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

[powerdealer]

Seth's not entirely sure how much he likes being called up as a newbie's guide to superpowers. Any recognition is still a bit too much for him, and he doesn't like meeting at a pre-determined time with someone he doesn't know. But Wilmot's End is just about the only place he feels is safe, neutral ground.

He'd actually showed up pretty early, thinking he might scout for other newbies with fresh powers they might like to get rid of, but he's felt far too anti-social to actually approach anyone. His anxiety's been kicking in, much earlier than he'd like. It's a worrying trend that he's trying very hard not to think about too much.

So he's sitting a little towards the back, nursing a drink and watching the door from his booth. Looking for anyone who looks a little lost and out of place, like they're searching for someone.

Comments

[peacefulexplorer]

He waits for a sign that Seth's joking. And then he exhales and smirks and, yeah, he's going to need a lot of beer after that one.

"Suppose I shouldn't be surprised," he admits, setting the bottle down with its contents half-gone. Right about now he's getting the tingling reminder of why he's a coffee-drinker and not so big on alcohol buzzing away in the back of his skull. Oh yeah, getting back to Lucy's is going to be fun. "I guess we've got the literal Devil wandering around so why draw the line there, right? Although," he pauses, musing aloud, "I did meet a Satan once. Though he...actually went by Sokar. And he wasn't so much the Devil as he was just making use to the title to spread fear and panic and..." And Daniel's trains of thought are getting worryingly difficult to micromanage. "We didn't get along," he finishes seriously.

[powerdealer]

"Doesn't seem like my kind of guy either, no," Seth answers with a smile, amused at how Daniel seems to be speaking faster instead of slower.

"Never met anyone pretending to be Satan, but I did meet someone pretending to be Jesus," he says, and takes another drink, realising he needs to put down alcohol a bit quicker to keep up with Daniel, if he's as light-weight as he seems. (Even though at that size, it doesn't seem like he should be.) "But, considering he got the power to walk on water from me, it wasn't all that impressive."

[peacefulexplorer]

"Jesus?" He takes another long pull to give himself time to digest that one, caution ostensibly forfeit. "Jesus."

Then he pauses, pleased at how the evolution of English slang and its juxtaposition with religious ideology could align to make that joke possible.

"Says a lot about the human brain and its fixation with the idea of a higher power." Daniel can feel the thoughts shifting away as quickly as they spring to mind so he goes even faster to compensate. "Most every culture will have at least some basis in religious standpoint, and it's quite amazing to see how easily that's translatable into real life. Not literally, mind you, but there's always that vagueness and ambiguity that comes with interpretation, and most people are able to bend an interpretation to their advantage and gain a following and -" His brow knits as he tries to remember what this had to do with Jesus. "And then there's performance of, of miracles and such and the walking on water, and. And." He makes a vaguely sinusoidal motion with one hand, as if that wraps up his point nicely, and takes another drink.

uhh sexual assault reference?

[powerdealer]

Well, Seth is definitely not regretting buying this guy drinks. It's fascinating to listen to, but only because of what he's saying, but rather the way he is saying it. He just waits until Daniel runs out of steam on this particular point.

"Is now a good time to mention Jesus also had the power to make girls perform oral sex on him?" he asks. Not exactly a miracle, and not exactly Jesus-like.

[peacefulexplorer]

"That. But that. That. That. But, but - but -"

He scrunches his eyes shut and gives his head a very rapid shake as if to clear it but that just makes it worse.

His brain needs a minute.

"Well, also prevalent in human history is the abuse of power," he continues abruptly, confused by where the words are coming from but just going with it. "Particularly when it comes to interrelations. And sexual relations. Distressingly common. Sign of dominance, supposedly, though the roots for sexual 'dominance' are much more recent than one would think. Many earlier societies actually defied typical gender assignments and were therefore, ah. What's the word."

Whatever the word is, he doesn't find it. He drains the second bottle and shuts his eyes. Tomorrow morning is going to be hell.

[powerdealer]

It's astonishing, really, how he can go from stammering the same words half a dozen times, then jump straight into a reasonably eloquent and coherent history lesson. Meanwhile Seth's going to take a moment to order some water for Daniel, because he really seems like he needs to balance this out, and he doesn't seem used enough to drinking that he actually considers hangover prevention.

It is not at all a way for him to not think about Daniel discussing sexual dominance. "You alright there?" he asks instead.

[peacefulexplorer]

"I am -" He runs out of steam before he can finish what was planned to be a vicious protest. He winds up sighing and continuing, utterly resigned. "Drunk, probably. It all goes straight to my head. I'm more a coffee guy. I'm way too much a coffee guy. I have a raging caffeine dependency." He drums a finger on the lip of the beer bottle before carefully lining it up beside the old one. "Still working on that."

[powerdealer]

"There are worse things to be dependent on," Seth answers, and it's probably a good thing Daniel is drunk, cause then there's a lot less chance of him picking up on any kind of significance to that statement.

"And hey, saves money in buying drinks," he points out, and thankfully that water comes a lot faster. Seth pushes the glass in front of Daniel. "Drink up."

[peacefulexplorer]

He nods in weary agreement and accepts the water without complaint. And downs it in one go.

"I never get drunk," he admits to the table. "Mostly because I never really, uh. I'm always working, so coffee. Not beer as often."

He finishes with another self-affirming nod, as if that made perfect sense and starts dismembering the second beer's label.

[powerdealer]

"All work and no play," Seth comments, not finishing the reference. "Maybe you should grab a coffee here before you go." Maybe if Seth keeps drinking, they'll even out on about the same amount of intoxication. He supposes if Daniel drank beer while working, he'd just talk so fast no one would understand him. Probably not conducive.

[peacefulexplorer]

"Maybe." This sounds like a good idea until, quite suddenly, it doesn't. "Or, actually, maybe not. I don't know, have you seen me drunk and caffeinated? No, nononono, wait. No, no, of course you haven't, you've only just met me. Dumb question."

He huffs out through his nose and peels off another strip of label.

[powerdealer]

Seth chuckles gently into his drink. "Well, based on the evidence, it'd be amusing," he says, picking up the empty water glass and waving it at the bartender.

"Maybe I should just get you drunk on Irish coffee one day. It'd be great. You could ramble at hundred miles per hour about something posh and super old, and I could try to figure out what the hell you're talking about," he suggests, smiling. He's getting kind of drunk too, but all it really does for him is making him relaxed and more talkative.

[peacefulexplorer]

"Oh, god," says Daniel, utterly horrified. "That'd be the worst. No, hang on - the only thing worse than giving me Irish coffee is not telling me it's Irish coffee, and the next thing you know I'm trying to summarize Gödel's ontological proof in Arabic." He takes off his glasses and deposits them on the table so he can scrub at his face with both hands. "Though I think it might have been an attempt at spoken Akkadian. I don't know. No one would tell me."

[powerdealer]

"See, exactly like that," Seth answers with a lopsided grin. "No clue who the hell Gödel is or where Akkadia is, but still pretty amusing to watch." He picks up Daniel's glasses, tries to look through them, squints a bit and puts them back down again.

[peacefulexplorer]

He drops his hands in time to see Seth examining the glasses.

"Had 'em since I was little. Bad eyesight. S'genetic." It occurs to him that his diction could be better but he can't summon the wherewithal to fix it. "Really completes the studious look, though. So. You know."

[powerdealer]

"Honestly, I'd say they were about a hundred percent responsible for the studious look," Seth observes. The broad shoulders and tall, sturdy stature doesn't exactly scream 'nerd'. Another glass of water arrives and Seth pushes it in front of Daniel.

[peacefulexplorer]

This time Daniel examines the water at length before partaking, for no other reason than that it seems the logical thing to do.

"Didn't used to be. Blame the military." There's reasoning buried somewhere behind that wandering statement but Daniel can't quite search it out currently. "Used to have raging allergies but I guess death and Ascension is a cure-all for that."

[powerdealer]

Seth blames the military for enough things, he doesn't need more. Well, not so much the military as the government and the establishment, probably. Never had all that much faith in all of that shit, never had much reason to.

"Not sure I'd advertise death as a good solution for allergies," Seth answers, taking a drink, almost finished with it now. Should probably head back soon. Underneath the good mood and the alcohol, he can still feel withdrawal pulling at him.

[peacefulexplorer]

"No, no, I don't think I would either." He shakes his head, a little clumsily, god he's getting sloppy. Really must do something about this pitiful tolerance level. "Except for, um, maybe cosmic enlightenment. Maybe that. Kind of."

[powerdealer]

"Yeah, well, I'm not in a hurry for that," Seth answers, sighs, and leans back in his seat again. "You going back up to Lucy's after this?" He kind of doesn't think Daniel should wander around on his own in this state.

[peacefulexplorer]

"Yeah, I figured." He squints upward as he tries to recall the way back and...yeah, no luck there. Yet. "Assuming I can remember. It'll come to me." He waves an unconcerned hand and finishes the glass.

[powerdealer]

"Don't worry about it," he says, before draining the last of his drink and shifting out of the booth. "I'm heading the same way, come on." If Daniel had lived somewhere other than the rebel apartments, Seth might've even gone to the trouble of making sure he got all the way home safely, but yeah that's not happening.

[peacefulexplorer]

Daniel rises as Seth does, albeit with slightly less grace. It takes him longer than it should to locate the exit and start heading for it. The alcohol's made him jittery enough to be unable to hold his hands still; he keeps running his thumb over the knuckles of his fingers as if to reaffirm their existence to himself.

"Thanks," he says, earnest, because in addition to not being entirely sober he's still pretty horrible with directions in the area.

[powerdealer]

Seth smiles a bit and picks up the glasses Daniel's left on the table, handing them to him.

Then he leads the way out of the pub and around the corner, heading up Avenue B. "Have you been around this area any?" he asks. Given how new Daniel is, and how lost he seems, Seth figures he can guess the answer.

[peacefulexplorer]

It takes him a minute to realize that he actually left his glasses in the booth. Evidently more drunk than he thought, Daniel concludes, and definitely a perception error on his part. He accepts them from Seth gratefully.

"Uh, no. Don't, don't think so." The glasses go back on as he inspects his surroundings with interest. There's a possibility he has and simply can't remember, which, considering he nearly left his very necessary glasses in Wilmot's End, is a something he has to admit is feasible. Definitely drunk.