Roleplaying
2004 Archive
2005 Archive
Seminars
| When: | 5 May 2005 |
| Who: | Damien, Genevieve, Noah |
| What: | Damien breaks Noah. |
Fado Irish Pub and Restaurant
Fado's has become a hotspot for many of the locals. The place is split between three different sections, the bar and tavern in one room, another room for the restaurant, and an outside patio area as an extension of the restaurant; all of which are no smoking. The owner, Tyrr Ceallaghan, opened Fado's two years ago and has advertised and made enough deals to watch it grow.
The bar and tavern room has a counter top bar where any of the patrons can sit and talk with the bartenders or their fellow patrons. Near the bar there are a few tables where anyone can sit with friends, share a drink, and just have a good time.
The restaurant and patio area is your classic walk in dine-in restaurant, with different celtic elements on the walls and in the way the rooms are built. The waitresses and waiters are dressed in all black, and always very courteous, as the owners insist on top quality customer service.
Noah sits at the bar. No wacky scrubs with pandas, plain jeans. Noah looks like a frat boy on break. Olive drag cargo shorts, an orange t-shirt with a sports numeral on the back, open-toed sandals and a pair of sunglasses worn on top of his head. He sits there, sipping at a coke and looking a tad sunburnt.
Starting early can be good some days. Genevieve tromps out of the back room door, pausing to cast a bewildered look at the retinal scanner installed about a week ago by Tyrr. "Can't believe he put it that tall, I have to JUMP to use it. Jerk." However, the contents of the small black book in her hands seems to have caught her interest, and she hmms, chewing on her lower lip briefly before straddling a bar stool and peering at Noah. "Hey," she chirps out.
Noah leans forward quietly sipping his coke. He looks....absolutely slothy. For once he doesn't seem as if he's in a rush to get to or from work. Noah leans back and reaches for a nacho from a plate of congealed cheese, meats, olives and oh yeah...nachos. "Hi there," he returns in a warm cheerful tone, waving with the hand that was about to grab a nacho.
Genevieve squints. "Worst Case Scenario Dating/Address Book.... I wonder..." She begins flicking through pages, and then ahs. "Eee, I'm in here!" She then pouts slightly. "Cute but won't date, cels have too much baggage. Heyyyyyyyyyyyy!" She slaps the book down, before crossing her arms over her chest. She finally looks over to Noah, "Where have you been? Our lunch sales have been down since you and that Hirsh guy haven't been around. Someone's gotta eat the food around here."
Noah smiles more brightly and points at the nachos "Oh...I have a lot of lost time to make up for then," he suggests with a wink. "Oh! We rented a beach house down at the shore! Damien and Sandra and Kacela and I! Had a lot of fun. God it was good to get away from work for a while...I have to go back on Saturday. Ah, well. Good while it lasted."
Genevieve mm-hmms to herself, and then scrambles over the bar to begin making herself the usual -- a virgin strawberry daquiri, with an extra dollop of whipped cream. Genevieve pops open her mouth, and then dives down upon the concoction in an attempt to capture all the whipped cream in one shot. It fails, as it always does, and at the mention of the beachhouse, or more particularly, the names involved, rears back up, eyes wide. With foam enough to do a rabid doug proud clinging to her cheeks and chin, she asks, stupefied, "And you all are still alive and not sick?"
Noah shrugs off the question as he sips his soda to wash down a mouth full of nachos. After clearing his throat, he speaks "Sure. We had a great time! Kacela can cook. And she brought a kite, which was really good. We were going to play some volleyball but didn't have a net. Mostly we just layed out and enjoyed the time away from work." He makes a wry face at the statement "Other than Damien had to take work calls," he says, seemingly not pleased at that.
Noah shrugs off the question as he sips his soda to wash down a mouth full of nachos. After clearing his throat, he speaks "Sure. We had a great time! Kacela can cook. And she brought a kite, which was really good. We were going to play some volleyball but didn't have a net. Mostly we just layed out and enjoyed the time away from work." He makes a wry face at the statement "Other than Damien had to take work calls," he says, seemingly not pleased at that.
"Yeah, but did she do anything else? Was she around the entire time?" Genevieve scowls some, looking a bit put out, but then shrugs some. "Cool. I've been doing... things. Like drawing. Playing with animals. Freeloading here. The usual."
Noah shrugs "Like I said...we mostly just relaxed. The hot tub, stuff like that. Sure, we got there Monday and just got back a little while ago." His smile fades a little "We had a lot of room though. Next time I'll have to invite more people."
Genevieve flicks out her tongue to smear off the leftover whipped cream from the virgin daquiri, and asks, "So you guys had separate beds, huh? And I dunno, sometimes people won't come if others are present." Then she blurts out, "Green paper! Marbled!" As if thinking of something, and then scribbles down a note on her left palm.
Damien wanders into Fado's. The door opens and closes with a little tinkle of a bell behind him. He blinks about in the gloom, and wanders through the mostly empty bar up toward the bar.
Noah opens his mouth to answer the question of separate beds but then stops as Damien enters. A wild wave gets added to his gaping maw as he shouts "D!" across the room. Wow, perky, ain't he just.
Damien almost jumps out of his skin. He wasn't really expecting anyone. So he stops, looks around, spots a Noah, and changes his vector from some spot at the bar to Noah and Genevieve-wards.
Genevieve blinks, and uh-ohs to herself at the outburst. "Just like Cheers," she says, before casting a speculative eye towards Damien. As recalling yet ANOTHER bit of unrelated information, she extends one forefinger and prods at Noah's closest forearm. "Are you really real?"
Noah bats his eyelashes as he holds the poked forearm to his chest "Yes yes...I know, it must seem like I'm some wonderful dream come true but...." Then he stops and tilts his head as his blond kicks in "What do you mean?"
Damien wanders across the bar and drops onto a stool right next to Noah's, and says, a little tired, "Hey. Afternoon."
Genevieve finger-snaps. "I'm sayin! I've heard stuff. Like how you..." She then thinks of how to explain it, and mumbles to herself. "Nevermind. Hi, Mista Hirsh."
Damien perks up a little and gives Genevieve a nice smile. "Good afternoon, Genevieve. How goes your chalk drawing?"
Genevieve blinks, apparently taking Damien too literally. "I'm not... doing one right now?" She glances back and forth between Damien and Noah, raising one hand to rub at her nose. She goes back to looking at the small black book. "Ha ha! He actually has the 'Don't call the next morning' box checked on this one!"
Noah looks..confused for a few moments. But like a dog distracted by a ball, Noah loses his train of thought "Heard wha.....don't call who?" he says, tilting his head and leaning forward at the book.
Damien looks between Genevieve and Noah and asks, "Am I interrupting something?"
Genevieve takes a long slurp of her virgin daq, and protests, "I'm just lookin' at this book. And I dunno who, just some chick. Man, Kurgan was a *PIMP*."
Noah's smile drops like a ton of bricks "Kurgan? The bartender? The one who...you know...passed on," he asks, his voice lowering. He stares at the book now as if Genevieve were holding something dangerous.
"Tyrr's friend, right?" Damien asks. "I heard about him. I'm terribly sorry that he was killed, but I never met him."
Genevieve mm-hmms matter of factly, nowhere near as bothered by the death as she used to be, it appears. "I saw his na-ame in the big book. And now I'm looking at the names he had in his small book." She cackles at some of the entries. "Get bloodwork before sex checkbox, oh my -GOD-. This thing is awesome." She then raises her gaze to peer at Damien. "Uh... yeah?"
Noah stares still at the book "Isn't that...private," he says, seemingly rather disturbed at the idea.
Genevieve is daft! "Nah, saw at the camp, he said it was okay!"
Noah looks confused still. But he does that well "Camp?"
Genevieve then starts. "Oooh, marbled green paper AND burgundy lattice-work!" She dives off the bar.
Damien looks pretty baffled. So he goes, "What just happened here?"
Noah shrugs "I honestly don't know D. Really." he says, sounding indeed dumbfounded as he watches Genevieve dash off.
Damien just blinks, and then asks, "Have you seen Sandra since yesterday?"
Noah shakes his head "No...You're the first person I've seen since we got back. I hope Kacela made it back okay. I can't tell if she had a good time or not."
"I, um..." Damien frowns a little. "Kacela is kind of an enigma to me. I know what she is and why she does the things she does, but she also likes to cook, too. Sometimes I think there's something there under her mask, and sometimes it starts to flake off again, but she's just going to go back to Lyman, who will superglue it back onto her face."
Noah shrugs and takes a sip of his coke "I don't believe that, D. She told me outright on the trip up that she wasn't a good person. But that's all a matter of choice. I think sometimes she wants to be recognized for the good things she does but she doesn't know how to react to praise. Maybe she thinks we're insulting her or something. I don't know...She confuses me. Then again, so do you sometimes," he suggests with a smile.
"She should be all guns and greed," Damien says abstractly. "Experimenting with nerve gas on people should be no big thing to her -- and it isn't. But she also, I don't know. I don't get her at all. She may be younger than I think."
Noah blinks a few times, straw dropping out of his mouth "Nerve gas? I thought you said they were working on West Nile...What are you talking about, D? You're scaring me a little," he says, sounding indeed nervous.
"The news about the airport?" Damien says. "Someone let loose some nerve gas, hurt a bunch of people last week?"
Noah still looks dumbstruck "Someone...did..what? I don't...watch the news, D. I usually hear stuff here. Are you...Are you telling me she was involved?"
"I have absolutely no doubt that Dupont was involved," Damien says. "They're a chemical company no doubt hiding their production of weaponry. If she wasn't directly involved, then her associates were."
Noah just shakes his head "I can't believe she'd be part of that." By the look of horror on his face, he probably can and it's not pretty in Noahland right now.
Damien takes a deep breath, lets it out, and says, "Noah, she's..." He wants to tell Noah what Kacela is, but he looks at the look on Noah's face, and says, "Kacela is mixed up with some extremely bad people who want nothing more than Hell on Earth. Literally."
Noah shrugs "Why would she do that," he asks, genuinely at a loss "Maybe if I talk to her. That's why I wanted to get her away from Lyman. So she could unwind some, you know. Think about stuff....I'm worried about her."
"She does that," Damien says patiently, "Because that is who she is. And it is unbelievably hard and painful to get over that and change."
Noah chews on his lip "Maybe, D. But I think we'd be bad friends if we didn't try and help her see that what she's doing is hurting people. It's just not right," he says as if that said it all.
Damien turns to Noah and grabs Noah's upper arms, one hand per arm. He pulls Noah close and hisses in a mildly exasperated tone, "Noah, Kacela isn't _human_. She's not a person you can just fix."
Noah looks nervously at Damien as he draws him in close "That's a horrible thing to say, D. No matter what she's done....there's always hope for change. I'll talk to her, try and help her see," he says in strained tones.
Damien shakes Noah a little, and says, "Noah, she's not human. She's not a human being. She is not flesh and blood."
Noah tries to pull back out of Damien's grasp. He points powerfully with an index finger as he speaks, pointing with each sentence "YOU told me once that I'd think you were crazy. What's crazy is that you think you have the right to judge her like that. If its true then its up to YOU and me and the rest of her friends to get her away from these people. Man, D, she needs friends right now not judgement!"
Damien does not release Noah's arms and lets out this strange little insane cackle that, itself, doesn't sound terribly human. "Oh man," he breathes under his breath. "Judgment." He laughs again and says, "Noah, I am not judging her. I am telling you the absolute truth, although I swore up and down not to. Kacela is not human. Neither is Sandra. Neither, in fact, am I!"
Noah stops struggling and instead leans forward, bringing his face closer to Damien "You're scaring me, D," he says in a small voice "Why are you saying these things? You just want me to hate her. It's easier if I do, isn't it? Hate her. You said it yourself. It's easy to hate."
Damien's face softens a little, because it's harder and harder for him to keep up the demon thing for more than a few minutes these days. "Noah," he says patiently, "I do not want you to hate her. And what I said is true, it is easier to hate than to feel anything else. Hatred is an easy slippery slope. But I don't want you to live with lies, either. I don't know what else to say, except watching you labor under lies just isn't... it just isn't terribly funny." Pause. "No, that's not it. No, not funny, no." He pauses to organize his thoughts for a moment. "There's the world, and then there are realities that we don't see. A whole second world. A whole second _reality_. Kacela belongs to that second reality. So do I."
Noah tilts his head down, now looking at his chest. He speaks softly, weakly, "What lies, D? That my best friend isn't human? What are you then? What is she? And Sandra. God, if she's not an amazing person than what. Maybe you are crazy, D. And maybe I'm crazy for listening. I'm....I'm worried about you."
Damien lets Noah's arms go. He takes a deep sigh and says, "Truth? Truth is that I'm the same as Kacela. We work for different masters. We're different types of beings. She has a different outlook on the universe than I do. But we're on the same side, for the time being. We're the same sort of scum. Sandra is... Sandra is..." Damien gets a little distant look in his eyes. "Sandra is a being of unmitigated and uncomparable beauty, who is filled with the light of God and only wants what is good and best for you, Noah."
Noah says simply, eyes still pointing down "And you? What do you want, D?"
"To be on the same side as Sandra," Damien says. "Not just because I've fallen in love with her, although that is definitely part of it, but because that's where my place in the universe truly is."
Noah's arms begin shaking as if Damien had never let go. The shaking though starts from his chest and spreads throughout his upper body. When he looks up, Noah is sobbing softly. He reaches out and puts his right hand on Damien's shoulder "I...I want to say you're crazy...easier maybe. But you've never ever lied to me. Oh, D...I don't care about sides. I just want you to be safe." Finally the gravity of it hits him full force and he buries his face in his hands "I don't know what to say," he concludes, sobbing still.
Damien looks like someone's kicked him in a place where he would rather not be kicked, but he also knew this was going to happen, so he has no one to blame but himself. He reaches out and wraps his arms around Noah and draws Noah close, even though he's painfully aware of all the people in the bar watching. Luckily, this is the duldrums of the day. He sighs and tries to comfort Noah. "I'm sorry, Noah," Damien says simply.
Noah lets himself be held. He looks down again, pressing his face on Damien's shoulder "Why...Why are you sorry? I...I don't know how to believe you but you've always been honest with me. I just...I just don't know what to say..what to think anymore. Stupid...weird stuff's been happening since I got here and I thought okay, whatever, people here are weird. Now...Oh God, D. You said Lyman was a demon once. You weren't just being mean were you?"
"I wasn't being mean," Damien says quietly to Noah. "I was telling you the literal truth."
Noah tries to pull back again "You. Are you? And Kacela...what does that even mean. Is that like a cult or something," he asks, wiping his eyes with the side of his hand.
"I am. Kacela is," Damien says. "No, it's a literal thing. Right out of the Bible, out of Revelations. All that stuff you've heard about the devil and Hell. Well... the details are all wrong but the basic intent is correct."
Noah looks...horrorstruck "You work for the devil?!" he asks, raising his voice a little and cracking under the strain of the words "D, no! I won't believe that!" And with that he throws his arms around Damien again as if to squish all the evil out of him. Judging by the strength of the young man's embrace, he might just succeed were it possible.
Damien coughs and squirms and tries to say something, but Noah is busy squeezing all the evil out of him.
Noah still squeezes, seeming perfectly comfortable with the odd silence. Either that or maybe he's broken.
Damien says choked and quiet, "Noah, I can't breathe..."
Noah starts a little and pulls back, seemingly surprised "I'm...I'm sorry D." Just then he looks around "Oh God! Maybe...Oh did...I said too much," he says, realizing he's in Fado's, though thankfully at a lull in business.
Damien takes in a HUGE breath, and lets it out, and then breathes normally. "It's okay, Noah. It's okay. It's all good."
Noah nods, seemingly still reeling from the experience "I...I won't tell anyone, D. I promise. But what about Kacela? If you...If you want to change maybe. There's hope, D, right? We have hope?" He looks as if, for once, he's just not sure.
Damien is still working on this breathing thing. "We're working on that part. It's harder than it sounds. There's some mechanical fiddly bits." He checks himself to make sure he's all there. Satisfied, he says, "I don't know about Kacela. At all."
Noah looks dreadfully sad for a man who's beliefs in heaven and hell have been made concrete. He looks back down at his chest again and just sits there.
Damien gathers Noah up in his arms, people watching be damned, and gives Noah a nice, warm hug.
Noah shrugs in Damien's grasp "I just feel...I feel...lost."
"I know, Noah," Damien says, a little helpless. "I know. And I know that the universe suddenly feels huge and more unfanthomable than usual."
Noah shakes his head "No...I feel small. And confused."
Damien is obviously cursing himself, now. He doesn't let Noah go. "I'm sorry, Noah. You were happier not knowing."
Noah shrugs "It's...It's okay, D. I'm glad you were honest. Means a lot to me. I...I just have so many questions now and I'm afraid of the Truth for once in my life."
Damien lets Noah go. "You can go ahead and ask questions, if you'd like."
Noah looks at Damien, red-eyed and shaking still "So...you're not human? What are you? I mean...you feel real to me. I thought angels were supposed to be all wingy and deliver messages. Is that why you're here?"
Damien gets a bit of a tight, drawn look to his face. "I'm an incubus, and I'm not an angel. Sandra is, but I am not. My job is exactly what I've always told you: I'm a political consultant. My job is to tell people in power to do stupid things so everyone else can laugh at them and lose faith in the government and the State. I'm, unfortunately, ridiculously good at it."
For the first time in a while now, a smile forms on Noah's face. He reaches out and puts his hand on Damien's shoulder again "D, Demons are just Angels that are lost," he says as if an expect on the subject "Just like bad people are really good people who've gone wrong. It's okay, D."
Damien blinks at Noah, not expecting that. "Oh, I know that, Noah. I wasn't always like this."
Noah smiles weakly "Then you'll be fine. I'll help you if I can if you'll...." And then he pauses and thinks for a moment "So that's why you said there was a war," he says in a hushed tone "And is that why people have had swords and axes and stuff. Like Tyrr and then Kurgan got killed because..." He looks up and around, his deer-in-headlights look returning "How many are there?" he asks through a whisper.
Damien thinks for a moment. "Well, there's myself, and Sandra, and Kacela. Lyman is one. So is Tyrr. I'm pretty sure Genevieve is, as well. And Tymel, and Andrew up at the University. And Elizabeth, whom you've never met, and Megumi who has moved on."
Noah simply...stares at the revelation "And God needs that many people in one place? Is this Armageddon?" he asks gravely, his smile drooping to a frown.
"I think Austin is some kind of nexus," Damien says. "And Kevin -- Nastor, actually, his name is -- and I had no idea when we were picking a spot for a Texas office. It was either to be here or Houston. Normally, you have a few celestials here and there. You get huge concentrations of angels and demons in certain cities, like LA or New York or Paris, but not normally places like this. I honestly don't know what is up with Austin. Maybe everyone comes here for the scenery?"
Noah just shakes his head "I...Wow. I can't look at anybody the same way again. Well...maybe you and Sandra. I think I know you but maybe I've just been fooling myself. I don't know D. Maybe this'll make sense tomorrow. Right now it just...It hurts a lot."
Damien just says, "I think you should just think about it all for a while."
Noah looks down at his chest again "Sandra's not going to be mad at you is she? You...You said you promised her you wouldn't tell me something. I'm going to take a wild guess that she meant this."
"Sandra will be pretty livid with me," Damien says blithly. "I had made a promise not to tell you anything after I tried the last time."
Noah nods once "Guess I can see why...I still love you guys. Even after what you said. You've always been good to me, D, been kind. And I appreciate that." He smiles as he looks up and says "Guess I never dreamed demons were likeable...You must make it easy on the Angels to love their enemy," he suggests with a weak broken chuckle.
Damien gets that tight look on his face again. "I was once an angel, Noah. I... no. In the years after I went insane, I didn't make it easy for them to love me. I made it pretty easy for them to want to kill me. This is a recent change as things... as things got better. The last decade or so, I would say."
Noah smiles still, weakly "So since I was fourteen or so," he calculates "How...How old are you?"
"I have no idea," Damien admits. "I think about twenty-two hundred years old, but I'm not sure."
Noah's mouth drops open as he thinks about it "And before...I mean...I thought God whipped up all the angels at once."
"There was a Fall," Damien says. "A long time ago. And the demons were cast out and into Hell. But since then, there's been kind of a cold war that occasionally becomes a hot war. And angels and demons, very rarely, slip out of joint and head to the other side. Right now, everyone is held in stasis until Armageddon comes."
Noah scratches the back of his head "Stasis..." And then he sights "Can't believe I'm having this conversation," his tone a cross between wonder and sadness
"I used to be a kind of Angelic cop," Damien says. "But things got very bad once a long time ago and the closest thing to a wife in heaven I can have died. My brothers and I killed her rather than allow her to become a demon." Damien sounds sad. "It's a long story. I went bonkers for a while and now Sandra is helping me work things out and get to where I need to be. But I'm a special case, I think, and spending an awful lot of time sneaking around so I don't get caught and get dead. Most of the time, demons are just, well, evil."
Noah's mouth falls open again. He pauses, thinking for a good half minute "Your wife...But. Angels can't die," he says more as a statement than a question "Can they?"
"They can die," Damien says. "Oh yes, they can die. Demons can die, too. And we brought Raimetheryn into and I tried so very hard to get to her and save her, but it just wasn't to be." The pain creeps into Damien's voice. "So when I said that a sort of cancer got my wife and killed her, well, that was very true. Although, in all honesty, I'm the one who killed her. I had to. I couldn't... I... she..." He stops, and says, "I'm not so angry anymore as I am just very sad. Sandra is the first person I have truly loved in a very long time."
Noah nods as he just listens to Damien speak. When he's done he speaks "I'm sorry, D. That you lost your wife...I'm so sorry."
"I think I should let you just think on things, Noah," Damien says. "And then, I think you should talk to Sandra about it, because she's alot better about these things than I am."
Noah nods a few times "O..Okay, D. I think I might go take a nap. I'm feeling pretty exhausted. If you see Sandra....Could you have her give me a call?"
"Sure," Damien says. "I will have her give you a call."
Noah hops off his seat. He begins to walk away and then turns and bear hugs Damien again for a few long moments before heading to the door "I'll talk to you soon, D. Thank you again." He walks slowly as if all the bounce were gone.
Damien watches Noah leave, and does what he needs to do in these situations -- find his cigarettes and smoke and smoke.
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