Seth

Seth got his start in a more typical Saturday night place: a bar in downtown Salt Lake. I know, I was surprised, too. I didn’t think Utah was allowed to have bars.

Seth is 6’1”, and has the same slim bicyclist build as the hero Nathan. He is generally very lighthearted, an attribute which unfortunately began to quickly disappear with the arrival of his ability and his choice of affiliation. He keeps his wispy, light brown hair short but not buzzed, has a very strong-boned face, and always has a sarcastic laugh in his eyes. He was actually one of the ones that I was convinced would end up as a hero, despite the plans we made. I was dead wrong.

Seth was at the bar with two of his friends who were in town from Iowa, where Seth moved from years ago, and he was doing a poor job of trying to convince them to move to Utah like he had.

“Sorry man,” One of the friends was saying. “Salt Lake seems cool and all to visit, but living here? Don’t you get bored?”

“No way!” Seth protested vehemently. “The biking is great, the people are generally pretty cool, good neighborhoods-”

“No excitement!” The other friend broke in. “Hell, I don’t think I could get into a fight in this bar if I wanted to. What’s the fun in that?”

“Sure you could,” Seth shot back, scanning the room. His eyes lit on a young couple at a booth in the corner. The boyfriend was dressed like a stereotypical ‘bro’: polo shirt with the collar popped up for maximum coolness, visor worn upside down and tipped at a jaunty angle, dyed blond tips spiked up, slightly muscular but well defined, everything a cute little sorority chick could want. “Why don’t you just go hit on that airhead over there, then kick the shit out of the jock she’s with?”

Friend #2 mulled it over for a second. “Ok, I’ll think about it. But we’ll need at least one more pitcher before I’m good and ready.”

Seth laughed. “I’ll get this one.” Their close proximity to the bar made it unnecessary to get up; all they had been doing all night was throwing a little wave to the bartender and he’d bring over another round, putting it down on the card Seth had given him a couple hours ago.

It was 11:59, and the bartender was too busy flirting with a couple of cute blondes at the far end of the bar to notice Seth’s waving hand.

He frowned. Being more than a little tipsy, he opted to shout, quietly, rather than go up to the bar.

“Hey. Hey! Look at me!” No reply, not even a sign that the bartender had heard him. This was ridiculous. Seth opened his mouth to raise his voice a little higher…

PAUSE

An angel walked in through the front door, passed the bartender and the cute girls who had either just turned 21, or, more likely, had fake IDs, and approached the table Seth and his friends were sitting at. The angel reached out, then paused, looking a little closer at the scene. His eyes went from Seth’s widening mouth and irate expression to the bartender a scant fifteen feet away. Knowing the power Seth was about to be given, he smiled.

After reaching in to Seth’s head and turning him on, he sauntered back out the door, chuckling softly to himself.

PLAY

…and said quite loudly “HEY!” Seth did more than get the bartender’s attention. Drunkenly powering up, he pumped his vocal cords and formed that one word into the shape of a long, thin tunnel. No one in the bar heard him speak, except the bartender, who was at the wrong end of Seth’s power. He was struck a nearly physical blow from Seth’s low scream, recoiling from the sound as one would from a striking viper. He turned an astonished gaze toward Seth, who hadn’t even realized what he’d done.

Seth waved his hand in the air, asking (silently) for another pitcher.

***

Tell us what you think: Seth’s power is superhuman vocal chords. What do you think he could use this for?