Fic: One More Gaudy Night Part 5/?
Disclaimers, et. al. as always.
Apparently, living in a house together meant to the two Americans that automatic friendship was bestowed. Either that, or they were both completely insane. By the end of ten days of determined 'distraction' on the parts of both Daniel and Mulder, I was becoming seriously concerned as to the state of their progress in their studies (mine I had consigned to the devil some time previously) their choice in friends - not that I considered myself completely unworthy, but really, I was waiting for them to find something infinitely better to do with their time than what amounted to babysitting - and indeed, their general mental health.
On the other hand, the conversations I found myself being unwillingly dragged into on a far-too-frequent basis would have assured anyone else that the last was beyond all hope.
That they both believed quite firmly in extra-terrestrial life should not have surprised me. That their opinions could so wildly, vehemently and loudly differ was a continual source of amazement - particularly when they found the energy for a renewed exchange of heated opinions at some ungodly time of the morning. I would have believed it yet another ploy to take my mind off things, had they not both been so endearingly adamant about their respective views - and indeed, so successful in involving me in whatever latest point was supposed to be proved by their tenuous evidence.
It was sometime before I put forward my hypothesis, which was based (I suspected) on far more practical experience than theirs ever would be. That there were what we believed to be aliens, but were in fact demonic or alternate dimensional entities.
I was expecting laughter, or derision, or perhaps a great plethora of facts proving my inaccuracy. What I got was a fascinated discourse from Daniel about Incan Gods, vampires, and the Chopec Indians, and some far-too-probing enquiries from Mulder as to where these alternate dimensions might be, lead from, lead to, and/or be stopped.
There was also, one night when Daniel was standing in as librarian at St Xavier's, a long and drunken conversation which I had with Mulder about what type of demons kidnapped their victims, which I did not care to dwell on the next day, as I suspected we had both given away far too much as to the basis of our proffered theories.
Daniel never permitted either myself or Mulder to retreat into complete academia, when we all three discussed such matters, which I found amusing in a man so book-absorbed. For him this was about the potential to prove a belief, the possibility that something could one day be brought to the world's attention.
For me, of course, it was more a matter of concealment as to how much I could prove, and overcoming the resulting barrier with as much honesty as I could in all conscience give. Getting Mulder to back up any of his beliefs with concrete evidence was yet another issue, as while he could sound perfectly plausible, and as though this were something on which he could speak with complete authority, he had very little on which to base his ideas that could be considered legitimate by his listeners, once they got past his absolute conviction. He had the ability to make the most ludicrous concept sound like an established fact, and I suspected that this was as much a reason behind Daniel's insistence that we clearly state what our opinion was, and what was to be found in some source of generally available knowledge, as my own inadvertent caginess in showing where I had come across such theories.
It seemed that nothing was too far-fetched to be considered or debated, and while I suspected that they took my theories about as seriously as I took theirs, it nonetheless led to some extremely interesting arguments and conclusions.
Vampires and werewolves, pyramid-building aliens and little grey men who really did have spaceships were the daily diet of my mind these days, rather than the esotericism of forgotten languages and their provenance, accompanied by too much to drink, too many personal conversations, and some completely foul takeaways.
And in a strange way, as the days went on, I was beginning to recover from my emotional paralysis.
Apparently, living in a house together meant to the two Americans that automatic friendship was bestowed. Either that, or they were both completely insane. By the end of ten days of determined 'distraction' on the parts of both Daniel and Mulder, I was becoming seriously concerned as to the state of their progress in their studies (mine I had consigned to the devil some time previously) their choice in friends - not that I considered myself completely unworthy, but really, I was waiting for them to find something infinitely better to do with their time than what amounted to babysitting - and indeed, their general mental health.
On the other hand, the conversations I found myself being unwillingly dragged into on a far-too-frequent basis would have assured anyone else that the last was beyond all hope.
That they both believed quite firmly in extra-terrestrial life should not have surprised me. That their opinions could so wildly, vehemently and loudly differ was a continual source of amazement - particularly when they found the energy for a renewed exchange of heated opinions at some ungodly time of the morning. I would have believed it yet another ploy to take my mind off things, had they not both been so endearingly adamant about their respective views - and indeed, so successful in involving me in whatever latest point was supposed to be proved by their tenuous evidence.
It was sometime before I put forward my hypothesis, which was based (I suspected) on far more practical experience than theirs ever would be. That there were what we believed to be aliens, but were in fact demonic or alternate dimensional entities.
I was expecting laughter, or derision, or perhaps a great plethora of facts proving my inaccuracy. What I got was a fascinated discourse from Daniel about Incan Gods, vampires, and the Chopec Indians, and some far-too-probing enquiries from Mulder as to where these alternate dimensions might be, lead from, lead to, and/or be stopped.
There was also, one night when Daniel was standing in as librarian at St Xavier's, a long and drunken conversation which I had with Mulder about what type of demons kidnapped their victims, which I did not care to dwell on the next day, as I suspected we had both given away far too much as to the basis of our proffered theories.
Daniel never permitted either myself or Mulder to retreat into complete academia, when we all three discussed such matters, which I found amusing in a man so book-absorbed. For him this was about the potential to prove a belief, the possibility that something could one day be brought to the world's attention.
For me, of course, it was more a matter of concealment as to how much I could prove, and overcoming the resulting barrier with as much honesty as I could in all conscience give. Getting Mulder to back up any of his beliefs with concrete evidence was yet another issue, as while he could sound perfectly plausible, and as though this were something on which he could speak with complete authority, he had very little on which to base his ideas that could be considered legitimate by his listeners, once they got past his absolute conviction. He had the ability to make the most ludicrous concept sound like an established fact, and I suspected that this was as much a reason behind Daniel's insistence that we clearly state what our opinion was, and what was to be found in some source of generally available knowledge, as my own inadvertent caginess in showing where I had come across such theories.
It seemed that nothing was too far-fetched to be considered or debated, and while I suspected that they took my theories about as seriously as I took theirs, it nonetheless led to some extremely interesting arguments and conclusions.
Vampires and werewolves, pyramid-building aliens and little grey men who really did have spaceships were the daily diet of my mind these days, rather than the esotericism of forgotten languages and their provenance, accompanied by too much to drink, too many personal conversations, and some completely foul takeaways.
And in a strange way, as the days went on, I was beginning to recover from my emotional paralysis.