The Hellion (collateralshot) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-01-11 16:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, dan smith, olivia moore |
Who: Dan and Liv
What: Liv catches Dan in his lie
When: Early January
Where: Local Mexican restaurant
Rating/Warnings Some language and brains seasonings
Status: Complete!
Liv was usually very particular about her brains. Taking her time to prepare each meal and get the brain to human food to hot sauce ratio just right. However she had spent so much time at the skate park that she didn’t have time to cook a proper meal. So take out it was, she could just sprinkle the brains on once she got back to the morgue.
The zombie was at her favorite mexican restaurant from before she turned. At least the food would already be somewhat spicy, although she knew she would probably still have to add some hot sauce to it. She was waiting for her nachos, extra jalapenos, when the guy at the counter called out for Dan. Liv watched as someone oddly familiar walked up to get his food. Wasn’t that Shawn Spencer?
She got up from her seat walking over to the counter. “Did you get a name change in the past few weeks?” she questioned, raised brow arms folded across her chest.
Uh oh. Caught in the act. Dan recognized the voice before he turned to look over his shoulder. Sure enough there was the pretty too-much-eyeliner-wearing Medical Examiner standing there as though she’d caught him with his hand in the cookie jar.
Dan regarded her coolly for a moment, something of a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. He didn’t answer her right then. He paid for his food with cash and received the change - a couple wad of $1 bills and the coins were stuffed into the little jar marked “tips”.
“Nice t’ see you again, Dr. Moore,” he finally answered, lapsing into his normal speech patterns. He turned around, his bag containing a wrapped burrito in his hands. Dan wasn’t a huge on Mexican food, but burritos were probably the perfect meal. Protein, carbs and veggies all wrapped up neatly and able to be eaten with one hand.
She wrinkled her nose at his formality. There was a reason she went by Liv and not Olivia. Same reason she didn’t feel the need to be called ‘Dr. Moore’. Especially outside the morgue. Even in the morgue most of the people she worked with often just called her Liv.
Which is precisely what she was about to tell Shawn or Dan or whatever the hell his name is. “Liv,” was all she said in regards to her name. His was a much more interesting topic. “And you are?”
“Liv,” he repeated with a nod. Seemed like a name friends would call her, but if that’s what she wanted to be called, Dan wouldn’t argue. He grinned crookedly in response to her question regarding his own identity. He stepped from the food counter over to where the napkins were kept and helped himself to a generous wad of them. “I am hungry,” was how he chose to answer, fully aware that left the door open for him to simply call him “Hungry”.
As he stuffed the handful of napkins into his take out bag, he glanced her way. There was something...different about her today and Dan wasn’t sure if he could put his finger on what exactly it was. She had watched him like a hawk when he’d been in her morgue…
Ahhh, that was it. She actually seemed interested this time around, regarding him as something more than a minor annoyance. Well, that was to be expected considering he’d fed her a cock and bull story when they last met. People generally didn’t like being lied to. “Aww, don’ give me that kinda look, Liv. It’s hurtful.”
And Liv wasn’t about to miss that opening. “Sorry, Hungry,” even though she wasn’t exactly pleased with this lying dude, there was still a smirk on her face. “I’m not the hugest fan of people lying to me about their names. It’s hurtful.” She shot his own words back at him. But seriously, what was up with all the names? It was like the dude had multiple personas. Which was ironic given Liv was the one who’s personality changed every time she ate a new brain.
“Yea, that’s fair,” Dan agreed. Liv the Medical Examiner had a point. Dan moved towards the small bar that offered a variety of salsa’s one could add to their meals. Dan was partial to the salsa verde himself. “T’be honest, I didn’t think I’d ever see ya again.” He returned her smirk with one of his own that at least looked sincerely apologetic. He offered her the little round container of salsa verde he had scooped up. “I’m sorry I lied t’ya.”
“Didn’t think you’d ever need to sneak into my morgue again?” Liv shot back lightly. Sure she was a little pissed, but it wasn’t enough to start yelling or change her tone. As far as she could tell no harm had come from his little visit. Nothing to get bent out of shape about. Liv accepted the salsa, dipping her pinky into the container and licking off the salsa. “Not hot enough,” she commented. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
“More like I’d make sure the morgue’s actually empty next time,” Dan smirked at her. “Lot easier t’ do my job if I don’t have someone lookin’ over my shoulder.” he glanced down at the salsa cup and then back up at Liv. “Not hot enough, eh? Well, fine, I’ll jus’ take it back then,” he said, taking the green salsa cup back.
Liv narrowed her eyes at the guy as she handed back the cup of salsa. This was way Leon needed to work on the security more. Because that was totally his job. “Good luck with that,” she said coolly, to longer keeping her tone light. It was one thing to brush off the lying about the name situation, but no one broke into her morgue…. at least not when she wasn’t around.
Oo. Hostile. Dan laughed. “Relax, Liv. It’s not like I’m gonna go breakin’ in after hours. Maybe sneak in once everyone’s gone t’ lunch or somethin’; but break into a morgue? That’s dark as hell.” He was scooping up another little container of green salsa for his burrito. “Knowin’ this place one of those stiffs just might sit up an’ come after me. Then o’course I’d hafta defend myself and I don’t wanna have to go shootin’ up the place. Do bullets work on zombies? Hm.” He paused to reflect on that for a moment. He really knew nothing about zombies, neither the lore they had originated from or what popular culture had turned them into. Eh. Whatever. “Point being is that I’m not goin’ down there when it’s dark.”
Good luck with that, Dan. Liv always had her lunch in the morgue. It was nice and fresh there. But she wasn’t about to tell him that. Better to catch him sneaking in again. Give him a hard time. “Zombies?” Of course that caught Liv’s attention. “You really think those exist here?” There were only two she knew of, herself and Lowell. And before Lowell she had been the only one. Her kind didn’t seem as popular as witches and vampires. So the fact that Dan was even curious about them was a bit worrisome.
Dan paused what he was doing and eyed Liv critically. He wasn’t grinning at her anymore. He was making no attempts to be charmingly dickish. He’d been making a joke about the dead coming back to life in the morgue. A half-joke, really. Dan had seen a few strange things in the past month, yes, but nothing that would suggest something like the undead roaming the night was an actual thing.
So, why the hell would Liv ask a question like that? She was a doctor. Doctors were practical people. At least the ones Dan had met so far in his life always had been. Sure during their conversation in the morgue Liv had admitted to liking zombie flicks, but that was very different from asking someone if they believed they existed. Unless….unless the good Dr. Olivia Moore knew something he didn’t. Something about the ever mysterious Orange County and it’s den of weirdos. “No,” he answered. “I don’t.” Another pregnant pause. “Do you?”
“Nah,” Liv replied quickly. “I’m sure if there were zombies roaming around we’d hear about all the people missing brains. Or with their heads cut open.” Or maybe not with how this place like to cover things up, but still. Liv left pretty much no trace considering the brains she ate were all from the morgue.
Dan was still eying her carefully. He wasn’t sure he believed her. Oh, he had no reason to think she was lying, but Dan had once made a career out of detecting whether or not someone was being honest with him. And with Liv, it was very hard to tell. His lips pursed together. “Would we of?” He asked carefully. “‘Eard about missing brains, I mean. ‘Cause maybe ya didn’ notice it last month, but there was snow on the ground. A fucking blizzard even. Who’s ever heard of a blizzard in Southern California, Liv? They said its climate change, but it takes years, decades fer climate to change that dramatically. Anyone who’s taken a science course could see right through it. Fuck. A simple Google search on climate change would tell anyone what a load that excuse is.”
“I did notice. It was a little hard to miss.” Just another day in Orange County, really. Liv was beyond used to things like this happening. “Freak snowstorms can easily be explained away. Not so much bodies missing brains. Even if it wasn’t in the press, I do work with the cops.” Which was exactly how she got her brains. Maybe she should stop, explaining though. She was beginning to sound defensive which could be as big of a clue as admitting she knew zombies did exist.
“Freak snowstorms, maybe,” Dan argued, “but snow all through the goddamn month?” Dan hesitated about mentioning the “Christmas Characters” that apparently had been roaming about the county. He wasn’t really inclined to think that they were the real deal and was more likely to be the responsibility of some highly organized flash mob - which he would admit sounded like an oxymoron. Still something was going on here. Could zombies be an actual thing?
Jesus, I’m starting to sound as crazy as the people on that damn forum. Dan shook his head and laughed. “Yeah, yer right. Zombies. Pft.” Another laugh. Then a thought occurred to him. “Why would a zombie cut open someone’s head? Wouldn’t they just like eat through the skull?”
“Who knows,” Liv said with a shrug. “Either way I’m pretty sure the brains would be missing.” She probably shouldn’t have mentioned the cut open part. But hey, at least he seemed to be backing down on the idea of zombies. Because yeah, it was pretty unbelievable. Even with all the weird shit that happened around here, if she wasn’t a zombie she wasn’t sure she would believe in them either.
Just then the cashier called out her name. “Well, looks like my food is ready,” she said walking over to the counter to collect her nachos. Yum. Well yum once she added the brains.
That was the crazy part. No one seemed to know. Dan asked questions begged to be asked, and no one who would have the answers seemed to have any. He’d been a detective for years and it was as though every single one of his witnesses were blind, deaf or mute. Or on one extended acid trip. It was driving him crazy!
He glanced towards the food counter when the cashier called out Liv’s order. “Ah, yeah. It’s all crazy. Well. I gotta get goin’ myself. Enjoy yer dinner, Liv.” He gave her a smirk. “I’ll see ya around.”