(no subject)

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

Date: May 20, Evening
Location: bar
Status: Public
Summary: Jan risks visiting the bar as promised



Jan almost regretted promising to meet Kirby and her friends now that he actually had to enter the bar. Sure he wanted to get to know the people around here and he did expect to be safe as long as he was with a group of mortals, but what if the Sergeant wasn't here yet?

Better not to show any fear.

He stepped inside, gave Dawson behind the bar only a quick glare, and looked around hoping to see the Sergeant at one of the tables.

Comments

[josephdawson.livejournal.com]

Joe looked up as someone entered the bar.

Interesting - the other immortal was venturing back into his vicinity. He gave him a friendly smile.

"Welcome back, stranger," he said with a wink. "What may I serve you?"

Sorry. First posted at the same time, then too stupid to re-post properly

[beachbunnykirby.livejournal.com]

Kirby was sitting at one of the tables, waiting for the others to arrive. She looked up as Jan entered, and waved.

"Heya Rambo!" she called out. "Over here."

[jarodrussel.livejournal.com]

Jarod had gotten Kirby's message about meeting at the bar to get introduced to some new friend of hers. He had nothing better to do, so he went down at the appointed time.

Kirby was sitting at a table already, and a stranger was standing somewhere between the door and the bar. Well, he'd find out in a moment whether or not that was her acquaintance.

He nodded at Joe.

"I'll take milk tonight," he said in passing.

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

"A beer," Jan ordered with another glare at Joe.

He nodded at the stranger who'd just arrived and walked over to join the Sergeant wondering whether they really served milk here. Most likely the man was in for a disappointment.

[beachbunnykirby.livejournal.com]

Kirby gave Jarod a jaunty wave.

"Rambo, this is my friend Jarod Russel," she told Jan.

"Jesus - meet my new friend Jan Skovasja."

[jarodrussel.livejournal.com]

Jarod's mouth twitched at hearing her special form of address for him. Then he smiled at the other man, offering his hand.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Skovasja," he said. "You're from Eastern Europe? Or is the name a remnant of days long gone?"

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

Jan took Mr. Russel's hand with a formal "How do you do," but followed that with a much less formal. "Jesus? Did she catch you mid-prayer?"

"Central Europe, actually," he explained. "Technically I'm Czech, as is the name, but I've been living in Germany for most of my life."

[jarodrussel.livejournal.com]

"Nah," Jarod said, looking slightly embarrassed. "Some guys around here think I'm some kind of saviour and Christ come again."

He slid into the chair next to Kirby, so Jan could sit either across from her or across from him, as he preferred.

"I've spent most of my life in the US. I've been to Europe for short trips only up to now."

[josephdawson.livejournal.com]

Joe came over to the table to serve Jarod's milk and Jan's beer, balancing both glasses precariously on a tray.

"Here you go," he said as he put them down. "Anything else?"

[beachbunnykirby.livejournal.com]

"Another one of these," Kirby said, pointing at her drink, even though it was only half-finished. "Whatever it is, it's good."

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

"Ah yes, I heard there were some very strange people staying here."

He picked the chair that gave him the better view of the bar and door. He'd feel McLeod's approach of course, but Dawson was human and if it was actually Benjamin ... Well, he wasn't sure how he felt about Benjamin now. Best to know who was coming in any case.

"What brings you over here, then?" he asked Jarod. "Business? Or just curiosity?"

[jarodrussel.livejournal.com]

"Just, you know, out to see the world," Jarod said. he took a sip of his milk, then continued, "What about you? Why'd you leave the continent for the Isle?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_silverfox/]

"Long holiday?" Jarod asked. "Really, this seems quite the place for those! What's your specialisation as a doctor?"

"I was a hitman," Murdoc said easily. "You needed someone removed, you could call me. Or my employers. Preferably my employers. Because if you'd been able to call me you would have had my phone number, and that would have been bad - for you."

He grinned, not quite as predatorily as he could.

"I'm all turned good now, though."

Jan was a lot less shocked this time around. It helped that Murdoc was male, of course.

"So, is this the assassins' club then?" he asked with a slight smile. "If so, I'm going to make a rather poor member."

"You could say that," Kirby said, flashing another grin at him. "And you're getting there. You did rather good at the shooting stand, you know."

For a first try in any case...

"A bit of shooting at the shooting stand doesn't make one an assassin, though," Jan pointed out. "At least I'm pretty sure it's not what you got paid for."

He'd meant to say that he didn't want to learn to shoot to kill, but he did, he had to, if he wanted to survive and telling the Sergeant he didn't want to might make her change her lessons to exclude things he needed to know.

"True," Jarod said. "Shooting at people is different. You just gotta do it on the stand until it's a reflex. Ground-in, you draw, take aim, fire, no thought, all action."

All of them killers then, but McLeod would be stupid to tell them how to permanently kill his kind. Most likely he wouldn't hire them, not when he had Dawson and Benjamin, people he actually knew.

"That sounds too simple," he commented.

"It's the basics," Kirby allowed. "Everything else is... refinement. But it's what you'll want to reach if you shoot for self-defence, too."

"Really?" Jan asked a little doubtfully. "I'd expect there's a little difference between pulling the trigger in a moment of fear and killing in cold blood."

He paused, realised how that might be interpreted and added hastily: "I don't mean to judge your profession, I was talking about myself here. I could probably kill someone, if they attacked me," he didn't want to admit that he'd done it before. "But I'm a doctor. I'm meant to heal, not harm."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_silverfox/]

"A moment of fear is precisely where you freeze and end up unable to act if you don't make it a reflex," Murdoc pointed out.

"First, though," Kirby pointed out, "You've got to get the technique done. Shooting by reflex and missing your target won't do you any good."

She emptied her drink and gestured to Joe for more.

"Have you ever been to the New World, Jan?"

Jan considered his answer for a moment. He had, once, but it had been a very long time ago. He wouldn't recognise anything there now, except from TV.

"Not really," he said finally. That wasn't quite a lie.

"So you're more the sedentary type?" Kirby asked. "Or did it just never come up? Prettyboy here and I have done quite a lot of travelling in our work."

She hestitated a fraction, then looked at Jarod. "And what about you, Jesus?"

"Oh, it's not that I don't travel," Jan assured her. "I just don't usually leave the continent."

"Yeah," Jarod said. "I've travelled. I like to see places, visit other countries, learn things."

"I was a lot like that when I was a boy, but my means back then were very limited, so I just ended up going to Germany for my education. And now that I could easily travel all over the world I find that I've become much too attached to the place." He shrugged and smiled. "Well, I've seen much of Europe in any case."

"When I was a boy," Jarod said, "I was never allowed out. I wasn't even allowed to leave the house. I would have loved to see the world other than though a TV."

He gave a skewed smile. "Well, I'm catching up on it now."

"What kind of place were you living in there?" Kirby wanted to know, though she had a bit of an idea. "Or did you mess up in the early days of your career and look out through bars in front of your window?"

Jarod shook his head. "Nope," he said. "I was kept at a very strict kindo f school... institution-like. Very regulated. The only times I've seen a jail from the inside was when I either had business there or needed to get infomration from an inmate."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_silverfox/]

Murdoc listened with his head cocked slightly to one side.

"I actually grew up not far from here," he said. "And I thought the school my parents sent me to was strict. But you make yours sound ... worse, somehow."

Without even saying a great lot, that was. There was simply something about the way he said it...

"No kidding?" Kirby asked in Murdoc's direction. "So when are you going to introduce me to your mom?"

She grinned to make clear she didn't *actually* mean it.

"Hopefully not for a long time," Murdoc said drily. "I'm the last living member of my family."

"Ah, were you an only child, too then?" Jan asked sympathetically. He knew what it was to be left all alone in the world, though Murdoc probably at least still had graves left of his parents.

"I had a sister," Murdoc said, trying to keep his voice matter-of-fact. "She was nearly ten years younger than I. She was adopted by some family after our parents died."

Suddenly, he wished he had ordered something stronger.

"But ... that's better than her dying, isn't it?" Jan said a little confused. "She wouldn't have kept the name when she got married anyway ..."

Though of course nowadays some women did. Was he sounding suspiciously old fashioned again?

"Well, at least most women I know didn't." He added slightly embarrassed.

"She died in a skiing accident in Switzerland several years back," Murdoc said. The emphasis he placed on the word accident raised doubts about how accidental it had, in fact, been.

"I'm the last living member of my family."

"Oh," said Jan uncomfortably. "I'm sorry."

"Were you involved in it?" Murdoc asked, raising an eyebrow.

"If not, no need to be. I wasn't in contact with her, officially. She didn't even know I still existed. Or ever did, maybe."

"I shouldn't have asked, though."

"I never had any siblings, you know, but I guess it must feel much like losing your parents."

[quickneatuntrac.livejournal.com]

"Losing my parents felt awfully unfair," Murdoc said. "I was barely 14 at the time. Losing my sister made me feel sad and angry and guilty. I'd say that's a difference."

[jarodrussel.livejournal.com]

"I was told my parents were dead by the people who raised me," Jarod said. "I was maybe ten at the time. I thought it was true for so long. When my brother died I was there with him. That made it a whole lot more real."

He turned to Murdoc. "You think your sister's death was arranged?"

[quickneatuntrac.livejournal.com]

"Pretty sure," Murdoc said. "They'd - my former employers - caught her once, when I'd handed in my notice of termination. I got her out of there - with some help, admittedly - but then not even a year later she dies in an accident? How likely is that?"

[beachbunnykirby.livejournal.com]

"I'm an only child and my parents are still alive," Kirby said. "I feel left out now."

She grinned at each of them in turn.

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

"Well, I'm an only child, too," Jan offered. "Though my parents are dead."

[jarodrussel.livejournal.com]

"So how'd you end up here?" Jarod asked, trying to switch the topic away from family.

[jan-skovasja.livejournal.com]

"Me? I was just looking for a peaceful and quiet place for a relaxing holiday."

[beachbunnykirby.livejournal.com]

"Oh, gee," Kirby said with a smile so wide and bright that it had to be fake. "So did I!"

She playfully elbowed Murdoc. "The company I found made it all the nicer and relaxing, albeit not necessarily quiet."

[jan_skovasja]

"Well, having done a little bit of both, even if I am no master by any means, I'd say each is challenging in its own way. Since it's gone out of practical use fencing does have a more exclusive air, I suppose, and may be seen more as mere sport and art form, but ... Imagine that you're a fencing enthusiast, but also like to go hunting every now and then. And then most men will probably have had some shooting training in the army. If you have the ambition to train to that level in fencing, why should it fail you once you've started to learn shooting?"

[jarodrussel]

"True enough," Jarod said. "Though competitive fencing isn't exactly aimed at killing the opponent dead, which in itself might be considered 'more sophisticated' by some."

Including him.