milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

That was unpleasant.

And yet Boyd, like so many, cannot help but pick at a sore spot. And he wants to know what that was -- that thing that's left him with a bullet in his pocket to turn over and over in his hand.

It's what he's doing at the bar right now. There's a drink at his right hand, to assist in thinking. The bullet can and will be palmed.

And Boyd is ready, if it happens again.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There is another man using a drink at his right hand to assist in thinking, though it's doubtful that Boyd's enlightenment weapon of choice is Atlantean.

Dan Evans has his head bowed.

He's done that a lot, the last few weeks. Kept his head down, kept out of trouble. And kept an eye out for his boy.

(A father's duty, some might say.)

He lifts it at some point to scan the room for any familiar faces, and drinks, making silent note of the man two stools over who seems to be doing much of the same.

Boyd, we can be sure, is doing something similar.

Something approximating eye contact happens; Boyd offers a miniscule nod, and picks up his drink.

He can manage the bare minimum of social nicety, he supposes.

It's a mixture of habit (never turn your back on a man you don't trust) and boredom on Dan's part - he's been stuck here since the day he died, minus the two supervised excursions to the 'out-of-doors'. And while raiding a dwarven treasure trove and attending his own funeral were interesting, sure...

...sometimes you go looking for variety.

Dan returns the nod as his brings his glass once more to his mouth; after he swallows down the swirling, unnatural liquor-wine-whatever they call it, he speaks in a tone that is low enough for just Boyd to hear. No sense in drawing attention to the conversation.

"Long afternoon, or just stoppin' in for the usual?"

"Dry county," Boyd returns, in similar tones. His are a little more wry. "You do what you have to do."

The face of apology Dan makes is slight, and brief, expression only lingering a heartbeat or two before one corner of his mouth lifts the barest hint of a smirk.

(He's less sarcastic when Wade's not around. The outlaw tends to bring it out of him.)

"At least this place tends to be convenient in that regard," he replies. "Most of the time."

"Certainly more convenient than a trip to the next closest legal purveyor of spirits," Boyd agrees.

And drinks.

Dan is rarely grateful for dying when he did (leaving the boys behind, leaving his Alice alone, leaving their ranch to struggle and wither in the Arizona sun) but missing out on Prohibition is one moment where he will indeed count his blessings.

"Though I suppose the distance traveled depends on just how far your present locale really is from the end of all the universes," he points out. "S'an awful long trip from Bisbee, so far as I'm concerned," he adds.

He figures it's a stretch for this man too, but perhaps Boyd will prove him wrong.

The man gets a sidelong look.

"Not familiar with Bisbee." Beat. "Far from Harlan, though. Kentucky."

"Southeastern Arizona Territory," he offers, along with his name (just 'Dan') and the year he 'left' (died), which is a few years after the end of the Civil War.

"I've been through Kentucky," he adds. "Wasn't unpleasant by any stretch."

Minus the part where he'd just lost the leg and was still dealing with the repercussions of the injury.

*Date is ambiguous due to canon inaccuracy re: the construction of Yuma Territorial Prison. Somewhere between 1868-1870.

"Changed some since you last went through," Boyd says, mildly enough. "Never did make it to Arizona myself. Spent a little time in the desert, though."

"I'd daresay that sand still looks like sand, no matter when and where you're from," he retorts, lifting his glass to drain the last bit of Atlantean from the glass. Being dead has its perks: improved alcohol tolerance, for one.

"They got black sand somewhere in Hawaii," Boyd says, a little absently.

Unfamiliar of the locale Boyd mentions, Dan considers the idea of black sand, and isn't sure if he'd like the looks of it.

"It'd just make me think I was walkin' on coal, rather than in the desert." It's said more to himself than directly to Boyd, as he continues to contemplate the image. "It'd be different, in the least."

"Imagine it's a little more pleasant than that."

Boyd takes a drink.

"Coal forms different than that, anyhow. Sand there'd be volcanic. Coal's sedimentary."

A half-hearted, one-shouldered shrug:

"Never heard of Hawaii," he 'explains'.

Boyd nods; he's not bothered. "Out in the Pacific," he says. "Little clump of islands. Last state in the Union, up through when I'm coming in from. Happened around... what, 1950? Something like that."

"That explains the volcanic formation, then," he says, understanding better. "Think my sons learned a bit 'bout that last year, in their science lessons."

A pause.

"Well, bit longer than 'last year'", he clarifies, after doing the math in his head. "Given as I've been residing here for nearly five, myself."

A sidelong look.

"That a willful residency?"

Dan mulls his words in his head for a moment before responding.

"Perhaps not entirely willful," he admits. "But most certainly a necessary one, given as the circumstances of my arrival here were less than ideal at the time."

"I hear that can happen," says Boyd Crowder, the soul of courtesy.

And that courtesy is gratefully accepted.

"I suppose in that regard, it was convenient," Dan muses. "And likely preferable to any alternate destinations that may have been planned."

Dying an unrepented sinner never ends well.

Boyd's not entirely sure he cares for where he suspects this conversation might be going.

"There's worse places," he agrees.

"Indeed."

Which is why it is just as well that Dan intends to take it no further than that - it wouldn't be polite to presume anything in regards to Boyd's personal standing with the Lord, after all, and he'd rather not venture into improper topics of conversation with a man he barely knows.

(And despite having lived the last four years and some-odd months in a bar, his sense of tact remains strong as ever.)

He turns to the counter and taps his fingertips lightly against the bartop, signaling for a refill.

This time it's whisky, rather than other-wordly wine.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only