lookinside (lookinside) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2019-08-31 17:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | #december 2017, greg, greg x sebastian, sebastian |
Who: Sebastian and Greg
Where: The McCarthy House
When: Afternoon, Friday, Dec 29th
Status: Complete
Greg was reluctant to leave Phee behind but he was equally reluctant to not check up on his best friend. Ideally he could just lounge with both of them at the same time but today didn't really feel like the time for that. Heart to heart just wasn't the same with three people because three was a crowd or something. He had a feeling Sebastian needed a little heart to heart after everything that had happened and without Phee in the room, maybe he'd be more willing to go into detail about what they'd seen with the drone.
He jogged upstairs, knocking before opening the door and tensing up as soon as he did. It was cold in there and the reason why because obvious immediately. Sebastian had his window open and was sitting next to it. Greg could only guess it had something to do with his claustrophobia but who even knew. His friend was a witch and possibly didn't even feel the cold right now. "Hey," Greg said softly as he stepped inside the room, tugging on the sleeves of his sweater to pull them down over his fingers.
When the fog had lifted, Sebastian had gone outside for as long as he could stand it before coming back in. It was freezing, but he’d needed the freedom after being trapped inside for so long. Even now, he wanted that escape, the cold air invigorating, making his skin tingle and his fingers numb. He knew there was something weird about it, that any normal human would probably be freezing by now, but he didn’t care. It made him feel alive.
Sebastian knew when Greg stepped in that he’d have to shut the window. He was a little surprised to see him there, well aware he’d come to be with Phee. He knew how much his sister had worried about Greg, feared that he might’ve gotten stuck somewhere dangerous or that he’d have gone out into the fog. Sebastian had quietly worried the same thing, but it didn’t quite feel like his place, like a girlfriend’s concern was somehow more valid than a best friend’s. He expected Greg to stay with Phee and even doubted their mother would put up much of a fight, not after the last few days. “Hey,” he said with a small smile as he rose to shut the window. “Sorry, just… enjoying the fresh air.”
"Yeah," Greg said with a little laugh, shaking his head at Bash as he walked up to him and pulled him into a bear-hug. "Did you change into a Siberian Husky overnight? It's freezing in here." It was good to see him. They didn't hug often but it felt only right to hug the crap out of him after worrying about him for two days straight. "I'm so glad you're okay, bro. Sorry about your mom." That... sounded like Brianna had died or something and Greg winced a little as he pulled back. "You know, getting hurt and all. Are you okay?"
The hug felt so damn good that he didn’t even care that it was Greg and that he couldn’t recall the last time they hugged. He wasn’t sure if that was just him trying to fit in with heterosexual teenage guys or if they just weren’t huggers--he suspected it was the first for him, since he hugged girls all the damn time. But right now none of that seemed to matter. They were both alive and Sebastian didn’t really know how to convey how much that meant to him without clinging to him for a second. “You too, man,” he said, pulling back when Greg did. “I think she’ll be okay. It just scared us.” He gave a little shrug, then moved to take a seat on the bed. “I’ve been better, but I’ll live.” It was the understatement of the year, but Greg didn’t need to know that. As much as he wanted to be honest with his friend, rehashing how weak and helpless he’d felt would only make him feel worse.
"Phee says you were like a wad-ass-witch," Greg said as he plopped down in Sebastian's desk chair, sprawling out a little. It was a hilarious play on words, he thought, but maybe it wasn't the time or place for that. "Like bad ass bitch but cooler," he added to clarify and only then realized maybe it wasn't that funny. "Handy to have around when you can't call an ambulance. Fuck, I was crawling out of my skin at home and nobody got hurt there."
“I didn’t feel very bad ass,” Sebastian said with a little huff. Now that he’d calmed down, he wasn’t sure what the fuck he’d been doing. The whole morning felt like a bad dream, from the time he saw his mother bleeding to them settling down in the basement. The claustrophobia had been bad enough, but he thought he might have had some kind of a manic episode. Could people just have those? “I think I made things worse. It’s hard to tell now. I just know it should have worked.”
Greg had promised Phee not to go digging but it was hard not to ask questions when Sebastian said things like that. "What did you do?" he asked, a little confused by it. He'd somewhat pictured it as something heroic but it wasn't like it would be the first time he misunderstood something. "I thought you helped her. Phee seems to think you helped."
“I made a healing salve from things on our spice rack,” Sebastian said and laughed because he knew how insane that sounded. “I mean, maybe it did help, but when I went to apply it she was in so much pain… It should’ve been soothing. So I don’t know if I did something wrong, or...or if she was having some kind of adverse reaction because of the monster. I dunno. It’s all...It’s all kind of jumbled in my mind.” That was the part that bothered him more than anything else. He’d been fighting off a panic attack while trying to care for his mother and he wasn’t all that sure how he’d even been functioning.
Greg didn't really know anything about magic except the things his friend and girlfriend had told him so he had no idea what to say to that. It was hard to weigh in on something he really knew nothing about. "Tell me about the drone," he said instead, leaning forward excitedly. "Please tell me you saved the picture." He wanted to see it if it existed, even if it might be a bad idea. Not knowing stuff drove him crazy and yes, he was willing to risk nightmares just to not be in the dark.
Sebastian jumped at the chance to talk about something else, afraid that if they lingered on him too long Greg would start to think he was going crazy. So long as he was the only one who thought it, it couldn’t be true. “I have the whole damn video,” he said with a little smirk. “Don’t tell Phee, though. She was freaking out and I didn’t think it would help for her to watch it over and over.” Sebastian pulled out his phone and quickly flipped over to the video they’d captured with the drone. He’d transferred it to his phone just as soon as they had power again. “Sorry about the drone,” he said, handing the phone to Greg. “I was hoping to get a few more flights in before an epic crash and burn.”
"Are you kidding me?" Greg said with a little laugh that was just a bit nervous around the edges. "That's what drones are for. Like actual warfare shit. And you have video! 'Cause of the drone I gave you. That's intense stuff." He was stalling a little, glancing down at the screen where the video was paused, just waiting for him to press the screen. Did he really want to see? Fuck yes. Yes! But also not really. He pressed play, watched the gray and grainy nothingness for a few seconds with a small frown, trying to see anything. Maybe it was like those cryptid videos where he had to zoom in and slow-motion the shit out of it or something - but that didn't fit the narrative since they'd all freaked out when watching it in real time. A few seconds later he understood. It was quick but there was no doubt what he was looking at. Teeth. Gigantic teeth. "Holy shit," he whispered and yes, he played it again. "Holy shit, Bash."
Sebastian smiled, relieved that Greg wasn’t upset that he’d wrecked his Christmas present on its first flight, though he had to agree. This was exactly what drones were meant for. He’d just wished Greg was there with him, though this was the next best thing. He’d watched the video ten times over already, so instead this time he watched Greg, jumping a little when that sick crunching noise came through the feed. “It’s like...like we had a dinosaur in the backyard,” he whispered back. “That’s the only creature my brain can supply to match those teeth. Or maybe a great white shark. Nothing rational.” He chewed at his lip for a moment, sure that he was going to have nightmares for weeks now as his brain attempted to fill in the blanks. “We stayed far away from the windows after that.”
"Yeah, no shit," Greg said, his eyes still wide as he stared down at the video playing yet again. "This is like one of those videos you see online and you're like this is totally fake, you know? But it's not fake... Makes you wonder about those other videos you've seen... How many of them were actually real? Fuck." He hit play again, though this time he muted the sound. He really didn't need to hear that crunching noise all over again, it was even creepier than what little was visible of that creature.
“No one would believe it was real,” Sebastian agreed. “I didn’t even know something like that was in the realm of possibilities, so...who knows what else might be out there.” He got a chill every time he watched it, but that didn’t stop his eyes from drifting to it as Greg hit play again. “So everything’s good at home? Your mom? Holly? Spence?” Greg hadn’t mentioned them, so he’d assumed everyone had made it through without an issue, but it felt weird not to ask. Like he was being a bad friend.
"Yeah," Greg replied, distracted for a moment but then he shook that off and glanced away from the screen, if only for a second. "I would have come over way sooner, might even have driven you guys to the hospital but mom and dad said no. It felt like being twelve again. Mom and dad saying no, I mean... Fuck." It was easy to forget he wasn't legally an adult yet when his family kept treating him like he was, today had been a whiplash in multiple ways. "But yeah, they're okay. Freaked out, obviously. We saw one of those things, just the shadow but enough that we knew something was out there."
“Yeah, we’ve heard ‘no’ a lot the last few days,” Sebastian said. They’d been too scared to fight it though. He decided not to point out that he’d been capable of driving his mom to the hospital himself, since he knew Greg didn’t mean it like that. He’d just needed to feel useful at that point and had been eager to get out of the house at the first chance they had. The hospital had been packed, but it didn’t matter. He could breathe again. “I think the weirdest part is that everything’s back to normal now when it felt like the world was ending just yesterday.”
"I don't think anything's normal yet," Greg said with a little shrug. "It took me hours to get my parents to let me leave even if you guys live just down the street and the neighborhood is... wrecked. I'm so glad my car was inside, there were... Well, you saw it. Can't wait to see what the cops try to say it was." He huffed, then put on a slightly deeper voice to indicate authority, as if his voice wasn't already deep enough already. "Giant polar bears floated in on icebergs when the fog rolled in and they got into someone's amphetamine supplies but we shot'em all and got rid of the carcasses before you could see them. This is the truth, nothing to worry about."
“That’s what I mean though,” Sebastian said, leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “By next week there’ll be some bullshit story to cover up the truth and everyone will pretend like nothing ever happened. Except people got attacked by something. People died. I don’t understand how they can just cover it up.” He knew there was nothing anybody could have done to stop it, but maybe if they acknowledged it then people would be more prepared next time shit hit the fan. “It just...bugs me.”
"Yeah, I don't know, man," Greg muttered and finally handed the phone back even if he wanted to watch the damn video again. Maybe he'd ask Sebastian to send it to him later. "They might have a good reason, I don't know. Mob mentality or whatever. Maybe we'd get into trouble if we all admitted what was going on. Someone'd come in and say 'wow everyone in this town is nuts, better lock'em all up' or something." It wasn't likely but then Greg had learned a long time ago that things that weren't likely tended to happen anyway.
“Maybe there’s some government agency that monitors this shit,” Sebastian said with a little huff. “Like Men In Black, except not aliens. Unless those were aliens.” He was hitting the point where he’d believe almost anything and that scared him. It made him feel either crazy or stupidly gullible, but the realm of possibility seemed endless. “If we posted that online, you think anyone else has seen those things before? And lived to tell about it?”
Greg wrinkled his nose as he thought about it. There were a lot of crackpots online but it was totally a possibility. "We could get shut down by the government," he said and it wasn't very clear if he was joking or not - even to himself. "I'm willing to bet everyone who's also seen it lives right here in town but I mean..." He shrugged, holding his shoulders up for a little while as he pulled a face, then let them drop again a bit dramatically. "Worth a shot?"
Sebastian considered that for a moment, but he thought the government probably had bigger things to worry about than questionable videos on YouTube. Worst case scenario, it might just be taken down for something like Terms of Service. “I’ll upload it tonight and see if we get any hits. It’s not like a got a good shot of it, so who knows.” People would probably think it was just something from a homemade sci-fi movie, but he’d love to see what kind of crazy responses came in.
"You should probably make a new account," Greg said, wrinkling his nose again. "So if this blows up it won't blow up in your face." He didn't expect the damn thing to go viral but that was just the thing about the internet: there was really no way to know what would catch flight out there. "And I'm gonna need to buy a new drone 'cause I was looking forward to flying this one with you."
“Yeah, me too,” Sebastian said with a little smile. “If you get another, we’ll have to find something fun to do with it that doesn’t involve fog monsters.” He didn’t care so much about the drone, but he’d been looking forward to hanging out with Greg. Never in his wildest dreams would he have believed he’d take the drone for a spin with Phee and his ex’s sister. “You wanna hang out for a bit? Play some Xbox?” he asked hopefully.
"I'd love to," Greg said with a little wince. "But Phee is super rattled and I promise I'd come hang out with her." It wasn't exactly the first time he'd ditched his best friend for a girlfriend and Bash had done it too but it just felt different when it was his sister and happened to be in the same house. "We could all hang out later? I just wanna go hug on her for a bit, you know?"
Sebastian smiled and nodded, but internally kicked himself for not thinking about that. It made sense that Phee would want to be with Greg right now. If he’d still been with Hunter, he’d want Hunter around to comfort him as well. Except, now that he thought about it, it would probably be the other way around. He couldn’t fault Greg for wanting to be with Phee. He wanted that kind of guy for his sister. They both deserved to be happy. “Yeah, maybe later. You guys know where to find me.”
Greg got up and stepped closer to the bed, giving Sebastian's shoulder a little squeeze. "It's really good to see you," he said earnestly. "I was crawling out of my skin worrying about you guys. We'll come upstairs and rope you into a movie or a game soon." He doubted it would be very long, it wasn't like he'd dare to have sex with Phee under her parents' roof - especially not when James McCarthy was home. That sort of felt like a suicide mission. "You gonna be okay?"
That was becoming such a loaded question for Sebastian, yet he always replied the same, less and less sure about who could handle the truth. He’d been honest with Hunter and now regretted it. He wouldn’t do the same to Greg. He couldn’t risk it. “Yeah,” he said, trying for a smile. “Gotta be, right?” There wasn’t really an alternative. He couldn’t let this break him. Things would get better when there was nowhere left to go but up.
Greg let out a small, humorless laugh at that answer, nodding his agreement. "Yeah, guess we gotta. Trust me, give it a couple of weeks and we'll all be worrying about some brand new shit." It wasn't reassuring but it was probably true and hopefully that brand new shit wasn't of quite the same caliber as the one they were dealing with now. "Catch you later," he added and headed for the door. "Oh and send me that video, alright?"
“Can’t wait,” Sebastian snickered, rolling his eyes. Greg was right. Give it a few weeks and they’ve have better things to worry about. He just hoped it was something simple like basketball or the school play. “On it now,” he said, picking up his phone with a nod. “See ya.” It had been good to see Greg, even if it didn’t last long. He wasn’t used to being second to his sister, but he supposed he should get used to it.