Alex (clockwork) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2019-08-14 22:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | #december 2017, alex, alex x mike, mike |
Who: Alex & Mike
Where: On the phone then the road between houses
When: Monday afternoon 12/25
Status:Complete
The last couple of weeks had been spent in sheer misery as Mike was one of the Point Pleasant lucky to get the annual flu, sulking in bed and blowing his nose had become his life and he was currently oh so happy to be feeling better right in time for Christmas. His mother had left town and her trip just kept getting dragged out so it was looking like Mike would be alone with his dad for the holidays. It wasn't a big deal, neither he nor Rebecca were big on festivities but Terry was a little sad since he loved Christmas. It didn't help that the grandparents weren't coming either and it just wasn't the same with only two people attending.
They were floating ideas of spending Christmas somewhere else, of doing something weird but Terry still had work so it couldn't be far. He was delighted when Mike suggested maybe his new friend Alex didn't have anywhere to go. His mom was dead, he didn't know his dad and as far as Mike knew he didn't really know a lot of people in Point Pleasant. It was worth looking into at least.
Mike hadn't been very good at keeping in contact with people since his friend was murdered and between moping around and being sick he didn't much feel like talking to anyone but Christmas was all about making an effort, wasn't it? So he called Alex up and invited him to a Christmas dinner half expecting him to refuse. Maybe he was half hoping he would since he wasn't in the mood for much celebrating anyway but Alex was game and Terry was delighted that he got to cook for a guest again.
Christmas afternoon Mike called Alex again. He was lounging on the couch, dressed nice because Terry wanted things to be festive, side-eyeing the nice tree he'd help set up a couple of days ago. "Hey you," he murmured when Alex picked up. "You need a ride or anything?"
Alex had been prepared to spend his Christmas alone with holiday movies, a microwave dinner and a fair bit of alcohol. He wasn't especially thrilled with his plans but he still hesitated when Mike invited him to join him for dinner. He hadn't told Mike the real reason and stuck to excuses about not intruding but once he learned Mike's mom wouldn't be there, he agreed. He had still spent most of the day on the couch with a couple of beers but knowing he had somewhere to be later had helped keep the loneliness at bay.
It was nearing the time they'd agreed to meet and Alex was just lacing up his boots when his phone started to vibrate deep in his coat pocket. He pulled it out and checked the caller ID before he answered, "Hey, actually I was going to walk so a ride would be great. I'm not drunk but I'm probably not safe on the road. Slower reaction times and all that." He paused then added, "Merry Christmas."
"Ew no," Mike said, curling his nose in disgust at the thought of walking anywhere. "There's way too much snow. I'm taking Terry's car, otherwise I'd just get stuck somewhere. Oh yeah and Merry Christmas. It's crazy festive here, Terry loves Christmas." Mike didn't really but he played along and had to admit it looked and smelled really nice at home. "I'll call you when I'm outside, just be ready in like ten?"
"Is it? I haven't been outside all day." Alex straightened up and checked out the nearest window. He hadn't even looked outside since yesterday and was mildly surprised to see how much more snow had piled up through the day. He could have still made it on foot but he wasn't going to turn down a ride either. "Thanks. I'm pretty much ready now so just text me when you're here and I'll be out. Drive safe.." He didn't wait for a reply before he hung up and proceeded to check he had everything, including presents for the two Altons who were home.
Mike kind of wanted to ask Terry to go pick Alex up but he'd invited him and he'd said he'd come get him so he bundled up and headed outside, glad his dad drove a winter savvy vehicle. It always took some getting used to, driving a car that was so much bigger than his own, but there wasn't much traffic so he had space and time to settle in. They'd cleared the streets somewhat but he still knew he'd have gotten his own car stuck in no time. At least it wasn't snowing today so maybe this would slowly abate.
He let Alex know he was outside, smirking at him when the passenger door opened. "I hope those aren't presents 'cause I didn't get you anything," he told him, raising his chin in indication at the bags. "Been stuck in bed forever so I'm legally excused."
Alex kept an eye out the window but he waited until Mike was there before he went out. Despite his initial plan to face the cold, outside was colder than he expected and he was relieved he didn't have to walk. "Hey, yeah, I don't care. I was getting you guys things before you even invited me so shut up and take it," he said as he slid into the car. One of the wrapped presents peeking out the top of the gift bag was clearly a bottle of wine but the one he pulled out and handed to Mike was smaller. It was wrapped tightly in silver paper then reinforced with too much sticky tape. Inside was only a gift card to a local music store because he didn't know enough about instruments to know what Mike might need. "Don't get your hopes up. It's not much but you've been a good friend so…" He shrugged then turned to pull on his seatbelt and hide his awkwardness. "And I didn't know what your parents would want so it's just wine."
Mike almost laughed at the idea that he was a good friend to anyone. He wasn't. He hadn't talked to Vicks in forever, his best friend was dead and he'd mostly ignored Alex for a long time. So he wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or cry about it. Thankfully, neither was also an option. "My parents love wine, don't know if mom will get to try it though, Terry might just decide to drink it with dinner tonight if it's any good." He shot Alex a little grin and once he was seated and secured he started the car and got moving. "Maybe I'll get you something for New Years, being such a good friend and all. It'll be weirder and more fun."
"Weirder works for you," Alex said as he settled into the front seat. The car was more modern than his own and even the seats felt more comfortable. He hadn't seen Mike drive it before so he guessed it was Terry's. Mike hadn't told him the details of Rebecca's absence and he promised himself he wouldn't turn it into a chance to snoop but he couldn't resist asking, "So where's your mom spending Christmas?"
"You saying I'm weird?" Mike snorted but he wasn't looking at Alex, focusing on the road. Snow made him nervous and the last thing he needed to do was wreck Terry's car. "Uhm, she's in Zurich for work and she had a really good reason for not making it home but like half of it made no sense to me because it's all science babble. She's probably kidnapping little german children and teaching them how to fuck with other people's dreams." It was probably a shitty thing to joke about but it had come as a shock to both of them to know his mom worked for the institution Alex was so sure was related to his mother's kidnapping as a child.
Alex rolled his eyes at Mike's joke but he didn't bother to correct him. He couldn't blame him for being skeptical about it, even without dragging his mom into it. "Yeah, well, good luck to her." He gave Mike a small grin then turned back to watching out the front window. "Actually, I met somebody who was taken too. She's younger than my mom but older than us. I don't know, maybe 29, pretty..." He paused then added, "Don't worry, I didn't give your mom up. She can keep stealing das kinder."
Mike rolled his eyes but he had to wonder if it was weird that he couldn't really be sure his mom was involved with something. She was a very cold person, very focused on her work and methodological. There were people in his life he could never believe any such thing about but Rebecca just wasn't one of them. That did not mean he was eager to believe Alex's tall tales and even if he was right about AIR it didn't mean everyone who worked there was involved. "What's her name?" he asked when Alex told him about the woman. "If she's local I probably know her."
"Jane," Alex said. She'd told him her surname once before but he couldn't remember it. It was probably good he didn't remember, she'd have probably killed him if she knew who he was telling. "She comes into my work a bit and when we ran into each other at the library last week, she told me." There was a bit more to it but he wasn't sure how much Mike would believe or how much he should say. He trusted Mike but his mom was another matter. "She hasn't lived here for a long time, I'm not quite sure why she's back but I think it's connected to this. She said she knows others too."
If Jane hadn't been in Point Pleasant for a while, that explained why Mike didn't know her name. He shrugged, but really he was curious now. Others? It was entirely possible Alex was making all of this up, that there was nobody else, but Mike figured he'd find out sooner than later if he was. If he never saw this Jane, if he never got more names then it was obviously all a fib. "So what did she tell you?" he asked and it all sounded so fantastical, some lady randomly approaching Alex because she was also aware of this vast conspiracy.
"Did I tell you about the paranoid librarian guy? She said he was there. And they're watching past kids. I think it's just the ones who remember but I'm not sure." Alex tried to remember what else they'd talked about. There was dreamwalking but he didn't feel like telling Mike that detail. It had come up in such a dumb way and besides, she hadn't said if she believed in it or not. He thought she'd sounded open to it at the time but days later, he wasn't as sure. Maybe he'd just been hopeful. "Oh, she was there when the place burned down but she said she didn't know what started it."
"Maybe she did," Mike said with a smirk because why the hell shouldn't he go all out with the conspiracy crap? Alex sure did, so fair was fair. "Maybe she can start fires with her head." He glanced quickly at Alex to try to convey that he might be joking but he wasn't trying to be a dick about it. "Did she know my mom?" It was a loaded question but a reasonable one. Alex believed Rebecca had worked for an institution that kidnapped and experimented on children, Mike still didn't know what to make of that.
"I didn't ask," Alex said. He averted his gaze away from Mike and shrugged. He'd almost checked if Jane knew her but he'd held back. At the time, he'd told himself it was to protect Mike in case she wanted revenge but if she'd said she recognised Rebecca, then what? There was hardly any good way to tell somebody their parent kidnapped and tortured children. "I thought that'd be better left for your origin story, not mine."
Mike let out a little laugh at that. "My origin story," he echoed. "Is that my hero origin story or my villain origin story?" He suspected it was up to him and given all the bullshit in his life he wouldn't be surprised if he'd end up being the villain in someone's story. He was too apathetic to be anybody's hero, that was for sure.
Alex looked at Mike and put his hand under his chin as he studied him in an exaggerated fashion. "It's up to you but maybe you should be the villain to my hero." Not that Alex felt much like a hero any more than he felt like a villain either; he was definitely the side character who asked what was in the sky. "You know, I reveal your mother is a huge supervillain and you take after her and get revenge for ruining your family name."
"Dude," Mike murmured. "If you ruin my family name I'll have to kill you by lowering you into a vat of chemicals." He smirked. "I'll have to write a speech too, damn it. Or maybe I'll just improvise. And find chemicals. Damn it, man. Don't ruin my family name, this is going to be way too much work." It was easier to joke about it all than it was to really think about how Alex might be suggesting Rebecca was actually involved with something. Mike wished it was implausible and ridiculous but... it wasn't.
"You sound like you've got how to be evil way more figured out than being the good guy," Alex chuckled. Jokes aside, Mike didn't strike him as evil in any possible way. He was affluent and a bit spoilt but there weren't any bad intentions there. Would that change if he found out Rebecca was involved? He wanted to ask Jane if she'd seen that doctor at AIR but if she had, could he even tell Mike? It really wasn't the best thing to think about on Christmas though. "How have you been anyway?" he asked instead.
"Pretty shitty," Mike admitted. "I had the flu from hell where all you do is cough and blow your nose so that was sexy and not at all a pain in the ass." He'd been bored too and while Terry would have loved to play nurse all the damn time, he still had to work so Mike had been alone for most of it. Of course he just wanted to sleep so that's what he did, feeling like he'd just run the whole catalog of Netflix in the background. "I personally don't think it's fair, I'm already sick so I should be like exempt from petty shit like colds and flus." He smirked. "How about you? Other than investigating conspiracy theories, what have you been up to?"
"Work, mostly," Alex said with a shrug. He spent most days at Joyland and while he had time for a social life, he didn't know anybody well enough for it. He’d never planned to stay for long when he initially moved there but maybe Fin was right, maybe he just needed to enjoy where he was for a while. What was really in Portland for him anyway? “You know, I was thinking of joining a… I don’t know. What’s the best way to meet people that isn’t Tinder?”
"Grindr?" Mike suggested not so helpfully, shooting him a cheeky grin. "I can introduce you to people but I honestly would have thought you'd meet lots of people working where you work." Alex was a good looking guy who worked as a barista but maybe he should be working at a bar if he really wanted to get hit on.
Alex gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes then flashed a cheeky grin of his own at Mike to show he was kidding. "That's not the kind of meeting I meant," he said. "I do meet people at work but the conversation is usually limited. Sometimes I get a moment to talk to somebody but it’s not the same as sitting down with somebody without distractions. Does that make sense?”
"Yeah," Mike told him softly, his urge to tease him fading away. "You need more friends to hang out with when you're not working." He wasn't sure how to go about doing that. He'd been on an opposite role lately, isolating himself from the people he knew instead of seeking anyone out. "I would introduce you to people but I'm a little burned out socially."
"Yeah, I get that," Alex said and meant it. He'd felt the same way when his mom died and was only starting to come out of it half a year later. He didn't want to bring the day down thinking about her but it was hard not to either. "How have been anyway? Is it getting any better?"
Mike's life was pretty much circling the drain and lately it was so full of bullshit that the only reason he hadn't put an end to it was that it would break his dad's heart. Was it getting better? The opposite. It would never get better but he wasn't about to be the world's most depressing person by talking about it openly. "Status quo," he said with a little shrug. He still felt like it should have been him in that house and not Jack who actually had a life ahead of him but that too was depressing as shit to hear from someone so he clamped down on it. "Dad says I'm isolating myself too much but hey, I'm here with you now so that has to count for something, right?"
"It really will get better," Alex said but he'd hated those platitudes when his mom died and could he really promise that? He had guilt but it was a completely different kind to survivor's guilt and Mike had other things going on that made 'better' arguable. "Sorry, I know that sounds empty but your friend will stop feeling like such a raw subject eventually. Holidays bring it out too and I'm told the first ones are the worst." He reached out and gave Mike an awkward pat on his shoulder, squeezed then dropped his hand back to his lap. There was too much he wasn't sure how to say so he fell silent.
If Mike had been raised by Rebecca alone he might have hated the way Alex was trying to soothe him but he knew it came from a good place and having grown up with Terry he had learned some empathy. He gave Alex a faint, crooked smile and then shrugged one shoulder. "We'll see," he murmured as he turned into his street. All the houses were heavily decorated in Overlook because people could afford to go all out and his house was no less so. Terry hadn't even paid anyone else to do it, clambering around and giving Mike a bit of a scare with it. It looked beautiful now though, all lit up and colorful. It made Mike wish he loved Christmas more. "Ready or not, here comes a whole lot of gourmet food," he told Alex, attempting to keep it light. The topic had been too heavy.
The houses in the Overlook Estate were much more decorated than anything Alex was used to and they were absolutely breathtaking. He took a moment to just soak in the sights before he opened the car door. He looked back over his shoulder at Mike and gave him a genuine smile.. "I swear if I keep coming here for the holidays and going to end up going back to Portland about 10 pounds heavier.” He climbed out of the car and waited for Mike to lead the way. “It looks like something out of a movie,” he said. His own apartment didn’t even have a tree up this year but it was easy to finally find himself excited for the company. It wasn’t the best Christmas he had but it certainly wasn’t going to be the one he expected either.
The thought of Alex leaving Point Pleasant made Mike feel weirdly sad but he put up a brave front and smiled back at him. "Don't get fat, it wouldn't look good on you," he teased before getting out of the car too and hurrying around. "When are you thinking about going back?" he asked as casually as he could muster, locking the car remotely as he trailed up to the house with Alex.
“I don’t know but eventually I probably will,” Alex said with a shrug. He’d been considering his options for the last few weeks and he flitted between wanting to go and wanting to stay. Neither one felt completely like the right answer, nor was either choice the wrong one. He followed Mike along to the front door, carefully placing his feet where his friend had stepped first to avoid slipping. “You’ll be sad to know that there’s nothing immediate so you’re stuck with me for at least New Years. By the way, do you have any plans? Maybe we should go drinking or something.”
"That actually sounds good," Mike agreed though whatever enthusiasm he might have had for the idea was tarnished by not knowing when his next attack was going to hit. Sometime after Christmas but it could take weeks. At this point it was tempting to say fuck it and take the risk if it hadn't hit by New Years. Sure, it'd be embarrassing to have a fit somewhere in public but Nate had saved his ass the last time it struck, he could teach Alex what to do just in case. It was a worry for a later time. Right now he just wanted to eat some good Christmas food and try not to think about all the depressing shit.