Exhaustion (Open)

[Halvor Orm]

Halvor was exhausted. It was the only word he could use for such a feeling. He hadn’t been sleeping well lately, day or night. The weather wasn’t agreeing with him either. He was tired, hot, sticky, and in a generally foul mood. It proved to not suit him; his scowl was quite intense and more than once he’d noticed people around him were glancing worriedly at it as if expecting him to erupt.

He’d fed earlier that day, though, so that made everything slightly better. It’d been messy. He was usually quite good at keeping things clean when he fed. Today, thought, he’d been so tense and jittery that it had been hard to stand still long enough to suck the blood out of whomever he’d killed. He’d worn gloves like he usually did, a hat to keep his hair from getting on the person, then took care to wipe off the spot of feeding when he was done.

A long time ago, when he was transformed into a vampire, you could go on a killing spree and everyone would think that the gods were angry at a village or something. A couple sacrifices and all would be good, because he’d moved on. Nowadays, you had to be careful, with all the forensic technology that went on. If you left some saliva on the neck, they could swab it and identify your DNA in it.

Of course, if anyone ever identified his DNA, they’d notice that he should’ve been dead about a hundred years ago. So indeed there were some flaws in their perfect, crime-catching methods.

Halvor sighed and leaned back in his chair. The waitress in the diner came up to him again and asked him if he wanted anything. He waved her away with a polite but wary word of refusal; she’d asked him six times now and he was beginning to want to throw a salt shaker at her. He fingered his earring absently.

There were people flowing steadily in and out of the diner, talking, laughing. Some of them glanced at him as they walked. A girl giggled and waved at him as she passed him. A little boy stared at him in awe as his mother dragged him out of the diner. Halvor smiled at him, bearing his sharp white teeth as he did, and gave the little boy a little wave. The woman looked at him as if he’d made an obscene gesture, scooped her child up in her arms and walked briskly out of the building, nose in the air. Halvor waved at the boy when the woman’s back was turn. He waved back.

Halvor snuggled down in his jacket and looked over the diner. It was a relief to not have to cling to the booth in order to not jump at an unsuspecting victim-to-be anymore. Feeding always calmed him down. He was exhausted, yes, from a lack of sleep and mental stimulation, but it was an exhaustion he’d felt before. He was lonely, terribly lonely, and terribly exhausted, but at the same time he’d never felt better.

[҉ Joshua Lorne]

Josh had heard a lot about the Why Not Diner. Ken swore on the food, although he was a bit biased seeing as how his best friend did most of the cooking. But the rest of Ken's friends agreed that the diner was excellent, and it was definitely worth a lunch break if Josh could swing it. So he made an effort today to seek the place out after vigorous job-hunting and apartment-shopping. Although, his lunch break was after the sun set, so that should give some indication to how things went today.

He didn't bother with a booth or a waitress, he just slid into a stool at the counter and greeted the cook he already knew was working with a wave. The two held an animated conversation where Josh detailed how the only places hiring were pizzerias and salons near Times Square, and how every apartment seemed to get more expensive the further away he got from the hottest tourist destination. Jon promised to cook him something special, and Josh gave the younger boy a grateful smile.

Once Jon returned to the kitchen, Josh turned on his stool to check the place out. It was charming really, the decor all coming together to give him a very vintage, authentic feel of an old diner. Of course, some things like the wireless debit machines and cash register monitors couldn't disguise what era they were in, but the overall effect was very nice.

He let his mind wander with his eyes, and he found himself wondering if this was where he really wanted to be. Maybe he shouldn't be looking for a place of his own in New York until he told his brother why he actually came. He didn't even really like the city - it was always so busy and so loud and so bright. The half-djinn found himself thinking about what kind of statistic serial killers might register in a city this huge when his gaze fell upon Halvor. He automatically sniffed the air, for reasons unknown to him, and he found himself biting back a growl. There was something very... wrong about the dark individual inhabiting the diner, and it wasn't just that he clashed with the decor. But Josh couldn't put his finger on it, so he turned around and watched the stranger using his second set of eyes.

Using his Clairvoyance, Josh could pull Halvor close and take a good look at him. No one would see anything... no, all anyone would see was Josh carelessly flipping through a menu at the counter. But here in his mind he could examine the guy from a safe distance, and determine how much of a threat he posed. So far he couldn't find anything wrong, but appearances could be deceiving. Did Josh look like a werewolf? No one would ever suspect something like that from someone like him.

So he kept his calm and flipped the menu over, as though contemplating drinks.

[Halvor Orm]

He came in, had a little conversation with a cook and then sat quietly on the stool, flipping restlessly through the menu. Halvor watched him for what felt like a very long time, but when he checked his watch, it had only been for about a minute—maybe two. He popped his knuckles in his palm and shifted in the plastic seat, which squawked under him like a parrot. He jumped at the noise; it squawked again.

Halvor smelled him. His senses on any standard were fairly normal but lycans had a particular scent. Wet dog smell. No, not even that. He didn’t smell like a wet dog. He didn’t smell like anything that Halvor could name. He just smelled—bad. Smelled like a dog, not a dog—something. He smelled like something. Maybe it was burning? No, Halvor decided, that was just the coffee that an unattentive waitress was pointedly ignoring.

He scratched the underside of his chin, which was coarse was sparse hair, black, flecked with a teeny bit of silver. A muscle jumped in his jaw; teeny. He hated that word.

Two giggling girls passed him on the way out and one of them pointed at him. He ignored them, locking his eyes on the turned back of the newcomer. He decided that it wasn’t a bad smell, lycan, just no pleasant. Not at all pleasant.

He got up to take a stool at the other end of the counter to avoid being giggled at again. He hated the sound of giggling. It was simply annoying—girls, boys, babies or anything else that had the capability to giggle.

“Can I get you something?” the inattentive waitress glanced up at him over her magazine. She was the only one in the restaurant, it seemed, who was unwilling to actually work there. She was glaring at him. He twiddled his cross and shook his head. She sighed loudly—angrily—and went back to her page.

He licked his lips and risked a glance at the could-be lycan, who was still studying the menu with more attentiveness than anyone should. He pulled his hood down over his forehead and thought hard. He didn’t want to approach him. At the same time he did. It was like the smell—there was no way really to distinguish what he was feeling right now. He put his head down on the plastic table and felt the coolness on his forehead. He sighed, sat up and looked at him again, read his mind.

So he’d been looking at Halvor with the eyes in the back of his head? Halvor smiled. He’d very rarely met someone with Clairvoyance; this was quite a treat, truly.

“Good evening,” he said softly, angling his head slightly to the lycan, whose name he learned was Joshua by briefly reading his mind. “How are you?”

[҉ Joshua Lorne]

Josh stiffened visibly as he watched (without watching) Halvor cross from his booth to the counter. He hadn't thought he'd done anything to attract the guy's attention, but apparently he was wrong. He knew Halvor would talk to him before the words left his lips, and Josh cut off the man's greeting with a short, "Good, thanks."

He averted his gaze, giving every indication that Halvor was unwelcome. Josh wasn't used to being rude though - he was generally a really nice guy. But something about this guy... it raised inexplicable hostility from deep within him. Halvor was like some sort of magnet for emotions Josh previously hadn't been aware he possessed. But now those feelings had surfaced and begged him to analyze them, but Josh couldn't figure them out for the life of him.

He placed the menu down and stared fixedly at the coffee machine. He could smell the burnt coffee, and wondered if he should flag the attention of the waitress that sat with her magazine near Halvor. The muscles in his jaw tightened, because getting the young woman's attention would mean looking in the unpleasant man's direction, and he didn't think his self-control would help him avoid eye-contact. So instead he whistled for Jon.

"Your coffee's spilling over, dude," He called into the kitchen, and his statement was accompanied by a helpful nod in the pot's direction. But even the scent of coffee over-brewing couldn't mask the aroma coming off Halvor. How did one even begin to describe that? It wasn't exactly like rotting meat, but it held a sickening pungency that hinted at some sort of advanced decay. Whatever it was, it was repulsive, and Josh turned his head the other way to take a deep breath in.

Hadn't this guy ever heard of showering?

[Halvor Orm]

"Your coffee's spilling over, dude.”

Halvor glanced as the man Josh had previously spoken to hurried to mop up the burnt coffee in the pot. He was starting to get uncomfortable with this kid. He’d been quite surly, boarding rude, and Halvor was far from offended, and yet the coldness had surprised him.

Of course, it’d been a long time since he’d been around a lycan. He forgot how bluntly boorish they could be. He read his mind in lack of a better thing to and then self-consciously pulled his t-shirt to his nose, sniffed inconspicuously.

If the kid had a problem with how Halvor smelled, he should’ve stayed away. On a good day, Halvor could smell a lycan in any direction for miles, even in the stench of New York and its various other scents. He should’ve been able to smell Josh from a mile away—perhaps that damn coffee covered up his smell. It certainly did for the moment; while he was relieved of the disgusting dog smell, he had to put up with the putridly bitter smell. Personally, Halvor would rather smell dog.

This thought surprised him. He looked at Josh again and idly kicked the counter lightly. He took another breath of the hot, burnt air and let it out slowly. An awkward silence had fallen between them now; he chewed his upper lip and pulled his hood back up, as if it would protect him from the smells. He hated being a vampire sometimes—too much of an assault on his senses, day in and day out. It’d taken months after he was changed into a vampire to get used to it.

He decided, after a while, to play it safe; be polite. He didn’t want to anger anyone, start anything, especially not with a lycans. Even running hot, Halvor wasn’t a very physical guy; he could probably get pummeled by Josh.

“I apologize for, uh, my…pedigree,” he said very slowly, very softly, “although it’s nothing to be helped. If it’s any consolation, you smell equally unpleasant.”

[҉ Joshua Lorne]

Josh was too engrossed in ignoring Halvor outwardly that his Clairvoyance seemed to agree with his idea of avoiding the man. So he missed Halvor's inconspicuous self-assessment, which would be the first indication that the man could read his mind. However, at Halvor's apology, Josh gave the man his full attention; eyes, ears, and mind.

"Uh..." The guy was calling him out. And although Halvor didn't say it exactly, Josh realized that he was being an ignorant, narrow-minded prick. So what if the guy smelled bad? Did that mean he deserved to be ignored. Josh was a fairly accepting guy - he didn't usually judge people that were different. He still couldn't explain what it was about this stranger that triggered such an unusual response from within him.

He wasn't sure what Halvor meant by 'pedigree'. Josh had never encountered a vampire before, so the possibility didn't even spring to mind. Sure, he watched his fair share of horror movies; lycans and vampires not mixing was common knowledge to youth his age. Underworld and Twilight, as polar opposites as they were, made him aware of the clashing species. But he had yet to identify Halvor as a vampire, even if every cell of his body labeled him as 'enemy'.

But it was fairly easy to deduce that Halvor knew his secret, and his eyes flashed to Jon who'd returned to the kitchen. He couldn't let this guy out his secret, not before he'd had a chance to break the news to his brother himself. Josh still hadn't realized the man was telepathic... instead he was browsing ahead to the future to see if Halvor had decided to expose Josh for what he was.

So far, so good. But that didn't mean the future wouldn't change. "Sorry," Josh apologized, deciding that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to start anything with this man. Besides, Josh was naturally evasive when it came to violence. Beating people up was his little brother's favourite pastime, not his. "I ah... I was just caught... off-guard."

It wasn't something he was used to. Josh liked to use his precognition to scan the future and see if there were any dangers lurking around the corner. Since he hadn't seen Halvor in his quick scan in the morning, he didn't worry himself about checking the Why Not Diner for foes. But then again, Josh hadn't really decided on coming to the diner until later, so... there was a hole in his vision. And without even meaning to (or, Josh stiffened, perhaps he had), Halvor had worked his way through Josh's precognition and surprised him. But for what purpose, he couldn't begin to guess. So he decided to be wary, but give the guy the benefit of the doubt.

Because it was Josh's own fault for not seeing him, and if the guy really had bested him at his own game, he quite frankly deserved to receive whatever punishment waited him. People told him he was too cautious, worried too much, borderline paranoid. But here he was, sharing a happy little diner with another dangerous creature he couldn't identify, and hadn't seen coming.

His mind ran in circles as he tried to fit the pieces together.

[Halvor Orm]

“Don’t fret, child,” Halvor scratched his temple and popped his neck on either side, then looked at Josh again. “I’m not going to tell anyone about anything that it’s my business. Frankly, who you are and what you are is…not my business.”

Josh had been fretting for a few moments and, frankly, Halvor had enjoyed it, but now it was time to take a pickaxe to the ice instead of chipping away at it with a toothpick.

“As for being caught off guard, it must be difficult for you to accept that,” he said slowly, carefully. “You’ve got clairvoyance. I can hear it,” he tapped his temple with his finger, “in my head—in your head.”

He glanced around briefly to see if anyone was listening. He didn’t care much what happened if someone heard him, but he didn’t want to ruin his little moment with another person, even a lycan. As time progressed, the diner became steadily less busy, and there were a few people in it now; none of them were looking at him, interestedly or otherwise—he felt he was safe, at least for the moment.

“Don’t worry,” he turned in his stool to look at Josh. “Seriously. Stop worrying. We’re not all bad. I’m not going to jab you with a fork.”

Unconsciously he picked up the fork on the paper napkin and twirled it in his fingers.

“You’re making me nervous,” he added, clunking the fork back onto the counter and crossing his legs. “I feel like you’re going to explode on me in a second. Calm down. Take a couple breaths. I’m not going to hurt you.”

He leaned back in his stool and cleared his throat. “So. Can I scoot over or would you prefer me to sit here?”

{OOC~Sorry it’s short…}

[҉ Joshua Lorne]

Joshua prickled at being called 'child', but Halvor didn't seem to be trying to belittle him. Did he really speak like that? The only people Josh knew of that called other people 'child' were those that belonged to the church. Like the Pope. Or that evil sorceress in Sleeping Beauty. He sniffed, and wished he hadn't. The acrid scent of the stranger zoomed up his nostrils and made him wince.

What was he saying now? Something about his condition not being his business. He was damn right about that! Josh felt his tense shoulders relax slightly, knowing now that this guy didn't plan on busting him. But then he froze up again, when the man spoke his next words. Again, Josh did not appreciate the unexpected.

"You can what?" Josh hissed, and his tone indicated how unimpressed he was with this new information. Alright, 'unimpressed' wasn't the best word to describe it, because Halvor's telepathic Gift was pretty darn impressive. But 'unhappy' was an understatement. Perhaps 'disturbed' better portrayed the emotion behind his words. Learning that the stranger could read his mind - was reading his mind, probably right now, frustrated Josh. Did the man never hear of privacy?!

Although Halvor was doing what he could to calm the werewolf, Josh could feel his hands shaking, and he had to shift on his stool and sit on them so he wouldn't give himself away to the boy working behind the counter. But his eyes narrowed, and he opened his mouth to tell the guy off, but he was talking again.

What did he mean by 'We're not all bad'? He was referring to himself, and who else? What else? It sounded like he was implying he belonged to a totally separate species.

Before Josh could give any further thought to this however, Halvor announced that Josh was making him nervous. And Josh bit back a growl of a laugh. He was nervous? Josh was shaking like a leaf, and not all of it was anger. Halvor was pretty observant though - if he thought Josh was going to explode, he'd be pretty close. The only thing keeping Josh in his place was his deep-seated dislike of causing a scene. Even though there weren't many customers now, Josh would not create a disturbance in a place he deemed 'public'. Josh wouldn't make a scene if he was alone in his bedroom. He just wasn't a very dramatic guy.

He took Halvor's advice, despite his distaste of the man, and took a couple calming breaths. He wasn't worried about Halvor hurting him. Not really, anyway. When he asked Josh if he could move over, he stiffened visibly.

"I don't think that's a very good idea," Had the guy never heard of 'personal space'? He was already violating him psychologically, did he have to pop his physical comfort bubble as well? Not the best idea, to sidle up to an already high-strung werewolf.

"So... what are you?" Josh murmured so Jon couldn't hear. The boy had finished cleaning up the coffee mess and was now gathering up the garbage. He was fairly certain the boy couldn't hear them, but he kept his voice down anyway.

[Halvor Orm]

{OOC~HOOOOOOOOLY CRAP! I didn’t even notice that you posted until right now! My bad, my bad!}

Halvor smiled; he heard the question but decided to put it aside for a moment, think it over. He touched away from Josh’s mind and tried to entertain himself with others in the diner. “Do forgive me. I have the awful habit of sneaking into people’s minds without asking. Truly, the fault is mine.”

To be on the safe side, he stayed on his stool and gently tapped the counter with the toes of his shoes. Josh was shaking; did he want to harm Halvor, or was he just nervous? When Halvor was a human, he got quiet when he was nervous (or laughed) but he had seen people who shook when they were nervous and they always annoyed him because when they were holding things they’d always drop them and social contracting told him he had to bend over and pick them up. He was not only inconvenienced by their nervousness, he was inconvenienced by their clumsiness.

“You can stop shaking,” he picking his teeth with his pinkie nail and took a long, deep breath of the hot air in the diner. “I swear to you, I won’t harm you and I won’t read your mind. It’s a habit I’m trying to break and it’s not easy, but…”

He didn’t know—but what after that? He was rambling. If he had half a mind, he would turn and walk out of the diner right now, avoid conflict with humans and lycans alike, no matter how lonely he was feeling. He always was filled with a sense of melancholy loneliness after he hunted. He felt terribly melodramatic when he thought about it that way, but he was bluntly not lying to himself.

“I,” he said, turning his head from side to side to pop his neck, deciding finally to answer Josh’s question, “am exactly what you think I am, obviously. You can smell me, I smell you, we glare at each other and exchange uncomfortable banter for a while. Excuse me.”

He was talking to the boy behind the counter now, waving at him idly with two fingers.

“Could I possibly bother you for a coffee?” he asked as politely as he could, trying to keep his upper lip down over his teeth so the boy couldn’t see his fangs, which often brought shocked stares from anyone who say them. He didn’t want to drink the coffee—God, no, anything but drinking it, it would poison him, he hadn’t even drunk coffee when he was alive—but he had to cancel out the god-awful smell somehow. Maybe he was being dramatic, maybe he just was more sensitive than usual, but for some reason the dog smell was giving him a headache and made his eyes burn like fire. The boy gave him a mug of the coffee that had spilled over and Halvor didn’t comment on it. He just stuck his nose inches away from the black liquid and sniffed quietly. The bitter, hot air filled his nose and seemed to push out on his eyeball. He coughed and leaned back, momentarily relieved of the scent.

“So,” he said with a bracing sigh, leaning back as far as he could in his stool, still sitting two down from Josh on his wishes, “how are you?”

It seemed like the right thing to say now.