, long fingers with no pulse pushing blood through them. “Vladimir,” he said, by way of introduction. “Dracul. It is nice to meet you, even under such peculiar circumstances.”
~*~
"Nikolai Luzhin," he responded as he clasped the man's cold hand with his own, "I find the most worthwhile meetings? Always peculiar circumstances. What man dreams of being ordinary, eh?"
Not the kind of man either of them were from what little estimation he'd made of Vladimir Dracul. He had a good name. Solid. There was a sense of purpose surrounding him which was comforting to Nikolai who had been in the company of Westerners too long. People in America grew bothersome to him after a time. He was a lucky man to have those who could be trusted to understand around him. Stahma soothed his soul in many ways; Kenya helped him to cope in others no less important, yet utterly different all the same.
He considered the man for a moment before releasing his hand to pull out a business card.
The print was simple. It consisted only of his name, a phone number, and a single symbol which every Russian could recognize as belonging to that of a man ranked Captain or higher among the Vory V Zakone. There was no statement made of what his profession was nor would he offer one. Vor had strict rules regarding how they presented themselves. The stars Nikolai bore on his body meant something to him; he would kneel before no man which meant he would offer servitude to no man either.
He chose his work.
Always it was a choice for him. Nikolai had earned the right to be no man's slave ever again. He could be anyone's contact he chose to be which was its own kind of precious freedom.
"I am no ordinary man, Vladimir Dracul. I am thinking you are no ordinary man either. Should you find yourself in extraordinary circumstances where a man of the Old Country could be of use to you? My number is yours. I answer myself any time."
It was the highest honor Nikolai could grant another. His details were private in a way no one else would ever understand. It was not lightly he allowed himself to become available to another. He did not regret it for this man. This man? He was the kind of man for whom one made exceptions. Nikolai enjoyed knowing those kinds of men.
He was one himself.
~*~
Vlad did not spend much of his life at all in Russia. He’d been a couple of times, many years ago, and his father’s diplomatic obligations had kept him out of the Soviet-aligned Romania for much of his younger days. Still, you didn’t live in an eastern bloc - or partly live in one - without learning a thing or two. The symbol was recognizable enough to Vlad. It caught his interest, though his face remained disengaged. The card was slipped away careful for future reference.
“You have my thanks.” At his feet, the puppy whined, growing restless now with all this standing around. “Regretfully I feel I must take my leave. It was a happy circumstance to meet you this night.”
~*~
"Enjoy your walk with your stray. I think is better to enjoy the company of strays than strangers. Is a good thing to me we? Are no longer strangers."
Nikolai gave him a slight salute as he started to walk off the opposite direction. He wouldn't disgrace himself by turning his back on the other man. That kind of disrespect was tantamount to stupidity among Vor. It was fitting to start to walk away first after being told the other must leave however as it was a sign one was pleased enough to take their leave.
He hoped some day Vladimir Dracul decided to give him a call.
Nikolai could use an interesting call to come through which wasn't a threat to his own people.