Restless
Who: Joshua and Dessi
When: mid-day
Where: along the lakeshore
Drunk-sleeping away almost the entire day before made it hard to keep doing it, and Joshua had been up since early morning. He still felt kind of all over the place emotionally, but at least he hadn't cried since his sobby pity-party the day before, right before he passed out, so he was counting that as good. He was thinking about her obsessively, however, and that was not. He'd gotten his phone back from Sean at some point, and sat listlessly around the apartment until he just couldn't anymore, and had gone out for a walk.
In an attempt to distract himself, and to stop punching in long badly-spelled text messages to her only to delete them, Joshua rode his board down toward the lake and then stashed it to walk. It looked like the drizzle-rain was stopping, though that hadn't prevented him going out in it, and he was kind of damp. He didn't care. He paused to snag up another rock and hurl it out into the water, mind grinding on in that unstoppable way it had.
.
Unfortunately for Joshua, the lake was not exactly empty right then. His rock made a nice splash, only it also thunked heavily right onto Dessicant's serpent-sized head. The demon hissed underwater, jerking his head and making a nice little wave in the already-choppy water, then he shifted back to his human form and stuck his head out of the water. Who the hell was out chucking rocks into the lake on such a dreary day?
Oh, a teenage boy. Lovely. "Watch where you're throwing things, kid!" he yelled-- or, rather, said as loudly as his quiet, Weight-damned voice could. Said teenage boy might not even have heard him.
..
He did, because he happened to be looking at where his rock was going to land. And then suddenly there was a man's head there. Which just made him blink and stare for a moment. What the fuck? Was he like ... scuba-diving or something? Because Joshua totally hadn't seen anyone a moment ago. Even coming up for air or anything. He'd been at the lake for a while. " ... sorry," he called back after probably too-long of a hesitation. "Didn't know anybody was ... under there."
.
While he waited for that apology, Dessicant just glared a little in his direction, as if waiting impatiently for it. Which he was. He did have to grump a bit when it came, because, well, the boy was right. There was no way he could have known there was a forty-foot snake under the water, much less a man. He glowered again and started towards shore. His nap was ruined, now, if someone knew he was here. "Didn't expect any damned kids to be wandering around in the rain, either," he answered once he was a little closer, sounding irritable on top of the usual hoarse. Well, all right, so irritable was pretty normal, too....
..
Joshua didn't have the first clue how to react to a naked dude walking out of the water. He was even less sure what to do about the ... were those feathers? They were blue! What the bleeding holy fuck?! Okay, he lived with an angel, for Christ's sake, he'd seen Sean's wings up close and personal, that should not freak him out so much, but for some reason, combined with the man's ... entrance ... it did. He was utterly derailed, and couldn't do anything but stare at the moment.
.
While Dessicant wasn't necessarily modest-- though depending on the person, he really could be; it was just that punky little boys with poorly-shaved heads who threw stones at his head most certainly weren't among those he'd care about-- he definitely didn't appreciate the staring as he climbed out of the water. "What?" he demanded hoarsely, heading for his clothes. "Never seen a naked man before? You gonna stare all day, or what?"
..
Joshua blinked. A couple of times. Looked away, looked back, and realized he was probably really stupid by this point. "No, uhh ... just ... " Yeah, he really didn't have the words. "Sorry," he mumbled, which probably wasn't terribly hear-able, but there it was. Now would be a good time to be walking away from Weird Blue Feathered Naked Man. At least there wasn't attacking involved yet, he probably shouldn't push his luck. He turned around, still with a 'wtf' expression locked on to his face, and started to walk away. Yeah, time to go home.
.
Once the kid turned around, Dessicant couldn't help but smirk a little. Okay, so the expression on the boy's face had been pretty damn good... even if he had been staring. And had probably gotten an eyeful of feathers, too. Hrm. Hopefully that wouldn't be a problem.
He couldn't just leave the boy with nothing to remember him by, though. He thought a moment, looked him up and down, and cursed... hm. His shoelaces. That was a good one, usually, for causing havoc with more than just the cursee, and he didn't know what else the kid had on him besides his clothes. By the time Joshua had gotten a few steps away, one of the laces had already worked itself free from the knot and was flopping around under his feet, just waiting to trip him up.
Feeling more than a little smug, Dessicant set about getting his pants on, wincing as they stuck to his leg. Which was bleeding again. Pits damn it.
..
Even the suggestion of being untied was more than enough for Joshua Barclay's laces to cause havoc. He was too busy being confused to notice the uneasy 'oh balls' feeling he got, but it didn't take many more steps for him to step on one lace with the other foot. He started to go sprawling, arms thrown out to try and catch his fall. Unsuccessfully.
He went down, and since his curse hadn't been the one to cause the tumble in the first place, it slipped right in to make things worse, and pain shot through Joshua from an awkwardly-landed-on wrist and his face. Because of course there was a rock just in the right spot for him to slam into with his nose. He felt the crunch, saw the bright wave of stars behind his eyelids, heard himself give a bark of pain, and knew immediately it was broken. Awesome.
It hurt, and he felt vaguely nauseous as he rolled onto his side and curled, wrist cradled to his chest. This? Was just perfect. Better than perfect.
.
Really, the old demon had not expected to see the fruits of his little labor, there, and it took until he heard the cry to even realize something had come of it already. Dessicant looked up from pulling his shirt over his head and wet hair to frown in that direction, then clamped his mouth shut firmly over his own threatening bark of laughter. That would completely give him away. Instead he pulled his hair out of the back of his shirt, gave it a quick wring out, and headed over, limping a bit.
"You okay?" he asked, smoothing his expression into a blandly curious and slightly concerned one instead of the mirth he was really feeling. That was the best fall he'd seen in a while. "You're, uh, bleeding." He pointed helpfully at the boy's face.
..
Really, Joshua just kind of wanted to lay there until either Sean came for him -- which he would, the young man had no doubt -- or the world ended. What he did not want was to be gawked at. It hit a raw nerve, and a wave of helpless anger boiled up and dulled out the pain a little bit. He'd had enough of that bullshit, of his flaws put out in the spotlight. Even though that was likely an oversensitive and irrational reaction, there it was.
His eyes opened and he glared at the feathered man, bad idea or not. "Fuck off," he slurred. Goddamn, he didn't even want to be looked at, much less have it pointed out that his nose was pouring red. He shifted and started to pick himself up. He got almost there before he stepped on his lace again and sort of hit the ground with his knees again. And instinctively tried to catch himself with his now-fucked-up hand. Which just pissed him off more.
.
This was priceless, really it was. Not for decades had a curse worked this well on someone. And the anger was just beautiful, helpless and embarrassed, and Dessicant really had to milk this as long as he could. He really did. Anger and clumsiness like that, together, didn't come along very often. Looking more concerned, he offered the boy a hand-- which he was pretty sure would, at least, be smacked aside. "You sure you don't need a little help, there, boy?"
..
Being called 'boy' didn't help matters in the least. Joshua made a face that probably would've been close to a snarl if his nose wasn't busy swelling up rapidly. He did indeed slap the hand away with his good one. "Said fuck off," he growled, and tried that whole getting up thing again. It worked this time, but he had a bad feeling about walking. So instead he stood and glared, arming some of the blood off of his mouth with his forearm.
.
Dessicant held up both hands peaceably. "Just looked like a bad spill, boy," he answered innocently. "Thought I'd do the good thing and offer what help I could." Ha. The "good thing"; as if that could ever honestly be used in the same sentence as a demon. "You don't like that, fine." Though he definitely took his time in backing off. If he didn't make the kid feel guilty, he'd at least settle for making him more angry. Either one was a point for him.
..
Joshua didn't even feel close to guilty. He was too pissed to. He just wanted away from there. To go home and put a fist through the wall or something. And get ice on his nose. But to do that, he had to tie his shoes again. Which he crouched down again to do, obviously favoring his left wrist. He kept the wincing to himself, and double-knotted the motherfuckers before he stood again and started to walk away without another word.
.
Angry it was. Dessicant waved after him with a bright smile he was sure the boy wouldn't see-- hence how he felt safe doing it-- and he gave the shoelaces another glance before turning back to his shoes and socks and coat. They'd be undone again in five minutes. Tops.
Pits damn he loved being evil.