josh bennett (pkaltered) wrote in downfallrpg, @ 2010-05-14 23:29:00 |
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Current mood: | groggy |
Bourbon and Violin Music
Who: Josh and Juan
Where: the bar/lounge area
When: midday
The middle of the day had arrived, and Josh still felt like miserable crap. He'd taken three frigidly cold showers to try to bring down his temperature, he'd drank a ton of cold water, and he still felt like he was probably running about a hundred and three degrees. He knew why he was sick-- because of what he'd done in the basement the previous day, which had been a very good thing for everyone-- but that didn't make the consequences any easier to bear. He'd finally decided that lying around on his floor next to the window wasn't going to make him feel any better, either, so he got up and dragged himself down the stairs to the lounge.
It was deeply shadowed but still possible to see with the light that came into the windows, and Josh went behind the bar to see what he could find. He'd never been much of a drinker, hadn't ever been able to afford to be a drinker, but if he had to be wretchedly sick, maybe he could find something that would knock him unconscious. It was worth a try. Pale, hollow-eyed and sweating heavily, he leaned against the back part of the bar as he checked out the various bottles on the mirrored shelf behind it.
After seeing Taylor that morning, Juan decided to spend his wanderings in the hotel in the usual meeting areas to ease the minds of the other survivors with some music. Since the power's been out, he was pretty sure any remaining MP3 players anyone had were out of juice and unable to be recharged, so he'd be the next best thing to entertainment. The bar was the area where most people seemed to converge (other than the kitchen) so Juan headed there.
He decided to do the novel activity of 'walking' to get there as well... then got bored halfway through said walk and teleported into the room from a few floors above. The room was dimly lit by sunlight, but he could already see that there was one person here another new face. "Hey," Juan walked over and extended his hand, "Juan Valentino, nice to meet you."
All of Josh's attention had been on squinting at the labels on the bottles of alcohol, and he hadn't heard Juan come in. He twitched and half-fell when the boy spoke to him, since he hadn't realized anyone was there. With one arm braced on the bar to keep himself upright, he wiped his other hand on his shorts and then held it out to be shaken. "Josh," he said. "Bennett." The last name was added almost as an afterthought, since Juan had given his. "Didn't hear you." He turned his gaze back to the shelf and finally decided on a bottle of bourbon; this choice was made only because he liked the sound of the name 'bourbon' over 'vodka'. It flowed better.
Josh's reaction to his sudden appearance amused Juan, "Oh yea." He teleported across the room, "I'm really quiet when I come into most rooms." He teleported back to next to Josh, "Sorry for the surprise." He was now just being an asshole and possibly freaking the guy out, but Juan couldn't help himself. Spying the bottles Josh was checking out he gave a wily grin and put on a terrible southern accent, "Ya old enuff fer that, boy?"
Josh wasn't particularly amused by Juan's teleportation skills, which could be chalked up to how truly awful he felt right then. He lifted one of the sleeves of his shirt to wipe his neck and forehead and then began struggling to get the bottle of bourbon open. "I'm twenty-one," he said when the kid asked him if he was old enough for it. He was aware that he didn't look it, but he'd be twenty-two in November, and if he wanted some bourbon to ease his pounding head, he'd damned well have it! "B-but you can't have any. You're what, twelve? Thirteen?" It was possible that he was just a touch grouchy.
Juan's slightly impish smile turned into a slightly embarrassed one, "Hey man, sorry. Just foolin' around." He peeked around and saw that Josh was having some trouble with his bottle. "I know I can't have any, but I can help you open that if you need." Juan went into super helper mode to try and ease Josh into a better mood.
Josh doggedly wiped his hand on his shorts again and finally managed to twist the top off of the bottle. "G-got it," he said. He took a swig without even bothering to pour any into a glass-- not all that hygienic but who gave a flip?-- and promptly lost his breath. There should be a warning label on those bottles, a warning that the contents might burn all the way down to one's stomach. Damn. He coughed violently for a couple of minutes and blinked his watering eyes. "Oops," he said in a hoarse, gravelly voice. "D-didn't know it'd be so strong."
"Whoa!" Josh was looking far rougher than Juan first imagined and he grabbed a towel from the bar and offered it to the older man. Without asking or being prompted, Juan grabbed a chair and gently nudged Josh to sit, "I guess that's why they usually serve that sort of stuff in those tiny glasses that people still would daintily sip from." While he didn't know much about drinking, he was pretty sure he's seen his father drink a few times and anything from the much nicer and bigger bottles were either mixed with something fruity or put into very small glasses. After seeing Josh settled, Juan teleported to sitting on the bar--it was just high enough that he didn't feel like climbing it. Once there he pulled off his violin case and retrieved the contents. He plucked at the strings a bit and then looked to Josh, "How's about some music to help relax. Any requests?"
Josh pulled the chair close enough to the bar that he could prop his elbow on it and lean his head on one hand. "I d-don't usually drink," he said, his voice still kind of hoarse, "so I wouldn't know." Unfortunately, drinking alcohol had the effect of making him feel a little warmer, but he thought it might be worth it. Tentatively, he took another couple of sips, slower this time. He didn't even flinch when Juan teleported himself up to sit on the bar, but he did glance his way when he took out his violin. "Uh... no?" he said, looking mildly perplexed. "I d-don't know how anything would sound played on a violin. Wh-why don't you pick?" Because the kid would know what he could play, right?
He just nodded and place the instrument to his cheek. The song he chose was a soft waltz that would match the mood of the setting. Josh's slightly sick state called for something soothing and calm. The song normally had a light guitar accompaniment, but would do well without it. Juan spoke quietly as he played, "You don't normally drink? I know it's the end of the world and all, but what's the special occasion?"
Josh didn't mind the music at all, and someone who could play the violin was pretty unique in his opinion. He kept his head propped on his hand, only lifting it to take the occasional sip of his bourbon. "Th-the end of the world's not enough?" A very small and mild joke, but he felt lucky he could make one at all with how awful he felt. "I thought it m-might make me feel better, or knock me out. I h-have a fever." He didn't know if he had the energy to explain what he'd done and the effect it had had on him. Maybe Juan wouldn't be interested in that anyway.
"I suppose that's true, but still... now might not be the best time to pick up the habit," he replied without looking at the older man. While having a drink to forget about the end of the world sounded nice, it just... didn't sound safe if someone wanted to survive that is. The music hitched for a moment when Josh said he was running a fever, but picked right back up as if it never happened, "Oh? Were you one of the ones bitten by the spiders?" This was the reason he came down to play out in the open, but still... it was mildly disconcerting that someone in the room had an unexpected nighttime visitor.
Josh almost wanted to say something smart about a dude who had to be at least five years younger than him, maybe more, lecturing him about alcohol, but after thinking it over for a few seconds, he decided he'd best keep his mouth shut. He was feeling uncharacteristically snappish, and he had to chalk that up to how sick he felt. "Don't think so," he replied when Juan asked him if he'd been spider bit. "I b-burned a bunch of 'em up, down in the sub, s-sub--." He huffed out an exasperated sigh. "Lower basement thing. 'S why I'm sick."
"Burned'em? Crazy. At least ya didn't get bitten," finding a silver lining was something Juan was good at, "That's somethin' at the very least." The music flowed on easily, but Juan knew it was quickly coming to an end. When the final note was played, he moved on to a more classical piece. He wondered, "Burning... is that... your special power?" It occurred to him it might be something like that since the group hadn't been reduced to carrying around torches and such for light sources just yet.
"Mm-hmm," Josh said, feeling both sleepy and slightly more articulate. He was finding that alcohol could be a wondrous thing. He took another swig of the bourbon and then capped the bottle. The music was nice, and as he listened, he pillowed his head on one arm on the bartop, his face turned toward Juan. "Burnin', yeah. I can set stuff on fire... a-and boil water." The only real problems seemed to be his increased body temperature all the time and burning himself out temporarily when he used his ability too much.
"Wow, that's pretty cool," Juan tried to curb his childish excitement a bit as to not break the mood, but meeting an honest-to-goodness pyrokinetic. It was pretty cool. That was at least one neat thing the end of the world gave him to feel... slightly happy about. Here he was, playing music for someone who was basically Pyro from the X-Men... well he hoped he wasn't evil like Pyro, but control over fire was pretty cool anyway. "Ah..." Juan hesitated for a moment, "I know you didn't do it specifically for me, but... thanks for killing those spiders. It's good to know they're not crawling around anymore."
Josh smiled slightly, amused by Juan's reaction. He supposed it was cool, when you thought about it, but then so was teleportation. "There's lots of people who c-can do cool stuff here," he said. "D-do you know Andre? He turns invisible." His eyelids had drooped nearly closed, but they fluttered up again when Juan thanked him for killing the spiders. "Y-you're welcome." He hoped they were all dead, at least, but he didn't want Juan to worry about what if they weren't, so he didn't mention that. "D-don't go down to the lower b-basement, okay?" he settled for. "Nasty, a-and there was nothin' down there, even before the sp-spiders."
"No kiddin'? Heh, gotta meet that guy," Juan said with a grin, "I haven't meet too many people with powers... at least with powers that they knew about." It happened a lot the first week, but Juan wondered if some people still didn't 'have powers'. "I met a girl this morning who has like... 'muscle mimicry.' If she sees someone do somethin' physical, she can imitate it perfectly." Juan watched curiously as Josh started to fade into sleep. Thinking it better to accommodate the man, he slowed the music and brought it to a whisper, "Hey Josh... that fever's really kicking your ass... need help up to your room?"
"The winged guy's cool, too," Josh observed. Nobody could miss Rowan, that was for sure. Maybe the bourbon had helped him after all; despite being too warm, he kept dozing off. Couldn't seem to help it. Right then, he didn't care if he ended up falling off the barstool he was sitting on. Hey, the floor was carpeted, right? He was barely aware enough to comprehend Juan's question, and he mumbled, "G-gonna stay here awhile." Moving didn't sound like something he wanted to do at the moment, and he didn't figure anyone would care if he took a nap in the bar.
"Ah yea, Rowan. I've hung out with him some in the past," Juan related, "While a pretty terse guy, he can handle himself in a fight with those monsters, so I like him a lot." He'd only spent a little time with Rowan, but it was very clear he was out to protect his own as much as he could. That was quite understandable since he had a younger sibling to take care of. Verity seemed really similar too, but again understandable. He just wished they could accept others as well. That feeling probably stemmed from the fact that he was now completely without family, but it was a valid thought nonetheless. Juan shrugged. He was just trying to be helpful to other survivors, but if he wanted to stay here, Juan would try and make him as comfortable as possible with a few lullabies, "Hmm... I might be headin' out soon. Feeling a bit cooped up."
Josh was alone as well, but he'd essentially been alone for so long that he didn't think much about it anymore. Of course, he was quite a bit older than Juan, too. "Mm-hmm," Josh said again to Juan's words. He certainly wasn't at his most articulate right now. Hopefully, it wouldn't be held against him. He was floating, inhabiting that space between sleep and waking, rapidly forgetting his various physical discomforts as he drifted off.
It barely looked like Josh had heard anything he said. Juan laughed inwardly at how easy it was for someone to fall asleep on a barstool. As he reached the end of his song he quieted his strings and returned his violin to his case. This was... an interesting meeting to be sure. Juan thought to move Josh from his seat, but the act might wake the older guy. He opted instead to leave Josh be and put away his violin in his room and head out on the town for some scavenging.