fandomtownies | Thursday evening: NPC NetCafe

Jonathan has never been to the NPC NetCafe, Duce had said it was cool though and since Duce was cooler than him by leaps and bounds he'd take her word for it. He's bombarded by the lovely scent of coffee when he opens the door and after after ordering a cup of black Sumatran he heads over to Duce's table.

"Hello," he says sitting down with her. If anyone knew what to look for, they'd notice that the ugly little bump he'd been sporting on his nose since the fight is completely gone.

The first thing Duce does is look over his face, almost as if trying to add to some sort of mental tally list she's been keeping. A brief look of surprise flickers across her features as she notices the fix. "Hi. Hey, you got it fixed! Did Paige do that for you?" Her voice is calm and even, but there's an overtone of something unpleasant as she says the name.

Taking a sip of her coffee, she gestures a hand around them, "I like this place. It's suspiciously student-free most days.

Taking a sip of his coffee he shakes his head, "No, our mutual friend offered to. it hurt, but I guess vanity helps you work through the pain," he says.

"Student-free? Sometimes I'd think school would be great if it weren't for all the students. But I suppose not all of them make me cringe. What about you, you must like at least one of them?" he asks with a smile.

Duce smiles slightly as Crowley is mentioned, "What a nice thing for him to do. And just think, he spared you the tears and remorse and general angst that would've been tied to it if it'd been that other person."

Taking another, slower sip of her coffee, she thinks about the answer to that question, "There are several I find interesting, and one or two I'd consider myself friends with. I generally find it annoying how some of them assume that because I tolerate them politely, it means we're the best of buds. Being a friend or a fuckpuppet of my friend does not make them my friend." Her mouth twists wryly, as if she has someone in mind. She seems to recall who she's speaking to and why they're speaking at all, and drawls, "Well, unless my friend gives them a glowing recommendation first."

Jonathan has to admit, at least to himself, that he's glad he didn't have to go to Paige either. No telling what kind of further drama he'd get into if that happened. He blushes a bit at the term 'fuckpuppet' but is overall pleased with the statement.

"Glowing?" he asks, "I didn't really think I'd done something to deserve a glowing recomendation. I just kind of, hit it off with him. Some people you just communicate better with. What about you? How did you meet him?"

"I suspect there aren't many people who genuinely like him. He's pretty intense. There aren't many who could handle someone like him. They'd be too afraid. He was rather impressed with how you.. controlled your fear." She smiles slightly, "How I met him? I had.. hm. Am having.. a bad life lately. I went to the hotel to get away from things for awhile. I bumped into him. He took an interest in my .. pique. And then he told me a bedtime story." Duce almost purrs that, rolling her shoulders sensuously. "Awfully nice of him," she murmurs.

Remembering the way he'd consoled Jonathan after the JA meetimg, he can only nod assent, "He always seems to have what you need," he says out loud.

"I kind of met him by accident and it all just fell together. Yeah, he seems to like that about me, although, I'm honsetly not all that afraid of him. I mean, I know what he's capable of, what he's done, but something about him, makes me think he won't be breaking his word to me."

Duce listens, rotating her coffee cup. A small smile plays on her face. It crosses her mind that Crowley wouldn't break his word; he'd find a way to make the other party break it for him. She doesn't say that. "He seemed to think we made an oddly matched set, what with my love of the works of de Sade and your love of Stephen King." Sadly, she can't think of a more widely recognised author of scary books. Whether she means scary in the horror genre way or the 'wind up in airport book kiosks of the damned' way is left as an exercize for the reader.

She regards Jonathan with something akin to curiousity, "Which I never would have suspected of you, frankly. You look much more like a V.C. Andrews fan. That lead me to be curious why, if your taste in reading material is so completely unsuspected, you'd hang about with a predictable bunch of louts like the JA?"

Jonathan expected this question, he's kind of surprised more people haven't asked it, although in a different way.

"Angelus... he's my friend, the first friend I ever had. Call me sentimental but it kind of means something to me. He saw potential in me, helped me see it in myself," he explains and then smiles and adds, "Besides, I do like several members of the JA, Faith and Draco for instance. And it's kind of interesting, the way everyone's constantly wondering what we're all doing, even when it's completely innocent."

"I can see where that would provide amusement," Duce concedes, "because I think it's pretty damn funny too. The problem being.. if they were up to something, there are members who would brag about it, and that would get the group as a whole in trouble. I somehow don't think Angelus would like that." She toys with her cup some more, and states, "I respect Angelus. I think he made some rather wild choices with the JA, but knowing what he is, he did that deliberately. It wouldn't have been unlike him to put a blowhard or three in the group specifically to have someone who becomes the public figurehead for trouble."

Sipping her coffee, she says, "I don't know Draco. I adore Faith utterly, because she's always herself and doesn't give a fuck what anyone thinks of it."

Giving Jonathan an odd look, she asks, "Why.. didn't you have friends before? You're gorgeous, you're intelligent, you're fun to talk to.. how are you not totally Mr. Popularity? I mean, you've got the shyboy thing down.. but if you were more outgoing, you'd trump Angelus."

"I sometimes think all of Angelus' decisions are based on some three steps ahead of you gameplan. I'm not sure why he made some of the choices he made with the JA, but I'm sure he had a reason. Faith is great, even if she is a cookie stealer and Draco's my best friend so I'm not really the most unbiased judge of his character," Jonathan tells her.

He blushes heavily at her praise, "Not being the outgoing type, a strict guardian, a love for books, these are not the things that endear you to others in high school. And by 'not being the outgoing type', I mean I was debilitatingly shy'. I don't know why people never seeed to like me, they just didn't," he says, shrugging.

"He's definitely got a game plan of some sort," Duce agrees, "But I think he made a mistake. I strongly suspect he underestimated the lack of initiative in the group. I mean, really - he's off on vacation and the meeting's cancelled? Of all the weeks there should have been a united front, a strong presence.. the group bails? Although it would be prudent to have the group distance itself somewhat from Angelus until this is cleared up. Otherwise, it becomes guilty by association, and he'll be really annoyed if he comes back and it's been disbanded."

She takes another long drink, stopping her rambling. Offering a wry smile, she says, "Sorry. There are reasons I'm not a member of the JA. I have issues with people who can't think for themselves. And lately, it's gone to a saccharine extreme of sweetness and light. Really - it's nice that they're supporting the 'we's all students together, yo' initiative, but that should be the StuCo's job.. and the fact that the JA isn't running that angle shows someone is clearly asleep at the wheel."

Her hand rises to push a snake away from her coffee cup, giving it an annoyed glance. Tesseracting to the other topic of conversation, she tilts her head, "I occasionally think highschool is an emotional piranha pit. However, something you just said makes me wonder if you don't know the trick of it. See.. the game isn't to endear yourself to them. The game is to make them endear themselves to you. But the shy thing," she admits wryly, "would definitely be a problem. And around here, you're going to have a lot of people who avoid you because you have Paige cooties. Which is unfortunate."

She opens her mouth as if to ask something, and then realizes it is probably not polite to ask that. Her snakes remind her that politeness is a human conceit, and besides, they really want to know. So she asks him with frank curiousity, "Why did you do Paige? You're pretty enough that you could just about point a finger and nail any girl in school, and you take a ride on the town bike?"

"The whole cancelling the meeting thing wasn't my idea," he tells her, "our acting President decided that one and it's his perogative to cancel or hold meetings as he sees fit."

"Paige was... a mistake, I didn't know she came with her own train car full of drama or that I'd get beaten up for what I thought was a bit of fun. As for why... I'm a 16 year old boy? It's not a good reason but I'm certain I'm not the first of my kind to be led by his genetalia," he says.

Duce looks like she's about to ask, and then recalls what Angelus said at the last JA meeting and makes a face instead, "Oh. Belthazor. Right. Not exactly someone with any sort of forethought or imagination. Which is great for a second in command whose job is to stand there with a club and enforce shit, but is not so great when they're expected to .. y'know.. think for themselves."

She looks patently unimpressed as she takes a drink of her coffee. Her mouth twists slightly as she asks, "So how long before Phoebe starts attending meetings and the JA becomes a tertiary adjunct to StuCo? Is she even still president of that? Cuz really, Rory does all the work."

Remaining expressionless as Jonathan explains the Paige thing, she nods slowly, "You wouldn't be the first, you won't be the last.. but.. really. Jonathan, you can do so much better. Well, if worst comes to worst, you can always claim your body was possessed by an evil soul and it wasn't really you who stuck your face in that. There is precedent, after all. Paige is an emotional lamprey. She's got some sick problem with ever being anything but someone's girl, and after Geoff, it looks like she's gone to the trouble to make sure she'll never lack for male company. She claimed she had an open relationship with Sawyer.. I honestly wouldn't have put it past her to have used you to make him so jealous he closed the relationship. Which is beyond contemptible."

Jonathan feels it prudent not to mention anything else about Belthazor or the JA. Instead he braces himself to talk about Paige.

"I wasn't really thinking about the thing with Paige, she approached me and I went for it. She mentioned the open relationship so I figured I was safe on that front. I hadn't really gotten to know her to be honest, which kind of makes me sound bad but it's true. I knew she had been dating Professor Chaucer and she'd dated Draco at some point but nothing else," he tells her shaking his head, "I'm totally getting Draco back for not warning me about her by the way But I never really paid attention to what she was up to. She was just a girl I didn't really know.

You said something about an evil soul but, again, thinking with the wrong head and not exactly paying attention. Looking back I'm awfully glad I used a condom," he says and then blushes.

"That wasn't a very gentlemanly thing to say," says rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Duce smiles wryly. Smart, snake girl. Snark on the acting president of the club the guy's in. How's that foot tasting?

She skates on that and shakes her head sympathetically. Jonathan's last comment causes her to laugh so loudly the gamer group turns to look. They look hastilly and deliberately back to their game when the see the girl with snakes is the one doing the laughing. "No, probably not a very gentlemanly thing to say, but definitely a prudent thing to have done, and since it really relieves my mind to hear you say that, I think I seem to have encountered a moment of hysterical deafness and missed any lapse of manners you may or may not have just had."

She takes a drink of her coffee, still chuckling, "She dated Draco too? Ye gods." Duce shakes her head, causing one of the snakes to hiss at her. "Has she even apologized for sic'ing her lowbrow on you?"

Jonathan doesn't apologize for being polite, it's part of who he is and can't help it.

"Yeah, in the early days of school, before we were tight, apparently she cheated on him with Chaucer and some other guy. As to the apology, she came in to counseling the day after it happened and... I might have been a bit short with her. She also left several messages on my voicemail," and here he grimaces as iif remembering all the messages on his voicemail, "But I've been kind of avoiding her since then."

"She cheated on Draco too?" Duce grimaces, "Funny, I sense a theme here. She cheated on Draco with Chaucer, then cheated on Chaucer with Sawyer. She cheated on Sawyer with you, and I'm so glad to hear you're not planning to become the next Mr. Paige."

An eyebrow arches over her glasses, "You do counseling? Like, the peer counseling thing, or serious head-shrinking kind of counseling?"

Jonathan laughs at the idea of him being Mr. Paige. No sex is good enough for that.

"It was pointed out to me by the town shrink that I'm not a real counselor," he says grimacing, "But I beleive it's real counseling. I'm no doctor but I've read extensively on the subject and have quite a bit of personal experience."

"With the added bonus that you're the same age as most of the kids.. " There's the impression that she rolled her eyes, but since they're behind opaque glass, can't tell.

"I'm surprised there's not more trauma around here, really." Duce sounds almost wistful about that. "Everyone takes everything with such apathy, I almost wish something would happen that would shake them up and make them react." She sips her cocoa, "Not that I'd ever wish anything bad on anyone, but after several centuries of life during one of history's bloodiest and most brutal periods.. living in Pleasantville is starting to get to me."

"I know what you mean. Technically I lived in Gotham County, which is in the burbs of Gotham proper, but after being a 2 minute train ride from Amusement Mile and Newtown, Fandom seems a bit tiny. And really, really clean," he says.

Duce shakes her head slightly, "Never heard of that place.. but sounds like a burb. I'm from Chicago, originally. We have a nightlife there." She scowls, taking another drink, "And now with the curfew here, it's doubtful we'll ever get one here."

She tesseracts the subject again, "So.. you know Angelus kinda well, yeah? Why the hell did he invite me to Las Vegas with y'all? I mean.. yeah, it'll be fun, but I'm still kind of curious how I got on the A-list. And has anyone heard whether that's still going to happen, what with Angelus being persona non grata? Cuz if not.. I'm still going."

"Amusement Mile and Newtown pretty much don't start running until well after midnight. So yeah I miss partying properly. And I doubt it's the curfew keeping us from a respectable nightlife," he adds smiling.

"No clue why you were invited beyond the fact that you've always been there for Angelus to collaborate on his insane last minute plans. He's type that appreciates thinking on your feet. Maybe he was looking to up the total IQ of the trip," he adds with a smile, before taking a large sip of coffee, "Maybe he just wanted you to be asking why?"

"The curfew, along with lack of suitable playmates. Le sigh." Duce grins across the table at him. "I did find it amusing that you called our meeting a 'playdate', because unless we have a whole lot more in common than I suspected, you don't mean the same thing I would by that."

Annnd before he can really react to that, she jumps on the other topic like a small snake haired jumping thing. "He owes me favours. I intend to collect. Someday. When I find myself in dire enough straits that I need favours from him at all." She adds wryly, "Although if I ever get that desperate.. meh. He's staking my first round of poker whether he's there or not." She rubs her nose, "Uh.. no pun intended. And as for wanting to pique my curiousity and drive me crazy wondering.. he loses. Since I sincerely doubt he's plotting my untimely and tragic demise, I'm going to assume he wants to get me drunk and take what he thinks will be embarassing pictures."

Letting her first comment go, she clearly didn't want to talk about it, he instead concentrated on the rest of her statement.

"I'm just giving you possible reasons he might have for inviting you along. And also? I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be his primary reason for getting you drunk and that any pictures taken likely wouldn't be of an embarassing nature."

Duce's eyebrow arched, "There are other reasons for getting someone drunk? If you mean the wild and gratuitous sex that occasionally follows.. not even Angelus would go there. Not with me." She smirks, attempting for an innocent face and failing, "Angelus would surely never touch a member of the V-club! .. or at least, I'm assuming he's read the the particular myths about the fun effects my blood has been known to have."

She sips her coffee, "Wouldn't be embarassing, because I don't get embarassed." A shoulder lifts in a shrug. "Wonder if the bookstore's empty enough of people yet.. "

"Seriously? You have like, toxic blood?" he asks kind of intrigued, and shocked she was a virgin, "There's one reason right there why he might stay away. Seriously, you never get embarrassed? I mean, something must have embarrassed you at some point in your life?" he asks.

"Are we visiting him tonight?"

Duce nods, giving Jonathan a curious look, "You somehow skipped out on reading Greek myths? The long of the short is, yes, I am that Medusa. My blood does funny things. Perseus decapitated me and from the fountain of blood sprang Pegasus and a giant. Athena took two vials of it and gave it to some king or other and yadda yadda yadda it did bad shit and good shit and nobody knew until they used it. I give BiteBoy credit for having read them at some point, if for no other reason than to learn everything he could about me. He really hates unknowns."

She takes another swig of coffee, thinking. "I can't remember anything that's embarassed me, ever. Well, there was this one time at band camp.. but you don't want to hear that story."

Looking at her watch, she frowns, "Maybe not. This conversation went longer than I expected, so may have to put it off until tomorrow." ~~cuz zomg I have to sleep sometime!~~

Jonathan maybe kind of does want to hear that story, but he's willing to be a gentleman about it so he lets it go.

"I didn't want to presume that every gorgon I meet is the same gorgon the Greeks wrote stories about. I mean, what if it was an aunt or something and you were really tired of hearing about her and her special famousness?" he asks.

"Sorry we won't be making it to the bookstore today," he says looking contrite, "I'm pretty sure Mr. Crowley would love seeing the two of us together."

See? That's what he gets for being all shy and blushy. No fun stories!

Duce smirks. "There were only ever three of us, and I have no idea where the other two have gotten to. Probably on Olympus, sulking that their entire pantheon has been relegated to myths and legends. My aunt," she says calmly, "is an investments broker in Illinois. Boring, really."

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be delighted. He made it very clear he thought I should look you up and get to know you better, and I do so love to please him." A slow, calculating smile curves her lips, "I'm actually more curious to see what a certain Mr. Blank does if we walk through the door together, and I think today was his day off."

"Well then, it's unlikely you're lauded with stories of her special famousness then isn't it?" he asks

"Blank? You want to mess with Martin Blank? See, now I have to things unbecoming of a gentleman with you, because that is my idea of a good time," he tells her, leaning forward and smiling, "He's such a nice guy, you know? Always sticking his nose everywhere in order to keep people safe and secure. I like that in a person, don't you?"

Duce almost purrs, "Oh, I'm sure you'd be very gentlemanly about it.." Her smile turns almost predatory, "Unlike Martin, who picks fights with girls when he's feeling full of piss and vinegar. I do think it's sweet how people take time out of their busy lives to offer protection to the immortal gorgon. Maia, Paige, Beka, Martin.. really," her eyebrows raise as though she's going wide eyed, "it's so nice of them and not at all condescending. Especially when they're 'warning' concerns one of my friends. Because I am obviously not qualified to make my own judgements about people."

A muscle in her jaw tightens, "Martin came to visit me the morning after I stayed at the hotel. He caught me while I was in a mood, and I suspect he blames Crowley for that as well as the burns on my hands." She laughs in a quiet, cold way, "When all you have is a hammer, the world looks like it's made out of nails. Of course it appeared as though Crowley were responsible. I didn't want to talk about it. One of my roommates is pregnant, and the other is moving to Tibet, life sucks in general and because I didn't feel that was any of his business, he blames the only person who actually managed to make me feel better about all that crap."

Her jaw relaxes again, "Crowley thought Martin had 'warned' me about him. Martin kept his warning to himself, so I'm spared the trouble of thinking up an appropriate way to express my appreciation for it." Tilting her head slightly, she asks, "So what's he think you need protection from? And might I suggest reporting to him that Paige is stalking you?"

"Martin Blank wouldn't care if I were dropped in oil and set on fire. He's made it his personal mission to make sure I don't do anything bad or evil. By which I mean he's been stalking me like I never called him after our second date," Jonathan says, rolling his eyes, "He can't seem to mind his own business and frankly I could do without it. I can't believe anyone has the audacity to tell you what to do. You know, that still has their audacity attached afterwards."

"What bad and evil things does he presume you've done?" She looks genuinely confused, "I mean, besides Paige, because while that's up there on the 'bad' spectrum, it hardly qualfies for evil. She claims to have been exorcized, you know. Can't you report him for stalking you and.. and creating a hostile learning environment? How are you supposed to get anything done with him making you jumpy and uncomfortable?"

She doesn't sound like she expects Jonathan to be jumpy and uncomfortable.. "Several people have made it their business to try to dictate mine. Mostly concerning who I choose to be friends with. I find it annoying."

"The incident at the Pub in town, where the students freaked out? He's decided I'm responsible and therefore I must pay. Or he needs to make sure I won't do it again. Or I got really drunk one weekend and really didn't call him after our second date," he says shrugging again, "I don't think I've ever been that drunk though. And according to him, he shows up in science club every week as per the Dean's orders, or something." he shrugs.

"I just, it seems like the stupidest thing in the world to tell you what you should do. And definately not something I'd want to do without some kind of invulnerability and a titanuim cup"

Duce shakes her head, still confused, "Wasn't that those dopers from town slipping shit into the beer? How the hell..? No, no, don't tell me." She pinches her nasal bridge, "I'm positive that the logic used to link you to that incident will cause my brain to hurt. If Martin must play private eye and investigate that, I wish he'd quit watching you and go look for evidence. I think I got a dose of whatever that drug was a week later, and it wasn't fun."

Giving Jonathan a rather critical once-over, she shakes her head, "You say that like there'd be a first date? No, that causes me brain pain too. Well, at least he's getting something out of that stalking.. participating in the science club should be a good experience for him."

"Oh, it's not the telling me what to do that bothers me. I am fond of the word 'no' as well as the words 'go to hell', and have no problem using them for people who give me orders. It's when my friends are insulted that I become irate. As does the assumption that I'd base my friendship on what anyone but me thought of someone."

Jonathan's not completely sure what the hell Duce is talking about, cause he's damn sure he never used his fear toxin on her, "Wait, you freaked out like the people at the Pub?" he asks, "cause I hadn't heard about that and everyone heard about the Pub thing."

"And do not even go there with Blank. The very idea gives me shudders in the worst way."

"If some one doesn't have the common sense to realize maybe they should fuck off, they deserve you being irate with them. It's the one of the hazards of giving advice, people don't have to accept it graciously, they don't even have to accept it."

Duce's brow knits, perplexed. "You didn't hear about that? Huh. After Drusilla's class, the one where she brought cookies and drinks? I had an enormously large psychotic episode. Apparently the symptoms were similar to some of the rampages people went on after the pub thing. I lost control of my anger and," she says very, very quietly, "I assure you, that does not just happen. So my thought was that someone used whatever drug the pub got doped with on the food in class, and that makes me curious."

She drops the taunting about Sexpartner!Blank with a small grimace.

"Oh, but if I let them know I was irate, they'd stop, you see. And then how would I ever lear who the boogeyman of the week is? Not to sound like Beka, but I like warning so I can protect my friends. I don't mean it like she does, though. Most of them are eminently capable of taking care of themselves physically. Knowing they're on someone's shitlist, and why they're on it, gives me the opportunity to think up counter arguments or other fun ways to cloud the issues."

She sips her coffee again, "I hate when people go all white knight for something with only one side of the story. That's probably why I'm a journalism major."

"I don't think the freak outs in Psych were related to those at the Pub," Jonathan says, relieved no one's been running about campus with his fear toxin, "One of the other kids in class came to me during counseling because of things that happened during his episode and the symptoms weren't at all similar to the Pub incident."

"The only problem is getting the full story, because it seems like this place is just one big secret. But it does always help to have some one competent sticking up for you."

Duce looks a little relieved to hear that, "Good to know. My physiology makes me immune to most drugs, so wondering how someone came up with one that would not only work but cause a psychotic break was driving me nuts. Although now I'll be wondering what did cause it." She frowns slightly, filing that away.

A shoulder lifts in a shrug as she toys with her coffee cup, "I have several hundred years more experience prevaricating than most people here. But it is so nice to see young people just starting out."

Happy that Duce understands it seriously wasn't him he moves on.

"Nice?" he asks, "I'd imagine it's more frustrating than anything else. A bunch of children running about acting like they know everything and causing more trouble for themselves and those they're trying to protect."

"I admit, the play itself leaves something to be desired," Duce notes almost clinically, "It's almost as if none of them have ever played chess before. They run around trying to protect every piece on the board. However, that gives the real players - not that there are many - to strategize." She shrugs a shoulder, "I have a fairly different perspective on the white knights. They have such incredibly short life spans, comparitively."

"It's true, with so many apparently 'under their protection,' you wonder who will end up being sacrificed when it comes down to it. Because you can't save them all," he says, "and white knights, black knights, if you aren't calling the shots you're pretty much expendable."

"The only real difference is that the white knights waste time trying to protect every piece that could be sacrificed. They spread themselves too thin, and that leaves them vulnerable." Duce glances at her watch again, "Well, this has certainly been an edifying conversation. I understand better why Crowley thought I should talk to you. However, if we're going to make it back by curfew, we should get going. So, tentative plans to hit the bookstore later?"

Tilting her head slightly, she asks, "I do so hope our good friend Martin is working today."

"Definately," he says "You, me and... books, what could be better? "

Thursday evening: NPC NetCafe

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