bigapplesauce | a thankless job but somebody's got to do it [closed]

Seth nods in reply, taking another drink and emptying his glass.

"Though for the record, you haven't noticed any... side-effects to it? Any particular problems you didn't have before that you can't ascribe to anything in particular?" he asks. Because he is sure not taking a piddly little power like that if it has negative consequences.

"Nothing I can think of, no." Daniel frowns, trying to remember feeling anything aside from annoyance that yet another heap of pens managed to invade his precious sock supply. "But, like I said, it's all pretty new to me. It might be I just haven't noticed anything yet."

He hesitates, wondering if he should mention pre-existing circumstances. He's never been sure if he should exactly lump them in the realm of "powers" but they're certainly oddities. Oddities he's gotten used to, granted, but it's still a sticky situation. And that means he'd have to bring up some more personal information which he might not be wholly comfortable disclosing.

But then again, Seth's given him no reason to distrust him. So onward he goes.

"Well, there're...extenuating circumstances. Stuff that happened before all, uh, this. I don't think that's affected anything paperclip-related, though, so. Yeah."

Seth frowns. "You mean you had some abilities before you came through the rift too?" he asks, sounding a mix of curious and worried. That's definitely something he needs to know about if he's going to be taking one power. He could accidentally take them all, or take the wrong one.

"In a manner of speaking." Daniel winces a little because, yeah, this conversation is always a brand of awkward bordering on painful. "Little while ago, I kind of...spent some time on a higher plane. Well I - actually I had to die first, and then I Ascended which is - I, uh, I don't actually know if you have that here." He looks upward with absurd curiosity, as if the ceiling might somehow extemporaneously confirm the existence of a higher plane in this universe.

"But, uh, see, after that I came back a little, um. Different. Er, well, the first time not as much. I didn't actually learn how to retain anything until I Ascended the second time, and at that point..." He trails off, very aware that he probably sounds completely out of his mind. He grimaces again, this time apologetically. "It's a bit of a long story."

Seth eyebrows just steadily climb as Daniel explains. By the time he mentions Ascending, whatever that means, a second time, Seth sits back, torn between amusement, confusion, and concern.

"I can tell," he answers, watching Daniel closely. "So you ended up with some stuff that humans generally don't have?" he asks. Then he adds, "Assuming, of course, you are human." Always good to make sure. Considering he's met aliens and archangels and demigods and whatnot, all of whom looked human enough, he wouldn't be too surprised.

Daniel exhales with a slow whoosh of breath before nodding wearily. Seth is taking this well. That's good.

"More or less. I mean, I'm not sure what else you'd call me at this point. 'Human with a side of Ancient,' maybe. The beings that showed me how to Ascend," he explains hastily. "Those're Ancients. Basically now it means I just have...leftover knowledge of the higher plane, latent senses, stuff in my subconscious that sometimes I can access. Meditation helps. Usually. I could do a lot more when I actually was Ascended but, well." He half-shrugs and rubs at the surface of the table with a finger. "There were disagreements, and I couldn't stay."

"Right," he answers slowly. Seth has seen a lot of weird shit, so it takes a lot to really shock him. But he's not going to delve into this whole thing. He's pretty sure he lacks a pretty hefty amount of context here. And it makes it kind of hard to determine what exactly those things are and if they're just memories or instincts rather than powers. He's also surprised by how extremely little pomp or bragging Daniel is explaining all this, but that might just be Seth being used to Gabe, who frequently just casually throws out hints of these sort of things seemingly just to impress and befuddle.

"So... Is that stuff you'd rather were gone too, or...?" he asks. Daniel doesn't seem to have much enthusiasm for it, but that doesn't mean he's looking to get rid of it.

"Not really, no." He can still remember the last time he was Wilmot's End and that...thing that had been sitting with them and he adds a silent definitely no. "It's useful, mostly. You know. Universe, meaning-of-life stuff." The smile that follows is more than a little self-deprecating. "And it's all probably still mnemonically tied to my subconscious so getting rid of that would, well. There'd be memory loss, possible brain damage, I'd be confused, it'd suck."

Seth nods in understanding. "Brain damage is generally best avoided," he concurs. Oh, if only his powers gave him meaning-of-life stuff. That would've come in handy a few times.

"Not exactly sure where the line between superpower and inherently a part of your being is drawn. But that kind of sounds like it's across that line."

"It's...difficult to explain. But yeah, I think we can assume the post-Ascended stuff is a little less purely neurological than it is intrinsic. Possibly biological. Not entirely clear on that bit, actually." Daniel's long since given up on trying to understand it. It's likely he did at some point, but it must have back been when he existed as energy on a different plane.

"The office supplies thing is unrelated, though. Er, at least I'm pretty sure it is. I like to think I'd have noticed if it wasn't."

Seth smiles a little. "Well, in that case it shouldn't be difficult to get rid of." Though honestly, if you're not freaked out by the idea of a power itself, he doesn't really see why he would actually give it away. Unless it really is that inconvenient.

Daniel nods, sucking on his lower lip thoughtfully. "Hm. Okay. Well, I mean, I can hang onto it to make sure there aren't any nasty side effects or anything. Wouldn't be surprised if there were," he adds glumly. "That always seems to be the case."

Then a new thought occurs to him. "How would one go about getting rid of it, anyway?"

For a moment, Seth seems lost in thought, looking at Daniel's lip as he sucks on it, then looks up quickly when he's asked a question.

"Um, I can give and take powers from people," Seth answers after a moment, figuring Daniel has given him more than enough information about himself for Seth to share this. It's sort of a thing he has to share before taking someone's powers anyway.

"Really." Daniel sits up a little straighter, eyes widening. "God, that's amazing. Have you always been able to?" He has to bite back about a dozen more questions, realizing the man doesn't seem entirely comfortable with admitting it.

"I mean," he amends, quickly trying to draw the conversation away from the subject. "No wonder Lucy figured you could help."

Shit, that wasn't really successful.

Well, Seth appreciates the attempt, though it's really only apparent at the sudden awkwardness.

"I got it a couple years ago, back in my home universe," he answers. "There was a.. storm that gave people superpowers." He shrugs. Not really weirder than Ancients or whatever, just a different kind of weird.

"Huh." Daniel blinks. A storm. Okay, a bit on the unconventional side, but not unheard of. And what isn't unconventional these days? Apparently not power-dispensing storms or spaciotemporal relocation, that's for sure. "I can't imagine that'd be very easy for you. You probably get everyone asking you to give them this power or take away that one."

And here Daniel is, up until about a minute ago prepared to ask the same thing.

He shuts his eyes, takes off his glasses, and rubs at the bridge of his nose, immediately contrite.

"God, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to - if it's easier on you, I can hang on to this one. Really, it's, it's a minor inconvenience at the worst."

Seth stares in surprise at Daniel. He's used to this bit of information being met with fear and distrust, and if not that, considering Seth merely a way to rid themselves of bothersome powers or perhaps gaining new ones. And here's Daniel apologising for making Seth uncomfortable when he didn't even know.

Hell, even Gabriel, who is now probably Seth's most trusted friend in the city, had responded to the information by threatening to snap Seth's neck if he took one of his.

"Actually I made a bit of a business out of it," he answers after a moment, to calm Daniel's worries and reassure him that it's not actually that big of a deal.

"Oh." The man seems almost confused by the apology which leads Daniel to believe that either he doesn't see the need or he doesn't get them that often. He privately finds both options to be equally upsetting. "Well that's - that makes a lot of sense, actually."

He crams the glasses back on a little crookedly as his talking speed ratchets up significantly. "Either way, though, you probably don't want to take a power that might have an unpleasant side-effect or something that turns out to be harmful or is lacking a required secondary component or anything like that so it's, it's really not a problem if you want me to hang onto it. I don't even know the full extent or the limitations or what would happen if I try to control it. It's doable. It's liveable. It's not a problem. And it could be useful, you know, in case I forget a pen or, or need a post-it reminder or need a stapler to, I don't know, throw at someone's head."

He runs out of steam near the end, thankfully remembering around the same time that breathing is a thing that is necessary.

Seth can't help but smile at Daniel's mouth going about a mile-a-minute in an attempt to be.. polite? Considerate? Selfless? Very unlike 90% of Seth's friends, anyway. It makes Seth feel quite selfish, actually. Sure, most times his selfishness and disconnect has been a method of self-preservation, but he can tell there's no need for it here.

"Come here," he says, getting to his feet and gesturing for Daniel to follow, heading into the men's bathroom. There's just one guy washing his hands, and Seth pointedly stares at him until he leaves.

Daniel frowns, a little confused, but follows suit. The men's bathroom. Okay. He doesn't know where this is going. They enter and his hand automatically dips to brush against a sidearm that isn't there - pure, weary, hateful instinct. His jaw clenches a little in frustration at that.

"What's, uh -" Daniel glances over his shoulder as the guy leaves, the door swinging shut and leaving them in silence. "What are we doing?"

"It's just a bit too eye-catching to do among other people. See, usually when I take someone's power and then give it back to them, the power becomes more easy to use, less random," he explains once the door swings shut. "I could do that for you, maybe help you get a handle on it much quicker." He smiles and then holds out his hand towards Daniel, as if wanting to give him an important handshake. "It's no trouble," he adds, because given Daniel's apologies just a moment ago, he'll probably think this is way too much for Seth to do for him.

Edited 2014-09-28 08:45 (UTC)

"Um, all right then. If you're sure." Daniel nods to himself for a minute before seeming to notice Seth's hand is out and he hurries to take it.

Yup. Two guys shaking hands in a bathroom. Happens all the time. Absolutely.

"So what do I do now?"

"You don't, I do," he answers, making sure Daniel is ready for it, and then, well, he does. A bright light immediately shines out from where their hands meet, Seth's gripping Daniel's tightly as his body tenses while he metaphorically reaches into him for the power. And oh, he can feel there is most definitely something else there, but the one he's looking for is the most tangible, most accessible, and he pulls it into himself.

After several seconds, he lets go and stumbles back, his heart racing. That actually felt quite good this time, he was expecting worse based on his current anxiety, but seems he's more relaxed now.

Daniel braces himself but is still completely unprepared for - well, it's difficult to classify, really. There's a brightness and an odd rushing, and he can feel something pulling out of him. He shoves down the urge to resist, trusting that Seth knows what he's doing. Whatever it is, it's taking place on some level he can't fully -

- and, woah, okay. The light fades and Daniel can more acutely conceptualize its absence now that it's no longer there. The two stagger apart from each other. Daniel has to give himself a little shake to refocus, reestablish, reassess. Someone just rifled through the abstracted energy in his subconscious. He needs a minute.

"Wow," he breathes after a few seconds. "That was - okay, then."

Tentatively, he shuts his eyes and tries to re-access the Ascended memories locked away in the farthest corners of his skull. Sure enough, he can still detect them - annoyingly out of reach, as always, but present and accounted for. Good.

Seth would probably be interested to learn how Daniel could feel the difference - he's been told that other humans generally feel something is going on, but don't usually have the ability to detect what or how. But then that stuff probably changes when you die and Ascend. And the non-humans often can tell much better. He's just still a little used to the people in his home universe who didn't really feel any different.

He straightens up a little and watches Daniel for a moment to make sure he's okay. Then he looks down at his hand and tries to focus on the power, tries to make it work. Tries to make a paperclip in his hand.

Nothing happens, but that is not altogether surprising, given this is a very new and untested power for Daniel. It'll take a bit more practice. He still frowns at it though, he'd been hoping he could give it back right away, easily improved. But no.

"Can't make it work yet," he says, flexing his fingers a bit. "I can hold onto to it for the evening, or a few days or something, see if I can make it easier." He doesn't like suggesting it, assuming Daniel will think he's just trying to keep the power for himself when he (for once) is not.

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