Not Quite alright

Cabel was so incredibly hung over.

As it went, Cabel was a mostly sober individual. Though he dabbled in the creation of mind-altering substances, he had a rule about taking them himself: Don't do it.

But that didn't necessarily apply to alcohol, especially when it was a repeating client's birthday, and Cabel had a few drinks. Then, as it happened every time he got drunk, Cabel spent the rest of the night staying up and trying to discover the precise formula that would give him the secret to immortality.

He wasn't any closer. Instead, he woke up in a pile of drool on his desk and with a pounding headache. His day got worse from there. He walked into a wall, bashed his head against the shower when he slipped on a slipper (???) that was left there for some gods unknown reason, and when he came to the cafeteria, it was packed.

He chose the quietest, darkest corner he could find to eat his sandwich. He slumped into the chair with a groan.

When he looked up, he was surprised to realize that he'd sat down at a table that was already occupied. He jumped.

"Woah, sorry there," he said. "It's a rough morning."

His tablemate stood up suddeny and looked around the room with an expression that seemed an awful lot like panic to Cabel, but he couldn't exactly blame her. He was pretty surprised to see her there himself, only that may have had something to do with the sunglasses he was wearing indoors like an asshole.

She offered him a french fry and Cabel accepted, holding out the open bag of chips he'd brought with his sandwich to her in return.

"Sorry, you just startled me a bit. I'm having a very bad morning myself."

Cabel laughed, but it hurt his head, so it faded away into his words pretty quickly. He gave her a tired, relatively distressed smile. "That's alright, I startled myself a little bit, too."

He glanced around the cafeteria and now it was his turn to give a sheepish smile back at her. "Thanks for uh, letting me sit with you. This place is packed today. it seems like everyone else is in such a good mood, too, and aghh--"

He rubbed his forehead with his hands. "Someone left a slipper in the shower and I slipped on it. I can't even say 'slipped on a slipper' without getting upset. Sounds like your morning isn't going much better, though."

"A slipper... I can't really judge, I've done similarly embarrassing things,"

"Oh?" Cabel said, and then laughed. "I want to say 'do tell' but I'm almost afraid to ask."

"Once, when I was little, I got lost and teleported the men's locker room at the gym while looking for my dad."

He stared at her for a full second and then burst out laughing. He put a hand to cover his mouth and stop himself, but it quickly moved to rub his forehead in return.

"oh my gosh," was all he managed to say for a moment. "That's....I think you have me beat there, although admittedly that's not really a great contest to win."

He gave her a tired, but friendly, smile.

"And yeah. So far, my morning has been a nightmare. I mostly just feel gross," she sighed, then realized that she hadn't introduced herself. "I'm Amaranth, by the way, but everyone calls me Ann."


He offered out his hand to her, saying, "Hello Ann, my name is Cabel, and most people call me....well, Cabel. I am sorry you feel gross, but if it's any consolation, you don't look gross."

He took another bite of his sandwich, leaning back in his chair and observing the cafeteria. He flinched a little when he recognized someone that walked by. "Ugh, thank you again for letting me crash at your table. it's crowded in here today, and there's no way I'd want to sit with those guys."

He tilted his head towards the lacrosse team. "Speaking of locker rooms, last week, I got stuck in the locker room after hours and was in there all night until the janitor came to open it up the next morning. You'd think in a magic school things like that wouldn't happen, but I don't have any cool powers to get me out. I was stuck smelling that nasty jock-strap infested air all night."

"When I was much younger, I once locked myself in an industrial sized freezer. It was before I discovered my powers, and it took my parents nearly half an hour to find me."

This time, Cabel didn't laugh--he flinched and nodded sympathetically. "That sounds....cold. Jeeze, 30 minutes is a long time. I don't even like walking to class in the winter. I can't imagine!"

"So, why is your morning going so bad,"

Cabel held up a finger in apology as he had just started eating chips when he asked the question. It was a good question, admittedly, but a little weird to answer, so he was glad for the moment.

He swallowed a took a sip of his drink. "To make a very long story short...I uh...I run a side business. One of the down sides of my line of work is that my clients are typically the kind of crowd that drinks a lot, and if I want any sort of leverage I am also expected to make bad decisions. When I make bad decisions, I end up staying awake trying to make something amazing, and that never works out."

He shrugged. "At least the kid was at his dad's this week so that was a plus. I'd be wiped if I was up for late night feedings, too."

"Ahh.....Yeah sort of," Cabel said in response to her question about the kid. "There was an explosion and we accidentally made a kid from it."


He realized how ridiculous that sounded so he said, "Life here certainly is strange."

She was talking about getting more food and Cabel concurred. "Yeah, I'm pretty hungry myself. This sandwich just didn't cut it. I'll come with you if you'd like."

He glanced at his watch. "We should have enough time to grab more food before class starts."