in the company of strangers

[akillersmile]

Kyle had been away for too long, first following Alex and then focusing on his own leads to try to find an old commanding officer. The hunt was futile, leaving him feeling played and used all at once. With Alex out of touch in her search and too many dead ends, the former soldier finally returned to London, feeling a bit reckless and angry while simultaneously eager to connect with recent friends.

A; I CAN'T SEE STRAIGHT ANYMORE (DRINKING)
Generally, as a rule, Kyle made a deliberate effort to avoid getting drunk. With his training and issues, it was a recipe for disaster and he was a responsible enough person to choose not to engage in such an unnecessary risk. Generally. Right now, he felt like shit and had very few responsibilities to worry about.

Which was why he was wandering casually from pub to pub, from early afternoon to late in the evening, having a beer here and a whiskey there. Mostly beer. He wanted to ride the buzz, to sit in his temporary angst like a cliche, 20-something American and make bad choices. Be the stereotype of the loud tourist for once, instead of always trying to defy expectations. He sat at the bar, ordered another beer, let his gaze slip past the wood grain of the counter back into his own mind to block things out. Here, he was just another guy drinking in London. No supernatural bullshit involved. Until, of course, it was.

B; GONNA HIT THIS CITY (HUNTING)
After and in between his bouts of reckless drinking, Kyle opted for another form of reckless behavior: hunting. He was a soldier, not a hunter, as he had explained to at least a dozen people in the last year. Yeah, he killed vampires, but that was the mission. He didn't go looking for the supernatural. Except that now he was. He was bored and angry, with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove, stalking the night and trying to find more vampires, werewolves, witches, whatever. He might not actually attack them, might only get to know them. As a human, it was all dangerous. But it was fun too.

C; WELCOME TO MY HOUSE (AT HOME)
Kyle's plans to move in with Alex were nixed before they started and his invitation to Nancy didn't fair much better. Which meant he returned from Germany to an empty apartment, barely furnished, with the unfulfilled potential of something now lost to time. He dropped his keys on the counter and leaned back against it, staring out at the window. The rumbling of his stomach reminded him how empty his fridge was and he immediately left again for the corner store, to grab some basic groceries and return to cook up a simple meal. Maybe a few drinks too.

[OOC: Feel free to bump into him on his way to the store or, for existing CR, to know or have found out where he lives.]

Comments

A

[outstandingbalance]

They always seem to meet like this.

To be fair, Natasha isn't trying to drink away her bloodlust today. The hunger is there and nagging, but she's out keeping her ear to the ground. With London in the state it's in, it's worth paying attention.

The result is the same, though. Natasha sitting at the bar in the late evening, comfortably after dark, when she spots Kyle—and Kyle seems to have been warming up. She'd run into him at bars before, but she didn't think she'd ever seen him show that he'd been drinking. Tonight, she notices his flush, the difference in his posture, the way he orders another.

One brow rises as she makes eye contact with him from down the bar, questioning. Asking what he's doing here, or what's got into him, or maybe just if he minds her joining him.

C

[stauncherhearted]

It's shortly after Kyle returns home to cook that Nancy decides to stop over. She'd caught word he was back, and if he can stop over at her place, well, she can stop at his. It isn't like they left in the best of terms before.

Knocking politely, she waits outside his door. She's going to have to explain that she's now officially dating a vampire. My, how things changed while he was away.

When the door is answered, she moves in, holding out a bottle of whiskey as a sort of peace offering.

"I heard you were back in town, I hope you aren't busy." Why was he wearing a shirt?

a;

[iustitiae]

Connor has found that trying to avoid supernatural bullshit is the best way to get involved in it. For the last six months, all he's been doing is trying to avoid this stuff and all it did was get him bitten by a werewolf named Party. (and oh if only he knew that was his name, then his life would truly be a joke.)

So he's trying to do the same thing, be away from it for a little while. He's not even drinking (Ollie is back, he's trying not to make him upset), just has seltzer water. But Kyle is so obviously in a position he's been in before, it's hard not to want to talk to him.

"What are you drinking? Let me get you the next one."

A

[catphishing]

If tourist is the assumption he's shooting for then he's succeeded. At least with Oliver. After all, it is summer and he looks like he's been at it for hours despite it being barely outside of typical office hours. Not that it's a mark against him in Oliver's mind. Everyone deserves to let loose on vacation, and he's always happy to see someone else who grew up in the States even if they only rarely turn out to be from any part he's ever been to.

Once he has his beer he can't quite resist turning to make conversation after hearing the accent the other man had made his own order in. "How long are you over here?"

B

[reticence]

Kyle isn't the only one out, looking for trouble on that night. Perhaps Faolan should know better, considering his position and title. Then again, where Kyle has insisted he's a soldier, not a hunter, Faolan has no such qualms about his own identity. And vampires are a creature that he hates more than anything else. They've ruined his life. And now they'd nearly just done it again. If that wasn't cause for a little revenge hunting, he didn't know what was.

Of course, it's not a particularly intelligent way to approach a situation. But honestly, revenge never particularly was.

Faolan's checking his revolver for the third time to make certain it's fully loaded and that he has plenty of ammo to spare when he realizes he's not the only person skulking about this particular building that is supposedly abandoned and yet actually occupied by vampires. And that in itself is cause for investigation...

A (when Kyle's been wandering between bars)

[roddy_reinigen]

By this point, Roddy pretty much figured that Kyle had either skipped town for good or was eaten by vampires, since that seemed to be a more common fate than ever anymore. Needless to say, after going this much time without seeing him, Roddy was surprised to run into Kyle wandering about early one evening, and seeming unusually drunk for it being so early.

"Kyle?" he asked. "What the hell happened to you?"

A

[vampire_barbie_girl]

It was Caroline's night off and she was feeling restless. Feeling restless quickly led to feeling hungry. And that was definitely a good thing, especially right now when she was trying to keep a fairly low profile. New city, new rules and all that jazz, though she determined to master it all before too long. She had not come all the way to London to become a shut-in.

And so she ended up out for drink - of alcohol, that is. As always, it smoothed down all the edges inside. She worried about relying on booze too much sometimes, though it was still better than the alternative. Especially after what she and Stefan had done back home ...

No, she wasn't going to think about Stefan. And the best way to avoid thinking about him was to think about someone else. Her interest was drawn when she noticed another American at the bar and figured it might be nice to feel like she didn't have a foreign accent for bit. She made her way over and sat down, keeping one stool in between them in case he turned out to be a waste of time.

"So," she said, taking a sip of her nearly finished rum and Coke, "what's your story?"