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Post by landon on Jun 28, 2008 19:53:19 GMT -5
Landon was sitting in a small pub, there were some young werewolves goofing around at a billiards table, the owner a young woman with straw coloured hair was also a werewolf, Landon found himself comfortable in his surroundings as he ordered a rum and coke and lit his second cigarette since sitting down.
He stared at his computer screen, he was writing a article about the hotel he was staying in. He hated the room so much he had to come to the pub just to do his work. He didn't like the bed, it was more comfortable to sprawl out on the floor. He didn't like the plain walls, he didn't like the fact the television got three channels. He didn't like that there was no wireless Internet service. He'd given the hotel a poor review.
He inhaled deeply and let out a breath of smoke. He clicked send, and his review was off on the Internet going to the publisher of the travel magazine he worked for. Getting to travel the world on someone else's pocket. But still this was home for him, Paris. Well currently it was.
He let out another breath of smoke and put the cigarette out. What a horribly long day, he shut his laptop and pushed it to the side, taking the glass into his hand he took a small sip. He heard the bell ring as someone else walked in. He knew in a moment it was yet another werewolf.
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Post by tomod on Jun 28, 2008 23:26:49 GMT -5
Tormod sighed as he entered the pub; he really, really needed a beer. Not that anything had really happened, it had just been a really long day. He glanced around as he walked to the bar, noting (to his surprise) that it appeared to be a werewolf pub. He'd not picked it on purpose; something in his subconscious appeared to be guiding him. That was good. He liked it when that happened.
He slid into a seat and smiled at the tender, his tired blue eyes sparkling a bit. He flirted easily with her, his rugged good looks and charming manner apparently to the woman's liking, but he made sure to pitch it so they both knew it was just playing. He wasn't in the mood to get tangled up in a relationship right now.
She slid a cold beer in front of him and he took a long drink, then sighed in pleasure. The lady winked at him and went off to do her work, leaving Tormod to stretch and turn idly in his chair, surveying the inhabitants. The younglings at the table didn't interest him much; they were obviously a group and young enough to be overly wary of an older male. An older, frankly alpha male, even if he wasn't likely to challenge any heirarchies...
He eyed the other werewolf, then shrugged and rose. Ambling over, he offered the man an easy smile. "Mind a little company?" He asked, his voice carefully polite. Even after all these years, he still carried his native brogue, his voice rolling softly in a distinctly Irish way.
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Post by landon on Jun 29, 2008 19:30:11 GMT -5
Landon raised his glass, "the more the merrier!" He took a swig before setting it down on a worn down coaster. The alcahol he'd consumed since he'd been there wasn't much, since he had to complete his work, and he didn't come to a small pub alone with the intent to get smashed. No just one more glass after this. Thats it though, no more after that, he promised himself. He was good at cutting himself off before he was too tipsy to get back to wherever he was staying. Drinking had nearly killed him before, he'd been lucky.
Landon took another sip of his rum and coke. "I'm Landon Cross by the way, who might you be?" He asked politely.
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Post by tomod on Jun 29, 2008 21:58:48 GMT -5
Tormod grinned and sank into the chair, taking a quick drink of his beer before setting it down carefully on the table. "Good to meet you, Landon. My name is Tormod MacAulay." It came out 'Tormot', in the traditional gaelic pronouciation. "So what brings you to a ratty pub in the middle of nowhere?" he asked, leaning back casually.
He studied the other werewolf, instinctively testing the air for hints of challenge. He'd been out of the pack his whole life; he was used to brushing aside or defusing situations with other males. It was second-nature to him by now. He had no intention on joining any pack at all-it would interefere with his wandering ways.
Not that he wasn't sometimes tempted...it was a lonely life he led, sometimes.
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Post by landon on Jun 29, 2008 22:02:48 GMT -5
"Work," Landon responded simply tapping the top of his Toshiba lap top, vista had been running screwy on him again, adding to the sour mood of the hotel, "well not here at the pub, its just more comfortable than the hotel." He listened to his sentence in his head once more, "I know that sounds crazy but I tell you I've been in plenty of hotels and this one has to be the worst." He caught the bartender glaring and imediatly continued, "not that this place is bad, it's homey." He wondered if the bartender caught his edge of sarcasm. He hoped not. "What about you?" Landon asked taking a sip of his drink, it was mostly gone now.
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Post by tomod on Jun 30, 2008 11:53:12 GMT -5
Tormod laughed; he'd been in a few hotels like that over the long years. "Wandering." He said in answer to his question. "Just out wandering. I thought I needed a beer, so I wandered in here."
He took a drink of his beer and grinned. "So you...what? Write reviews?" he guessed, raising his eyebrow. "That must be fun...paid to travel..." he took another drink, grinning. Maybe he should think about getting a gig like that...but then, he didn't get along well with computers.
He relaxed a bit; Landon didn't seem to be giving off any uneasy signals. Good, good. He continued to sip his beer, smiling easily. A nice drink at the pub...and conversation. Shaping up to be a good day after all.
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Post by landon on Jun 30, 2008 19:49:58 GMT -5
"Yes, reviews for hotels, fancy resteraunts, tourist attractions, anything around the world people might like to go and visit." Landon responded, his work was his refuge, it was safe, it let him keep moving, let him see the world, let him pretend he wasn't a monster. "It's a good job, get to see lots of things, meet lots of people."
He didn't really meet a lot of people if he didn't choose to, it wasn't like he did interviews, typically he was to socially awkward, sure he could keep up in a conversation, but he was terrible at keeping the ball rolling. He'd finally gotten off of one word responses after years of studying under his parents watchful eyes.
"I guess i'm lucky, getting paid to do what I love." Landon finished his drink, and ordered his last one for the night, he told himself he would drink it slowly.
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Post by tomod on Jun 30, 2008 23:52:00 GMT -5
Tormod nodded, sitting forward a bit. "Mmm. Must be nice. I get paid to do whatever I feel like at the time." he admitted with an easy grin. He'd had a lot of jobs over the years-all of them day labor type jobs. He'd built a lot of buildings, fixed a lot of roads. Money to keep moving with, money to pay for the things that had to be paid. He'd avoided things like ID's. It was harder now than it used to be, but it was still possible. As long as you stayed away from too much notice and away from the big bosses...
"So how did you start doing that?" Tormod asked, finishing his beer. He raised it, catching the lady's attention, and wiggled it, winking at her. Useful to be an older, good-looking man sometimes. "Doesn't sound like something you'd just fall into..."
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Post by landon on Jul 2, 2008 20:53:49 GMT -5
Landon shrugged, "well... my parents wanted me to be a doctor. There are a lot of doctors in my family." Landon frowned remembering his family, his parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents. "Nothing is good enough when you are the son of a doctor." He looked into his drink, there was a smudge on the glass, it didn't bother him much, he took another sip. "I was always good in english, but the sciences... couldn't hold better than a 80, sometimes it slipped lower. I was the biggest disappointment in my family... so after... the incident, I went out on my own, fell back on my own talents, being writing."
Landon sighed, "had a good drinking buddy back in the day, sobered up, real good writer, he recommended me. Got me into the biz, and my peices were enough to let me stay there." Landon was happy for the bit of conversation, most nights were quiet, just him and the hum of the computer. "So tell me a bit about yourself, since i've just spilt most of my life... no lie, its really sad. Work and no play" Landon grinned cheezily, it was true.
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Post by tomod on Jul 3, 2008 1:01:00 GMT -5
Tormod nodded, smiling as he listened intently to the other man's story. He couldn't really relate-he'd never had a family, really. Not after...as he'd so charmingly put it, the 'incident'.
"hmm." He said, tipping his beer back and taking a long drink. Setting it down, he shrugged, his blue eyes laughing gently. "Sounds like no fun. Really." He leaned on his hand, his eyes moving over the bar again. "I'm a pretty simple fellow. I was born in Ireland a long time ago, got bitten, ran away, and I've been moving ever since then."
He tipped his head down, his eye moving to the table and staring thoughtfully at the ring his beer had made. "Never could settle down in one place. Probably been to every major continent...visited every wonder of the world..." He shrugged agian, then looked up at the other man and offered him a lop-sided grin. "Sounds kind of like I'm bragging, but I'm not. It's just how it is."
He picked up his beer again, shaking it a bit before taking another drink. "Someday, maybe I'll trip on something that keeps me in one place for a wee bit. Other than that, I rather like wandering...I've met some interesting people that way." He tipped his beer at Landon, grinning, before draining it off.
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Post by landon on Jul 3, 2008 23:49:58 GMT -5
"Traveling is good," Landon said, "I mean I practically chose it as a carreer. I like having a home to go to for some time though. Just get some roots planted. Have a little garage for my car." And how Landon loved his car, something about driving always calmed him besides it was easier than changing into a wolf and charging down the Paris streets.
"Interesting people huh?" Landon replied, he could say that if he didn't travel he wouldn't know anyone at all. He had a few friends, all scattered across the world. He liked it like that. No comitments to a friday night poker game, or house sitting, anything of the sort. He could call and talk. Perhaps visit when doing business in that area. Other than that he could keep to himself, keep the monster inside a secret, that was safest, that was what he wanted.
He took another small sip of his drink, it was cool and refreshing. He heard the younger ones in the back fighting about a bet they had on the game, it held no concern to Landon so he easily ignored it and took another sip of his drink. "If you had to choose your favorite place in the world where would it be?" Landon questioned, as a travel writer he liked to hear where other people liked to go.
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Post by tomod on Jul 4, 2008 0:30:04 GMT -5
Tomod waggled his empty bottle at the bartender as he considered Landon's question. "Mmm..." he said, thinking back over all of the places he'd visited over his long years. "Hard to say. "
He shrugged, then smiled. "I think maybe I love my native Ireland a little more than anyplace else in the world, but I'm a bit biased there. Other than that...I keep finding myself returning to Paris. Thep people are kind of rude sometimes, but the air in that city...and the life. It's so alive. It's not like New York, all frantic and busy, or California, which is all so fake and plastic. It's old, and you can smell it...and it's relaxed."
He thanked the lady when she brought him a beer and took a sip, grimacing. "One place I'll never go back to is Mexico-how people can live like that...' he shook his head. "It's sad."
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Post by landon on Jul 4, 2008 0:48:48 GMT -5
Landon laughed heartlily when Tormod mentioned the rudeness of those who lived in France, he being one. And it was true, he'd met many rude people in his own home city.
"Mexico is pretty bad," Landon agreed. He went once on business. He spent one night and told his editor where to shove that assignment, it was the shoved onto a new kid. Landon felt for him, no one should have to go and stay under those conditions. "Can't say i'll be happily bording a plane to head there again. Or angrily bording. I'm not heading there in my lifetime again I don't care what happens." It didn't help that when he got out of his taxi in Mexico he almost got shot, the only highlight of his trip is that the cabbie had gotten freaked by the gun shots that he took off and Landon hadn't had to pay him.
Landon could feel the effects of his drink. He was tipsy, but not near as drunk as he use to get in his stupid youthful rebelious years. He finished off his drink, that was it. No more drinking for him, he was cutting himself off.
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Post by tomod on Jul 5, 2008 1:15:30 GMT -5
Tormod chuckled too; he'd stayed a bare two days before high-tailing it out of the country and he'd never been back. That had been...oh, seven or eight years ago. He lost track, really. Looking at his beer bottle, he sighed. He had a pretty high tolerance for what he called piss-beer, but he was tired. Better let it go at this one...it's been a long time since I was drunk, and I'd not really like to start again tonight...
"So." Tormod said, taking a drink. "How long you here?" He liked the other man-he seemed quiet and down-to-earth, and Tormod was feeling a bit lonely. Too many weird bars in too many towns. Besides, it never hurt to make friends and keep in contact with the modern-day werewolf community.
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Post by landon on Jul 6, 2008 18:04:42 GMT -5
"I have another hotel to review, then i'm heading back home, I live about three hours from here." Landon replied, "have a house to keep, bills to pay, car to get out of the shop... probably a fridge of bad food to throw out," Landon muttered the last part under his breath, he'd nearly forgotten how long he'd been gone. Some of the food would have parished by now, he wasn't looking forward to cleaning that mess.
"What about you, you like it here?" Landon didn't find Paris his favorite place, but it was good enough. Far away from those he knew, but he didn't stay in one spot for a long time, couldn't take the chance with his... curse.
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