[She gives a melodramatic sigh, beckoning for him to follow her as she heads towards the bar, setting her drink down on the counter as she heads behind it, turning her back.]
Come on. Want another beer or something stronger? Unless you're hungry.
[She grabs another bottle from the cooler case behind the bar, considering tossing it to him before deciding against it and sliding it across the bar, turning around just in time to see him moving her darts to the bottom of the board.
She smirks, bracing a hand against her hip.]
Huh, looks like my aim's all shot to hell, doesn't it? Must be having an off day.
[She rolls her eyes in reply, though that smirk stays firmly in place, amused.]
Guess I was blowing my own horn for nothing. Those hunters back home must have been real lousy for me to swindle them so easily. I hit at least one bullseye, though -- don't think this means you're getting off the hook. I may not be out to take your money, but you'll still owe me something if I win.
[It's really just not fair at all, is it. But at least Jo has the decency to win information out of him instead of backing him into a corner and interrogating him. Interrogation =/= friendship in the Hanniger Play Book.
And what's more, she's only being friendly. That's a thing people do, right? Swap stories and bond? How could she know that he's the most defensive person ever when it comes to his past? How much would he tell? How much was appropriate?
Sure, she'd told him about hunting- and he's still trying to digest the idea that monsters outside of Wonderland are a thing- Well. He didn't know. Best to probably just see what she wanted to know to begin with. No sense in getting worked up over nothing, and, really, his problems were his own.
Truth be told, it was the fact that she said friend. The subject of friendship is hard for Tom. He's got a chip on his shoulder the size of a dinner plate and more trust and abandonment issues than you can shake a stick at. Add that to the fact that he is The Most Jaded Man Alive and making friends seems...foreign. Not for lack of wanting. Sad that he pushes away the thing he needs most. ]
You think so? [He raises an eyebrow and takes the darts, pulling them up with an exaggerated bicep curl. Since when was she looking at his arms? Was she looking at his arms? Is she an arm woman? Is that a thing? Or is she referencing Dean?
Or is she just making a joke and he needs to seriously calm down because it probably doesn't mean anything at all. Yeah, let's go with that story.]
You gonna be my coach?
[He takes a last sip of beer and puts the bottle down, lining himself up for the first shot. It's not bad but it's no bullseye. The rest are about the same. He gets two good shots, a few not so bad, and one stray embarrassing problem child.]
[She almost thinks she should discourage that kind of compliment, teasing or otherwise. Her situation is complicated at best, but maybe it's jumping the gun to assume he actually means anything by it. She's just overthinking it, isn't she? They're friends. It's just confusing owing to the fact that he looks so much like the guy she's actually with. Sort of. Easy to forget they haven't known each other longer than a few weeks, sometimes.]
Modesty has never really been one of my strong points.
[She's not commenting on the other, but if he looks closely, he might catch that she's blushing just the tiniest bit.]
Sure. Seeing as I had a crappy run of luck on the first round, [thanks to your 'help,' Tom] this one'll decide it, then.
[Had they even known each other that long? His time keeping isn't so great lately. He really just means it to be. Well he isn't sure it just kind of slipped out but he isn't actively trying to hit on her or anything. He knows better than to do that and, really, look at him. As if.]
Well at least you're honest.
[Completely missing the blush over here, just being oblivious. Her turn, though.]
Hey, honesty goes a long way. I try not to misrepresent myself.
[She claims the darts with a smirk, considering purposely staggering her throws to make the imminent win by a slightly smaller margin. Her first toss lands just left of center, the second one just beneath it.]
I don't know, we could be cutting it close this round.
[But even if he's the one who has to pay up, one good turn deserves another. He'll get a story or two, too. She tosses the rest, and each dart lands around the center of the board, though none actually hit bullseye.]
So close. Looks like you owe me storytime. You'll get french fries out of it, at least.
[She points upwards before turning towards the door, motioning for him to follow her as she heads out into the corridor.]
I promised burgers, too, right? Xander can look after the bar for an hour. I'm due for a break anyway. Besides, if you haven't been up to the diner yet, you're missing out.
[She smiles at him over her shoulder before grabbing the banister and starting to take the stairs up two at a time. The eighth floor and the diner aren't that far off.]
But let's see. I guess you can veto whatever I ask for, as long as you tell something. Maybe start with telling me a little about where you're from? Or maybe that's too easy. Do you travel at all?
[And because he's good at doing what he's told, and there's no reason not to, he follow just behind. He guesses that not having elevators isn't so bad. At least it's a way to keep fit. And where he might be lacking in strength, he makes up for in speed. There's not much to do in a hospital. Running had become something of a meditation when he had the energy for it. A little patch of clear sky through thick, medically induced fog.]
I'm from Harmony, Pennsylvania. It's a mining town in the middle of nowhere surrounded by more nowhere.
[He speaks as they go, his longer legs not finding it difficult to two-by-two the stairs. Something sparks in the back of his head. Growling hellhounds and the scraping of an axe against the wall. He'd been bounding up these stairs not too long ago, but it wasn't to get burgers. It was to seek safety. None of which he found- waking, instead, a day later on the floor soaked in blood. He had to assume it was his own but he wasn't hurt enough for it to make sense. In fact, he didn't seem to be hurt at all. All the muscle pain, the whiplash, even his stitches seemed to have healed up considerably and the cut on his face was all but gone. Only lately had it dawned on him that River might have been right. Maybe he had died, but at Harry's hands? He couldn't, wouldn't accept that. He'd need proof.]
I've traveled a little. Went on the road for a few years, just kind of traveling around to see what was out there. Get a change of pace.
[Only it was somewhere out there that he'd lost his way. Sarah had moved on, people had picked themselves up and gotten on with their lives, but him? He couldn't. He'd spent so much time running that he hadn't laid any breadcrumbs to find his way back.]
Harmony, Pennsylvania. You know, think I've been by there?
[Work took her all over the place, and she rarely got the opportunity to stop and sightsee. Still, it was worth noting, right?]
Didn't get to stop, just drove through on my way to a job, but if it's the same one, it seemed nice.
[Seemed nice. There was clearly something about home that made him uncomfortable. She'd put that much together already. It had that same, too-personal small town feel that most of them seemed to have, but it had to be more than that. It has to be more than the fact that he just felt trapped or stifled.]
So where have you been? Sounds like it was an aimless sort of roadtrip, but someplace must have stuck with you, right? I travel a lot for work, but I don't usually get to experience many of the places I go to. Too busy with other things.
[They're nearing the diner now, and once they're through the door, Jo holds up a finger as if asking him to give her a minute, heading over to the counter and leaning across it to give their order to whoever's working that afternoon, then walking over to one of the booths and motioning for him to join her.]
Seeing as it's your first time, you're getting the house special.
[Not that there were any sights to see in Harmony. She wasn't missing anything by not stopping.]
I was kinda all over, but mostly up and down the east coast. Stayed in New York for a while. It's the biggest city I've ever seen. You can understand why everyone goes there.
[And it was easy to get lost there. If you didn't want to be found, you went to New York. Not that he was actually actively hiding from anyone in particular, but it seemed the best place for anonymity.
He nods and waits for her as she approaches the counter and orders, then followers her to the booth. How had he never known this was here?]
Should I be worried?
[Teasing. Oh god the smell of food reminds him of just how hungry he is. This morning's poptarts had just not cut it.]
[She'd been all over in the past few years, anywhere her car would take her after she first showed the roadhouse her tail lights, but the major cities? She'd never taken the time to stop and see them for herself. Nobody there needed people like her. They seemed to have their own hunting communities -- either that, or the monsters just preferred the quiet, but she was banking on the first.]
I hear it's amazing. [Not that she'll ever see it now, even if she wanted to.] Would have loved to have had the time to stop for awhile and maybe walk up and down Broadway or something. So you liked it there?
[She cracks a smile when he asks if he should be worried, leaning against the table with her hands folded and lowering her voice to a whisper, as though it were some great conspiracy.]
Unless you hate bacon cheeseburgers, I think you're safe.
Easy to get lost in the crowd there, I'd imagine. You can do whatever and nobody would even notice, right? I think I know what you mean. Funny how sometimes you find the most peace and quiet when surrounded by other people.
[She adopts a thoughtful expression for a moment, considering that before giving another smile, her mouth quirking up a bit higher on the right side.]
Chicago. I didn't have reason to go to big cities very often, but I was in the area for awhile on a long hunt. I liked the pizza.
[Shallow reasoning? Sure. But when you never stay in one place for long, the little things stick with you.]
Pretty country when you got out into the sticks, too.
[On all accounts. He thinks it's a far cry from the best pizza, but he'd never been to Chicago and she's never been to New York, so they would just have to agree to disagree on the subject of pizza.]
They say Colorado is good for pizza, too. Can't say I ever made it out there, though. I googled it and they do them by weight instead of size.
[But, he digresses.]
I went through a thing when I was a kid. Felt like I needed to get away and be a nobody.. The 'Big City' seemed appropriate.
I've been through a bunch of times, but never stopped for pizza. Sounds like I was missing out.
[She pauses when their food comes, and a moment later they both have a burger and fries in front of them, along with an almost obscenely tall glass of soda. She picks up a fry and bites into it thoughtfully, nodding at his explanation.]
You've had it rough. I'm sorry.
[She's apologized before, but it's obvious that whatever happened is no small thing. Whatever it was had been life-changing.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
action;
Date: 2013-08-10 10:33 pm (UTC)Come on. Want another beer or something stronger? Unless you're hungry.
action;
Date: 2013-08-11 01:57 pm (UTC)[This is an opportunity to get out of losing at darts, Tom. Take it.
Only he won't because he's actually having fun for the first time in what seems a god damn eternity.
There is also a chance to snatch Jo's darts out of the board and move them all to the bottom. She has clearly lost.]
action;
Date: 2013-08-11 02:18 pm (UTC)She smirks, bracing a hand against her hip.]
Huh, looks like my aim's all shot to hell, doesn't it? Must be having an off day.
action;
Date: 2013-08-11 02:27 pm (UTC)[TEE HEE HE DID THE THING and is still rewarded with beer. This is why Jo is the best.]
action;
Date: 2013-08-11 04:14 pm (UTC)Guess I was blowing my own horn for nothing. Those hunters back home must have been real lousy for me to swindle them so easily. I hit at least one bullseye, though -- don't think this means you're getting off the hook. I may not be out to take your money, but you'll still owe me something if I win.
action;
Date: 2013-08-11 04:20 pm (UTC)Like what?
[Literally because he doesn't remember. Tom holds the handful of darts out for her to collect if she wants to go first.]
action;
Date: 2013-08-11 04:59 pm (UTC)You'll owe me a story.
[She throws a dart. Bullseye.]
We've been friends for a little while now, right?
[She smirks and throws again. Bullseye number two.]
I like hearing about where people have been. Things they've seen. Where they come from.
[She throws a third, and it lands directly beside the first two, then follows it up with the rest, landing similarly close.]
Hmm. Looks like I'm making a comeback.
action;
Date: 2013-08-11 08:50 pm (UTC)[It's really just not fair at all, is it. But at least Jo has the decency to win information out of him instead of backing him into a corner and interrogating him. Interrogation =/= friendship in the Hanniger Play Book.
And what's more, she's only being friendly. That's a thing people do, right? Swap stories and bond? How could she know that he's the most defensive person ever when it comes to his past? How much would he tell? How much was appropriate?
Sure, she'd told him about hunting- and he's still trying to digest the idea that monsters outside of Wonderland are a thing- Well. He didn't know. Best to probably just see what she wanted to know to begin with. No sense in getting worked up over nothing, and, really, his problems were his own.
Truth be told, it was the fact that she said friend. The subject of friendship is hard for Tom. He's got a chip on his shoulder the size of a dinner plate and more trust and abandonment issues than you can shake a stick at. Add that to the fact that he is The Most Jaded Man Alive and making friends seems...foreign. Not for lack of wanting. Sad that he pushes away the thing he needs most. ]
action;
Date: 2013-08-11 10:05 pm (UTC)[She smiles, pulling the darts free and gathering them in one hand before handing them to him, offering.]
Who knows? Maybe you'll have a lucky fluke, too. You've got the arms for it. Dart mastery is a pretty prestigious skill, you know.
action;
Date: 2013-08-11 10:14 pm (UTC)Or is she just making a joke and he needs to seriously calm down because it probably doesn't mean anything at all. Yeah, let's go with that story.]
You gonna be my coach?
[He takes a last sip of beer and puts the bottle down, lining himself up for the first shot. It's not bad but it's no bullseye. The rest are about the same. He gets two good shots, a few not so bad, and one stray embarrassing problem child.]
action;
Date: 2013-08-12 02:47 am (UTC)Sure, why not? You'd be learning from the best, after all. Can't think of anyone who'd do it better.
[It's boastful, sure, though there's a teasing tone to her voice. She takes a long pull of her beer before nodding her approval towards the board.]
Lots better. Not too shabby.
action;
Date: 2013-08-12 12:48 pm (UTC)[He teases with a grin over his shoulder as he goes to retrieve the darts. She's clearly won this round.]
Best two out of three or..?
[How many stories do you want.]
action;
Date: 2013-08-12 02:43 pm (UTC)Modesty has never really been one of my strong points.
[She's not commenting on the other, but if he looks closely, he might catch that she's blushing just the tiniest bit.]
Sure. Seeing as I had a crappy run of luck on the first round, [thanks to your 'help,' Tom] this one'll decide it, then.
action;
Date: 2013-08-12 03:21 pm (UTC)Well at least you're honest.
[Completely missing the blush over here, just being oblivious. Her turn, though.]
Go on, then.
action;
Date: 2013-08-12 06:55 pm (UTC)[She claims the darts with a smirk, considering purposely staggering her throws to make the imminent win by a slightly smaller margin. Her first toss lands just left of center, the second one just beneath it.]
I don't know, we could be cutting it close this round.
[But even if he's the one who has to pay up, one good turn deserves another. He'll get a story or two, too. She tosses the rest, and each dart lands around the center of the board, though none actually hit bullseye.]
So close. Looks like you owe me storytime. You'll get french fries out of it, at least.
action;
Date: 2013-08-12 10:31 pm (UTC)And really? He knew what he was getting himself into. But it was worth it to just relax and hang out with someone. Fingers crossed in any case.]
Alright.
[He puts the bottle back down.]
What do you wanna know?
[They better be the best fries ever.]
action;
Date: 2013-08-13 03:45 am (UTC)[She points upwards before turning towards the door, motioning for him to follow her as she heads out into the corridor.]
I promised burgers, too, right? Xander can look after the bar for an hour. I'm due for a break anyway. Besides, if you haven't been up to the diner yet, you're missing out.
[She smiles at him over her shoulder before grabbing the banister and starting to take the stairs up two at a time. The eighth floor and the diner aren't that far off.]
But let's see. I guess you can veto whatever I ask for, as long as you tell something. Maybe start with telling me a little about where you're from? Or maybe that's too easy. Do you travel at all?
action;
Date: 2013-08-13 11:09 am (UTC)[And because he's good at doing what he's told, and there's no reason not to, he follow just behind. He guesses that not having elevators isn't so bad. At least it's a way to keep fit. And where he might be lacking in strength, he makes up for in speed. There's not much to do in a hospital. Running had become something of a meditation when he had the energy for it. A little patch of clear sky through thick, medically induced fog.]
I'm from Harmony, Pennsylvania. It's a mining town in the middle of nowhere surrounded by more nowhere.
[He speaks as they go, his longer legs not finding it difficult to two-by-two the stairs. Something sparks in the back of his head. Growling hellhounds and the scraping of an axe against the wall. He'd been bounding up these stairs not too long ago, but it wasn't to get burgers. It was to seek safety. None of which he found- waking, instead, a day later on the floor soaked in blood. He had to assume it was his own but he wasn't hurt enough for it to make sense. In fact, he didn't seem to be hurt at all. All the muscle pain, the whiplash, even his stitches seemed to have healed up considerably and the cut on his face was all but gone. Only lately had it dawned on him that River might have been right. Maybe he had died, but at Harry's hands? He couldn't, wouldn't accept that. He'd need proof.]
I've traveled a little. Went on the road for a few years, just kind of traveling around to see what was out there. Get a change of pace.
[Only it was somewhere out there that he'd lost his way. Sarah had moved on, people had picked themselves up and gotten on with their lives, but him? He couldn't. He'd spent so much time running that he hadn't laid any breadcrumbs to find his way back.]
action;
Date: 2013-08-13 02:09 pm (UTC)[Work took her all over the place, and she rarely got the opportunity to stop and sightsee. Still, it was worth noting, right?]
Didn't get to stop, just drove through on my way to a job, but if it's the same one, it seemed nice.
[Seemed nice. There was clearly something about home that made him uncomfortable. She'd put that much together already. It had that same, too-personal small town feel that most of them seemed to have, but it had to be more than that. It has to be more than the fact that he just felt trapped or stifled.]
So where have you been? Sounds like it was an aimless sort of roadtrip, but someplace must have stuck with you, right? I travel a lot for work, but I don't usually get to experience many of the places I go to. Too busy with other things.
[They're nearing the diner now, and once they're through the door, Jo holds up a finger as if asking him to give her a minute, heading over to the counter and leaning across it to give their order to whoever's working that afternoon, then walking over to one of the booths and motioning for him to join her.]
Seeing as it's your first time, you're getting the house special.
[Deal with it, Tom. It's going to be delicious.]
action;
Date: 2013-08-13 05:26 pm (UTC)I was kinda all over, but mostly up and down the east coast. Stayed in New York for a while. It's the biggest city I've ever seen. You can understand why everyone goes there.
[And it was easy to get lost there. If you didn't want to be found, you went to New York. Not that he was actually actively hiding from anyone in particular, but it seemed the best place for anonymity.
He nods and waits for her as she approaches the counter and orders, then followers her to the booth. How had he never known this was here?]
Should I be worried?
[Teasing. Oh god the smell of food reminds him of just how hungry he is. This morning's poptarts had just not cut it.]
action;
Date: 2013-08-13 07:46 pm (UTC)[She'd been all over in the past few years, anywhere her car would take her after she first showed the roadhouse her tail lights, but the major cities? She'd never taken the time to stop and see them for herself. Nobody there needed people like her. They seemed to have their own hunting communities -- either that, or the monsters just preferred the quiet, but she was banking on the first.]
I hear it's amazing. [Not that she'll ever see it now, even if she wanted to.] Would have loved to have had the time to stop for awhile and maybe walk up and down Broadway or something. So you liked it there?
[She cracks a smile when he asks if he should be worried, leaning against the table with her hands folded and lowering her voice to a whisper, as though it were some great conspiracy.]
Unless you hate bacon cheeseburgers, I think you're safe.
action;
Date: 2013-08-14 01:24 pm (UTC)I think the best thins about New York was that there were so many people you could do what you wanted and no one cared.
[He tries to shrug it off. Truth be told, he'll most likely never see it again, either.]
Your go, best place you've been and why.
action;
Date: 2013-08-14 04:09 pm (UTC)[She adopts a thoughtful expression for a moment, considering that before giving another smile, her mouth quirking up a bit higher on the right side.]
Chicago. I didn't have reason to go to big cities very often, but I was in the area for awhile on a long hunt. I liked the pizza.
[Shallow reasoning? Sure. But when you never stay in one place for long, the little things stick with you.]
Pretty country when you got out into the sticks, too.
action;
Date: 2013-08-14 04:24 pm (UTC)[On all accounts. He thinks it's a far cry from the best pizza, but he'd never been to Chicago and she's never been to New York, so they would just have to agree to disagree on the subject of pizza.]
They say Colorado is good for pizza, too. Can't say I ever made it out there, though. I googled it and they do them by weight instead of size.
[But, he digresses.]
I went through a thing when I was a kid. Felt like I needed to get away and be a nobody.. The 'Big City' seemed appropriate.
action;
Date: 2013-08-14 07:59 pm (UTC)[She pauses when their food comes, and a moment later they both have a burger and fries in front of them, along with an almost obscenely tall glass of soda. She picks up a fry and bites into it thoughtfully, nodding at his explanation.]
You've had it rough. I'm sorry.
[She's apologized before, but it's obvious that whatever happened is no small thing. Whatever it was had been life-changing.]
Did it help?
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