Interlude: Meeting in RL With the Scarecrow (part 1)

[tastes_of_honey]

((This scene actually takes place a while back in time, about June 30, from here.))



onlystraw: ***
Jonathan sent pinpoint coordinates. This is his friend's version of Gotham. There are plenty. Most of them are more or less the same. This one isn't quite like his own, and he doesn't know the streets, here, but that's fine. It lends an element of exploration to his wanderings. It's nighttime, and this park is probably somewhat safe in the daytime, but it's both overgrown and filled with litter, and full of who-knows-what sorts of people, skulking about. Jonathan is not concerned. He likes it.

tastes_of_honey: So Gotham is kind of like Manhattan but old-timey and wearing a long black skirt, corset, and eyeliner. Schuldig had figured. Parks are fine, day or night, since sun makes no difference to the sense that counts and he has his gun and brain. The night is his friend and so conducive to meeting up with people. He'll let himself stand out and let Jonathan make the first move.

onlystraw: Jonathan is not confident enough to let himself recognize people, even if he should know who they are, so he stays back, and also waits, and scuffs his feet in the ground, and keeps his hands in his pockets, because that's where the mace is. He does not trust himself to be in Gotham with a real weapon.

tastes_of_honey: There aren't all that many guys who look like Schu walking around even in the daytime, but if Jonathan would rather play things this way, it's fine with Schu. He walks with a slow but long-legged ambling glide toward Jonathan, at ease. "Hey. I'm Schuldig."

onlystraw: "Oh," he says, quietly. "I thought so. Hello? This is Gotham." He glances around, instead of looking at the man, and keeps his hands in his pockets. "Thank you for visiting." His voice fights to keep back a slight accent and a stutter, both of which he is pretty good at keeping to a minimum.

Not so much when he is nervous, and he is, quite.

tastes_of_honey: Verbal stuttering isn't half as bad to listen to as mind stuttering. Schu's tempted to mellow that nervousness out a bit. To meddle or not to meddle? Not, for now. "I've never been to a Gotham. Considering that I talk to a Nightwing, this is a trip I should have made anyway." Crime is so... baroque here, with costumes and plans with gilded curlicues. A lot of regular thugs put a schtick together just to blend in. Schu likes it a lot. He really should do the tourist thing in one of these Gothams sometime.

"Good to see you. I've never spent so much time talking to someone just by text without more of a meeting first. It was different."

onlystraw: "It's a lovely, horrid city. You really should see more of it. I think that you would like it." Still nervous, but talking makes him remember that this is the person he's been corresponding with. He isn't exactly at ease, but he will talk. "Text is good." He shrugs. "I'm better with that, b-but... that's... fine."

tastes_of_honey: "I think I already like it just feeling it. London's becoming so homogeneous, like so many other places these days." Schu closes his eyes for a moment and breathes it all in. Yeah, this city has a unique feel and taste, something like dark chocolate with an underflavor he can't quite name yet. It's all so black. "For me text is like being half-deaf. Or maybe just like walking around with a blindfold on. But it's better to be challenged sometimes. I have to be able to function without the cues and blend in.

"Jonathan, we've spoken before. We're good. Come now, you know my weakness for Dostoyevsky."

onlystraw: "We talked about this. I feel... almost, I could describe it the same way, with just talking... I miss more, or create more that isn't there. I don't know. I'm so.. yes. This isn't even -my- city. This is... this is like my city, mellowed by the rest of the world. In -my- reality... I do wish that I could go -there-. I would have met you there, but there, they recognize me... you know..." He bites his lip. This was a bad idea. Now he's nervous -and- thinking about how it used to be in Gotham. They should be afraid of him, here. They -should- know him here, and they never, ever will. Isn't that good? Good.

tastes_of_honey: "I don't have a high profile in my world, Jonathan, nor does my team. We're only known for what we are in certain circles." And those circles pay well. "It lets me have a beer at the pub without being recognized. Although I understand the hunger to be known by the public." He just doesn't feel it himself, because he loves the look on his marks' faces when they finally realize what he is and what he can do.

Should he ask Jonathan if he wishes to become known here tonight?

It rather hurts to feel Jonathan hurting this way.

onlystraw: "They are so afraid of me. They may think that I am weak, and mad, and worthless, but they are -so afraid-, and it was lovely. It was..." Not. Good. He must be good. He must not think about that. It was wrong, of course. It was -wrong-, and he is -wrong-, and he should make this clear. Now. Do it. The man has very little real conscience. He has a conscious running narrative in its place. None of it feels as wrong as the thoughts that must keep him in check, but he wants so badly to be good, so he shakes his head. "Hurtful... and I am going to help my friend Bruce to help his city, here. If he will still let me. I have not spoken to him about it in a short while."

tastes_of_honey: Twist and turn and sweet and sour, and Schu is glad he has shielding up so he doesn't get all of it. He already has permanent people inside like that. "I love social engineering. What would you do here?" Some people relax somewhat when they talk about things that mean something to them. Let's see if it works here....

onlystraw: "What would I do, or what would he have me do? I really must do what he tells me to do. I can't determine that, on my own."

tastes_of_honey: "Whatever you most want to talk about or both. Or neither. It's up to you. I'm here for you.

"Has Bruce mentioned what he would have you do?"

onlystraw: Jonathan shrugs, but he'd like to narrow his eyes. He would like to be angry at Bruce, but he fights that off. Bruce is his friend, and knows right from wrong. "I think... now, he has decided that I am to do nothing. I doubt that there will be anything else. He said that I would help him, that when someone deserved it, he would give them to me."

tastes_of_honey: When someone deserved it? My, oh my, Bruce. "Everybody has to do something somewhere. Waiting around for someone to give you directions just leads to frustration and resentment. Understandably. If not here from not wanting to tromp on Bruce's tender toes, then somewhere else. It has to be possible to show everyone what good you can do."

onlystraw: This is all a secret, but he does not believe in insulting telepaths by pretending as if he can lie or keep secrets. "Oh, I wouldn't do any good... which is why I -must- wait, irregardless of frustration and resentment. The reason I feel frustration and resentment is because I am not yet well, nor will I likely be well. So. I must. I would like very much to show them that I can do good. Everything that would protect the nexus, they can handle. They can, or they won't let me. It's fine. I'm not right." He begins to walk, picking a path at random.

tastes_of_honey: Schuldig walks with him, smooth-gaited again, instinctively in sync and at a distance and position that wouldn't be too near or too far or startle or disturb. Bodyguard skills. "I hope you're not being told that being well means you'll never feel anger or frustration again and that if you do feel them it means you're sick, because that's utter trash.

"Being told to stand in a corner and face the wall until the grown-ups tell you that you can sit at the big table would sour anyone's disposition, and rightly so."

onlystraw: He has very long legs. He walks quickly, without much effort. "No, of course not. It is my understanding that I feel the way I do about this, however, because I am still sick. I am trying -so hard- to be good, and right now, all that I really want to do is go to my city and remind them of what it really means to be afraid. I would show you." He'd gas him, too, and not think that was wrong, at all. He'd understand, eh? They're friends! He smiles. Until... he remembers... that is -wrong-. He is horrible. "So, it's necessary. It really is fine. Do you want to see the city outside the park? We can walk here or down the street."

tastes_of_honey: "I'd love to see the rest of the city. We'll be good together." Schu's wide, wide smile accentuates his wide mouth and sharp chin. Some people have joked that he's like the Cheshire cat. Others have thought about him leaving only that *smile* behind and found it much less funny. "All people know what it's like to really be afraid. They're just not so good about being afraid of a person instead of being ground down by a dozen daily small terrors. Modern society is marinated in fear." Hmmm. "And I'm not sure if I'd react exactly as I'm supposed to if gassed. I'm a bit of an oddity." Then again, a telepath in a city dowsed by fear gas would not be a happy camper even if he himself didn’t get a whiff.

onlystraw: He makes a turn, then, in the path, heading out of the park. The smile doesn't disturb him. A smile is a smile. It's a symbol for an emotion, or faked emotion, and if it's supposed to be more complex than that, Jonathan gets that better from words than from someone's face. The thought that there might not be anyone or anything actually behind a face is a scary one to him, but not in the forefront, now. "These people live their lives waiting to obliged with a real target for their fear. Work, bus schedules, rent, bird flu, distant wars, global warming, this and that and neuroses and no real monsters there for them to scream for... I can give them that. H-how do you think that you would react?"

tastes_of_honey: Sometimes Schu performs not for a human audience but for posterity. He'd smiled out of glee, not the urge to scare Jonathan. It's not his fault he seems to have more teeth than a human should. "I've seen and met real monsters--for a while I was owned and commanded by some--and I tend to have two responses to terror: hide or fight.

"Or both at once, which would make it three, wouldn't it?"

onlystraw: "I have been. I was perfect." His expression grows distant, and his thoughts wander faster than the damned mental censor can keep up. "However, I wouldn't say that any of those reactions would make you an oddity, at all, I'm afraid." He smirks, very slightly, and shakes his head.

tastes_of_honey: "My reaction to terror. My reaction to the gas itself might be different. For example, some depressants have made me manic in the past, while my metabolism has often burned off all kinds of drugs faster than expected. One time a crime lord doped me, dressed me up, and shipped me as a toy in a box to his son. Unfortunately for them all, I woke up faster than they expected and was only just stoned enough to make me kill them even messier than I would have otherwise.

"That's what I meant. Sorry.

"It took Brad a while to figure out where I was because I was talking too fast and angrily on the phone to him in Avignon-style French." Shrugs. "That's where the box had gone to."

onlystraw: "What an -odd- thing to do." But, he comes from Gotham, so this doesn't strike him as utterly bizarre, only somewhat unusual. "However, I do understand that. Some of the more interesting reactions to the toxin I've seen have been from those with the ability to ride it out. Isob..." He's just a seething ocean of angst, here. All of -that- mess bubbles up into his surface thoughts, and mixing with his mood, that means he's angry at her.

His mind is not calm. How he manages to keep himself under control is his guess as much as anyone's.

tastes_of_honey: "He put a leather kitty collar with bell around my neck and kitty ears on my head. You can imagine the rest of the outfit, I'm sure. He thought he was being funny."

That was a quite a blast of emotion from Jonathan, from bruise-colored to fire. "Do you want to handle all that on your own, or would you mind a bit of aid chilling out?"

onlystraw: "In my city, there are some people who will do things like that... all sorts of things, really. There are some very disturbed individuals on the loose. I... could you, please, make it go away?" He wrings his hands.

tastes_of_honey: "Once we got the results of my various post-kidnapping medical tests back, my team went on a major revenge-related killing spree. It was very therapeutic."

It's like a cooling wave of anesthesia putting a smooth layer over the parts about her that hurt and burn. "This is temporary. Permanent would require me making some changes, and it'd be... permanent. Once you delete or edit, you can't bring the original thing back, just try to create a copy."

onlystraw: "That's... really nice, though. I do understand... if it were permanent, I think that I would also feel that I had a hole where that used to be, and she is so dear to me." He remembers this, without hurting, and is, for the moment, content. "I hope that your revenge was enough to pay back the indignity. I would be furious."

tastes_of_honey: "Getting some distance from it may help all on its own. That cliché about time became a cliché because it works for a lot of people if they let it.

"I was furious. My whole team was furious. There are probably some European law enforcement agencies that got commendations from the giant lethal dent we left in the syndicate that took me."

onlystraw: "Well, there's been enough time, if there's a such thing as 'enough time', that everything has been happening with Heather, but I don't know what to do about that." He shrugs, and continues to walk. The park opens up onto a city street. It is about as dirty and dangerous as the park. Less plants. More streetlamps. "... Yes, I do think that you would have fun in Gotham."

tastes_of_honey: "I hear you on that one. The thing with Farfarello doesn't hurt anymore, but Aya is a... want hangover that keeps on going whatever way it wants to.

"I really think I would. This is a city of drama, and I am such a lover of drama." It's good to hear Jonathan being calmer.

onlystraw: "I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that. Are you in a similar situation, then?" He sighs. He -is- calmer. Calming that one thing distracted him from the rest, for right now. "Beautiful city..."

tastes_of_honey: "It hurt so much when Farfarello cut off all telepathic contact and then dumped me without even explaining himself. I suffered for months, especially since I couldn't entirely get away from him. But the last time I saw him I just felt annoyed. The love is gone.

"Aya is difficult. Always will be. He wants and doesn't want simultaneously." Schu's look turns fond. His thing for Aya has always been more obsession than love and he knows it.

"You have to show me more."

onlystraw: "I will show you more." Tromp, tromp, tromp. "You know that I would wish for the abilities you have, and I do understand that they have complications and problems of their own, but... it doesn't hurt, now. I can think about her now...

"And then I think about Heather, also? Instead? Not instead, not that. I don't know."

tastes_of_honey: Schu hopes to catch glimpses of muggings or something. He's such a tourist. "I'm glad it helped. One of the benefits of being an older telepath is that I've done the training and gotten past the teenage hormonal shifts. Experience is steadying.

"No two are exactly the same." Shrugs. "Sounds completely normal to me."

onlystraw's mun: ((Also, wanna let you know that Jon has this damn habit of going on and on and on about himself, and if that ever gets annoying oocly, let me know, because it's... what he does.))
Schuldig's mun: ((Okay. Schu's accustomed to that, but he does hit a point where he's had enough.))
onlystraw's mun: ((He totally should. Jon needs more people to tell him to cap it.))
Schuldig's mun: ((I will definitely keep that in mind!))
onlystraw's mun: ((lol))
Schuldig's mun: ((Schu gets ever so gleeful about telling people to go stuff themselves.))
onlystraw's mun: ((hehe))

onlystraw: There may well be muggings happening nearby. Jon is especially looking for them, but he isn't psychic, either, so.... yes. He plods along, with long, aimless strides. "You should make the rest quiet, for a little while." Let him be bad? Yes? No, that would be -so wrong-. That is -so wrong-, horrible. Fix that. "Or we could go this way. I do know where the library is. It's in different places in every version of the city that I've been to."

tastes_of_honey: "No offense, Jonathan, but I don't go out into cities at night to see their libraries." Even if it does slightly hook his curiosity that Gothams shuffle their libraries around. "Walking is great. I can feel a city's soul a bit like this," And the breeze feels good through his hair. Schu's walk has a bit of a sway, as if he's open to letting whatever he senses pull him this way or that. "Gotham is restless and hungry, even when half of it is asleep."

onlystraw: "It is occasionally worthwhile to rob them." He will steal books when no one's there to protect them, because he takes the best care of them, don't you know? He's on edge, again. Isobel isn't a concern, any more, but the calmness is already starting to disolve, because he just remembered, again, that he wants to go to his own city, loot the library, cause a panic, herd people around like sheep... He kicks a pebble into a gutter, and it makes a clattering sound as it falls. Somewhere nearby, some poor sap just got the snot beaten out of him for money he really shouldn't have been carrying in his pocket.

tastes_of_honey: Schu really can't understand living a life in which his mind kept cycling back to the same thing over and over. Yeah, he feels it from others a lot, but it doesn't make sense. There are too many things going on!

Sap shouldn't have been carrying that money, but Schu doesn't like the taste of the thug who robbed him. Thug will now have serious OCD for the next, mmmm, 15 hours.

"Would robbing a library make you more or less emo?"

onlystraw: Jonathan's mind will circle in around the same thing for hours, because he hasn't found anything that shuts that up like what he used to do. He jolts at being called 'emo'. Instant indignity! Then embarrassment, then, for the first time this evening, he -tries- to pull his thoughts away, which he really has no idea how to do. "D-d-d-don't call me that."

tastes_of_honey: "Okay.

"What do we need to do to break this vicious cycle? I'm of the 'Why dwell in hell; get busy' state of mind. Walking, a meal, dinner, dancing, mugging?"

onlystraw: "I know what breaks it," he mutters, sullenly. Sometimes, he really is twelve. "I am not permitted that, and since it is in my -head-, it's -fine-, but if you're getting annoyed, then there really isn't anything -I- can do. This is my mind."

tastes_of_honey: Schu smiles. "It's not just your mind, though. You're very readable and you're getting ever more sullen. Being here seems to make you very unhappy. Whereas I'm thrilled to be here and want very much to see and do everything. If you're annoyed, we can do a 'nice to have met ya' and part ways with no bad feelings. At least not on my side.

"I'd really like to see if I can catch a glimpse of the Bat family in action. I mean, it's Gotham and they're one of the sights.

"And I'm getting hungry and not in the mood for anything in my pockets. Being what I am takes a lot of fuel."

onlystraw: "Not here. This is the wrong Gotham to see them. You'd have to go to my own, or one like it." He's talking very quietly now, certainly annoyed. "You -agreed- to come here with me, and you can't j-just tell me that I should -leave-! You -know- I'm like this. I TOLD YOU THAT I WAS LIKE THIS. I could very, very, very easily decide to take you to a city where I wouldn't be found out and raise utter hell, and you are -making- me think that's a good idea, and it is -not-. God damn it."

tastes_of_honey: "Jonathan, I know what you're like and know that you're claiming that you're trying to change. Tonight you're not trying. Just as you are you, I am me. If someone's fidgety, annoyed, unhappy, and showing it as well as thinking it, I get uncomfortable. I was suggesting that if me being here and talking and wanting to do things upsets you, maybe we shouldn't be together right now.

"You suggesting Gotham has just given me all these great ideas for visiting ones where I can get things I'd like to see or do, and it's great. Really great.

"And it's all me making you think about doing bad things? Please. We don't do bad things in the same style."

onlystraw: "Can't you even tell how hard I try?! It's not my fault if I'd rather you see me how I was than to see me a-act... thinking... like... this. Go away, then, if my mind isn't suitably quiet. I'm sorry." Sorry, sure, but his mind's getting increasingly violent. Nothing that sticks around for more than the briefest of moments, pushing into his conscious thoughts. He's angry, and confused, and could probably be trying much more than he is, yes.

tastes_of_honey: "Do bad things, don't do bad things, but let's do things! I really and truly don't care whether you're making people fear you or not as long as you're happier. If you don't have to gas people and you're still happy, I am ecstatic." There might be a bounce. "I'm not even listening to your mind at the moment 'cause I don't have to. C'mon, there have to be places you like that you just have to show the ignorant German out-of-towner."

onlystraw: He's quiet for a while, still angry, trying to pull himself together, at least. He bows his head, and shrugs. "Tell me what you want to do," he says, subdued. Subdued is kinda like being happier, right? Bah.

tastes_of_honey: Subdued is kind of like being happier? Jonathan has just met Schuldig. Is there anything subdued in the man? "Food. Cart food, pub food, restaurant food, I don't much care as long as it's hot and different from what I'm already eating at home. What do you like?"

onlystraw: "Oh, I don't eat very much. There are restaurants that are open all night, though. This is a big city. Of course there are. I think that we could find some soup..." He has a purpose now! He shall seek out food! "And you could get whatever you like. Sushi, but that isn't warm..."

tastes_of_honey: "Sushi I can take or leave. I worked in Japan, mostly Tokyo, for years, so I had a lot of it. I'm thinking someplace with bread. I'm craving carbs. And soup and meat and beer. I'm having a very German moment." There's almost a warm glow in his blue eyes. Feeding himself and other people is so primal.

onlystraw: "Oh, so you want food nothing at all like you have at home, but the same thing that you have at home." He smirks, just a little, and considers that. "... I really, really want a beer..."

tastes_of_honey: "Do you know what I eat out in London? Indian food. And fish and chips. And beer. Some of it's thick enough to eat.

"Some friends in the Nexus have what turned out to be a sentient fridge, and I talked it into making some fine beverages. They were pissed at first but started to appreciate it soon enough.

"That was a non sequitur, by the way. Never mind."

onlystraw: Once they wander far enough through the city, there are certainly places that are open than offer all of those things, of greater or lesser quality. Jonathan does not have the best eye for quality establishments. He likes run-down buildings. "There's a very nice bar in the Nexus. It -might- be sentient, but they have a jar of spiced wine that's always warm and full. I like that..."

tastes_of_honey: Quality establishments? Schu measures quality only by flavor. He's had some mighty fine meals in dumpy places over the years. "That does sound nice." Schu's listening for happy, full people.... "How about that place? The people there like their meals."

onlystraw: "It's very nice, and cider. Th-that's a good trick. I like that, too. What's best, though, if you're very nice to me, I'll catch you fish, and fresh trout is always better than restaurants." It is a place! To get food! He heads inside.

onlystraw's mun: ((So what works is 'I'm ignoring you now :D' lol))
Schuldig's mun: ((Victory!))
onlystraw's mun: ((\o/))

tastes_of_honey: "Cider is such an autumn thing for me, and I love autumn. The colors and the chance to start wearing all my coats again." Schu is a king of the ramble himself. "Good. Fishing has never been a good hobby for me, since I use up all my patience on the job." Hostess! You will seat them in a corner away from the kitchen so they can have their backs against the wall and see the whole dining room. Thank you for the menus.

onlystraw: "I wish that it could be autumn all the time, so I'll have cider whenever I please. Fishing is... so... quiet. It's so lovely, to sit and have only the sound of the water for hours, and then, dinner!" They got the best seat! That is also a good trick. He is even more envious. "I hunt, as well. I try to supply as much of my own food as I can. I prefer that. It tastes better."

tastes_of_honey: "In some ways, I was trained too well. I have the prods of old bastard teachers reminding me of all the other things I could be doing instead of waiting for a fish. I enjoy hunting much better since I don't do it with much waiting. Sometimes I even go out hunting with my tiger. But my team tends to spend more time in urban environments. More clients there." Schu already knows what he wants to eat.

onlystraw: "You have a tiger?" He quirks a brow, but whatever. He has crows. He also has a menu, which he's reading. "I like ignoring all that. I should be doing -something-, but instead, I'm catching dinner. It's a very good excuse. What do you think I should eat?"

tastes_of_honey: "I don't so much have him as he agrees to hang out with me. Ages ago, some random bastard dragged me and Greed into a pimp off, so I had to make a flashy showing. Thus, I talked a tiger into helping me make my splashy entrance. We've been friendly ever since.

"The pumpkin ravioli in pesto sauce looks bizarre but tastes great. The goulash apparently gets exactly the melt in your mouth texture it should have and has the right balance of paprika. This place knows how to cook a steak properly too."

onlystraw: "It must be good to be friends with a tiger, then." He... does not really -get- the rest of that, but that's okay. "Pumpkin ravioli?" He is -so- picky, but it says 'pumpkin', so he isn't really considering anything else. "I don't usually drink beer... what are you getting?

"I do speak German. Should I speak German ins... that was rude, I'm sorry. I should have said that."

tastes_of_honey: "It's interesting. He really doesn't think like a human does.

"Yep. It'll look kind of funky, like alien eggs, since you can see the filling through the thin pasta package, but it tastes good."

"This place has a Hefeweizen I've liked before: Two Brothers Ebels Weiss. It has a nice, malty sweetness and a soft aroma of clove, vanilla and banana.

"I speak several languages. Hell, since we're currently based in London, we mostly speak English, though Brad's American English, Farf's Irish English, and my whoever-I'm-closest-to English barely sound like the same language at times."

onlystraw: "I'll... try it, then, and I'll drink whatever you drink. Thank you for your help. I learned German, and Latin, and... I do read more than I speak, but you understand, I mostly read, instead of speaking. I really -like- English, how it sounds, how the words aren't perfect, yet can still be bent into beautiful things."

tastes_of_honey: "Reading and speaking/hearing are definitely different mental muscles. I know... lots of languages, including dialects. It comes from being trained to work all over the world and then actually working out there.

"I enjoy English, though I have to poke Brad about how much I hate it just out of national pride. English would be better if they'd do the German thing of making descriptive words as long as they need to be, though. There's a word for everything in German. It may be 15 syllables long...."

onlystraw: "You can describe something just as well, with more than one word. The words simply need to fit correctly with each other. I love words that sound the same as what they describe, or words that -rhyme-."

tastes_of_honey: "I'm a big fan of alliteration."

onlystraw: "Rhyming reminds me of chemistry. It's... I can't describe it. It makes so much -sense-."

tastes_of_honey: "I feel like I missed out on a lot in my education. We only had enough literature so we wouldn't sound thoroughly stupid to our clients. Also, my attempts at rhyming turn into a multilingual mish-mash.

"But sometimes a rhymed word feels inevitable, fated, when it arrives. Is that something like what you mean?"

onlystraw: "Not... really. It's all in how they relate, how they... mean... I can't explain it. Words have places, a vast number, enough that their arrangement is art, but it is a finite number, and there are places where they are perfect. These were days when my heart was volcanic...As the scoriac rivers that roll, as the lavas that restlessly roll, their sulphurous currents down Yaanek, in the ultimate climes of the pole..."

tastes_of_honey: "...I hear it. That's why I have to hear poetry read aloud. Otherwise it just bounces around inside my head as my brain tries to figure out what to do with it and whether it needs to be translated."

onlystraw: "'Night in the lonesome October' is a perfect phrase. It's perfect." He narrows his eyes, lost in thought. Hello, poetry. It's been a while.

tastes_of_honey: Schu lets the little waves of that wash over him. It's always enjoyable to be in the presence of a person thinking on something s/he loves. "A lot of telepaths use metaphors and similes to describe things and gradations of feeling that most languages don't bother with. One time Brad wanted to hit me when I told him that someone 'felt like November.'"

onlystraw: "Why would he want to hit you? I know what November feels like. I think that it would be very interesting to hear what you use to describe these things, however." His brain is running through Ulalume, and practically drugged by it.

tastes_of_honey: "Because to Brad months are measure of time with days in them in which you get work done, not states of mind, so why was I wasting precious minutes with such a vague and subjective description?

"I mainly use colors and flavors, though some emotions have textures to me." That one anti-telepathy drug that time had even taken away so much of his other senses.

Ask your doctor if "Ulalume" is right for you? It's doing good things for Schu too. But he has sent out a vague notice-us to their waitress.

onlystraw: "I don't think that I would much care to speak with him, then. Months stand for seasons, and -things-, not time. Time is... is seconds, and minutes, and work, but November is... is... November, when the leaves on the ground have frost. Do you like the cold?"

tastes_of_honey: "Brad is a precog, a seer. His brain is segmented in ways that... it's hard to describe. He has to keep his past and present very neat and labeled, the better to make sense of images of futures that flash at him. He can be a jerk, but some of his behavior is to keep him sane.

"I like the cold for how it gives me excuses to wear more layers and burrow under the covers."

onlystraw: He tilts his head. That makes some sort of sense. "I would love to study that. I-I wish I could just... just... I, yes. Cold's a good excuse, but it's so sharp, also. Just a little cold, not winter."

tastes_of_honey: "The people at Eszett were so set on making us into weapons that we're sure they missed a lot of useful things about how our minds and talents work just from not immediately seeing the usefulness. I've been teaching Nagi telepathy tricks Eszett would never imagine.

"Definitely. Like on a cool morning if you don't have to get out of bed too quickly so you can just snuggle deeper into your covers. Heaven.

"Or on a brisk walk it can make you feel more alive and stimulated from the way it kind of nips at your exposed skin. Heat just lies on you like a smothering blanket."

onlystraw: "Well, I can do plenty with the mind without having to work with it directly." He shrugs, and peers down at the table. "What's your best trick, that you'll tell me? And, yes. Both of those, yes. I am fond of being warm, but I prefer a bit of cold, enough to let you chose."

tastes_of_honey: "I have 'best tricks' for so many different things. I tell him that subtle is best and that getting people to talk around what you're looking for so it all comes up in their mind makes it easier to find things. Telepathy isn't all about comparing the size of your weapon. In a lot of cases, if you do it right no one will know you did it at all.

"Warmth is great. I'm not so much for hot."

onlystraw: Jonathan considers this for a bit, and nods. He's clever, but if he were a telepath, he would -not- be subtle. He'd think monsters at people and never get bored of it. "So you're not reading my mind now?"

tastes_of_honey: "Not at the moment. Ya know, I did all the flashy monster stuff when I was young. I guess I went on to different stuff."

Schuldig's mun: ((And, yeah, Schu just answered his thought even as he said he wasn't reading.))

onlystraw: "I don't know if I would get bored of it, ever. I think that I would settle in to being able to show emotions and thoughts, and be content. I would like people to see, and if they did, perhaps what I show wouldn't be so irritating."

onlystraw's mun: ((I noticed ;) ))

tastes_of_honey: "To paraphrase Jack Nicholson, a lot of people can't handle the truth.

"To quote something else, 'In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is stoned to death.'"

onlystraw: "... They should, if they're worth knowing.

"Yes. The one week I had that power, many people were angry with me."

tastes_of_honey: "Not that many people are worth knowing, then. Lots of people prefer their delusions.

"That's my whole life. People are like sheep. They don't want to look up out of their rut. They don't want a solution to their problems if it will challenge their ways of thinking."

onlystraw: "The people that continue to speak with me, I believe, like to challenge them. I know that it's... It's just annoying to listen to my mind flail around, but if I weren't trying... And I am... I -want- to improve myself, but there has been far to go."

tastes_of_honey: "Good. Stasis leads to rot." Standing still leads to getting hit or killed. "The annoyance is less the flailing than the returning to the things that you know hurt. You're picking at the scabs.

"I believe that you're making progress, but repetitive thinking like that may be holding you back from doing better."

onlystraw: "That's just... How I think. I -have- to think that, or I won't be good. Oh, it's probably not that. I don't know. How's that for brilliant psychology?"

tastes_of_honey: "There have to be ways of learning from the past without endlessly picking at it.

"I find that I'm least brilliant about myself. Sad but true."

onlystraw: He glances about, and fidgets with the corner of the table. "I've supposed that some of it is that every other target has been taken from me."

tastes_of_honey: "Do you get any enjoyment about inspiring things other than fear in people? I'm curious.

"I'm also wondering if you're ready to order so I can flag the waitress."

onlystraw: He smirks a little, and nods a little, then... "Oh! I've been ready to order. I'm sorry - I was going to get the pumpkin... Thing..."

tastes_of_honey: "I remember. I'll order what I think you wanted. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong as I'm talking, yes?" Waitress! Come here! And have the suspicion that the gentlemen are food critics, a suspicion you should share with the food preparers.

onlystraw: Jonathan peers critically at the waitress, as if she might possibly be quite wicked and conspiring to serve him asparagus. He also mumbles his order.

tastes_of_honey: "I'll have the goulash with rice instead of noodles. Creamed spinach as the side. A Two Brothers Ebels Weiss beer for me, just as for my friend."

Schu sends a subtle thought that Jonathan wanted the pumpkin ravioli in pesto sauce. There's no need to question him further about it.

onlystraw: Jonathan is a fan of pumpkins. Not so much strangers, but she seems to be handling everything just fine, so he is well behaved and drums his fingers until she leaves. Then he giggles, under his breath.

tastes_of_honey: Schu used to be Schwarz's full-time Farfarello wrangler, and that guy could be set off by anything from a lit candle on another table to a cross worn by the wait staff. It's instinctive to make dinner run smoothly unless he or his team want to make a point.

onlystraw: He is being good! He has manners, look, his elbows aren't on the table... Anyway, once she's gone, he says, "I've decided that some people should be happy."

tastes_of_honey: Schu smiles genuinely. Some people would still find it scary. "Me too. I try to help that where I can."

onlystraw: "I'm not so very good at that, but I'm learning."

tastes_of_honey: "I'm trying to make sure Nexus Nagi isn't a lonely misanthrope. With some success. He's currently a misanthrope with a kind of harem."

onlystraw: "Who...?"

tastes_of_honey: "It's still leaving a mark on people so they remember me....

"Alternate of an old member of my team. My own Nagi is in his 20s now, with his own organization, and lives in lonesome splendor in Tokyo."

onlystraw: "I see... Well, at least this one isn't lonely, then. Half of the nexus seems to be involved in these ridiculous cluster relationship.. Whatever they're called, properly.."

He rolls his eyes.

tastes_of_honey: "He's not as sentimental as most of those fools. Though I do question some of his choices... just not so much that he clings to the person as a defiance thing."

Rueful look. "One of my stupid ideas was that I was going to have my own Nexus Schwarz of me, an alt of Nagi, and an alt of Farf and run it the cool way. It didn't work...."

onlystraw: "I'm sorry that it didn't work. That must have been very disappointing. It's terrible when plans go wrong. The library in the nexus was destroyed, before this one."

tastes_of_honey: Ten years ago, as Eszett's slave, Schu had been the "burn it to watch it burn" type. He appreciates things more now. "That must have been terrible.

"You have any familiarity with Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics? I would have loved Dream's library."

onlystraw: "It flooded..." He thinks of the library as a dead person, but the grief's healing pretty well. He tilts his head. "I don't read that sort of comic, and there are no comics about him, in my universe."

tastes_of_honey: "Was that the flood a while back? I thought it was just a pain in the ass.... Dream is the personification of Dreaming, and his library features all the books ever dreamed of but not completed."

onlystraw: "Djehuty's library is similar, but I must not allow myself to become jealous. And... Yes, the flood. Destroyed all of my books..."

tastes_of_honey: "That's a major loss. I'm sorry."

"I've told you that my life doesn't let me hold onto many material things, and an apartment explosion in November destroyed a lot of what I had recently, but I understand how it feels."

onlystraw: "No, you really must, because until then, -I- hadn't been able to keep anything at all. Every time they captured me, they took everything. Often, it was destroyed."

tastes_of_honey: "I've personally learned not to get too attached to things. I have a few safe stashes across a few continents, but that's not really having it and enjoying it.

"Have you had any luck finding replacements?"

onlystraw: "Replacements... well, the new library isn't anything like the old one, but I have copies of many of the same books. I have many of the books which I lost the first time I was captured."

tastes_of_honey: "Yeah, with books of a certain age you can't fully replace them, just find another version of the one you knew. Good on that at least."

onlystraw: "I worked -so hard- for what I had. It's such a shame that I was caught, wasn't it?" He scowls. "Moreso, that they sent me from the university, but I can't do anything about that, then or now."

tastes_of_honey: "It really is. The laws favor them. They put you away, tell you that when you get out you should be good, but when you get out you start off with almost nothing."

onlystraw: "Heh, well... heh... They never actually -let- me out..." He stifles another giggle.

tastes_of_honey: Smile. "Nobody's been able to hold onto me for that long either."

Yes! Bread basket incoming! With warm buns filled with feta and some pretzels. Schu must have some carbs now.

onlystraw: He thinks this is quite amusing. "I will never have to be there again, at any rate." Ooh, rolls! Time to spoil his dinner!

tastes_of_honey: Schu loves the American idea of the doggie bag. You can fill up on buns and bread, then bring leftovers home and only have to heat it up? Excellent idea. Besides, the flavors are stronger the next day....

onlystraw: Jonathan doesn't think that far ahead. There is bread in front of him. He will pick at it. Later on, when it's time to pick at dinner, he'll have less room for it. Then he'll drink a bunch of beer. Watch!

tastes_of_honey: "It's funny, and I didn't start out to, but I am one of the few reliable sources of unLOL'd food in the Nexus." Speaking of beer, here it comes. "I didn't use to feed people." It's usually candy and alcohol, but that's filling, right? Right?

onlystraw: "-You- need to try the candy that one of my colleagues made, if you haven't already. She's put together a fantastic euphoric. Very clean formula, too, very well made." Ooh, beer.

tastes_of_honey: "Candy freak that I am, I may have to give that a little nibble. Euphorics can be a bit of a gamble for me.

"Though if they do work, the people around me tend to be at least as happy as I am."

onlystraw: "Yes, you'd mentioned. It would be worth a shot, then, I think. Regardless."

tastes_of_honey: "Definitely. Let me know when and where. Thanks." Mmmm, the pretzels are still warm.

onlystraw: "I could give you one whenever you like." He smiles, and tears a roll into little teeny pieces. Then he peers at his beer, quizzically.

tastes_of_honey: "I'd love one, but I'd like to take it somewhere private in case it turns out to be not so happy." Beer is to be drunk, not peered at. Schu will demonstrate. Mmm.

onlystraw: "If it isn't, there's an antidote, as well. Do you suppose that would, at least work on you?" He takes a sip. Alcohol always tastes kinda bad. He tries to like it. Also, it is a beer!

tastes_of_honey: "True and pathetic story: One time an antidote had a bad effect on me. If you don't like the beer, I could get the waitress to get you something else."

Other people are getting little sides of stuff as appetizers! Schu has someone bring his table one of those little tripod things containing three-bean salad, chickpeas, and pickled beets too.

onlystraw: "No, no, I have to get used to it, and then it will be good!" He takes another sip, see? He's just not very much of a drinker. He stares at this appetizer thing as if it might be an -alien- tripod. Why is the food -odd-? He will drink his beer and eat crumbs from his roll, and is happy with this. Really!

tastes_of_honey: Food... glorious food.... Schu likes it very much and has a little bit of everything. "Alcohol is something of an acquired taste."

At least Jonathan is doing some eating along with the drinking. Schu has no idea what kind of drunk he'd be.

onlystraw: "It's warm, though, so it's worth the bother. Especially the wine in the Sanctuary, but this -is- good, I think." That reaaaally depends on his company. He tends to get drunk very quickly, however.

tastes_of_honey: "It gets nicer as you go along." Aya is an adorable drunk, talkative and wanting to be stroked and snuggled....

Schu doesn't want to go there with Jonathan, no. Not all the way.

Though that would still be better than Jonathan going morose.

"...and the appetizers are not weird. They're very tasty."

onlystraw: "I think they're odd. It doesn't really look much like food, does it?" No sir, it does not. "Also, I agree, it's better once you've already had a glass."

tastes_of_honey: "Those people have cole slaw.... No, I'll be virtuous. It does too look like food. Tastes like food too.

"See, you have some beer, you start to feel warm and relaxed and mellow... life is good."

onlystraw: He shakes his head, and will be stubborn. It is not food for him, not no way, not no how. He is boring. The humor of the situation is not lost on him, and he smirks into his mug. "It's better than scotch."

tastes_of_honey: Not food? Schu has been around the world and eaten all kinds of stuff. Maybe someday Jonathan can be educated on the broad existence of flavors he's missing.

"I can only drink scotch when I'm around people who love scotch. Meh. That's not a good comparison."

How is their food doing? Ah, almost done. Good.

onlystraw: "Norman enjoys scotch, and he will occasionally give me some, but it isn't good for much beyond getting intoxicated quickly, in my opinion." He leans back in his chair and keeps drinking, slowly.

tastes_of_honey: "Seconded. He's a very bad man if he turns you off alcohol forever. Ah! Our food has come." Come to Papa, tasty goulash and creamed spinach. He's been waiting for you.

onlystraw: Jonathan's food looks like it -isn't food-, but since this contains pumpkins, and pumpkins are -pumpkins-, he will try it. And like it. >_> He picks at it with his fork. Key difference here is that he is also taking actual bites.

tastes_of_honey: Pumpkin for Schu is something he's accustomed to thinking of as part of a sweet dish, so he's not as used to it being used like a squash for a savory dish but that other couple had enjoyed it very much. But if Jonathan really hates it, Schu is fully prepared to get an emergency dish in pronto.

onlystraw: Jonathan is all for pumpkins in general. This seems to have tricked him into eating it. Rather like making food into weird shapes works on small children. Mm, dinner.

tastes_of_honey: Yay! Schu will eat his food and continue to sit in a kind of vague food bliss. Plus the dinner rush is long past, so no one's harried, and most of the customers are happy with their meals and their night. He really never used to be so into feeding other people, but he's gotten used to it.

onlystraw: Jonathan finishes perhaps a third of his meal before he stops picking at it, and finishes his beer. He has fallen mostly silent, in a companionable sort of way.

tastes_of_honey: Schu's happy and quiet for the moment. He's finished half his meal and will take the rest home. Yay! Eventually he asks, "Are you open for dessert or coffee? I have to get the vanilla ice cream with hot raspberry sauce."

onlystraw: "I... I'm full, I'm sorry. I would like another drink, and you should have whatever you like. I really don't eat very much, I said."

tastes_of_honey: The waitress is flagged and here! "Please have these wrapped to go. I would like the vanilla ice cream with hot raspberry sauce. And you, Jonathan?"

onlystraw: "I would like another beer, please, thank you." There, put one drink in him, and he'll order the next one on his own! It is remarkable.

tastes_of_honey: The waitress leaves with their plates and order. Schu may actually pay and even leave a tip. He's feeling generous.

"So you've decided you like the beer, or are you giving yourself more opportunity to get used to it?"

onlystraw: "I like it, very much. I told you, it's better than scotch." He smiles. "Are you still not reading my mind?"

tastes_of_honey: "Yes, but we agreed that lots of things are better than scotch." Lazy smile. "Not reading. I'm just getting generally buzzed on the ambiance."

onlystraw: "I'm not especially buzzed, I don't think?"

tastes_of_honey: "You're more relaxed but not buzzed. Everybody's just... content here tonight. Good meals, good company, while I'm getting toward pleasantly stuffed. It's nice.

"Eszett knew how their telepaths worked, so even when they didn't actively abuse us they never fed us quite enough and they did their best to surround us with bastards."

onlystraw: "That wasn't fair of them, at all. Do you think it's worth it, to be able to benefit from people, when their pleased, to be subjected to all of their moods?"

tastes_of_honey: "I actually get something of an endorphin high off some of other people's suffering, so it's not just the happy stuff.... Eszett developed a drug that can temporarily turn telepathy off. For reasons that make for a long story, I took it once last year. It was horrible, Jonathan. Imagine living in a wind tunnel all your life. Now imagine the wind dying down completely and everything going silent. How would that seem?"

"Aside from that, it was like I'd lost one of my senses. No one seemed real because I couldn't feel them anymore. My grasp of Japanese nosedived. Sounds were lower, colors dimmer. Fewer scents. Everything so quiet."

onlystraw: He is so very jealous, still, but he never tried to hide that, and it's already come up. He nods, slowly, and waits for his second beer. "People, very often, do not seem real."

tastes_of_honey: "Everybody's so contained, aren't they, and you have to rely on all these cues to try to figure out what they're thinking. Not that they actually always know what they're thinking, but yeah."

"I might have had a full-on break if Brad hadn't come home and grabbed me. At least my sense of touch told me he existed that way."

onlystraw: He nods, and bites his lip. "All I want is for that to not be true. I want people t-to be... to be real, to be as they are in writing, where everything is plain."

tastes_of_honey: "Even with telepathy, it's not like how it is in fiction, because fiction has to make some sense. People don't. And try figuring out what the hell the plot is...."

onlystraw: "That isn't what I mean. You know what I mean."

tastes_of_honey: "I think so. I'm just saying that I may have a few more sensory advantages, but... people are still separate, still not quite as real as what's you. I can feel them, but if they were me they would just listen to me and improve their lives. Instead, I so often get the recoil." Schu's expression saddens. "You can be meshed with a person a lot of time, and one day he can still have a break where he can decide that he's stopped loving you."

Thank Whomever that the beer and ice cream have arrived.

onlystraw: Jonathan takes his new beer and drinks some of that. That last comment would normally have set him off, again, but that train of thought's still snowed in. "I don't mean that there should only be one real person in the world, not that. So many other people seem to relate to each other with such ease, to understand each other..."

tastes_of_honey: "'Seems.' They don't. Everybody puts up a front. Misunderstandings happen all the time and sometimes persist for years. People misinterpret something someone said and are so sure they're right that they never think to ask for clarification. Other people get along by completely subsuming their own needs to accommodate the other person.

"Human relations are a poker game."

onlystraw: "I don't -want- that. I hate it." He could either get angry at the way the world is, or drink beer, and he has this beer right here, and the rest of the world is a bit further away. "There is no -reason- for it to be that way. Why would a species capable of -storing knowledge and thought- in written form even... even be -like- this."

tastes_of_honey: The hot, tart raspberries are excellent with cool, melting sweet ice cream. Very good. "People are too proud or wrapped up in their own idea of how things and people work to see what's really there." He's been there more than a few times. "I try to live the best and fullest I can and look for people I like to have around me. Some of them don't work out too well, and those I cast aside." Small smile. "I try to avoid hypocrites, because they particularly drive me up a wall."

onlystraw: "I would just... be much happier... if it weren't so difficult. I never wanted it to be so difficult. I didn't want to be like this, either."

Meh meh meh drinking. Quick, distract him!

tastes_of_honey: And Schu was having such a nice time too.... If Jonathan were one of Schu's other friends, he could just eat ice cream in a sexually suggestive way and the conversation topic would have been forgotten. Then again, he's already doing that. Hmmm. Oh! big tart chunk of raspberry!

"Jonathan, if it were easy everyone could do it and life would be boring. Everybody would have to be exactly the same. Little cookie cutter people." Actually, that's an amusing image. Schu's cookie people don't have elbows or knees so they move funny. Maybe he could leak a bit of cookie image weirdness in a non-creepy way...?

onlystraw: Jonathan does not notice anything about ice cream. Unfortunately, he is not too amused with cookie-cutter people, either. It's just close enough to some kind of actual impression of people to be noooot as funny as it should be. Because dragons burninating the cookie people is much better, see?

tastes_of_honey: Hmph. Your dragons are now making s'mores people.

...Schu now wants s'mores. But ice cream with raspberry will do.

onlystraw: His dragons are way more badass than everything. Rar, burning gumdrop village.

tastes_of_honey: Snicker. Not the gumdrop village! He really should have paid more attention during those games of Candy Land with Farf back in Rosenkreuz.

Knights in rock candy armor ride up! They have candy cane lances. They blow candy cigarette smoke at the dragons as a screen. Schu fully expects the dragons to burninate the knights as his gingerbread men fight the fires with marshmallow goop.

This is all making Schu very hungry. It's a good thing he has ice cream already.

onlystraw: The dragons -do- burninate the knights, because Jonathan is -so- above this childish nonsense. They spread their mighty black wings and launch themselves en masse into the air, blotting out the lollipop sun.

He's buzzed, now, yeah.

tastes_of_honey: Why do you have to be a hater, Jonathan, and try to turn a world of candy colors to black? Schu makes rock candy dragons of many colors, crystalline and nigh-impervious, and sends them aloft. To attack or race and play? Depends on Jonathan's move.

onlystraw: Jonathan's ravens... okay, they were dragons a moment ago. That's fine... swoop on after the crystalline creatures, colors and lack of colors swirling in a kaleidescope fashion. Spinning.

tastes_of_honey: Without giant black wings blocking the sun, light plays through the edges of rock candy bodies and glints. There's the rush of air holding them aloft and the sound of the wind. Sometimes they're flying in spirals, sometimes the pattern of colors and black can't be named at all, but it's all about full sense of the moment.

The dragons turn into exotic birds while still retaining their colors and crystalline forms.

onlystraw: Spaces and colors become birds and blur again. His eyes lid, and shut, and then he would like to think about flying, yes, but that is quite a lot to keep track of, and he's down to one raven, looping about madly.

tastes_of_honey: Several birds become one bird of many colors and long yet flexible crystal candy plumage. Fortunate that physics don't work as usual here. It flies and loops and glints and sings a soothing song of peace and wind and sun. (When Schu gets bored, sometimes he hitches a ride on a bird, though it can be hard to detach sometimes afterward....)

onlystraw: Despite all of the endless weirdness of the nexus, Jonathan has never been a bird. He loves to think about them, and will carry on with this particular waking dream as long as he's... awake, which might not be very long, even though he's not especially buzzed.

tastes_of_honey: Yes, they are birds, flying and gliding high in a clear sky, wind ruffling their feathers and keeping them aloft, bellies happily full. Although they're flying over woods now, there's a city nearby to swoop through if that appeals.

onlystraw: Jonathan has no interest in cities or colors now. He is entirely interested in flying, in wind and sky, and forest below. Had he ever actually -been- a raven, perhaps his thoughts might match up entirely, but he's limited to the human impression of the same.

tastes_of_honey: Schu swoops down and flies up again mostly to admire the movement of his magnificent long tail. He's flown before, so he's more interested in the fine details. He'll also be done with his ice cream soon, so they won't be here much longer.

onlystraw: Jon is absolutely not paying attention to the real world at all. He is in a trance, pretty much, and not even caring about all of those details Schu creates. Flying.

tastes_of_honey: Schu has years of experience living in two worlds at once. Telepaths who can't remember the real world eventually lose themselves forever. He pulls his attention back to his body more so he can enjoy his ice cream better, although he keeps a telepathic eye on Jonathan and his own bird in flight inside the dreamscape. He'll let Jon stay in as long as it's practical for him.

onlystraw: Jonathan will keep right on going. The huge snare of repetitive thoughts and such is entirely gone, and that's probably good for him. The beer's also setting in more.

tastes_of_honey: Schu would make the world's greatest baby sitter. Aside from his destructive tendencies. He's happy that Jon has found mellowness in raven wings and the bottom of a beer bottle. It lets him relax more. Beer that was supposed to end up at another table goes to Schu instead. Ah.

onlystraw: Jonathan's only reaction to the real world -is- to keep drinking beer, which may have a lot to do with it. He is effectively babysat, which brings up the question of how long Schu's going to let him sit there like that.

tastes_of_honey: Can't be forever, peaceful though it may be, since Jon will need to eat and use the toilet eventually. Schu will give him to the end of the ice cream and his new beer. Enjoy, Jon!

onlystraw: When that's all done, he opens his eyes, just a little, having finished his own beer. "What...?"

((continued here))