itsjustashadow (itsjustashadow) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-05-15 15:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | #october 2017, liam, liam x rylee, rylee |
Who: Rylee and Liam
When: Monday, late afternoon, October 23rd
Where: Moxie’s Diner
Status: Complete
Despite the past week or so, Rylee was in a surprisingly good mood. She and Carson hadn’t really spoken much since Thursday night but for a couple of brief conversations here and there, but what else was new. It was becoming pretty clear that the two of them couldn’t seem to communicate, but Rylee had decided there was nothing she could do about that right now. She had been pretty drunk Thursday night, but… she remembered most of what she had said, and she decided she meant it. It seemed too painful to keep circling the same issues when nothing could be done about them. Yes, she was hoping that maybe with some time and a bit of space, they could get back on track in some shape or form, but right now, it just felt strange and uncomfortable. Rylee had decided not to let it eat away at her. If Carson wanted to talk about it again, he could approach her and they could talk. But she was going to just… live her life however she needed, or wanted to, until that time came. That decision was what had prompted her to finally bite the bullet and sign up for nursing classes. She was going to take a lot of her prerequisites online before starting the program at the community college outside of town. Rylee hadn’t told anyone about it yet, but the feeling that maybe she wouldn’t be a waitress forever had definitely given her a lot more motivation to actually focus at her job so she could make enough money to pay for said classes.
She was working behind the counter today and it seemed to be a steady stream of people from open to just past the lunch rush. Rylee knew a lot of people were out searching for that missing girl, and small groups would come in every now and then for coffee and a quick meal before heading out. During a small break, Rylee went into the back to take the tray of dirty dishes to John. She heard the bell hanging above the door chime and when Emily called back to Rylee that she had a new customer at the counter, Rylee cut off her idle chit chat with John and returned to the front. Despite Point Pleasant being a small town where everyone more or less knew everyone, Rylee did not expect to see Liam sitting there with a menu in his hand. Rylee hesitated, wondering if she could convince Emily to take him as a customer, but Emily was already slammed with the booths being nearly full.
Rylee was not used to having to wait on her brother - her half brother - and she was thinking maybe once he saw who would be waiting on him, he would get weirded out and just leave. It was a small thing to hope for, and probably silly, but that didn’t stop Rylee from trying to bargain with God to make it happen as she approached him, her hands in her apron pockets to feel around for her pen. “Hey,” she greeted with a small smile.
Liam had decided that if he was really going to search for the girl, he had to have a plan. No more disorganized, show up random places madness. Point Pleasant was small, but it wasn't that small, so he needed to at least check off where he’d been and note where to go next. He’d purchased a town map from one of the shops on Main Street, then started marking off locations-- the girl’s house, her father’s house, the spread where the search parties were headed. And then all the places they might not look. It was a lot of ground to cover, more than he could handle on his own, but he could at least try.
He had his map spread out on the table before the waitress even approached, busy making notes about the last place he’d been in the margins when she stepped up. “Hi,” he answered, and then looked up, his smile frozen in place. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d talked to Rylee and was actually surprised that he recognized her. But she hadn’t changed that much over the last ten years, while he definitely had. It was always weird to see her. He mostly forgot he had sisters until he ran into them somewhere. “Um, how’s it going?” He asked, and probably should have stopped there, but he kept talking, as usual. “I didn’t realize you worked here. Have you always worked here? Like, I’ve been in and out of this place for years, but maybe it wasn’t your shift, like, if you had mornings then we’d probably never cross, you know? Or it just could’ve been busy. Or I wasn’t paying attention. Probably that.”
Rylee said nothing as Liam rambled on a bit, and she pulled out her small notepad and pen, aware that she didn't really need it, but it gave her something to do with her hands. "I haven't always worked here," Rylee said dryly. "But I've worked here for awhile. My shifts vary, so it's just possible we've missed each other." Or she had seen him sitting in her section and asked someone else to take his table. Rylee didn't feel like it was necessary to say that, though. "But yeah, you probably weren't paying attention." Not that he'd have any reason to. It wasn't like they had any sort of relationship. Rylee couldn't even remember the last time she spent time with her dad. Maybe last Christmas for an hour or so. If that. "How's it going," Rylee asked, shifting her gaze to the map he had laid out. "Looking for treasure?"
Liam nodded because sure, sure, they’d just missed each other, or really, if he’d been with a group? It could’ve skipped his mind. Or maybe they’d even talked and he’d forgotten! Except he had a pretty good memory. Ugh, he needed to let it go. He looked at the map, then gave her a look. “I’m not twelve,” he said, a bit insulted. “I’m looking for the girl. The missing one. I’ve been trying to think of places the search parties might not check.” All the haunted places. All the ones that took little kids and they were never seen again. Or they were seen, just a year or two later. That was so freaking weird, he couldn’t even begin to explain that phenomenon.
Rylee's lips twitched with mild amusement at his offense. It was weird that he was already what, sixteen, seventeen? It still felt like he was a kid sometimes, probably because they barely spoke or saw one another. She did find it odd that he would be trying to find that missing girl, as if the search parties weren't already combing the entire town. "Like where?" Rylee asked, unable to keep the hint of skepticism from her voice. "So many people go missing here that I'm pretty sure law enforcement has a check list by now if where they need to search. Did you know her or something?"
“No,” Liam said, shaking his head. “But if the police knew where to look for ‘em, maybe they’d actually find ‘em for a change.” His faith in law enforcement was abysmally low, even if it probably wasn’t their fault. The police were equipped to deal with human issues and interferences, not supernatural. If they didn’t believe in what was out there, how could they protect the people against it? How could they know where to look if they didn’t actually believe that certain places were evil? Some might say that a place couldn’t be evil, that it was only the people there, but Liam knew that was wrong, even if he couldn’t prove it. “They’ll look in the places she frequents. Places close to her home, her school, and playgrounds. But they don’t always check the tunnels if she has no history of going there and it’s out of range for someone her age to get to on foot. But they should.”
Rylee tapped her pen against the notepad in her hand. While she thought it was kind of nice that Liam seemed to want to help find the missing girl, she didn't think a teenager was well equipped to actually do anything more than what the cops and the other adults in town would be doing. "If you think that's a valid suggestion, I'm sure they've got a hotline set up or something. Please don't tell me you're considering actually going to the tunnel to look for her." Because even if they didn't have a sibling relationship, Rylee didn't think their dad would want Liam off traipsing through the woods to some creepy tunnel to search for a missing girl.
Liam wasn’t all that certain that calling the cops and telling them how to do their job would go over well, especially from a teenager. He saw it swinging one of two ways: they either ignored his suggestions or they began to look at him as a suspect. He didn’t actually think they’d take him seriously, no matter how serious he was. “I wouldn’t go into the tunnels alone,” he sighed. “I’m not sure anyone should. I don’t know if the place is cursed or if something lives there, but it’s bad news.” He wanted to go there though. If he had someone to go with him, he most definitely would, but it was one of the only places in Point Pleasant that he was slightly scared of. “I was thinking either Sweetwater Bridge, or some of the houses on Ludlow.”
"I just think some terrible things have happened there," Rylee said, about the tunnel. "I can see why some people might think it's cursed, but I think people also want a label to slap on it to help explain why people do bad things." No, she didn't believe in curses, or the supernatural, or any of the ridiculous things Point Pleasant had become known for. It made the town money sometimes, sure, but it seemed kind of ridiculous that there was people who actually believed the outlandish stories. Rylee considered Liam closely, her pen pausing on the notepad. "Why are you focusing on searching for this girl in those places? I think it seems most likely that whoever took her ditched town already." It was really a horrible situation, and Rylee knew how she would feel if someone she loved and cared about went missing, especially a child. But god, the track record for finding missing kids in this town was so abysmal, it was hard not to feel pessimistic about it.
Because that’s where the monsters live was the first answer that came to mind, but Liam had learned sometime in late elementary school that actually using the word ‘monsters’ usually made people laugh at you. With some people he didn’t give a shit, but he kind of wanted his sister (half-sister) to take him seriously. “Even if you don’t believe in it, you’ve gotta know there’s something dark about those places. Well, maybe not Sweetwater, but… Why are you so confident someone took her?” He thought it was more along the lines of some thing. Too many kids went missing without a trace for it to be people taking them. Not all of them.
"I'm not confident," Rylee countered, "I just think that's the most likely scenario. Or maybe she ran away." Rylee knew enough about Olivia Lucas that she wouldn't have blamed the girl for taking off. Honestly, sure, there was some dark history in this town, but Rylee blamed it on people, either for being responsible for the crimes, or embellishing them to become what they were today. "Honestly, I feel like it would be better if she ran away, or someone took her, because then you have a chance of finding her alive. All these places they're searching... it just feels like they've already given up hope and they're just hoping to find her body. It seems to be a pattern here. What do you think happened?"
If she did runaway, then there was something keeping her from getting back home, Liam thought. A child that age didn’t actually run away and stay away on purpose. He remembered what it was like to runaway at that age-- you packed up, went somewhere on your own, and eventually got cold, or hungry, or had to use the bathroom and went home. “I think something took her. Or has her. Or she’s trapped,” he said. “There’s something here that takes people. Kids. And it’s been going on too long to be a person. Maybe it’s an organization. Or a cult. Or something else. Like… otherworldly.”
Rylee had to bite back a sigh. Liam sounded like he listened to Danny’s podcast… before Danny went missing. But he was also a teenager, and teenagers weren’t always rational. They got caught up in the unexplainable, even if there was an explanation - just because no one had figured it out yet didn’t mean it wasn’t a rational one. “You’re starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist, Liam,” she said. “Someone probably took her, and they either left town or….” Rylee trailed off, unable to finish that sentence. She frowned and brushed some of her bangs from her face. “This is becoming an incredibly depressing conversation. I know it’s not my place, but please don’t get caught up in this. Dad would freak if something happened to you.”
Liam’s brow furrowed, confusion in his eyes. Was this a depressing conversation? It didn’t feel like it. He wasn’t depressed. But it did worry him that she thought he was making all this up. Not because that wasn’t common, because it definitely was, but because she was blood. Was she really that in the dark about the supernatural? Did their father tell her nothing? “He knows I can take care of myself,” he answered, pencil twitching back and forth between his fingers. It was only half true. His father knew he was a witch, but Liam didn’t really think he understood what that meant. He definitely didn’t know what he was capable of. Not that it was a lot, but he could set someone on fire if he really needed to. “You really don’t believe in any of it?”
Thinking about what could have possibly happened to a young girl was definitely depressing, especially since most of those stories never had a happy ending. People would speculate, including Rylee, because that's what people did, but deep down she was pretty sure they all knew what the outcome would be. "I don't believe that some government organization would come to a place like this and kidnap kids, and I don't believe in the otherworldly.... or I guess, I don't think the otherworldly would bother with this world. It's Occam's Razor. The simplest answer is probably the most likely and I don't think the simplest answer is a cult, or some supernatural force."
“I didn’t say government,” Liam muttered, because he agreed with her there. He didn’t think the government would kidnap kids. But there were other types of organizations. People that would snatch up witches and psychics and whatever else was out there if they knew about them. But then… if the government found out about psychics, they’d probably snatch them up, too. So maybe the government was someone to worry about. “Occam’s Razor. Is that like Pascal’s Wager?” he asked. His studies in psychology and philosophy only dipped into those that had to do with parapsychology and the supernatural, but he kind of thought he knew what she was saying. “I think there are some things that are unexplainable. Just because they’re not consistent doesn’t mean they’re not real. I mean, maybe you’re right in this case, but I also think some theories stick around for a reason, even when they defy logic, you know?”
"Pascal's Wager is essentially people betting with their lives that God exists or He doesn't. Occam's Razor is basically... say, something has happened, like... that girl went missing. And there are two possible explanations for what happened to her. The theory is that the simplest explanation is the most likely, because the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely that explanation is. If that makes sense." She had no idea, because sometimes it just felt like she was rambling. "And yeah, I know there are some unexplainable things, but that's only because no one has found the logical explanation yet. Just because you don't have an explanation doesn't mean it's otherworldy." It honestly felt like she was debating with Danny all over again, which made her kind of sad, even more so that this was probably the longest conversation she'd had with her half-brother in a long time, and they were talking about this stuff. "Theories are just suggestions because there's no proof to a real answer. And... I mean, that's fine. But I'm someone who likes to see the proof, you know?"
Liam listened and nodded along, trying to follow. He got it that the simplest explanation was the most likely, but that didn’t mean that was always the case. And if the majority of the population didn’t know about the truth behind Point Pleasant, how could they really know what was most likely? He didn’t really want to argue with her though, which was a new feeling, since he was usually fine with arguing with everyone, but Rylee fell in this weird space as someone he thought he probably should trust, but didn’t, and wanted to tell things to, but couldn’t. Eventually he smiled though, and nodded. “Yeah, I like proof, too. I’m always looking for it, but it’s kind of elusive.” He took a deep breath and sighed, eyes dropping to the map, then back up to her. “I’ll find it eventually.”
Rylee didn't want to argue with Liam either, especially about something so trivial. She managed to give him a small smile, weirdly not wanting to end the conversation on an awkward note. Her relationship with her dad was essentially non-existent, and she harbored a lot of complicated feelings and resentments toward him, and by extension, Liam. It probably wasn't fair, but anyone who was passed over and forgotten in favor of another child was bound to have some complex issues. Rylee didn't need a therapist to tell her that much. "Let me know if you do," Rylee said, glancing down at his map. "You can convert me to a believer. Are you hungry?"
“I will,” Liam gave a little laugh and nodded. It would be easy to convert her, all it would probably take was a tiny bit of magic, but he wasn’t all that sure about Rylee and if his dad hadn’t told her then maybe he wasn’t supposed to. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone that didn’t already know. “Yeah, um, cheeseburger, fries, and a chocolate shake?” It wasn’t meant to be a question, it wasn’t like she would tell him no, but it still came out that way.
Rylee was having enough time handling Carson and his hallucinations - although his new meds seemed to be helping - that she didn’t think she could handle another relative trying to convince her that something that wasn’t true was. Granted, Liam and Carson’s situations were completely different, but that didn’t make it any less exhausting. His order was easy enough to remember, so she slipped her notepad and pen back into her apron before arching a blonde brow at him and smiling softly. “Is that a question?” She was mostly teasing him. “Do you want anything on your cheeseburger?”
“No, sorry, that’s what I’d like. Please,” Liam said, mildly embarrassed. “Lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mustard. No onions. Please,” he added again in an effort to be polite. He knew he’d taken up a lot of her time with things she didn’t even believe in, but it had been kind of cool to talk to her. She still didn’t feel like a sister, she barely felt like family, but if she’d wanted to be his sister, then he’d have wanted them to be able to talk.
Rylee had no idea what she wanted. Liam was already a teenager, and she wasn't fond of their father. She was generally pretty content with having only her mother and sister in her life, and Carson, of course. But it wasn't a bad thing to have a civil conversation with her half-brother. They so rarely saw each other or communicated in other ways, and sometimes it was hard to ignore the fact that the other existed when they both lived in the same, small town. "Everything but onions," Rylee repeated with a nod. "No problem." She almost added that he didn't have to say please a bazillion times, but he'd only said it twice, and he was being polite, so Rylee let it go. "I'll be back with your milkshake, but holler for me if you need anything else, okay?"
“Okay,” Liam said, offering a little smile. “Thanks.” Ugh, he hadn’t wanted that to be awkward, but it so definitely was. He was pretty sure all they had in common was their hair color. Maybe someday he’d have a reason to fill her in on what he knew regarding the supernatural, but he somehow doubted it. It wasn’t the kind of thing you just brought up and he didn’t wish on her a situation where she needed to know. Hopefully she’d just have the sense to be careful. Point Pleasant could be dangerous for anyone, but especially those that didn’t know what to watch out for.