Who: Mal & Vex Where: Main Street When: Black Friday, 11/24 afternoon. Status: Complete Warning: Run-on sentence thinking
Black Friday. What a name for a day. It was like some sort of inverse Good Friday where people went fucking insane. Vex had never participated in the crazy of the day, he'd once considered it but the whole thing just made him cranky so unless work had forced him to attend some shopping nightmare or another, he stayed away. It wasn't quite as bad in a small town like Point Pleasant but there were signs and discounts and people rushing to buy shit they needed while it was on sale. It wasn't really like Vex to be strolling down Main Street on a day like this but here he was, sucking on a lollipop as he watched people rush past him. Something told him to go out, something mentally dragged him there and he was curious to find out what exactly that something was so he paid special attention to everyone around him.
In Mal’s opinion, ‘Black Friday’ was an accurate thing to call it. It was an accursed day, especially considering the timing of it -- right after a day that was about giving thanks and as the kickoff to the Christmas season. It was just another exercise in cognitive dissonance and exposing the hypocrisy of the masses. They spoke out of one side of their mouth about Christ and love and being faithful, then turned around and did the opposite. One would think that would make him want to avoid any shopping areas, but where some saw frustration, Mal saw an opportunity.
He was standing on one of Main Street’s corners, Bible in hand, a few pamphlets in the other. Mal was reading aloud from Matthew, the verse about how one couldn’t love God and money at the same time. That part was mostly autopilot, Mal could quote scripture in his sleep now. He was really listening to the minds around him as they rushed past, the whole street a moving tapestry of stress and aggravation. It was chaotic, but it felt like home to Mal, and he knew that God had brought him out there for a reason. There was something he was supposed to hear, someone he was supposed to encounter, he just had to wait for it.
To Vex it was liberating to know that if a fight broke out or someone got hurt, he wasn't expected to do shit about it because he was no longer a cop. He could just be that apathetic asshole who stood by and watched. It sure made this chaos easier to attend at least. He sidestepped around a small group of people having a chat in the worst location possible, blocking off a part of the sidewalk (not his problem) and as soon as he stepped back up he spotted Mal. He would have noticed him no matter what, the guy stood out with his rambles and the bible, but even if he hadn't, Vex would have seen him. Because he'd seen him before, quite often actually. He was connected to whatever it was that connected Vex to Point Pleasant, to all the people he kept seeing in his visions, to the pegasus and the fields of flesh. Vex knew him.
So he stopped and he watched Mal, letting the lollipop go still against his teeth as he studied the man and listened. It was bible crap, because of course it was, but it was interesting coming from Mal. It made sense in a way religion didn't really make sense to Vex. He didn't care about the message of it, especially this particular message because he liked money, always had, but he didn't see it as servitude on his own part. He didn't serve God either, at least not the god most people got their panties in a bunch for, but that was okay. He supposed everyone served their own god and maybe it was all the same god in the end. His just happened to be a confusing mass of muscle and flesh, writhing underneath the surface of everything.
Mal was always listening for people’s attention, to know when their focus was on him instead of the mundane bullshit they surrounded themselves with. He wasn’t there to get through to everyone -- not all souls were deserving of God’s grace and salvation, after all -- but to the people who deserved it. The ones who were meant to hear his message. Mal felt eyes and ears open on himself, and he finished reading the verse he was on without hardly looking at it. His gaze came up and sought out the source of the focus, landing on a guy who ... well, he certainly stuck out in the crowd. The white-streaked beard and punk-ish haircut, the dark denim and leather he was wearing, the squinty stare ... interesting. Mal reached for his mind by instinct, as he always did, and immediately got the sense of something very strange but very familiar at the same time. Mal stopped talking and just stared back for what seemed like eons as he delved deeper without a second thought.
There it was, that recognition that went both ways. Did that mean they were the same? Vex was still for a few moments, then bit through his lollipop, letting it break with a satisfying crunch, flooding his mouth with splinters and sugar. He racked his brain for memories of this man. He'd seen him preach but he'd also him do other things, random things, not all of them seemly. In fact this man had been in one of his earliest visions, when Vex still thought he was just insane. He'd seen a teenage boy sitting in his room, so obviously not there and yet so real he felt like he could touch him. He'd looked so determined, jaw clenched as his gaze was fixed on something Vex couldn't see and before Vex could really get close enough for a better look, he'd faded away. It hadn't been his first vision but he'd still been baffled by it. Baffled and annoyed. "Zero Two Seven Eight," Vex muttered to himself before crunching more of his sugary treat between his teeth. He'd seen that number a few times and he knew it was connected to this man. How? That was a whole other puzzle he didn't know how to crack.
They weren’t standing physically close enough on the street corner for Mal to hear what the man said, but he still heard it. Zero-two-seven-eight, his number. A weird buzzy feeling ran down his spine, and he immediately lost all interest in continuing to preach to the materialistic masses. Instead he was seeing things -- himself, distorted and brief versions of himself, in places he had never been. It was like watching a TV through someone else’s TV, copies of copies of copies. The man didn’t look familiar, not really, he just felt familiar, and that made a big difference in Mal’s world. He kept staring and digging around in the bizarre mind in front of him, through the confusing mix of alien landscapes and sweaty maniacal daydreams, until finally unearthing the image of a place he did know. It was just a glimpse, but it made him feel like he was dipped in ice water. Before he consciously decided to do it, Mal started walking toward the man, his expression sharpening.
Vex pulled the stick of his lollipop out of his mouth and tossed it aside when Mal approached him, watching the man with a curious grin. "You're real," he said simply, tilting his head and getting a better look at him. Yet another proof he wasn't crazy, yet another proof that the things he saw existed somewhere in time and space even if they weren't tangible in the time and space where Vex was seeing them. "But have you seen everything too is the question." He had seen something, Vex was sure. The way he stared at Vex was the only evidence he needed of that. They'd never met in person before, Vex was sure of that, so he had to have seen him in that space somewhere between.
Being declared real wasn’t such a strange thing to hear, considering the circumstances. Mal wasn’t quite sure the odd-looking older man was completely real himself. But he’d been in the same place Mal had been, so maybe that made him more than real. Maybe he was on the same plane of real that Mal was. “I don’t know what everything is,” he answered, still intently studying the guy. “But I’ve seen a lot. Some of the same you have, it looks like. Did they take you as a child too?” It didn’t seem like anything to talk about on the street, but Mal didn’t really care. No one was listening to them anyway, he could tell. Still, just in case, he started putting a mental damper around them, encouraging the minds passing on the sidewalk to just overlook the two men standing there. Nothing to see here, move along.
Vex's psychic abilities didn't manifest the same way as Mal's so he didn't pick up on the protective bubble around them but he didn't really care what people passing by thought of him anymore. He'd needed to care back when he was a cop but now? He didn't mind being the lunatic in the streets. The people who needed to believe him would do so when the time was right and the rest didn't matter to him. Mal's words were what held his rapt attention and he visibly perked up at the question. It wasn't really a joyous topic but in this context it was interesting and Vex liked Interesting. "They did," he drawled, narrowing his eyes and studying Mal harder. "That where I know you from?"
Mal was suddenly full of intensely burning questions -- had this man been trained the same way he had? What abilities did he have? Could he read Mal’s thoughts right then? Had he been sold too? How had he escaped? When was he there? He looked older than Mal, though who knew how accurate that observation was. He wanted to grab onto this man and drag him off of the street, take him home, pick his brain. Mal felt a bit frozen though. He’d never encountered anyone before who he knew had come from the same place he had. His heart was beating hard with a growing excitement that only showed a little bit on his own face. “I think so,” he murmured, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and tossing a glance around. What if this was a trap? What if they were baiting him to catch him again? But there was no sign of deception in the man’s mind, no trickery. “Did ... did they sell you? How did you get away?”
Vex's brain felt overloaded by those two short questions. Did they... sell me? Jumbled fucking mess. Don't remember a place, never even seen a place, just those white coats. Kids. Seeing others, putting together... puzzle pieces, know something was... Not so much a memory as. I know I was taken, all over the goddamn news. Came home one day like nothing had happened, didn't remember shit. The look on dad's face. Door opens, that look on dad's face. That fucking look. Questions and cops and questions and cops. Sell you? Get away? This guy knows more than I do. Remembers. Wish I could read his fucking mind. Pick his brain.
Mal didn't need to read minds to know that Vex didn't remember. The look on his face was unguarded bafflement and growing curiosity as he narrowed his eyes, sharply tilted his head back and then shook it in confusion. "Did they sell you?" he asked hesitantly, tilting his head forward again as he tried to make sense of the situation. Who were they? Did Mal know? This was a like finally finding a corner piece of a puzzle, or more accurately a whole bunch of edge pieces - important pieces, answers, a clearer picture emerging from a useless blurry blob.
Mal could tell that this man didn’t consciously remember the facility. His subconscious did, because it retained things the surface mind couldn’t. Mal knew already that they’d been part of the same project, even if they’d been there at different times ... what he didn’t know was whether or not this punk-biker-looking guy would be useful to him. Useful in destroying that place. Perhaps so, perhaps that was why God had put him in Mal’s path. Why He’d stopped Vex from just walking on, made them notice one another. The question back made Mal’s expression harden and he glanced around them. “Not here,” he murmured, suddenly paranoid that they were being watched. “Come with me.” He turned and started to walk back to where he’d parked his car, expecting Vex to follow without question. He would take him back to the church. They could talk freely there.
Vex didn't follow him. He folded his arms and arched a brow, waiting with a bemused smile until Mal picked up on the fact that he was walking alone. Leaving with Mal was giving up control and admittedly, Vex didn't feel like he had a lot of control but he could still exert some on this plane of existence. By the time Mal turned back he'd fished out a fresh lollipop from his pocket. "Tell you what," he murmured. "You come visit me sometime and we'll talk. If I like what you gotta say maybe you'll even get some of Lem's cookies." He could practically feel the angry shift and hum of the flesh god. It wanted him to go with this man, to find answers, but while Vex was a prophet for an ancient god, he was not a mindless slave and he had enough shit on his plate. For all he knew, Mal was still a part of whatever all this was and if they were meeting in private it'd be on Vex's turf.
It didn’t take Mal long to realize the strange and convoluted mind behind him wasn’t moving with him. He turned around and listened to what the man had to say, then gave a slight nod. Mal wasn’t offended -- not walking away with strangers was probably a smart move. But not talking about such things in the middle of the street was also a smart move. He didn’t know what ‘Lem’s cookies’ meant, but he didn’t ask either. Mal thought he could feel the echoes of something else in Vex’s mind too ... but it was difficult to pin down. “Where will you be?” he asked. Mal could pull the information from Vex’s mind himself, track the man down. But it was probably better to encourage trust by asking instead.
"Thirty-five Ludlow Lane," Vex replied, his words slow as he watched Mal's face intently. "I'm Vex," he said then and he'd taken to the name so much it might as well be his real one by now. Maybe it wasn't safe to bring this stranger to his home either but they had witches and they had a cage both of which probably wouldn't do much good if Mal showed up with an army of white-coats but Vex was willing to risk it. Whatever was meant to be was meant to be, he would just rather perish in front of Lem than to leave her not knowing what had become of him.
Even though he was encouraging trust, Mal did dip into Vex’s mind to confirm that address. It was the right one, which was a good sign. He didn’t care so much about the man’s name, because what did those mean anyway? Mal himself had been through several, and he didn’t even really know what the ‘real’ one was. It didn’t matter. Still, he gave Vex a nod. “Call me Mal,” he told him. “I’ll see you soon, thirty-five Ludlow Lane.” This man’s mind and the possible connection between them was too fascinating to forget about, so he would be keeping his word on that one. Leaving it at that, Mal turned to go back to his spot and what he was doing. Maybe someone else significant would happen by.
Maybe average people would set up a time for that visit but Vex didn't really care. If he was home, he was home. If Mal showed up at a bad time, tough shit. Life happened the way it happened and there were certain things he still tried to keep control of but then there were things like these that just felt petty and insignificant. It was far more significant what he might learn from Mal when he did decide to come over. Mal. Another three letter name unless it was weirdly written. Vex liked it, it fit in well with Lem and Vex. He walked away from Mal but not the encounter, not really when his thoughts were spinning around trying to make sense of it all. A vision come to life. He was going to have to tell Lem all about it and hopefully she'd be home when Mal came to visit, she was his conduit after all.