I don't know if talking this out to myself will help or what, but I've got an infodump I need to do. Comic urban-fantasy, MC has gotten involved in the supernatural world, which he knows pretty much nothing about, but he's been befriended by an imp (minor demon) who is of the punch-clock villain variety. The imp's been doing his job for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, so he's filling my MC in on what he's gotten into. As a trope*, having an established member of a community/profession sit the n00b down and tell him what's what, I'm on good ground, but what I'm getting stuck on is what's going on while they're having that chat and beer. 1) They have to be alone, since no one else can see the imp, and the MC doesn't need to be "talking to himself in a bar" crazy. 2) They don't have to be having a beer, but I wanted something to reinforce the casual and entirely unmalicious nature of the imp. He's an immortal demon, but he's also just a dude with a quota of mischief to fill every week and a boss who will get on his ass if he slacks off. He might (this just occurred to me) even be unionized. I can only have them crack open another beer so often, or shift around on the couch, or scratch wherever, but what I'm getting is just a Mason & Dixon-esque wall of dialogue between two characters. This should be simple, can someone get me unstuck? *I definitely do want this book to be tropey, in the noir detective-ish kind of way. There are plenty of original (I hope) ideas in it, but I want it to rest in a familiar framework.
What about: 1) If it's set in the present, plenty of people appear like they're talking to themselves. Then you see a single earbud with a white wire running off to their phone... 2) Given the imp befriended your MC, then it should be that the MC can determine where the meeting takes place—not wanting to look crazy might have him suggest somewhere clandestine/less populated where a beer/beers could still be imbibed. For the noir look, waste ground? Around a barrel fire partaking in Budweiser?
'Talking to himself' might become useful later in draft? How about a journey to work? - repeated 'infodump' in between work story/home story. Mary cooked the spaghetti. 'Look honey, I need a crap before I eat.' And there he was - stood upon the lavatory roll, the imp fellow... ... Josh took the bus, reclined on the front seat, upstairs, the views were tremendous, but there, sat on the bench aside his own backside, the imp read his newspaper... 'Morning,' he said. ... ...
Can they be drinking beer on the MCs couch? Or driving around in a car? Of course, that's bad, but people still do it all the time. If you mean you need fodder for distractions, beats, scene-setting and such, I'd go with the car idea. Or if you're really going for the tropes, have them in the MCs house with TV news playing in the background. The news could conveniently revealing information important to the plot, if such things would be newsworthy. Or have some noisy neighbors fighting in the background. Or have some dead people walking around interrupting them or commenting on whatever. This is the guy who sees dead people, right?
Thanks, the TV news is exactly what I needed, although I might have them segue in from the car. Both scenarios are useful for the conversation; the imp is explaining his job and the nature of human evil. I think the dead people will stay out for the moment (yup, right story), they're supposed to be quite rare, but the news... Yeah, that's the ticket, so many examples of what is purely human evil vs. what the agents of Hell are responsible for. Spoiler: Evil Imps are responsible for creating opportunities and provocations for sin. Inconvenient traffic jams? Imps. Flat tires before job interviews? Imps. The invention of the non-specific "check engine" light? Definitely imps. The Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Bronze Bull? The imps that were in the vicinity of those are still in counseling for their PTSD after witnessing what humans do to each other.
