Should've Brought Whiskey

[Hades Black]

Hades stretched and just laid on his bed, mind lost in thought of the woman he met a few nights ago. He didn't like how she ran from him, it actually scared him when she just dipped out. Maybe he was too much? He hoped she was doing okay. He sat up and reached for his phone, double tapping it while standing up.

"Che-che, send a message to Tayla." He spoke to the device, hand reach out and touching Cerberus before going forward and to his kitchen.

"What would you like to send to Tayla." The device replied back to him when he sat the phone down on the counter. His apartment was so small, but he liked it. He can't do bigger houses like his brothers. Even Erebus with his townhouse is still too big for him for his own comfort.

"Start message. Remember, we're meeting today at 9 pm in front of the library. And yes, Starbucks does have tea and they also have hot cocoa. Still have shit hot coffee though. Again, you can get anything, it doesn't have to be Starbies. I'd like it if you wore your comfort civies, just for comfort's sake. If you don't want to, that's okay, just give me a heads up. And because it's late, I'll bring dinner. Does pho sound okay with you? And are you allergic to dogs? End message." He spoke, preparing food for himself and for Cerberus. He set down Cerberus' food bowl full of food and continued to prepare some eggs and toast for him.

"Message recorded." Che-che the phone said before repeating the message to him. Hades gave his confirmation and got the notification that it was sent. He hoped she'd be down to do civies. He really just wants a lazy day full of comfort clothes and good food. But he wanted to make sure that she felt that she had control of the meetings.

"Well, Cerbie, it's gonna be an interesting and long day today" He spoke, dishing his own food and starts to eat.

[Tayla Smith]

Tayla had woken up at 5 AM and began prepping for this meeting she had with Hades.

She'd never had a therapy session before. She didn't know how to look. She spent two hours trying to figure out what she should do for makeup before saying "fuck it" and giving up. She still couldn't get it decent without Felicity's help. Besides, that felt super formal, something she wanted to save for dates. Or something else formal. If she ever had to go to something formal.

The next hour was spent trying to figure out what to wear. Her wardrobe had expanded somewhat since her days of swiping hoodies off clotheslines, but again she wasn't sure how formal a therapy session was.

It was 9:30 AM when she remembered that Hades was blind and wouldn't see her at all.

When she got the text at 10, she was both relieved and hit with a new wave of anxiety. What was "pho?" What went with pho for drinks? Why the hell was Starbucks so focused on their shit coffee in this universe?

She first replied with a simple "K."

Then ten minutes later "Uh, I don't think I'm allergic to dogs? I am allergic to bees though?"

She spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what options Starbucks even had for tea and trying to decide whether to just bing what pho was or just play it like she knew what it was all along.

Come 9 PM, she was waiting in front of the library with some hot chai tea, wearing sweatpants and a hoodie over her haptic nanofiber suit, which almost never came off, and bouncing anxiously, chewing the thumb of her suit. She had no idea how any of this worked.

Fuck, were ducks involved with therapy sessions? Was she supposed to bring a therapy duck, or was that only for couples counseling?

Hades Black

[Hades Black]

Hades showed up about 5 minutes early with Cerberus and a bag with pho. He let Cerberus lead him to the bench in front of the library and waited for Tayla. He clicked his tongue and had Cerberus lay down while he pulled out his phone to let Tayla know he's both there and to look for the black guy with purple hair. He himself wore a hoodie and soft jeans, absolutely calm and hungry. He did hope this first session will be good for them both.

He did know that Erebus was on the library and was keeping an eye on them both, should things get bad and he needed an out. As he knew Tayla wasn't a normal client, but he did trust her enough to not throw fists. At least without warning.

Goodness, he hadn't done an intro therapy session in a long while, so he kinda planned on spoiling this one with good food and an easy intro into therapy. Hopefully, it'll go well! He hoped.

[Tayla Smith]

Tayla saw Hades and his dog walking up. She nervously waved, only to be mildly offended when he didn't see her, walked right past her, and sat on a bench.

Then she remembered that he couldn't see and felt like an ass.

"Uh, hi, hi, sorry, sorry I'm here, I'm here, I uh, I got us Starbucks but they're like, weirdly obsessed with coffee for some reason. It's weird. I got tea though. I, uh, I don't know what pho is so I just tried to get like a green tea thing that goes with everything? Uh. Yeah. Hi."

She hated this. This feeling unsure and nervous around people. While she didn't miss the Tyrant's world, per se, it was nice knowing where she stood with everyone and the best way to interact with them. It all boiled down to "Punch or Not-Punch" and she liked that. Simple. Elegant. It made things easy, and she'd focused her life on that for the past five-plus years. Now though, things were complicated. There was a guy that made her stomach feel all fluttery. This man stared into her soul with his cloudy eyes. She had a friend who just helped her out out of the goodness of her heart. Things had developed beyond "Punch or don't punch."

"So, um, we going inside to lay on a couch or something, or... I don't know how any of this works."

Hades Black

[Hades Black]

Hades looked towards her and smiled. "Perfect. Many people drink various things with pho. Pho is a rice noodle soup with beef bone broth, green onions and various slices of beef. Most tend to have boba with it or some other form of tea or water. You picked a great choice." He explained, standing up.

"Take a deep breath, Tayla, and hold it for a few seconds. Then let it out slowly. You're anxious and that's okay, but remember to take a moment to breathe so you can focus and not spiral. We're just gonna eat and talk about whatever comes to mind. It's an into session and that means you and I get to know each other. There's no couch involved. Unless you happened to want one later then we can do it at my house."

Hades smiled and rested a hand on Cerberus. "There's a gazebo with a table and chairs in it nearby. We can go and eat there. Oh, this is Cerberus. He's my guide dog and a right sweetheart despite his large size. If you wanna pet him, go ahead. He's trained as a therapy dog too." He grinned.

"I think a good topic discussion is what's different between our worlds and what we like and don't like. Like how my Starbucks is coffee focused and yours is tea focused. Which is fascinating by the way. Random question, do you know how to use chopsticks?"

[Tayla Smith]

"Oh. Um. Okay. Cool."

Tayla did reach down and pet the dog. She liked how he felt through her suit, but it still made her feel a little sad. She always liked animals and petting the fluffy critters, but now it just felt... not quite right.

"Do you need help getting over to the gazeebo? Or does Cerberus got you? I... I don't know how that works either. Sorry."

Hades' idea to ask about what's different between the worlds was a good one. Tayla started opening up right away. "Well for one, we don't have bees. They're extinct. I was fascinated to find one and tried to pet it and learned the hard way that I'm allergic to them. Apparently you guys have a "Bee Movie" here too, and we obviously don't have that. Oh, and for some reason you call that Disney mascot "Mickey" instead of "Micheal." It just sounds wrong, I don't get it. Uh, yeah, I know how to use chopsticks. Not super well though, and... well I haven't tried since..." She looked at her black-clad hands.

"Yeah I don't know how well it's gonna go, honestly."

Hades Black

[Hades Black]

Cerberus raised his head up to Tayla's hand, soaking up the attention. He proceed to sniff her leg and butt her hip for more pettings.

"I'd like the help. Cerberus can lead me but I don't mine being helped by you. I tend to have troubles with steps. Always clip the first step and take an extra step after the last one when I'm around Cerbie. And how it works, you just ask me. I don't like being touched without warning. I can see you as a large black blob but nothing else. It's not...proper seeing and I struggle with it. It gets worse each day, so yay."

"How does the whole world work without bees? Like I know there's other pollinators but aren't bees a giant portion of them in your world too?" He asked, curious as he gave her his arm. "Is the mascot still a mouse? And does your Disney hold most of the entertainment industry?" He asked. "Ours do."

"And should you struggle with them, I got learner chopsticks and forks. The learner chopsticks have sharks on the end." He smiled. "Should it end in flames, I won't judge or tease. Relearning how to do things with a disability is hard. So I understand if you don't want the teasing. And hey! I'm blind, so I won't see it" He grinned.

"If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask. I want you to be comfortable enough to ask questions too."

[Tayla Smith]

Tayla stiffened when he gave her his arm. That was responsibility, and yeah, she’d offered, but that was terrifying. She didn’t really know why it was terrifying though. Still, she put a hand on Cerberus’ head and led them over to the gazebo.

“I’ll… I’ll try the regular chopsticks. And uh, it’s drones. We made tiny robots to help with pollenating, and other creatures picked up the slack too.I helped design an upgrade for them before…”

She cut off and changed the subject. “Cerberus is really soft. It’s the first time I’ve actually pet something since I ended up like this. It feels nice. It’s… off, but I guess that’s to be expected. Everything feels off from what I think it should. This suit is great, but it’s not perfect.”

She guided him to the picnic table and chairs and made sure he knew where everything was, sat down, and put his drink to where it was touching his fingers so he knew where it was.

“Yeah, yeah he’s Micheal Mouse. I’m not sure what all Disney owns but Walter’s a big name in the political scene, but I didn’t pay much attention to that kinda stuff. Hey, did something weird happen with Bing in your world? I went to use it to search the other day at the library and everyone looked at me weird, and the browser defaulted to Google. Google! Everyone knows Google sucks compared to Bing.”

Hades Black

[Hades Black]

Hades smiled and walked with her to the gazebo. "Remind me to introduce you to Honos. I think you two would get along great." He spoke up, not at all minding her cutting herself off. "He might be able to create you a suit that works better than the one you have on. He's a smart little bugger. That and you might help him out with it. I know he's created a leg for my brother that almost feels like his old leg. But it's still a bit off on some things. Granted, he was 10 when he made the leg..."

He sat down and tapped the drink before taking a sip. "Oh, chai! You have good tastes, Tayla." He complimented her as he pulled out the pho. He grabbed two bowls and two pairs of chopsticks from the shadows and set them in front of him. He proceeded to prepare the pho by putting the noodles in the bowls, then the meat veggies, and then the broth. One would think that he's not blind with how easy he was able to do this, but in reality, he had practiced with Cyrus and Orion on their monthly pho lunches. "There's lime, cilantro, bean sprouts, sriracha, fish sauce, and some other sauces if you feel that there needs to be more in it." He clarified, pointing to the items while handing the large bowl to Tayla. He gave her yellow chopsticks with little bees printed on the utensils while he used the teal ones with ducklings on them.

He put some lime and bean sprouts in his and grabbed his chopsticks. "I think our mouse isn't as big in the political scene, but he does control a lot of the entertainment, like sports. Every year they keep on saying 'First gay character' for another minor character that it's become a meme. Honestly, other movie businesses got them beat on the gay character thing. Did your mouse take over Pixar?" He asked

Hades snorts and grins "Bing is the default on new computers. It's seen as the lesser search engine and the search engine people use to look up porn or other questionable sites. In this universe, Google is better for most. I use Ecosia. Don't get tracked and monitored like with Google. Granted people also use Firefox too. But yeah, Google is most often the default for people here." He answered before taking a bite of his food, happily slurping the noodles.

"Did you know that slurping is seen as a way to say that the food's good?" He asked around his bite of noodles. "At least, that's what I heard for those in places like Japan. Not sure if it's true or not, though." He shrugged. "And if you need the shark chopsticks or a fork, just let me know."

[Tayla Smith]

"I think I'm managing."

In reality, Tayla was struggling a bit, but she was determined to make the regular chopsticks work for her. Despite her claims, the intermittent slurping and muttered curses probably would clue Hades in that she wasn't having the easiest time with it.

Tayla didn't try any of the additional things, just enjoying the taste of the soup. She did make a point to stick her finger into it first to check the temperature. There was one time she burned herself really bad with cocoa and couldn't taste for a month. Which since she was living with the Resistance in the sewers at the time and largely subsisting on trapped rats and whatever could be scavenged from the trash, was probably a blessing in disguise.

"I dunno about Pixar. I didn't pay attention to a lot of the behind the scenes stuff."

Tayla took a moment to just push the food around in her bowl, vacillating back and forth between feeling comfortable talking about her old home and feeling strange and awkward. Suddenly, though, those feelings came together and coalesced into something akin to homesickness.

She was never going to go back there. She never could go back there. Why was she spending so much time thinking about it?

"Maybe this is a bad idea. Not the therapy thing, but talking about my--about the world I came from. There's no point to it, I'm never going back. I couldn't even if I wanted to. This is my home now. This is my world."

Hades Black