milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Jack's sitting by the fireplace, reading. Well, trying to. He's more looking up every time someone comes into the bar, hoping it's Audrey, but she hasn't come in while he's been down in the bar, and she hasn't left him a note if she did come by. This is not helping his mood.

[ooc: Mun will be on until about 2am EST and will slowtime after that.]

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Ryan notices Jack sitting by the fireplace. He looks like he's waiting for someone.

He turns towards his book and almost-empty cup of coffee. He had a feeling he was probably the last person Jack wanted to talk to. After his conversation with Kim, though, he was curious to see how Jack was doing.

Ryan closed his book and walked over.

"Hey, Jack."

Jack jumps slightly as he hears someone talk to him; he'd been staring at his book, not reading a word.

He turns his head to see Ryan stnading nearby. Not exactly someone he wanted to see; but then there was really only one person he truly wanted to see at the moment.

"Hi, Ryan."

"Didn't mean to startle you. So, how are you?"

Jack's irritated that Ryan managed to startle him but tries not to show that it got to him. "Okay. How are you?"

He shrugs.

"I'm fine. The bar finally gave me a book I want to read."

"Really? What book?"

He holds it up. "Crime & Punishment."

"Ah. Not one I'm familiar with. What's it about?"

Ryan's eyes widen, ok this surprised him.

"You've never read it. It's about..." he pauses, "morality and redemption. Very 19th century."

Jack nods, though he's rather puzzled by Ryan's obvious surprise, and his rather vague description. "Okay. If I remember correctly it was one of the assigned text for a course I signed up for in college, but not enough people enrolled in the course. I think that's how I ended up taking that course on science fiction. I've just never gotten around to reading it since."

He nods.

"I read it in college for a class devoted to Doestoevsky. Our professor was this older guy who knew Saul Bellows and went on long spiels about Russia."

"Yeah, I think it was supposed to be a Russian literature class. Which seems kind of odd that it would have a low enrollment, considering this was Berkley, and there were enough aspiring Communists around at the time."

Ryan laughs.

"NYU was just as bad. God, I remember some of the arguments I would get into with them, me being the evil capitalist-loving Finance major and all."

"Yeah, well, I was in the military, so you can imagine how well that went over with some students--and professors for that matter. Luckily though, the fact that it was a liberal school just meant that most students were pretty easy-going and accepting. The hardcore activist types, though..."

"Yeah, those types were the most fun," he says with a grimace.

"They could be fun to wind up, when I was in the mood. Which wasn't usually. Though I tended to try that more with the professors than the students."

"My professors - the political science ones - I usually pissed off when I wasn't trying," he says with a shoulder shrug, "There were a few people from some lefty group on campus that I would sometimes bait into arguments. But after a while that got boring."

"I usually didn't bother with the students, as they were usually pretty wound up anyway." And it's somewhat scary that he and Ryan have actually had similar experiences.

He nods.

"I had to stop after a while for my own sake. Talking to them was starting to color my views too much and Vicky was getting fed up with trying to talk politics with me."

"Well, Teri was more of a Democrat, so our political discussions were usually pretty lengthy." And then of course there's talking politics wiht Audrey, but he doesn't really want to think about that at the moment. He still glances toward the door as he sees someone walk in, though. Not Audrey, of course.

"Same thing with Vicky. She was rather liberal. Adored Palmer," he says with an upward eyeroll, "Someone actually compared us to one of those couples you see in movies - the stuffy banker type and his free-spirited, artsy wife."

"Well you won't exactly hear me disagreeing with Palmer either," Jack says with a small smile.

A much snarkier reply about Jack having the president in his backpocket came to mind but Ryan bit it back.

Ryan just gave a knowing smile and acknowledge, "His economic policies were a huge improvement over his predecessor's. That and the fact that he never came off like a moronic hick."

Jack saw Ryan's eyes narrow slightly, and it wasn't hard for him to figure out what Ryan was thinking. Let Ryan think that he was friends with Palmer as some kind of ladder-climbing effort. Jack knew that he greatly respected David Palmer, politcally and personally, and he wasn't about to explain himself to Ryan Chappelle.

Jack nods, "I know we're not exactly everyone's favourite country at the moment, but I hate to think where we'd be if he'd gotten a second term."

"Probably," Ryan began and would have finished with "in some poinltess war" until he realized he had almost brough on one of those.

"Better we don't know," he finished and quickly added, "What do you think of Keeler?"

Jack shrugs. "All right, so far. He hasn't done anything spectacular or incredibly stupid. At least at this point he looks like he might be one of those leaders that ends up just as a mention in a textbook saying they were President. One who's not enough of a genius or an idiot to be memorable."

~~This opinion of course has nothing to do with the fact that he has very little involvement in canon so far this season. Of course not.~~

He shrugs.

"Maybe that's a good thing. Those presidents usuaully presided over the dull times in between wars and cultural shifts. The country could probably use a breather."

"Yeah, I think we could use some pretty dull times for a while. Things have been far too interesting for the last few years." Especially if you live in L.A., he thinks ruefully.

~~Because of course any terrorist attack in canon has to occur in LA, for some rea--*is bludgeoned to death by 24 writers*.~~

He nods.

"Well, I think I am going to head upstairs. It was nice talking to you."

"Yeah, seeya Ryan." Jack says with a polite smile. At least Ryan hadn't brought up the last few days; it was nice to have a conversation where none of that was mentioned, for once.

Ryan gives a slight wave and walks off.

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