Who: Zach and R. When: The end-ish of June. Where: Out on the street. What: Random encounter. Rating/Warning: Low / Super brief mentions of Zeus' shortcomings (murder, incest, etc.) Status: Complete!
Roger had been told to just act human. That seemed easy enough, at the time. But his moments of lethargy and near zombie-ism came and went, so he took advantage of the upswing to take a walk. Being around people was mildly nerve-racking, though. Roger tried not to think about what they’d be like if they knew about him, or if he started craving … Well. Brains.
He swallowed a bit and kept his eyes down on his shoes.
Zach had started walking as a way to get out and focus on his body and not his powers or the things he knew without wanting to know them. Being Zeus, seeing the lines of Fate strung to everyone, sucked, and he hated it. But walking, focusing on moving from one place to another, helped him block it out, some.
And so today he was walking. Right up until he glanced up, saw R, and saw the tangle of his Fate lines.
And promptly tripped over nothing and fell on his face.
Well, this definitely didn't help his anxiety disorder.. His heart pounded as he rolled over and he breathed...
He glanced up by chance and saw the guy fall. Looking around, it was clear that no one else was really concerned with it, so he took it upon himself to walk over.
“Uh. Hey - Buddy, you all right?”
Zach rose slowly, and sighed, shivering a bit. “Yeah, ah, just trying to calm down. Got a few issues with anxiety, and people, and life, and anxiety.” He smiled a faint smile, glanced at R, and nodded, eyes swerving away.
“Sorry about that.”
“Uh, it’s all right. Better that you are, actually. Don’t know what I would do if you weren’t, so.” R shrugged, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Maybe you should, uh, sit down?”
Zach smiled. “Oh, probably. But I likely won’t... unless, hey, there’s a friendly random bench.” he moved, carefully, and sat down. He hmmed, and then smiled. “Say, this is crazy, and we just met, but you look familiar, so are you on the valarnet?”
He blinked a bit, but shrugged with a vague smile. “Uh. Yeah, actually. Small world, huh?” This was good, R thought. Conversation was definitely a human sort of thing to do.
“You looked familiar.” And that explained the Fate lines a little. Dreamers were always complicated. “I’m Zach. Nice to meet you.” Zach stuck out a hand to the other.
"Uh. Roger." He shook Zach's hand, glad he can still remember his name. Unlike his dream counterpart. "Always nice to meet a fellow Net user."
“Hi, Roger.” Zach smiled. “It is. It’s nice not to have to avoid subjects, like I do with other people.” He was rather glad to make more friends.
"Ah. I know what you mean." Roger still wasn't sure how to explain to his co-workers why he missed work.
“I’ve used my anxiety disorder, and a sick aunt, and I think the flu, a lot.” He was unemployed now, but he hoped to get a new job soon.
"Yeah. Not even sure I have any sick days left." Roger cracked a smile and sat down.
“I know that feeling.” Zach nodded. “I left my last job and am looking for something new. Probably witr Dreamers.” He smiled. “Who else would understand?”
“That’s true.” He laughed a little. “Maybe I should make a career change. Dream counseling. At least once I can deal with my own.”
Zach smiled. “Hey, you know, gods know enough of us need therapy. I have a therapist, myself.” Zach nodded.
“Wow. That bad?” R blinked a bit. He couldn’t imagine. “I don’t … Really have anything. I guess I just started seeing this doctor?”
“You will find out in time, that this place breeds issues, but it also gives solutions. Allies, friends, help. It’s there if you are the kind of person to look, and willing to accept it. Not everyone is.” And sometimes you freak out when talking to people and are afraid of help. Like Zach had.
“Yeah. Guess there’s nothing much people can do other than try to help one another out. This place is so weird.”
Zach nodded. “Sometimes it’s quiet for weeks at a time, and sometimes it seems one crisis blends into another. It has seemed a lot more active the last six months, though. Maybe it goes through patterns of activity.” He felt like it might, like it had somehow had a burst of energy six or eight months ago, and now it was wearing off. Weird.
Totally weird. Roger nodded. “Who knows. Guess all we can do is just wait and see how it goes, right?”
“Exactly. And in the meantime, we watch each others’ backs.” Zach smiled softly at the man. “All we can do is stand together, if we don’t want to just go crazy.”
“Cheers to that. Though going crazy is the least of my worries right now,” Roger admitted.
“Oh? Well, that’s good, I think.” Sort of.
“It goes both ways. Just trying to remember the whole this too shall pass thing.” Roger gave him a bit of a smile.
Zach smiled. “True. Sometimes, that’s all you can do. I just hope it doesn’t get too bad for you.”
“Well.” He shrugged, looking momentarily hesitant. “I’m a zombie. In my dreams. So it’s pretty … You know. Uh. Not good.”
“No fun, at all. My dreams were fairly horrible, but mostly because the person I dreamed was... a very bad person. A ruler, rapist, murderer, incestuous, and insane, at least as far as I can tell. “ Zach shivered. He had won the battle of wills, somehow, but he still worried, sometimes, that Zeus would take over his mind and his body and use those powers here and now. And who could stop him?
“Wow. That’s. Uh. Pretty terrible.” Roger couldn’t believe, actually, how many people had such awful dreams. It definitely outweighed the people who had lighter dreams, in any case.
“I prefer to mostly ignore it, when I can. So I spend a lot of time on my real world hobbies, like computers and movies. How do you get away from thinking about Dream stuff?” Zach had a definite understanding of others who disliked their dreams.
"Pretend to ignore it," R answered honestly. "I was instructed to keep being human, so, that's what I do. It's sort of always there regardless."
“Not a bad plan at all.” Zach nodded. “Who instructed you?” He was curious now. Who was giving advice to the man with the weird fate line?
“Oh. Uh.” Digging through his pockets, Roger pulled out the business card he had gotten when he visit Magius. “Here. This guy.”
“Oh! The Doc! That’s cool! He’s been my doctor since I was born. Awesome! He’s a good guy, if a little weird some days.” Zach nodded. “I’m glad you have someone to look after you.”
Roger looked a bit relieved at the good reaction. He smiled a bit and tucked the card away again.
"I'm glad we all do, if we ask for it." He shrugged. "I should probably get going, I guess."
Zach rose and offered his hand. “Well okay. But take care of yourself, okay? If you ever need anything, give me a call. Zach Jupiter always does his best to help his friends.”
“Thanks.” R gave Zach’s hand a shake, and then gave him a nod. “See you around.”