OPEN - I wanna know, can you show me?

[dynamitedarling]

Who: Darling and YOU!
Where: Starkbucks
When: Throughout July
What: Darling wants to hear from you! Yes you! Even you! And he isn't above a bit of light bribery.
Warnings: None at the moment, will edit if I must!


After a few days of settling in, Darling has decided it's time to gather more information about the world he has found himself in. His asking on the network netted very few results, and he can only research so much on his own. Sure, he's already got piles of notes and an apartment wall responsible for the emptying of a sizeable box of thumbtacks, but he needs More!

He understands that his reputation here is nonexistent. He doesn't have the pull he had at the Bureau, or any manner of name recognition at all - he's just a middle aged man in a lab coat and sweater vest in desert heat, doing his best to understand all he can about the situation.

That is why, now, he has set himself up in the corner of Starkbucks with a thick notepad, at least four pens, a welcoming smile, and a sign that reads:

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF, WHERE YOU COME FROM, AND/OR THIS DIMENSION AND I WILL BUY YOU A COFFEE!

Comments

[drowningman]

It's a couple days following Alan's exhausting social media experience. There's been time enough to settle in, negotiate a living agreement with the worst roommate ever, and acclimate just enough to not feel like a complete dimensional tourist when leaving the house. Of the people that he talked to, one in particular knew things about him and where he'd gone with just enough context not to doubt him at all and he was curious about who this person was. The enthusiasm he'd had in the messages as well surprised Alan. It was different from the kind of attention he usually received from people.

As Alan enters the Starbucks, he looks around. There's the general flow of people coming and going with their orders, people sitting at the tables here and there, and then there's the one with the noticeable sign that has big letters on it. Only going off of the fact that a person with the username "drdarling" had said he wanted to talk and the fact that here was a man in a sweater vest and lab coat looking for information about different dimensions at this table, he guessed this was probably the same person.

He walks over to the table and stands - he doesn't sit yet, a carry-over of his little internet joke -, greeting Darling with an awkward little wave.

"Hi. Alan Wake - I believe you gave me a standing invitation for coffee," he says, looking over the man behind the table again now that he's standing closer. "Where did you want to start?"

[dynamitedarling]

When Darling spots Alan, he nearly drops his clipboard.

It's really him. He's right there. Someone he had studied from afar, who had been tied up with one of the most infuriatingly elusive AWEs Darling had personally studied. He looks...older, than his last documented appearance at least. There was a photo of something that looked LIKE him, mind, but...no. That was Something Else.

FASCINATING.

At once he realizes that he's staring AND that Alan is making a joke, and he shakes himself with a chuckle. Sticking out a hand to shake, he beams, plainly excited. "It's a pleasure, Mister Wake," he says in a voice that may be upsettingly familiar. "I'm Doctor Casper Darling. Just Darling is fine, if you like. Before you sit, please, go let the counter know to put your coffee on my tab. Whatever you like. I'm so eager to talk to you."

[drowningman]

At first, Alan thinks the staring is a lot - nowadays, anyway, before? He wouldn't have been surprised - but when Darling speaks then it's his turn to stare just a bit too long. The way he puts his hand in the scientist's hand to shake would be considered absent-minded if it wasn't for the fact that actually there was no absence in his mind at all as it raced with confusion. When you hear stories about doppelgangers, it's always about a shared face, but a voice? This was new... Different. He wasn't sure if he should trust this, and therefore Dr. Darling, or not.

"Pleasure's all mine," he says, but there's detectable skepticism in his voice. "I'll be right back."

Alan goes and orders his coffee, his wants short and simple: sixteen ounces of black drip coffee. Before long, he returns to the table and has a seat.

"Being called Darling in a conversation isn't weird for you?" It's a simple curiosity - Alan doesn't like scenarios where acquaintances are overly familiar and he himself doesn't think he could handle it if his name happened to also be a common pet name.

[dynamitedarling]

That stare is a little odd - but this man has been in the dark for such a long time, the Doctor would certainly not begrudge him a little bit of social awkwardness. He takes the skepticism in stride, allowing the writer to go and come back.

...Wait, they sound the same.

The realization hits fully with Alan's return (ha), and he sputters for just a moment before shaking himself out of it to reply. "No, it was always my name first and an endearment later. It doesn't bother me at all. Besides - it's either ghost jokes or pet name jokes." A self-depreciating chuckle, but then he just can't let it slide.

"Sorry, Mister Wake, I just - have you noticed that we...well, we sound sort of..."

[drowningman]

"The same? No, I hadn't." He flashes a very brief sarcastic smile. Honestly if Alan thinks about it, they even resemble each other just enough that a passing stranger would probably think they were brothers. He doesn't know how to feel about it. In any case, he has coffee in exchange for the price of a conversation and he shouldn't let Night Springs-ian weirdness get in the way.

"Darling it is. And no jokes - I've had to deal with my fair share of wiseguy comments about my own last name."

He takes a sip of his coffee, wondering if he should start or let Darling ask a question first. Considering he has to figure out where even TO start, he just enjoys his coffee for a moment - it's not the best coffee he's ever had but it's not the worst either. The roast profile is complex enough with a medium-bodied mouthfeel, tasting of caramel and spice at first before leaving a floral, almost piney aftertaste and a bit of acidity in the back of the tongue. Not his favorite, but alright.

[dynamitedarling]

"Right. Of course." Equally sarcastic, but less bitingly so - more playful. "And I can imagine. I think we're evenly matched in that regard."

He sips his own coffee - heavily sweetened, the nuances Alan was experiencing lost on years of having to find ways to palate badly made intern coffee. "Well then. Where even to begin? I suppose...."

He prepares his pen and paper.

"Where have you been?"

[drowningman]

'Where' is an interesting place to start - not 'what happened' first to lead into 'where'. But considering the emblem embroidered onto the labcoat and what Alan already knows about the Federal Bureau of Control, what he's written about the place, there's a chance that this man already knows at least some of the story.

Where... It's a place he knows and doesn't know, can and can't explain at the same time.

"I dove into Cauldron Lake to save my wife and crossed over to what I call The Dark Place." He stops a moment to give the man time to think about that and write. "I don't know if the place itself is alive or if there's just a god-like entity that lives there, but it gives people who create the ability to manipulate reality there. You can't just blindly make whatever you want real though. There are restrictions, and sometimes consequences. It's why I couldn't escape for years."

[dynamitedarling]

It takes...effort, honestly, to keep from looking too slack-jawed as Alan explains - his note-writing hand can't move fast enough, his mind working overtime to try and grasp the concepts as they came.

It's a good thing Alan paused.

"Fascinating - my apologies for your hardships, of course, Mister Wake, but...it sounds as though you crossed a Threshold! Not just anyone has, of course. I almost don't know where to begin!" He takes a moment to gather himself. "How did you find yourself escaping, exactly?"

[drowningman]

Watching the thought journey this guy must be going on as he jots things down on his notepad is sure something. Alan takes a sip of his coffee as Darling catches up.

The enthusiastic response is a lot, but he supposes he shouldn't be surprised considering this whole thing is within the realm of the man's work. It reminds him a bit of a character he wrote for a project years ago. Back before his novelist years...

"I'm guessing that's your word for it?" Maybe one of these days him, Darling, and Jesse would have to sit down to discuss this stuff. He doesn't work for them, but the overlap of involvement feels like enough justification for him to get some answers of his own. He's fine with answering theirs in exchange. That's a fair trade in his mind.

"Well, I tried a lot of different methods with little success. I actually had something years in the making lined up, but coming here isn't what I had in mind. I'm guessing I didn't escape here so much as brought here by some other cosmic force."

[dynamitedarling]

Darling pushes his glasses up on his nose, realizing they were falling with the vigor he's putting into writing his notes. He's made his peace long since with being a bit of a nerd stereotype, and he's oblivious to Alan's vague thought.

"Oh - yes. A Threshold," he explains, drawing a little Venn diagram and jabbing his pen in the center, "Is a space where two planes intersect, just enough to make things a bit...unusual. This place you were sounds like perhaps it was...like the waves of something deeper, lapping onto our shores. If you'll excuse the metaphor."

Once Alan explains about how he came to be here, though, he nods, sighing a little. "That makes sense. From what I can tell, all of us who were brought here aren't quite sure how. I hope to get to the bottom of that."