Open your eyes, let's begin Who: Daniel and Kal What: Bros being bros: waking up on in a hut on a floor, stoned as fuck and with dreams to tell Where: Fourth floor When: Thursday, April 20 (backdated)
The floors going crazy wasn’t actually that bad. Well, beside the lost child issue. But really, Kal had gotten drunk and stoned for the majority of the week and whatever day this was was no different. He had found his way to the fourth floor and reveled in its familiarity. It was like being in Hawaii and felt just as natural, so he opted to linger on the floor as much as possible.
Then arrived Daniel, drunk, but that was fine because so was Kal. He didn’t remember much of what had happened then, nor what they discussed, but ultimately they ended up falling asleep in the hut, passed out and snoring on the different mats.
And as Kal woke, hungover and desperate to get rid of the dry taste in his mouth, he wondered if Daniel had a similar nap as he had, one that was filled with dreams of Maui. Kal fingered the necklace he wore with Maui’s fishhook as he sat up. Daniel was still passed out a few feet away, which was good, because it gave Kal a moment to dig into his pockets and check to see how many more joints he had before he really had to panic. And by panic, he meant walk down to the third floor to get a new batch. Luckily, he could remain on the mat and figure out the dream he had.
He had a few solid minutes of solitude before Daniel woke. Daniel had nodded off just beneath the shade of the tent; in his restless sleep he had rolled to its very edge, his left hand falling into the rich garden soil. With his right he rubbed at his eyes, yawning wide as he rolled over onto his side.
"Hey, man…" Daniel noisily smacked his dry lips. "Got any of that mead or whatever left? I've got some serious cottonmouth." His gaze fell to Kal's hands, and the joint he was currently toying with. "And you're sharin' that, right?"
“Mead,” Kal pointed to a brita pitcher that was filled with leftover mead, then at the joint, “And yes, sharing is caring and all that.”
He set to work on the blunt, withdrawing a lighter from his pocket and lighting it before savoring a hit as he rested his elbows on his knees. Blowing the smoke from his nostrils, he smirked. “If the floors ever turn back to normal we’re going to have to double it at the gym to burn off all this shit.”
Having found no cups, Daniel had resorted to drinking directly from the pitcher. He lowered it and set it aside only after slaking one thirst; then he held his hand out for the other, fingers clapping against his palm in a childish sort of plea. "Speak for yourself," Daniel said, flashing a wolfish grin. "I've been getting plenty of cardio in."
“Well thank god, maybe you can replace the stick in Chris’s ass,” Kal laughed, handing over the blunt to his friend and reaching for the pitcher. “We’ve fought recently. It hasn’t been particularly fun. But we made up earlier, shared some of that mead, tried to break a window. He was pretty shitfaced when I left, did you find him?”
"Sure did. Thanks for all that pregaming, by the way. He actually got a little handsy in public, it was nice." Daniel took a long, deep drag and held it. After a little cough, he blew a thin jet of smoke up toward the tent's plush ceiling. He leaned back on the pile of rugs that had served as Kal's naptime spot, his head resting at an angle that allowed him to best see the other man. "What'd you fight about? If I can ask."
“Well, first about the creepy phone call he had,” Kal began, counting off the arguments on his fingers. “And you know, the whole ‘you said you’d be honest’ deal. Then over my secret that’s listed on the fucking sixth floor. He was pissed at me for caring about him, basically. You know how he is with feelings.”
Kal leaned back as well and elbowed Daniel for the blunt. After one more lungful, Daniel passed it back to its rightful owner. “But we talked it out, discussed our secrets and everything, then we drank. Fight over. It was a worse fight than we’ve had in ages but it ended pretty similar to the fights we had as kids. Blowing up at each other then making up over some type of food or beverage.”
"Booze always helps," Daniel said, nodding. "I don't think he's pissed about you caring about him, though. I think it's… he doesn't want you to feel responsible for his choices. It's more guilt on him, y'know? And man, he has a lot of guilt. It's like a cloud around him, man." One corner of his mouth twitched downward. "Y'know, he's a lot more chill in his dreams."
Kal turned to Daniel, his brow furrowed and the blunt still between his lips. He took a long drag and held it deep inside for a few quiet moments as he considered what Daniel said, then blew the smoke out. “In his dreams?” He asked, looking at the roof of the hut they were in and the smoke gathering there before seeping out. He took another hit and considered his next question, the weed helping to push him to ask it, “This is going to sound weird, but do you share dreams with him?”
Daniel gestured to their bizarre surroundings. "Weirder than this? C'mon now." He took a long sip from the nearby mead, drinking until he felt a pleasant spinning in his head. Setting it down between him and Kal, within easy reach of them both, he took the offered joint again. "Yeah, I had this dream with him before we hooked up. I had one with BB too, but the one with Chris…" He grinned. "That was a good one. But yeah, so why do you ask? Have you?"
Kal looked at Daniel and tried to fight off a grin and failed. “Was that how you two met? Shared a good dream?” He let his head drop backwards as he laughed. Good for Chris, good for Daniel. “I sure as hell didn’t have that type of dream with him. He was a fucking coyote and I was Maui, like the god Maui and we were on a beach. He couldn’t open a pineapple to save him which I guess isn’t much different from normal life." Daniel laughed, coughing jagged puffs of smoke.
“But yeah, I guess it’s no more weird than what is going on with the apartment and I know I didn’t get that good of weed.” He took a sip of the mead, savoring the taste as Daniel smoked.
Chuckling, Daniel passed the blunt back. A cloud of smoke carried his words, each one bright and boyishly happy. "Nah, and I was sober as a judge when I had that one. We'd met earlier, made out on the elevator when it broke down. I left mad pissed cos as soon as the doors opened he acted like he didn't fuckin' know me from Adam's housecat. But then we had that dream, got to talkin'..." He shrugged, still grinning wickedly. "I swear he was human in my dream. Human enough, anyway. He went by Coyote, though…" He reached for the mead again. "And I said I was Ares? Which… badass, right?" He stifled his laughter with a long sip of alcohol, then wiped his mouth with index finger and thumb. "Maui, though, huh? Very cool. Didn't he make the Hawaiian islands or somethin'?"
“Pulled them from the sea with manaiakalani,” Kal replied with a flick of the hook charm on the necklace he always wore. “He also lassoed the sun and did a couple other things. Probably not as well known as Ares though.
“And Chris is like that. Conceal, don’t feel, or whatever the hell that Disney movie says. We should call him Elsa when he’s being a pain in the ass. At least that’s how he’s been in the past number of years. He used to be a lot more open with showing emotions, particularly ones that could be seen as a weakness, when we were younger. The coyote is more Chris’s formal style, at least in terms of talking your ear off. Maybe he’ll rub off on Chris.” Kal’s smile was there but it seemed to be held back as his mind wandered to how things used to be and how they had changed. He quickly smothered the smile with the blunt and closed his eyes to savor the burn in his lungs.
"Maybe so," Daniel said. "And if he doesn't, maybe we will. Most of us change from when we were kids. You get hurt, you know? Things fuck you up. It gets harder to open yourself up to more hurt. Granted, I've always been better at poppin' off than actin' unbothered…" He chuckled, shrugging as he downed another few gulps of mead. "But I imagine his work doesn't allow for that all the time, either. I think he'll get there, though. It's just gonna take time."
“Yeah…” Kal’s tone didn’t sound like he quite believed all that Daniel said but he’d agree to move on. The topic still made his stomach feel unsettled as Kal remembered countless conversations where Chris would mention wanting to meet his father and somehow Kal was able to distract him enough not to. And then when he left for college it all fell apart.
After another drag, Kal sighed to release the smoke from his lungs. “Did Chris tell you about the dream he and I shared? Coyote was telling Maui that they were attached to us. They decided to try and find a way to speak to us, to contact us, and falling asleep drunk out here… I dreamt about Maui again.” He offered the blunt to Daniel and looked him in the eye. “He spoke to me.”
"Did he…" Daniel's fingers brushed Kal's. He held the joint delicately between his fingers, studying his face for any sign of mockery. He found none. His own expression relaxed, showing all the relief he truly felt. "I dreamed about mine, too. Ares." He said the name with some uncertainty, knowing how ridiculous it sounded. He put the joint to his lips, his fingers fumbling on the lighter as he renewed the little flame. "So, uh… what did he tell you?"
“Same as in the dream with Coyote, more or less. He wanted to address me, to say he was a part of me,” Kal rolled his eyes as he considered the dream, already foggy from the weed and drinks. “Coyote implied in the other dream that they were stuck in sort of… memories. Maui was there, having pulled up the islands, but Coyote said it wasn’t real.
“Maui said as much in my new dream. He was here, in the hall, standing over us and told me to wake up. He said he was a part of me, that he saw my life through my eyes, and he wanted to be known again.” Kal’s face had grown serious but he allowed a half smile to appear, followed by a chuckle. “The guy was big. Taller than me, broader than me. He felt like a god.”
"Not sure I like the sound of that," Daniel said. "I mean, no offense, but that kinda raises the stakes, doesn't it? What's he plan to do if you don't help him out with this? If you don't…" He waved a hand, a thin stream of smoke following in its wake. "Make him known again."
“That’s the thing, it didn’t feel like a threat,” Kal reassured him. “It was kind of, I don’t know, sad. Like he was actually trapped. I told him that we still know who Maui is, at least on the islands, he’s still important to us. But Maui just said it wasn’t like before, that before he could act, he could do things, and now he is stuck reliving memories, beside Coyote showing up.”
Kal paused and smiled, a slow laugh building up as he spoke each word. “It seems right that it’s Chris’s god, or whatever he is, that would start shit. Coyote was the one who talked to Maui and explained that it was all a repeat of memories. Now everything Maui experiences, he stops and takes a moment and realizes it is a memory. He didn’t until Coyote blew that up for him. Chris would be a coyote who does that.” He laughed fully at that. Chris was always the one that had the great ideas in high school, it seemed so painfully fitting that Kal could only laugh.
Daniel released a long-held lungful of smoke, passing the blunt back to Kal. "Yeah, I can definitely see that," he agreed. "So what are you -- what are we -- supposed to do, then?" He wriggled his hips, settling deeper into the thickly-piled rugs around them. His arms stretched out atop the makeshift bed they formed, fingers drumming against the bed's surface. "I mean… just keep dreamin' about 'em? Tell people? What? I've already tried bein' evangelical. It didn't work out for me."
Kal brought the blunt to his lips as he considered but didn’t speak until drafts of smoke leaked from his mouth and nostrils. “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “I would say dream about them if we can, talk to them, let them see through our eyes--although I guess they’re already doing that--but I’m not sure what else. What did Ares do in your dream?” He took a final hit and passed the blunt back to Daniel, a smokey form of courage in a small form.
"Fuckin' showed off," Daniel said, grinning as he brought the dwindling roach to his lips. "Asked about Coyote, of course." He rubbed at his eyes, gone bloodshot from his various intoxicants. Chuckling, he added, "And he knows somethin's up with you. I think all those gym sessions got his competitive streak goin'..."
Kal raised a brow and laughed. “Oh? He knows me?” He straightened his back a little, looking quite content with himself. “What’s he look like? You think I could take him?” He laughed at that, finding it far more amusing than it was but the weed was finally taking hold of his brain. The fact that they were even having this conversation was insane. “Or was he asking about Maui specifically?”
Kal's laugh was contagious at the best of times; now, drunk and high, Daniel found it impossible not to return. "No… no, he didn't know that name, or didn't use it, anyway, but he wants to know more. And yeah you could probably take him, and apparently he'd like you to try. But how 'bout not, since he's kinda me, apparently? So…" He chuckled, and snuffed the little roach out with his fingers. Never one to waste a good thing, however small, he passed it back, unlit, to its owner.
“I promise not to beat the hell out of you,” Kal reassured his friend, accepting the roach and exchanging it for the nearly empty pitcher of mead. “But if he’s peeking in on our gym sessions, then he obviously is watching everything through your eyes like Coyote and Maui. I wonder what would happen if they were let out. Like, would they be a part of us? Would they be separate? Is it like a possession?” Kal paused, considering it all, and shook his head. “This apartment complex, I feel like it’s all tied to the complex.”
Daniel nodded vigorous agreement. "Yeah, nothin' like this ever happened before I got here. Not that I remember, anyway. I had a couple dreams but nothin' this sharp, you know? Then we get here and BB and I are findin' weird rooms full of crazy shit, totally inappropriate gifts, the changes to the floors… it's too much to be a coincidence, and I don't buy that it's a mass hallucination or somethin'." He shrugged. "If I ever get outta here I know where we can start, at least. Stephan wouldn't tell us much, but he gave me the name of the officer that badge I got came from. Maybe somebody who knew him knows somethin'."
Kal let his body fall back onto the matting and folded his arms behind his head, whilst turning it to the side to look at Daniel. “The officer badge? You got that from that weird April Fools day gift, right?" Daniel nodded. "I got a club, and while I’m not a historian or anything, it seemed real. It seemed historic, something you’d find in a Hawaiian museum. But definitely search for information with the badge. You could find a next of kin or maybe just info about what happened to the officer.”
He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. “I’m glad I’m not the only one finding stuff weird though, but it’s a little concerning.”
"More than a little," Daniel answered. "I'll let you know if anything comes outta this badge. Are you lookin' into that club at all?" He leaned back, looking up at Kal as he shrugged. "Not that I'd give somethin' like that away if I found it, probably. Just askin'."
“I don’t want to give it away either,” Kal admitted. “It looks old and I’m pretty sure it is. I’m worried if I go to anyone to get it priced or validated, they’ll think I stole it from a museum or something. It was a war club, though. This one doesn’t have shark teeth on it, but they often did have them lining the edge so you could throw them, like an ax, and ensure you hurt the victim when it came in contact.” He made a throwing motion into the air, his hand arching until his arm went straight. “So right now, I just have it sitting on one of my bookshelves with all the other stuff I’ve gotten while traveling. I think it blends in well there, hiding it in plain sight. No one would think it’s any different from the rest of the shit I have.”
"And why have I not hung out at your place yet?" Daniel asked. He stretched out a hand, poking an accusatory finger into Kal's ribs. "It sounds cool as shit. And I bet you've got more of this weed, too…" He grinned. "I mean, not that that's all you're good for."
He took a bracing sip of the remaining mead, disappointed to see they would soon need to venture forth to the third floor to replenish their stock. "I say keep the club. Call it reparations for all the shit that's been stolen and destroyed on y'all's land."
“Done, it’s being kept on my shelf,” Kal laughed and pointed a finger at Daniel. “You’re welcome to stop by anytime. I’m right across the hall from your boyfriend, so if you can walk after you visit him, just bang on my door. Or you can swing by after a gym session for beer and we can discuss whatever you discover about this weird ass apartment building. Better yet, I can help if you need it.”
"God, don't use the b-word," Daniel said. "He might hear you, and then I'll never get laid again…" He shook his head, chuckling to himself, though it did nothing to hide the unexpectedly sincere note of concern in his tone. He shrugged it off as quickly as he did so many other things, forging ahead to better topics. "Gym and beer sounds great, though. We'll call it carbo loading and nobody will know the difference."
“Ha, yes, perfect,” Kal laughed, but he noticed the tone of Daniel’s voice, the slight stiffening of his form when he mentioned ‘the b-word.’ He scratched at the side of his nose and cleared his throat, cautiously bringing forth the suggestion he had on his mind for quite some time. “You should go out with Chris and I at some point. We can go back to our old haunts, show you around, recount the stupid shit we did. I can even drive so you both can make out in the backseat.” He grinned.
“You know how I have to be patient with him and how he’s been? Try the same, Daniel. I’ve never seen him talk about someone like he does with you. He gets sort of starry eyed. Oh, Daniel and all that.” If Chris were there, he’d likely try to hit Kal for that, but the idea only made Kal grin more.
Daniel scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Sure," he said, his drawl dragging out the word. "Seriously though, I am bein' patient. I mean by comparison. I've come a long way in… like a month or so. It helps that he's meetin' me halfway on some of this stuff. I get it, really." He shrugged. "Believe it or not, I was in the closet once, too…" Reaching back, he threaded his fingers together, stretching out until his back loudly cracked.
"But yeah, let's do that, if he's down for it. I'd like that a lot."
“Even if I have to drag him kicking and screaming,” Kal joked. “But we’ll get him to come around, one way or another.” Kal hoped, at the very least, but he wasn’t going to say that to Daniel. “What do you say to getting more weed from my apartment, I can give you a tour.”
"You said the magic words," Daniel said. He pushed himself up from the floor with astonishing quickness for someone who, moments earlier, had appeared ready to fall asleep. With a broad grin and a sweeping motion he directed Kal ahead of him. "After you, big guy..."