bigapplesauce | So Who's Going to Watch You Die? [closed]

Current Location: Corner of 49th and 8th
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So Who's Going to Watch You Die? [closed]

Daniel scans the intersection for the twentieth time in the past five minutes, hands crammed in his pockets. He's not anxious and he's certainly not fidgeting. Well. Not overly.

And if he were, hypothetically, fidgeting and shuffling and shifting in one place restlessly, it'd be completely justified given present circumstances. He's just a little on edge, mostly thanks to shared group dreams which are, apparently, possible - something he's recently discovered in the worst way imaginable. He'd been hoping all morning that leaving the apartment and interacting with the real world for a bit would brush away the last few echoes of the nightmare, but there's still a chill in his spine regardless. Expected, but no less unwelcome.

So, yes, he's a little concerned, primarily about Seth. It's true that Seth has lived here for longer - much longer - and he'd acted like he was used to the shared nightmarish experiences by now. Daniel has more than a few issues with that sentiment (the foremost being that horrible nightmares in which people get impaled and imprisoned and die should not be something one gets used to, personal history with nightmares aside) but he's also hoping Seth can clear up a few questions about the Dreaming. It might not have been real in the strictest sense of the word, but it had certainly felt like it.

Also he is worried.

That line of thought just keeps looping on back.

Daniel's phone buzzes, a text from Seth. Soon the phone returns to his pocket as he crosses his arms, takes stock of the intersection again, and waits.

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At the mention of sigils Daniel's eyebrows rise and his mouth drops slightly in quiet realization but he stays silent until they're out of the cab and in the relative privacy of non-enclosed space.

"That's what those were?" he asks in muted undertone as soon as they've exited to the sidewalk. "The sigils. Er, wards, whatever they were - those were all over the apartment building. Er, Lucy's. I mean, it was halls, doors, windows, everywhere. I couldn't translate the language and I didn't realize -" He cuts himself off, quietly frustrated that he hadn't put together the whole "Lucifer" thing sooner, never mind that he would have no reason to jump to the conclusion of the real, actual, theoretically flesh-and-blood Devil. If they're intended to ward off that sort of evil and, more importantly, are currently succeeding, then that gives Daniel a firm basis in the Christian biblical mythos as far as linguistic interpretation goes. Deciphering the script and meaning behind the sigil could definitely be useful in the future, and that will only work if Daniel can discern what it is.

"And they keep him, er, Lucifer, the Devil - out? And away?" he asks. He's distantly conscious of the fact that this is not the best time or place to be having this conversation, but there's still that lurking concern for Seth's well-being. But it is the actual Devil they're talking about here. Daniel thinks he's entitled to a little worry for a friend.

Seth's glad to hear the sigils are up around the rebel apartments, and that people took Gabe's warning to heart. Hopefully they've done the same at Romac. To have such large collections of rifties open to a being whose first action in this universe was to put a fist through someone's chest, well. Not ideal.

"Should do, yeah," Seth answers. "It was drawn up and shared by someone who actually has familiarity with this particular version of Lucifer." While he'd gotten the impression it wasn't 100% fool-proof and probably could be circumvented eventually, it should provide some protection.

"Version," he repeats, resigned. He shuts his eyes, driving the edge of one palm into the bridge of his nose. Of course. Lucifer might not have come from Daniel's own universe but that doesn't mean there aren't thousands of other iterations of him, just as powerful and accessible to the Rift, spread out across an endless array of universes with their own personal Hells and Heavens and Devils, that have an equal chance of getting unceremoniously flung into Manhattan without warning.

That is a severely unsettling thought he does not need right now.

"How is it ever gonna be enough though?" Daniel finally asks, dropping his hand. The sheer overpowering scope of what it is that's landed in Manhattan with them has just gone crashing into him all over again. "There might be wards or sigils or whatever - and they're all over the place, but aren't you worried he'll find a way to circumvent them?"

Seth waits sympathetically while Daniel realises that living near a Rift is actually kind of terrifying. It's something everyone goes through. Repeatedly. And there's not all that much to be done about it. It's one of those things that just eventually just becomes a fact of life like any other, and you can't worry about it all the time, but that doesn't mean it's not any less scary.

"Of course I am. But he's not the only terrifying thing here, and my strategy of just staying out of the way has served me well for months," he answers, patting Daniel encouragingly on the back. He'd tried getting involved, and, well, that got him locked up, so.

"C'mon, mate. You've got touristing to do," he adds with a smile, heading to lead the way to where the Times Square opens up to them.

"Your assurance tactics could use some work." But he smirks as he says it and follows, good-natured and trying his very best not to think about Seth's casual implication of even more terrible things living here with them (he does not succeed). And while Seth might be content to steer clear of any trouble, for Daniel this might as well be a innate physical impossibility. Interstellar explorer, insatiably curious Earthly ambassador, blunt force instrument of idealistic cultural sensitivity, and completely and utterly lacking in any form of instinct for self-preservation.

For now he can dismiss thoughts of Devils and whatever other nebulous horrors he's unaware of, because Seth seems genuinely eager to show him around Times Square. It's a welcome distraction, really, even if Daniel knows he'll inevitably return to worrying about Lucifer at some future point.

"So this is Times Square, then?" It's very...big. And tall. Daniel tips his head back to take in the full breadth of the area, corner of his mouth jerking in a diminished smile, because he's standing in another universe's Times Square and that's sort of amazing.

It's more or less impossible to just stand still right here, with everyone bustling about, so Seth leads the way northwards. "It's more impressive at night," he answers. The colourful lights really stand out then, and it's like the idea of New York comes alive, somehow. If he had to get unceremoniously dumped and trapped anywhere, at least the Rift chose a pretty interesting place, with lots of variety and life. "Although, I guess it's not all that impressive after visiting alien planets..." he adds as an afterthought.

"You're kidding, right?" There's that familiar enthusiasm, lighting in his eyes and in the smile that's begun to form in earnest. "I'm in another, a, a whole other universe. I'm interacting with what is technically a brand new culture on a vast and intimate level in what is probably the best first contact situation I've ever been a part of. It's like modern day anthropology, it's phenomenal." It helps that he's here with someone who seems sincerely, honestly happy to just ease him into all of this. He...doesn't add that last part. It's implied. He can leave it implied. It's implied enough.

"Besides, I've been here for, what? A week? And no one's actively tried to kill me yet, so it's already better than, like...eighty percent of the planets I've been to. Eighty-five, maybe. I've never actually had a statistical analysis done." He's joking, mostly. Except he is curious about the statistical analysis part.

It's very difficult not to be charmed by Daniel's enthusiasm. And it's reassuring, considering Seth isn't a very good guide and has no idea where to actually bring Daniel.

"Ah, well, give it time. Took about a month for shit to really hit the fan for me," he jokes, and immediately sort of regrets it. Daniel's already shown to be very curious and incredibly Understanding and Sympathetic, and Seth probably can't just make comments like that without him wanting to know the backstory. Not a topic Seth wants to bring up, certainly not while he's trying to get Daniel to enjoy himself.

"So, this being a whole different culture and all, have you actually noticed any big differences? Ones not directly related to the Rift, I mean," he says, changing the subject.

Whatever unspecified amount of shit that struck the proverbial fan, Seth doesn't seem keen on talking it despite being the one to bring it up. Ordinarily Daniel is a firm supporter of the "talk about our feelings individually and in detail and at length" school of thought, but their wandering topics of conversation have already covered some severely sobering stuff. It looks like Seth has just reminded himself of that, so Daniel goes along with the subject shift. He's grateful to have the excuse, however flimsy, to not think about some of that for a while.

"Well it is pretty fascinating to see how everything sort of evolved around it," he says, trying his very best not to go ninety miles a minute without much success, "just this whole mass economic shift to accommodate the Rift. You've got organizations, clinics, the whole nine yards, and the effects are so widespread but just so - controlled, you know? Considering the variety of what you get coming through the Rift, that's pretty impressive. You, you took all that unpredictability and volatility and you normalized it." Even more impressive is how open knowledge of the Rift and its side effects are to the public, though Daniel has to concede that it would be a tricky thing to hide.

"It's the ripples that sort of thing leaves on society that intrigues me the most, not so much the thing itself. Though, okay, that's pretty big too." He pauses for a moment to reconsider. "Yeah, all right, really big."

And yet Times Square stands, apparently not so colossally different from the one in his home universe, deceptively normal in appearance.

Seth nods thoughtfully, hands stuffed in his pockets. He wonders how much backstory Daniel has actually gotten about the rift. Given he hasn't had any official Romac or Rebel representatives to bother about it, probably not as much as he'd be interested in. Seth doesn't know Lucy and has no idea how much she could even tell him. Most people's interest in this stuff beyond what directly affects them doesn't seem to be huge. Seth isn't really that interested out of plain curiosity, but he's picked up a lot after being here so long, and from trying to keep up with what's happening to keep himself safe and informed.

"Well, the Rift only became active a few years ago, and it's been kept relatively quiet, so there aren't that many ripples to be considered," Seth answers. "This isn't the only one though - there's ones in San Francisco and Chicago too. And other places of the world, but it's hard to get confirmation. Tokyo, London and Moscow are pretty safe bets, though."

"And no one really knows where they came from or, or why?" There are an...awful lot of multiversal consequences to go with that. The destructive potential of one Rift alone, let alone half a dozen or more is staggering.

"I mean, everyone seems to be handling it very well." Well, despite incursions of literally biblical proportions, but Times Square and the rest of Manhattan have remained very much intact, which Daniel takes to be a good sign.

Seth shakes his head at the first question. Obviously there are theories, but Seth is pretty clueless about the science stuff to really give any of the theories any support or explanation. Honestly, he doesn't even remember the ones he's heard. Except for the really ridiculous ones with little scientific basis, he could probably list a few of those he's heard.

"What, these people?" he asks, gesturing vaguely around them. "They don't know."

"But how would you keep something like that hidden from them? They do live here and all - wouldn't they have a right to know?"

Oh, Daniel. The point of this trip is sight-seeing and directional analysis, not engaging Seth in some tangentially related moral debate. And as interested as he is in the Rift, right now he's also in Times Square on a day that has promised to be blessedly normal. He's going to have to learn to lay off on the exercises in critical thinking.

Seth is tempted to throw out a comment like 'you go tell Romac that', or 'why don't you tell the people, then?' but he's afraid Daniel would actually go ahead and do it. And while Seth is pretty sure he agrees with the sentiment that people should be informed, he has no idea what would be the best way to do it. He does know that he doesn't want Daniel to get in trouble with said organisations.

"A lot of people who live here have a certain awareness that weird shit is happening. But most of them just attribute that to the general weirdness of New York. Like, I really think the organisations aren't even doing that good a job at keeping things hidden. People are just more comfortable going about their day," Seth answers. "As long as it's not disruptive to their daily routine, they couldn't give a shit. And the big stuff is always explained away, so..."

"Hmm." His jaw juts out in a dissatisfied scowl but he doesn't pursue the point. The people he worked for back home had the same tactics for covering up the bigger issues, moral quandaries or public suspicion be damned. It seems to be the strategy of choice and, unfortunately, it also seems to be the one that works. "Should've seen that coming, I guess."

Daniel gives himself a shake and forces himself to return to the present. As much a master he is of overstepping his bounds, he's wandered away from the original point enough times today.

"So, uh, Times Square. Mhm. It's very, um, big. Come here a lot?"

Truly, a graceful segue.

Seth smiles at the less than smooth subject change. "Well, once you live here, it kind of stops being a destination and just becomes a route, really. And no, not one I actually use all that often. I spend more time downtown."

Seth is ready to calmly ignore a tour guide trying to hand him fliers and get him on one of the tour buses that loop around Manhattan, but then he remembers that, well, familiarising Daniel with the city is actually what they're doing here. He pauses to raise his eyebrows questioningly at Daniel and nod towards the bus. "You wanna?"

"I place myself in your hands," he says with mock formality before immediately reverting back to sincerity mode. "Unless it's, I mean, it's not too much trouble?" He doesn't mind walking but if he wants a more complete layout the bus would cover more ground.

Seth ducks his head at that and takes it as a yes. "Saves us walking," he answers, pulling out his wallet and getting them some tickets. And in this heat, walking does get old pretty quickly, especially when you insist on wearing long-sleeves. "And I've never been on one of these, so. Could be fun." And that's totally the only reason he's spending $80 (and probably something like two hours) on this.

"It'll be an adventure for both of us, who knew?" He grins, ever the enthusiast, and boards the bus. Daniel's never been on one of these either. He can't imagine Seth will find it very informative since he already seems to know the city better than most of its inhabitants, but he's touched by the gesture regardless.

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So Who's Going to Watch You Die? [closed]

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