(canon is Sin City/That Yellow Bastard)

[thelastday]

Couldn't just leave an old man alone, could you?

Comments

[thelastday]

[This guy's as much a dockworker as I am a nun, but I don't call him out on it. Didn't expect a straight answer, anyway.]

Retired. Got to be too old to be useful.

[gonnabite]

Yeah? In what, exactly? [He looks over Haritgan. From the way he dressed he looked like he used to be some kind of hard-boiled private eye.]

[thelastday]

[There's no sense in hiding it, though I'm on edge, ready for this guy to twitch, fire, anything. A lot of people--especially evasive people--don't like cops. Guy like this who calls himself a dockworker could be anything. Drug runner, hitman, or he could just be dicking with me.]

Police force.

Job like that burns you out.

[Not really. I'm old, sure, and maybe everything doesn't work the way it used to, but I'm nowhere near finished.]

[gonnabite]

No shit, you a cop? [Was a cop, whatever. Vic gave him a lopsided smile.] I bet. That's why I never wanted to be one.

[That and it sounded boring.]

[thelastday]

[I don't tell him he would've fit right it, though I have my suspicions.]

Can't imagine the docks're much better.

[gonnabite]

Not really. Liftin' fuckin' crates all day ain't excitin' but it pays.

[thelastday]

I guess it'd have to. And it must give you the satisfaction of an honest day's work.

[gonnabite]

Barely.

[he's bsing at this point obviously]

[thelastday]

You ever think about getting into anything else? Young guy like you must have prospects.

[I'm getting the sense that this is one of those conversations that doesn't have any basis in reality. It's aggravating, but it's also a distraction, and a distraction's just what I need. I need to do is keep my mind off Nancy. I need to keep myself from tearing off and doing something hot-headed. So maybe I can stomach this guy and his slippery answers for a little while longer.]

[gonnabite]

[Not really. For all his fake answers about his job Vic is just talking to talk. That and this guy looks interesting enough. Blondie wonders how he got as grizzled as he was. There's always a story worth listening to.]

Yeah, you know. I'm not planning on working on a dock the real of my fuckin' life. But it pays the bills until I find something worth doin'.

[He glances back up again.]

I bet you got a lot of stories from your line of work.

[thelastday]

I can hear that. Worked as a short-order cook for a time, myself. Nothing I'd recommend to anyone, but you do what you've gotta.

[Stories, sure. But it seems a diminishment to think of them like that, nothing more than columns in newspaper or pages in a book. They were experiences and lives, encounters with the kind of ruin that should never make it into this world but which we keep giving room to thrive. I shrug, a gesture barely perceptible.] I guess I've seen my share, anyway.

[gonnabite]

[He nods. There's a lit cigarette in his hand now since I completely forgot I mentioned them earlier, and he gives a slight wave in Hartigan's direction.]

Got any good ones?

[thelastday]

One's no better than the next. Just a sad line of never-should've-beens. For every story, at least two or three lives are put to waste. For every thrill, there's an irreversible sorrow.

[I'm bleak about it and maybe a little over-dramatic, but that's where I am, and that's what I know. I've seen too many lives shot to shit over minor arguments. Too many children, women, men just caught in the crossfire.]

[gonnabite]

[Vic laughs at that. Not a huge guffaw or anything that overdramatic, as his laughter was normally light or at least cheerful. His laugh now is a short sputter of a chuckle. He takes a drag out of his cigarette. Vic didn't have much regard for other people's lives but he laughed more at the fact that Hartigan put such an overdramatic spin on it (at least, to Vic it was) than the fact he brought up people dying.

When he takes the cigarette away from his lips he's still smiling.]

But you were probably a hero in a few of 'em.

[In Vic's experience, most cops had one story they liked to brag about.]

[thelastday]

[Of course he laughs. A lot of people do. They don't see the pain of it, or don't care. Sometimes take pleasure in it. I just shake my head.]

Hero's just a word the papers use to make people feel safe and politicians look good.

Anything good I've done, it's a goddamn shame it had to happen.

[gonnabite]

[Vic is just a sadistic dick so that helps too. He brings the cigarette to his lips again, this time letting it hang off the corner of his mouth.]

Like?

[thelastday]

[I feel myself frown, but my voice keeps steady.] Look, pal. You want stories, you're barkin' up the wrong tree. I'm not here to provide cheap thrills.

[gonnabite]

[Vic takes a casual drag like Hartigan didn't say any of that. He shrugs and laughs again.]

What if I like cheap thrills?

[thelastday]

That's your business, and I'm sure you can find your fill somewhere else.

Got an ex-partner who'd give you an earful. If I knew where he was or cared to speak with the bastard.

[I don't usually like to badmouth other cops, even rotten ones, but I'm getting fed up with the guy's prodding and his too-familiar smirk, and my temper got the best of me.]

[gonnabite]

Pissed you off, huh?

[thelastday]

You remind me of him.

best tag I ever did (I'm sorry)

[gonnabite]

I remind you of him?

XD

[thelastday]

That's what I said.

[Careful, Hartigan. You might be pushing a little too hard now. There's no reason, and you won't gain anything for it.]

But it's been a while, so what do I know?

[gonnabite]

What makes you say that?

[thelastday]

Just the way you smile, Vic. Just the way you smile.