[semi-closed]

[cacoethical]

Who: Dirk Gently (cacoethical) & various
What: Catch-all for February
When: Feb, various
Where: Here, there, everywhere
Warning(s): N/A, will update as needed

[Starters in comments! Feel absolutely free to shoot me a pm or pp at v__ if you'd like a thread with this goober!]

Comments

prior;

[cacoethical]

[There's something to be said for... this. All of it. All of them, adrift, in spite of how deeply awful it all also is. The subtle horror of it is at least shared; they are none of them entirely alone. Dirk has friends. More friends he's ever had in his entire life, people whose company he genuinely enjoys and who seem to enjoy his. It's... strange. Good. Warm.

It's these sorts of thoughts primarily that Dirk entertains as he waits. Catching up with Prior seemed... well, after the events of the gala practically obligatory. Dirk may not be the most socially adept but absolutely regardless of his intentions it seems only decent to keep up with someone he'd kissed. Especially as it really hadn't gone particularly poorly at all, which is... nice. Unusual, but nice. That is, in fact, sort of the overall impression he gets: unusual, but nice. Maybe not his own brand of either, but he can appreciate both.

So, lunch. A lunch invitation. Sitting, waiting, drumming his fingers on the table, smiling at waitstaff -- if someone had told him a handful of months ago he'd find himself in this situation, he'd have been profoundly dubious. Stranger things have happened, certainly. Actually, stranger things happen with enough frequency that this, the relatively mundane, the relatively serene seems all the more profoundly unlikely.]

[priorly]

[A lunch date. Why, it's practically civilised (and will seem more so over the next weeks, as the rest of what passes for civilisation in the city slowly slides to hell).

Prior doesn't know Dirk well - a bad start, a sweet and strangely apologetic middle - but what he knows he likes well enough to have agreed easily to coming out for this. He's left the office, in fact, as much as the local brothel can be called such a thing. Not that he plies any trade there but the one he occasionally dabbled in at home: party planning.

And if the parties demanded here lean a little more to latex and stable wear well. Who is he to judge.

He leaves any hint of that back at Shades Darker, though. Dirk was skittish enough about a cursed kiss for Prior not to want to fright him more. It's a shame, really. There's nothing to take the shine off a kiss more than to have someone say they're sorry for it. But it was compelled, after all, nothing to be taken too seriously.

A shame.

But Prior's smiling as he turns into the cafe, a bright spot among the earthy tones of most citizens. He's adapted to their style of clothes, mostly, but not to their colors. He settles easily into the opposite chair.]

I warn you now, if the word sorry comes out of your mouth once in the next hour, I'm leaving you with the bill.

[This with a sweet smile.]

[cacoethical]

[Dirk meets Prior's approach with a smile, at first bright and then almost sheepish at that... slightly unorthodox but nonetheless entirely apt greeting.]

Ah. Well. Yes.

[He raises his hands in front of him, palms outward. Bear with me here.]

Unfortunately I find that I use quite a lot of words? Or rather that quite a lot of words tend to sort of happen occasionally before I've really noticed them happening, which is sort of in keeping with the general vein of my being, come to think of it, things just happening, so no promises, exactly, but--

[But. Phew. There's that wide smile back again, warm and genuine. It's a fair accusation, really, if he's honest. Looking back, he'd been... well, certainly a bit silly. This is all the more apparent in light of the new memories of which he's recently come into possession. The aftermath of Sound of Nothing had certainly been a great deal more embarrassing, a great deal more personally confusing, and somewhat less clothed. The events... suffice it to say it's put his experiences here in a somewhat different light.

So. So, here they are. And he is, yes, capable of taking that in stride this time around.]

Hello. Probably ought to start there.

[priorly]

The very beginning. It's a very good place to start.

[Please tell him someone in this culturally bereft universe is familiar with musical theatre. Prior takes a seat and listens to the little spiel about no promises - and if Dirk thinks he rambles he should know he's practically succinct compared to people whose mouths have previously been on Prior's. He doesn't hav a thing to worry about, except-]

I'm not going back on the threat just because your mouth does something you don't have control over. [A beat.] Again. This is already the wrong way round - you're supposed to buy me dinner before you kiss me.

[cacoethical]

[Sorry, Prior. Dirk spent most of his formative years in a CIA prison. His pop culture knowledge is practically nil. He is, however, perfectly capable of responding to the tone of the utterance with a smile which, while not necessarily indicating that he's in on the joke, does indicate that he's aware that there's a joke of some sort being made in the first place.]

Yes, I've been told I'm not very good at doing things the right way.

[The Right Way. Careful enunciation and pointed emphasis: this is something he hears in all facets of his life and is generally speaking not something he's convinced is a valid concept -- though Prior does have a point here. And is taking the piss, obviously, which Dirk accepts good-naturedly. Warmly, even. The thing he's wanted most all his life is someone to poke fun at him in a friendly sort of way, and now that he's acquired a few he finds that yearning lessened but the underlying want still very much intact.]

It's a work in progress.

[He says this with an arch little smile, letting Prior in on the joke: no it absolutely isn't.]

Do you suppose that means I owe you an extra dinner, or have I just irrevocably broken the continuity?

[A beat, and then, somewhat wistfully:]

Again.