MHA #15, Monday Evening

[pocketpretzels]

As had become habit over the past few months, on Monday evening Watts found himself seated at his kitchen table surrounded by a stack of paper as he wrote to folks back in Toronto.

The most detailed letter went to the Detective and Dr. Ogden, as per usual, given that the former had experience here and thus Watts could be entirely honest about the things he'd seen and done. Less detailed were the missives sent to George Crabtree and Mrs. Hart. And finally, this week, there was a short note he owed Miss Louise Cherry, who'd written him recently expressing doubt that this address was even real. So he was writing back to assure her that no, no one had killed him in a fit of exasperation and he was in fact alive and well, just in Baltimore rather than Toronto.

It was slow going, of course, as he was making an effort to keep his writing as legible as possible. Even then, there had been more than a few sheets he'd had to discard entirely, and the wastepaper basket was starting to fill up.

[ooc: for the neighbour! that he came over is ok to mention, details NFB please.]

Comments

[pocketpretzels]

His inability to appreciate jokes was not something he generally bothered explaining, as he didn't much care what most people thought of him.

With Steven, he cared. "It's swing and a miss, usually miss, honestly, so thank you." Though it remained to be seen whether he'd actually take Steven up on that offer and check.

[hasaknightjob]

"Of course," Steven said. "Last thing I'd ever want is to have hurt you. Well, one of them anyway."

[pocketpretzels]

“And I you, for the record,” Watts told him.

[hasaknightjob]

"You haven't, promise," Steven said. He looked at Watts for a bit longer than he should have before making himself look away. "But here's me taking up so much of your time. I should get out of your hair. Let you get back to it, yeah?"

[pocketpretzels]

Which was unusual for Llewellyn “Personality Conflicts” Watts, really.

“Back to- I wasn’t doing anything of import,” Watts said dismissively, not even glancing at the stack of partially-written letters. “The offer from earlier still remains. The wine, I mean.” He rather liked having you in his hair, Steven. In case you couldn’t tell.

[hasaknightjob]

Well now a look of hope peeked out. Wine meant staying a while at least. Steven didn't mind the idea of that at all.

"Yeah, all right," Steven said. He finally let himself take a step forward from where he'd been keeping distance the whole time. "Didn't have any plans for tonight besides talking to you. And what's staying? Still talking to you. Works out perfect, then."

[pocketpretzels]

“Good, good,” Watts nodded, standing up and humming thoughtfully to himself as he perused the few bottles he’d picked up recently before settling on one.

“I’m afraid my knowledge of good vintages is more than a few decades out of date,” he said apologetically. “But I’ve been assured that these are quality,” he uncorked the bottle and carefully poured two glasses, handing one over to Steven.

[hasaknightjob]

"That's all right, I'm no expert myself," Steven said. He watched Watts take care of things, noticing one bottle looked older than the others. "Mostly follow other people's lead if they know better."

Steven took the glass when Watts offered it. He then held it out in an invitation for a toast. "To... better understanding? You know, I mean us. Each other."

[pocketpretzels]

“To better understanding,” Watts echoed.

That one older bottle was being saved for a special occasion. What that occasion might be, Watts had no idea as of yet. But given how the bottle had come to be in his possession, it would need to be… something more than a drink with a friend.

He breathed in the wine for a moment before taking a slow, measured sip.

“So,” he said slowly. “Tell me about your museum?” Was he aware that Steven was not, in fact, in charge of the place? Maybe. Did that matter to him? No, not really.

[hasaknightjob]

"Should we -" Steven gestured to indicate sitting down, either in the kitchen or the living room. "And which one?"

[pocketpretzels]

“Right, yes, good idea,” could you tell that Watts didn’t exactly play host all that often, Steven? He gestured towards the living room, and the couch there, sweeping a couple books that had been on the cushions off to the floor.

“I was thinking of the one here, but either one, really.”

Mostly he just liked to hear Steven talk about the things that he was passionate about.

[hasaknightjob]

Steven took a seat on the couch, angling himself sideways so he could face Watts. He didn't mind answering Watts's question but given what just happened he had to ask, bemused more than anything else, "What did those books do and is it anything I need to worry about if I overstay my welcome here as well?"

[pocketpretzels]

Watts blinked, staring down at the books in question because the gesture had been so automatic, it hadn’t even really registered beyond ‘something is in the way, it needs to not be here’.

“We needed to sit,” he explained. “And you’ve got nothing to worry about in that respect,” Watts assured him.

[hasaknightjob]

"Right," Steven said. "And that was a joke, by the way. Didn't actually think you'd try it on a person. And - sorry I know I'm getting off track but do you read all those languages as well?"

Steven indicated Watts's bookshelf. He was both curious and still a tiny bit worried about the implication Watts knew French.

[pocketpretzels]

“Some better than others,” Watts admitted. “But yes. Translations can be… well. I prefer to read the originals, when I can.”

Speaking of French, don’t even get him started on the English translations of Verne, please.

[hasaknightjob]

"That's a lot," Steven said, not even trying to hide how he was impressed. "More than I have by a fair few. Who's quite clever then? You. Clearly."

[pocketpretzels]

Please ignore the way the tips of his ears turned bright red at the compliment there, Steven.

“I’ve a lot of free time,” he tried to dismiss it as not that big of a deal.

[hasaknightjob]

No Steven did notice it, unfortunately. He tried to hide his smile behind taking a sip of his wine though. "I don't know. Plenty of people have free time, doesn't make them intelligent. Even some gods, if you ask me."

[pocketpretzels]

“What would a god even do in their free time?” Watts had to ask now.

[hasaknightjob]

"Oh, well, depends on the god, doesn't it?" Steven said. He put his glass down as his gestures became more animated as he spoke. "And there's myth versus reality. Still trying to suss out which is which now that I've met them. But if we're talking what I know personally then mostly the Egyptian gods want to watch. Keep an eye on humans but not do anything to interfere. So lots of free time there, if you ask me."

[pocketpretzels]

And they had technically strayed from Watts’s original topic but did he care? Not with the way Steven got in to his explanation he didn’t. “And humans are deemed interesting enough to be worth keeping an eye on?” Watts didn’t really understand that, but on the other hand… Steven’s world had ‘super heroes’ and the like so perhaps humanity in general was more interesting to watch.

[hasaknightjob]

"Well it's their responsibility, right?" Steven said, leaning forward as he spoke. If Watts had wanted to find something Steven could be distractedly passionate about he would've been hard pressed to find a better topic. "Again, strictly Egypt here. Don't know how the other gods handle it. But with the Egyptian gods they have the parts of life and humanity they look after. It's like... I don't know. This is your flat, right? You decided to live here so you know it's yours to take care of, yeah? Keep clean and all that? They've got their domains and that's what they care about. Humans are part of it."

[pocketpretzels]

"So why non-interference?" Watts asked. "Doesn't taking care of something imply interfering with it on some level?"

[hasaknightjob]

"Well there's the argument," Steven said, since Watts had zeroed in nicely on one of the problems. "They all agree - and I don't know how that came about yet - but they all agree to step back and have avatars keep an eye on things, yeah? Only some gods, like Konshu, didn't like that. I mean say what you will about the old buzzard but he doesn't care for being hands off when it came to those he's responsible for. It put him on the outs with most of the other gods who didn't like him doing that. But I'll be honest, willing to wager his personality did not help at all."

[pocketpretzels]

"No, from what you've said he seems rather the disagreeable sort all around," Watts nodded.