solo (soloing) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-02-28 10:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | dan smith, napoleon solo |
WHO: Napoleon Solo & Dan Smith
WHERE: Double Tap
WHEN: {backdated} Feb 13-18; tethered plot
WHAT: Napoleon and Dan spend time at Double Tap during their tethering, discussing the joys of Orange County.
WARNINGS: Mild language?
STATUS: Complete.
All things considered, Dan figured he had actually made out pretty well during what he was calling the “Tethered Event”. There had been the initial shock, of course, waking up in a bed not his own and with someone who was not his girlfriend. At first he’d thought that maybe the Persona Switching that happened in his Dreams had finally carried over into his waking life. However, Napoleon Solo was not a Dream-mate and it soon became apparent that this, while probably related to someone’s Dreams, had nothing to do with Dan’s own. This point was driven home when Dan had attempted to leave Napoleon’s rather lavish hotel suite, only to get as far as the hall before being rudely yanked backwards and into the man in question. After a series of attempts, it was clear that the two men were stuck with each other for the foreseeable future.
That being said, Dan figured the situation could have been worse. Liv was apparently tethered to someone as well and that was far more concerning. Not that Dan didn’t trust Liv. It was the issue of how she was going to eat that worried him. Liv was so secretive about what she was, but if she went too long without her staple food, things would get ugly and fast.
For his part, Napoleon seemed accommodating enough, though there was only so much privacy he could give Dan while he routinely checked in with Liv regarding the matter and there was only so much Dan could say about his concerns without giving Liv’s secret away.
Then there was the issue of Dan’s bar. Bound to someone or not, he still had a business to run. The Double Tap was obviously not as plush or comfortable as Napoleon’s hotel suite was. In fact, it was pretty much the opposite. Wooden floors were in need of both sanding and polishing. The smell of stale smoke permeated out of the walls and the exposed beams of the ceiling. The alcohol being sold was bottom shelf. That all being said, Dan’s patrons a mix of blue collar workers and few “professional” bar flies, were an agreeable bunch. Even Agatha, an old woman who smoked like a chimney and had a mouth that could make even the thickest skinned individual plush, was mostly friendly.
The situation could be worse. That was certainly how Napoleon was approaching things. He figured it could’ve been some stuffy type that could barely leave his peripheral view, or worse, a cop. He’d been starting to come to terms with just how odd Orange County was, far stranger than he’d initially given it credit for, but the guest in his hotel suite really hammered home that it was strange and spontaneous.
Dan didn’t seem to terrible a companion for however long though, he did seem incredibly fussed about his girl, but then she was likely facing a live in stranger situation too, and that would be a little concerning given all the crazy people out there.
What Napoleon was most thankful for was that Dan was not someone with a truly boring office job that he couldn’t talk himself out of. Had Napoleon had to hang around an office space for upwards of seven hours a day he might not be able to control the liberties he took with other people’s possessions. The Double Tap certainly wasn’t the type of place he’d been to in a long time, and it wasn’t the sort of place for him to wear a fancy suit to, but it wasn’t entirely terrible.
Thank god it wasn’t an up and coming themed cocktail bar like the had all over New York. “I think Agatha’s hitting on me.” Napoleon had been staying at a safe distance, letting Dan get on with things, but he’d been enticed towards the bar to at least pretend to have something to do to avoid getting his butt (and other places) pinched by the iron lunged woman.
“Aye, she does that,” Dan said. He set down the glass he’d been cleaning and shot a look down to the other end of the bar. “Keep yer hands to yerself, Aggie, dear.”
“I like this one, Danny,” Agatha rasped happily. “Why don’tja bring more of your friends to the bar and meet us? Hm? Like that I-talian man. Oh, now he was a drink of water.” She mimed fanning herself.
“’Cause ye keep pinchin’ their arses.” Dan poured a couple of fingers worth of a labelless bottle into the glass before handing it over to the woman. “It’s amazing I got any costumers left with your grabby hands.”
Agatha merely smiled a smile that barely hinted at the beauty she’d had in her much younger days. “Oh, alright. I’ll behave myself.” She patted Dan’s cheek fondly. “You know I only have eyes for you.”
“Aye,” Dan chuckled. He took her hand from his face and gave it a squeeze. ”Just yer eyes, Aggie.”
With Agatha appropriately plied with alcohol, Dan made his way back towards Napoleon. “Sorry ‘bout that,” he said. “Agatha’s a tad over friendly at times, but she’s harmless. Can I getcha anything?”
Napoleon was amused by the whole exchange, smirking slightly as Agatha shuffled off since she was suitably watered. “It’s fine really,” as amused as he was, it wasn’t like she was overly groping. “Although now I’m wondering about this Italian man, I’m almost offended.”
Not entirely true, but it was rather interesting to see Dan in his element, since when it was just the pair of them it wasn’t really as free as anything else. “It’s a good place you’ve got, a good crowd.” No one was really causing trouble or anything, and that was refreshing in a more raw bar like this one.
Dan grinned at the praise for his bar. It really was his pride and joy and it showed in the way he ran it. He went out of his way to keep that dive-bar feel and yet comfortable, not to mention safe enough for his customers to want to come back. Dan ran a tight ship and his rules regarding what kind of behavior was accepted and what wasn’t were clear and seemingly well respected by his customers. Even Agatha with her friendly hands seemed to understand where the line was and dared not cross it.
“Thank you,” Dan said, his chest puffing a bit with pride. “Y’know, when I first got this place I originally was just gonna fix it up and sell it off again. But when I saw it for the first time, there was just something about it. By the time I’d fixed it up, I found I couldn’t part with it.”
Dan had often looked back on those days. They say hindsight is 20/20, but he still couldn’t quite explain his attachment to the old place. He’d been living an entirely different life back then. Sure The Double Tap had provided him with a decent cover for his real profession as a crime-world handy man, but Dan had lived a fairly nomadic life up to the point. Drifting around the country from job to job, following the money, checking over his shoulder and developing his reputation as The Hellion. Why he had chosen to stay in Orange County long after he should have left still remained a mystery.
“It’s kinda weird, y’know,” he said to his newly found companion. “The OC be the last place I ever saw myself living.” He lowered his voice, though none of the patrons present that night seemed to be paying their conversation any attention, “when my Dreams started, they didn’t make any sense. I’m getting nothing but repeats these days, but they’re still about as easy to figure out as a crack addict’s fever dream. Then there are the events. I consider myself a sensible man, Napoleon, but I can’t figure out why I decided to stay. It’s mostly worked out fer me, sure. I got a great girlfriend and a good business, but it hasn’t exactly been easy. Still isn’t. Ye ever wonder t’ yerself why ye stay?”
There was something about Orange County, Napoleon could admit that much.
He wasn’t part of this dreaming phenomenon (yet), but he wasn’t sure what to make it of all. This many people, these broad dreams, it couldn’t all be made up. And Napoleon doubted it was some elaborate prank. Especially since he and Dan were currently tied to one another by an invisible bungee cord that didn’t stretch more than twenty feet before they were propelled into the other. So, it wasn’t that he didn’t believe, he did. Which was slightly more worrying, given that he couldn’t fully understand.
“Magnets.” Napoleon gave a nod, like it had to be the answer, “There’s likely a drawn something in the area, pulls all numbers of things in.” Truthfully, at the first sign of strangeness, Napoleon should’ve left. Instead, there were undead things all around, and Napoleon stayed. It hardly seemed sensible, but it wasn’t like he’d really thought too much about leaving.
“Maybe it’s the same thing that causes these Dreams. Something that gets its hooks in, sets up the wins and loses, waits to see who cracks and who stays.” And if it was worth it to stay, even with the bad things that came in, with the hardships, well, maybe they were the people meant to be there. “Terribly sorry, I get awful philosophical when I day drink.”
Dan chuckled. “Nothing to be sorry for,” he said. “This place has that kind of effect on folks. Sometimes all ya can do is philosophize. Done a fair share of it meself. I think I like yer theory on magnets, though. Makes about as much sense as anything else. Kinda more scientific than the catch all ‘fuckin’ magic’ that usually is used for an explanation.”
As he spoke, Dan placed two glasses on the bar and filled each with two fingers worth of whiskey. Napoleon hadn’t really ordered anything, but it didn’t seem right to not at least offer him something so long as Dan was going to have a little himself. He didn’t usually drink while on the job, but given the current situation, he figured he could be forgiven.
“Magnets may also explain the...condition...you and I seem to be in currently,” Dan went on before handing Napoleon his drink. “Seems reasonable, aye?” He took a swig. “Yer still kinda new to all of this, aren’t ye? This isn’t yer first go around with this shite, is it? If it is, yer takin’ it awful well.”
For all Napoleon knew, the water was laced with LSD. And in California, it wouldn’t be too farfetched. But he’d taken LSD in college, and he was very well aware that no one would be this lucid and not horny on the amount of LSD that would be needed for mass hallucinations of the same kind. “Well,” twirling the glass towards himself, letting the amber liquid slosh a little in the glass, Napoleon figured it wasn’t like Dan was new to this, “I got here the tail end of December, so snow was my first clue that something was amiss.”
You couldn’t have a drought, and snow, in the same place. It was just unreasonable. So it wasn’t his first inclination that Orange County had something going on, but it wasn’t the biggest either.
“And then… Well, I’m not sure, were those things zombies or undead or just demonic?” It seemed a lot like something out of a movie, maybe a video game, and then people were just explaining how to deal with things, like happened all the time, and Napoleon decided to drink a little bit more than he maybe should’ve and pretend the world wasn’t about to end.
“In the scheme of things, the seems rather tame.” Dan wasn’t horrific to spend time with, the man had a sense of class, even if it wasn’t quite what Napoleon had been trained into. In honesty it was a little more like the folks he grew up with than the ones he rubbed elbows with now. And there was still alcohol.
Dan nodded. “I see.” He said. He bristled a little bit at the mention of zombies, but covered it with another swig from his glass. “That little invasion last month. Don’t know if I’d call’em zombies specifically,” he said. “Zombies get kind of a bad rap. Undead seems pretty fittin’ though. They certainly weren’t alive.”
Demonic was an apt description as well since it wasn’t just the undead shuffling around Orange County last month making life difficult for those who were just trying to make a living. “Periodically people’s Dreams decide to be more than just dreams,” he said. “Whatever vortex or wormhole or whatever it is that’s around us, pulls directly from one of those other lives we all dream of and sends it here. Doesn’t happen to everyone, though. Mine never did, which I’m not afraid to admit is a relief. It usually lasts a couple of days, sometimes a week, then everythings back to normal. Except for that annual December Snow. For some reason that can either last a coupla weeks or the whole month.” He gave Napoleon a wan smile, “you’ll be rid o’ me soon enough. Though, all things considered, I think I lucked out this time around. Ye’ve been decent company the last few days.”
Whatever they were, and wherever they’d come from, Napoleon hoped that whoever dreamed of that nonsense promptly knocked it the hell off. He didn’t really come to Orange County to encounter the same things he’d find lurking in the New York subway after all.
“I could say the same for you,” Dan was fairly good company, and it was a nice change from all the pomp and fluff that he’d been submerged in lately. Work did tend to mean he was stuck with a certain breed, and they weren’t the easiest to be around all the time, that was for sure. “Although I do worry for whoever’s dream this comes from.” Maybe some strange quest thing that revolved around being connected to utter strangers.
It seemed like the potential for disaster in the wrong situation, that was for sure. “I would say I’d almost be sorry to see you go, but I am rather looking forward to trying not to listen in on your conversations with your girlfriend.” And he was sure that Dan was eager to get from Napoleon’s suite back to said girlfriend.
Dan chuckled. “Aye, I am lookin’ forward to havin’ me privacy back,” he said. “As I’m sure you are. Though, I have to admit, wakin’ up in that posh suite of yours was a treat. I haven’t had the chance to stay in a place that nice since the time I woke up in Vegas married to my ex-wife.” He laughed lightly. “But, between you and me, I’d rather be in me own bed. Liv is too. This has been…hard…for her.” The smile fell from Dan’s face and again he checked his phone, his mouth turning down further into a frown. “She got stuck with me part-time bar tender, which, all things considered, isn’t so bad. Sara’s a good sort. Good girl. Trying to get her affairs in order, you know. But Liv…” Dan sighed and slid his phone away again. “She doesn’t know Sara well. Isn’t sure if she can trust her about certain…private things.”
Dan shook his head. He didn’t like this feeling of helplessness. He knew the constant checking his phone and calling Liv every hour like clockwork wasn’t exactly giving Napoleon the best impression of his and Liv’s relationship, but until Liv was comfortable talking to others about what she truly was, it was the only thing Dan could do.
“Butcha don’t wanna hear me talk on about my girl.” Dan turned his attention back to Napoleon again. “Tell me a bit about yerself. I take it if yer livin’ in a hotel room, yer not plannin’ on staying on in Orange County for long?”
There was always a certain need privacy, regardless of how nice the temporary settings were, there was a need to be in the familiar. But Napoleon could understand someone being a little unsure about their partner for this thing, and while it might not be politically correct, Napoleon could see it being a little less easy for the females, having to share so much space with someone they don’t know. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far, I hardly mind listening. But I can understand it being odd for her.”
Especially if Dan’s girl was very private.
“The hotel suite is a little temporary.” And was that nuts? He really should be looking into going somewhere else, anywhere else where people didn’t get tied to him by some invisible string. “But I’m horribly fussy and really take my time looking for somewhere.” Although he supposed he shouldn’t think about getting somewhere too fancy. “I really shouldn’t be this picky. But I think I’m going to stick around for a while. Against all the logical arguments to do so.”
Dan considered this a moment, his fingers gently tapping the rim of his glass. “I’m not sure if there is such a thing as being ‘too picky’ about yer living space,” he said finally. “Especially if yer serious about staying here fer a while. In the very least, you wanna have a place ye feel comfortable in and enjoy fer when shit like this happens. Or worse. Yer probably not gonna find something that fits exactly what you want.” He laughed lightly. “Ye probably won’t find anything near as fancy as yer hotel suite, but that doesn’t mean you should settle for whatever either. If ye have the luxury of time to figure somethin’ out, use it.”
Thankfully, due largely to connections made from his profession, there was no rush for Napoleon to check out of his suite, and while that meant he didn’t exactly feel settled in any particular fashion, it also meant that he could be choosy about where he opted to live for the duration of his California pit stop.
Even if his curiosity was making it more likely that this would not be a pit stop.
“Thankfully, I have that luxury.” Although there was no need to go into why he had that luxury. “And you raise a good point, this place certainly adds a few more requirements to a home than many others.” He doubted he’d be able to get a moat to keep the undead from getting in, or lasers to shoot demons out of the sky, but at least some bullet proof glass, maybe a few extra reinforcements. “That, however, is a problem for another day.” Since he wasn’t about to stress about moving while tethered to Dan. It was best to just enjoy the simple things right then.
Like being tied to someone who hung out in a bar a lot. That was absolutely a perk.