Who: David Loki davidloki & Will Graham remarkableboy What: Catching up When: October 1st, 1:30PM [Backdated] Where: Ta Chen Rating/Warnings: Teenish/Language, talk about dark dreams, things like that. Status: Closed/Completed GDoc
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David's mind had been preoccupied, to say the least. The dream he'd had earlier in the week was still fresh on his mind, so much so that he'd almost lost his appetite for Chinese food and had nearly texted Will to see if he wanted to meet somewhere else.
David knew he was being silly, and so he kept his mouth shut and left well enough alone. Besides, what good would it do him to change something like that? It wasn't as if the Chinese food had been the culprit, hell, he hadn't seen the culprit in his dream and he wasn't sure if he ever would.
Part of David hoped that he would never have another dream like that again, but something told him that he wouldn't be that lucky.
He arrived at Ta Chen fifteen minutes early. Not uncommon for David, truth be told, but in all reality he'd grown tired of sitting at home doing nothing. He requested a booth, telling the hostess that he would be joined by a friend in a little bit. David sat, pulling his cell phone from his pocket to check over a few messages and respond to some while he waited on Will to arrive.
If anyone understood how these dreams could be, it was Will. His own dreams were never ending, it seemed, a constant barrage of some new psychological torture. For a man who already was maybe not so stable, the dreams hadn’t helped. He hoped that the more distractions he had, the better off he’d be.
So off to Ta Chen is was. He was a few minutes late, but he seemed indifferent about it. No apology was offered as he spotted David and sat down across him. For a moment, Will even nearly forgot to say hello. Nearly.
“Hey,” Will said. There had been a brief pause before he remembered that greetings were customary. Especially where old friends were concerned. “Good to see you.”
David didn't comment about Will being late, as it was he was caught up reading over an e-mail when Will arrived. He turned his phone off, setting it off to the side, out of the way of anything. David blinked hard, rapidly, a sure sign of the stress he was feeling between work and the dream he'd had.
"Good to see you too." David replied with a small upturn of his lips and a nod of his head. "How've you been doing, Will?" He laced his fingers, resting his hands on the table.
Will’s lips quirked up. He recognized that sign. He’d lived it, was still living it, but it was easier now than he had been at the start. He sipped at the water that was poured out for them and shrugged.
“I’m alive, so I guess I’ve been doing all right.” Will wasn’t really sure how else to answer that question. He knew he naturally came off as sounding either sarcastic or depressing, or sometimes both at once, but he didn’t try to. Nor did he want to ever talk about himself enough that people thought he was seeking pity. To really answer how he’d been doing would be opening a can of worms. “I mean. At the end of the day, I probably can’t complain. You?”
David's head tilted slightly to the left as Will spoke. He honestly wasn't sure how to take what Will said, although he could understand how tough it was being on the force, and dealing with the shit that they saw day in and day out. For a brief moment, David wondered if Will had dreams like the others had mentioned to him, but it wasn't his business to ask.
He figured that it was best left alone and he gave a small nod. "Same. Things are just the same as they have been, and probably always will be." Again he blinked, and he too reached forward for his water to take a small sip before sitting it back down. "Basically I can't complain either. I've just been working, and helping my brother remodel his kitchen when I have some free time. Which is a headache, he's a perfectionist and a slave driver." David said that as if he weren't a perfectionist himself, but that was neither here nor there.
“You know, I’m starting to think that things staying the same isn’t such a bad thing.” Will sort of missed his mundane life. He cracked the slightest of smiles, one side of his mouth upturned in a crooked look.
He started to look over the menu, feeling hungry and not all at once. Then again, it’d be nice to eat something that hadn’t been Hannibalized - Will could never be quite certain what he was eating, and, to be honest, he never seemed to care much. “I’d never agree to help anyone remodel anything. You’re a brave guy, David.”
David let out a huff of a laugh, and shook his head. "It really isn't that bad." And it wasn't, David was content in his life, truly. Although the dream he'd had earlier was never too far from his thoughts truth be told.
The menu on David's side was forgotten, still sitting at the corner of the table folded up neatly. He already knew exactly what he was going to get. God, he really did eat a lot of Chinese food. Laughing, David held up one hand. "I'm about to tell him to stick it up his ass if he doesn't stop being a dick about things. Still, family is family, and you do what you gotta do to help them out." He lifted a shoulder, and then took another sip of his water. "How long have you and Hannibal been together?" David asked, a brow slightly raising in question.
Will almost laughed, too. In fact, he was going to, because for the first time in ever he felt like a normal human being. Until David mentioned Hannibal. He looked over the top of his menu, then closed it, setting it to the side. Will wouldn’t even ask how David knew. He suspected that Hannibal would be all too pleased to mention it.
“Uh.” It was Will’s turn to shrug and drink from the glass of water. How long had it been? To Will, it felt like a lifetime. “A few months, I guess? I honestly don’t remember. Everything sort of … Blurs.” Will’s brow creased and smoothed out. “It’s -- All fucked up. The whole thing is fucked up.”
A line appeared between David's brows as he looked over at his friend. His normally schooled features gave away that he was worried, and rightfully so if Will's words were anything to go by. Suddenly he wished he hadn't asked, but at the same time he was sorta glad that he did. Hannibal had mentioned it to David in the Network post that he'd made. The same one that he'd made arrangements for this very meeting with Will.
"Fucked up how?" He asked, shifting to place his forearms against the table and leaned forward. David lifted a hand up off the table, giving a small wave, "Well if you want to talk about it. If not? I can go back to talking about how my brother wants to paint his fucking dining room periwinkle or some shit like that and he expects me to help him with that mess too."
Will snorted. Periwinkle. Something about the mundanity of it irritated him. He set the menu aside and leveled David with a look, as if determining what his next course of action might be. Some people, no, Will wouldn’t talk about it with. He felt like David would take it in stride.
“You’ve been on the Network a bit now, right? That dreaming thing everyone talks about. It’s - The short version of the story is it’s a lot to do with that. We dream the same, him and I. More or less the same. I think a lot of what I dream is skewed sometimes, but it’s the same idea.”
The look caused one of David's brows to raise slowly, but he didn't budge from his position of leaning forward. After Will spoke, his brows lowered, a line appearing between them and he nodded. The dreams, they were definitely something else.
"I see." He replied with a small nod, "So, if I reading into all of this correctly that means you two are connected in some way outside of this -- outside of the real world." It was hard to find words to describe the difference between the two because the dreams felt so real. "I've had a few myself now. Actually it was last night." He admitted, shoulders lowering slightly as if in defeat.
“Pretty much.” Will shrugged. “It’s … They’re not great dreams. But I guess that’s - misery loves company, right?” His dreams were all about misery. The thought made him sigh internally. Then, there was the chance to turn the subject away from him.
“You did? What were they like? The first time it happens is always the worst. It gets better. More or less.”
"I've heard that it does." He'd seen a few people himself fall into that misery category and had seen them surround themselves with people that were in the same boat. David didn't surround himself with a lot of people, to be honest, as his job took a lot out of him and sometimes he felt as if he projected that onto others.
It was hard not to take your work home with you sometimes.
David sighed and leaned back against the plush back of the booth, "I'm sorry yours aren't pleasant dreams." He shook his head, "Not much right now, all I know is that some asshole has kidnapped two little girls and we had him cornered. Well," he lifted a shoulder, "a suspect at least. Don't know if he's done it or not at this point." All he had was a description of the RV, but nothing more. "I guess we'll see what happens, and if he's really the one that kidnapped these girls. Part of me hopes that they just ran away." David knew that the longer it took to find a missing person, especially a missing child, that it was very unlikely that they'd find them alive.
“Doesn’t sound like yours are that great, either.” The food shows up and Will takes another drink of water, moving the glass out of the way to make room on the table. “I don’t remember a time not wishing it was just run aways.” No one ever wants to assume death right away, not even a homicide detective. “If you’re as good in your dreams as you are here, I think you’ll be all right.”
David moved his own drink out of the way when the food arrived and then lifted a shoulder, "They could be worse I figure." From what he'd seen on the network he was grateful for semi-normal dreams. He had a feeling he was better in his dreams than he was here somehow, although he didn't say it out loud. "Hopefully your dreams will get better, or stop." David could hope for Will, he could hope for all of them that one day all of the dreams would stop and they could go back to their normal existence.