Max (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
subliminalthings) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
nebulochaotic2020-07-19 04:43 pm
subliminalthings) wrote in nebulochaotic2020-07-19 04:43 pm
Singing and logs and things
Who: Max and anyone who wants to come + other starters
What: Max is gonna sing and you're gonna feel better darn it
When: This week, but the singing is at 4 p.m. on ... Sunday?
Warnings: n/a
Where: In this part of the Eglaf Government Housing:
Max doesn't expect a lot of people to show up, both because there aren't that many supers based on what he can tell, and he's not sure how many of them would be down for a gathering like this. From what he's learned — and experienced — in a very short amount of time, he's a little out of his league here. But he doesn't let that deter him from trying to do something helpful. Plus, a small part of him is really curious to see if this alleged power he has is actually real.
There's no setup of any kind. No microphones, no amps, no speakers. He's just gonna be singing to like, 3 people tops right?
But Max does spend a lot of time trying to figure out which song to sing, and in the end, he chooses something that's just meant to make people feel happier — regardless of why — which seems fitting, given that he's not exactly sure how to process all his newfound experiences of dying, over and over again.
Once it's about 4:15, Max gets started, assuming that at least one person shows up.
The song he picked, is Can't Stop the Feeling. Max has a pretty great voice, and he isn't bad as a dancer, either, and as the song starts to ramp up, he'll try to encourage others to dance with him — all the way until everyone is pretty much dancing and partying until the end.
[ ooc: I'm going to make a top-level for Max. If you want to make top-levels/starters for your characters interacting with each other and not Max, that's fine by me. Also, here's a sample of Max's PB, Skylar Astin just kind of singing. I think the silliness of this is close to what Max is doing here.
In terms of his powers, when Max sings, everyone who can hear him starts to absorb his feelings — which in this case is just: forget your troubles and enjoy dancing — and the effects can last as long as you want to after the song is over, especially since even without powers, sometimes positivity carries forward throughout your day. You can also make it stop immediately. Anything you'd like. It could also somehow just not work on you. ]
What: Max is gonna sing and you're gonna feel better darn it
When: This week, but the singing is at 4 p.m. on ... Sunday?
Warnings: n/a
Where: In this part of the Eglaf Government Housing:
Max doesn't expect a lot of people to show up, both because there aren't that many supers based on what he can tell, and he's not sure how many of them would be down for a gathering like this. From what he's learned — and experienced — in a very short amount of time, he's a little out of his league here. But he doesn't let that deter him from trying to do something helpful. Plus, a small part of him is really curious to see if this alleged power he has is actually real.
There's no setup of any kind. No microphones, no amps, no speakers. He's just gonna be singing to like, 3 people tops right?
But Max does spend a lot of time trying to figure out which song to sing, and in the end, he chooses something that's just meant to make people feel happier — regardless of why — which seems fitting, given that he's not exactly sure how to process all his newfound experiences of dying, over and over again.
Once it's about 4:15, Max gets started, assuming that at least one person shows up.
The song he picked, is Can't Stop the Feeling. Max has a pretty great voice, and he isn't bad as a dancer, either, and as the song starts to ramp up, he'll try to encourage others to dance with him — all the way until everyone is pretty much dancing and partying until the end.
[ ooc: I'm going to make a top-level for Max. If you want to make top-levels/starters for your characters interacting with each other and not Max, that's fine by me. Also, here's a sample of Max's PB, Skylar Astin just kind of singing. I think the silliness of this is close to what Max is doing here.
In terms of his powers, when Max sings, everyone who can hear him starts to absorb his feelings — which in this case is just: forget your troubles and enjoy dancing — and the effects can last as long as you want to after the song is over, especially since even without powers, sometimes positivity carries forward throughout your day. You can also make it stop immediately. Anything you'd like. It could also somehow just not work on you. ]
Max — While he's singing, or after
Private Starter for Lydia
But nevermind all that.
Because it's Wednesday, and when work's over, Max slings his messenger bag over his shoulder and heads to Lando's for the first time. He's extremely grateful that Lydia had already suggested it, given that he still barely knows his way around — and he even manages to get there just 3 minutes after 6:30 p.m.
no subject
She notices when Max is late only because Lydia shows up early. She used to do this to Ben, as well, and she'll do it to the next guy when Max inevitably gets sent back through the portal — or she does — or they lose interest in one another for whatever reason. Lydia shows up fifteen minutes early so that she can slip into the establishment with a confident show of her actual ID as per usual. The tricky part is trying to get a drink. Some of the bartenders ID, now. They never used to — and when she met with Ben, it was usually at Perfect Spot where they do ID — but now a few of them actually look. If they won't serve her, she wants to make sure she has time to give them an impish grin and a sheepish shrug before saying something like, "can't blame a girl for trying," and ordering a virgin of whatever cocktail they'd refused her. That all needs to happen before Max arrives. He looks a little older than her; not much, but maybe enough to be put off by the fact that she's a little shy of twenty-one and that just won't do.
When he does arrive, she grins and swivels her stool to face the entrance, sipping at her cocktail — the bartender had looked at her ID, but evidently not close enough to notice the birth year — through the two tiny straws in it. "I got out a little early. How was work?"
no subject
Boy, was she a vision to behold. It takes him a hot second too, to snap out of it and walk toward her.
"Oh. Work was ... " He shrugs as he lifts his messenger bag strap over his head, hanging it on a hook beneath the bar as he slides onto the stool next to hers. "... fine. I'm still re-learning the ropes, in a way. Trying to figure out how much programming languages here match the ones back home where I'm from. Though ... I'm not sure if you'd find that very interesting."
He waves to the bartender and just asks for whatever beer's on tap, after that, as he's waiting for her response.
"You uh, you look great, by the way."
no subject
The thing is, Lydia's still looking for someone to replace Peter Parker in the mission she's been cooking up. She needs somebody who can implement her findings. In short, she's the brain and she's pretty sure she can scrape up someone to be the brawn, but she needs someone to be the tech guy.
She sips at her cocktail again and looks him up and down with a coy little grin. "Where did they assign you to work, anyway?" she asks, genuinely curious.
no subject
"Okay, so ... back home, we had a series of core programming languages that everyone knew, whether or not they used them anymore at work, because companies were creating new languages all the time, trying to optimize for something specific — like speed, for example." It's clear as Max talks that he's constantly looking at Lydia's eyes, checking to see if she actually is interested, or if she's ready to move on to another topic. "But all programming languages are built on four, foundational principles, that exist no matter which language. So when you learn a new one, what you're really doing all the time is googling for the translation of the stuff you already know. And I was really happy to learn, actually, that the programming languages here match that pattern. So it hasn't been that bad for me to try to pick some of them up, especially because a lot of the original programming languages are the same as back home."
At her follow-up question too, Max perks up even more. "If you can believe it. HERO labs. I'm a junior programmer there. Though, if we were back home, I'm more than qualified to be managing engineering teams. But—" He smiles a bit as he tilts his head, as if to give a nod to the assignment process. "I get it. I'm not fluent yet."
no subject
It isn't lost on her that he's a programmer. He might or might not have mechanical engineering under his belt, but just knowing computer stuff in that vein means that he could be incredibly useful to her, or to Number Five, since they're working on independent projects with the same general end goal. Lydia makes a mental note of that.
"That's good, at least you've got a head start, then. Just because learning new languages is easy doesn't mean that it's fun all the time," she points out. Sometimes it is, but she's never learned a programming language, so maybe that's different.
Lydia perks up a bit more at the mention of HERO Labs. Junior or not, that means they have a guy on the inside, now, and now Lydia's really interested in what Max has to say. It shows in the way she leans in a little. "What kind of engineering, exactly? I mean, you know, if you could pick your ideal position there, what would you be doing based on qualifications and personal interest?"
no subject
"Right, yes! Just like spoken language." He chuckles. "Though, people are a lot more forgiving and intuitive than computers, if you get something wrong."
The question about his ideal job though, makes Max pause for a moment, his eyes wandering down to their drinks as he contemplates his answer.
"I'll give you the simpler answer," he decides. "Software engineering. Based on my skills and what I feel pretty good at, I'd want to manage a software engineering team — filled with different kinds of programmers — and be responsible for an entire area of work. Like, for example, this whole deal with fixing the portals. To me, that's a project. And definitely not a single-person project. But I found out recently that I'm not only interested in doing the literal programming work, but that I really like inspiring other people to do their best coding too."
Lydia will get a pretty clear read too that when Max says "simpler" he doesn't mean: here's the dumbed down version of my ideal job. Instead, it's the emotionally simpler version of his ideal job. Because truth is, he's not all that sure that the skills he has and love using, are actually helping him make the world a better place. And that's well ... a much bigger existential conversation.
no subject
Lydia's initial interpretation of "simpler" in the context in which he's using is is the easier to explain or less daunting path for him to take. She can't really blame him for finding the path of least resistance more alluring; for the most part, she generally does, too.
"You like the idea of leadership as an opportunity to inspire people?" she asks for clarification, looking interested. "That kind of sounds a little like a friend of mine, actually, except rather than aspiring to it, it just sort of fell in his lap."
no subject
When it comes to her leadership question though, Max's eyebrows furrow as he scrunches up his lips a little to think. "Mmmm. Yes, but— only because I'm also able to help them get better at what they're doing. I don't think I'd like managing people who aren't programmers." When he says that out loud though, his eyebrows go up. "Well, I guess I don't know. I haven't tried it."
The idea of leadership just falling into Lydia's friend's lap feels like a call back to the countless superheroes from the comics he's read growing up. "In what kind of way?"
no subject
She smiles mildly at his comment and the way his eyebrows lift as though he might halfway regret saying that aloud instead of thinking. "I wouldn't want to lead anyone, personally; that's a lot of responsibility, but I follow you," she says with a smile.
Max's question is a good one, but it's kind of hard for Lydia to explain because she hadn't been necessarily part of the genesis of the group. She'd sort of been on the periphery — intentionally, since Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski weren't really her crowd back then, thanks very much — when the group had come together.
She takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly in thought, stalling a little to compose the thoughts into something that'll make sense to someone else. "I don't know, I guess they just sort of...needed someone to lead the charge, so to speak, and he, I think, unintentionally took it on and it sort of stuck." She shrugs a little. "I wasn't really friends with them back then."
no subject
"Sounds ... hard," he says, settling on the word. "And like your friend probably felt a lot of pressure." A beat, as he considers. "And did he get to inspire you, and the rest of the group, once he did take charge? After you became friends?"
no subject
With a shrug, Lydia smiles fondly. "Yeah, he did. I mean, we kind of all took turns inspiring or empowering one another, but he definitely took the lead on it a lot," she agrees. "Is that kind of the part that appeals to you, then, about leadership?" she asks, curious, as she takes a sip of her drink once more.
no subject
At her question though, Max's lips curl into an open-mouthed smile as he glances off into the distance. "Yeah," he says, before looking back at Lydia. "What I like most, is when I can help inspire someone to solve a problem that's been bothering them most." A beat, as he continues to look at her, his eyes narrowing. "Or inspire them to have the confidence to tackle it in the first place." He smiles again. "There's just something really—" Max brings a palm up to his chest, and pats it twice. "—amazing, about seeing that click, whether it's I see the problem now or Yeah I can do this."
As he laughs a bit at the thought, he takes a sip of his drink and tilts his head up toward Lydia. "What about you?" he asks. "What speaks to you in a job?"
no subject
When he turns the question on her, Lydia looks unsure for the first time since meeting up with him. The thing is, she hasn't really put a whole lot of thought into a job, yet, back home. Here, she does what she does because the government offered it up easily and she doesn't hate it. It's a little rewarding, helping teach the kids, but it's not what she wants to do with her life, by any stretch.
"You know, I don't know... Until I got here, the only job I had was full-time student. I haven't really put a ton of thought into what I want to do with my degree once I finish it, but that's mostly because I've got a long way to go. I'm only halfway there. Once I finish the Masters, I'm absolutely going to go for the Ph.D., because it's pointless not to in the science fields, I feel like. So, actually, I don't know...is that weird? Not knowing yet?" she asks, wrinkling her nose.
Is it, though? She can't help really wondering this. She's been going to school for her whole life, practically, at this point. What she wants to do when she finishes hasn't really been on her radar yet because it feels so far away, still.