[closed] Temporarily powerless and homeless

[powerdealer]

It seems every day is more monotone than the last, like he's walking around in a zombie haze - though thankfully without any real zombies, he'd prefer not to do that again. But you'd think a city as weird as this would have more going on. That's what he gets for staying out of trouble.

He sighs as he unlocks the door to his apartment, dropping the keys on a table and running a hand down his face. He sits down in front of the telly, but gets bored almost immediately. Perhaps he should simply go out. Or perhaps he should go hang out with Gabe. He hasn't seen him for almost a week, he realises with a small pang.

Usually Gabe shoots him a text or something if he wants to hang out, or Seth just heads upstairs, but that hasn't happened lately. Probably he's just been busy. Yeah, that's what he'll do, maybe that will shake him out of this funk.

Not bothering with the keys just now, he heads for the door again, simply walking through it before heading upstairs. He knocks twice, but there's no reply. Guess not, then. He's about to leave, but then decides if Gabe's out, he might as well check if Scout's there and if he needs something, so he steps through the door.

Comments

[powerdealer]

It was occasionally pretty cool. Sometimes it was just messy and unfortunate. Sometimes it was hilarious, usually because it had just gone completely off the whacked out scale and become ridiculous.

"Nah. Got the power dealing, but I couldn't use the powers I took back then," he says, merely picking a bit as his own chips. "Then here I was eventually able to use them, and that's how I got that power."

[johnny_truant]

"Oh." Johnny eyes him thoughtfully, still mostly focused on eating. "Someone who wanted to get rid of it?"

He's curious, yeah; but he's also a little bit looking for validation, that he's not the only one who doesn't want what the rift gave him (not that he wouldn't mind having it back right about now, just to get into his own apartment).

[powerdealer]

"Ah, no, that one was... complicated," he answers slowly. Instead of elaborating, he eats chips. He's not sure he's in the mood to talk about the situation with the rebels right now, but he might have gotten just enough beer to not care as much. It's the constant having to decide between turning people further away from the rebels, and revealing traumas of his past.

[johnny_truant]

Complicated. Okay. Johnny knows complicated. He's been through plenty of complicated. Given what Seth's already alluded to, it seems like this might be something unscrupulous. Johnny can't help but wonder what it is - if he took the power by force, or something else he can't imagine - but he keeps quiet, sipping at his drink.

"What did you do before?" he asks casually, making a point of moving on. "And... what are you doing now, if anything?"

[powerdealer]

Eesh, with the tricky questions. This is why he doesn't share a lot. Well, that and just being a generally private person.

"I, um... provide restricted medical plants," he answers, raising his eyebrows. Seeing as they're in a public place, he doesn't want to be too obvious. And he may be in possession of heavier stuff, but he's kept his word to Gabe to only provide people with weed. It's not exactly as lucrative or exciting, but it's a lot easier on the conscience.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny grins. "No shit," he says, sipping his whiskey with a coy little smile. "I've been known to go in for restricted medical plants from time to time." (Seriously, that wording.) "Maybe you can hook me up sometime."

He hasn't been into any heavy shit for a long time and he's not planning to ever go back. But a little weed never hurt anyone, and hell, he could use the stress relief at this point.

"I mean, all my fuckin money comes from Gabe," he says with a wry shrug. "But he already sponsors my recreational bullshit, so, whatever."

[powerdealer]

He doesn't really do euphemism well. This is also why he prefers straight-talkers. Though he suspected at least that Johnny wouldn't have a problem with it.

He smiles and nods. "Well, I don't have any on me, so it's just good, old fashioned alcohol tonight," he answers. And he generally doesn't smoke a lot of it himself. It can be nice socially, though.

"He wasn't to enthusiastic about it to be honest, but he seemed alright with it when I told him it was just -- well, plants."

[johnny_truant]

"Yeah, I mean... we're all adults here, right?" Johnny shrugs. Seems like Seth doesn't really have the immunity with Gabriel that he has. He definitely doesn't want to cause any unfriendliness between them, though he can't imagine Gabe is going to turn into a mother hen about his recreational drug use.

"And hey, alcohol's fine with me," he says, raising his glass and finishing it off. Oh man, definitely starting to feel it now. He sets the glass down and rests his elbow on the table, running a hand through his hair. "I will take what I can get."

He grins and works on finishing off his fries. "Are you down for more drinking in the hotel?" he asks. He definitely wouldn't mind heading out sooner, and nor would he mind continuing on this promising trajectory. Having a solid drinking partner is such a great gift, thank you rift-jesus.

[powerdealer]

The 'I'll snap your neck' hadn't made it evident before that he doesn't have immunity?

Seth's not feeling it as much as Johnny is, probably because he didn't have whiskey, and because he's actually eaten since noon. Probably a good thing, he needs to self-medicate soon, and he'd rather not be drunk for it.

"Yeah," he answers with a nod. "Either pick up something on the way, or we can just go out again after we know we've got somewhere to sleep." Either sounds good to him. A nice coping method for all the shitty stuff that's happened today.

[johnny_truant]

Well obviously that factored into it, yes.

"Great." Johnny nods and sits back. "So this whole situation is fucked," he says after a moment. "But you're pretty cool, at least."

Is that too friendly too soon? What the fuck ever.

[powerdealer]

Even if it is, it's practically his thing to be unfazed or maybe just mildly annoyed at the weird shit that goes on around him. And someone calling him pretty cool isn't all that weird.

Seth smiles and clinks his glass against Johnny's empty one, before finishing off his own drink. "Gotta take comfort in the little things."

Since he's still got over half his chips left, he picks them up by the paper to bring it along, and pays for the secound round. "Coming?"

[johnny_truant]

Johnny raps his fingers lightly on the table and slides out. Standing up is always an adventure after two shots of whiskey and very little food, but he's doing all right. He follows Seth out of the pub and into the street, the sun is starting to get low in the sky.

"Been a while since I had to live in a hotel," says Johnny, folding his hands behind his head as he walks. "I was holed up with another newbie for a while. Like a week of nothing but bad fuckin dreams. Do you ever have the shared dreams? What's up with that shit?"

[powerdealer]

Seth checks his phone to make sure he knows where they're going. There's not all that many hotels in the Hell's Kitchen area, so they'll have to walk for a little while, but that's alright.

"Ah, yeah," he answers, putting the phone away. "To be honest, I just try to.. avoid attracting attention in those dreams. Stick to myself. You've got all sorts entering them, rebels and Romac people alike, I'd prefer to avoid both."

[johnny_truant]

"I can't do anything but attract attention there," mutters Johnny, dropping his hands and frowning at his feet. "Not from those people, at least not so far. I'm like a magnet for metaphysical assholes. I don't mean the way Gabe is an asshole. Like... monsters."

How else to describe them, really? Ugh. He wishes he could never sleep again.

"You know how many times I've died in one of those dreams?" Johnny says, with the same tone he would use to tell a complicated joke. "Five fuckin times. You know how many of those times I was murdered? Three." Two and a half, really, since Topher's memory of Gabriel only sort of counts, but he's sure as hell not about to go into that. "That's not counting any of the times I've been tortured or threatened with grievous bodily harm, barely avoided death on I don't know how many fucking occasions. And I haven't been here that long, as you know."

It's really not funny, not at all, but he laughs anyway.

[powerdealer]

Seth makes an impressed whistle, and offers Johnny some consolation chips. "Harsh. But at least no one's been murdering you while you're awake." He shrugs. Shit happening in the dreaming can be traumatising, but at least it's not generally life-threatening.

"I dunno though, I spent about three months without the Dreaming, and you start to miss it. Not the grievous bodily harm, of course, but.. Sometimes there's nice things, too." And given Seth's recurring regular nightmares, some time to relax other places can be nice.

[johnny_truant]

"Not for lack of trying," mutters Johnny, remembering his first brush with Zagreus in the pub.

Seth's next remark makes Johnny glance up at him in surprise, still taking his consolation fries. "Three months?" he echoes. "How'd you pull that off?"

[powerdealer]

"Both Romac and the rebels have rooms that block off telepathic contact," he answers, in a would-be casual way. Never mind that room translates to cell, and he didn't have any choice in the matter. It's probably rare for them to offer up these kinds of rooms to people who simply didn't want to enter the Dreaming.

[johnny_truant]

"Huh," says Johnny, a little perplexed by this information. "What for?"

The question isn't so much meant to dig further at Seth's personal experience; more than he doesn't know hardly anything about these factions except neither is to be trusted, apparently. Any information is helpful, at this point.

[powerdealer]

Seth half-shrugs. "Protection? Like you said, murder and bodily harm." He eats some chips, as if considering. "And sometimes there's people they don't want contacting the outside world." He's doing really well at skirting around the issue today. Although he expects he'll tell Johnny eventually, if they become friends. Or maybe Gabe will, inadvertently or intentionally once he hears they're becoming friends. (He's still refusing to really acknowledge the idea that Gabe won't come back.)

[johnny_truant]

Johnny's right there with him, refusing steadfast and stubborn to even think of Gabe in the past tense.

He "hums" softly, considering it. Many of his shared dream experiences have been awful, certainly, but to skip out on them entirely would almost feel like cheating, somehow. And he would never be able to see the TARDIS.

"Why are they so goddamn shady?" he asks, more or less rhetorically. "Kidnapping people and shit. I mean, I know Romac does that. I would have assumed the rebels were like, an answer to that shit, but Gabe always acts like they're no better." He shrugs. "I'm glad I didn't get picked up, anyway. Something tells me I wouldn't really fit in, with either of them."

[powerdealer]

"I think they started out better," he theorises, looking absently into the distance. "But the more power and advantages are at stake, the easier it is to bend the rules. At this point I think they're about equally bad when it comes to methods, they just have different ideas about what to do with us."

[johnny_truant]

"Yeah..." Johnny nods, mulling this over. Makes sense, comfortingly familiar in its resemblance to "The Establishment" in the sense he's always known it. He borrows another fry and raises it as if toasting. "Fuck 'em," he says brightly.

[powerdealer]

Seth smiles and raises a chip as well, mimicking the toast. "Fuck 'em," he agrees, and eats it.

"So.. Basically, you came through mid-May, lived in a hotel for a while, then befriended Gabe, and he's looked out for you since?" he asks, checking if he's got that right. "Met any other 'pretty cool' people? You know, ones that didn't try to murder you."

[johnny_truant]

"Yep," Johnny confirms. "And yeah, a few. More than have tried to kill me, anyway." He gives a lopsided grin. He doesn't mention Jodie, since she still mostly likes to stay hidden, but the others are probably all right. "The TARDIS. Daine. Uhh, I met this guy named Andrew in a dream recently, he seemed all right." Better than Peter, he doesn't mention. "This total badass, Charley. Uh, Charlotte." He smiles a little and feels around in his pocket, wishing he had his phone. How much would it suck if she called him while he was locked out? A lot, is how much.

There's Lucy and Eliot, too, but Johnny's not sure his drunken hook-ups are really stories he wants to share. Anyway the mornings-after of both of those were kind of... complicated.

He shrugs. "There's a few others but those are the big ones, I guess."

[powerdealer]

Seth frowns. He's at least vaguely familiar with all except this Charley, and he still hasn't met the TARDIS, despite hearing about her now and then from Gabe. And he doesn't actually know he met Daine, considering she was a seal at the time.

"Andrew - the guy who looks like Peter and the Doctor, by any chance?" he asks. Assuming Johnny knows who either of those are. If he knows the TARDIS, he should at least know the Doctor.