I Moderate (i_moderate) wrote in we_archive, @ 2006-04-05 16:46:00 |
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Entry tags: | georgia lass, roland deschain |
i_seekthetower Drawn Again [Open]
Eddie and Susannah made love at night when they thought the gunslinger was asleep. He wasn't asleep though. He would lay on his side, his back towards him, eyes open and staring as he listened to the sounds they made and the whispers that followed. He couldn't always hear what they were saying, but he knew most of it was about him. He knew it was because they'd sensed the same changes in him that he had himself, but he didn't hold that against them. It was smart. They had good reason to be concerned. And when they finally fell asleep he tried to as well.
But tonight there would only be restlessness for the gunslinger. He had a dream. It was always the same dream. There was a boy and he let him fall to his death. The gunslinger sacrificed him for the tower. This was followed by the man in black laughing at him. Always laughing. Laughing until he heard a peculiar sound and sat straight up, pistol at his side drawn in a blur of motion.
"--SHUTTING DOWN! SHUTDOWN WILL BE COMPLETE IN ONE HOUR AND SEVENTEEN MINUTES!"
The other two members of the ka-tet were asleep, resting peacefully in each other's arms, and Roland wasn't going to bother them. He quickly crept to his feet, dressed, and head off into the forest.
The strange voice continued as he walked through the dense foliage and timber of the woods, changing now and again to announce the oncoming completion of a process Roland had yet to understand. He felt that it had something to do with one of the Twelve, the one they had found. The great bear, Shardik, also called Mir. The one created by the Old Ones to be a Guardian of the Beam. But he didn't know what exactly. Like most things in life, it was accompanied by a feeling. And feelings were not to be ignored.
"THERE IS NO DANGER! REPEAT, THERE IS NO DANGER! FIVE SUBNUCLEAR CELLS ARE DORMANT, TWO SUBNUCLEAR CELLS ARE NOW IN SHUTDOWN PHASE, ONE SUBNUCLEAR CELL IS OPERATING AT TWO PERCENT CAPACITY! THESE CELLS ARE OF NO VALUE! REPEAT, THESE CELLS ARE--"
A dark figure ran across Roland's path and the gunslinger ignored the sounds of the mechanical and rustic voice to follow the strange figure. His natural instinct, beat into him from childhood beneath the harsh teachings of Cort, took control and he ran. Ran as fast as he could between the trees and brush, his body, just recently off the medicine of Eddie's world called Keflex, partly strained by the sudden exertion. Yet this was ignored.
But the figure was too fast. And when Roland finally lost him he was standing in the middle of a circular clearing in front of an unmarked door. He looked to the trees and felt them being pulled in the opposite direction of the door, in the direction of the Beam.
He knew the door was wrong. And he knew he should have at least told his ka-tet of this strangeness if not consulted with them about it. But he was slowly going insane, and this might have been an answer to his problem. His problem of the boy.
There was a boy.
There was no boy.
Was.
Wasn't.
Was--
He opened the door and stepped through.
. . . . .
The gunslinger stood on hard black ground. Something he would later come to know as pavement, another creation of the Old Ones. Another part of the changing of the world. The ground was long and endless and bordered on both parallel sides by tall buildings of the likes he'd seen through the eyes of The Prisoner, The Lady of the Shadows, and The Pusher.
The sun was high center sky, its rays burning down upon his features. The large sandalwood pistol, crafted of heavy weight yet held so easily in his left hand, glimmered in the brightness.
When the gunslinger looked behind him the door was gone. The door was gone. The forest was gone. And his ka-tet was gone.
Alone again.
And somewhere in the distance he heard the tittering laughter of the man in black.
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/05/2006 21:45:02
The expression on Deloris' face was enough to let George know that the AA meeting excuses were not going to hold up for much longer, but George hadn't felt particularly creative when she needed a quick excuse to jet off to her next appointment.
She wasn't sure how she found her appointments in this city. She'd found one other reaper but hadn't seen her since. It felt like she'd wasted valuable time freaking out about the situation rather than getting answers that might have been useful. But like the post-it notes that someone was leaving her, if George wondered the streets long enough she always seemed to find her way. Maybe it was some kind of fate thing.
And instantly, George felt like she'd been transported to one of those spaghetti western movies when she saw over zealous John Wayne fan on the opposite end of the street. She felt the strange need to look him in the eyes with a hand drawn toward her imaginary six shooter, but instead all she had in her hand was a small yellow piece of paper:
R. Deschain
3423 W Park Ave
EDT: 12:57 PM
The streets were empty. She heard cars only vaguely in the distance. George frowned, she scanned the street for some indication of what was going to happen, and she jogged toward the grizzled stranger at the end of the street.
"Hey! Uh..." George was not a people person. "I'm looking for a Deschain?" She had no idea if she was pronouncing this right. Why couldn't she reap a Jones or a Smith?
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/06/2006 05:09:10
Roland saw the woman approaching before he heard her and that worried him. Was he becoming so disconnected from himself that his senses were being affected? Were all those years of training and cursing yells, Cort's spit flung on his face, disappearing into the darkness? For the first time in a long time, the gunslinger worried.
But he sensed she wasn't anything to fear, so he holstered the ancient pistol before she arrived, staring at her through squinting blue eyes.
He didn't know what to expect from her words, but for some reason it didn't surprise him that she knew his name. Such was the way of ka. Everything in the universe was connected. The world was changing, the world had moved on, but ka was everlasting.
After a moment he finally spoke. He made it simple.
"I am he."
Roland Deschain, son of Stephen, from Gilead, in the line of Eld. Dinh of a missing ka-tet. Murderer of innocents. Tower Junkie as Eddie had called him.
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/06/2006 10:08:30
George approached him cautiously, eyeing his holstered weapon warily before looking around. She was trying to piece together what might happen. Any loose power cables? Wild animals on the run? Maybe police officers?
"...You're not going to shoot yourself, are you?"
It was probably one of the more lazy observations she could have made. One that required a very lacking creativity on her part. She shoved her hands into her black work blazer and stared down at his feet. She was pretty sure she didn't want to see someone's brains getting splattered. Though she'd seen plenty of other disasters too.
George heard a few cars down the next couple of blocks. She still had some time to figure this out.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/06/2006 19:19:10
And almost instantly, as though his mind had previously been clouded before on the subject of her threat level possibility, he looked at her with greater intensity. He felt that the words were wrong. He wasn't expecting them. And he began to wish he had his ka-tet nearby just so he could be sure he wouldn't slip up.
He could feel himself being split in two. Two memories. Two directions. Two boys. One that was and one that wasn't.
And yet, when he spoke, it was clear and unwavering.
"No."
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/06/2006 23:35:29
"....oh."
Standing in the middle of the street, George carefully looked around before glancing sideways back at the gunslinger. She raised her hand as if to touch him gently on the arm but hesitated. There seemed like there should be a catch here. This was too easy. If there was one thing George had learned about her job it was that it was the suck.
When she heard the squealing tires of a car, George finally figured out where the suck was on this particular occasion.
The car peeled around a corner and it must have been going about as fast as a flaming toilet seat falling from space. At least, there was a distinct feeling of deja vous here. As the car hurled toward the pair of them, who were unfortunately standing there like targets in a really unfair carnival game, George did about as much as she ever did. She stared. And she swore.
"Aw shit."
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/07/2006 05:43:55
Despite his seeming displacement and mental discrepency, Roland's reaction timing was still in tip-top shape. Not as well as it had been the day he'd rolled in Tull or even when he met the boy who was (and wasn't) at the way station -- the lobstrosities and the events of the Drawing had to take credit for the change -- but it was still keener than any other normal man.
He reached out with his right hand, momentarily forgetting the loss of fingers, and shoved the girl towards the sidewalk. He was stronger than he looked as well; many years seen and unseen but still lived, and he hadn't yet lost his initial strength and determination.
He had a drive. His drive was the tower.
But the car had a drive too. A drive that was heading directly towards him.
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/07/2006 11:37:22
George felt herself being shoved and rolled onto the ground, safely out of the way and to the sidewalk. The driver, realizing at the last moment that there was someone in front of her on the street, swerved last minute out of the gunslinger's path and crashed through the front entrance of the department store on its left.
The gunslinger was still alive. George was still undead. The driver of the car was dead dead.
"Fuck!"
George scrambled to her feet and while there were traces of blood on the palms of her hands and her knees, the small scratches which caused them had disappeared. Her panty hose was not so fortunate.
She ran toward the car in her heels noticing then that the license plate on the car spelled out DSCHN 1 and cursed at herself for being late yet again. She seemed to plunge her hand through the car's shattered side window and touched one Rebecca Deshchain, age 27 and drunkity drunk drunk drunk.
Rebecca's soul, visible to reapers and others with supernatural abilities, started to bitch loudly. "That guy was totally in the middle of the road! Now look at me! That was my favorite shirt!"
George looked back secondly at the gunslinger, ignoring the reaped soul, to see if he was okay. Multiple Deschains. Who knew?
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/07/2006 11:52:34
There hadn't been a chance for him to unholster the pistol. Well, he could have, but he knew it would have done no good. Shooting at the legs of the rolling creature that he knew as a car -- thanks to the Mortcypedia -- might only cause it to hit him or the young woman.
As it was he didn't really need to do anything. The vehicle swerved on its own and into a nearby building. Roland watched the entire event with a certain displaced nonchalance in his sun-scorched features.
Ka.
And then that dangerous feeling called curiosity crept into the gunslinger's mind, and he crossed the street to the accident. Cort would have whapped him a good one upside the head for such indifference, but the world had moved on since then, and he no longer felt that there was a danger to himself at that moment.
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/07/2006 12:21:03
George looked down at her post-it note. Two Deschains but only one was meant to be reaped. Was this some kind of coincidence or did this mean that there might have been two possibilities? Was George supposed to have made that choice? She didn't like the thought of that. What if she'd made the wrong choice?
"...could you just.. move on now so I don't look crazy?" George tried to plead with the soul who was still shouting loudly about being dead. George was staring straight ahead at the gunslinger and tried to offer a less than convincing smile.
"How dare you! I just went through a very traumatic experience and you already want me to move on? Excuse me! I could have just hit the guy. Who the fuck stands in the middle of the road anyway? Who the hell does he think he is! I want answers! I'm not leaving until I get them!"
Yes. George's job was the suck.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/07/2006 12:42:23
Roland didn't see who the young girl was speaking to, but judging by the wreckage, the body in the car, and the peculiarities that led up to that moment, he could make a reasonable guess. And since it wasn't something he could assist with -- at least, as far as he knew -- he stood there and waited.
He was a frightening presence when he was quiet. Arms drawn across his chest in patient waiting. This was a man who'd spent over a century trying to find the truth, his destiny, the tower. A few more minutes wasn't going to hinder his travels. Especially not when he felt there might be something of importance here.
And so he watched the girl and waited. Waited for her to finish her palaver with the dead woman.
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/07/2006 12:48:02
"Heh... heh." George was successfully intimidated by the man who was watching her. She could still see the soul out of the corner of her eye who was also staring with her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently.
"So uh... what's a guy like you doing standing in the middle of the road?" she asked him. "Yeah, asshole!" Meanwhile there was a general panic in the shop that currently had an automobile crushed halfway between in.
This was awkward.
"...he can't heeaar yoou. You. Are. Dead."
George continued to hold her uncomfortably fake smile.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/07/2006 13:01:07
The gunslinger only diverted his gaze when he began to hear the rustling distress of people in the shop. Then he looked behind him with minor worry. He remembered how easily it was to get in trouble in worlds like the ones that Eddie and Susannah came from. And he knew from his experience with Jack Mort that standing around with visible pistols wasn't exactly candid behavior in those worlds.
He turned to look at the girl.
"Finish your palaver with the dead so we can go."
And then, having sensed that there was a lot of anger on the part of the woman in the car who must have still been around, he added, "You shame the face of your father by not moving on. If you don't high-tail it soon I'll send you to the Old Ones myself."
Could he do that? Maybe not. But who was going to argue with him?
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/07/2006 13:07:44
Apparently a dead woman with the Dooney and Burke purse.
"Did you hear what he said! Did you? He doesn't know me! He doesn't know my Father. How dare he say that! I'm not going to take that kind of crap from him--"
George sighed, the smile was dropped. He wasn't a reaper. At least he didn't seem reaperish. She shrugged and started to walk down the street. The young reaper was used to calamity happening wherever she went and so she didn't seem nearly as concerned with the commotion as Roland did.
"--I was supposed to go out on a date tonight! How the hell am I supposed to cancel, hm? You have no idea what this is going to do to my social life, do you? Are you listening to me? HEY. I'm talking to you! Wait up!"
So George walked with the weird guy because, why not? It didn't appear as though either of them had any real desire to stick around.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/07/2006 13:12:54
Roland was glad he couldn't hear the spiteful words of the dead woman. As it was he probably would have proffered another futile threat that would go unnoticed.
He continued down the street alongside the girl, paying more attention to his surroundings this time around. It wasn't the same city he'd visited during the Drawings, and yet, it was distinctly similar.
"What do they call you?"
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/07/2006 13:18:18
The ghost of the woman continued to follow them and hound George as she walked with Roland, but the young reaper did an excellent job of ignoring what she could.
"George."
"WELL, George, I'm not leaving until I get my answers. I think you owe at least that much to me!"
Aggravated, George stopped and turned around started to shout back at what appeared to be air. "LOOK LADY. I got word that someone was going to die. If you hadn't swerved, you would have hit this guy and he would be dead and you would be alive! But you didn't! You swerved! And now you're dead and he's alive and that's just the way it goes!"
George was fuming.
The soul, cleared her throat uncomfortably and moved on without apology.
"....Fucking hate this job."
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/07/2006 13:24:11
The gunslinger barely even flinched at the girl's -- George -- sudden shouts towards the invisible. Perhaps if he had been a normal traveler he would have been distressed at this bizarre behavior. As it was, Roland didn't think there was anything at all strange about yelling to the soul of the dead.
When she was done and the spirit seemed to be gone, he spoke up again. All of his sentences were shot and to the point. Most everything being a matter of bluntness where he was concerned. He didn't like beating the bush, as was said. And so he disregarded the comment about her job for the time being.
"What do you call this place?"
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/07/2006 13:30:42
"The City. Someone tried to explain it to me what it is, but it didn't really make sense and I was kinda pissed off at the time. Most people don't even know that they're somewhere new, they just act like they've always been here."
George shrugged.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/07/2006 13:49:16
Well, Roland knew when he wasn't in the same place. Then again, he'd been traveling for many years now. He hadn't been in the same place for a long time. Unless one counted the desert as being one place. That desert had lasted a lifetime, maybe even two.
"And how did you come to find me, George of the City?"
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/08/2006 10:50:09
"George L---"
It seemed instinctual to correct them, but then the reaper remembered that Georgia Lass was also supposed to be dead. George worked as a first name when you weren't planning to get to know someone too well. The alias was Millie to the rest of the living that she had to interact with on a daily basis.
"Just a coincidence," she finally muttered.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/08/2006 14:03:32
Roland didn't believe in the concept of coincidence. It was entirely possible that many things in life appeared to be coincidences, but in the long run it was just another example of ka and its connection to all things.
She found him. She knew where he was going to be. And there just happened to be another Deschain in the vicinity?
No coincidence. No fluke of nature. No irony.
Only ka.
And yet, he didn't try and argue it with her. He merely gave a nod of his head to acknowledge that he'd heard her and understood what she thought to be true, whether or not it actually was.
And then it occurred to him that perhaps she was notified of all sudden arrivals in The City. The fact that she approached him -- had she done the same for others? Maybe Eddie? Susannah? The man in black?
"Have you met others like myself? Those who have been drawn?"
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/08/2006 14:08:54
"I think everyone here is from somewhere else, just not everyone remembers it. Someone told me that we still exist where we're from, but like... I dunno. I don't really know what's going on."
George stared blankly ahead. It'd been difficult to make new friends and adjust to her new purpose in life the first time around. But now? It was hard to care, George shrugged.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/08/2006 14:19:22
"If it's ka, it will come like the wind," Roland replied, pausing a moment in his step to check the contents of his old leather purse. It wasn't a large compartment, but he was surprisingly adaptable. He could survive a long while on a few important items.
He wasn't sure yet if the situation was bleaker than it had been. But every step closer to the tower was more grueling than the last. But, as was once said many years ago by his brethren and some of the followers of the Man-Jesus, there would be water if God willed it. And so all he could do was continue.
"The day will be long. We should find food and drink to fill our stomachs."
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/08/2006 14:28:20
This guy talked kinda weird.
"Dur Waffle House is just up a few blocks." George wasn't sure how she knew it was there, like a relic from her missing Chicago, but she also wasn't sure exactly what made the Waffle House diner anymore German than the less than authentic uniforms that the wait staff had to wear.
She walked quietly, wondering if she was supposed to say anything else to the gunslinger or respond to whatever the heck ka was. She wasn't sure if she was even supposed to be spending this much time with the living, but then he seemed pretty comfortable with the idea that she was just speaking to a dead chick.
She walked into the diner and climbed into the same booth that her own ka-tet had regularly occupied.
"I haven't seen you down here in a while, where's all your friends?" asked a large black waitress. George shrugged and buried her face into one of the menus. The waitress quietly handed Roland a menu before leaving with a frown.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/08/2006 20:18:18
Roland didn't know what a Waffle House was, but he assumed it was a place that could fill them for the rest of the day's traveling. And so he followed along at her side, slipping into the same eerie silence that hung between them. The gunslinger was a man of few words.
When they arrived he took a seat across from her. He watched everything with keen observation. The customers, the waitress, the construction of the building, the people passing outside. He looked very out of place. He looked like a man in a saloon waiting for a fill of whiskey and a brawl.
He stared at the menu, but except for a few Great Letters he recognize from the High Speech, he didn't know what it said. And it hurt his eyes to stare at it. Or maybe that was just his confusion about the boy returning again ...
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/08/2006 20:40:41
"So.... what do you do?"
It seemed like an alright opening question. Maybe George should have been more surprised by his appearance, but she'd seen quite a bit of weird things as a reaper, and even more unexplainable occurrences since she came to the City.
George set her menu down with a flop and sipped at the glass of ice water that was provided for each of them.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/09/2006 08:47:41
At first Roland just kind of stared at her with those intense blue eyes, the aspect of a seeming blank slate behind them. This was a man who'd seen many things, and was practically dead to oddities now. It was a rare occasion when he was surprised.
"I am a gunslinger."
One of the last of a great history of his world's law enforcers, driven out by tragedy and destruction.
"I seek the Dark Tower."
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/09/2006 08:54:58
George stared at Roland and might have even blinked a few times.
At first she opened her mouth to apologize for even asking, but stopped.
And she considered.
Then she opened her mouth to say something sarcastic but again she stopped herself.
And she stared some more.
"....Huh?"
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/09/2006 09:03:25
She was like Eddie and Susannah. She didn't know. She didn't understand. She didn't recognize completely that the world had moved on and was still moving on, and soon it would separate those who were prepared for the end and those who were not.
He felt a sudden desire to make her see. She needed to be drawn. She needed to know that things were not as she thought.
But he was not ready for that. There was something wrong with him. Something changing in his mind. He wasn't at full capacity. He might not be thinking clearly.
"Time has grown soft ... I am not sure that I ..."
He shook his head.
The tower. The tower was important. The tower was all that mattered.
But so does the boy...
And he thought he heard the man in black laughing again.
"There's a boy..."
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/09/2006 09:34:02
Gunslingers, Dark Towers, Soft Time, Boys... oh my.
George was trying to decide if he was just crazy or not. It would explain how quickly he caught on to the fact that she'd been talking to a dead woman. Crazy people were okay. The people who worked at Happy Time were pretty fucking crazy, too.
George rested her head in the palm of her hand, propping her elbow on the table as she listened to see if any of this was going to make sense. And if it did make sense, did that mean she should worry?
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/09/2006 09:47:35
But Roland didn't know if he was ready to explain it to anyone. There was a split in his memory, and he didn't know if he was slowing going insane or if something else was going on. But there was something. Something was wrong.
He shook his head.
She wasn't the right one to tell either. It needed to be Eddie or Susannah. He needed to warn his ka-tet. But he'd left them behind. Or he'd moved on without them.
"I need to find my ka-tet. My ..."
She doesn't understand.
"Those who I have been traveling with. A man and a woman."
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/09/2006 15:04:28
"Oh."
George frowned. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to be the barer of bad news. Particularly if he was crazy. She had noticed the sandal wood pistol at his side, and even if he couldn't kill her it would still hurt. A lot.
George noticed the waitress coming back and ordered pancakes with a side of extra crispy bacon. She didn't like bacon but it had been ingrained into her to get the side of bacon, extra crispy, because that was what Rube liked.
"You like bacon, right?" she asked Roland.
"Do you know what you want to order?" the waitress asked the gunslinger.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/09/2006 19:15:49
It had been a great number of years since the gunslinger had been to a dwelling that offered more than just a popkin and a -- no, no. Popkins were of his world. Moved on. Sandwiches here. He raised a hand to his forehead and rubbed at the skin.
"I will take whatever you have in the way of protein and meat. Preferably beef but pork will suffice. And something strong to drink."
The waitress gave him a strange look and then diverted her glance to George. Then she gave a shrug of the shoulders, stuck the pen in her hair, and picked up the menus.
"Always the weirdos, Mabel. You always get the weirdos," she muttered and wandered back into the kitchen.
Roland looked out the window as though he expected something to happen.
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/09/2006 22:55:13
"I lost a lot of people when I was brought here. I'm not trying to make you feel bad or anything but if you didn't come here with them... then... they might not come here at all."
List of people George lost: her fellow reapers (Rube, Mason, Daisy and Roxy) and her family (Reggie, Mom and Dad). True, George was supposed to have lost her family two years ago after her death, but when did George really pay that close attention to the rules?
Oh wait. Crazy guy. Right.
"...but maybe they'll come?"
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/10/2006 17:09:40
Roland didn't respond to that initially. He just continued to stare at the window. Waiting and watching. Things were right with this world. This world had moved on differently than the others. It was eerie and distinctly unsettling.
Eddie might not be here. Susannah might not be here. And he might never see them again.
But the boy that was --
Was not.
Was.
Was not--
He was somewhere. He could feel it.
"I remember ... and I don't ... a young boy named ..."
Pushed! He was Pushed! Ahahaha! There is no boy! There is! You killed him! Another death on your hands, gunslinger. Another victim of your relentless pursuit.
The man in black was tittering again.
"... Jake ..."
You'll find the tower, gunslinger. You'll find it and you'll die just before reaching it. And your blood will scatter the fields.
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/11/2006 10:18:53
George frowned, "...Do you have a place to stay?"
Bad idea, peanut. Bad fucking idea. What are you, retarded? You can't hang around with this guy. Not because he's crazy but because he's fucking ALIVE. You're really fucked now...
The voice was a mixture of her own and Rube's. But when did George ever turn down a really bad idea that went against all the ethic of her work? Probably never.
The waitress came back and set breakfast down in front of the pair.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/11/2006 17:38:30
A place to stay? He looked like he just walked out of the old American west. All Gunsmoke and Shane, missing a horse and the cliche Wayne accent. But that didn't change the fact that he obviously didn't belong. And he sure as hell didn't know where he was.
The waitress returned with the meal and Roland eyed it with great suspicion. He thought he would never understand Eddie's world.
"No, but there will be water if God wills it," he replied, picking up a stick of bacon and crunching it in his mouth. "And I cannot stay long. I must continue on my quest to find the tower."
He paused and took another bite, a small smile creeping across his features.
"This is good."
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/12/2006 13:10:53
George took the bacon from her plate and added it onto his as she picked up the maple syrup and started to pour it over her pancakes.
He's not staying long. So it's cool. Really. Crazy cowboy man will be gone soon. Or possibly dead. So....
"You could crash at my place for a few days if you want."
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/12/2006 13:20:33
Crash at her place? This phrase caused the gunslinger to make a peculiar look of confusion. That sounded like an Eddie coinage. Crash at my place. He assumed she didn't want him to break something. And the conversation had been on a place to stay.
Ka had brought them together. And for that reason alone, he nodded his head.
"It would be most appreciated."
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/12/2006 13:28:07
George ate her pancakes quietly and poked at her eggs with a fork. She was trying to do something nice. How bad could it really be?
(Sure there was the time she was stuck with a 400 dollar bill for someone's cremation, but that was a completely different circumstance.)
Mostly, George was just lonely.
The check finally came and while the waitress appeared oblivious to it, a post-it note lay underneath the bill. When George saw it, her eyes became huge and she lunged for the check, snatching it with a loud, "I got it!"
The crumpled bill in her clutched hand, she carefully peeled the sticky note from it and looked secretively at the message on it. Stuffing it into her pocket, she pulled cash from her wallet and tried to brush off her strange behavior with a smile.
"Soo... my place?"
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/12/2006 13:33:49
But if there was one thing that Roland had learned from Cort during his youth, as he was being beaten to death with the sayings and rhetoric of survival, it was that you always paid keen attention to what was going on around you.
Even without her extremely obvious reaction, he would have noticed the post-it note. She wasn't lying, something easily seen through, but she was withholding something. And he assumed by her hurry to pay -- he didn't care what world it was, people weren't that willing to pick up the tab -- that it was something important.
"What message did the serving woman give you?"
Until she told him, he was staunch in his position. He wasn't going anywhere.
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/12/2006 13:36:45
"She didn't. Someone else did."
George stood up and gathered her things. She still had a few hours until her appointment.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/12/2006 13:37:57
The gunslinger remained seated, watching her with patient suspicion.
"What does it say?"
From: [info]i_avoidliving Date: 04/12/2006 13:40:18
"Work related stuff," George replied.
And then she stared at him.
Her eyes gave Roland the can we go now? look.
From: [info]i_seekthetower Date: 04/12/2006 13:44:45
Suddenly there was distrust thrown into the relationship. The gunslinger was not surprised by this. But he wanted her to know that he was not a man that could have the wool pulled over his eyes very easily. Even if he was slowly going insane.
He stared at her for another long moment, and then he came to a stand, the pistols catching the attention of a nearby older couple who suddenly looked as though they feared for their lives. Roland didn't acknowledge them. He merely followed George to the exit.