lostcarnival | This is not how healthy individuals deal with their problems.

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This is not how healthy individuals deal with their problems.

Who: Psi and Open
What: Drinking Alien Booze
Where: The Cookhouse and Around (see prompts)
When: Right after the supervisor meeting.
Warnings: People using alcohol in unhealthy ways. Drunkenness. Adult language highly likely.

He takes to the air as soon as the meeting is over, sick of looking at that weird symbol and sick of listening to everybody talk about what to do next. All the other supervisors seemed to feel like some kind of violent response was necessary. Perhaps in their minds if the carnival didn't respond it would allow the vampires a second chance to attack. The Psionic, however, didn't agree with that line of thinking. The reality was that none of them had any way of knowing if the vampires were considering a second attack or not. The Psionic really didn't see anything wrong with getting rid of sygil and leaving it at that. It was weakening the wards, so of course they needed to remove it, but so long as the wards could be fixed they were safe here.

Even as he thinks that he can't help but feel some small sense of doubt. Even if he did feel that way, everyone else seemed to disagree. Was he missing something that seemed obvious to everyone else? Maybe they knew something he didn't. It's those sorts of fears and anxieties that begin to emerge as he flies. He doesn't want to remember the first attack, but the images come unbidden as his worries grow. Would a kid as young as Bonnie be forced to defend herself from beings like that? Miko and Lars were older. They were a bit more capable and a bit more annoying, but could they truly stand up to a foe like that?

It's nights like these when the Psionic misses his Alternian companions most. They had always know what to say and do. Their absence stings tonight in a way it hasn't in a long time, so where he ends up doing really isn't much of a surprise.

I. The Cookhouse
When he finds the bottle he holds it up victoriously. The drink inside appears to be a truly distressing shade of fluorescent lavender. He smiles before twisting off the top and pouring himself a drink. It's an Alternian liquor, or at least that's what the label seems to imply.

"This stuff is the best. Here, try this." And if you're nearby he pours you a drink. Even if you're not that nearby he'll probably end up calling you over. "This is what real liquor tastes like."

II. Around the Carnival

He's just a little bit drunk right now. He isn't stumbling, but his psionics seem to be going off much more frequently then normal.

"Hey, you! You!" he shouts loudly as he see's you walking by. He rapidly waves your character over before excitedly asking them, "Truth or dare?"

III. Supervisor Grove

Now he's really really drunk. He probably should not have drank that entire bottle, but it's too late for regrets now. His head is spinning, which is annoying, and he keeps wobbling a bit as he tries to balance himself. He stumbles, tries to catch himself with his own psionics, misjudges the force and ends up pushing himself flat on his back in the opposite direction. There's the thud of his body hitting the ground before before he just starts laughing hysterically. He makes no attempt to get up whatsoever.

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He smirks, happy that he's forced someone to agree to his game.

"Okay." He pulls back thinking over what sort of Truth he should ask Childermass for first. He hums in thought before nodding to himself, decision apparently made.

"So what's the deal between you and that Strange guy?" he asks, somehow managing not to shout. Strange was ridiculous, didn't seem like Childermass' type at all. Of course that's how some of the best romances could start.

"Are you guys, maybe, 'more than friends'?" he finishes his question with a wink.

Okay, one question in and Childermass is already done with this game. Of all the things to ask... It doesn't even take more than a short moment to figure out what Psi's really asking and now he has to decide whether to answer it rudely or not. Regardless, the answer is going to be deadpan as all hell.

"Mr. Strange and I are acquaintances by way of our work," is the most boring answer of all time, but it's true, so deal with it. "So 'friends' is not a word I would use."

He's not dignifying the 'more than friends' part with an answer.

"And I believe that makes it your turn."

Edited 2017-01-13 02:58 (UTC)

Workplace proximity associates then. That pointed it to a black romance, especially if one of them had higher standing than the other. Of course Childermass' answer was the most boring avoidant truth or dare answer he'd ever heard, but Childermass had still said he wouldn't use the word 'friends.' Which only makes Psi assume he was right in thinking there might be something else going on between the two.

"Fine then Mr. Not-Friends," he starts, crossing his arms across his chest. "I say Dare."

Edited 2017-01-13 03:06 (UTC)

Childermass is good at boring, particularly when it's actually anything but. It's Psi's turn, however, and he's chosen dare! Dare. What would even be a good dare? The first thing to come to mind is daring him to talk about the supervisor meeting, but that as the first dare seems a bit too presumptuous.

Maybe as the next one.

He leans back against the trailer door and looks about them, gaze eventually landing on someone else's trailer.

"Alright. Go climb that," he says, pointing the trailer in question out. "And bring me back something from the top of it. If you can't find anything, move on to the next one over."

Furthermore, he levels his pointing finger back to Psi.

"No flying."

At first Psi is smiling from how easy he think's this is going to be. Then Childermass amends his dare to exclude his wings. He realizes he isn't going to be able to use his psionics either, even if that technically didn't count as flying. He's a bit disappointed Childermass remembered to add that stipulation, but it doesn't deter him much either.

He turns around, looking at the trailers that surround them. None of them look too difficult. They all had windows after all and other ledges to hold onto. The freckles on his face glow brighter and more red as he starts to smirk in excitement.

"Right." He nods before kicking off his shoes. He sets his eyes on the trailer he's going to climb, and then without hesitation charges forward at full speed. Just as he's about to slam into the trailer he jumps, reaching for the top of a ledge. He catches it, but his feet have nothing to push off of, so he just hangs there, feet dangling below him as he thinks.

"Wait wait, I can do this."

Well, so far, so good.

"Take all the time you need," Childermass assures him. He'll wait. He's got nowhere else to be, really, and this is about as entertaining as writing now that it's Psi's turn, so he's just going to lean back and enjoy the show.

He tries to dig his claws into the metal ledge, an exercise in futility, before pushing his feet against the trailer's side and trying to push himself up and over the top. Of course, he hadn't really gotten a good enough grip on that ledge, so instead of pushing forward, he pushes himself back, falling to the ground with a heavy thud.

"PANFUCKING NOOKSUCKER!" he shouts, in frustration just as much as in pain. He tries to push himself up, but his head spins from the movement, so he's left with his arm beneath him, halfway into a seating up position as he tries not to puke.

'Psiioniic falls back down' was certainly on the list of possibilities Childermass had in mind with this dare, though that fall did sound particularly bad. It could be he's just acting out drunkenly, but it's enough to get Childermass to set his notes aside and stand up from the trailer steps.

A few steps later, he's dropped down into a crouch next to Psi. He'll check on him, but he's not going to reach out to the troll unless it's clear he actually does need the help.

"Alright there?"

Which roughly translates to 'you dead yet, man'?

He starts to nod, but then thinks better of it. His eyes squint shut.

"Yeah, just hit my horn a little too hard." he laughs afterwards as he realizes that isn't the sort of feeling a human could relate to. He opens his eyes again, slowly, and then finishes standing the rest of the way up. He looks towards the trailer another time, studying it intensely.

"Maybe if I tried from the other side..."

He's right, because Childermass has no idea how that might feel. Were horns even supposed to feel anything at all? But with Psi getting back up, there's not much time to wonder about that. He'll follow suit, standing again as well.

"I believe it counts so long as an honest attempt was made," he'll point out, just in case.

Psi shakes his head. "No way, you gotta do it."

He looks at the other side of the trailer again before taking a few steps and running at it again. Like before he catches a ledge, but this time he actually does make it to the top. Afterwards he hollers victoriously up into the sky.

"Suck that highbloods!" he laughs again, before flying down to the ground once more. Seems he forgot about the bringing something down with him part. "Okay, now it's my turn to ask you then."

He stops, trying to sound super dramatic as he asks the question. "Truth, or dare?"

If he says so, Childermass won't actually try to stop him, and it turns out it's for the best when Psi manages to get to the top the second try. Back down on the ground, Childermass just shakes his head, but it isn't in a disapproving way, just in amusement.

Once Psi's back down there with him, though, he'll take a moment to lean a shoulder against the trailer that was scaled and idly cross his arms, thinking on which one to go with this time. As interesting as a dare might be, he's already had a fairly long day...

"Truth again."

Psi smiles proudly, thinking he has a pretty good question to ask. Today was a day to drink to feel better, so he wasn't going to ask about anything sad. He wanted to know something happy.

"How did you meet your first flush crush?" Nailed it.

No, wait, that wasn't what humans called it. "I mean, the first person you liked a lot." Okay there, boom. Nailed it.

Highbloods, flush crush, was he making up words or were they merely references he couldn't possibly hope to understand? Because God knew where the Psiioniic was even from. Nowhere local to where Childermass himself was from, that much was sure.

"The first girl I liked?" He restates the question a bit while frowning, looking off past Psi a moment while he thinks back. "That was a very long time ago..." It's going to take a minute to even dredge up that memory and even when he does, it's not much of one. "A young lady that worked at the fish market, back in Hull. Annie, I think. She had red hair and her father threatened to have me shot every time I spoke with her."

Ah, childhood. Let's not spend too much time remembering that part of his life.

"There. Truth or dare?"

Psi frowns in distaste.

"That wasn't a story." He comments in protest. "You got to say how you meet her, that was the truth part!"

Childermass obviously didn't know how to play this game the right way, otherwise he wouldn't be saying things in such a boring way. It wasn't really worth arguing over though so he just sighs before leaning back against the trailer himself.

"Okay. Truth."

"At the market. Where else would it have been?"

Not apparent enough? No, apparently not.

"After her father threatened to have me shot the first time around," Childermass expands upon that with a shrug. "She thought it was funny when I dumped out an entire basket of fish to stall him and he slipped, straight into his own stall. It wasn't exactly the most romantic of first meetings."

It was mostly just full of cod.

"So is there any particular reason you've decided to get this drunk?"

Oh right, he was drunk. He'd almost forgotten that fact. There was a reason for it, though. He hadn't originally planned on getting quite this tipsy, but it was too late to do anything about that now. He shrugs, figuring it couldn't hurt to tell Childermass something like that.

"When I drink I forget about things that are upsetting me." No big deal, he just wanted to forget stuff. He's sure everyone felt that way sometimes.

"That's a general reason, not a particular one."

If Psiioniic could point out lapses in his own answers, well, it was fair game both ways.

He frowns, not sure what else Childermass wants from him here. He tries to think of all the reasons he was upset before. He remembers there was more than one, at least. Maybe if he just started at the beginning he'd remember them all.

"I was just upset because no one agreed with me. Then I thought 'maybe I'm wrong?' but I don't know because there's no one I can talk to about it. So then I missed people from home."

Wait no, it was supposed to be specific.

"I mean, I missed Signless and Disciple and the Dolorosa."

There, that was specific. Except, wait, did he remember to say why he disagreed?

"And they didn't agree with me because they think it's better to do a preemptive strike. But I think that's bullshit, and if Mari says otherwise than she's a bitch."

Edited 2017-01-13 06:23 (UTC)

There's a lot there he could ask about there, but the words 'preemptive strike' stand out as the most important piece. While it would be kinder and no doubt safer not to pry, that isn't what's going to happen now that Psi has mentioned it. Childermass straightens up at those, away from the previously lazy lean he'd been in.

"Preemptive strike? Against what?"

It isn't even his turn to ask another question yet, but damn the game if that's what the supervisor meeting had been all about.

Psi shrugs. He doesn't really consider this information anything that needs to be kept secret. After all, if he told anyone else about this they'd likely assume right from the start that any attack they made would be against the vampires. He leans back more, letting the trailer support his weight as he thinks.

"Those vampires from before. The ones that scared off all the other people that used to work here."

"Vampires?"

But this is the first time Childermass has heard anything about the vampires, so hopefully Psiioniic can forgive his confusion. At least this answers why the carnival had been so understaffed before.

"I am sorry, but I wasn't here 'from before'. What vampires?"

Psi just scowls, red and blue sparks of electricity flash around his horns for a moment as he glares down at the ground.

"I don't want to talk about it." Those kinds of memories were exactly the ones he was hoping to forget by getting absolutely sloshed. "It's just stupid and it's Mari's fucking fault anyway."

Just thinking about Mari's stupid face had him kicking the ground in frustration.

"She thinks she's so tough, well I know tough. I'm the Psionic, okay? I can take down anyone who stands in my way!"

Right. Sparks mean the end of that line of questioning. Childermass holds his hands up in a placating way as if to tell Psi to calm down without having to say the words aloud.

"Alright. We don't have to talk about it," he says before going on to add, "I believe it's your turn again."

The game may as well continue, even if it's only to distract the troll from vampires and the Nightrider. What's been said has already given him enough to think about.

Even with the topic changed he still feels some amount of residual aggression. He steps forward.

"No way, you think I can't do it. I can do anything." He wobbles on his feet as he talks, but doesn't manage to fall over.

"I pick dare." And he'd keep picking dare all night if he had to! Whether he misunderstood what Childermass sad, or whether he simply wants to be dared instead of asking isn't totally clear, but he seems pretty determined to prove he can do something dangerous here.

Edited 2017-01-14 19:01 (UTC)

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atouts - 2017-01-14 20:30 (UTC) - Expand

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