Wanna get a little lost in the noise, in the lights.

[no_voice]

School has started and Jason isn't in school.

It's an odd feeling; a mixture of relief and bittersweet sadness. He would like to be in school; even though Darrow only has a limited option of schools to choose from, the fact that he could attend another school besides Notre Dame proves exciting enough. Peter, he knows, is in college. The prospect of running into him in classes and hallways makes Jason ache even as much as the image warms him.

For the time being, he's content to focus on work, he supposes. He might take some preliminary courses at the community college before applying for Barton's spring semester, though. He can't decide if he has the courage to go through with it or not; it's a big deal for him, no matter what he decides.

Tonight, Jason is looking for a chance to simply relax outside of work. He doesn't have homework to worry about, which is another plus side to being out of school, he supposes.

So he winds up at a local pub, nursing a beer at the bar as he watches the kaoroke night unfold. He's seen some interesting performances so far, many downright terrible, but he's entertained. Secretly, he wishes Peter were here to egg him on into attempting a song himself. As it is, he's too sober and too reserved to make an attempt himself.

So Jason sits back, watches, and drinks.

Comments

[asoncalledgabriel]

Gabriel needed a few drinks just to get on the little stage and onto the stool. He didn't own a guitar and he hadn't been able to bring himself to ask to borrow one, so he found himself sitting there without anything between him and the people out in the pub.

For a moment he couldn't think of all what to sing, but eventually he found the words and began to sing a song he knew well enough. It made him a bit sad to sing it, and he felt unreasonably homesick before the end of it, the the little bit of applause was, he supposed, worth it.

He murmured a shy thanks and slipped off the stool. Now he really needed a drink.

[no_voice]

Jason takes a steadying sip of his own drink as he watches the young man perform. The sort of beer he has is especially potent and bitter, dark and earthy, as though it were crafted straight from the mud, almost. It's delicious and life-affirming, and the taste of it seems well-suited for the emotions stirred from the young man's performance of that beautiful song.

He's impressed by how much the song moves him; there's such genuine emphasis in the way the young man sings, he can't help but feel moved. When the song ends, Jason is among the few who actually applaud, which is a damn shame, he thinks.

He's had enough beer that he doesn't think twice about leaning forward when the young man nears the bar.

"Hey, man, I don't know if anyone's told you, but that was great," he says, meaning every word. "You have an awesome voice."

[asoncalledgabriel]

Gabriel was grateful for the dim lighting because the compliment made him blush a bit.

When he spoke, it was with a very noticeable Irish accent. "Thanks, mate. I can say that's the first time I've done it outside a choir," he admitted with a weak laugh, because now that he was off stage his nerves were shaking through him. He was grateful when the bar tender brought him a pint of beer: dark and room-temperature, like he remembered it.

He took a sip of it to steady himself and then gives the other young man a smile. "D'you sing at all?"

[no_voice]

Jason arches an eyebrow at the accent, surprised by it. But he supposes he really shouldn't be; people come from all over here in Darrow.

"Well, I think the lack of a choir makes it more...I guess potent is the word I would use," he says. "Or raw. Either way, it's a beautiful song, and you sang it beautifully."

"I'm not much of one," he admits. "Not outside the shower, anyway," he adds with a grin, before taking a sip of his own drink. He can't help but think of Peter, though; from the hint of a blush he catches on the other man's face, to the way he sang so honestly, Jason can't keep his mind from wandering to images of Peter.

[asoncalledgabriel]

Gabriel blushed deeper but his smile stayed in place. He'd never had anyone compliment him quite like that before and it warmed something in him. Maybe he'd keep singing after all.

"Thank you," he murmurs, because that seems the right thing to say. He laughs at the mention of the shower. "I didn't dare sing there, too likely my brother or sisters would hear me and feel the need to say something about it."

He misses them, despite knowing they aren't really siblings now but cousins.

[no_voice]

"Fair enough," Jason says with a grin, shaking his head and taking another sip of his drink. "Siblings are a piece of work, aren't they? I love my twin sister, but she could give hell just as easily as I could raise it."

He laughs a bit, though his heart aches to think of Nadia back home, with only his grave for his company. He owes her so much more than he will ever get the chance to tell her, and that hurts deep in his gut.

"So, do you sing here often?" He asks, curious. "You sound like a professional."

[asoncalledgabriel]

"Sure they are, and I had three of 'em." Caroline would have been the one to tease him the most, but James probably would have run around asking if he was off to audition for Abba or something else that would make Gabriel shy and upset all at once. Nuala would just ask him to do more, or to sing a song she liked best.

"No, Christ no," he said with a laugh. "When I can muster the courage, yeah, but it's not often. Mostly I just come and I watch and I wonder if I could do better, or worse."

He grinned shyly and shrugged his shoulders.

"Ma pushed us toward all sorts of things. At least I liked singing, even if it was in church."

[no_voice]

"Three? Oh man," Jason shakes his head, takes another sip of his drink. "I could barely handle having a twin. I can't imagine having two other siblings on top of that. That must have been a loud house, I would think."

"You should think about doing it more," he suggests, very aware, suddenly, of the irony in him encouraging someone else to pursue the arts. But then, he supposes, having already lost everything, and not having his father here in Darrow with him, Jason doesn't have anything to risk or lose in doing so. "You've got a knack for it, seriously."

"Were you in the choir?" He asks. At the mention of church, he takes a deeper swig of his drink, basking in the rush of his drink down his throat and pointedly ignoring the way his gut twists, just a little.

[asoncalledgabriel]

"The four of us, plus our parents, and for a while my aunt and uncle, all under the same roof." Gabriel shook his head. For a while it had been a cramped house, but at least after his aunt and uncle left they all had a bit more breathing room.

"Yeah, well-- I was an alter boy." Gabriel hid his blushing behind a long drink from his pint glass. "I've thought on it... Might see if there's anything to be done at the university."

[no_voice]

"Wow. Must have been chaotic," Jason says, unable to help feeling quietly glad that he'd always had his own room to escape to back home. Then again, Gabriel's family sounds much more like a close-knit family, with a house full of kids and other relatives. He can't help but envy him a bit for that.

"Yeah?" Jason again ignores the pangs in his side at the mention of alter boys, trying not to think of the church, nor Peter. "Barton should have a chorus program, I would think. Or an acapella group? That could be cool, too."

[asoncalledgabriel]

"I imagine it does. I want to get involved in their theater program but I thought it might be too much for my first semester there," he admitted. Gabriel thought he should get used to college, to being in a university, before he went and tried adding extra things on.

He grinned shyly. "Besides, for now it's just a bit of fun, yeah? I need a beer or two just to get up there as it is."

[no_voice]

At the mention of the theater program, Jason feels another pang deep in his chest; his mind drifts back to that night, the opening of the play, and how quickly things had spiraled down in a matter of moments, really. Still, his past is his own past. He won't let his own troubled history with plays get in the way of encouraging this young man to pursue the art.

"You should," he says with a nod after a few moments spent in contemplation. "It might be a bit much, but it'd be a good way to meet people and make friends."

He chuckles a bit at the young man's last comment. "That's better than me. I need to get trashed before I'll even think about getting up there."

"I'm Jason, by the way," he adds, realizing he hasn't introduced himself yet.

[asoncalledgabriel]

"Gabriel Harkin," he answers with his own name. It's taken him a long time to get used to the fact that his last name means almost nothing here - no one hears it and thinks Catholic; no one really cares. It's a relief, but it's also taken some getting used to.

"Have you uhm. You're not from here, from Darrow, are you?"

Jason doesn't sound like he is, but he asks anyway because he has met true locals before. They're a bit... odd.

[no_voice]

"It's nice to meet you, Gabriel," Jason says with a smile. If he hadn't guessed it from the other man's accent, his name would have given him away as Irish, he thinks.

"No, I'm not," he says, shaking his head. "I'm from New England, actually."

"I take it you're not from around here either?" He asks, smiling curving further in amusement.

[asoncalledgabriel]

"Ireland, the north part that still belongs to England." He always felt the need to explain, because he'd learned by now that most Americans didn't seem to notice a difference in the accent.

"Where in New England?" He thought of Neil, and of Vermont. He'd only recently looked at a map of that part of the United States, just to see where it was. Near enough to New York, but he understood the distance was greater than he thought it was. America was such a vast bloody country.

[no_voice]

"Ah," Jason says, nodding as though he understands. He, of course, being American and knowing only a little of Ireland from his World History classes, assumes all Irish accents to be the same. Or, he did, at least, until Gabriel just clarified for him.

"Connecticut, but I went to school in New York," Jason says. "Upper state New York," he clarifies. "Though I wish it could have been the city itself."

It's much easier, he's found, to lose oneself in among crowds of people and bright lights.

[asoncalledgabriel]

"I've a friend that was going to a school in Vermont, I think." He thinks that's close to upstate New York, but he can't remember, he can't quite picture the map of the eastern seaboard in his head at the moment.

"I used to think about going to America, to New York or California." He grins a little. "Those are really the only places I knew before recently."

[no_voice]

"Vermont's nice," Jason nods. "I've been there for family vacations." Typically, the scenery had been better than the vacations themselves, but. "The foliage is really beautiful in fall."

"Yeah, they're typically the places most people want to go," he says, smiling. "I can't speak for California but New York is pretty great."

[asoncalledgabriel]

"That's what Neil's told me," he says. How beautiful it could be, despite the nature of living in a boarding school. Gabriel is always rather grateful that the school he attended, though private, had not been a boarding school. He'd gone home every day.

"My uncle went to California." Gabriel leans a bit more on the bar as he thinks of Brendon. Should he continue calling the man his uncle, now that he knows the truth? But it feels like something begging an explanation if he changes it now.

"Spent most of my life in Africa, then came home a while, then it was off to California. I always wondered what was so terrible about where we were that he had to be as far away as he could."

[no_voice]

It's funny, Jason thinks, listening to Gabriel describe his uncle, long absent from his life, apparently, how much he wishes he could say the same for his own father. His father traveled for work, of course. But any lengthy amount of time away from home turned into family vacations, most of which Jason would have rather avoided, considering how they all ended.

"I'm sorry he wasn't around as often as you wanted him to be," he says. "That sounds tough, not being able to see someone for always being so far away."

[asoncalledgabriel]

"It's a weird thing to miss. Not knowing what you're missing, I mean, other than what everyone tells you. Everyone saying how much you're like this person that you know so little about."

Gabriel shrugs and he feels a little odd saying all that out loud, but he's down to the end of his pint and he slides his glass across the table to ask for another.