HYMN & HARVEST

Beckham did a little dance after finishing his hotdog. It was just the energy boost he needed to continue on his quest. He was grateful to have met the tall handsome blonde along the way. Perhaps the universe was looking out for him after all. “Nice to meet you. I’m Beckham.” He laughed at the nickname supposedly given to Caleb by his coworkers. “Oh, really? So you’re a firefighter, I assume?” That certainly explained his impressive physique and burly stature. “And don’t worry, I think you’re a lot cuter than a fridge.” He smiled bashfully and used a thumb to gently wipe the ketchup stain on the corner of Caleb’s lips. 

“I actually think we should go straight…” Beckham couldn’t explain the sensation entirely, but the hymn was pulling him towards that direction. “Come with me?”

Caleb canted his head into Beckham's touch at the corner of his mouth, not at all a stranger from physical touch, and never one to shy away from it. It was just a ways of being friendly after all. "I'm Caleb and yep yep I am a firefighter." Caleb flexed his arms with a laugh making the biceps bulge to emphasize that he could carry anyone out of a burning building if he needed to. "Yeah you think I'm cute? You're dashing yourself Beckham!"

Without a second thought he hooked his arm with Beckham's arm so they could walk together. "Let's go together!"

"i like strawberry." he pitches in, otherwise content to let the other handle the talking, best this way sometimes--con found he enjoyed listening more than talking most the time. "i also like grapes. or those minty ones, refreshing." he was not one to indulge sweets quite so often, but he used to love them as a child. ice cream, banana splits, milkshakes... not that he'd have it often anyway.

he was about to comment on not giving him chocolate but the man's words gave him pause.

con pondered for a second, half wishing he did have ice cream to shove into his mouth as he did. "i--yeah, it's weird," he frowned, "this has been happening a lot. you don't feel like a--well, i don't mind strangers but you don't feel like one..."

"Two strawberry ice creams please. Single scoop. Waffle cone." he said happily as he held out bills from his pocket, already forgetting that Con was going to buy him the new ice cream, so excited to share the park with is new friend.

"Yeah! I feel like I should be here. With you. Right now. I think we were meant to be friends. That i obviously what this music means right? Besides how often do I meet people as tall as me right? You have really pretty eyes too you know?"

"I've been told." He chuckled, absently rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "Glad I never broke it and ruined that. I'd be a whole lot less cute without the little one side looks like the other thing." His smile widened just a touch as he did his best not to sound too pleased about being called hot.

"You aren't that bad-looking yourself." His eyes drifted over the other for a second before settling back on his face. "Kinda got that Prince Charming thing going for you." Zeke shook his head with a quiet laugh.

"No one I've met has any idea what's going on. Just the same song in our heads." He gestured vaguely toward the sprawling park around them. "Yet here we are, having a great time walking around Central Park looking for a duck that might actually know more than we do." He took another bite of his hot dog before adding with a crooked grin, "If you'd told me a week ago this was how I'd be spending my day, I'd have asked what you were smoking."

Caleb hooked his arm with Zeke's so they could walk together side by side. It would be a shame to lose his handsome friend in the midst of the park now. They were getting so close. "Well I think you would be just as appealing you know? You seem like a cool guy. Soooo where you from? I'm from California. The time change was kinda hard but I napped a lot until it all evened out you know?"

Caleb preened tipping his chin up as the other called him 'prince charming'. Who didn't like being complimented? "You didn't think you might be spending the day walking around the cop with a handsome guy?"

wiping his mouth with the back of his hand just felt natural in a time like this, with company like this. he hadn't been in college for years, but some briefly-held habits could be fallen back into. "flying horses, yes. giant spiders, maybe. tentacles? no. big no." he winces so hard it's almost a sneer. "the only tentacles I want to see are braised or breaded, and on a plate. skip the sea monsters." then, with all the talk about attractive relatives, "a cyclops, maybe." with a half-grin, looking up towards caleb. "if they're hot. I could tolerate a lot, if they're hot."

he licks his teeth, and thoughtlessly pours another shot or three. how many was it by then? why wasn't he feeling it yet? "floodgates open. if this is real, then anything possible. what's on your wishlist?"

"Oh you mean calamari? I love calamari. Actually all sea food is delicious. Fried fish, grilled fish, lobsters, crabs, oysters." Caleb was noww thinking about food and that was a dangerous though. Already pulling out his phone to order food for them. "You think cyclops would be hot? Aren't they like giant giant? Like way bigger than normal people giant? That would be kind of scary I think. But whatever floats your boat, friend."

Caleb was already pouring more shots with a little hum as his other hands scrolled through the phone looking for restaurants. "flying horses. oh um. tree ladies? You know what I mean? Gold sheep! I want to pet one. Oh hey what do you want to eat? Is greek food too on the nose? Or is it kinda funny?"

this was... not going how he expected.

"i'm con, nice--nice to meet you caleb." at least he was nice, he had no doubt some would be on his arse for almost sending them to the floor. happened before.

"hum, sure, if you want," he frowned, following the other slowly, "you want to have ice cream with me?"

"I think we should get strawberry, do you like strawberry? I saw him making it earlier and it has real strawberries in it not just like fake strawberry flavor. But the vanilla is good too. And- well. Hot take I am not a chocolate person. Crazy I know. What do you want to get?" he asked looking at the other expectantly, if he were a dog his tail would certainly be wagging.

"Can I say something kinda crazy? Does it feel like we know each other even though we don't?"

letting caleb make the cheers, niko follows each step as it happens. as a near pro, whatever alcohol it was slides down his throat with familiar ease, no surprise at the taste. "only the best, for my new... cousins." that was going to be endlessly amusing. "usually, four before an excuse, twelve before a mistake." not that he planned on making any mistakes that night, but only time would tell.

"I'm not... not saying I'm actually the son of hades. it just seems so extreme. too many things proven real, or unreal, at once. you start with gods, the through line moves past monsters, and then... where does it stop?" a second shot had already disappeared, and he was pouring a third for them both.

Caleb was already pouring new shots for them and handing Niko a lime wedge so they could drink again. "To hot cousins." he said with a shit eating grin as he downed the shot and followed it up with salt and lime.

"I-" Caleb paused the idea of monsters did sort of make his brain hurt he didn't know where he fell in the belief in monsters. But if his mother was a goddess than sure monsters could be real. "I saw Clash of the Titans. I hope the Kraken isn't real. I do hope that pegasuses are real."

"you said that so definitively." he could keep it light, keep it easy. "that mean you believe her?" maybe. "not that we've been given a reason not to. aside from how batshit insane all of this is." he tries to keep his tone light, but it'll be that loose and free spirit of caleb's that carries them through, if anything. being left alone with the bottles meant he stood up for nothing, and he looks around the room-- like nowhere he's been in years, really. like the last place he'd gotten before getting 'picked up'. like who he'd be if it wasn't for that snapshot of a moment, a chance, and then years.

rumination ends when caleb returns, along with niko's grin. "sure, that's how it works." just pick up the phone and call a dead person. maybe that is how it works. he has no fucking clue.

what he does know, is prepping shots; he only has the glasses for drinks, so he's eyeballing how much goes in each. he looks up at caleb with his tongue on his own hand, grinning around it, before going for the salt. "to fruit and dead stuff, then?"

"To fruit and dead stuff!"

Lick.

Shot.

Suck the lime.

"Shit you got the good stuff too. Hm so how many shots before you feel anything because it's usually like 4 before I get a buzz on. How sloppy do we want to get in front of our new house mates? Also no pranks I solemnly swear to not draw on you at all." Caleb was going to take it all in stride as he did everything, he had no reason to refute the things he felt and being told Demeter was his mother sounded as plausible as anything else. He wasn't stressing over it.

"i can--" he looked around, eyes large and wide behind his glasses. he couldn't see what he might do but it would still make him feel bad to just leave the guy hanging after this, "i could buy you another?" a wide smile, trying his best to look friendly. he patted the guy's arms as he let go, wide palms hitting up his muscles without much measure of his strength before he took a careful step back.

the ice cream had made a trail down to his shoe and he wiped it away on the ground shyly. "did you get it 'round here?" he questioned, looking around again, as though someone would magically appear with an ice cream offering, "i'm con, by the way."

"I'm Caleb and I did get it over there by the bridge so we can go get another one. Oh we can get two and have ice cream together right?"

"so that's gonna be your 'thing'." said flatly, slowly pushing to sit upright. "limes. you find out all this, and limes." grinning, despite himself. "might as well throw on some clementines, while you're at it." hands to his knees, "but, shots. you're going to become...the fruit guy, and I'll figure out ghosts or zombies or something." shaking his head. putting that behind himself for now.

"it's niko." then, with the start of a grin, "but depending on how these shots go, you might just get to call me andy."

Caleb was in fact always hungry so the fact he would be able to conjure fruit would be perhaps the best thing to ever happen to him. "Wait right here!" Sliding down the banister of the stairs he b-lined to the kitchen and began to dig through looking for things to do shots with.

Caleb came back and set down his party supplies. "Dude you can do like a ouija board at parties. Who should be talk to? I think Bob Ross would be dope." Caleb said as he concentrated on cutting lime wedges directly on the table like this was a frat house. "Let's get you so drunk you change your name!"

"Oh, thanks. Was thinking of getting one for myself." Zeke took one of the offered hot dogs and nodded. "Ducks? You think you got pulled all the way over here to look at some ducks?" At least it was someone with some sort of guess. He himself still had nothing on that front. "So far, you are the third person I've met with the same urge to travel to New York and hang out at the park." He took a bite of the hot dog as they moved through the park. "Name's Zeke, by the way."

"Zeke. I'm Caleb. You have a really handsome face you know that? Like. Symmetrical. Or something. It's nice." Caleb said with a bright smile as he started to eat another hotdog, mustard in the corner of his mouth as they walked.

"What do you think we are looking for? Did the other three find what they were looking for? I met a few people that made the noise in my head get quiet like now and that was nice. But really it's a pretty song."

he doesn't ask for help, arms laden with full bags, as he tromps up the stairs. the information he'd received for his trouble, his time, and the departure from his lucrative 'relationship', was something he could barely fucking believe. he had one answer left. one he turned to on good nights and bad nights, yet not to the point of addiction lest he lose his appeal to his primary partner.

the thought process derails as he remembers, yet again, that he doesn't have to get or keep ready for yuri anymore. it frees him with the same weight that it pulls him through the floor.

at the top of said stairs, bags are hefted over to the table, then planted down loud enough to clink. bottle. bottle. bottle. another bottle. and another. one glass. two glasses. too many glasses. he didn't know whose house this was and what her dishwasher was like, and she can keep them after, whatever. he just needs a drink or six. the brands produced are expensive, prohibitively so, but it's a city, and he's able to find what he wants. tequilas, whiskeys, vokas, a few bottles of soda water. enough to get by, but nothing to make it easy.

his answer to anyone coming to ask is a quick look, and a nod towards the now-laden table. taking his filled glass, he rests against one of the couches, leaning far back into the worn material, and thinks. ruminates. panics some, perhaps, on the inside; but most of what anyone gets on the outside is cool, even-heeled processing.

"Oh hey hang on let me get limes. I would like. Demigod grow some limes but I don't know how to yet. One day. Limes everywhere. Limes out the ass. And mangos." Caleb said with a bright grin as he held up two thumbs up. "Salt should I get salt? Let's do shots."

Caleb paused for a moment and before leaving to get aforementioned limes and salt, "I'm Caleb by the way. This is gonna be fun dude!"

He didn't miss the tall burly blonde who suddenly struck up a conversation with him. Still getting used to people noticing him, he flashed an awkward smile before responding. "Believe me, I know what you mean." Beckham laughed and nodded at the offer for a hot dog. He'd never turn down a fat sausage, especially from a handsome stranger. Would he live to regret those words? Possibly, but no harm done in making a friend in the mean time. But just to be sure... he swiftly dug into the contents of his pockets and fished out a single card. The Ace of Wands. How ironic. As if he needed another reason to succumb to his lust. "Do you happen to have a name? Or will Goldilocks suffice?" He teased, grinning playfully.

Wiping his hand on his pants he held it out for the other man to take. "Caleb! My name is Caleb, but I guess I don't mind being called Goldilocks if you want? In the fire house they call me Fridge because I can empty a fridge so at least yours is kinda nicer than that." he said with a laugh. "What about you? What's your name? Um. Mr. Handsome. Guy." Caleb laughed and shrugged his shoulders. He was never good at making up nickname anyway.

"We can do left or right I guess. Or through the middle. Hmm I don't think it really matters do you?"

he doesn't like how exposed it feels being out here. he hasn't been to this side of the ocean since--ever. still, it's not like the movies, when he bothered to watch those. and too many people are giving him too many kinds of eyes for him to account for what they might mean.

it feels right though, in a weird sense, like his body is vibrating to the sounds around him. his feet moving automatically like they knew their way around this strange land.

sipping on some overpriced coffee bought with someone else's money as a couple argues with hushed voices behind the trees. he listens in, just to be sure--he is no savior but men can get...

his knuckles are still bruised, and the voices slow, then pick up but not in anger anymore. he moves, head only half turned as he stumbles forward into someone and doesn't manage to salvage himself from tripping on his feet for balance.

It wasn't so much the hands on his body that he minded, it was the slow and devastating moment that his ice-cream one fell forward as another body collided into his own. It was as if it was in slow motion, eyes wide as it tumbled through the air, spinning on end, one full rotation. Two full rotations. Three full rotations. Finally landing ice cream first down on the ground.

"Oh. Yeah. I guess I'm alright. My ice cream though." he said with a forlorn look at the ground before he looked up at the man who had run into him but also stopped him from falling.