Jacob tended to like the rain but today he sort of preferred the cold to it if he was going to be honest. With the cold he could just slip on a beanie and a scarf and stalk fast through town until he could slip inside somewhere warm but with the rain... He was doing the drowned rat routine and unhappily so. It wouldn't let up either and he was drenched by the time he reached Dragonfly. Sage was working and it was still early so it was probably not too busy and Jacob wanted to pop in and say hi - maybe sweet-talk him into giving him a drink. Any irritation he'd felt at being soaked faded away when he entered the bar, Dragonfly just had that effect though he didn't notice on any conscious level. He shrugged his coat off to hang up then grinned at Sage as he sauntered over. "Who do I need to blow to get a drink?" he joked as he took a seat on one of the stools by the bar and wondered if he really would blow Sage for a drink. Yeah, he probably would if it wouldn't be so awkward with the years of friendship and all. Stranger at a club though? For sure.
Ice cold rain was not Sage’s jam. He’d gotten the slightest bit wet just running into the bar and felt like he could never quite get warm again, even though it was pleasant inside Dragonfly. He’d rather be home, curled up in bed in this weather, but this really wasn’t a reason to call in sick. So he was working, even if the crowd was light. Thursdays normally did well, but apparently he wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to go out in this weather. When Jacob showed up looking like a drowned rat, he laughed and shook his head. “If I’d known you were that easy, I’d have liquored you up in high school,” he grinned. “What can I get you?”
"Oh really?" Jacob said with a teasing lilt, just barely suppressing the actual surprise he felt. Of course Sage might be joking but it just reminded him how little he'd known back then since he'd always thought he was the only queer kid in their group of friends. He set his messenger bag on the seat next to him, it wasn't busy so nobody would really care, then rested his arms on the bartop. "What's news? You gonna have any nights off soon? We should go out the three of us again sometime." He'd loved going to karaoke with Sage and Joss and he really hadn't expected to have as much fun as he had, it really felt like something they should do again, something bright and cheerful to offset the dreariness of the season.
Sage gave Jacob a grin and a little wink, but didn’t confirm or deny the answer. It was hard to say what he might’ve done back then, as he hadn’t been near as comfortable with his own sexuality at the time. He’d liked girls, one in particular, and that had distracted him for a good bit. “I’ve got Mondays and Tuesdays off. I’m sure I can ask for another day, so long as it’s not Friday or Saturday.” Those were the days that Nate needed him there the most and he hadn’t been working there long enough to dare ask for them off. “Not much new with me. I saw Jocelyn yesterday. She came by and grabbed a drink. She said you’re thinking about staying a bit longer. Maybe because of the guy you’ve met?”
Just the mention of Connor put a coy little smile on Jacob's face and he groaned softly, resting his head on his hand. "He is so hot," he murmured quietly before straightening up again. "But no, he's not the only reason I'm sticking around. I just feel like... I don't know. Like I need to deal with something here before I go back so... I got a job and I got you guys and I'll think about what to do next later." Having Connor around did help though and it definitely didn't make him feel like he had to rush back to Portland.
Sage smiled at Jacob’s response, thinking to himself that he was cute like that, obviously crushing on his guy. It wasn’t a side he’d seen a lot of, back in the day, so he supposed both of them were a lot more comfortable with who they were now. “Deal with something, like… the past?” he asked, raising a brow. Sage wasn’t sure that was a good idea, though he wasn’t really able to say so from personal experience. He’d tried his best to put it behind him, only to find it haunted him every time he tried to leave. Something had ahold of him, but what he was supposed to do about it, he didn’t know. “If you figure it out, let me know. At least you have a good distraction. Where’d you meet him? Is he local?”
"I didn't exactly leave this place on good terms," Jacob replied, his smile now gone. "I keep having dreams, nightmares actually. I thought maybe coming back and, you know, facing it all... Maybe it'd help but yeah, Connor's been a really good distraction. Maybe too good of one, I haven't exactly been confronting any demons or anything." He grinned again, then laughed a bit self consciously. "You gonna get me a drink or what? If you want me to keep rambling about stuff you should give me two." He hadn't told him what he was getting he realized so he added a soft, "I'll take a Breezer."
Sage was about to point out that he didn’t just make up random drinks for people, but then Jacob gave him something to make, so he got started on his drink. “I’ve never really figured out what that means here. ‘To confront your demons’, I mean. I probably haven’t either. I’m fine if I’m here, but every time I tried to leave, that’s when the nightmares hit.” He didn’t know how to explain it and had come to the decision that there might not be an explanation. It might just be something in his psyche, guilt he felt for abandoning Point Pleasant, as if he owed it something. On the bad nights, he was pretty sure it wanted his blood. “It’s good to have a distraction if you’re staying,” he said, sliding the drink in front of Jacob. “Even better if he helps with the nightmares.”
It made sense that Sage had nightmares too but Jacob wanted to ask about them, know what it was that haunted his friend specifically. It wasn't the time or place, probably never would be, so he clamped down on the urge and picked up his drink to take a sip. "Definitely helps when I spend the night," he murmured as he set it back down, savoring the taste of it for a moment. "So the nightmares don't come when you're here?" he asked, idly tapping his fingertips against the cool glass then rubbing the condensation with his thumb.
The nightmares weren’t exactly Sage’s favorite conversation topic and he wouldn’t have even mentioned them to someone outside their circle. People didn’t understand what they’d gone through. Most still thought they were hiding something. Which, to some degree, they were. But it wasn’t what people thought. They couldn’t comprehend the terror of that day and trying to put it into words would never be enough. “Not really,” he said with a shake of his head. “They’re more normal when I’m here. Sporadic. Less frequent. If I try to leave, it’s like… like they get worse the farther I go. Or the longer I’m gone. I’m sure at some point they’d have to stop, but…” Sage just shrugged. He hadn’t been able to wait it out and he hadn’t had someone there with him to chase them away.
It would normally be such a painful topic but tonight it felt easy to talk about. Jacob didn't know it was simply Nate Kelly's soothing magic that made it so but he wasn't really questioning it either. "I keep thinking it's just trauma and the things I remember - the things I dream about - are just... We were all drinking and smoking and it didn't mix well that night." He picked up his glass again. It was easier somehow, talking with the slight burn of alcohol in his throat. "But a part of me... I don't know. Maybe I'm just mentally ill and seriously should see a shrink, if I actually could afford one."
“I know we weren’t sober, but…” Sage knew that drugs and alcohol were the easiest explanation for what they’d witnessed, which was why the cops had bought it all those years ago. But he hadn’t been that drunk and pot had never fucked him up that bad. As a teenager, he’d tried to believe it was something like that, and the further he got from that day the harder it was to remember, but he knew now that it was something worse. He’d lived in Point Pleasant too long to believe the lies. “I know you’ve been gone a while, but things are weird here. Unexplainable. I’m not saying a shrink wouldn’t help, ‘cause I could probably use one myself, but I don’t think we were hallucinating, you know? Weird shit happens here.”
"Oh I know," Jacob said softly. It was one thing knowing and another to admit it out loud though and every time he tried to actually talk about it it just started sounding insane to him. "My mom hated this place, she'll talk about how evil it is... The lady I'm renting from says the same thing. It's just- Like I want to warn Connor about all this shit but I'll just sound like a mental patient." And then there was the fact he wasn't even sure what he should be warning him about. The tunnels were... evil? People disappeared? He had no concrete evidence of anything, not even a theory that held water. "I've been gone a while but I never forgot."
“I don’t know that it’s evil, but… it’s something,” Sage said, making himself a water just so he had something to sip on. A drink would have been nice for this conversation. “I didn’t really get it when I was a kid, but since then I’ve noticed. There’s too much that happens here. People make up excuses, or they find someone to take the blame. Like us.” Sage carried around the guilt of Grayson’s disappearance, but he knew deep down that no matter what he’d done or what he’d said, something else had pulled him into the tunnel. “How long has Connor been in town? Was he here for Halloween?” If so, then he might have already started to witness some of the odd shit that Point Pleasant had to offer.
"Nah I'm pretty sure he came here in November, like me," Jacob replied. He'd heard about Halloween in varying details depending on who he was talking to. The kids at work definitely told the more colorful stories but he wasn't sure he could trust everything Holly had said about it either. In any case he was just glad he hadn't been there for that and that none of his people had been hurt. "I don't know how to warn him about the full moon, at least he drives everywhere. People are being attacked in their homes though so I don't know if it makes a damn difference." Was he going to say it was a werewolf? No, but it was something and he was getting paranoid about that too.
“I dunno, but it feels safer,” Sage said. He didn’t know what was going on, if werewolves were real or if it was some other creature that just happened to attack on the full moon, but something was definitely out there. If they weren’t safe in their houses, he didn’t know where else to go. “Maybe have him over that night, just to make sure he doesn’t do something stupid like— like go for a run or something. That way you know he’s safe, but you don’t have to start a weird conversation that makes you look crazy.” He knew that was a concern for all of them, that if they told the truth, then they’d get that look of pity that came with people thinking you’d lost your mind. Not everyone in Point Pleasant believed that there were ‘other’ things out there, despite evidence to the contrary.
"Yeah I just hope he's not working or something," Jacob said but he couldn't find it in himself to actually worry about it right now. Maybe Connor would even be safer if he had an all-night shift at the hospital, he'd be inside and surrounded by people. "Oh hey, speaking of weird. When did we get a new drug dealer?" He asked somewhat tongue-in-cheek. "I mean, ice cream van. I've never seen an ice cream van in town before and it drove past me like it had the zoomies. Definitely a drug dealer ice cream van too. You know if they have anything good?" It was amusing now but something about that car had given him the creeps when it sped past him. Maybe because it showed no signs of stopping and Jacob had just crossed the street.
Sage’s brow furrowed at the mention of a drug dealer before Jacob clarified, though he was still short on answers. He’d heard the ice cream truck around town, had even seen it once or twice, but not once had he seen it stop. “I don’t know what that’s about,” he said with a little laugh. “It’s a new thing, that’s for sure. But he’s not gonna sell shit if he doesn’t slow down, no matter what it is.” Ice cream didn’t make a lick of sense this time of year. Who wanted ice cream when it was close to freezing out? And in the rain? Drugs would make a hell of a lot more sense, but then it seemed awfully obvious, at least to him. It only made a good cover if the driver occasionally stopped for someone. “You looking for something in particular?” he asked, raising a brow.
Jacob let out a little laugh and shook his head. "No, just pointing out how this guy's totally not selling ice cream," he said and vaguely recognized how he avoided the subject of Point Pleasant, of Cooperdale Tunnel everytime he started talking about those things. He might have kept doing that too but he felt nice and relaxed right now and he wanted to know. "Did you... Back in the tunnel, did you see Grayson walk away?" he asked quietly. He was having a hard time differentiating between the lies they'd told and what he remembered, especially since what he remembered made no sense.
“He’s not selling anything at the speed he’s going,” Sage said with a little laugh, though it was curious. He’d never seen the truck before today and something about the music was just… off. It reminded him of horror movie music boxes, even when he recognized the tunes as Christmas carols. It was easy enough to talk about though, which was probably why he was caught completely off guard by mention of Grayson and the tunnel. Sage stared at Jacob for a second, then found himself glancing towards the window at the front of the bar. He half expected to see Grayson standing there again, glaring in at him. “No,” he said quietly, looking back at Jacob. “No, he was… he was pulled away.” Dragged. Sage couldn’t say what it was, especially since every memory made it something different, but he knew it was dark and deadly. A monster, though no one would believe that. “Why?”
Jacob regretted asking, he wasn't even sure why he'd blurted out that question. He wanted to know, yes, but he also didn't want to talk about it and here he was, bringing it up like an idiot. "Because... That's how I remember it and it doesn't make any sense," he said quietly. It didn't feel horrible to talk about it though, the soothing spells of Dragonfly kept the anxiety at bay, making the subject matter seem far away and less horrific for now. He did feel bad for bringing it up though, if only for that look on Sage's face. "I'm sorry, man. I come back home and just dredge all this stuff back up." He smiled faintly and picked up his drink again, tapping his fingers idly against the glass.
“It never made sense,” Sage said with a little sigh. “Even if we were hallucinating, people don’t usually hallucinate the same thing.” It was something he’d come to understand later, once he’d had some time to really think about it. Their story had been eventually written off because they’d all been drinking and high, but that didn’t explain the commonalities between them. No one seemed to want to acknowledge that part. How many people had to see something for it to be believed? “You’re not dredgin’ stuff up,” he said with a shake of his head. “It was never properly buried, you know? Maybe that’s why it keeps coming back.”
"I don't know how to bury it," Jacob sighed and he really had tried to do so with various means, none of which worked. "How do you move on from something like that?" He shook his head and pushed his now empty glass toward Sage. "Maybe by drinking more of this, hit me up again?" One more wouldn't hurt, it might even keep him warm when he walked back home from here. "I'll sneak you a drink if you ever want to hit up the arcade," he added with a grin that said he knew it wasn't the most tempting offer. The arcade was nowhere near the standard of Dragonfly and it was loud as fuck.
“If drinking worked, I’d be past it by now. Or always drunk,” Sage said with a sympathetic smile as he began to make Jacob another round. “Sometimes I think I’m not working hard enough at it. Others I think that what I might need to do are crazy and likely to get me killed. I’m pretty sure staying here has warped my brain or something.” It certainly made him believe just about anything was possible. When people said that something weird had happened, he believed them, no matter how far fetched it might seem. “I could get into the arcade. The games any good?”
Jacob winced a little at the mention of dangerous solutions. Something about the thought made his stomach flip uncomfortably in something too similar to guilt and he didn't really understand why. The arcade was a much better topic for sure and he nodded eagerly. "Actually, yeah, if you like those games. It's a lot different than playing at home, that's for sure. A lot of old games, super retro. Drop by and I'll get you extra tokens." He winked and accepted his drink when it was ready.
While Jacob was one of the few people Sage would willingly talk to about the past, he was perfectly fine moving on to discuss the arcade instead. The past shouldn’t have been so raw as it was, but after thinking he’d seen Grayson yesterday, it felt like it had all just happened. “I like all games,” Sage smiled. “Except for those dancing ones. I just look like an idiot playing those. But the old ones are cool, like Pac Man and Space Invader. You like working there so far?” It seemed like it would be a fun place to work, even if a little bit noisy. Sage wasn’t sure if he’d mind the kids or not. It depended on how annoying they were.
"As much as I like working anywhere," Jacob said with a little roll of his eyes suggesting he didn't like working anywhere. He got paid for it and until he was getting paid doing what he loved, that had to suffice. "It's not a job you stick around for," he admitted. "Not too bad though. Loud. My boss is easy going and when I work the bar nobody really wants anything complicated to drink so it's chill." He smirked and gave Sage a calculating look. "How can you not be good at dancing, mister music boy? Don't you have rhythm?"
Sage was sure Jacob would prefer a job a little more in his field, but he knew himself that working in the arts wasn’t exactly easy. He’d eventually figured out that he needed to work to sustain himself, then he could pursue his passion on the side, at least until he made it big. If that ever happened. There was a high chance it wouldn’t, but that wasn’t going to stop him from making music. Hopefully Jacob would never stop making art either. “I can dance just fine!” he laughed. “But it’s different when you’re trying to move to a very specific formula. I’m not always sure what they want and I just end up tripping over myself. Put me on a stage to my kind of music and then you’ll have a show.”
"What I'm hearing," Jacob said. "Is that you don't do well with instructions." He was teasing and it was obvious with the way he was grinning at Sage. "You literally just want to march to the beat of your own drum. You know this just makes me want to see you do Dance Dance Revolution even more, right? Tripping all over yourself." It was a game that was the most fun to do when drunk, but that was also when people got their lowest scores.
“And this is news to you?” Sage grinned. He’d never, ever done well with instruction. In fact, the more boxed in he felt, the more likely he was to do something outside the lines. He’d found he operated best when he had the freedom to do what he wanted, to feel like he had some kind of control over his life. As scatterbrained as he was, Sage occasionally craved structure of his own making. It was just weird where it cropped up and where he could care less. “I do what I want,” he snickered. “But how about this? We’ll have a few drinks and I’ll play you one night. ‘Cause if I’m gonna make a fool of myself, so are you.”
Jacob's grin grew and he drummed playfully on the bar top. "Oh I'm going to kick your ass," he promised. "I'm really good at following instructions." To him that was full of innuendo, considering his penchant for dominant guys but he didn't make it blatant or harp on it so it wasn't obvious. "Get a few drinks in me first and you might stand a chance." It sounded like good fun if nothing else and they really needed good fun. Jocelyn could come too and he had a feeling she would kick both their asses.
“Yeah, but do you have rhythm?” Sage teased him. He’d always thought it was funny how someone could be really good at those dancing games, but couldn’t actually dance. He’d rather be shit at the game, to be honest, except when he was making a fool out of himself. But then, this was Jacob, one of the few people Sage didn’t mind making an idiot out of himself in front of. “I’ll be sure to get you all liquored up first. Then we can have a dance off.” Hopefully he could talk them into the same rules they’d put in effect for karaoke— videos were fine, so long as they weren’t posted to social media.
"Surprisingly, yes," Jacob said, tilting his head back a bit smugly. He wasn't about to point out that even if he liked receiving instructions he might not be good at following them, they'd just have to find out if that was true or not. "I'm taking you dancing next week," he decided. "Don't make any plans for your night off. Mondays and Tuesdays, right? Pick one. I'll make sure I'm not working."
“Seriously?” Sage grinned. “Monday then. We’ll have Tuesday to recover. I don’t wanna come in here with a hangover.” He didn’t think Nate would care, but Sage knew that he’d be miserable being around so much liquor when he was still feeling sick off it. And he couldn’t imagine they’d go dancing and not get drunk. The two things just went hand in hand, even on a Monday night. “Just us, or should we ask Joce to join us?”
"I'll see what she's up to," Jacob replied since it just felt natural for there to always be the three of them. He briefly considered asking Connor but the thought had barely entered his head when he'd dismissed it as ridiculous. He might have a good time laughing at Jacob fumbling around a dance machine but Jacob wasn't so sure they were at a point where they'd be actually meeting each others' friends. "Monday night, I'll work it out with my boss."
“I don’t take her for a gamer at all, which means she’ll probably mop the floor with us,” Sage snickered, looking forward to another night out with his friends. He was definitely getting used to having both Jacob and Jocelyn around and hoped they stayed more than a month or two, even if he knew anyone in their right mind would leave. This place was a dead end for sure, but it didn’t feel as desolate when they were there. “It’s a date,” he grinned. “But not a date. You know what I mean. I’ll wear my dancing shoes.”
"So- question," Jacob said, drawing the words out a little as he eyed his half a drink. "Was one of those drinks on the house? Wondering if I should get a third." He was definitely not getting a third if he was paying for all of them, money was tight. He gave Sage a charming little grin, quirking a brow at him and hoped that would sell him on buying him one of them. He did have a steadier and better paying job after all.
“Just the first,” Sage said with a grin. “And only ‘cause you bought a second. I can’t make a habit of it.” This was a good job and Nate was a good boss. He didn’t want to take advantage of him and find himself looking for something new again. “So when are you going to let me come see some of your artwork? I feel like it’s been forever.” And Jacob had always done amazing work. Sage occasionally liked to doodle, but anything he made looked like a stick figure by comparison. “Are you working on anything at the moment?”
"Whenever," Jacob replied with a smile. "I'm not working on anything that's mine really, I mean I'm always drawing something but right now I'm doing line work for a comic my friend is trying to get published. He's paying me so that's something and if he gets published that's a foot in the door for me too." The only problem with paying gigs was they usually came with deadlines and Jacob wasn't a huge fan of those but then, who was? "I think I'll have a third drink. Keep me warm on the way home. Since the first one was free."
“Hey, you gotta start somewhere and just getting your name on something is progress,” Sage pointed out as he made Jacob another drink. “Do you have a story you’d like to work on for yourself? Or would you rather not be in comics?” As a fan of comic books himself, Sage knew how under appreciated they were, but they could also provide a decent living, if you got on a good series. But he also suspected there were some artists who wanted to do their own thing. He just wasn’t sure where Jacob fell when it came to it.
"Remember the little cartoon girl I used to draw everywhere?" Jacob asked with a grin. "Yeah, I'm still drawing her. She's evolved a bit but mostly the same and now she's getting into all kinds of shenanigans. So yeah, I'd like to work on that and make it... into something, I don't know. One of my teachers loves her so there's that." God he was talking a lot, he would have blamed the alcohol since he was feeling the buzz but he was pretty sure it was the place that loosened his tongue. He accepted the drink with a grin and got his card out, might as well pay now or he'd be tempted to spend more money on a fourth.
“Oh yeah!” Sage grinned. “I liked her. She was cute. And, you know, there’s a huge market for comics with a female lead. More than there used to be, I think.” He knew there were guys that didn’t like girls being into comics, like they were infringing on their thing or some shit, but Sage had always been pretty equal opportunity on stuff like that. Why in the world would you not want girls to like comics or video games or whatever? It just didn’t make sense to him, even when he had someone arguing it against him. “I hope you get that off the ground eventually. That’d be really cool.”
Jacob rolled his eyes at the thought of all those jerks who had Opinions on variety in media, the shitty kind of opinions anyway. "You'd think guys who didn't like girls around would be considered gay," he said with a little snort. "It's all twisted. But yeah, I hope I do too, it'd be nice to just draw for a living. Get a movie deal, never work again!" He laughed because the idea was so absurd and farfetched and yet so, so shiny.
“Dream big,” Sage grinned, able to relate as an artist. “I do.” Even if it wasn’t sensible or realistic. It was motivation and it kept him on the path that made him happy. Anything else felt like living a lie or giving up. “So, do you need an umbrella or something? You’re gonna freeze to death if you keep wandering around in this weather.” He’d offer him a ride home if he wasn’t working. At least they could blast the heat before getting back inside to warm up.
"Haven't frozen yet," Jacob said and it was both sweet and just a little irritating how worried everyone was about him walking. It wasn't like he was headed out to the woods all by himself like a little lost red riding hood, people had been walking for centuries before they got horses and cars - and even after that too because not everybody could afford horses and cars. Case in point, Jacob. But he couldn't really complain about people worrying about him because it was sweet and sometimes it meant he got a ride. "It's not far," he added reassuringly. "And I'm liquored up and happy so it'll be a breeze."
If it had been snow, Sage probably wouldn’t have said anything, but freezing rain was no joke. He’d be miserable if it was him, but Jacob didn’t seem the least bit worried so Sage let it go. He was right; the liquor would help. “Okay,” Sage smiled. “You’re better than I am. I’d whine until someone picked me up or took me home. Or I’d call an uber.” Which kind of sucked as a way to waste money, but was sometimes necessary. “So, I should probably make a show of helping other customers. Catch you later?”
"Yeah, go work," Jacob replied with a dismissive wave. He'd nurse this drink for a little longer and then haul ass to get home. There was still a lot of work to do and he'd been slacking off too much lately. "Thanks for the drink," he added with a smile and raised the glass in a little salute. "Much appreciated." He'd done his share of whining until he got a ride when he was younger but it just felt easier to walk now, maybe he was less depressed - maybe he was fitter; whatever the reason was he was glad for it.