Liv Moore is an alabaster badass (livmoore) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-08-21 20:51:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, dan smith, olivia moore |
Who: Dan and Liv
What: Waking up to Harmon's Room
When: Recent
Where: Their place
Rating/Warnings: Low
Status: Complete!
Living with Dan had been pretty great so far. Sure there were a few things here and there that annoyed her. Like when he occasionally forgot to put the toilet seat down. But there were no real complaints. Besides if he could put up with a freezer full of brains, she could put up with having to put the toilet seat down on occasion. That’s what you did when you loved someone, and wanted to spend your life with them. Which Liv definitely did.
Their schedules didn’t always mesh, though. Liv worked mostly dayshifts at the morgue. And with The Double Tap not opening till later in the day it wasn’t always easy to see her boyfriend. Like most mornings Liv was up before Dan. She headed into the kitchen to start her day off with some eggs and brains when she noticed a door in the living room. One that definitely hadn’t been there before. After the initial what the fuck, Liv realized it had to be a dream thing. But not from hers. She sure as hell didn’t dream about any random doors. It had to be from Dan’s. At least she sure as hell hoped that was what it was.
“Um, Dan?” she called still staring at the door.
Dan had never been what was considered an early riser. Even his days spent as a cop, getting out of bed at O’ Dark Thirty had always been something of a chore. He’d done it, of course, usually without complaint, but always with a cup of the darkest sludge he could get his hands on. Now that he was officially neither a cop or an underworld handyman, Dan took advantage of the fact his bar didn’t open until mid-afternoon, though he was usually at least out of bed by 8 am.
It was not yet 8 am. Dan’s Dreams had finished a little while ago, but he was still experiencing repeats, which from what he could tell, was something that was just going to happen now. Another round at ISZAK Land, the amusement park from hell, and he was now lingering in that space between awake and sleep when he heard Liv call out to him. He was awake now and out of bed before he really registered that Liv had sounded more perplexed than alarmed.
After pulling on a pair of pajama pants, he ambled his way towards the kitchen. “Aye, Darlin’?” He said through a yawn. “What’sa matter --?” He cut himself off when he saw the door in the living room that definitely not been there when the two of them had gone to bed the night before. “What’s that?” He asked.
Liv’s eyes widened at Dan’s response. If he didn’t know what it was there was definite cause for alarm. Random doors didn’t just appear in your home. “You don’t know?” She asked panic beginning to fill her voice. “It’s not a dream thing?”
Dan looked over at her. “Gotta be a dream thing,” he answered. “Doors just don’t randomly appear outta nowhere.” He had yet to hear of anyone on the network talking about such a thing happening in their dreams, though. As far as county-wide events were concerned, random doors appearing in walls seemed rather benign.
His attention went back towards the door. There didn’t appear to be anything special about it. There were no weird markings or writing on the door. There was no weird light or sounds coming from behind it. In fact, anyone who hadn’t ever been in the apartment before probably would have mistaken it for being a door to a storage closet.
What troubled Dan was that the wall this door had appeared in was a wall that was shared with their next door neighbor, who might not appreciate a random door suddenly appearing in their living room. He frowned slightly before walking up to it. “Well, I guess we may as well see where it opens up to.”
Liv frowned slightly. She was really hoping Dan would know what this door meant, where it led. But he seemed just as clueless as she was. Walking into a random door that just showed up in the apartment seemed a bit ominous. But what else were they supposed to do? Just leave it there not knowing what it was? Liv didn’t think so.
“Okay,” she agreed reaching out for his hand to hold on to. If they were going to do this it would be together. “Let’s do it,” she added trying her best to sound confident as she slowly opened the door.
The room on the other side of the door was dark, and yet despite the lack of light the two of them could easily see a small table off to the side with an old fashioned TV on it. Dan sucked in a breath. He recognized the room immediately. The same room had manifested itself out of his dreams into the apartment across the small hall above The Double Tap. He had closed it up, locked it and had done his best to never think of it again.
“I know what it is, Darlin’,” he murmured softly against the darkness. “This is from my dreams.”
With her hand intertwined with Dan’s Liv walked into the room. It was dark. Very dark. But she could make out a table and a very old TV. Well that was.. odd. A look of pure confusion crossed Liv’s face. That was until Dan spoke. It was a bit of a relief that it was indeed from one of their dreams and not just a random room showing up. But something about it, about Dan’s tone, it didn’t seem quite right.
“What is it?” Liv asked softly. Not in the literal since. She could obviously tell it was a room with an old TV. But more what was it in context to his dreams.
Dan’s eyes remained on the little old-fashioned TV sitting on the table, a frown pulled the corners of his mouth down into a crease. He could really go for a cigarette right now, but smoking in Liv’s apartment was out of the question. “It’s a little hard to explain,” he said. “This here is what is known as a Harman’s Room. Harman be my boss in the Dreams. The one who initially resurrected me after I was murdered the first time.” Something Dan had never asked for, by the way. “When we’d be out in the field, these rooms would appear at random in different places. In them we could deposit the thick blood we collected from the Smiles, or switch out personas. Like if I was in control and came up on a situation that was better suited fer Mask, I’d find onna these rooms and switch myself out with him usin’ that.” He pointed at the old looking TV.
“When Garcian was in town last year he got one o’ those TVs too,” he went on. “For a couple of days the two of us were switching places at absolute random. That stopped when Garcian ended up moving on, but…” Dan’s frown darkened. “I purposefully left that damn TV in the old place.”
It wasn’t Liv’s apartment anymore. It was their apartment. But Liv still didn’t want it smelling like smoke. She wasn’t much of a fan of Dan smoking in the first place. But as long as he stepped out for a cigarette she wasn’t going to complain.
“Is that kind of like switching places?” Liv still didn’t fully understand the whole persona thing. She knew that Dan was technically one now, but to her he was just Dan. Minus the whole dying, blood explosion and coming back to life thing, he seemed human.
“Wait, you had this at you apartment above the Double Tap?” Liv frowned. She didn’t remember seeing that at Dan’s place at all. And she was sure this was something she would remember. Nor did she see any random doors. “Where?”
Dan nodded his head. “Aye, just like it. Doubt it’ll happen here again, though,” he said. “Garcie’s not around anymore and none of the other personas have shown up.” He glanced at Liv. “So there be no one fer me to switch with.” Which, all things considered, was a little bit of a relief.
He looked a little sheepish when he answered her next question. “Aye, the studio unit across from mine converted itself into one of these. I closed and locked it and tried not to remember it was there.”
Liv sure hoped it wouldn’t happen again. It would be very strange if she was with Dan and then all the sudden he was replaced with someone else. But she wasn’t going to comment on that right now. Especially if it wasn’t an issue. They had other things to deal with.
“Well,” Liv began. “Maybe we can put a bookcase in front of this or something. You can forget it’s here. And then you can bring more books over,” Liv offered giving him a small, reassuring smile.
All things considered, Liv was handling the fact that a random room had just manifested itself out of the ether and attached to her apartment like some kind of growth very well. Dan had handled the initial arrival of the Harman’s Room in the unit over The Double Tap with much less grace. “You’re too good to me, Darlin’,” he said with a smile and leaning over to give her a quick kiss. Already he had one bookcase taking up space in the living room and it was packed so full of books it was difficult to actually get one off any of the shelves.
Still, he hesitated adding yet another bookcase to the limited amount of space they had. Besides, the room might come in handy now that he thought about it. “Maybe one o’ the smaller ones,” he said. “Truth be told, as creepy as it is that this damn room decided to follow me, it does kind of serve a purpose. In the Dreams the Smiles never entered a Harmon’s Room, even if one was chasing me when I entered it. Maybe we can use this as a kind of a Panic Room if things ever get way outta hand.”
Liv had to admit that made a lot of sense. Especially in Orange County. But only if Dan was okay with it. “That does sound like a good idea,” Liv replied honestly. “But this is your room. Whatever you want to do with it, is okay with me.”
Liv was right. This was his room and nothing bad had ever happened in the rooms in the Dreams. Not really. Still he didn’t care for the reminder that in his Dreams he was nothing more than a pawn being used by someone else. “Let’s get a smaller bookcase,” he said. “One we can move easy if we have to. We can put that in front of the door and this can be our little secret.”
“I think,” Liv said pausing to give Dan a quick kiss. “That’s a perfect idea.” It helped hide the door and gave Dan more room for his books. “Now, let’s get out of here,” as in this room. “And go find a bookcase.”