(Untitled)

[imthegoodguy]

A few days ago Ben had glanced at the calendar and saw it was his birthday. He told no one about it, barely thought about it, himself, as his actual birthday had passed just a few hours prior to his arrival on this island. His sole reflection was to think of how strange it would be to spend how many number of birthdays on an island that hosted none

Comments

[loaded_wolf]

A large, red wolf came padding over to the man, growling with a fixed look at the stick he was carrying.

"Oh gods, Gavin, please," Angua, who wasn't far behind, sighed. She was dressed in a parka with these ridiculous bright green mittens and matching boots.

"He won't do anything," she assured the man, giving Gavin's bottom a light swat. "He's discovered the game of fetch. It offends him."

[imthegoodguy]

Ben looked at the wolf with a laugh that did not escape his lips. Oddly enough, he didn't seem much perturbed by the wolf. One can only guess he's been approached by large animals in the past.

"I need to walk with this stick," Ben replied. "He has nothing to worry about."

[loaded_wolf]

"You see, he isn't going to throw the stick for you to retrieve," Angua said to Gavin, a wry twist to her lips.

"I think the dog to wolf ratio around here is getting to him," she confessed to the man, as Gavin padded away to sniff at the snow. "I hope you're okay?" She nodded toward the stick, since he needed a cane and all.

[imthegoodguy]

"Oh, you mean this?" He wriggled the stick a bit. "I just barely need it, so I guess I'm just barely okay." After a pause, and a lick of his lips, he added, "It's a long story."

A long story involving destiny and a plane crash and a cranky, lovesick doctor and so on. It wasn't a story Dean Moriarty would tell.

[loaded_wolf]

"Aren't all the good ones?" Angua asked, eyebrows raised with a curious look at the makeshift cane.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear you're just barely okay. Are you new?"

[imthegoodguy]

"Comparatively," he replied. "I've been here a couple of weeks, just long enough to get the gist of this place."

He noted the cane, and made no sign that he was interested in satiating her curiosity.

[loaded_wolf]

"Just over a year for me," Angua replied, and though it was belated she extended a mittened hand to shake. "I'm Angua von Uberwald, it's nice to meet you."

[imthegoodguy]

"Dean Moriarty." He extended his own hand to shake Angua's. "I hope there's something about this island that compensates for being away from home for a year."

[loaded_wolf]

Another Dean, that made Angua smile. "It's hard at first, and there are things I miss, but I'm happy here. I guess it all depends on the sort of life you can make for yourself." She knew most of it was because of Dean.* Having people here from home certainly didn't hurt, either.

* Not this Dean, of course.

[imthegoodguy]

* This Dean was perfectly capable of making people happy. On his own terms. On pain of severe punishment.

"I think that's true no matter where you go. Guess for me it's just a matter of time and adjustment." He tilted his head. "By the way you smiled, I take it you must know someone else named Dean. Or Moriarty. Sherlock fan?"

[loaded_wolf]

"Oh, I'm sure you'll find a place for yourself here," Angua said, less out of certainty and more out of an optimism that wasn't so much inherent as it was born from the good mood she'd been in lately.

She pulled a face, looking sheepish that he'd noticed. "I know a Dean. I'm not so sure I've ever heard of Sherlock. But you're probably from Earth, and I'm not," she added.

[imthegoodguy]

"Oh." He lifted his eyebrows. "I'm not sure I got the memo about folks not being from earth. I suppose I can explain then -- I share the same last name as a famous villain. But don't worry. I'm not villainous myself."