Big Bear Diner splat
#1

13 fridays || Telepathy switched for SUMMONING



It was not too terribly packed. Imagined he had settled comfortably in between breakfast crowds and lunch crowds. Still he sat in a booth by himself plate half-emptied to a state of some leftover eggs and half a pancake. His mind wandered through what to do with his free day. He was all the way up here, he could have checked out local things or maybe swing back down to somewhere more populated.

His thoughts left him with a distant stare. Eyes trained on someone's coffee mug. Coffee. Perhaps he'd have some more of that before he left here. He did wish that he could just...have it. Here already without having to ask.

Suddenly, with little more than a soft splat his table was wet. Coffee spread over the surface without anything to contain it. Hot and fresh! It wouldn't do him any favors to panic but that was exactly what his mind did. Golden eyes glancing around as he searched for napkins.
#2
Friday 13 Switcharoo!
Hydrokinesis replaced with Meteokinesis
Teleportation replaced with Psychometry


Zachary had wrapped up brunch a few minutes ago, mopping the last bits of syrup with a quick swipe of his pinkie finger that was popped right into his mouth. Tounge flicking across his nail, he looked surreptitiously at the few nearby tables to see if he got away with his less than proper table manners.

It was then that he noticed the predicament of a far off table. Another young man who had spilled a substation amount of coffee, apparently right before Zachary finished his own syrup quest. A bolt of sympathy hit his chest watching the man fret about. Something told him that coffee was hot and currently on a dangerous path right toward the guy's lap and as quietly as possible, Zachary made the decision to help. He could at least divert the coffee just enough so it wouldn't cause any 3rd-degree burns.

Eyes blazing white, he kept his head averted and felt the power bubble up, directing it to the other table. For a moment it appeared nothing was happening. Strange. Zachary focused harder and the door of the diner swung open by a huge gust of wind. It didn't stop there, no the wind picked up and hit like a tidal wave on one row of tables, knocking silverware off and making the salt and pepper shakers slide like they were ice skating across the table. Coffee man's table was directly in the path. The hot liquid was pushed up and away, flung to the opposite end of the booth and away from the man completely.

Zachary watched, gobsmacked. That had to have come from him, right? Only his powers definitely didn't work that way.
#3
He...he hadn't understood how it had happened. How it had so suddenly spread over the table as if it had leaked down from the roof. Then, before he could even collect napkins to soak it all up, there was wind unlike any kind he had experienced indoors.

The building had become haunted. He was sure of it. Sure of the fact that people must have watched this all unfold before him. Watched as he shoved himself free of his seat and ended up on the floor with disbelief painted on his face. Not to mention a certain heat in his cheeks for the sheer embarrassment of it all.

Had he done this? The coffee, the wind, it was all a certain strand of magical. Not the good kind. Simply the unexplained variety that swept through time to time. Gold eyes looked as he turned his head over his shoulder to stare at all the patrons. As if one of them might confess to all of this.
#4
That was a lot of unexplained freaky stuff all at once and Zachary's gut clenched with the now so distant memory of being in the center of it all himself. While he was almost positive the coffee spill hadn't been him to begin with, the wind had to at least be partially his fault. Nothing was making sense.

He looked back at the poor guy, now on the floor, and tried to put on a small reassuring smile. Best thing they could do now was laugh off the accident and pretend everything was normal. Yeah... Zachary didn't have high hopes.

As he was, secretly, responsible for the guy ending up on the floor, it was up to him to make the first move. Carefully, Zachary extracted himself from the booth and walked over. "You okay there?" He leaned down, doing his best to keep his voice low and friendly.
#5
"C̄hạn k̄hxthos̄ʹ." He offered hastily as the man approached. Tried to right himself and straighten the embarrassment out of him. Which was a very hard feat when one found themselves in the spotlight of a whole establishment. Quick to try and gather any collection of things that might have come off the table with him. Silverware or napkins.

"C̄hạn t̂xng pị." He mumbled more to himself more than anyone else. Perhaps mildly aware that he might not be understood, but that felt quite alright. Nothing could be understood right now.


"I'm sorry."
"I need to go."

#6
Zachary didn't get too far, his steps short and purposeful. His heart went out to the guy who was reacting in about the same embarrassment fueled desire to disappear that Zachary would have done.

The voice was a surprise only because Zachary would have been hard scrapped for words at this point if the situation had been reversed. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" He said with raised brows. That had to be a different language altogether.

"Let me help you." Time to change tactics then or at least ease some of the panic. Zachary squatted down to reach for a waylaid salt shaker that had fallen near a neighboring table.
#7
He wondered if he could will himself away entirely. Vanish into thin air just as all that liquid had suddenly appeared in thin air. He couldn't make sense of any of this. The gust of wind, the sudden coffee or the man beside him who dared to help clean up such an uncanny situation.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled softly once more as his head ached with a dull pain that threatened to bloom. "I...do not know what happened."
#8
He had felt the man's energy from his booth and now up close, Zachary was sure of it.

Crouched down, he reduced a fallen napkin and used it to mop up some of the coffee that had slipped to the floor. It was still quite warm to the touch and so Zachary dabbed at it carefully.

"Just an accident." He settled on the word. "I should apologize. I think the wind was my fault." He said quietly, focused on wiping the floor.
#9
Oh...the wind was.

Well. That certainly was something new to him.

"How?" He asked softly as he tried to not be overwhelmed by everything that had just happened. Mildly aware that he should perhaps fill in Finn on all of this. Depending on if he learned anything meaningful from all of this.
#10
In for a penny out for a pound then.

"Power's been acting up today. Meant to redirect the coffee so it wouldn't burn you. Sorry." Zachary winced sympathetically. His napkin completely soiled with the lukewarm coffee. He had half a time to try his power again just to see if it'd work this time. Their current position and his usual luck of these things, however, stopped him.

Zachary used his knees to pull himself closer. " I'm guessing the same thing happened to you? With the coffee."
#11
He might have sealed his lips entirely and waited until they had an ounce of privacy had it not been redirected to him soon after. The weight of embarrassment in his mind felt almost unbearable at this point. Yet he still felt compelled to discuss and learn.

"I believe so." Sheepishness in his simple answer. "I have never done anything like it. That is...not what I do." The simplest way to put it!
#12
Zachary had a collection of napkins. Soiled and clean. A waitress was heading their way as well, mop in hand. Time to move them back to a booth.

"I wish I knew why they go on the fritz like that." He raised his hand in a 'whatever' movement. "Happened a year ago to me too. Sudden and uncontrollable. Some cosmic power must be pissed off or something." Zachary laughed quietly and got to his feet. One knee popped with the movement. He might be closer to 30 than 20, but he wasn't that old.

"Ah, let's move back to your table. If you want?" Zachary could also skedaddle if the guy needed some alone time instead.
#13
He did his best to avoid the mopping waitress as she moved in. Far better equipped to handle the mess they had made than them.

"I would like that." He answered softly with a nod. Content to follow along back to where he might be more comfortable. Shielded in a seat and in the presence of someone who might...know more of what had happened.

Once they were settled he would finally conversationally inch back around to something that had been mentioned. "You said cosmic power? A year ago?"
#14
Zachary brightened at the invitation to join and followed a step behind the other toward the booth.

Sliding into place, he crossed one leg over his knee. "Ah, well cosmic power was more of a joke, but something similar to today happened a while ago." Zachary moved to explain with fingertips tapping in sequence on the table. He had no idea what caused powers to go haywire on rare occasions. For all he knew, there could be some cosmic energy floating around that they were somehow tied to.

"I thought something was wrong with me, but things returned to normal the next day. Lasting more than a few days though and you probably discovered a new power."
#15
He had never encountered such a thing, but why should that discredit what this man said? So much was odd and unusual here. Had he not found himself delicately tangled up in a web of unusual people?

"You sound...knowledgeable." A soft, almost nervous laugh despite the honesty to such a statement. This man seemed very wise on these magical occurrences. "Helpful too. Thank you." A little dip of his head.

Then he extended a hand to shake, if the man would like. "Somchai."
#16
"I'm Zachary." He offered a friendly smile with the hope that Somchai found himself comfortable enough to talk for a bit. There shouldn't be any pressure involved, although Zachary was aware he could be...eager when faced with a new psychic.

"And thanks." Zachary waved off the compliment, pleased and a little flustered. "I've just been at this for years, but there's still a lot I don't know."

He moved his hands to his lap, very aware that he had now abandoned his own table. Hopefully, the waitress would still know who to send the bill to.

"So the coffee spill. What were you actually trying to do?"
#17
Years said Zachary. So vague and yet extensive. This was not some sort of new thing to either of them. Yet Somchai regularly felt overshadowed by the strength of others in their abilities and knowledge. He supposed he could just consider himself lucky to know such people.

"Ah," He hummed in thought for a moment. "I had just...thought about it?" There had been no grand motive or great action taken. It had simply appeared from thought onto table in the worst discovery possible.
#18
That could mean a lot of things. Thinking about something tended to get psychics in trouble, a lot of trouble if they weren't careful. The same could be said for pretty much any human, honestly. However, throw in explosions or the ability to literally turn the weather and your spare, singular thought could end up on the evening news.

Zachary furrowed his brow and tried to work backward. "huh, so you weren't trying to use your normal power?" He, in direct opposition, had tried and quite possibly caused the indoor windstorm that started their conversation.
#19
A slight shake in a silent no. Not that he recalled of that jarring moment. It had been a pure accident. He wasn't even in tune with his secondary ability but he was sure there was no ability to be summoning things out of thin air with it.

"None of mine work like that. They're more...communicative." They allowed him to have conversations such as this one! And ones in the mind, but that hardly felt worth specifying right now.
#20
Zachary curled a few fingers under his chin, listening intently. A small shake of the head gave him a clear "no."

"Communicative?" So less physical. "Like telepathy?" It was the only one he had any experience in, not using of course but being on the opposite side.
#21
Oh! This man knew about it! Such a refreshing thing even if it removed the surprise of explaining it.

"Yes!" He answered with a slight smile and a nod. "Also languages. I know many." The tingle in his lips reminded him of this and how it was how he could hold onto a conversation with this man in the first place.
#22
Okay. Wow. Zachary hadn't heard of that particular power, but to know languages, supposedly without studying them? Unbelievably useful. Also, not easily detected which had to be a huge plus. "Those abilities work well together." He said with a hum, crossing his arms together.

None of this explained the weird mishaps and in all honesty, Zachary was curious to see the power again in action. "Would you mind trying it? The telepathy." Zachary clarified quickly. If it wasn't Somchai, then it had to be him.
#23
Indeed they did! He simply offered a soft smile, a bit sheepish from any sort of...compliment? Compliment, he decided. They were his powers after all.

"Can try." He offered in hum. Then tried to do his normal thought process for it all. Open some channel to the other, tether himself to them and be in there. Although he found himself so far away from the ability to even get close to that sensation. As if it had left him entirely.

(He didn't even accidentally summon anything!)

His features would admittedly pull into something of frustration. It would always be a bad sensation to fail when put on the spot.
#24
Zachary did his best not to stare. Performance pressure was a terrible thing and his overly empathetic heart was clenching in shared anxiety. He bore his gaze into the padded cushion of the booth and waited, wondering if there would be a tingle of power felt from his aura reading.

A couple of beats and nothing had changed. The quick glance to Somchai had Zachary smiling encouraginly. "Sorry. I have no idea if it's working."
#25
It would not click and sometimes that's just how it was. No amount of seemingly endless trying could make it active some moments.

Right here, right now, in front a partial stranger, seemed to be that moment.

Deeply embarrassing, if you asked him. Yet the man seemed to accept almost...fault for it. An admittance of no clue on its working. Somchai could only smile in a way that might have teetered into a grimace. A rather rare look on his softer features.

A soft shake of his head before he spoke. "My fault. Does not always work." A glimpse into his infancy for this power.
#26
A shame as he had been rather excited to see what would happen.

"It's alright" Zachary reassured with a slow curl of his fingers coming as an aborted wave. He laughed quietly to follow with, "Probably best too in case something surprising happened."

His eyes tracked to his tablemate's hands, remembering the coffee spill. "You okay from before? No burns?"
#27
"Nothing...nothing serious, I do not think."

Some warmth and tingles leftover from the initial spill, but nothing that required a doctor's attention. Or rather...nothing he wanted to require a doctor's attention. Such was expensive.

"Thank you for all your help." A polite dip of his head. Perhaps he could free himself from this place and its embarrassment.
#28
That was a relief. "No problem." Zachary said automatically.

They had reached a natural lull and he could sense that there might not be much more either of them to say on the matter. Not without becoming aggressively involved considering they were still complete strangers.

He looked around for a moment, thinking about what he could leave Somchai with before taking his own leave.

A memory struck him and Zachary's face twitched as his hand slipped into his back pocket to uncover an old pen left there from his last shift. They had blown through a horde of napkins cleaning everything, but there were still a few fresh ones stacked nearby. Zachary grabbed one and jotted down his name and number.

"I'm going to head out, but just in case you ever want someone else to talk to...here is my number." He would slip it toward the other psychic before twirling the pen once between his fingers. A habit long sustained when he was nervous about something.
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